Hoooooo boy, this one is a doozy...

Here I am with another entry in my eternal quest to get ahead with videogame history and discourse. After finally getting a beautiful PS5 last year I have taken several steps towards the goal of freeing myself from the death grip of the PS2 nostalgia into the revolutionary new pastures of modern gaming. And, of course, the hottest IP from the 2010s was among the first to be tackled. Dark Souls was a transformative experience and now I can confidently say that I am a From Software convert. I thought it was not going to happen, but here we are.

Completing Dark Souls 1 was such an incredible experience that for the first time in decades I jumped straight away into the sequel. I spend dozens of hours into getting Platinum and even after all the grind and the struggle I was so captivated with the mechanics and game play that I couldn't wait to get more. I immediately installed DS2 after obtaining the last achievement in DS1, ready to satiate my DS hunger.

And Dark Souls 2 burnt the hell out of me. I don't think I will play another Soulslike for a good while.

Here is the thing: Dark Souls 2 is a GREAT game, don't get me wrong. I started this game relatively blind because I tried my best to abstain from other peoples perspective and wanted to have a hands-on approach to it. That was extremely short lived because of course I ended up joining the Covenant of Champions without reading or understanding what it meant and then I spend the next five hours getting absolutely curb-stomped in the Forest of Fallen Giants, to the point where I spend all my Human Effigies and had to start another save file when I opened the semi-permanent Reddit post about that Covenant and found out about my folly.

Dark Souls 1 is punishing but fair, it is hard when you are a novice but really rewards you with epic moments if you put the time in. Dark Souls 2 is a cool and all, but my general feel is like the game likes to be a dick pretty often: It constantly sets you up to failure. It is punishing even after you spend dozens of hours into the game and are already in NG+ (that fucking NPC in Drangleic Castle, man); I got stuck in this game so terribly often (How are you supposed to know about the Giants Memories after talking to the freaking dragon? How are you able to navigate around Horsefuck Valley by yourself?) and honestly... Fuck that, mate. I am a 30+ player with limited gaming time, after half an hour stuck in the same freaking room I am going to open the walkthroughs on YouTube, fuck that noise.

You can't look for anything DS2 related without stumbling into arguments about how it is the best thing ever produced/the worst thing ever. I think is a matter of feeling more than anything. For example, DS1 has this... I don't know how to put into words but is kind of an "arcade" feel to it. The world feels vast and complex the first time but after a while you can see all the nooks and crannies and traverse it becomes instinctual. I think that is why to this day I enjoy watching challenge runs so much. That does not happen with DS2 somehow. I cannot care less for Speedruns or challenge runs in Drangleic, sadly.

But let's be real: mechanically Dark Souls 2 is a leap an a half compared to the first one. The Bonfire Ascetics?, the sheer amount of builds you can create? the warpable bonfires from the beginning? THE SOUL VESSELS TO REDISTRIBUTE SOUL LEVELS? It is such an improvement in so many ways that it astounds me when people say it is a WORST game than DS1. Is just not the case.

Now, narrative... I got to say, I was not as involved in the story here but the highs are there, definitely. I think Drangleic has its own charms but I think the devs when a little too far with the vagueness of the story, even though is a perfectly coherent narrative, and a good story to say the least, but in my personal opinion the vibes of solitude and decadence take away some of the engagement of the story and for some reason the stakes are not as deep as the first one. Like, we understand the curse and the futility of all of it and the tragedy of Vendrick and Aldia (best part of the game), but the end, albeit good, feels a little like...

!(https://img-grouvee-com.b-cdn.net/userupload/2024/09/01/okay-tyler-the-creator.gif)

DS2 is very good. I don't regret playing it and I don't think is a "skipabble" entry in the Souls series. It is a flawed, excellent game, and I will probably go back to it... in a couple of years. Four, maybe. I don't want to go back to the Frozen Outskirts or to the Tseldora Cave, fuck those places.

Dark Souls 2 is a game I actually played and finished on ps3 back when it was first released. While I am aware it's considered the "worst" in the series, I couldn't really remember why exactly. In fact, I really didn't remember almost anything about the game, which probably speaks to it's memorability. Scholar of the Sin recently went on sale so I decided to give it a go, as it included all DLC I never played and it might be fun to revisit after going through Bloodborne and DS3. After finishing it, I can understand why it's considered the worst, but in actuality I don't think it's a bad game at all. In fact, I think it's great game. The reason I believe people are so quick to dismiss it as the worst is because the mechanical changes that went into DS2 from DS1 are extreme to the point where I think DS2 should have been its own standalone game like Bloodborne was. These changes are by no means bad either, just a far cry of what DS1 and DS3 are.

