It just hit me that since scholar was released, I haven’t touched vanilla even once. Probably not the only one that feels like this, but I know basically every enemy ambush, item placement, & upgrade material farming spot in scholar, but wouldn’t even be able to recall where any of the DLC keys in vanilla were. I actually don’t even remember what it feels like to play vanilla. The only thing I personally remember about vanilla, is that I was actually online back when they handed out the white blacksteel katanas in the majula chests and I made my entire character around power stancing it with the normal blacksteel one… man I wish they had added that weapon to scholar 😢
And the Moonlight Long Sword! I know it’s not really moonlight, as it was a normal Long Sword with a teal paintjob. I magic infused mine and I miss it dearly.
you can get on nexusmode something as "Megamul " this mode was created for pvp. There you can get weapons from the chest of Majula: red great club, dark rapier, red caestus, white katana, turquoise long sword . Also(but only offline) you can it with Meta , programm for speedrunners
Can I just take a moment to say it is buck wild how the story of DS2 is told through a talking meme cat, a man who’s been under a rock for countless centuries, a senile ghost, the memory of a dead man, and a homeless mad scientist who squats inside bonfires. And all of these NPCs are missable. WTF, Dark Souls 2… I love it, but wtf? On topic: Aldia is a great addition because, up to that point the big actors’ motivations aren’t clear.
Aldia was necessary to this game, not only it is an essential character in ds3 (he is the secret preceptor, after all), but it's the first character to explain what happened to humans, what is really the curse and why Gwyn created it involutarily by... well... the Darksign and its purpose.
DS2 has a lot of cool and strange things in it. The giant passive ant in the gutter, the hidden tree in the first DLC, the cliff you walk off of in Black Gulch. So many cool secrets and strange things to find.
Did you know that the giant ant comes from the same land as Benhart and the Desert Sorcereress? "Giant anthills created by the corrosive ants line the horizon of the desert land of Jugo. Ant larvae are considered a delicacy, but he who enters an anthill will have his flesh melted to the bone."
I'm glad someone else is fascinated by that big ant in the Gutter. Its such a bizarre thing, makes you feel like you've seen something you shouldn't have
I feel like this recent sentiment of Scholar "ruining" DS2 is only because people never played the original. The only thing I dislike about Scholar are the statues/Fragrant branches of yolo
There are things I like about both versions of the game. Many additions to scholar that make the game more fun, some very good tweaks like nerfing the ancient dragon's damage. But there are parts where I wish they would have stuck to what made vanilla great, generally parts where they reduce enemy counts or aggro. It's a mixed bag which is why I tend to alternate between them on replays. Scholar certainly did not make vanilla obsolete, but neither does it ruin the game. I'm mostly confused by people who say they like one and hate the other, they're both Dark Souls 2, most of the game is basically the same, and the DLC which makes up a huge chunk of one's playthrough has nigh imperceptible differences between the two versions.
i'm the opposite lol, only playe doriginal, and never understood people complaining about enemy palcement and ganks, untill i saw some schlar playthrough
While I think that Matthewmatosis’ video has fair criticisms, I think that it played a large role in everyone senselessly hating on DS2, even after SOTFS came out. It’s one of the most story/lore rich entries and it does so many interesting and cool things the other games didn’t
and to this day it probably has the best PVP in build variety and not being nearly as busted as the other games, NG+ also felt more interesting to playthrough
@@morgannyan2738 proof you didn't watch anything. Do you realize what channel you're on? No because mauLer has long been known as a looney crackpot. Domo3000, the guy whose video you're commenting on has debunked mauler. You can watch maulers first video and the fool contradicts himself like 4 times with his own footage in like 10 minutes. To not see this reflects on your own poor observation skills. And I'm sick of people like you liking their own comments. Reeks of desperation.
24:14 people say"the dull ember on iron keep made sense, unlike in scholar were you find it on the same area" and then lso say "you have to make it all the way to iron keep to get the dull ember making it hard to get the upgrades"
Gonna be honest, that mask room scared the fuck outta me in Scholar when they didn't fire. I was so used to dodging the arrows in the original DS2, that when the masks didn't fire until I opened the chest in scholar, I panicked a bit.
i don't have a horse in the "is DS2 bad or not" race, just noting that you seem extraordinarily willing to be both rigorous and honest, compared to almost everyone else in this "debate"
The story in ds1 was that you only had 2 choices. Extend the flame or go with the dark. Ds1 also established that when an age of fire is nearing an end a random undead will extend it due to gwyn's lies, with you potentially being the first one to do so. Ds2 sotfs showed that when you enter an age of dark or man, the flame can still be linked and thus someone will link it starting age of fire. So Ds2 sotfs is the natural progression of ds1, where fire and dark ages have now happened so many times that vendrick and aldia noticed it and thus tried to break the cycle. I suppose they're the first to realize this cycle actually existing and tried to break it. The effects of the curse and many kingdoms had to be explored because otherwise you wouldn't understand how long this has been going on. Same with the vague ds1 references. It avoids making player actions cannon from ds1 as much as possible and it gets ds2's point across that due to gwyn's lies the age of fire and dark cycle has started and doomed many a kingdoms/men to this cycle. Ds3 said its been an incredibly long time since ds2 happened or it happened in a really far away place that nobody properly remembers it. In ds3 it turns out aldia's been doing nothing and nobody tried to break the cycle. It literally retreads ds2's story again with lords of cinder refusing to link the flame just like vendrick. But it doesn't go beyond that. And the ''solution'' it does come up with is the painting, which does nothing to actually fix the curse. All it does is provide a safe haven of sorts. So we don't have a real answer to ds1 and ds2's storylines and questions. Instead we just got a bunch of filler.
@@memberofchat2825 Now, I've not been following ER's lore, but its been a similar case with its lore too. Can fromsoft please just actually make the lore go somewhere for once. Cause this type of lore telling and world building is found in other games too like skyrim or CP2077 but those games have lore that actually goes somewhere.
@siyzerix I think that's the point, that the player is what makes their lore Canon. It's also because Miyazaki doesn't like doing Sequels all that much besides Armored core.
@@shirothr5384 miyazaki only ever made the newest armored core, he had nothing to do with the series until now. and yeah i figured why the story never went anywhere was because he had said he doesnt like to make sequels
@@shirothr5384 Dark souls 2 sotfs did make what the player did in ds1 cannon. So, thats why it tried its best not to confirm as many things as possible and be as vague as possible. But it also tried to make sure it referenced ds1 and incorporated its lore as much as possbile. Thats what ds3 fails at. I know he doesn't like sequels given the quality of ds3 and how it took almost nothing from ds2 sotfs to expand upon.
6:31 Dude, i know right? Those shield bashes man, if they hit you you're stunned for so long. Thankfully that same shield has poor defenses for him. I'm not sure why he said there's less weapon/build freedom in DS2 from the start than in Demon's Souls? Considering Demon's Souls has a much more limited amount of weapons and had to spread those around in the different worlds and some behind quests and Tendency mechanics, DS2 has you find ye regular ol' low-requirements bland weapons, average spell tools and average shields right in the "first" level. Melentia alone sells close to the same amount of weapons that you can find in Demon's Souls' 1-1, not to mention what else you can FIND in DS2's "tutorial" area in comparison.
Great video as always Domo. I still think MM's critique is uncharacteristically biased for the reputation he had gained for himself. I think his quick dismissal of so much of the game's design philosophy, especially theming, lore, and storytelling, comes moreso from the indignation he felt at being throughly challenged by a game whose predecessors he had mastered down to a science, than from well reasoned critique. And I blame his video for the repetitive trend, still persisting ten years on, of armchair critics calling everything they see in DS2 lazy, pointless, cheap, "hard for the wrong reasons" etc. After all, Mauler's series was in defense of MM. Let's be honest, even if some of his critiques were valid, its not like he displayed much gameplay skill. I know personally several people who were a little quicker on the uptick and had far less of a negative outlook on the game's design decisions on release, even if some were as puzzling and obscure as some of DS1's. Still I did seriously underestimate just how many of MM's misgivings were fixed in Scholar. As always you have a way of slicing through the culture surrounding our favorite game and really getting to the heart of the issues. It makes me speculate how glorious DS1 would have been if some of its rougher edges were ironed out in the remaster.
Yeah there's lots of criticisms in his video that I feel are just based on having had a hard time with the game, which then made him look at a lot of things in a more negative way. Like he complained that the Last Giant has a crammed area, that it's bad that you can get the Ring of Restoration so early, or that Covenants should have a penalty for leaving. There's plenty of things he complains about that I see as positives or non-issues. Thanks a lot for the donation!
@@Domo3000I'd go so far as to say he approached the criticism dishonestly, or at least inconsistently. He would usually do an entire, step-by-step playthough of the souls games and give commentary as he went. For DS2 it seems like he played for an hour, made up his mind to hate it, then wrote down 4 or 5 bullet points for the entire playthrough. Very disingenuous. The irony is that DS2 demands you play by its rules, accept the difficulty, and overcome while learning about the world. It's the most 'souls' experience possible. However it goes down in history hated for not being DS1. (Which was pretty easy and goofy, just being honest. The serious tone of DS2 is peak)
And I didn't even mention basics like Group Aggression: ua-cam.com/video/OvpVtr2nGy0/v-deo.html Or how much worse Shrine of Amana used to be, especially back when he played it.
Your doing gods work with videos like this, i listened to alot of this stuff and ended up playing the original and coming too the same conculsion as you and went back sotfs. These guys legit lie through there teeth. @@Domo3000
Dark Souls 2 was very bold by trying something different both gameplay and lorewise with many cool results. Imo it's the most interesting entry into the souls series and it's a bit of a shame how much backlash the developers had to face because of it
1:05 It's funny that you mention that. I was playing the Demon's souls remake the other day and every time I saw an item tucked away deep in a corner, I was expecting a trap that was never there. Sure, there were a few times it would trigger enemies like the rock worms, but it was usually easy to get away. For better or for worse, Dark souls II really loved to experiment with traps.
it all makes sense once you realize the director for ds2 is the same guy that directed the king's field games, those games are full of traps like that, and thats why i love dark souls 2
Going to disagree here as if you fight the dragon slayer first all it does it make killing the dragon rider way harder especially if you do it as the first boss like I did when I played the game blind for the first time.
Honestly, I feel like I liked the enemy placement better in Vanilla. However, I will auto go to Scholar every time because of the fact that it has upgraded performance and all three of the crown DLC’s !!! Also, I can’t recall if those multiplayer rings were a thing in vanilla or not.
I just replayed DS2 after beating Elden Ring DLC, and it was really fun to see how much connective tissue there is between the games. In a lot of ways, Elden Ring is the true realization of the ambitions they were forced to compromise on with DS2.
I think one of the story bits that I love in DS2 that I don't think anyone picked up on, is that the character you are playing as is completely made up by your character. The fact that the Fire Keepers at the beginning ask if you remember your name and then give you an effigy that's supposed to be you but looks nothing like you plays into that idea that your character doesn't really remember who they were. Even the fact that the wife and kids at the beginning were made of wax made it seem like it wasn't a real memory. Also, the fact that the tomb at Things Betwixt can have your character completely change sex really plays into it as well.
