I made a comment response video: ua-cam.com/video/rR-a3zIOE2w/v-deo.html Apparently the ps3 and xbox360 versions of Scholar did not change the enemy placement, so this video doesn't apply to those versions. 2 things to correct in the video: 1: Scholar did not get rid of the 1 million souls skip to get to Drangleic Castle. I thought that I had heard this from another Dark Souls 2 video essay, but I was wrong. 2: The dragon skeleton in Aldia's Keep can come alive in Scholar, but you have to light some torches so it's hidden away and I still prefer how Vanilla handled it to Scholar. Also, the comments have told me that Shrine of Amana was nerfed into the ground after release, so that's probably part of the reason why I liked it in Vanilla while other people hated it. I finally decided to make the "In Defense of Dark Souls 2 video" unlisted because it had too many mistakes. You can still watch it with this link. ua-cam.com/video/2A6s_Wq-6PU/v-deo.html
Branch of Yore and Petrified statues ain't there to piss you off. You can't soft lock your progress, there is always an alternative path to progress, For ruin sentinels you can access them from the other entry point to Lost Bastille (via no man's wharf), there is a ladder that brings you right to the cells before the boss fight. Same goes with Dragons Aerie, you can access it by Dragon Shrine. Branch are there for you to choose, you want the more difficult route but better gear or less gear but easier path.
@@z0zef I'm aware you don't need to use the ruin sentinel petrified statue, as I already stated in the video. That doesn't change the fact that the only obvious path forward is blocked by a petrified statue whose only easily accessible branch of yore you might have already used in the tutorial, because the scholar developers want players to get stuck.
@@z0zef I started playing darksouls 2 for the first time, and it was with SOFS. I got stuck in thr Lost Bastille for a really long time becuase I could not for the life of me see any other way forward and was hesitant to use what i percieved to be a super rare item on a statue that might lead nowhere. The petrified statue in the beginning intuitively made me think, "Oh, this is for extra loot, or possibly progression" but I had no way to know if using it would lead to progression, or random shitty loot I didn't need. The statues are definitely there to either piss you off, or make you afraid of moving forward as a new player.
@@CaptainScott635 At my first playthrough I was afraid to use my branches too, because of petrified Rosabeth. So after I blew up the wall to McDuff I didn't proceed to use the branch, and I chose to return to Heides tower and after that to no man's wharf. This is the right thing to do, reaching lost Bastille for first time and seeing that the fix level of the area is way higher for you to be there and try to proceed. So there was nothing to piss me off, because I understood that I shouldn't be there anyway.
@@rotank638 ADP doesn't matter, AGI does. There's like 2 classes that start with only 85, which means you'll have 166ms of invincibility, while 86 is 266ms. 85 to 65 is a huge jump. DS1 mid-roll is around 95.
Let us never forget when Dark Souls 2 first came out, you could magic infuse the moonlight greatsword and still buff it with crystal magic weapon for over 1k AR. It was beautiful.
That’s.. not even remotely true. Maybe stop playing the game like it’s ds3 and try actually fighting enemies as they’re presented to you instead of running past everything, dying and then blaming the game for your mistakes.
Heres some more fun PTSD stories about Shrine of Amana, this time featuring Console Launch Vanilla DS2. The Priestesses used to have an aggro range so gigantic they could quite literally shoot you from outside their visual render distance, so you'd be getting sniped from across the map and couldnt even see what was sniping you, just magic phasing into existence once it enters render range and the piercing sound of it approaching.
I could have skipped two lords on my first playthrough... I didn't cuz I felt bad for them I regretted it when I learned that you had to do 5 extra areas to actually get to the final boss, which I learned solely from the wiki despite I read the dialogue from all NPCs I crossed, I just wanted the game to end at that point
that happened to me too, the first time I tried to get through No Man’s Wharf, I didn’t even know enemies could die and never come back. eventually just cleared most of them out for fun/practice and it really helped me to git gud at DS2.
Vanilla Shrine of Amana was infuriating at launch v1.0. The magic projectiles had insane tracking, enough that even if you dodge them they'd turn around and hit you from behind. They toned it down in a later patch. That's why it earned it's reputation.
@@fernandoxavier3089 if the game lets you as the player, use IT'S systems to call someone else from anywhere in the world who could be potentially so much better than you at the game that they can literally fight all your zones and boss fights for you while you're sitting AFK in the corner, and STILL be champion'd as a "Masterpiece", then clearly "difficulty" is not as integral to the experience as you seem to think it is. There are games out their with ACTUAL "easy modes" that don't go nearly as extreme as calling another player to beat the game for you. "Let Me Solo Her" is not going to be able to carry you if Vergil is savagely beating your ass in Devil May Cry. You can't summon Faze Clan to help you overwelm the Marauders with 360 quickscopes in Doom Eternal.
I would tolerate a state where other players can attack you as punishment for mistiming your escape. But to add more enemies around the fog gates to stagger and stunlock to death was a dick kick to anyone expecting rules from DS1 to carry over.
That's actually one of my favorite changes. Made it fun to catch hosts trying to just run from you to get to the boss and also made players have to clear a room before taking the boss. Having I frames during animations like fog walls, doors and chests is too easy to abuse.
Scholar of the First Sin was the first soulslike I ever played, and somehow I got through the fortress as a deprived. I only gave up at Heide's Tower of Flame, because I couldn't figure out how to beat the dragon and killing 20 Heide Knights and 5 Old Knights each time got annoying really quickly.
I don't even feel bad about going press R2 to win on mobs. If they're gonna gank me like that, then its fair game for me to flatten them with the great club
In the moment I heard the dragon moving I was like "I am dead, aren't I?" and immediately died to the dragon lol I didn't even see it, I just knew it happened cuz it was evident from the sound
It's crazy, I remember back before Scholar that a lot of people were complaining about how many gank squads were in the game. One of the big celebrations that people had when the remake was announced was that they had "fixed the enemy placement". I walked into Forest of Fallen Giants in Scholar and quickly decided that by "fixed" they meant "made it so much worse".
@@djangofett4879 Exactly. I saw the new ogre in the FoFG and was like, "This is the fixed version? What exactly did y'all think the problem was?" And Iron Keep. . . wew lad.
@@dungeonpastor Yeah, the ogre that just wasn't there originally and created a sort of dead zone in regards to movement. The ogre whose inclusion was wholly unnecessary and only really served to make things worse, that one.
I just watched a couple videos comparing DS2 with Scholars, and it's interesting how different they are. In the other video the reviewer had more deaths and was a lower level on vanilla (despite playing it second), while in your video you had more deaths and a lower level on Scholars. I think this suggests that the difference really comes down to playstyle. In the other video he fought most of the new enemies, which gave him more experience and leveled him up faster, making bosses easier. On the other hand you chose to run past everything, missing out on experience and making bosses harder (also more vulnerable to ganks). I don't think either of these is wrong, just two very different perspectives.
I swear the enemy placement for Scholar of the First Sin was lead by someone involved with the Vanilla DS2 who was mad that people criticised the ganks in the game. So they doubled or tripled the enemies throughout the entire game to get back at the fanbase, and completely screwed up the areas that actually felt balanced and well thought out in the process
@@HeyAddieImTojo Yeah. I never had much of a problem with the frequent ganks. But then again, I had played the crap out of DS1 where I adopted a very aggressive greatsword style, so I was already comfortable with fighting unlocked and doing crowd control. I played the shit out of DS2 vanilla. By the time Scholar came out I though it was a fun and more challenging remix with more creative enemy placements and a lot more fun traps. It also forced me to take new routes through the game with unusual weapons. My main issue Scholar is that the difficulty curve is a bit borked. Most of the levels got significantly harder which I enjoyed, but all the bosses remained unchanged, so many of them are complete jokes compared to the gauntlet that precedes them. I must admit though, I would have been endlessly frustrated if I had played Scholar first, and not in a good way. It was clearly designed with experienced DS2 veterans in mind, so it is pretty dumb that it was also declared the "definitive version", which new players are now funnelled towards. Imagine if the DS1 remaster came with the aggression mod enabled by default.
@@fnorgen Completely agree, the fact that scholar is declared the "definitive version" is beyond stupid. It's gonna turn off a lot of new players who may never want to touch this franchise again, and that's a shame.
@@camarobro1897You can do that with smart enemy placement, the gank Design they used is just terrible Design. Compare it to blight town, the danger comes from where enemies are placed, they could have just as good placed toxin shooters in the same way Ds2 would handle a place like that, so basically just place 3 times as many. Sure this would force you to think more, also would make the expirence worse. Same could be said about the anor londo roof archers, just place 2 more and bamm, you have to think more supposedly. Sorry your argument is horrible.
@@camarobro1897 original is better. Especially for a first playthrough. Scholar blows for a first playthrough, but is fun I guess for a repeat playthrough. Current scholar should have been new game + imo. Then, make current scholar NG+ NG+2 or something. Just doesn't make sense how 20 something soldiers in Forest of the Fallen Giants seems reasonable to the developers. Such trash decisions.
@@camarobro1897 I know that, but I just am not a fan I guess. Of course everything I am saying is just my opinion. I just don't like Scholar. Hell, even Dark Souls 2 in general is one of the weaker Souls entries imo. Still like it, but I like Scholar less.
I have to disagree about one point here. Vanilla did not cause me to level more and become stronger. I ALWAYS kill all enemies in any game I play so Scholar leveled me a lot more and as such the "harder" areas didn't actually feel very hard to me because I had tons of levels. Vanilla on the other hand, having less enemies and also in some places weaker enemies meant I had way less souls throughout my Vanilla playthrough and that made the bosses feel a lot more punishing which felt way worse. Also you can absolutely still skip the lord soul bosses with enough souls in Scholar, I've opened the door early plenty of times. And the big skeletal dragon also still comes to life and attacks, only it's got a different trigger. To do it in Scholar you need to light all the torches in the level and kill the invaders that lighting them spawns. I'll admit though that this trigger change is terrible, but it is still there unlike what you said.
I was wondering why he said the soul memory skip for Shrine of Amana was straight up removed and that the skeleton dragon no longer moved in SotFS when that’s just wrong. I actually enjoy the skeleton dragon change to require something be done in the room in order for it to come to life, though I do wish the trigger were something different. And I gotta say I agree with your point about having less levels due to less enemies. That’s the thought process I began to have when SotFS released and I had already played vanilla several times. I never really personally found the major gank areas too rough because I already enjoyed using everything at my arsenal including bows which naturally made the transition easier. I found looking for ways to kill off enemies that would trigger a gank to run at you before they had a chance to do so to be quite enjoyable, and I got much more souls to boot. I can entirely understand why anybody would like vanilla over scholar as well as Vice versa, everybody is entitled to their opinion but I just like scholar more than vanilla, it fits the way that I play the game fine and I like the item placement changes.
Same its the main flaw I find in this criticism, I’ve never even considered running past enemies as a strategy and I’m pretty sure From Soft as a general rule expects players to be clearing areas, especially early game ones when they are still exploring.
@@yayap001 So true. Every time I go through an area, I try to fight all enemies. Also, the only time I actually feel like all enemies from the entire area just attack me was in Iron Keep before the Smelter Demon. It has never happened to me at any other point (I am finishing SotFS for the first time this week so I am fresh with it). Also, Dead Man's Warf imo is fine with all these "suprise" attacks because it's likely you will only have to get through it only once even if you die to the boss. It's all because of that crazy shortcut at the end. I am saying all of this but I might be in a minority because Shrine of Amana was pretty fine for me (not much troubles). Plus I also like using ranged attacks (I use pyromancy and axe) so I could always make up for difficulty. It also sounds like he is complaining about having to fight everyone in SotFS but is fine with the same in Vanilla? Like, maybe just have the same perspective on SotFS then?
I also kill all the enemies, it just feels way more viable in Vanilla, since enemy placement boiled down to more then just "how many times can we hit ctrl+c before the game crashes?" I hated the enemy spam in Scholar so, so very much. Luckily for me, I never paid again for DkS2, I kind of just... got scholar when it came out. Never questioned it.
Yea I completely clear areas when I play fromsoft games. As in if enemies didn't respawn from bonfires sitting, there wouldn't be any at all. And that's how I myself found a lot of "hidden things" and such. It really seems that a lot of people nagging about the amount of enemies just run through them all, gathering them up just to be ganked by 10 enemies. While if you just kill the enemies as they appear, it's only like a 1v5 at most
I remember playing through DS2 like 7 times when it first came out and remember loving it, then came back for Scholar and at this point I'd have basically forgotten why I even liked it so this was a pretty good reminder
@martipowa4662 I never played Vanilla, so I wonder if you now two years later have gone back and given it a chance? Because Scholar is a great Dark Souls game.
What this tells me is that when I finish my scholar run (of which I've still been able to maintain a sense of fun for the most part) and if I get vanilla, then I'm in for an absolutely relaxing and nostalgic walk through the world again
6:21 I played DS2 before (Scholar version) and I got to the first area only for those 20 enemies to be sleeping. This allowed me to fight each enemy one at a time. The only way all those enemies could ambush you at once is if you actively decided to wake all of them up and agro them all at once. I played all the souls games and I don't remember a single game that rewarded blindly running past every obstacle. Also, the Heide Knights in Heide's Tower of Flame as shown in the video are also all sleeping and optional to fight. The only 2 ways to wake them are to either attack them yourself or kill The Dragonrider boss in the same area, but by then you'll already be at the next location. Now I know you wouldn't lie about the game to make it look worse right?
6 extra Pursuers for whatever reason in Scholar, 8 if you are in NG+ And one of them is *surrounded* by enemies, and the 2 from NG+ are in the same room, and one of them starts in phase 2 You can make them despawn by stepping out of their "arenas" but that is certainly an annoying af addition
DUDE! WHAT IF: Game had two ways to populate locations with enemies: 1. For solo/single players - normal enemy spawn from vanilla. 2. For coop players - gank galore and increased spawn from Scholar. That would be an amazing solution to the problem of trivializing game with summons.
"Ok, I alredy killed you guys in my world, now my friend summoned me to help him take care of you guys" the hollows: GUESS WHAT, WE ALSO CAN SUMMON BABYYY!!!!
The dragón Fossil from aldias keep still comes back to life. But you have to light all of the keep chandeliers that also spawn a one Time only forlorn summon each . I think it gives you something after attacking now. But yeah, the Fossil still comes back to life. Just that instead of being the welcome Its More like a goodbye to the keep because by the Time you unlock it you probably finished most of Its content.
@@bigdumbfatcat2869 if you light the torches throughout the keep and kill that forlorn spawn what reason do you have to come back to the very beginning area . It will never be found in natural exploration the only way it will happen is if you know .
It plays the long con. Every one comes with a warning message "don't you dare." which means that most people are going to do it because they told you not to. People who know about the dragon get confueed because nothing happens, and people who dont know would assume it didnt do anything just like pre sotfs, only for it to then come and finger your butt hole as you run back and fourth to do the things navlan needs done. They rehashed the spooky dragon bones to act in a way they didnt before. Meaning some players would get killed by it before and later playing sotfs they get got again resulting it hurting that much more.
