Dark Souls 2 is a decent game, but not a Souls game.

[Pareod]

I suppose this will be my short review of Dark Souls 2. I enjoyed the game. I have over 100 hours on it. It just wasn't a Souls game. What I mean by this is that it lacked almost everything that made Demon's Souls and Dark Souls the masterpieces that they were. I've beaten all three multiple times now, and Dark Souls 2 just can't keep up with the quality of its predecessors.

The first issue I'd like to bring up is the world. Demon's Souls' world design was restrictive, but masterful. Dark Souls' world was open an ingeniously interconnected., I'm not going into whether level based or open world is better, because I think both are great. Purely in terms of design and atmosphere Dark Souls 2 lacks. It has variety no doubt, but the constant drastic change in scenery makes for shallow lore and a feel of disconnection. For example, shaded woods to Aldias Keep to Dragon Shrine don't logically follow. Neither does Heides tower of flame to No Man's Wharf. The areas are too short to merit such sudden and illogical changes in scenery. In comparison to how the Tower of Latria slowly became more open and corrupted as you progressed, or how you could see the Tomb of Giants from fiery area after Quaelagg. The world in Dark Souls was tied together. The world in Demon's Souls was diverse per archstone and each level logically followed the next. The world in Dark Souls 2 was pumped full of variety that makes no sense and seems shallow.

Next I'll discuss the lore and characters and bosses. Demon's Souls featured few characters, but each encounter was unique and dramatic. Fighting Garl Vinland and claiming his priestess' soul was tense and morally ambiguous. Almost every character had a story arch, and all of them were interesting. The bosses were incredibly diverse and difficult. They also felt fair. The penetrator on ng+++ isn't a grind to kill in terms of hp, but if you got hit it really hurt. Demon's Souls was also the only game to feature the spell Second Chance (or whatever it's called) which gave you two lives. However, I think it was the only game that needed it given it's difficulty. All of these characters and bosses created a very interesting world with deep lore. Dark Souls was a bigger beast, but it was just as good. Most characters had great storylines. The bosses were diverse and challenging. I'd like to say that Ornstein and Smough was an amazing climax for the game. The lore matched the world, deep and interconnected. Dark Souls 2 had a lot of characters and a lot of bosses. Very few characters had significant stories, and most were uninteresting and easy to miss. The bosses varied in skin but not concept, and many were blatant repeats from Dark Souls. As for lore, the failures of world design and characters made the lore just as illogical and uninteresting. The Giants were the only universal idea.

Now I'll just discuss concepts I think Dark Souls 2 did not have that defined the Souls games. In no particular order: firstly there were no reappearing enemies such as the titanite demon's, hydras, dragons, or heavy knights. This would have unified the world lore wise. Secondly the weapon upgrade system was changed for the worse I believe. Progression was discarded for streamlined convenience. Trade a boss soul for a boss weapon. No need to upgrade a weapon. It might be nit-picky, but I think it was a core part of the souls games. Also boss souls seem much more insignificant. There are no little bits of uniqueness in the design such as tail cuts on bosses. There was only one ending with the false hope of two based on dialogue at the end. This honestly just feels like sacrilege to the souls series so that's all I'll say about that. Only about 4 bosses are required to beat the game, and the final boss seems arbitrary to the story. The story just seems to lose focus and then you fight a big evil sorceress queen and then done. The covenants feel more like player guilds than lore based allegiances. The weapons and spells are numerous but unbalanced

The list goes on, but I think I've made my point. Dark Souls 2 is a fun game, it just needs a different name.

[Taiga]

引用自 Empress Fluffles：

引用自 Redskull94：

I just want to say that I'm so bored to fight every time against humanoid mobs/bosses, FromSoft be more creative please.

You'd hate Demon's Souls much more then! :D

Just curious, why do you always try to excuse DaS2 naming Demon Souls and the stuff that was wrong with it?

You do realize that was the FIRST Souls game, right? So trying to excuse the THIRD game in the franchise by comparing them is.. just dumb.

[Seiken -]

I hope some news about project Beast at E3 !

[Sol FamilyGuy]

引用自 Верный：

引用自 Empress Fluffles：

You'd hate Demon's Souls much more then! :D

Just curious, why do you always try to excuse DaS2 naming Demon Souls and the stuff that was wrong with it?

You do realize that was the FIRST Souls game, right? So trying to excuse the THIRD game in the franchise by comparing them is.. just dumb.

This is what I said in my second post.

