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[a harpy]

I think Dark Souls 2 is a better Action RPG, but Dark Souls 1 is more immersive and memorable. It's weird cause, overall, I like Dark Souls 1 more, but if I had to play one of them forever, I would have to choose Dark Souls 2.

Actually...

I think DS2 has more replayability than any of the Souls games, but that's because it was fun to screw around in. The bosses were easy enough where I felt comfortable punching everything to death after my first playthrough, mainly due to bosses mainly being giant dudes with weapons. I forgot what that stat was that gave you i-frames when rolling but once you had that up to a certain point, most of the game was a hilarious joke. DS2 had a serious case of awesome looking bosses grandstanding but then being shitty. Case in point, this guy:
...
I put more hours into DS2 than any other souls game, but I don't think it's as good as any of the other ones because I wasn't so much invested into the world as much as I was in the other ones. As silly as it is to complain for a video game doing video-game things, DS2 does it a bunch! I felt like I was going through a theme park with that one elevator going from that swamp area to the volcano.

Also, it was so easy to run past everything. If you weren't dual-wielding/two-handing weapons in DS2, you were playing it wrong. Oh god it was fun.

The only reason it was easy to run around in DS2 was because I had traps and such memorized. The game definitely relied on them moreso than any other souls game - that's for sure lol. I know one dude mentioned Sen's Fortress, but that's just one area. It was basically the whole game in DS2. Traps are everywhere for whatever reason.

Also the lore was dumb and nothing in the Souls series has the same hitbox problem as DS2 does. Whoever disagrees should fight more hippos.

Also, Dark Souls 2 introduces actual bad bosses to the series. Dark Souls 1 had Bed of Chaos, but at least that fight was cool thematically. Dark Souls 2 brought us garbage such as:
...
There's quite a few more, but I don't want to spoil folks. A certain frog bastard belongs here.

Says pretty much everything on my mind. And despite all that, I can only imagine the people that think the game is garbage somehow feel like its existence impacts DS1. It's a fine addition to the series and I feel it has the best pvp by far.

Thankfully Bloodborne feels tailor made for all of my tastes so I can die happy even if Dark Souls 3 is complete fucking garbage.

Spoiler

It won't be.

 

[Wagram]

I think Dark Souls 2 is a better Action RPG, but Dark Souls 1 is more immersive and memorable. It's weird cause, overall, I like Dark Souls 1 more, but if I had to play one of them forever, I would have to choose Dark Souls 2.

Actually...

I've said to my friends that even though Dark Souls 1 is my favorite in the series (not by a whole lot) that if I had to recommend only 1 to someone I would pick Dark Souls II. The amount of content (especially in Scholar of the First Sin) is simply unbelievable.

 

[Morrigan Stark]

Ruin Sentinels is an amazing boss fight, GTFO. Had such a blast fighting them solo and kiting them with throwing knives until I could safely melee the last one. Intense and awesome experience.

Also throwaway boss fights exist in all the games, but DS2 might appear worse because there's more bosses period. The Rotten isn't bad, or at least not worse than Dirty Colossus, or Leechmonger, for example.

 

[Conkerkid11]

Give me a better PC port of Dark Souls 1, and maybe I'll learn to appreciate it more.

Also, not sure how I forgot there were two bosses before Gargoyles. Guess they were such pushovers that I forgot about them, when compared to a duo that you have to fight on an angled surface, who can fly, and have projectile fire that covers a massive area.

Dark Souls 1 has Bed of Chaos; probably the worst boss in the Souls series, Capra Demon; whose fight consists of three enemies in an enclosed area, and whose nearest bonfire consists of running through maybe 20 enemies who are also in an enclosed area, Ceaseless Discharge; who if fought legitimately is one of the most unfair bosses in the series, Crossbreed Priscilla, three different re-skinned Asylum Demons, Gravelord Nito; not only are there more than 4 enemies, but there's no way to permanently kill them unless you have a divine weapon, and you're already too deep into the Tomb of Giants to deal with that, Moonlight Butterfly, Pinwheel, and Seath the Scaleless; whose fight consists of killing whatever device you're playing the game on.

 

[Jombie]

Outside of the DLC bosses and Ornstein and Smough, I'm indifferent to the rest in DS1. Comparatively, the DLC bosses in 2 more than make up for those in the vanilla game. Fume Knight is a masterpiece.

