First off, thank you so much for taking the time to watch my retrospective! However, upon receiving feedback, I realize that there are far too many errors and misinformed statements in my retrospective and in-game experience than are acceptable. I plan to make a video to clarify these mistakes and engage with some retorts. In the meantime, this comment will be pinned to clarify major corrections that were fact-checked. Thank you all for pointing these out! Feedback like this helps build better content and stronger communities. 17:10 Estus shards are not locked behind Doors of Pharros. Instead, 2 (not at all a majority) are behind statues that can be opened with fragrant branches of yore. This then fully calls into question multiple criticisms I had for Estus Flasks. These will be the primary topic of revision in my follow-up. 29:09 This map is inaccurate. Forest of the Fallen Giants can teleport players to the Lost Bastille and Brightstone Cove Tseldora has a primal bonfire. 33:40 There is literally a bonfire a short distance away from the Iron Keep primal bonfire. I’m gonna go find a bridge… I’ll add more if they become relevant, as I want to maintain transparency. Thanks again!
I’ve got 2.7K+ hours in this game, I’ll help out and see if I can find any issues and I’ll add some small details (some of this may come off rude, just know that’s not my intention): 7:54 The Torch will always appear in your left hand, even if something is already equipped there. Your hand does not need to be empty. 11:11 That’s the Central Castle Drangleic bonfire, which respawns Looking Glass Knight, while the bonfire that respawns the Throne Duo, Nashandra and Aldia is the King’s Gate bonfire. 14:23 The first accessible estus shard is in Majula and since most people will be playing online it’s likely they’ll find it because of numerous messages in front of the well. Also the flask is given for free, the shards are used to grant additional uses. 16:38 There’s one more flask shard than you need in the game, so it sounds kind of unbelievable you somehow only got four of twelve (not that I don’t believe you, some are pretty well hidden). 19:04 You can carry a maximum of 32 vials in Bloodborne if you equip three of the best communion runes. 20:27 Yes, we do know the full extent of what it does, in fact you immediately lists what it does. Also to be clear; you mistaking agility for adaptability. Levelling adaptability (and attunement, though much less) increases agility, which increases item use speed and i-frames. 21:39 There is no light equipment load in DSII. There’s medium, three different heavy variations that affect your turn speed and super heavy that prevents you from rolling and running and also makes you turn incredibly slowly. 24:10 It’s not eight directional, instead there are very large dead zones for the main four directions. 25:14 It’s called Memory of the Old Iron King. 29:52 They’re called Darkroot Basin and Tomb of the Giants. Sorry if some of these seem like nitpicks. I’d like to say that the last part of the video from the 50 minute mark onward is incredible, it embodies a lot of what I think about the game and it’s nice to know that someone else had such a strong reaction to finding Vendrick. Oh, and one last thing: PLEASE for the love of God one-hand your greatsword when dealing with groups of enemies. That was driving me crazy.
Thanks for adding! On the last note, why so? Are the wider sweeps more preferable? I liked using it two handed for the two-attack combo that can inflict damage behind me in case I get flanked.
@@capragamer Because the sweeps easily deal with groups. Otherwise enemies can and likely will just get to your sides, and you don’t want multiple enemies near you with low stamina.
PArroting lies isnt how you make retrospective in the first place but respect you will do better next time just drop all the nonsense you put in the video IS this even Real it sounds ai lol @@capragamer
Instead of writing a 3k word long comment, id like to suggest you give Domo3000 video series about DS2 misconceptions a try. I think it might be eye opening for you
I think this B-team narrative needs to stop somewhere. Yes, Tomohiro Shibuya was relatively unexperienced as a director, but he had Miyazaki's trust on this and Miyazaki was also supervising. Aside of that, a significant number of people working on DS1 also worked on DS2. If the game had problems in development it was because it was overly ambitious and brand new engine didn't handle too well, not because people lacked a vision or talent to pull it off.
As someone who really doesn't enjoy a lot of this game's game design, I heavily agree. It's always been pretty clear to me that, Miyazaki or no, DS2 carries a lot of significance to the trilogy. There's a lot about it from story to atmosphere that elevates the weight of the grander Souls experience and I don't think you get that from a team that couldn't pull it off. I understand it's easy to look at the contentious gameplay and dismiss the entire experience, but I could never imagine plucking DS2 out of the equation without losing something in return. I love this game: I just hate playing it. But the idea that these developers were some sort of "incapable second stringers" just rings so hollow to me. People who design the King Vendrick encounter aren't people who fumble the bag, no way. They understood what Dark Souls was about, even if it wasn't perfect. (Not that the first game was either, by the way.)
@@GMitchell2012 Well, I speak two languages other than English (so it is tertiary at best), so I think I am doing quite well as for leaving a youtube comment on a rather obscure video for people to understand and for grammar pricks to nitpick when they don't have any other good arguments.
5 estus is insane. also your comment at 17:10 is false, they are not behind lockstones, but rather two of them are behind stone statues requiring fragrant branches of Yore. You find an extra one in majula, so you start with 2. You go to forest of the fallen giants, get the mansion key and find an estus flask shard by the early pursuer fight straight up on the dang floor. you return to the mansion, boom 4 flasks. Huh, you got a branch now? Maybe I'll go back and check what it does in the tutorial. boom, 5flasks. You see a second statue on your way to no man's wharf and think, I wonder if that also has an estus? I'll store it in the memory bank for now. Enter Bastille, ooh a path behind mcduff, boom 6 flasks. Hunt's man's copse? Literally unmissable since it's next to the lever to shortcut for the boss and you would've seen the crystal lizard through the gate and want to try and get around. Shaded woods? literally just free rosabeth and it's in a chest opposite the bonfire, impossible to miss. we're at 8 already and not even a 5th through the game. Spider area, what's it called brightstone cove? Yeah ok, that's a bit of a strange one to hide in a corner behind a mage. But that mage is annoying enough to figure out a way to bonk that bitch. I'll call it semi missable. Drangleic castle with the desert sorcerers? Also impossible to miss. AT THE VERY LEAST, 9 should be attainable without even having to look around. You are not the average player, clearly. The legit only difficult to find estus shards in my opinion is the one on the edge of the gutter, because no one wants to comb that shit area. And the one out on the walkway in Shrine of Amana. I had11 flasks after drangleic castle in a blind playthrough, and looked up how many there were, saw there was only 1 more, and got my 12th. How you didn't find all 5 sublime bone dust is even more confusing. The big tower shield boys defend them and they're not hard to find. The hardest miiight be huntsman's copse, but if you didn't investigate the obvious igloo like dome structures then that's on you.
Considering how many DS2 haters literally set-up ganks, and intentionally play in a way to make DS2 look bad, i would not be surprised that this person is straight up lying. Then again, his first Souls game was Elden Ring, and Bloodborne the second, so he is the type of FROM fan that loves spectacle and Devil May Cry wannabe combat, so he might actually just be that dense
I disagree with your statement that ADP is required. It is only necessary from the perspective that you HAVE to dodge every attack. Dark Souls 2 fully supports other playstyles, and simply uses ADP to balance the fact that tank builds need to invest in equip load for heavy armor and shields, and spell users need attunement to use more spells. As someone who prefers blocking over dodging, i can say DS2 is fully playable without having to invest in ADP.
The game has some very interesting concepts but I believe they forgot what made the first game so good. DS 1's difficulty was fair and if you died most of the time it was your fault. However in DS2 the difficulty is frustrating. Every area is Overpopulated with enemies,the boss design is downright lazy except for a few,the game has terrible hitboxes and the healing system is flawed.
@@Art0r1aS-zp3wh DS1 also has terrible hit boxes. People are just blinded by nostalgia. DS2 vanilla has more gank than DS2 Scholar. All the gank in the first areas are simply NOT THERE in DS2 SoTFS, many enemies are asleep and they only get up when you approach them, archers have less aggro range compared to vanilla also.
@@Art0r1aS-zp3wh I hate the change they made in the healing system in DS1, so DS2 is leagues above DS1 for simply bringing back regular heal itens like Demon's Souls had. Honestly Demon's Souls Healing system and mana restore system is still the best out of all the games in my opinion.
@Art0r1aS-zp3wh The problem with DS1 fanboys is that they just say whatever lol. DS1 is such an obtuse and unacommodating game, especially for a blind playthrough. The whole "it was hard but fair" thing is pure romanticization by gamers just parroting what others have said. Like seriously, it's been over ten years, we know you're just regurgitating uncritical fandom nonsense. If there was ever a game that wanted to kill, punish, inconvenience, and scare the player it would be DS1. And you thoughtless nerds STILL accuse DS2 of being unfairly difficult because you're bad at it and can't sprint or cheese through the game like DS1. You people will never grow up and have an original thought I'm convinced.
Oh, no another DS2 retrospective. I can't stop having enough. It's like someone should make the Set of all DS2 retrospectives. And the Set of Sets of all DS2 retrospectives.
so... i would be editing this comment through the video. I recently played dks2 sotfs after finishing elden ring dlc multiple times to compare things. I mostly disagree with the points through this video so i will contextualize said discrepancy. -item grab: first yes it should have been better to use images for the items, but this limitation only becomes a problem to greedy and disorganized people, since i realized there is no recent tab, after spending time looking for the item i always made sure i read what im grabbing, constantly putting things on the chest(which is available since the beggining), for traps and rush situations i would first secure the surroundings and then pick up the loot. -healing system: i like the healing system and for everyone who hoards and spam gems, you are going up in soul memory, which means you are leveling player invaders up, and if you are playing offline, you could get the same effect that gems have by using healing miracles, so infinite resource my ass. -estus flask shards: if you get to the burnt ivory king with 5 flask thats on you, i did not even search for the shards in my recent playthrough and i found 13, i dont know if there is more but taking my time to explore the world really paid off, i had 11 flasks before going to drangleic castle. -adaptability: ok lets put this 2 phrases together because it flies over the head of adaptability dislikers: "leveling up is cheap" "investing in adaptability instead of investing in the build"... my brother, by investing in adaptability you are investing in the build, adaptability is a vital stat for early light builds and for chunky and heavy builds they should invest in vigor, even 15 adaptability is enough for most of the game, 25 makes the game really smooth, anything beyond 30 is overpowered, which is good! -range combat: well you are playing the most boring range combat strategy, see... you are not supposed to safely attack enemies from far... thats a sniper and for a sniper to work it must do high damage and optionally status damage like bleed or poison, no, real ranged combat is using the lock on mechanic, yeah, that would mean getting close to the enemy, but dont get me wrong, not close enough for melee, now you can get use of a fast firing weapon like a small bow or spells.
I'd like to point something out about ds2, watch the health bar when you get hit, most attacks barely do any damage when you compare it to other souls games, you can wear nothing and still take multiple hits where in other games you would get oneshot. I think this offsets the need to lvl adp as much as everyone thinks, nevermind the other methods of dmg avoidance like positioning and shields.
13:00 Made a mistake here. You already start with 1 estus flask when you first speak to Shanalot, then there's a shard piece at the well, so those who are perceptive usually start with 2 flasks. Which isn't much, but definitely better than 0 and completely relying on gems. 29:44 May be a slip of the tongue here, but you can only go as far as Demon Ruins before being blocked off, until you've placed the Lord Vessel. 33:40 You don't need to traverse the entire level. Idol of Engyi bonfire is right next to the Old Iron King boss arena, the second Black Gulch bonfire is right next to the The Rotten boss arena, and the crossroad bonfire at Shaded Woods is right next to the Shrine of Winter. Another thing I think could be mentioned are the binoculars. What DS2 did with them was never seen before and has never been seen since in any of the FromSoftware titles, which is a real shame, because I think they absolutely nailed the binocular mechanic in DS2.
