...About Dark Souls 2: SOFTS In 2024 

Okay so idk what’s wrong with my brain when I say dark souls 2 was released in 2024. I meant to say 2014, but I had a brain fart. Sorry guys!

You can actually one-shot the turtle guys if you catch them in the guillotine lever. Or drop them in the lava with the platform switches. Or lure them into the fire jets. Also, in Scholar of the First Sin, if you kill an enemy enough times, they stop spawning. The game can be frustrating, yes. But I still love it. Never beat it though.

It's ok to have opinions on games. They can be wrong, but its still an opinion.

Bonfires, Bonfires is disguise.

I just made the stupid mistake of trying to replay it again. I have beaten it twice before, third time I hoped I’d enjoy it this time. I still hate it 😂

I think the prower stancing makes sense if you compare the standard animations to power stance ones. In power stances, the player seems more proficient. Weapon attacks appear more fluid, there seems to be more of a techique compared to swinging left then right, and power stance almost makes any weapon seem weightless.

In the music section with that boss battle where there’s three of the armor people. I spent days there helping people beat that I had a faith build and if I believe correctly lightning hurt armor. Ahhhh the first week.

the only thing I wish DS2 had was a way of switching between vanilla and sotfs enemy placement

This is my favorite game ever and I get very defensive whenever anyone bashes it. (Ok, not actually favorite game, but I tend to love something even more whenever I feel it’s disproportionally criticized/put down). Nice video though.

I REALLY wanted to like this game, I finished the whole base game even though I hated most of it, I really tried to give it a change, but I just couldn't like it, which broke my heart cause I love Dark Souls 1. I didn't even try the DLC, I just don't want to touch that game ever again.

4:02 damn didnt even realise ds2 was released so recently! thanks for bringing awareness!

Oooohhhh shiny let me pick that up lol Loved seeing that live!

I do love the music of dark souls 2. didn’t know about the development hell it went through but makes sense. great video!

Oh hey you're the ds1 guy! I enjoyed your ds1 video, I'm exited to see this one as well. Keep doing what you're doing man, much love!

I don't know why, but I like how you say "Majoula," Bis. Also, are Ornsteen and Shmo in this game?

Dark souls 2 was weird but somehow i weirdly enjoyed it!

So not sure if i prefer this video more or the DS1 video. Very well put together and i agree with every thing you mentioned, however i do still really enjoy the game :) Can't wait to hear about DS3 bro, Even tho i watched your full SL1 playthrough on stream lol.

Dialogue with the Crestfallen Knight hints at you to start at the Forest of the Giants. You need to talk to people and exhaust their dialogue.

Ds2 was my first soulsbourne game and i really loved the uses of the torch gone to ds1 and missed it and in ds3 missed alot more

Dude’s voice is so magnificent

Dude which Nier song was playing in the streaming videos??

The mirror knight was so good imo

Subbed for using Legend Of Dragoon battle music.

Dude i got the steel ds2 case too. I still love it, i am a fan of the whole Fromsoft catalog though

I remember playing dark souls 3 and wishing it had power stancing and then getting hyped that elden ring was gonna have it and then realizing i liked the paired weapons better and now i want that back 😂

Should I genuinely consider playing this? I'm playing through the Souls games for the first time and I'm about to beat the first game.

Shrine of Amana= 999 poison arrows

Ravil's rage fuel here!

Doing SL1 (BL4) runs in these games is a lot of fun and make up for an interesting challenge and different experience if you’ve done and seen already everything the game has to offer. I highly recommend you go for it! Just do yourself a favor and don’t go for DS2 first, or at all if avoidable. A DS2 SotFS SL1 run only highlights all the flaws and poorly thought out and implemented ideas and mechanics of the game, which unfortunately make up or influence a large part of the game.

I invaded so many ppl in that belfry area

I get where you're coming from. Yeah, DS2 has a lot of flaws. I think it'd be fun to see Miyazaki work on a remake to take the game and polish it up; maybe try to salvage scrapped assets and stories, and rework it into a more cohesive, satisfying whole.

real!