 

[Disaster Nebraska]

Also throwaway boss fights exist in all the games, but DS2 might appear worse because there's more bosses period. The Rotten isn't bad, or at least not worse than Dirty Colossus, or Leechmonger, for example.

Well, and because it borrows very heavily from DS1. Rat Authority would be okay if we hadn't already fought Sif. Old Dragonslayer would be okay if we hadn't already fought Smough & Ornstein. Dragonrider would be okay if we hadn't already fought red-eye knights. Last Giant would be okay if we hadn't already fought Tower Knight.

 

[zero shift]

Dark Souls 1 doesn't really even have any throw away bosses outside Pinwheel.

And the Ruin Sentinels boss fight was pretty good. Not great, but good.

 

[KZXcellent]

If DS1 had a decent port I could maybe appreciate it more. Still found the world and lore of Drangleic more interesting.

Spoiler

Belfry Gargoyles and Ruin Sentinels can eat my ass tho

 

[Maddrical]

Ruin Sentinels is an amazing boss fight, GTFO. Had such a blast fighting them solo and kiting them with throwing knives until I could safely melee the last one. Intense and awesome experience.

Also throwaway boss fights exist in all the games, but DS2 might appear worse because there's more bosses period. The Rotten isn't bad, or at least not worse than Dirty Colossus, or Leechmonger, for example.

+1

Seriously, how can you say The Rotten is a "bad" boss and Leechmonger isn't? I actually quite like The Rotten, and it has an awesome lore behind it.

DS2 cops a lot of hate from a small amount of people. Those who hate it REALLY hate it and cannot (or refuse to) look beyond it's flaws. SOTFS is my favourite behind Demon's Souls, the amount of content is staggering and the DLC is my favourite DLC period.

 

[Fhtagn]

I love Dark Souls 2, especially Scholar, but it is baffling to read someone saying it improves on 1 in most ways when it doesn't even try to do some of the core things that make 1 so special, like a macro level story worth a damn (the individual short stories like Lucatiel's are pretty good) or the world design...

As for the bosses people are calling shitty in this thread, I'll go to the mat for a lot of them but point out that the problem is not the boss, it's the level they are scaled for. Have you ever fought covetous demon at really low level by making getting to him a priority? That fight is actually tense as shit if he doesn't die instantly: he can swallow you and remove all of your equipment!

The time I fought him at low level and got grabbed twice and had to re-equip my weapon from the menu mid-fight was super memorable.

He just doesn't have enough hit points to survive long enough against most players due to how hidden that path is.

Flexile Sentry is at the very least a very clever joke about Souls boss design. "Oh, so get behind them and stab in ass is all you have to do, right? Well this guy has no ass!" If you can't appreciate that, I dunno what to tell you.

Ruin Sentries was one of the hardest and most satisfying fight of my first playthrough and I still enjoy fighting them every time.

I'll also go to bat for the way durability works. That's the one change I think is inarguably better than Dark 1, even though almost no one seems to actually agree with me. Durability being something you actually have to worry about between bonfires makes durability a mechanic worth having, instead of something that for most builds is something you mostly ignore and occasionally repair. Durability in Dark Souls 2 is actually a source of tension.

There are a ton of gripes I have about Dark Souls 2, but almost all of them are forgivable when I think about the dev cycle. They had to start over almost from scratch halfway through, repurposing materials that had already been made. Most of the "huh?" design decisions make sense in that kind of crunch.

My main gripes are the hippo grab instant kill hit box being absolutely disgracefully ridiculous and the "rapiers, greatswords and large clubs ignore lock on" feature which only ever gets me killed. Baffling in both cases.

 

[Sayad]

Overall, Dark Souls 2 isn't the bastardization that some claim it to be, but it can be a little disappointing at times. Dark Souls 2 is one of those games that is a highly anticipated sequel to a beloved classic that falls short and his hated by fans, yet most will tell you that it is a mandatory plathrough if you enjoy the first. I think that best describes Dark Souls 2, it is a great game that unfortunately is inconsistent in quality, but overall is well worth playing. I recommend it to anybody who played and enjoyed Dark Souls.

Remember that you're playing the super enhanced edition with tons of improvement and months of patching on the community side stuff. Yet still the lore, level design, over world design and bosses aren't on bar with the original even if the DLC content have improved a lot in some of those areas.

Also, not many will disagree that despite all of this, DS2 is the best in the serious when it comes to the online stuff.

 

[Conkerkid11]

Remember that you're playing the super enhanced edition with tons of improvement and months of patching on the community side stuff. Yet still the lore, level design, over world design and bosses aren't on bar with the original even if the DLC content have improved a lot in some of those areas.