I know shrine of amana isnt well liked and not going to say its the best level ever made but i feel people blow it out of proportion. The mages magic moves so slow you can just walk out the way do they home in, yeah but no, it is so weak that walking to the side can completely remove the lock
i think u have some very good points but i disagree abt the world design. i always saw it as the player character losing their self and identity , losing track of time, being in one place and somehow ending up in another. i also think it fits with how earlier on, the levels seem to be more interconnected (fotfg/heide's -> lost bastille -> sinner's rise is very logical) but as u progress u get stuff like the windmill -> iron keep. i do think it was probably a retroactive patch-up of trying to connect the now repurposed assets once the game changed direction, but it's nevertheless pretty functional and in a way really evocative to me once u see the abrupt switchups this way. it's also an argument for the more linear and less interconnected level design (you couldn't do this with ds1 map), although i do agree that it's a shame that the interconnectedness is lost
I’m actually really intrigued by this perspective of the game’s world design. I plan to do another playthrough later on, but I’ll approach it with this mindset! Thanks for your comment!
Saying ADP is a necessity to have a good time is crazy lol. I never level ADP, you gotta learn the game, timing and move sets. Roll away instead of rolling through attacks, side strafe around attacks. I don't care for ADP as a concept, but people exaggerate it's implementation to an extreme degree because they're unwilling to learn, just don't have good problem solving skills or wanna blame the game for being bad at it. Its not dark souls 1, it's not dark souls 3. Its not meant to be played like it is.
@@Treasure_hunter_21 correct. I agree with a lot of what this fella is saying in the video and don't wanna just be that guy who complains about one aspect of it; just something I think needs to be considered since I see people exaggerate ADP so much. I'd even go as far as to say, it adds another layer to the combat and the learning curve. If you need to rely on IFrames that much, I don't know what to tell ya. Having to learn which hitboxes you can't roll through and have to roll away from or side strafe around will truly make you better at the game. I get the expectations of having maximum s from the start, since other entries do it. But its by no means a necessity to play or have fun.
You only ended up with five estus flasks? I haven't finished the game yet(shrine of amara? I think that's where I currently am) and I have 10 flasks. I also bought 99 life gems, but use both.
I'm sorry, only 5 flasks By the end are you kidding me You can get three before fighting the last giant Pretty naturally They're freaking everywhere I usually have 12 well before the end of the game Including my first playthrough blind I'm sick of people slandering this game. Just because you have the environmental awareness. of a goldfish doesn't make the system bad Also the first flask is given to you for free And the infinite gems make sense in This game it's balanced for it From my experience You are meant to take damage more often in this game Usually smaller Tik damage the combat is more about weighing your option from moment to moment do I take damage to deal damage should I use the last bit of stamina to back away do I pop a life gem to save a flask it's slower so I can't get hit fore a bit after but it's cheaper The healing system is ment to add more Strategy to a game thats more slow paste and Decision Based the other games are mostly about avoiding damage Altogether. By learning move sets and having perfect dodging The characters are fester and have more I frames Making it easier to negate damag So healing is faster but more limited. Appropriately punishing you taking damage And heels are quicker and more consistent. To fit the tighter faster paced gameplay. Both systems are good and make sense in their respective games Sorry about the goldfish comment I was a little annoyed😂
@capragamer it's all good man sorry for coming at you as someone that also runs a small UA-cam channel I should know better the video was very well made and it did address some of the things I mentioned later and the cinematography Especially in the intro. Was very good 👍
Ds2 is my personal favorite of the DS series, I don't really get the ADP complaints I've played through the game dozens of times and never once leveled ADP and always felt the dodges were perfectly fine, it takes a small adjustment period but it's enough to carry through everything in the game
the game is meant to be possible without sitting at bonfires! there's a ring reward for doing so, and another ring for beating the game without dying. the healing is the way it is because you cant refill your estus or hp at a bonfire if you want to get that ring, and farming souls is a lot harder when you have to homeward bone back to the beginning of the game to respawn enemies, so grinding souls for lifegems is a lot harder to do. making you choose between healing items or levels/upgrades/other items. New players will have lots of extra healing help for such a notorious and difficult game, and pros will have what they need to play the game on "hard more". If the healing feels op, it's designed with adaptive difficulty, so go for the illusory rings! you'll also learn to love all the repair powders they leave around lol
No, it is the worst by far. And not just of the trilogy, but of the entire Soulsborne series. The only question is whether the original version is worse than SotFS or vice versa.
Heres my honest take after hearing most arguments about Ds2. Its a game that has many good merits and many problems. But regardless of your thoughts on it. It was a game that i think was crucial to the future development of Souls games. It introduced many concepts that would go on to be welcomed staples into modern souls games and there were many concepts that didn't. Its a game that took genuine risks, and as far as risks go they dont always pan out in good reception. Many people have valid complaints but i see dark souls 2 as a foundation and turning point within the history of souls games. Since at the time the genre was new and fromsoftware rightfully wanted to see what they could and could not do in a souls like game. Even Miyazaki has gone on record saying even he doesnt know what the future of the souls series would have been without Ds2, and lets be honest if the horses mouth himself claims something that big im probably gonna believe him.
Seriously, all this talk about schollar is bullshit. I bought the original game for ps3 and honestly it's mostly worse. This scholar ruined ds2 narrative is literally made up.
@@capragamer Most enemy placement is less ganky and give more options to tackle them + they reward more patience and observation Theres plenty examples of that in most areas in the game I recommend you to watch Domo3000's debunking videos He makes pretty good points about its design philosophy Also it nerfed some enemies and bosses that were too overtuned Ancient Dragon's fire AoEs no longer one shots you for example
Flask shards behind pharros doors, having ranged battles in the shrine, what game are you playing?😂😭 best souls 2 isn’t perfect but i will not take such slander
Yes. You can also bomp a similar well in Last Bastille (in a courtyard not too far away from McDuff, the one with a couple of dogs and a soldier with 2H greatsword) and get some surprise as well. Not an estus shard, but something.
Yeah. It’s my fault on several aspects here and I want to make it up and clarify. There was more mistakes here than should be acceptable, and that’s on me
while, the eathern peak transition to iron keep is poorly handled, one of the themes about ds2 is the like dream experience, see the beginning cutscene, the dialogue of the emerald herald
29:9 this map has couple mistakes. Forest of fallen giants is not dead end it teleports you to Bastille. Tseldora has primal bonfire. Redusing number of dead ends to only two.
Overall good video but... 33:40 You're very misinformed here, there's a bonfire as close as a minute walk to each dlc access (Eygil's Idol bonfire for Old Iron King, Hidden Chamber for Sunken King, Fork Road for Ivory King) I have other gripes with this video, but this one was too much to not talk about.
@@capragamer i wonder if you actually played the game like any other normal players, you don't even try to search corners that's not even hidden, like, dude, 5 estus flasks at the end of the game?
bro, only finding 5 estus shards is strange. i hope you realize that you only finding so little of them is not a legit critisism. i do agree that the lifegems make the game trivial. but just like the npc summons, you can just not use them?
Just to point it out, you don’t have to get the Estus shard to get the flask, she just gives it to you if you talk to her (also you can find a shard immediately if you hit the rock into the well in majula)
This video full of uncharitable critique founded on misinformation and wild hyperbole. I was gonna call out examples but it’d get unbearably long. “No one really knows the full extent of what adaptability really is.” -_-
As someone with over 20000 hours between all the souls games (mostly PvP) I can confidently say whether someone loves or hates this game is almost entirely dependent on what type of player they are and the various reasons one plays souls games. For clarification, I myself play these games for the PvP first and foremost so everything else, World/Lore/Bosses etc are all secondary to the PvP interactions and depth which DS2 is the pinnacle in this regard, for example Elden Ring and DS3 advanced PvP tech amounts to good spacing and situational hard swapping, now if we look at DS2 we have: good spacing, situational swapping, Utilizing the unique back step I frame for positioning and set up parrying, Lock off strats for dead angles because DS2 by far has the best lock off combat, animation canceling for setup combos/roll catching and the list goes on. Now from a PvE only perspective I completely understand why the game is so hated, if someone plays these games for the unique yet familiar PvE elements one would expect from other Souls entries, then personally I would agree all the other games are superior in that regard (Just my opinion).
I've heard somewhere that there was some concept art of the earthen peak tower being fused into a huge volcano, the one with Iron Keep on top of it. The Volcano Asset was supposedly not ready to be put into the game. That would explain a lot of the weird transition between the areas and really recontextualized it for me.
jesus christ, I'm so tired of this "SotFS bad" hate train. it's the definitive version of the game and it's objectively BETTER. yes, there are some INDIVIDUAL aspects that are questionable, but as a whole it's a massive improvement.
I love how surreal the idea of the elevator to the iron keep is. I don't understand why many people have a problem with it, Souls game always had surreal-ish elements like this. Bloodborne Astral Clocktower is an example, but there they stated "this is a dream!". Another one is fighting inside memories in Sekiro. Why do we need real world logic in a game like this? For me, the whole souls experience is a dream-like one.
This was the first Dark Souls game I played. I personally found the game beautiful. Yes, it was difficult and there were a lot of places I had no idea what to do or where to go, but beating this game made me feel more confident and confident encouraged me to play and appreciate harder games. It’s interesting to hear why people seem to dislike this game, but I strongly disagree and still have this game at the top of my lists.
Adaptability represents all the pros and the cons of DS2. On paper, the idea of Adaptability is great. I love the idea that leveling up literally makes you move and dodge faster. The start of any souls game is all about feeling weak and overwhelmed, and by the end you and flipping around and dishing out massive damage to enemies that used to one shot you. The transition from low ADP to high ADP feels very tangible, with attacks that had tight dodge windows now feel effortless to avoid.... BUT. That messes with the fundamental flow of combat and makes it way harder to learn timing when fighting enemies. Basically everything in DS2 is either "Good idea, bad execution" or "Bad idea, weirdly good execution." It's still one of my favorite games but it is certainty jank.
Sotfs really feels like a completed version of Ds2. Lots of new mechanics to improve the experience, more interesting enemy placement, more options for early game builds, added lore, improved lighting and so on. I recently played the vanilla version of the game and it felt incredibly unfinished and dull imo.
To your item pickup thing, it's a bit clunky to start, but then atter a while you get used to the symbols representing items (keys, scrolls, swords etc) and get a general idea where to look for the items.
This is fair. Tbh, my criticism mainly comes from my field of work/study highlighting effective communication. I just find DS2’s UI to be a significant step back in communicating information on items. But I do agree, you can get the hang of it eventually.
