I'm 15 hours into Dark Souls 2: SotFS, and desu it's pretty mediocre. I thought the hate may have been another /v/ ebin meme, but this is nowhere near as solid as DaS1. It's not AS bad as /v/ says, but it's still a 7/10 so far.
I'm at Harvest Valley, just beat a giant slug thing boss. Only decent boss fights so far have been Pursuer and Lost Sinner, and even he was a bit of a discount Artorias.
My biggest issue is that the controls feel really fucking sloppy coming off DaS1 and BB. Every action in DaS1 and BB felt very direct, it felt like you had full control over your character and that every action you did got the intended result (rolling, attacking, attacking after rolling, rolling after attacking, turning mid-attack etc).
In DaS2 every action I make with the character feels sloppy, almost spongy and delayed or something, it's hard to explain. AS for ADP, leveling agility up to 100 so far has helped, but I still get blatantly hit or take damage when I shouldn't have quite frequently which is pure trash, and it's almost as if some enemies swords are like 2 - 3 feet longer than the fucking displayed length.
Even with all its bullshit though, it's still easier than DaS1. Even having a +6 weapon at HV I'm just 1 - 2 shotting most mobs with a varangian straight sword (dunno if that shit's OP or something, some nigga dropped it in Warf.) and bosses are like paper mache, they flop so easily compared to coming off BB where bosses had fuckhuge HP pools.
>>323636045
harvest valley is probably the low point of the entire game; you'll find more to like
>>323636045
>but it's still a 7/10 so far.
Not even close
Im at Amara something right now, and im not really happy with the game but i need to finish it. Also fuck parry and the long animations.
>Beat most of the main game except the final boss
>Decide to do Brume Tower as my first DLC level.
>Can't kill Fume Knight
>Read that the other DLCs are even worse, fucking with 2 giant cats, a smelter demon recolor, and 3 overpowered undead guys.
Welp, guess I'm done with this game.
>>323636045
>It's not AS bad as /v/ says, but it's still a 7/10 so far.
Fuck off shill
>>323637210
>2 giant cats, a smelter demon recolor, and 3 overpowered undead guys
all optional, and almost definitely designed to be done as a co-op thing.
The basic movement has changed for virtually everything. Weapons are faster but you can't roll away immediately after swinging, you have limited turning during swings and rolling R1s, and you can't run tighter circles because of how your character brakes. Rolling works differently as well; your character has hyper armor on rolls, which may make legitimate hits seem like bullshit since your character doesn't react properly, and ADP only extends the i-frames at the beginning of your roll, so it won't be helpful near the end or against lingering hitboxes.
Bosses are generally more like forced unique encounters than traditional bosses, hence why encounters like the congregation and Dragonrider are a thing.
>>323636456
>>323637398
I was trying to be generous since I haven't beat it yet.
Does it really get worse? I hear the DLC is better, when can I say fuck you to the main game and go there?
>>323636249
Harvest Valley is the worst area in the game. The level design is shit and it has no thematic consistency.
>windmill with poison everywhere
>fat green men with hammers
>manikins
>half naked women with fireballs
>giant monster mounts
>giant maggot/slug
>medusa
>somehow connects to Iron Keep
It's so random. What was the theme here exactly? DaS1 had an interconnected world with mostly realistic geography (besides Ash Lake), explanations for most enemy placements, and stories behind each area. DaS2 has a large number of random areas enemies that don't fit together very well. It's like the devs took as many possible ideas from their brainstorming sessions and threw it into the game without much thought or further development or quality over quantity.
>>323639356
It's because it's one of the areas that was chopped up and made up of parts from another part of the game when they scrapped and restarted development. Remember how the manikins had heads, different masks and were in a different place in the trailer?
>>323636045
Dark souls 2 is definitely the weakest souls games but it's a hell of a lot better than most other games out right now that's for sure
>>323637398
>someone doesn't fall for the overblown /v/ meme
>call him a shill
Fuck off
>>323639184
You need to beat two of the great ones to go to them. The one in the Iron Keep and the one in The Gulch. The last DLC area can't be accessed till you beat all four great ones (about 2/3s of the game).