Also, not many will disagree that despite all of this, DS2 is the best in the serious when it comes to the online stuff.

I'm surprised they even went as far as they did with a GOTY Edition.

Bloodborne's GOTY Edition comes with the one and only DLC we got.

Other Souls games don't even get GOTY Editions.

 

[Afrocious]

I'm surprised they even went as far as they did with a GOTY Edition.

Bloodborne's GOTY Edition comes with the one and only DLC we got.

Other Souls games don't even get GOTY Editions.

Dark Souls 1's Prepare to Die Edition came with Artorias of the Abyss.

The only Souls game to not get a rerelease with added content was Demons

 

[Conkerkid11]

Dark Souls 1's Prepare to Die Edition came with Artorias of the Abyss.

The only Souls game to not get a rerelease with added content was Demons

Eh... That was just the name of the port though.

Point was that SotFC is the only Souls game whose GOTY edition actually altered vanilla content.

 

[Benzychenz]

Dark Souls 2 being easier seems like a positive for me

Spoiler

because I want to get it out of the way quickly so I'm all caught up for Dark Souls 3.

Will grab SotFS for PS4 and play it when I'm done with Xenoblade X.

 

[TyrantII]

The Ruin Sentinel fight is so freaking retarded. And those damn Black knights with 360 degree tracking can fall into an abyss.

It isn't just the knights, almost all enemies can and do pivot mid attack animation. Coming from DeS and DkS, its infuriating and frustrating as dodging takes a back seat to turtling.

Plus it just looks terrible seeing a animation play out while the enemy just rotates 270 degrees. Janky as f.

 

[WheelHoss1]

Not being condescending but most are missing it.

Dark Souls (and Bloodborne for that matter) is Miyazki. It's PVE paradise. But PVP (and even coop) is an afterthought and at times downright clunky

Dark Souls II is the B-Team. It's not even close to the genius of Miyazaki for PVE (well, maybe close at times--Drangelic Castle is damn good stuff), but it's PVP paradise. I put over 800 hours into fight clubs and different builds on the 360, and I'm still in the BoB Arena in SotFS nightly.

TLDR: DS for PVE, DSII for PVP

 

[hydrophilic attack]

Dark Souls 1 doesn't really even have any throw away bosses outside Pinwheel.

Ceaseless Discharge, Centipede Demon. Demon Firesage and Bed of Chaos are all worse than anything found in II. I also don't like Iron Golem much, although I seem to be alone in this.

Pinwheel is not bad if you fight him early (before Gaping Dragon) like the devs intended. There are a lot of things that point to The Catacombs being intended as an early game area. There is the fact that the clerics leave for there early on. There is the event with Patches which only takes place if you go there early. And there's the fact that you get the tip from Lautrec about Rhea and Petrus. You get this tip pretty early on, because Lautrec doesn't stay around for long.

I'll also go to bat for the way durability works. That's the one change I think is inarguably better than Dark 1, even though almost no one seems to actually agree with me. Durability being something you actually have to worry about between bonfires makes durability a mechanic worth having, instead of something that for most builds is something you mostly ignore and occasionally repair. Durability in Dark Souls 2 is actually a source of tension.

I fully agree with this. Durability is pointless in the other games.

 

[Sinfamy]

I'm having serious trouble with Sir Alonne.
I hate how there's definitely a little bit of input delay, even with 35 Adaptability.
I also hate that I can't switch weapons mid roll.

 

[zero shift]

Ceaseless Discharge, Centipede Demon. Demon Firesage and Bed of Chaos are all worse than anything found in II. I also don't like Iron Golem much, although I seem to be alone in this.

I agree on Bed of Chaos. The rest are still better than most Dark Souls II bosses.

Pinwheel is not bad if you fight him early (before Gaping Dragon) like the devs intended. There are a lot of things that point to The Catacombs being intended as an early game area. There is the fact that the clerics leave for there early on. There is the event with Patches which only takes place if you go there early. And there's the fact that you get the tip from Lautrec about Rhea and Petrus. You get this tip pretty early on, because Lautrec doesn't stay around for long.

I can imagine fighting Pinwheel early on, but not going through the Catacombs early on. The skeleton's would have destroyed me.

 

[Game4life]

Not being condescending but most are missing it.