@@dankmemes7796 Royal Sorcerer Navlaan would be the reason. His quest line involves you leaving and then coming back 3 separate times. And doing his crap for him is more than worth it esspecialy if your build uses magic as he sells the black witch set, and gives the chaos set once your done (2 of the best mage sets you can get) and the spell unleash magic.
I'm am the crowned king of scrubs, and I much preferred Sotfs. More mobs = more xp = more levels to use as a crutch. But I also have to say, the massive numbers of enemies seem to drop off a lot after the first few levels. I think it was overall the easiest of the dark souls trilogy, even before it let you begin spamming infinite crystal spears.
Oddly enough, if you were like me and played DS2 on the 360 or PS3, the version of SOTFS we got was literally just vanilla DS2 but with all the DLC goodies added, so the best of both worlds.
I played scholar on the 360 in 2016, which was basically just vanilla with the dlc. Having played scholar last month, I can safely say vanilla is a much more enjoyable and less frustrating experience. Scholar just felt tiresome, especially after playing DS3.
Actually originally SotFs was just the final major update to original Dark Souls 2, it only turned into the rerelease abomination it is known today because of money and Bloodborn.
Yeah I replayed ds3 and ds1 (3 times for both now) and they never bore me. But this is my second playthrough of ds2 and I genuinely am not having much fun, it just feels like a chore replaying all of this for no reason, it doesn’t help that the bosses are piss easy so there’s no payoff in having to endure these damn gank squads.
@@iamMildlyUpsetWithMostOfYouTub notice how half the enemies barely react to your damage unlike the other games and everything is so slow because of adaptability
@@WookieWarriorz it'S just the whole engine being trash due to the studio limitations... it's sad to see how half the community got locked out of the real second soulsborne game experience and instead we got the retarded cousin (some of us still love dearly)
I legit had no idea these differences were there. I've only played vanilla dark souls 2 and always thought it was a pretty good game. Watched your previous video on it and was confused as to why I didn't remember certain things / not anywhere near as many mobs. Edit: Yes, shrine of amana was a lot worse pre-nerf lmao, it was hell for pure melee.
After playing hundreds of hours of vanilla DS2, I remember finishing my first playthrough of Scholar and being so confused at what I had just played. A lot of the changes felt pointless, or just not thought out
same. the thing that bothers me the most in scholar is the pointless and objectively wrong/bad/stupid decision to change the omnidirectional walking in vanilla into an inferior 8 point direction movement…. That and the fact they nerfed drangleic castle for no reason!
I just had this exact same experience - replated Scholar edition after burning a ton of time playing vanilla. So many interesting encounters were changed or made easier, and so many more felt careless or thoughtless. Memorable moments where I died playing as a kid were completely gutted out of Scholar edition.
@@TheDanimatorsChannel Unfortunately I can't remember any specific examples, it's been too long since I played the Scholar edition. But I do remember enemy encounters that were changed from Vanilla that either had no real impact on the encounter, or made it more difficult. I also noticed some item placements being changed, like the old ember, which I felt either made no sense to change, or in the case of the ember, were placed too early in the game
dude! I remember playing vanilla on ps3 loving it then years later getting scholar and being baffled by the sheer amount of bullshit and ganks going on. Thanking you for putting this out there lmao
Same my man! I played 500 hours of the Scholar version on PS3, and thankfully it had the vanilla placement. Then I bought the PS4 version and was like: WTF is this.
I liked vanilla better too as a matter of fact. I lost my mind when I saw that they placed a dragon and the tower level while trying to avoid a knight and the big black Knights. Definitely doable but for an early level it was a little much. The vanilla game as you said at least felt somewhat balanced. Scholar just felt like they intentionally tried to make it as difficult as possible without even trying to hide it.
I still think you're very spot on about the people who like DS2 as an RPG. I like it for the armors and story. But undeniably I would prefer having got to play it without meticulously trading arrows for 3 minutes straight with ONE guy, just so I could enter a room and fight 8 more without being shot in the back the whole time.
That was my first run thought the game, hold shield, shoot stuff with arrows, stab something 3 times, repeat. I died about 4 times during the whole playthrough.. by slipping and falling because of the game's horrible snap point movement. They probably thought that each encounter had to be challenged as a puzzle, where players would need to carefully think what to do after examining each and every area for potential enemies from a safe distance. Turns out I rather go walk my dog or watch paint dry than to do that in literally every room in the game.
@@WildBandit300 I mean that's how every souls games were "supposed" to be played with the exception that you can disregard that playstyle if you're decently skilled. sotfs just seems unbalanced enough to force that playstyle on you though.
In my first playthroughs of DS1 and DS3, I used a shield constantly. For DS2 SOTFS (never played og) I played either with two weapons or two handed a single weapon pretty much exclusively. Even in ER I had a shield on my back ready to go. I rarely had one equipped in DS2. It just seemed easier without it.
If you want to know something funny, most of the map changes that screwed the player in Scholar are actually very similar to the optmized(ish) route the players had made early on in DS2. I'd reccomend checking the oldest Let's Play of Dark Souls 2 by Northernlion, notice the path he makes and then see how most of them have turned obsolete by the changes in Scholar. They didn't just randomly add more mobs, they added mobs where people found convenient to move just for the sake of making those areas harder - it's like if Dark Souls Remastered placed 5 basilisk where you could do a dragon-butt skip in painted world.
Thing is sotfs is just way better than the og good enemy placements to punish those who rush. Better item placement. I could go on but that's too much work
@@camarobro1897better item placement? Stop it bruh let’s be 100% serious. Additionally have you played the iron keep in both at all? This seems like mindless droning
@@camarobro1897good enemy placement? Ok, so you walk into a room, everything is normal, there are no enemies that you could possibly see, you take the only path the game tells you to go and you're surprised by some enemy, "oh shit, hold up, let me take a breather that guy actually surprised me" and then suddenly there are 3 enemies on your back, and you can't possibly fight them back too, that's not punishing a player for rushing, it's punishing a player for not being able to read the future, and it's not like the devs shouldn't pull the carpet from under your feet sometimes, they definitely should, we want a challenge it's fucking dark souls. However, don't excuse shit enemy placement made for the sole reason of fucking the players for something they have no control over
I agree with several of your points. The only area I believe your critique may be skewed is when you talk about enemy placement in scholar feeding a negative feedback loop. I dont think the intention of FromSoft (or any developer) is to create content with the hopes of you running by it blindly. I just finished a 100 hour playthrough of SOTFS and will admit, it was definitely more challenging than vanilla, but it did not feel intentionally unfair. I was over-leveled as a result of the challenge and constant enemy killing. In most cases the SOTFS ganks can be avoided with observation and utilization of consumables and weapons. SOTFS definitely taught me to appreciate the alternate pathing of ds2 as well as the vast amount of items and resources. Lastly, a game’s worth or critical assessment should never be validated off one’s own self-imposed challenges-ie “broadsword only runs”. These self imposed challenges or viewpoints of what makes a “worthwhile” play through” hold no pertinence to a games overall ability to convey, play, and express a story.
I always played the "kill everything while you go" game... so honestly, I don't buy the "the game teaches you to avoid combat" thing... you choose to do it. I could be the exception, but I never felt the game was telling me to avoid enemies. in fact, I felt like i should kill them more, because if anything, they stop existing eventually
Your comment needs more thumbs up :) I liked his two videos for most of the part, however in my opinion he is playing the game incorrectly and uses that to criticise SotfS. It would be valid to be of the opinion that there are too many enemies and that it takes too much time to kill them. I don't feel that way, but that is subjective. However being too lazy to actually kite and kill the enemies one by one and instead just kite the whole level behind is just a stupid player decision - not the game's fault.
@@WCIIIReiniger Agreed. I pre-ordered DS2 and got it in. fancy black metal case. I really enjoyed vanilla. Especially the lightning sword you get from the first Hyde Knight. Then after many place throughs...Sotfs came out. It was nice to have a change to the game for freshness. I never even thought to run past the enemies. You need to kill enemies for souls to level up and be prepared for the next part of the game. I'm glad I played vanilla first. And I honestly like both versions. But I never got ganked like him in scholar. Bloodborne...now that game will throw a gank at you that you cannot lure one enemy out at a time. If this dude learned to use a bow, he would find both much easier.
@@pbabiesinspace6112 I am currently on a lightning/faith/power stance build and the heide knight sword was my first "main" weapon. I later replaced it and eventually ended up with lightning infused uchigatana (left hand) and lightning infused ice rapier (right hand). I also heavily leveled attunement and it is great to have 4 sunlighte blade casts available, so that you can cast one for every difficult fight.
Agros every enemy in a level then gets jumped and says game bad . Try not to run past everything and then acting shocked when they all are ganged up on you .
I always wondered why everytime I saw people at the Ancient Dragon they're busy killing him when he's an important story NPC. I guess they just all run at him so fast the prompt doesn't have time to show up lmao
I always say that I like vanilla more than Scholar edition, but people barely recognize it exists, and if they do, they just say 'but Scholar is the definitive version'
@@nestormelendez9005 Important to mention, that's Scholar in new gen, Scholar for old gen only has the DLCs. (I know that you know, I said it for the OP).
People seem to forget that Dark Souls 2 was rushed and had to cut out a lot of content. It is disappointing that small changes in scholar has made people to think it is horrible without knowing the full story.
Ds2 isn't comparable in terms of quality to the rest of the fromsoft library. That being said, vanilla is a much more reasonable experience than SotFS and is definitely worth a try if you're interested
Vanilla Dark Souls 2 was my first souls game. I'm almost finished with my second run of the game, and you are so right about the game teaching you at a perfect pace how to survive. My first run was slow going and I did not have a high opinion of it, but once I began to learn combat through the well balanced gameplay, my opinion changed for the better. My second run, certain areas that had me stuck for a while the first time through like no man's wharf and the gutter I just blew through. I highly recommend new souls players that go for 2 first to beeline for heide's tower of flame, the bonfire next to an old knight right at the entrance is the PERFECT place to practice basic controls against large enemies, and the knights drop a good number of souls for early game level ups.
What I like is, that when the nps stop singing, the fireflies obove the resting undead disappear, increasing the Undeads aggro range, also they stand up (a bit) Also, chameleon there to turn into a mushroom
You can see If there are cliffs underwater If you tilt the camera overhead and there are not really any holes on the main path anyways. And the range attacks, they mostly give you more than enough cover to evade..
I hate how the enemies just mob on you in packs. And if they approach from off camera they don’t make any noise or footsteps. You just get hit from some enemy that was hiding off camera.
I bought Scholar to get all 3 DLCs at once and played it after 100%ing DS2 base game. I didn't notice that difference in enemy AI but the different placement begged some questions. After 100% Scholar as well I felt completely burnt out and never wanted to touch that thing again. Maybe giving the vanilla version another go could be fun.
I mean its no wonder you felt the game was that hard when all you could do is spam r1 with a broadsword to get through the whole game, when you use is a wep meant for single targets of course you get destroyed when you get swarmed by enemies you have no cc, also no shields, no sorc or miracles, no santier's spear 😂😂
Agreed, this guy is trying to play DARK SOULS with a toothpick two handed... wtf...? And he is careless as f.... look at him playing, he just storm through the areas thinking that he is playing God of War or Devil May Cry..... Jesus, what a amateur....
I played scholar first, but never felt like I should run away from the "unfair bullshit". I approached the levels in a paranoid and methodical manner, learning how to single out enemies, find cover from archers, check my surroundings for ambushes, etc. Sometimes I would reach the boss gate and decide to go back because I couldn't clear the area with a reasonable amount of healing left. By the end, I was not lacking in levels. I'm not saying I would have enjoyed the saner difficulty less, just that my experience was very different from yours. edit: Shrine of Amana did break me, tho, it was traumatizing.
As a note, the giant dead dragon in Aldia's Keep *does* attack you in Scholar, if you light all the torches in the area. It gives you a key to bypass the ogres in the doors leading to the dragon just behind as well. Great video though, I've always defended the second game by saying Scholar actually made it worse, and it's nice to see someone with a similar opinion for once. Sorry to hear people were such jerks about it though.
I beat scholar of the first sin with around 72 deaths, I thoroughly enjoyed the game, but now seeing footage of the vanilla version, I feel like I was robbed of my money. Thank you for making this video man👌
The funny part about Scholar is, that all the new content and fixes ARE available in Vanilla DS2. It was a giant patch. "Scholar of the first Sin" in the sense of a separate purchaseable entry only has the new enemy and item placement. Oh, and some lighting "fixes". So you actually need the torches now. But that's it. It's completly redundant to play Scholar (the new entry)! xD
There is also the item that stops soul memory from increasing and 6 players instead of 4, although the biggest reason to buy it is if you are on console for example ds2 orginal is ps3 only while Scholar is ps4 and ps5, ps4/ps5 version has better resolution and fps.
I exclusively play DaS2 v1.0. It's just good. The kinds of builds you can make are amazing, and the "souls economy" is booming. Miracle builds are amazing. You can make a fast-rolling, hex-casting Havel. You can do a lightning-STR build. You can just run around with 2 daggers (I prefer one lightning, one dark) and do backstabs. With the 3rd person bow-cam, you can do ranged builds in boss fights, especially ranged poison builds. People hated ADP, but leveling it up enough gives you a massive amount of I-Frames. There are like 7 roll speeds. Bonbfire ascetics really help you power level (Old Iron King) and gain NG+ equipment early. Also, NG+ is actually different and a challenge with new surprises. It's my favorite Souls game, even more than Bloodborne.
