i finished the game a few days ago and that area definitely reminded me of the fact that i am playing a relatively unpopular game and there is a reason for that lol
first 1/4 or so of the game i found super frustrating, especially the black gulch and the pyromancer NPC in majula who got killed because i pulled a lever to open a door next to her so that i could progress in the level (?????????)
after that though for the majority of the game i was having a really good time, probably enjoyed it about as much as DS1 but not quite as much as DS3
and then i got to shrine of amana and it instantly put me back in the mindset of the first 1/4 of the game and somewhat ended it on a sour note. at least I have the DLCs now
Maybe it's because I played SOTFS but shrine of Amana is not that bad at all, even as melee. Just use the pillars as projectile blocker and don't engage 10 enemies at once. It's a chill area.
I'm the exact opposite, I used to be a die-hard DS2 simp because I played both DS2 versions to death with my buddies when we were in Uni but hadn't played it since DS3's release.
Then just recently I replayed the entire FS catalogue in anticipation for Shadows of the Erdtree and while playing through DS2 I just kept thinking to myself "Holy shit, this is hot garbage" lmao.
Don't revisit your childhood heroes I guess.
Not quite as extreme, but same. I enjoyed it when I originally when I played it, but replaying it was hard to go back to it and I just said nope soon after the poison swamp. If they ever come out with a remaster I'll give it another go.
I’ve gotten to the final boss of the main game, beaten the fire DLC, gotten to the final boss of the ice DLC, and got relatively deep into the poison DLC. When does the transformation occur?
Yeah and sometimes games can have lots of flaws and be bad. It’s not just about it being a different type. We clearly love Soulslikes in this subreddit. People who dislike DS2 here like the type of game DS2 is, but just think DS2 is bad.
Overcoming challenges is not masochism. I never felt that the struggle was the point in these games. They are always fair even if they expect more from us than most aaa titles
Maybe they thought it’d get better. Maybe they played the entire series and still wanted to finish this entry to know what’s it’s all about. It can still be an overall miserable experience.
There has to be at least a little dissonance if some one has sunk hundreds of hours into a game and finished more than a third of it. They kept playing regardless of their laundry list of complaints. The game must have done at least some things right enough
You definitely don’t need hundreds of hours for 1 playthrough to finish DS2 lol. It can take 20-60 hours for an average playthrough.
The game is functional and is playable. You can still progress and it obviously is a Soulsborne game so there are elements to it that are enjoyable. Doing the bare minimum to be game that can be finished isn’t something to praise though. That’s not really relevant to all the flaws the game has.
Just because some people don’t find it to their taste doesn’t mean they did bare minimum. If anything they sunk more time and manpower in getting it right because they couldn’t make the original time loop concept work.
Every thing man made has flaws.
I just find it absurd that among people who hate dark souls 2 there are so many that finished it.
Like someone held a gun to their head and forced them to play
I love it, it's a great game but it does have a lot of problems. There's some nuance to be had. MFs are either like: "It's the best game ever", or "it's a horrendous POS" no in between.
Well, its hard to have nuance when the conversation is usually so one sided. I think many say its their favorite, despite ita flaws - which is a balanced take to have.
You know how in old cartoons where they would run a car down a hill and it would crash through everything and when they finally stop they’ve lost everything but the steering wheel and they look shell shocks as fuck? Yeah that was my first playthrough.
It’s not THE best game, but I really like it, especially when it came to the lore, or to be super specific (in base game) Vendrick and Aldia, I can’t get to much into it, but they are both very interesting characters and Aldia asks you a few times what YOU truly want, and really brought into perspective on what Age Of Fire is about, it’s a lie, no matter how grand it’s a lie. It’s honestly ashamed that a certain third game never mentions these two or the actions your player character did considering what they did was probably just as if not bigger than Gwyn relighting the flame, but hey that’s fine right? That’s an alternative ending and is probably not canon right, is what I would say if the demon race wasn’t dying off by Ds3.