Preface: i really hope i dont come off as mean about this but my three favorite Souls games(also my favorite game franchise/"special interest" aside from SMT which occupies a similar place in my mind and heart) are Elden Ring, Dark Souls 2 and Demon's Souls(the original not the remake) and there are a few things that i noticed that other commenters have already pointed out but that i would like to try and shed more light/context on regardless that the points have already been made 1. Estus Flask Shards and Sublime Bone Dust: The Emerald Herald gives you a first Estus Flask no matter what upon talking to her whether you have the shard from the well or not, the shard in the well is there to give you an extra in case of emergencies to stave you off from careless use of lifegems until you can grind for or buy more, letting you start with 2 drinks of Estus if you're attentive- given that Dark Souls 3 and Elden Ring give you 4 drinks each to start with and that Forest Of Fallen Giants has two shards and you can purchase a Fragrant Branch from Melentia to let you get a fifth in the tutorial area(Things Betwixt) you essentially start with 5 in the first two areas as long as you know where to look(which granted can be very confusing your first time I do admit) but another thing meant to help with this is DS2's deliberate enemy placement(for an example i will compare this with Golden Hippos in Elden Ring's Shadow Of The Erdtree DLC Expansion: In SOTE you learn from killing the hippo at Shadow Keep that much like Miquella Crosses, Statues Of Marika and churches that Hippos always have a Scadutree Fragment(with some exceptions in regards to Churches) meanwhile DS2 does a very similar thing with Syan Knights With the exception of Drangleic Castle where Syan Knights(the thick gold/bronze armored knights with swords or halberds that can do blue lightning attacks but are easy to parry) become a normal enemy anytime you find a Syan Knight in the world they will be guarding a metal chest with either an Estus Flask Shard or Sublime Bone Dust(used like Firekeeper Souls, Undead Bone Shards or Sacred Tears to boost the amount the flask heals per drink up to a max in DS2 of +5) meaning that if you look out for Syan Knights anywehre prior to Drangleic Castle, like say the No Man's Wharf, Shaded Woods or Grave Of Saints(which yes all have this trope of Syan Knights guarding flask upgrades) you should only miss very few, the maximun is 12 Drinks of +5 Estus which finishes up with the last Bone Dust in Drangleic Castle and the last Flask Shard in Shrine Of Amana and similarly to Elden Ring's Golden Seeds and Dragon Hearts there are actually more shards than you need/can use in the game, with a total of 12 Shards throughout the world, 5 Bone Dusts and the 1 +0 Estus given by Shanalotte/Emerald Herald
2. Lifegems: "and i think Fromsoft's development team knew this and made Lifegems more readily available as a solution" Well actually the answer to this is both yes and no funny enough, Lifegems are indeed a "solution" to a problem, but its a different problem than Estus, its for the Illusory Rings- see unlike every other Souls game which have Achievements/Trophies awarded to your Steam, PSN or Xbox LIVE account when you complete a given task in game, DS2 also has two hidden achievements that don't add to your account, but are entirely for personal bragging rights as well as PvP shenanigans in NG+, these being the two Illusory Rings(Vengeful and Conqueror iirc) which are obtained by completing certain extreme self imposed challenges(one for beating the game without ever dying and one for beating the game without ever resting at a bonfire) which when equipped essentially work as an infinite Hidden Weapon, with one making your left hand weapon invisible and one making your right hand invisible, there are also two illusory rings that are cut content/unobtainable without hacking assumedly to make armor and spells invisble so you can prank people in NG+ PvP by appearing naked and unarmed before attacking with an unseen Greatsword or Spell or whatever and having poise from unseen Armor- but since one challenge requires you to never use a bonfire you can never get Estus back, meaning your only healing sources would be Lifegems and Spells, so they made both more readily available and better(i will in fact discuss how much better the magic is in my very next point about Adaptability)
2B(the B is for Bloodborne): also fun fact Runes in Bloodborne can stack unlike Rings/Talismans in Souls and Elden Ring so you can actually stack the tier 3, 4 and 5 Communion Runes to have a max of 32 Blood Vials in Bloodborne actually 3. Adaptability, who actually needs it? Way less builds than you'd think. Adaptability does not affect I-Frames, wait, wait her me all the way out So everybody obviously knows that when you go to level up in a Souls game, you'll see the stats you're going to raise with your level on the left, and if you look over to the right you'll see a TON of numbers with brief descriptions denoting that by raising your stats while levelling up those stats will increase these other stats over here such as "AR" or "Attack Rating" meaning the amount of bonus damage afforded to a weapon based on its scaling represented as the final number of expected damage- well if you do this in DS2 you'll notice that when you select to level something up, like say Dexterity all the relevant stats that Dexterity affects will have a highlighted blue background and you'll notice one special one no other game has "Agility" This ^ is actually what determines max amount of I-Frames at any given weight level in a small three part spectrum, as well as other things(how fast items are used, how fast you can nock an arrow, how much Poison buildup a weapon with Poison buildup will deal per hit and Spellcasting Speed) Now you might be thinking "Yeah and Adaptability is the only thing that raises Agility so same point" but actually- you'd be wrong, see Dark Souls 2 also severely changed how Spells work from DS1 in a way not since seen in DS3 or ER in both how spell damage is calculated and how Spellcasting Speed is determined, with the latter being the focus here: Attunement(later known in Elden Ring as "Mind" and formerly known in Demons Souls as "Intelligence) is not just how many spell slots you have, but also gives you more casts per spell permanently at certain benchmarks(at 75 Att Soul Arrow, which starts with 30 casts has 46 casts, combine this with stacking to double the casts and you can have 600 casts of Soul Arrow) and- most importantly, Attunement raises Agility, not just spellcasting Agility, the WHOLE THING- magic builds get their I-Frames from their mana stat, they do not need Adaptability "Yes, but what about Melee builds" you may ask, but thats where i direct you to your best friend that never left, but who just hot a bit more complicated- Poise and by extent what gives you Poise- Armor Yeah, Dark Souls 2 reworked how Poise and Armor work, its more complicated but pretty much: In DS1 Armor gives a set amount of Defenses and Resistances and, possibly, Poise which can only be increased by levelling up said Armor up to a certain point, with Poise being a stat given by armor which acts as an invisible bar which depletes as you get attacked until being left empty causing a stagger, UNLESS you can get 5 seconds worth of frames to go by at which point Poise automatically completely refills, DS2 is the same except for two key differences: Defense, Resistance and Poise on Armor in DS2 ALL increase when the Armor is leveled up AND with the Armor's requirements and scaling(yeah btw in DS2 Armor has scaling, look down in the bottom left corner and you'll see it) so by levelling the stats associated to said armor piece(which are almost always either just Str or Dex or a mixture of both) you can increase your maximum Defenses, Resistances and Poise And secondly In DS2 Poise doesnt auto recover after 5 seconds, it recovers passively in the background over time just like Stamina So how does this mean Strength builds like you(CapraGamer) dont need ADP? Simple, just do what Strength is supposed to do in RPGs and BE A TANK If you have +5 Havels Armor with 65 Strength you can shrug off nearly any attack bosses will throw at you(both defensively and on terms of stagger, unless of course its a headshot since those auto stagger) meaning you never have to dodge, just smack them in their face like a caveman tryna invent foreplay, need to heal? Block or walk slightly away from the direction of any incoming attacks and chug/smash a gem in their peripheral or right in their face, your Poise and Defense are so high you dont need to care about dodging anymore, the only builds that really seriously need Adp are Dex builds, Poison Builds and Archers, anybody else either gets I-Frames from a different stat or can just block and ignore damage enough that I-Frames dont matter
4. World Design and Bosses- yeah i cant really fault you on most of that and what bits i can fault you on i dont feel like going into the semantics of now, tldr you had a lot fo good points here(and throughout the video, just some i feel were a bit misinformed) BUT what i will say is is that i am a HUGE lore buff, combing over every item description and the symbolism of character and area designs and architecture and stuff and how all that comes together for the full story is MY SHIT and let me tell you, i was so happy when you said most of the video was gonna be the story, but when you said "peer reviewed sources" and showed Vaati.... I will admit i literally visibly and audibly cringed and yelled "OH NO" 5. Lore: as mentioned this is exactly my shit and so i have some very specific opinions about it and granted yes as is the point of knowing how to apply ones media literacy skills it is impossible for a subtextual interpretation to be wrong, however i do feel that there are a lot of the objective parts that trusting people with little coverage like Vaati(who only ever did like 7 videos on DS2 years ago when the PS3 original one came out and then abandoned the project/stopped as soon as Bloodborne and DS3 happened) that has you misunderstanding the unobjectionable parts of the plot leading to a slightly muddled reading regardless how good one's media literacy skills are and i have a TON i have to say about that and explain my understanding if you want but i dont have a lot of time so im gonna kill this comment for now but yeah: Amazing video, as someone whos favorite is DS2 and who loves stories like DS2 and loves all of Soulsborne i am super happy whenever somebody new winds up actually liking DS2 instead of just believing the hate mob and in honor of you i now have a great interest in watching Beau is Afraid
Pretty good video so far (finally someone mentions the item icon on pickup thing) but it always mildly irks me whenever someone calls them "bonfire aesthetics" lmao
I've only ever played DS2 in the SotFS version, and I enjoyed that quite a bit. To be sure, I think it's the worst of the Souls games, but that's a high standard - "worst" really means "least great". And it has some aspects to it that beat DS1, DS3 or both - better fashion than DS1, better second half world design than DS1 (although worse overall), less linear than DS3 and still the best implementation of dual wielding in any Souls game (IMO even superior to Elden Ring's).
I don't understand the gripe about estus and life gems. There are plenty of shards (your fault for not finding them, no excuses; they're at worst locked behind fragrant branches of yore and not lockstones, please do your research) and if you are struggling you can pop some life gems. You don't have to buy 99 of them at a time either, again, your fault. When talking about invincibility frames you made a mistake again. I-frames are tied to the Agility stat and so only indirectly to ADP and ATN. It's very easy to reach 99 agility. It's certainly not impossible to strafe and use a shield if you have low agility. It's just up to play style. The 8 directional movement and enemy volume (at 25:20 you had to have intentionally ran past all those enemies and aggro'd them, what normal player would do this?) is where I stopped watching, you obviously have no idea what you are doing. Please do your research. I really wonder how you "played" this game.
As far as your time stamp goes, no. I didn’t run past any of them. I agro’d one on the stairs leading up to the Ancient Dragon and then they all aggro’d. I retreated back to the open courtyard where they ended up bunching the way that they did. There were absolutely mistakes made when discussing the healing system, and will be doing a follow up to clear the record. In the meantime, thank you for your comment!
I disagree that Flasks are important to the Souls series. I know that it's standard and expected. But DS2, to me, felt like a direct sequel to Demon's Souls. The lifegems are the replacement for the grass healing items. The reason that Estus Flask charges are so rare is because Estus is free healing that doesn't cost any souls to buy. Grass, Lifegems, and Bloodvials are all based on the same idea, implemented differently. Alot of people say that Grass and Lifegem healing is unbalanced because it allows you to have "infinite healing" and nothing is a challenge. But the reason they're good in my eyes is because they're limited, whereas Estus is the "infinite healing". With Estus you never have to worry about restocking because you're always given enough to get through each section until you get to the next bonfire. Dying in DeS and DS2 feels really impactful because you are worse off than you started. Your max HP is lower and you don't get your healing items back. In DS1, bruteforcing a boss until you eventually win is a viable strategy, but without free Estus, it really tells you that you have to learn the boss or you'll run out of supplies.
PS3 DS2 was the first souls game I played for more than a few hours. Completed it and finally got around to the rest. Still think I enjoyed it better than the "next-gen" Scholar version that I played afterwards. Can understand why OG DS1 fans don't like it as much, but I had a good time with it.