The most prominent and crucial change is animation. There are no attacks, as far as I'm aware of, that you can cancel into rolling which means you're always committed to whatever attack you're doing. Even after finishing an attack, you're still locked in animation before you're allowed to roll again. Healing works the same where you cannot cancel it by any means and have to wait for the entire animation, on top of it regenerating health instead of instantly healing you. These changes force you to approach fights more methodically instead of simply using roll to fix an unwanted attack at the wrong time. The difficulty of these systems increase (or decreases) depending on the weapon type you use. Heavy weapons are the most affected as you REALLY need to judge carefully when to attack and what kinda of attack you want to do. My playthrough was done with an Ultra Greatsword with the hard mode covenant and while normal mobs were generally easy to dispatch, most bosses required a few tries in order to figure out when I can attack and when I should be playing conservatively. Is this system "Bad"? Certainly not, but it forces you to play in a fundamentally different way than DS1 that it's not surprising people were quick to beat it down. Id even go as far as to say DS2's new mechanics are far tighter and cleaner than DS1's wacky, janky, and roll non stop gameplay. The biggest annoyance I found with this gameplay loop is that large non-humanoid bosses/enemies are still the jankiest the series gets. Fighting large dragons or monsters always boils down to either gluing yourself to them and avoiding their ostensibly dis proportioned attack hitboxes by nature of you just being on top of them. OR baiting an attack like a dragon breath that's easy to dodge just by running around and getting good damage in. It's really dull and I honestly don't get why they still design fights like this. Both DS1 and DS3 suffer from the same thing too.

As far as world building and environments go, I wouldn't put it above or below DS1. Finding new areas and exploring felt satisfying with as many favorable stages as there were unfavorable ones (Black Gutters). If there's one thing I really disliked it's how DLC was handled. The DLC stages weren't bad, but all three were strictly separated from each other. In DS1, while it was a bit convulated to get to the DLC, it was one big area with multiple areas connecting to each other, making the sense of discovery and exploration satisfying. In DS2, since all three DLC areas are separate and you get teleported to them with specific items you'll find through either normal gameplay or just buying the DLC, the sense of discovery really isn't there. And since you're doing them separately,. you're stuck in one big level with the same enemies and environments without connecting to other areas. This is a personal dislike on my end so I don't think this design is particularly flawed, just a bit dull.

The aspects I can't speak about are PvP and different build types. Miss me every doing Dex or Mage builds. As for PvP, the hard mode covenant locks all online play so you can't summon or get invaded, which I found nice honestly. All in all, I think DS2 was very enjoyable and a much more difficult experience than DS1 and DS3, though if there had to be a scapegoat it's no surprise it's DS2.

Dark Souls 2: Scholar of the First Sin is the special edition of Dark Souls 2 released with all of the DLC of the original entry and some minor gameplay modifications to the original. It is developer FromSoft's second title in the Dark Souls series, one that has cultivated a reputation for challenging but rewarding fantasy ARPG gameplay, lore-heavy, ambiguous narratives, and jaw dropping art direction, world building, and creature design.

Dark Souls 2 is often viewed as a black sheep for a variety of reasons, not least of which is series creator Hidetaka Miyazaki's decreased involvement with this title, I however found Dark Souls 2 to be a mostly positive experience despite some minor but detracting flaws regarding art and level design that keep it from reaching true greatness. Compared to the first Dark Souls, I'd say the sequel takes small steps forward in combat and narrative and a larger step backwards regarding aesthetics and cohesiveness. I recommend Dark Souls 2 strongly to any true fans of Soulsborne style games, especially ones craving more of a challenge.

Gameplay

In terms of gameplay, Dark Souls 2 interates upon much of what was built upon in Demon Souls and Dark Souls, players of which will be mostly familiar with the moment-to-moment ARPG combat offered in this title. Many new weapons, armors, spells, and miracles make their first appearances in this titles, and if there's one thing players can't complain about in this game it's the variety of option the game gives you to conquer it. I used a full Havel build (think massive armor, shield, and hammer), so I can't comment specifically on the feel of other character builds, but controls felt solid and responsive (not floaty at all, as I have seen said in forums), and I enjoyed my playthrough as the immovable object that is Havel.

