What gets me about the runback complaint the most is that these games are not boss rushes. You are not supposed to just run and fight the boss 10 times until you win. The area leading up to it is content you are meant to engage with as well. If you cannot get through it consistently, that is part of the difficulty that you need to overcome. It is not a tedious obstacle that is in your way, it is a challenge that you need to face. Stop treating bosses like they're the only content in Dark Souls worth engaging with.
The bosses in dark souls 2 are mostly not even worth engaging with, the game throws so many upgrade materials at you that fighting the pursuer after he shows up again for the 8th time feels more like a tedious waste of time than an actual challenge.
Ds2 runbacks are way better than how Elden Ring babies the player, literally putting a grace before any fog gate while you have a mount to just speed past everything anyways. I remember everyone was mocking the ds3 archives double bonfire in ds3, and then Elden Ring has at least 7 instances of that. You really can just run past 90% of the game, and I prefer earlier souls games not allowing the same cheese.
IMO I do like the change they made in their later games. I do find it tedious to have long runbacks as a part of the boss challenge, as you have to fight the same enemies much more often than usual. It seems Fromsoftware agrees as each game made the runback less and less challenging until they removed them almost completely in Elden Ring. Not a critique you can target at Dark Souls 2 specifically though.
@@alchemy5750But this allows for much more challenging and high profile boss battles. Going that far in the older games would go too far, as each attempt requires a challenging running section on top of the fight itself. For me personally I appreciate offloading the difficulty from a runback directly to the boss itself.
I hate how the Dark Souls II intro tells you your journey is useless and how you will die a lot. Anyways, time to replay my favourite game: Dark Souls Prepare to Die Edition
Also, let's hang out with one of my favourite npcs like a depressed crestfallen Knight who tells you how hopeless it all is and becomes hollow, the baldur Knight that tells me how none will pass sens fortress, the undead merchant that chuckles about collecting loot from my body
Yeah, is a landmark of how they only care for difficulty by saying that. They know the game was hard and they pasted it. No game before and after did that. Anyways, im going back to Sekiro, gonna talk with Kuro after beating Genichiro. "How many times have you died and come back to life for my sake..? Two? Three times?...or... perhaps a number so large that it cannot be counted?" oof
Saying that "you just enjoy pressing R1 a bunch of times" when criticising Ds2 and praising Ds3 is just peak hahhahaha Spamming R1 and Roll in Ds3 literally gets you through almost anything if you give it enough tries but in Dark Souls 2 your stamina, limited s not chaining and overall slower animations will not allow you to but hey, what can you expect from these people...
I wanted to say that seeing people come around to Dark Souls 2 is so satisfying, as it's long since been my favourite game. May the dark guide your way.
People always have been, despite what the youtube community would have you believe, the game is actually well received and played by many today. The game has a 9/10 on steam, an 87% rating on metacritic with a 7.6% user rating
@@YEY0806 it always felt so weird how the game has overwhelmingly positive reviews everywhere, but still every comment section is filled with people that haven't even played it insisting that people are wrong for enjoying it
I feel like it's always that vocal minority making things appear bigger than they are. Those dissatisfied are more likely to go around and complain about it, while those who who are satisfied are less likely to go around and praise it - my experience at least. I'm just happy we're getting more and more people vocal about how they actually like stuff lately!
@@Domo3000 This is what everyone tends to forget. Its a good game on its own but its constantly being compared to the other souls games. Its bad by comparison, not in a vacuum.
I love how the only Semi-thoughtful arguments dimitri is able to make are arguments directly lifted from MauLer's video. All of his personal arguments are full of holes and he debunks half of them himself 5 seconds later lmao
Why do these critics always pretend healing miracles don't exist? The souls series has never had this delicate balance of alotted healing like they describe. In every single game you can literally start with ~5 casts of a healing spell, and usually spec into it very early on if you want. DS1 above all seems to strongly encourage this because the very first merchant you access has it. It's there to give you extra choices about how you deal with incoming damage.
Another huge reason why DS1 heavily prioritizes Faith is the Warrior Of Sunlight Covenant. Unlike all the rest of the covenants, you actually need to get Faith all the way up to 50 in order to join it. Once you finally do that, your talismans have maximum healing potential, you get the Lightning Spear miracle, you get the "Praise The Sun" gesture, you get the "Warriors Of Sunlight" achievement, and you unlock special dialogue from Solaire if you run into him again after the first trip to Anor Londo.
yeah lot of important stuff is obscure or hidden . like whole nature of SM , agape ring and shulva repair tree . no way newcommers are aware they will be proably weaker then pvp players that know game well .stat wise
@@LordDeBahsIt’s a shame that this type of argument is so popular against DS2… A lot of the fun in these games (all 3 of them) is literally looking up info from the community on the secret or “unintuitive” mechanics :D For example, I had no idea that the Shulva tree was used for repairs until I was checking out a DS2 secrets video, my first thought wasn’t: “omg, this is bad design” since I didn’t know, or experimented with it. It was legitimate nice surprise, and lo and behold on another run I used the tree. I love these interactions in the souls games
How are you supposed to "intuit" obscure game mechanics like ADP and agility breakpoints for proper roll s and estus usage, or having to talk to a cat that tells you to talk to a rock to unlock hard mode instead of having something like that that be a menu option like literally every other video game that includes difficulty settings?. DS1 and 3 have some issues where you can miss out on minor content like failing a sidequest and not getting an item or some upgrade materials but DS2 is the only game where a new player can accidentally turn off a main new game mechanic like enemy despawning without even realising the game has that feature,
@@saysalla to be fair if you press select on status screen you can see what agl does ( it says it ease evasion and other actions ) but i think AGL stat should be explained in tutorial area gravestones
discourse around DS2 really made me cognisant of how much blind bias there is in YuuChuub discourse. It's not even like they're game journos who are being paid by a corp to shill; these are people willingly closing their eyes to faults the other games have and opening them when its the "B Team" for no other reason than tribalism
Independent critics get away with aloooot of sloppy analysis because they don't have a publication checking their work. Ironic I know considering how toothless industry journalists are known to be. There's problems on all sides.
@@timefades27It's so true man. The well-deserved downfall of traditional media's reputation and credibility resulted in independent media getting a free pass for everything. It's as if Independent media members and their fans think independent media is inherently better than traditional by virtue of being independent. In reality traditional media looks far better in comparison and that's saying a lot.
My bro, i'm now editing my 1 hour analysis of dark souls 2, can i use some of your footage of hitboxes and other cool things you bring up? I will try to change the game's reputation between brazilian players and show how a lot of negative reviews are full of lies.
@@Domo3000 Thanks! I will also try to put english subtitles for people from other countries, if this works well it would be nice to have your feedback too!
I mentioned in a comment on one of your previous videos that you inspired me to go back and play DS2 again, and I'd like to add onto that: I've always liked DS2, but two things I'd never tried was using a torch regularly and incorporating a bow into my regular build, just so I'd have a reliable ranged option for solving puzzles or pulling individual enemies. It completely changed the way I played the game in a way that made the experienced so fun and fresh. I felt less like I was using a specific build and more like I was an adventurer using every tool at my disposal to solve problems I found The other games in the series have plenty of their own reasons for why they're great, but none of the others give me this specific feeling, because the puzzles and encounters are generally designed in a way that's different than how DS2 does it. It's a tiny change, and it didn't actually change how I built my character (aside from a little extra dex), but just having that extra utility completely changed how I thought about each area I encountered, and I'm probably going to be doing something similar in other games when I go back to them, too. I got that idea from watching you show clips of your own playthroughs where you do something similar, and I'm really glad I tried it. The torch in particular felt like a fun trade-off between damage and utility, even beyond the obvious times when the game wants you to use one to light a torch or something. I also tried leaving Heide's Tower of Flame's post-Dragonrider path for after I'd killed my first great lord, and it felt like such a more natural and fun experience that way. I used to not like that area in Scholar for the reasons a lot of people who hate on the game cite, even though I still love the game overall. I hadn't even considered that doing it that way might be the intended route, and you mentioning it in a few of your videos was like a eureka moment for me. It made me re-evaluate how I felt about the area, and now that I've tried it that way, I've come around to really enjoying it a lot. I'm not going to pretend I'm some hater who was converted because of your videos, but I'm someone who considered this a flawed game that I still liked despite those problems, and your videos have helped me realize that the problem was the way I was approaching the game, rather than the game itself. I just finished that playthrough a couple weeks ago, and it reminded me all over again why I love this game. I love watching your videos, and I'm glad I found your channel.
I hate this. This word is a complete boogeyman used to remove the need to articulate your opinion. It “feels clunky” is the same as: “it feels bad”. There is no real meaning behind it other than you don’t like it. I am going to be honest I personally find most parts of DS2 combat to be the most satisfying out of any game I have ever played. I jizz my pants everytime I open on an enemy with a curved greatsword rolling attack into R1. There is nothing that smooth in gaming. I would say it is fairly realistic in its combat speed and heavily punishing. Most people dont like getting punished and love fast, so they dumb it down to “clunky”. But we still should not excuse this behaviour. If you have an opinion at least find the time to try to explain yourself.
@@KNGDDDE Well as demonstrated in the video, arguably in many ways DS2 is smoother than the previous games anyway. There are no miss-staggers anymore, there's no penalty to movement (and the movement is much smoother) until you hit heavy rolls at 70 (so no mid-weight slow from DS1). Also they removed the four-directional limitation from lock on rolling. That's not to say it isn't still somewhat "clunky" (I'd just call it slow and methodical) as the series was intended to be, but it's much improved over the previous games.
DS2 used to feel like a weaker Souls entry initially, but the longer I've spent playing Souls games...the more I came to appreciate the unique elements of DS2. But it wasn't until recently when I started a Continuity Run (using only stuff that appears in DS1 through DS3) that my opinion of DS2 solidified. Of the three, DS2 was the most fun to run through, no contest. Everythig just felt right. Many thanks for going into extreme depth to break down stuff like this.
It’s absurd how many “criticisms” of DS2 are literally just as applicable to DS1 and DS3. I loved the callout about the poison vs. lava complaint in this video - This is exactly the same as how it worked in DS1 and how players were taught it, but the “criticism” apparently only extends to DS2 for some reason. It’s very obvious that they’re parroting half-baked talking points from other videos and also haven’t replayed DS1 recently. All three DS games are masterpieces and all three have issues, end of story
I remember how much I hated soul memory in DS1 and the crippled rolls in DS3, the entire trilogy is bad. The first good game Fromsoft made was Sekiro because Activision was there to say no to all their bad ideas.
@@saysalla You are just making up stuff lmao. Soul memory exists ONLY in dark souls 2. The rolls are also crippled ONLY in dark souls 2, where the i-frames are the shortest, don't match the visuals, are super slow and weak, and can be leveled up which is the ultimate insult. Activision had 0 say in sekiro's development, they ONLY published the game. You should stop posting Ls while you still can.
Not gonna lie, it's really funny how people are so used to Saysalla spitting unreasonable bs, they didn't realize it was sarcasm. Still crappy in its context but sarcasm 😂
I hate how these liars probably caused many players to never play dark souls 2 robbing them of potential enjoyment and robbing Fromsoft of potential customers.
@@meyes1098 Nahhh, DS1 is still praised to this day, with many vids that celebrate it's perfection. Contrary to this one which only gets video like this. Copium at it's best. It's cute.
DS2 was always great and felt like a unique adventure. The only major thing I'd like to see changed in a remaster, would be to return to the lighting and texture quality that was advertised in the promo-material before release but was scrapped to run on the 360/ps3 gen.
it´s not just about the visuals, without the original lighting, the whole torch mechanic is broken and all the VERY WELL thought out places where your torch would forcefully be snuffed out or you couldnt roll in shallow water dont make sense anymore. DS2 is already a good game, but the "original" vision wouldve been EVEN better, like, the best.