Hello! watched the whole thing and it was rather nice but there are a few points and opinions that I have for your critiques that I would like to bring up from myself to you! And before doing so I just wanna say no hate, loved the lore section and good editing! (+ take everything that I say with a side of salt because opinions and perspective yadayada) Things I agree with: 1. HEALING: While I would not say that the healing system is broken I do however wish that flasks would be better as a main healing source than lifegems! imo I feel like you should be able to move when drinking estus and stand still whwn using a life gem( I usually use lifegems after combat anyways). And honestly you should only be able to hold a max of 25-30 lifegems which would make you have to think more on how to utilise them! (this might be a terrible idea so dont take my words to seriously) + starting with 3 flasks instead of 1 would be nice too 2.HUD: while I really never had an issue with the ds2 hud personally I could understand why you would get a little lost if you dont know how the item looks 3.ADP: while I have gotten used to adp and never really found a problem with it due to how many levels you get, I still do see why someone who is more used to ds1 or 3 would be confused on their first time around (especially when the game dosent go super in depth to what it does) but still you level up a lot so once you know its in and outs it isn't really that bad. Things I am neutreal on: 1.CASTLE ABOVE EARTHEN PEAK: while it is jarring and I really dont understand why the b team didn't just add a big mountain backround behind earthen peak to kinda foreshadow iron keep. I still dont see that much of an issue on this, like you go inside a painting in ds1, in a sheet of paper in ds3 and travel to a ruined trash hole through a wierd corpse in a chapel, THERES A ASH LAKE UNDER THE SWAMP (10/10 area btw) and coffins make you fly in elden ring so yeah I dont really see the issue. 2.FLASK SHARDS: while missing flask shards can happen it really depends from person to person like me as an example as I finished with about 9 flask on my first playthrough and now know how to get plenty more! and this can really happend in any modern souls game like ds3 where flask shards are present too. It really just depends on how much you explore the world and of course there are a few bad shard locations like the one behind a petrified statue in no mans wharf still dont feel like its a huge issue. 3. SCHOLAR WORSE THAN VANILLA: I feel like this really depends on opinion because there are a few bad gank encounters in both in different areas like scholar being a bit more demanding and requiring patience while making dragon arie much better than in vanilla. I for example like iron keep in scholar because its my preference while you don't like it, its all based on opinions. Simply none is objectivley better than the other only subjectivley. 4.RUNBACKS: while I dont like long runbacks I steel feel like ds2 runbacks arent always as bad as people make them out to be likke just plan ahead. Use ranged weapons, alluring skulls, know the routing and honestly dont be scared to use shields and poise because they really help! And it is a bit tedious hearing so many talk about ds2 runbacks while ignoring ds1 and the runbacks to the 4 kings, seath, nito, bed of chaos, queelag, capra, manus and if youre unlucky enouch PINWHEEL. ds1 and ds2 are far more similiar than ya think. 5. 8 DIRECTIONAL MOVEMENT: I really dont see an issue with this and honestly I have more a problem with the occansional bad tracking and whiffing with large weapons. Things I disagree on: 1.WORLD DESIGN: I really cant agree on the take that ds1 has objectivley better game design than ds2! Both have their own pros and cons and depends from person to person, yes ds1 has world conectivity and shortcuts which some absolutley love and adore. But there are some who don't enjoy having to walk long runs back and forth instead of just warping through to a previous bonfire so its rather subjective imo. secondly I feel like just calling ds2 a bunch of linear paths is a bit simplistic and ignores the fact that while it might not be as connected it does however allow each path to be more distinct! Let me tell you about my perspective on it: while ds2 does not have the connectivity and shortcuts of ds1 it does however have a feeling of a journey through a giant world (despite not being technically that large). the different branching paths allowing you to explore any paths rather early if you know how and the different color schemes of each area makes it almost feel openworld like. you go from a small hub to many different kingdoms, castles, ruined buildings which all gives you that feeling of being a lone warrior alone in a large and scary world. and honestly I preffer ds2 world over ds1 despite the many flaws of it (btw this is subjective ds1 is still ballin) 2.RANGED BUILDS I feel like ranged builds are more enjoyable than you might first think, with having many unique bows and crossbows to choose from. looking down the sight is not the only thing you have to do to use range and simplifying it to behind cover shoot on repeat is a bit demining, its like saying meele is attack roll attack. plus consumables are better so you dont even need a ranged weapon to have a long range option, use throwing knives! GANKS: I feel like the ganks arent as bad as you might think, sure they are hard and require knowlage and positioning but they arent mindless. Just like in ds1 you have to take it slow and cant rush in without observing your surroundings. A good example of this is shrine of amana yes its hard and there are ranged projectiles bound to go to you, its not really that bad. You can use bow and arrow but there are also shields and greatshields to help you (SOME CAN EVEN PARRY SPELLS). while simple rolling correctly is important and using any tool to help you is good HECK THERE EVEN IS A MAGIC RESISTANCE RING IN A CHEST NEST TO THE ELEVATOR THAT LEADS TO SHRINE OF AMANA. Are theese areas hard? yes but so are any souls encounter simply try again, revalueate and adapt. ok finally done but this is all my opinion and perspectise so don't take it personally! overall it all depends on perspective and to be fair I have played ds2 longer so I am bound to think differently on the game However if you do want to revistit ds2 in a fresh way I could recommend bearer of the curse edition mod which does modernise ds2 combat and world to be more similiar to the modern souls games, annd if you just want a better lighting then ds2 lighting engine could fit ya or both because why not! either way have a wonderful day capra!
I’ve done scholar once and by the end I was genuinely annoyed. I think it’s worth a remake using Elden ring of ds3 combat. Full remake though, could be a masterpiece…
I always said DS2 got a bad rap. It hadn’t had the development nightmare and they were able to fix the world building a bit (and remove the god awful dodge tied to a stat mechanic). It could have outshined it. But though a bit misguided the creators still seem to care: it’s funny how looking at all the recent disaster, DS2 looks even better and even at worst i think people can agree. It was still worth the money
Ok ending the game on 5 Estus is criminal. Did you play blindfolded? Literally takes away all your credibility if you don’t find the items the devs literally make unmissable
I love this video and everything you said I agree with except The Old Iron Keep DLC access. Now you will receive a lot of comments from ignorant individuals who enjoy the game and ignore the many flaws thinking this is the best Souls game. These people will tell you how wrong you are and how wrong this video is. Please ignore them this is a great video and everything you said is true.
Combat has some other rather glaring flaws, too. Stamina regen in this game is slower, and the negative stamina depletion in DS2 is way more punishing compared to the other games. Also, some weapons have downright whack hitboxes, especially the big swords, so they end up dealing inconsistent damage depending on which part of the weapon connects against an enemy. Oh, and sometimes weapons don't deal the damage they're supposed to for no apparent reason. And, allegedly, adaptability affects all of the above, too, which makes the stat that much more broken. To my knowledge, all of these things were never fixed by the rerelease. I don't know, however, if they fixed soul memory, which in itself was a wholly independent can of worms. That said, powerstancing makes up for all that. It was freaking awesome. There's a reason Elden Ring retook and improved upon it.
Love the music, hate the 8-directional movement. Also the enemy placements in vanilla DS2 were better, fewer gank squads, more deliberate enemies. Also, one Heide knight in the Forest of Fallen Giants who would drop his sword and armor when farmed, so you could cosplay as a Paladin.
About the Estus shards i would like to add that there is a uneven number of them. I finished my game with 12 Estus AND shards in my inventory. A point can be made for "forgiveness" but, to me, is just lazy design.
@@xxcorvoxxx_x1959 Or you could just not hide a item you supose is really good for people to find... or you could just keep it as a item in the inventory... so on and so forth. The video itself extend on this point. In the end is just a poorly implemented and not really thought through system.
Well that's how they did it in elden ring too you get more then you need. When they didn't do that in the dlc for Scadutree fragments everyone complained
The 8-directional movements is one of the things I hate the most about this game. I remember thinking that this game demands strategy adn precision and then does that... Which basically punishes you even if you execute everything perfectly... I had a lot of moments with aiming straight at the enemy and then missing and getting pummeled to death.
First thing I disagree with is the healing system rant. It seems as though you think the life gems are supposed to be a buffer to fix a bad estus system. I disagree. Early on, you only have 1-3 flasks, so life gems are not only helpful, but Important to a low level characters survival. They are slow, and weaker than estus, but they serve a purpose to help your character conserve flasks. As you progress thru the game, you get more flasks and can start relying on them more, while lifegems become more of a background support to heal minor damage from small hits or accidental falls. They aren't as useful later on especially when you have a bigger HP bar and enemies begin to tank on more damage, so why not sell them infinitely at that point? Early game it'll be too expensive to hoard them, as you'll need your souls for additional levels to get stronger. Late game they become a useful tool. They're a weaker heal and they come at a souls cost. I dont see that as OP at all. The OG dark souls let you have 20 estus!! Second issue. For me I've never struggled with the 8 direction movement. Perhaps that's just me personally but it's never hassled me much. But in regards to enemy encounters, these are not "ganks" as you had just got done saying, this game requires a slower and more methodical approach to combat. Thus these large encounters you struggle with can all be combat with patience, smart combat choices, and a slew of other combat options at your disposal. Elden ring players love to say "use your toolss" so yea, use em haha. Sorry for the critical response. Your story analysis was beautiful tho, god what a fantastic story
First off, thank you so much for taking the time to watch my retrospective! However, upon receiving feedback, I realize that there are far too many errors and misinformed statements in my retrospective and in-game experience than are acceptable. I plan to make a video to clarify these mistakes and engage with some retorts.
In the meantime, this comment will be pinned to clarify major corrections that were fact-checked. Thank you all for pointing these out! Feedback like this helps build better content and stronger communities.
17:10 Estus shards are not locked behind Doors of Pharros. Instead, 2 (not at all a majority) are behind statues that can be opened with fragrant branches of yore. This then fully calls into question multiple criticisms I had for Estus Flasks. These will be the primary topic of revision in my follow-up.
29:09 This map is inaccurate. Forest of the Fallen Giants can teleport players to the Lost Bastille and Brightstone Cove Tseldora has a primal bonfire.
33:40 There is literally a bonfire a short distance away from the Iron Keep primal bonfire. I’m gonna go find a bridge…
I’ll add more if they become relevant, as I want to maintain transparency. Thanks again!
I’ve got 2.7K+ hours in this game, I’ll help out and see if I can find any issues and I’ll add some small details (some of this may come off rude, just know that’s not my intention):
7:54 The Torch will always appear in your left hand, even if something is already equipped there. Your hand does not need to be empty.
11:11 That’s the Central Castle Drangleic bonfire, which respawns Looking Glass Knight, while the bonfire that respawns the Throne Duo, Nashandra and Aldia is the King’s Gate bonfire.
14:23 The first accessible estus shard is in Majula and since most people will be playing online it’s likely they’ll find it because of numerous messages in front of the well. Also the flask is given for free, the shards are used to grant additional uses.
16:38 There’s one more flask shard than you need in the game, so it sounds kind of unbelievable you somehow only got four of twelve (not that I don’t believe you, some are pretty well hidden).
19:04 You can carry a maximum of 32 vials in Bloodborne if you equip three of the best communion runes.
20:27 Yes, we do know the full extent of what it does, in fact you immediately lists what it does. Also to be clear; you mistaking agility for adaptability. Levelling adaptability (and attunement, though much less) increases agility, which increases item use speed and i-frames.
21:39 There is no light equipment load in DSII. There’s medium, three different heavy variations that affect your turn speed and super heavy that prevents you from rolling and running and also makes you turn incredibly slowly.
24:10 It’s not eight directional, instead there are very large dead zones for the main four directions.
25:14 It’s called Memory of the Old Iron King.
29:52 They’re called Darkroot Basin and Tomb of the Giants.
Sorry if some of these seem like nitpicks.
I’d like to say that the last part of the video from the 50 minute mark onward is incredible, it embodies a lot of what I think about the game and it’s nice to know that someone else had such a strong reaction to finding Vendrick.
Oh, and one last thing: PLEASE for the love of God one-hand your greatsword when dealing with groups of enemies. That was driving me crazy.
Thanks for adding!
On the last note, why so? Are the wider sweeps more preferable? I liked using it two handed for the two-attack combo that can inflict damage behind me in case I get flanked.