You can blame consoles for the visual downgrade.

Just in time for my daily dose of DS2 slander cheers! 🍻🍻 . Also what I hate when playing DS2 it feels so floaty, the characters moves like it slides on ice, lack of impact or feedback from your attacks, ADP already been talked numerous times because how shitty of a stats it is, the maps are bland and are lacking details with the exception of Majula. The only positive thing I find are the fashion souls, they got great character customization and cool armor I must admit.

He said he’s getting old ok bis

Shoulda played OG. Shit’s way less cancer in the early-to-mid game

Why does everybody thing Majula's music theme is calming? Does nobody listen to it till the end? It's very dissonant toward the past bars, I hate it for that.

Yeap Waiting Domo To Make Counter Argument For This Vedeo

I will forever remember the iron keep then you go up and there’s a swamp gtfoh hahahah

i wish i could enjoy ds2. it has a lot of cool stuff, but i can't see past everything it does wrong. i've played through it many times, but the more i play it, the more i hate it. i keep trying to find the secret combination of build and weapon, but there is no secret. i guess you can't force yourself to enjoy something

If you want to play elden ring in a very early stage, play DS2 lol, but yeah unless you really want to fight a specific boss like Sir Alonne or Ivory king i cant recommend it, finally Adaptability is so underrated and so bad designed with 25-30 u re quite untouchable when you roll

Do my ears hear legends of the dragoon

Bump

Agreed. Ds1 > Ds2

DS2 SL1 run when? XD

Lock on doesn’t stay on target. Hitboxes are weird. Flasks don’t insta heal you. Stamina goes off in 2-3 attacks. Other than that it’s a great game.

I love base DS2 and its crown DLC. SOTFS makes me want to check myself into the forever box…

I love this game by my whole heart and it dosent matter for me DSR have this and DS III have that nah i dont care. But for god sake that enemy tracking while attacking is anoying af.

Ds2 is kinda fun the enemy placements and nice invasions made me stop playing

Jesus Christ Charlie!

DS2 is UNDERHATED!

Playing without lock-on, makes the combat feel way less clunky.

IDK man this comes off like "DS1 does it and it's good and great design, DS2 does it and now it's a problem". Like your rant about Majula and what way you're supposed to go. You say it's a coin toss on whether you pick the "correct" path and that enemy toughness could maybe be an indicator but that isn't enough. That's just Firelink shrine and the graveyard/New Londo. The difference is in DS2 there isn't a correct path. You can do either area early and it's fine. I've also personally never had an issue with areas like Iron Keep. Like you can see where those enemies are coming from in your footage. The game isn't even forcing you to play it slow so much as it just wants you to pay attention and maybe not put your back to pits in fights like you did at 18:35. Any other game in the series and it's "git gud, try something else etc" but in DS2? Must be the game's fault you ignored the knight running up to you to attack the one that isn't even aggro'd yet on the bridge. Must be the game's fault you drank right in front of the boss without baiting an attack like at 27:06. That would get you killed in any of these games but it's DS2 ofc so nope, game's fault. Like I hate to nitpick like this and have nothing against you personally or anything. I hope I'm not coming off as trying to be mean to you here because I'm really not. I've just noticed this cyclical thinking with DS2 where everyone knows the community trashes it so when playing people cope and blame the game and perpetuate that mindset instead of ever looking inward as to why a death might have happened. It's never "oh I messed up" and always "That's DS2 for you!" I don't understand why so many people feel entitled to play this game like they're some kind of speedrunner when they're not familiar with it and then get upset when the enemies punish the player for ignoring them. DS2 for some reason is the one FromSoft game it's okay to be bad at and blame the game for. I will never understand this. I watched your video through to the end and threw a like on it. I really don't think we needed yet another "DS2 bad" video but you clearly put effort into this project and your opinions at the end of the day are your own. Hope you have a good day.

