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After years of saying Dark Souls 2 is the big stank, I finally put it all into words.
Thanks for watching you epic gamers!! Make sure to smiddy smash the bell and maybe subscribe to never see content like this again and you will be like wait wtf why did i sub to this
► 0:00 Intro
► 1:29 haha sheeeesh yess adaptability bestieeee :')
► 6:16 infinite healing go brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
► 9:12 hodgy pogddyyy who ate all the pies fatsooooo
► 12:07 DONT SKIP THIS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
► 13:49 yea but i do like it a bit thooo :^)
► 16:36 YOU'RE GOING TO LOSE YOUR SOULS?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?
► 18:59 i hate everything fun in this game i swear
► 22:51 The most important thing.
ALL DONE LIVE RIGHT HERE XOXO PLEASE COME WATCH AND CALL ME NAMES LIVE
► / zerolenny
SPOCY HOT HOT HOT MERCH RIGHT HERE
► zerolennys-spice-shop.creator...
► / zerolennyyt
► / zerolenny
#DarkSouls2Essay #zerolenny #keepitspicy
OTHER CREDITS
► My audience on Twitch for making this fun!
When your company’s worst game in a decade is DS2 you know you’re doing something right
No? That's not really enough to go on.
@@someretard7030 he is saying, that ds2 is a quality game, and that being the worst thing they have put out in a decade, is quite impressive and shows they know there stuff even when there making mistakes.
@@ZombieKitty321 Yeah, I got that that's what he meant. Although it is of course not what he said.
@@someretard7030 then why did you even comment? Lol
@@ZombieKitty321 Cause he didn't say what he meant to say. I wanted to point that out.
DS2's problem is that there's not enough bad bitches
sheeeeeesh :^) this gamer knows
Is Fencer Sharron not bad enough for you?!
No one could improve upon Gwyndolin.
@@weezersthebluealbum9479 Only good use for binoculars 👀
@@WolfHreda Need me my best boi Andre
A lot of the problems in DS2 come from the fact that they switched game directors midway through development and decided to take the game in a completely different direction with very little time. Knowing that information doesn't make the game better, but it does explain why so much of it feels like the game is a collection of half realized ideas stitched together with a lot of filler.
Tbh, I think DS2 was trying to go for the "open world" thing early then changed ideas, which would explain why each area is vastly different from each other
DS2 deserves a true remake i think, the game is basically unfinished.
Honestly, considering how much of a mess the development process was behind the scenes, I'd say it's pretty impressive that the game turned out decent. Even as the nearly unanimously claimed "worst Souls game", DS2 has its standout moments, especially in the DLCs. Also it's commendable how the game really tried to stand out as it's own thing compared to its successor. DS3 was great but the campy lore and lack of innovations were a letdown in comparison imo.
I always thought that mostly had to do with pulling together all the separate levels they had made into some sort of a cohesive story/playable game world. The basic gameplay mechanics were already there and probably didn't see a whole lot of change from the director swap I wouldn't think.
@@eldritchtoilets210 The lore was still a hell of a lot more interesting than DS2's tacked on, vague and generic lore, trying so hard to feel dark, but just coming off as cringe
22:42 Honestly, as much shit as powerstancing gets for not being very unique I have to give DS2's animation team some credit - having different styled backstabs and ripostes for most weapon classes like impaling someone and lifting them up with a halberd was INCREDIBLE, leagues above Dark souls 1's "stab in ass" or "Whack two times", or how they redid the greatsword moveset to swing like how someone actually would use the weapon - instead of slamming it into the ground like an idiot.
honestly the moment i saw that in DS3 so many weapons just share the same animation i was honestly just disapointed in the game. like, my favorit weapon where weapons like the broadsword for its backstab animation, it feels insanly satisyfing to first kick someone into the back to get them to their knees(something i think al backstabs do) and then do the slash
The vertical greatsword attack is wack as fuck the whole point of a big weapon is to hit a larger area, do more damage but longer attacks. The fast af vertical attacks are weird and annoying because they often miss
Most people are quite happy about power stancing, not shitting on it.
DS2 has a lot of animations but most of them are cringy and look like an amateur made them. The entire game looks like made on highschool game jam
@@ihbupontyne But they flatten you if they do hit.
*elevator from nowhere into a lava castle* Lenny: I don’t care NPC: *moves* Lenny: literal garbage
Unplayable, ruins muh immersion
I honestly feel they could have fixed the Elevator by just making it clear theres a fucking Volcano or Mountain Behind the Peak with the Skybox But they just forgot
@@quinnholloway5400 They could have just made the elevator go DOWN and it would have felt so much less absurd
@@DanSlivs1 that's what they actually wanted to do but yeah that's an embarrassing mistake
@@leeoon5006 this is a myth, the idea was that the elevator brought you up the volcano behind the earthen peak, but they forgot to put the volcano in the sky box lmao
The powerstancing twinblades not letting you turn into a helicopter and fly away to elden ring was disappointing. :(
Imagine designing the animation for 2-handing one of them, and then giving it THAT for powerstance...
They dropped the ball on not giving all Twinblades the Sorcerer Twinblade SPEEEN move
@@InternetHydra scripting this sounds like a nightmare.
RIP in pasta Helicopter Man
@@TheSabreKnight Dual Majestic Greatswords, though...
“He became the most decorated swordsman in all of Mirrah” dies in 3 thrust attacks
Considering Lucatiel's own "prowess" in battle, Mirrah Knights in general were either full of shit when it came to their actual skill or just coded with poor AI. The game would suggest the latter. Smart AI invaders DO exist, but Aslatiel wasn't made to be one of them, he was just a minor speedbump in your way as you entered the mansion.
@@AgentStolas Also, if you want a lore explination, I'm pretty sure he went hollow, so you're not fighting the disciplined swordsman that he once was.
@@AgentStolas smart AI are in the dlc and sotfs. aslatiel is base game
Was such a disappointing fight for me too. He just took a couple soul spears and died
@@AgentStolasthe crestfallen from ds1 offers more trouble than the highly skilled mirrah knight That fucker is a nightmare for melee builds cuz he parry like hell
10:08 the worst problem with this is that it defeats the point of 'fast' weapons, you may as well use a heavy-hitting weapon if your attack cycle is gonna be that long
With regards to the emerald herald, interviews with the creators confirmed that about 80% of her content was cut. That's kind of the running theme with this game come to think of it.
yet its the longest souls game by far
@@007kingifrit Yeah. Hence it was even bigger and they had to cut a bunch of stuff.
Kinda more the running theme of all From games to be honest.
@@xdude228 I wonder if they're using Elden Ring to do what they wanted to do with Dark Souls 2.
Some part of me wishes that they could revisit ds2 and remake the game the way it was intended.
"That's your game, you paid 60 dollars for it!" I bought ds2 Sotfs digital edition for 5 euros.
what the fuck is a euro
@@deathbyslipknot a currency you dingus
@@DeliciousHam69 what's a currency
@@deathbyslipknot guess
@@DeliciousHam69 isnt it like an indian food or something
I always saw powerstancing as giving you access to more movesets at once, not necessarily that every power stance combo had a different set. You choose a weapon combo, now you have the powerstance moveset, the right hand moveset, and the left hand moveset at your disposal, you can get a large move diversity without having to equip more than 2 weapons. You can cycle through movesets without cycling through weapons.
DS2 was my first souls game and playing Elden Ring now I was surprised by the lack of gank groups. I mean they exist, but it seems more natural, whereas in DS2 it just felt like everything in the game was specifically designed as a trap, set up and waiting to trick you into a false sense of security before getting you surrounded or stabbed in the back.
Didn't you play 3?
I got backstabed more than ganked
I'm sorry but I see the word Gank being thrown around but dunno what it means. I.e. Gank squad, getting ganked, etc.