@@capragamer Because the sweeps easily deal with groups. Otherwise enemies can and likely will just get to your sides, and you don’t want multiple enemies near you with low stamina.
PArroting lies isnt how you make retrospective in the first place but respect you will do better next time just drop all the nonsense you put in the video
IS this even Real it sounds ai lol
@@capragamer
@@litt420 That’s just the way that I type, man😂
Instead of writing a 3k word long comment, id like to suggest you give Domo3000 video series about DS2 misconceptions a try. I think it might be eye opening for you
Domo3000 lays a lot of misconceptions to rest, especially the hit boxes vs the other games.
Ds2 didn't fail financially,you can go see how many copies ds2 sold compared to ds1,they are fairly the same
I think this B-team narrative needs to stop somewhere. Yes, Tomohiro Shibuya was relatively unexperienced as a director, but he had Miyazaki's trust on this and Miyazaki was also supervising. Aside of that, a significant number of people working on DS1 also worked on DS2. If the game had problems in development it was because it was overly ambitious and brand new engine didn't handle too well, not because people lacked a vision or talent to pull it off.
Dark souls 2 haters down bad
As someone who really doesn't enjoy a lot of this game's game design, I heavily agree. It's always been pretty clear to me that, Miyazaki or no, DS2 carries a lot of significance to the trilogy. There's a lot about it from story to atmosphere that elevates the weight of the grander Souls experience and I don't think you get that from a team that couldn't pull it off.
I understand it's easy to look at the contentious gameplay and dismiss the entire experience, but I could never imagine plucking DS2 out of the equation without losing something in return. I love this game: I just hate playing it. But the idea that these developers were some sort of "incapable second stringers" just rings so hollow to me.
People who design the King Vendrick encounter aren't people who fumble the bag, no way. They understood what Dark Souls was about, even if it wasn't perfect. (Not that the first game was either, by the way.)
@@heartnet40 I entirely agree, of course.
Unexperienced? Inexperienced you mean. It is not "aside of that" it is aside of this, plus the rest of your grammar is just bad.
@@GMitchell2012 Well, I speak two languages other than English (so it is tertiary at best), so I think I am doing quite well as for leaving a youtube comment on a rather obscure video for people to understand and for grammar pricks to nitpick when they don't have any other good arguments.
5 estus is insane.
also your comment at 17:10 is false, they are not behind lockstones, but rather two of them are behind stone statues requiring fragrant branches of Yore.
You find an extra one in majula, so you start with 2. You go to forest of the fallen giants, get the mansion key and find an estus flask shard by the early pursuer fight straight up on the dang floor. you return to the mansion, boom 4 flasks. Huh, you got a branch now? Maybe I'll go back and check what it does in the tutorial. boom, 5flasks.
You see a second statue on your way to no man's wharf and think, I wonder if that also has an estus? I'll store it in the memory bank for now.
Enter Bastille, ooh a path behind mcduff, boom 6 flasks. Hunt's man's copse? Literally unmissable since it's next to the lever to shortcut for the boss and you would've seen the crystal lizard through the gate and want to try and get around.
Shaded woods? literally just free rosabeth and it's in a chest opposite the bonfire, impossible to miss. we're at 8 already and not even a 5th through the game.
Spider area, what's it called brightstone cove? Yeah ok, that's a bit of a strange one to hide in a corner behind a mage. But that mage is annoying enough to figure out a way to bonk that bitch. I'll call it semi missable.
Drangleic castle with the desert sorcerers? Also impossible to miss.
AT THE VERY LEAST, 9 should be attainable without even having to look around. You are not the average player, clearly.
The legit only difficult to find estus shards in my opinion is the one on the edge of the gutter, because no one wants to comb that shit area. And the one out on the walkway in Shrine of Amana. I had11 flasks after drangleic castle in a blind playthrough, and looked up how many there were, saw there was only 1 more, and got my 12th.
How you didn't find all 5 sublime bone dust is even more confusing. The big tower shield boys defend them and they're not hard to find. The hardest miiight be huntsman's copse, but if you didn't investigate the obvious igloo like dome structures then that's on you.
Considering how many DS2 haters literally set-up ganks, and intentionally play in a way to make DS2 look bad, i would not be surprised that this person is straight up lying. Then again, his first Souls game was Elden Ring, and Bloodborne the second, so he is the type of FROM fan that loves spectacle and Devil May Cry wannabe combat, so he might actually just be that dense
I disagree with your statement that ADP is required. It is only necessary from the perspective that you HAVE to dodge every attack. Dark Souls 2 fully supports other playstyles, and simply uses ADP to balance the fact that tank builds need to invest in equip load for heavy armor and shields, and spell users need attunement to use more spells. As someone who prefers blocking over dodging, i can say DS2 is fully playable without having to invest in ADP.
Even as a dodge tank you dont need to the dodges either. Just avoid the hitboxes. ADP is not obligatory for dex builds.
Considering many people have said that they beaten the game without ever leveling ADP it seems unneeded
@@JellyJman i NEVER do i see it as wasted levels when i can just dodge
It’s still ridiculous stat.
@01ChaosWarrior just 20 points gets you enough bang for your buck. Early soul levels are cheaper in ds2.
Somebody missed some bonfires in iron keep lol. There's a bonfire 30 seconds from primal bonfire with only 1 enemy between.
😶 imma go find the nearest bridge.
Was just going to comment this lol. All of the great soul bosses have very short runbacks
@@capragamer lmao now I’m not even gonna bother watching this video. If you can’t do the barest of research then I’m not spending my time watching it.
I only found that bonfire after beating the old iron keep myself😭
I love Scholar, it feels really nice to play and I have never had the problems that youtube "critics" seem to be having
The game has some very interesting concepts but I believe they forgot what made the first game so good. DS 1's difficulty was fair and if you died most of the time it was your fault. However in DS2 the difficulty is frustrating. Every area is Overpopulated with enemies,the boss design is downright lazy except for a few,the game has terrible hitboxes and the healing system is flawed.
@@Art0r1aS-zp3wh DS1 also has terrible hit boxes. People are just blinded by nostalgia.
DS2 vanilla has more gank than DS2 Scholar. All the gank in the first areas are simply NOT THERE in DS2 SoTFS, many enemies are asleep and they only get up when you approach them, archers have less aggro range compared to vanilla also.
@@nox_cadit DS1 has much better boss design imo and the healing system is much better.
@@Art0r1aS-zp3wh I hate the change they made in the healing system in DS1, so DS2 is leagues above DS1 for simply bringing back regular heal itens like Demon's Souls had. Honestly Demon's Souls Healing system and mana restore system is still the best out of all the games in my opinion.
@Art0r1aS-zp3wh The problem with DS1 fanboys is that they just say whatever lol. DS1 is such an obtuse and unacommodating game, especially for a blind playthrough. The whole "it was hard but fair" thing is pure romanticization by gamers just parroting what others have said. Like seriously, it's been over ten years, we know you're just regurgitating uncritical fandom nonsense. If there was ever a game that wanted to kill, punish, inconvenience, and scare the player it would be DS1. And you thoughtless nerds STILL accuse DS2 of being unfairly difficult because you're bad at it and can't sprint or cheese through the game like DS1. You people will never grow up and have an original thought I'm convinced.
this game is unironically my favorite game of all time. and once every year i look up DS2 speedruns on GDQ
Oh, no another DS2 retrospective. I can't stop having enough.
It's like someone should make the Set of all DS2 retrospectives. And the Set of Sets of all DS2 retrospectives.
so... i would be editing this comment through the video.
I recently played dks2 sotfs after finishing elden ring dlc multiple times to compare things. I mostly disagree with the points through this video so i will contextualize said discrepancy.
-item grab: first yes it should have been better to use images for the items, but this limitation only becomes a problem to greedy and disorganized people, since i realized there is no recent tab, after spending time looking for the item i always made sure i read what im grabbing, constantly putting things on the chest(which is available since the beggining), for traps and rush situations i would first secure the surroundings and then pick up the loot.
-healing system: i like the healing system and for everyone who hoards and spam gems, you are going up in soul memory, which means you are leveling player invaders up, and if you are playing offline, you could get the same effect that gems have by using healing miracles, so infinite resource my ass.
-estus flask shards: if you get to the burnt ivory king with 5 flask thats on you, i did not even search for the shards in my recent playthrough and i found 13, i dont know if there is more but taking my time to explore the world really paid off, i had 11 flasks before going to drangleic castle.
-adaptability: ok lets put this 2 phrases together because it flies over the head of adaptability dislikers: "leveling up is cheap" "investing in adaptability instead of investing in the build"... my brother, by investing in adaptability you are investing in the build, adaptability is a vital stat for early light builds and for chunky and heavy builds they should invest in vigor, even 15 adaptability is enough for most of the game, 25 makes the game really smooth, anything beyond 30 is overpowered, which is good!
-range combat: well you are playing the most boring range combat strategy, see... you are not supposed to safely attack enemies from far... thats a sniper and for a sniper to work it must do high damage and optionally status damage like bleed or poison, no, real ranged combat is using the lock on mechanic, yeah, that would mean getting close to the enemy, but dont get me wrong, not close enough for melee, now you can get use of a fast firing weapon like a small bow or spells.
I'd like to point something out about ds2, watch the health bar when you get hit, most attacks barely do any damage when you compare it to other souls games, you can wear nothing and still take multiple hits where in other games you would get oneshot. I think this offsets the need to lvl adp as much as everyone thinks, nevermind the other methods of dmg avoidance like positioning and shields.
13:00 Made a mistake here. You already start with 1 estus flask when you first speak to Shanalot, then there's a shard piece at the well, so those who are perceptive usually start with 2 flasks.
Which isn't much, but definitely better than 0 and completely relying on gems.
29:44 May be a slip of the tongue here, but you can only go as far as Demon Ruins before being blocked off, until you've placed the Lord Vessel.
33:40 You don't need to traverse the entire level. Idol of Engyi bonfire is right next to the Old Iron King boss arena, the second Black Gulch bonfire is right next to the The Rotten boss arena, and the crossroad bonfire at Shaded Woods is right next to the Shrine of Winter.
Another thing I think could be mentioned are the binoculars. What DS2 did with them was never seen before and has never been seen since in any of the FromSoftware titles, which is a real shame, because I think they absolutely nailed the binocular mechanic in DS2.
I know shrine of amana isnt well liked and not going to say its the best level ever made but i feel people blow it out of proportion. The mages magic moves so slow you can just walk out the way do they home in, yeah but no, it is so weak that walking to the side can completely remove the lock
i think u have some very good points but i disagree abt the world design. i always saw it as the player character losing their self and identity , losing track of time, being in one place and somehow ending up in another. i also think it fits with how earlier on, the levels seem to be more interconnected (fotfg/heide's -> lost bastille -> sinner's rise is very logical) but as u progress u get stuff like the windmill -> iron keep. i do think it was probably a retroactive patch-up of trying to connect the now repurposed assets once the game changed direction, but it's nevertheless pretty functional and in a way really evocative to me once u see the abrupt switchups this way. it's also an argument for the more linear and less interconnected level design (you couldn't do this with ds1 map), although i do agree that it's a shame that the interconnectedness is lost
I’m actually really intrigued by this perspective of the game’s world design. I plan to do another playthrough later on, but I’ll approach it with this mindset! Thanks for your comment!
ds2 my favorite game but some areas are just shoddy with their environment transition
I say movement system is good recommend this video RE: "RE: 'In Defense of Dark Souls 2'" - Movement
I watched so many DS2 videos but I never played the game lol. Its atmosphere is a vibe.
