Is the Crowns Trilogy officially the best thing to ever come out of the Souls series?
They have:
>Great level design
>great atmosphere
>the coolest looking areas in the series
>fantastic bosses (besides most of the optional ones)
>creative things like the unique AI given to dark phantoms to fuck with you
>Interesting lore
The main problem is that the optional areas are all essentially worse versions of Black Gulch with some of the worst bosses of the series at the end of them. Another issue is that the basic enemies for all the dlcs are all essentially the same with different skins. Some of the enemy encounters can be borderline unfair too. But other than those three things, I think the dlcs are really fantastic and are easily on par with the rest of the Souls' series, if not better.
The DLCs suffer from the same terrible level design and enemy placement as the rest of the game.
Remember that area in the Fume DLC that's just a huge room full of strong ass enemies that all aggro at once? 2 of which are massive and have huge AOE attacks that are barley avoidable?
>>320889602
>That crystal lizard in the Iron King's tower where you need to jump from a point where you can instantly die if you fall.
>Loot that has 1 percent drop in a 12 max spawn game.
DaS2 was a great game for co-op but it wasn't a great game for those who want to play to get everything.
>Lion King's mask.
Good luck senpai.
>>320890183
>but it wasn't a great game for those who want to play to get everything.
Which are what, like, 2% of the playerbase?
What about the majority who just play it to beat it? Its good for them, so that makes it good content. (besides the optional areas, those aren't good for anybody)
>>320890651
>2%
Right. Sure thing. What if I want to fashion souls?
Only Dark Souls 2 would punish you like that.
>>320890921
Okay but does that really disregard the level design, boss fights, and everything else that the dlc gets right? Is it bad entirely on the basis that it punishes you (albeit in a stupid way) for trying to get all of the items in the dlc?
>>320889243
they're the best part of DkS 2, but Artorias of the Abyss and Old Hunters are superior DLCs mate
>>320889243
>samey enemies in every DLC
>massive amounts of enemies in small areas
>small rooms filled with enemies designed to fuck your mouth
>garbage hitboxes
>shit optional areas
>the overall DkS II gameplay.
They were fun, but
>the best in the series
No my man, that would be Bloodborne in general.
Central-->Cathedral Ward-->Old Yharnam alone is better level design than the entirety of Dark Souls 2
>>320891475
There's at least one item of clothing you can't get if you don't beat the gank squad in Shulva. Made a mage? Too bad.
I honestly only did like the Ivory King DLC. It felt more satisfied by it than the whole game,even the other two DLC.
they are cool to an extant
the shulma pyramid was cool
brume tower was shit
aloyce whatever the fuck was pretty cool and very reminiscent of demon's souls.
>>320892326
>brume tower was shit
how so?
>>320889243
They're definitely better than anything else in DaS2, but a couple of stupid rehashed bosses and a couple of retarded rooms in which seven enemies aggro simultaneously really drag it down.
The enemies also kind of feel samey. Across the three I'm pretty sure they also use the same basic model, "generic armored soldier guy covered in moss/ash/snow".
As good as bosses like Fume Knight, Alonne, and Ivory King are, there are also the King's Pets, Smelter Demon: Cool Ranch Edition, etc. dragging the entire thing down.
tl;dr best parts of DaS2, still not better than AotA or The Old Hunters.
>>320892407
not him, but personally I found it extremely overrated after hearing it was the best of the DLCs. it's just another boring stone castle with lots of big armored enemies, including the bosses. the verticality of it was nice, though.
I preferred shulva's level design and loyce's gimmicks though.
>>320889243
Nah bloodborne's dlc is better
>fantastic bosses (besides most of the optional ones)
Fucking what? Sunken Temple has bar none the worst bosses of any area in the game. The last boss is yet another dragon fight (gee, I've never fought one of those in a souls game!), except fuck you he's made of rock so make sure you prep for durability.
Oh, and Smelter Demon again except now he's magic instead of fire, BUT THE FIGHT IS STILL EXACTLY THE SAME?
Yeah, great boss design.
I actually just picked this game back up to finish off the DLC areas.