While some levels are definitely harder than others, and indeed, Dark Souls 2 features some of the most challenging levels and bosses in the entire series, the game rewards a slow, methodical approach to its levels, and players who keep in mind how key patience is in titles like this will not have too hard of a time. While I mostly really enjoyed and appreciated the added challenge this title had to offer over Bloodborne, Demons Souls, and Dark Souls, I will say that some levels -- Black Gulch, Dark Chasm of Old, and Shrine of Amana in particular -- do broach the barrier between a healthy challenge and an unfun and unreasonable obstacle -- an obstacle which I found especially obnoxious when I was trying to fight those areas bosses and was impeded by hordes of enemies and environmental hazards I simply could not rush through. These areas were not so much a test of my skill but of my willpower. Luckily this entry stops spawning enemies after you kill them too many times, so any frustration is bound to be short lived provided you're prepared to die. Many players may find themselves considering this both a blessing (such as when you're sick of a certain boss run) or a curse (such as when you run out of enemies to farm for certain resources or an armor set youre hunting).

Another thing I definitely appreciated is one large quality of life improvement over it's predecessor: the ability to teleport in between bonfires from the very beginning of the game instead of unlocked 2/3 of the way through. I also think the way this game handles hollowing (you lose 5% of your max health bar each time you die until you reverse your hollowing) is a vast improvement over both Demons Souls (which was far too punishing) and Dark Souls (in which it was usually better to be hollow unless you were farming for materials or treasure). All in all in terms of gameplay there are many things this game does better than it's predecessor and a couple that it does worse, but I think that the original Dark Souls offered less extreme pitches in difficulty.

Narrative

The narrative in Dark Souls 2 is, like the original, a minimaliatic one that will demand your utmost attention to detail in order to scrape togather a working understanding of what is happening. Nothing is handed to you on a platter, and engaging in the story, while rewarding, will require lending all of your focus to dialogue, setting, and especially item descriptions in your inventory, and even after doing all of that, you will probably still have questions. I personally find this style of presentation very fun to engage with, but I can see how for many players, this style is unlikely to hook them into caring about the game. Series regulars will already be comfortable with the ambiguity of Souls narratives, so this will be more of the same for them.

The games narrative is set likely hundreds of thousands of years after the events of the first game and is for the most part not linked to the events of that title, though there are plenty of callbacks to the original title (if you know where to look for them). Rather this sequel does something bold and asks the player to consider what can remain of the past in a world so torn by a cycle of death and rebirth. This is just one of many wahs the narrative in DSII is more detailed, human, philosophical emotional, and comprehendible without the use of ancillary material and online discussion boards, and for that reason I consider the narrative a step up over the original title. It also features better and more memorable supporting characters (memes about praising the sun aside) I can't tell you what an emotional shock it was to finally encounter one character, completely against what I was expecting.

Aesthetics

This is the area in which Dark Souls 2 takes its most notable step backwards in quality and for me, in addition to several obnoxious level design choices I mentioned earlier, keep this game from being a true masterpiece. Dark Souls 2's biggest problem to me was it's designers choice or limitation to not have an interconnected 3D Metroid like world with shortcuts in between areas as it has in basically every entry in the series. The game feels more like a series of progressive levels rather than a connected world, and sometimes the progression from one area to the next is so sudden, it is jarring. The approach to Dranleic castle and Iron Keep both jump to mind immediately. While these individual zones are fun to look at, they lack a consistent aesthetic quality between them, and overall the world design, aesthetic, and tone are much less consistent and comprehensive in this title than in any other FromSoft game that I've played. I think it is here that Miyazaki's absence is most strongly felt, which sina shame considering just how important a well designed world is to making the player want to continue exploring.

Sound design is similarly lacking - boss music is not very memorable nor do the sound effects that occur during combat, or the moaning and groaning of creatures and monsters sound very impactful. One track I do think is very good is the game's hub music in Majula, but this is basically it.