@@mako8091 just means outnumbered basically
@@mako8091 it’s where multiple enemies will make it so you can’t really do anything cause they overwhelm you
IM REALLY SORRY ABOUT THE VIDEO BITRATE/QUALITY!!!! My computer is dying and this is all it could handle!! Taking sponsors 100% helps me get a new one ASAP!!!! Hopefully a really nice one so I can make a smashing Elden Ring Video
Wys big man
Need help building one?
Toaster type beat
@@MapleLoverX57 yeah i dont have a fucking clue lmaoooo sheeesh
llorón, tómatelo con calma y deja de "chillar" al hablar. otros al menos se calman al hacer estos videos y solo reaccionan así cuando tratan de ser cómicos o se trata de algo que realmente lo amerite; casi no pude entender lo que querías decir por eso.
Female robolenny makes me feel things that are not right
yes
Yes
I appreciate and acknowledge the canon that he will be known as robolenny
:zeroleBOOBA: is all I have to say on the topic.
RoboLenny will always be hot as fuckin' hell no matter what
One part of ds2 that stuck with me was the audio design, it felt really arcane and high fantasy, the noise that the old ones make when they die, pharros doors opening, burning an ascetic, its all so ethereal and it makes you think about the magic that exists outside of the castable spells. Dark souls 3 is an auditory blender in comparison, until you get to undead settlement I don't think there's a single enemy that doesn't screech at you. Tar monsters, the dragons, hollows, Vordt, like every other living thing just SCREAMS.
Same for me, same way DS1/2 feel very mysterious and fantasy like. It has a certain vibe to it that 3 just doesn't have, maybe it's the older graphics but I like the whole feel of the world so much more in 1/2
Lets not talk about the things that do actual jump scare screams in the dungeon over at late game
If Adaptibility altered dodge distance and speed instead of i-frames, that would've worked out imo. Dodges with or without Adaptibility would allow you to avoid damage all the same, but with Adaptability, you could be a bit more agile and aggressive. They might have to balance bosses for this, but it would work fine for Dark Souls 2 roster of bosses.
thats one thing they learned from ds2. In the 3rd one they made both normal and fast roll the same amount of s and roll recovery but just made the fast roll cover more distance. Thank you ds2
The ending was surprisingly wholesome. This is what happens when real Lenny takes a break for his pizzie.
@GuildOfThorns Obviously, considering your name was probably made when you were 12 when you were in your parent's basement
Really, Lenny is so super wholesome. He's one of my favourite content creators because of it.
@@Alberich_Prince_of_Dwarves And for some reason, surprisingly so.
@GuildOfThorns what are "people of coler" and why do you hate them?
@@yourdad5799 Yeah been wondering the same
Most of the games problems stem from its troubled development. Basically everything that could go wrong went wrong. The team was way to ambitious, made visual way to demanding for the 7th gen consoles, and a leader who wasn't the best at their job.
I like to blame the idea that From Software cant work on 2 games at once and fucked up trying to make this while developing bloodborne
It technically wasnt supposed to exist since Miyazaki, didnt want a sequel and the project was passed on to two directors (one female, one male dont remember their names 🤷🏻♂️)
I gess that this is what made me so pissed of about FROM : Why the hell was DS2 forced to release on an older gen console when Bloodborne was never intended to be released on an older gen? They could have just devoted the whole studio to developing one of these two and finished the other afterwards, but NO! DS teach us than being greedy isn't healthy. FROM just don't get it
@@majormaskass4859 blame bandia for wanting more money
"visually way too demanding" my dude every dark souls game looks like it's 5 years older than it really is. DS2 looks like ass. reminder that the likes of The Last of Us, God of War 3 and GTA 5 work on PS3. I ain't saying the last gen consoles of that time weren't a limiting factor, but from software has always been very incompetent when it comes to the engineering side of things, and I don't think we should just give them a free pass just because they fuck up every single time. The latest example is Elden Ring. Sure it's gonna release on PS4 and Xbone so it's a limiting factor again, but the trailer looks like ass other than the art style. The art style always carries the DS look, because From sure as shit can't carry with their textures, lighting or models. The only From game that looks somewhat competent without the art style to carry it is Sekiro.
It's not a bad game, it's just that it's the middle game in such an incredible series and didn't live up to the quality of the other 2 Dark Souls games. Dark Souls 1 sparked the popularity and basically defined a new genre (yes I know about Demon's Souls, it's just that Dark Souls was and is more popular and introduced more people to the series), and Dark Souls 3 polished the formula to a very high degree, finishing the series on a huge high note. Any other game would have a hard time living up to those expectations. If you take it away from the context of the other games in the series I'd consider Dark Souls 2 a very damn good game, unfortunately it's basically impossible to NOT compare them, because they're all part of the same series of games.
dark souls 3 is the worst
@@devoringdemonsoulq9086 Honestly, same. Dark Souls 2 is full of bullshit, but I had fun with it. I loved Aldia. Dark Souls 3 on the other hand is full of the same bullshit, except worse, and now every enemy is as fast as Bloodborn ones, with none of the tools BB gave to counter them. Dark Souls 1 and 2 beat the shit out of me but I had a good time and was interested in the story and characters. Dark Souls 3 *only* gave me a hard time, and I don't remember anything fun to balance it out. Honestly, I think Ds3 is a reason I never played the latest 3 FromSoft games (Aside from lack of money and proper console). Not putting up with the same jank, but worse.
At first I was a big DS2 hater but over time I started to really enjoy the aspects of it that are unique to it and have been having a lot of fun with it. There is a lot of bullshit in it though lol
I remember hating ds2 when it first came out and dropping it until I played SotFS later on
I remember not liking it when it first came out and starting to hate it after i played other souls games.
@In2sanity Sotfs is a lot better they fixed alot of tje really gank areas I personally love all the DS games pretty equally
@In2sanity If you didn't liked 2 you won't like sotfs either, some things were changed for the better other made it worse.
@In2sanity Yup same, that consistently stays a problem in both versions.
Power stancing doesnt add extrem variety to this game, dual wielding does. You can use the full 1handed move set of a weapon in you left hand. Power stance is just a bonus on top of that.
Imagine if powerstancing 2 weapons with skills on heavy attack allowed you to use both, oh man the double moonlight greastswords (i know that this could trivialise pve a lot )
@@redmirrow8913 Certain weapons do that: Double Firedrake Spear Double Smelter Sword And a few others.
Yeah, I dont see how he can complain about lack of variety. You would have LESS variety without power stancing.
It feels like Lenny confused power stancing with dual wielding. Good video though, has good points but fell short with the power stancing one
Well, how does that add that much variety? It isn't that much different from using different weapons in your right hand.
"power stance, what a joke" *Bone Fist and Caestus have entered the chat*
ah yes, my main tools.
@@fang4223 Truly, one of the enlightened
Vanquisher seal and left hand bone fist for a quick high kick
*Frigid Outskirts flashbacks ensue
I used a scimitar and the Fume sword. Fun times.
Okay, i just have to clarify, the DS2 Longsword and Broadsword are in fact different. It may not be obvious if you haven't used one extensively. While i prefer the longsword for its speed, thrusting attack, and over all versitility, a friend of mine prefers the broadsword, for its deliberate slashes somewhat unique asthetic, and (in his oppinion) better elemental upgrades.
They're different in real life too. Shocker.
@@awhite1212 in real life they don't have different movesets
@@felipeguedescampos851 but they do have different uses. Broadswords are more specialized for cutting and longswords are more specialized for thrusting.