I exclusively played Vanilla, from 2015-22. Played it all the time. It’s been a source of constant frustration that DS2 gets almost wholly judged on Scholar edition. Finally, my PS3 died, so I got Scholar on PS4. Beat it with 14 deaths. Playing Scholar , finally, simple reinforced my thoughts about it , after having watched it streamed many times. Vanilla is the superior single-player first playthrough experience. Vanilla gives you a great balance between exploration and combat. Scholar is better suited as a co-op experience. Scholar wants to fill all your holes. Pretty much every area Vanilla leaves open for exploration, Scholar adds enemies there. It should be noted that Scholar lets there be 3 summons, instead of Vanilla’s 2. Something worth mentioning is how very different item placement is. Vanilla has a much more difficult item placement. The Dull Ember is in Iron Keep. The Bastille key is after Gargoyles. Uber weapons like Grand Lance, Staff of Wisdom, or Dragons Tooth, are very late game. Many armor sets were very difficult to obtain in Vanilla, like The Armor of Aurous, Warlocks Mask, and Heides set. A couple notes. I use lock on. Works great. Not sure why there’s been a recurring emphasis in these videos that no lock on is necessary. Lifegems are not a band aid. Another recurring complaint. They’re the grasses, from Demons Souls. There’s a ton of Demons DNA in DS2. Like reducing max hp after dying. Lifegems are a functionally different way of healing. And serve to compliment the way Estus works differently. In combat, do you stay mobile, and get a small, slow heal, or plant yourself for a big chug? I frames tied to a stat is functionally no different than tied to a roll type, except for naked pro players. And it’s more interesting, bc not every game starts with access to the best roll, before even taking a step, by getting naked. Hit boxes are fine. Level s, and they’re no worse than other souls. Players are confusing what looks like a fast roll and should have s, but doesn’t, as a bad hitbox. Level s, and you’ll roll just fine. Bosses should be judged against other souls bosses after ng+, at least. To understand why, you need to understand how Bonfire Ascetics work. Basically, the devs wanted to encourage players to use this genius new consumable. To do so, they didn’t act like other souls, and make the bosses give you all you can handle. If they made them too tough, players would never use a incredibly powerful and fun item. From my experience, bosses in ng+ use more rare attacks, punish healing and ranged better, and more follow up swings on combos. You can definitely see the AI stepping up its game. But if it was like that during the first try, far fewer players would interact with the game using Bonfire ascetics. DS1 has a great map before Anor Londo. A masterpiece. No other game compares. But from Anor Londo on, nothing special. I’m sick and tired of hearing how great DS1’s map is, bc only a portion is. DS2’s map is Demons Souls inspired. A hub, with spokes. Fun fact- you can walk everywhere, except to Lost Bastille, in DS2. Not every weapon has a guaranteed combo. You’ll have to react to the times when the enemy is out of range for the second hit. Like the Mace, sometimes you need to do the heavy instead of the second light, bc the enemy was pushed back. If a true combo weapon is that goddamn important to you, pick something else that does that. There’s plenty to choose from. Story is a personal thing. Both games have their merits, narrative-wise. Personally, i like the agency DS2 gives the player, to make a decision, instead of a pawn in the lord’s power-struggle. One thing I feel like mentioning is that I never cared to replay DS1 in ng+. Not once. But i have multiple high ng+ cycles characters in DS2. The game makes real changes to the world, not just in ng+, but for every one of the next 6 cycles. Plus, you can reallocate levels, and try new builds, or weapons. DS1 felt suffocating in that way. Want to be a Wizard after awhile, but have been a big bonk build? In DS1, that means start over. DS2’s PvP and invasions are the best in the series. DS1 requires a PhD in glitches, and DS3 is roll-spam wars of attrition. DS2 is the sweetspot. That alone is going to keep DS2 forever in the limelight. Is DS2 perfect? Hardly.
You can feel however you want about DS2. But you arent going to compare it to DS1 in any way other than discussing how superior it is in every way. Many hardcore fans of the series completely ignore DS2, and youd be a blithering fool to ignore that fact. Its inferior in every aspect to DS1 and is nothing akin to Demons save for healing items and a high number of humanoid knight fights.
@@IIYamiSanII You want to compare DS2 to DS1? Fine by me. Let’s compare fashion. DS2’s armor has physics, like capes that blow in the wind. DS1’s doesn’t move at all. DS2’s Magic system is far deeper. Many more good spells, lots of utility. DS1 can’t compare, and cast speed is bizarrely tied to DEX. I can’t even. DS2’s menus. I mean, DS1’s should be taken out back and shot. DS2’s PvP is superior in all the best ways to DS1’s. Glitches defines DS1’s duels. You need a PhD in them to be good. DS3 is a roll-spam war of attrition, so real PvPers will keep DS2 forever relevant. Does DS1 change anything in ng+….a big bzzzt !! DS2? Adds new items, gear, spells, armors. Places new enemies in the world, changes up boss fights. Don’t forget those changes don’t stop in ng+. There’s changes every cycle, through ng+7. DS1 makes numbers bigger. Woot! Want to play a wizard, but you built an Ultragreatsword user? In DS1, you’re shit out of luck. Start a brand new game! Feel like playing DEX, start a third game. How about throwing some Lightning around? Start a fifth game. Ever wanted to be a bad ass pyromancer? Start a sixth game. Those hexes might be fun….well, you get the picture… Hope you like playing the exact same game seven times, just trying out builds…. and the exact same game again in ng+ . Feel like swapping covenants? DS2 says , yes! DS1 would like to fuck you over, and lose a bunch of progress. 4 rings slots. Compared to 2. Last I checked, 4 is more than 2, and therefore better. DS2 is better. 3 weapon slots. Every weapon can parry. Almost. 99% can. Powerstance. Rewards for completing challenge runs. And you don’t get automatically kicked to ng+ when you beat the final boss. If you can’t admit I’m right, about any of that, you’re seriously delusional. P.S. Bed of Chaos P.S.S. Many Hardcore fans of the series consider DS2 the best souls title, and you’d be a blithering fool to ignore that fact.
@@IIYamiSanII You want to compare DS2 to DS1? Fine by me. Let’s compare fashion. DS2’s armor has physics, like capes that blow in the wind. DS1’s doesn’t move at all. DS2’s Magic system is far deeper. Many more good spells, lots of utility. DS1 can’t compare, and cast speed is bizarrely tied to DEX. I can’t even. DS2’s menus. I mean, DS1’s should be taken out back and shot. DS2’s PvP is superior in all the best ways to DS1’s. Glitches defines DS1’s duels. You need a PhD in them to be good. DS3 is a roll-spam war of attrition, so real PvPers will keep DS2 forever relevant. Does DS1 change anything in ng+….a big bzzzt !! DS2? Adds new items, gear, spells, armors. Places new enemies in the world, changes up boss fights. Don’t forget those changes don’t stop in ng+. There’s changes every cycle, through ng+7. DS1 makes numbers bigger. Woot! Want to play a wizard, but you built an Ultragreatsword user? In DS1, you’re shit out of luck. Start a brand new game! Feel like playing DEX, start a third game. How about throwing some Lightning around? Start a fifth game. Ever wanted to be a bad ass pyromancer? Start a sixth game. Those hexes might be fun….well, you get the picture… Hope you like playing the exact same game seven times, just trying out builds…. and the exact same game again in ng+ . Feel like swapping covenants? DS2 says , yes! DS1 would like to fuck you over, and lose a bunch of progress. 4 rings slots. Compared to 2. Last I checked, 4 is more than 2, and therefore better. DS2 is better. 3 weapon slots. Every weapon can parry. Almost. 99% can. Powerstance. Rewards for completing challenge runs. And you don’t get automatically kicked to ng+ when you beat the final boss. If you can’t admit I’m right, about any of that, you’re seriously delusional. P.S. Bed of Chaos P.S.S. Many Hardcore fans of the series consider DS2 the best souls title, and you’d be a blithering fool to ignore that fact.
If somebody told you Dark Souls was better in every way than Dark Souls 2, then somebody lied. PS: I dislike the ability to swap out covenants on the fly; I think it doesn’t fit with the idea of dedication. That being said, I hate that it removes your existing rank. I do prefer the idea of Darkmoon Blades being those who hunt down invaders and sinners, while the Blue Sentinels would be the auto non-jolly platonic summons to help out weaker players. They shouldn’t be the same. And why tf were bonfire ascetics, hexes, and powerstancing not included in Dark Souls 3? That sh*t was a straight upgrade.
@@christophercollins3632 So, your nit picks are comparisons? Your opinions are objective? Yeah, I apologize in advance here, but, thats not how constructive comparisons work. Me retorting would be me trying to tell you you aren't allowed to have opinions. All you need to do is research, and play the game. Its a joke in comparison to the rest of the series because its a blatant downgrade from its predecessors. Thats a joke. And heres the kicker. SotfS is noted to be the "Definitive" version of the game. So the base game is actually a rip off. If youre going to sit there and defend that silly bullshit youre a lost cause. But, hey, some people like to swim in puddles of garbage juice.
I think I qualify as one of the people who played vanilla first and now holds that Scholar is superior. I think you sort of gloss over very quickly the amount Shrine of Amana was nerfed in vanilla. The degree it went down was larger than even Radhan was in the first Elden Ring patch. For me I played vanilla twice through on release on Xbox 360. Really didn't enjoy it, so I didn't buy any dlc past the Sunken King. I didn't buy Scholar until 2019 on PS4, and had largely accepted DS2 for what it was. Knowing the games to come after DS2 I'd end up liking much much more. So jumping back into Scholar I just felt like I was ready to accept and like DS2 for what it was. And the fact that the final 2 DLC's were essentially brand new to me and are some of the best parts of the game. Including Fume Knight etc. Which left me not remembering that vanilla actually had less enemies in certain areas. And when I saw those inflated enemy counts in Scholar, I was able to just accept it because "well I know ds2 is full of enemy spam. At least scholar made these sweet new areas" And the fact that for me I played Scholar on PS4 vs an Xbox 360 I'd say is an underrated aspect. To just have that much smoother of an experience.
My biggest issues with SOTFS were making it way more difficult to get around the world with all those arbitrary statues, changing certain iconic events/encounters from vanilla (like the Aldia Keep dragon skeleton or the Heide knight encounters) and randomly copy/pasting bosses from the vanilla game as regular enemies in nonsensical locations all over the map. I always associated DS2 with pointless enemy spam even before SOFTFS.
As someone who's played all other souls games (except demon souls) before DS2, I honestly didn't have too much of a problem in Scholars. While I do agree that some of the branch of yore statues were a bit tedious and the difficulty scaling could be occasionally tricky to gauge, the only times I really found myself just running past the enemies is if I already pressed through the level and found all the other items and really just needed to get to the boss for a secondary attempt. Y'know, like I do in every souls game. Explore the level, fight the mobs, grab the loot, kill the boss. Run past enemies if level is already "cleared", so to speak. Scholars is not unique in this approach. I do the same in DS3, did the same in DS1, still do the same in Elden Ring. The thought of Shrine of Amana being previously more difficult and annoying to push through is terrifying. Why anyone would think that version of the game was superior is beyond me.
I did indeed play vanilla back on 360 and its still my favorite one besides elden ring now. Scholar being described as an optional hard mode is a perfect description
Tru First the branches are always within reach, there's no way you'll get locked out of some place, just look somewhere else Second, the dragon actually does come to life you just have to light 4 torches and fight forlorn invaders which tbh makes the dragon's attack much cooler Those are my two main gripes with his critique
@Retro Chad I have never played DS2 intentionally unlocked for extended periods of time or even for one encounter. I know Matthewmatosis talks about how unlocked is preferable in his analysis, and I’ve heard many players say the same, but I’ve just never done it. I feel locked works fine but I know others feel differently. I might do my next DS2 run (my 13th or 14th run, I’m not entirely sure which it is) unlocked and see if it’s as great as I hear. Big Ups!
As someone that liked the Frigid Outskirts, Elden Ring's consecrated snowfield is nostalgic. Miyazaki is like "Yeah, I know how most of you hated this map, guess what, a cameo would be great!"
The only bad part about Frigid Outskirts was the blizzard you had to truck through to get to Lud and Zallen. The fact that people trash the whole DLC because of that little part is stupid. Plus it had two of the coolest weapons in the game, the Ice Rapier and Curved Nil Greatsword.
I was wondering why I started despising Dark Souls 2 as an adult when as a teenager I loved the game. Thank you for enlightening me to how much better the vanilla version was, I oughta buy it again.
@@mrbartinio People like you really base your opinions solely on vodeo game critique channels. Not saying you cant agree with this guy but you act as if his opinions are gospel.
@@Dielawn69 another day, another batch of hypocrites who accuse people of parroting the words of others while defending those who don’t back up what they say. Fact is he has something to point to whereas you don’t.
I only even bought Scholar. Taught me to clear the levels ten or so times to despawn the mobs before attempting the boss. More souls, more levels, no boss run hazards.
I only had to resort to it at Iron Keep on the way to fighting the Smelter Demon. If I tried to run past the enemies, I almost always die at the fog gate. That was when I finally looked up guides, thinking I maybe missed a shortcut to the boss or something, and found out about the kill 12 times to despawn enemies trick. DS2 is the easiest souls game but these kind of things (including the terrible hitboxes) makes it the most frustrating to play.
19:19 Brother thats a lie, you absolutely can do the 1mil soul memory skip at Shrine of Winter. You can do it with either 4 lord souls (can be copies) or 1 million souls in that playthrough. And also, the dragon does come to life in Aldia's Keep in Scholar. Have we played the same game? This is stuff you can look up on a wiki man
I remember when i had really nerdy friends that saw me playing vanilla ds2 and heavily critizied me for not having scholar and back then i never knew there was another version than vanilla. When i did play schollar i became confused on why it was so bullshit but i jus accepted it for being what it is and ignored the opinion of the mass and know that ive opened my ears, everything this video says its dam trueee
Bro. Not even gonna watch. Scholar was a direct improvement to ds2. The original ds2 was way too damn easy for most hardened souls players at the time. The whole reason they made scholar and changed enemy placements was to make the game way more challenging as it was lacking in that department.
I’ve been putting a ton of hours in Dark Souls 2 vanilla recently. I remember years ago when I played SotFS I didn’t even get to Drangleic Castle. I chalked it up to “Meh, people *did* say it was the weakest souls game.” Now in vanilla, I’m on my second play through and still having fun.
I've played both and I love them both alot, and I've never seen a playstyle like yours, I am a completionist so I kill everything and collect everything in the game even If it's a useless item, I've never seen a player skip everything unless it's a speedrun
Yes yes! So glad to see someone else that agrees Scholar was a downgrade, people says that is much better because placements "makes more sense" and "It's harder", but adding a bunch of enemies in every encounter, doubling aggro range, and adding a bunch of tougher enemies earlier is bananas, Scholar's Heide is absolute ass because they took a MINIBOSS from OG and made it, a normal enemy, imagine if Black Knights were all around Lower Undead Burg! Scholar made a few things better like the Dragon Shrine actually being very cool, but otherwise, yeah. OG is a 9/10 for me, while Scholar is rather... a 7 or 7.5 at best, quite the difference.
Is the only time I’ve ever come across the moment in the souls community where I genuinely believe you just need to git gud. Running past all those enemies only made the game even harder and what is your build, why would you never change to better weapons or armor, you challenged yourself more than the game did. Learn positioning and do more damage and you wouldn’t be struggling
You pretty much nailed it. Vanilla DS2 is probably the From game I put the most time into. It wasn't as good as 1, but it was still a fantastic game. I got maybe a third of the way through Scholar and never wanted to touch the game ever again. It is a truly miserable, hate fulled experience.
I actually think that Scholar of the First Sin had it's ups and downs. To me, while the ganks were annoying, i did kinda like the new item placements, and some new enemy placements made sense (especially the Dragon by the Cathedral, as it's so close to the Dragonrider, who i figure got their name for a reason!). Also, the new dark areas gave torches more use, in addition to the other features giving reason to backtrack more (but not in any mandatory fashion.) Also, the ember is actually available early, so i no longer have to mix physical/elemental builds if i don't want to! The one thing that grinds my gears, though... is that damn statue placement. If they wanted the random statues blocking the ways to make a lick of sense, and having the petrified bastards look like they were trying to either run from Basilisks or intentionally stuffed in the way to keep intruders out, would have been good.
Are you saying adding that spamming dragon at the front of catedral is an good change?, remember it also has the watchdragon parma shield, but since most of the time you are being pursued by 3 heide knights and 4 old knights you are more likely to die when you kill it and end up losing that shield unless you use Ascetics. It happened to me and i was confused when i started to farm the platinum of why that was missing.