All of them also have a key you need to find to enter them after you get to them from said boss areas.
>>323637210
>Can't beat Fume Knight
>Going to stop before Sinh, better Nashandra, Alonne, and Burnt Ivory King
You're such a faggot anon I can hardly believe it.
>>323639184
>Does it really get worse?
Yes actually. It's world and area design get even more linear in the last third of eh game if you can believe that. It leads to some of the most disappointing areas in any Souls game as you get to them, expect them to be awesome, then realize they are short, linear and shit.
>>323639184
The DLC is way fucking better. Some of the dlc optional bosses are pretty bad, but the main bosses, level design, areas, enemy layout, etc are all fantastic and loads better than the main game.
I like how someone put it: they had good mechanics/ideas but pretty much fucked up on everything else.
Bell tower is a fucking fun and great idea, but is ruined by Soul memory and uber-twinks both at the same time ironically.
Adaptability sort of makes sense, it makes it so dex users can't just get free points from not using Endurance, but fails miserably because it starts LOWER than what people are used to.
Soul memory itself is a nice idea, it tried to push people of roughly the same level together in both coop and PVP, but really fucked that up because it constantly goes up no matter if you lose those souls or not, and not something like, the total amount of souls you've spent on your level ups, weapon upgrades, and such.
better than shit souls 1
>All those enemies that have moves which brutally punish you if you try to strafe or BS fish them.
>Those nigger giants that have lava spewing from their shoulders.
SOTFS introduced a ring that freezes your soul memory level. The guy who sells it is in the back of the Bastille right before the elevator that leads down to Lost Sinner's area.
Getting there with the bare minimum level of souls acquired is a decent challenge.
>blood boner better than dark souls 2HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA kill yourself my man
>>323639356
>DaS1 had an interconnected world with mostly realistic geography (besides Ash Lake)
I think that's also what made Ash Lake so great. The actual area was shit from a design point since it's short and linear, but after playing through the game with relatively realistic looking areas, you go deep underground only to come across this fucking majestic, endless lake with thousands of ancient trees sprouting from it.. Fucking awesome.
>>323640543
yeah and then you realize the area is fucking pointless.
scenary is great but if there's nothing to do there. POINTLESS, I didn't buy a game to look at art, I bought a game to play
Dark Souls 1 is poorly designed garbage
>>323636045
You pretty much summed up everyone's experience with this game.
To be fair the DLC is the best part
>>323640421
Not really, your choices are to kill Last Giant/Pursuer who are both jokes especially Pursuer if you parry but I believe you have to do sentinels if you go this way which means another boss.
Other was has Dragon rider who you can literally kill without even touching along with Flexile who just feels like a bigger version of a normal enemy, and then bam you have Agape ring, congrats on being able to get pretty much anything you want into <50k soul memory as long as it doesn't cost too many souls
>>323640669
It hides a miniboss, covenent, and is where lore of the game started.
>>323639873
>>323640669
I feel bad so here's a response
>>323640823
The challenge comes from the part where you need to jump down the well and run through the entire gutter to get the first fragrant branch. You pretty much have one shot to get it, otherwise you dont have enough lifegems to jump down there again.
>>323641365
I was thinking of just using the souls you got from the forced bosses to buy it from the Hag but if you want those 12k souls in your build then I suppose you would need to yeah. Once you know where to run though Gutter isn't that scary.
>>323640485
But it is.
>>323640543
I wasn't necessarily criticizing Ash Lake, even if it seemed that way. It's a neat little area that's mysterious and ties into an esoteric aspect of the lore (everlasting dragons and origin of the world). It's just that there's clearly something funny going on with with the concept of space when you go through the Great Hollow but no one knows exactly how that works.
>>323639656
I hate how you need to go into one of the gayest areas in the game to get one one of the dlc keys
>7/10
So still better than Dragon's Dogma?
>>323639356
tower of flame still has worse level design.