For the power stance; I did waste a bunch of time testing out combinations and I was disappointed how many animations were the same. What I enjoyed however was switching to that mid-pvp as an option. Dual wield sword(rh) and dagger(lh) use them individually in each hand, switch to two handing either one, switch to power standing. It added a variety to a few pvp builds switching between how you're holding both weapons, I'm excited for this to come back with the weapon arts as well, it gives one build a lot of options rather than opening menu to switch around mid-fight.
spear + longsword, switching in between a rapier and whip, had so much fun with that combo
and ofc, with powerstancing u only expand the kit of moves and combos avaiable to you
hard disagree with lenny on this one
I’m definitely in the boat of players who really enjoyed DS2. I remember being stuck on the pursuer for DAYS. Then figured out how to use the ballistas to kill him! So many moments come to mind, my friends teaching me how to cheese dragon rider, the early pursuer fight freaking me and my friends out at a sleepover. I wish I could go back and play it for the first time again.
Aww 🥰 This was sweet
lol casul
A better time :^( I remember struggling with pate's side quest to get the soapstone for a few hours before I could even help my friends. Let alone push on the last giant boss🥺🥺 I miss struggling with darksouls, it made the game seem so much bigger and more hostile
@@MultiWolfLink I feel you buddy....they never tell you the downsides of Gitting Gud do they? 😞
I was also stuck on Pursuer. I couldn't get the ballista trick to work so I had to beat him the old fashioned way. In the end I think the first time I won I got lucky, but since then I've had a lot of fun fighting him that way
I always thought the emerald herald was using the feather she gives us later in game to warp from bonfire to bonfire.
You can literally see her teleport in after Velstadt's boss fight if you look behind you while you go down the stairs.
Yes I mean lore wise
yea but then like haha why tell me to go get the king ring tho hahah like just teleport pick it and and teleport back tho haha :^^^^)
@@ZeroLenny To prove your strength? Why doesm't Gwyndolin just give us the Lordvessel, why do we have to fight O&S, for that matter, why doesn't Frampt just give us the Lordvessel after the Asylum?
@@thestylemage2092 How could Frampt give you the Lordvessel? Dont you need to travel to Anor Londo so Gwyndolin can give it to you?
9:12 thankyou for finally mentioning this, I haven't seen it anywhere else. The combat feels so unbearably slow, it's honestly the only reason I stopped playing. Liked a lot else about it, but the combat feels so slow, sticky and unresponsive, and it felt like I couldn't play aggressively. I couldn't bear it
Everyone always mocks ds1 for feeling clunky and slow but dear god did people just genuinely forget about ds2? That game felt immeasurably clunkier and slower, it’s like every enemy, boss and player is submerged underwater
@@iamMildlyUpsetWithMostOfYouTub On the other hand, i see people praising DS1 for it's slow, deliberate combat, when the only game in the series that actually is slow and deliberate is DS2. Turns out most people don't like that. I do, but i'm clearly in the minority.
@@EllaKarhu I'd describe Dark Souls 1 as being a bit more tactical. You have to be careful, but you did have the opportunity to correct out of mistakes. That and positioning on enemies was very important. DS2 is both slow, but the positioning is also harder to do due to the enhanced tracking of the enemies you fight (Some of those bastards should take a career in ballet).
how much meth did you smoke before claiming that ds2 is slower, and more unresponsive than ds1 combat?
Bloodborne was my first of the genre and after a few years i decided to venture into dark souls 2 because it was really cheap on sale. I understand now why.
You're telling me you can parry the Ruin sentinels?
One thing that immediately separates DS2 from its predecessor is that you can parry just about any humanoid boss. If it's a dude in armor, you can style on it.
*laughs in bloodborne*
@@NBmad * Loads glock with malicious intent *
@@WolfHreda and that was kinda brought back in sekiro at first youd think you cant parry big ass hammers or animas, but you actually can
@@TheliMagnus i mean, in sekiro, you can use air pressure as a weapon...
I love that you don’t have a problem with going up a lift into a volcanic castle but you do have a problem with a character arriving at a location ahead of you in a universe that canonically has teleportation.
I was astonished in realizing how easy it was to just go around every single enemy (bosses included). This is the only soul game where I was able to not die for hours and keep my humanity.
Avoiding 99% of the enemies can be done in pretty much every FromSoft game. Watch a speedrun. The only thing they kill is usually bosses, and a casual player can easily use most of those strats to also avoid a lot of combat.
@@28Pluto I meant going behind them, to do the backstab, not going past them. Sorry english is not my native language lol
@@MacsGioosti 11 months late but have you played the other souls games? you can 100% walk around the majority of enemies in ds1 and ds3, you can cheese most enemies, walk around and backstab, this isnt a ds2 specific thing, same with most bosses. I've been playing ds3 lately and I don't understand why people think these things about ds2 so much because I find the same exact things happening in this game the majority of the time, shitty easy manipulated ai, gank squads, turn based combat, walking around an ememy the entire time hardly rolling, etc. I don't think the other games are as different as people are saying, they all have these issues to some extent and depending on playstyle.
Kinda interesting watching this one again after elden ring. Feels like they learned a lot of lessons from the criticism of dark souls 2 in how they implemented similar systems in elden ring, eg: healing accessibility, the Emerald Herald, and power stancing.
They already had corrected most of it in DS3. I'm at the beginning of Elden Ring right now and it feel like i'm playing DS3-2. Which is a good thing tbh
I litirally just starred replaying this game like an hour ago because of watching your vids
maybe keep playing and come back to this dont wanna spoil you :')
@@ZeroLenny i've played it throce already man no worrys. Oh and I've seen you talk someithing about people telling you that you where too energetic in the ign guid video? Fuck those people man. Be the way you are mate. Don't let those cunts turn you down. I love it
If you did get shit because of that IGN guide don't listen to the hate, that video and this video have been some of the best content you've put out in a while, I like blue lenny but prefer regular lenny
@@Guitar-Dog and guy above, hard agree. The game is great for what it is, so is Bloodborne and Lenny is fuckin killing it with these funny, interesting and sometimes introspective videos :D Keep up the good work, Lenny
Enjoy good game good
iv'e ended up killing Aava without a shield, and never leveling ADP beyond the 2.4 poise due to literally not knowing ADP increases iFrames. Me, a masochist, finds this funny in hindsight. But i do get why that is problematic.
bro dead ass I've never lvl'd adp before and my first character was deprived who's on their 4th new game+... I also dropped using shields a long time ago
u absolute madlad :)
When i first played i immediately search what the hell is agility. I think its obvious to do for everyone O.o And how do you not notice your rolls sucks O.o ?
my first ds2 playthrough was without adp as well and well this Eleum DLC killed me more than anything else int he whole series
@@selesia865 Because we learn to time them
i've always loved dark souls 2, especially taking it in for the first few times and learning the secrets throughout but MAN there's so much i hate about it. I just started playing it again with a friend and we're both realized like "oh right, it's played like THIS".... we're still having fun with it tho. Loved your video, made me laugh and get all nostalgic. The Herald showing up at critical points in the story is kinda lame and underplayed at best but she still has the most iconic catchphrase: "Bearer Seek Seek Lest" ♥
The one thing that always got under my skin was the weapon durability. Smack a few enemies some 30 times, weapon is at half durability and nowhere near the boss...great planning there.
The only game where you have to do something about your durability instead of just ignoring it, why did they try to do the same system in DSIII but impossible to break is beyond me, why would durability even be in the game if you won't ever have to worry about it
Yeah, if you're not using heavy weapons (like greatswords or greathammers) your weapon won't be durable enough to go through the whole level.
eh, it's one of the things in ds2 I find it okay. in ds1 and 3 you probably never care about durability's existence unless you use the weapon arts.
If you don't hit walls it's never a problem for the majority of weapons.
@@A_Black_Sheep94 except the broadsword notorious for how fucking garbage it is when in a tight hallway
14:27 I always thought that all they had to do is make elevator go down and make far far up a stone ceiling in the Iron Keep so it's like a gigantic cave. Nobody would complain.
