From Software The Dark Souls II Megathread™

[Multidirectional]

"Man expresses popular opinion, how suspicious!"

Given the amount of edgy morons on this site who form no opinions of their own and just regurgitate shit they've read somewhere else, yes, it is suspicious. Even his "example" of good level design, the first half of DS1, is the same shit most of the people say. Fuck sterile, safe and useless "opinions". Better give me examples of all these games with such superior atmosphere, level design and art direction to DSII. Outside of Souls series.

 

[janior]

Given the amount of edgy morons

"Edgy morons" with "popular opinions", oh how edgy they are .

Even his "example" of good level design, the first half of DS1, is the same shit most of the people say

Maybe you should give us some counterarguments to that instead of spiting poison you fuckface.

Fuck sterile, safe and useless "opinions".

Your shitposts are as useless.

and btw most people on codex liked DS2, so i think im pretty fucking edgy lmao
​

 

[praetor]

Seems like a checklist of popular things to complain about in DSII rather than actual opinion.

"Man expresses popular opinion, how suspicious!"

Out of curiosity, can you give some examples of good level design from each Souls game? Surely even DS2 has at least one.

Memorable levels with non-horribad design:

DeS: Every world except Shrine of Storms.

DS1: Everything except Anor Londo, Demon Ruins, Great Hollow, Ash Lake, and DLC.

DS2: Huntsman's Copse, Earthen Peak, The Gutter, Dragon Aerie, most of the DLC

DS3: Everything except Irithryll, if you ignore the poor combat mechanics making everything blend together in a forgettable blur. They would be memorable if they used the combat from any of the prior games.

In other Souls games most of the levels are memorable with a few unfortunate exceptions. In DS2 memorable levels are the exception.

you have a very loose definition of the word "good"

DeS: 4-1 is actually pretty solid. 5-1 is barely decent, 5-2 is utter shit, 5-3 as well, 4-3 is crap, 2-3 is crap, 3-3 is crap. 1-2 is mediocre at best, and so is 2-2. the only actually good levels are 3-1, 3-2, 1-1, 1-3 and 2-1 (with 4-1 being somewhere between good and decent), so 5,5/16

DaS1: huh? Valley of Drakes is good? Izalith is good? Tomb of Giants good (it's okay, personally i have fun there more than most, but actually "good"?)? Darkroot Basin is good? Kiln is good?

DaS2: Aerie good level design? what?! it looks pretty but that's about it. FotFG is ugly but it's an excellent introductory level, Lost Bastille is also very very good (multiple points of entry [something that doesn't happen in the rest of the game or in DaS3 at all, for that matter], multiple routes, skippable boss...), Wharf is also solid-to-good, and i wouldn't argue with anybody who would include Amana, Tseldora or the Crypt in a list of good levels

DaS3: Anor Londo revisited is crap, Smouldering Nostalgia Lake is crap-to-mediocre, High Wall is meh, Road of Sacrifice/Farron Keep as well, Untended graves is crap, Consumed garden is shit, and Profaned capital is also quite subpar if you take it as a separate level from the dungeon

and btw most people on codex liked DS2, so i think im pretty fucking edgy lmao​

haha what? are you living in some kind of parallel reality? most people hated DaS2 on the 'dex just like everywhere else (me included)

 

[Cowboy Moment]

Heh, me and praetor once got so butthurt at each other over some DS2 argument that we didn't talk for like a week.

]
Well that's probably true, but didn't manage to finish DS2 so i'm not 100% positive on that.
From DS1 it's probably whole first half of the game.

So about up to Anor Londo? In that case, do Undead Parish, Darkroot Garden/Basin and Valley of Drakes really have such great level design, in your opinion?

Memorable levels with non-horribad design:

Well, I did ask for "good" as opposed to "non-horrible" (a decent amount of DS1 levels are mediocre rather than outright horrible), but I guess it'll have to do.

DeS: Every world except Shrine of Storms.

Shrine of Storms is horrible, but Stonefang Tunnel is not?

DS1: Everything except Anor Londo, Demon Ruins, Great Hollow, Ash Lake, and DLC.

Undead Parish, Darkroot Garden and Basin, Valley of Drakes? I'd say Anor Londo is better than any of these, not that it's a high bar to clear.

DS2: Huntsman's Copse, Earthen Peak, The Gutter, Dragon Aerie, most of the DLC

Dragon Aerie and Earthen Peak good, Lost Bastille, Forest of Fallen Giants and No Man's Wharf bad? Shrine of Amana?

DS3: Everything except Irithryll, if you ignore the poor combat mechanics making everything blend together in a forgettable blur. They would be memorable if they used the combat from any of the prior games.

