He sealed the deal the moment he mentioned only playing a portion of DS2. He doesn't bring anything new or valuable to the conversation and instead defends Mauler with little context of the game. The Souls Community Experience.
like the usual ds2 hater..playing the game with already preconceived hate for the game..not even investing time with it then proceeded to debunk someone who played it extensively 😂
@@aNsWeRkEy02 playing the game for an hour from my experience is probably the most common amount of time half of ds2 haters played. A lot haven’t played it all.
@zzodysseuszz i admit that I had trouble getting into the game at first, I even hated it based on prejudice and then I beat, then again and again and It's based on experience my favourite game in the series now
Yes, anyone who doesn't like a video game should waste their time playing it to completion on having wasted their money to prove that they deserve to not like it.
DS2 (at least sotfs) wasn't my cup of tea but I'll eventually try out vanilla. I really like what the gameplay was going for and wish it was expanded on alongside classic ds1 gameplay
Wait, did this guy seriously imply "Domo couldn't recreate this boss stick, and that's how you know it's a pervasive bug" doesn't that mean it's INCREDIBLY UNLIKELY?
Ds2 haters have this weird obsession with proving the game is objectively unenjoyable, bad, unworthy of your time and whatnot, and when someone says they like it anyway, they completely lose their mind over it, its so fucking funny, its literally that "QUIT HAVING FUN" meme.
Yep, that’s why they’re called haters - they are trying to create a scenario where the game is unsalvageable when anybody who doesn’t come at it with preconceived bias can realize it’s not as bad as it’s portrayed - which makes them salty due to being really insecure about this game. They are so insecure about this game proving they haven’t “gotten gud” yet, they will try to act like any connection to this game to any other in the series doesn’t exist. Be it that aldia was the teacher to twin princess in ds3, or that vengral has a similar moveset to the final boss in er’s dlc, or any number of items, mechanics, weapons, and/or armor that were first introduced in ds2.
It’s insane that someone could watch your entire response series, which very clearly demonstrates you have an exceptionally comprehensive understanding of the game and go “Well… I haven’t even completed the game and I’m going to tell you why you’re wrong” I’m not sure if its arrogance or a complete lack of self awareness, but its truly baffling
I personally debunked DS2 being bad myself with a sort of a social experiment. Throughout the years, I let my friends, who were completely clueless about fromsoftware, play the games, like around 7 people. Running theme was this: DS1 most hated for being junky, outdated and I quote "finishing it out of spite" and then it separated into DS2 and DS3 like club, but no one was shitting on one or another, they just had different taste. When I told them afterwards how DS1 is praised and DS2 is hated, they didn't believe me and thought I was just coping until I showed them all the essays etc and they were absolutely furious. There is a clear bias towards DS2, mostly coming from people shaping their opinions by UA-camrs like MauLer and then they basically go play DS2 just to shit on it. "This is bad because yeah ds2 being bad"
I played all three games in order, after they had all been released, and same with three of my friends and my brother we all had a great time with DS2 and were mostly leaning towards it being really good and 1 of my friends, my brother, and I were leaning towards it being better than 3 and 1 none of us had any outside opinions other than us talking about it, no one shat on DS123 at all. and we enjoyed all of them with some preferences amongst them. I only learned how hated DS2 was after engaging with the community on reddit, youtube, and such. it seems a hive like hatred towards DS2 has propagated somehow
I came to the Dark Souls series after playing Lies of P as my first souls-like game. DS1 felt clunky and was frustrating in the levels but the bosses were so easy for the most part, until the DLC. My favorite boss fight was Artorias. It was more challenging but fair. DS2 was less clunky, bosses still relatively easy, and there were really good mechanisms added to the game that can help make it a bit easier if you're having some struggles getting back to the bosses. You can farm out the enemies, which can be boring, but too often I see people just running past enemies instead of dealing with the enemies and then they are surprised when they are overwhelmed with those enemies. I haven't played DS3 yet, but I'm excited to play it.
It was nice of you to let your friends play Dark Souls. I would love to, but no one has granted me permission yet. Sorry, I'm kidding. I just thought the way you phrased it was amusing.
I did exactly this. But my main conclusion that the game was actually good was when I played it for the first time after neglecting it for so long bc of mauler’s videos. Absolutely nothing he said in his videos aligned with what I was seeing or doing.
It's crazy how much the gaming community's perception can be influenced by one popular video. It's like when people use the Mr. Plinkett videos as an argument that everybody unanimously hate the Star Wars Prequels and always have.
Defending a person's (""objective"", by the way) opinion on a game when you yourself have never played the game to begin with seems incredibly shortsighted if not hypocritical
Not new by any means. I’ve seen possibly several dozen people say things like “you can’t reach areas outside of majula without warping” or “you can just back stab spam turtle knights”. Legit arguments I’ve seen being made against ds2 that people tried to defend for days in the comments. I genuinely believe a good portion of ds2 haters have never played the game at all, possibly only played ds3 and simply watched maulers video and concluded “yes I agree ds2 is bad”
I was gonna make a comment about people not forming their opinions but instead browsing an app and picking the highest rated one but then i remember this is the series where people get the story from some guy hamming it up on youtube instead of the actual game they played so why even bother going that deep.
@@deathtoraiden2080 Honestly, thanks for acknowledging this. Nothing against the guy personally but it really does irk me when most Souls "fans" have to get spoonfed the story through those vids. It's not even a complicated story to pick up if you just read as you go, but people can't just say they love the gameplay only and leave it at that.
That heide knight move is an intentional mixup, and mixups are something that most players will get hit by the first time. Players can mix you up in similar ways with delayed attacks, but it happens so often that ppl who play fromsoft games see delay mixups as 'unfair'. God forbid they played PvP or a single fighting game in their life, they'd be calling every single interaction unfair.
I saw another UA-camr talk about other people saying Elden Ring DLC being too hard and he said just play PVP and you will learn so much to be a better player
The difference between dark souls 2 and fighting games is that street fighter doesn't have you fighting 14 dudes at the same time because "le git gud" and they don't make you waste time grinding levels to dump points in a mystery stat that makes the game playable.
@@saysalladude, you've clearly not watched videos on Domo's channel, neither did you play DS2 for real. What are you doing here in the chat? Just wanna troll or project more of your issues and incompetency?
in principle, the idea of an npc having a "true" mixup (and not just a reactable variation) is not something i think is defensible... unless that mixup is avoidable in other ways by spacing/strafing/blocking. a mixup in pvp is fine bc its abt a human reading another human. against code, u'd be undercutting any notion of player mastery, because u cannot make an educated guess against code; it would literally be a coin toss every time with no discernible tendency. maybe the example ur thinking of is not "true", but i think this is worth saying. srry if pedantic
Yep I heard that reputation and I thought I was going to be in for a bad time especially since it was the scholar version. But I was pleasantly surprised and enjoyed the game. It was also the first souls game I played with multiplayer on which I was at first concerned about hearing bad reputations of invasions but I enjoyed it and played with multiplayer on in DS3.
It's a doubleedged sword though because ds2 hipsters like you also dismiss people like me who played every game on release and collectively agreed ds2 did not live up to the other games but somehow our opinions are completely dismissed by your hivemind, groupthink truly is the worst in fanbases.
@@DeadEndScreamer nobody said DS2 is as good as the other games of the saga, we're just saying is a good game REGARDLESS of being the (relatively) worst of the saga. Also, nobody is disregarding opinions, we're adressing them and showing our side of story with video evidence and actual arguments instead of name calling and ragebaiting, you know, like you just did.
This has to be the most ignorant defense of the bunch. I dont care if you love the game. Good for you. I wish my standards were that low. Plenty of people that have beaten every souls game put this dead last. Some people put it first. But its literally the worst one as a concensus. Sorry it hurts your feelings. Its not a lack of skill on anyones part but the developers. If you havent found someone who beat this game calling it the worst, its because you live in an echo chamber and are afraid of dissenting opinions.
@@YEY0806what does this even mean lol? They put the game down because its bad, not because its hard. How do you reckon they go on to beat harder games? Talk about hypocrisy lmfao. Smarten up.
- Brings up Argument of why DS2 is bad - Points out it's in other games -NOOOOO YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND THE POINT, WE ALL KNOW IT'S IN OTHER GAMES, BUT IT MAKES DS2 BAD. OldMateJohn is a good example of why some people shouldn't give their opinions.
The funniest part about this to me is that if these people who use this argument were equally critical of the other games there would hardly be any room for rebuttal. They aren't wrong that pointing out that the issues appearing in other games doesn't automatically make them okay in DS2. But if your issue is only with DS2 then maybe you aren't being very "objective" about it.
@@ReelBigFan That's what I mean. If you want to criticize DS2, In my opinion the argument has to be structured like this Point out an issue exclusive to DS2. Show WHY it's bad. But I think a big issue is proving why something is bad, because it's like the statues, some people like them some people hate them, and I think there's good arguments on both ends.
I hope the video doesn't come across as too aggressive. I just have little respect for tourists that feel that their lack of experience with the game makes them qualified to debate it.
Nah, dont worry. Is extremely frustrating that someone Who barely played the Game pretends to know anything and tries to contradicts you. I experienced It before hand and yes. It makes you act with more aggresion for that.
I understand. It’s like listening to a popular and respected reviewer, and discovering that all his “criticism” boils down to finding fault with everything that seems wrong to him without the slightest understanding. Oh wait...
Would you be interested in making these type of vids for elden ring/dlc? Might be needed with all the misinformation being spread. Loopine is doing an admirable job, but he alone is not enough
@@zzodysseuszzyeah, at this point it's like, "Seriously? It's been 10 f--king years and you're still stuck in it? Get a life" I mean, of course, I still answer to their bs because I hate misinformation on the internet but it's ridiculous how they don't get tired of going through the same mental routine again and again.
I love Maldron, one of the best NPC invader of the entire franchise after Jester thomas 🙂 now, compare it to the ALL NPC invaders in ds3, all of them are just some random NPC who just invading your world without unique personality (with some lore apparently)
the whole "drama" around DS2 actually needs to be studied. i can not think of any other piece of media that is in the same position as DS2. no games or shows or anything. its such a mess, and feels so completely random. somehow its ingrained into a lot of people that "DS2 is the worst in the series". not as an opinion, but as an objective fact. "the sun is big, ice is cold, DS2 is a good game but a bad souls game, the earth is round" etc. im honestly really interested in knowing how exactly all of this happened.
Hmmm over my gaming years I’ve probably encountered a few overhated games that didn’t deserve the hate at all. But yeah, ds2’s hate is like some kind of social phenomenon, it’s completely insane.
Why is Big Rigs: Over the Road Racing such a hated game? Some games are just so poorly made and the flaws are so searingly obvious that they overshadow everything else about them, even the genuinely good ideas like backstep s.
It’s a mental phenomenon. The majority of gamers literally don’t have the cognitive function to come to their own conclusions, so they just regurgitate opinions they hear online that they feel they agree with rather than come up with their own points and arguments.
MauLer's "review" on this game is misinformed, in bad faith and excessively biased. And now some random guy shows up that hasn't even finished the game and tries to argue over it. The souls fandom is hilarious.
Well let's not pretend like bomberguy's review was any better, that guy praides the one unborn in bloodborne in one video and criticized the tower knight in demon's souls in another to prove a different point in each video even though they are essentially the same boss fight, one big guy in the middle and adds on ledges that need to be taken out first to make the fight easier. And I'm not even defending mauler, I'm just saying it's incredibly rare for any "reviewer" to not try tipping things in their favor by misrepresenting something, everyone's guilty of it at some point or another even if it wasn't intended.
@@DeadEndScreamer The main difference is that hbomberguy wasn't presenting his opinion as objective fact. He was giving his opinion on why he liked aspects of ds2 and other Fromsoft games, whereas mauler repeatedly frames his own opinions and misconceptions as objective facts.
@@DoctorThundah Not really, he said tower knight fight can only be approached in one way which is both factually incorrect and he never framed it as his opinion either. So as far as I'm concerned the only real difference is bomber says "in my opinion" and "to me" sometimes in his video which isn't worth much.
me and sgm argued with him in the comment section and it was one of the most frustrating deflect filled comment section back and forths ive ever been a part of, the ammount of dishonesty in the video is staggering, and he was also super dishonest in said comment section.
When he was bitching and moanig about Radahn I owned him so badly he personally went to delete the reply I made to his reply of my criticism. He should stick to easy to shit on movies.
Unfortunately, I really think he is either woefully under equipped to deal with anything approaching objectivity and intellectual consistency, or is willfully being disingenuous about the topic. Presumably either because he really likes/looks up to MauLer, or because he wants to try and farm engagement/views to grow his really tiny channel.
@@Domo3000 yo I'm thinking about getting ds2 this week cuz of you and I was wondering should I go a dexterity based build or a strength build. Also, I've heard some people complaining that SOTF is worse than the vanilla version, is it true? Because I wanna get SOTF since it comes with all 3 DLC's.
Hey Domo thank you for this series. I have shat on ds2 for years now, but your videos made me have another go since I haven't played since ds3 came out. Turns out, I think ds2 is very fun and has many awesome qualities that I never appreciated before. My run has been mainly using longsword(s) and it feels so good to play. Truth is, I was going through a very rough time as a young teen when I decided that I hated ds2, but I now believe it was just my way of taking out anger on something unrelated to my real life to cope with it all. Obviously the game isn't perfect, but no game is, you just gotta decide to like the good qualities or find something else you enjoy. Thanks to you, I've really been enjoying ds2 a ton. Have a good one and keep the good work up!
I'm glad to hear you were willing to give DS2 another shot and found you liked it in the end. I hope you're going through better times fellow bearer of the curse.