I think, that this bad transition is because they cut location between the mill and iron keep
All they had to do was not forget the skybox in Earthen Peak. You can see it in the bonfire travel screen. The skybox would have shown the keep up there no problem.
The place literally sank into lava in the fuckin lore too this would have made so much more sense
I think they should have just had the Pursuer's bird take you to Iron Keep from the roof of Earthen Peak, just as it takes you from the Forest to Lost Bastille. You even have an optional fight with the Pursuer in Iron Keep, so the justification for the bird taking you there would match Lost Bastille's. Making it a completely self-contained area is the best option as the surrounding landscape is so vast and barren it's inconceivable you could travel on foot from any existing region in the game.
Isn’t the iron keep on top of the Earthen Peak, not the mill?
The Emerald Herald's real name is Shanalotte, a name given to her by the Ancient Dragon. She was created specifically to break the undead curse, but her creators failed and she did not come out as intended. It is possible that she was the result of one of Aldia's experiments. She also mentions that she is the one who draws the Undead to Drangleic in order to find the one who will break the curse and accomplish her purpose.
Ok
Ok
Ok
Also, she's holding the Aged Feather which is an infinite use warping item. Kinda explains how she's able to zip around everywhere.
So, you're saying Shanalotte is actually Dark Souls 2 as a waifu?
I can't stand DS2 as much as the next guy, but I don't agree with your point about turn based combat. Both DS1 and DS2 have a very defined combat cycle: avoid enemy attack > attack enemy > repeat. The same thing is going on, it just feels worse in DS2 because of clunky and restrictive animations. I agree that having a ton of recovery on straight swords is dumb and doesn't fit thematically, but it's really no different gameplay-wise than using a heavier weapon class. If you were using a UGS you probably wouldn't try to squeeze in a second attack on a boss because you know you don't have enough time. The same consideration needs to be taken with straight swords in DS2 even though that's dumb. This is probably why everyone just uses the 2-handed rapier instead. I also wouldn't say that DS1 "rewards" playing aggressively as much as it simply allows it (with certain weapons). DS2 disallows that playstyle with straight sword where as DS1 does not. What I'm trying to say is, it's not an inherent property of the combat in DS2 to be clunky, because it's largely the same as in DS1. It's the recovery frames on certain weapons that force it to feel that way. If you replaced straight swords in DS2 with the straight swords from DS1, combat would feel very similar.
Y'know, as someone whose favorite Souls game is SotFS, I've gotta say, you make great points. I can't honestly disagree with them, but it doesn't really make a difference to me. I like the pace of the combat, I love the world and the atmosphere, and I always have fun making new characters with new builds. Thanks for being kind to the fans of this game even though you don't like it as much. Good video!
I've beaten DS2 but I didn't really enjoy it. The first time one of those damn turtle hammer dudes did that bullshit 360° insta tracking and hit me I stopped liking it honestly. I know, I understand how the dodging works, but there's just something about how egregiously unrealistic it is that makes me hate it, it just makes the combat seem 100% cheap and unfair, not challenging, just an unfair, bad design.
@@damiencouturee6240 totally agree
@@damiencouturee6240 you just want to spam down enemies like in other souls instead of waiting for enemy to attack and get exposed
To me learning when it's safe to attack in DS2 was much more fun than in DS3 where it's just "make sure you attack first and you'll be fine". DS3 doesn't feel like a Dark Souls game to me, but just like Bloodborne. While I like Bloodborne (first game I played) I think it's a shame they're so similar
At least the pvp is super fun with the feigning, slower healing allowing to punish chuggers, incredible amount of viable pvp weapons, spells don't suck, etc
I agree! also love your pfp xxx
@@ZeroLenny thanks lenny
@@ZeroLenny I also really love how the Stone ring works in pvp. Turns off Poise but not hyperarmor, in ds3 this is dooky because str weapons are easily telegraphed but because you can feign attacks it actually makes roll catching with strength weapons pretty easy. Ds2 may have the worst pve but I stand by my opinion that it has the best PvP.
How do you feign an attack?
@@Guitar-Dog use an attack with a follow up and deliberately miss the attack, the enemy runs in thinking your attack is over and as soon as they run in you do the follow up attack. If this isn’t what they meant then I don’t really know what feigning in ds2 is.
"Perhaps you've seen it. Maybe in a dream." No I've seen it in my fucking nightmares.
lmfao 10/10 summed it up betetr than me and didnt take 26mins
@@ZeroLenny Lenny, it's funny ya made this video cuz last night I had a dream where the Lead Designer for DS2 admitted in an interview that before he was assigned the project he never even heard of Dark Souls before. I woke up screaming "THAT EXPLAINS EVERYTHING" and no I'm not joking it was really funny. I have a lot of gripes but personally one of my biggest is the walking and running animations, like in DS1 and DS3 your character is animated, they move their legs and arms as a person would in real life if they ran. In DS2 however, your character not only has a stick shoved straight up their ass but in their ass they shat themselves and are desperately looking for a toilet. Like WHY IS IT SO STIFF. Your character walks like a fucking wooden board for christ sake!
@@serlistogiette4168 What if it wasn't a dream, but a vision of the past...?
@@serlistogiette4168 fr, the movement has 8 main directions and then notches in-between in ds2, which makes it feel so bad compared to ds1 and ds3
@@nickzakrath7080 No... NOOOO
4:22 - 4:38 You can reinvest your attribute points in DS2 using an item you get fairly early on, allowing you to change your play style in many diffrent ways.
You can also alter your playstyle by closing the game and booting up a better one
An issue i have is with enemies stop spawning in after either 1.) They die too many times Or 2.) You die to that enemy too many times And to get them back you have to use a bonfire aesthetic
Or the company of champions
@@thepandrbr when I made the comment, I didn't know about the covenant of champions but knowing what it is and does, it's just as bad
What made this game my favorite was the Iron Bridge fight clubs. I'd never seen such a wholesome concept come out of a pvp mechanic, and it was entirely community created. Host provides warmth between fights and summons phantoms (and prism stone decor), two duelist fight it out on the bridge. Victor heals up and the next challenger steps up. Seeing the creative builds take on the havel monsters, mob cosplays versus the sweaty katana weebs, and the disorderly punished by the waiting duelists was truly something to behold.
@Ferrol kk
@Eli Santiago I've always said DS2 is the best souls-like
The pvp was definitely pretty good, but the pve was 🤮
i think i shed a tear while reading this. i really miss those bridge pvps.
90% of the people I know that find DS2 the best of the bunch is because of the PVP. Unfortunately I never cared for PVP, but that seems to be the only real part of the game where it SHINES and shines.
I don't have a problem with the "turn based" nature of the combat, but I'm used to taking that approach, especially coming to Souls games from Monster Hunter
that's great! I agree if that's what you like then that's brilliant!
That is a good point! However, not to take away from your point, but just to give my own perspective, Monster Hunter has lots of mechanics built around finding more ways to put the monsters into a vulnerable state. Plus there are many weapons that you can use their movesets attack while also avoiding or blocking attacks. And of course even avoiding a monster is an event because it's a massive, destructive killing machine
@@johnschaeffer7008 Nothing was more fun than waiting for Azure Rathalos to stop flying when I've already used all of my flash bombs as a SnS main :^)
@@DunCakes Gotta stock those flashbugs so you can craft more on the fly. Besides that's nothing compared to Kushala 😑
Yeah but MH combat design is balanced around it and allowing you to create openings for more of "your turns". Imo at least dark souls just doesn't have that and it kills that flow(as someone who also came from mh lol)
In regards of artystle, I'd like to point out the enemy design too. DS1 and 3 had the basic undead/skeleton/dragon enemies, but it had a huge variety of creative, disgusting and unique creatures. While Dark Souls has never been a horror game, in 1 and 3 there were still lots of unnerving enemies. The chained prisoner, the octopus ladies in DS1, the Deep Accursed and wretches of DS3, you get the idea... also all these monsters where not just there because... variety. They somehow tied into the lore and mood of the place. In the meantime I really dislike the approach Dark Souls 2 made with enemies. I always considered enemy design as one of the main judging point of a game's creativity, not just mechanically, but visually also. And in DS2, even in the endgame you still fight mostly armored knights and humanoid zombies. And when the game tries to do something unique and unnerving the same way DS1 and 3 did, in usually ends up falling flat and being extremely goofy instead. The mastodon warriors, the weird dinosaur things in Dragon Sanctum, the spinny hedgehogs in Eelum Loyce and the big hippo cyclopses all feel so out of place for a Dark Souls game, for me they kinda break the illusion everytime.