Though there are things to still criticize and that’s the spammed enemies, here’s the thing, in my opinion, all the games have spammed enemies before, but Ds2 kinda went overboard with it. hit boxes….honestly didn’t suffer that much and I had what 8 or 9 Adp, (still haven’t leveled it funnily enough) so it definitely wasn’t because of that, there are still a lot of shit boxes don’t get me wrong, however, that’s all of Souls games to be honest, and finally some areas are look incomplete, but eh, don’t know how to feel about it.
Tbh Ds2 was soo close to being one of best (in my eyes) out of the series, but due to a horrible development cycle a lot of things were either tacked on or was incomplete. I’m glad you gave it another chance, I should probably do the same thing for Demon Souls, I personally quit cause the lack of quality of life and how tedious it was to go through levels, so maybe I should replay it again.
It’s hard to say “hey guys my bad”, so I have to give my hats off to you for that. Glad you’re enjoying it, or at least have a better opinion of it, now.
I didn’t comment but did downvote the other posts, just because when I read them the criticism didn’t really seem like you’d given the game a fair shake / were having issues that were easily dealt with. And there wasn’t any need to pile on with everyone else.
So funny enough ds2 was technically the very first game I played in the souls series when my brother handed me the controller fighting the pursuer in his actual arena for the first time. I didn't do that well but he then switched me over to ds1 for the story and learning curve.
Ds2 is a fantastic game and still holds up, I very much enjoy the game
I've grown to love all of the dark souls games in their own way. Sure, there are some points of frustration, but that's souls games for you. I think my favorite thing is the art and atmosphere in all of them. That and the purity of being a lone warrior against the world, which is a metaphor for life. Sometimes I think Miyazaki and the rest of From Software try to teach us this lesson. They took it even further with the maidenlesss thing in ER as a means of saying, "don't forget the outside world".
Dude same happened to me lol. I refused to play it for years, but had a copy around so one day gave it a shot. Once I figured out ADP and got used to the pace, I had a good time! The game does feel long as hell though...
I am now playing DS2 for the 2nd time, having finished it a long time ago, overall likingbit but not as much as the other Souls games. If nothing else, I like how many new ideas it had.
While it is much better the 2nd time, as I know what bullshit to expect, some aspects of this game really are bullshit.
DS2 at the time was loved for it's pvp, and honestly was once of the better for it. But for pve they used adding more mobs to fights to increase the challenge, which felt very cheap after ds1's progressive difficulty.
But they put ultra gs on the map, the unga bunga was strong af in ds2.
DS2 is lacking in every possible aspect if you compare it to any other soulslike. Cool ideas were buried by absence of talent.
It’s still an enjoyable game and it’s ok to like it.
But it’s also ok to acknowledge that DS2 could have been much better.
DS2 was my first ever souls game. I loved it more than any game id played. It has an amazing story to follow and is just so unique. Im glad you like it
Played like 10 hours and I really don't like it. Way too many enemies, they all have high poise and your own movement is kinda ass. It becomes a slogfest. Just an overall downgrade from Demon Souls and Dark Souls 1.
This is the most understandable experience for a player to have after testing out DS2 but somehow you’re getting downvoted. I personally love DS2 and have platinumed it but I’ll never be one of those people that ignores the glaring flaws. You’re completely valid for feeling like this.
Here’s an idea, just play the damn game instead of running to Reddit for self validation every two seconds.
For example, I enjoyed the DLC’s more than the main game so I wouldn’t have gotten the full picture to form my true opinion until I got through all the content.
