I remember being infuriated by the first Dark Souls when enemy swords could clip right through walls but mine couldn't meaning I could not hit but could easily GET HIT. That's not fair at all.
Maxiga I was referring to certain narrow passes where you end up hitting the wall no matter what whereas if there is an enemy swordsman fighting you there, they have no trouble swinging attacking at all even though their weapon is clipping through walls. This game is already tough enough without giving the enemies unfair advantages like this.
Oh. I thought you meant ''enemies attacking the other side of the wall by clipping'' thing. There are some unfair parts of the game...like....Bed of Chaos....ugh...
I preferred Lordran. I'll take a giant castle/city full of peculiarities over sprawling areas with no aesthetic connection any day.But then again the Gormenghast trilogy is a personal favourite.
I know this is a necro post at this point, but Anor Londo is the giant castle/city full of peculiarities. "Lordran" is where you try to connect a literal cesspool with a blacken boneyard with infant skeletons to a luscious jungle within a stones throw of each other.
@@chiip90 If you don't try and think about it nor look into it. There's a few videos out now doing a deep dive in the mapping of Dark Souls 1, 2, 3 and Bloodborne, showing everything doesn't actually fit together like the Boomers thought.
Agreed. In an industry where most games' difficulty settings mean; you can take less hits and enemies take more hits, I can understand the reason people love this game. What I don't understand is why they can't acknowledge the game's obvious faults you just mentioned, especially the clunky controls!
Tumpah Me neither, but then again, I was a swordsman on moderate adaptability. Clunky is clunky still, though, and the input delay for running and the nonsensical invisibility frames (yeah, I came across that way more than I did the previous DS), no matter what build you have, are the kind of flaws that I believe are undeserving of even a Souls game.
I see the "clunky" controls to be akin to the slow NES Castlevania whip which has also been called clunky by many gamers it's just a case of learning the timings. I haven't played DS2 yet so I can't comment on it's controls though.
Anyone who's actually played this game thoroughly knows the problem here is not clunky controls or input delay, it's the added agility stat and the lack of explanation behind it. Agility is a derived stat in DS2, that means it's a stat that isn't leveled on it's own and increases based on other stats and sometimes factors like the weight of your armor. Your base movement and especially recovery in DS2 is slower than DS1 but upping your agility by leveling adaptability can make it equal to or faster than DS1 plus you have omni-directional rolling and a refined parrying/critical system. Dark Souls 1 was clunkier because you could only roll in 4 directions. In fights parrying could get you through a lot with ease in DS2 parrying is a lot more situational and harder to do. There is no clear indication upping agility does what it does but it's the same for all stats you need to experiment and figure out what does what. I can see why some people wouldn't like seeing agility in the stats menu and haven't to play a guessing game of which stat increases it, but that's kind of what these games are about gameplay wise, careful experimentation and figuring things out. I see agility and I figure it probably speeds up my actions. The base movement without upping agility is also just fine, I beat the game on my first playthrough without levelling adaptability. I didn't notice agility until I had progressed quite a bit. I figured ADP was like the new resistance from DS1 (a useless stat) so I didn't even see what it did and was fine with how my character moved. I should note that agility doesn't actually increase your movement speed it increases your recovery animations from item use and I think attacks, and it also increases your i-frames on rolls and backsteps. It makes it feel like you can dodge attacks more quickly but what's actually happening is you have more time in the action where you don't take damage. At low agility you'll likely get hit often winding up to do a roll or backstep, or as you recover from a roll or backstep. Levelling agility makes dodging early or late less punishing. The community seems to be of the opinion that having agility at 100 makes the feel of the movement in line with DS1, and having it around 110-120 pretty much trivializes the game. This is why it's a bit flawed as a mechanic, I don't think you should be able to make dodging so easy you'd need to hit dodge almost a full second too late in order to get hit.
Wow, I'm surprised you're not suffering a massive fanboy cryfest yet. Whenever I say the mechanics are basically bad and it's difficult for the wrong reasons people scream I'm not good enough because I should spend 1291482903812903812 hours playing the game before I am granted the fucking right to judge it.
I'm so happy to hear an actual review of Dark Souls 2. I'm a huge fan of the series... I put Dark Souls 1 on my list of greatest things to ever be created ever, so any opinion I have will be biased as hell. That's just it though, there are only ever 2 extremes reviewing a souls game. Either they love it, and it's absolutely fucking perfect in every conceivable way, or they hate it, and everything is wrong with it. Very rarely do I see someone say "It's bad because... it's good because...".
I've never really felt that any of the Souls games were worthy of the critical praise that they got because despite a lot of the well designed choices in the games, they just feel sloppy in places. ...though they DO make excellent Water Cooler Discussion topics. But I've always appreciated the things that the games do right, the differences between the weapon types, making your equipment load matter, focusing on a well designed combat system that revolves strictly around your ability to get good with your preferred weapon type as well as understanding how the enemy fights. I'd call myself a fan, but not really a hardcore fan because here are a few problems I have with the games. 1.) The story...what story? Do these games even have stories that aren't vague "you must blaaaaaaaaa"? I know the games focus on the combat, but when one of your developers makes a Let's Play series out of Dark Souls II and explains the intricate lore of the world that you couldn't even BOTHER to put in the game itself, it just screams "the story is an after thought" and in a game that's supposed to be a Dungeon Crawler/RPG there's no excuse for poory storytelling. 2.) Online Mode. Oh yeah, I'm one of THOSE fans. I fucking HATE the Online/Offline system in the Souls games. It's one of the sloppiest most annoying things about the games and it frustrates me to no end. Hey, you got a pretty little menu, why not include some kind of "PVP Mode On/Off" setting? That way whenever I'm trying to fight a boss I don't get invaded by some asshole who's on his 18th playthrough of the game, is decked out in armor I didn't even know you could get, and is dual wielding two-two handed weapons, and yet is capable of prancing around like a ballerina in a John Woo movie and can just slaughter me and my shitty little armor in one swipe of his Plus 5 Holy Sword of Infinite Fuck Yous...seriously, the Invasion System is fucking atrocious! There I said it! Inb4 Oh you just suck at the game...yeah, well stop killing me long enough for me to practice and perhaps I won't! Isn't that the whole point of the game anyway?? 3.) The Dialog...ever notice how literally EVERY character laughs after they speak?? Is that the developers trying to be "clever" and having their game laugh at you? Because it just becomes redundant once you notice it. 4.) Stat increases. Hey, why do I need 16 strength to wield this sword effectively, and yet if I have 32 strength I don't wield it any better? At 15 strength I can barely lift the dang thing, and yet with 32 I'm wielding it no faster than I did 16 levels ago?? Sure I do extra Damage, but give me some input rewards to spending all of those points. ...that's all I got.