I've found most people who got into souls after their initial boom, like around when ds3 or elden ring came out, tend to not have as harsh views on ds2 compared to people who have been fans since the beginning. There was definitely a cultural movement around the souls fandom when the game initially came out that has carried on to the modern day about how one is "supposed" to view DS2 and it not so subtly influences people's perception of it before and even while they are playing it. I got into dark souls well after dark souls 3 came out and played the games in order without knowing anything about them and dark souls 2 is still the one I had the most enjoyment playing with my friends with and exploring. The only souls game that compares to the feeling of trepidation and exploration to dark souls 2 is Elden Ring for me.
its crazy. Getting platinum in all souls games made me realize they all had the same problems and even some problems in ds1 and ds3 that arent in 2. such as if youre locked onto a target and they fall off of a ledge you gravitate towards them in ds1 and ds3 causing death. ds2 ive been able to escape those situations every time and even call it out when im with my friend
"enemies don't know what to do unless approached from the front" is such a funny complaint to make about ds2 considering the whole circle strafing meta in ds1
It's so funny, like John, do you want enemies to have eyes on their back, or limps to twist around and attack the player behind. Ironic considering that the Turtle Knights who are exclusive to DS2 are literally designed to be able to deal with players behind them. Edit: forgot to mention the Flexial Sentry, a boss whose whole gimmick is being able to attack the player from both sides
ds1 is notorious for enemies that dont see you even if youre infront. and its so frustrating that its inconsistent what enemies are like that and what enemies arent. a good example is in anor londo, where some knights can actually see you, while others are blind to you unless you step within 5 feet of their vision. in other places like valley of drakes, the first drake infront of the bridge and the 2nd one in the middle have normal npc aggro ranges, and will follow you as long as they see you. meanwhile, the other 3 drakes at the new londo door, as well as the one on the mountain-side path have baby aggro ranges, and keep backtracking to their spawn point. but no, ds2 just has the woooorst AI in the series.
Why would anybody who has never even played the game in question feel qualified to defend a game critic on the content of their criticisms. Its like reviewing a movie you saw the intro to and a handful of other reviews. Just a bunch of noise, nothing meaningful to contribute whatsoever.
The whole "just because ds1/3 also does this piss poor thing, doesn't excuse ds2 doing this piss poor thing" argument is one of the most dogshit intellectually dishonest arguments possible. Dog, you're LITERALLY saying that ds2 is bad because it has things that appear in EVERY OTHER FROMSOFT GAME. That is the overwhelming bulk of the arguments against ds2, OF COURSE pointing out that the other games do this matters! It's even ironic when it comes to hitboxes, because objectively ds3 has WORSE hitboxes than both ds1 and ds2... Basically, if most (if not all) the things you point out that "make ds2 bad" are also found in other games, but you don't call them bad, then you are OBJECTIVELY wrong in your assessment that ds2 is bad.
There are things I don't like about DS2 that are unique to itself - even then I can't possibly argue with a straight face that it somehow makes this game go from "masterpiece" like ds1 and ds3 to "terrible" as these people would argue. It's just the worst dark souls game, nothing wrong with being the worst in such a well-made franchise.
@HeroSword_P, and unfortunately, most of the mechanics that Elden Ring brought from DS2 are either downgraded (powerstance), or just not brought over (bonfire asecetics, spices)
You should’ve ended the video thirty seconds in and not given him the grace of an actual response. If you haven’t played the full game that’s fine, but don’t expect to be taken seriously in an actual discussion
I think my favorite thing about your response videos on DS2 is that I always see or learn something new about the game while watching them. It makes me want to replay these great games again and again. Great work as always.
You can get GYWN STUCK!?! Man, that actually left me shocked I knew Gywn had some pathing issues with his arena (he seemed to take a few moments to get around the spikes in the Kiln when I fought him) but I never knew you could get the Lord of Sunlight stuck in a corner
@@Domo3000 I didn't even need a cheese, i just spammed r1 with a black knight ultra greatsword (it's not exaggeration, i just walked to him and spammed without healing once) . I had Artorias armor and was pretty high level thanks to farming in Ariamis painting. Let's guess it was the cap of strenght, health and stamina, as i knew about them thanks to a guide. It was my first dark souls experience.
As a certified dark souls 2 hater who has played both it and scholar multiple times and played 2 on launch on ps3, I very much enjoy your videos for rebuking the disingenuous arguments for why its an "objectively" bad game. I might not enjoy it but talking about problems it has as if they're exclusive to 2 or just making up issues that just stem from bad play is silly, and it's good that there's people who enjoy it enough to defend it.
Why did you play two versions of a game multiple times (that must be at least 4 times) if you don't enjoy it? Gaming time is limited, even if it doesn't seem like that when you are young. Go out there and experiment.
@@Guttins Yeah. There's a difference between 'I don't like this game' and 'I HATE this game and will let that hate twist my perception of it it into something biased and unfair and inaccurate.'
Ah yes, someone who didn't play DS2 watches a video from a guy who did and played it even worse than my granda would and then sees someone make valid points. The classic.
I dunno what I hate more... People presenting their subjective feelings as objective truth Or people who embody the Dunning Kruger effect by acting like subject matter experts when they have barely dipped their toes in
I'd like to add something about backstabs in the series In ds1 it does the sort of snap if you meet the conditions. I'm not sure if it's possible to escape a backstab once it's started In ds3 and Elden Ring if the enemy has not escaped your backstab range soon after you start the attack they get locked into the animation (which is why there's backstab whiff animations) In DS2 you do a sort of punch (or kick for larger enemies) that needs to connect with the enemy, giving them time to escape. same as ds3 and ER but presented differently
It's technically possible to escape a backstab in DS1 (and also DeS), but it's a glitch. High level DS1 PVP is overcentralized around backstabs because their ease of use + how much reward you get from one + rolling i-frames invalidates every other method of attack. It's like playing a fighting game where the only thing that matters is Grabs and teching them. Or put another way, if you're not backstabbing, setting up a backstab, preventing their backstab, or punishing their backstab attempt, you're PVPing "wrong". I think the glitch is called a toggle escape, but that might be escaping normal combo hitstun from slower weapons. I had a friend that was DEEP into DS1 PVP and could/would clown any PVPer you could think of on YT and they explained it to me once, but I haven't seen them in a while so I can't ask again.
5:05, nice to know if new devs were put onto a game unprepared he would use that to insult them. And i dont think they were unprepared to make ds2, its so goated
I will never understand the obsession with DS2 hitboxes. Margit's sword can hit you a full yard away from your head. This is just how their engine works, right up to Shadow of the Erdtree.
"Dodging into an attack is a perfectly viable stategy" I'm sorry, but didn't he preface this response by saying he hasn't played more than a few hours of the game? 😂 And now he's making assertions about stategies. Rolling into an attack is sometimes viable, other times not. It depends on the attack, your agility, and carry weight (roll distance). But you'd have to actually play the game to understand that.
After going to school for game design I have had and keep using this game as a base for discussions and some assignments and it’s just a HUGE skill issue that I have went on hours long discussions on. From the overall gameplay flow and loop to just basic mechanics and player interaction. This is one of those times where it’s a “casual” issue. People wanted to turn off brains like how they did with ds3 and Elden ring to an extent while ds2 has so many things going on in terms of just being the most different. From literally not needing a hud to play ds2 due to the info your characters animations give like when you can roll again after full stamina drain or when your health gets to low and you need a heal. None of the other games besides ds2 can have unique animations even for walking. Ds1, 3 some of sekiro, and Elden ring share animations like a mf. From the weapon swings to basic walking ,rolling and turning animations they are shared or tweaked to fit the game they are in but only for frame data or to fit attack chains like in Elden ring. I’m never getting over how ds3 ringed city’s dlc loot was a lot of ds2 stuff.
@@michaelcarroll5801 No game isn’t flawed but one thing I half agree on with many is the adp I frame issue. Now I never level it unless I make a bleed or poison build (can’t remember what bns it influences) due to just relying on spacing and sprinting rather that spam dodge roll. Now I would have never had it tie into i frames but rather what rolls you would get like different animations or having more distance per roll if high enough level and can also lower build ups of all negative effects highly due to the point take away from other stats like str or dex. So I would have to say the this if anything is the main VALID point I see people make about it but that is pretty petty if that’s the only gripe most people have with the game. Most issues people have with this game are 10 times worse in Elden ring. From literally fighting more than 4 large enemies at a time (almost everywhere in calid ) that won’t stagger unless you use a str build due to the poise system in that game and weapon balance. The world and level design is a lot like 2s in how it’s structured and how you have to progress just with less loading and free roam rather than chained together levels for a seemless playthough. Having a lot of bosses was a big complaint for 2 but again..Elden ring exists so that complaint is thrown out the window. I don’t think 2 is clunky or slow at all and don’t understand where that even came from when people complained. Demon souls and 1 are clunky and slow it’s no comparison to the other games. The build variety in 2 is the best imo due to everything being useful. From throwables to even Emit Force doing damage while it did before and again sadly. Sorry for not answering right away but it’s hard to say what my problems are when the games after it do them worse and at the end of the day made a lot of people complacent and rely and the same 2 things. Like the spam roll and only jump attack meta in er. And ima say that blood borne isn’t a souls game. It’s literally it’s own thing in how you play it and how it doesn’t want you to spam dodge like sekiro. But I guess if I had to pick it would be the boss run backs. 75% needed short cuts like sir alonne and the Medusa looking boss (which can throw her head like a bowling ball at you lmao. Only seen the attack once) . Sorry if this is long winded or confusing. I do better speaking rather than typing things like this.
@@vgndx no need to apologise man, thanks for the response. I half-agree with the AGL issue as well, but at the same time I like that I can go with a bad roll if I like, or pump AGL to 70(!!) for an entire 9 s on backstep. It becomes a non-issue for experienced players since you just level it to what you like and move on. But I also understand it's pretty inconsistent generally-- maybe if they had that same 11 s as a base, and only then increased s gradually along with the other things AGL effects? And boss runbacks are definitely annoying -- but again that's something in the other souls games as well. So I wanna tell you my thoughts to get your opinion. I think lifegems are slightly abusable. Not really the infinite lifegems from Malentia but the radiant/old radiant and that really broken dried root. Pretty abusable healing items imo. And the other thing I think is a valid issue is the amount of easy bosses. I wish the bosses were a bit harder especially the late game ones like demon of song, mirror knight, twin Dragonriders. So how would you rate those issues compared to the AGL problem?
@@michaelcarroll5801 I’m a huge fan of consumables in the souls games but 2 made them the best overall and funny enough this goes into the adp issue. Now if it had the max I frames with no levels you still get HUGE buff to your animations. From consuming your flask to using herbs it speeds you up the more you put into it. With them going back to how demon souls healing was balanced with a twist (estus) I feel like they are pretty balanced besides the healing stacks per item used instead just resetting their lifetime active. Bosses in souls 2 are more “fair” imo due to them fighting in a realistic way in how they look such as the mirror knight. So I feel they suffered due to their overall design really but Elden ring is in a funk like that but in a bad way due to the lvl/tier system they have in that game. So I’d say that these are more hindsight kind of issues due to them getting objectively worse as the games go on but shouldn’t take away from the overall experience.
@@vgndx yeah, I like the idea of items not stacking like they do in the game. And the bosses are pretty fair overall, I like that. I was playing the beginning of DS3 and I noticed that Ludex Gundyr's model will rotate to track you in a really awkward way. Also he seems to have some hit detection issues with some of his attacks. So I really enjoy DS2 bosses and how they function, I guess it's just a bit easy since we've playing these games for so long.
"He uses something existing in another game in the series as part of his debunking of Mauler's critique" He's totally missing the point of why counter-balancing the popular narratives surrounding DS2 is being offered and sought out by fans, but I cant totally blame him because this series is in a weird place culturally. And i dont know any other game series with as many conflicting narratives and confusion as this one. The reason we have to point out that DS2's issues aren't unique is because of the wider context of all these critique pieces being created. Hardly anyone highlights these issues being present in DS1 or DS3, especially in a way that suggests they meaningfully detract from the experience. When people talk about DS1, they see it as a "masterpiece" with negligible flaws that may even enhance the experience by adding to the challenge or atmosphere. This same energy is not offered to DS2. Instead, the same issues being present are pushed to the forefront, and the aspects DS2 does well, or god forbid have improved from the previous games, arent prioritized or outright ignored. It's hard to find any critique of the other games that doesn't feel the need to treat them like some kind of transcendental artform whose flaws as video games don't matter. I just want people to keep the same honest energy with every game in the series, then we could have more honest discussions about all the games instead of uncritically elevating some entries and dogpiling others.
When it comes to ds2 it seems people willingly disregard rationality and logic to argue like flat earthers. They can’t consider more than one principle at a time.
I look at it in 2 ways atm; ds2 is easily the most "old school" in its' design elements, & i truely believe at this point most souls "fans" havent played any at all of those older games fromsoft has *always* taken inspiration from, direct or not. Megaman/x, metroid & castlevania, the older zeldas, etcetc.. For megaman x there's even alot of things i can compare 1:1, even how the players go about self imposed challenges Also, most souls "fans" got what they wanted with more difficult boss fights (not even games). I had seen a comment of feeble king's on another video about the elden ring dlc, not his own. Dude roughly said that "git gud" was originally a joke. If it was, it came full circle & swung back around on mfs like him. People hated runbacks (ie; the levels themselves), so we got straight foward dungeons with bonfire spam, little-no ganks for players rushing ahead/not paying attention either. People only cared for the bosses & how complex & difficult they were, & that's exactly what fromsoft gave fans like him. Yet theyre pissy about it, they didnt like most/all the other aspects of these games & now that the boss difficulty quite literally hit its' apex in elden ring, the newer fans have become "cultists" for not putting up with these ~10 years of mental gymnastics toward ALL these games I hope i worded that well. I got into these games late but the discourse around ds2 AND elden ring vs the other games is fascinating af for me. Gives you lessons in psychology (almost) if you take a step back & just observe
@@mfspectacular oh man if I see mauler play castlevania SOTN and he makes excuses bc of skill but then doesn’t do the same for ds2 I’m going to never take him seriously ever again
@@zzodysseuszz i actually got sotn the other day lmao, been meaning to play it myself for the longest time now. Can remember watching my older brother play it in the early 00s, that & the original re3 are dope spectator games. If i could double down on a point i made with souls fans not playing older games like that (nevermind the bad ones), the ones who have probably just forgot what it was like picking up a new game, the struggle that goes into adapting. Abit ironic, or fitting, depending on perspective
@mfspectacular Completely agree. The issue isn't so much with these games themselves but rather skewed and conflicting perspectives. This was never aimed at being a mainstream series but now it's getting mainstream coverage. And every day new players that aren't familiar with the design lineage these games stem from are playing them because it seems you're obligated to beat the souls games as some sort of Rite of passage. And I fully believe that new players that don't necessarily know how to process these games just fall into the popular camps. DS1 is a masterpiece, the best game ever, because that's the concensus. And similarly DS2 is an irreparably flawed, "hard for the wrong reasons" gank fest because that's also the concensus. And it's easier to nod along and fit into the crowd instead of offering a unique perspective that's actually informed by experience. Not accusing anyone of being knowingly disingenuous either. These are just the dynamics of crowds and fandoms.