So Road of Sacrifices, Archdragon Peak, Smouldering Lake, Catacombs of Carthus, and all the super small areas like Anor Londo, Consumed King's Garden, Untended Graves, Profaned Capital are all good?

 

[janior]

So about up to Anor Londo? In that case, do Undead Parish, Darkroot Garden/Basin and Valley of Drakes really have such great level design, in your opinion?

Valley of Drakes? I don't think you can that easily get there in the beginning if don't have master key. Undead Parish? Sure. Darkroot? Yeah.

 

[Leechmonger]

Dragon Aerie and Earthen Peak good, Lost Bastille, Forest of Fallen Giants and No Man's Wharf bad? Shrine of Amana?

My opinion differs from yours. That's ok.

"Edgy morons" with "popular opinions", oh how edgy they are .

Careful with that edge, Eugene.

you have a very loose definition of the word "good"

I am perfectly happy with how I use the word "good." Any complaints you may have can be sent to this man:

Spoiler

 

[Cowboy Moment]

Valley of Drakes? I don't think you can that easily get there in the beginning if don't have master key. Undead Parish? Sure. Darkroot? Yeah.

What exactly is good about Undead Parish? It's really small and linear, literally just the path to the church and a single corridor around said church. It's a prime example of why the "interconnected world" of DS1 is important, as the Parish is much improved by being connected to a bunch of other places, but in and out of itself it has less complexity than most DS2 levels.

Similarly, what exactly is good about Darkroot? It's a bunch of open areas with enemies strewn about, and the enemy placement isn't particularly clever either.

And you can get to Valley of Drakes fairly easily from Darkroot Basin.

My opinion differs from yours. That's ok.

I have to admit, I was expecting some reasoning in reply. I can easily explain why I think particular levels in various games are good or bad. I guess in your case it's just inexplicable feels?

 

[Leechmonger]

I have to admit, I was expecting some reasoning in reply. I can easily explain why I think particular levels in various games are good or bad. I guess in your case it's just inexplicable feels?

We've both played the games. If you were capable of seeing my reasoning we would probably already be in agreement to begin with. Since we aren't, it's unlikely an explanation would help and therefore it wouldn't be worth my time to write or yours to read. At best we would agree to disagree, which we can do preemptively without the walls of text.

 

[Rolk's Drifter]

DS3 feels more like some generic hectic action game than a Souls game in comparison. It's more responsive, but pretty much everything about the combat is just worse.

+1. It would be interesting to see what Demon souls looked like before Miyazaki joined. My guess is there was a fortunate convergence of an oldschooly RPG team + Miyazaki which isn't going to be repeated again. Probably all spam 'n' slam from here on out

PS: I really like Doors of Pharros in principle. My secret wish is being able to summon Gavlan for bosses. He wouldn't do anything except drink beer and make the fight harder but it would be pretty cool.

 

[Cowboy Moment]

I have to admit, I was expecting some reasoning in reply. I can easily explain why I think particular levels in various games are good or bad. I guess in your case it's just inexplicable feels?

We've both played the games. If you were capable of seeing my reasoning we would probably already be in agreement to begin with. Since we aren't, it's unlikely an explanation would help and therefore it wouldn't be worth my time to write or yours to read. At best we would agree to disagree, which we can do preemptively without the walls of text.

www.neogaf.com

 

[Beggar]

It's so pathetic when some scrubs discuss Dark Souls games and put DS1 with DS2 in the same category, each is giving their own take and opinion

DS1 is miles above from DS2 and DS3. It's not even an opinion, that is how it is. Yet some dumb pseudo intellectuals discuss something here

 

[Leechmonger]

www.neogaf.com

"Why won't someone engage with me?! They must be a liberal faggot!"

 

[Multidirectional]

www.newfag.com

 

[Cowboy Moment]

This is one of the annoying things about the whole SJW vs Gamergate culture war and Codex being perceived as being anti-SJW - you get these newfags who join because of politics but can't muster any worthwhile opinion about games that would go beyond the Neogaf/Reddit "I like X and that's just my opinion man." standard. How dreadfully boring.

 

[sullynathan]

I started a new playthrough since my old one can no longer be recognized. The movement of DS2 is just weirder than both DS1 & 3. The latter feels like when I move, my actual character moves and they are more responsive while DS2 feels like my character dances or has more animation. Reminds me of Witcher 3. I still don't like the fact that rolling is based on a stat, I did some really good rolls on the dragonrider boss just so that his attacks still count as a hit and don't get me started on the shitty character tracking again.

I'm at least looking forward to going to No mans wharf, Huntsmans copse, Iron Keep, Drangleic Castle, Dragon Shrine, Brume Tower and Frozen Eleum Loyce. Definitely my favorite areas in the game, and this time I will try to beat the bosses with no summons.

 

[DramaticPopcorn]

Well, that's just bullshit because I can perform both kick and jumping attacks in DS1 100% reliably.