So I wrote a lot and then FUCK NO IT'S GONE so this won't be as s;aoriwer'aeirj fuckingbackpagekeya;ewirjwer I'll try to restate all my points. Fromsoft has been doing its stories the way it does because of Hidetaka Miyazaki. He didn't know english quite that well but read a lot of western fantasy novels growing up. He didn't understand everything that he read. They literally want you to just play along filling in the blanks as you go. I like it. I enjoy reading all the item desriptions, which in this game basically come down to: “SHIT IS OLD AND WE DON’T KNOW WHY ANY OF IT IS HERE!”--Nahtez on tumblr I also like being invaded. Too bad it's basically pvp server or offline, I guess. Twinked out characters are definitely annoying and no one likes the people who abuse exploits. I agree it would be neat to see animations change up slightly due to stats. Or perhaps if weapons had fast and power stances? Also I watched a video done by actual medieval combat practitioners who basically said said the character isn't a very skilled fighter. Shit like, sloppy, putting all his power into every strike, etc. Different stances makes a lot of sense, I think. I really do love these games despite their flaws.
1. The series does have a decent story but I would say it has better lore. Kinuhbud has already explained why the story is told that way. Sure I don't mind the Dragon Age type of storytelling but I wouldn't mind if Dark Souls kept its story buried under item descriptions and theories. 2. I would say the game does balance it a bit better than the first but still, the Soul Memory cap needs work. And want to play single player? Play offline. The option does exist. 3. Yeah, I'd say the dialogue is weaker in this one. Dark Souls 1 chuckling was only something I notice after a second playthrough. Dark Souls 2, noticed it immediately but maybe that's because I've played the first. The Emerald Herald is no Maiden in Black. 4. Now this is something I also kind of like and also kind of don't like. More DEX faster swing but I am absolutely sure they did this for balancing reasons. I want to swing faster but for the sake of balancing, it's something I'd allow. I still prefer the better stats better attacks in other games though.
Kinuhbud I will be honest...if someone can't speak English very properly then perhaps he should write his story in Japanese, then have someone translate it and work with him to fill in the fine details. Dark Souls 2 had a Triple A budget, there's really no excuse for not doing something like that. Sorry dude, I still hate the invasion system. There's not even something that separates New Gamers from New Game Plusers. It's bullshit.
Honestly, while I adore the game, the criticisms here are valid. The Souls series for me has always been about mainly two things. 1) The lore and atmosphere which I find appealing, and 2) the way the games respect the player. When I say respect the player, I mean how they don't descend into the trend of so many other games. Who Wants to Be a Millionaire is a lot like many modern videogames: Three minutes of cutscene for every minute of meaningful gameplay, and all tutorial until the third act. "Which nation does the president of the United States preside over? Are you seriously sure about that? Now tell me how you came to this conclusion. Need a lifeline?" And all the while the studio audience applauds. It's cool that some people like that. But I just want a game that lets me go. There is a tutorial section in DKS II but it could be easily skipped and if you just play around with the controls, you'll get the jist of it.
Bu-bu-bu-but Razorfist, don't you know that the shitty hit detection, slow animations and combat system designed for 1v1 fights aren't problems, but features? Don't you know that Dark Souls is a flawless masterpiece, the climax of video game design, where every little detail is deeply thought through and absolutely no mistakes were made by the developers? To say something so negative would be a blasphemous statement made by someone who clearly doesn't comprehend the all-encompassing genius of Dark Souls.
+Max Payne The spotty hit detection is pretty much exclusive to Dark Souls II. The oversized hit boxes are an issue fans griped about. They were somewhat addressed in Scholar of The First Sin (The HD re-release with re-tooling). Other than that, the slow combat and 1v1 style are intentional choices designed to mimic real world combat. I don't know if you know this, but, Jet Li can't actually beat up 30 guys at once unless they come at him one at a time. If that's the kind of combat you're looking for I would suggest Bayonetta or Darksiders II. I don't think Dark Souls is the climax of videogame perfection, but it's a solid game. It's not for everyone and that's sort of the point.
Kevin Berry I was just taking a piss out of the hardcore DS fanboys who think the games are absolutely flawless and anyone who offers even the slightest criticism just "doesn't get it". I really like DS, otherwise I wouldn't spend 50h playing it, but I do think it has its problems and in a game so much based on dying and split-second decisions, even the smallest issues can be annoying.
Max Payne I can agree with and attest to the frustration this series can cause. But as they say "git gud scrub". And I did, and I found the game much less annoying. But I agree, it's frustration levels can be catastrophic. lol.
The ADP stat is on paper a mildly interesting idea. In practice, not pumping your hard-earned souls into the stat named "Adaptability", which has no meaning alongside more intuitive stat names like Strength and Luck, leaves you with a horrendous amount of input lag alongside startup and end lag for almost every single action.
I'm glad you pointed out the shotty hit boxes. I've been playing the Souls series since the release of Demon's Souls and they all felt pretty good. But Dark Souls 2 butchered its hit boxes insanely. You can be standing a few feet to the side of something, and if they grab, you're usually gonna get caught in it.
ADP is the cardio stat. It lets you hit faster, be invincible on rolls longer, and perform actions quicker. At around 26 it's no longer a problem at all, and you'll be swinging even the greatsword with some serious speed. While I do fault From for putting in a playability stat it stops being a problem once you're aware of it. Game controls like butter once you start doing it.
My issue with the first Dark Souls was that I had to look up fucking everything online, and not in the game. That, and controlling my character felt loose and unnatural like a overused fleshlight. But what fully killed the game were the insufferable fantards constantly spamming me with hate for daring to bring up rookie mistakes the game had built in intentionally. It just was not a fun game to play. I don't care how many times you completed a thoroughly mediocre excersise in cortisol production, there is no reason for me to play this garbage.
"DS fanboys hate this review, the backlash will be biblical, those 20 dislikes, bet your going to get more from the roving army of galloping imbeciles that are DS fanboys." And yet I've seen more comments not only agreeing with Razor, but also liking the review because it was fair and balanced by people who like or love the souls series. Where even the critiques of Razor's reviews were met without the usual snide and snark CoD fanboys would commit to. (Though lets be fair,DS has a toxic community at times especially on Xbox live.)