Dark Souls (and Bloodborne for that matter) is Miyazki. It's PVE paradise. But PVP (and even coop) is an afterthought and at times downright clunky

Dark Souls II is the B-Team. It's not even close to the genius of Miyazaki for PVE (well, maybe close at times--Drangelic Castle is damn good stuff), but it's PVP paradise. I put over 800 hours into fight clubs and different builds on the 360, and I'm still in the BoB Arena in SotFS nightly.

TLDR: DS for PVE, DSII for PVP

I guess thats the thing. I play these games for PVE. For me Souls is about level design, enemy design, encounters, art style etc.. so Dark,Demon and Borne are the holy trinity. DS2 just pales in comparison in the PVE department.

 

[pupcoffee]

The first director of Dark Souls 2 got replaced with a new one midway through the development. The second director was actually good, that's why the DLC is good, it's just that he didn't have the time to make the base game as good as he could have.

That's the word on the street, anyway.

 

[Zukuu]

The first director of Dark Souls 2 got replaced with a new one midway through the development. The second director was actually good, that's why the DLC is good, it's just that he didn't have the time to make the base game as good as he could have.

That's the word on the street, anyway.

The DLC is terrible tho.

 

[StaffyManasse]

My experience with FROM games has been Bloodborne -> DS II SOTFS.

I have a huge hole in my heart for not playing Dark Souls (and suppose Demon's too), but I don't currently have a machine to run either of those games. I had no idea of them when I had a PC because mmos sucked all my time.

That being said, I did enjoy SOTFS a lot, even with all the issues. It is probably in the top three most played games this year for me. So I think it is still better than most of games that gets released.

The biggest downer for me after coming from Bloodborne was the feeling that the game's atmosphere felt thin. For me it's probably a mixture of missing coherence in the game world and the weird ambient lightning in some of the supposedly dark places. From the tiny glimpses I have seen of Dark Souls, it feels like the atmosphere is there, so maybe it is just that Miyazaki touch. I have tried to limit how much I learn about Dark Souls in hopes of getting to play it some day.

Also, after Bloodborne, SOTFS felt so easy I could not at times believe it. So many bosses went down the first (or 2nd) try. Also very little "oh shit" moments with boss introductions, while Bloodborne had plenty of those.

 

[deletethis123]

Gravelord Nito; not only are there more than 4 enemies, but there's no way to permanently kill them unless you have a divine weapon, and you're already too deep into the Tomb of Giants to deal with that

By the time you're fighting against Nito, you have the lordvessel.

Eh... That was just the name of the port though.

Point was that SotFC is the only Souls game whose GOTY edition actually altered vanilla content.

It was also re released on PS3 and 360 as ptd edition everywhere but in the Americas, same as bloodborne.

 

[Palette Swap]

I'm NG+ing SotFS and platinumed DS2 on release. The game was a good game on release, I thought most issues were overblown even if I didn't love it as much as the first game.

I think SotFS is a fantastic package. I still don't love it as much as DS but regardless, it's a very complete game. There's the occasional shitbox or frustrating mob encounter design, but the DLC areas are great. The levels seem tighter, with more shortcuts and original level gimmicks, while being quite large. Most of its boss fights are pretty memorable too. Hell, I thought

Spoiler

burnt Ivory King

was incredibly difficult (and enjoyable) until I learned about summoning knights. Typically, I think the DLC creates more original areas than Bloodborne's, which really felt like more of the same. Even if it was great obviously.

My biggest complaint and surprise would be how nerfed Vendrick felt. I had a shit time beating him in vanilla, while he really went down easily in SotFS.

 

[Jombie]

The DLC is terrible tho.

Far from it, thoughtful analysis though.

 

[Morrigan Stark]

The DLC is terrible tho.

Oh lawd

 

[hydrophilic attack]

I agree on Bed of Chaos. The rest are still better than most Dark Souls II bosses.

Ceaseless Discharge has a pretty unfair moveset where it's really hard to get a shot in. Demon Firesage is a clone of Stray Demon. Centipede Demon puts you on a really small arena where you can hardly move and has a boring moveset. I think the same is true for Iron Golem, which was a big disappointment for me after Tower Knight in DeS, but most people don't seem to mind him.

I can imagine fighting Pinwheel early on, but not going through the Catacombs early on. The skeleton's would have destroyed me.

The game gives you lots of ways to deal with the skeletons. You can rush the necromancers. You can push them down the pits in the area.
Or you can go fight the Moonlight Butterfly for the Divine Ember and make a holy weapon. The Moonlight Butterfly is also supposed to be done early on. It is a pushover if you save it for when you're overleveled. The Catacombs is one of the best levels in the game if you do it early. If you wait until you're strong, it's very boring.