Do you have deadzone fix for DS2? DS2 has absolutely garbage deadzones on controlers forcing them to essentially work in 8 directions with very high rest deadzone. On PC this is at least fixable. On consoles you can't fix it.

Which is why it could be such a difference between you and me.

Does it affect guard breaks and jumping attacks though?

I mean if you have deadzone then yes. DS1 doesn't have any deadzone problem. DS2 have deadzones wide as grand canyon. Which means that in DS1 your slight movements of joy are almost instantly noticed by game while DS2 it takes more angle to register movement of joy.

Do you have deadzone fix or not ? Because this is imo crucial to this case. Frankly speaking if you don't have deadzone fix you will be fucking amazed just how better DS2 feels to play if you start to use it.

edit: mind you that SotfS version of deadzone fix is not the same as vanilla one.

here is deadzone fix i am using:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/fl1b3pvvu69j7y5/deadzonefix.zip?dl=0
just unpack it to your folder with game exe.

Do I have to run the durazno.exe in the background for it to kick in? I think there's a difference with the way my guy starts moving but as far as guardbreaks go, it's still kinda random to me. More so since I feel like I have to push the stick actually a little to the side for guardbreak to work. Weird shit man

 

[Mozg]

Adaptability is one of those things where I bought all the arguments about how dumb it is early in the game's life but the more I've played the more I think it's good. I played an SL1 game (NOT all bosses, especially not DLC, just critical path - even Throne Watcher/Defender was serious pain on SL1) and 85 agility is playable, and if I play a regular game I end up putting off getting the "required" 100 agility until everything else in the build is done. Having the option to sacrifice roll power to a bare minimum if you think something else is more important is cool.

It does *look* like absolute hell (like everything else in DS2) because Souls has tons of lingering and invisible hitboxes under the hood that usually get hidden by iframing that will catch your rolls, but you don't get stunned in that case so you won't eat some hideous three hit katana combo for it.

 

[DramaticPopcorn]

Men this guardbreak issue is driving me up the wall.Worst part is that when I go back to DS1 I can kick and jump attack 100% of the time, but here it's close to impossible to predict

 

[Mozg]

I use a PS3 controller + a program called x360ce to spoof it as an xinput controller, if you have an odd playstation controller around. Jump attack/GB work.

 

[Grimlorn]

 

[DramaticPopcorn]

So in SotFS they placed those cursed dogs in the shaded woods, right by the King's Gate.
Result:

EDIT: Turns out, Straid is selling it as well, oh well, thought it was a fun little tidbit regardless.

 

[abija]

Men this guardbreak issue is driving me up the wall.Worst part is that when I go back to DS1 I can kick and jump attack 100% of the time, but here it's close to impossible to predict

You want the 2 actions to be on same type of input to get it reliable, not one on mouse - one on keyboard or one on gamepad button - one on gamepad stick/trigger. From just fail at input systems on PC.

 

[Corporate_Jew_Master]

Decided to try this again.

Overall, the game is still very bad but not as bad as I thought. The only good things about this are:

1. It has a lot of content.
2. Lots of spells which I like.

Everything else is really bad.

1. The movement. The most atrocious movement out of all FROM games. Dark Souls 1 was deliberate and you had to plan dodges and stamina management. In Dark Souls 3 you had to play more reactive. Here, you do neither. Everything moves in slow motion, as if everyone is bored or sleepwalking. Dodging is almost as easy as in Dark Souls 3, especially against bosses.

2. The enemies. The game just throws mobs of them at you. What's the point? After I fought another gank for the hundredth time, the tedium got to me and I usually don't have problems with grinding. Tedious. That's the word that best describes DS2. After I defeated 3 dark phantoms that spawned one after another I just paused the game and took an hour long break. Never done that before.

3. The bosses. I struggle to remember their names even. Extremely easy, extremely uninteresting. Only died once to any of them and that was the Rotten because I didn't notice I was standing on a flaming pit. Haven't been to DLC areas yet and apparently the DLC bosses are good. But the vanilla ones are absolute dogshit.

4. Area design. Really bad. By the time I got to Black Gultch it dawned on me why they were so: the devs simply got bored and just populated what level were to be in the game with mobs of enemies and other bullshit like a million statues spitting poison. This game does not require skill but patience.

As a Souls game: 2/10

As a standalone game: 5-6/10

Even if it's on sale for 10 bucks, only buy it if you have lots of time and a capacity for boredom. If not, you will find that the game is dogshit like any sane person would.

 

[Silva]

Too harsh, Jew. Even as a weak Souls game, it's still a solid 8/10 overall, and better than most titles nowadays.

Also, Majula is beautiful.

 

[Corporate_Jew_Master]

nah