Alright so i picked up Dark Souls 2 to replay it after beating Dark Souls 3 and HOLY SHIT...

Alright so i picked up Dark Souls 2 to replay it after beating Dark Souls 3 and HOLY SHIT. Does this game have any redeeming qualities?

Anyways, whats your opinion on this shit show of a game Sup Forums? DS2 discussion thread.

2 is way better than 3 though. 3 ruined everything good about the series in favor of ROLL ROLL ROLL ROLL ROLL ROLL ROLL ROLL ROLL ROLL ROLL ROLL ROLL and couldn't even come up with any characters, settings, or lore for itself. Dark Souls 2 at least tried.

Imagine actually falling for this meme.

3 isnt the best in any regards. Literally only had good PVP and decent Dlc. Im more upset at the controls. 3 felt really fluid and smooth, 2 is just a clunky mess. Even darksouls and demon souls didnt feel this slow and broke. Also the lifegem system is a joke

Fucking no, it doesn't

2 was absolute trash man. Anyone who defends 2 wasn't a real fan of the OG.
There is no discussion to have. It's shit filler.

this is the 9gag baitthread variant of the gaming world

Why is this on b u huge faggot? Also ds2 was great imo. Liked it more than 3 but way less than 1. 1 will forever be the best

This desu

Dark souls 2 IMO had a really fun pvp scene.
However i think the dark souls 3 host ember co op is make and break.

If you where bothered by PvP DS2 was (and probably still is) the way to go.
It also probably had the greatest amount of build variety, literally everything felt viable one way or another.

It is absolutely the weakest in the series though heh,

fpbp
dark souls 3 was just "lol remember how good dark souls was?" too many recycled characters and the pvp was ruined with no poise and 24 man invasions. fuck you if you think 3 is as good as 1 or 2.

Dark Souls 2 was garbage and you know it

Taking the bait, but

Dark Souls 2 failed to understand what makes Souls games good. The entire combat system revolves around intense and high-skill 1v1 duels versus unforgiving enemies.

Look at Dark Souls 1. Bosses are all 1v1 (except for fatboy slim) and have broad movesets with reasonable telegraphs. Dark Souls 2 is just mobs of enemies.

It didn't make the game more fun or more challenging, it just made it harder. And then the lifegem thing fucked it up further.

And there is no defense for punishing the player for death by reducing their max health. That is anti-fun and adds nothing to the game. I challenge you to explain any one single way that this mechanic improves the gaming experience.

In short, Dark Souls 2 got its head stuck way far up its ass about "prepare to die" and started thinking that difficulty was the points of the game rather than an element of the game.

There are lots of things that are hard, for lots of reasons. Sonic 06 for example manages to be harder than Dark Souls by dint of being broken.

Dark Souls 1 and 3 remembered that "tough but fair" is the point of the combat. Dark souls 2 just started sucking its own dick thanks to the toxic fanbase and then never stopped.

reddit is gay dude go back

and the gargoyles

he's just full of shit and reddit.com

>best PvP out of all souls game
>ability to go into NG+ for specific areas rather than having to actually go into NG+
>ability to respec your stats
>ability to spec your character for a specific type of damage by infusing it with e.g lighting then buffing it with lightning
>better boss designs then DS3
>better attack animations
>a LOT more variety of weapons and spells than DS3
>much better DLC's than DS3
>much better armor choices than DS3
>better PvP mechanics, how summons cant heal with estus and all invaders/summons need to use spells to heal
>new mechanics (power stance)

DS2 is much better than DS3 but all the new fags that only played DS3 think its the shit when in reality its just a fucking awful game that re uses most assets from DS1 hoping that it gets a free pass because of nostalgia. Fuck DS3, its trash.

I forgot that one, actually. And the Four Kings of New Londo too, come to think of it, but the Four Kings fight was shitty and forgettable. Probably exactly because of said reasons.