I also felt like Things Betwixt is like a Purgatory. Once you lose your sense of self you get pulled here, where you then get "reborn" when you see the Effegy and leave towards Majula
While this is cool speculation, I don't see how it's definitive. Your character may or may not remember their past, but there is no conclusive evidence either way. The effigy doesn't look like you but they resemble Humanity, which exists within all humans. I'm not sure how they work entirely, but we usually see them shoved inside the body, so at least in gameplay it's not just looking at them that does it Also, that is not your wife and kids, especially since your character can be female. That is you forgetting your own mother's face from when you were young. They look like wax because the memory is melting away. The curse in ds2 is described as eroding your "oldest memories first", so it starts with your very young childhood. I also think that it's supposed to be fittingly ambiguous so as to be a stand in for any undead, and not necessarily literally be your mother, but so you can interpret it as being so if you want For characters like Lucatiel, they seem to remember some of who they are even deep into the curse. I don't see a reason to believe for sure that all our memories are entirely gone, it's probably left intentionally up to interpretation
@@frazfrazfrazfraz Right but the fire keeper gives it to you and says look carefully that it is you. And after this, you create your character in the character creator. Also, when you read the description, it mentions how the effigy will change to look like the person who looks deep into it. I think the interpretation can be either or. I always took it as the character's false memories of their family but because of the wax melting nature. I think there are some characters like Lucatiel who do remember who they are and we definitely see people remembering parts of their past but a running theme in DS2 with the characters is that they don't ever remember how or why they came to Drangleic. But I do agree that it is purposefully ambiguous.
1:12 one of my favorite mentions. It’s kinda funny seeing people play the game like ds1 or ds3 and Agro every enemy in the game (exaggeration) while running back to a fog wall and complaining why they are getting ganked. And then call the game trash. It happens a lot and often times they still do the runback with every agro
It's crazy how many of these little gameplay details I love like the moaning trees acting as bait and the spiders avoiding torches were only added in SoTFS. Great video which is nice to see after some disingenous claims that this version is downright worse. It's almost like they used Matthew's critique as a reference point for half the changes.
I think there's something in our brain were we fuse two similar memories together and only remember the good parts of either one. For example, Pokemon Gold was my first Pokemon game, followed by Pokemon Sapphire. My nostalgia glasses often has my memory merging the features of both together, for example having weekly events (Gold counted days of the week, Sapphire did not) and being able to plant berries (Sapphire let you plant and grow berries of your choice, Gold had set trees that respawned berries periodically). So I think a lot of people saying "Scholar bad" are remembering vanilla as having many of the QoL updates that only came with Scholar.
Long opinion piece ahead from someone who played both versions from launch. I never had an issue with the enemies in original Ds2, and back then I wasn't very good at souls games. I actually preferred it to scholar Back when scholar just released, I had the benefit of playing both of them back to back and that's when I formed my view that scholar was overall worse for its enemy and item placements. One of the few things it did well imo was add more npc invaders, but really the casual friendly approach in a souls game wasn't well received by me even though you could qualify me as casual back when it came out. strange I know, I should have liked these changes, but I didn't. Do you remember when there wasn't a dragon in front of the old dragonslayer arena? I do (that isn't an example of making it more casual, just a minorly annoying change) For the most part, scholar made changes to item and enemy placements that just weren't needed, and only served to confuse returning players and confound me at many of the changes made EDIT: I do agree that the lighting (or lack thereof) has overall improved in scholar especially for pitch black areas. Although I didn't mind the horse knight gank or any of the ganks really, I can see why people might have. Shield bros at archdragon peak aren't that bad imo since they are easy to kill if you respect their moveset same as all the other versions of them; O&S and earlier in ds2 prepares you for situations like that. The new hidden items, though usually trivial, are very cool I agree! The mask trap room in scholar is a worse trap (just made easier) that already wasn't very hard for a new player to work through by rolling and not walking through. environmental kills are cool though you will notice a trend in that I don't tend to like changes that make the game easier than it needs to be. this is another casual change but I concede that it allows for more creative play, so still comes with a positive. Fragrant branches are 100% better distributed in scholar, even if I didn't mind the early short lived limitations of the original. I agree that upgrade material distribution and access is not a problem at all in either version of the game - if anything, you suffer more in ds1 if you spend those resources across a wide range of equipment, but even then it is far, far from unachievable for new players. Soul memory was not a problem when the game was at its peak, it just encouraged players to keep leveling since lots of players would end up at high SM from playing the game and grinding up ng cycles. I pvped in ds2 for 3 years on PS3 and had no shortage of players to connect with on iron keep bridge. I NEVER used agape ring in all that time either. long term, soul level is better as it requires no soul management from gimping your ability to gain souls with agape ring, and it is easier to define the meta pvp level since it only factors level and is 3 digits long so more memorable than 7 figures/1 million+. It ensures that the pvp scene will not die out for a very long time. As someone who didn't know to burn the windmill on their first run, lifegem and estus in that fight made it achievable first run, albeit requiring you to learn the boss very well and do enough damage quickly. Not an easy task, but this is souls we are talking about. Mytha was a very memorable and highly praised bossfight for me for that reason, it was just so different and very challenging. Scholar making the windmill more obvious is a good change, though I don't really mind the original there knowing it's very beatable with the poison from my first playthrough. Fighting Mytha without poison after that just didn't feel as good. I want to say thanks for this video, as it gives me many comparison points to make a case for my own viewpoint beyond just "changes bad"
Having only played scholar and heard so many times "Oh yeah vanilla is so much better!!" and seeing now how different and... less interesting the game feels it's pretty impressive to see how that feeling managed to hit the mainstream
1:42 While I don't like the one in the original either, I also feel, Scholar kind of misses the mark here a bit. You have a room full of evil looking masks and a chest in the middle. But if you actually open the chest, they all just miss? It feels like this should have been a punishment for opening such an obvious trap. Because even if you don't fall for the trap, you realize these masks are probably not a good thing and stay alerted to them. Also just want to mention, I find it funny that the original is always played in German for whatever reason. Not that I mind, I just find it funny.
On my playthrough, I thought the masks were just trophies of some sort (I've only played Scholar). When I opened the chest, I moved too quickly and still got hit. Perhaps to a player that already knows it is coming in some way it's worse, but for a clueless and more impatient player like me I think it got the point across pretty well. Also, this kind of trap wasn't one I had encountered before. I'm always cautious of wooden chests and that's part of why I moved away so quickly. For the trap to instead come from the masks... it was a bit of a surprise.
Vanilla Dragon Shrine is actual pain, you have to fight all those enemies just to get one shot by Ancient Dragon. After two tries you just have to run past everything for your own sanity😅
I recently started Dark Souls 2 (vanilla), and I'm enjoying it so far. I've been going down the rabbit hole of "vanilla vs Scholar" content on UA-cam, and it's fascinating how many people have different experiences with each version of the game. I'm definitely going to play SOTFS after my vanilla playthrough to compare and contrast.
Good luck. DS2 is a very long game. IIRC I had 600 hours or so clocked in before I finally finished the game. Not all on the same save file, I'd put the game down several times and always started over when I came back. But IIRC the save file where I finally finished the game had around 150 hours on it. I enjoyed it, but I was honestly ready to be done by that point. TBH, I feel similarly about Elden Ring, game is just too long.
these videos are so addicting, your break downs, explanations and visuals make it so simple to see how everything works, i feel like i'm helping design the game lol
Your story edit at the end really re-iterated why I love SOTFS's philosophy and themes so much. It doesn't do the gloryfagging that DS1 or ER does with regards to sitting on the chair, it really makes you question what you are perpetuating by making your choice. All the game's NPC's play into this wondefully, with how hopeless, confused or insane a lot of them are. It's a much more difficult narrative to parse for the average player, but arguably has the most poignant things to say about the undead curse, what it means to be a Lord, and the nature of cycles.
DS1 focuses on the glory of it so much because the prophecy is a lie being told to you to manipulate you into believing you're a chosen hero so that you will kill yourself for their goal. It's more about how people in positions of power will use "hero narratives" to fight political battles over peoples' decisions, both the gods and Kaathe in this case. Personally, I prefer ds2's story as well. Vendrick and Aldia are a subversion of that political motivation by not trying to influence you to make any choice and just giving you the straight truth to make your own decision. It's like humanity as a whole, realizing they were fooled in the first game, divested themselves from the gods and set out to find their own answers, through science and the accumulation of power There's something about the lonely, solemn, and overtly reflective feeling of DS2 that I just really prefer as a narrative myself, even if I recognize how well done ds1 is from a story perspective. It really captures the human aspect so well
Excited to give this a watch, when I recently replayed scholar and also rewatched Matthew’s video I noticed lots of issues were fixed, perhaps why a lot of new souls fans don’t know why ds2 was so hated
6:51 this path also shows an example of how much more depht was added in the enemy encounters. Vanilla DS2 suffers from the same problem of late DS1, most of times there will be a bunch of enemies just standing there doing nothing until you aproach them. Like you said, scholar really helped the game's world feeling more alive.
16:16 The HELL Was That? A Critical Hit On The Heide Knight? I Remember Reading That DS2 Just Like Elden Ring, Some Enemies Has The "Stance" And You Can "Break" Them To Get A Critical, But Something Along The Lines Of The Number/Threshold Being So High That You Will Basically Kill The Enemy Before Breaking Their "Stance" Once Or Something
I pull off two more of those in that chapter at 16:57 and 17:16 If you are using an UGS a running/backstep R1, R2 or jump attack breaks the stance of a lot of enemies, and a few more with the Stone Ring.
@@Domo3000 Oh, I See With The Kind Of Mod They Make For DS2 With Unique Mechanics (Like That One Where You Can Actually Riposte Parried Bosses [Although It Still Seems Kind Of Clunky/Unfinished]), I Wonder If They Can Mod The Stance To Be Like Elden Ring Or Sum, That With Enough Hits From A Low Poise Or Medium Poise Weapon You Can Still Break And Use A Critical On Them
18:30 The one thing I prefer on ds2 is the color grading of the original. I never was a big fan of the green tint on scholar. Network test has the best color grading in my opinion.
The Velstadt runback is so much better in Scholar, you can actually ignore them all and go back in if you wish. The only really dirty part is the bell hollow/ghosts. You may notice him when exploring, but if you kill him a second one spawns in. The dirty part is when you kill the second, a third will spawn quite delayed, so you may run to the hallway and suddently have up to 3 ghosts comming from there. Also I love the Dragon Eerie and Shrine. Eerie is better in vanilla imo because you have to play the area, but there are no acid hollows. The Scholar shortcut and statue are really just unnessecary. The extra nights that attack you in Shrine when you skip Drakekeeper fights are a cool idea. Sadly, and thats more specific, in multiplayer one player will always be slightly out of the fighting zone when entering and the Knights will all agro on you. There should have been small zomes where players count as "in fight" but not as in fight. I always said toe other player to just du that part by himself since Drakekeepers are easier then the whole army of nights
They put a dragonrider in front of Veldstad's fog wall. How this should be better than vanilla? Also in softs there are 3 delayed hollows that go sound the bell under the stairs opposed to just 1 in vanilla... "Oh, but softs is better" 💩
@@alessandrobaggi6129"Armor worn by the dragonriders, King Vendricks royal guard" The added Dragonriders in Scholar just add to the lore, as one is guarding Vendrick and the other one his Soul. It just makes the story feel more cohesive.
I'll never get used to ppl complaining about gank enemies in DS2. I mean nobody complained about dying a zillion times to O&S in DS1. This is what the Souls genre is about, you got multitude of weapons, consumables and spells at your disposal, you just gotta git gud.
I really appreciate the video, there is bizarre propaganda that SOTFS has worse enemy placements than vanilla and I think it comes from the fact that a lot of Dark Souls 2 fans tend to hold contrarian views.