OldMateJohn should feel embarassed, not only did he make a video of something he hasn't even properly played, he also put forth shit takes that contribute nothing and just show off his stupidity.
11:37 I can't believe we've reached the point where they're shitting on DS2 for having LATENCY (like every other souls game, and most video games in general). They're really getting desperate. I was actually shocked when I saw that argument. The bias is overflowing
problem is, in SOFTS anyway, having latency is disadvantageous to the lagger, unlike DS1 and DS3 where the laggers are usually stronger and can stack damage on you while lagging
I'm not a big fan of DS2, but my favorite moment of my first playthrough of the vanilla version was running into my first darkdweller in no-man's wharf while holding a torch and realizing it was scared of the light. Drunk on power, I chased it, laughing the whole time until I got it against a wall. ...Then it did what they tell you a cornered beast does. Probably my favorite death I ever had in a souls game. Your videos make me realize how many more of those cool interactions I might have noticed if I slowed down and paid more attention. I get why the people who love this game really really love it now. Makes me wanna try SotFS sometime.
Dark souls 2 is FILLED with details like this. Spiders will break objects to escape you if you hold a torch and if you drop the torch they will charge at you faster than usual. Giants in black gulch can’t see well in the dark and will lose sight of you quite quickly and will look around their legs in confusion thinking you’re hiding. Vengarl’s body has no head and thus can’t see properly and bc of that his body has very poor tracking with its swings and will sometimes keep swinging a combo while moving forwards even when you’ve walked around it. Stone enemies in Drangleic won’t animate when you wear the kings ring bc they think you’re vendrick, I could probably think of more.
How does dark souls 2 even have such a bad reputation to begin with if it's such a good game? A true masterpiece should not need internet warriors to defend it's honor, it should speak for itself like The Last of Us 2.
@@saysalla but it is? It’s the best game from the trilogy pretty handily. Half of ds1 is unfinished and ds3 is overall monotonous and reiterative without its saving grace, the ringed city.
@@saysallaBecause people have complicated and problematic psyche that makes them prone to delusions, projecting, dog-piling, and especially, herd animal behavior. As a result, every once in a while, there are instances when a crowd hyper-fixates on hating something good just because it's convenient, because it's different, because several biased individuals started the hate-wagon... For this exact reason, some really nice and soulful games like "Balan Wonderworld" failed miserably (and in case of the latter, the lead developer even retired from his job because he put his heart into this game for kids, and a crowd of sweaty 30-year old reddittors with no life gathered together and sh-tted on his passion project so hard it broke his heart). So, in other words, no, sometimes games and other media can't speak for themselves because people go rabid with obsession to collectively hate on something and will refuse to even give the game a fair chance or unbiased try.
The Heide Knight bit made me laugh so hard. Like... Even I, a very bad Dark Souls II player figured that out back when I was working through Scholar on my PS4 in 2018. The stopping dead in the tracks is the best part. I dislike 1 Heide knight move (the side slash when you try to walk around the right side of the knight) and again, its predictable enough to describe it. What a deeply funny critique from Mauler and John
"I am sure there's a few other things that Domo gets wrong" Well name them then. And if you can't, why even mention it in this way, other than to try and paint distrust in someone presenting 0 arguments about it Keep up the good fight soldier, DS2 may not be my ultimate fav game in the series, but I am tired of people shitting on it bc "it's objectively bad"
It's fine if someone genuinely dislikes a videogame and decides they aren't going to finish it, but it's frankly embarrasing to then try to make in-deph statements and counterarguments about it's design choices while basing all your knowledge in a blatantly disingenuous video-series that has an insane bias against the game. Dark Souls 2 haters keep proving they either haven't played the game, or worse, deliberately played it in bad faith just to cherrypick any "issue" they could find.
you singlehandedly reignite my passion to play this game again. It was my first souls game I finished and I do remember that I had a good time with it even though I didn't understand much back then both gameplay and lore wise (also never went back to it because i didn't know how to fix K&M delay and have no controller). I will play this game again soon and hopefully I will have more fun than the first. you rocked bro.
to disable the mouse delay you have to disable double click in the settings, the issue is that every time you restart the game it'll turn on double clicking again so you'll have to reset the setting there are other things you can do, such as using EMUlight, and other ways to solve the double clicking it takes a bit of work but after that it's ok to play with kb&m
The chad text-to-speech guy is back at it again like always easily & nonchalantly destroying narratives & "critiques" against Dark Souls 2 with unequivocal irrefutable facts! You gotta love it!
Oof. This is like responding Loopine as someone who played the entirely of Limgrave. I dont think you can't do a consistent argument from any side if you don't know well what are you talking about to begin with.
Hey Jose! I love your comments, even though I didn't like DS2 as much as other Souls games (it's better than Demon's Souls), it's still a good game, I've been watching Domo's videos for a little over a week & he's consistently debunking most of the criticisms/complaints around it with irrefutable facts, you may not like how DS2 functions, but some of its design decisions are unique to put it mildly & some may love it for that, some of the "problems" being mentioned by "critique" channels already exist in all other Souls games, Domo's videos actually kinda shifted my mind around DS2, reminds me of Loopine when I used to hate many of Elden Ring's bosses back in 2022, I did not like them until months after its release, and now I look back at my opinion in 2022 around ER kinda embarrassed lol, I was ignorant, impatient & pretty misled, but now they're by far the best bosses in the series bar none! I love Domo for dispelling all the nonsense around DS2 lol even though I may have different opinions about it, but the facts are inarguable, unequivocal.
@@HeyTarnished My two cents is not that much that I particulary love DS2 , but instead that I really hate criticism on this game. I actually respect DS2 more on all things, and sure I give It another chance soon. Mr Tarnished, gotta be honest, I rarely respect any critic lately, and I know It may sounds like a videogame fanboy not open to criticism. Truth is I have my own criticism towards those games and I love them for different reasons. But the thing I Saw is that when any "harsh" critique comes out, a lot of people, played the Game or not, prefer to follow thats opinion like flies instead of looking Up the Game and their experience, regardless how veridic the arguments in question can be, and regardless of how many double standards there are, and regardless how many fallacies can appear. Take this Guy as an example, how can he give anyone the reason if he didn't even completed the Game, not even main story? And this egregious because the only two games hated by a Big Part of the community are the exact same ones that has two very viewed videos (Mauler Response and JA Reviews) when, if we look on retrospective, we discover that rather the "flaws" are shared between games, or that the other games also has egregious things to complain about but because they never had critiques, they were never hated to begin with. Im even sure that if Matthewmatosis released his Sekiro critique, people would be preaching how is only about L1 spam, and that they should had been more Varied with fights. Double standard must be the thing I hate the most, behind to fallacies. Look how people likes to praise DS3 Lore as perfect while dismishing ER Lore as very flawed , even if DS3 Lore has straight up contradictions to DS1 not Lore wise, but overall main Game event wise, and these same people says "Well It has fanservice, but is not harmful" while getting crazy and Scream to the air how devs "got lazy" for seeing Radahn again. Look how people talks about hitboxes while never put a visualizer on their lives. Look how people loves DS1 AI , but then the same AI on DS2 is completely flawed, when seeing an enemy getting stuck on an obstacle is the most common thing to see on any of these games. Erm, sorry if I had been a little intense, but I genuely have very poor feelings about this situation. Im glad that DS2 fans put these people on their place even if It was after basically a decade.
@@JoseViktor4099 I loved your comment, don't worry about feeling intense, I have had my moments too with these freaks. These long-form pseudo-essayist misinformation-filled critique videos have muddied the full picture honestly, they made discussing these games insufferable, it honestly follows every FromSoft game to a point, it's just that ER got a lot of views & sales, Joseph Anderson & other "critique" channels have been spreading misinformation about ER just because of their mental hang-ups & preconceived notions of Souls combat, every FromSoft game will have a new challenge, and I say ER's bosses are the best ones by far, there will always be something new to challenge, something more exciting & fulfilling than in the past, and I think Sekiro, Armored Core 6 & Elden Ring achieve that the best, it's why these games got hated on the most when they released, honestly I'm glad the "critique" channels that make negative reviews about SOTE are getting destroyed right now, people saw the truth & got used to these bosses, now most of them favor them over all other Souls bosses, me too. It's this "critique" trend on UA-cam that has grown to be very cancerous among any fanbase, this trend all started around the release of big games like Zelda Breath of the Wild, Mario Odyssey, Horizon Zero Dawn, God of War 2018 & Red Dead Redemption 2, and since then it has gotten worse & worse, now it's a bunch of pretentious UA-camrs trying so hard to eek out anything that may seem like a negative thing in any big popular game, and exaggerate those "flaws" to the extreme, and add that with a truck load of misinformation, authoritative pseudo-objective sounding statements, nostalgia-based problems that manifest solely due to some of them thinking that certain systems do not work within the series (like open-world in Zelda or Elden Ring, Elden Ring bosses "not working with the combat"), combined with actual flaws that they mention but not to the degree of the flaws' severities, and there you have it, cancerous discussions ensued! I assure you that once Bloodborne remaster/remake releases, you'll see a bunch of people criticizing the crap out of it because the rose-tinted glasses have slipped of and this is the game that many have been championing through all these past years, they'll see it for what it is, a mostly mediocre base game with many mediocre bosses in 2nd half, ultimately carried by atmosphere, nostalgia & DLC. Don't get me wrong, it is a phenomenal game, but a very flawed one & I think people will see those flaws in due time!
@@JoseViktor4099 I loved your comment, don't worry about feeling intense, I have had my moments too with these freaks. These long-form pseudo-essayist misinformation-filled critique videos have muddied the full picture honestly, they made discussing these games insufferable, it honestly follows every FromSoft game to a point, it's just that ER got a lot of views & sales, Joseph Anderson & other "critique" channels have been spreading misinformation about ER just because of their mental hang-ups & preconceived notions of Souls combat, every FromSoft game will have a new challenge, and I say ER's bosses are the best ones by far, there will always be something new to challenge, something more exciting & fulfilling than in the past, and I think Sekiro, Armored Core 6 & Elden Ring achieve that the best, it's why these games got hated on the most when they released, honestly I'm glad the "critique" channels that make negative reviews about SOTE are getting destroyed right now, people saw the truth & got used to these bosses, now most of them favor them over all other Souls bosses, me too. It's this "critique" trend on UA-cam that has grown to be very cancerous among any fanbase, this trend all started around the release of big games like Zelda Breath of the Wild, Mario Odyssey, Horizon Zero Dawn, God of War 2018 & Red Dead Redemption 2, and since then it has gotten worse & worse, now it's a bunch of pretentious UA-camrs trying so hard to eek out anything that may seem like a negative thing in any big popular game, and exaggerate those "flaws" to the extreme, and add that with a truck load of misinformation, authoritative pseudo-objective sounding statements, nostalgia-based problems that manifest solely due to some of them thinking that certain systems do not work within the series (like open-world in Zelda or Elden Ring, Elden Ring bosses "not working with the combat"), combined with actual flaws that they mention but not to the degree of the flaws' severities, and there you have it, cancerous discussions ensued! I assure you that once Bloodborne remaster/remake releases, you'll see a bunch of people criticizing the crap out of it because the rose-tinted glasses have slipped of and this is the game that many have been championing through all these past years, they'll see it for what it is, a mostly mediocre base game with many mediocre bosses in 2nd half, ultimately carried by atmosphere, nostalgia & DLC. Don't get me wrong, it is a phenomenal game, but a very flawed one & I think people will see those flaws in due time…worry not!
And read the same list of complaints in the exact same order with the exact same personal experiences as every single other ds2 hater to have ever existed.
Enemies get aggroed: MAN THIS GAME IS TRASH AND FULL OF GANKS Enemis stays in their place: MAN THIS GAME IS TRASH THE ENEMIES ARE DUMB i'm not a fan of DS2, but jesus christ the hyprocrisy
He does let his left leg stick out a bit, but his collision keeps most players too far away to hit any other part of him. Even with the normal halberds R1 thrust, from behind I can't reach any other part than his outstretched left leg. Edit: pretty sure his leg only sticks out during certain attacks
“Imagine a player trying to figure out what’s going on in a game notorious for hitbox issues” Imagine a player not trying to figure out at all, and just making the same mistake ten times in a row.
People in the community have said that DS2 is "the worst in the series" for so long that it has become a kind of orthodoxy. That's probably why some people get so upset when anyone defends it. To any sane person, it's just a defense of an under-rated video game. To them, it's blasphemy.
"under-rated video game" if anything dark souls 2 is over-rated, no other game has entire channels dedicated solely to defending their honor a decade after release despite selling over 10 million copies.
It's funny how the people who adamantly defend Mauler and his like-minded group end up repeating the same demonstrably untrue and biased information. Mostly because they flat out admit they haven't played/seen as much as they do yet feel confident enough to speak about stuff they were fed secondhand info. I was also gonna say in another video where you brought it up, but DS2's backstabbing is way more involved and satisfying than DS1 because in DS1 you could strafe around practically any common enemy, and even most Knights, and backstab them nearly every time. DS2 made the enemies much more responsive as a trap to people too familiar with DS1's backstabbing and it makes the fights way more interesting where you either have to get good at parrying or really exploit their attack cycles. It's legitimate progress between games but most people just accuse DS2 of being hard for hard's sake rather than simple sequel elevation.
true, but haters will just say "in ds1 it was possible and since ds1 is a masterpiece, ds2 sucks because I can't play like I did in ds1" without realizing that it is actually a gameplay improvement
I really enjoy your videos. Ds2 was my first and so i had to learn a lot from it, instead of having previous exp from ds1. The patience always paid off, so i had a great time with it. There are some issues, but what game doesnt have? I don't know when all this hate started, but i don't remember being this hated when the game first launched. Good variety of enemies and mechanics, lots and lots of weapon choices, good mix of gimmick and hard bosses. Overall its a good game. Ty for your fun and educational video
You know, I've been playing OG Demon's Souls(for the first time ever) lately and I've started noticing something really funny. Demon's Souls is highly praised, yet it has some of the exact same "issues" that people complain about DS2 having.