If I could give one fix to the game, I think it would be cool that you gain back the part of your max health you lost when you reclaim lost souls. Makes the occasional death less frustrating for pros and a little more forgiving for noobs.
its so sad to me that the focus they put on the opening cutscene is "the game is telling me how hard it is" rather than the "...without really knowing why" angle
Dark Souls 2 probably has the best opening in the series (and by that I mean not only the cutscene, but the way leading to character creation, and maybe even beyond), created specifically to make players immersed into this more personal story, than the tale of gods and dragons and all that, which was the first installment. Both Dark Souls and Dark Souls 3 openings, while good, are essentially just exposition dumps on the world around, that just throw out the player character at the end without much, or even anything, to say; while Dark Souls 2 opening focuses more on the story of the game and the said character, while also providing needed exposition. Someone must be really either unobservant or outright lying to just single out one line of the lengthy Firekeepers monologue, saying that the protagonist will lose their souls over and over again, and say "Well me don't like, bad game".
@@melonne7278Fair enough, but as art you gotta respect them going new avenues to find the uniqueness of their new creation. They could have easily just copy and pasted the formula without treading new ground and people would probably be happier. But they chose to express themselves differently, because change is needed to improve in the long run.
11:20 If you feel like producing your content through an AI voice is more comfortable for you, then you should consider returning to it. I don't mind your german accent, but I think that you enjoying the content you're making is important Domo :3
I kind of like both. It's cool to hear Domo's real voice, and it definitely allows for more and easier to display personality, but something about that text to speech voice is iconic for me. I think I'll always associate it with this channel now.
Domo3000 was the first person to make me appreciate the AI voice. Previously, I always associated it with a Tiktok video spreading misinformation or mocking people (generally spreading negativity or plain ignorance). Now all I can associate it with is Dark Souls 2 haters getting their claims disproved and funny interjections (the "Wee!" and "Boom!" in the Pyromancer playthrough were my favourites.)
"Dark souls is difficult but fair" B**ch, I literally learnt about Dark Souls existence from a funny gif of the hero being sneakily kicked from a ledge by a giant skeleton in the giants tomb back in 2010. Back then everybody was relishing in how brutal and unfair the game is -_-
"Back then everybody was relishing in how brutal and unfair the game is" Either you don't know what unfair means, the people you are talking about don't know what unfair means, or neither know. Because dark souls 1 is largely a fair game. The word that accurately describes it is "uncompromising". This word can also describe dark souls 2, but it is uncompromising in being unfair to the player and killing them in cheap ways.
@@xx_amongus_xx6987 I talk about how people seemingly were perceiving the game when it just released and surprised everyone with its approach to handling a player. Many people were talking about how dirty some ambushes are but meant it in a cool way. Only after DS2 it suddenly became a bad thing to them. And yes, DS1 is to some extent an unfair game because of some unexplained obscure mechanics and some of the most brutal ambushes in the series. Heck, it's the game where you can screw yourself with levelling up because there's no respecking...
Oh dear, another copycat DS2 hater? Anyone want to guess if this reviewer actually has anything new to say or if it'll just be the same old crap? Wonder if these folk would have a better time with the game if they weren't perpetually thinking about how they can attribute series-wide problems to their personal least favorite DS game. Edit: I guess blaming all the things they don't like on one game means they don't have to criticize their darlings.
Dark Souls 2 wasn't even the best soulslike that came out in 2014, it objectively cannot be "goated" if significantly better games came out that same year.
"...can be clunky at times due to the rolling not being omni-directional..." He literally added the detail right after he said that word, and he was talking about dark souls 1. Also how else do you want him to go into detail when talking about the movement feeling floaty in dark souls 2? If he wasn't being detailed, he would have just said the movement is bad. Instead, he gave a reason for why it feels bad, because it is floaty. It is an observable descriptor, the only way he could go into further detail is if he started talking about how the movement is coded, which you don't need to know in order to understand it is floaty.
@@xx_amongus_xx6987 Ds1 is 'clunky' because no omni directional rolling, he says as he shows the character rolling in any direction (As long as you're unlocked camera) Ds2 is 'floaty' because.... you can roll in any direction even while locked on?
@@xx_amongus_xx6987But what if I disagree with that? If the result is two people just repeating their opinion, then it is not articulated well enough. That is the exact issue OP is mentioning. I can say: The movement is root motion accurately portraying how fast a person would move and steps and rolls carry you an accurate distance for the animation. Now all of the sudden “floaty” sounds like plain and simple a wrong description for the movement. Also his description was only for DS1, while his footage was showing something contradictory. For DS2 he gave no explanation at all and thought that the boogeyman word “clunky” suffices completely. No, it doesn’t. There is no difference between saying something has a “bad gamefeel” and saying it is “clunky”. You have made your opinion, now you should at least spare the time to articulate it.
Yup… you can’t just mean what you say, you have to say what you mean. The point of making a critique or appraisal is to show how some obvious things are actually complex and not obvious-as such, elaboration is required for the seemingly simple. It’s no different than an argumentative essay. You have to elaborate. You have to clarify what “clunky” means, because that’s obviously more nebulous in meaning than things like “attack” or “dodge roll”.
You know, Domo, an interesting video would be "Why do people ACTUALLY hate DS2". Essentially a video where you explain which are the "true reasons" for this game's infamous reputation
Because influencers sucked at it and ganged up on it. Because most so-called fans like the games because of influencers and not the actual games themselves. Because it respected the player's intelligence far too much. And mainly because it seemed slower. Seriously, the need 4 speed low IQ tourists in gaming are ruining it for everybody else.
That's a good idea actually. As for why the game gets the reputation it has. People make videos and their audience whos never played the game will parrot what they heard. Blame disingenuous people like MauLer.
I really don't get what the deal is with DS2 haters being so sensitive about old women telling them they are gonna die, What did you expect to be playing? Candy Crush? Or a sequal to a dark fantasy game that had a definitive edition called "Prepare To Die". A game where one of the first npcs they meet is a depressed knight who tells you how hopless it all is and eventually goes hollow in New Londo.
The idea was that they had to make the game "difficult" for marketing because of the "dark souls = hard gitgud' memes but they did it in the laziest way possible rather than putting any actual thought in the game design which is how we ended up with crippled movement controls, underpowered weapons that break 2-4x as fast as any other game in the genre, random enemy spam in nearly every room, new game mechanics that contradict each other (statues and branches, soul memory and the agape ring, bonfire ascetics and new game+ content, agility and lifegems/poise, etc) refighting the same copy paste bosses over and over again, a broken lightning engine, random areas incoherently jumbled together, uninspired enemy design and many other flaws. The end result isn't exactly a bad game but it feels so amateur compared to most other Fromsoft games that it makes for a very underwhelming experienced if you're coming from their better, older games like Demon's Souls or the King's Field series, or even contemporary games such as Lords of the Fallen which was also made by inexperienced developers yet shows much more care and polish in its design.
@@YEY0806 "Nothing original" What, do you want me to start making up new flaws in a decade old video game? Dark souls 2's flaws are well documented, it's just that creepy diehard redditors refuse to accept that the game was already outdated when it came out and the vast majority of the gaming community has since moved on to newer and better RPGs such as Dragon Age Veilguard.
@@saysalla if you think those debunked points you repeated 500 times are "well documented" then there's no helping you, beside why bring dragon age in the discussion? Dragon age is a completely different franchise, it's like comparing ice cream to pasta to prove that ice cream is superior when they are going for completely different things that warrant no comparison.
I only found out after playing DS2 that it was (supposedly) "the worst in the series". I couldn't understand why, and uve since held the belief that DS2 hate is just mass bias.
@@Hewasnumber1 I wouldn't go so far as to call DS3 good. It's mechanically sound, refined even. But it has its own slew of issues and nonsensical oversights on par with DS1 and is primarily redeemed by its DLC.
It's because they are influencer babies. They only like it because influencers. Is it any surprise that the so-called community turned against the game the moment the influencers started to whine about it?
Love your videos Domo and I enjoy your hudless combat very much. However, I'd like to suggest putting the HUD on (or atleast the healthbar) in your argument points when you point out things specific to avoiding damage from hitboxes (when you duck under or vault over the various attacks). It'll make your point more clear and stronger to put forward.
Ds2 is kinda unique in runbacks, its a challenge where you have to outsmart the enemy aggro, i think its special and a unique sort of challenge that some people can enjoy. But as someone who prefers fighting boss immediately its not that fun or me, especially the executioner chariot one, because its kind of a slog for me. Thats why i prefer dark souls 3 and elden ring's approach of boss emphasis over runbacks, just my two cents. I did like devising strategies in ds2 to get to the boss but i dont like doing it again and again just to get a boring boss i dont like. I do believe many improvements from ds1 and ds2 exist too though, like lock on movement, powerstance, inventory, ring slots, UI, etc.
i get where you coming from, but keep it mind that these games aren't just a boss rush.. the exploration is also part of the game and yeah, everyone can enjoy different part of the game. regarding the boss i feel like, the devs know that people love fighting bosses in these games so they made it that the player should actually *earn* the boss through runbacks (even though some of the bosses aren't great) but from game design perspective, i really respect this kind of mindset. It's what makes games like doom eternal, sifu and sekiro feels so rewarding to play (for me personally)
@@vanilla.icescream exploration is how you find the boss, shortcuts and bonfires the first time but after that i just want to focus on learning the boss. You always start off exploring regardless
@@vanilla.icescream Exploration is part of the game, and it's fun (when there aren't ganks around every corner). But when I die on a boss and want to get back to it, I am no longer "exploring", I am now doing busy work that isn't engaging. There's nothing interesting about fighting 2 dozen boring enemies, and then being forced to fight them all multiple times after just to do something simple in the game that wasn't previously a problem, and never was a problem in future games. There must be something different for you because I love games like doom eternal and sekiro, but despise dark soul 2's emphasis on fighting every enemy to get to a boss. I don't even have a big problem with runbacks in general, just dark soul 2 runbacks because of how tedious they are. At least in the other games you can plan an interesting route to run around enemies and you sometimes do have to fight certain enemies in some spots. In dark souls 2 there is no planning, you just slowly kill everything 1 by 1.
@xx_amongus_xx6987 first off, i apologise if my english is kinda hard to understand because english isn't my first language. so my take is, the runbacks in ds2 forces you to learn and predict the enemy behaviour in that runbacks. when you have mastered it : from the enemy moveset, their spawn points, your dodge timing, or even better ; finding a shortcut, you earned that boss fight. When you beat the boss fight, you earned that souls currency, double rewards. It's kinda similar to doom eternal where good strategies, weapon combos and resource management rewards player a "smooth experience" which also can be said to sekiro which if you're able to use all the tools and weapon art with precise timing, player earns the "dance of sekiro" , double rewards : use all your arsenal + skills = fun and rewarding gameplay. in later souls games, the runbacks are almost non-existent but the boss is flashy and "fun" but the rewards only comes from beating the boss (that can be beaten simply with timing your dodge alone regardless of your skill level). so in this case, i prefer dark souls 2 approach on runbacks. Now, i know sekiro can also be beaten with spamming L1 and R1, but you wouldn't get the same satisfication from the "dance" of sekiro without all arsenal used as it's intended by devs to be used as it is
@@vanilla.icescream well, i didnt really say i view the games as a boss rush, that's why i love elden ring the most, you get amazing (remembrance) bosses that are ds3-level good, and probably my favorite exploration in the series only rivaled by dark souls 1. I wouldnt really put runbacks under exploration that much, maybe exploring for hidden bonfires but outside of that my view of exploration is moreof discovering and earning bosses, items, lore, etc. rather than for the purpose of making runbacks easier. Dont take my comment as a slander of ds2 though, i do believe the game gets way too much undeserved hate as someone who gave the game a chance finished it, and think its a solid 8/10, the fact that it still has the fundamentals of a souls game is why i still hold appreciation for it, it paved the way for elden ring after all. im just tryna state what may be the reasons why ppl suddenly hate it, and it would be such runbacks that lead to the less memorable bosses of the game.