As a longtime fan of the Souls series, I'm glad your review adds a fresh look to a game that either garners consummate praise or unwarranted ire. The series has always had its small problems, in my experience: the opaque narrative always gave me the slight taste of disappointment, and, while I never had much issue with the input delay, I always felt the games had strange response times. But in the end, the positively engrossing gameplay always surpassed the minor flaws. I'm rather happy you saw both the good and the bad in the game. Honesty is the best policy, after all! Thanks, and keep up doing the awesome reviews!
Yeah, but I usually fast travel/cheat to teleport only due to the fact that traveling around gets tedious fast especially when chasing tiny little side-quests that could be on the other side of the fucking map. Everything else in that game is superb and moddable.
After Dark Souls 1 I couldn't try again. I Rage quit it not because it was difficult from a challenging stance, but due to cheap blows, clunky characters and a general lack of fucks I had after my face turned red for the 40th time. Honestly my roommate at the time got more of my monies worth than I did and that wasn't from actually playing the game, but watching me lose my shit when a random enemy got of a cheap hit on my way to the boss room for upteenth fucking time!
Dark Souls has always been about learning and adaptation. Reactionspeed and the like come secondary. Which attack(s) from a particular enemy get you? What are possible methods to evade those? Try them out until you find one that works for you. Proceede with next problem. Getting angry and doing the same thing over and over again will get you absolutely nowhere. Patience and active correction of your own mistakes get you everywhere. All boss rooms in DS1 are reachable with sucessrates of ~80% or higher easily. When you take your time and allow for killing on the way its even higher. In short: \[T]/ GIT GUD SCRUB ;) \[T]/
'By design' is hardly ever an excuse. It's an explanation but like searching for the reason your neighbor's dog keeps on shitting between your sixth and seventh garden gnome exclusively, it hardly really matter. Your neighbor's dog is still taking a shit in your front-yard every goddamn day! Say, in multiplayer, I could accept the whole delay thing if it was a restriction IMPOSED by the way latency is handled. But In singleplayer? No. You are not piggy-riding on the shoulders of the PC, the PC should be a reflection of yourself through the game world. As a side note, I'm still waiting for Dragon's Dogma 2, CAPCOM. A game I think pretty much landed melee-combat, magic and ranged weapons almost perfectly. God forbid they now think they don't need my money anymore.
To a degree, yes, but some of it is in error and the lag may even result in failure of the game to register the input. But as Razorfist said, this will pass. Look at the previous games and you'll see it there as well. He gave a very fair, honest, a good review.
Drakeslayer Amnon I'm not dismissing the game. His opening statement about the Souls game pretty much mirrors mine. It's just that in the Encyclopedia of Gameplay Features (the by-worth version), 'built-in input delay' is pretty much printed on the inside of the back-cover.
You're 100% correct, but when people compare Xbox to PS, you see the error. Severe lag, which s inconsistent, to the point of failure to register. It's a coding & cloud thing. Hoping From Soft will correct it soon. Along with the problems with inconsistent hit detection. From wanted a more deliberate, say Castlevania 1 & 3 approach. But the error is there which makes the approach, problematic. It'll be corrected.
***** Well, I am not making an excuse for it. I am stating what it was, and why the game was directly designed with that in mind. Being comfortable with it is entirely up to personal tastes. I can see why people don't mind it, but see why people can think it's absolutely absurd. I only brought up Adaptability as that may have eased his major, major issue with the game. It is the reason for the delay, but if he pooled points into it, it would slowly shave itself off. Again, entirely personal preference if you dig that.
The biggest thing I enjoyed about this game is the fact that it is _actually_ ambidextrous. I miss the days when equipping a sword in your left hand and a shield in your right doesn’t turn your character into a dipshit who uses his saber to stop a sword swing and his shield as a glorified knuckleduster. Oh, and also _actually_ dual wielding weapons.
RazorFist, please understand that the "Dark Souls is hard" meme is perpetuated by the uninitiated, and sadly, Namco's marketing department. It's not the reason why the actual fanbase likes the games.
I especially don't agree on the whole lore thing. The lore is great starting from what they built in DkS1. The fact that the don't even force it on you is great, but for the people who want it, its there. In DkS1 every single item had lore. Thats a lot of god damn items that build the world around you. I found it interesting and wanted more from it.
Its correct that there is a delay between pressing the run button and reaching running speed. You know that humans dont have infinite acceleration right? And stabbing with the rapier takes too much time? I dont think so. It feels quite natural to me. The big difference to other games is that you cant just abort an attack half way through. While many action games go purely for reaction speed dark souls needs careful strategy, timing and movement orientation. If theres not enough time to hit the enemy then don't do it andwait to find a better opening instead. At least thats my take on it If there is anything to complain about its that some enemys do crazy pivoting in their moves.
I like Dark Souls 2 a lot, but I can kinda see where you're coming from. I don't think the controls are all that imprecise or that there's that bad a delay, it's got much more to do with the animations and how weighted they all are; when you press the attack button with a freaking zweihander, you don't really expect the thing to hit in the exact millisecond you hit the attack button because the thing isn't exactly a light saber (and the example about the rapier? Well yeah, they're pretty fast, but your character still has to lunge forward to attack, it's not exactly like pulling a trigger). Now the hit boxes? Yeeah... they're broken as fuck, though not as horribly as they seem a lot of the time. You see, they appear to be even more broken than they already are because of the biggest fuck up Fromsoft has made in this series since forever and still refuses to fix. See, I think the online component of this game is brilliant, I love it as a concept, BUT, in a game like this one with relatively realistic combat with such weighted animations and such, WHY THE FUCK IS THE NETCODE SO FUCKING BAD AND WHY IS THE ONLINE COMPONENT FUCKING P2P? NO, FROMSOFT, NO. That is why every time you're thrown into online mode (when you summon someone or when you're invaded, for instance), you risk the change of getting stabbed by a spear that is 90° and several feet away from you (and boy does this happen in PVP, unfortunately, and lets not even get into motherfucking spellcasting scrubs hitting you out of nowhere). For a game like this one to work properly, you would need to have your netcode as finely tuned as that of a fucking fighting game. This isn't exactly a tab targetting MMO. I love Dark Souls 2. I boot it up every now and again to invade people or to do some jolly cooperation and enjoy it, but I'm unfortunately well aware of it's flaws. IF this game had more and better written lore of its own (the best lore tidbits in this game come straight out of Dark Souls 1), they hadn't downgraded the graphics and made dark areas and torches pointless, had more cool and unique bosses (see Demon's and Dark Souls 1), and Fromsoft fixed their motherfucking netcode and got dedicated servers already and fucking got rid of soul memory, I think this game would actually be perfect for my taste. Oh, and also, you mentioned a ring that made your weapons invisible in PVP and that needed rebalancing? Sorry, but no, very few people have it, and not many bother getting it. They're two rings, actually, and to get them you need to beat the game without dying once for the left ring, and beat the game without ever resting at a bonfire for the right ring. Good luck with that. If you encounter someone with that, well fuck it, why complain? They deserved it. That's better than fucking hexers just lag sniping you or the people who exclusively use the OP flavor of weapon of the patch.