Ds2 was sick. You forgot to mention everything they improved on since ds1

I will say the specific gank stuff with iron keep and the sheer amount of NPC invaders is a Scholar specific problem. Vanilla DS2 honestly, was inoffensively bad. Had questionable systems and generally not great, but it had its okay moments. Scholar is just maliciously designed in it's layout plain and simple. Its like they took inspiration from a Zelda Master Quest but forgot to capture the fun aspect.

0:44 1:21 don’t take the name of the Lord in vain

DS2, the bad one. The least memorable bosses, the slowest combat, floaty combat, durability too low and traps to kill your durabulity, more ganks than DS1 and 3 combined, Terrible healing system. Gotta hate it personally, the few positives it offers just aren't worth it. I atruggled to beat it for all the wrong reasons and instead of satisfaction it was relief that I nevwr had to play it again XD.

Alright. I’m gonna explain everything you’re complaining about to the best of my (logical) ability. 1. The Iron Keep is really not as horrid as you guys paint it out to be. 19:13 they didn’t pop up out of “nowhere” you need to *look around* and you’ll see the 4 Alonne Knights on the top of the building. Also, Ds3 and Ds1 suffer just as much “gank” as this game, the only difference being; Miyazaki had a hand in Ds1 and 3, thus creating much more unnecessary biased against this already, hate barraged game. I’m pretty certain the iFrame removal was for pvp purposes because lots of invaders were complaining about it. If you remember 10 years ago, in Vanilla that cage outside the Sol was not there. That was the shortcut. 23:34 there’s numerous areas in Ds1 and Ds3 that I could say that exact sentence about. Yet no one’s complaining about them. Interesting, isn’t it?

2. Ds2 invasions are so frequent because the devs wanted to import as much of the online experience as possible, In Ds1 or 3, in order to summon for certain bossfights, you need to do these advanced, convoluted quest lines whereas in Ds2 there’s phantoms right outside the boss. “Who the hell is Masterless Glencour?” people ask. It doesn’t matter because him and numerous others NPCs are meant to simulate other players hence why there’s so many NPC invaders. The stat ADP was invented because the creative dev team wanted to switch things up a little. PvP was also in mind to some degree. They wanted accessibility for Ds2 because Dark Souls already has the reputation of being “Hardcore for BIG BOY Gamers” and they wanted to change that. So why not put the amount of iFrames into a stat and let the player decide how much roll invincibility they can get? Sounds great, I know. The one mistake they made was introducing the stat itself. The description was rather vague and no one really cared for it because they thought it was just “another useless stat” like resistance from Ds1. Oh boy, were they wrong.

Its funny how dark souls 3 does most of 2's "cons" but its not being shat on as much

If powerstancing taking 50% more stamina makes no sense, then you also think two-handing making it cost half is bullsht right? Or is that a good mechanic since it wasnt DS2 coming up with it? Obviously you need more skill to swing right with 2 weapons than 1....

