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Gaf, why is Dark Souls 2 so bad?

Easy_D

never left the stone age
I know this is a joke but the world design of the other souls games is one of the things that makes the series is great. When you don't put any effort into it you're left with a mediocre game.

Eh. Different design philosophy. It's Demons Souls level design (Hub with spokes, that is) without shortcuts because you can warp from the start. I agree that exploring and finding your own shortcuts is much more rewarding though.
 

BiggNife

Member
Youre doing it wrong. Bloodborne has ruined this genre IMO - Souls games are God.

How has a single game "ruined" a genre? This is nonsense.

Bloodborne hasn't ruined anything. It's just a different game from Dark Souls, and trying to play Dark Souls like Bloodborne will cause you to fail. Conversely, trying to play Bloodborne like Dark Souls will cause you to fail.

They're different games that play differently. That's all there is to it. Don't jump to such ridiculous conclusions.
 

Scrawnton

Member
It's the best game in the souls series. To respond to The question in the OP, you're just a peasant who doesn't understand the mechanics. You can't play this game like Bloodborne, this game is more strategic and more challenging. You have to manage all of your resources. This is a much deeper and much more rewarding game, because of this Bloodborne felt like a step in the wrong direction.
 
It's not bad, at all. Maybe not as great as demon's souls or dark souls but it's a worthy game in the series in its own right. From an atmosphere/level design standpoint it's clearly the weakest entry, but the gameplay mechanics were carried over perfectly and in some cases improved greatly.

If your only experience with the series is Bloodborne I could see how the slower pace would bother you, but all of the games have that same pace except for Bloodborne, which has much faster combat with an emphasis on dodging and playing aggressively rather than shielding, magic, and traversing more cautiously. It's definitely a much better game than most released in 2014.
 

Juxo

Member
How are the expectations arbitrary when this is the third game in a series?

As with any entertainment, we all get something from it in a different way. You and I might like the same band for different reasons, etc. In that sense you'll never meet everyone's expectations. Ultimately, some people will be unhappy with the result, whereas others won't notice, or it simply won't affect their enjoyment of the game. I fall into the latter category. I'm not saying it's perfect, but what is?
 

ZangBa

Member
no no rapier for the win

dex!!!

Although I agree they are pretty beastly, Ice Rapier especially, I think STR in general is just really powerful, especially early on. Most of the early bosses are weaker to blunt weapons weapons, too, which are generally STR oriented.
 
It's the best game in the souls series. You're just a peasant who doesn't understand the mechanics. You can't play this game like Bloodborne, this game is more strategic and more challenging. You have to manage all of your resources. This is a much deeper and much more rewarding game, because of this Bloodborne felt like a step in the wrong direction.

yeah dont agree with this at all

While I agree DS2 has plenty to offer it doesnt make Bloodborne any less amazing
 
Eh. Different design philosophy. It's Demons Souls level design (Hub with spokes, that is) without shortcuts because you can warp from the start. I agree that exploring and finding your own shortcuts is much more rewarding though.
No it's not haha. Demon's Souls didn't have glaring inconsistencies between areas that are supposed to be right next to each other. The problem is that the world doesn't seem like a real place because areas don't make sense, ie you can go from sea level to thousands of feet in the air by just going up some stairs. Check out that YouTube link on the last page that shows that a lot of these places just don't fit together.
 
Is this your first time playing a Souls game? I know a lot of people that have only played Bloodborne and went to play either Dark Souls or Dark Souls 2 and absolutely hated it. Dark Souls 2 may be the weakest amongst DeS and DaS but by no means bad, these three games are quite different to Bloodborne.

For me DaS2 fell short on the overall level design but I enjoyed the changes to stats, your character is a little more dependent on stats than pure player twitch skill (i.e the responsiveness people talk about boil down to stats that can make it worse or better). I liked enemy placement prior SotFS and the game had good new boss designs amongst the reused ones from DaS. If the overall level and world connectivity was better done it would be on par with DaS for me. In general I much prefer what they did with the flexibility of items + builds with stats in DaS2 than previous games. As a result it's also why Bloodborne is my least favourite game amongst the Soulsborne games simply because it doesn't have that same sort of depth of items + builds and stats that DaS2 specifically had as well as DaS. That is something I severely missed in Bloodborne.
 

Adaren

Member
I take an elevator up to a volcanic crater? Deal breaker.