Agree. So many Dark Souls 2 enemies, and even bosses loose so much street credit for being significantly weaker than a hippo. Granted, hippos are some scary shit, but still. Also, the little monkeys(?) Those little guys hit SO goddamn hard.
This is actually a great review that puts into words the exact reasons as to why I didn't have that much fun with this game and why I would rank it far below the other souls games. For me personally the review doesn't include some other things that soured my experience of this game, e.g. being able to be hit out of animations (especially for fog gates) which means that you spend more time fighting enemies then you do fighting a boss every time you die (iron keep) or you just die while trying to open a door, or that, because of the slow combat, ganking is made to be even worse of an idea as it's so much harder to fight mutiple enimies without almost being guaranteed to get hit. 10/10 game, wouldn't play again 😂
Dark souls 2 was definitely one of my favorites in terms of diversity of armor options! The player can wear almost any enemy armor they see!
yeah, robust inventory, NG+, robust DLC, and just the most content overall. Great game. Still my least favorite in the trilogy, but its like picking your least favorite kid. lol
I do agree that the armour do look amazing. Plus, i like power stancing because i was able to use a similar and a ultra greatsword at the same time.
Yeah, and the funny thing is that DS2 probably has the lowest usable armour/NPC enemy armour ratio For example you can't get a lot of DLC armour or weapons (most armour and weapons of base enemies), expecially in brume tower (no possessed armour/iron warrior sets, no iron warrior mace), in the base game for example you can't get the pursuer set (which i'm sure would be dope as hell)
I love this game even with all its imperfections. It was my first souls game and it got me addicted to the series. While certainly the black sheep of the series, it has an undeniable janky charm to me. That’s why my friend and I just started our second run of drunk souls 2 and better times have never been had :)
We'd set up 3 tvs and xboxs, cook some steak sandwiches, get a case of beer and race to a million souls from a clean start. we'd all play every Friday and Saturday night before everyone got busy with their own lives. Those were good times!
Same, first DS for me, still loved DS3 more but enjoyed lots of stuff from 2 like the variety of fun builds you could do there
my first too I remember suffering on the lost sinner for days. but now its one of the easiest bosses for me then playing through with my brother like 10 times or something close to that.
There are absolutely some amazing looking areas from an art direction standpoint. As nonsensical as it is, I still love when you come out of the tiny tunnel into a sudden downpour, and you come around that corner to look up at Castle Drangleic standing imposingly on the stormy precipice. But there is something *really* weird about the way the lighting engine works in, almost all areas. Despite the fact that there are lights and there are shadows, somehow a lot of the areas of the game just look really... flat? I'm sure it has something to do with them having to scale back from the detailed light/shadow engine that would've necessitated the use of torches, which the final game doesn't need at all. But somehow the lighting just looks flat and way worse than Dark Souls 1.
Idk what u talking about Ds 1 looks like crap Even the remastered
@@LordOfChaos.x And DkS2 looks worse, which is all I said.
In DS2, blocking is often preferable to rolling as rolling takes longer and uses more stamina, meaning you will have less opportunity to hit the enemy back, the ruin sentinel fight is a clear example where blocking > rolling, as it is very hard to dodge some of their attacks such as the spinning attack they do, but that same attack can be easily blocked.
DS2 makes you comit. If you want to roll everywhere, you need adaptability and endurance. Or a ring. DS2 is perfect for me. Every build feels really unique. Plus infinite rolling like in DS3 feels really stupid.
The Emerald Herald doesn't actually show up everywhere in the kingdom. In the Japanese version she refers to the versions of her you've met as "bunshins" IE clones or illusions.
So when I accidentally killed her after finding Vendrick and a gravestone appeared in Majula, that was her going into hiding after I killed her stunt-double?
@@ScorpSolifugid /shrug sounds like the gameplay just doesn't match the in-game lore. Wouldn't be the first time for DS2
@@tank19768 That's true, I'm still just a bit salty about having to pay two-thousand souls every time I wanted to level up after that. The grave system was really forgiving for most NPCs, but level-up characters respawn with no strings attached in the other games, so it was extra annoying to be saddled with a consultation fee for the emerald herald.
That also in the English version but Lenny didn't play that dialog because It went against the joke
@@angellara7040 Yeah, though it's less specific so I thought it'd be better to go for the Japanese version.
I love that people always show Prowling Magus as a example of why all of DS2 is the easiest game and completely ignore that Pinwheel exists
@@NoivasAlbionOnline pinwheel is the hardest ds1 boss cuz you allway đie when try runing throught that stupid bonewheels
@@NoivasAlbionOnline Really? it was just a bunch normal enemies in a brightly lit small room that you can in 10 seconds
@@kingdomkey2262 same with capra demon and tarus demon also deacon of the deep
Pinwheel is 1 easy boss, almost every boss in dark souls 2 is pretty easy
Why not ceaseless discharge? He basically kills himself
Bloodborne's solution to consumables might've been a solution to how effective lifegems are now I think about it. Only carrying 20 small gems, then 1 to 3 of the better ones. Same with spell recovery items and the other big heals like crimson waters and the like.
One thing that bothered me was the run up to some of the bosses. Like in the Brume Tower DLC. They were some of the hardest bosses like Blue Smelter and I died so many times just getting to the boss.
Iron Passage is a co-op designated zone. Every DLC had a co-op zone with iron king having two. They are: Cave of the Dead Iron Passage Memory of the Old Iron King Frigid Outskirts Understandably, when you try to run through a multiplayer zone solo it will be difficult. These areas were made and balanced *for* multiplayer.
@@malpheus4299 that’s so dog
@@malpheus4299 dumb excuse. What if I don't like multiplayer? Be honest, it's called bad level design
@@kirilllucenko88 It was a gimmick which isn't exactly unusual in the souls' series, let's be honest. These were optional non-essential bosses that the dev team decided to experiment with the co-op more with. I agree it was a poorly implemented system but it doesn't actually hurt your experience with the main DLC.
I have a special fondness for dark souls 2, despite its flaws. It was my first dark souls because here in Brazil it's cheaper, and if it didn't exist I probably wouldn't fall in love with the franchise.
One of my favorite things about 2 compared to others is the amount of variety and the changes in NG+ and beyond.
@Ferrol That's purely opinion. DS2 can be the worst souls game and still be a good game regardless of what a single person thinks. I can play it and have fun and if others can't then that's okay too.
@@BBQcheese still far far better than just a net increase on health and damage as well as item swapups.
@@BBQcheese Except most of the times when you get ganked, the level is designed for you to either be able to lure them out, or force the enemies to fight one on one. Honestly it makes me sad when people focus to hard on player actions and enemy actions in a vacuum when level design is just as important. This is why I don't like Dark Souls 3 beyond the bosses because the levels are so wide and spacious where you never feel like you have to pay attention to your positioning otherwise you'll die from rolling wrong.