That's what I love about arguments like "Souls games aren't supposed to have consumable healing items" or "who on the B team thought it was a good idea to reduce your health on death".
“Hidey Knights”😂 gotta love that AI voice sometimes Also at 24:53 you’re 100% right about Elden ring having those AI mess ups. I watched my gf accidentally cheese Messmer because he just jumped into the part of his arena that’s behind his thrown/statue and got stuck😂
I love how you didnt even have to refute the last clip 😂 it just speaks for itself in how hypocritical it is lol I remember watching the video when it released and saying "well domo is gonna have a field day with this" 😅
I talked to old mate jhon and tried to convince him how much of a bad idea this was. But he was in full “defer, deflect, defray” mode to literally every person who wasn’t your average cringey cookie cutter hater to the game and the community. He also admitted to me he straight up got bias to this game on top of being a clueless tourist who tries to defend ds2’s class clown mauler. His vid just hammers home how unjustified ds2 is treated, since if a tourist is gonna try to pull this - how much of the game do you think your average comment section hater has done?
Im very happy I found this channel, since it kinda helped me be more vocal about my love for DS2. It was my first in the series, and it's my favorite of the trilogy for a lot of different reasons. Plus the game doesnt look like its been hit with a "Dark" filter like ds3 is. The colors just pop out more for me in this game. Its nearly up there with Bloodborne for me, which is my favorite game Fromsoft has ever made, but these two games being so close to one another is kinda funny to me. But I hope to see more videos about this game.
@@Domo3000 Honestly, something similar to your Greatsword video with another class of weapon. I think that could be a small series on its own. Either that, or a video about how many build options DS2 allows, with maybe a showcase of some of your recurring characters from your videos as examples. I know you asked for one, so this is cheating, but you can do whatever you want. Thanks again, and keep it up boss.
LMAO I was waiting for something like this, its gone be a great watch Edit: yeah it was great, why do some freaky people have this need for ds2 to be bad its like their life depends on it
i know why, because they SUCK at this game, and hearing people like Mauler tell you that it's not a "your skill issues, it's the game that is terrible" makes them live a better life, so they MUST believe that DS2 is a bad game. but they are even obsessed with DS2 videos online, guess why, because deep down in their hearts they know they haven't learned to play this game, and they are curious to see the point of view of a ds2 enjoyer, the exact opposite of them.
@@AtreyusNinja yeah but what about those who haven't even touched the game. I never seen a game receive such unnecessary hatred if you told me the game is cursed i would believe it
@@antkeeper1779 that's something i hear from time to time, people hating the game without even trying it, it's something i struggle to understand and so i doubt it's real, maybe i prefer not to believe it's true because it would be too... too stupid
The enemy with the cape, and the mace "issue", is the exact same situation as Nito's Dark Cloak. You cannot hit Nito on his cloak. But if your weapon is long enough, then he will be hurt. Same for the mummy looking guy in DS2
The argument of "he didn't say it's bad" is so childish. It's not "DS2 bad, here's XX minutes of unrelated footage", it's: "DS2 bad, here's XX minutes of footage demonstrating why it's bad". Unless explicitly stated otherwise, everything in the video is implied to be a negative criticism.
I am inclined to agree. While unrelated footage is used in these kinds of videos, namely CS knife surfing for some reason... If footage of the game itself appears, I usually expect it to be related to the topic at hand.
Wait! You didn’t kill that troll NPC the moment you saw him for the first time? Also I actually recently finished playing DS2 for the first time, and it was really fun! Also, also who would win in an argument: a person who knows the ins and outs of the game: such as hitboxes and I-frames or a person who has barely played it!?
Congrats. Did you do DLC yet? I keep starting new games in the base game for different builds and still haven't beat Sir Allone and Fume Knight (shame on me)
@@michaelcarroll5801 I did! They were really great! The level designs in all of them were so different and unique! Of course there was Lud & Zallen… and the gank squad, but still, I did beat all of the bosses… even at the cost of my own sanity. (the reason I didn’t mention blue smelter demon is because I like the fight)
PPL SHOULD STOP PRETENDING THAT THE TELEPORT ANIMATION FROM THE GRAB ATTACKS HAS ANYTHING TO DO WITH HITBOXES, U GUYS ARE JUST IGNORANT thank you Domo for this video.
11:40 Has this guy every played a souls game? Or is he just being disengious on purpose? Did he really think the devs added in a "FYI im mean" invader NPC to the game?
Yeah how dare people think a company who put "prepare to die" in the title of one of their games would put an enemy in another game that is designed to kill them out of spite.
Thinking that hollows attacking the Giant Trees is a bug shows so much artistic illiteracy to me. On my first playthrough I didn't know the history of Drangleic at all, or that those trees were even giant corpses. Not until fighting The Last Giant. But I at least assumed that they're attacking the 'sculptures' for a reason, because I know the developers worked to create a living world where things are already happening without us It frustrates me when I see people completely miss the artistry of these games, maybe by approaching them too much as action games and not seeing the other dimensions. NPCs doing pointless and repetitive shit is the nature of hollowing and it would be bad design if they didn't. That would disconnect the story from the world we play in
I don’t understand how people can call ds1 a masterpiece with the best level design in the series when it had horrible fast travel, large swathes of area with nothing in it even before the lord vessel, and terrible areas like lost Izalith and the crystal caves. They try to blame it on the fast travel, and yet the dlc is better than the base game with good fast travel. I don’t think ds2 is a perfect game, but at least it’s consistent with level design
I think world design is the correct term here. It’s good because every area connects logically and the geography is consistent. There are multiple branching paths so you have multiple options on the outset, though that does narrow to a corridor at the end stretch. Because of the lack of fast travel you’re forced to become familiar with how everything connects and on future playthroughs, routing can make your playthrough more interesting, like taking the Master Key to shortcut through Draco Valley and get to the stamina shield in the forest early being a common one. I feel like the opinion of DS1 being PEAK LEVEL DESIGN is a little exaggerated but there’s definitely merit to it.
Well I wasn’t expecting to be mentioned here. A surprise to be sure, but a welcome one. Edit: I’m going to post clips of me dodging out of the trap chests with 3 adp in case any of you are struggling with those. I did one with the crossbow chest without rolling already if you need help with that, and I’m going to post another of the poison chest for one my commenters so keep a look out for that if you really want to. I’ll post it hopefully tomorrow (…or in a month lmao)
@@zzodysseuszz u and domo are smarter than all of the ds2 haters combined. they cant even actually complain, they could just say "i dont like the way it plays" instead of making up a bunch of bull crap to try and make themselves think they dont have massive skill issue
@@TheMagnificentMoose-s7y or they show an 8 year old clip of a guy in poor quality getting hit by a grab attack and teleporting: it’s irrefutable evidence against the game. But if I test it myself several times in a row and post the clips in the argument: “no no that doesn’t count” or “that’s just one clip” even if it wasn’t one clip 😂
@@TheMagnificentMoose-s7y anwyays thanks. I think over the entire course of my channel only a handful of people actually defended me or my position in those cesspits of misinformation and lying. I think I’ve seen you there as well, or at least someone with magnificent in their name.
12:00 also keep in mind backstabs never work if the enemy is in a recoil animation - it's been like this even before DS2, so that you can't block an attack and backstab the enemy before they even get the chance to TRY and turn around. Go on, try to block an attack and backstab while the enemy is still recoiling in any other FromSoft Souls-type game.
Yeah Mauler showed a lot of examples of enemies being in recoil, recovering from getting backstabberd or being staggered, which wouldn't have been backstabs in the other games either.
1:50 This is such a dishonest thing DS2 haters say and I see it constantly. Saying they are "critiquing DS2 as a stand alone experience" even though literally everything I ever see levied at how "DS2 is the worst one" is specifically about how it relates to other games in the series, specifically DS1 or 3. Bringing up things every single From game does doesn't make DS2 look bad, just From games in general...UNLESS you only mention it when talking about DS2 and gloss over it for other games they've made. Which is a really bad habit that comes up in these "DS2 is bad" videos. You also can't point at things that all the games do and say that DS2 is bad for doing them...which they do CONSTANTLY. In those instances, people are going to bring up other games in the series doing the same thing because these flaws are hypocritically treated as game breaking ONLY for DS2. That's stupid and people have a right to point that out. This selective vacuum they like to place DS2 into only when it suits their argument is intellectually bankrupt and pointing out how the framing shifts in critique isn't moving the goal posts. Selectively comparing the games between each other and telling everyone else they cannot when refuting your claims IS though.
God this was somehow way more infuriating than Mauler himself. Repeatedly making in all seriousness the argument "it's not Mauler's fault that he makes mistakes; because ds2 has a reputation for being bad, people will assume things in the game are broken" as if that's somehow a problem with ds2? And then the sheer unadulterated guts it must take to openly admit that you have barely played the game you're talking about, and then say it's "obvious" to you when someone who knows this game inside and out gets things wrong. Lord grant me the confidence of a completely ignorant man on the internet.
He sealed the deal the moment he mentioned only playing a portion of DS2. He doesn't bring anything new or valuable to the conversation and instead defends Mauler with little context of the game.
The Souls Community Experience.
like the usual ds2 hater..playing the game with already preconceived hate for the game..not even investing time with it then proceeded to debunk someone who played it extensively 😂
@@aNsWeRkEy02 "playing"
@@aNsWeRkEy02 playing the game for an hour from my experience is probably the most common amount of time half of ds2 haters played. A lot haven’t played it all.
@zzodysseuszz i admit that I had trouble getting into the game at first, I even hated it based on prejudice and then I beat, then again and again and It's based on experience my favourite game in the series now
Yes, anyone who doesn't like a video game should waste their time playing it to completion on having wasted their money to prove that they deserve to not like it.
what kind of absolute scrub makes a 20 minute defense video on a game he hasn't even played
Tryna leach off of mauler basically
Mauler's fans don't have time to play it, they're too busy watching his 15 hour video on it.
@@Dat1G1 lmao
DS2 (at least sotfs) wasn't my cup of tea but I'll eventually try out vanilla. I really like what the gameplay was going for and wish it was expanded on alongside classic ds1 gameplay
I'm guessing it's more about defending mauler than it is about defending the game.
Wait, did this guy seriously imply "Domo couldn't recreate this boss stick, and that's how you know it's a pervasive bug" doesn't that mean it's INCREDIBLY UNLIKELY?
DS2 haters leave critical thought to the side, much easier to just nod along
Only DS2 haters would criticise a game for not being buggy enough 😂
I guess he forgot to look up the definition of "pervasive" and just wanted to sound smart lol
Ds2 haters have this weird obsession with proving the game is objectively unenjoyable, bad, unworthy of your time and whatnot, and when someone says they like it anyway, they completely lose their mind over it, its so fucking funny, its literally that "QUIT HAVING FUN" meme.
Real. It makes absolutely zero sense. Like even if DS2 was some disaster of a game, why aren't we allowed to enjoy it?
Yeah and then they try to act like you’re the obsessive one when you defend it in face of the constant assurance that ds2 is bad.
@@guts1859 and why must it’s only be criticisms that 100% do not apply to just ds2 or are not worse in ds2.
Yep, that’s why they’re called haters - they are trying to create a scenario where the game is unsalvageable when anybody who doesn’t come at it with preconceived bias can realize it’s not as bad as it’s portrayed - which makes them salty due to being really insecure about this game.
They are so insecure about this game proving they haven’t “gotten gud” yet, they will try to act like any connection to this game to any other in the series doesn’t exist. Be it that aldia was the teacher to twin princess in ds3, or that vengral has a similar moveset to the final boss in er’s dlc, or any number of items, mechanics, weapons, and/or armor that were first introduced in ds2.
I just say don’t care had fun
road to 10 Re:'s in one title
Real lain fans fkin love ds2 ong
Whether you go, we are all connected.
@@iwa_roi am balling, i am faded
@@iwa_royeah no we don’t, we prefer demons souls, bloodbourne, dark souls 1, sekiro, elden ring. Not the hot mess dark souls 2 is.
Sekiro is poopy. Tenchu Z was better.
It’s insane that someone could watch your entire response series, which very clearly demonstrates you have an exceptionally comprehensive understanding of the game and go “Well… I haven’t even completed the game and I’m going to tell you why you’re wrong”
I’m not sure if its arrogance or a complete lack of self awareness, but its truly baffling
I personally debunked DS2 being bad myself with a sort of a social experiment. Throughout the years, I let my friends, who were completely clueless about fromsoftware, play the games, like around 7 people. Running theme was this: DS1 most hated for being junky, outdated and I quote "finishing it out of spite" and then it separated into DS2 and DS3 like club, but no one was shitting on one or another, they just had different taste.
When I told them afterwards how DS1 is praised and DS2 is hated, they didn't believe me and thought I was just coping until I showed them all the essays etc and they were absolutely furious.
There is a clear bias towards DS2, mostly coming from people shaping their opinions by UA-camrs like MauLer and then they basically go play DS2 just to shit on it. "This is bad because yeah ds2 being bad"
I played all three games in order, after they had all been released, and same with three of my friends and my brother
we all had a great time with DS2 and were mostly leaning towards it being really good and 1 of my friends, my brother, and I were leaning towards it being better than 3 and 1
none of us had any outside opinions other than us talking about it, no one shat on DS123 at all. and we enjoyed all of them with some preferences amongst them. I only learned how hated DS2 was after engaging with the community on reddit, youtube, and such. it seems a hive like hatred towards DS2 has propagated somehow
I came to the Dark Souls series after playing Lies of P as my first souls-like game. DS1 felt clunky and was frustrating in the levels but the bosses were so easy for the most part, until the DLC. My favorite boss fight was Artorias. It was more challenging but fair. DS2 was less clunky, bosses still relatively easy, and there were really good mechanisms added to the game that can help make it a bit easier if you're having some struggles getting back to the bosses. You can farm out the enemies, which can be boring, but too often I see people just running past enemies instead of dealing with the enemies and then they are surprised when they are overwhelmed with those enemies. I haven't played DS3 yet, but I'm excited to play it.
It was nice of you to let your friends play Dark Souls. I would love to, but no one has granted me permission yet.
Sorry, I'm kidding. I just thought the way you phrased it was amusing.