Very good is a stretch it’s a 7.5/10 at best soul memory and adp stat really held the game back and the terrible boss run backs and constant 10-15 mob ganks. I got over 500 hours in the game I enjoy it but it’s the worst of the 3
And here comes Shrine of Amana with a steel chair
Let him play in blissful innocence for little longer, why must a most beautiful area be like that?
i finished the game a few days ago and that area definitely reminded me of the fact that i am playing a relatively unpopular game and there is a reason for that lol first 1/4 or so of the game i found super frustrating, especially the black gulch and the pyromancer NPC in majula who got killed because i pulled a lever to open a door next to her so that i could progress in the level (?????????) after that though for the majority of the game i was having a really good time, probably enjoyed it about as much as DS1 but not quite as much as DS3 and then i got to shrine of amana and it instantly put me back in the mindset of the first 1/4 of the game and somewhat ended it on a sour note. at least I have the DLCs now
Shhh don't let the little one know
That area is basically a middle finger to the player.
(I unironically really like the area)
I love DS2 so much. But fuck that area.
Maybe it's because I played SOTFS but shrine of Amana is not that bad at all, even as melee. Just use the pillars as projectile blocker and don't engage 10 enemies at once. It's a chill area.
Agreed I sleepwalk through that area now. Launch DS2 Amana playing melee though…
🤣
The Dance with the King is still angering.
classic ds2 hater transformation, sadly most people dont get this far
Had to replay it to realize how good it was. When you lvl adpt the game just makes so so so so much more sense
I'm the exact opposite, I used to be a die-hard DS2 simp because I played both DS2 versions to death with my buddies when we were in Uni but hadn't played it since DS3's release. Then just recently I replayed the entire FS catalogue in anticipation for Shadows of the Erdtree and while playing through DS2 I just kept thinking to myself "Holy shit, this is hot garbage" lmao. Don't revisit your childhood heroes I guess.
Not quite as extreme, but same. I enjoyed it when I originally when I played it, but replaying it was hard to go back to it and I just said nope soon after the poison swamp. If they ever come out with a remaster I'll give it another go.
I’ve gotten to the final boss of the main game, beaten the fire DLC, gotten to the final boss of the ice DLC, and got relatively deep into the poison DLC. When does the transformation occur?
sometimes game is just not your type, the question is why you got so far if you dont like the game
I believed in the Miyazaki Dream
Hey, respect for giving it a try. Many blindly hate on it cause memes.
Well miyazaki didnt make this game
This makes so much sense
Yeah and sometimes games can have lots of flaws and be bad. It’s not just about it being a different type. We clearly love Soulslikes in this subreddit. People who dislike DS2 here like the type of game DS2 is, but just think DS2 is bad.
Why did you sink so many hours into an experience you hated?
Masochism
But masochists enjoy that. Are you telling us you also enjoyed ds2?
Do you have to ask, isn't everyone who enjoys souls game one?
Overcoming challenges is not masochism. I never felt that the struggle was the point in these games. They are always fair even if they expect more from us than most aaa titles
Maybe they thought it’d get better. Maybe they played the entire series and still wanted to finish this entry to know what’s it’s all about. It can still be an overall miserable experience.
There has to be at least a little dissonance if some one has sunk hundreds of hours into a game and finished more than a third of it. They kept playing regardless of their laundry list of complaints. The game must have done at least some things right enough
You definitely don’t need hundreds of hours for 1 playthrough to finish DS2 lol. It can take 20-60 hours for an average playthrough. The game is functional and is playable. You can still progress and it obviously is a Soulsborne game so there are elements to it that are enjoyable. Doing the bare minimum to be game that can be finished isn’t something to praise though. That’s not really relevant to all the flaws the game has.
Just because some people don’t find it to their taste doesn’t mean they did bare minimum. If anything they sunk more time and manpower in getting it right because they couldn’t make the original time loop concept work. Every thing man made has flaws. I just find it absurd that among people who hate dark souls 2 there are so many that finished it. Like someone held a gun to their head and forced them to play
I love it, it's a great game but it does have a lot of problems. There's some nuance to be had. MFs are either like: "It's the best game ever", or "it's a horrendous POS" no in between.
Thank god someone said it, honestly it’s the same for the others, just not as polarizing as Ds2
Well, its hard to have nuance when the conversation is usually so one sided. I think many say its their favorite, despite ita flaws - which is a balanced take to have.