I love DS2 as much as I love the other games in the series, and I do agree with some points that you brought, Shrine of Amana is dreadful and I hate it (played through it yesterday with a friend). Having said that, I disagree about being punished for trying to be aggressive, you were being punished for getting swarmed without having a weapon with range and damage enough to deal with hordes, if you want to be aggressive but you have a weapon that does not have very wide horizontal swipes, you do need to pick them in slow numbers AT LEAST. Shrine of Amana does still forces your hand a little to use a bow or get really heavy with armor/shields, but to my knowledge it is the only map that really does that. Now, something that I noticed from the footage, why would you still wear the cat ring and the silver serpent ring if you are having problems with the level? You could put a better armor and a ring to counter the extra weight, or put another ring to take less staggers, etc. There are things on your character that you can improve to make your time easier, but apparently you did not gave enough attention to them. You hate Iron Keep and I understand, I had a lot of trouble with it when I played the Original DS2, 8 years ago, replaying Schollar now, but to be honest if you've played up to this point, the game really showed to you countless times that it was not trying to be fair with the enemy placing (neither is DS3 if you ask me), you should always expect something to jump at you from every corner with this game, and having this in mind you SHOULD NOT START RUNNING THROUGH THE ENTIRE MAP aggroing every mob possible and then being surprised when you get stuck on a horde. You see a mob after a doorframe? Let him come to you, there will always be more waiting, you don't even need the bow really (throwing knives works just fine), but if you do choose to use it, make yourself a favor and upgrade it, it does make a huge difference. The enemies can aggro from a nice distance, pick them up by small numbers. Also, this is not even DS2 specific, never fight in tight bridges or spaces, and if you do have to fight on those, make sure your back is free of enemies, the turtles are not that hard if you have space behind you to walk back, don't even need to roll. The item you got between the flamethrowers literally had a ladder on the side of it that had a lever to turn of the flames and the closest bonfire to Iron King. Smelter Demon is a fight that can take you some tries, but IT DOES have a nice reward, a bonfire, one of the reasons you also got very frustrated with the level was the backtrack and you could've eliminated a big part of it, you didn't even needed Belfry Sol at all. It's the souls game I've played the most, the first one that I went after all the achievements (now doing it again for Schollar), I know the game has flaws but it feels dishonest to throw the blame entirely on the game when you could clearly also learn from the mistakes you (and we all) make. Dark Souls plays differently from Dark Souls 2, and Dark Souls 3 also plays differently from both predecessors, the key to enjoy them is to learn what is different and adapt to it, if you still don't, well, at least you gave it a sincere chance.

I love dark souls 2, and its just a very different game, and you compare it to dark souls 1 throughout the whole video

the year 2024 and you have nothing new to say about DS 2, what a shame

People act like if you had to carry a torch around for whole sections of the game people wouldn't complain about THAT as if it weren't the new ADP or "Durr, lava in the sky" bugaboo. DS2 has shortcomings, but the cool unique stuff it does more than makes up for those problems. And none of those problems are as bad as DS3's linearity, or DS1's entire second half being terrible.

2024 and still crying about it

26:31 this is hilarious and sad at the same time as we probably all have been through comparable situations. DS2 at its finest 🥲😂

all the complaints seem trivial, enemies blocking small entry's and cheatp kills is in DS1, also the Iron Keep run is more than doable without fighting enemies, you can even use an alluring skull if you really can't do it just running

Iorn keep isn't even that bad😭

Actually, this is the ona out of the three tha is actually different from the other two on gameplay and story. I ma enjoying it even way more than Dark Souls III. If you keep on comparing it to DS I, you won't be able tonappreciate the game for what it is, which is awesome! And its only is very active even today. I have fall behind on Elden Ring in preparations for DLC because I'm obssesed with DS II

Skill issue: the video

12:18 To me the most funny boss I ever fought in DS2 (at the top 10 best bosses in the whole series) is the Ivory king and his charred Loyce knights. It is like a skirmish, you have four loyal white Loyce knights and about 2 or 3 summons!! You and your PLATOON fight against many charred knights, it feels like a mini war. Then the king arrives... so much fun! 14:23 Aside from graphics downgrade, the level design was the most affected aspect of this game, it wasn't lazyness, it was lack of time. I agree DS1 has better level design than DS2, but i can say DS1 has the best level design of ALL souls. 16:38 No, you actually NEED bonfires fast travel, because this game has BONFIRE ASCETICS! And some times, for some areas, you need to level up first and come again later with more power, so you can burn an ascetic. So yes, you actually need fast travel bonfires. Do you know wich game has a lot of bonefires and fast travel from the start but ascetics doesn't exist and you clean every level with one run? (unless you are in some kind of quest) Yeah, DS3. 17:05 And that topic of many bonfires beign not so valuable: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-eYxrQ77B4lo.html Exploration is still good at least for inquisitive people like me, from Majula you can go to: 1) Fofg 2) Heide's tower 3) Grave of saints 4) The gutter 5) Huntsman's copse (after talking to the cleric girl) 6) Those misty woods after saving the petrified pyro girl. 25:04 Pure whining.