Uhmmm no. I think It's just the people who truly hated ds2 but doesn't want to admit (or be seen as being negative) that they hate ds2. So instead, the choose ds2 vanilla. That, or them blinded by nostalgia or just preferences But i do believe that people who actually likes ds2 will prefer sotfs because of the QOL and story overhaul. I also believe, no sane ds2 player loves being ganked by the knights at the dragon aerie or being swarmed by spiders in tseldora cove while complaining that sotfs "has a lot of ganks" while in reality, the enemy aggro range and quantity of enemies in sotfs has been toned down (plus torch mechanics to scare the spiders off)
@Domo , have you thought about doing an ambush comparison in ds1 vs. ds2? I had an in depth discussion in a comment thread where the commentor laid out his ds2 critiques in good faith without bashing ds2 fans. But one of his criticisms was of course the ambushes. So that reminded me of your runback comparisons which proved that the runbacks are basically consistent in both games. And I feel like the same thing applies to the ambushes, but is that really the case? Are there really that many more ambushes in ds2 with less foreshadowing of said ambushes compared to ds1?
You know, I think the only problem the Earthen Peak windmill really has with showing you that it can be set on fire is just the texture. The windmill could easily be seen as something covered in oil, or it could just look like it's old and dirty/rusted because of how its texture looks. If it just had a slight texture change, it'd make more sense for a first time player to question why you can walk over there, and it makes the summon in sotfs pointing it out to be way more clear that there's something up with it. I'd also like to note that the Old Knights in Heide's Tower don't always do honorable duels in SotFS. I just started up a new run and never left that circular room and the two that come after you take out the greatsword knight both started attacking me at the same time despite never leaving the room.
I wish Devotee Scarlet told me to kill the bell guys before Velstadt. I had my headphones on so I was wondering why the ghosts kept spawning. My mistake actually made me find a fun farming spot. 😆
Yeah and meanwhile Feeble King says that vanilla is less ganky and built with DS2 jank in mind. I see. Because of your videos lately i recently bought vanilla and while I enjoyed it because it is DS2 my main problems were the enemy placement and the lack of people online (its obvious that Scholar is played more but it annoys me that I cant invade because of this). I can see the appeal because some stuff seems more logical to a new player in vanilla but overall Scholar is superior. (Kleine Notiz am Rande: Ich finde es irgendwie lustig zu sehen, wie die Sprachen in deinem Footage von Vanilla und Scholar zwischen Deutsch und Englisch springen.)
Ive only played scholar so ive never realized just how much they changed in regard to enemy encounters, some of those encounters in the base game look ridiculous, if only they could have changed the aggro ranges of the alonne knights in iron keep that would have made the run up to smelter so much better, it and Black gulch are really the only mandatory areas I dislike in the game.
25:10 Damn. The UGS definitely seem to swing faster in ds2 sotfs than ER, which is ironic cause ER has the faster combat pace. Once again highlighting, how badly UGS suck in ER.
Absolute cinema from 30:35 onwards, as soon as Aldia popped up I got hooked on the game even more so being able to go into the past to talk to Vendrick. The DLCs also add so much to the story especially the Ivory King. Love the editing of just showing us the first time Aldia pops up, nothing else was needed to respond to the story criticism. Great video as always. "A LIE WILL REMAIN A LIE." Iconic.
Multiple enemy encounters are what make the relatively simple combat in these games interesting. When you only have one guy it's generally kind of trivial and repetitive, outside of bosses. DS2 had the right idea. MatthewMatosis and others' take on them just boggles my mind, I don't think much of anyone who complains about "ganks" or "spambushes."
Love the vid, always good to see other point of view, i think scholar has some flaws too, like shrine of amana and iron keep, but I don't see the entire video yet, so im waiting to see what you gonna say about 20:51 talking about fragrant branch of yore, i think scholar use them kinda badly, there's a lot more of branches, but there's a lot more stone'd persons too, so players would probably use them much more too, resulting in the lack of then
If you are interested in what I'm going to say about them I've already created longer more detailed videos about the differences. Shrine of Amana: ua-cam.com/video/Iztnu5G2BFs/v-deo.htmlsi=Gf-gxNV_OVBbUtvp Iron Keep: ua-cam.com/video/dzgQLYMiLQQ/v-deo.htmlsi=smydPx9gGpl0dk4B
no good early weapons?! i love jumping down the pit and grabbing the heide lance . that weapon is deluxe and you dont gotta fight any bosses to get it. (at least in scholar)
The ending of that video is how I felt after beating DS2 myself and realizing not everything Matthewmatosis says is 100% correct, although I'm not a fan of the Aldia or DLC stuff. He's gone on record for saying sometime after the DS2 critique that he doesn't wanna do them anymore and the ones he has have been on broader subjects, and I respect the hell out of him for that even if the root of his souls complaints are "they didn't do it like Demon Souls".
12:08 Want to know why they're passive in SOTFS? It's to show that Straid created them. They reference the concept of the "Body without Organs", analogous to an egg (hence also their presence in the Dragon Aerie). Also, the Old Sun Ring in Shaded Woods is a reference to Rudolf Steiner.
Pretty Sure That Straid Predated Everything Like That, Since He Mentions Being Petrified For Soo Long That *"Long Enough For Olaphis To Rise, Fall And Fade Away, Evidently"* So He Was There When "Olaphis" Was Pretty Much A Baby Kingdom And During His Stasis(Petrified) State Olaphis Was Able To Rise Then Fall And Finally Fade Away And He Also Mentions Never Hearing Of Drangleic, Like At All *"Drangleic. . . I've Never Heard The Name. Is That What They Call This Place Now?"*
@@ezequielin5058He's the only person to sell Unveil, which is a Lindelt miracle. He's a mage of Lindelt, who span multiple civilisations. Lindelt has been around for multiple kingdoms; it was found in Shulva (Yorgh and Drakebloods) as well as Eleum Loyce (lootable Monastery Charms).
You still have guaranteed drops from the Heide Knights in the other areas - and the one that drops the Lance is now actually using it as well. And it's now possible to get their armor set without requiring an insane amount of luck and bonfire Ascetics.
@@Domo3000 if you don't mind could you tell me where? I've been eager to get the greatlance and sword but too lazy to farm for it and even with like 7 characters with more than 100 hours I haven't found one using the greatlance or dropping it, the armor is also pretty sick are there also guaranteed drops for it?
@@Domo3000I’m actually doing a sotfs playthrough rn, the lance knight is present in regular NG, it’s down the ladder from estus shard! Just got it yesterday
To me the Petrified Statues were implemented worse in Vanilla. They still block Shaded Woods, Straid and Ornifex, but it just takes longer before you can access them. In Scholar you can easily access Shaded Woods and Straid before you even fight the Lost Sinner, and the statue in front of the Ruin Sentinels makes it more obvious that they are an optional boss. Just several improvements that make them feel more fleshed out, make the intended path of progression clearer to new players and improve it for experienced players the want to access certain things earlier.
it is mindboggling to me that somebody claimed the knights at dragon shrine are "the most unfair enemy in the game" as if they are not victim to the exact same methods of dodging as the old knights, only that the attacks are faster. Sure, the have new attacks mixed in, but they are NOT unfair, have a good set of attacks you can strafe and are not so quick they cannot be telegraphed. They are hard, yes, but not unfair and sure a fuck not one of the hardest enemies in the game, lol. Dude is coping mega hard. edit: also don't get me wrong, i still agree the vanilla enemy placements are bullshit, but that's as far as it goes. The enemies themselves have nothing wrong with them in one on one situations and are fairly easy to fight if you know what you're doing, which you should since they fight the same way as a previous enemy, just faster.
I always thought that the exploding hollows by straid were placed there so you can test the weapons/spells you get from buying/trading, but I only have memory of it in SOTFS and don't remember what it was like in vanilla
VERY aggressive thumbnail, but i'll hear you out and respond when i feel its necessary. regarding enemy placement, i do agree scholar does it generally better, but i dont think hordes of enemies are necessarily bad. of course in some areas in vanilla they just have absolutely horrible placements, but that exists in all 3 souls games. i DO agree that boss reuse like the dragonrider is really smart and well done. regarding the torch, i still dont think you really need it in any way, i get through the entire game without a torch, and only use it when i need to, for instance, light mcDuff's torch. that being said, visually scholar is much more beautiful. i think that gating twinkling titanite (or any upgrade material) is a bad thing, you should be rewarded for exploring with an upgraded weapon, and that's a problem i have with DS3, how upgrade materials are gated, and also why i think ds1's upgrade materials are good in concept but poorly executed, with most chunks being enemy drops. i think scholar, while it has a big improvement on the lore, is not required to make ds2 lore really deep with its own story and such. i think drangleic on its own demonstrates the thesis of it's story. i kind of like the one ending vanilla gets you, because it's representative of the cycle. the option to reject linking the flame or letting it die is nice, but i dont think it was needed. i generally think matthew matosis does not know what he's talking about but its interesting that he has a nugget of truth in this particular video, and i liked how you responded to his video.
@@Domo3000 fair enough, i should have worded that differently. great video regardless EDIT: did not realize someone else commented something stupid, my bad
@Jurglenuts GENERALLY does not know what he's talking about* i dont know how to even talk to you if you're gonna misread what i say 😐 everything he talks about has a BIT of truth to it, but i just don't agree with matthew on most things, he doesn't enjoy what i enjoy and thats that. hell I make dark souls challenge runs, of course im gonna have a different connotation of what's fun. i make the game insanely hard for no reason because i like to. he plays the game wrong and gets mad at the game for it.
I personally think, after reflecting it for a long time, that what is important to dark souls 2 is that there are people, even if niche in comparison, that knows the real merit of Dark souls 2. For me, and yes, objectively, the best of the franchise, there isn't any fault, or critique, that can out stand the good things the game did that dark souls 1 doesn't have by prequel status, dark souls 3 doesn't have because the devs got scared and influenced by the critiques, and only after so many years Elden ring is TRYING to get back, trying because even dark souls 2 has things that elden ring could benefit greatly. There is no objectivity, in any form, or proper reasoning, in watching videos like the ones of "limitbreaker", saying all the good things dark souls 2 ONLY has, and not objectively acknowledging this game is the best one. Or the videos of this channel when it address all the lame unreasonable without fundamentals critiques PEOPLE IN GENERAL has vomited through the years, even the critiques of those that in essence are not haters, but even so, wrong critiques when it comes to objectivity. Maybe one day Dark souls 2 will get the proper merit it should have. Recently Miyazaki himself defended Dark souls 2 before the launch of the Elden ring dlc. There is a saying that says the merits will always be recognized with time. Of course, is only a saying... so who knows? It doesn't really matter. I would love to see a remake of dark souls 2, of course, i would love to see at least an update, probably bringing the original lightning back, or just upgrading it, overall as the baked white light doesn't properly fit. And i would love to see most people in the franchise telling by defect that this game is the better one, which there isn't even an example, because most people in the community are divided, and i will say it, most people doesn't know shit of videogame design or art. But what really matters at the ends is that in the whole crowd, there is a few dudes that bravely will say "dark souls 2 is the best one", and never back, even if the people whine. Just look at vangoh story. Or even if not so similar, copernico... People don't know shit, and is ignorant, most people. And this will be the fact for a long time. Is not arrogance, is just facts. I will say it again, one can have opinions, subjectivity, but objectivity is a clear way too, and when it comes to dark souls 2, the bad things it has are in any way so unique or too big, but the good things it has are too much, and undeniable.
@@DionPanday you don't have to be a designer to know which game is best, but I have played many different games. If you want that "objective" opinion,why DS2 is indeed the best one, look for it for yourself. I said it, if you don't know the things dark souls 2 has others don't, then watch videos, limitbreaker is one good of some. If you think the game is too flawed to be considered the best one, watch this guy videos, I mean, the one of this channel... Even harris (hbomber) said good points in defense of dark souls 2. There is no objectivity in not recognizing DS2 as the objectively best just by looking at those videos or... You know, playing the game, properly. Especially if you know the other two. Like the more mechanics, the replay bosses and the different Ng, the possibility to affect the bosses arena. Etc... I could deepen on it and I would enjoy it but you are just not worth it.