***** Besides, something I've noticed. All enemies big and small, with daggers and claymores have a wind-up. you can clearly see when they're launching an attack, so if you're keen and observant you can avoid them. Seems to me they wanted to treat the players the same way, so that invaders and defenders see when their enemy winds-up an attack.
i fell in love with the game for all the reasons you said at the end. its got old school feels, i love the "little enemy to big boss" setup of the different "levels" or areas, the leveling and armor sets are diverse enough to keep interest. you did also cover my frustrations with the game fairly well, but like you said, at this point m willing to take something close and sloppy over something perfect and redundant. its refreshing enough that ive got over 600 hours between one and two and demon souls and im still willing to play it. its not about the goals its about killing time and enjoying it with this game, and as unusual as it is for me im down for that from this series
I love the Dark Souls series. It's got many different ways of looking at it. You can treat it like a dungeon crawler, action RPG, mmorpg, survival horror... I like to look at it as a fighting game. I do agree that some of the weapon attack animations have too much of a wind up (real-life rapiers can attack a lot faster than depicted in the game, especially sabres), but it think the weapons were designed around one another such that, with very few exceptions, there's no such weapon that's blatantly better than another. Excellent review, man.
The run button delay is actually supposed to be that way, or rather, it isnt an actual "delay". I thought the same until I learned that when you deplete your stamina completely,it has to fill back up completely before you can run again. Still lame and confusing, but it is by design....other delay/lag is fair game tho.
Curocko Storywise? No doubt Level design? Subjective, but I'll be inclined to agree (Although fuck the Undead Burg). Atmosphere? Again, subjective. Boss variety? No contest. The mechanics felt more polished though.
Now, I disagree with you on the lore of the Souls series being bad; my opinion, of course, but as a whole, the whole 'it's okay when the Souls series does it!' thing is definitely true. In Scholar of the First Sin, a fairly lazy next-gen 'revamping/remastering' of Dark Souls 2, they elected to repeatedly place The Pursuer several times throughout many areas. Dark Souls 2 fans have praised this blatant repetition of the EXACT SAME enemy with the EXACT SAME moveset and EXACT SAME weapon, solely because it's called 'The Pursuer', and it's "like he's pursing you!" If this was in LITERALLY ANY OTHER GAME it would be criticised to no end! In fact, some fans (rightfully) criticised the rehashing of the same character model, and a similar boss concept 3 times in Dark Souls 1.
+me Not sure if the copy paste of the Pursuer was well received or not, but personally, one of the many changes in SoTFS that I hated. It's kind of funny, Razor bitched at Bloodborne for stacking the deck, but wasn't it freaking DS2 that wrote the book? Seriously, shit was broke on balance in some aspects.
I am a huge Souls fan and i did not find this review absolutely invalid. He has good points why this game has flaws but at the same time he doesn't call it a piece of shit like most of the gamers do. And the positive side about this review? Is that he never complained about the graphics as the other so-called ''hardcore fans'' complained about the graphics downgrade between the actual product and the gameplay trailers. I don't care if he hates it, he is still cool to watch.
I think Dark Souls II isn't a very good example of the series as a whole. It really IS difficult for difficulty's sake. It's also full jank at every turn that makes the very act of just walking in a straight line a chore. Hell, it's dodging isn't even based on timing, it's based on a state, so we may as well not have a button for it since regardless of when we hit it, the random roll might decide it wasn't good enough. Dark Souls II is a mess. Dark Souls is a good game with some glaring flaws in a few spots, but Dark Souls II is just mess that works okay on a good day, and barely functions on a bad.
I am without a doubt, one of the biggest Souls' series fanboys. However, all of Razorfist's complaints have caused me to scream "Fuck" more times then Sasha Grey getting pounded in the ass. All that aside, the lore and gameplay is what keep me entertained. And compared to games like Skyrim, Dark Souls is a masterpiece bar-none, compared Thief sure, it isn't but Thief is a stealth game with minimal dungeon crawling. At least from what I have experienced. That being said, in my opinion, which means virtually nothing when compared to with facts, Dark Souls puts the beat down on many RPG's that have come about within the past 5 years. And the difficulty factor is only difficult for people used to being spoonfed and having the whole game played for them by mashing X to win. It is artificial difficulty, it is only difficult based on your skill level. Where as Skyrim, is hard just because you change a menu slider and want to fulfill your masochism while being ass raped by a Skeever.
One thing I noticed about this review was you saying that it takes 2 or more seconds for your input to go in for when you hold onto the button to start running. The problem there isn't the input, its a poorly implemented punishment for letting your stamina bar run completely dry. When you do that in either dark souls, or dark souls 2, it has to completely refill before your character can run, unless you attack or roll before it is completely filled.
Dude, that's not an input delay. You're feeling the actual motion of a backswing and follow through when you swing your weapon. You can see the animations. Valid points otherwise.
I still stand by my point that the story is perfect in that it's not a story. It's simply an architectural endeavor in where you, the foreigner, the alien, the goddamned millennium child in the 80s, should only find so much from a decaying apocalyptic world. If I was in Fallout New Vegas, somehow jumping a portal into that dimension with every inhabitant dead by that timeline only with very sparse interiors that casually remind me of things that I know, I should not therefore understand the full context and background of the land. Yes its purposeful, but no I think it isn't bad, it's preferential. Not many stories get away with the silent moodiness that could make the environment a character even if it was typical enough to set a baseline for the rpg's narrative and level design. It's Blame! for me, so perhaps I took a special interest in it, because Blame! was a kickass manga. Except without our own very heartfelt character named Cibo. Plus, it is in no way near FF's shitty storytelling. Through it's level design PURPOSEFULLY setting items in certain places in association with one another to seeing where dead bodies are in association to boss rooms or levels, THIS is more effort to storytelling than the creators of Lightning's character arc could ever hope to dream of. I can off the top of my head name several side-stories that were more well-designed then the entirety of FF13's asinine and insulting plot. Honestly, yeah muddy controls plague the game and it's a sordid topic not many go into because of how well the level design and creatures were made. That's telling. That one aspect could make up for big giant faults by being just as gargantuan in beauty. I still fucking hate pressing the lock on button only to have a guy ON THE OTHER SIDE OF A WALL be locked onto as my character frantically switches between them like a dog choosing between varieties of bacon bits. Was it mentioned or not, but I thought the controls while they sacrificed stat gains, in the review it explicitly states these were so that each weapon could possess it's own uniqueness. Nearly every single weapon has a slight variation to a humongous quality over one another that always brought a fresh sense of gameplay. Honestly, it was a fair review, here's lookin at you Mr. Fist.