@Eli Santiago oh look! Its the person nobody likes!
that's true but even in ds2 one would have liked to have had more changes in ng+. I still remember that I often read that in ds2 something changes every time and the normal opponents are exchanged from a certain high ng+ lvl. Unfortunately none of that was true. Dark Souls 2 is probably the game that had some of the best approaches but didn't really fulfill any of them very well. some of them ended up hurting the game more see ADP Stat or the Life Gems^^
Love the video and i also love the transition into the Nordpass add, if im gonna look at an add i wish it was like this everytime, good job.
I can't believe you never mentioned how broken parrying is especially with one of the first parrying shields you get, the 'buckler' if I remember correctly since it has the most generous parry frames. Also the fact that almost everything can be parried and most times poisoned lol. Even with all that it makes it fun to play the game different ways depending on your mood.
There's actually 5 options for avoiding damage... Blocking, dodging, parrying, walking out of the way of an attack to preserve stamina, and canceling out your opponents attack with your own attack.
THANK YOU, I was shouting at my phone when he said that.
Some hard enemies were a joke for me because I killed them before they attack so I never saw their attacks
LMFAO does this guy not know that people have beat this game 100% all bosses (including DLC) without getting hit ONCE? Wtf...
@@leeham6230 Who is "this guy"? Obviously he knows all of this, he was just making an example. Y'all aren't genius
Or you just max out hp/armor then tank & heal.
Seeing everybody call DS2 the best makes me feel marginally less alone. It's genuinely one of my favorite games.
You can love bad things and that's okay. I like ds2 too. It's not a good game but we like it and enjoy it.
Welcome brother. I consider it my third favorite game of all time, and the other two Dark Souls aren't on that list.
@@D.H.1082 Y'all have some strange tastes
@@yourdad5799 I think it's actually a pretty great game- maybe not a good souls game, but it's very much for me
That's awesome dude! Also at the end of all. You spend 10hrs playing a game you liked and another guy spent 10hrs wasting their time doing something they didn't like. So who's the real winner here!
55 hours in and this feels so validating to watch. I've tried so hard to love it, especially with the recent contrarian backlash to DS2 hate that inspired me to play it. It's just not a game I like, and I want to love it still, but every time I play it i lose 5 minutes of patience for the bullshit. Right now, I'm at dragon shrine, and 15 minutes in to progression through the area, i lose all love for the game and just want to do something else, so so so badly. It's been a similar pattern up until now for the last 20 hours or so, especially with aldia's keep (though before that i've been on 7-8/10 territory, with significant flaws in what I seek in a game glaringly obvious).
probably...one of the best conclusion ever i was almost sad by watching this it' s so cool to take so much time to talk about that topic thanks man internet need more content that take time to put heart on the idea that in the end the personal enjoyment mean so much man thanks so much for that content
Started with DaS2, so it holds a special place in my heart. That being said, YIKES THIS GAME IS *FLAWED* . Made great points you sweet baby angel.
This is a very good mindset to have.
Yeah same. I'm actually playing through it rn for the sake of nostalga, and while I do actually enjoy it I absolutely think that it is the worst in the series. I actually really enjoyed this video, it puts into words exactly what I've been feeling myself.
Yeah, I'd say 1 is my favourite and a big part of that is it being my first one too!
@@ZeroLenny Same here but I also feel like DaS 1 gets a truly hilarious amount of free passes because only 10 people played DeS. I think that you point out quite well why everyone is harsher on the 2nd game (including myself) but a lot of people forget that the beautifully connected world of the first Dark Souls gets yeeted into the trash for the last 1/3 of the game after you get the Lordvessel. You can walk in a straight line from Firelink to Nito, teleport to Anor Londo and walk in a straight line to the Duke or teleport to Kellogg's and walk in a straight line to the greatest boss design of all time. Spooky Londo is sort of saved by being under Firelink and being fairly open once drained but then 4 of the same infinitely reapwning boss dab on you if you're slow. Dark Souls 2 absolutely wins on variety of everything, fashion, ascetics and creative covenants, though. Still kinda mad we haven't seen many of those things return.
Thank you for that ending man. No one should ever feel like they have to defend why they enjoy a game. Like you said, you spent the money so you get to dictate how you feel about it.
Yeah, ds2 definitely felt like one big experiment. That's one thing I love about from soft they can manage to make the same game yet alter and reintroduce concepts and mechanics. Pretty sure equip load was the only factor in ds1 rolling. DS2 agility scaling with ADP and ATN does the s and equipment load changes roll distance.
I agree with a lot of your points! I really enjoyed my time with DS2, but overall there seem to be way too many half-baked ideas and mechanics that DS1 and DS3 didn’t get bogged down with.
You can hate the game all you want, but you have to agree; the falconer's walk cycle is god tier.
"Lemme tell you somethin'. Lemme tell you somethin'-"
Everybody talks about the great characters like Artorias, Aldia and Gwynn, but nobody mentions the humble falconer whos so dedicated to his job hes still fighting for Vendrick even though hes shat his trousers. Truly an inspiration to us all.
15:41 "How did you get here?" Moments later, Emerald Herald gives you the Aged Feather, using which, you can teleport to the last bonfire from anywhere. Which likely means that Emerald Herald can teleport anywhere using the Aged Feather. Don't ask me how a feather lets you teleport.
The lifegem problem was solved in Elden Ring imo by adding the Regen tear for the Wondrous Physick. I always like to use the regen tear and it comes back. I don't have an infinite amount but I can use it to counteract Rot or on boss fights for passive healing mixed with my main healing.
me coming straight from ds1 to ds2 I was in love with powerstancing the idea of a duel wielding swordsman was so cool to me and I will say if they do a DS1 remake I hope it adds powerstancing because I remember when I got lord blade ciarans weapons in the first game I was sorely disappointed that they made a character who was clearly meant to be duel wielding but had not integrated mechanics for duel wielding
For me I fell in love with dark souls 2 at Majula. I had just beaten some tough boss like the fume knight and I came to Majula and the music got me the peace of waves crashing on the shore the sun high in the sky. it was like coming home again dark souls has flaws. but any game that can both challenge me so thoroughly and gives me a moment of real peace. earned its place in my heart.
I remember having my ass kicked brutally at the lost bastille (or something like that), then getting back to Majula and feeling so safe, even if it was for a small time
@@lucho6883 perhaps that safety is a key Distinction in this series
Majula always feels sad and lonely to me idk
@@jarlbalgruuf2415 it's not really a happy place, but a place that looks perfect to sit for a while and think about life. Also, a really cool place to drink a cold beer while watching the sea
A acknowledge all the shit that's wrong with ds2, but it's still gonna be my fav
Not my fav but i like the game the tiny room 100 enemies thing makes me wanna go away from it ngl. And the combat as well
@@capperbuns fair point with the annoying ganks, but the combat is what makes the game better than others for me.