@@robertoaltuve4145 Well clearly you know about game design and art because you have been in the industry for so long right? I’ve played Dark souls 2 and in my objectively correct opinion it’s not the best in the series, should I watch some more UA-cam videos instead to come to a different conclusion? I’ve watched Matthewmatosis video and his objectively correct opinion he says it’s also not the best in the series. So since our objectively correct opinions line up were correct right?
@@DionPanday what are saying? Do you read yourself boy? Did you read my comments? Your feelings are hurt because I said DS2 is the best 😔? Watch the videos of limitbreaker about DS2. That, if you actually want to see.If not, f off. I'm not replying to you more.
I love the new ending scholar adds, how difficult it is to do, and how it actively incorporated the dlc. That last part is something that any other game has yet to do (fair bc they won’t have their own “scholars”)
I like OG more. But man, Dragon Shrine REALLY needed that upgrade. I play what I call The Rotten build (which means I Farm him and get everything to 30 quickly, having access to all major PvE tools) and Dark Orb reduces them to nothing, but when I try Dex only or STR only I know if I die in the Ancient Dragon, I'm not fighting him again. Life is too short to be wasted trying to clear this area multiple times.
A video being that impact full that it's still being used in modern times. Most times it's rehashed to what It already said; the other is being nip-picked to a hostile degree on hour long essays. It's so wild how the og vid is still as relevant if not more so today than 10 years ago.
>add lock on mechanic >actively ruins the game bravo miyazaki you've done it again MY GOAT all these noobs trying to use mechanics put in the game to help the player
@@mogullll That's not how gameplay mechanics work. Just because a mechanic exists, it doesn't automatically mean it is always the optimal choice to use in every situation possible. It's up to you to realise when to apply it and when not to. As if.. you are playing a game.. with... strategic...choices? Just use basic logic next time before making idiotic comments.
@@masonrockwood7732DS3 started to ditch the experiential part of Dark Souls and focused more on the action side of things, and Elden Ring is where this transformation became fully complete. Except the action game mechanics of these games are underdeveloped, most "challenging" bosses of these games devolve into rollspam followed by one or two hits. This is why he didn't even bother to touch Elden Ring, it's generic open world slop filled with same-y bosses.
@@emperortgp2424And Sekiro felt like a direct response to his video and he *still* disliked it. One of his implications in the video was that if they were going to be more action focused then they should try new things with it on that aspect, at the mere least he should give Sekiro credit to it for experimenting more with said aspect.
yup i am fan to fight haide Towers too one time i just farmng with Champion covenant to get 200,000 Soul at there its like on off 10 hours somehow i not Bored at all
I do think scholar improve most things but one thing that was worse was that the staff of wisdom was out in tseldora instead of the dragon shrine because it makes the lizard staff, witchreee branch and especially the staff of amana kinda pointless bc you can just go straight for tseldora and get the best staff in the game for sorceries instead of having a few stepping stone staves depending on which route you took first. Just kinda feels like how the meteorite staff is in caelid in elden ring making any other staff early game pointless other than an offhand bonus
Can someone explain to me why I see so many people say the opposite to this? I don't have intimate knowledge of vanilla DS2 and I see people complaining that Scholar is worse for exactly the same reasons that this video says it is better: that there are many more enemies in more annoying places that gank you. It seems that there are 2 camps of people who think DS2 is unfairly disliked: 1 that thinks it's the fault of vanilla and Scholar fixed the problems, and 1 that thinks it's scholar's fault and that vanilla was much better.
Many people compare their Scholar experience to vague memories of their Vanilla experience, while I do actual side by side comparisons. People notice the few instances where it got a bit harder, but don't notice all those where it got easier. It's often like they are familiar with Vanilla and when an enemy got moved around a bit they get ambushed and call it unfair, but don't realize that this ambush was less fair in Vanilla. And often it's just bad memory. I've got lots of videos where I show clips of Scholar haters claiming that an area had less enemies in Vanilla, but then I show a side by side comparison that shows that it was actually the other way around. Like they might be comparing Scholar to vague memories of Vanilla where most enemies had already despawned.
I think Matt deserves some leniency compared to the likes of Mauler and Feeble King since a) he says DS2 is a good game, he’s disappointed with it though (and then he lists what frustrated him throughout the game) and b) I don’t think he realized just how bad anti-DS2 sentiment would get. But enough about a 10 year old video about a version I never played. I think Scholar is a lot of fun. Being “forced” to go through either forest of fallen giants or Heide’s tower is a non issue for me. (Mfw I have to go to early game areas in the early game). At this point, I usually clear FOFG first for good weapons/gear, and then head to Heide’s Tower, make my way to the Old Dragonslayer, and then fight Dragonrider. Also I have only fought the Pursuer once in his boss arena as I usually bring him down on the roof where he flies in. (Which btw is still a really cool thing, that a boss drops in and starts gunning for you outside his arena while you’re exploring the level!) But at this point, I feel like after the Lost Sinner (since both FOFG and Heide’s Tower lead you to the Lost Bastille and Sinners Rise, so it seems fair to assume that’s the intended first great one you defeat), the game’s difficulty plateaus until Drangleic. And I think it’s the same reason the second half of DS1 plateaus: you can do any of it in any order, so all enemies are at or around equal power level across the other paths while the player keeps leveling and growing stronger. It makes that whole bit feel like a slog, which is a real shame. Again, this happens in DS1 as well, and I can’t think of a better way to showcase a difficulty curve when dealing with nonlinear objectives. That’s just the trade off you make, I suppose. Also the Drangleic set in FOFG is really good. I did a build where I was Hector from Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade, and the Drangleic set + greataxe was extremely fun to use. (I built with poise in mind too, finishing the game at level 200 with 50 vigor/strength, 40 endurance, 30 vitality, 10 dex, 35 adp, and 17 int/faith (boosted to 20 int/faith with the King’s Crown). Oh also that run was the first time I got to fight Sir Alonne! And funny story. It’s my first attempt at the boss run. I’ve heard stories of how bad it is, and at this point I had the reinforced kings crown so I never hollowed). I see there’s a summon sign on the ground, so I figure “why not let’s run it”. And I take out the first Alonne Knight before moving forward to take out another enemy before realizing that my summon is taking on like 4 knights on their own. I died enroute to the boss, and so I decided “you know what? My build is pretty much done. I don’t need many souls now, so I’ll just see where these knights are and if I run out of time in the memory, oh well.” So I played more carefully, checking each of the entrances to the sides of the main path, and I think the most swarmed I got was 2-3 knights on the grating in front of the fog wall? Which wasn’t that difficult to deal with anyway. So idk I thought the boss run was alright, especially since I had to make it like 4 or 5 times haha. Also while we’re talking about horrible runbacks, I have a personal vendetta against Darklurker’s boss run. That said, I went through it at SL1, so it was definitely worse than it would’ve been if I hadn’t put that restriction on myself. Darklurker was a super fun fight though. Anyways, I’ve noticed that I have an easier time starting a fresh run of DS2 than the other souls games. Is this indicative of anything? Probably nothing objectively, but I do find it interesting how that works.
It just hit me that since scholar was released, I haven’t touched vanilla even once. Probably not the only one that feels like this, but I know basically every enemy ambush, item placement, & upgrade material farming spot in scholar, but wouldn’t even be able to recall where any of the DLC keys in vanilla were.
I actually don’t even remember what it feels like to play vanilla. The only thing I personally remember about vanilla, is that I was actually online back when they handed out the white blacksteel katanas in the majula chests and I made my entire character around power stancing it with the normal blacksteel one… man I wish they had added that weapon to scholar 😢
You won't ever find the dlc keys in vanilla.
They were automatically added to your inventory on download.
And the Moonlight Long Sword! I know it’s not really moonlight, as it was a normal Long Sword with a teal paintjob. I magic infused mine and I miss it dearly.
you can get on nexusmode something as "Megamul " this mode was created for pvp. There you can get weapons from the chest of Majula: red great club, dark rapier, red caestus, white katana, turquoise long sword . Also(but only offline) you can it with Meta , programm for speedrunners
Can I just take a moment to say it is buck wild how the story of DS2 is told through a talking meme cat, a man who’s been under a rock for countless centuries, a senile ghost, the memory of a dead man, and a homeless mad scientist who squats inside bonfires. And all of these NPCs are missable.
WTF, Dark Souls 2… I love it, but wtf?
On topic: Aldia is a great addition because, up to that point the big actors’ motivations aren’t clear.
Japanese moment
Aldi genuinely has the best ending in the game IMO
DS2 was made by King's Field team and it shows...
Aldia was necessary to this game, not only it is an essential character in ds3 (he is the secret preceptor, after all), but it's the first character to explain what happened to humans, what is really the curse and why Gwyn created it involutarily by... well... the Darksign and its purpose.
meme cat? what the fuck does that even mean?
DS2 has a lot of cool and strange things in it. The giant passive ant in the gutter, the hidden tree in the first DLC, the cliff you walk off of in Black Gulch. So many cool secrets and strange things to find.
Did you know that the giant ant comes from the same land as Benhart and the Desert Sorcereress?
"Giant anthills created by the corrosive ants line the horizon of the desert land of Jugo. Ant larvae are considered a delicacy, but he who enters an anthill will have his flesh melted to the bone."
@@Domo3000well I did know that,but where I can find this description?it looks like it's not in the game
@@khashygeld9776 Corrosive Urn
I'm glad someone else is fascinated by that big ant in the Gutter. Its such a bizarre thing, makes you feel like you've seen something you shouldn't have
@@Domo3000Sounds like they thought of having acid actually hurt at some point
I feel like this recent sentiment of Scholar "ruining" DS2 is only because people never played the original. The only thing I dislike about Scholar are the statues/Fragrant branches of yolo
There are things I like about both versions of the game. Many additions to scholar that make the game more fun, some very good tweaks like nerfing the ancient dragon's damage. But there are parts where I wish they would have stuck to what made vanilla great, generally parts where they reduce enemy counts or aggro. It's a mixed bag which is why I tend to alternate between them on replays.
Scholar certainly did not make vanilla obsolete, but neither does it ruin the game. I'm mostly confused by people who say they like one and hate the other, they're both Dark Souls 2, most of the game is basically the same, and the DLC which makes up a huge chunk of one's playthrough has nigh imperceptible differences between the two versions.
@@TonyTonyRedgrave ye they're pretty similar, I don't get the absolutist takes
i'm the opposite lol, only playe doriginal, and never understood people complaining about enemy palcement and ganks, untill i saw some schlar playthrough
Jimothy calls them "f-boys"
@@Sercrocthe ganks were changed in scholor though
Scholar bros 🍷A toast!
Og edition players watching from a far with distain 😊
🍷
🥂
🍻
Long may the sun shine! 🍻
While I think that Matthewmatosis’ video has fair criticisms, I think that it played a large role in everyone senselessly hating on DS2, even after SOTFS came out. It’s one of the most story/lore rich entries and it does so many interesting and cool things the other games didn’t
and to this day it probably has the best PVP in build variety and not being nearly as busted as the other games, NG+ also felt more interesting to playthrough
Agreed. Best Souls 2 stay winning ❤
It's such a bad video. I'm so thankful hbomberguy debunked him so well.
@normalguycap Did you forgot Hmbomberguy got debunked even harder?
@@morgannyan2738 proof you didn't watch anything. Do you realize what channel you're on? No because mauLer has long been known as a looney crackpot. Domo3000, the guy whose video you're commenting on has debunked mauler. You can watch maulers first video and the fool contradicts himself like 4 times with his own footage in like 10 minutes. To not see this reflects on your own poor observation skills. And I'm sick of people like you liking their own comments. Reeks of desperation.