@@johku4433 Because it takes like 10 minutes to get rid of them all, specially with those spear ones that nuke your health in seconds regarless of how highleveled you are, and because the dragon gets awakened if you get close to the stairs, so u are forced to run past it because once he gets up, its imposible to go there since the fire does so much damage and it oneshots most of the time, and u cant bait it so since it goes through walls.
So true on all points. I played DS2 on release and loved it, couldn't find a way to play it so was forced to try scholar on PS5. I completed it and had fun, but it was so much worse than my memory.
I have never played the scholar version of ps4 only the vanilla scholar of ps3 and I was always confused when I saw ppl being ganged by 2000 enemies in areas that never had as many for me
Don't remember where I heard it, but someone said that the branch of yore statue was added to the tutorial because players were cheesing the respawning Ogre for easy souls, and the statue was put there to stop it-- which if true, is the dumbest possible solution to an easily solved problem. I still love SotFS tho, and Vanilla is also good =P P.S. Sorry for fans being insufferable. Maybe that's inevitable, but I also very rarely get enjoyable conversations out of fellow DS2 fans.
Sorry? Have you seen his thumbnail? If that isn't bait for salty DS2 fans like myself, then I don't know what is. 👺 plus so much of what he says is literally incorrect, and highlights his ignorance regarding both versions of the game. i mean in fairness it does prove that ds2 is more than a little confusing, which is something i would consider valid criticism of the game. but this ain't it chief
@@River_StGrey I'm just making conversation about a thing I'm passionate about. It's particularaly opinionated, that's in part because the video is strongly opinionated as well. Frankly, I don't care whether he likes the game or not. Nor you for that matter. You're each free to feel any which way about them. It was never about having people agree with me in the first place; but rather rejecting the assertion that dude's opinion was reflective of the truth about scholar, when it's so unapologetically biased and narrow-minded. Not to mention laced with inaccuracies that expose how little he knows of the game he's criticising. And again, dude literally crafted a clickbait thumbnail specifically to stir up hardcore ds2 fans for debate in the comments. You're offering your sympathy to the guy who deliberately kicked the ants' nest and got swarmed. Not like I have any right to tell you how to treat others, but I don't sympathize with people like that, personally.
@@NerdOracle Eh, fair enough. I think the dude has shown a serious amount of open mindedness to give an experience he hated enough chances to come around to liking it though. I think that deserves some credit when the video is opinionated, especially when the content doesn't match the click bait of the thumbnail. But, I really love DS2 and am just glad whenever someone gets a good experience out of it.
Did you not hear him saying they combat was specifically made for the amount of enemies that were in the levels? I like getting myself a hard time but that's just torture
Pre-Smelter Iron Keep in SotFS is ridiculous, and I prefer vanilla's handling of Heide Knights, but otherwise I think Scholar does pretty much everything better. Sure, there are more enemies, but idk dude,I think you're doing a lot of blaming others for your own failings. Your Scholar footage, in this and your original critique, is fucking NUTS. Like, I've played Scholar a few times, and I've never seen hoards of the sizes you're accruing. Not to mention the deranged inferences about the developers' intentions... I don't think these critiques are particularly well thought out tbh.
I think the Heide Knights critique is... unjustified? I mean, they are indeed, in HEIDE. I always found the first one in vanilla so unfair in the game, giving you the, probably, most powerful sword until Amana in the first steps of the game.
@@ZirixStrarstrider is not that good, i mean, the fire sword is a bit better and the ultragreatsword its like, the weapon. Even tho, i love that armor and is fucking insane get it in vanilla, but still, i like that the heide knights are everywhere except heide
@@Kayther33 Heide Knight Sword is a beast of a weapon. Almost every enemy is weak to lightning, and is so low in stat investment, that you can breeze through the game with it until Undead Crypt almost. Also, makes sense. They're called Heide Knights...
To quote myself from my comment on your first DS2 video: “People say that DS2’s DLC is stronger than the base game. I couldn’t disagree more. The base game, pre-Scholar of the First Sin, was a great experience.” I’m telling you, and maybe you’re now telling me, vanilla DS2 is a much better game than Scholar.
because most once they defeat the final boss (if they even get this far) are too tired of it and just want to be done with it more unique ng+ is not really an incentive to someone who's not having a good time with new game experience
@@blairfujin i can understand the feeling, ds2 was my first souls game and had a blast with it despite not killing every major boss which probably contributed for me to avoid getting tired of it, played until NG+7 and it was pretty great to go through the game with ease but still having a new challenges along the way.
There is a fragrant branch of yore really close to the first bonfire of lost bastille if you take the pursuer way. It’s off to the left out the door from that room with 3 dogs. There is a chest and another pursuer fight that drops twinkling. The first branch is also good to use in the tutorial area because you get an estus shard which are definitely in need early game
@@gabrielsantana6161well I was basically arguing the fact that players can get locked out of the Ruin Sentinels, you can backtrack from the other side even. But Pursuer was my route as a newcomer on my first playthrough of vanilla ds2. He was tough, but I was able to get it eventually
i only ever played SoTFS but my slow playstyle honestly made me confused on why people hate the game so much but now looking at the comparison to vanilla, wow, its incredible how much better it seems vanilla is compared to the 'definitive' edition also Sekiro is a fantastic game so hopefully you will like it, the combat takes some getting used to but overall its a fantastic experience (even if some NPC questlines are as cryptic as DS1 and i had to just look up stuff)
Sekiro does something interesting in that it really frontloads its bad boss fights (looking at you Ogre and Bull), which feels great for people replaying the game and absolutely godawful for first-time players.
@@TehCakeIzALie1 I wouldn't agree that either are bad per se, however they should not be at the start of the game. Ogre deals way too much damage for the early game, taking almost all of your health bar when the player has at most 2 gourd heals, meaning the player can only afford 3 mistakes in the whole long ass fight, not to mention how he encourages hit-and-run tactics, which gets early players into a bad habit. Bull would be a great fight if it weren't for one thing; deflecting the bull should not do damage, as it discourages the most fun and most viable approach to the fight, and again is a bad learning tool as it seems to punish players for using deflects rather than hit-and-run. I think both these gimmicks are fair challenges for the mid to late game (both fights have later variants that are much more enjoyable), but putting these stupid hard and honestly counterproductive fights at the beginning was a dumbass move.
I played the vanillas Dark Souls and then Scholar came out, and I read that they had changed enemy placements and the like, but was pretty much breezing through the first area, so I shrugged and proceeded... then I went into that cathedral area with the white knights and giant suits of armors to farm and encountered a dragon at the very end which killed me in one go and was like "Ahh... it's going to be like that." Personally I enjoyed both versions and played the heck out of both.
I never played SOTFS and DSII was my first souls game. It is janky and all, but it's a great game, you should try it out. I actually hope you like it, because I really never understood the hatred towards DSII but well. Scholar aparently
@@lafozard7456 . Thank you. I actually don't hate SOTFS, but there's a lot of artificial difficulty stuff, and there are other things you could criticise.
You know what's funny? I listened to your Scholar video the entire time thinking to myself "I don't remember things being that bad" particularly the Iron Keep and that gank army in the first area but just figured it was just my memory, having really only played it immediately after release. Turns out it's just because I never bothered with Scholar (or any of the DS2 DLC for that matter) XD
Thank you for this video. My thoughts exactly, one complement: The only good change SOTFS has is the shortcut bridge in No-Man's Wharf, but I sacrifice it with no hesitation for all the things that Vanilla did better.
Sorry, but I have to point another good change SOTFS has, with a little story So, I got Vanilla after something like 150+ hours of Scholar. Fell in love, and decided to leave my comfort zone of Straight Swords and Katanas by doing a Greatsword Run. In the middle of the run, I decided to give the Moonlighr Greatsword a try, since I never used it. Then, right at the Freja Fog Wall, I remembered that, unlike SOTFS, the Torch does not scare the spiders Killing Freja had never been so stressful
@@abdulazizabdulaziz6304 From my experience at least, it's less ganky, but both are good games. If you want to play online, go for Scholar because it's more active
I made a comment response video: ua-cam.com/video/rR-a3zIOE2w/v-deo.html
Apparently the ps3 and xbox360 versions of Scholar did not change the enemy placement, so this video doesn't apply to those versions.
2 things to correct in the video:
1: Scholar did not get rid of the 1 million souls skip to get to Drangleic Castle. I thought that I had heard this from another Dark Souls 2 video essay, but I was wrong.
2: The dragon skeleton in Aldia's Keep can come alive in Scholar, but you have to light some torches so it's hidden away and I still prefer how Vanilla handled it to Scholar.
Also, the comments have told me that Shrine of Amana was nerfed into the ground after release, so that's probably part of the reason why I liked it in Vanilla while other people hated it.
I finally decided to make the "In Defense of Dark Souls 2 video" unlisted because it had too many mistakes. You can still watch it with this link.
ua-cam.com/video/2A6s_Wq-6PU/v-deo.html
Branch of Yore and Petrified statues ain't there to piss you off. You can't soft lock your progress, there is always an alternative path to progress, For ruin sentinels you can access them from the other entry point to Lost Bastille (via no man's wharf), there is a ladder that brings you right to the cells before the boss fight. Same goes with Dragons Aerie, you can access it by Dragon Shrine. Branch are there for you to choose, you want the more difficult route but better gear or less gear but easier path.
@@z0zef I'm aware you don't need to use the ruin sentinel petrified statue, as I already stated in the video. That doesn't change the fact that the only obvious path forward is blocked by a petrified statue whose only easily accessible branch of yore you might have already used in the tutorial, because the scholar developers want players to get stuck.
@@z0zef I started playing darksouls 2 for the first time, and it was with SOFS. I got stuck in thr Lost Bastille for a really long time becuase I could not for the life of me see any other way forward and was hesitant to use what i percieved to be a super rare item on a statue that might lead nowhere.
The petrified statue in the beginning intuitively made me think, "Oh, this is for extra loot, or possibly progression" but I had no way to know if using it would lead to progression, or random shitty loot I didn't need.
The statues are definitely there to either piss you off, or make you afraid of moving forward as a new player.
@@CaptainScott635 At my first playthrough I was afraid to use my branches too, because of petrified Rosabeth. So after I blew up the wall to McDuff I didn't proceed to use the branch, and I chose to return to Heides tower and after that to no man's wharf. This is the right thing to do, reaching lost Bastille for first time and seeing that the fix level of the area is way higher for you to be there and try to proceed. So there was nothing to piss me off, because I understood that I shouldn't be there anyway.
Yeah the first version of shrine of amana is hell. Not as much as scholar, but pretty damn annoying
Don't let this video distract you from the fact the bandit class has high dex and starts with a hand axe, a strength weapon.
And if I remember correctly, it starts with an ADP of 3…
Aren't they *too stupid* to choose a right weapon?
Yea they stole it
@@rotank638 ADP doesn't matter, AGI does. There's like 2 classes that start with only 85, which means you'll have 166ms of invincibility, while 86 is 266ms. 85 to 65 is a huge jump. DS1 mid-roll is around 95.
@@sourcedasher Adaptability is the stat that governs Agility (and to a lesser extent, attunement.). AGL is a derived stat.
You know what's weird? I've developed a guilty pleasure, where I once or twice a year, replay DS2 Scholar, while listening to DS2 critiques.
I actually do that too, its weirdly cathartic I guess ?
You are my kind of people
there is a word for that. its called masochist
@@djangofett4879 Your right.
You are a good lad and I like you.
Let us never forget when Dark Souls 2 first came out, you could magic infuse the moonlight greatsword and still buff it with crystal magic weapon for over 1k AR. It was beautiful.
Ahh the good old pvp days
You cant do this anymore? what
Daily reminder on how fucking powerful lightning spears were.
@@ds2sofs and (Great) Resonant Soul as well as powerstanced (mundane) Avelyns :)
@@leonardlydell Also miracles damage and viability was actually great, now it's all straight to the toilet
You know what I hate? Acronyms that are _almost_ words. Like Scholar of the First Sin. SOTFS. Just look at it. It wants to be SOFTS but it isn't.
Softs isn’t a word ☝️
@@mrg2155You disgust me
fromsotf
@@mrg2155that's why it's almost a word
Scholar was like "we need to balance the game. Life gems were too op so let's crank up the enemies to make it more fair"
Never nerf always buff
That’s.. not even remotely true. Maybe stop playing the game like it’s ds3 and try actually fighting enemies as they’re presented to you instead of running past everything, dying and then blaming the game for your mistakes.
@@zzodysseuszz um no irs funner to run thru and activate them lmao
@@zzodysseuszz yeah fighting them and my weapon fucking breaking after 2 hits. Cope harder lol this game is just trash
@@reefer674 seethe
Heres some more fun PTSD stories about Shrine of Amana, this time featuring Console Launch Vanilla DS2.
The Priestesses used to have an aggro range so gigantic they could quite literally shoot you from outside their visual render distance, so you'd be getting sniped from across the map and couldnt even see what was sniping you, just magic phasing into existence once it enters render range and the piercing sound of it approaching.
That and the tracking on the spells used to be a lot stronger. I remember those suckers taking a full u-turn.
That explains alot from my childhood
I was there and I remember being terrified.
Yea the reason he says vanilla shrine is better is because he never played ORIGINAL vanilla shrine
For some reason I never had any trouble with that area, even back at launch. Pure melee with a shortbow got it done.
What you don’t understand is that scholar is not a souls game, it’s a horror game and it’s one of the scariest in this field
I'm playing it right now. Definitely the most stressful and scary souls game with bloodborne.
Yeah i'm playing rn too, the only souls i haven't played, ngl Dark orb is broke af
@@woke42069 Not in DLCs
Headcanon accepted
A kings field you might say? 😉
Just a little note, Scholar of The First Sin definitely didn't remove the 1,000,000 souls trick. worked perfectly fine for me.
Can confirm after having done multiple playthroughs myself. I usually skip a Lord or two.
I could have skipped two lords on my first playthrough... I didn't cuz I felt bad for them
I regretted it when I learned that you had to do 5 extra areas to actually get to the final boss, which I learned solely from the wiki despite I read the dialogue from all NPCs I crossed, I just wanted the game to end at that point
@@burushifudarathis game is so damn long and for absolutely no reason at all
never played vanilla, but scholar iron keep broke me. I died so many times that most enemies had despawned by the point I finally made it to the boss.
that happened to me too, the first time I tried to get through No Man’s Wharf, I didn’t even know enemies could die and never come back. eventually just cleared most of them out for fun/practice and it really helped me to git gud at DS2.
Iron keep was the one that taught me killing an enemy enough would despawn it.
I thought that's how you play the game
Just that running guy in huntsmans copse left
Wow I never knew this lol. So weird for a souls game. Ds2 is so quirky and weird it kinda makes you like it for it
Vanilla Shrine of Amana was infuriating at launch v1.0. The magic projectiles had insane tracking, enough that even if you dodge them they'd turn around and hit you from behind. They toned it down in a later patch. That's why it earned it's reputation.
So they had an area which was way too hard, nerfed it and then later buffed it again by 300%. Sounds good.
Dark Souls players complaining of the game difficulty. Thats ridiculous.
@@fernandoxavier3089 believe it or not there is more to Souls games than JUST their difficulty...
@@sasaki999pro believe it or not. The difficult os part of the game.
