Can someone explain this? Not saying it's "proof DS2 is better lol" but it seems odd that 2...

Can someone explain this? Not saying it's "proof DS2 is better lol" but it seems odd that 2, often said to be the weakest one is the highest rated.

Review systems don't actually reflect how good a game is, what a fucking revelation.

>Bloodborne: 92/100

Well, there it is...

Because the series popularity boomed after DaS, of course the game after it got good reviews because reviewers are a bunch of bandwagoning cocksuckers

From someone who played dark souls 1 and 2, I liked the second game better. I kept getting hopelessly lost in the first game and running into ridiculously overleveled enemies. I couldn't figure out what to do after blight town and I just dropped it because I wasn't interesting in backtracking for 10 minutes to get lost again.

But then why did 3 do slightly less well? It's better than 2 so shouldn't reviewers have been slobbering over it? Especially since it was bandnams fastest ever selling game.

It's just the best game. A lot of Sup Forums hates games based on individual things instead of judging the entire game as a whole like normal people.
DS2 is also when a lot of people got into the series, and because the games are so similar, the one you start with is usually the one you feel is the best.
If it really was the weakest game, it wouldn't get threads every fucking day. Just accept that Sup Forums has conflicting opinions about it, and most casual players liked it a lot.

You get your opinions from Jews who barely play video games? How pathetic.

Reviewers know absolutely nothing about video games and their opinions are worthless.

One likely explanation: the franchise itself was most popular around DS2's release, therefore reviewers rated it highly. When DS1 first came out it wasn't as popular so reviewers were hesitant to give high scores.

Read the post you quoted again

There's so many thing influencing ratings, it's not just the game itself. It depends what else came out that year, the current social trends and other things.

It was because
1. Game was more popular around 2, there was this whole narrative that Dark Souls was this "underappreciated gem" of a game
2. Reviewers, in their infinite wisdom, would give a higher score to the game even if it wasn't as good as the first just to push this "underappreciated gem" idea and make people think they actually know shit about games
3. Matthewmatosis releases the smash hit "Dark Souls 2 critique" which absolutely shits all over the game and redefines the narrative of Dark Souls 2's quality. Now the popular "informed gamer" opinion is that Dark Souls 2 isn't that good of a game and was massively overrated upon release.
4. Equilibrium effect takes place and the scores for Dark Souls 3 are toned down to follow the slight change in attidude about the series.

I will say it's still the weakest but it does have the most content out of all the games, plus it's the most accessible. 1 has a pretty linear first few hours, there's only 2 ways to go and the level design seems to push most players to the gargoyles first.

3 is a bit too linear so if you can't beat a boss all you've got is a couple of optionals to fight for levelling and practice. 2 has a bunch of routes to go at first so you can pick the one you find easiest and go there.

Still the weakest game in terms of atmosphere, story, visual design and enemy variety (plus more boring areas) but I get why more casuals and normies like it.

bamco paid a lot of e-celebs (like ENB) to shill the game

Did people really do this? Give up at a boss and just fuck off to another area instead?

You telling me the bandwagon wasn't at max hype around 3? End of the series, bloodborne just came out etc.

Decent point.

Good answer, makes a lot of sense.

This. No one really cared about DeS when it came out.

Wait second one intended for

Yes? It's a common enough that the entire Mega Man franchise is based off that concept.

reminder that the dual wield system in DaS2 was perfect and fuck From for turning it into the garbage we got in DaS3

also caestus used to be viable and fun, now its complete horse shit

t h a n k s f r o m

DS2 came out after DS became a hit series and was obligated to get good scores. DS3 came out after the series got stale and From had improved the series with BB.

>You telling me the bandwagon wasn't at max hype around 3? End of the series, bloodborne just came out etc.

Do you remember all the memes and shit around the end of Dark Souls 1? Not to mention the git gud narrative. There was a lot surrounding the series rather than the game itself.

I do it sometimes if I want to do some levelling so I can use a more effective weapon.

Critics are bandwagoning retards. Dark Souls exploded in popularity around the time between AotA and Dark Souls 2, so they all jumped on the "git gud, praise the sun XD" bandwagon right before DS2 came out. That's why it's the highest rated one. Most of those critics probably didn't even beat more than 5 bosses before writing their reviews.

Getting the weapon a boss is specifically weak to seems hardly the same as just grinding for bigger numbers before you fight a boss.

DS2 is the best one because they made dualing weapons and fist weapons actually viable.

DS3 fucked it up. The caestus combo in DS2 was the best.

dark was the entry point that started the hype for most even though demons exist. Dark two was hype train in full motion letting eek out a slightly better score on hype alone. Dark 3 major hype has passed and its now more judged on merit which in time for more casual people they have kinda grown tired since in some ways it was just more of the same.

>DaS is out
>flawed, but still sort of niche cult game, no one still gives a shit
>DaS I I is out
>objectively bad, but "DOOD I LOVE DIFFUCULT GAMES I RATED THAT NEW SOULS (you Know, that HARD!!! game series) GAME 9/10 BRO XD" bandwagoning faggots rate it high to seem cool

didn't have the "dark souls so all the flaws are ignored because HARDCORE XD" bonus that the games got after DaS came out

>tfw played whole playthrough as sort of barbarian god of war using caesti to punch the shit out of elder abominations, dragons and demons

I love being a pugilist.

I started the souls series with Demon's Souls back when it was a real hidden gem and barely talked about and have since then played all following souls games on release day but I still feel like overall 2 is probably the best.

Demons was fantastic, but system specific. Reviews go down.
So dark souls goes multi. Alot of reviews are out. People who would have loved demons would have loved this. However, a good portion of the gaming community hasn't been subjected to the masochistic style of it.
Then 2 comes out. People meme it was a game over simulator and it's the new fad. Dosnt matter of its good. Game reviews are a marketing strategy and money changes hands, scores go up. Big players in the industry want to see this do well. Who would have known big money reviews are corrupt, eh?
With 3, magic is dieing down.
With blood, it's a twist in the game, and a console seller, of course it's gonna do well, paid or not

Real Talk: If you've played every Souls title you were probably let down by DaS3.
It steals from every previous title so it feels like a greatest hits instead of a fresh send-off.

Bloodborne remains the GOAT for being original and Demon's is also good just because of the Waifus

>real talk
stop trying to talk like a black

I've played every souls and throughly still enjoy 3.

Even with all the blatant fanservice I still enjoyed 3 more than 2.

I played the three Dark Souls games and I liked DS3 the most.

Dark Souls hype peaked at 2 so reviewers sucked it's cock to seem hardcore

I've beaten every Souls games and enjoyed DaS III more than Bloodborne for various reasons.

Although Bloodborne has the best combat and I really miss quickstepping, 90% of the game is Yharnam and it misses the feeling of adventure that the Souls games have.

DaS III had
>more varied areas
>better bosses
>on a level to level basis, the best damn level design in the entire series (e.g. Cathedral of the Deep, absolutely 10/10 design)

It just felt more fun to play on a minute to minute basis, because after clearing an area I never knew what would come next. With Bloodborne it's like oh hey, another part of Yharnam.

After giving bad reviews to Dark Souls and being harassed by the community as a result, many reviewers felt the need to inflate the score of DaS2 and act like "they get it"

Hack journalists who gave DaS a 6/10 were terrified of being 'wrong' again

Dark Souls 2 was the first one released after it become hyper main stream 2hard4u PREPARE TO DIE shit that normies ate up, as usual the media praised it for easy clicks.

Critics are morons. Are you new? Scores mean literally nothing.

This is your answer.
Casuals like this user are more common than actual players