You pretty much pointed everything out that was annoying about this game, but thats a VERY VERY SHORT list compared to any other game that has been released since dark souls 1.
Fortunately, the input lag issues were fixed in Dark Sous 3, and the graphics were back to their former glory, too. From Software scratch an itch I never knew I had, I bought a PS4 exclusively to try Bloodborne, and loved it! The games aren't perfect, but I'm enthralled by them.
I agree, much better than most stuff we get. But we shouldn't circle jerk it for not shitting the bed as much as everyone else. We'll give it the clap it deserves, but a wag of the finger for the fine tuning this game desperately needs.
UpNorthGameReviews Criticism I'm fine with, the only problem is that 95% of the criticism for DS1 was all about the lack of a fricking pause button, with the other 5% just calling the controls just "clunky" which quickly descends into mud slinging match between pro and con where talking about the game takes a back seat just like Anita Sarkisian takes the debate away from sexism. Razorfist's video almost became just another Souls Pro / Con fight but I'm glad to see him articulating the argument with the rapier and moving onto other aspects like PvP. :)
Good review actually and valid points. Funnily enough I find that your problems with this one, for the most part, I would say are not in the first. The second tried too hard to be 'Dark Souls' without quite knowing what the 'Dark Souls' actually was, thinking difficulty etc. You were saying about world lore and things... yes I find it hard to get much into DkS2 lore etc yet I am an avid fan of the first simply because the world is absolutely dripping with meaning. The story wasn't told through text-boxes or dialogue... the story was told by the world, the connections, pathways... everything. The dialogue and text-boxes just happen to give us evidence to back up the claims that we make from having theoriesed something from the experience itself. The main reason I guess I loved Dark Souls 2 is because it was giving me a chance to play something that was connected, felt similar and had that same feeling of exploration but the whole time there was something missing hence why I've played that one only once through and the others God knows many! I leave it down to atmosphere but that is just subjective.
+Peter Avastrat Nice rose-tinted glasses you got there. The problems Razorfist has with this DS2 are more prevalent in it's predecessor(s), not less. You're just another DS1 fanboy who believes himself to be the authority on what "dark souls actually is" after playing a bit of DS1. Funny, people who started with the first Souls game (Demon Souls) tend to bitch and put down DS1 as inferior, much in the same way you put down Dark Souls 2 in favor of Dark Souls 1. I've played all 3 and find DS2 to be the best by a wide margin, with the only exception being that I like Lordran more than Drangleic. EDIT: I don't consider Bloodborne to be a Souls game, despite the similarities.
Nice madly exaggerated negative comment you got there. It is all a subjective debate in the end but you don't happen to be having it with a raving fanboy. Yes I love Dark Souls 1 but I actually love Dark Souls 2 and even Demon Souls. Heck I even have completed Demons Souls more than the other two due to the consistency of its quality and the enjoyment and length the game has. I'm not claiming 'I know what Dark Souls is' I just felt that the second one didn't capture it, whatever that thing is, it didn't feel right. I am sorry that I cannot explain in great objective depth as to why it didn't but I can say why I seem to have felt it didn't. The inconsistency of the environment and the way the world was built was undeniably flawed. Are you forgetting the open topped tower in the poisoned area of the game that had an elevator, after fighting random animal enemy number 3, that took you up... into a lava filled iron fortress? That inconsistency is near gamebreaking in terms of immersion. Now this no-way states that DkS1 is perfect because it isn't. The first half of the game almost is but the second half for the most part can be a boring slog through some areas that did feel half baked. The Demon Ruins and its copied and pasted Taurus Demons and the Capra Demons did make me sigh initially... however the world itself tells a lot more and with the layout geographically it all makes sense alongside the lore itself. MUSIC. A HUGE benefit for me. I don't know about you, but I know many people who don't notice music in videogames and movies but I for one can't help but be engrossed by a piece. The music in DkS2 is good as 'boss theme 2' but it is hardly memorable and moving aside from the final theme, which was more harking back to the DkS1 Nameless Song anyway. The soundtrack of DkS1 reflects everything about the deep meaning of the lore and the power of the story itself. Most certainly did DkS2 get the gameplay right, it is a lot more 'fun' to play but personally fun isn't always as immersive. You wont read 1984 or Brave New World for fun. DkS1 I can't help but come back to because it means something as opposed to Dark Souls 2 being fun and well-rounded. I'm not a raving mad fanboy as you seem to believe, I just have an opinion that is founded on the immersion based on atmosphere, world design and lore. I do believe Gameplay is as important but in different ways. Demons Souls is most certainly the most consistent, personally, in delivering a good, fun and immersive experience. Dark Souls 1 happens to ooze atmosphere meanwhile Dark Souls 2 plays great and sees you enjoying a wide spectacle of sights. The lore is good but is struggling under the weight of some of the deeper, meaningful stories of its predecessors. As I say this is all subjective so no need to go full on 'rose-tinted critique'. I didn't state all the various negative aspects of the games because I felt I wouldn't need to write an essay for people to see the game the same way... Obviously I do have to for someone like yourself who fail to avoid categorizing, stereotyping and generalising individuals. As you say you prefer Lordran to Drangleic... to me that alone is my reason why I prefer Dark Souls 1 because that world building is what I personally love over the things you love. Different things my friend for different reasons, neither of them wrong. I still play them all and have sunk many hours into all of them, loving all for what they are not for what I wish them or believe them to be. I just happen to focus on the positives as opposed to the negatives and personally the positives of Dark Souls 1 are better than the positives of Dark Souls 2, which for you is the opposite. No need to cry madness at the sight of preference.
+LordofApache None of the problems that Razorfist listed in this video are more prevalent in Dark souls 1 or Demon Souls. Also, I played Dark Souls 2 first, so I am not looking at the first game through nostalgia goggles. You must be delusional.
Not to also nitpick, but why would you pause? In a game where invaders can kill you at any moment how would it be fair if you suddenly became invincible for a sandwitch and tea? And trust me, that's been abused plenty of times with other real-time games such as Dota 2. You can argue that pausing would only be used in pve, but even then it would kill the momentum of having to watch every part of the environment in a survivalist sort of way. Same reason why Rust and DayZ don't have pause buttons.