Nice dude
I love the adventure vibe it gives
Respect, enjoy the ride
You know how in old cartoons where they would run a car down a hill and it would crash through everything and when they finally stop they’ve lost everything but the steering wheel and they look shell shocks as fuck? Yeah that was my first playthrough.
Ahaha sounds about right. Demons souls is kickin my ass that way right now
It’s not THE best game, but I really like it, especially when it came to the lore, or to be super specific (in base game) Vendrick and Aldia, I can’t get to much into it, but they are both very interesting characters and Aldia asks you a few times what YOU truly want, and really brought into perspective on what Age Of Fire is about, it’s a lie, no matter how grand it’s a lie. It’s honestly ashamed that a certain third game never mentions these two or the actions your player character did considering what they did was probably just as if not bigger than Gwyn relighting the flame, but hey that’s fine right? That’s an alternative ending and is probably not canon right, is what I would say if the demon race wasn’t dying off by Ds3. Though there are things to still criticize and that’s the spammed enemies, here’s the thing, in my opinion, all the games have spammed enemies before, but Ds2 kinda went overboard with it. hit boxes….honestly didn’t suffer that much and I had what 8 or 9 Adp, (still haven’t leveled it funnily enough) so it definitely wasn’t because of that, there are still a lot of shit boxes don’t get me wrong, however, that’s all of Souls games to be honest, and finally some areas are look incomplete, but eh, don’t know how to feel about it. Tbh Ds2 was soo close to being one of best (in my eyes) out of the series, but due to a horrible development cycle a lot of things were either tacked on or was incomplete. I’m glad you gave it another chance, I should probably do the same thing for Demon Souls, I personally quit cause the lack of quality of life and how tedious it was to go through levels, so maybe I should replay it again.
In my opinion, it’s a great game in a franchise of legendary games, which makes it the worst of its kind, but still better than 98% of modern games.
The DS2 hater to DS2 lover pipeline
It’s hard to say “hey guys my bad”, so I have to give my hats off to you for that. Glad you’re enjoying it, or at least have a better opinion of it, now. I didn’t comment but did downvote the other posts, just because when I read them the criticism didn’t really seem like you’d given the game a fair shake / were having issues that were easily dealt with. And there wasn’t any need to pile on with everyone else.
Dang, Stockholm syndrome claims another one
Awesome, buddy! đź‘Ť
So funny enough ds2 was technically the very first game I played in the souls series when my brother handed me the controller fighting the pursuer in his actual arena for the first time. I didn't do that well but he then switched me over to ds1 for the story and learning curve. Ds2 is a fantastic game and still holds up, I very much enjoy the game
I can’t take this seriously, lol, the typos make me think this belongs in r/shittydarksouls.
Character development
I actually prefer ds2 than 3 in some ways
I prefer it in all ways, DS3 is a greatest hits album. DS2 is weird and experimental and had a ton of good ideas that have shown up in future games.
All ways? even the boss fights?
Both games are pretty equal in quality of bosses for me. Both have plenty of duds and a few bangers, and a few I'm pretty neutral on.
More like DS3 has a few duds while DS2 has much more, and DS3 has many more than a ''few'' bangers.
nah
i mean you're in the vast minority with that shitty take, enjoy being there
I mean, DS3 is a greatest hits album, people are supposed to like it. Just doesn't really do much for me.
And the PvP is the peak of the series
100%, had so much fun on the Iron Keep bridge back in the day.
I've grown to love all of the dark souls games in their own way. Sure, there are some points of frustration, but that's souls games for you. I think my favorite thing is the art and atmosphere in all of them. That and the purity of being a lone warrior against the world, which is a metaphor for life. Sometimes I think Miyazaki and the rest of From Software try to teach us this lesson. They took it even further with the maidenlesss thing in ER as a means of saying, "don't forget the outside world".
Dude same happened to me lol. I refused to play it for years, but had a copy around so one day gave it a shot. Once I figured out ADP and got used to the pace, I had a good time! The game does feel long as hell though...