I hate discussions about "fairness" in single-player games. Dark Souls has never been fair. It's always been stacked against the player. That's the point. I only care about fairness when it comes to pvp.
i specially hate the "hard but fair" buzzword all these essayists throw around. as far as i know it has never been said in any interviews or something, people just came up with it and started acting like the games need to account for it
Im wondering if these people like dark souls games. This person complains about not being able to easily run past each enemy and that the game „forces“ them to explore because bonfires are hidden. Are souls games something you just breeze through so you can feel proud about beating a game people consider hard or do you actually enjoy the gameplay? Removing s from fog walls and opening chests was a great decision.
Considering they mostly like all the other Fromsoft games they play I'd say yes. Even great companies occasionally put out a subpar product, Nintendo made the Virtual Boy, Sony made Concord and Fromsoft made Dark Souls 2.
@@saysalla you don't understand what i was saying, last i checked DS1 fanboys hardly makes up the population of the later games fandoms, they're also the ones that loathed sekiro and elden ring for being different.
It consistenltly blows me away how every time I watch one of your videos, I see something in DS2 I've never seen before. I've fought the Pursuer dozens of times, and I don't think I've ever seen that spin and downward stab attack.
I had once this argument, when people complain about the DS2 system when you die you lose a small part of your health. I was saying that this also happens in Demon Souls and people didn't shit on that game much on this. Their response "But Demon Souls is easy, while DS2 is so bad that you will die many times". Which is not the case if you git gud in the game. I rarely every die in DS2 or I can do big sections of an area and several bosses without dying more than few times. I collect so many effigies because I rarely decide to use them. And it's the same with DS1, I now keep all my humanities. What I learned is indeed, rose tinted glasses. The first time I ever played any of these games, I was dying a lot and thought the game was unfair. When I moved from DS1 to DS2, I thought it was horrible and won't play it again. But now it's one of my favorites and I just die so rarely that it's a breeze to play new runs. These complains on DS2 are unfair as you said, these things happen in all FromSoft games, they just decide to only shit on DS2 about that, and when mentioning unfairness and bs existed in all three games, they are like "Yeah, but it was different in the other two games".
Calling demon's souls easy when you literally have no bonfire system + don't have estus-like system + ambush in every corner + losing health every death is beyond me 💀 the hypocrisy of this community is something that needs to be awarded lol
DS2 is the ONLY soulsborn game that lets you do a no death, no bonfire run. If it was designed to be difficult for difficulties sake it would have a near unbeatable boss fight in the tutorial, or a forced death to access a necessary area. To me, all the DS2 hate comes from the rabid fans who was disappointed that DS2 wasnt an objective improvement on everything of DS, and then everyone else just joined in on the hate train because of recreational outrage.
Because it respected the player's intelligence and seemed a bit slower. And muh graphic from trailers that barely anyone watched or cared about. It was just the lighting, but tourists will tourist. Seriously, the need 4 speed low IQ tourists are ruining gaming for everybody. That and the fact that most of the so-called fambase only liked them for the influencers and nothing more.
do people really think DS2 is too hard? I think it's fairly easy going. It's DS3 that I struggle the most with. It's DS3 that upped the speed of the combat and the difficulty of the bosses to try and match the outside perception that souls games are for "hardcore gamers".
Basically, the philosophy of DS2 haters is that if it isn't directed by Miyazaki, it's an objectively bad game. That's why they gloss over the same things that exist in every FS game that isn't DS2.
"The majority consensus on a decade old game being mid is wrong since it's actually a conspiracy theory made by professional gaslighters" The mind of a dark souls 2 fan
@@saysallanot a conspiracy, mass bias. It happens a lot more often than you think, especially with media. Think of all the movies that didn't get the success they deserved initially, only to be recognised as masterpieces decades later.
@@Wolfpunker That can't be said about Dark Souls 2, the game was a huge success and sold over 10 million copies despite being mediocre compared to Fromsoft's usual output. If anything the game is a bit overated, it is beloved by many and sold more than twice as much as several other Fromsoft games including Bloodborne which is also a fan favorite, and outsold the entire Armored Core and Kings Field franchises put together. It is the "Last of Us 2" of its time, it got a bit of backlash for doing some things differently but the fans love to pretend there is some "mass bias" hate campaign against it but the reality is the fans are just extremely sensitive and get very hostile whenever someone has the mildest criticism towards it which pushes the critics to be harsher and it just keeps continuing into a massive gamer rage spiral over video game opinions.
Thanks for this video, really! I've always thought it's okay if you don't like or even hate DS2, what I don't like is hearing the same copied and pasted opinions that youtubers made decades ago criticizing things that, many times were simply not the game's fault (skill isues) or that were already fixed with Sotfs... Imo if you going to hate the game at least play it consciously and not trying to prove anything.
What I don't like is fighting the same copy and pasted bosses like Old Dragonslayer, Dragonriders, Pursuers, Smelter Demons, Aavas, Flexile Sentries, Ruins Sentinels, Belfry Gargoyles etc. I can't even stay conscious when playing the game because of how boring and tedious it is.
complaining that u can get invaded in DS2 while u r hollow is so stupid, is such an amazing features for ppl who actually do invasions, u r not limited to only human players, but just to everyone, this little thing keep alive the pvp in DS2. Thank You Yui Tanimura.
I like Dimitri as a person, but I'm always reminded of how dog water all of his videogame takes are every few weeks when I see him post on twitter. He plays games quite a bit before he does the videos, but he just really doesn't understand them because he'll either read too much into something or his mind will just completely ignore things that are just right in front of your face. Also, I can't believe he used the estus shard in Majula as an example of something that people would have to look up to find out. If someone had previously played any Dark Souls game, they've had an experience of rubbing their faces against walls and smacking various different objects to see if it'd do something, and the well is just begging for you to punch it. It's quite literally the first thing I did in Majula when I first noticed the rock on my first run.
I'm glad I found your channel. Over the years I've watched Mauler's DS2 series multiple times before playing it. I took what he said for granted and didn't question it based on his previous work being thorough, and anecdotally I thought he seemed like a genuine guy. Hell, even after playing the game I still parroted some of the talking points lol. I've lost a little respect for Mauler over the years. He's literally gaslighting people with his DS2 series lol. Thank you for showing actual proof. Luckily, even the perceived extra jank had no bearing on my enjoyment of the game - I still loved it.
Gonna make a reflection here, and may be a hot take. Well, it shouldn´t be; all Fromsoft Souls games are amazing games, and everyone can enjoy them for different reasons. This makes a quite amazing effect, that any ranking can be equally valid and can have quite understandable reasons. This is why I never got why the community has so much beef between each other game fans. And this came since quite a long time ago, since DS1 and DS2. I think that never brought up to anything good nor interesting, as everyone is so offensive and defensive that can be quite hard to express own opinions. The criticism didn´t help; never seen so much dedication to bash what they even consider a 8/10 game by their own standarts, is very weird in my opinion xD, you might expect that the lower the score, the least nice things you have to speak about. Nope, the 2/10 games critique last like 20 minutes on average, while on Souls critiques they need to make a 2 hour analysis at the very least to see what they peek. Back to my point, I think the best thing is to try to have less and less tribalism behaviours. I was personally so happy about it, get way less offended (shouldn´t get offended to begin with) about this kind of talks. Rage on internet is never healthy of course. Well, sorry for my rambling, and have a good day.
youre right they arent all good. (ninja blade) and i share this take because im tired of fanboys for a specific dev/company. if people like action adventure it makes no sense to only stick with from soft games and to always hold them up on a mantle. i love the games they make but the bias and almost territorialism between the fans of the different games in the same series is strange.
You are right, some people take discourse over video games a bit too serious to the point where they either resort to ad-hominems or take something as personally offensive. I've played all of the 7 games generally referred to as "Souls" games at least 3 times, and consider all of them worth playing multiple times. Even the one I consider my least Favourite is probably a 7-8/10 game.
Now that I’m amongst friends, can someone clear this up for me? WTF is with adaptability and why do people who hate the game cry about it? I’ve finished DS2 multiple times and never levelled it once. Am I missing something or do they need to Git Gud?
with basic adaptability you just need do perfect rolls to evade everthing invicibilty frames are doubled at 99 AGL, more frames on backsteb too . faster estus chugging sir alonne , blue smelter , sinner gives some trouble with basic adp as example .
They're almost always coming from other Fromsoft games (Mostly 3) that give you i-frames on rolls based only on carry weight. They're used to those i-frames and don't like that DS2 doesn't just give them to you. It really is a case of either learning to actually put levels into the stat, or getting good by either timing rolls well or finding other solutions.
ADP (adaptability) is an attribute you can level in DS2. It replaced Resistance from DS1 and tries to give more power to the stat, so it is worth levelling. It is the fastest way to get Agility, which is a stat that at certain thresholds increases your dodge i-frames and speeds up the animation of healing items (estus, lifegems, etc..). As a mage you get Agility from Attunement as well, but slightly less. If you want to play as a melee character that avoids most attacks through dodging instead of a shield or face tanking, then I would advise levelling ADP to 28 to hit the soft cap on i-frames. You will have one of the strongest rolls in a Fromsoft game and noticeably faster heals this way.
It's good if you want an invulnerability-frame(I-frame) based playstyle, or to help you use items quicker, usually healing items, usually more of an issue if you're getting hit, which contextualises its use in a non-i-frames-based playstyle. I think it's okay, it's not the be-all-end-all whether you level it or not. It can be a nice supporting addition to your existing methods of damage mitigation, a shield, armour, positional dodging, spells, water, and just killing the enemy before they become a problem, or you can specialise in it and have enough i-frames that your i-frame dodges don't have to be as accurately timed.
Seeing this in my notifications just as I take my rightful place on the porcelain throne. Now two of my favourite activities can happen at the same time
Retroactively countering points without understanding why the points are being made. The 4kings are a fun fight, but to 90% of ppl b4 havels they're just bs. The worst part is because I never knew this and refuse to suffer thru ds1, I've never talked to kaathe. Ds2 feels like a game made from this experience. Ds2 is the only game I quit 80% of my trials, almost always before lost sinner. The amount of bs ain't worth it.
i was waiting for you to get tot his video. i first watched it when i was getting into dark souls. when he talked about how you’re unable to walk on lava as if you’re able to in other souls games- while showing footage of MONSTER HUNTER, it slipped by me. once i was more familiar with the series and even monster hunter, i just thought it was so egregious
Love your videos! Played through DS2 recently and mostly loved it, but your videos made me appreciate more things in the game and have a better understanding of it
Kings Field has some really evil traps too. Some soft locks as well. In kings field 2 you need to jump down a hole to grab a item. with no way back up other then using teleporting stones. I love Kings Field. Edit: Re using bosses for normal enemies is not lazy. If done right it shows the player how far they've come and how much stronger they are. I will defend Demon Ruins. I love that area. Lost Izalith i am neutral on. Its not a good area, but its also really short. The lavas not a problem since the game gives you the orange charred ring. The scenery is nice. I like the atmosphere. And thats about it. Everything else is bleh. Its a wart on a amazing game.
"REWARD: H Game Stream" does not help much to his image either, but it is good that domo made that intro, if he did not then the next video made in response to him would be calling him a transphobe for simply disagreeing. That, or people would comment shit vague enough that it could have been used as ammo against him.
Fr I was about to send hate his way until I figured he was trans, I don't want to get burned at the stake tbh I don't even care if you're trans or not if I hate you I hate you but ig all trans people are immune lol
@@climaksy1659 I don't think that's the reason personally; from a quick glance at Dimitry's channel and Twitter, he seems to be something of a transphobe himself. Constantly whines about pronouns, Also he's... posting about being in a relationship with his sister a lot? This seems to be some kind of a joke, but it's in really poor taste. Anyway, I think this decision is made more so that Domo can detach themselves from Dimitry's views than to shield themselves, at least that's how I see it.