Capra Demon and Nito have backup too, but only weak enemies you can easily knock over. Nothing like the mobs on Dark Souls 2, or even Dark Souls 3.

Even then, the Dark Souls 1 mult-boss fights were still holding to the "tough but fair" formula. No one here would defend the Ruin Sentinels fight. It was steaming hot garbage.

And the gargoyles, and pinwheel. DS1 had a fair few of "gank" bosses. People rag on DS2 for being "shit" for no real reason, when in reality its actually a good game.

2 at least felt new, 3 feels like a shitty bloodborne with ds1 references mashed in because memes.

Forget about 2 and 3, play demons souls, ds1 and bb, and cross your nuts in hopes of them releasing a new title and not a sequel.

Dark Souls 2 is objectively the best Souls game (discounting Bloodborne).
See .
People who say that Dark Souls 2 is the worst have either
>not put enough time (or no time at all) into it
or
>have comparatively too much time in Dark Souls 1 / 3
or
>cannot formulate their own opinions and fall into line with what everyone else online says. Just because.

I got dark souls 3 when it was on sale with a steam controller. i regret both purchases. it's a boring fucking game, fight the same repetative enemy over and over, then fight a boss, rinse, repeat. no story, character development, just lolidk, press attack button. and a fucking touch pad is no replacement for an analog stick.

Not to mention how much artificial difficulty DS3 adds just for chucklefucks. There's nothing fair about a graveyard full of red ghosts that rise up and shoot literally 40+ spectral arrows at you all at once, and later have some weird angel in the sky shooting hundreds of sonic-speed homing laser beams at you.

The only redeeming quality of Ds2 is the sunken city and old iron king dlc.

That's it.
everything else in that game was a shitshow.

FIrst of all, nice jester thomas set.


Second of all, My first playthrough I was pretty meh by it. Everything just didn't seem right.. like the magic of 1 was just formulized and just spread out in two and it didnt seem as organic. Playing through again after watching ENB play through, I learned to appreciate it more and liked some of the outfit selections. Other than that, I wish they just had stuck to the mechanics of DS 1. DS 1 is best for me. I like DS 3 as well, but pretty much for PVP and even that is wonky.

I've only played DS1 and BB, but I just came to say that Bloodborne is one of the greatest games I've ever played period. Also BB is actually beatable solo for shit tier players, whereas DS1 i never got past gathering the 4 lord souls because i couldn't get any summons to help with Four Kings. I beat BB solo though

Four Kings Solo is like trying to pull bamboo splinters out from underneath your toenails.

someone didnt like Ringed City

Eh after you get the hang of them, like any boss, they're easy peasy. They RAPED my butthole in the beginning though

You can all suck my dick

1 was good because you were able to handle everything with situational awareness and skill.
2 throws a dozen enemies around you that instakill unless you're in X corner when you walk into enclosed rooms.
1 was a masterpiece, perhaps an unintentional one but the balance of skill and progression was satisfying in a way I haven't seen in games in a long time.

2 is for faggots. You are all faggots. Kill yourselves

IMO souls 1 was best

I wasn't a huge fan of the game period, but that DLC sealed the deal for me. I'd rather have someone slap my prolapse around with a ping-pong paddle then play through that DLC again.

> never got past gathering the 4 lord souls because i couldn't get any summons to help with Four Kings.

>Needing help with the 4 kings

...

Being honest, I loved that DLC mainly for the lore and some of the bosses and the weapons and over all aesthetic but they slapped a lot of health on the bosses, which I get since its the final final dark souls dlc. But nothing wrong with not liking the game, people get all butt hurt when someone doesnt like dark souls

>scrubs shouldn't be allowed to enjoy videogames

Are you also a Cosmic Lord in marvel vs. capcom?

>I play Pikachu, Fox, MetaKnight and Bayonetta in every game in which they are the best

I've really enjoyed Bloodborne and DS1 and DS3. Just can't get myself two enjoy the second one. The movement and combat mechanics feel really odd to me compared to the other ones. Really love the artstyle tho

I exclusively play Diddy Kong in every game.