'Why would you pause?' I'll answer that with another question: Why include an Offline Mode, if you STILL can't pause? People want to pause in Dark Souls for the same reason anyone pauses in any other game: Because the human colon and bladder give less than a fuck what From Software's 'intentions' were. When you've got to drop a deuce, said deuce must be dropped.
***** You do know the offline mode was included for other reasons. Such as the fact they didn't want their players to feel as if their only playtime would be controlled on a DRM. If that were the case, it would be Sim City all over again. I usually cleared enough enemies within aggro radius to actually take a shit. I never really had that complication before but I can assure my sphincter ejects it's healthy dosage of brown daily. Plus, wouldn't you see people abusing it like they would in Silent Hill 2? I could be scared shitless from that toilet spewing out it's contents into a moving, Jungian creature yet because pausing was a function, I could simply stop right there and devour all the healing jellies and IV packs I so desired safe and able to regain my faculties. Not saying the SH series would be better off without pause. Certain games do need pause breaks for inventory management, health distribution, etc. and wouldn't suffer without it. But going with the SH analogy, ESPECIALLY since DS has no clear narrative feature and thus must persist in immersing the player in it's combat and mechanics, it would make the game's momentum screech to a halt in my mind towards players who opt out of hard fights rather than testing the boss patterns after initial deaths to finalize on the boss later on.
***** In fact, all enemies have aggro radiuses. Why not just kill people for now, stay in that relatively safe zone, and do what you need to do afterwards? It's not the type of game that respawns enemies as soon as you drop a 15-minute taco sludge and with invaders, you could always just exit as it autosaves the game for you.
***** All in all, what I'm simply suggesting here is that DSII's immediacy is different than perhaps say Megaman X and somewhat similar to good horror games in that the first encounter is what shouldn't leave your impression of the level. It tried to connect it's own vague sense of immersion with us through survival at least in my opinion.
Blackemperess Bullshit, I have yet to fight a creature or group of creatures within that aggro zone that lasted more than 5 minutes. A boss fight is another thing, but your allowed ample time to prepare given you have bonfires very near boss rooms. Dozen? More like 3-4 in any given radius if it isn't the gulch (which is just a sprint fest) or other areas with multiple enemy ambushes. Overall most enemies that come after you are pretty spanned out. And stop acting like DSII is your baby daddy. It was your fault for not getting that shit aborted pronto when morning sickness started to occur. If you can't hold it in for up to 1-3 minutes at a time, I think you have more problems than DS. Internally. Seek help if this continues. Analogies aside, it is a timesync. I think it expressly tells you "My immediacy does not offer pausing." If you sacrifice immediacy, you sacrifice the first encounters used to initialize the impact the player feels after a death or successful fight before learning the patterns and placement of enemies. DS lives on this more than any other game I know.
Yeah, the lack of a pause function is a pretty good argument. The only reason it shouldn't be available is if you're actively invaded or invading. Resident Evil 6 had a pause option in offline mode. Attack and block buttons on the shoulder buttons don't bother me. But a 2-second delay from depressing the button to action? 1.5 seconds for a rapier? If you got that much delay, then your controller is seriously broken. I was able to strike with a curved greatsword in less than 1 second. A broadsword in half that time, at most. The story is meant to be minimalistic, so comparing it to something story-driven like Final Fantasy XIII isn't really fair. It's story comes from lore rather than a defined plot. If you didn't care for the game, I can understand that. It's not for everyone, especially with such a massive learning curve due to lack of explanation of game mechanics. But out of the 66 hours I played of Dark Souls II from beginning to end, any technical flaws you mentioned were non-existent.
I've been really interested in playing Dark Souls. I don't know much about the series but I watched some videos and liked the creative visuals very much. Also I generally enjoy games based around solitary dungeon exploration. But now I'm really hesitant. Is the game in question really unfair and unbalanced ? Is these a possibility to save progress at will or checkpoint only ? Should I pick up Dark Souls 1 instead ?
The Dark Souls' combat system is deliberately slow, at least on the player's part. The idea is that Japanese game developers treat combat more the way samurai did: as a deliberate face off, carefully examining the foe for weaknesses, and only striking when an opportunity presents itself. This is the exact opposite of the western quick-on-the-draw gunslinger style that we're so used to in games like God of War.
so I guess dmc talesof and star ocean are exceptions than? and were the he'll are you learning about samurai from because you're idea of there wordplay being slow and and tactical is wrong anyone who took dueling school can tell you this
Devil May Cry is its own thing and always has been. Playing it today, I find its controls actually rather awkward compared to God of War. Dante is so twitchy (especially with his timed based combos rather than differing button combos) and his jumping so difficult with its fixed camera angles. Remember that he's supposed to be the half-demon son of a infamous devil with inhuman speed and strength. Most Japanese video games follow the strategic approach to combat, treating it like a puzzle rather than test of reflexes (including Zelda). And I have watched, for example, practice duels between people who still practice samurai sword techniques. The strikes themselves may be blistering fast, but there is always a long pause before they begin as each side sizes the other up.
The last good dungeon crawler I played was Legend of Grimrock, and I enjoyed the hell out of it. I love Ultima Underworld 1 and 2, so would it be smart for me to get into the Demon/Dark Souls series?
Hey Razor, you forgot NG++ and NG+++, and it being more then just "lol more health for everyone!" I've always seen the Souls series in both gameplay and lore as being a love it or hate it kind of deal, something similiar in this regard would be the Malazan books. To me this not a bad thing, games or other times of entertainment that aims for to large of a audience mostly fall flat on their backs eitherway.
I suppose you could call me a fanboy, but I've never had a problem with the hitboxes, and to be honest I don't know why, everyone else is except for me. As far as the story if you expect the characters in-game to fill in the story, then you're gonna be disappointed, that's what item description are for. And finally I actually kinda appreciate the delay in button to game reactions, and the reactions can be made quicker by leveling up you're adaptability stat. But I respect you're opinion and I sure as hell respect Razorfist, so god fucking speed everyone.
And additionally, difficulty for difficulty's sake... well... how would you explain that to a Megaman X/Castlevannia masochist? Especially when difficulty was used to proliferate the sense of dread in a dying world which ultimately resulted in making those scenes like Majula and Dragon Aerie so magnificently cinematic.