The hitboxes segment was beautiful!!! I played through DS1 and was shocked by bad many of the hitboxes were and even had a running joke with my friends about “DS2 hitboxes being in 1” but then I played three again and saw how jank those were too at times. Turns out DS2 was just being bullied by lazy YTers 😢
If that person doesn't even make his own arguments and mostly steals them from Mauler, I wonder if he actually played the game to any same extend as DS1 or/and DS3
Usualy, not always, but more often than not, whenever you ask people who criticise Dark Souls 2 to specify what is bad and how it differs from the other games, they simply cannot provide a valid answer, hence why they circle around complex words and vague statements... And when we do hear valid criticism, its the ones everyone agrees with but can be worked with if you know what youre doing, like Adaptability and Soul Memory, or minor inconveniences like 8-Directional Movement that i agree isnt smooth but doesnt ruin the game, just like 4-Way Dodging in Dark Souls 1.
Yeah the Old Dragonslayer seems like a copy paste rehash from DS1 but it actually becomes a cool original boss fight if you are skilled enough to work around the flaws.
"minor inconveniences like 8-Directional Movement" This is just downplaying the major flaws that most people do focus on. 8 directional movement is not a minor inconvenience, it is really obvious to the player that their character doesn't move in the directions they are told to. It is not a minor inconvenience to have i-frames not correspond with the visuals of a roll in a game mainly about rolling. Not to mention how ADP is never explained accurately to the player, forcing them to rely on outside materials just to play the game right. It is not a minor inconvenience to have soul memory, it is just a terrible mechanic. "just like 4-Way Dodging in Dark Souls 1" I believed there is 8 directional dodging in dark souls 1, and I know for a fact that this only exists when you are locked on. When you don't lock on you can roll in infinite directions. This is also almost a non-issue to begin with since rolling in specific directions doesn't even matter in this game. Just don't roll in a direction with lava or a pit and you'll be fine. The big issue is dark souls 2's entire movement system is messed up. This not only sucks in combat, but it just feels like garbage to play considering you walk around the entire game.
@@xx_amongus_xx6987 First off, calm down, i think you are exaggerating, you know the 8-Directional movement started to be criticised by everyone only after Dark Souls 3 came out and alot of people went back to check the other games so for them who were used to the improved systems of the newer games it makes sense, but for the veterans it wasnt an big issue untill it was time to make it a point against the game... As to ADP, yeah, i agree, however, its not that the s dont correspond with your roll, its that theyre few, i played through the gane as a SL1 with very few frames to make use of and when i learned to use it i could dodge moves by timing it the same meaning they do correspond, its that its so bad you gotta change your timings, ots not some random thing lol... again, i agree with you, its bad, but dont make stuff up, also, you and basically everyone knows about ADP and what it does now right? So just use the first few levels to boost it and go through the gane without issue, its that simple, its bad i get it stop repeating what everyone says and agrees on and acknowledge the fact that if you just use a few levels to increase it, it wont be an issue anymore.
@@xx_amongus_xx6987 I forgot about the clear and obvious tells in a roll that show invulnerability. Just like in real life, I can always dodge roll through a car with this precise timing. Dark Souls 2 bucks the trend of clear easy to see i-frame timings on rolls.
@@pieth68 because the person who made the """review""" is kind of part of the lgbtq+ community? Because domo wants people to only focus on what they're talking about instead of talkinh about their appearance/sexuality? It's so simple
Clarifying that the channel is pro-LGBT while getting out of the gender coffin really made me smile. Great video overall, loved the discussion of the bonfire placements and boss runbacks and level design in particular.
People complaining about runbacks in the older titles is a result of games like Elden Ring putting bonfires right infront of bosses all of the time. How is the game actually wanting you to interact with the level they designed a bad thing? I'd argue that having so much filler space of nothing is worse than difficult areas. This teaches players that they deserve to get to the boss with 100% HP, Mana, Flasks and easy access to their lost souls every time. Having to do some form of a runback taught the player that they can't just rush to the boss in anger or try the exact same strategy. If you weren't careful, you could lose a lot of souls just trying to get back to the boss. Having bonfires right infront of every boss door removes the stakes and responsibility from the player. There is such a small chance you will lose your souls, resulting in the player not really being punished despite making the same mistake over and over again to the same boss. If DS2 had the feint attacks and input tracking the Elden Ring bosses have, people would complain about it to the moon and back. But because it's Elden Ring, it's good game design.
When he was criticizing the rock on the well in Majula that really pissed me off man, like what do u mean it’s not obvious; my dumb ass when I was 12 managed to figure that on out 💀
Most adults don't have time to talk to every inanimate object they encounter because they need to work for a living instead of making mommy and daddy buy all their video games so they can spend all their free time rotting their brain instead of doing something useful.
@@saysalla I'm pretty sure the point was that you have to be brainless not to try to hit a rock with rope tied to it on the edge of a well, it's not some elaborate puzzle you have to stare at for hours man.
Even those electric horses at frigid outskirts aren't THAT difficult, if you use proper tools. The same goes for Shrine of Amana. How they punish you for using torch to see the depth of water with those underwater bastards being attracted to light is quite entertaining. I'm even pretty sure that the adaptability with Iframes connected to it was meant as a possible challenge, like SL1 no Iframes run, with how you can basically walk among enemy attacks if you know what you're doing. And the atmosphere it has is quite unique, like Noah Gervais said- no other souls game goes so hard with melancholy. And to anyone trying to play it on PC I recommend to turn off double clicking (needs to be done every time you start the game), it may seem like the game isn't reacting to your inputs otherwise.
I feel like DS2 hate is actually the hate that people have for parts of the other Fromsoft games but could never find the chance to properly make a critique or complaint so everyone uses DS2 as an outlet whether they know it or not
Nah ds2 just misses a lot of points. They doubled down on ds2's trial and error when it was an aspect most players actually despised outside of sens. Cheap deaths THROUGHOUT a run does not add to the game. Iron keep is fugging cancer.
Dimitri Monroe is such a grifter who specializes in culture war nonsense they have no knowledge over. I remember when they made videos about Bridget during that whole manufactured controversy pretending to have insight into Japanese culture. They might be the only known chaser who chases themself.
it's been so long since I played the first one that I never realized how unfair it actually is, even moreso than 2 in a lot of spots, thanks for the perspective! i think for me personally if has less to do with the game world design, and more to do with the way it feels? the lack of impact with weapons, the fall damage, weapons breaking way faster, the way the character snaps to up down left or right, it's just bizarre feeling. obviously this is a git gud moment, but i feel it's something worth pointing out as to why some people don't enjoy this game as much as 1 and 3.
DARK SOULS 2 HATERS HATE HIM!
Click here to find out how this cat is saving the DS 2 fandom, one critique at a time!
What gets me about the runback complaint the most is that these games are not boss rushes. You are not supposed to just run and fight the boss 10 times until you win. The area leading up to it is content you are meant to engage with as well. If you cannot get through it consistently, that is part of the difficulty that you need to overcome. It is not a tedious obstacle that is in your way, it is a challenge that you need to face. Stop treating bosses like they're the only content in Dark Souls worth engaging with.
The bosses in dark souls 2 are mostly not even worth engaging with, the game throws so many upgrade materials at you that fighting the pursuer after he shows up again for the 8th time feels more like a tedious waste of time than an actual challenge.
@saysalla Go somewhere else
Ds2 runbacks are way better than how Elden Ring babies the player, literally putting a grace before any fog gate while you have a mount to just speed past everything anyways. I remember everyone was mocking the ds3 archives double bonfire in ds3, and then Elden Ring has at least 7 instances of that. You really can just run past 90% of the game, and I prefer earlier souls games not allowing the same cheese.
IMO I do like the change they made in their later games. I do find it tedious to have long runbacks as a part of the boss challenge, as you have to fight the same enemies much more often than usual. It seems Fromsoftware agrees as each game made the runback less and less challenging until they removed them almost completely in Elden Ring. Not a critique you can target at Dark Souls 2 specifically though.
@@alchemy5750But this allows for much more challenging and high profile boss battles. Going that far in the older games would go too far, as each attempt requires a challenging running section on top of the fight itself. For me personally I appreciate offloading the difficulty from a runback directly to the boss itself.
It's very polite to close the door-skeleton's door for him. He seems very comfy.
I hate how the Dark Souls II intro tells you your journey is useless and how you will die a lot.
Anyways, time to replay my favourite game: Dark Souls Prepare to Die Edition
Also, let's hang out with one of my favourite npcs like a depressed crestfallen Knight who tells you how hopeless it all is and becomes hollow, the baldur Knight that tells me how none will pass sens fortress, the undead merchant that chuckles about collecting loot from my body
Peak comment, i needed a good laugh man, thank you.
love your humor dude 😂
Yeah, is a landmark of how they only care for difficulty by saying that. They know the game was hard and they pasted it. No game before and after did that.
Anyways, im going back to Sekiro, gonna talk with Kuro after beating Genichiro.
"How many times have you died and come back to life for my sake..? Two? Three times?...or... perhaps a number so large that it cannot be counted?"
oof
"Noooo the little lady told me I'd die in a cutscene!!!! You are supposed to say it on the box or after I get to the hub it's different!!1!1!!"
Saying that "you just enjoy pressing R1 a bunch of times" when criticising Ds2 and praising Ds3 is just peak hahhahaha
Spamming R1 and Roll in Ds3 literally gets you through almost anything if you give it enough tries but in Dark Souls 2 your stamina, limited s not chaining and overall slower animations will not allow you to but hey, what can you expect from these people...
Yeah litteral palm in the face
I wanted to say that seeing people come around to Dark Souls 2 is so satisfying, as it's long since been my favourite game. May the dark guide your way.
People always have been, despite what the youtube community would have you believe, the game is actually well received and played by many today. The game has a 9/10 on steam, an 87% rating on metacritic with a 7.6% user rating
@@YEY0806 it always felt so weird how the game has overwhelmingly positive reviews everywhere, but still every comment section is filled with people that haven't even played it insisting that people are wrong for enjoying it
I feel like it's always that vocal minority making things appear bigger than they are. Those dissatisfied are more likely to go around and complain about it, while those who who are satisfied are less likely to go around and praise it - my experience at least. I'm just happy we're getting more and more people vocal about how they actually like stuff lately!
@@Domo3000 there are trolls in this comment section who are just rehashing the same debunked points over and over like a broken slot machine
@@Domo3000 This is what everyone tends to forget. Its a good game on its own but its constantly being compared to the other souls games. Its bad by comparison, not in a vacuum.
I love how the only Semi-thoughtful arguments dimitri is able to make are arguments directly lifted from MauLer's video. All of his personal arguments are full of holes and he debunks half of them himself 5 seconds later lmao
Why do these critics always pretend healing miracles don't exist? The souls series has never had this delicate balance of alotted healing like they describe. In every single game you can literally start with ~5 casts of a healing spell, and usually spec into it very early on if you want. DS1 above all seems to strongly encourage this because the very first merchant you access has it. It's there to give you extra choices about how you deal with incoming damage.
Another huge reason why DS1 heavily prioritizes Faith is the Warrior Of Sunlight Covenant. Unlike all the rest of the covenants, you actually need to get Faith all the way up to 50 in order to join it. Once you finally do that, your talismans have maximum healing potential, you get the Lightning Spear miracle, you get the "Praise The Sun" gesture, you get the "Warriors Of Sunlight" achievement, and you unlock special dialogue from Solaire if you run into him again after the first trip to Anor Londo.
@@NexusKin for the warrior of sunlight, the faith requirement is reduced by 5 or so every time you successfully do a coop session.
When I invaded in No-Man's wharf, all I did was light the sconces for the host and them promptly kill myself. Fun times lmao
No-Man's wharf invaders being epic and unpredictable as always
Wait, it was you?! I had somebody doing exactly this to me on my second playthrough.
Wait is it even possible for an invader to use the Pharaoh's contraption, because I might do that sometime..