@@fernandoxavier3089 if the game lets you as the player, use IT'S systems to call someone else from anywhere in the world who could be potentially so much better than you at the game that they can literally fight all your zones and boss fights for you while you're sitting AFK in the corner, and STILL be champion'd as a "Masterpiece", then clearly "difficulty" is not as integral to the experience as you seem to think it is.
There are games out their with ACTUAL "easy modes" that don't go nearly as extreme as calling another player to beat the game for you.
"Let Me Solo Her" is not going to be able to carry you if Vergil is savagely beating your ass in Devil May Cry.
You can't summon Faze Clan to help you overwelm the Marauders with 360 quickscopes in Doom Eternal.
Not having any I-frames going through a fog wall until 60% into the animation really sucked.
Bro I thought that was a glitch when it happened to me and then I found out it was intended.
I would tolerate a state where other players can attack you as punishment for mistiming your escape. But to add more enemies around the fog gates to stagger and stunlock to death was a dick kick to anyone expecting rules from DS1 to carry over.
I feel like if it wasn't like that in DS1 no one would complain
it is nice when you are chasing a coward host
That's actually one of my favorite changes. Made it fun to catch hosts trying to just run from you to get to the boss and also made players have to clear a room before taking the boss. Having I frames during animations like fog walls, doors and chests is too easy to abuse.
Scholar of the First Sin was the first soulslike I ever played, and somehow I got through the fortress as a deprived. I only gave up at Heide's Tower of Flame, because I couldn't figure out how to beat the dragon and killing 20 Heide Knights and 5 Old Knights each time got annoying really quickly.
It’s not a soulslike if it is THE souls game
It’s not a soulslike
@@hhowdyhow so?
@@chestermicgun Because it’s a souls game 🤦♂️
@@hhowdy um it’s still part of the sub genre even if it’s in the franchise the sub genre is named after
I will never get over the joy of rushing to the gutter, grabbing the great club, and going unga bunga on every boss in this game.
I don't even feel bad about going press R2 to win on mobs. If they're gonna gank me like that, then its fair game for me to flatten them with the great club
ha, chuck rock :D
I did the same but with the greatsword at no man's wharf
Great Club AKA The biggest Bonk
I did a build with dual great clubs and called it Bonk Knight. Damage was beautiful.
Correction: the undead dragon does come alive and kill you in scholar. It happens once you've lit all the scones in Aldias keep.
In my run it just crumpled to the ground 🤷♂️
@@bensosnowski1128 I saw a video of it moving.... but my playthrough nothing. I was terrified for nothing.
yes but stand in the wrong place and it one shots you!@@bensosnowski1128
scones are delicious.
In the moment I heard the dragon moving I was like "I am dead, aren't I?" and immediately died to the dragon lol
I didn't even see it, I just knew it happened cuz it was evident from the sound
It's crazy, I remember back before Scholar that a lot of people were complaining about how many gank squads were in the game. One of the big celebrations that people had when the remake was announced was that they had "fixed the enemy placement". I walked into Forest of Fallen Giants in Scholar and quickly decided that by "fixed" they meant "made it so much worse".
I shit you not, I was considering skipping ds2 but then some bastard told me that dlc makes it much better
Fixed = made it more frustrating and obnoxious
@@djangofett4879 Exactly. I saw the new ogre in the FoFG and was like, "This is the fixed version? What exactly did y'all think the problem was?"
And Iron Keep. . . wew lad.
@@brocksteele7475 The orge that doesn't agro unless you are in it's face?
@@dungeonpastor Yeah, the ogre that just wasn't there originally and created a sort of dead zone in regards to movement. The ogre whose inclusion was wholly unnecessary and only really served to make things worse, that one.
I just watched a couple videos comparing DS2 with Scholars, and it's interesting how different they are. In the other video the reviewer had more deaths and was a lower level on vanilla (despite playing it second), while in your video you had more deaths and a lower level on Scholars. I think this suggests that the difference really comes down to playstyle. In the other video he fought most of the new enemies, which gave him more experience and leveled him up faster, making bosses easier. On the other hand you chose to run past everything, missing out on experience and making bosses harder (also more vulnerable to ganks). I don't think either of these is wrong, just two very different perspectives.
reviewers revoew nased on dearh couny and their experience fun with a hame. Yoy can hVe fin in any game if you are good.
reviewers revoew nased on dearh couny and their experience fun with a hame. Yoy can hVe fin in any game if you are good.
reviewers revoew nased on dearh couny and their experience fun with a hame. Yoy can hVe fin in any game if you are good.
reviewers revoew nased on dearh couny and their experience fun with a hame. Yoy can hVe fin in any game if you are good.
@@Envy_Level_Zerois Godzilla ok?
I swear the enemy placement for Scholar of the First Sin was lead by someone involved with the Vanilla DS2 who was mad that people criticised the ganks in the game. So they doubled or tripled the enemies throughout the entire game to get back at the fanbase, and completely screwed up the areas that actually felt balanced and well thought out in the process
Ganks in ds2 are only really a problem when u play it like u play the first game. Sure you are forced into some, but rushing people get ganked.
@@HeyAddieImTojo Yeah. I never had much of a problem with the frequent ganks. But then again, I had played the crap out of DS1 where I adopted a very aggressive greatsword style, so I was already comfortable with fighting unlocked and doing crowd control. I played the shit out of DS2 vanilla. By the time Scholar came out I though it was a fun and more challenging remix with more creative enemy placements and a lot more fun traps. It also forced me to take new routes through the game with unusual weapons. My main issue Scholar is that the difficulty curve is a bit borked. Most of the levels got significantly harder which I enjoyed, but all the bosses remained unchanged, so many of them are complete jokes compared to the gauntlet that precedes them.
I must admit though, I would have been endlessly frustrated if I had played Scholar first, and not in a good way. It was clearly designed with experienced DS2 veterans in mind, so it is pretty dumb that it was also declared the "definitive version", which new players are now funnelled towards. Imagine if the DS1 remaster came with the aggression mod enabled by default.
@@fnorgen Completely agree, the fact that scholar is declared the "definitive version" is beyond stupid. It's gonna turn off a lot of new players who may never want to touch this franchise again, and that's a shame.
Sotfs forces you to think better. Forces you to approach carefully because if you rush you'd get gang banged
@@camarobro1897You can do that with smart enemy placement, the gank Design they used is just terrible Design. Compare it to blight town, the danger comes from where enemies are placed, they could have just as good placed toxin shooters in the same way Ds2 would handle a place like that, so basically just place 3 times as many. Sure this would force you to think more, also would make the expirence worse. Same could be said about the anor londo roof archers, just place 2 more and bamm, you have to think more supposedly. Sorry your argument is horrible.
Scholar was the first souls game I ever played and beat. Honestly the torture made me absolutely fall in love with the series
Same here. I've never played DS2 Vanilla and SotFS is for me the best Souls game.
@@aristoxenedagonie9316didn't miss much vanilla ds2 isn't as good sotfs is way better. It punishes bozos who rush
@@camarobro1897 original is better. Especially for a first playthrough. Scholar blows for a first playthrough, but is fun I guess for a repeat playthrough. Current scholar should have been new game + imo. Then, make current scholar NG+ NG+2 or something.
Just doesn't make sense how 20 something soldiers in Forest of the Fallen Giants seems reasonable to the developers. Such trash decisions.
@HonsHon it's reasonable bro you're supposed to lure them
@@camarobro1897 I know that, but I just am not a fan I guess. Of course everything I am saying is just my opinion. I just don't like Scholar. Hell, even Dark Souls 2 in general is one of the weaker Souls entries imo. Still like it, but I like Scholar less.
I have to disagree about one point here. Vanilla did not cause me to level more and become stronger. I ALWAYS kill all enemies in any game I play so Scholar leveled me a lot more and as such the "harder" areas didn't actually feel very hard to me because I had tons of levels. Vanilla on the other hand, having less enemies and also in some places weaker enemies meant I had way less souls throughout my Vanilla playthrough and that made the bosses feel a lot more punishing which felt way worse.
Also you can absolutely still skip the lord soul bosses with enough souls in Scholar, I've opened the door early plenty of times.
And the big skeletal dragon also still comes to life and attacks, only it's got a different trigger. To do it in Scholar you need to light all the torches in the level and kill the invaders that lighting them spawns. I'll admit though that this trigger change is terrible, but it is still there unlike what you said.
I was wondering why he said the soul memory skip for Shrine of Amana was straight up removed and that the skeleton dragon no longer moved in SotFS when that’s just wrong. I actually enjoy the skeleton dragon change to require something be done in the room in order for it to come to life, though I do wish the trigger were something different. And I gotta say I agree with your point about having less levels due to less enemies. That’s the thought process I began to have when SotFS released and I had already played vanilla several times. I never really personally found the major gank areas too rough because I already enjoyed using everything at my arsenal including bows which naturally made the transition easier. I found looking for ways to kill off enemies that would trigger a gank to run at you before they had a chance to do so to be quite enjoyable, and I got much more souls to boot. I can entirely understand why anybody would like vanilla over scholar as well as Vice versa, everybody is entitled to their opinion but I just like scholar more than vanilla, it fits the way that I play the game fine and I like the item placement changes.
Same its the main flaw I find in this criticism, I’ve never even considered running past enemies as a strategy and I’m pretty sure From Soft as a general rule expects players to be clearing areas, especially early game ones when they are still exploring.
@@yayap001 So true. Every time I go through an area, I try to fight all enemies.
Also, the only time I actually feel like all enemies from the entire area just attack me was in Iron Keep before the Smelter Demon. It has never happened to me at any other point (I am finishing SotFS for the first time this week so I am fresh with it).
Also, Dead Man's Warf imo is fine with all these "suprise" attacks because it's likely you will only have to get through it only once even if you die to the boss. It's all because of that crazy shortcut at the end.
I am saying all of this but I might be in a minority because Shrine of Amana was pretty fine for me (not much troubles). Plus I also like using ranged attacks (I use pyromancy and axe) so I could always make up for difficulty.
It also sounds like he is complaining about having to fight everyone in SotFS but is fine with the same in Vanilla? Like, maybe just have the same perspective on SotFS then?
I also kill all the enemies, it just feels way more viable in Vanilla, since enemy placement boiled down to more then just "how many times can we hit ctrl+c before the game crashes?" I hated the enemy spam in Scholar so, so very much. Luckily for me, I never paid again for DkS2, I kind of just... got scholar when it came out. Never questioned it.
Yea I completely clear areas when I play fromsoft games. As in if enemies didn't respawn from bonfires sitting, there wouldn't be any at all. And that's how I myself found a lot of "hidden things" and such. It really seems that a lot of people nagging about the amount of enemies just run through them all, gathering them up just to be ganked by 10 enemies. While if you just kill the enemies as they appear, it's only like a 1v5 at most
I started with scholar with a friend and we really enjoyed our experience
Well this Feeble King Dark Souls 2 story arc has been interesting - Got to see how it ends
It's like character development. Over getting mugged and told to like it.
I remember playing through DS2 like 7 times when it first came out and remember loving it, then came back for Scholar and at this point I'd have basically forgotten why I even liked it so this was a pretty good reminder
@martipowa4662 I never played Vanilla, so I wonder if you now two years later have gone back and given it a chance? Because Scholar is a great Dark Souls game.
What this tells me is that when I finish my scholar run (of which I've still been able to maintain a sense of fun for the most part) and if I get vanilla, then I'm in for an absolutely relaxing and nostalgic walk through the world again
I wouldn't say relaxing but definitely a less annoying and tedious one
Vanilla is just easy mode. I'm glad they have it for the less skilled players
@@dustincarroll7296 ah yess cause adding a billion gank squads to the the clunkiest dark souls game really makes it take more skill smh
@@dustincarroll7296 Vanilla is "semi made with some thought and care"
Scholar is amateur design
@Dustin Carroll hard and unfair are completely different
6:21 I played DS2 before (Scholar version) and I got to the first area only for those 20 enemies to be sleeping. This allowed me to fight each enemy one at a time. The only way all those enemies could ambush you at once is if you actively decided to wake all of them up and agro them all at once. I played all the souls games and I don't remember a single game that rewarded blindly running past every obstacle. Also, the Heide Knights in Heide's Tower of Flame as shown in the video are also all sleeping and optional to fight. The only 2 ways to wake them are to either attack them yourself or kill The Dragonrider boss in the same area, but by then you'll already be at the next location. Now I know you wouldn't lie about the game to make it look worse right?
Spreading misinformation happens all the time in media buddy
It kinda feels like the Scholar remix should've been something that activated in NG+ or be an optional activation in-game.
Not kinda. It definitely should have been under that.
6 extra Pursuers for whatever reason in Scholar, 8 if you are in NG+
And one of them is *surrounded* by enemies, and the 2 from NG+ are in the same room, and one of them starts in phase 2
You can make them despawn by stepping out of their "arenas" but that is certainly an annoying af addition
DUDE!
WHAT IF: Game had two ways to populate locations with enemies:
1. For solo/single players - normal enemy spawn from vanilla.
2. For coop players - gank galore and increased spawn from Scholar.
That would be an amazing solution to the problem of trivializing game with summons.
"Ok, I alredy killed you guys in my world, now my friend summoned me to help him take care of you guys"
the hollows: GUESS WHAT, WE ALSO CAN SUMMON BABYYY!!!!
Based take
Seems far, you have a friend to farm even harder!
Didn’t SotFS also include double the amount of phantoms that could be summoned in a world? Almost makes you think it was intended to be played coop.
If there's one thing DS2 does better than its peers, it's multiplayer. I think this would really play to that strength.
The dragón Fossil from aldias keep still comes back to life. But you have to light all of the keep chandeliers that also spawn a one Time only forlorn summon each . I think it gives you something after attacking now. But yeah, the Fossil still comes back to life. Just that instead of being the welcome Its More like a goodbye to the keep because by the Time you unlock it you probably finished most of Its content.
It was literally just a jumpscare before, now it's a neat little sequence for getting an item
@@bigdumbfatcat2869 if you light the torches throughout the keep and kill that forlorn spawn what reason do you have to come back to the very beginning area . It will never be found in natural exploration the only way it will happen is if you know .
It plays the long con. Every one comes with a warning message "don't you dare." which means that most people are going to do it because they told you not to. People who know about the dragon get confueed because nothing happens, and people who dont know would assume it didnt do anything just like pre sotfs, only for it to then come and finger your butt hole as you run back and fourth to do the things navlan needs done. They rehashed the spooky dragon bones to act in a way they didnt before. Meaning some players would get killed by it before and later playing sotfs they get got again resulting it hurting that much more.
@@dankmemes7796 Royal Sorcerer Navlaan would be the reason. His quest line involves you leaving and then coming back 3 separate times. And doing his crap for him is more than worth it esspecialy if your build uses magic as he sells the black witch set, and gives the chaos set once your done (2 of the best mage sets you can get) and the spell unleash magic.
You can also still open the Shrine of Winter with 1 million Souls in Scholar, idk where he got that part from
All the good players love Ds2 Sotfs, and all the scrubs hate it.