@@capperbuns the game doesn’t do that though and ironically the other games do that more you just don’t like to acknowledge it
@@zzodysseuszz dark souls 1 undead Parrish channeler on all the hollows
@@zzodysseuszz false! No other souls has so many ganks and traps as ds2, I like the fact that to each one you can prepare but you almost never have a nice little 1v1 or 1v2 which are the most fun
ill level with you I don't believe the point about shields is very valid considering the only starting class that even possesses a shield has a broken weapon to start out with, which immediately should put off new players from using them. until you find a shield in the world (surprisingly uncommon) or buy one from a merchant (a little expensive at the start) you're gonna be dodging attacks anyways. I think what the game really needed to do was make the agility mechanic more intuitive, and on-board players onto it better, so that players know _why_ their dodges aren't performing well and how they can improve them. I'm not really sure how you would do this? DS as a series like to be a bit hands-off with its teaching which makes any explicit tutorializing a tough proposal. I think listing Agility's effects including the invulnerability period of the roll under agility itself (like how strike/slash/pierce are listed under physical resistances) could have been a good start, and put that stat and its subcategories up under stamina so that players would see it right next to their HP and Stamina when leveling. that way it would be much harder to miss the "dodge invincibility period" stat go up when seeing what ADP does. This could also have the additional effect of letting players see exactly how long each tier of roll has invincibility for, giving more transparency to how much worse "fat" rolling is. On top of this, the data that's affected by a specific stat being leveled should turn green when hovering over a stat, so that even if you don't try putting a level into it to see what happens, even if you dont hit right on your d-pad just to see what it'll do, you'll still be immediately notified that "adaptability makes your rolls better" the moment you even hover your cursor over it. I'm personally a stan for ADP and the analog weight %-based rolling distance because it made dodging feel more intimate and your build decisions more consequential on HOW you can dodge. in ds1/3 you can have so many varied builds between the different weight % caps that all dodge exactly the same, whereas in DS2 depending on your ADP stat and the weight of your equipment the way you avoid attacks can be wildly different before you even equip a shield or break the fat roll threshold. DS2 boss design also heavily emphasizes footwork, using sprinting and walking to avoid attacks you're not confident you can dodge through but are confident you can use footwork to avoid entirely. In this sense, dark souls 2 has a more intimate relationship forged between the player and dodging, where dodging is a more calculated decision based on numerous externalities and player experience, rather than an effectively binary "can you dodge well or not" and "dodge here and here in this boss fight", which is very much how dark souls 1 and 3 tend to feel
I always play these games blind the first couple times, and assumed that the DS2 agility stat effected something similar to DS1's resistance stat... didn't level it even once till my third playthrough
i've got all achievements on ps3 5 years ago with 4 chars and almost 1k hours, now on steam i've got 2 chars 100 hours and I JUST LEARNED WHAT ADAPTABILITY DOES NOW, oh fuck...
Dark Souls isn't built for carelessness, press Select and read, these games don't explain much for you but give you the tools to learn, it's up to you to plan properly.
I mean who would've thought coming from ds1 that they would put I frames into a stat what a joke
@@darkigor20 ds2 is a mickey mouse game
@@-Nihilus- Found the english drop-out.
The thing that i really liked about DS2 is the weapon moveset variety, with certain weapons of course. Like the santiers spear or the bewitched alonne sword. they had a mix and match of weapons movesets. or just creating new movesets entirely like with the puzzling stone sword or the smelters hammer. everything in DS3 i feel is very straight forward and lack luster.
And don't even forget the power-stanced Bone fist, Ivory King Ultra Greatsword, Loyce Greatsword, or Drakewing Ultra Greatsword
the only ds3 weapons I liked were twinblades and boss/dlc sttuff
@@lawmanlawman2210 the demon's fist were a piss poor fist weapon compared to how ninja I felt with my bone fists. I think it was Caestus in one hand, Bonefist in the other for the moveset but superior scaling of the Caestus.
Dark souls 2 will always have a special place in my heart, it was my first souls game.
Same
I've never met anyone who thinks DS 2 is good and didn't also play it first as their entry into the series. It's very difficult to put aside feelings and focus on facts.
I think From handled the lifegem idea the best in Sekiro, by limiting the amount of pellets you can carry.
Starting with DS3 then going to DS2 was whiplash for me. I was so used to the speed that I found it difficult to get used to the slow combat. You pointing out it is like turn based combat might help me adapt to it.
Stamina management is also a lot more important in DS2 because you have less of it than you do in DS3. R1 spamming is just going to get you killed
@@harrygarris6921 R1 spam in any souls game is going to kill you. What you mean is stamina management But that has its advantages and disadvantages.
Something similar happened to me when playing 1 after 3, but I felt that adapting towards the slower and more methodical combat was natural with the enemy and level design.
@@gamerforlife3946 Not in Bloodborne.
@@shawnmarcum8078 Bloodborne where it’s better to use combos with L1? The game that is built on parries with a gun? You can defeat it with R1 only if that’s what you are saying? But spamming it? I hope you are joking
Power stancing is cool enough when it's applied in a cool way, but my favorite thing at the time of release was the increased viability of not carrying a shield. Two handed weapons were given more leeway to lift them if they were heavy, and you got a better damage buff than you did in DS1. So being someone that doesn't like using shields it was really nice that there was a better reward for not using shields. Power stancing also aided in this. I wanted to play that way and the game made me feel like it was reasonable to want to play that way. I also think infusions+power stancing allowed for some fun build theorycrafting. You could blend your damage types together in fun ways. For example I remember when I was rapier-scumming in pvp I started carrying multiple +10 rapiers with different infusions so I could swap to benefit different situations. The more common armors/shields people used could be mitigated more by switching the infused weapon at the start of the fight. Ricards rapier had that fast attack, so I liked having poison rapiers if I was chasing someone and wanted to pressure them. If I wanted I could have 1 poison and 1 not poison so I can 2 hand the non-poison weapon after I poisoned my opponent to get better damage and punish them. It was fun! Although, ADP and weird hitboxes put a big damper on enjoyment for me eventually. It pissed me off that invasions required you to use consumable items. I wanted an infinite red eye orb so I could invade as much as I pleased without the chore of playing the arena all the time.
I think you missed a message about it. Powerstance as a whole a good idea, he just doesnt like low variety of movesets and how bland its looks. And i agree - why this game doesnt have uncracked red eye orb, its just stupid.
Fortunately, the Blue Acolyte mod for DS2, now in Nexusmods fixes this grand flaw, by making orbs and the tokens of fidelity not consumable when used for invasions or arena, respectively. Huzzah! It is a great mod otherwise too, an anti-cheat. I give it a big ol' thumbs up.
Damage buff from 1 was greater i think.
@@goncalocarneiro3043 I need to keep that in mind if I decide to play again one day.
The thing with Estus, mostly something i've discovered after replaying it after a few years, is that the estus is more like a mini checkpoint, whilst lifegems are your general, overall healing option. For example, you've made it a few rooms deep into an area, and you're pretty banged up, BUT there's no enemies, so you can chug an estus, get your health back quickly and safely, then carry on. Whilst your lifegems are used within combat, since you can move around and carry a lot of them.
I don't know how accurate it was but I do remember some stuff in the gaming press about the stand-in feeling the pressure to live up to what Miyazaki did with the first game and was apparently struggling right from the start.
I tried playing 2 quite a few times and hated it. Something just clicked when I picked up again with the mindset that I'm not playing DS1. Then found out how badass the magic was and ended up with a dark build using a halberd and rapier. It took some time, but it's probably my favorite of the 3 now
Yeah, you can make a lot of different builds and they are kinda viable, I had a lot of fun once while doing a double whip poison build lmao
magic is op in souls game, if you have with it you should try making a magic build on ds3
That's cool and all (like genuinely), but a game you have to put more than 30+ hours in before it becomes fun isn't really a good game. I didn't have to keep telling myself that I weren't playing DS1 while playing DS3 or Bloodborne.
@@someretard7030 same
@@souljacrankthat my primary build for the souls series has always been strength/faith. It's just the DS2 had actually decent early options and a much better, imo, growth path in each spell tree. I haven't used everything yet, but I haven't really been disappointed with the spells I've picked up.
what I personally hate is that a fly could land on your shoulder in ds2 and that'd stagger you. like honestly, why is the default poise so low?
Still better than ds3 (even tho there's hyperarmor when attacking)
@@andryuu_2000 It's not though, 3 gives you the ability to tank at least one hit of something like a straight sword before staggering, and with I think 32.08 poise you can not be staggered on a roll catch.
@@andryuu_2000 Hyperarmor is worse than any type of poise.
"honestly, why is the default poise so low?" Because DS1 PVP community bitched and moaned nonstop about poise, so they did something about that.
@@KrigRaseri literally is. You can tank many hits with the right amount of optimisation. At 60 poise (which can easily be reached with 6/8 vit) pretty much any light attack doesn't stagger you.