 

[Augemitbutter]

i really liked this game. played it again religiously when the remaster came out. the dlc blew me away. it's clearly better than the first dark souls.

 

[Ratrat]

Dark Souls 2 has better boss fights than Bloodborne(unless the Old Hunters changed that, haven't played it yet). I kind of prefer it as a game too. The environments arent as interestig or well designed as Demons Souls, but its really fun to just play and run around in.

 

[DamagedInc]

I really enjoyed my play through of Scholar, the only thing I wasn't keen on was the adaptability stat which seemed to make the first few hours a pain for me, once I had sussed that out it was great fun.

 

[SmarmySmurf]

It reminds me of Kings Field (Western releases). The first is smaller, more focused and more skillfully woven, and the second is comfortable enough with itself and its success that it just goes for more, more, more with less regard for consistency. I'm good with both approaches because the game turned out well in both cases where as a lesser developer would have failed with that change in approach.

I'm not really bothered by stuff like boss quality or DLC, both had good and bad aspects in both regards. Quantifying it and deciding a "winner" doesn't serve me as a gamer.

 

[bati]

I'm having serious trouble with

Spoiler

Sir Alonne

.
I hate how there's definitely a little bit of input delay, even with 35 Adaptability.
I also hate that I can't switch weapons mid roll.

Take off your armor and equip some fast weapons like Caestus. It's piece of cake then.

 

[EatinOlives]

Just bought this recently and starting my first run through it. My random collection of thoughts include.

1) The game looks surprisingly good, albeit still nowhere near as good as the pre-downgrade footage. Yes I'm still bitter about that stupid downgrade, sue me.

2) HHNNNGG 60 fps. I'm going to HATE going back to 30 fps for this, which is why I'm likely to just play DS3 on PC despite its likely smaller online community. The smoothness of the gameplay in this game is second-to-none.

3) I just beat Forest of the Giants. Not too bad, fairly standard boss and everything. Pretty inconsistent level design, though. Gorgeous environments in one room, ugly flat-lighting rectangular rooms the next. There's waaay too many rooms that just flat out rectangles with no interesting architecture or lighting, like they just ran out of time to finish modeling the world. Feels rom-hack-y in some areas.

4) I don't know why I'm finding it annoying that I'm constantly having to warp to level up, because I never felt particularly bothered about warping in Bloodborne.

5) Like I said, DS2 can be quite a looker, but having played Bloodborne prior...oh man, the art style is just super flat compared to BB. I know people scream bloody murder when anyone dares utter the words "B Team", but let's be real, the art style in DS2 was definitely a B-effort.

6) I never played the original release, but I'm not finding anything particularly horrid about the enemy spam so far. Maybe it gets worse later, but right now I'm finding they're spamming only fodder enemies so I don't really see the problem.

Really looking forward to playing more. Even if it's a step-down from other Souls games, a Souls game is always fun to run through.

EDIT: I forgot a big one:

7) Torch mechanic... Seeing all the randomly placed torches in perfectly lit indoor environments brings painful memories of the promises of torches and darkness playing a big role through the entire game. I was REALLY excited for that premise way back when the game was announced. I'm lighting the torches pretty much just for fun but it's so sad to see the remnants of a gutted mechanic strewn about the game.

 

[daninthemix]

OP what build did you use in this and DS1? I ask because I found DS2 quite a lot harder than DS1, and SOTFS harder still. The main problem seems to be your weapons do so little damage and there's no way to quickly upgrade them or get great early gear like in DS1.

 

[vladdamad]

It has some great moments such as Iron Keep, Shrine of Amana, and Dragon Aerie...

Wow, gotta say I felt the exact opposite about those areas - Iron Keep was an absolute nightmare for me in SotFS (so many enemies and sniper bow dudes!), and Shrine of Amana felt unreasonably difficult and tedious with my pure melee build. I do agree with your overall sentiment though, it is a fantastic game and is definitely worth playing. Haven't done the DLC yet which is supposed to be phenomenal, I'll get round to it eventually.

 

[thebloo]

As a statistic, Steam reviews:
- DkS 1 has 89% positive reviews
- DkS 2 has 88%

Not bad for the B team, right? My favorite remains Demons, but DkS2 is really close behind and I haven't even had the "time" to buy the DLC.

 

[Zocano]

The DLC is terrible tho.