[Kibbles]

引用自 Luisfius：

引用自 Redskull94：

Maybe not cause I've played Demon's Souls and that was the first Soul Game but when at the Third you still use humanoid bosses for a good 95% of the game it's kinda sad, it seems like FromSoft it's running out of ideas, I hope not.

Eh, I doubt it. This one has more non-humanoid bosses than Dark 1 did, to be honest.

Have you ever considered that if humans we were demons, not humans, then dark souls fans would complain about how many demon bosses there were? They'd be like "Ugh, so many demons, asylum demon, capra demon, taurus demon"

[Empress Misery]

引用自 Верный：

Just curious, why do you always try to excuse DaS2 naming Demon Souls and the stuff that was wrong with it?

You do realize that was the FIRST Souls game, right? So trying to excuse the THIRD game in the franchise by comparing them is.. just dumb.

Because people loved one game and apparently hate the other. So by pointing out it's actually like something they like, it points out that reasonings they use are kind of flawed.

"I liked the Demon's Souls bosses even though they were 95% humanoid, but hated the DS2 bosses because they were 70% humaniod".

[Taiga]

引用自 Luisfius：

引用自 Redskull94：

Maybe not cause I've played Demon's Souls and that was the first Soul Game but when at the Third you still use humanoid bosses for a good 95% of the game it's kinda sad, it seems like FromSoft it's running out of ideas, I hope not.

Eh, I doubt it. This one has more non-humanoid bosses than Dark 1 did, to be honest.

DaS1:
Asylum Demon
The Bed of Chaos
Kalameet
Ceaseless Discharge
Centipede Demon
Demon Firesage
Gaping Dragon
Manus
Moonlight Butterfly
Sanctuary Guardian
Seath the Scaleless
Sif
Taurus Demon
Hydra
Undead Dragon
Gargoyles
Quelaag

=17

DaS2:
Executioner's Chariot
Covetous Demon
Old Iron King
Scorpioness Najka
Royal Rat Authority
Royal Rat Vanguard
Freja
The Rotten
Demon of Song
Guardian Dragon
Ancient Dragon
Gargoyles

=12

You said?

[Taiga]

引用自 Empress Fluffles：

引用自 Верный：

Just curious, why do you always try to excuse DaS2 naming Demon Souls and the stuff that was wrong with it?

You do realize that was the FIRST Souls game, right? So trying to excuse the THIRD game in the franchise by comparing them is.. just dumb.

Because people loved one game and apparently hate the other. So by pointing out it's actually like something they like, it points out that reasonings they use are kind of flawed.

"I liked the Demon's Souls bosses even though they were 95% humanoid, but hated the DS2 bosses because they were 70% humaniod".

By your logic, people should like Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3 because they liked MW1. Things don't work like that.

as I said, People like and excuse Demons because it was the first, but there's no excuse for Das2 as it is the third and somehow managed to be worse than the first two.

[GShadowBroker]

引用自 Redskull94：

I just want to say that I'm so bored to fight every time against humanoid mobs/bosses, FromSoft be more creative please.

Of all the complaints I've heard, the "all mobs look humanoid" argument is the most silly of them. Most mobs in DkS1 had human traits and no one whined about it (not sure). I like the enemies designs in DkS2 they are quite creative actually. You don't like them for the same reasons as many people don't like new pokemon designs (nostalgia glasses).

[Empress Misery]

引用自 Верный：

By your logic, people should love Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3 because they liked MW1, even tho MW3 had the same and even more problems than MW1.

You didn't understand what was said or didn't read it properly.

[Luis]

引用自 Верный：

引用自 Luisfius：

Eh, I doubt it. This one has more non-humanoid bosses than Dark 1 did, to be honest.

DaS1:
Asylum Demon
The Bed of Chaos
Kalameet
Ceaseless Discharge
Centipede Demon
Demon Firesage
Gaping Dragon
Manus
Moonlight Butterfly
Sanctuary Guardian
Seath the Scaleless
Sif
Taurus Demon
Hydra
Undead Dragon
Gargoyles
Quelaag

=17

DaS2:
Executioner's Chariot
Covetous Demon
Old Iron King
Scorpioness Najka
Royal Rat Authority
Royal Rat Vanguard
Freja
The Rotten
Demon of Song
Guardian Dragon
Ancient Dragon
Gargoyles

=12

You said?

Asylum Demon
Demon Firesage
Taurus Demon
Stray Demon

Technically those are relatively humanoid as well, so I'd remove them from the non-humanoid bosses in Dark 1.
I'd add the Flexile to the non-humanoid ones on Dark 2. Double torso is pretty different, I'd say.
Edit: Mytha ain't humanoid either. And Nashandra is also not very humanoid either.