I don't really get why people hate this part. It has different vibe, different combat, that's it. I never experienced this Pursuer grab bug, I never struggled with Amana Shrine, it was fun to clear all this mages with bow tbh. And also, DS2 has my most favorite DLC's of all time. Like the moment the whole Brume Tower starts to move when you use that iron scepter I was like WHOW. This game gave me an experience I've never had before, it probably was the first time, I enjoyed the game so much that I felt the urge to do and watch video essays abt it. One of such experiences was a mistake to destroy the first Ashen Idol. Therefore I couldnt destroy one of them at Fume Knight arena. So I had to fight on half of the arena, so he couldn't be heald. AND I ACTUALLY BEAT HIM. That was such a satisfaction, that I remeber it till this day

DS 2 is Just Perfect

" omg DS2 is so bad because is not DS1, DS2 is so bad because the game don't tell me where to go " omg DS2 is so bad because we don't have Lost Izalith in DS2

3. Speaking of ADP, the backstep is the best in this game. iFrames being provided at the press of ONE button instead of a combination goes to show who Ds2 was made for. Game Journalists! (haha jk) Ds2 was created to BE easy. It is the easiest of the souls games and they had tactics and strategy in mind during development. It greatly awards exploration, if you’re willing to wait and look around then you’ll most certainly be in advantageous position. 28:41 “I don’t like when games force a certain type of play style on the player” *Immediately Praises BB* lmao

Honestly in my opinion I enjoy dark souls 2 way more because it doesn’t have the second half of dark souls in it. I find none of the areas hard, in fact found the game easier than dark souls. First play through wise dark souls two as hell every other play through after that, it was easy and fun. I’ve been dark souls 12 times and I really did love the game after dark souls like over 20 times I just can’t. I made a new character and started a new Playthrough and the moment I beat Ornstein and smough I just couldn’t go on. The second half of the game is a complete fun killer for me. I would rather go through shrine of Amana three times than ever go through new londo ever again in my damn life.

*Final thoughts on this video:* You guys are a broken record, but I understand how change is weird to adapt to. I’ll be honest, I’m a *LITTLE* biased (Ds2 was my first Introduction to Souls) and Ds1 was also a majority of people’s Introduction to souls (We don’t talk about Demon Souls 🫵) It all comes down to personal experience tbh. If your first souls game was Ds3, Ds1 is gonna feel janky and trash. Same case with Ds1/Ds2 or vise-versa. Ds2 is so underrated, you can genuinely notice the passion behind it, unlike in Ds3 which feels like a soulless copy n paste on the BB engine. If only Bandai gave them more time, Ds2 would likely had’ve been the best mainline souls game created. At the end of the day, we’re all Souls players and we love the same shit. Let’s just hope Domo3000 doesn’t see this video 😭

noob you can glitch off the top of the ladder at the second bon fire in iron keep you just have to run off the top at the ledge you can't get up and have enough health to survive the fall and you can turn off all the fire by pulling the lever at the top of the ladder in the square room you failed to get the item without dying in and the smelter demon is an optional boss you don't need to beat unless you want to and you won't ever get ganked unless you are a noob that doesn't know how to play smart this game forces you to play the game right instead of noob running and shielding like everyone does in 1 and 3 because it makes the game easy mode for noobs even though it actually makes the game much harder than playing right in all games after you git gud

Skill issue git gud

I'm so sick and tired of Dark Souls video essays. We've had like 10 on DS2 alone in the past year. It's as if small creators are seeing how they perform and go "Hey, I could do that... I *am* gonna do that!", essentially taking away from anything that every other video essay says about the game *because they are ALL THE SAME.*

i stopped watching where you said it was hard to know where to go. brother.... its a funnel. theres literally no way to actually get lost more than a few moments. Honestly you should read your own script and critique it yourself and im sure even YOU would argue with yourself on a few things. B- try again