Saying ADP is a necessity to have a good time is crazy lol. I never level ADP, you gotta learn the game, timing and move sets.
Roll away instead of rolling through attacks, side strafe around attacks. I don't care for ADP as a concept, but people exaggerate it's implementation to an extreme degree because they're unwilling to learn, just don't have good problem solving skills or wanna blame the game for being bad at it. Its not dark souls 1, it's not dark souls 3. Its not meant to be played like it is.
I saw a challrnge video with no adp. DS2 is perfectly playable without it. dodging and sidestepping are perfectly viable.
@@Treasure_hunter_21 correct. I agree with a lot of what this fella is saying in the video and don't wanna just be that guy who complains about one aspect of it; just something I think needs to be considered since I see people exaggerate ADP so much.
I'd even go as far as to say, it adds another layer to the combat and the learning curve. If you need to rely on IFrames that much, I don't know what to tell ya. Having to learn which hitboxes you can't roll through and have to roll away from or side strafe around will truly make you better at the game. I get the expectations of having maximum s from the start, since other entries do it. But its by no means a necessity to play or have fun.
You only ended up with five estus flasks? I haven't finished the game yet(shrine of amara? I think that's where I currently am) and I have 10 flasks.
I also bought 99 life gems, but use both.
I'm sorry, only 5 flasks By the end are you kidding me You can get three before fighting the last giant Pretty naturally They're freaking everywhere I usually have 12 well before the end of the game Including my first playthrough blind I'm sick of people slandering this game. Just because you have the environmental awareness. of a goldfish doesn't make the system bad Also the first flask is given to you for free And the infinite gems make sense in This game it's balanced for it From my experience You are meant to take damage more often in this game Usually smaller Tik damage the combat is more about weighing your option from moment to moment do I take damage to deal damage should I use the last bit of stamina to back away do I pop a life gem to save a flask it's slower so I can't get hit fore a bit after but it's cheaper The healing system is ment to add more Strategy to a game thats more slow paste and Decision Based the other games are mostly about avoiding damage Altogether. By learning move sets and having perfect dodging The characters are fester and have more I frames Making it easier to negate damag So healing is faster but more limited. Appropriately punishing you taking damage And heels are quicker and more consistent. To fit the tighter faster paced gameplay. Both systems are good and make sense in their respective games Sorry about the goldfish comment I was a little annoyed😂
🐠🤯
All good 😂 definitely some oversights on my part. But Id like to take another crack at this with adjustments and clarifications.
@capragamer it's all good man sorry for coming at you as someone that also runs a small UA-cam channel I should know better the video was very well made and it did address some of the things I mentioned later and the cinematography Especially in the intro. Was very good 👍
Ds2 is my personal favorite of the DS series, I don't really get the ADP complaints I've played through the game dozens of times and never once leveled ADP and always felt the dodges were perfectly fine, it takes a small adjustment period but it's enough to carry through everything in the game
the game is meant to be possible without sitting at bonfires! there's a ring reward for doing so, and another ring for beating the game without dying. the healing is the way it is because you cant refill your estus or hp at a bonfire if you want to get that ring, and farming souls is a lot harder when you have to homeward bone back to the beginning of the game to respawn enemies, so grinding souls for lifegems is a lot harder to do. making you choose between healing items or levels/upgrades/other items. New players will have lots of extra healing help for such a notorious and difficult game, and pros will have what they need to play the game on "hard more". If the healing feels op, it's designed with adaptive difficulty, so go for the illusory rings! you'll also learn to love all the repair powders they leave around lol
Dark Souls 2 is the best of the trilogy
No, it is the worst by far. And not just of the trilogy, but of the entire Soulsborne series. The only question is whether the original version is worse than SotFS or vice versa.
@@SystemBD don’t lie lol
Heres my honest take after hearing most arguments about Ds2.
Its a game that has many good merits and many problems. But regardless of your thoughts on it. It was a game that i think was crucial to the future development of Souls games.
It introduced many concepts that would go on to be welcomed staples into modern souls games and there were many concepts that didn't.
Its a game that took genuine risks, and as far as risks go they dont always pan out in good reception.
Many people have valid complaints but i see dark souls 2 as a foundation and turning point within the history of souls games. Since at the time the genre was new and fromsoftware rightfully wanted to see what they could and could not do in a souls like game.
Even Miyazaki has gone on record saying even he doesnt know what the future of the souls series would have been without Ds2, and lets be honest if the horses mouth himself claims something that big im probably gonna believe him.
Seriously, all this talk about schollar is bullshit. I bought the original game for ps3 and honestly it's mostly worse. This scholar ruined ds2 narrative is literally made up.
DS2 is the best dark souls then 3 then 1. Tho all of them have better things and worse form each other but the most rounded is 2.
Interesting. What aspects would you say make SOTFS superior to the original version?
@@capragamer
Most enemy placement is less ganky and give more options to tackle them + they reward more patience and observation
Theres plenty examples of that in most areas in the game
I recommend you to watch Domo3000's debunking videos
He makes pretty good points about its design philosophy
Also it nerfed some enemies and bosses that were too overtuned
Ancient Dragon's fire AoEs no longer one shots you for example
No Man's Wharf is a good example of better design in scholar. Also, item placement, even if subjective, I think makes more sense in scholar.
@@capragamerDull ember location alone make it the better version IMO
Flask shards behind pharros doors, having ranged battles in the shrine, what game are you playing?😂😭 best souls 2 isn’t perfect but i will not take such slander
Wait, did you get the flask shard from the water well in Majula? Not the big pit but the one right in front of the Majula Mansion?
yeah, idiots don't even have to look it up on the internet that you could try hitting that
Yes. You can also bomp a similar well in Last Bastille (in a courtyard not too far away from McDuff, the one with a couple of dogs and a soldier with 2H greatsword) and get some surprise as well. Not an estus shard, but something.
Dang I watched all of this video and there is a lot of misinformation. Sad
Yeah. It’s my fault on several aspects here and I want to make it up and clarify. There was more mistakes here than should be acceptable, and that’s on me
@@capragamerwhy don’t you play the game again and see what you find, you might be surprised what you find
Yeah, the use of the pharros lockstones in the doors of pharros and grave or saints are for enhancing the dungeon since its a covenant area
Also, ending with five Estus flask is a YOU problem
also, finished the game various times without levelling adp, while its is broken, hardly needit
while, the eathern peak transition to iron keep is poorly handled, one of the themes about ds2 is the like dream experience, see the beginning cutscene, the dialogue of the emerald herald
29:9 this map has couple mistakes. Forest of fallen giants is not dead end it teleports you to Bastille. Tseldora has primal bonfire. Redusing number of dead ends to only two.
Thanks for the callouts!
Overall good video but...
33:40 You're very misinformed here, there's a bonfire as close as a minute walk to each dlc access (Eygil's Idol bonfire for Old Iron King, Hidden Chamber for Sunken King, Fork Road for Ivory King)
I have other gripes with this video, but this one was too much to not talk about.
😶 Can you point me in the direction of the nearest bridge?
@@capragamer i wonder if you actually played the game like any other normal players, you don't even try to search corners that's not even hidden, like, dude, 5 estus flasks at the end of the game?
Yes, indeed. An incoherent mess of a game that is justly considered the worst one in the trilogy... and, yet, it has some interesting ideas.
23:05 not the "trust me when i say" 😂😂😂
bro, only finding 5 estus shards is strange. i hope you realize that you only finding so little of them is not a legit critisism. i do agree that the lifegems make the game trivial. but just like the npc summons, you can just not use them?
Just to point it out, you don’t have to get the Estus shard to get the flask, she just gives it to you if you talk to her (also you can find a shard immediately if you hit the rock into the well in majula)
This video full of uncharitable critique founded on misinformation and wild hyperbole. I was gonna call out examples but it’d get unbearably long.
“No one really knows the full extent of what adaptability really is.” -_-
As someone with over 20000 hours between all the souls games (mostly PvP) I can confidently say whether someone loves or hates this game is almost entirely dependent on what type of player they are and the various reasons one plays souls games. For clarification, I myself play these games for the PvP first and foremost so everything else, World/Lore/Bosses etc are all secondary to the PvP interactions and depth which DS2 is the pinnacle in this regard, for example Elden Ring and DS3 advanced PvP tech amounts to good spacing and situational hard swapping, now if we look at DS2 we have: good spacing, situational swapping, Utilizing the unique back step I frame for positioning and set up parrying, Lock off strats for dead angles because DS2 by far has the best lock off combat, animation canceling for setup combos/roll catching and the list goes on. Now from a PvE only perspective I completely understand why the game is so hated, if someone plays these games for the unique yet familiar PvE elements one would expect from other Souls entries, then personally I would agree all the other games are superior in that regard (Just my opinion).
I play entirely PvE but I still like DS2 the most out of three.
DS2 hate is so forced
I've heard somewhere that there was some concept art of the earthen peak tower being fused into a huge volcano, the one with Iron Keep on top of it. The Volcano Asset was supposedly not ready to be put into the game.
That would explain a lot of the weird transition between the areas and really recontextualized it for me.
jesus christ, I'm so tired of this "SotFS bad" hate train. it's the definitive version of the game and it's objectively BETTER. yes, there are some INDIVIDUAL aspects that are questionable, but as a whole it's a massive improvement.
I love how surreal the idea of the elevator to the iron keep is. I don't understand why many people have a problem with it, Souls game always had surreal-ish elements like this. Bloodborne Astral Clocktower is an example, but there they stated "this is a dream!". Another one is fighting inside memories in Sekiro. Why do we need real world logic in a game like this? For me, the whole souls experience is a dream-like one.
This was the first Dark Souls game I played. I personally found the game beautiful. Yes, it was difficult and there were a lot of places I had no idea what to do or where to go, but beating this game made me feel more confident and confident encouraged me to play and appreciate harder games. It’s interesting to hear why people seem to dislike this game, but I strongly disagree and still have this game at the top of my lists.
I loved this video and how you explained DS2's story and lore with the respect and melancholy it deserves.
Adaptability represents all the pros and the cons of DS2. On paper, the idea of Adaptability is great. I love the idea that leveling up literally makes you move and dodge faster. The start of any souls game is all about feeling weak and overwhelmed, and by the end you and flipping around and dishing out massive damage to enemies that used to one shot you. The transition from low ADP to high ADP feels very tangible, with attacks that had tight dodge windows now feel effortless to avoid....
BUT. That messes with the fundamental flow of combat and makes it way harder to learn timing when fighting enemies. Basically everything in DS2 is either "Good idea, bad execution" or "Bad idea, weirdly good execution."
It's still one of my favorite games but it is certainty jank.
Great to see you back. Love your style of editing and appreciate the time this must have taken.
Sotfs really feels like a completed version of Ds2. Lots of new mechanics to improve the experience, more interesting enemy placement, more options for early game builds, added lore, improved lighting and so on. I recently played the vanilla version of the game and it felt incredibly unfinished and dull imo.
To your item pickup thing, it's a bit clunky to start, but then atter a while you get used to the symbols representing items (keys, scrolls, swords etc) and get a general idea where to look for the items.
This is fair. Tbh, my criticism mainly comes from my field of work/study highlighting effective communication. I just find DS2’s UI to be a significant step back in communicating information on items. But I do agree, you can get the hang of it eventually.
OOFT. I’m SO glad to see the self-aware pinned comment. Watching through and every few minutes there’s a new claim that is just flat-out incorrect 😭
Best Souls 2
I have to admit, the moment I heard all the hate being quoted in that montage I expected Matthew Matosis to be included in the links....