>DS2 is bad because you can’t “reasonably” intuit the game design on a 1st playthrough
>As opposed to DS1 and DS3
Kill me
yeah lot of important stuff is obscure or hidden . like whole nature of SM , agape ring and shulva repair tree . no way newcommers are aware they will be proably weaker then pvp players that know game well .stat wise
@@LordDeBahsIt’s a shame that this type of argument is so popular against DS2…
A lot of the fun in these games (all 3 of them) is literally looking up info from the community on the secret or “unintuitive” mechanics :D
For example, I had no idea that the Shulva tree was used for repairs until I was checking out a DS2 secrets video, my first thought wasn’t: “omg, this is bad design” since I didn’t know, or experimented with it. It was legitimate nice surprise, and lo and behold on another run I used the tree.
I love these interactions in the souls games
@@why8642 some weapon repairs are 10+k souls . which is colosal waste in low SM tier pvp, running to repair tree asap is required
How are you supposed to "intuit" obscure game mechanics like ADP and agility breakpoints for proper roll s and estus usage, or having to talk to a cat that tells you to talk to a rock to unlock hard mode instead of having something like that that be a menu option like literally every other video game that includes difficulty settings?.
DS1 and 3 have some issues where you can miss out on minor content like failing a sidequest and not getting an item or some upgrade materials but DS2 is the only game where a new player can accidentally turn off a main new game mechanic like enemy despawning without even realising the game has that feature,
@@saysalla to be fair if you press select on status screen you can see what agl does ( it says it ease evasion and other actions ) but i think AGL stat should be explained in tutorial area gravestones
discourse around DS2 really made me cognisant of how much blind bias there is in YuuChuub discourse. It's not even like they're game journos who are being paid by a corp to shill; these are people willingly closing their eyes to faults the other games have and opening them when its the "B Team" for no other reason than tribalism
Independent critics get away with aloooot of sloppy analysis because they don't have a publication checking their work. Ironic I know considering how toothless industry journalists are known to be. There's problems on all sides.
@@timefades27It's so true man. The well-deserved downfall of traditional media's reputation and credibility resulted in independent media getting a free pass for everything. It's as if Independent media members and their fans think independent media is inherently better than traditional by virtue of being independent. In reality traditional media looks far better in comparison and that's saying a lot.
@@rayquaza1245 No, traditional media now usualy just repeads what a pr department said. It may sound better, but it's even worse.
My bro, i'm now editing my 1 hour analysis of dark souls 2, can i use some of your footage of hitboxes and other cool things you bring up? I will try to change the game's reputation between brazilian players and show how a lot of negative reviews are full of lies.
Esse é o trabalho que eu gosto 🇧🇷🇧🇷🇧🇷🇧🇷🇧🇷
@derickalexandrino1975 opa mano, aí sim! Ja foram 9 minutos, pode esperar
Sure, go ahead!
@@Domo3000 Thanks! I will also try to put english subtitles for people from other countries, if this works well it would be nice to have your feedback too!
BRAZIL MENTIONED!!🗣🗣🗣📣📣🇧🇷🇧🇷🇧🇷🇧🇷
nearly an hour long video got me feeling like abandoning the cycle of linking the flame and finding a new path
I mentioned in a comment on one of your previous videos that you inspired me to go back and play DS2 again, and I'd like to add onto that: I've always liked DS2, but two things I'd never tried was using a torch regularly and incorporating a bow into my regular build, just so I'd have a reliable ranged option for solving puzzles or pulling individual enemies. It completely changed the way I played the game in a way that made the experienced so fun and fresh. I felt less like I was using a specific build and more like I was an adventurer using every tool at my disposal to solve problems I found The other games in the series have plenty of their own reasons for why they're great, but none of the others give me this specific feeling, because the puzzles and encounters are generally designed in a way that's different than how DS2 does it. It's a tiny change, and it didn't actually change how I built my character (aside from a little extra dex), but just having that extra utility completely changed how I thought about each area I encountered, and I'm probably going to be doing something similar in other games when I go back to them, too. I got that idea from watching you show clips of your own playthroughs where you do something similar, and I'm really glad I tried it. The torch in particular felt like a fun trade-off between damage and utility, even beyond the obvious times when the game wants you to use one to light a torch or something.
I also tried leaving Heide's Tower of Flame's post-Dragonrider path for after I'd killed my first great lord, and it felt like such a more natural and fun experience that way. I used to not like that area in Scholar for the reasons a lot of people who hate on the game cite, even though I still love the game overall. I hadn't even considered that doing it that way might be the intended route, and you mentioning it in a few of your videos was like a eureka moment for me. It made me re-evaluate how I felt about the area, and now that I've tried it that way, I've come around to really enjoying it a lot. I'm not going to pretend I'm some hater who was converted because of your videos, but I'm someone who considered this a flawed game that I still liked despite those problems, and your videos have helped me realize that the problem was the way I was approaching the game, rather than the game itself.
I just finished that playthrough a couple weeks ago, and it reminded me all over again why I love this game. I love watching your videos, and I'm glad I found your channel.
King’s Field is WAY worse than any of the Souls games when it comes to traps.
Nah. According to Nostalgia, King's Field is goated and have no flaw
nah, King's Field is a flawless game in every way.
Especially when King's Field IV kills you with a patch of earth/lava almost at the start. I could barely distinguish it.
"Dark Souls II is clunky" As if Dark Souls 1 and Demon's Souls WEREN'T?!
I hate this. This word is a complete boogeyman used to remove the need to articulate your opinion. It “feels clunky” is the same as: “it feels bad”. There is no real meaning behind it other than you don’t like it. I am going to be honest I personally find most parts of DS2 combat to be the most satisfying out of any game I have ever played. I jizz my pants everytime I open on an enemy with a curved greatsword rolling attack into R1. There is nothing that smooth in gaming. I would say it is fairly realistic in its combat speed and heavily punishing. Most people dont like getting punished and love fast, so they dumb it down to “clunky”. But we still should not excuse this behaviour. If you have an opinion at least find the time to try to explain yourself.
Wats the point of sequels? To be better or worse?
@@KNGDDDE Well as demonstrated in the video, arguably in many ways DS2 is smoother than the previous games anyway. There are no miss-staggers anymore, there's no penalty to movement (and the movement is much smoother) until you hit heavy rolls at 70 (so no mid-weight slow from DS1). Also they removed the four-directional limitation from lock on rolling. That's not to say it isn't still somewhat "clunky" (I'd just call it slow and methodical) as the series was intended to be, but it's much improved over the previous games.
DS2 used to feel like a weaker Souls entry initially, but the longer I've spent playing Souls games...the more I came to appreciate the unique elements of DS2.
But it wasn't until recently when I started a Continuity Run (using only stuff that appears in DS1 through DS3) that my opinion of DS2 solidified.
Of the three, DS2 was the most fun to run through, no contest. Everythig just felt right.
Many thanks for going into extreme depth to break down stuff like this.
Thank you for your service domo 🙏
I miss pool of bloodstains
@vanilla.icescream same. Sometimes I'd look for some just watch how other players messed up.
@@EinSilverRose it's always funny to see a bunch of players jumping on a cliff and die at the same time lol
25:09 this is why I love this game YOU CAN RING THE BELL WITH AN AROW I never knew that
It’s absurd how many “criticisms” of DS2 are literally just as applicable to DS1 and DS3. I loved the callout about the poison vs. lava complaint in this video - This is exactly the same as how it worked in DS1 and how players were taught it, but the “criticism” apparently only extends to DS2 for some reason. It’s very obvious that they’re parroting half-baked talking points from other videos and also haven’t replayed DS1 recently. All three DS games are masterpieces and all three have issues, end of story
I remember how much I hated soul memory in DS1 and the crippled rolls in DS3, the entire trilogy is bad. The first good game Fromsoft made was Sekiro because Activision was there to say no to all their bad ideas.
@@saysalla tf u talking about little bro? 😂😂😂
@@saysalla soul memory is only in ds 2
@@saysalla You are just making up stuff lmao. Soul memory exists ONLY in dark souls 2. The rolls are also crippled ONLY in dark souls 2, where the i-frames are the shortest, don't match the visuals, are super slow and weak, and can be leveled up which is the ultimate insult. Activision had 0 say in sekiro's development, they ONLY published the game. You should stop posting Ls while you still can.
Not gonna lie, it's really funny how people are so used to Saysalla spitting unreasonable bs, they didn't realize it was sarcasm. Still crappy in its context but sarcasm 😂
I hate how these liars probably caused many players to never play dark souls 2 robbing them of potential enjoyment and robbing Fromsoft of potential customers.
That's the real problem
You liars have caused many players to buy a flawed trainwreck of a game, hahahaha!!!! I want my money back!!!!
@@MidnightatMidian I don't think you can get refunds for ds1, sorry.
@@meyes1098 Nahhh, DS1 is still praised to this day, with many vids that celebrate it's perfection. Contrary to this one which only gets video like this. Copium at it's best. It's cute.
@@MidnightatMidian So you're just a moron that listens to vox populi, instead of demonstrable facts, got it!
DS2 was always great and felt like a unique adventure. The only major thing I'd like to see changed in a remaster, would be to return to the lighting and texture quality that was advertised in the promo-material before release but was scrapped to run on the 360/ps3 gen.
it´s not just about the visuals, without the original lighting, the whole torch mechanic is broken and all the VERY WELL thought out places where your torch would forcefully be snuffed out or you couldnt roll in shallow water dont make sense anymore. DS2 is already a good game, but the "original" vision wouldve been EVEN better, like, the best.
If I could give one fix to the game, I think it would be cool that you gain back the part of your max health you lost when you reclaim lost souls. Makes the occasional death less frustrating for pros and a little more forgiving for noobs.
@@bubududugaming8336 Check out the lighting engine mod for ds2, that coupled with a texture upscale mod gets you decently close
@@DeandaGe Nah, trying to appeal to whiners is what gets you Max Level Phantoms.
its so sad to me that the focus they put on the opening cutscene is "the game is telling me how hard it is" rather than the "...without really knowing why" angle
Ending off with saying “Skill Issue” is such a powerful move.
Dark Souls 2 probably has the best opening in the series (and by that I mean not only the cutscene, but the way leading to character creation, and maybe even beyond), created specifically to make players immersed into this more personal story, than the tale of gods and dragons and all that, which was the first installment. Both Dark Souls and Dark Souls 3 openings, while good, are essentially just exposition dumps on the world around, that just throw out the player character at the end without much, or even anything, to say; while Dark Souls 2 opening focuses more on the story of the game and the said character, while also providing needed exposition. Someone must be really either unobservant or outright lying to just single out one line of the lengthy Firekeepers monologue, saying that the protagonist will lose their souls over and over again, and say "Well me don't like, bad game".
I liked the exposition dumps more :/
@@melonne7278Fair enough, but as art you gotta respect them going new avenues to find the uniqueness of their new creation. They could have easily just copy and pasted the formula without treading new ground and people would probably be happier. But they chose to express themselves differently, because change is needed to improve in the long run.
11:20
If you feel like producing your content through an AI voice is more comfortable for you, then you should consider returning to it. I don't mind your german accent, but I think that you enjoying the content you're making is important Domo :3
I kind of like both. It's cool to hear Domo's real voice, and it definitely allows for more and easier to display personality, but something about that text to speech voice is iconic for me. I think I'll always associate it with this channel now.
@@Voingous i like how ai voice say skill issue lol
Fuck this ai shit, it's lame.
Domo3000 was the first person to make me appreciate the AI voice. Previously, I always associated it with a Tiktok video spreading misinformation or mocking people (generally spreading negativity or plain ignorance). Now all I can associate it with is Dark Souls 2 haters getting their claims disproved and funny interjections (the "Wee!" and "Boom!" in the Pyromancer playthrough were my favourites.)
@@BeavisOfArabia "spreading misinformation or mocking people (generally spreading negativity or plain ignorance)"
So a typical domo video then?
"Dark souls is difficult but fair"
B**ch, I literally learnt about Dark Souls existence from a funny gif of the hero being sneakily kicked from a ledge by a giant skeleton in the giants tomb back in 2010. Back then everybody was relishing in how brutal and unfair the game is -_-
i swear iam only one who likes tomb of giants
"Back then everybody was relishing in how brutal and unfair the game is"
Either you don't know what unfair means, the people you are talking about don't know what unfair means, or neither know. Because dark souls 1 is largely a fair game. The word that accurately describes it is "uncompromising". This word can also describe dark souls 2, but it is uncompromising in being unfair to the player and killing them in cheap ways.