A lot of people will read this sort of thing and say "lol it's a video game with magic and dragons. Why does it bother you so much?"

The Souls series makes a point of emphasizing player awareness, both for spotting traps and for piecing together the story/lore. The story is almost never told to the player, and as such most things that the player believe must be inferred. But you can only infer things from the game world if the game world if you buy into the illusion that the game world is "true".As soon as you take an elevator up from a windmill into a lava castle, the illusion is broken. When you look at the world in Dark Souls 1, you ask yourself "How does this fit together? What is the story of this place?". When you look at the world in Dark Souls 2, you ask yourself "Is this actually meaningful, or is this just some meaningless result of the game's rushed development?".
 
I take an elevator up to a volcanic crater? Deal breaker.
This. I quit the game when the logistics of that elevator showed me how little the B-team trash developers respected my intelligence. It's like they were high when they made the game.

/s (this is actually my favorite Souls game)
 

Crossing Eden

Hello, my name is Yves Guillemot, Vivendi S.A.'s Employee of the Month!
These hitboxes were a crime.
GrossGaseousAntarcticgiantpetrel.gif

tumblr_n5ccnzhvTv1ro156wo2_r1_400.gif

ThriftyRightAmericanriverotter.gif

Good hitboxes are absolutely integral to this series. Good enemy placement as and good bonfire design are incredibly important as well. Not to mention absolutely baffling design decisions like adaptability. Your character drinks estus like a person perpetually stuck in slow motion unless you invest in ADP.
 
I absolutely love bloodborne, I love it so much, its probably one of my favourite games ever by now. But I started Dark Souls 2 on PS4 the other day after getting it cheap from gamestop, played about 10 hours, and man its not good, I think I'm gonna quit. I mean, I don't know if sucks is exactly the right word for it, but its so fucking obtuse, frustrating, the combat is so dull and bullshit, drives me mad. Am I a peasant who doesn't understand good mechanics or what?

Here's 10 enemies to try and dodge that you could kill in two hits but you can't get them all before they get you isn't fun. Horde enemies just aren't fun like this.

1. Dark Souls 2 is not a bad game!
2. Bloodborne and Dark Souls 2 play completely different. Once you have to dodge constantly and have a larger window for attacking and it's faster. The other is slow and dedicated. You attack in DS2, you're committed.

I think you're trying to start a flame war to be honest, OP. This has been stated many many many times
 
Eh. Different design philosophy. It's Demons Souls level design (Hub with spokes, that is) without shortcuts because you can warp from the start. I agree that exploring and finding your own shortcuts is much more rewarding though.

Bloodborne does a better job implementing Demon's Souls style level design while still maintaining an interconnected world, IMO.

Dark Souls 2 felt like it wanted to have a hub world like Demon's Souls but also an interconnected world, but failed to have the advantages of either.
 

squidyj

Member
Dark Souls 2 is fucking ugly (in comparison to Dark Souls), the repair system is fucking stupid, putting content changes in NG+ in a game with as long of a campaign as this one has is kind of fucking dumb, even with ascetics.

The downgrade in animation quality and responsiveness coming into it from bloodborne is fucking shocking.

Also I fall off things more in Dark Souls 2. Fuck :(
please ban lethal jumps/jumping puzzles From



Edit: On the plus side I can go from any bonfire to any other bonfire without having to waste time with an intermediary loading screen. fucking hunter's dream.
 
I played in on PS3 (came close to platinuming it) and now playing it on PS4. Scholar of first Sin is marked improvement over First DS2 except a couple places where enemy placement makes no sense. Compared to Bloodborne it is a lesser game. But it takes a while getting used to. Bloodborne is a master piece in terms of level design and Dark Souls 2 is kind of the opposite with weird bonfire placements. DS2 biggest failure is the mobs system and throwing multiple enemies (even for bosses). None of DS2 bosses stand out like Artorias or Manus (perhaps DLC does but I have not played that).

You should check this video out (suggested to me by fellow gaffers):-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UScsme8didI

goes in to great detail of what is lacking in DS2. But still it is damn fine game and I am still having a lot of fun playing through this second time.
 

DrkSage

Member
Ive bought Dark souls II for the ps4 and it's not bad, but it ain't that good either. I can play it but can't enjoy it like I did with dark souls and bloodborne
 

krakov

Member
Definitely the worst Souls game. The feel of movement and combat is enough for me to rank it as such but almost every other element of it is inferior as well.
 