I did exactly this. But my main conclusion that the game was actually good was when I played it for the first time after neglecting it for so long bc of mauler’s videos. Absolutely nothing he said in his videos aligned with what I was seeing or doing.
It's crazy how much the gaming community's perception can be influenced by one popular video. It's like when people use the Mr. Plinkett videos as an argument that everybody unanimously hate the Star Wars Prequels and always have.
Defending a person's (""objective"", by the way) opinion on a game when you yourself have never played the game to begin with seems incredibly shortsighted if not hypocritical
Not new by any means. I’ve seen possibly several dozen people say things like “you can’t reach areas outside of majula without warping” or “you can just back stab spam turtle knights”. Legit arguments I’ve seen being made against ds2 that people tried to defend for days in the comments. I genuinely believe a good portion of ds2 haters have never played the game at all, possibly only played ds3 and simply watched maulers video and concluded “yes I agree ds2 is bad”
I was gonna make a comment about people not forming their opinions but instead browsing an app and picking the highest rated one but then i remember this is the series where people get the story from some guy hamming it up on youtube instead of the actual game they played so why even bother going that deep.
@@deathtoraiden2080 Honestly, thanks for acknowledging this.
Nothing against the guy personally but it really does irk me when most Souls "fans" have to get spoonfed the story through those vids. It's not even a complicated story to pick up if you just read as you go, but people can't just say they love the gameplay only and leave it at that.
a waste of one's own time and life , yeah
Same energy as this
m.ua-cam.com/video/kNuWICSIPxs/v-deo.html
That heide knight move is an intentional mixup, and mixups are something that most players will get hit by the first time. Players can mix you up in similar ways with delayed attacks, but it happens so often that ppl who play fromsoft games see delay mixups as 'unfair'. God forbid they played PvP or a single fighting game in their life, they'd be calling every single interaction unfair.
I saw another UA-camr talk about other people saying Elden Ring DLC being too hard and he said just play PVP and you will learn so much to be a better player
The difference between dark souls 2 and fighting games is that street fighter doesn't have you fighting 14 dudes at the same time because "le git gud" and they don't make you waste time grinding levels to dump points in a mystery stat that makes the game playable.
@@saysalladude, you've clearly not watched videos on Domo's channel, neither did you play DS2 for real. What are you doing here in the chat? Just wanna troll or project more of your issues and incompetency?
@@kaschey6145 perfect answer, 10/10
in principle, the idea of an npc having a "true" mixup (and not just a reactable variation) is not something i think is defensible... unless that mixup is avoidable in other ways by spacing/strafing/blocking. a mixup in pvp is fine bc its abt a human reading another human. against code, u'd be undercutting any notion of player mastery, because u cannot make an educated guess against code; it would literally be a coin toss every time with no discernible tendency. maybe the example ur thinking of is not "true", but i think this is worth saying. srry if pedantic
The good old " I heard ds2 is shit therefore I think ds2 is shit therefore ds2 is objectively shit and no one can enjoy it."
Triple whammy. Ds2 defenders will never counter this one!
this comment should be on the top lol
Yep I heard that reputation and I thought I was going to be in for a bad time especially since it was the scholar version. But I was pleasantly surprised and enjoyed the game. It was also the first souls game I played with multiplayer on which I was at first concerned about hearing bad reputations of invasions but I enjoyed it and played with multiplayer on in DS3.
It's a doubleedged sword though because ds2 hipsters like you also dismiss people like me who played every game on release and collectively agreed ds2 did not live up to the other games but somehow our opinions are completely dismissed by your hivemind, groupthink truly is the worst in fanbases.
@@DeadEndScreamer nobody said DS2 is as good as the other games of the saga, we're just saying is a good game REGARDLESS of being the (relatively) worst of the saga.
Also, nobody is disregarding opinions, we're adressing them and showing our side of story with video evidence and actual arguments instead of name calling and ragebaiting, you know, like you just did.
Unsurprisingly, a guy who hasn't even finished DS2 can't formulate a good argument agaisnt it.
Notice how lack of self-awareness seems to be a pretty big correlation with alot of DS2 haters
This has to be the most ignorant defense of the bunch. I dont care if you love the game. Good for you. I wish my standards were that low. Plenty of people that have beaten every souls game put this dead last. Some people put it first. But its literally the worst one as a concensus. Sorry it hurts your feelings. Its not a lack of skill on anyones part but the developers.
If you havent found someone who beat this game calling it the worst, its because you live in an echo chamber and are afraid of dissenting opinions.
@@YEY0806what does this even mean lol? They put the game down because its bad, not because its hard. How do you reckon they go on to beat harder games?
Talk about hypocrisy lmfao. Smarten up.
@@fenixchief7 On behalf of the Souls community, we’re very sorry that your parents paid more attention to DS2 than to you 🙏😔
@@fenixchief7 13 years
Mauler: backstabs an enemy in the shoulder
Domo: backstabs Havel in his face 13:13
TF2 players call this a "facestab"
- Brings up Argument of why DS2 is bad
- Points out it's in other games
-NOOOOO YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND THE POINT, WE ALL KNOW IT'S IN OTHER GAMES, BUT IT MAKES DS2 BAD.
OldMateJohn is a good example of why some people shouldn't give their opinions.
The funniest part about this to me is that if these people who use this argument were equally critical of the other games there would hardly be any room for rebuttal.
They aren't wrong that pointing out that the issues appearing in other games doesn't automatically make them okay in DS2. But if your issue is only with DS2 then maybe you aren't being very "objective" about it.
@@ReelBigFan That's what I mean.
If you want to criticize DS2, In my opinion the argument has to be structured like this
Point out an issue exclusive to DS2.
Show WHY it's bad.
But I think a big issue is proving why something is bad, because it's like the statues, some people like them some people hate them, and I think there's good arguments on both ends.
I hope the video doesn't come across as too aggressive. I just have little respect for tourists that feel that their lack of experience with the game makes them qualified to debate it.
Being aggressive is not wrong
Nah, dont worry. Is extremely frustrating that someone Who barely played the Game pretends to know anything and tries to contradicts you. I experienced It before hand and yes. It makes you act with more aggresion for that.
I understand. It’s like listening to a popular and respected reviewer, and discovering that all his “criticism” boils down to finding fault with everything that seems wrong to him without the slightest understanding. Oh wait...
Nah fam, be agressive.
Would you be interested in making these type of vids for elden ring/dlc? Might be needed with all the misinformation being spread. Loopine is doing an admirable job, but he alone is not enough
Mauler defenders trying to just repeat the exact same misinformation and lies is too funny
After nearly a decade of hearing them I don’t find them funny anymore.
@@zzodysseuszzyeah, at this point it's like, "Seriously? It's been 10 f--king years and you're still stuck in it? Get a life"
I mean, of course, I still answer to their bs because I hate misinformation on the internet but it's ridiculous how they don't get tired of going through the same mental routine again and again.
@@zzodysseuszz same
Maldron is meant to give offline players the joy of being trolled in PvP. Him killing himself by falling off a bridge is pretty realistic PvP.
so true
@@PrincessDoit big win for game preservation.
I love Maldron, one of the best NPC invader of the entire franchise after Jester thomas 🙂 now, compare it to the ALL NPC invaders in ds3, all of them are just some random NPC who just invading your world without unique personality (with some lore apparently)
Thomas is such a bastard
Maldron is out here cosplaying PVP invaders in all their glory. A blessing.
Dark Souls 2's mightiest warrior returns.
The Chosen Consort of Dark Souls 2.
I gladly pass on any notoriety I had unto domo3000
Dark Souls 2 Watcher and Dark Souls 2 Defender
the whole "drama" around DS2 actually needs to be studied. i can not think of any other piece of media that is in the same position as DS2. no games or shows or anything. its such a mess, and feels so completely random. somehow its ingrained into a lot of people that "DS2 is the worst in the series". not as an opinion, but as an objective fact. "the sun is big, ice is cold, DS2 is a good game but a bad souls game, the earth is round" etc. im honestly really interested in knowing how exactly all of this happened.
Hmmm over my gaming years I’ve probably encountered a few overhated games that didn’t deserve the hate at all. But yeah, ds2’s hate is like some kind of social phenomenon, it’s completely insane.
Why is Big Rigs: Over the Road Racing such a hated game? Some games are just so poorly made and the flaws are so searingly obvious that they overshadow everything else about them, even the genuinely good ideas like backstep s.
It's always the 2s that get it the worst, deserved or not.
I see it happen all the time. Star Wars comes to mind readily.
It’s a mental phenomenon.
The majority of gamers literally don’t have the cognitive function to come to their own conclusions, so they just regurgitate opinions they hear online that they feel they agree with rather than come up with their own points and arguments.
MauLer's "review" on this game is misinformed, in bad faith and excessively biased. And now some random guy shows up that hasn't even finished the game and tries to argue over it. The souls fandom is hilarious.
It absolutely is
Though I wouldn't consider this dude as qualifying to speak as part of the souls fandom,
at very least about dark souls 2
That's all of MauLer's "reviews" in a nutshell. Dudes entire channel is hating on less popular entries to franchises for being the black sheep.
Well let's not pretend like bomberguy's review was any better, that guy praides the one unborn in bloodborne in one video and criticized the tower knight in demon's souls in another to prove a different point in each video even though they are essentially the same boss fight, one big guy in the middle and adds on ledges that need to be taken out first to make the fight easier. And I'm not even defending mauler, I'm just saying it's incredibly rare for any "reviewer" to not try tipping things in their favor by misrepresenting something, everyone's guilty of it at some point or another even if it wasn't intended.
@@DeadEndScreamer The main difference is that hbomberguy wasn't presenting his opinion as objective fact. He was giving his opinion on why he liked aspects of ds2 and other Fromsoft games, whereas mauler repeatedly frames his own opinions and misconceptions as objective facts.
@@DoctorThundah Not really, he said tower knight fight can only be approached in one way which is both factually incorrect and he never framed it as his opinion either. So as far as I'm concerned the only real difference is bomber says "in my opinion" and "to me" sometimes in his video which isn't worth much.
me and sgm argued with him in the comment section and it was one of the most frustrating deflect filled comment section back and forths ive ever been a part of, the ammount of dishonesty in the video is staggering, and he was also super dishonest in said comment section.
Yeah I've seen that.
First off, thanks! And yeah I also got the impression that he wasn't willing to let go off some misunderstandings.
When he was bitching and moanig about Radahn I owned him so badly he personally went to delete the reply I made to his reply of my criticism.
He should stick to easy to shit on movies.
Unfortunately, I really think he is either woefully under equipped to deal with anything approaching objectivity and intellectual consistency, or is willfully being disingenuous about the topic. Presumably either because he really likes/looks up to MauLer, or because he wants to try and farm engagement/views to grow his really tiny channel.
@@Domo3000 yo I'm thinking about getting ds2 this week cuz of you and I was wondering should I go a dexterity based build or a strength build. Also, I've heard some people complaining that SOTF is worse than the vanilla version, is it true? Because I wanna get SOTF since it comes with all 3 DLC's.
Maulers reviews are bad when it comes to games usually, at least the stand alone reviews
Hey Domo thank you for this series. I have shat on ds2 for years now, but your videos made me have another go since I haven't played since ds3 came out. Turns out, I think ds2 is very fun and has many awesome qualities that I never appreciated before. My run has been mainly using longsword(s) and it feels so good to play.
Truth is, I was going through a very rough time as a young teen when I decided that I hated ds2, but I now believe it was just my way of taking out anger on something unrelated to my real life to cope with it all. Obviously the game isn't perfect, but no game is, you just gotta decide to like the good qualities or find something else you enjoy. Thanks to you, I've really been enjoying ds2 a ton. Have a good one and keep the good work up!
Nice seeing you here man, hope you doing great 👍
I'm glad to hear you were willing to give DS2 another shot and found you liked it in the end. I hope you're going through better times fellow bearer of the curse.
I've found most people who got into souls after their initial boom, like around when ds3 or elden ring came out, tend to not have as harsh views on ds2 compared to people who have been fans since the beginning. There was definitely a cultural movement around the souls fandom when the game initially came out that has carried on to the modern day about how one is "supposed" to view DS2 and it not so subtly influences people's perception of it before and even while they are playing it. I got into dark souls well after dark souls 3 came out and played the games in order without knowing anything about them and dark souls 2 is still the one I had the most enjoyment playing with my friends with and exploring. The only souls game that compares to the feeling of trepidation and exploration to dark souls 2 is Elden Ring for me.
Lovely hearing you gave it another try and found enjoyment in it!
its crazy. Getting platinum in all souls games made me realize they all had the same problems and even some problems in ds1 and ds3 that arent in 2. such as if youre locked onto a target and they fall off of a ledge you gravitate towards them in ds1 and ds3 causing death. ds2 ive been able to escape those situations every time and even call it out when im with my friend
"enemies don't know what to do unless approached from the front" is such a funny complaint to make about ds2 considering the whole circle strafing meta in ds1
It's so funny, like John, do you want enemies to have eyes on their back, or limps to twist around and attack the player behind. Ironic considering that the Turtle Knights who are exclusive to DS2 are literally designed to be able to deal with players behind them.
Edit: forgot to mention the Flexial Sentry, a boss whose whole gimmick is being able to attack the player from both sides
ds1 is notorious for enemies that dont see you even if youre infront. and its so frustrating that its inconsistent what enemies are like that and what enemies arent. a good example is in anor londo, where some knights can actually see you, while others are blind to you unless you step within 5 feet of their vision. in other places like valley of drakes, the first drake infront of the bridge and the 2nd one in the middle have normal npc aggro ranges, and will follow you as long as they see you. meanwhile, the other 3 drakes at the new londo door, as well as the one on the mountain-side path have baby aggro ranges, and keep backtracking to their spawn point. but no, ds2 just has the woooorst AI in the series.
Why would anybody who has never even played the game in question feel qualified to defend a game critic on the content of their criticisms. Its like reviewing a movie you saw the intro to and a handful of other reviews.
Just a bunch of noise, nothing meaningful to contribute whatsoever.
A rare moment on the internet when someone (Domo) actually knows what they're talking about
He came with a plan and he'll be damned if it isn't backed up with data
He lost me the moment he said I didn't play the game
The whole "just because ds1/3 also does this piss poor thing, doesn't excuse ds2 doing this piss poor thing" argument is one of the most dogshit intellectually dishonest arguments possible.