I'm am the crowned king of scrubs, and I much preferred Sotfs. More mobs = more xp = more levels to use as a crutch. But I also have to say, the massive numbers of enemies seem to drop off a lot after the first few levels. I think it was overall the easiest of the dark souls trilogy, even before it let you begin spamming infinite crystal spears.
Oddly enough, if you were like me and played DS2 on the 360 or PS3, the version of SOTFS we got was literally just vanilla DS2 but with all the DLC goodies added, so the best of both worlds.
yeah i remember that
I played scholar on the 360 in 2016, which was basically just vanilla with the dlc. Having played scholar last month, I can safely say vanilla is a much more enjoyable and less frustrating experience. Scholar just felt tiresome, especially after playing DS3.
Actually originally SotFs was just the final major update to original Dark Souls 2, it only turned into the rerelease abomination it is known today because of money and Bloodborn.
I’m not sure because of blood borne but Softs was an update for the 360 without any real changes then the big changes were for the next generation
Yeah I replayed ds3 and ds1 (3 times for both now) and they never bore me. But this is my second playthrough of ds2 and I genuinely am not having much fun, it just feels like a chore replaying all of this for no reason, it doesn’t help that the bosses are piss easy so there’s no payoff in having to endure these damn gank squads.
@@iamMildlyUpsetWithMostOfYouTub notice how half the enemies barely react to your damage unlike the other games and everything is so slow because of adaptability
@@WookieWarriorz it'S just the whole engine being trash due to the studio limitations... it's sad to see how half the community got locked out of the real second soulsborne game experience and instead we got the retarded cousin (some of us still love dearly)
I legit had no idea these differences were there. I've only played vanilla dark souls 2 and always thought it was a pretty good game. Watched your previous video on it and was confused as to why I didn't remember certain things / not anywhere near as many mobs.
Edit: Yes, shrine of amana was a lot worse pre-nerf lmao, it was hell for pure melee.
You haven't lived until you've farmed all 50 Loyce souls.
After playing hundreds of hours of vanilla DS2, I remember finishing my first playthrough of Scholar and being so confused at what I had just played. A lot of the changes felt pointless, or just not thought out
Is it still same game with differences or is it something else because dark soul 2 doesn’t exist in ps 4 only scholar does
same. the thing that bothers me the most in scholar is the pointless and objectively wrong/bad/stupid decision to change the omnidirectional walking in vanilla into an inferior 8 point direction movement…. That and the fact they nerfed drangleic castle for no reason!
I just had this exact same experience - replated Scholar edition after burning a ton of time playing vanilla.
So many interesting encounters were changed or made easier, and so many more felt careless or thoughtless.
Memorable moments where I died playing as a kid were completely gutted out of Scholar edition.
Can you elaborate on this, im curious what you mean
@@TheDanimatorsChannel Unfortunately I can't remember any specific examples, it's been too long since I played the Scholar edition. But I do remember enemy encounters that were changed from Vanilla that either had no real impact on the encounter, or made it more difficult. I also noticed some item placements being changed, like the old ember, which I felt either made no sense to change, or in the case of the ember, were placed too early in the game
dude! I remember playing vanilla on ps3 loving it then years later getting scholar and being baffled by the sheer amount of bullshit and ganks going on. Thanking you for putting this out there lmao
Same my man! I played 500 hours of the Scholar version on PS3, and thankfully it had the vanilla placement. Then I bought the PS4 version and was like: WTF is this.
I only ever played scholar… took like 70 hours to do everything. Maybe I just accepted it for what it was because I knew nothing else.
Ignorance Is bliss for some.
After FKs terrible videos on SotET, I’ve started to wonder if there are any other videos of his that are disingenuous and straight up wrong.
I liked vanilla better too as a matter of fact. I lost my mind when I saw that they placed a dragon and the tower level while trying to avoid a knight and the big black Knights. Definitely doable but for an early level it was a little much. The vanilla game as you said at least felt somewhat balanced. Scholar just felt like they intentionally tried to make it as difficult as possible without even trying to hide it.
Sounds like many comments here complain to the game is too hard. Maybe literally get gud?
I’m new to ds and I manage to beat ds2 sotfs
@@aceclover758 goofball
@@asd-dv7dq haha that guy really is a goofball
@@aceclover758 I also managed to beat sotfs when I was new to souls games. So did many of us. Doesn’t change the fact it’s terribly designed
@@imikal8046 you’re right
I still think you're very spot on about the people who like DS2 as an RPG. I like it for the armors and story. But undeniably I would prefer having got to play it without meticulously trading arrows for 3 minutes straight with ONE guy, just so I could enter a room and fight 8 more without being shot in the back the whole time.
That was my first run thought the game, hold shield, shoot stuff with arrows, stab something 3 times, repeat. I died about 4 times during the whole playthrough.. by slipping and falling because of the game's horrible snap point movement.
They probably thought that each encounter had to be challenged as a puzzle, where players would need to carefully think what to do after examining each and every area for potential enemies from a safe distance. Turns out I rather go walk my dog or watch paint dry than to do that in literally every room in the game.
@@WildBandit300 You'd get similar results if you played DS1 that way.
@@WildBandit300 I mean that's how every souls games were "supposed" to be played with the exception that you can disregard that playstyle if you're decently skilled. sotfs just seems unbalanced enough to force that playstyle on you though.
""""""""""""""""""story""""""""""""""""""
In my first playthroughs of DS1 and DS3, I used a shield constantly. For DS2 SOTFS (never played og) I played either with two weapons or two handed a single weapon pretty much exclusively.
Even in ER I had a shield on my back ready to go. I rarely had one equipped in DS2. It just seemed easier without it.
If you want to know something funny, most of the map changes that screwed the player in Scholar are actually very similar to the optmized(ish) route the players had made early on in DS2. I'd reccomend checking the oldest Let's Play of Dark Souls 2 by Northernlion, notice the path he makes and then see how most of them have turned obsolete by the changes in Scholar.
They didn't just randomly add more mobs, they added mobs where people found convenient to move just for the sake of making those areas harder - it's like if Dark Souls Remastered placed 5 basilisk where you could do a dragon-butt skip in painted world.
Thing is sotfs is just way better than the og good enemy placements to punish those who rush. Better item placement. I could go on but that's too much work
@@camarobro1897better item placement? Stop it bruh let’s be 100% serious. Additionally have you played the iron keep in both at all? This seems like mindless droning
@@camarobro1897good enemy placement? Ok, so you walk into a room, everything is normal, there are no enemies that you could possibly see, you take the only path the game tells you to go and you're surprised by some enemy, "oh shit, hold up, let me take a breather that guy actually surprised me" and then suddenly there are 3 enemies on your back, and you can't possibly fight them back too, that's not punishing a player for rushing, it's punishing a player for not being able to read the future, and it's not like the devs shouldn't pull the carpet from under your feet sometimes, they definitely should, we want a challenge it's fucking dark souls. However, don't excuse shit enemy placement made for the sole reason of fucking the players for something they have no control over
@pepekovallin nah u got punished every dark souls has ambushes git gud
@@camarobro1897 ok
This title is an L take 😂😂😂
I agree with several of your points. The only area I believe your critique may be skewed is when you talk about enemy placement in scholar feeding a negative feedback loop. I dont think the intention of FromSoft (or any developer) is to create content with the hopes of you running by it blindly. I just finished a 100 hour playthrough of SOTFS and will admit, it was definitely more challenging than vanilla, but it did not feel intentionally unfair. I was over-leveled as a result of the challenge and constant enemy killing.
In most cases the SOTFS ganks can be avoided with observation and utilization of consumables and weapons. SOTFS definitely taught me to appreciate the alternate pathing of ds2 as well as the vast amount of items and resources.
Lastly, a game’s worth or critical assessment should never be validated off one’s own self-imposed challenges-ie “broadsword only runs”. These self imposed challenges or viewpoints of what makes a “worthwhile” play through” hold no pertinence to a games overall ability to convey, play, and express a story.
thank fucking god somebody speaks in a good way.
@@duckyduckington9736 I appreciate it!
@@johnacker4959 np
I always played the "kill everything while you go" game... so honestly, I don't buy the "the game teaches you to avoid combat" thing... you choose to do it.
I could be the exception, but I never felt the game was telling me to avoid enemies. in fact, I felt like i should kill them more, because if anything, they stop existing eventually
maybe what either you or the youtuber dont see is that Dark souls 1 and dark souls 2 was made (probably not on porpose) for diferent kind of people
@@Kayther33 I don't see how that relates to what I said...
Your comment needs more thumbs up :)
I liked his two videos for most of the part, however in my opinion he is playing the game incorrectly and uses that to criticise SotfS. It would be valid to be of the opinion that there are too many enemies and that it takes too much time to kill them. I don't feel that way, but that is subjective. However being too lazy to actually kite and kill the enemies one by one and instead just kite the whole level behind is just a stupid player decision - not the game's fault.
@@WCIIIReiniger Agreed. I pre-ordered DS2 and got it in. fancy black metal case. I really enjoyed vanilla. Especially the lightning sword you get from the first Hyde Knight. Then after many place throughs...Sotfs came out. It was nice to have a change to the game for freshness. I never even thought to run past the enemies. You need to kill enemies for souls to level up and be prepared for the next part of the game. I'm glad I played vanilla first. And I honestly like both versions. But I never got ganked like him in scholar. Bloodborne...now that game will throw a gank at you that you cannot lure one enemy out at a time. If this dude learned to use a bow, he would find both much easier.
@@pbabiesinspace6112 I am currently on a lightning/faith/power stance build and the heide knight sword was my first "main" weapon. I later replaced it and eventually ended up with lightning infused uchigatana (left hand) and lightning infused ice rapier (right hand). I also heavily leveled attunement and it is great to have 4 sunlighte blade casts available, so that you can cast one for every difficult fight.
I'm playing SOTFS and I KNEW there was something strange about the enemy placement! It just does not feel right at all
Agros every enemy in a level then gets jumped and says game bad . Try not to run past everything and then acting shocked when they all are ganged up on you .
Right? Are people even playing the game they bought???
Finally a good DS2 take popped up in my recommended. I always thought SotFS felt like playing a randomizer or something
Wait you actually missed the "Talk" prompt at Ancient Dragon and fought him everytime? Holy sh*t hahahaha
I always wondered why everytime I saw people at the Ancient Dragon they're busy killing him when he's an important story NPC. I guess they just all run at him so fast the prompt doesn't have time to show up lmao
@@digiquo8143it's because the community is full of autistic twitch viewers whose lives consist of eating sleeping and watching speedrunners all day
I always say that I like vanilla more than Scholar edition, but people barely recognize it exists, and if they do, they just say 'but Scholar is the definitive version'
whats the actual difference between the two
@@Michael-jc7jr Did you even watch the video...?
@@Michael-jc7jr bro did you watch the video
@@Michael-jc7jr Scolar has reworked enemies placement, 60 fps , and all three dlc included, and I'm guessing better multiplayer coding
@@nestormelendez9005
Important to mention, that's Scholar in new gen, Scholar for old gen only has the DLCs.
(I know that you know, I said it for the OP).
Imagine making a 40 min video complaining and then upload it to UA-cam. Skill issue
Just finished SOTFS and this video actually makes me wanna try vanilla now
I'm not a fan of Dark Souls 2 at all, but please go play the vanilla version. It is so much better than SOTFS.
Sotfs is better, vanilla is just too easy
People seem to forget that Dark Souls 2 was rushed and had to cut out a lot of content. It is disappointing that small changes in scholar has made people to think it is horrible without knowing the full story.
Ds2 isn't comparable in terms of quality to the rest of the fromsoft library. That being said, vanilla is a much more reasonable experience than SotFS and is definitely worth a try if you're interested
@@serphvarna4154 Agreed
Vanilla Dark Souls 2 was my first souls game. I'm almost finished with my second run of the game, and you are so right about the game teaching you at a perfect pace how to survive. My first run was slow going and I did not have a high opinion of it, but once I began to learn combat through the well balanced gameplay, my opinion changed for the better. My second run, certain areas that had me stuck for a while the first time through like no man's wharf and the gutter I just blew through. I highly recommend new souls players that go for 2 first to beeline for heide's tower of flame, the bonfire next to an old knight right at the entrance is the PERFECT place to practice basic controls against large enemies, and the knights drop a good number of souls for early game level ups.
I've always maintained that I love Shrine of Amana. It's beautiful, it's actually difficult, the boss is just fucking cool. I just like it.
What I like is, that when the nps stop singing, the fireflies obove the resting undead disappear, increasing the Undeads aggro range, also they stand up (a bit)
Also, chameleon there to turn into a mushroom
Sacrilegious comment
I too enjoy testicular torsion
Kinda weird to admit it liking CBT but go off I guess
You can see If there are cliffs underwater If you tilt the camera overhead and there are not really any holes on the main path anyways. And the range attacks, they mostly give you more than enough cover to evade..
I love this game so much, but you need to use your brain with it and skill.
I hate how the enemies just mob on you in packs. And if they approach from off camera they don’t make any noise or footsteps. You just get hit from some enemy that was hiding off camera.
Git gud
@@Renwa82forget about getting good he should just get a better game 😂
Maybe don't just run in blind and never determine if the area is safe. There is really not any area I was ever ganked and it wasn't my fault
I bought Scholar to get all 3 DLCs at once and played it after 100%ing DS2 base game. I didn't notice that difference in enemy AI but the different placement begged some questions. After 100% Scholar as well I felt completely burnt out and never wanted to touch that thing again.
Maybe giving the vanilla version another go could be fun.
Scholar is better in some ways
The shrine was nerfed because the tracking on the enemy’s magic projectiles was insane. It was basically impossible to dodge.
That's not true.
@@BigC60 I played it, it was absolutely true
@@someguywithcancer1595 I played it, it's not true.
@@Chosty94 I played it, it is true. Are we just gonna have a circle argument?
@@saphron613 I didn’t play it, it’s true
I mean its no wonder you felt the game was that hard when all you could do is spam r1 with a broadsword to get through the whole game, when you use is a wep meant for single targets of course you get destroyed when you get swarmed by enemies you have no cc, also no shields, no sorc or miracles, no santier's spear 😂😂
Agreed, this guy is trying to play DARK SOULS with a toothpick two handed... wtf...?
And he is careless as f.... look at him playing, he just storm through the areas thinking that he is playing God of War or Devil May Cry.....
Jesus, what a amateur....
I played scholar first, but never felt like I should run away from the "unfair bullshit". I approached the levels in a paranoid and methodical manner, learning how to single out enemies, find cover from archers, check my surroundings for ambushes, etc. Sometimes I would reach the boss gate and decide to go back because I couldn't clear the area with a reasonable amount of healing left. By the end, I was not lacking in levels. I'm not saying I would have enjoyed the saner difficulty less, just that my experience was very different from yours.
edit: Shrine of Amana did break me, tho, it was traumatizing.
As a note, the giant dead dragon in Aldia's Keep *does* attack you in Scholar, if you light all the torches in the area. It gives you a key to bypass the ogres in the doors leading to the dragon just behind as well. Great video though, I've always defended the second game by saying Scholar actually made it worse, and it's nice to see someone with a similar opinion for once. Sorry to hear people were such jerks about it though.
