O melhor DARK SOULS.
Each souls had his dark....
Really is the dark souls 2 of video games
OST Majula.
Hitboxes e algumas partes do jogo são coisas tediosas mas no geral o jogo é MUITO divertido.
Отличная игра. Да, она отличается от первой части. Да, во многом проигрывает ей. Но у неё есть свои особенности. К примеру, ограниченное число возрождений соперников, что может напрячь тех, кто любит фармить души. Однако после оригинала играть было довольно-так просто. Я прокачался за одно прохождение до 160 уровня, не начиная ни одно DLC и толком не пытаясь нафармить душ. Вам может не понравиться медленный темп ведения боя, использования предметов, лёгкость боссов, копирование их с оригинала, попытка взять количеством, а не качеством, однако, честно, лично я не мог оторваться до финальных титров. Необычный эксперимент From Software, если так можно сказать, который кому-то не придётся. И это нормально. Если вам понравится, то вы вряд ли соскучитесь
acabou sendo uma experiência, longe de ser ruim, mas também longe de ser bom, de fato foi algo
I am NOT playing this shit again
baffling system decisions and often frustrating level design sour a generally solid ensemble of bosses
Oh, God.
Talking about Dark Souls 2 is always a tricky topic. Talking about the Director's Cut, complete of all DLCs, known as "Scholar of the First Sin" is even harder.
The community of this game is divided into three overall groups:
1st: think the game is trash
2nd: thinks is perfect and the underdog of the series
3rd: ignores this game completely and sees it as not canon - although in DkS3 it’s made canon
So trying not to get into any of these groups is very difficult.
This game is both the glass half full and the glass half empty.
The thing is, not many people know of the messy development of this title. From most of the budget being wasted on motion capture animations, to the first director being laid off after they saw where the game was going. It was saved by Shibuya, who wasn’t given more time to work on it. I can’t imagine how hard it must be to fix someone else’s work enough to make it ready, but not enough to make it good.
GAMEPLAY
The gameplay is a LOT different than all the other From Software titles. It's slower than DkS1 and also more punishing - albeit for the wrong reasons. Parries have become over-complicated with a tighter window, making them less viable than backstabs, especially when the latter is so easy to perform. The vast variety of healing options, like infinite vital gems, unfortunately, make the Estus almost useless. Although considering the level design, I can see why they went this way. The introduction of the Effigies is an interesting evolution from the Humanities, and while they don't cure anymore, they are more convenient because they can be used anywhere. The goal was to punish behaviors players had from DkS1, like healing with Humanities, rush, or farming. It goes the extra mile and removes many of the comforts that DkS1 offered; in fact, every action, like going through a boss fog or pulling a lever, can be interrupted by an enemy. It is also possible to be invaded even if you are not human, and after 15 kills the enemies do not respawn unless you are in the Covenant of Champions, which increases the difficulty but makes the spawns infinite. But, the limited spawn is useful for the way the game works, since the enemy placement is not as curated. It's just a lot of enemies in one room. The equipment's durability is extremely annoying, especially when it's often not enough to go from one bonfire to the next.
For people like me who play with a mouse and keyboard, the experience has improved a LOT, but not perfect. For example, the double-click setting must be disabled at every game start even when already off, otherwise, it activates sneakily making a lot of actions like shield bashing or jump attacking not work.
Some really good additions return later in the genre, like being able to use many objects together, more equip slots and various "levels" of improvement for the rings, or the environment affecting the defenses. A welcome addition is the removal of the slower animation of mid-rolling, having now less distance when heavier until 70%, after that, fat roll.
The best part of this game, I think is the PVP, not perfectly balanced and competitive, but fun. Soul Memory is a limiting and annoying mechanic, but it's more problematic for coop than PvP. Covenants are at their best, lots of them, and all very fun! For the first time the PVE gets covenants as well thanks to the Covenant of Champions, and Pilgrims of Darkness, the latter having 3 dungeons and a unique boss.
"SOUL"
This game lacks when it comes to lore, depth, and detail but not innovation. Not enough to ignore the rest, tho.
Every boss in DkS1 was unique, beautiful, and challenging, and this is something the series only improved going forward with DkS3 being the first to have ALL technically different bosses. In DkS2, unfortunately, it is enough to walk around EVERY enemy due to the very aggressive tracking and simple movesets.
Bosses lose being challenging and useful after the three Sentries. They're EASY, with very few attack patterns, and high damage.
The Bosses are trivial, they lack depth both in lore and in design: Bosses like Covetous Demon or Mytha the Baneful Queen are neither difficult nor interesting. The Gaping Dragon wasn't challenging either, but the Lore behind it or the design made it awesome.
Covetous Demon is just Jabba the Hutt, and Mytha the Baneful Queen is just another gorgon, but she holds her head.
The weapon and boss Movesets are absent, Velstadt the Royal Aegis should be extremely strong being the king's guard, yet he has the basic moveset of any enemy with a mace.
But going beyond the design/moveset of the bosses, is the lack of lore about them. Some descriptions say NOTHING other than that you can use the soul or use it for "something special".