Dog, you're LITERALLY saying that ds2 is bad because it has things that appear in EVERY OTHER FROMSOFT GAME. That is the overwhelming bulk of the arguments against ds2, OF COURSE pointing out that the other games do this matters!
It's even ironic when it comes to hitboxes, because objectively ds3 has WORSE hitboxes than both ds1 and ds2...
Basically, if most (if not all) the things you point out that "make ds2 bad" are also found in other games, but you don't call them bad, then you are OBJECTIVELY wrong in your assessment that ds2 is bad.
I have to deal with this argument constantly.
Double standard is such a common argument to makes on Souls games. And the second most egregious behind the Strawman Fallacy.
@@JoseViktor4099 double standards in the souls community is like tumour’s to a rat, oddly befitting of the souls community.
There are things I don't like about DS2 that are unique to itself - even then I can't possibly argue with a straight face that it somehow makes this game go from "masterpiece" like ds1 and ds3 to "terrible" as these people would argue. It's just the worst dark souls game, nothing wrong with being the worst in such a well-made franchise.
@@DanielFerreira-ez8qdwhat is the thing you don’t like then
DOMO is on a mission!
domo is our savior
@@TheMagnificentMoose-s7yhe is the chosen undead
We shall follow him on his righteous quest
Dark Souls 2 died on the cross for our sins.
Domo Its Scholar of Fitst Sin Indeed
As a DS2 hater that respects the game, it really did. DS2 is peak cult classic gaming.
Considering all the borrowed mechanics from it that wound up in DS3 and Elden Ring, fuck yes it dies for our sins.
@HeroSword_P, and unfortunately, most of the mechanics that Elden Ring brought from DS2 are either downgraded (powerstance), or just not brought over (bonfire asecetics, spices)
@@YEY0806Yeah, I don't get why people call Elden Ring ds2 2. Just because it has a pitiful excuse of a powerstance system?
You should’ve ended the video thirty seconds in and not given him the grace of an actual response. If you haven’t played the full game that’s fine, but don’t expect to be taken seriously in an actual discussion
That would have been funny and probably just made him think that he was right ironically (not Domo being wrong)
I think my favorite thing about your response videos on DS2 is that I always see or learn something new about the game while watching them. It makes me want to replay these great games again and again. Great work as always.
DS2 is so overhated and im glad people are making videos like these actually defending the game
You can get GYWN STUCK!?! Man, that actually left me shocked I knew Gywn had some pathing issues with his arena (he seemed to take a few moments to get around the spikes in the Kiln when I fought him) but I never knew you could get the Lord of Sunlight stuck in a corner
He can be cheesed to easily with parries so this technique is relatively unknown. I saw it happen in some bow only challenge run or something similar.
@@Domo3000 Interesting! Learn somethin' new about Dark Souls everyday I guess lol
@@Domo3000 I didn't even need a cheese, i just spammed r1 with a black knight ultra greatsword (it's not exaggeration, i just walked to him and spammed without healing once) . I had Artorias armor and was pretty high level thanks to farming in Ariamis painting. Let's guess it was the cap of strenght, health and stamina, as i knew about them thanks to a guide. It was my first dark souls experience.
@@Domo3000 he can also be trivialised with dark bead and black flame/great combustion spam
@@teiull9388 Everything can be trivilialised with dark bead. That spell does like 3k dmg per hit and almost no boss is resistant to phys dmg.
As a certified dark souls 2 hater who has played both it and scholar multiple times and played 2 on launch on ps3, I very much enjoy your videos for rebuking the disingenuous arguments for why its an "objectively" bad game.
I might not enjoy it but talking about problems it has as if they're exclusive to 2 or just making up issues that just stem from bad play is silly, and it's good that there's people who enjoy it enough to defend it.
Why did you play two versions of a game multiple times (that must be at least 4 times) if you don't enjoy it? Gaming time is limited, even if it doesn't seem like that when you are young. Go out there and experiment.
I don't think you're a hater then, you just don't like the game as much as the others and that's completely fine.
@@Guttins Yeah. There's a difference between 'I don't like this game' and 'I HATE this game and will let that hate twist my perception of it it into something biased and unfair and inaccurate.'
"I probably only got a quarter way through the game at the most" *Continues to make the rest of the video* ????
🤣🤣🤣
The whole video should've just been that first sentence.
Ah yes, someone who didn't play DS2 watches a video from a guy who did and played it even worse than my granda would and then sees someone make valid points. The classic.
„I started DS1 and got killed by resurrecting skeletons over and over. That game is so unfair"
@@IvyDoll-jf3gm"resistance is the worst stat in the series"
@@YEY0806 Honestly that's not even a joke.
@@YEY0806 Isn't it?
I dunno what I hate more...
People presenting their subjective feelings as objective truth
Or people who embody the Dunning Kruger effect by acting like subject matter experts when they have barely dipped their toes in
They're the same picture
I too hate the champions of spherical earth model
Finally finished Scholar and all its DLC. What an amazing game.
I'd like to add something about backstabs in the series
In ds1 it does the sort of snap if you meet the conditions. I'm not sure if it's possible to escape a backstab once it's started
In ds3 and Elden Ring if the enemy has not escaped your backstab range soon after you start the attack they get locked into the animation (which is why there's backstab whiff animations)
In DS2 you do a sort of punch (or kick for larger enemies) that needs to connect with the enemy, giving them time to escape. same as ds3 and ER but presented differently
It's technically possible to escape a backstab in DS1 (and also DeS), but it's a glitch. High level DS1 PVP is overcentralized around backstabs because their ease of use + how much reward you get from one + rolling i-frames invalidates every other method of attack. It's like playing a fighting game where the only thing that matters is Grabs and teching them. Or put another way, if you're not backstabbing, setting up a backstab, preventing their backstab, or punishing their backstab attempt, you're PVPing "wrong".
I think the glitch is called a toggle escape, but that might be escaping normal combo hitstun from slower weapons. I had a friend that was DEEP into DS1 PVP and could/would clown any PVPer you could think of on YT and they explained it to me once, but I haven't seen them in a while so I can't ask again.
5:05, nice to know if new devs were put onto a game unprepared he would use that to insult them. And i dont think they were unprepared to make ds2, its so goated
At this point if it came to light that ds2 was the exact same game as ds3 but with a different texture pack it would still be worse somehow
@@edbane1656That's funny seeing how DS3 is the most gray, dull, boring looking souls game out of the bunch.
I will never understand the obsession with DS2 hitboxes. Margit's sword can hit you a full yard away from your head. This is just how their engine works, right up to Shadow of the Erdtree.
It's not a secret anymore that the soulsbornian worship the s goddess
Or how the final boss of Shadow of Erdtree can literally hit you during s cause of bad coding lol
@@2HandHangerDunksOnly Chariots say hi. They're built to ignore s.
"Dodging into an attack is a perfectly viable stategy"
I'm sorry, but didn't he preface this response by saying he hasn't played more than a few hours of the game? 😂 And now he's making assertions about stategies.
Rolling into an attack is sometimes viable, other times not. It depends on the attack, your agility, and carry weight (roll distance). But you'd have to actually play the game to understand that.
After going to school for game design I have had and keep using this game as a base for discussions and some assignments and it’s just a HUGE skill issue that I have went on hours long discussions on. From the overall gameplay flow and loop to just basic mechanics and player interaction. This is one of those times where it’s a “casual” issue. People wanted to turn off brains like how they did with ds3 and Elden ring to an extent while ds2 has so many things going on in terms of just being the most different. From literally not needing a hud to play ds2 due to the info your characters animations give like when you can roll again after full stamina drain or when your health gets to low and you need a heal. None of the other games besides ds2 can have unique animations even for walking. Ds1, 3 some of sekiro, and Elden ring share animations like a mf. From the weapon swings to basic walking ,rolling and turning animations they are shared or tweaked to fit the game they are in but only for frame data or to fit attack chains like in Elden ring. I’m never getting over how ds3 ringed city’s dlc loot was a lot of ds2 stuff.
Interesting. So as a fan, what do you think are the biggest issues with DS2, if any?
@@michaelcarroll5801 No game isn’t flawed but one thing I half agree on with many is the adp I frame issue. Now I never level it unless I make a bleed or poison build (can’t remember what bns it influences) due to just relying on spacing and sprinting rather that spam dodge roll. Now I would have never had it tie into i frames but rather what rolls you would get like different animations or having more distance per roll if high enough level and can also lower build ups of all negative effects highly due to the point take away from other stats like str or dex. So I would have to say the this if anything is the main VALID point I see people make about it but that is pretty petty if that’s the only gripe most people have with the game. Most issues people have with this game are 10 times worse in Elden ring. From literally fighting more than 4 large enemies at a time (almost everywhere in calid ) that won’t stagger unless you use a str build due to the poise system in that game and weapon balance. The world and level design is a lot like 2s in how it’s structured and how you have to progress just with less loading and free roam rather than chained together levels for a seemless playthough. Having a lot of bosses was a big complaint for 2 but again..Elden ring exists so that complaint is thrown out the window. I don’t think 2 is clunky or slow at all and don’t understand where that even came from when people complained. Demon souls and 1 are clunky and slow it’s no comparison to the other games. The build variety in 2 is the best imo due to everything being useful. From throwables to even Emit Force doing damage while it did before and again sadly. Sorry for not answering right away but it’s hard to say what my problems are when the games after it do them worse and at the end of the day made a lot of people complacent and rely and the same 2 things. Like the spam roll and only jump attack meta in er. And ima say that blood borne isn’t a souls game. It’s literally it’s own thing in how you play it and how it doesn’t want you to spam dodge like sekiro. But I guess if I had to pick it would be the boss run backs. 75% needed short cuts like sir alonne and the Medusa looking boss (which can throw her head like a bowling ball at you lmao. Only seen the attack once) . Sorry if this is long winded or confusing. I do better speaking rather than typing things like this.
@@vgndx no need to apologise man, thanks for the response. I half-agree with the AGL issue as well, but at the same time I like that I can go with a bad roll if I like, or pump AGL to 70(!!) for an entire 9 s on backstep. It becomes a non-issue for experienced players since you just level it to what you like and move on. But I also understand it's pretty inconsistent generally-- maybe if they had that same 11 s as a base, and only then increased s gradually along with the other things AGL effects?
And boss runbacks are definitely annoying -- but again that's something in the other souls games as well.
So I wanna tell you my thoughts to get your opinion. I think lifegems are slightly abusable. Not really the infinite lifegems from Malentia but the radiant/old radiant and that really broken dried root. Pretty abusable healing items imo.
And the other thing I think is a valid issue is the amount of easy bosses. I wish the bosses were a bit harder especially the late game ones like demon of song, mirror knight, twin Dragonriders.
So how would you rate those issues compared to the AGL problem?
@@michaelcarroll5801 I’m a huge fan of consumables in the souls games but 2 made them the best overall and funny enough this goes into the adp issue. Now if it had the max I frames with no levels you still get HUGE buff to your animations. From consuming your flask to using herbs it speeds you up the more you put into it. With them going back to how demon souls healing was balanced with a twist (estus) I feel like they are pretty balanced besides the healing stacks per item used instead just resetting their lifetime active. Bosses in souls 2 are more “fair” imo due to them fighting in a realistic way in how they look such as the mirror knight. So I feel they suffered due to their overall design really but Elden ring is in a funk like that but in a bad way due to the lvl/tier system they have in that game. So I’d say that these are more hindsight kind of issues due to them getting objectively worse as the games go on but shouldn’t take away from the overall experience.
@@vgndx yeah, I like the idea of items not stacking like they do in the game. And the bosses are pretty fair overall, I like that. I was playing the beginning of DS3 and I noticed that Ludex Gundyr's model will rotate to track you in a really awkward way. Also he seems to have some hit detection issues with some of his attacks. So I really enjoy DS2 bosses and how they function, I guess it's just a bit easy since we've playing these games for so long.
"He uses something existing in another game in the series as part of his debunking of Mauler's critique"
He's totally missing the point of why counter-balancing the popular narratives surrounding DS2 is being offered and sought out by fans, but I cant totally blame him because this series is in a weird place culturally. And i dont know any other game series with as many conflicting narratives and confusion as this one.
The reason we have to point out that DS2's issues aren't unique is because of the wider context of all these critique pieces being created. Hardly anyone highlights these issues being present in DS1 or DS3, especially in a way that suggests they meaningfully detract from the experience. When people talk about DS1, they see it as a "masterpiece" with negligible flaws that may even enhance the experience by adding to the challenge or atmosphere. This same energy is not offered to DS2. Instead, the same issues being present are pushed to the forefront, and the aspects DS2 does well, or god forbid have improved from the previous games, arent prioritized or outright ignored.
It's hard to find any critique of the other games that doesn't feel the need to treat them like some kind of transcendental artform whose flaws as video games don't matter. I just want people to keep the same honest energy with every game in the series, then we could have more honest discussions about all the games instead of uncritically elevating some entries and dogpiling others.
When it comes to ds2 it seems people willingly disregard rationality and logic to argue like flat earthers. They can’t consider more than one principle at a time.
I look at it in 2 ways atm; ds2 is easily the most "old school" in its' design elements, & i truely believe at this point most souls "fans" havent played any at all of those older games fromsoft has *always* taken inspiration from, direct or not. Megaman/x, metroid & castlevania, the older zeldas, etcetc.. For megaman x there's even alot of things i can compare 1:1, even how the players go about self imposed challenges
Also, most souls "fans" got what they wanted with more difficult boss fights (not even games). I had seen a comment of feeble king's on another video about the elden ring dlc, not his own. Dude roughly said that "git gud" was originally a joke. If it was, it came full circle & swung back around on mfs like him. People hated runbacks (ie; the levels themselves), so we got straight foward dungeons with bonfire spam, little-no ganks for players rushing ahead/not paying attention either. People only cared for the bosses & how complex & difficult they were, & that's exactly what fromsoft gave fans like him. Yet theyre pissy about it, they didnt like most/all the other aspects of these games & now that the boss difficulty quite literally hit its' apex in elden ring, the newer fans have become "cultists" for not putting up with these ~10 years of mental gymnastics toward ALL these games
I hope i worded that well. I got into these games late but the discourse around ds2 AND elden ring vs the other games is fascinating af for me. Gives you lessons in psychology (almost) if you take a step back & just observe
@@mfspectacular oh man if I see mauler play castlevania SOTN and he makes excuses bc of skill but then doesn’t do the same for ds2 I’m going to never take him seriously ever again
@@zzodysseuszz i actually got sotn the other day lmao, been meaning to play it myself for the longest time now. Can remember watching my older brother play it in the early 00s, that & the original re3 are dope spectator games. If i could double down on a point i made with souls fans not playing older games like that (nevermind the bad ones), the ones who have probably just forgot what it was like picking up a new game, the struggle that goes into adapting. Abit ironic, or fitting, depending on perspective
@mfspectacular Completely agree. The issue isn't so much with these games themselves but rather skewed and conflicting perspectives. This was never aimed at being a mainstream series but now it's getting mainstream coverage. And every day new players that aren't familiar with the design lineage these games stem from are playing them because it seems you're obligated to beat the souls games as some sort of Rite of passage.