Not jerks just honest people just need to git gud
I beat scholar of the first sin with around 72 deaths, I thoroughly enjoyed the game, but now seeing footage of the vanilla version, I feel like I was robbed of my money. Thank you for making this video man👌
scholar was better than vanilla, period.
The funny part about Scholar is, that all the new content and fixes ARE available in Vanilla DS2. It was a giant patch.
"Scholar of the first Sin" in the sense of a separate purchaseable entry only has the new enemy and item placement. Oh, and some lighting "fixes". So you actually need the torches now. But that's it. It's completly redundant to play Scholar (the new entry)! xD
There is also the item that stops soul memory from increasing and 6 players instead of 4, although the biggest reason to buy it is if you are on console for example ds2 orginal is ps3 only while Scholar is ps4 and ps5, ps4/ps5 version has better resolution and fps.
@@CrispierbugThat item also exists in vanilla
I exclusively play DaS2 v1.0. It's just good.
The kinds of builds you can make are amazing, and the "souls economy" is booming. Miracle builds are amazing. You can make a fast-rolling, hex-casting Havel. You can do a lightning-STR build. You can just run around with 2 daggers (I prefer one lightning, one dark) and do backstabs. With the 3rd person bow-cam, you can do ranged builds in boss fights, especially ranged poison builds.
People hated ADP, but leveling it up enough gives you a massive amount of I-Frames. There are like 7 roll speeds. Bonbfire ascetics really help you power level (Old Iron King) and gain NG+ equipment early. Also, NG+ is actually different and a challenge with new surprises.
It's my favorite Souls game, even more than Bloodborne.
I exclusively played Vanilla, from 2015-22. Played it all the time. It’s been a source of constant frustration that DS2 gets almost wholly judged on Scholar edition.
Finally, my PS3 died, so I got Scholar on PS4. Beat it with 14 deaths. Playing Scholar , finally, simple reinforced my thoughts about it , after having watched it streamed many times. Vanilla is the superior single-player first playthrough experience. Vanilla gives you a great balance between exploration and combat.
Scholar is better suited as a co-op experience. Scholar wants to fill all your holes. Pretty much every area Vanilla leaves open for exploration, Scholar adds enemies there. It should be noted that Scholar lets there be 3 summons, instead of Vanilla’s 2.
Something worth mentioning is how very different item placement is. Vanilla has a much more difficult item placement. The Dull Ember is in Iron Keep. The Bastille key is after Gargoyles. Uber weapons like Grand Lance, Staff of Wisdom, or Dragons Tooth, are very late game. Many armor sets were very difficult to obtain in Vanilla, like The Armor of Aurous, Warlocks Mask, and Heides set.
A couple notes. I use lock on. Works great. Not sure why there’s been a recurring emphasis in these videos that no lock on is necessary.
Lifegems are not a band aid. Another recurring complaint. They’re the grasses, from Demons Souls. There’s a ton of Demons DNA in DS2. Like reducing max hp after dying. Lifegems are a functionally different way of healing. And serve to compliment the way Estus works differently. In combat, do you stay mobile, and get a small, slow heal, or plant yourself for a big chug?
I frames tied to a stat is functionally no different than tied to a roll type, except for naked pro players. And it’s more interesting, bc not every game starts with access to the best roll, before even taking a step, by getting naked.
Hit boxes are fine. Level s, and they’re no worse than other souls. Players are confusing what looks like a fast roll and should have s, but doesn’t, as a bad hitbox. Level s, and you’ll roll just fine.
Bosses should be judged against other souls bosses after ng+, at least. To understand why, you need to understand how Bonfire Ascetics work. Basically, the devs wanted to encourage players to use this genius new consumable. To do so, they didn’t act like other souls, and make the bosses give you all you can handle. If they made them too tough, players would never use a incredibly powerful and fun item. From my experience, bosses in ng+ use more rare attacks, punish healing and ranged better, and more follow up swings on combos. You can definitely see the AI stepping up its game. But if it was like that during the first try, far fewer players would interact with the game using Bonfire ascetics.
DS1 has a great map before Anor Londo. A masterpiece. No other game compares. But from Anor Londo on, nothing special. I’m sick and tired of hearing how great DS1’s map is, bc only a portion is. DS2’s map is Demons Souls inspired. A hub, with spokes. Fun fact- you can walk everywhere, except to Lost Bastille, in DS2.
Not every weapon has a guaranteed combo. You’ll have to react to the times when the enemy is out of range for the second hit. Like the Mace, sometimes you need to do the heavy instead of the second light, bc the enemy was pushed back. If a true combo weapon is that goddamn important to you, pick something else that does that. There’s plenty to choose from.
Story is a personal thing. Both games have their merits, narrative-wise. Personally, i like the agency DS2 gives the player, to make a decision, instead of a pawn in the lord’s power-struggle.
One thing I feel like mentioning is that I never cared to replay DS1 in ng+. Not once. But i have multiple high ng+ cycles characters in DS2. The game makes real changes to the world, not just in ng+, but for every one of the next 6 cycles. Plus, you can reallocate levels, and try new builds, or weapons. DS1 felt suffocating in that way. Want to be a Wizard after awhile, but have been a big bonk build? In DS1, that means start over.
DS2’s PvP and invasions are the best in the series. DS1 requires a PhD in glitches, and DS3 is roll-spam wars of attrition. DS2 is the sweetspot. That alone is going to keep DS2 forever in the limelight.
Is DS2 perfect? Hardly.
You can feel however you want about DS2.
But you arent going to compare it to DS1 in any way other than discussing how superior it is in every way.
Many hardcore fans of the series completely ignore DS2, and youd be a blithering fool to ignore that fact. Its inferior in every aspect to DS1 and is nothing akin to Demons save for healing items and a high number of humanoid knight fights.
@@IIYamiSanII You want to compare DS2 to DS1? Fine by me.
Let’s compare fashion. DS2’s armor has physics, like capes that blow in the wind. DS1’s doesn’t move at all.
DS2’s Magic system is far deeper. Many more good spells, lots of utility. DS1 can’t compare, and cast speed is bizarrely tied to DEX. I can’t even.
DS2’s menus. I mean, DS1’s should be taken out back and shot.
DS2’s PvP is superior in all the best ways to DS1’s. Glitches defines DS1’s duels. You need a PhD in them to be good. DS3 is a roll-spam war of attrition, so real PvPers will keep DS2 forever relevant.
Does DS1 change anything in ng+….a big bzzzt !! DS2? Adds new items, gear, spells, armors. Places new enemies in the world, changes up boss fights. Don’t forget those changes don’t stop in ng+. There’s changes every cycle, through ng+7. DS1 makes numbers bigger. Woot!
Want to play a wizard, but you built an Ultragreatsword user? In DS1, you’re shit out of luck. Start a brand new game! Feel like playing DEX, start a third game. How about throwing some Lightning around? Start a fifth game. Ever wanted to be a bad ass pyromancer? Start a sixth game. Those hexes might be fun….well, you get the picture… Hope you like playing the exact same game seven times, just trying out builds…. and the exact same game again in ng+ .
Feel like swapping covenants? DS2 says , yes! DS1 would like to fuck you over, and lose a bunch of progress.
4 rings slots. Compared to 2. Last I checked, 4 is more than 2, and therefore better. DS2 is better.
3 weapon slots.
Every weapon can parry. Almost. 99% can.
Powerstance.
Rewards for completing challenge runs.
And you don’t get automatically kicked to ng+ when you beat the final boss.
If you can’t admit I’m right, about any of that, you’re seriously delusional.
P.S. Bed of Chaos
P.S.S. Many Hardcore fans of the series consider DS2 the best souls title, and you’d be a blithering fool to ignore that fact.
@@IIYamiSanII You want to compare DS2 to DS1? Fine by me.
Let’s compare fashion. DS2’s armor has physics, like capes that blow in the wind. DS1’s doesn’t move at all.
DS2’s Magic system is far deeper. Many more good spells, lots of utility. DS1 can’t compare, and cast speed is bizarrely tied to DEX. I can’t even.
DS2’s menus. I mean, DS1’s should be taken out back and shot.
DS2’s PvP is superior in all the best ways to DS1’s. Glitches defines DS1’s duels. You need a PhD in them to be good. DS3 is a roll-spam war of attrition, so real PvPers will keep DS2 forever relevant.
Does DS1 change anything in ng+….a big bzzzt !! DS2? Adds new items, gear, spells, armors. Places new enemies in the world, changes up boss fights. Don’t forget those changes don’t stop in ng+. There’s changes every cycle, through ng+7. DS1 makes numbers bigger. Woot!
Want to play a wizard, but you built an Ultragreatsword user? In DS1, you’re shit out of luck. Start a brand new game! Feel like playing DEX, start a third game. How about throwing some Lightning around? Start a fifth game. Ever wanted to be a bad ass pyromancer? Start a sixth game. Those hexes might be fun….well, you get the picture… Hope you like playing the exact same game seven times, just trying out builds…. and the exact same game again in ng+ .
Feel like swapping covenants? DS2 says , yes! DS1 would like to fuck you over, and lose a bunch of progress.
4 rings slots. Compared to 2. Last I checked, 4 is more than 2, and therefore better. DS2 is better.
3 weapon slots.
Every weapon can parry. Almost. 99% can.
Powerstance.
Rewards for completing challenge runs.
And you don’t get automatically kicked to ng+ when you beat the final boss.
If you can’t admit I’m right, about any of that, you’re seriously delusional.
P.S. Bed of Chaos
P.S.S. Many Hardcore fans of the series consider DS2 the best souls title, and you’d be a blithering fool to ignore that fact.
If somebody told you Dark Souls was better in every way than Dark Souls 2, then somebody lied.
PS: I dislike the ability to swap out covenants on the fly; I think it doesn’t fit with the idea of dedication. That being said, I hate that it removes your existing rank.
I do prefer the idea of Darkmoon Blades being those who hunt down invaders and sinners, while the Blue Sentinels would be the auto non-jolly platonic summons to help out weaker players. They shouldn’t be the same.
And why tf were bonfire ascetics, hexes, and powerstancing not included in Dark Souls 3? That sh*t was a straight upgrade.
@@christophercollins3632
So, your nit picks are comparisons? Your opinions are objective?
Yeah, I apologize in advance here, but, thats not how constructive comparisons work.
Me retorting would be me trying to tell you you aren't allowed to have opinions. All you need to do is research, and play the game. Its a joke in comparison to the rest of the series because its a blatant downgrade from its predecessors. Thats a joke.
And heres the kicker. SotfS is noted to be the "Definitive" version of the game. So the base game is actually a rip off. If youre going to sit there and defend that silly bullshit youre a lost cause. But, hey, some people like to swim in puddles of garbage juice.
So basically you’re just bad at the game
Yes
I think I qualify as one of the people who played vanilla first and now holds that Scholar is superior. I think you sort of gloss over very quickly the amount Shrine of Amana was nerfed in vanilla. The degree it went down was larger than even Radhan was in the first Elden Ring patch.
For me I played vanilla twice through on release on Xbox 360. Really didn't enjoy it, so I didn't buy any dlc past the Sunken King. I didn't buy Scholar until 2019 on PS4, and had largely accepted DS2 for what it was. Knowing the games to come after DS2 I'd end up liking much much more. So jumping back into Scholar I just felt like I was ready to accept and like DS2 for what it was.
And the fact that the final 2 DLC's were essentially brand new to me and are some of the best parts of the game. Including Fume Knight etc.
Which left me not remembering that vanilla actually had less enemies in certain areas. And when I saw those inflated enemy counts in Scholar, I was able to just accept it because "well I know ds2 is full of enemy spam. At least scholar made these sweet new areas"
And the fact that for me I played Scholar on PS4 vs an Xbox 360 I'd say is an underrated aspect. To just have that much smoother of an experience.
gotta second the amana part, OG amana was harder than ANY of sotfs
My biggest issues with SOTFS were making it way more difficult to get around the world with all those arbitrary statues, changing certain iconic events/encounters from vanilla (like the Aldia Keep dragon skeleton or the Heide knight encounters) and randomly copy/pasting bosses from the vanilla game as regular enemies in nonsensical locations all over the map.
I always associated DS2 with pointless enemy spam even before SOFTFS.
As someone who's played all other souls games (except demon souls) before DS2, I honestly didn't have too much of a problem in Scholars. While I do agree that some of the branch of yore statues were a bit tedious and the difficulty scaling could be occasionally tricky to gauge, the only times I really found myself just running past the enemies is if I already pressed through the level and found all the other items and really just needed to get to the boss for a secondary attempt. Y'know, like I do in every souls game. Explore the level, fight the mobs, grab the loot, kill the boss. Run past enemies if level is already "cleared", so to speak.
Scholars is not unique in this approach. I do the same in DS3, did the same in DS1, still do the same in Elden Ring. The thought of Shrine of Amana being previously more difficult and annoying to push through is terrifying. Why anyone would think that version of the game was superior is beyond me.
I did indeed play vanilla back on 360 and its still my favorite one besides elden ring now. Scholar being described as an optional hard mode is a perfect description
The problem with Vanilla Shrine was that in unpatched there were more enemies and that they could shoot you with magic before they had even rendered.
Get good
Why is this video filled with misinformation
Tru
First the branches are always within reach, there's no way you'll get locked out of some place, just look somewhere else
Second, the dragon actually does come to life you just have to light 4 torches and fight forlorn invaders which tbh makes the dragon's attack much cooler
Those are my two main gripes with his critique
DS2 fans drink the pickle juice first from the jar then eat the pickles.
@Retro Chad drink pickles juice first , play without lock on and LEVEL UP ADP!!! 💀💀
@Retro Chad I have never played DS2 intentionally unlocked for extended periods of time or even for one encounter. I know Matthewmatosis talks about how unlocked is preferable in his analysis, and I’ve heard many players say the same, but I’ve just never done it. I feel locked works fine but I know others feel differently. I might do my next DS2 run (my 13th or 14th run, I’m not entirely sure which it is) unlocked and see if it’s as great as I hear. Big Ups!
As someone that liked the Frigid Outskirts, Elden Ring's consecrated snowfield is nostalgic.
Miyazaki is like "Yeah, I know how most of you hated this map, guess what, a cameo would be great!"
What kind of psychopath likes getting fucked by reindeers while seeing literally nothing
The only bad part about Frigid Outskirts was the blizzard you had to truck through to get to Lud and Zallen. The fact that people trash the whole DLC because of that little part is stupid. Plus it had two of the coolest weapons in the game, the Ice Rapier and Curved Nil Greatsword.
@@Kingeptacon That Ice Rapier is a beast, just a shame it breaks after only a little use.
@@Kingeptacon You forgot Loyce Greatsword, one of the coolest greatswords in the game IMO
I was wondering why I started despising Dark Souls 2 as an adult when as a teenager I loved the game. Thank you for enlightening me to how much better the vanilla version was, I oughta buy it again.
Vanilla isn't better unfortunately
@@Pelayum did you even watch the video?
@@mrbartinio People like you really base your opinions solely on vodeo game critique channels. Not saying you cant agree with this guy but you act as if his opinions are gospel.
@@mrbartinio Unfortunately I did
@@Dielawn69 another day, another batch of hypocrites who accuse people of parroting the words of others while defending those who don’t back up what they say. Fact is he has something to point to whereas you don’t.