>>323637718
>all optional, and almost definitely designed to be done as a co-op thing.
this is the one thing I did not enjoy about the DLC's
I hate summoning other players
>>323641896
Don't respond to shit bait, even if you have the perfect reaction image for it.
>>323643709
At least it looks nice.
>>323643709
Eh, it has similar problems but at least it has a pretty view. HV is unbelievably ugly.
>>323636045
The PvP is the part that will hook you, if any part does. As far as PvE, DeS, and DaS1 were much better. They were difficult but fair. DaS2 has too many "haha Fuck you" moments.
>downgraded graphics from trailers
>unnecessary changes to stats, such as ADP and VIG when the previous stats were fine(i am not complaining about the stats themselves, just the fact that adding them was completely unnecessary)
>poise nerfed into the ground because from software knows nothing about balance
>armor is basically meaningless
>heavy weapons in pvp have clear disadvantages to light weapons, whilst doing around the same amount of damage
>a huge buggy mess, the worst one being weapons breaking twice as fast due to framerate which they STILL DIDN'T FIX IN SOTFS(yes i know it was said they did but they did not, go play sotfs right now, it's not fixed)
>most assets re-used because they were lazy as fuck, thankfully DS3 looks like they aren't re-using textures and not too many models
>movement, as OP said, is sloppy feeling
>level design is trash, you know what i'm talking about
>enemy placement in sotfs is artificial difficulty, seeking to punish you harshly just for taking one step
>enemies are copypasted a lot through-out the game
>hitboxes are shit even with good agility, as OP said
>soul memory fucking WHY, at least they added the agape ring but jesus christ it was still so stupid for the longest time
>no full red eye orb because from software wanted to pander to the whiny fuccbois who couldn't handle being invaded, and so not having a full red eye orb makes invading so much worse for people who don't want to CE 99 cracked red eye orbs in
>covenants in general are just ass in DaS2
>most enemy and boss design is abusable, where-as in DaS1 it wasn't as much, one example being the old iron king if you use anything ranged
The list goes on. I don't include the DLC for DaS2 with this list. The DLC actually feels like it had effort put into it. Personally, I don't like the DLC much, but that's just because I don't like the game in general, but I did play through the DLC and it's definitely far better than base game. Still doesn't make me want to play it though.
>>323645224
>>most assets re-used because they were lazy as fuck, thankfully DS3 looks like they aren't re-using textures and not too many models
at least dark souls 2 had brand new animations lo, dark souls 3 is literally just copy pasting dark souls 1 animations and it looks clunky as shit
>>323646016
So you'd prefer they copy paste Dark Souls 2 sloppy animations?
I'll admit that Dark Souls 1 is clunky, but some people like that, including myself. Just like how you may like Dark Souls 2 is sloppy. Why change something that works, anyways?
That's purely opinion based though, so I'll say that the ">movement, as OP said, is sloppy feeling" is a dumb complaint.
>>323646473
Anybody who calls me a hipster for saying this hasn't played Demon's Souls, but it has the most organic, fluid movement out of any of them. God knows how they fucked up something that was already perfect.
>>323647034
Sadly, I haven't played Demon's Souls, but I really want to. I don't want to buy a PS3 for one sole game, but I might just do it.
>>323647034
>but it has the most organic, fluid movement out of any of them
I'd say Bloodborne has the best animations out of the lot. Fuck, the subtle ways your legs and feet move when you do certain attacks is so well animated, webm related.If only it was in 60fps
this is one of the reasons the game feels janky.
>>323650381
Can that deadzone fix shit get you softbanned? I wanna try it.
anyone who says anything has changed about the basic movement or hitbox knows literally nothing about the changes between DaS and DaS2
the only difference is ADP
>>323650695
>>323650695
>the only difference is ADP
That's completely incorrect.
See >>323638252
>you can't roll away immediately after swinging, you have limited turning during swings and rolling R1s, and you can't run tighter circles because of how your character brakes. Rolling works differently as well; your character has hyper armor on rolls
Idiot.
>>323650695
Get out.