Shulva, Sanctum City is on par with Latria and Stonefang of Demon's Souls and Research Hall of Old Hunters and Sen's Fortress of Dark Souls

Brume Tower is exceptionally strong and has a really good progression through its level design.

Elium Loyce has a really fun aesthetic, unique twist on standard Souls progression, and THAT BOSS FIGHT THO



Dark Souls 2 DLCs rivals the highs of the rest of the series. It's god damn beautiful.

 

[OmegaTreeFish]

People complain that Dark Souls II is "easy", but at the same time don't slap Bloodborne for the very same reason. Dark Souls II at least offers Covenant of Champions.

Not a perfect sequel by any means, but a damn good game at its core.

Dark souls 2 isnt bad because its easy. In fact a lot of people out there don't think it is.

It's bad because the controls are way worse, the level design is poor and the bosses are mostly uninteresting and very similar to each other. The designers made a dark souls game without understanding what made dark souls special.

Bloodborne is not that hard but its still more challenging than dark souls 2. However regardless of that, bloodborne has fantastic level design and mostly interesting boss fights.

The selling point of these games are hard is misleading if you ask me. The difficulty is hugly subjective and not what makes them good.

Dark souls 2 still did a few things right and those were mainly the choice it gave you in how to build and equip your character. But that was the only good thing it did for me. The rest just felt distinctly average.

 

[Morrigan Stark]

5) Like I said, DS2 can be quite a looker, but having played Bloodborne prior...oh man, the art style is just super flat compared to BB. I know people scream bloody murder when anyone dares utter the words "B Team", but let's be real, the art style in DS2 was definitely a B-effort.

Comparing graphics between a last-gen game and a new-gen one. Uhhh.... dude

 

[StaffyManasse]

I know this might be a bit on the can of worms territory, but I have to say I am curious. Is there like a last word or consensus, or an explanation on the whole downgrade deal? I was not following these games at the time so I really don't know.

 

[Zocano]

Comparing graphics between a last-gen game and a new-gen one. Uhhh.... dude

Whether for one reason or another, the lighting system that's in Dark Souls 2 is still super flat and makes a lot of environments (particularly Lost Bastille) look a bit... bland? He's got a fair point about that. While in some ways I prefer Dark Souls 2's aesthetic, Dark Souls 1's super bloom shittening over everything makes it look flashier and prettier despite similar quality of actual textures and geometry.

 

[takriel]

I'm still mad at FROM for messing up the flexibility in movements and stamina drains. Makes combat pretty clunky compared to the other games in the series.

 

[Morrigan Stark]

The lighting system is pretty good with the torch actually. Makes everything look prettier and the dynamic shadows animate quite well.

 

[Mr Fahrenheit]

I had literally zero expectation for DaS2 after the first one kind of disappointed me following Demon's Souls (mostly regarding the second half), and it still let me down.

I even went back to it in the past year to give it another shot and it was somehow even worse than I remembered. Just the way you move makes it feel like the Great Value! Dark Souls

 

[PepsimanVsJoe]

OP what build did you use in this and DS1? I ask because I found DS2 quite a lot harder than DS1, and SOTFS harder still. The main problem seems to be your weapons do so little damage and there's no way to quickly upgrade them or get great early gear like in DS1.

Really?

Get a bandit axe (found in Lost Wharf iirc). The bandit axe is simple but effective, and scales with one stat. Then just keep it continually upgraded. That's a weapon that can last you the entire game. If you're fairly adept at PVP, you can farm chunks by doing bellkeeper invasions near Lost Bastille. Between McDuff's large titanites, the shards scattered around, and the bell chunks, you'll have a +9 weapon in no time(maybe even +10, I forget when the earliest slab can be found).

EDIT: Well there you go.

 

[Morrigan Stark]

(maybe even +10, I forget when the earliest slab can be found).

Forest of Fallen Giants, lol. Behind a Pharros Lockstone-locked room.

 

[Lux R7]

DS2 with DS1 style movements and stats would have been a much better game imho. it's still great, unbelievable amount of content, best game of 2014. But the lack of big M's touch is visible.

 

[SkylineRKR]

I love DS2 with its DLC. Put 100 hrs into it easily. But its level design and atmosphere took a hit. Areas are more barren, less interaction and less stuff to break.

Some people say DS2 is a bad game, I think that simply says a lot about the high standards this franchise has set. Because if I compare DS2 to other games, then it beats a hell of a lot of them on content and fun alone.