I'm not watching the video. I will just heavily agree with you and go away. Have a good evening
I only even bought Scholar. Taught me to clear the levels ten or so times to despawn the mobs before attempting the boss. More souls, more levels, no boss run hazards.
That takes forever and the bosses are so easy the extra levels are pointless.
I do that too . Its fun to collect the souls
I only had to resort to it at Iron Keep on the way to fighting the Smelter Demon. If I tried to run past the enemies, I almost always die at the fog gate. That was when I finally looked up guides, thinking I maybe missed a shortcut to the boss or something, and found out about the kill 12 times to despawn enemies trick.
DS2 is the easiest souls game but these kind of things (including the terrible hitboxes) makes it the most frustrating to play.
That sounds like a boring grind
@@lyrebird5982 i did that on xbox 360 it took forever it's not fun.
19:19 Brother thats a lie, you absolutely can do the 1mil soul memory skip at Shrine of Winter. You can do it with either 4 lord souls (can be copies) or 1 million souls in that playthrough. And also, the dragon does come to life in Aldia's Keep in Scholar. Have we played the same game? This is stuff you can look up on a wiki man
cool story bro
Glad I’m not the only one who noticed, saw another guy mention that as well lol
The dragon coming to life after some obscure and hidden shit to do is more or less the same to him being death you know.
@@BazookaTiger37 No, not at all.
@@BazookaTiger37 Lighting sconces is not some obscure or hidden method. They are literally plastered all over the world.
I remember when i had really nerdy friends that saw me playing vanilla ds2 and heavily critizied me for not having scholar and back then i never knew there was another version than vanilla. When i did play schollar i became confused on why it was so bullshit but i jus accepted it for being what it is and ignored the opinion of the mass and know that ive opened my ears, everything this video says its dam trueee
Bro. Not even gonna watch. Scholar was a direct improvement to ds2. The original ds2 was way too damn easy for most hardened souls players at the time. The whole reason they made scholar and changed enemy placements was to make the game way more challenging as it was lacking in that department.
You still promoted the video by clicking on it and leaving a comment so...
Not only did you click on the video, but you also commented. Good job promoting bro
I’ve been putting a ton of hours in Dark Souls 2 vanilla recently. I remember years ago when I played SotFS I didn’t even get to Drangleic Castle. I chalked it up to “Meh, people *did* say it was the weakest souls game.” Now in vanilla, I’m on my second play through and still having fun.
I've played both and I love them both alot, and I've never seen a playstyle like yours, I am a completionist so I kill everything and collect everything in the game even If it's a useless item, I've never seen a player skip everything unless it's a speedrun
Yes yes! So glad to see someone else that agrees Scholar was a downgrade, people says that is much better because placements "makes more sense" and "It's harder", but adding a bunch of enemies in every encounter, doubling aggro range, and adding a bunch of tougher enemies earlier is bananas, Scholar's Heide is absolute ass because they took a MINIBOSS from OG and made it, a normal enemy, imagine if Black Knights were all around Lower Undead Burg! Scholar made a few things better like the Dragon Shrine actually being very cool, but otherwise, yeah.
OG is a 9/10 for me, while Scholar is rather... a 7 or 7.5 at best, quite the difference.
Is the only time I’ve ever come across the moment in the souls community where I genuinely believe you just need to git gud. Running past all those enemies only made the game even harder and what is your build, why would you never change to better weapons or armor, you challenged yourself more than the game did. Learn positioning and do more damage and you wouldn’t be struggling
No, i don't think so.
You pretty much nailed it. Vanilla DS2 is probably the From game I put the most time into. It wasn't as good as 1, but it was still a fantastic game.
I got maybe a third of the way through Scholar and never wanted to touch the game ever again. It is a truly miserable, hate fulled experience.
I actually think that Scholar of the First Sin had it's ups and downs. To me, while the ganks were annoying, i did kinda like the new item placements, and some new enemy placements made sense (especially the Dragon by the Cathedral, as it's so close to the Dragonrider, who i figure got their name for a reason!). Also, the new dark areas gave torches more use, in addition to the other features giving reason to backtrack more (but not in any mandatory fashion.)
Also, the ember is actually available early, so i no longer have to mix physical/elemental builds if i don't want to!
The one thing that grinds my gears, though... is that damn statue placement. If they wanted the random statues blocking the ways to make a lick of sense, and having the petrified bastards look like they were trying to either run from Basilisks or intentionally stuffed in the way to keep intruders out, would have been good.
Are you saying adding that spamming dragon at the front of catedral is an good change?, remember it also has the watchdragon parma shield, but since most of the time you are being pursued by 3 heide knights and 4 old knights you are more likely to die when you kill it and end up losing that shield unless you use Ascetics.
It happened to me and i was confused when i started to farm the platinum of why that was missing.
I would have agreed about the dragon, if the dragon were closer to the dragonrider rather than the dragonslayer.
@@anstornerwhy do you run past the knights if you haven't killed the dragon thats just stupid
@@johku4433 Because it takes like 10 minutes to get rid of them all, specially with those spear ones that nuke your health in seconds regarless of how highleveled you are, and because the dragon gets awakened if you get close to the stairs, so u are forced to run past it because once he gets up, its imposible to go there since the fire does so much damage and it oneshots most of the time, and u cant bait it so since it goes through walls.
Oh brother this guy stinks
So true on all points. I played DS2 on release and loved it, couldn't find a way to play it so was forced to try scholar on PS5. I completed it and had fun, but it was so much worse than my memory.
I have never played the scholar version of ps4 only the vanilla scholar of ps3 and I was always confused when I saw ppl being ganged by 2000 enemies in areas that never had as many for me
Same, when I saw the real Scholar I thought it was a hardmode mod
@@gustavovm491 yea it honestly looks like the ascended mods that just make a super unfairly difficult challenge for experienced players
Don't remember where I heard it, but someone said that the branch of yore statue was added to the tutorial because players were cheesing the respawning Ogre for easy souls, and the statue was put there to stop it-- which if true, is the dumbest possible solution to an easily solved problem.
I still love SotFS tho, and Vanilla is also good =P
P.S.
Sorry for fans being insufferable. Maybe that's inevitable, but I also very rarely get enjoyable conversations out of fellow DS2 fans.
Sorry? Have you seen his thumbnail? If that isn't bait for salty DS2 fans like myself, then I don't know what is. 👺
plus so much of what he says is literally incorrect, and highlights his ignorance regarding both versions of the game. i mean in fairness it does prove that ds2 is more than a little confusing, which is something i would consider valid criticism of the game. but this ain't it chief
@@NerdOracle Don't even get me started on his ranting and raving about "ganks".
@@NerdOracle see, even when someone agrees with y'all that it's a good game, that's not enough for you. And that's really creepy.
@@River_StGrey I'm just making conversation about a thing I'm passionate about. It's particularaly opinionated, that's in part because the video is strongly opinionated as well.
Frankly, I don't care whether he likes the game or not. Nor you for that matter. You're each free to feel any which way about them. It was never about having people agree with me in the first place; but rather rejecting the assertion that dude's opinion was reflective of the truth about scholar, when it's so unapologetically biased and narrow-minded. Not to mention laced with inaccuracies that expose how little he knows of the game he's criticising.
And again, dude literally crafted a clickbait thumbnail specifically to stir up hardcore ds2 fans for debate in the comments. You're offering your sympathy to the guy who deliberately kicked the ants' nest and got swarmed. Not like I have any right to tell you how to treat others, but I don't sympathize with people like that, personally.
@@NerdOracle Eh, fair enough. I think the dude has shown a serious amount of open mindedness to give an experience he hated enough chances to come around to liking it though. I think that deserves some credit when the video is opinionated, especially when the content doesn't match the click bait of the thumbnail.
But, I really love DS2 and am just glad whenever someone gets a good experience out of it.
skill issue: the video
Did you not hear him saying they combat was specifically made for the amount of enemies that were in the levels? I like getting myself a hard time but that's just torture
@@drago6568 skill issue
@@snookiewozo true
This video is proof there is a God. Original DS2 has been vindicated. My soul can rest in peace.
Pre-Smelter Iron Keep in SotFS is ridiculous, and I prefer vanilla's handling of Heide Knights, but otherwise I think Scholar does pretty much everything better. Sure, there are more enemies, but idk dude,I think you're doing a lot of blaming others for your own failings. Your Scholar footage, in this and your original critique, is fucking NUTS. Like, I've played Scholar a few times, and I've never seen hoards of the sizes you're accruing. Not to mention the deranged inferences about the developers' intentions... I don't think these critiques are particularly well thought out tbh.
Thank god somebody else sees.
I think the Heide Knights critique is... unjustified? I mean, they are indeed, in HEIDE. I always found the first one in vanilla so unfair in the game, giving you the, probably, most powerful sword until Amana in the first steps of the game.
@@ZirixStrarstrider is not that good, i mean, the fire sword is a bit better and the ultragreatsword its like, the weapon.
Even tho, i love that armor and is fucking insane get it in vanilla, but still, i like that the heide knights are everywhere except heide
@@Kayther33 Heide Knight Sword is a beast of a weapon. Almost every enemy is weak to lightning, and is so low in stat investment, that you can breeze through the game with it until Undead Crypt almost.
Also, makes sense. They're called Heide Knights...
To quote myself from my comment on your first DS2 video:
“People say that DS2’s DLC is stronger than the base game. I couldn’t disagree more. The base game, pre-Scholar of the First Sin, was a great experience.”
I’m telling you, and maybe you’re now telling me, vanilla DS2 is a much better game than Scholar.
DS2 has the same DLC without scholar.
Why people never talk about the NG+ experience in 2 is the best in the entire series 😭
because thatd involve giving the game some credit lol
because most once they defeat the final boss (if they even get this far) are too tired of it and just want to be done with it
more unique ng+ is not really an incentive to someone who's not having a good time with new game experience
@@blairfujin i can understand the feeling, ds2 was my first souls game and had a blast with it despite not killing every major boss which probably contributed for me to avoid getting tired of it, played until NG+7 and it was pretty great to go through the game with ease but still having a new challenges along the way.
forgot to add that i played the original PS3 version, tried SOFTS on PC but it was worse overall
@@blairfujin bonefire aestetics dude, you never even have to restart your playthru to experience 90+% of ng+
There is a fragrant branch of yore really close to the first bonfire of lost bastille if you take the pursuer way. It’s off to the left out the door from that room with 3 dogs. There is a chest and another pursuer fight that drops twinkling. The first branch is also good to use in the tutorial area because you get an estus shard which are definitely in need early game
I mean, a newcomer probably wouldn't have killed The Pursuer, and if he did so he would still probably miss that interaction with the bird.
Although the Pursuer is a great "tutorial" for newbies, it is entirely optional
@@gabrielsantana6161well I was basically arguing the fact that players can get locked out of the Ruin Sentinels, you can backtrack from the other side even. But Pursuer was my route as a newcomer on my first playthrough of vanilla ds2. He was tough, but I was able to get it eventually
i only ever played SoTFS but my slow playstyle honestly made me confused on why people hate the game so much but now looking at the comparison to vanilla, wow, its incredible how much better it seems vanilla is compared to the 'definitive' edition
also
Sekiro is a fantastic game so hopefully you will like it, the combat takes some getting used to but overall its a fantastic experience (even if some NPC questlines are as cryptic as DS1 and i had to just look up stuff)
Sekiro does something interesting in that it really frontloads its bad boss fights (looking at you Ogre and Bull), which feels great for people replaying the game and absolutely godawful for first-time players.
@@TehCakeIzALie1 the bull isn't bad at all, it dies quickly if you parry it using the withered red gourd.
@@TehCakeIzALie1 I wouldn't agree that either are bad per se, however they should not be at the start of the game.
Ogre deals way too much damage for the early game, taking almost all of your health bar when the player has at most 2 gourd heals, meaning the player can only afford 3 mistakes in the whole long ass fight, not to mention how he encourages hit-and-run tactics, which gets early players into a bad habit.
Bull would be a great fight if it weren't for one thing; deflecting the bull should not do damage, as it discourages the most fun and most viable approach to the fight, and again is a bad learning tool as it seems to punish players for using deflects rather than hit-and-run.
I think both these gimmicks are fair challenges for the mid to late game (both fights have later variants that are much more enjoyable), but putting these stupid hard and honestly counterproductive fights at the beginning was a dumbass move.
@@TehCakeIzALie1 Ogre and Bull really aren't bad
Thank you for this, I've heard people say the base game was better but not much reasoning why. I am intrigued in this.
I played the vanillas Dark Souls and then Scholar came out, and I read that they had changed enemy placements and the like, but was pretty much breezing through the first area, so I shrugged and proceeded... then I went into that cathedral area with the white knights and giant suits of armors to farm and encountered a dragon at the very end which killed me in one go and was like "Ahh... it's going to be like that."
Personally I enjoyed both versions and played the heck out of both.
SOTFS is definitly the hardest game within the souls series for me. I died about 1500 times.
I actually never have played the vanilla game.
I never played SOTFS and DSII was my first souls game. It is janky and all, but it's a great game, you should try it out. I actually hope you like it, because I really never understood the hatred towards DSII but well. Scholar aparently
@@lafozard7456 . Thank you. I actually don't hate SOTFS, but there's a lot of artificial difficulty stuff, and there are other things you could criticise.
Thats right, much harder than elden... looking at the fume knight or the sir alonne... old ivory king.... is just a joke for me 😅
I'd estimate that 1/4 of the worldwide deaths in DS2 are because of me
Edit: make that 9/10
You must really suck to die that many times. I'm atrocious and I only died 300 or 400 times in 100+ hours.
You know what's funny? I listened to your Scholar video the entire time thinking to myself "I don't remember things being that bad" particularly the Iron Keep and that gank army in the first area but just figured it was just my memory, having really only played it immediately after release. Turns out it's just because I never bothered with Scholar (or any of the DS2 DLC for that matter) XD
The DLCs were quite good if I remember. At least for the most part. The reindeer still haunt me.
Thank you for this video. My thoughts exactly, one complement: The only good change SOTFS has is the shortcut bridge in No-Man's Wharf, but I sacrifice it with no hesitation for all the things that Vanilla did better.
Sorry, but I have to point another good change SOTFS has, with a little story
So, I got Vanilla after something like 150+ hours of Scholar. Fell in love, and decided to leave my comfort zone of Straight Swords and Katanas by doing a Greatsword Run. In the middle of the run, I decided to give the Moonlighr Greatsword a try, since I never used it. Then, right at the Freja Fog Wall, I remembered that, unlike SOTFS, the Torch does not scare the spiders
Killing Freja had never been so stressful
@@marcelovieira519is vanilla really better than ds scholar ?
@@abdulazizabdulaziz6304 From my experience at least, it's less ganky, but both are good games. If you want to play online, go for Scholar because it's more active
@@abdulazizabdulaziz6304Agree with the person above me. Vanilla is better for single player, but worse for multiplayer.
@@marcelovieira519 Also you can Buff Moonlight Greatsword with Crystal magic sword sorcery in vanilla i believe, also miracles are good too.