Is Dark Souls 2 worth returning to?
I played it on release and enjoyed it, but when I went back to replay the game with all the DLC, I just got really tired of it and haven't played since. Did I miss out on much by not finishing the DLC areas?
>>340459263
The DLC is by far the best part of the game.
>>340460819
nice meme
Don't listen to this guy OP. The dlc are garbage.
>>340460819
I stopped at the DLC and have been finishing up a first play through of Dark Souls. It's going to be hard to go back. I should probably just start over.
>>340459263
The DLC really is the best part of the game. It was more enjoyable than any other DaS content, including DaS2's base game, obviously.
Yes, kinda.
I never played the game before and wasn't planning on till I went to a friends and tried out the pvp and had the time of my motherfucking life danking the everloving hell out on the bridge.
It's a shame it's sort of dead with the base game being shit and all but fug it.
>>340460819
I played a bit of the first DLC and ditched it once I found out the first two bosses are complete garbage
can /v/ name some other games where the base game was so terrible that it made the shit DLC seem good?
>>340459263
A friend and I have been playing it almost non-stop for the past two months. I expect no one will listen to what I have to say, but I'm going to say it anyway.
Dark Souls II gets way too bad a rap. Yes, all the things the critics say are true - the lightning is fucked; some level design is questionable; Soul Memory is dumb; a lot of hitboxes are janky as shit. But those don't really matter that much - there is a masterpiece hidden underneath these popularly parroted issues that you only really see if you play it and invest time in it, like polishing a diamond. Dark Souls II has the most amount of weapons, equipment, magic and PvP options of all the Souls games which gives it a titanic amount of replayability. It's genuinely fun to re-do the entire game on a blank slate character and see how much quicker you can do it when you know how.
The DLC areas are some of the best material FROM has ever produced; there's a few shitty bosses (gank squad, blue smelter, king's pets) but the level design, lore and loot you get from it is fantastic and definitely worth doing.
I don't know how to explain it; I think you need to let go of all the advertising and stuff we were apparently "promised" and never delivered on and just play the game. It's truly masterful but it will always be the black sheep of the Souls series simply because it changed too much from Dark Souls 1, even though a lot of it was for the better.
I say this, mind, with Dark Souls still as my favourite game. But Dark Souls II is FAR too underrated.
>>340461603
>sunken king
>garbage bosses
You know what annoys me about Scholar of the First Sin?
They actually listened to idiots who were like "WAHHH WHY ARE THERE NO HEIDE KNIGHTS IN HEIDE'S TOWER OF FLAME??"
Hurr, Knights go on fucking PILGRIMAGES. Why would Heide Knights just stay in the place where they're from? Shit like that doesn't need fixing, it's just FROM giving in to fucking idiots who can't think.
>>340462151
I agree with all of this.
Everyone whines about hitboxes and the like, but I never found them to be any worse than other Souls games.
I have almost three times the playtime on DaS2 than the other two games, simply because it was designed to try different things and the game can be played through in numerous ways and taking numerous paths.
That, and the coop bosses like Gargoyles, Double Cats, and Blue Smelter were a blast with friends. It was nice to be able to summon a friend into a boss without the boss becoming a joke.
>>340463676
My nig.
I really feel like FROM's original plan was to make Dark Souls sequels like Final Fantasy instalments - where each one uses similar materials (Estus, Undead, Chocobos, etc) but set far enough apart/in a different place that they're essentially almost totally unrelated stories. Unfortunately the fanbase bitched and whined so much that Dark Souls III ended up being fanservice over Dark Souls, and absolutely none of the lore or themes or questions brought up by Dark Souls II were resolved or even expanded on in any meaningful way.
>>340463991
How is a direct sequel fanservice?
>>340463402
This.
You think From really made some sort of oversight by not putting the Heide knights there?
No, it was intentional. God some soulsfags are the worst.
>>340463402
>giving in to fucking idiots who can't think
Everything that's wrong with vidya in one sentence. Thanks, capitalism. Thanks, casuals.
>>340463991
Honestly, I really like the lore/setting for DaS games, but I don't really care about an overarcing story. I really just want games with challenging and diverse gameplay, which DaS2 delivered the most. Add onto the fact that I could play it with friends and not feel guilty about breaking the difficult, and I had a lot of fun with it.
>>340464131
A lot of DaS3 includes elements that are obvious fan service. Like I said, I don't really care, but even as someone who doesn't care, it was obvious that they just threw some of the things in there just to have a "Remember this guy from DaS1?!"
DaS2 did this a little bit too, but it wasn't nearly as noticeable.
>>340464290
The addition to Heide Knights in Heide's Tower was great though, it punished you for cheesing the Dragonrider boss early on. Plus the Heide Knights can still be found in their original places, other than the one in Forest of Giants.
>>340464131
The ridiculous amount of references to dark souls 1. Around every fucking corner was: "Hey, remember this from Dark Souls 1? Yeah that was pretty cool huh? You like that don't ya?"
Got old really quick.
>>340464131
I mean there's nothing wrong with that on paper; I actually like Dark Souls III but it doesn't really feel like Dark Souls I needed much closure. Solaire easily filled the role of Gwyn's firstborn; Anor Londo was already in ruins in the first one and magically survived till milennia later; one of the central themes is how Aldrich consumed one of the bosses from the first game. Like, I mean, sure, definitely, Dark Souls II did NOT need the Old Dragonslayer especially if they couldn't even be fucked to put his armour in; and it didn't REALLY need the old Lord Souls in NG+, but that's kind of it. Both of those are entirely optional and don't really imply anything. We know Drangleic isn't anywhere near Lordran, it just resembles it heavily because of muh cycles (which is admittedly a pretty dumb plot element but whatever). DSII originally had a lot of "Is it or isn't it?" part of the lore about it which Dark Souls III has chosen to completely close the door on. Again, not saying DSII is better than either DS or DSIII, I'm just clarifying my point.
>>340465003
>it didn't REALLY need the old Lord Souls in NG+
Were these ever supposed to be canon? It never seemed like it, especially since the descriptions on the items were exceedingly basic.
I always thought they were just a fun addition for beating the game on a harder difficulty. From a gameplay perspective they were great.
>>340465632
That's the thing; it's up to you to decide. They COULD be canon because it's been that long since the first game that those four Souls have been endlessly carried across the world. OR they could just be there so you could get FROM's favourite magic greatsword. They sort of bothered to put in some links with them - the same bug from Izalith infects the Lost Sinner; Freja has very close links to dragons and is a bred abomination with a weird birth defect (two heads); the other two not so much. Old Iron King because...fire...and Rotten because...sort of underground?
>>340465632
This really annoys me. It's not like From to put something in the game that isn't canon. A big point in DaS II lore was that the great souls were eternal and reincarnating. But DaSIII seems to imply that it wasn't canon.
I admit, it would clean up the plot a little if they weren't canon. But it would really annoy me if they straight up ret con elements from DaS II.
>>340465971
>>340466049
I don't think anything you get in a NG+ mode would be considered canon.
It's bearable these days. You'll still laugh at the first half of the game but the DLC is still a good From standard.
Combat is the most sluggish of all the rest. Limited attack turning, slowdown/ startup animations for attacks, slower swings with slower stamina, it'll take getting used to.
Most rushed of all the Souls games bar none, and embarassing. Still better than Dragon Age.