The controls are working as intended since it is a different design style that works at a slower pace than titles such as Dragon Dogma, DMC or Bayonetta. Moreover this design approach is a long time trademark of From Software since the first Armored Core for PSX. A reviewer should understand the main mechanic of the game he is reviewing, instead he is confusing design choices with bad controls. After that you can judge if it is a good design decision or not, and if it suits your taste, but keeping in mind that it worked marketwise.
It isn't clear in this review or Bloodborne's if you've played Dark Souls 1 before, but if you haven't, do it. If you actually enjoyed BB and this embarrassing heap of dogshit that passes as a sequel then I can't see how you won't enjoy the pinnacle of the souls series. Just a shame you had to deal with it's bastard child first
ajbolt7 I'd disagree, some of the bosses were poorly designed, but most of the beast bosses were fun to fight against. Bloodstarved beast, Vicar Amelia, Darkbeast Pearl and Ludwig were pretty fun for me and hunter boss fights were probably my favorite thing aside from setting, atmosphere and the combat itself, which was very refreshing. Dark Souls 1 had bad boss designes as well (Bed Of Chaos is a category for itself, Asylum Demon's copy in the Bed Of Chaos area and when you return to the Asylum, Capra Demon, Pinwheel, Ceaseless Discharge and Taurus Demon.) and it had terrible level design in second half, because it was rushedm. Bloodborne had complex level design almost on par with DaS 1, fun and good combat system that was refreshing, some of the best bosses in the entire Souls series (Gherman, Ludwig, Orphan Of Kos, Lady Maria, Vicar Amelia, Gascgoine), interesting setting and great atmosphere, OST was superb and that Lovecraftian twist was awesome.
Depends on your endurance. I kept below 50% once you hit it's hard cap (29 or something like that) and I was wearing some hefty armor. Then again it doesn't really matter what you wear, it's all about speed, and shield block%. May as well roll around in rags, the 1.5 HP the Smelter Demon armor is saving you really won't come in handy. But as for his armor, it's fairly light, especially with the hard cap. Not to mention you'll be wearing a few rings to lower your weight.
Interesting review Razorfist as a fan of the Dark Souls series you do have some really good valid points on certain aspects that should be done better or changed in the series. I think DS 2 is more easier and looks a lot better in the different environments compared to DS1, but DS1 is was more better on the story (Which you do have to put into a lot of work for finding it) and characters compared to DS2 which was really lacking. Also the hit detections in DS1 was better DS2, I don't know how many times that I died from a boss or enemy that I know I rolled from there attack and still got hit.
I agree with input delay and hit boxes. I still feel as though the game's lore is one of its finer points. You're not a hero(or at least you're not expected to be), you're an undead who's going hollow and soon may go insane. You're a stranger in a foreign land, a decaying kingdom that nobody seems to remember quite fully, and those who do, are there to patronize you or are already bonkers. It is up to you to involve yourself with what's going on. Just use your fucking head.
I always found it odd how people shat on From Software's dungeon crawlers like King's Field, Eternal Ring and Evergrace when they're really not all that different from Dark Souls/Demon Souls.
***** Oh damn, I completely forgot about Shadow Tower Abyss. I was looking into getting my hands on the fan-translation of it that was put out sometime back.
Because Demons Souls was financed by Sony themselves as a system exclusive. Believe it or not a lot of reviewers out there will refuse to give something, no matter if it is good or not, higher than a certain score unless it has some connection to a big name or was paid for.
I really hope From Software returns to the King's Field series, as I've enjoyed all three Souls' games, but it's time to return to the forerunner of this series.
ripoutyourprejudice There wasn't that much wrong with the series. Many complained about the very slow attack swings and the shoulder buttons being used as strafing and looking up and down, but those could be easily fixed, but the former... would probably stay the same.
ripoutyourprejudice Well, the series is old as fuck, besides King's Field IV on the PS2, but I'm sure they would fix some of those things up. Also, I didn't ignore what you added in, because it didn't really bother me, as much as the shoulder buttons.
ripoutyourprejudice Aside from the clunky controls, I really like the design of those games, especially the American release of King's Field 1. It's the purest example of an "adventure RPG" I've seen yet, and I'd like to see From build on it. That said, the game is slow because it's a slow paced game. It's not some twitch shooter like Quake, and it doesn't really affect the combat in any negative way, as it is built entirely around this slow pace. I wouldn't consider it a flaw, it just takes some getting used to is all.
I don't know about that. Even when they brought the series to the PS2 they still kept with the slow pace, heck, KF4 is even slower than the first 3 games.
I know that this probably has past, but I just want to say, Titchy Gren's voice-actor owned those typical three line parts all Souls characters are given.
Man I wish I could talk to you face to face about your opinions on MGS and Dark Souls because some of your opinions on the two are pretty asinine. That being said I DS2 has hitboxes the size of a city block and the input delay should have something they fixed in Demons Souls. These are two HUGE problems with the game now and only one review has ever pointed that out and still gave it a near perfect score. I love the series but I wish someone would address that.
8 years later still fucking relevant. When ever I need to tell a DS fanboy why I dont like series end genre I point at this video and the Bloodborne one.
For me the controls for Dark Souls works R triggers are attack, L are defensive. They perform no other task, only combat oriented functions. For Thief Run, Jump and Cimb are all mapped the L2 trigger... sooo how am I gunna do a running jump then go into a ledge grab climb? Have fun figuring that out folks. Not to mention the throw command and use bow are also both mapped to the R2 trigger...what? Just why? And sure if you want to know whats the hell is goin on in Dark Souls; Prepare to Read. I'll give you that... however FF 13 has a narrative (that annoying chic is the narrator), cut scenes, dialogue, exposition (or at least tries to give you this things) and almost deliberately fails at telling you the full story without having to read the in-game journal. Sorry guy, these comparisons don't work.
I'm playing DS1 aaaand I gottuh say I hate it with a molten fury: 1)Because you can't pause. This game isn't a game, it's a life decision, which makes it all the more unappealing to pick up. 2)Because you can't fucking save wherever you want. It would be nice, after I prep to fight a boss if I could just fucking park my ass in front of the fog wall; so I can try to not get steamrolled again, and again, and again. Just once! The check point based save system just demoralizes the player, because the sheer *repetition* of jogging to the beginning of a meat grinder, just for the privilege to have your ass skinned into a tote bag, just makes the game *tiresome* . Difficulty is fine, but there's a world of difference between a game *challenging* the player versus just simply *exhausting* them. 3)Respawning goddamn enemies! So no area rewards you with a clean map you can then explore, meaning *any* exploration is just begging for needless (but oh-so necessary) punishment, if you go to a bonfire to heal at all. *Good thing there's no coherent story or this would be even more infuriating.* 'In the beginning there were dragons, and then fire happened, and shit went sideways---' So the fire came after the fire-breathing dragons, huh? Got it. Brilliant world building, guys. That brings me to reason number 4 this game sucks taint: 4)The main character isn't a character. There's no story, because there's no want vs. need to define a character arch. There are no characters period! Just NPC's that allude to the world building, and that's all. If you're a role-playing aficionado, someone who plays games for the (hopefully branching) narrative, there's no role to play; conversely, if you're just a power gamer, if you just want a meaningless and nose-bleed steep learning curve, this series is for you and *you* exclusively.