Venfayth

Member
Oh look those cherrypicked hitbox gifs again. I never experienced anything like that in my hundreds of hours with the game. Stuff can get weird when you're online, but offline the hitboxes pretty much behave how you'd expect.
 

MayMay

Banned
I hate it. DS1 is my favourite game, Bloodborne a close second - but I can't stand to play DS2 for so many reasons.

Shit bosses, the world does not make sense (unlike DS1 and Bloodborne where the areas are connected perfectly to each other), the movement feels floaty, the hitboxes suck, Adaptability is an actual stat that actually happened (thank god they removed it for DS3), the story doesnt make sense.. etc etc.

It's just opinions but yeah. I really dont like that game lol
 

psylah

Member
There is a covenant in the first bonfire area of the game, just to the left of the giant Obelisk. If you joined that covenant, you made the game extra hard.

I made that mistake starting up DS2 blind.

But even after I fixed that, it was still bad compared to both DeS and DaS.
 

Dimmle

Member
I know this is a joke but the world design of the other souls games is one of the things that makes the series is great. When you don't put any effort into it you're left with a mediocre game.

I just find it ludicrous when it's used as a linchpin for the argument against Dark Souls 2's world design. It all comes down to whether the particular player enjoys the game's primary motif of a disconnect in time and space.
 

Xaero Gravity

NEXT LEVEL lame™
I actually prefer it over Bloodborne and Demon's Souls, due to the build variety and level design. Go ahead and stone me to death Bloodborne fans.
 

Scrawnton

Member
yeah dont agree with this at all

While I agree DS2 has plenty to offer it doesnt make Bloodborne any less amazing
This is an arguement that took place near the launch of Bloodborne. Depending on what you like souls games for, BB was either a step in the right direction or wrong one. I loved souls for the deep stats, customization, combat variety, world exploration, and diverse loot and enemies. Bloodborne was a step in the wrong direction for me. It was too dumbed down.
 
Oh look those cherrypicked hitbox gifs again. I never experienced anything like that in my hundreds of hours with the game. Stuff can get weird when you're online, but offline the hitboxes pretty much behave how you'd expect.
I've had stuff happen like that to me offline in SotFS. Those troll enemies attack you like that almost exclusively.

I just find it ludicrous when it's used as a linchpin for the argument against Dark Souls 2's world design. It all comes down to whether the particular player enjoys the game's primary motif of a disconnect in time and space.
I think it's pretty laughable to say that the world was designed to be this way.
 

Manu

Member
These hitboxes were a crime.


Good hitboxes are absolutely integral to this series. Good enemy placement as and good bonfire design are incredibly important as well. Not to mention absolutely baffling design decisions like adaptability. Your character drinks estus like a person perpetually stuck in slow motion unless you invest in ADP.

Hitboxes are not the problem in any of these gifs. Grab attacks are. In all of them, the attack connects, and then the player is warped to the place he needs to be for the animation to continue.

The only reason it's more prevalent in DS2 is because it has too many grab attacks.
 

Calamari41

41 > 38
I loved Dark Souls 2, and got lost in its world more than I got lost in the world of any of the other Souls games or Bloodborne. I think Dark Souls 1 is still the better overall package, but I truly feel sorry for anybody who was not able to enjoy Dark Souls 2. I don't say that snidely, I mean it in the literal sense that I am sorry you weren't able to enjoy it.
 

Dahbomb

Member
It's a very good game but not as good of a Souls game. Still worth a shot. The beginning is just a bit rough but it gets easier.
 

Fhtagn

Member
I take an elevator up to a volcanic crater? Deal breaker.

This was a mistake in communication, acknowledged in the design works book.

Honestly, Dark Souls 2 is a game that I have some sympathy for because almost of the problems with it seem forgivable when you discover it had a hellish dev cycle where they had to scrap everything halfway through and start over on the story and piecing the world together.

That it's actually a pretty fun game on it's own terms, is pretty amazing considering the shit sandwich of scheduling they ended up with.

I've sunk several hundred hours into it and have platinum'ed both the original version and SOTFS. It's def my least favorite Souls game, but I get why for some people it's their favorite. I also get why for some people the problems with it are deal breakers.
 

Boss Man

Member
It felt sort of lifeless to me. Like things were placed wrong and without thought. Idk honestly, but I had the same reaction you did.
 
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