And I fully believe that new players that don't necessarily know how to process these games just fall into the popular camps. DS1 is a masterpiece, the best game ever, because that's the concensus. And similarly DS2 is an irreparably flawed, "hard for the wrong reasons" gank fest because that's also the concensus.
And it's easier to nod along and fit into the crowd instead of offering a unique perspective that's actually informed by experience. Not accusing anyone of being knowingly disingenuous either. These are just the dynamics of crowds and fandoms.
The demon at 7:46 was thinking "surely i'll get him THIS time!" lmao
OldMateJohn should feel embarassed, not only did he make a video of something he hasn't even properly played, he also put forth shit takes that contribute nothing and just show off his stupidity.
maybe he'll mute the comments section like the other guy did after Domo analyzed his stupid sh1tty video
11:37 I can't believe we've reached the point where they're shitting on DS2 for having LATENCY (like every other souls game, and most video games in general). They're really getting desperate. I was actually shocked when I saw that argument. The bias is overflowing
it's always a problem when there is a "2" in the title, other games r excused for some reason
problem is, in SOFTS anyway, having latency is disadvantageous to the lagger, unlike DS1 and DS3 where the laggers are usually stronger and can stack damage on you while lagging
DS2 has the least latency delay. DS1/Demon Souls after and then DS3, and after Elden Ring official servers.
I'm not a big fan of DS2, but my favorite moment of my first playthrough of the vanilla version was running into my first darkdweller in no-man's wharf while holding a torch and realizing it was scared of the light. Drunk on power, I chased it, laughing the whole time until I got it against a wall. ...Then it did what they tell you a cornered beast does. Probably my favorite death I ever had in a souls game.
Your videos make me realize how many more of those cool interactions I might have noticed if I slowed down and paid more attention. I get why the people who love this game really really love it now. Makes me wanna try SotFS sometime.
Dark souls 2 is FILLED with details like this. Spiders will break objects to escape you if you hold a torch and if you drop the torch they will charge at you faster than usual. Giants in black gulch can’t see well in the dark and will lose sight of you quite quickly and will look around their legs in confusion thinking you’re hiding. Vengarl’s body has no head and thus can’t see properly and bc of that his body has very poor tracking with its swings and will sometimes keep swinging a combo while moving forwards even when you’ve walked around it. Stone enemies in Drangleic won’t animate when you wear the kings ring bc they think you’re vendrick, I could probably think of more.
Sotfs is a direct improvement over vanilla.
@@zzodysseuszzI love this reply so much because this is just the tip of the iceberg
u should try it indeed, and u also should try its ng+ since is the only one that actually changes stuff in ng+
@@zzodysseuszzI never knew about the stone enmies wtf
Who would've ever guessed Mauler had a lambe-pomba.
Br?
He only played far enough to see the "try tongue but hole" message and that really got him thinking.
Domo is keeping up the good fight in defense of DS2. Praise the cat!
Domo3000 out here single handedly protecting and restoring the reputation of DS II
How does dark souls 2 even have such a bad reputation to begin with if it's such a good game? A true masterpiece should not need internet warriors to defend it's honor, it should speak for itself like The Last of Us 2.
@@saysallathe last of us 2 is good.
@@saysalla but it is? It’s the best game from the trilogy pretty handily.
Half of ds1 is unfinished and ds3 is overall monotonous and reiterative without its saving grace, the ringed city.
@@saysallaBecause people have complicated and problematic psyche that makes them prone to delusions, projecting, dog-piling, and especially, herd animal behavior.
As a result, every once in a while, there are instances when a crowd hyper-fixates on hating something good just because it's convenient, because it's different, because several biased individuals started the hate-wagon...
For this exact reason, some really nice and soulful games like "Balan Wonderworld" failed miserably (and in case of the latter, the lead developer even retired from his job because he put his heart into this game for kids, and a crowd of sweaty 30-year old reddittors with no life gathered together and sh-tted on his passion project so hard it broke his heart).
So, in other words, no, sometimes games and other media can't speak for themselves because people go rabid with obsession to collectively hate on something and will refuse to even give the game a fair chance or unbiased try.
@@saysalla maybe because of Mauler u s*** **** ?
The goat is gaining reputation
The Heide Knight bit made me laugh so hard. Like... Even I, a very bad Dark Souls II player figured that out back when I was working through Scholar on my PS4 in 2018. The stopping dead in the tracks is the best part.
I dislike 1 Heide knight move (the side slash when you try to walk around the right side of the knight) and again, its predictable enough to describe it.
What a deeply funny critique from Mauler and John
These people would suck at bayonetta 1 where the choreography isn’t so obvious
"I am sure there's a few other things that Domo gets wrong"
Well name them then. And if you can't, why even mention it in this way, other than to try and paint distrust in someone presenting 0 arguments about it
Keep up the good fight soldier, DS2 may not be my ultimate fav game in the series, but I am tired of people shitting on it bc "it's objectively bad"
It's called poisoning the well and it's a fallacy
My man's arguing with 5th graders
It's fine if someone genuinely dislikes a videogame and decides they aren't going to finish it, but it's frankly embarrasing to then try to make in-deph statements and counterarguments about it's design choices while basing all your knowledge in a blatantly disingenuous video-series that has an insane bias against the game.
Dark Souls 2 haters keep proving they either haven't played the game, or worse, deliberately played it in bad faith just to cherrypick any "issue" they could find.
you're doing gods work. Imagine trying to debate about a game you haven't even beaten, clearly these people argue in bad faith with ulterior motives.
I can only imagine that they would say "Yeah, I didnt beat it, that proves its so bad"
you singlehandedly reignite my passion to play this game again. It was my first souls game I finished and I do remember that I had a good time with it even though I didn't understand much back then both gameplay and lore wise (also never went back to it because i didn't know how to fix K&M delay and have no controller). I will play this game again soon and hopefully I will have more fun than the first. you rocked bro.
have u bought a controller?
to disable the mouse delay you have to disable double click in the settings, the issue is that every time you restart the game it'll turn on double clicking again so you'll have to reset the setting
there are other things you can do, such as using EMUlight, and other ways to solve the double clicking
it takes a bit of work but after that it's ok to play with kb&m
@@AtreyusNinja lol no
@@beexxxy oh no
The chad text-to-speech guy is back at it again like always easily & nonchalantly destroying narratives & "critiques" against Dark Souls 2 with unequivocal irrefutable facts! You gotta love it!
It's almost like they don't even try to understand the game. DS2 had so many great things about it and ideas implemented in future games.
"b-b- but daddy mauler said the game was bad, so it must be bad!"
Oof. This is like responding Loopine as someone who played the entirely of Limgrave. I dont think you can't do a consistent argument from any side if you don't know well what are you talking about to begin with.
Hey Jose! I love your comments, even though I didn't like DS2 as much as other Souls games (it's better than Demon's Souls), it's still a good game, I've been watching Domo's videos for a little over a week & he's consistently debunking most of the criticisms/complaints around it with irrefutable facts, you may not like how DS2 functions, but some of its design decisions are unique to put it mildly & some may love it for that, some of the "problems" being mentioned by "critique" channels already exist in all other Souls games, Domo's videos actually kinda shifted my mind around DS2, reminds me of Loopine when I used to hate many of Elden Ring's bosses back in 2022, I did not like them until months after its release, and now I look back at my opinion in 2022 around ER kinda embarrassed lol, I was ignorant, impatient & pretty misled, but now they're by far the best bosses in the series bar none! I love Domo for dispelling all the nonsense around DS2 lol even though I may have different opinions about it, but the facts are inarguable, unequivocal.
@@HeyTarnished My two cents is not that much that I particulary love DS2 , but instead that I really hate criticism on this game. I actually respect DS2 more on all things, and sure I give It another chance soon.
Mr Tarnished, gotta be honest, I rarely respect any critic lately, and I know It may sounds like a videogame fanboy not open to criticism. Truth is I have my own criticism towards those games and I love them for different reasons.
But the thing I Saw is that when any "harsh" critique comes out, a lot of people, played the Game or not, prefer to follow thats opinion like flies instead of looking Up the Game and their experience, regardless how veridic the arguments in question can be, and regardless of how many double standards there are, and regardless how many fallacies can appear. Take this Guy as an example, how can he give anyone the reason if he didn't even completed the Game, not even main story?
And this egregious because the only two games hated by a Big Part of the community are the exact same ones that has two very viewed videos (Mauler Response and JA Reviews) when, if we look on retrospective, we discover that rather the "flaws" are shared between games, or that the other games also has egregious things to complain about but because they never had critiques, they were never hated to begin with.
Im even sure that if Matthewmatosis released his Sekiro critique, people would be preaching how is only about L1 spam, and that they should had been more Varied with fights.
Double standard must be the thing I hate the most, behind to fallacies.
Look how people likes to praise DS3 Lore as perfect while dismishing ER Lore as very flawed , even if DS3 Lore has straight up contradictions to DS1 not Lore wise, but overall main Game event wise, and these same people says "Well It has fanservice, but is not harmful" while getting crazy and Scream to the air how devs "got lazy" for seeing Radahn again. Look how people talks about hitboxes while never put a visualizer on their lives.
Look how people loves DS1 AI , but then the same AI on DS2 is completely flawed, when seeing an enemy getting stuck on an obstacle is the most common thing to see on any of these games.
Erm, sorry if I had been a little intense, but I genuely have very poor feelings about this situation. Im glad that DS2 fans put these people on their place even if It was after basically a decade.
@@JoseViktor4099 I loved your comment, don't worry about feeling intense, I have had my moments too with these freaks.
These long-form pseudo-essayist misinformation-filled critique videos have muddied the full picture honestly, they made discussing these games insufferable, it honestly follows every FromSoft game to a point, it's just that ER got a lot of views & sales, Joseph Anderson & other "critique" channels have been spreading misinformation about ER just because of their mental hang-ups & preconceived notions of Souls combat, every FromSoft game will have a new challenge, and I say ER's bosses are the best ones by far, there will always be something new to challenge, something more exciting & fulfilling than in the past, and I think Sekiro, Armored Core 6 & Elden Ring achieve that the best, it's why these games got hated on the most when they released, honestly I'm glad the "critique" channels that make negative reviews about SOTE are getting destroyed right now, people saw the truth & got used to these bosses, now most of them favor them over all other Souls bosses, me too.
It's this "critique" trend on UA-cam that has grown to be very cancerous among any fanbase, this trend all started around the release of big games like Zelda Breath of the Wild, Mario Odyssey, Horizon Zero Dawn, God of War 2018 & Red Dead Redemption 2, and since then it has gotten worse & worse, now it's a bunch of pretentious UA-camrs trying so hard to eek out anything that may seem like a negative thing in any big popular game, and exaggerate those "flaws" to the extreme, and add that with a truck load of misinformation, authoritative pseudo-objective sounding statements, nostalgia-based problems that manifest solely due to some of them thinking that certain systems do not work within the series (like open-world in Zelda or Elden Ring, Elden Ring bosses "not working with the combat"), combined with actual flaws that they mention but not to the degree of the flaws' severities, and there you have it, cancerous discussions ensued!
I assure you that once Bloodborne remaster/remake releases, you'll see a bunch of people criticizing the crap out of it because the rose-tinted glasses have slipped of and this is the game that many have been championing through all these past years, they'll see it for what it is, a mostly mediocre base game with many mediocre bosses in 2nd half, ultimately carried by atmosphere, nostalgia & DLC. Don't get me wrong, it is a phenomenal game, but a very flawed one & I think people will see those flaws in due time!
@@JoseViktor4099 I loved your comment, don't worry about feeling intense, I have had my moments too with these freaks. These long-form pseudo-essayist misinformation-filled critique videos have muddied the full picture honestly, they made discussing these games insufferable, it honestly follows every FromSoft game to a point, it's just that ER got a lot of views & sales, Joseph Anderson & other "critique" channels have been spreading misinformation about ER just because of their mental hang-ups & preconceived notions of Souls combat, every FromSoft game will have a new challenge, and I say ER's bosses are the best ones by far, there will always be something new to challenge, something more exciting & fulfilling than in the past, and I think Sekiro, Armored Core 6 & Elden Ring achieve that the best, it's why these games got hated on the most when they released, honestly I'm glad the "critique" channels that make negative reviews about SOTE are getting destroyed right now, people saw the truth & got used to these bosses, now most of them favor them over all other Souls bosses, me too. It's this "critique" trend on UA-cam that has grown to be very cancerous among any fanbase, this trend all started around the release of big games like Zelda Breath of the Wild, Mario Odyssey, Horizon Zero Dawn, God of War 2018 & Red Dead Redemption 2, and since then it has gotten worse & worse, now it's a bunch of pretentious UA-camrs trying so hard to eek out anything that may seem like a negative thing in any big popular game, and exaggerate those "flaws" to the extreme, and add that with a truck load of misinformation, authoritative pseudo-objective sounding statements, nostalgia-based problems that manifest solely due to some of them thinking that certain systems do not work within the series (like open-world in Zelda or Elden Ring, Elden Ring bosses "not working with the combat"), combined with actual flaws that they mention but not to the degree of the flaws' severities, and there you have it, cancerous discussions ensued! I assure you that once Bloodborne remaster/remake releases, you'll see a bunch of people criticizing the crap out of it because the rose-tinted glasses have slipped of and this is the game that many have been championing through all these past years, they'll see it for what it is, a mostly mediocre base game with many mediocre bosses in 2nd half, ultimately carried by atmosphere, nostalgia & DLC. Don't get me wrong, it is a phenomenal game, but a very flawed one & I think people will see those flaws in due time…worry not!