When it comes to the level design the first places have a good feeling: Majula, Fallen Giants, or the Lost Bastille, but after these areas, it’s all a straight corridor; one room connected to another filled with enemies. There aren’t even internal connections inside the map, often it’s just going straight, and when the objective is completed you hit a wall and teleport back to Majula, the central hub. Not that there is much choice, as there are levels that don’t even allow the player to go back on their steps. Level design reaches its glory in Earthen Peak with an elevator that brings the player up in the clouds in a map SUNK IN THE LAVA. Makes sense.
The game is FULL of hordes, with no real difficulty in individual enemies, it's just a lot of them with positioning that often doesn’t make sense in the lore, even.
And I won't dwell much on the AI of the invaders/summons that is SO STUPID that they have 4-6k HP each because otherwise, they would die extremely quickly. It's so nice to deal 1600 damage, and yet see not even 1/4 of life decrease.
This game is sadly soulless, which is interesting for a Dark Souls game.
The First Sin
While Scholar of the First Sin might look at first glance like a simple GOTY rerelease, the truth is that it was an attempt at saving the game from its troubled development and its lore. Most importantly, it was a release on next-gen, which was clearly what the game was meant for, especially with all the graphical downgrades the game suffered. It started from being a patch for DkS2 that would change some descriptions to fix the lore and add a new NPC. But, also, an ending was added, because the original DkS2 gave no choice in the finale. Finally, with this rerelease, they repositioned a lot of enemies, items, etc. not better, but different, killing other parts of the progression in the meantime.
The DLCs are included in the game and the devs positioned the keys to them in the world making the DLCs more thought out in the game progression.
Overall the DLCs are good content, they all feature a “multiplayer area”, which was an experimental feature of DkS2 where people without the DLC could still access the entrance and place the sign down, and people with the DLC would see it only in that one area. Those areas are lazily designed, around co-op, with even more enemies and lazy or reused bosses from the game.
The other areas and bosses in DLCs are worth it, especially the Crown of Iron DLC. Best bosses and level design in the game!
CONCLUSION
The game offers a huge amount of content even if the quality of it is questionable. The real flaw of the title is having "Dark Souls" in the name and, with that, having a better track record. Had it been a new IP it would have been a really good game, which it nevertheless is. Even if Demon, DkS1, 3, and Bb are better video games, they don't convey some of the emotions that this title has. It's not that this title is better, it's just different.
That's why despite everything, although I know that the product is not up to what it could be, I also feel love for the product which, despite everything, although not perfect, is beautiful.
7.5/10
Talking about Dark Souls 2 is always a tricky topic. Talking about the Director's Cut, complete of all DLCs, known as "Scholar of the First Sin" is even harder.
The community of this game is divided into three overall groups:
1st: think the game is trash
2nd: thinks is perfect and the underdog of the series
3rd: ignores this game completely and sees it as not canon - although in DkS3 it’s made canon
So trying not to get into any of these groups is very difficult.
This game is both the glass half full and the glass half empty.
The thing is, not many people know of the messy development of this title. From most of the budget being wasted on motion capture animations, to the first director being laid off after they saw where the game was going. It was saved by Shibuya, who wasn’t given more time to work on it. I can’t imagine how hard it must be to fix someone else’s work enough to make it ready, but not enough to make it good.
GAMEPLAY
The gameplay is a LOT different than all the other From Software titles. It's slower than DkS1 and also more punishing - albeit for the wrong reasons. Parries have become over-complicated with a tighter window, making them less viable than backstabs, especially when the latter is so easy to perform. The vast variety of healing options, like infinite vital gems, unfortunately, make the Estus almost useless. Although considering the level design, I can see why they went this way. The introduction of the Effigies is an interesting evolution from the Humanities, and while they don't cure anymore, they are more convenient because they can be used anywhere. The goal was to punish behaviors players had from DkS1, like healing with Humanities, rush, or farming. It goes the extra mile and removes many of the comforts that DkS1 offered; in fact, every action, like going through a boss fog or pulling a lever, can be interrupted by an enemy. It is also possible to be invaded even if you are not human, and after 15 kills the enemies do not respawn unless you are in the Covenant of Champions, which increases the difficulty but makes the spawns infinite. But, the limited spawn is useful for the way the game works, since the enemy placement is not as curated. It's just a lot of enemies in one room. The equipment's durability is extremely annoying, especially when it's often not enough to go from one bonfire to the next.
For people like me who play with a mouse and keyboard, the experience has improved a LOT, but not perfect. For example, the double-click setting must be disabled at every game start even when already off, otherwise, it activates sneakily making a lot of actions like shield bashing or jump attacking not work.
Some really good additions return later in the genre, like being able to use many objects together, more equip slots and various "levels" of improvement for the rings, or the environment affecting the defenses. A welcome addition is the removal of the slower animation of mid-rolling, having now less distance when heavier until 70%, after that, fat roll.