Ya know, watching this and thinking back to my first playthrough of Dark Souls 2. Its not surprising I ended up gravitating towards a Hex Build magic caster. It let me avoid the roll-out issue and let me stay far away lol
Sometimes I wonder if they made the pursuer one of the first bosses to train you in how floaty the movement/combat in the game is lol. I swear every living thing in dark souls 2 looks like they're sliding around on vaseline.
Floaty? Things are pretty weighty and deliberate. I would say pursuer is actually there to train you on positioning. 90% of what he throws out can be avoided by just strafing to his right side, no rolling needed.
Mm Yeah. It's jarring when you first run into the gold falcon knights, or whatever they're called in the shaded woods, but then you just get used to seeing enemies whose movement and animations aren't on speaking terms, like the weebs in Iron Keep, or the Ruin Sentinel recolors in Dranglaic. It never feels good, and always looks incredibly stupid, but you at least get used to it happening, and stop being surprised when a man shaped hovercraft reverses around a corner at 60 mph while his legs remain stationary and his torso twists like the Grudge.
True, animations in this game are awful
18:50 they forgot you're supposed to show, not tell.
This game is very dear to my heart. I know how clunky and weird this game is and how much different it is to the other games. But during the peak of this game's popularity, it had the most diverse and fun/interactive PvP scene. So many different builds, and things that were "off-meta" still won duels. Great PvP, lackluster PvE
Im on the opposite side, great pve, bad pvp
@@danielzaiser i'm on the opposite of both, my internet is just too shitty to play online
Totally agree, there was way more build diversity in PvP than any other souls game, and it was a blast to watch and play.
True
@@danielzaiser the pvp is great, the builds are better than those in ds3
You get unique animations for dual wielded weapons that aren't powerstanced when you have the appropriate stats. Swords have rapid slashes for example. Powerstancing adds variety in that it allows you to do different attacks you wouldn't be able to do otherwise, and DS2 allows you to do both light and heavy attacks with your left hand weapon when not powerstanced. Tons of variety.
Another problem with the life gems is the stacked Regen. You can pop like 3 life gen at once and it will heal just as well as a estus and remember they are cheap
Especially preloading those and using the regen to just dive into a combo and come out with a much bigger opening or something.
The Emerald Herald gets to go everywhere because she's got the teleport feather.
I’m surprised you didn’t mention soul memory. As time has moved on I’ve began to realise that this game has a lot more in common with demon’s souls than dark souls. I do enjoy this game for reasons that I don’t hear many people talk about very often and the main reason why I got bored of ds3 quicker than any other title in the series is streamlining. Ds2 wasn’t streamlines for the most part especially when we’re talking about weapons. There is a weapon that gains a new move set when its durability is depleted. There’s a dagger that inflicts toxic and poison damage. There’s a shield with innate dark damage that doubles as a chime and a catalyst. This game really went all out in terms of variety and I absolutely loved that.
Yeah, one thing that I appreciated about DS2 was its variety of options. Everyone seems to abhor the Shrine of Amana because of the magic snipers, but I had a blast with it because I'd picked up one of the spell-parry shields earlier and was able to deflect all the soul arrows away while approaching the enemies like some kind of magic-immune Terminator. Shrine of Amana is, aesthetically, still one of my favorite locations in the series. DS3, while a beautiful game with tons of high points, was definitely safe in comparison. I'd love to play DS2 in DS3's engine without Adaptability or Life Gems.
lol. DS3 literally does all the above, but it also has 100x better visuals, 100x better gameplay, and 500x better story and lorecrafting !!!
@@MehrdadParthian ds3 was too streamlined to be enjoyable for me.
@@MehrdadParthian ds3 doesnt have a chime shield.
@@wyvernslayer4530 it has sorcery catalyst/spear, sorcery/pyromancy staff, miracle/pyromancy talisman, sword/pyromancy weapon, miracle/sorcery chime, whip/sorcery weapon, and many many other hybrid weapons and talismans and staves... and yet you're just gushing over that one thing. shields are too overpowered in DS3 to want to add any other function to them, so it doesn't even make sense for them to be hybrids ! it very much seems like you're nit-picking to drive home a point that is not valid at all !
I played DS1 first getting hand-held by a friend who played the game a lot. I was waiting for DS2 to be released, so I played Demon Souls while I waited, with minimal hand-holding from the same friend. When DS2 finally came out, in my mind, it felt like more of a continuation of Demon Souls than it did DS1, and it made way more sense to me thinking of it that way. It wasn't necessarily a true Nexus, but it shared much more with the Demon Souls Nexus than it did with FireLink Shrine. You weren't warping to and away from Majula, sure, but especially in the first half of the game, you start at this central hub with a maiden, blacksmith, merchants, convenants, and you pick one of three unique looking paths until you hit the boss (World 1-1), and maybe you try to continue onto the second half of the path (world 1-2), or you choose a different unique path and see where that goes. The life gems just made me think it was the new Grass healing system, and the health loss system made me think it was the new iteration from Demon Souls as well, Cling Ring and all. I do remember years later learning of what Adaptability was and what it affected, and thinking that it was pretty wild to add into the game, but I just took it as the ascended form of a lightweight DEX build, as in DEX players would and should level it up as part of their build. I think it ultimately comes from your introduction into this game specifically, and from one's continued forays into DS2 that make it a love/hate relationship. I played it when it first came out after playing Demon Souls, which made it feel like a way smoother progression in game succession. If you are someone who plays these games a lot or someone who played it years after it came out, you now have the past experiences of yourself/others to base your opinion/builds on (where to go, what is/is not broken/shitty), and that's fine, too. I generally only play these games once, so whatever that experience turns into is my set in stone experience of the game, and my experience was pretty good.
I’ve played Demon Souls and just finished Dark Souls1 should I play DS2 or DS3 first?
Loved the diamond and pearl music at the end
One thing I really liked about Dark Souls 2 was that it made me want to explore the game more in NG+. While some may argue the changes in NG+ are not that great or are bad changes, it certainly made me interested into exploring the game all over again to discover what has changed. Cant say the same abt the other two games(maybe the Dark Souls 3 + rings but that felt more of a chore than anything)
Yeah, even if in hindsight a lot of those NG+ changes were kind of a pain, it was very interesting to just see what was different with all the phantoms and even entirely new enemy types (only in the Flexile Sentry fight I think, but still). 3s rings definitely didn't get the same feeling, but did at least make it feel worth exploring more thoroughly than NG+ in some other things.
Never played DS2 before but I legitimately enjoyed watching your review. And the Most Important Part was very good. People waste way too much energy on fighting each other over tastes and opinions, it's good to have someone to remind us that the reason why we don't like something might also be the same exact reason someone else does... and that's okay.
I wholeheartedly recommend it. It's my favorite of the bunch in a bunch of aspects, if you feel like trying it it's often on sale.
Dark Souls 2 was my second one after spending a lot of time with DS1, I had my worries at first but the game, whilst different, has a great feel. But for example on the lifegems, I basically never used them, ever, but I'm glad it's an option available for struggling players since as you said you can buy as many as you like and they have great benefits over estus. I never minded the gank squads too much, since I'm always clearing areas methodically even on a thousand'th playthrough so it's just part of the experience, knowing ennemy placements and luring them one by one rather than rushing in. At it's best Dark Souls 2's combat has a lot to offer. It's different but it has a lot to offer (oh and come on Dark Orb spam is peak magic build) I like Dark Souls 2 :)
I don't really agree with the "not shutting up about difficulty" thing, ds2 only mentioned it about twice if I recall correctly whereas ds1 had a depressed guy at the main hub talking about how pointless fighting is and that finishing your quest will be suicide.
Great counterpoint and in DS that guy is basically your only introduction to the whole world for a good while
That guy in Ds1 though was to show the lore behind an undead slowly going hollow