Should I buy vanilla DS2?

[Grimmothy]

It's been a while since I played Dark Souls 2 and I've been kind of itching to play it lately. A lot of people have said in the past and recent years that Sotfs isn't as good in comparison to what vanilla originally had in regards to big changes like enemy aggros, more enemies, weird item and pretrified NPC placements, etc.

So I have two options: I could buy Dark Souls 2, at the price it is now. Or I could mod Sotfs to make it resemble vanilla.

Thoughts?

[Chancelier Allemand]

sotfs

[Call Sign: Raven]

Yeah, there are probably only 2-3 people that are so hardcore that they think DS2 is a better experience than SOTFS.

Right off the bat, you get all the DLC included with Scholar. You still have to buy them separately in original, and I'm fairly certain they are back to full price now.

I'm of the opinion that the enemy and item placement is for the better. The extra enemy placements makes for a more exciting experience, and the item remixes make a lot more sense than the original. In vanilla DS2, some of the item placements were so awkward that you would never even see the item unless a guide told you where to farm it. Things are much more accessible on standard playthroughs in Scholar.

TL;DR: Lots of people like to screech on the forums why they dislike DS2. I wouldn't let that sway your own personal experience and enjoyment of the game.

[nomorevideos]

Get Scholar. These 2 versions are mostly the same, but the few things that are different make OG DS2 a worse overall experience. Enemies aggros were not changed I am pretty sure, but placement was, which is evident in a few places. Scholar also has way more early options in terms of routing. OG DS2 also has very little mods, Scholar has more mods that you can play in offline mode. Like Seeker of Fire, which is a very bad mod with bad cover art. Definitely don't play that one.
If you specifically want the OG enemy placements though, you're best off just buying OG DS2. I wouldn't bother, since the big picture's mostly the same. Get OG DS2 for the achievements, if you wanna do them again, outside of that I wouldn't get it.

[David Benioff]

I would say the item placements in sofs are better, in the sense that if you have enough knowledge of the game (not too much honestly), you can make yourself overpowered earlier than in vanilla (in particular, they moved an upgrade item to much earlier in the game).

The enemies in vanilla are too sparse in most areas (from my experience): when i played it after sofs, i noticed that the areas (at least up until drangleic castle) were weirdly empty. SoFS spices this up with more interesting enemy placements (i think most agree sofs placements are better, but i've also heard both opinions), where ds2 vanilla may have been too easy imo. Furthermore, ds2 vanilla's dragon shrine has to be the most obnoxious thing i've ever seen. It's so busted and spammy i cheesed it on my playthrough of vanilla and never did it again lol.

Also, perhaps most importantly, the vast majority of the online surrounding ds2 is in ds2 sofs. So if you care about that at all, go for sofs. It's the best overall. It also has better audio.

[Tomo Aries]

Yes, everyone saying "no, but SOTFS" is a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ idiot. It's an infinitely inferior game and there's no reason to play online anyway unless you're playing co-op because they ruined this game's PVP anyway by like late 2014. DS2 is a superior experience in just about every possible way; doesn't mean it's a perfect game, but it does have better enemy placement, better item placement, you get the DLC keys right off the bat instead of having to look in the most hidden of places (I hope whoever put the one key at the bottom of Black Gulch in SOTFS gets divorced and put in a home by their children when they get older), it doesn't lock off progression the way SOTFS like removing the 1mil soul Shrine Of Winter skip or placing ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ petrified statues everywhere.

Sorry I'm late, just hope you didn't buy SOTFS and get upset at it. When people say "Dark Souls 2 sucks" what they really mean is "Scholar Of The First Sin sucks" because 95% of the hardcore FromSoft Gamer™ fanboys were not around when vanilla DS2 came out and never got to experience it. They also call themselves "diehard FromSoft fans" and have never touched an Armored Core game or ChromeHounds either, but that's another story for another thread in a few months once AC6 is out.