Preface: i really hope i dont come off as mean about this but my three favorite Souls games(also my favorite game franchise/"special interest" aside from SMT which occupies a similar place in my mind and heart) are Elden Ring, Dark Souls 2 and Demon's Souls(the original not the remake) and there are a few things that i noticed that other commenters have already pointed out but that i would like to try and shed more light/context on regardless that the points have already been made
1. Estus Flask Shards and Sublime Bone Dust: The Emerald Herald gives you a first Estus Flask no matter what upon talking to her whether you have the shard from the well or not, the shard in the well is there to give you an extra in case of emergencies to stave you off from careless use of lifegems until you can grind for or buy more, letting you start with 2 drinks of Estus if you're attentive- given that Dark Souls 3 and Elden Ring give you 4 drinks each to start with and that Forest Of Fallen Giants has two shards and you can purchase a Fragrant Branch from Melentia to let you get a fifth in the tutorial area(Things Betwixt) you essentially start with 5 in the first two areas as long as you know where to look(which granted can be very confusing your first time I do admit) but another thing meant to help with this is DS2's deliberate enemy placement(for an example i will compare this with Golden Hippos in Elden Ring's Shadow Of The Erdtree DLC Expansion:
In SOTE you learn from killing the hippo at Shadow Keep that much like Miquella Crosses, Statues Of Marika and churches that Hippos always have a Scadutree Fragment(with some exceptions in regards to Churches) meanwhile DS2 does a very similar thing with Syan Knights
With the exception of Drangleic Castle where Syan Knights(the thick gold/bronze armored knights with swords or halberds that can do blue lightning attacks but are easy to parry) become a normal enemy anytime you find a Syan Knight in the world they will be guarding a metal chest with either an Estus Flask Shard or Sublime Bone Dust(used like Firekeeper Souls, Undead Bone Shards or Sacred Tears to boost the amount the flask heals per drink up to a max in DS2 of +5) meaning that if you look out for Syan Knights anywehre prior to Drangleic Castle, like say the No Man's Wharf, Shaded Woods or Grave Of Saints(which yes all have this trope of Syan Knights guarding flask upgrades) you should only miss very few, the maximun is 12 Drinks of +5 Estus which finishes up with the last Bone Dust in Drangleic Castle and the last Flask Shard in Shrine Of Amana and similarly to Elden Ring's Golden Seeds and Dragon Hearts there are actually more shards than you need/can use in the game, with a total of 12 Shards throughout the world, 5 Bone Dusts and the 1 +0 Estus given by Shanalotte/Emerald Herald
2. Lifegems:
"and i think Fromsoft's development team knew this and made Lifegems more readily available as a solution"
Well actually the answer to this is both yes and no funny enough, Lifegems are indeed a "solution" to a problem, but its a different problem than Estus, its for the Illusory Rings- see unlike every other Souls game which have Achievements/Trophies awarded to your Steam, PSN or Xbox LIVE account when you complete a given task in game, DS2 also has two hidden achievements that don't add to your account, but are entirely for personal bragging rights as well as PvP shenanigans in NG+, these being the two Illusory Rings(Vengeful and Conqueror iirc) which are obtained by completing certain extreme self imposed challenges(one for beating the game without ever dying and one for beating the game without ever resting at a bonfire) which when equipped essentially work as an infinite Hidden Weapon, with one making your left hand weapon invisible and one making your right hand invisible, there are also two illusory rings that are cut content/unobtainable without hacking assumedly to make armor and spells invisble so you can prank people in NG+ PvP by appearing naked and unarmed before attacking with an unseen Greatsword or Spell or whatever and having poise from unseen Armor- but since one challenge requires you to never use a bonfire you can never get Estus back, meaning your only healing sources would be Lifegems and Spells, so they made both more readily available and better(i will in fact discuss how much better the magic is in my very next point about Adaptability)
2B(the B is for Bloodborne): also fun fact Runes in Bloodborne can stack unlike Rings/Talismans in Souls and Elden Ring so you can actually stack the tier 3, 4 and 5 Communion Runes to have a max of 32 Blood Vials in Bloodborne actually
3. Adaptability, who actually needs it? Way less builds than you'd think.
Adaptability does not affect I-Frames, wait, wait her me all the way out
So everybody obviously knows that when you go to level up in a Souls game, you'll see the stats you're going to raise with your level on the left, and if you look over to the right you'll see a TON of numbers with brief descriptions denoting that by raising your stats while levelling up those stats will increase these other stats over here such as "AR" or "Attack Rating" meaning the amount of bonus damage afforded to a weapon based on its scaling represented as the final number of expected damage- well if you do this in DS2 you'll notice that when you select to level something up, like say Dexterity all the relevant stats that Dexterity affects will have a highlighted blue background and you'll notice one special one no other game has
"Agility"
This ^ is actually what determines max amount of I-Frames at any given weight level in a small three part spectrum, as well as other things(how fast items are used, how fast you can nock an arrow, how much Poison buildup a weapon with Poison buildup will deal per hit and Spellcasting Speed)
Now you might be thinking "Yeah and Adaptability is the only thing that raises Agility so same point" but actually- you'd be wrong, see Dark Souls 2 also severely changed how Spells work from DS1 in a way not since seen in DS3 or ER in both how spell damage is calculated and how Spellcasting Speed is determined, with the latter being the focus here:
Attunement(later known in Elden Ring as "Mind" and formerly known in Demons Souls as "Intelligence) is not just how many spell slots you have, but also gives you more casts per spell permanently at certain benchmarks(at 75 Att Soul Arrow, which starts with 30 casts has 46 casts, combine this with stacking to double the casts and you can have 600 casts of Soul Arrow) and- most importantly, Attunement raises Agility, not just spellcasting Agility, the WHOLE THING- magic builds get their I-Frames from their mana stat, they do not need Adaptability
"Yes, but what about Melee builds" you may ask, but thats where i direct you to your best friend that never left, but who just hot a bit more complicated- Poise and by extent what gives you Poise- Armor
Yeah, Dark Souls 2 reworked how Poise and Armor work, its more complicated but pretty much:
In DS1 Armor gives a set amount of Defenses and Resistances and, possibly, Poise which can only be increased by levelling up said Armor up to a certain point, with Poise being a stat given by armor which acts as an invisible bar which depletes as you get attacked until being left empty causing a stagger, UNLESS you can get 5 seconds worth of frames to go by at which point Poise automatically completely refills, DS2 is the same except for two key differences:
Defense, Resistance and Poise on Armor in DS2 ALL increase when the Armor is leveled up AND with the Armor's requirements and scaling(yeah btw in DS2 Armor has scaling, look down in the bottom left corner and you'll see it) so by levelling the stats associated to said armor piece(which are almost always either just Str or Dex or a mixture of both) you can increase your maximum Defenses, Resistances and Poise
And secondly
In DS2 Poise doesnt auto recover after 5 seconds, it recovers passively in the background over time just like Stamina
So how does this mean Strength builds like you(CapraGamer) dont need ADP? Simple, just do what Strength is supposed to do in RPGs and BE A TANK
If you have +5 Havels Armor with 65 Strength you can shrug off nearly any attack bosses will throw at you(both defensively and on terms of stagger, unless of course its a headshot since those auto stagger) meaning you never have to dodge, just smack them in their face like a caveman tryna invent foreplay, need to heal? Block or walk slightly away from the direction of any incoming attacks and chug/smash a gem in their peripheral or right in their face, your Poise and Defense are so high you dont need to care about dodging anymore, the only builds that really seriously need Adp are Dex builds, Poison Builds and Archers, anybody else either gets I-Frames from a different stat or can just block and ignore damage enough that I-Frames dont matter
4. World Design and Bosses- yeah i cant really fault you on most of that and what bits i can fault you on i dont feel like going into the semantics of now, tldr you had a lot fo good points here(and throughout the video, just some i feel were a bit misinformed) BUT what i will say is is that i am a HUGE lore buff, combing over every item description and the symbolism of character and area designs and architecture and stuff and how all that comes together for the full story is MY SHIT and let me tell you, i was so happy when you said most of the video was gonna be the story, but when you said "peer reviewed sources" and showed Vaati.... I will admit i literally visibly and audibly cringed and yelled "OH NO"
5. Lore: as mentioned this is exactly my shit and so i have some very specific opinions about it and granted yes as is the point of knowing how to apply ones media literacy skills it is impossible for a subtextual interpretation to be wrong, however i do feel that there are a lot of the objective parts that trusting people with little coverage like Vaati(who only ever did like 7 videos on DS2 years ago when the PS3 original one came out and then abandoned the project/stopped as soon as Bloodborne and DS3 happened) that has you misunderstanding the unobjectionable parts of the plot leading to a slightly muddled reading regardless how good one's media literacy skills are and i have a TON i have to say about that and explain my understanding if you want but i dont have a lot of time so im gonna kill this comment for now but yeah:
Amazing video, as someone whos favorite is DS2 and who loves stories like DS2 and loves all of Soulsborne i am super happy whenever somebody new winds up actually liking DS2 instead of just believing the hate mob and in honor of you i now have a great interest in watching Beau is Afraid
Pretty good video so far (finally someone mentions the item icon on pickup thing) but it always mildly irks me whenever someone calls them "bonfire aesthetics" lmao
Glad to see you back
I've only ever played DS2 in the SotFS version, and I enjoyed that quite a bit.
To be sure, I think it's the worst of the Souls games, but that's a high standard - "worst" really means "least great". And it has some aspects to it that beat DS1, DS3 or both - better fashion than DS1, better second half world design than DS1 (although worse overall), less linear than DS3 and still the best implementation of dual wielding in any Souls game (IMO even superior to Elden Ring's).
You forgot superior PvP with the highest skill ceiling of all souls games by far.
@@RimuruSolosYourMultiverse I don't do much PvP, so I don't feel qualified to judge that, but good to know!
@@matthiasbreuer8710 best souls *
Bad or good, Dark Souls game is still a Dark Souls game
Amen🙏
My love, my heart 🥹🥹🥹
I love this game so much. ❤️❤️❤️
I don't understand the gripe about estus and life gems. There are plenty of shards (your fault for not finding them, no excuses; they're at worst locked behind fragrant branches of yore and not lockstones, please do your research) and if you are struggling you can pop some life gems. You don't have to buy 99 of them at a time either, again, your fault.
When talking about invincibility frames you made a mistake again. I-frames are tied to the Agility stat and so only indirectly to ADP and ATN. It's very easy to reach 99 agility. It's certainly not impossible to strafe and use a shield if you have low agility. It's just up to play style.
The 8 directional movement and enemy volume (at 25:20 you had to have intentionally ran past all those enemies and aggro'd them, what normal player would do this?) is where I stopped watching, you obviously have no idea what you are doing. Please do your research. I really wonder how you "played" this game.
As far as your time stamp goes, no. I didn’t run past any of them. I agro’d one on the stairs leading up to the Ancient Dragon and then they all aggro’d. I retreated back to the open courtyard where they ended up bunching the way that they did.
There were absolutely mistakes made when discussing the healing system, and will be doing a follow up to clear the record. In the meantime, thank you for your comment!
Welcome back, nice length video to signal your return
I prefer it’s girth
HELL YEAH, WE ARE SO BACK!!!!
I disagree that Flasks are important to the Souls series. I know that it's standard and expected. But DS2, to me, felt like a direct sequel to Demon's Souls. The lifegems are the replacement for the grass healing items. The reason that Estus Flask charges are so rare is because Estus is free healing that doesn't cost any souls to buy. Grass, Lifegems, and Bloodvials are all based on the same idea, implemented differently.