Score: 4/5

A 4/5 game is a great game with a couple noticeable flaws or lack of well-execited new ideas that keep it from achieving a masterpiece status. These games often offer many of the same ideas other titles in the genre or series offer and may somerimes fail to stand out in terms of originality or execution, but rarely feel mediocre. In a word, a 4/5 game is "great", and certainly worthy of a playthrough.

Dark Souls was a flawed game with such thrilling highs that it was impossible to put down and quickly became regarded as a masterpiece despite those glaring issues. Dark Souls II is a similarly addictive but flawed game, yet the flaws go further as it can feel a bit clunkier and even less intuitive in its progression, and its main path does not as often reach the same heights as its predecessor or sequel. As a result, its more annoying or half-baked sections stand out more and are less easily forgiven.

That being said, on top of fun gameplay with a variety of play styles, there are things in this game that you won’t see in other Souls titles, not just in the world itself, but also in terms of unique types of combat and problem-solving challenges. The combat challenges are more than ever centered around crowd control (“ganks” and other 1vMultiple combat scenarios). These segments, like much of the game, can be hit or miss. A late-game boss fight really cemented the good part of this for me though personally, as it offered what I felt was a more fun and balanced take on the classic 1v2 Souls encounter type. There are also some great surprises and moments of spectacle, some really fun fights against humanoid bosses, and a generally good progression for this type of game that sits somewhere between the prior two games in its own flow.

My recommendation: don’t play this game as your first Souls title, or even second or third, especially not the harder Scholar of the First Sin version, but if you love the series, do give it a shot (or another one, if you previously abandoned it like me). While it is outclassed in major ways by the fellow members of its series, and has some very annoying moments, it was still a game that I found hard to put down as a lover of FromSoft’s signature combat, lore, and exploration.

Many consider this the worst game in the Souls series, perhaps because its development team did not consist of some prominent members from the original Darks Souls game. Dark Souls 2: Scholar of the First Sin lacks some of the atmosphere and quality level design that’s evident in the Miyazaki led titles. Having said that, I still rate this title highly; it’s as good as DS3, feeling more original in some ways and featuring better combat.

(TL;DR - DS2: SotFS is more unfair than it's siblings and the bosses are the weakest in quality)

What I thought I’d do in this review is to elaborate on something I disliked and talked about briefly in my video, now that I’ve played through the entire game; and that’s the DS mantra of ‘hard but fair’. Most deaths in DS are your own fault (bar the odd camera issue which still aren’t sorted in DS3), they’re player error. DS2 more than any other Souls game feels unfair and it happens numerous times throughout the game, most notably in boss encounters. This is because you feel like you’ve lost to a boss through no error of your own, but because the developers have cheated.

This is the case for a number of bosses in DS2: SotFS but a prime example for me was the ruin sentinels boss, where you face three enemies. The Souls games are designed primarily as one on one fighters, so facing multiple bosses can be incredibly difficult as you concentrate on killing them all, whilst simultaneously avoiding damage. The developers pull this trick numerous times but with the ruin sentinels I felt like I’d hit a wall that I couldn’t get past. I had this feeling in DS once and never in DS3 (it has an active community), which isn’t because they’re easy, but because they provided tools to help struggling players.

That help comes in the form of summons, both AI and real people. Released in 2015, DS2 now has a small community and for most bosses the only help you get is from the AI, which sucks. Low HP and poor intelligence makes them little more than a distraction, which works amazingly well on solo bosses if you’re ranged, but is terrible for team bosses as they die quickly and leave you with a group of boosted bosses. Many of the DS2 bosses feel designed for co-op, so you’d think they’d have developed better AI to help players. This will become a real problem when the community is none existent as players might just give up if they can’t find a competent human summon to help them.

Scholar of the First sin tries to fix this by adding some God tier summons (love you Bradley), but they show up infrequently and are almost too overpowered. DS avoided this problem by having decent AI and DS3 has an active community and the AI summons work quite well too.

A final note about this unfairness is the run-up to these tough bosses. You often have to run down a linear path past tough enemies that can injure you on the way there. This is hard just for the sake of being hard, it’s not enjoyable and there’s no sense of achievement. The shortcut run up to ruin sentinels boss involves jumping through a door that inexplicably opens out to thin air. This just makes the game frustrating and there are more moments like this in DS2 than in any other DS game.