24:14 people say"the dull ember on iron keep made sense, unlike in scholar were you find it on the same area" and then lso say "you have to make it all the way to iron keep to get the dull ember making it hard to get the upgrades"
Gonna be honest, that mask room scared the fuck outta me in Scholar when they didn't fire. I was so used to dodging the arrows in the original DS2, that when the masks didn't fire until I opened the chest in scholar, I panicked a bit.
Same! Very unique and liminal experience
i don't have a horse in the "is DS2 bad or not" race, just noting that you seem extraordinarily willing to be both rigorous and honest, compared to almost everyone else in this "debate"
The story in ds1 was that you only had 2 choices. Extend the flame or go with the dark. Ds1 also established that when an age of fire is nearing an end a random undead will extend it due to gwyn's lies, with you potentially being the first one to do so. Ds2 sotfs showed that when you enter an age of dark or man, the flame can still be linked and thus someone will link it starting age of fire. So Ds2 sotfs is the natural progression of ds1, where fire and dark ages have now happened so many times that vendrick and aldia noticed it and thus tried to break the cycle. I suppose they're the first to realize this cycle actually existing and tried to break it. The effects of the curse and many kingdoms had to be explored because otherwise you wouldn't understand how long this has been going on. Same with the vague ds1 references. It avoids making player actions cannon from ds1 as much as possible and it gets ds2's point across that due to gwyn's lies the age of fire and dark cycle has started and doomed many a kingdoms/men to this cycle.
Ds3 said its been an incredibly long time since ds2 happened or it happened in a really far away place that nobody properly remembers it. In ds3 it turns out aldia's been doing nothing and nobody tried to break the cycle. It literally retreads ds2's story again with lords of cinder refusing to link the flame just like vendrick. But it doesn't go beyond that. And the ''solution'' it does come up with is the painting, which does nothing to actually fix the curse. All it does is provide a safe haven of sorts. So we don't have a real answer to ds1 and ds2's storylines and questions. Instead we just got a bunch of filler.
thats what i dont like about the lore, it ultimately goes nowhere
@@memberofchat2825 Now, I've not been following ER's lore, but its been a similar case with its lore too.
Can fromsoft please just actually make the lore go somewhere for once. Cause this type of lore telling and world building is found in other games too like skyrim or CP2077 but those games have lore that actually goes somewhere.
@siyzerix I think that's the point, that the player is what makes their lore Canon.
It's also because Miyazaki doesn't like doing Sequels all that much besides Armored core.
@@shirothr5384 miyazaki only ever made the newest armored core, he had nothing to do with the series until now.
and yeah i figured why the story never went anywhere was because he had said he doesnt like to make sequels
@@shirothr5384 Dark souls 2 sotfs did make what the player did in ds1 cannon. So, thats why it tried its best not to confirm as many things as possible and be as vague as possible. But it also tried to make sure it referenced ds1 and incorporated its lore as much as possbile. Thats what ds3 fails at.
I know he doesn't like sequels given the quality of ds3 and how it took almost nothing from ds2 sotfs to expand upon.
If somebody complains about enemy spam in DS2, they are either rushing or playing vanilla.
There's nothing wrong with vanilla's enemy placement.
@@alastor8091 It probably wasn't that bad, but I heard SotFS edition changed some things to make it more balanced.
I hadn't played original in so long. I didn't realise how much better scholar is
6:31 Dude, i know right?
Those shield bashes man, if they hit you you're stunned for so long.
Thankfully that same shield has poor defenses for him.
I'm not sure why he said there's less weapon/build freedom in DS2 from the start than in Demon's Souls?
Considering Demon's Souls has a much more limited amount of weapons and had to spread those around in the different worlds and some behind quests and Tendency mechanics, DS2 has you find ye regular ol' low-requirements bland weapons, average spell tools and average shields right in the "first" level.
Melentia alone sells close to the same amount of weapons that you can find in Demon's Souls' 1-1, not to mention what else you can FIND in DS2's "tutorial" area in comparison.
"Right after I flex my Fume Knight skills"
This man is attacking me specifically T_T
I salute you. You are gods strongest ds2 defender, and you have my respect and admiration.
Great video as always Domo. I still think MM's critique is uncharacteristically biased for the reputation he had gained for himself. I think his quick dismissal of so much of the game's design philosophy, especially theming, lore, and storytelling, comes moreso from the indignation he felt at being throughly challenged by a game whose predecessors he had mastered down to a science, than from well reasoned critique. And I blame his video for the repetitive trend, still persisting ten years on, of armchair critics calling everything they see in DS2 lazy, pointless, cheap, "hard for the wrong reasons" etc. After all, Mauler's series was in defense of MM.
Let's be honest, even if some of his critiques were valid, its not like he displayed much gameplay skill. I know personally several people who were a little quicker on the uptick and had far less of a negative outlook on the game's design decisions on release, even if some were as puzzling and obscure as some of DS1's.
Still I did seriously underestimate just how many of MM's misgivings were fixed in Scholar. As always you have a way of slicing through the culture surrounding our favorite game and really getting to the heart of the issues. It makes me speculate how glorious DS1 would have been if some of its rougher edges were ironed out in the remaster.
Yeah there's lots of criticisms in his video that I feel are just based on having had a hard time with the game, which then made him look at a lot of things in a more negative way.
Like he complained that the Last Giant has a crammed area, that it's bad that you can get the Ring of Restoration so early, or that Covenants should have a penalty for leaving. There's plenty of things he complains about that I see as positives or non-issues.
Thanks a lot for the donation!
@@Domo3000I'd go so far as to say he approached the criticism dishonestly, or at least inconsistently. He would usually do an entire, step-by-step playthough of the souls games and give commentary as he went. For DS2 it seems like he played for an hour, made up his mind to hate it, then wrote down 4 or 5 bullet points for the entire playthrough. Very disingenuous.
The irony is that DS2 demands you play by its rules, accept the difficulty, and overcome while learning about the world. It's the most 'souls' experience possible. However it goes down in history hated for not being DS1. (Which was pretty easy and goofy, just being honest. The serious tone of DS2 is peak)
17:22 OMG. Its the technique I showcased in that reddit post I made! Finally! Someone uses it. That is SUPER useful to 1 shot charred loyace knights
I played vanilla DS2 so long ago I couldn't even remember how much worse it is than Scholar
And I didn't even mention basics like Group Aggression: ua-cam.com/video/OvpVtr2nGy0/v-deo.html
Or how much worse Shrine of Amana used to be, especially back when he played it.
Your doing gods work with videos like this, i listened to alot of this stuff and ended up playing the original and coming too the same conculsion as you and went back sotfs. These guys legit lie through there teeth. @@Domo3000
Never looked back
One of the sexiest mechanics in DS2 is the greatsword parry like damn... 👌
And backstep dodge, that is just the best feeling ever
@YEY0806 My favourite is using backstep in multiple directions similar to the backstep in bloodborn, or even completely dodging projectiles.
@@edbane1656I frame Ravioli Step, you were by my side all along 😫🤌
Dark Souls 2 was very bold by trying something different both gameplay and lorewise with many cool results. Imo it's the most interesting entry into the souls series and it's a bit of a shame how much backlash the developers had to face because of it
1:05 It's funny that you mention that. I was playing the Demon's souls remake the other day and every time I saw an item tucked away deep in a corner, I was expecting a trap that was never there. Sure, there were a few times it would trigger enemies like the rock worms, but it was usually easy to get away. For better or for worse, Dark souls II really loved to experiment with traps.
it all makes sense once you realize the director for ds2 is the same guy that directed the king's field games, those games are full of traps like that, and thats why i love dark souls 2
For the Heide Knights, you can in fact parry the jumping thrust attack at the end of their combo.
Best Souls 2.
Best Souls 2
Best Souls 2
Going to disagree here as if you fight the dragon slayer first all it does it make killing the dragon rider way harder especially if you do it as the first boss like I did when I played the game blind for the first time.
@@christianlangdon3766 u ruined the chain
@@AtreyusNinja oh sorry my bad. Lol
Bruh the way you ducked under Fume Knight's attack blew my mind 🤯
Honestly, I feel like I liked the enemy placement better in Vanilla. However, I will auto go to Scholar every time because of the fact that it has upgraded performance and all three of the crown DLC’s !!! Also, I can’t recall if those multiplayer rings were a thing in vanilla or not.
After playing Elden Ring for the last two months, I am in exactly the right mood to revisit my favorite game. Thanks for all the appetizer bites 😊
I just replayed DS2 after beating Elden Ring DLC, and it was really fun to see how much connective tissue there is between the games. In a lot of ways, Elden Ring is the true realization of the ambitions they were forced to compromise on with DS2.
Elden Ring is just Dark Souls 2 2. That's why it's filtering so many people. They don't understand peak.
I just wish the amazing Caster support in items and mechanics carried over to Elden Ring. Instead we got DS3's abysmal system. 🤢
ER is just DS3 wishing to be BB.
DS2's fully forgotten and discarded by FS at this point.
@@bruhvenant Good lord I hope not, Elden Mid could never hold a candle to Peak Souls 2.
I think one of the story bits that I love in DS2 that I don't think anyone picked up on, is that the character you are playing as is completely made up by your character.
The fact that the Fire Keepers at the beginning ask if you remember your name and then give you an effigy that's supposed to be you but looks nothing like you plays into that idea that your character doesn't really remember who they were. Even the fact that the wife and kids at the beginning were made of wax made it seem like it wasn't a real memory. Also, the fact that the tomb at Things Betwixt can have your character completely change sex really plays into it as well.
I also felt like Things Betwixt is like a Purgatory. Once you lose your sense of self you get pulled here, where you then get "reborn" when you see the Effegy and leave towards Majula
While this is cool speculation, I don't see how it's definitive. Your character may or may not remember their past, but there is no conclusive evidence either way. The effigy doesn't look like you but they resemble Humanity, which exists within all humans. I'm not sure how they work entirely, but we usually see them shoved inside the body, so at least in gameplay it's not just looking at them that does it
Also, that is not your wife and kids, especially since your character can be female. That is you forgetting your own mother's face from when you were young. They look like wax because the memory is melting away. The curse in ds2 is described as eroding your "oldest memories first", so it starts with your very young childhood. I also think that it's supposed to be fittingly ambiguous so as to be a stand in for any undead, and not necessarily literally be your mother, but so you can interpret it as being so if you want
For characters like Lucatiel, they seem to remember some of who they are even deep into the curse. I don't see a reason to believe for sure that all our memories are entirely gone, it's probably left intentionally up to interpretation
Something like Cale who convinces himself of being a cartologer?(I dont know the english word for it😭)
I like this idea
@@frazfrazfrazfraz Right but the fire keeper gives it to you and says look carefully that it is you. And after this, you create your character in the character creator. Also, when you read the description, it mentions how the effigy will change to look like the person who looks deep into it.
I think the interpretation can be either or. I always took it as the character's false memories of their family but because of the wax melting nature.
I think there are some characters like Lucatiel who do remember who they are and we definitely see people remembering parts of their past but a running theme in DS2 with the characters is that they don't ever remember how or why they came to Drangleic.
But I do agree that it is purposefully ambiguous.
@@frazfrazfrazfrazThat could perfectly be our wife and kids... Lesbians exist, yeh?
This channel rocks f the haters your analysis makes them go hollow
This video convinced me to upgrade to scholar
The amount of people always saying vanilla is superior are coping hard, I always prefered scholar
Idk, ive been in coversation with someone who insists the game being more difficult in an unfair way makes it better; to each their own, i guess.
I could watch Domo duck below attacks by attacking all day. Top notch gameplay as always!