[Grimmothy]

Originally posted by Tomo Aries:

Yes, everyone saying "no, but SOTFS" is a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ idiot. It's an infinitely inferior game and there's no reason to play online anyway unless you're playing co-op because they ruined this game's PVP anyway by like late 2014. DS2 is a superior experience in just about every possible way; doesn't mean it's a perfect game, but it does have better enemy placement, better item placement, you get the DLC keys right off the bat instead of having to look in the most hidden of places (I hope whoever put the one key at the bottom of Black Gulch in SOTFS gets divorced and put in a home by their children when they get older), it doesn't lock off progression the way SOTFS like removing the 1mil soul Shrine Of Winter skip or placing ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ petrified statues everywhere.

Sorry I'm late, just hope you didn't buy SOTFS and get upset at it. When people say "Dark Souls 2 sucks" what they really mean is "Scholar Of The First Sin sucks" because 95% of the hardcore FromSoft Gamer™ fanboys were not around when vanilla DS2 came out and never got to experience it. They also call themselves "diehard FromSoft fans" and have never touched an Armored Core game or ChromeHounds either, but that's another story for another thread in a few months once AC6 is out.

I actually bought SOTFS back in 2015, but what I was getting at was essentially that I wanted to give it another chance as I hear people say the original was a better game for the reasons you described. The only issue is that it's still full price and I don't get all the DLC with it, right?

[David Benioff]

Originally posted by Tomo Aries:

Yes, everyone saying "no, but SOTFS" is a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ idiot. It's an infinitely inferior game and there's no reason to play online anyway unless you're playing co-op because they ruined this game's PVP anyway by like late 2014. DS2 is a superior experience in just about every possible way; doesn't mean it's a perfect game, but it does have better enemy placement, better item placement, you get the DLC keys right off the bat instead of having to look in the most hidden of places (I hope whoever put the one key at the bottom of Black Gulch in SOTFS gets divorced and put in a home by their children when they get older), it doesn't lock off progression the way SOTFS like removing the 1mil soul Shrine Of Winter skip or placing ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ petrified statues everywhere.

Sorry I'm late, just hope you didn't buy SOTFS and get upset at it. When people say "Dark Souls 2 sucks" what they really mean is "Scholar Of The First Sin sucks" because 95% of the hardcore FromSoft Gamer™ fanboys were not around when vanilla DS2 came out and never got to experience it. They also call themselves "diehard FromSoft fans" and have never touched an Armored Core game or ChromeHounds either, but that's another story for another thread in a few months once AC6 is out.

Skill issue

[Schaldach]

Just buy both soothe the soul of the being that you happen to be in other words

Originally posted by David Benioff:

Originally posted by Tomo Aries:

Yes, everyone saying "no, but SOTFS" is a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ idiot. It's an infinitely inferior game and there's no reason to play online anyway unless you're playing co-op because they ruined this game's PVP anyway by like late 2014. DS2 is a superior experience in just about every possible way; doesn't mean it's a perfect game, but it does have better enemy placement, better item placement, you get the DLC keys right off the bat instead of having to look in the most hidden of places (I hope whoever put the one key at the bottom of Black Gulch in SOTFS gets divorced and put in a home by their children when they get older), it doesn't lock off progression the way SOTFS like removing the 1mil soul Shrine Of Winter skip or placing ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ petrified statues everywhere.

Sorry I'm late, just hope you didn't buy SOTFS and get upset at it. When people say "Dark Souls 2 sucks" what they really mean is "Scholar Of The First Sin sucks" because 95% of the hardcore FromSoft Gamer™ fanboys were not around when vanilla DS2 came out and never got to experience it. They also call themselves "diehard FromSoft fans" and have never touched an Armored Core game or ChromeHounds either, but that's another story for another thread in a few months once AC6 is out.

Skill issue

I'm joking I;m from places near and far and this seems a fine jest

[Schaldach]

the strange thin i really do not understand is why is the other opinion the reason for acquisition

[Schaldach]

I spend more on beer a week than an silly game XD

[L9 dorothea]

youre an alcoholic

[L9 dorothea]

get help

[Schaldach]

In life as all other things come full circle as ones addictions a predilections haunt and devour every piece of being leaving a husk deprived of revenue the all to merry state

[Schaldach]

lack of profits I burn

[Schaldach]

both ends of my candle