Alot of people say that Grass and Lifegem healing is unbalanced because it allows you to have "infinite healing" and nothing is a challenge. But the reason they're good in my eyes is because they're limited, whereas Estus is the "infinite healing". With Estus you never have to worry about restocking because you're always given enough to get through each section until you get to the next bonfire.
Dying in DeS and DS2 feels really impactful because you are worse off than you started. Your max HP is lower and you don't get your healing items back. In DS1, bruteforcing a boss until you eventually win is a viable strategy, but without free Estus, it really tells you that you have to learn the boss or you'll run out of supplies.
I thought that in ds1 you always get 11 i frames...
PS3 DS2 was the first souls game I played for more than a few hours. Completed it and finally got around to the rest. Still think I enjoyed it better than the "next-gen" Scholar version that I played afterwards. Can understand why OG DS1 fans don't like it as much, but I had a good time with it.
Hello!
watched the whole thing and it was rather nice but there are a few points and opinions that I have for your critiques that I would like to bring up from myself to you!
And before doing so I just wanna say no hate, loved the lore section and good editing!
(+ take everything that I say with a side of salt because opinions and perspective yadayada)
Things I agree with:
1. HEALING:
While I would not say that the healing system is broken I do however wish that flasks would be better as a main healing source than lifegems! imo I feel like you should be able to move when drinking estus and stand still whwn using a life gem( I usually use lifegems after combat anyways).
And honestly you should only be able to hold a max of 25-30 lifegems which would make you have to think more on how to utilise them!
(this might be a terrible idea so dont take my words to seriously)
+ starting with 3 flasks instead of 1 would be nice too
2.HUD:
while I really never had an issue with the ds2 hud personally I could understand why you would get a little lost if you dont know how the item looks
3.ADP:
while I have gotten used to adp and never really found a problem with it due to how many levels you get, I still do see why someone who is more used to ds1 or 3 would be confused on their first time around (especially when the game dosent go super in depth to what it does) but still you level up a lot so once you know its in and outs it isn't really that bad.
Things I am neutreal on:
1.CASTLE ABOVE EARTHEN PEAK:
while it is jarring and I really dont understand why the b team didn't just add a big mountain backround behind earthen peak to kinda foreshadow iron keep. I still dont see that much of an issue on this, like you go inside a painting in ds1, in a sheet of paper in ds3 and travel to a ruined trash hole through a wierd corpse in a chapel, THERES A ASH LAKE UNDER THE SWAMP (10/10 area btw) and coffins make you fly in elden ring so yeah I dont really see the issue.
2.FLASK SHARDS:
while missing flask shards can happen it really depends from person to person like me as an example as I finished with about 9 flask on my first playthrough and now know how to get plenty more! and this can really happend in any modern souls game like ds3 where flask shards are present too. It really just depends on how much you explore the world and of course there are a few bad shard locations like the one behind a petrified statue in no mans wharf still dont feel like its a huge issue.
3. SCHOLAR WORSE THAN VANILLA:
I feel like this really depends on opinion because there are a few bad gank encounters in both in different areas like scholar being a bit more demanding and requiring patience while making dragon arie much better than in vanilla. I for example like iron keep in scholar because its my preference while you don't like it, its all based on opinions.
Simply none is objectivley better than the other only subjectivley.
4.RUNBACKS:
while I dont like long runbacks I steel feel like ds2 runbacks arent always as bad as people make them out to be likke just plan ahead. Use ranged weapons, alluring skulls, know the routing and honestly dont be scared to use shields and poise because they really help!
And it is a bit tedious hearing so many talk about ds2 runbacks while ignoring ds1 and the runbacks to the 4 kings, seath, nito, bed of chaos, queelag, capra, manus and if youre unlucky enouch PINWHEEL.
ds1 and ds2 are far more similiar than ya think.
5. 8 DIRECTIONAL MOVEMENT:
I really dont see an issue with this and honestly I have more a problem with the occansional bad tracking and whiffing with large weapons.
Things I disagree on:
1.WORLD DESIGN:
I really cant agree on the take that ds1 has objectivley better game design than ds2!
Both have their own pros and cons and depends from person to person,
yes ds1 has world conectivity and shortcuts which some absolutley love and adore. But there are some who don't enjoy having to walk long runs back and forth instead of just warping through to a previous bonfire so its rather subjective imo.
secondly I feel like just calling ds2 a bunch of linear paths is a bit simplistic and ignores the fact that while it might not be as connected it does however allow each path to be more distinct!
Let me tell you about my perspective on it: while ds2 does not have the connectivity and shortcuts of ds1 it does however have a feeling of a journey through a giant world (despite not being technically that large). the different branching paths allowing you to explore any paths rather early if you know how and the different color schemes of each area makes it almost feel openworld like. you go from a small hub to many different kingdoms, castles, ruined buildings which all gives you that feeling of being a lone warrior alone in a large and scary world.
and honestly I preffer ds2 world over ds1 despite the many flaws of it
(btw this is subjective ds1 is still ballin)
2.RANGED BUILDS
I feel like ranged builds are more enjoyable than you might first think, with having many unique bows and crossbows to choose from. looking down the sight is not the only thing you have to do to use range and simplifying it to behind cover shoot on repeat is a bit demining, its like saying meele is attack roll attack. plus consumables are better so you dont even need a ranged weapon to have a long range option, use throwing knives!
GANKS:
I feel like the ganks arent as bad as you might think, sure they are hard and require knowlage and positioning but they arent mindless. Just like in ds1 you have to take it slow and cant rush in without observing your surroundings.
A good example of this is shrine of amana
yes its hard and there are ranged projectiles bound to go to you, its not really that bad. You can use bow and arrow but there are also shields and greatshields to help you (SOME CAN EVEN PARRY SPELLS). while simple rolling correctly is important and using any tool to help you is good HECK THERE EVEN IS A MAGIC RESISTANCE RING IN A CHEST NEST TO THE ELEVATOR THAT LEADS TO SHRINE OF AMANA.
Are theese areas hard? yes but so are any souls encounter simply try again, revalueate and adapt.
ok finally done but this is all my opinion and perspectise so don't take it personally!
overall it all depends on perspective and to be fair I have played ds2 longer so I am bound to think differently on the game
However if you do want to revistit ds2 in a fresh way I could recommend bearer of the curse edition mod which does modernise ds2 combat and world to be more similiar to the modern souls games, annd if you just want a better lighting then ds2 lighting engine could fit ya
or both because why not!
either way have a wonderful day capra!
I’ve done scholar once and by the end I was genuinely annoyed. I think it’s worth a remake using Elden ring of ds3 combat. Full remake though, could be a masterpiece…
IT already is masterpiece we dont need trash combat keep that for normies
I always said DS2 got a bad rap. It hadn’t had the development nightmare and they were able to fix the world building a bit (and remove the god awful dodge tied to a stat mechanic). It could have outshined it. But though a bit misguided the creators still seem to care: it’s funny how looking at all the recent disaster, DS2 looks even better and even at worst i think people can agree. It was still worth the money
this is like matthewmattosis's vid but shamelessly copied and worse
DS2 SotFS is my favorite in the whole series.
4:38 even otzdarva is here. He must be having completely viable reasons
bear seek seek lest 😭
Wooo yeahhh Peak Souls 2!!!!
Dark souls 2. Dark souls 2! DARK SOULS TWOOOOOOOOOOOO!
LETS GO THE GOAT POSTED
Great Work!
Atleast you know bloodborne is best but best souls is far better game
Phenomenal
Ok ending the game on 5 Estus is criminal. Did you play blindfolded?
Literally takes away all your credibility if you don’t find the items the devs literally make unmissable
Nice
there is no way u suck at the game so much to use a f bow in amana XD lmao
I love this video and everything you said I agree with except The Old Iron Keep DLC access. Now you will receive a lot of comments from ignorant individuals who enjoy the game and ignore the many flaws thinking this is the best Souls game. These people will tell you how wrong you are and how wrong this video is. Please ignore them this is a great video and everything you said is true.
best souls.
Combat has some other rather glaring flaws, too. Stamina regen in this game is slower, and the negative stamina depletion in DS2 is way more punishing compared to the other games. Also, some weapons have downright whack hitboxes, especially the big swords, so they end up dealing inconsistent damage depending on which part of the weapon connects against an enemy. Oh, and sometimes weapons don't deal the damage they're supposed to for no apparent reason. And, allegedly, adaptability affects all of the above, too, which makes the stat that much more broken.
To my knowledge, all of these things were never fixed by the rerelease. I don't know, however, if they fixed soul memory, which in itself was a wholly independent can of worms.
That said, powerstancing makes up for all that. It was freaking awesome. There's a reason Elden Ring retook and improved upon it.
Skill issue
Just waiting for @Domo3000 to slander 😂
He really needs to get a life. And better taste.
@@batrachian149 Cope and seethe. Domo remains undefeated!
DS2 is the only fromsoft game I beat once and never touched again. Didn’t even want to touch the DLC either
No shyt just go play the dlc And git gud
@@litt420 I didn’t want to play it because the game is shit , not because it was hard
Love the music, hate the 8-directional movement. Also the enemy placements in vanilla DS2 were better, fewer gank squads, more deliberate enemies. Also, one Heide knight in the Forest of Fallen Giants who would drop his sword and armor when farmed, so you could cosplay as a Paladin.
About the Estus shards i would like to add that there is a uneven number of them.
I finished my game with 12 Estus AND shards in my inventory.
A point can be made for "forgiveness" but, to me, is just lazy design.
is so you dont have to find ALL to have all estus and to have the item and be able to read its description too
@@xxcorvoxxx_x1959 Or you could just not hide a item you supose is really good for people to find... or you could just keep it as a item in the inventory... so on and so forth. The video itself extend on this point. In the end is just a poorly implemented and not really thought through system.
Well that's how they did it in elden ring too you get more then you need.
When they didn't do that in the dlc for Scadutree fragments everyone complained
The 8-directional movements is one of the things I hate the most about this game. I remember thinking that this game demands strategy adn precision and then does that... Which basically punishes you even if you execute everything perfectly... I had a lot of moments with aiming straight at the enemy and then missing and getting pummeled to death.
ds2 is skippable
You skipped having a girlfriend in high school
Chaotic? Sure. Brilliant? Not so much.
For those who love ds2 and are based enough to be on PC, try the bearer of the curse mod made by fromsoftserve. He's got a channel
First thing I disagree with is the healing system rant. It seems as though you think the life gems are supposed to be a buffer to fix a bad estus system. I disagree. Early on, you only have 1-3 flasks, so life gems are not only helpful, but Important to a low level characters survival. They are slow, and weaker than estus, but they serve a purpose to help your character conserve flasks. As you progress thru the game, you get more flasks and can start relying on them more, while lifegems become more of a background support to heal minor damage from small hits or accidental falls. They aren't as useful later on especially when you have a bigger HP bar and enemies begin to tank on more damage, so why not sell them infinitely at that point? Early game it'll be too expensive to hoard them, as you'll need your souls for additional levels to get stronger. Late game they become a useful tool. They're a weaker heal and they come at a souls cost. I dont see that as OP at all. The OG dark souls let you have 20 estus!!
Second issue. For me I've never struggled with the 8 direction movement. Perhaps that's just me personally but it's never hassled me much. But in regards to enemy encounters, these are not "ganks" as you had just got done saying, this game requires a slower and more methodical approach to combat. Thus these large encounters you struggle with can all be combat with patience, smart combat choices, and a slew of other combat options at your disposal. Elden ring players love to say "use your toolss" so yea, use em haha.
Sorry for the critical response. Your story analysis was beautiful tho, god what a fantastic story