I can’t make a true review here because I honestly cannot even get myself to finish this “Souls” game. I am a complete FromSoftware fanboy and I was thoroughly disappointed by this almost mediocre attempt at the souls formula.

My first experience with any game of this type was Elden Ring (not including my stint with Dark Souls 1 when it was first released as I did not complete it) and I completely fell in love with the world, the lore, and especially the gameplay (combat). I eventually went over to Amazon and found a Dark Souls Trilogy bundle which included each of the three Dark Souls games along with every DLC released during the series’ run. I started with Dark Souls 1 which again, I had some experience with when it was originally released, but I could not remember much of it. By the time I had completed the original game my jaw was forever dropped to the floor in awe of how much Dark Souls struck a chord with me. Everything about that game was absolutely brilliant, and Miyazaki absolutely crushed it with that one. It was difficult, yes, but extremely rewarding with a little bit of perseverance. I did find the end game to be a little easy if you had a weapon that outputted 500 damage like I did, but that’s neither here nor there.

Upon completing Dark Souls, I was so convinced that this could possibly be the greatest video game series in history, that I immediately installed Dark Souls II: Scholar of the First Sin edition to my PlayStation 5. Once the intro movie started in my headphones I had thought that this game was going to be just as stunning as the original, and even during my stint in the house with the old lady’s and learning some basic lore (especially about some history of the fire keepers) I was thoroughly excited to get going. As soon as character creation had gotten to the point of choosing my class, the game started to fall apart for me

In Dark Souls, every class has its pros and cons, just like in Dark Souls II, however every class in the original gets to start with a functional weapon AND shield, as well as having starting stats that are high for specific classes and relatively low for others. In Dark Souls II, only ONE CLASS gets to start with a shield (if you’ve played Dark Souls you understand how important shields were to basic combat..however I do have to add here that going into Dark Souls II with the intention of it playing exactly like the original, you most likely will not even get through the first 3 hours) and the shield does not even block 100% physical damage. There were a few classes in the original that were able to start with a 100% reduction shield and it makes all the difference in the early game as Undead Burg can be quite brutal the first time there. Also, in Dark Souls II most if not all of the classes have at least one but sometime multiple stats that start excruciatingly low. For example, the cleric which I started with begins the game with its endurance at 3. THREE. It also starts with one of the heaviest starting weapons. Try to get more than two swings off and you won’t even be able to roll away from a basic enemy that will easily kill you in this scenario. The saving grace that Dark Souls II has in this low starting stay regard is the fact that compared to the original game, you will compile many many more souls in a quicker amount of time. This allows you to level up much quicker and balance out your stats to get you to a good point where you can then focus on your preferred build.

My next grievance about this game is the addition of two new stats that are basically required to be leveled up in order for you to be able to beat the game. These stats are Adaptibility and Vitality (which is not health anymore as Vigor takes the place of the HP stat). Adaptability is very important because without leveling it up you will not be able to achieve ANY I-frames whatsoever AND your spellcasting timing and how quickly you can drink your estus flask are painfully slow. If you do not spend your well-earned souls on this additional stat you’re in for a rough time. I was so annoyed by the fact that I had to invest in I-frames and to be able to possibly use my estus flask in time during the heat of battle. The next stat that I consider to be dumb is the addition of vitality. Instead of it increasing your HP like in the original, it now solely increases your equip load. Yes, folks Endurance does not increase your equip load anymore!!! You now have to waste your hard earned souls on an extra stat just to be able to wear good armor and roll efficiently. As I said before, you do receive more souls quicker in this game, but who wants to waste them on pointless statistics instead of your preferred build. I found this to be a complete annoyance. Some may find it a nice addition but I did not.

Lastly, I found the world to be bland and the bosses to be easy, as well as increasingly frustrating as the developers through gank after gank at you, crowds of strong enemies at once, and the oh-so common 6 mile walk through 30 enemies just to attempt a boss battle that you may or may not win. This game was frustrating and NOT rewarding like its original counterpart.

I wanted so much to enjoy and finish this game. I made it to where I have about 5 or so hours left but I cannot force myself to finish it at this point. Maybe sometime in the future I will return to complete the last few hours, but for right now I will be moving on to the final FromSoftware game I have not completed (other than this being backlogged of course), Dark Souls III. I hope to be able to bring a better review and recommendation for you all about the finale of the Dark Souls Trilogy.

Thanks for reading!