Should I skip DS2?

[Like Button]

Finished Elden Ring, currently 100%ing DS1, im hearing DS2 is the worse in the series

[Chap]

DS2 is the worst only because it's the shortest. you can beat it in about 20 hours going in blind not counting any of the DLC's, most of the bosses aren't very fun to play against in my opinion but i did have fun with the dragon one. progression also sucks kind of and there is a feature where if you kill enemies enough times they stop spawning full stop which really lowers the difficulty of an area if you frequent it. there are keys called farros's lockstones and they act like a sort of key to lockbox-esque rooms that, unless you search up what they contain on the wiki, can contain items ranging from game changing weapons/shields to ♥♥♥♥♥♥ consumables that you will never use and there is not enough lockstones to open them all so good luck getting the good stuff.

with that being said it is still a dark souls game and has some cool scenery and enemies that are fun to fight/interact with and for all of it's faults i do suggest that you play it if you had fun with other souls games, but it definitely doesn't hold a light to DS or DS3.

[Torniquet]

If you want to, but it's still a darksouls game and better than 99% of other games out there.

[Pilgrim of Darkness 💜]

Do you skip an episode of a series based on user reviews ?

But for real, DS2 is at its best only when there's coop/covenants/pvp involved. So yeah, skip it until servers are up and running again

[Silent]

It's my favorite out of the entire series and it beats DS3 by just a bit for me. Thought DS1 was ok, but I wouldn't have played the rest of the series if I started with 1.

[Quaz]

Originally posted by Torniquet:

If you want to, but it's still a darksouls game and better than 99% of other games out there.

considering 99% of games are actually finished and work, that's debatable.

i touched it briefly when i was getting into dark souls. i didn't know about the general opinion of the game, so i wasn't influenced by any bias before going into it. and i hated it. the movement controls are primitive and awful, the game is buggy and broken, the design is lazy and incompetent at best and malicious at worst. it's like if reddit made a souls game. it has some good ideas but there's just such an obvious and clear lack of understanding of what makes the souls games good. it's obvious the director went "dark souls hard game, people like hard game, make literally everything kill the player if they look at it funny". there are 1 hit kill traps with no warning or setup, ambushes literally everywhere, broken and buggy ai, the ai can shoot through walls but obviously you can't, what did you think this was going to be a fair fight? it really shows just how little they either cared or understood the design of dark souls given Myazaki didn't direct the second one and it's an absolute mess of design and utterly embarrassing. i would've asked to be removed from the credits if i was involved in that hot mess.

but i mean, some people still have fun with it despite those issues, it's up to you how much you're willing to tolerate and will look past.

[Outsider]

Yes.

[west]

In a nutshell ds2 is quantity over quality
most bosses, weapons, armor sets, items in the series but also most fun pvp(the best is ds3) and few great mechanics; like dual-wield for example
the overall look and feel, on the other hand, is lacking, many animations are just bad

but you should definitely not skip ds2 imo

[Torniquet]

Originally posted by 76561198180605882:

Originally posted by Torniquet:

If you want to, but it's still a darksouls game and better than 99% of other games out there.

considering 99% of games are actually finished and work, that's debatable.

i touched it briefly when i was getting into dark souls. i didn't know about the general opinion of the game, so i wasn't influenced by any bias before going into it. and i hated it. the movement controls are primitive and awful, the game is buggy and broken, the design is lazy and incompetent at best and malicious at worst. it's like if reddit made a souls game. it has some good ideas but there's just such an obvious and clear lack of understanding of what makes the souls games good. it's obvious the director went "dark souls hard game, people like hard game, make literally everything kill the player if they look at it funny". there are 1 hit kill traps with no warning or setup, ambushes literally everywhere, broken and buggy ai, the ai can shoot through walls but obviously you can't, what did you think this was going to be a fair fight? it really shows just how little they either cared or understood the design of dark souls given Myazaki didn't direct the second one and it's an absolute mess of design and utterly embarrassing. i would've asked to be removed from the credits if i was involved in that hot mess.

but i mean, some people still have fun with it despite those issues, it's up to you how much you're willing to tolerate and will look past.

Yeah it has a lot of issues but they're not that bad, played all 3 ds games after I finished ER so had no bias either. To me its certainly the worst but it's still a bettr game than most of the nonsense out there and if you enjoy darksoul like games ds2 is serviceable and at times even good.

[Deruvia]

You need to be ready to adjust to the much more sluggish pace of battle, especially if you're coming from 3 and Elden Ring.

It's has some good things, and lots of more noticeable bad things, but if you really like Dark Souls, it's more Dark Souls.

2 has the Agility stat: it determines item use speed and, more importantly, your roll i-frames. Without investing in Adaptability to improve Agility, you're going to get punched out of your rolls (unless you have incredibly precise timing).

Its level design can feel a bit.... aggressive. When I revisit the game, I feel like I go through areas taking the exact same steps as previous runs, regardless of my class. This could very well be a "me" problem, but getting through a castle with samurai knights, I've learned to stand near the door, wait for the first knight, walk up the stairs, another comes from the side, then another falls down from above (as he has a bow but can't see me), etc.

If the servers do come back, the game has an always invade-able state, on top of lose 5% of your max hp with each death, reversible with an item.

I'm not a fan of the game, but I think people who are big Dark Souls fans should at least visit the game, form their own opinion, keep an open mind that it does feel quite different, and see how the game changed from DS1, and inspired changes going forward.

Just bear in mind, there's two version of Dark Souls 2: vanilla, and Scholar of the First Sin. Their servers are exclusive: you can't play with people from the other version, as well as having different enemy and item locations. I wouldn't say either is more enjoyable than the other, but Scholar comes with all 3 DLC's packaged in, and is where the game shines brightest (so I've heard, I haven't pushed myself to the DLC's).

[Sc0rpiTr0n]

DS 2 may be weakest link in the series but it is still good game well worth playing.

It has some memorable and unique bosses and areas.

[Escape GOAT]

DS2 is a great game and is better than DS3 is a number of ways, but also worse in a few others.

[Артишок]

I think DS2 is more like Demon souls rather than Dark Soul. But, to tell the truth, DS2 (vanilla) is my favorite game in the series. Because there is a special atmosphere of loneliness (soft lights, nice soundtrack). The combat system is far from Ds3 or ER, it's close to Ds 1, but it's really different (but i like it)/

[urabe mikoto]

DS II is not a terrible game, but is an average one. And for Souls games standards, this is simply not enough. Mortal Shell and Lords of the Fallen are average

[Silen]

You can skip it, but you'll miss a big part of the series. I don't recommend skipping it.

[Torniquet]

Originally posted by urabe mikoto:

DS II is not a terrible game, but is an average one. And for Souls games standards, this is simply not enough. Mortal Shell and Lords of the Fallen are average

.. I mean, ds2 isn't the best but ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ comparing it to lords of the fallen lol. Reality check.