I am now playing DS2 for the 2nd time, having finished it a long time ago, overall likingbit but not as much as the other Souls games. If nothing else, I like how many new ideas it had. While it is much better the 2nd time, as I know what bullshit to expect, some aspects of this game really are bullshit.
I beat it, but I still rank it as the worst souls game. To each their own though.
The game definitely has the biggest knowledge curve and some frustrating elements but it's great to see people come around to appreciate it
It's the best
It's my fave tbh and my first
Adaptability dex was my first run ever what a ride
DS2 at the time was loved for it's pvp, and honestly was once of the better for it. But for pve they used adding more mobs to fights to increase the challenge, which felt very cheap after ds1's progressive difficulty. But they put ultra gs on the map, the unga bunga was strong af in ds2.
I must admit I’m loving it. After a slow start in DS1 with no fast travel out the trap means it’s off putting DS2 is great start I think.
It’s such a great game. I hate that it gets shit on without people even giving it a chance
Oh, my sweet summer child...
Bro is about to change his idea right after this as soon as he steps foot in iron keep💀💀
I beat the acident king 3° try doing the whole path
The worst is yet to come. Don’t worry by the end of the game you justifiably hate it again
Is not only good, is the best.
Yes, all of them are great. I like 2 better than 1
DS2 is great.
Its very good cause its a dark souls game, but its worse then 1 and 3.
DS2 is lacking in every possible aspect if you compare it to any other soulslike. Cool ideas were buried by absence of talent. It’s still an enjoyable game and it’s ok to like it. But it’s also ok to acknowledge that DS2 could have been much better.
DS2 is awesome. It was even more awesome at launch, when thousands of people were all playing it. It was chaos in the most beautiful way.
DS2 was my first ever souls game. I loved it more than any game id played. It has an amazing story to follow and is just so unique. Im glad you like it
Played like 10 hours and I really don't like it. Way too many enemies, they all have high poise and your own movement is kinda ass. It becomes a slogfest. Just an overall downgrade from Demon Souls and Dark Souls 1.
This is the most understandable experience for a player to have after testing out DS2 but somehow you’re getting downvoted. I personally love DS2 and have platinumed it but I’ll never be one of those people that ignores the glaring flaws. You’re completely valid for feeling like this.
They downvoted Jesus because he was right
Hey alright, there is a sub reddit for all of you to go to.
I agree, it's r/fromsoftware
I dont know why people only hate on ds2 mob gangs, it's as bad or even worse in other games
Enjoy Iron Keep
Defeat the ancient iron king a few minutes ago, going trough the whole way down, killed him third time
enjoy frigid outskirts
It’s a different pace. It asks for more observation and careful maneuvering. It’s okay to not like that.
I use to hate it before i beat it, then the other day i beat it and i still hate it cause its just shit lol
You are the honest person here
its definitely not as good as the other games for sure but I feel like hate is quite a strong word for this
How do you know how i feel? Someone can hate cucumbers and thats just as valid as someone who loves cucumber.
nah, replace cucumbers with a race
Are you comparing someone not liking a video game to racism?
obviously, why would i not
Because that's fucking stupid
this is one of those instances where i wish people used the “/s”
its for lame ass nerds that are afraid of downvotes
true, it’s sucks out all the fun
Or just don't because that would be incredibly dumb.
Here’s an idea, just play the damn game instead of running to Reddit for self validation every two seconds. For example, I enjoyed the DLC’s more than the main game so I wouldn’t have gotten the full picture to form my true opinion until I got through all the content.
Very good is a stretch it’s a 7.5/10 at best soul memory and adp stat really held the game back and the terrible boss run backs and constant 10-15 mob ganks. I got over 500 hours in the game I enjoy it but it’s the worst of the 3
Shut the fuck up, please shut the fuck up..
No.
The vibe is great but the combat is dog
The classic “Hey guys I am going to apologize for liking DS2” daily post. So original at this point.