SOTFS is trash. The original is significantly better

Bro complains about the gankiness of iron keep (if you gun through it) but fails to mention the gankiness of catacombs, lost izalith, undead burg, new londo, dukes archives, tomb of giants, demon ruins, blighttown, snd the depths (if you gun through). In both ds1 and ds2, youre SUPPOSED to carefully progress through the levels. Looking around every corner to see if theres danger. Sure, Shrine of Amana sucks, but so does a good portion of ds1. People treat ds1 with such praise and trash on ds2 without thoroughly cross comparing the two. This video just seems like youre nitpicking the smallest details imaginable, and i would like my 30 minutes back

Why is the first clip to show "DS2 bad" a grab attack that teleports you as if those attacks don't exist in every FromSoft game ever? I agree with the other comment talking about double standards, like with level design. Yeah DS1 has better level design but plenty of people got lost in the catacombs hitting the golden wall. Or the flaws in great Izalith. The guy is even calling people's comments* weird in the comments, getting upvotes from his fans, which is pretty rude. What exactly is this video saying that hasnt been said 1000 times already? Complaining about iron keep when you can literally run right to the boss without getting hit if you do it right. And you can train enemies into the traps. Get good!! He didnt even bother with the DLC.

This video shows just how delusional ds2 haters are. In the first 50 seconds of the video you get ganked in ds2 and blame the game, and then you show a clip of you getting ganked in ds1 and blame yourself. You said ds2 is bad because the game forces a playstyle on you, then moments later you praise bloodborne saying it's a master piece (I agree). Are we forgetting that both bloodborne and sekiro force a playstyle on you? You were complaining about the linearity of ds2 and that it's bad because the world is not like the first game, but ds3 is the most linear of the bunch, baisacily being mostly a straight line, but you don't complain about that game. "Why doesn't the game tell you that the dual wielding requires 50% more stats?", ds1 doesn't tell you that two-handing weapons gives you 50% more strength, bloodborne doesn't tell you visceral attacks scale with skill... There's a reason ds1 gives you only 2 titanite slabs and ds2 gives you 11, there's a reason ds2 is the first game with respeccing, there's a reason bonfire ascetics exist, the game wants you to try many different weapons and builds. You keep trying the same thing over and over again when you die/get ganked, ofcourse the game will become annoying if you just keep bashing your head against a wall. I suggest trying a bigger weapon to help with gankes, like UGSs, great hammers, halberds... You can also use bonfire ascetics to grind a few levels. Ds2 is hard and annoying because you're making it like that for yourself, just like all the other souls games.

As they said, "git gud" my dude. And why whining about invasion? For me, it was a chance to get better at my skills, even if they were to many. In fact, due to it, i started dueling and invading, learning win at least on Dragon Covenant. It sounds more like you truly dont like the gme or dont want to get good.

Git gud son

Hating on DS2 in 2024 is soo lame

i gotta say the only bad things about this game is most of the bosses, the enemy placement and the hitboxes. Apart from that people be hating for no reason 😔

Fromsoft fans crying for 10 years about a decent 7/10 game

I'm only only 8 seconds in and you trying miserably to roll to the side of the curse attack and getting hit is what makes ds2 amazing it just separates bad souls players from good... You literally have to step back wards or roll towards pursuers shield to dodge that lmao 🤣 totally deserved to get destroyed in this game I'll continue watching now lol

Oh look, another clickbait video about how dark souls 2 is "bad." You literally touched on all the same points that other creators have talked about for the last 10 years. Do something original.

This game gets shit on more for views than actual issues in the game

Ds2 is better than ds1

Dude, you're bad at it. Ofc, the game is different but it is quite a awesome experience to go through if you really want a challenge! I have over 3 thousand hours in this game and few regrets!

In the music section with that boss battle where there’s three of the armor people. I spent days there helping people beat that I had a faith build and if I believe correctly lightning hurt armor. Ahhhh the first week.