Was Dark Souls 2 the greatest game that From Software ever made?

[JarlFrank]

I addressed that in my post actually and said it's not a necessary qualifier for an RPG because deterministic systems exist, too.

 

[Fedora Master]

I addressed that in my post actually and said it's not a necessary qualifier for an RPG because deterministic systems exist, too.

Maybe you should determine where you left your cock n balls

 

[JarlFrank]

in ur mom

 

[Max Damage]

I don't think it's necessarily about direct/indirect control, or even dice roll vs deterministic (I personally consider Mount & Blade to be RPG), I'm just saying when stats/upgrades only influence surface level progression and don't impact how the game would play otherwise if such customization was absent, it's not RPG, in my opinion. I think Souls games give good initial illusion of having in-depth system where your choices starting from class and picking which stats to prioritize matter, but once you play through whole game it's evident that it's all superfluous: stats don't matter beyond reaching (mostly) low prerequisites for gear and spells you want to use, class only influences your very beginning and nothing else, and pretty much every character can do everything. Even compared to aRPGs from years before, Souls games do poor job at meaningfully gating your character's abilities past very early game. And none of them even attempt to introduce stats/perks that would influnce, for example, weapon swing speed, or hit precision (except for when you don't fit baseline weapon stats prerequisites in first DS, but that's edge case).

 

[JarlFrank]

Respectable opinion. I think DS2 is the one which has the most build impact of all the Souls games and generally it's inadvisable to jack of all trades into fighter-mage, it pays off to specialize into either or, so I wouldn't say that every character can do everything, although weapon usage isn't influenced enough by stats imo - pumping strength just adds a little bit of damage at best, for example. Gothic does this a lot better as an action-RPG where your stats directly influence how the action plays. DS2's ADP stat comes closest to that, but all the casuals hated it lmao.

 

[Max Damage]

I've played DS2 to the end a few times by now, and it feels like you can do pretty much anything as long as you don't overspend souls on carry weight (armor is mostly cosmetic); the way infusions work, fighter-mage is pretty much the end goal. I was able to do magic-only run (including DLC) only because I wiki'd where to farm crystal soul spears, you need to jump through hoops to make that work compared to just slapping infusion on a weapon and then applying same buff on top. ADP is just another good idea executed poorly, I don't hate or like it, do keep in mind that for a long time no one knew what it really does, even the official guide didn't explain fully what it does, and the in-game feedback is unnoticeable to eye except for maybe estus, it should've influenced roll distance (modified by weight) instead of i-frames.

 

[mediocrepoet]

I've played DS2 to the end a few times by now, and it feels like you can do pretty much anything as long as you don't overspend souls on carry weight (armor is mostly cosmetic); the way infusions work, fighter-mage is pretty much the end goal.

This (and your previous post to this effect) sound less like a complaint about "RPGness" and more like a complaint about balance and classless systems. Basically any classless system will allow you to do anything and some also have named starting points that sound like classes but aren't (e.g. WEG's D6 Star Wars RPG).

That you think fighter mage is the ideal end point doesn't really make it so and there are many fun and different builds in DS2 both in pvp and pve. In fact, I'd say the best builds in DS2 are non-magic builds after they nerfed faith in one of the first patches. Before that, you wanted to go faith lightning chucker.

 

[Max Damage]

I actually prefer classless systems, ideally, but in practice they're often done wrong in video games (too much carrot for spreading wide, not enough stick for overextending). You don't actually need to use magic much, that's why I specified infusion and a buff (optionally, may not have time in PvP to apply more than once, and for low SL you obviously won't have stats to do much). Regardless, the systems amount to little but do some more/less damage after you reach bare minimum requirements, hell, most of damage comes from just upgrading your weapons. All the builds you can think of will mostly come from self-imposed limitations, or borderline jokes like throwable knives/shit only.

 

[PulsatingBrain]

I watch this thread with a kind of grimaced awe.

DS2 is so fucking mid.

 

[mediocrepoet]

I watch this thread with a kind of grimaced awe.

DS2 is so fucking mid.

So are you, but your mother still loved you.

 

[H. P. Lovecraft's Cat]

It's really not hard to understand. DkS2 has the best build diversity, the best world format, the best atmosphere, the best combat. I can go on and on but I'd feel like a zombie. And how do we explain the detractors? Mhmm mindless fuckin zombies. I played the franchise chonologically as was meant to be done by the passage of time and console faggots are dumb as shit. You got Demon's Souls faggots callin Dark Souls faggots faggots, and vicer versa. Then Dark Souls 2 comes out and both of those faggots say it's shit. As a man who has been there since the very beginnin, PS3 Demon's Souls, I can safely say for a fact DkS2 is the GOAT and fuck hatin niggers. FUCK EM!

 

[Fedora Master]

It's really not hard to understand. DkS2 has the best build diversity, the best world format, the best atmosphere, the best combat. I can go on and on but I'd feel like a zombie. And how do we explain the detractors? Mhmm mindless fuckin zombies. I played the franchise chonologically as was meant to be done by the passage of time and console faggots are dumb as shit. You got Demon's Souls faggots callin Dark Souls faggots faggots, and vicer versa. Then Dark Souls 2 comes out and both of those faggots say it's shit. As a man who has been there since the very beginnin, PS3 Demon's Souls, I can safely say for a fact DkS2 is the GOAT and fuck hatin niggers. FUCK EM!

Only a piss-brained low IQ mong like you would think an elevator going into a volcano was "good world format"

 

[H. P. Lovecraft's Cat]

It's really not hard to understand. DkS2 has the best build diversity, the best world format, the best atmosphere, the best combat. I can go on and on but I'd feel like a zombie. And how do we explain the detractors? Mhmm mindless fuckin zombies. I played the franchise chonologically as was meant to be done by the passage of time and console faggots are dumb as shit. You got Demon's Souls faggots callin Dark Souls faggots faggots, and vicer versa. Then Dark Souls 2 comes out and both of those faggots say it's shit. As a man who has been there since the very beginnin, PS3 Demon's Souls, I can safely say for a fact DkS2 is the GOAT and fuck hatin niggers. FUCK EM!

Only a piss-brained low IQ mong like you would think an elevator going into a volcano was "good world format"

Only a autistic bitch like you would care.

 

[Morenatsu.]

i hate all souls equally