Dark souls 2 had way less I frames and more bosses than dark souls 1 and 3 combined. Lot more content in dark souls 2 but it definitely has its downsides like being kind of clunky when you first get into it but dark souls 1 was wayy fucking worse in that regard.

I think DS 2's adaptibility/agility skill thing kind of made the game less clunky in terms of basic movement but I disagree and think DS 2 was way slower (but also more methodical and conservative in what you can do) than DS 1

>every game
>only appears in Brawl / PM and Tr4sh
>is still a high-tier character in all of these games
fuck off tierwhore

what I liked about dark souls 2:
lots of unique monsters that don't reoccur too often
lots of secrets
the soul count matching system so you can't smoug armor grief low level players just looking to summon
lots of territory to explore
elemental damage is not as paltry
good depth of character design options
tons of weapons, tons of spells, tons of armor
ng+ adds a lot of different enemies and gear
POWERSTANCE
what I disliked:
the bosses
the shallow lore
the level design does not make good use of vertical space
most of the big swords and spells don't hit hard enough
too many of the big monsters just attack ceaselessly
buffs are 100% necessary in NG+
having to dump into 3 otherwise worthless stats to just basic freedom of movement even in light armor
inconsistency in weapon move sets and unlocked aiming
infusions being mostly worthless
enemies despawning
stamina cost , low criticals, "sweet spot" not being at the tip of the spear and attack speed for most spears makes them vastly inferior to almost everything other weapon class

Actually fucking commit sashimi you casual faggots

Dark Souls 2:
-> The music is shit. It's forgettable and bland. I can not remember a single theme from any battle. I'm currently playing through DS2 again, so it is fresh in my head.
-> The areas do not connect in a coherent way. Every area is an isolated chunk. You're in a poisonous swamp and go into a windmill and up an elevator and....inside a volcano! WTF. All the areas take place in a different atmosphere, all of which are washed out.
--> The character voicing is a huge step down. It's sooooo painfully slow and sounds dread boring.
--> The bosses suck. You and they move like molasses, they have VERY few moves (most only have 2 or 3 moves). They were so tortured for ideas they even lifted a boss two seperate bosses out of DS1 and made them boring and slow. Lets not forget how many of the bosses are just basic mobs configured in a group.
--> Mob agro-ing makes zero sense. I draw a sentinel away from the group, about 200 yards away and out of sight and kill him. Immediately aggros 2 other sentinals halfway across the level. This shit is all over the game.
--> Tracking sucks. My player constantly swings in the opposite direction from an enemy when doing anything other than standing completely still. Mirror night magically changes the direction of his lighting attacks after he lets them go. Sentinels no-scope 180 you half way through their move animations.
--> Hitboxes suck. Seriously, the amount of chip damage taken would have you believe the mobs are swinging 10x10ft squares.
--> The lore sucks and is derivative of the first without changing much. It was so bad that Miyazaki basically acted like most of it didn't happen when making DS3.

The only thing DS2 does better than DS1 or DS3 is balancing PVP. More builds are viable, but I still don't PVP in DS2 because its breathtakingly slow, the poor tracking, the poor hitboxes.

DS2 isn't a bad game. I actually think it's decent. It just falls far short of the standard of the others.

Sup Forums - Random

Pvp is fun if you play unlocked and play with weapons that don't need to be locked to be effective. I only really lock on to back pedal if I'm out of stamina or need to readjust my heading quickly. Using lock on sparingly makes you much more unpredictable and makes people wiff parries a lot.

that's the one boss besides the fire sage/asylum demon/big pilgrim I didn't fail on the first try. Although I used good pine resin to obliterate them so fast there was never more than one up at a time.