@@xx_amongus_xx6987 I talk about how people seemingly were perceiving the game when it just released and surprised everyone with its approach to handling a player. Many people were talking about how dirty some ambushes are but meant it in a cool way. Only after DS2 it suddenly became a bad thing to them.
And yes, DS1 is to some extent an unfair game because of some unexplained obscure mechanics and some of the most brutal ambushes in the series. Heck, it's the game where you can screw yourself with levelling up because there's no respecking...
@@xx_amongus_xx6987 DS1 is not a "fair" game, you have to be willfully blind or incompetent to think this.
@@xx_amongus_xx6987 give me an example of a cheap death
Oh dear, another copycat DS2 hater? Anyone want to guess if this reviewer actually has anything new to say or if it'll just be the same old crap?
Wonder if these folk would have a better time with the game if they weren't perpetually thinking about how they can attribute series-wide problems to their personal least favorite DS game. Edit: I guess blaming all the things they don't like on one game means they don't have to criticize their darlings.
Its weird how they never actually criticize the real issues with the game like Soul Memory limiting multiplayer
@@GilbertTheGilbertGuyhow else can you get that sweet sweet ad revenue without making a video longer than 10 minutes
This game will forever remain goated and the haters will always sneed about it
Dark Souls 2 wasn't even the best soulslike that came out in 2014, it objectively cannot be "goated" if significantly better games came out that same year.
@@saysalla Sneed about it.
@@saysallagit gud
@@saysalla skill issue
@@saysalla Yeah I think you may need to sneed about it
around 7:00 ish..
Gee i love it when critiques boil down to buzzwords like clunky and floaty and is never really elaborated on in detail.
We Kingdom Hearts fans know this phenomenon very well, and it's equally as annoying over there as it is here.
"...can be clunky at times due to the rolling not being omni-directional..." He literally added the detail right after he said that word, and he was talking about dark souls 1. Also how else do you want him to go into detail when talking about the movement feeling floaty in dark souls 2? If he wasn't being detailed, he would have just said the movement is bad. Instead, he gave a reason for why it feels bad, because it is floaty. It is an observable descriptor, the only way he could go into further detail is if he started talking about how the movement is coded, which you don't need to know in order to understand it is floaty.
@@xx_amongus_xx6987 Ds1 is 'clunky' because no omni directional rolling, he says as he shows the character rolling in any direction (As long as you're unlocked camera)
Ds2 is 'floaty' because.... you can roll in any direction even while locked on?
@@xx_amongus_xx6987But what if I disagree with that? If the result is two people just repeating their opinion, then it is not articulated well enough. That is the exact issue OP is mentioning. I can say: The movement is root motion accurately portraying how fast a person would move and steps and rolls carry you an accurate distance for the animation. Now all of the sudden “floaty” sounds like plain and simple a wrong description for the movement. Also his description was only for DS1, while his footage was showing something contradictory. For DS2 he gave no explanation at all and thought that the boogeyman word “clunky” suffices completely. No, it doesn’t. There is no difference between saying something has a “bad gamefeel” and saying it is “clunky”. You have made your opinion, now you should at least spare the time to articulate it.
Yup… you can’t just mean what you say, you have to say what you mean. The point of making a critique or appraisal is to show how some obvious things are actually complex and not obvious-as such, elaboration is required for the seemingly simple. It’s no different than an argumentative essay. You have to elaborate. You have to clarify what “clunky” means, because that’s obviously more nebulous in meaning than things like “attack” or “dodge roll”.
You know, Domo, an interesting video would be "Why do people ACTUALLY hate DS2". Essentially a video where you explain which are the "true reasons" for this game's infamous reputation
Cuz ppl r trash at the game, u cant enjoy a game if u suck that much, blaming the game because of your skill issues instead of trying to understand it
Because influencers sucked at it and ganged up on it. Because most so-called fans like the games because of influencers and not the actual games themselves. Because it respected the player's intelligence far too much.
And mainly because it seemed slower. Seriously, the need 4 speed low IQ tourists in gaming are ruining it for everybody else.
That's a good idea actually. As for why the game gets the reputation it has. People make videos and their audience whos never played the game will parrot what they heard. Blame disingenuous people like MauLer.
@@AtreyusNinja I found the game to be very easy and I still didn’t like it. I think it’s better than Demon’s Souls, but not better than DS1 or DS3
I love being reminded how good the blur studios trailers for Ds2 were
Wtf those were made by Blur? The same guys who did Halo Wars 1 and 2 and Halo 2A's cutscenes?
@@Slender_Man_186Yep, that’s why they didn’t manage the same visual quality in their trailers again until Elden Ring
No wonder it was unexpectedly amazing lol
@@Slender_Man_186oh shit no way
I really don't get what the deal is with DS2 haters being so sensitive about old women telling them they are gonna die, What did you expect to be playing? Candy Crush? Or a sequal to a dark fantasy game that had a definitive edition called "Prepare To Die". A game where one of the first npcs they meet is a depressed knight who tells you how hopless it all is and eventually goes hollow in New Londo.
The idea was that they had to make the game "difficult" for marketing because of the "dark souls = hard gitgud' memes but they did it in the laziest way possible rather than putting any actual thought in the game design which is how we ended up with crippled movement controls, underpowered weapons that break 2-4x as fast as any other game in the genre, random enemy spam in nearly every room, new game mechanics that contradict each other (statues and branches, soul memory and the agape ring, bonfire ascetics and new game+ content, agility and lifegems/poise, etc) refighting the same copy paste bosses over and over again, a broken lightning engine, random areas incoherently jumbled together, uninspired enemy design and many other flaws. The end result isn't exactly a bad game but it feels so amateur compared to most other Fromsoft games that it makes for a very underwhelming experienced if you're coming from their better, older games like Demon's Souls or the King's Field series, or even contemporary games such as Lords of the Fallen which was also made by inexperienced developers yet shows much more care and polish in its design.
@@saysallathank you for yapping absolutely nothing original once again
@@YEY0806 "Nothing original"
What, do you want me to start making up new flaws in a decade old video game? Dark souls 2's flaws are well documented, it's just that creepy diehard redditors refuse to accept that the game was already outdated when it came out and the vast majority of the gaming community has since moved on to newer and better RPGs such as Dragon Age Veilguard.
@@saysalla if you think those debunked points you repeated 500 times are "well documented" then there's no helping you, beside why bring dragon age in the discussion? Dragon age is a completely different franchise, it's like comparing ice cream to pasta to prove that ice cream is superior when they are going for completely different things that warrant no comparison.
@@saysalla 8/8 bait
I only found out after playing DS2 that it was (supposedly) "the worst in the series". I couldn't understand why, and uve since held the belief that DS2 hate is just mass bias.
Nah it just sucks
@@yikes6969If you like slop games *cough* DS3 *cough*
@@mobiusone6994DS3 is good, but so is DS2.
@@Hewasnumber1 I wouldn't go so far as to call DS3 good. It's mechanically sound, refined even. But it has its own slew of issues and nonsensical oversights on par with DS1 and is primarily redeemed by its DLC.
It's because they are influencer babies. They only like it because influencers.
Is it any surprise that the so-called community turned against the game the moment the influencers started to whine about it?
I sleep well at night knowing someone else is defending DS2 the way I wish I was able to
Perfectly dismantled every argument by just playing his own words back to him, love it :D edit: also, no mention of the "hidden" Catacombs bonfire?
All I'm gonna say is this guy looks like someone who would hate DS2.
He looks like someone who would use the Blasphemous Blade while wearing bull goats
Hey bro, why don't you do your own DS2 review? Pointing out the good and what you truly believe that's bad.
Love your videos Domo and I enjoy your hudless combat very much. However, I'd like to suggest putting the HUD on (or atleast the healthbar) in your argument points when you point out things specific to avoiding damage from hitboxes (when you duck under or vault over the various attacks). It'll make your point more clear and stronger to put forward.
Ds2 is kinda unique in runbacks, its a challenge where you have to outsmart the enemy aggro, i think its special and a unique sort of challenge that some people can enjoy. But as someone who prefers fighting boss immediately its not that fun or me, especially the executioner chariot one, because its kind of a slog for me. Thats why i prefer dark souls 3 and elden ring's approach of boss emphasis over runbacks, just my two cents. I did like devising strategies in ds2 to get to the boss but i dont like doing it again and again just to get a boring boss i dont like. I do believe many improvements from ds1 and ds2 exist too though, like lock on movement, powerstance, inventory, ring slots, UI, etc.
i get where you coming from, but keep it mind that these games aren't just a boss rush.. the exploration is also part of the game and yeah, everyone can enjoy different part of the game.
regarding the boss i feel like, the devs know that people love fighting bosses in these games so they made it that the player should actually *earn* the boss through runbacks (even though some of the bosses aren't great) but from game design perspective, i really respect this kind of mindset. It's what makes games like doom eternal, sifu and sekiro feels so rewarding to play (for me personally)
@@vanilla.icescream exploration is how you find the boss, shortcuts and bonfires the first time but after that i just want to focus on learning the boss. You always start off exploring regardless
@@vanilla.icescream Exploration is part of the game, and it's fun (when there aren't ganks around every corner). But when I die on a boss and want to get back to it, I am no longer "exploring", I am now doing busy work that isn't engaging. There's nothing interesting about fighting 2 dozen boring enemies, and then being forced to fight them all multiple times after just to do something simple in the game that wasn't previously a problem, and never was a problem in future games.
There must be something different for you because I love games like doom eternal and sekiro, but despise dark soul 2's emphasis on fighting every enemy to get to a boss. I don't even have a big problem with runbacks in general, just dark soul 2 runbacks because of how tedious they are. At least in the other games you can plan an interesting route to run around enemies and you sometimes do have to fight certain enemies in some spots. In dark souls 2 there is no planning, you just slowly kill everything 1 by 1.
@xx_amongus_xx6987 first off, i apologise if my english is kinda hard to understand because english isn't my first language.
so my take is, the runbacks in ds2 forces you to learn and predict the enemy behaviour in that runbacks. when you have mastered it : from the enemy moveset, their spawn points, your dodge timing, or even better ; finding a shortcut, you earned that boss fight. When you beat the boss fight, you earned that souls currency, double rewards. It's kinda similar to doom eternal where good strategies, weapon combos and resource management rewards player a "smooth experience" which also can be said to sekiro which if you're able to use all the tools and weapon art with precise timing, player earns the "dance of sekiro" , double rewards : use all your arsenal + skills = fun and rewarding gameplay.
in later souls games, the runbacks are almost non-existent but the boss is flashy and "fun" but the rewards only comes from beating the boss (that can be beaten simply with timing your dodge alone regardless of your skill level). so in this case, i prefer dark souls 2 approach on runbacks.
Now, i know sekiro can also be beaten with spamming L1 and R1, but you wouldn't get the same satisfication from the "dance" of sekiro without all arsenal used as it's intended by devs to be used as it is
@@vanilla.icescream well, i didnt really say i view the games as a boss rush, that's why i love elden ring the most, you get amazing (remembrance) bosses that are ds3-level good, and probably my favorite exploration in the series only rivaled by dark souls 1.
I wouldnt really put runbacks under exploration that much, maybe exploring for hidden bonfires but outside of that my view of exploration is moreof discovering and earning bosses, items, lore, etc. rather than for the purpose of making runbacks easier.
Dont take my comment as a slander of ds2 though, i do believe the game gets way too much undeserved hate as someone who gave the game a chance finished it, and think its a solid 8/10, the fact that it still has the fundamentals of a souls game is why i still hold appreciation for it, it paved the way for elden ring after all. im just tryna state what may be the reasons why ppl suddenly hate it, and it would be such runbacks that lead to the less memorable bosses of the game.
I hate discussions about "fairness" in single-player games. Dark Souls has never been fair. It's always been stacked against the player. That's the point. I only care about fairness when it comes to pvp.