I admire your devotion to being truthful about things you like. Keep your head up and proud, even if the majority disagrees with you.
1:12 one of my favorite mentions. It’s kinda funny seeing people play the game like ds1 or ds3 and Agro every enemy in the game (exaggeration) while running back to a fog wall and complaining why they are getting ganked. And then call the game trash. It happens a lot and often times they still do the runback with every agro
I keep repeating that ds2 is a strategy game. It's not a game one rushes through, it's meditative in that regard.
It's crazy how many of these little gameplay details I love like the moaning trees acting as bait and the spiders avoiding torches were only added in SoTFS. Great video which is nice to see after some disingenous claims that this version is downright worse. It's almost like they used Matthew's critique as a reference point for half the changes.
I think there's something in our brain were we fuse two similar memories together and only remember the good parts of either one. For example, Pokemon Gold was my first Pokemon game, followed by Pokemon Sapphire. My nostalgia glasses often has my memory merging the features of both together, for example having weekly events (Gold counted days of the week, Sapphire did not) and being able to plant berries (Sapphire let you plant and grow berries of your choice, Gold had set trees that respawned berries periodically). So I think a lot of people saying "Scholar bad" are remembering vanilla as having many of the QoL updates that only came with Scholar.
Matthewmatosis' video isn't good. But at least he's usually honest with his criticisms. The same can't be said for others, such as MauLer.
What makes a good video according to you?
Matthew video is great and 100% true about DaS2. Vanilla DaS2 is a bad game
He isn't honest in the videos he's (apparently) most known for, though.
@@morgannyan2738Apparently yapping for two hours straight to fill the void of having no friends or females in their life
Long opinion piece ahead from someone who played both versions from launch.
I never had an issue with the enemies in original Ds2, and back then I wasn't very good at souls games. I actually preferred it to scholar
Back when scholar just released, I had the benefit of playing both of them back to back and that's when I formed my view that scholar was overall worse for its enemy and item placements. One of the few things it did well imo was add more npc invaders, but really the casual friendly approach in a souls game wasn't well received by me even though you could qualify me as casual back when it came out. strange I know, I should have liked these changes, but I didn't. Do you remember when there wasn't a dragon in front of the old dragonslayer arena? I do (that isn't an example of making it more casual, just a minorly annoying change)
For the most part, scholar made changes to item and enemy placements that just weren't needed, and only served to confuse returning players and confound me at many of the changes made
EDIT: I do agree that the lighting (or lack thereof) has overall improved in scholar especially for pitch black areas. Although I didn't mind the horse knight gank or any of the ganks really, I can see why people might have. Shield bros at archdragon peak aren't that bad imo since they are easy to kill if you respect their moveset same as all the other versions of them; O&S and earlier in ds2 prepares you for situations like that. The new hidden items, though usually trivial, are very cool I agree! The mask trap room in scholar is a worse trap (just made easier) that already wasn't very hard for a new player to work through by rolling and not walking through. environmental kills are cool though you will notice a trend in that I don't tend to like changes that make the game easier than it needs to be. this is another casual change but I concede that it allows for more creative play, so still comes with a positive. Fragrant branches are 100% better distributed in scholar, even if I didn't mind the early short lived limitations of the original. I agree that upgrade material distribution and access is not a problem at all in either version of the game - if anything, you suffer more in ds1 if you spend those resources across a wide range of equipment, but even then it is far, far from unachievable for new players. Soul memory was not a problem when the game was at its peak, it just encouraged players to keep leveling since lots of players would end up at high SM from playing the game and grinding up ng cycles. I pvped in ds2 for 3 years on PS3 and had no shortage of players to connect with on iron keep bridge. I NEVER used agape ring in all that time either. long term, soul level is better as it requires no soul management from gimping your ability to gain souls with agape ring, and it is easier to define the meta pvp level since it only factors level and is 3 digits long so more memorable than 7 figures/1 million+. It ensures that the pvp scene will not die out for a very long time. As someone who didn't know to burn the windmill on their first run, lifegem and estus in that fight made it achievable first run, albeit requiring you to learn the boss very well and do enough damage quickly. Not an easy task, but this is souls we are talking about. Mytha was a very memorable and highly praised bossfight for me for that reason, it was just so different and very challenging. Scholar making the windmill more obvious is a good change, though I don't really mind the original there knowing it's very beatable with the poison from my first playthrough. Fighting Mytha without poison after that just didn't feel as good.
I want to say thanks for this video, as it gives me many comparison points to make a case for my own viewpoint beyond just "changes bad"
Having only played scholar and heard so many times "Oh yeah vanilla is so much better!!" and seeing now how different and... less interesting the game feels it's pretty impressive to see how that feeling managed to hit the mainstream
Im glad sotf was my fisrt ds2 impression even tho i didnt manage to get to dlc i still fell in love with it
1:42 While I don't like the one in the original either, I also feel, Scholar kind of misses the mark here a bit. You have a room full of evil looking masks and a chest in the middle. But if you actually open the chest, they all just miss? It feels like this should have been a punishment for opening such an obvious trap. Because even if you don't fall for the trap, you realize these masks are probably not a good thing and stay alerted to them.
Also just want to mention, I find it funny that the original is always played in German for whatever reason. Not that I mind, I just find it funny.
On my playthrough, I thought the masks were just trophies of some sort (I've only played Scholar). When I opened the chest, I moved too quickly and still got hit. Perhaps to a player that already knows it is coming in some way it's worse, but for a clueless and more impatient player like me I think it got the point across pretty well. Also, this kind of trap wasn't one I had encountered before. I'm always cautious of wooden chests and that's part of why I moved away so quickly. For the trap to instead come from the masks... it was a bit of a surprise.
I think Domo might be German that would explain the the text to speech.
it will work like Vanila when you walk back there,that chest its a Trigger for The trap and A Clear one because its Safe at First time if you Cautions
@@VVVVIVIVI yea because Bow Chest that Shoot Arrow From inside Box exist and this is Somehow Shot Arrow from Wall
Vanilla Dragon Shrine is actual pain, you have to fight all those enemies just to get one shot by Ancient Dragon. After two tries you just have to run past everything for your own sanity😅
I was today years old when I learned you can hit those trees to distract the ghosts...
I recently started Dark Souls 2 (vanilla), and I'm enjoying it so far. I've been going down the rabbit hole of "vanilla vs Scholar" content on UA-cam, and it's fascinating how many people have different experiences with each version of the game. I'm definitely going to play SOTFS after my vanilla playthrough to compare and contrast.
Good luck. DS2 is a very long game. IIRC I had 600 hours or so clocked in before I finally finished the game. Not all on the same save file, I'd put the game down several times and always started over when I came back. But IIRC the save file where I finally finished the game had around 150 hours on it. I enjoyed it, but I was honestly ready to be done by that point. TBH, I feel similarly about Elden Ring, game is just too long.
these videos are so addicting, your break downs, explanations and visuals make it so simple to see how everything works, i feel like i'm helping design the game lol
"Men.. will be free.from.death." is such a Willem Dafoe-ass take of that Vendrick line. I love goofy human Vendrick voice
I lever played the originally, and thus didn't know about these changes. Very interesting
Your story edit at the end really re-iterated why I love SOTFS's philosophy and themes so much. It doesn't do the gloryfagging that DS1 or ER does with regards to sitting on the chair, it really makes you question what you are perpetuating by making your choice. All the game's NPC's play into this wondefully, with how hopeless, confused or insane a lot of them are. It's a much more difficult narrative to parse for the average player, but arguably has the most poignant things to say about the undead curse, what it means to be a Lord, and the nature of cycles.
DS1 focuses on the glory of it so much because the prophecy is a lie being told to you to manipulate you into believing you're a chosen hero so that you will kill yourself for their goal. It's more about how people in positions of power will use "hero narratives" to fight political battles over peoples' decisions, both the gods and Kaathe in this case.
Personally, I prefer ds2's story as well. Vendrick and Aldia are a subversion of that political motivation by not trying to influence you to make any choice and just giving you the straight truth to make your own decision. It's like humanity as a whole, realizing they were fooled in the first game, divested themselves from the gods and set out to find their own answers, through science and the accumulation of power
There's something about the lonely, solemn, and overtly reflective feeling of DS2 that I just really prefer as a narrative myself, even if I recognize how well done ds1 is from a story perspective. It really captures the human aspect so well
Excited to give this a watch, when I recently replayed scholar and also rewatched Matthew’s video I noticed lots of issues were fixed, perhaps why a lot of new souls fans don’t know why ds2 was so hated
6:51 this path also shows an example of how much more depht was added in the enemy encounters. Vanilla DS2 suffers from the same problem of late DS1, most of times there will be a bunch of enemies just standing there doing nothing until you aproach them. Like you said, scholar really helped the game's world feeling more alive.
the game still has a few annoying ganks but I am glad it is not as bad as vanilla was
You know, i played vanilla on day one, tried to play scholar a few years after and hated it, but your video made me reconsider giving scholar a try.
16:16 The HELL Was That? A Critical Hit On The Heide Knight?
I Remember Reading That DS2 Just Like Elden Ring, Some Enemies Has The "Stance" And You Can "Break" Them To Get A Critical, But Something Along The Lines Of The Number/Threshold Being So High That You Will Basically Kill The Enemy Before Breaking Their "Stance" Once Or Something
I pull off two more of those in that chapter at 16:57 and 17:16
If you are using an UGS a running/backstep R1, R2 or jump attack breaks the stance of a lot of enemies, and a few more with the Stone Ring.
@@Domo3000 Oh, I See
With The Kind Of Mod They Make For DS2 With Unique Mechanics (Like That One Where You Can Actually Riposte Parried Bosses [Although It Still Seems Kind Of Clunky/Unfinished]), I Wonder If They Can Mod The Stance To Be Like Elden Ring Or Sum, That With Enough Hits From A Low Poise Or Medium Poise Weapon You Can Still Break And Use A Critical On Them
Why Do You Capitalize Every Word, You Dont Need To Do That.
Lots of work goes into these videos. God bless.
After I'm done with the Elden Ring DLC I'm coming back to the best souls game for another playthrough
18:30
The one thing I prefer on ds2 is the color grading of the original. I never was a big fan of the green tint on scholar.
Network test has the best color grading in my opinion.
Love the dress up to match each area domo 👍
The Velstadt runback is so much better in Scholar, you can actually ignore them all and go back in if you wish. The only really dirty part is the bell hollow/ghosts. You may notice him when exploring, but if you kill him a second one spawns in. The dirty part is when you kill the second, a third will spawn quite delayed, so you may run to the hallway and suddently have up to 3 ghosts comming from there.
Also I love the Dragon Eerie and Shrine. Eerie is better in vanilla imo because you have to play the area, but there are no acid hollows. The Scholar shortcut and statue are really just unnessecary.
The extra nights that attack you in Shrine when you skip Drakekeeper fights are a cool idea. Sadly, and thats more specific, in multiplayer one player will always be slightly out of the fighting zone when entering and the Knights will all agro on you. There should have been small zomes where players count as "in fight" but not as in fight. I always said toe other player to just du that part by himself since Drakekeepers are easier then the whole army of nights
They put a dragonrider in front of Veldstad's fog wall. How this should be better than vanilla?
Also in softs there are 3 delayed hollows that go sound the bell under the stairs opposed to just 1 in vanilla...
"Oh, but softs is better" 💩
@@alessandrobaggi6129"Armor worn by the dragonriders, King Vendricks royal guard"
The added Dragonriders in Scholar just add to the lore, as one is guarding Vendrick and the other one his Soul.
It just makes the story feel more cohesive.
@@Nova-ly7tx I kind of like Dragon Aerie as an optional resource area. It helps cut down on the linear part of the endgame.