>da music shit
honestly I won't dispute this. It's not nearly as good as the other Souls games, but it's acceptable.
>th-th-th-th-the map doesn't connect in a coherent way though
short answer - fuck off
long answer - dark souls 2 focuses much more on the theme of loss of memory / madness / insanity than dark souls 1 (for better or for worse) as evoked by the imagery from the the intro cinematic, specifically the scene of who are presumably your spouse and child having their faces melted away. The areas transitioning into each other in an illogical way is metaphorical storytelling, to allude to the fact that the protagonist is either forgetting important events or losing their mind.
>voice acting
don't pretend you play Dark Souls games for the voice acting.
>da bosses stink
every Souls game has shitty bosses, including Demon's and 1.
>mob agro
makes more sense than luring one Hollowed Knight away from it's pack by 10 feet and not having the other ones even take notice, isn't it?
>Tracking
Also won't dispute this. It's flawed in many areas.
>Hitboxes
This was a pre-existing issue in Dark Souls 1.
>tha lore is poopy and derivative
I think you should read up on some before making a statement like this. You should also reread the lore of Demon's Souls and Dark Souls 1.

>This was a pre-existing issue in Dark Souls 1.
that's not an excuse considering the compete combat overhaul they labored to fix. I think they did it to make ADP a mandatory 37 level dump stat.
>every Souls game has shitty bosses, including Demon's and 1
this is a lie and you know it. Most of DaS and DeS's bosses were memorable and did a great job of building up the lore and environment prior to the encounters as well. In DaS2 the presentation and build up is lacking on most of the fights or a let down because they boss is not difficult or particularly interesting.

Play bloodborne faggots

this

Most people don't have the spare change for a bloodborne machine

this too
but if you do, play it

>Metaphorical storytelling
Loss of mind is a constant throughout the souls series, this is just a poopy excuse for DS2's poor level design.

>Voice Acting
Voice acting is a thing I value in the games. I lose immersion when I'm assaulted by shitty forced accents and disjointed dialogue.

> Every souls game has a few bad bosses
Yes, every other game has a few bad bosses. DS2 is the opposite. It has a few good bosses.

> Mob agro
Just going to have to agree to disagree. Its a bad mechanism to artificially boost difficulty, especially when other mobs can damage you when performing a critical.

> DS1 had SOME hitbox issues on a few specific weapons and moves. DS2 has hitbox issues with damn near everything.

> The lore is poopy
It is. I've read up on every game in the series. The DS2 lore just isn't as deep, requires a lot more stretching and speculation to make any coherent narratives, and required retcons in SOTFS to make it not so poopy.

Disagree, the level design is ds2 was fucking trash.

3 was good but it felt a bit easy for the first half.

The last dlc for 3 was prob my fav tho.

What do you and others mean when you say "level design"?

2nd

1 was great 2 was meh and 3 was just ok.

I can understand if someone likes playing it that way, but I don't. The constant running away, doing figure eights, avoiding parry's -- I like parrys. In the other games if you want to avoid being parried you had to be unpredictable in your move selection. Which is the point of a parry...predictability gets punished. Get fucked R1 spammers.

Or you can just be a pure strength and vitality havel mosnter that just brute forces everything without fatrolling. Scummy but its an option.

you say that but you know 1/2 the time they're wearing the stone ring and unless you're using the monastery scim you're going to get stunlocked or hit before your parry animation can get to it's parrying frames. I never do spins they're pretty much advertising that you're going to try to parry at which point I just start shooting them. You can excel easily at DaS2 pvp without using cheap tactics or cookie cutter gear unlike 1.

Someone above said it, but the use of space, the inter-connectivity of different zones, the thematic progression from one area to another.

DS2 makes poor use of vertical space. Lots of mobs will not strike down on you, meaning if you stand lower than them on stairs you can avoid their attacks completely. There are few plunging attack opportunities and few opportunities to use the environment to your advantage (the ballista moments in the game are a good exception). When the game DOES go vertical, it is still very flat. You climb a ladder to a new level...and everything is still flat.

>arguing about which darksouls game or bloodborne is better
>shit points being made
>nioh is clear answer
;)