Yeah DS2 is flawed. On the other hand if I were to make an RPG I would make it be an unholy fusion of the Souls games(atmosphere, level design, ability to kill every single NPC), the Gothic series(open world elements, RPG elements) and the Drakengard/Nier series(story set up, the music, the general messed upness, and a final boss that while not a rhythm game, is still similar in how it would be a complete departure from the normal game's combat). An Open World RPG with no HUD(you would have to visually assess your character), no minimap(so you would need to rely on NPC directions, landmarks, road signs, and any maps you find). Combat mechanics would be entirely made up.
Which is stupid by design. Dodging and tanking should come with the class I pick, not a stat that I'm forced to use. If I'm nimble, I should dodge farther, and faster. If I'm a tank I should be tanking that shit! But of course, it doesn't work that way. The other use that skill has is the speed in which you use consumables. Your fuck wit of a character likes to sip his fine Estus with style, apparently impending death doesn't make anyone at FromSoft design this crazy thing I call "drinking faster while not standing still'. In the end it's still a useless stat, faith pretty much wrecks everything, just grab enough strength for a tower shield (100% block). You'll beat the game in a few hours.
In previous Soul's games, the controls felt better. I found I really need to mash my button to sprint. Honestly mashing hard works for anything. Being able to aim while locked on throws me off still--not sure I like that feature but I can see it being useful to others. Still, the game feels worse compared to the previous. Hopefully its better on PC. A bit of delay is intentional, but ehhh I completely disagree with the bit on the lore and NPCs. Sure some of their dialogue I could do without, but I could say the same for RL people. In fact, I really like some of the new NPCs.
Lots of very valid points. A game with many flaws, but is good in spite of it. I may disagree with some points, e.g. the lore, as I have found that the story is mostly told through item descriptions, not npc dialogue, but the voice acting and input lag are fairly bad. I won't comment on bad hit boxes, since I have not experienced them myself, but they undoubtedly do exist for quite a few players. I will admit I was confused on the point of having several controls mapped to the same button. The only one I can think of is the jump and roll button, but that can be changed from O to L3. I believe Razorfist was commenting on the either the combat or item switching system, as it was showcased while he was talking about the issue, but I don't really see the correlation.
This is the SINGLE MOST UNBIASED REVIEW of a Dark Souls I have seen yet! Either it's people screaming its praises or it is people hating it. You acknowledge the good and bad ad I really appreciate that.
Dark Souls 2 is the worst in the series. Any grievances with it are valid. And this is coming from a total Fanboy of this series. I love the souls games, but DS2... It sucks really, really hard.
You need to upgrade your 'Adaptability' stat, this speeds up the animations, and there is nothing ''standard fare'' about the Souls series online features, witch IMO is one of the most innovative things to come out of gaming in the last 10 years.
Souls series is probably my favorite series ever made, but I agree with most of the complaints, especially about the inconsistent hitboxes and dodging mechanics of Dark Souls 2. I mean, I can dodge a physical attack no problem, I can judge the size of enemies sword or foot but WHY IN FUCK do all their attacks have some sort of area of effect shockwave that wrecks your healthbar for no reason. Also, in Dark Souls 1 you were rewarded for learning enemy attack patterns by being able to consistently dodge them, in this game they fucked it up by adding Agility stat that all it does is lowers the random nature of you not getting clipped by enemy sword WHILE DODGING. Fast agile builds are fucked in this. Nowhere near as fun. Seems they want to funnel you down the path of playing a tanky knight.
I just went back to DS2 after DS3, briefly, and the input lag was a thousand times more noticeable! I loved the game at the time, but wow, it's awful... The first game didn't have that issue, either!
Rapier example. Well, see the thing is all Dark Souls weapons telegraph their attacks. I disagree with your assertion that these specific input delays on weapons even if their light weapons are detriments to the game. I find this more of a pvp issue but wouldn't it be overpowered if rapiers possessed the speed of an ak coupled with the fact that you can buff it with weapon power ups based on stats mainly ? That's the same reason they have delays on crossbows, it balances the pvp experience so no one's noscoping like it's a shooter. If you make speedier weapons weaker, they become completely unnecessary and gimmicky machine guns.
You see, your mistake was playing Dark Souls 2. Even in the community this one's seen as a sort of black sheep lacking the refinement of DS3 or the intriging world of DS1
Played and greatly enjoyed both this and the first on PC _only after_ things for both got infinitely better once the modding community tweaked the code.. _again_.. and at least came decently close to realizing the previously lost promise of graphic fidelity and responsiveness in the case of Dark Souls 2. What bothers me is that if not for these dedicated, technically-savvy fans, that would not have been possible, and we'd have been stuck with two absolutely abysmal PC ports, which was bad enough the first go-round, but for Dark Souls 2? Yikes..
thant0s PS4 and XBONE owners should be happy they got the "Finished Version" in Scholar of the First Sin. Which I bought on PC just to get the DLCs for cheap :P
The game is not particularly difficult. Most of your complaints about "controls" are due to your own lack of skill and knowledge of how combat in dark souls is supposed to work. But we were all there at one point.
I don't get why you have a problem with the attacks being mapped to the shoulder buttons, as that works really well for the game's mechanics, but you are mostly right. The hit boxes and input delay are buuuuu-huuuuull-shit (though the run delay triggers when you run out of stamina, it's deliberate to punish you for running out of stamina; not saying I agree with this design choice, but that's what's going on). The inability to pause would have been acceptable if you could quit to the menu _quickly_ and get back into the game _quickly,_ but you can't. Not only does it take too long, you have to go through the pointless update checks every fucking time. Wait, I meant to say, "fuck u ur wrong git gud scrub."
dark souls 2 is fun, but the effective weapon range vs the displayed weapon range almost destroys multiplayer. if a rapier user pokes his rapier and it doesn't touch me i shouldn't take damage. but in ds2 if that guy with the rapier does a poke i take damage even if it doesn't come near me. this prick is 6 feet away and somehow poking me in the eye with a rapier.