[Empress Misery]

引用自 Luisfius：

Asylum Demon
Demon Firesage
Taurus Demon
Stray Demon

Technically those are relatively humanoid as well, so I'd remove them from the non-humanoid bosses in Dark 1.
I'd add the Flexile to the non-humanoid ones on Dark 2. Double torso is pretty different, I'd say.

The Dragon and the Hydra aren't bosses (no health bar), they are just bigger enemies!

[Sol FamilyGuy]

引用自 GShadowBroker：

引用自 Redskull94：

I just want to say that I'm so bored to fight every time against humanoid mobs/bosses, FromSoft be more creative please.

Of all the complaints I've heard, the "all mobs look humanoid" argument is the most silly of them. Most mobs in DkS1 had human traits and no one whined about it (not sure). I like the enemies designs in DkS2 they are quite creative actually. You don't like them for the same reasons as many people don't like new pokemon designs (nostalgia glasses).

Actually from my experience DkS2 is full of mobs that not only are humanoids but uses the classic attack with they're sword/mace/thing, Slash, Overhead, 3 Combo Slash and so on.
Just watch Vendrick and the Lost Sinner and see what differences they have, one is smaller and the other is bigger or one jumps and the other not? We need to see problems for making this game better and not just closing our eyes and thinking it's all good.

[Taiga]

引用自 Luisfius：

引用自 Верный：

DaS1:
Asylum Demon
The Bed of Chaos
Kalameet
Ceaseless Discharge
Centipede Demon
Demon Firesage
Gaping Dragon
Manus
Moonlight Butterfly
Sanctuary Guardian
Seath the Scaleless
Sif
Taurus Demon
Hydra
Undead Dragon
Gargoyles
Quelaag

=17

DaS2:
Executioner's Chariot
Covetous Demon
Old Iron King
Scorpioness Najka
Royal Rat Authority
Royal Rat Vanguard
Freja
The Rotten
Demon of Song
Guardian Dragon
Ancient Dragon
Gargoyles

=12

You said?

Asylum Demon
Demon Firesage
Taurus Demon
Stray Demon

Technically those are relatively humanoid as well, so I'd remove them from the non-humanoid bosses in Dark 1.
I'd add the Flexile to the non-humanoid ones on Dark 2. Double torso is pretty different, I'd say.
Edit: Mytha ain't humanoid either. And Nashandra is also not very humanoid either.

In what are you basing yourself to say that those are "humanoid" but Nashandra, Iron King and Flexile are not? The later is literally a Human with another Human on his back.
I'll give you Mytha tho.

引用自 Empress Fluffles：

引用自 Luisfius：

Asylum Demon
Demon Firesage
Taurus Demon
Stray Demon

Technically those are relatively humanoid as well, so I'd remove them from the non-humanoid bosses in Dark 1.
I'd add the Flexile to the non-humanoid ones on Dark 2. Double torso is pretty different, I'd say.

The Dragon and the Hydra aren't bosses (no health bar), they are just bigger enemies!

Mini-bosses, Das2 doesn't have any mini-boss that is not humanoid.
Maybe the Ogres, but those keep respawning so I wouldn't really call them mini-bosses.

[Luis]

引用自 Верный：

引用自 Luisfius：

Asylum Demon
Demon Firesage
Taurus Demon
Stray Demon

Technically those are relatively humanoid as well, so I'd remove them from the non-humanoid bosses in Dark 1.
I'd add the Flexile to the non-humanoid ones on Dark 2. Double torso is pretty different, I'd say.
Edit: Mytha ain't humanoid either. And Nashandra is also not very humanoid either.

In what are you basing yourself to say that those are "humanoid" but Nashandra, Iron King and Flexile are not? The later is literally a Human with another Human on his back.
I'll give you Mytha tho.

Firesage, Asylum and Stray are fat humanoids, because they have the basic humanoid framework, they do have different proportions from normal ones. Two legs, two arms, head, I count the Adjudicator as technically humanoid too. Iron King we don't know how he is below the waist, so I neither count him as humanoid or not. Flexile is different enough (two torsos) for me to not count it.

Taurus, well, I count Tauren in WoW as humanoids, Taurus is pretty much a giant one of those.

[Onion]

Asylum Demon
Demon Firesage
Stray Demon

I would be ashamed to put this triple times recycled boss into flame war and call him original. haha