Is it just me, or do the DLC areas REALLY hate pyromancy? I actually had to respec to kill the trio in Shulva and for Sinh, and Brume Tower seems obviously bad for fire damage.
Level design wise, the DLC is pretty good, but it seems to be badly balanced. Enemies take tons of damage and deal tons of damage to the point that the main game is pathetically easy in comparison.
>>320889243
By themselves, they are 9/10, however, the shitty challenge areas bring them down to a 7/10.
Dark Souls 2 at it's core is a 6/10 game, and much of it comes from gameplay and game mechanics, so the best level design in the series doesn't mean much when playing it forces you to play with shit
>>320889243
Honestly, no. They still suffer from the problems that the main game has, and some of the bosses are kinda lame, like Elana and the co-op ones. While others, like Sinh, last so long that you risk breaking your weapon during the fight. Sure, you can carry two others, but sometimes you wanna beat a boss with your favorite and I found that I wasn't able to do that against Sinh.
Not to mention the entire hike all the way back to Alonne, having to fight those black knights before the Ivory King... It's all just really goddamn annoying.
>>320892798
>besides most of the optional ones
>proceeds to name drop an optional boss
Also, I really hope you're not talking about Sinh, because that boss fight was amazing and should be an example of what all dragon-esque boss fights in the Souls series should strive for. Also, how many dragon bosses have you actually fought? Sinh is no where near similar to any of them, plus his design is simply fantastic (video games need more posion dragons).
Yeah, the blue Smelter Demon sucks ass, but he's pretty much the only shitty boss fight there is. Eladia is a fantastic challenge and aesthetically is really cool (the whole queen summoning a knight to help her is awesome), despite the fact that she's a reskinned boss. Fume Knight is one of the best Souls bosses period, along with Ivory King.
>>320893634
>he doesn't carry repair powder
Dude there's literally no reason for your weapon to break in the middle of ANY fight. If you don't carry large reserves of repair powder on you then you deserve to have your weapon break.
>>320894031
You can buy it?I didn't know that.
>>320895023
only in limited value, but I think it can be farmed from enemy drops
>>320895586
I see. I guess that's better than nothing.
It was the only moment when I though I was actually playing a sequel to Dark Souls 1
>>320895805
Weird, I got that feeling from the whole game
>>320889243
>Great level design
I tried to write an argument but realized that the level design is all pretty amazing, just shitty enemies that had fuck-all better stats than you (such as infinite stamina/poise dragon-blood knights
>great atmosphere
Again, pretty spot-on, can't argue
>the coolest looking areas in the series
OP, stop being correct you faggot
>fantastic bosses (besides most of the optional ones)
This is where I can say you're partially wrongat least in my opinion, all of the Sunken bosses were shit, Fume and Alonne were both cool but not Cool Ranch Doritos, Tiger 1, 2, and 3 were all shit, I honestly forgot if there was another Ivory boss besides the tigers and the Ivory King, but the Ivory King was hands down the best boss fight in the series.
>creative things like the unique AI given to dark phantoms to fuck with you
Eh, creative weapons and some creative AI, but I often felt more pissed off by cheap enemies and cheap enemy spam.
>Interesting lore
PFFFFFFFT only for the Ivory chapter.
All in all, the Crown chapters ARE flawed for bad reasons, but they ARE great for good reasons. If a few of the cheaper bosses were worked on a bit more, and a lot of the enemies were changed to not be so damn cheap, cheating, or an out-right source ofartificial difficulty, then the Crown chapters WOULD be some of the best chapters in the Souls series.
Here's hoping DaSIII is even greater than all the others.Dear Gwyn, please be better, DaS1 was my GOTY for 2 years, I have 800 hrs in it, and DaS2 ended up being such a let-down from my hype.
chancellor wellagor has unlimited repair powder you can buy for 2.5k each. He is the dude in Drangliec Castle.
Honestly by like mid game you can easily be level 150 with stats in all the right places along with 90% of the armor/weapons/spells, so any souls you get are all extra.
I bought 99 repair powder and it lasted me through NG2 while achievement hunting.
>>320892407
again not him, but there were too many fucking enemies loaded in the area, and plenty of terrible design decisions, like enemies that you can knock off, even though the fall won't kill them.