@@alessandrobaggi6129 dragonriders are really easy to run past, this is a none issue.
I'll never get used to ppl complaining about gank enemies in DS2. I mean nobody complained about dying a zillion times to O&S in DS1. This is what the Souls genre is about, you got multitude of weapons, consumables and spells at your disposal, you just gotta git gud.
The game wants you to summon. That’s why there are 2v1 bosses and ganks.
I really appreciate the video, there is bizarre propaganda that SOTFS has worse enemy placements than vanilla and I think it comes from the fact that a lot of Dark Souls 2 fans tend to hold contrarian views.
Uhmmm no. I think It's just the people who truly hated ds2 but doesn't want to admit (or be seen as being negative) that they hate ds2. So instead, the choose ds2 vanilla.
That, or them blinded by nostalgia or just preferences
But i do believe that people who actually likes ds2 will prefer sotfs because of the QOL and story overhaul.
I also believe, no sane ds2 player loves being ganked by the knights at the dragon aerie or being swarmed by spiders in tseldora cove while complaining that sotfs "has a lot of ganks" while in reality, the enemy aggro range and quantity of enemies in sotfs has been toned down (plus torch mechanics to scare the spiders off)
@Domo , have you thought about doing an ambush comparison in ds1 vs. ds2? I had an in depth discussion in a comment thread where the commentor laid out his ds2 critiques in good faith without bashing ds2 fans. But one of his criticisms was of course the ambushes. So that reminded me of your runback comparisons which proved that the runbacks are basically consistent in both games. And I feel like the same thing applies to the ambushes, but is that really the case? Are there really that many more ambushes in ds2 with less foreshadowing of said ambushes compared to ds1?
You know, I think the only problem the Earthen Peak windmill really has with showing you that it can be set on fire is just the texture. The windmill could easily be seen as something covered in oil, or it could just look like it's old and dirty/rusted because of how its texture looks. If it just had a slight texture change, it'd make more sense for a first time player to question why you can walk over there, and it makes the summon in sotfs pointing it out to be way more clear that there's something up with it. I'd also like to note that the Old Knights in Heide's Tower don't always do honorable duels in SotFS. I just started up a new run and never left that circular room and the two that come after you take out the greatsword knight both started attacking me at the same time despite never leaving the room.
I wish Devotee Scarlet told me to kill the bell guys before Velstadt. I had my headphones on so I was wondering why the ghosts kept spawning. My mistake actually made me find a fun farming spot. 😆
Great breakdown, this definitely makes me appreciate Scholar more.
Yeah and meanwhile Feeble King says that vanilla is less ganky and built with DS2 jank in mind. I see. Because of your videos lately i recently bought vanilla and while I enjoyed it because it is DS2 my main problems were the enemy placement and the lack of people online (its obvious that Scholar is played more but it annoys me that I cant invade because of this). I can see the appeal because some stuff seems more logical to a new player in vanilla but overall Scholar is superior.
(Kleine Notiz am Rande: Ich finde es irgendwie lustig zu sehen, wie die Sprachen in deinem Footage von Vanilla und Scholar zwischen Deutsch und Englisch springen.)
Ive only played scholar so ive never realized just how much they changed in regard to enemy encounters, some of those encounters in the base game look ridiculous, if only they could have changed the aggro ranges of the alonne knights in iron keep that would have made the run up to smelter so much better, it and Black gulch are really the only mandatory areas I dislike in the game.
25:10 Damn. The UGS definitely seem to swing faster in ds2 sotfs than ER, which is ironic cause ER has the faster combat pace. Once again highlighting, how badly UGS suck in ER.
Absolute cinema from 30:35 onwards, as soon as Aldia popped up I got hooked on the game even more so being able to go into the past to talk to Vendrick. The DLCs also add so much to the story especially the Ivory King. Love the editing of just showing us the first time Aldia pops up, nothing else was needed to respond to the story criticism. Great video as always.
"A LIE WILL REMAIN A LIE." Iconic.
I can't be the only one that thinks the large amount of ganks is what makes DS2 better. I liked the same thing about Nioh 2
Multiple enemy encounters are what make the relatively simple combat in these games interesting. When you only have one guy it's generally kind of trivial and repetitive, outside of bosses. DS2 had the right idea. MatthewMatosis and others' take on them just boggles my mind, I don't think much of anyone who complains about "ganks" or "spambushes."
Video of the cat in your pfp?
me want kitty
Love the vid, always good to see other point of view, i think scholar has some flaws too, like shrine of amana and iron keep, but I don't see the entire video yet, so im waiting to see what you gonna say about
20:51 talking about fragrant branch of yore, i think scholar use them kinda badly, there's a lot more of branches, but there's a lot more stone'd persons too, so players would probably use them much more too, resulting in the lack of then
If you are interested in what I'm going to say about them I've already created longer more detailed videos about the differences.
Shrine of Amana: ua-cam.com/video/Iztnu5G2BFs/v-deo.htmlsi=Gf-gxNV_OVBbUtvp
Iron Keep: ua-cam.com/video/dzgQLYMiLQQ/v-deo.htmlsi=smydPx9gGpl0dk4B
Are you gonna respond to feeble kings “dark souls 2 is good and scholar ruined it”?
Already did: Debunking Feeble King's claims about Scholar: ua-cam.com/play/PLkei3Zc3mbYmTvlBZdOv4VOpII9e-Wbfx.html
@@Domo3000 ah, sorry I’m new here lol.
no good early weapons?! i love jumping down the pit and grabbing the heide lance . that weapon is deluxe and you dont gotta fight any bosses to get it.
(at least in scholar)
The ending of that video is how I felt after beating DS2 myself and realizing not everything Matthewmatosis says is 100% correct, although I'm not a fan of the Aldia or DLC stuff. He's gone on record for saying sometime after the DS2 critique that he doesn't wanna do them anymore and the ones he has have been on broader subjects, and I respect the hell out of him for that even if the root of his souls complaints are "they didn't do it like Demon Souls".
12:08
Want to know why they're passive in SOTFS?
It's to show that Straid created them.
They reference the concept of the "Body without Organs", analogous to an egg (hence also their presence in the Dragon Aerie).
Also, the Old Sun Ring in Shaded Woods is a reference to Rudolf Steiner.
Pretty Sure That Straid Predated Everything Like That, Since He Mentions Being Petrified For Soo Long That
*"Long Enough For Olaphis To Rise, Fall And Fade Away, Evidently"*
So He Was There When "Olaphis" Was Pretty Much A Baby Kingdom And During His Stasis(Petrified) State Olaphis Was Able To Rise Then Fall And Finally Fade Away
And He Also Mentions Never Hearing Of Drangleic, Like At All
*"Drangleic. . . I've Never Heard The Name. Is That What They Call This Place Now?"*
@@ezequielin5058He's the only person to sell Unveil, which is a Lindelt miracle.
He's a mage of Lindelt, who span multiple civilisations.
Lindelt has been around for multiple kingdoms; it was found in Shulva (Yorgh and Drakebloods) as well as Eleum Loyce (lootable Monastery Charms).
My only gripe with softs is the not guaranteed drops from heide's knights their weapons are all just soo good
You still have guaranteed drops from the Heide Knights in the other areas - and the one that drops the Lance is now actually using it as well.
And it's now possible to get their armor set without requiring an insane amount of luck and bonfire Ascetics.
@@Domo3000 if you don't mind could you tell me where? I've been eager to get the greatlance and sword but too lazy to farm for it and even with like 7 characters with more than 100 hours I haven't found one using the greatlance or dropping it, the armor is also pretty sick are there also guaranteed drops for it?
@@josecriollo6976Great Lance is in NG+ Gutter
@@Domo3000 thanks a lot for the info! I never got it because I don't use to ng+ or rather never used ascentic in the gutter
@@Domo3000I’m actually doing a sotfs playthrough rn, the lance knight is present in regular NG, it’s down the ladder from estus shard! Just got it yesterday
Othrr then the fog statue maybe I misjudged you scholar!
To me the Petrified Statues were implemented worse in Vanilla. They still block Shaded Woods, Straid and Ornifex, but it just takes longer before you can access them.
In Scholar you can easily access Shaded Woods and Straid before you even fight the Lost Sinner, and the statue in front of the Ruin Sentinels makes it more obvious that they are an optional boss.
Just several improvements that make them feel more fleshed out, make the intended path of progression clearer to new players and improve it for experienced players the want to access certain things earlier.
@@Domo3000 I never thought about it like that! Thanks 🤗
Pre-patch shrine will always stay in my heart; finally playing Scholar and it's fun with the changes. Bear, seek, seek, lest...
it is mindboggling to me that somebody claimed the knights at dragon shrine are "the most unfair enemy in the game" as if they are not victim to the exact same methods of dodging as the old knights, only that the attacks are faster. Sure, the have new attacks mixed in, but they are NOT unfair, have a good set of attacks you can strafe and are not so quick they cannot be telegraphed. They are hard, yes, but not unfair and sure a fuck not one of the hardest enemies in the game, lol. Dude is coping mega hard.
edit: also don't get me wrong, i still agree the vanilla enemy placements are bullshit, but that's as far as it goes. The enemies themselves have nothing wrong with them in one on one situations and are fairly easy to fight if you know what you're doing, which you should since they fight the same way as a previous enemy, just faster.
those knights are really janky, possibly more janky than the salamanders.
no they're hard as fuck man
You know LobosJR likes Vanilla more than SOTFS
Domo you’re a hero to the souls community for your invaluable defense of this perfectly innocent game
In the case of the Primordial Knights, NG+ also features a Black Phantom Drakekeeper nearby, making the placement even more aggravating.
Domo what are your thoughts on DS2LE or AoiYora & Fromsoftserves upcoming joint mod?
I played a bit of that mod in this video and gave my thoughts: ua-cam.com/video/lvVMqci3Sh0/v-deo.html
I always thought that the exploding hollows by straid were placed there so you can test the weapons/spells you get from buying/trading, but I only have memory of it in SOTFS and don't remember what it was like in vanilla
VERY aggressive thumbnail, but i'll hear you out and respond when i feel its necessary.
regarding enemy placement, i do agree scholar does it generally better, but i dont think hordes of enemies are necessarily bad. of course in some areas in vanilla they just have absolutely horrible placements, but that exists in all 3 souls games. i DO agree that boss reuse like the dragonrider is really smart and well done.
regarding the torch, i still dont think you really need it in any way, i get through the entire game without a torch, and only use it when i need to, for instance, light mcDuff's torch. that being said, visually scholar is much more beautiful.
i think that gating twinkling titanite (or any upgrade material) is a bad thing, you should be rewarded for exploring with an upgraded weapon, and that's a problem i have with DS3, how upgrade materials are gated, and also why i think ds1's upgrade materials are good in concept but poorly executed, with most chunks being enemy drops.
i think scholar, while it has a big improvement on the lore, is not required to make ds2 lore really deep with its own story and such. i think drangleic on its own demonstrates the thesis of it's story. i kind of like the one ending vanilla gets you, because it's representative of the cycle. the option to reject linking the flame or letting it die is nice, but i dont think it was needed.
i generally think matthew matosis does not know what he's talking about but its interesting that he has a nugget of truth in this particular video, and i liked how you responded to his video.
Boss reuse is not boss reuse.
Reusing a named character is completely different than reusing a tutorial boss that's just a rank in Drangleics army.
@@Domo3000 fair enough, i should have worded that differently. great video regardless
EDIT: did not realize someone else commented something stupid, my bad
@Jurglenuts GENERALLY does not know what he's talking about*
i dont know how to even talk to you if you're gonna misread what i say 😐
everything he talks about has a BIT of truth to it, but i just don't agree with matthew on most things, he doesn't enjoy what i enjoy and thats that. hell I make dark souls challenge runs, of course im gonna have a different connotation of what's fun. i make the game insanely hard for no reason because i like to. he plays the game wrong and gets mad at the game for it.