Next someone will make a DS2 critic without even playing it
And read the same list of complaints in the exact same order with the exact same personal experiences as every single other ds2 hater to have ever existed.
🤣🤣🤣
It happens all the time. That's how terrible the souls community is
Next someone will make a DS2 critic without even knowing what that game is.
@@goncalocarneiro3043 Next someone will make a DS2 critic w/o even knowing Mauler.
(impossible)
Enemies get aggroed: MAN THIS GAME IS TRASH AND FULL OF GANKS
Enemis stays in their place: MAN THIS GAME IS TRASH THE ENEMIES ARE DUMB
i'm not a fan of DS2, but jesus christ the hyprocrisy
Ds2 haters are like my mum for real 😂
The thing with the cape remind me of Nito's bossfight: you can't really hit him on the back - at least, not with a straight sword.
He does let his left leg stick out a bit, but his collision keeps most players too far away to hit any other part of him. Even with the normal halberds R1 thrust, from behind I can't reach any other part than his outstretched left leg. Edit: pretty sure his leg only sticks out during certain attacks
“Imagine a player trying to figure out what’s going on in a game notorious for hitbox issues”
Imagine a player not trying to figure out at all, and just making the same mistake ten times in a row.
People in the community have said that DS2 is "the worst in the series" for so long that it has become a kind of orthodoxy.
That's probably why some people get so upset when anyone defends it. To any sane person, it's just a defense of an under-rated video game. To them, it's blasphemy.
"under-rated video game" if anything dark souls 2 is over-rated, no other game has entire channels dedicated solely to defending their honor a decade after release despite selling over 10 million copies.
It's funny how the people who adamantly defend Mauler and his like-minded group end up repeating the same demonstrably untrue and biased information. Mostly because they flat out admit they haven't played/seen as much as they do yet feel confident enough to speak about stuff they were fed secondhand info.
I was also gonna say in another video where you brought it up, but DS2's backstabbing is way more involved and satisfying than DS1 because in DS1 you could strafe around practically any common enemy, and even most Knights, and backstab them nearly every time. DS2 made the enemies much more responsive as a trap to people too familiar with DS1's backstabbing and it makes the fights way more interesting where you either have to get good at parrying or really exploit their attack cycles. It's legitimate progress between games but most people just accuse DS2 of being hard for hard's sake rather than simple sequel elevation.
true, but haters will just say "in ds1 it was possible and since ds1 is a masterpiece, ds2 sucks because I can't play like I did in ds1" without realizing that it is actually a gameplay improvement
I really enjoy your videos. Ds2 was my first and so i had to learn a lot from it, instead of having previous exp from ds1. The patience always paid off, so i had a great time with it. There are some issues, but what game doesnt have? I don't know when all this hate started, but i don't remember being this hated when the game first launched. Good variety of enemies and mechanics, lots and lots of weapon choices, good mix of gimmick and hard bosses. Overall its a good game. Ty for your fun and educational video
Those videos are like a therapy for me. Laughing at bad takes makes my day.
You know, I've been playing OG Demon's Souls(for the first time ever) lately and I've started noticing something really funny. Demon's Souls is highly praised, yet it has some of the exact same "issues" that people complain about DS2 having.
That's what I love about arguments like "Souls games aren't supposed to have consumable healing items" or "who on the B team thought it was a good idea to reduce your health on death".
“Hidey Knights”😂 gotta love that AI voice sometimes
Also at 24:53 you’re 100% right about Elden ring having those AI mess ups. I watched my gf accidentally cheese Messmer because he just jumped into the part of his arena that’s behind his thrown/statue and got stuck😂
That would've genuinely pissed me off, I'd probably quit out and restart the fight.
@@Galamoth06 yeah definitely took a bit of the fun out of it but it was also pretty funny
@@Arc-coopdamn dude your gf plays Elden ring. You’ve won in life lol
I love how you didnt even have to refute the last clip 😂 it just speaks for itself in how hypocritical it is lol
I remember watching the video when it released and saying "well domo is gonna have a field day with this" 😅
I talked to old mate jhon and tried to convince him how much of a bad idea this was. But he was in full “defer, deflect, defray” mode to literally every person who wasn’t your average cringey cookie cutter hater to the game and the community.
He also admitted to me he straight up got bias to this game on top of being a clueless tourist who tries to defend ds2’s class clown mauler. His vid just hammers home how unjustified ds2 is treated, since if a tourist is gonna try to pull this - how much of the game do you think your average comment section hater has done?
Poor Domo already has some viewers who are absolute shit cunts, why contribute to that by outright lying about something that didn’t happen?
Why would you post a complete lie?
At first I was like woah maybe you're being a little rude but then i realized it's a mauler fan. Keep up the good work.
this series of RE response to RE response will soon turn into rap for frogs RE RE RE RE RE ... RE
despite everything I'm waiting for more
Im very happy I found this channel, since it kinda helped me be more vocal about my love for DS2. It was my first in the series, and it's my favorite of the trilogy for a lot of different reasons.
Plus the game doesnt look like its been hit with a "Dark" filter like ds3 is. The colors just pop out more for me in this game.
Its nearly up there with Bloodborne for me, which is my favorite game Fromsoft has ever made, but these two games being so close to one another is kinda funny to me.
But I hope to see more videos about this game.
26:18 does he know? should we tell him?
i was waiting for this video.
domo3000 never disappoints.
This is the content I need in my life. Lets up the RE counter. Keep it up boss.
Thanks again!
If you could wish for one topic for the next video, what would you like to see?
@@Domo3000 Honestly, something similar to your Greatsword video with another class of weapon. I think that could be a small series on its own. Either that, or a video about how many build options DS2 allows, with maybe a showcase of some of your recurring characters from your videos as examples.
I know you asked for one, so this is cheating, but you can do whatever you want. Thanks again, and keep it up boss.
With time everything gets proper recognition, i'm in peace since Miyazaki spoke so good of Dark Souls 2, even over his other games.
LMAO I was waiting for something like this, its gone be a great watch
Edit: yeah it was great, why do some freaky people have this need for ds2 to be bad its like their life depends on it
i know why, because they SUCK at this game, and hearing people like Mauler tell you that it's not a "your skill issues, it's the game that is terrible" makes them live a better life, so they MUST believe that DS2 is a bad game.
but they are even obsessed with DS2 videos online, guess why, because deep down in their hearts they know they haven't learned to play this game, and they are curious to see the point of view of a ds2 enjoyer, the exact opposite of them.
@@AtreyusNinja yeah but what about those who haven't even touched the game.
I never seen a game receive such unnecessary hatred if you told me the game is cursed i would believe it
@@antkeeper1779 that's something i hear from time to time, people hating the game without even trying it, it's something i struggle to understand and so i doubt it's real, maybe i prefer not to believe it's true because it would be too... too stupid
They try to downplay peak souls 2, they fail every time. Useless, useless, useless. The goat always prevails.
Saint souls 2 save us again
The enemy with the cape, and the mace "issue", is the exact same situation as Nito's Dark Cloak. You cannot hit Nito on his cloak. But if your weapon is long enough, then he will be hurt. Same for the mummy looking guy in DS2
The argument of "he didn't say it's bad" is so childish. It's not "DS2 bad, here's XX minutes of unrelated footage", it's: "DS2 bad, here's XX minutes of footage demonstrating why it's bad". Unless explicitly stated otherwise, everything in the video is implied to be a negative criticism.
I am inclined to agree. While unrelated footage is used in these kinds of videos, namely CS knife surfing for some reason... If footage of the game itself appears, I usually expect it to be related to the topic at hand.
@@goncalocarneiro3043 I love me a CS knife surfing random rant video.
@@goncalocarneiro3043 I think that’s the difference between a series/critique video and a tangent video.
Wait! You didn’t kill that troll NPC the moment you saw him for the first time?
Also I actually recently finished playing DS2 for the first time, and it was really fun!
Also, also who would win in an argument: a person who knows the ins and outs of the game: such as hitboxes and I-frames or a person who has barely played it!?
Congrats. Did you do DLC yet? I keep starting new games in the base game for different builds and still haven't beat Sir Allone and Fume Knight (shame on me)
@@michaelcarroll5801 I did! They were really great! The level designs in all of them were so different and unique! Of course there was Lud & Zallen… and the gank squad, but still, I did beat all of the bosses… even at the cost of my own sanity. (the reason I didn’t mention blue smelter demon is because I like the fight)
@@heresnothing2lookat937 Nice. I'm happily planning on never playing through Frigid Outskirts ever haha.
@@michaelcarroll5801 Me too, me too
PPL SHOULD STOP PRETENDING THAT THE TELEPORT ANIMATION FROM THE GRAB ATTACKS HAS ANYTHING TO DO WITH HITBOXES, U GUYS ARE JUST IGNORANT
thank you Domo for this video.
11:40 Has this guy every played a souls game? Or is he just being disengious on purpose? Did he really think the devs added in a "FYI im mean" invader NPC to the game?
Yeah how dare people think a company who put "prepare to die" in the title of one of their games would put an enemy in another game that is designed to kill them out of spite.
@@saysalla yeah, how dare people have rational thinking and blame a game for npc invaders when the entire franchise does it
Thinking that hollows attacking the Giant Trees is a bug shows so much artistic illiteracy to me. On my first playthrough I didn't know the history of Drangleic at all, or that those trees were even giant corpses. Not until fighting The Last Giant. But I at least assumed that they're attacking the 'sculptures' for a reason, because I know the developers worked to create a living world where things are already happening without us
It frustrates me when I see people completely miss the artistry of these games, maybe by approaching them too much as action games and not seeing the other dimensions. NPCs doing pointless and repetitive shit is the nature of hollowing and it would be bad design if they didn't. That would disconnect the story from the world we play in
Domo, you were supposed to critique what Mauler _meant_ not what he wrote/recorded/edited/published/continued saying for years afterward.
I don’t understand how people can call ds1 a masterpiece with the best level design in the series when it had horrible fast travel, large swathes of area with nothing in it even before the lord vessel, and terrible areas like lost Izalith and the crystal caves. They try to blame it on the fast travel, and yet the dlc is better than the base game with good fast travel. I don’t think ds2 is a perfect game, but at least it’s consistent with level design
ds2 is just better, especially for its replay value.
I think world design is the correct term here. It’s good because every area connects logically and the geography is consistent. There are multiple branching paths so you have multiple options on the outset, though that does narrow to a corridor at the end stretch.
Because of the lack of fast travel you’re forced to become familiar with how everything connects and on future playthroughs, routing can make your playthrough more interesting, like taking the Master Key to shortcut through Draco Valley and get to the stamina shield in the forest early being a common one.
I feel like the opinion of DS1 being PEAK LEVEL DESIGN is a little exaggerated but there’s definitely merit to it.
So i never heard of this guy, went to his channel and right as i open it says:
"I make low effort videos"
I guesd somes jokes do write themselves...
As Domo said: You can't win against someone that just want complain.
DS2 haters not beating the “haven’t even bothered to play the game” allegations
Odysseus and Domo are the hidden gems that keep DS2 lovers going 🗿
Well I wasn’t expecting to be mentioned here. A surprise to be sure, but a welcome one.
Edit: I’m going to post clips of me dodging out of the trap chests with 3 adp in case any of you are struggling with those. I did one with the crossbow chest without rolling already if you need help with that, and I’m going to post another of the poison chest for one my commenters so keep a look out for that if you really want to. I’ll post it hopefully tomorrow (…or in a month lmao)
Unless there’s another Odysseus I don’t know of.
@@zzodysseuszz u and domo are smarter than all of the ds2 haters combined. they cant even actually complain, they could just say "i dont like the way it plays" instead of making up a bunch of bull crap to try and make themselves think they dont have massive skill issue
@@TheMagnificentMoose-s7y or they show an 8 year old clip of a guy in poor quality getting hit by a grab attack and teleporting: it’s irrefutable evidence against the game.
But if I test it myself several times in a row and post the clips in the argument: “no no that doesn’t count” or “that’s just one clip” even if it wasn’t one clip 😂
@@TheMagnificentMoose-s7y anwyays thanks. I think over the entire course of my channel only a handful of people actually defended me or my position in those cesspits of misinformation and lying. I think I’ve seen you there as well, or at least someone with magnificent in their name.
12:00 also keep in mind backstabs never work if the enemy is in a recoil animation - it's been like this even before DS2, so that you can't block an attack and backstab the enemy before they even get the chance to TRY and turn around. Go on, try to block an attack and backstab while the enemy is still recoiling in any other FromSoft Souls-type game.
Yeah Mauler showed a lot of examples of enemies being in recoil, recovering from getting backstabberd or being staggered, which wouldn't have been backstabs in the other games either.
1:50 This is such a dishonest thing DS2 haters say and I see it constantly. Saying they are "critiquing DS2 as a stand alone experience" even though literally everything I ever see levied at how "DS2 is the worst one" is specifically about how it relates to other games in the series, specifically DS1 or 3. Bringing up things every single From game does doesn't make DS2 look bad, just From games in general...UNLESS you only mention it when talking about DS2 and gloss over it for other games they've made. Which is a really bad habit that comes up in these "DS2 is bad" videos.
You also can't point at things that all the games do and say that DS2 is bad for doing them...which they do CONSTANTLY. In those instances, people are going to bring up other games in the series doing the same thing because these flaws are hypocritically treated as game breaking ONLY for DS2. That's stupid and people have a right to point that out.
This selective vacuum they like to place DS2 into only when it suits their argument is intellectually bankrupt and pointing out how the framing shifts in critique isn't moving the goal posts. Selectively comparing the games between each other and telling everyone else they cannot when refuting your claims IS though.
THE WIRE MENTIONED 🗣🗣🗣🗣🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥
God this was somehow way more infuriating than Mauler himself. Repeatedly making in all seriousness the argument "it's not Mauler's fault that he makes mistakes; because ds2 has a reputation for being bad, people will assume things in the game are broken" as if that's somehow a problem with ds2? And then the sheer unadulterated guts it must take to openly admit that you have barely played the game you're talking about, and then say it's "obvious" to you when someone who knows this game inside and out gets things wrong. Lord grant me the confidence of a completely ignorant man on the internet.
Thanks!
Oh wow thanks! 🎉