Based
i specially hate the "hard but fair" buzzword all these essayists throw around. as far as i know it has never been said in any interviews or something, people just came up with it and started acting like the games need to account for it
@gstvbrt everyone knows that getting ganked by jailers in DS3 is the pinnacle of "hard but fair" design 👌
@@YEY0806 if you get ganked that's your fault, they're on a patrol so that you don't have to fight them. That whole area is a puzzle
@@Ghorda9 just pointing out the double standard
I don't even know what to say anymore.
As usual we are simply presented with constructive counter evidence from you.
Champ.
Im wondering if these people like dark souls games. This person complains about not being able to easily run past each enemy and that the game „forces“ them to explore because bonfires are hidden. Are souls games something you just breeze through so you can feel proud about beating a game people consider hard or do you actually enjoy the gameplay? Removing s from fog walls and opening chests was a great decision.
Hearing them talk about lifegems makes my head hurt 😵💫
Considering they mostly like all the other Fromsoft games they play I'd say yes. Even great companies occasionally put out a subpar product, Nintendo made the Virtual Boy, Sony made Concord and Fromsoft made Dark Souls 2.
@@saysalla the people that complain the most are the ones that only like DS1 and Bloodborne
@@Ghorda9 Yeah no one likes Dark Souls 3, Sekiro and Elden Ring which is why those games were commercial failures.
@@saysalla you don't understand what i was saying, last i checked DS1 fanboys hardly makes up the population of the later games fandoms, they're also the ones that loathed sekiro and elden ring for being different.
It consistenltly blows me away how every time I watch one of your videos, I see something in DS2 I've never seen before. I've fought the Pursuer dozens of times, and I don't think I've ever seen that spin and downward stab attack.
Really? That’s crazy. Wait till you find out he has an anime style travelling sword slash.
I had once this argument, when people complain about the DS2 system when you die you lose a small part of your health. I was saying that this also happens in Demon Souls and people didn't shit on that game much on this. Their response "But Demon Souls is easy, while DS2 is so bad that you will die many times". Which is not the case if you git gud in the game. I rarely every die in DS2 or I can do big sections of an area and several bosses without dying more than few times. I collect so many effigies because I rarely decide to use them. And it's the same with DS1, I now keep all my humanities. What I learned is indeed, rose tinted glasses. The first time I ever played any of these games, I was dying a lot and thought the game was unfair. When I moved from DS1 to DS2, I thought it was horrible and won't play it again. But now it's one of my favorites and I just die so rarely that it's a breeze to play new runs. These complains on DS2 are unfair as you said, these things happen in all FromSoft games, they just decide to only shit on DS2 about that, and when mentioning unfairness and bs existed in all three games, they are like "Yeah, but it was different in the other two games".
Calling demon's souls easy when you literally have no bonfire system + don't have estus-like system + ambush in every corner + losing health every death is beyond me 💀 the hypocrisy of this community is something that needs to be awarded lol
DS2 is the ONLY soulsborn game that lets you do a no death, no bonfire run.
If it was designed to be difficult for difficulties sake it would have a near unbeatable boss fight in the tutorial, or a forced death to access a necessary area.
To me, all the DS2 hate comes from the rabid fans who was disappointed that DS2 wasnt an objective improvement on everything of DS, and then everyone else just joined in on the hate train because of recreational outrage.
Because it respected the player's intelligence and seemed a bit slower. And muh graphic from trailers that barely anyone watched or cared about. It was just the lighting, but tourists will tourist.
Seriously, the need 4 speed low IQ tourists are ruining gaming for everybody.
That and the fact that most of the so-called fambase only liked them for the influencers and nothing more.
do people really think DS2 is too hard?
I think it's fairly easy going. It's DS3 that I struggle the most with. It's DS3 that upped the speed of the combat and the difficulty of the bosses to try and match the outside perception that souls games are for "hardcore gamers".
Need 4 speed gaming and low IQ whiners have ruined not only the series, but gaming in general.
WEEEEEEE IS BACK!
Basically, the philosophy of DS2 haters is that if it isn't directed by Miyazaki, it's an objectively bad game. That's why they gloss over the same things that exist in every FS game that isn't DS2.
🎯
When in reality ds2 is probably better than all the rest because it ISN'T by Miyazaki 🤣
@@NevinWarrior-es6ds The true irony is that Miyazaki stepped in to help halfway through production. So it's at least HALF Miyazaki.
@DarknessIsTheTruth ye, but most people cry "it's not Miyazaki it must be bad" as if anything not made by him is automatically awful
@@NevinWarrior-es6ds that extra chromosome must be fun
when i grow up i wanna be dark souls 2
u can't, because I'M ALREADY DARK SOULS 2 \\\>O
Almost every criticism they have is disingenuous or just boils down to a skill issue lol love your videos, thanks for another great one.
"Difficulty for difficulty's sake"... spoken about the easiest game in the series. Yep, I think I've heard enough.
The cinematic intro is pretty cool and probably the best imo yet gets a lot of undeserved negative criticism
It’s bad because it’s different. -DS2 hater
Dimitri Monroe?? having a bad take?? inconceivable!
Domo doesn't just fight NPCs in DS but on UA-cam as well.
Domo, you gotta make a response on the Joe Gella video "Why does everybody hate ds2", its right up your alley . Great vid as always
Is there anything new in that one, tho? Most DS2 haters just parrot each other.
The collective gaslighting around the quality of this game is impressive.
Git gud
"The majority consensus on a decade old game being mid is wrong since it's actually a conspiracy theory made by professional gaslighters"
The mind of a dark souls 2 fan
@@saysalla crying online isnt discussion get over it
@@saysallanot a conspiracy, mass bias. It happens a lot more often than you think, especially with media. Think of all the movies that didn't get the success they deserved initially, only to be recognised as masterpieces decades later.
@@Wolfpunker That can't be said about Dark Souls 2, the game was a huge success and sold over 10 million copies despite being mediocre compared to Fromsoft's usual output. If anything the game is a bit overated, it is beloved by many and sold more than twice as much as several other Fromsoft games including Bloodborne which is also a fan favorite, and outsold the entire Armored Core and Kings Field franchises put together.
It is the "Last of Us 2" of its time, it got a bit of backlash for doing some things differently but the fans love to pretend there is some "mass bias" hate campaign against it but the reality is the fans are just extremely sensitive and get very hostile whenever someone has the mildest criticism towards it which pushes the critics to be harsher and it just keeps continuing into a massive gamer rage spiral over video game opinions.
Just started DS2 and loving it after avoiding it because of its reputation......damn why do I listen to the internet LOL
Ds2 *replayability* Is the best, try ita Ng+ when u can, Is the only One that actually add new stuff
Chad DS2 beliver destroys DS2 doubter.
Skibidi loser
Great video. I love that you repeatedly use the clip of you flipping over the Executioner Chariot's wheel-spike just to style on haters.
Thanks for this video, really!
I've always thought it's okay if you don't like or even hate DS2, what I don't like is hearing the same copied and pasted opinions that youtubers made decades ago criticizing things that, many times were simply not the game's fault (skill isues) or that were already fixed with Sotfs...
Imo if you going to hate the game at least play it consciously and not trying to prove anything.
What I don't like is fighting the same copy and pasted bosses like Old Dragonslayer, Dragonriders, Pursuers, Smelter Demons, Aavas, Flexile Sentries, Ruins Sentinels, Belfry Gargoyles etc. I can't even stay conscious when playing the game because of how boring and tedious it is.
@@saysalla Wait till you hear about Elden Ring.
@@SLAMTUCKER Lmao
complaining that u can get invaded in DS2 while u r hollow is so stupid, is such an amazing features for ppl who actually do invasions, u r not limited to only human players, but just to everyone, this little thing keep alive the pvp in DS2.
Thank You Yui Tanimura.
I like Dimitri as a person, but I'm always reminded of how dog water all of his videogame takes are every few weeks when I see him post on twitter. He plays games quite a bit before he does the videos, but he just really doesn't understand them because he'll either read too much into something or his mind will just completely ignore things that are just right in front of your face.
Also, I can't believe he used the estus shard in Majula as an example of something that people would have to look up to find out. If someone had previously played any Dark Souls game, they've had an experience of rubbing their faces against walls and smacking various different objects to see if it'd do something, and the well is just begging for you to punch it. It's quite literally the first thing I did in Majula when I first noticed the rock on my first run.
"Reward: H-game stream"
I'm just saying.
I'm glad I found your channel. Over the years I've watched Mauler's DS2 series multiple times before playing it. I took what he said for granted and didn't question it based on his previous work being thorough, and anecdotally I thought he seemed like a genuine guy. Hell, even after playing the game I still parroted some of the talking points lol.
I've lost a little respect for Mauler over the years. He's literally gaslighting people with his DS2 series lol. Thank you for showing actual proof. Luckily, even the perceived extra jank had no bearing on my enjoyment of the game - I still loved it.
Dimitri: "They teach you nothing new ...."
Domo proceeds to perform a public execution by making him eat his words.
RIP I guess XD
Based intro. Ecen DS2 strongest defender non dark souls takes are cool and objectively correct 🛐
Gonna make a reflection here, and may be a hot take. Well, it shouldn´t be; all Fromsoft Souls games are amazing games, and everyone can enjoy them for different reasons. This makes a quite amazing effect, that any ranking can be equally valid and can have quite understandable reasons.
This is why I never got why the community has so much beef between each other game fans. And this came since quite a long time ago, since DS1 and DS2. I think that never brought up to anything good nor interesting, as everyone is so offensive and defensive that can be quite hard to express own opinions.
The criticism didn´t help; never seen so much dedication to bash what they even consider a 8/10 game by their own standarts, is very weird in my opinion xD, you might expect that the lower the score, the least nice things you have to speak about. Nope, the 2/10 games critique last like 20 minutes on average, while on Souls critiques they need to make a 2 hour analysis at the very least to see what they peek.
Back to my point, I think the best thing is to try to have less and less tribalism behaviours. I was personally so happy about it, get way less offended (shouldn´t get offended to begin with) about this kind of talks. Rage on internet is never healthy of course. Well, sorry for my rambling, and have a good day.
youre right they arent all good. (ninja blade) and i share this take because im tired of fanboys for a specific dev/company. if people like action adventure it makes no sense to only stick with from soft games and to always hold them up on a mantle. i love the games they make but the bias and almost territorialism between the fans of the different games in the same series is strange.
You are right, some people take discourse over video games a bit too serious to the point where they either resort to ad-hominems or take something as personally offensive. I've played all of the 7 games generally referred to as "Souls" games at least 3 times, and consider all of them worth playing multiple times. Even the one I consider my least Favourite is probably a 7-8/10 game.
Now that I’m amongst friends, can someone clear this up for me?
WTF is with adaptability and why do people who hate the game cry about it? I’ve finished DS2 multiple times and never levelled it once. Am I missing something or do they need to Git Gud?
with basic adaptability you just need do perfect rolls to evade everthing invicibilty frames are doubled at 99 AGL, more frames on backsteb too . faster estus chugging
sir alonne , blue smelter , sinner gives some trouble with basic adp as example .
They're almost always coming from other Fromsoft games (Mostly 3) that give you i-frames on rolls based only on carry weight. They're used to those i-frames and don't like that DS2 doesn't just give them to you. It really is a case of either learning to actually put levels into the stat, or getting good by either timing rolls well or finding other solutions.
ADP (adaptability) is an attribute you can level in DS2. It replaced Resistance from DS1 and tries to give more power to the stat, so it is worth levelling. It is the fastest way to get Agility, which is a stat that at certain thresholds increases your dodge i-frames and speeds up the animation of healing items (estus, lifegems, etc..). As a mage you get Agility from Attunement as well, but slightly less. If you want to play as a melee character that avoids most attacks through dodging instead of a shield or face tanking, then I would advise levelling ADP to 28 to hit the soft cap on i-frames. You will have one of the strongest rolls in a Fromsoft game and noticeably faster heals this way.