@Jurglenuts weird example, considering that in the "lost art" video in particular, he really doesn't seem to know what he's talking about.
@@PeixeKing what do you mean? I think he shares his take well
all the sotfs complaints is just a bunch of whining
I personally think, after reflecting it for a long time, that what is important to dark souls 2 is that there are people, even if niche in comparison, that knows the real merit of Dark souls 2. For me, and yes, objectively, the best of the franchise, there isn't any fault, or critique, that can out stand the good things the game did that dark souls 1 doesn't have by prequel status, dark souls 3 doesn't have because the devs got scared and influenced by the critiques, and only after so many years Elden ring is TRYING to get back, trying because even dark souls 2 has things that elden ring could benefit greatly.
There is no objectivity, in any form, or proper reasoning, in watching videos like the ones of "limitbreaker", saying all the good things dark souls 2 ONLY has, and not objectively acknowledging this game is the best one.
Or the videos of this channel when it address all the lame unreasonable without fundamentals critiques PEOPLE IN GENERAL has vomited through the years, even the critiques of those that in essence are not haters, but even so, wrong critiques when it comes to objectivity.
Maybe one day Dark souls 2 will get the proper merit it should have. Recently Miyazaki himself defended Dark souls 2 before the launch of the Elden ring dlc.
There is a saying that says the merits will always be recognized with time. Of course, is only a saying... so who knows? It doesn't really matter.
I would love to see a remake of dark souls 2, of course, i would love to see at least an update, probably bringing the original lightning back, or just upgrading it, overall as the baked white light doesn't properly fit.
And i would love to see most people in the franchise telling by defect that this game is the better one, which there isn't even an example, because most people in the community are divided, and i will say it, most people doesn't know shit of videogame design or art.
But what really matters at the ends is that in the whole crowd, there is a few dudes that bravely will say "dark souls 2 is the best one", and never back, even if the people whine.
Just look at vangoh story. Or even if not so similar, copernico... People don't know shit, and is ignorant, most people. And this will be the fact for a long time. Is not arrogance, is just facts.
I will say it again, one can have opinions, subjectivity, but objectivity is a clear way too, and when it comes to dark souls 2, the bad things it has are in any way so unique or too big, but the good things it has are too much, and undeniable.
Please tell us the ignorant masses the objective correct opinion, Mr game designer that’s been an industry veteran for years
@@DionPanday you don't have to be a designer to know which game is best, but I have played many different games. If you want that "objective" opinion,why DS2 is indeed the best one, look for it for yourself. I said it, if you don't know the things dark souls 2 has others don't, then watch videos, limitbreaker is one good of some. If you think the game is too flawed to be considered the best one, watch this guy videos, I mean, the one of this channel... Even harris (hbomber) said good points in defense of dark souls 2. There is no objectivity in not recognizing DS2 as the objectively best just by looking at those videos or... You know, playing the game, properly. Especially if you know the other two. Like the more mechanics, the replay bosses and the different Ng, the possibility to affect the bosses arena. Etc... I could deepen on it and I would enjoy it but you are just not worth it.
@@robertoaltuve4145 Well clearly you know about game design and art because you have been in the industry for so long right? I’ve played Dark souls 2 and in my objectively correct opinion it’s not the best in the series, should I watch some more UA-cam videos instead to come to a different conclusion? I’ve watched Matthewmatosis video and his objectively correct opinion he says it’s also not the best in the series. So since our objectively correct opinions line up were correct right?
@@DionPanday what are saying? Do you read yourself boy? Did you read my comments? Your feelings are hurt because I said DS2 is the best 😔? Watch the videos of limitbreaker about DS2. That, if you actually want to see.If not, f off. I'm not replying to you more.
@@robertoaltuve4145 Bye Felicia
29:56 good idea but the Bonfire to light up torch its like a meter away
I love the new ending scholar adds, how difficult it is to do, and how it actively incorporated the dlc. That last part is something that any other game has yet to do (fair bc they won’t have their own “scholars”)
I like OG more. But man, Dragon Shrine REALLY needed that upgrade. I play what I call The Rotten build (which means I Farm him and get everything to 30 quickly, having access to all major PvE tools) and Dark Orb reduces them to nothing, but when I try Dex only or STR only I know if I die in the Ancient Dragon, I'm not fighting him again. Life is too short to be wasted trying to clear this area multiple times.
Are you based or just brainwashing me? I suddenly like ds2 and wanna retry scholar lmfao
Probably I was also brainwashed about how bad it was
Gotta listen to what the experienced fans think
@@timefades27 Yeah YT and internet got bloated with a copypasted opinion, now I shall seek my own sun... \o/
@@ZalFG02 Thanks for having an open mind and admitting you were brainwashed instead of doubling down on false points like other people do.
@@avelonzx \[T]/
A video being that impact full that it's still being used in modern times. Most times it's rehashed to what It already said; the other is being nip-picked to a hostile degree on hour long essays.
It's so wild how the og vid is still as relevant if not more so today than 10 years ago.
Matthewmatosis didn't understand you dont have to lock onto enemies in these games.
He knows this. His critique was uploaded a month after vanilla's launch and yet it still lives rent free in DS2 fanboys' heads over a decade later.
>add lock on mechanic
>actively ruins the game
bravo miyazaki you've done it again MY GOAT all these noobs trying to use mechanics put in the game to help the player
@@mogullll That's not how gameplay mechanics work. Just because a mechanic exists, it doesn't automatically mean it is always the optimal choice to use in every situation possible. It's up to you to realise when to apply it and when not to. As if.. you are playing a game.. with... strategic...choices? Just use basic logic next time before making idiotic comments.
Matthewmatosis?
Now that's the name I've not heard in a long, long time
Bad takes tend not to be remembered throughout history. Guess i'm a little glad he didm't even try to touch Elden Ring.
@@masonrockwood7732 well if you want his thoughts on elden ring just watch the "lost arts of demons souls" video
@@masonrockwood7732DS3 started to ditch the experiential part of Dark Souls and focused more on the action side of things, and Elden Ring is where this transformation became fully complete. Except the action game mechanics of these games are underdeveloped, most "challenging" bosses of these games devolve into rollspam followed by one or two hits. This is why he didn't even bother to touch Elden Ring, it's generic open world slop filled with same-y bosses.
@@emperortgp2424And Sekiro felt like a direct response to his video and he *still* disliked it. One of his implications in the video was that if they were going to be more action focused then they should try new things with it on that aspect, at the mere least he should give Sekiro credit to it for experimenting more with said aspect.
yup i am fan to fight haide Towers too one time i just farmng with Champion covenant to get 200,000 Soul at there its like on off 10 hours somehow i not Bored at all
I do think scholar improve most things but one thing that was worse was that the staff of wisdom was out in tseldora instead of the dragon shrine because it makes the lizard staff, witchreee branch and especially the staff of amana kinda pointless bc you can just go straight for tseldora and get the best staff in the game for sorceries instead of having a few stepping stone staves depending on which route you took first. Just kinda feels like how the meteorite staff is in caelid in elden ring making any other staff early game pointless other than an offhand bonus
I like most changes in the scholar version and I do think it is better, but I feel like the original does have a few qualities I like a bit better.
Can someone explain to me why I see so many people say the opposite to this? I don't have intimate knowledge of vanilla DS2 and I see people complaining that Scholar is worse for exactly the same reasons that this video says it is better: that there are many more enemies in more annoying places that gank you. It seems that there are 2 camps of people who think DS2 is unfairly disliked: 1 that thinks it's the fault of vanilla and Scholar fixed the problems, and 1 that thinks it's scholar's fault and that vanilla was much better.
Many people compare their Scholar experience to vague memories of their Vanilla experience, while I do actual side by side comparisons.
People notice the few instances where it got a bit harder, but don't notice all those where it got easier. It's often like they are familiar with Vanilla and when an enemy got moved around a bit they get ambushed and call it unfair, but don't realize that this ambush was less fair in Vanilla.
And often it's just bad memory. I've got lots of videos where I show clips of Scholar haters claiming that an area had less enemies in Vanilla, but then I show a side by side comparison that shows that it was actually the other way around.
Like they might be comparing Scholar to vague memories of Vanilla where most enemies had already despawned.
I think Matt deserves some leniency compared to the likes of Mauler and Feeble King since a) he says DS2 is a good game, he’s disappointed with it though (and then he lists what frustrated him throughout the game) and b) I don’t think he realized just how bad anti-DS2 sentiment would get. But enough about a 10 year old video about a version I never played.
I think Scholar is a lot of fun. Being “forced” to go through either forest of fallen giants or Heide’s tower is a non issue for me. (Mfw I have to go to early game areas in the early game). At this point, I usually clear FOFG first for good weapons/gear, and then head to Heide’s Tower, make my way to the Old Dragonslayer, and then fight Dragonrider. Also I have only fought the Pursuer once in his boss arena as I usually bring him down on the roof where he flies in. (Which btw is still a really cool thing, that a boss drops in and starts gunning for you outside his arena while you’re exploring the level!) But at this point, I feel like after the Lost Sinner (since both FOFG and Heide’s Tower lead you to the Lost Bastille and Sinners Rise, so it seems fair to assume that’s the intended first great one you defeat), the game’s difficulty plateaus until Drangleic. And I think it’s the same reason the second half of DS1 plateaus: you can do any of it in any order, so all enemies are at or around equal power level across the other paths while the player keeps leveling and growing stronger. It makes that whole bit feel like a slog, which is a real shame. Again, this happens in DS1 as well, and I can’t think of a better way to showcase a difficulty curve when dealing with nonlinear objectives. That’s just the trade off you make, I suppose.
Also the Drangleic set in FOFG is really good. I did a build where I was Hector from Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade, and the Drangleic set + greataxe was extremely fun to use. (I built with poise in mind too, finishing the game at level 200 with 50 vigor/strength, 40 endurance, 30 vitality, 10 dex, 35 adp, and 17 int/faith (boosted to 20 int/faith with the King’s Crown).
Oh also that run was the first time I got to fight Sir Alonne! And funny story. It’s my first attempt at the boss run. I’ve heard stories of how bad it is, and at this point I had the reinforced kings crown so I never hollowed). I see there’s a summon sign on the ground, so I figure “why not let’s run it”. And I take out the first Alonne Knight before moving forward to take out another enemy before realizing that my summon is taking on like 4 knights on their own. I died enroute to the boss, and so I decided “you know what? My build is pretty much done. I don’t need many souls now, so I’ll just see where these knights are and if I run out of time in the memory, oh well.” So I played more carefully, checking each of the entrances to the sides of the main path, and I think the most swarmed I got was 2-3 knights on the grating in front of the fog wall? Which wasn’t that difficult to deal with anyway. So idk I thought the boss run was alright, especially since I had to make it like 4 or 5 times haha.
Also while we’re talking about horrible runbacks, I have a personal vendetta against Darklurker’s boss run. That said, I went through it at SL1, so it was definitely worse than it would’ve been if I hadn’t put that restriction on myself. Darklurker was a super fun fight though.
Anyways, I’ve noticed that I have an easier time starting a fresh run of DS2 than the other souls games. Is this indicative of anything? Probably nothing objectively, but I do find it interesting how that works.
The Leave the throne ending is pure fire.
Did scholar also change roll i-frames?
Its crazy that i played both ds2 and sotfs and i always thought the trees would alert them to my postion smh
Lets goooooooooooo
Edit: First comment First like, im a Domo fanboy 😮😅😅😅