It's good if you want an invulnerability-frame(I-frame) based playstyle, or to help you use items quicker, usually healing items, usually more of an issue if you're getting hit, which contextualises its use in a non-i-frames-based playstyle.
I think it's okay, it's not the be-all-end-all whether you level it or not. It can be a nice supporting addition to your existing methods of damage mitigation, a shield, armour, positional dodging, spells, water, and just killing the enemy before they become a problem, or you can specialise in it and have enough i-frames that your i-frame dodges don't have to be as accurately timed.
@@emeraldguy10still stupid that i need to put points into a stat to get a actual good roll. Good thing adp never returned
Seeing this in my notifications just as I take my rightful place on the porcelain throne.
Now two of my favourite activities can happen at the same time
Thank you for the intro. It makes me respect you even more.
aww yeah DS2's strongest soldier is back let's gooooooo
Yes i do like all dark souls games, and what ? *giga chad picture*
Wow.this was such a thought out and interesting video! Thanks a lot!
Retroactively countering points without understanding why the points are being made.
The 4kings are a fun fight, but to 90% of ppl b4 havels they're just bs. The worst part is because I never knew this and refuse to suffer thru ds1, I've never talked to kaathe.
Ds2 feels like a game made from this experience. Ds2 is the only game I quit 80% of my trials, almost always before lost sinner.
The amount of bs ain't worth it.
Love your videos, just started this one and thank you for making it clear your channel is a safe place ❤
Dark Souls 2? More like Peak Souls 2? yeah
i was waiting for you to get tot his video. i first watched it when i was getting into dark souls. when he talked about how you’re unable to walk on lava as if you’re able to in other souls games- while showing footage of MONSTER HUNTER, it slipped by me. once i was more familiar with the series and even monster hunter, i just thought it was so egregious
Love your videos! Played through DS2 recently and mostly loved it, but your videos made me appreciate more things in the game and have a better understanding of it
Kings Field has some really evil traps too. Some soft locks as well. In kings field 2 you need to jump down a hole to grab a item. with no way back up other then using teleporting stones. I love Kings Field.
Edit: Re using bosses for normal enemies is not lazy. If done right it shows the player how far they've come and how much stronger they are. I will defend Demon Ruins. I love that area. Lost Izalith i am neutral on. Its not a good area, but its also really short. The lavas not a problem since the game gives you the orange charred ring. The scenery is nice. I like the atmosphere. And thats about it. Everything else is bleh. Its a wart on a amazing game.
Dont forget that frigging magic ring in I think the 4th or 5th one that was basically REQUIRED to beat the game and it was entirely missable lol
My second favorite Fromsoft game behind Elden Ring.
I heard the warning at the beginning of the video. But mannn this guy makes it too hard not to go there with that haircut and glasses...
"REWARD: H Game Stream" does not help much to his image either, but it is good that domo made that intro, if he did not then the next video made in response to him would be calling him a transphobe for simply disagreeing. That, or people would comment shit vague enough that it could have been used as ammo against him.
Fr I was about to send hate his way until I figured he was trans, I don't want to get burned at the stake tbh I don't even care if you're trans or not if I hate you I hate you but ig all trans people are immune lol
@@climaksy1659 I don't think that's the reason personally; from a quick glance at Dimitry's channel and Twitter, he seems to be something of a transphobe himself. Constantly whines about pronouns, Also he's... posting about being in a relationship with his sister a lot? This seems to be some kind of a joke, but it's in really poor taste.
Anyway, I think this decision is made more so that Domo can detach themselves from Dimitry's views than to shield themselves, at least that's how I see it.
It’s not homophobia to point it out. Stereotypes are recognisable for a reason lol
The low hanging fruit, it's just within reach.
After their Guilty Gear video, im not surprised monroe doesnt know what theyre talking about
The hitboxes segment was beautiful!!! I played through DS1 and was shocked by bad many of the hitboxes were and even had a running joke with my friends about “DS2 hitboxes being in 1” but then I played three again and saw how jank those were too at times.
Turns out DS2 was just being bullied by lazy YTers 😢
If that person doesn't even make his own arguments and mostly steals them from Mauler, I wonder if he actually played the game to any same extend as DS1 or/and DS3
Usualy, not always, but more often than not, whenever you ask people who criticise Dark Souls 2 to specify what is bad and how it differs from the other games, they simply cannot provide a valid answer, hence why they circle around complex words and vague statements...
And when we do hear valid criticism, its the ones everyone agrees with but can be worked with if you know what youre doing, like Adaptability and Soul Memory, or minor inconveniences like 8-Directional Movement that i agree isnt smooth but doesnt ruin the game, just like 4-Way Dodging in Dark Souls 1.
Yeah the Old Dragonslayer seems like a copy paste rehash from DS1 but it actually becomes a cool original boss fight if you are skilled enough to work around the flaws.
"minor inconveniences like 8-Directional Movement"
This is just downplaying the major flaws that most people do focus on. 8 directional movement is not a minor inconvenience, it is really obvious to the player that their character doesn't move in the directions they are told to. It is not a minor inconvenience to have i-frames not correspond with the visuals of a roll in a game mainly about rolling. Not to mention how ADP is never explained accurately to the player, forcing them to rely on outside materials just to play the game right. It is not a minor inconvenience to have soul memory, it is just a terrible mechanic.
"just like 4-Way Dodging in Dark Souls 1" I believed there is 8 directional dodging in dark souls 1, and I know for a fact that this only exists when you are locked on. When you don't lock on you can roll in infinite directions. This is also almost a non-issue to begin with since rolling in specific directions doesn't even matter in this game. Just don't roll in a direction with lava or a pit and you'll be fine. The big issue is dark souls 2's entire movement system is messed up. This not only sucks in combat, but it just feels like garbage to play considering you walk around the entire game.
@@xx_amongus_xx6987It's a minor inconvenience, cope more.
@@xx_amongus_xx6987 First off, calm down, i think you are exaggerating, you know the 8-Directional movement started to be criticised by everyone only after Dark Souls 3 came out and alot of people went back to check the other games so for them who were used to the improved systems of the newer games it makes sense, but for the veterans it wasnt an big issue untill it was time to make it a point against the game...
As to ADP, yeah, i agree, however, its not that the s dont correspond with your roll, its that theyre few, i played through the gane as a SL1 with very few frames to make use of and when i learned to use it i could dodge moves by timing it the same meaning they do correspond, its that its so bad you gotta change your timings, ots not some random thing lol... again, i agree with you, its bad, but dont make stuff up, also, you and basically everyone knows about ADP and what it does now right? So just use the first few levels to boost it and go through the gane without issue, its that simple, its bad i get it stop repeating what everyone says and agrees on and acknowledge the fact that if you just use a few levels to increase it, it wont be an issue anymore.
@@xx_amongus_xx6987 I forgot about the clear and obvious tells in a roll that show invulnerability. Just like in real life, I can always dodge roll through a car with this precise timing. Dark Souls 2 bucks the trend of clear easy to see i-frame timings on rolls.
I'm not at all surprised that this channel is pro-inclusivity, but good on you for making it clear.
🏳️⚧️ TRANS 🏳️⚧️ RIGHTS 🏳️⚧️
@@ErinLynaghain’t no such thing as
Narcissist do indeed love when people specifically call attention to them
@@ErinLynagh what rights do trans people not have compared to the common working class person?
Ofc it is. Who else has bad takes like this guy.
dark souls 2 is the only dark souls game i own
The other souls games are really good as well!
The other ones are amazing too! Hope you give them a shot.
INCREDIBLY based, but I urge you to at least but the others. You don’t have to buy DS3 though 😂
I would also recommend to play 1.
3 is okay but more of an action game than an RPG.
@@GS_CCCnone of the games are good as rpgs.
the disclaimer about this channel being pro lgbtqia+ at the start is very appreciated btw
Agreed but why only target homo and transphobia? And not EVERY single form of bigotry?
@@pieth68He didn't mention anything about racist comments so I have to assume he's okay with racism like most dark souls 2 fans are.
@@pieth68 because the person who made the """review""" is kind of part of the lgbtq+ community? Because domo wants people to only focus on what they're talking about instead of talkinh about their appearance/sexuality? It's so simple
@@vanilla.icescream maria thought it was about shutting up dimitri monroe fans because dimitri monroe is a transphobe
Thanks for this video Domo (sorry for the many comments as always, I just finished watching the video, yesterday I was too tired to watch it all)
Clarifying that the channel is pro-LGBT while getting out of the gender coffin really made me smile. Great video overall, loved the discussion of the bonfire placements and boss runbacks and level design in particular.
People complaining about runbacks in the older titles is a result of games like Elden Ring putting bonfires right infront of bosses all of the time. How is the game actually wanting you to interact with the level they designed a bad thing? I'd argue that having so much filler space of nothing is worse than difficult areas. This teaches players that they deserve to get to the boss with 100% HP, Mana, Flasks and easy access to their lost souls every time. Having to do some form of a runback taught the player that they can't just rush to the boss in anger or try the exact same strategy. If you weren't careful, you could lose a lot of souls just trying to get back to the boss. Having bonfires right infront of every boss door removes the stakes and responsibility from the player. There is such a small chance you will lose your souls, resulting in the player not really being punished despite making the same mistake over and over again to the same boss. If DS2 had the feint attacks and input tracking the Elden Ring bosses have, people would complain about it to the moon and back. But because it's Elden Ring, it's good game design.
Sigma domo
Amazing work, Domo! I love how thorough you are in your arguments and examples. Keep up the good work please.
Could you do a video about magic in Dark Souls 2 and how it compares to other titles?
As someone who's played Kings Field and Shadow Tower the "traps for first time players" is like 75% of the experience
When he was criticizing the rock on the well in Majula that really pissed me off man, like what do u mean it’s not obvious; my dumb ass when I was 12 managed to figure that on out 💀
Most adults don't have time to talk to every inanimate object they encounter because they need to work for a living instead of making mommy and daddy buy all their video games so they can spend all their free time rotting their brain instead of doing something useful.
@@saysalla I'm pretty sure the point was that you have to be brainless not to try to hit a rock with rope tied to it on the edge of a well, it's not some elaborate puzzle you have to stare at for hours man.
Even those electric horses at frigid outskirts aren't THAT difficult, if you use proper tools. The same goes for Shrine of Amana. How they punish you for using torch to see the depth of water with those underwater bastards being attracted to light is quite entertaining. I'm even pretty sure that the adaptability with Iframes connected to it was meant as a possible challenge, like SL1 no Iframes run, with how you can basically walk among enemy attacks if you know what you're doing. And the atmosphere it has is quite unique, like Noah Gervais said- no other souls game goes so hard with melancholy. And to anyone trying to play it on PC I recommend to turn off double clicking (needs to be done every time you start the game), it may seem like the game isn't reacting to your inputs otherwise.
the intro objectively makes me like dark souls 2 more
I feel like DS2 hate is actually the hate that people have for parts of the other Fromsoft games but could never find the chance to properly make a critique or complaint so everyone uses DS2 as an outlet whether they know it or not
Probably
I play every games in order except demon souls. Ds2 is the only one who left a bad taste in my mouth.
Nah ds2 just misses a lot of points. They doubled down on ds2's trial and error when it was an aspect most players actually despised outside of sens.
Cheap deaths THROUGHOUT a run does not add to the game. Iron keep is fugging cancer.
Dimitri Monroe is such a grifter who specializes in culture war nonsense they have no knowledge over. I remember when they made videos about Bridget during that whole manufactured controversy pretending to have insight into Japanese culture. They might be the only known chaser who chases themself.
it's been so long since I played the first one that I never realized how unfair it actually is, even moreso than 2 in a lot of spots, thanks for the perspective! i think for me personally if has less to do with the game world design, and more to do with the way it feels? the lack of impact with weapons, the fall damage, weapons breaking way faster, the way the character snaps to up down left or right, it's just bizarre feeling. obviously this is a git gud moment, but i feel it's something worth pointing out as to why some people don't enjoy this game as much as 1 and 3.