The best part of this game, I think is the PVP, not perfectly balanced and competitive, but fun. Soul Memory is a limiting and annoying mechanic, but it's more problematic for coop than PvP. Covenants are at their best, lots of them, and all very fun! For the first time the PVE gets covenants as well thanks to the Covenant of Champions, and Pilgrims of Darkness, the latter having 3 dungeons and a unique boss.
"SOUL"
This game lacks when it comes to lore, depth, and detail but not innovation. Not enough to ignore the rest, tho.
Every boss in DkS1 was unique, beautiful, and challenging, and this is something the series only improved going forward with DkS3 being the first to have ALL technically different bosses. In DkS2, unfortunately, it is enough to walk around EVERY enemy due to the very aggressive tracking and simple movesets.
Bosses lose being challenging and useful after the three Sentries. They're EASY, with very few attack patterns, and high damage.
The Bosses are trivial, they lack depth both in lore and in design: Bosses like Covetous Demon or Mytha the Baneful Queen are neither difficult nor interesting. The Gaping Dragon wasn't challenging either, but the Lore behind it or the design made it awesome.
Covetous Demon is just Jabba the Hutt, and Mytha the Baneful Queen is just another gorgon, but she holds her head.
The weapon and boss Movesets are absent, Velstadt the Royal Aegis should be extremely strong being the king's guard, yet he has the basic moveset of any enemy with a mace.
But going beyond the design/moveset of the bosses, is the lack of lore about them. Some descriptions say NOTHING other than that you can use the soul or use it for "something special".
When it comes to the level design the first places have a good feeling: Majula, Fallen Giants, or the Lost Bastille, but after these areas, it’s all a straight corridor; one room connected to another filled with enemies. There aren’t even internal connections inside the map, often it’s just going straight, and when the objective is completed you hit a wall and teleport back to Majula, the central hub. Not that there is much choice, as there are levels that don’t even allow the player to go back on their steps. Level design reaches its glory in Earthen Peak with an elevator that brings the player up in the clouds in a map SUNK IN THE LAVA. Makes sense.
The game is FULL of hordes, with no real difficulty in individual enemies, it's just a lot of them with positioning that often doesn’t make sense in the lore, even.
And I won't dwell much on the AI of the invaders/summons that is SO STUPID that they have 4-6k HP each because otherwise, they would die extremely quickly. It's so nice to deal 1600 damage, and yet see not even 1/4 of life decrease.
This game is sadly soulless, which is interesting for a Dark Souls game.
The First Sin
While Scholar of the First Sin might look at first glance like a simple GOTY rerelease, the truth is that it was an attempt at saving the game from its troubled development and its lore. Most importantly, it was a release on next-gen, which was clearly what the game was meant for, especially with all the graphical downgrades the game suffered. It started from being a patch for DkS2 that would change some descriptions to fix the lore and add a new NPC. But, also, an ending was added, because the original DkS2 gave no choice in the finale. Finally, with this rerelease, they repositioned a lot of enemies, items, etc. not better, but different, killing other parts of the progression in the meantime.
The DLCs are included in the game and the devs positioned the keys to them in the world making the DLCs more thought out in the game progression.
Overall the DLCs are good content, they all feature a “multiplayer area”, which was an experimental feature of DkS2 where people without the DLC could still access the entrance and place the sign down, and people with the DLC would see it only in that one area. Those areas are lazily designed, around co-op, with even more enemies and lazy or reused bosses from the game.
The other areas and bosses in DLCs are worth it, especially the Crown of Iron DLC. Best bosses and level design in the game!
CONCLUSION
The game offers a huge amount of content even if the quality of it is questionable. The real flaw of the title is having "Dark Souls" in the name and, with that, having a better track record. Had it been a new IP it would have been a really good game, which it nevertheless is. Even if Demon, DkS1, 3, and Bb are better video games, they don't convey some of the emotions that this title has. It's not that this title is better, it's just different.
That's why despite everything, although I know that the product is not up to what it could be, I also feel love for the product which, despite everything, although not perfect, is beautiful.
7.5/10
jogo excelente
This review contains spoilers
Shrine of Amana and Iron Keep can go die.
Comecei mas não terminei, vou terminar algum dia pra ver se é bom!
ever since i played my first fromsoftware game (dark souls 3 by the way) back in 2020 and getting more into the fandom, i've been led to believe that dark souls 2 was absolutely the worst game on the face of the earth. either that, or that it was the best souls game ever. the thing is, the truth is far from that. ds2 is... the worst souls game, but it is not a bad game, per se. this dark souls lacks a soul (hehe) in terms of being a souls game. you can see why hidetaka miyazaki is one of the most influential people in the videogame industry because without him, even a title like dark souls falls short, feels dull and lacks many things that make other ds games stand out.
the thing with ds games is that how many tries it takes, if the design of a boss is great (which they usually are), the feeling of self-accomplishment just after beating one is an amazing feeling. however, i finished this game just about 15 minutes ago as of writing this review, and i'm pretty sure i'll forget about every boss there is (even now, i can't count more than three). none of them are memorable, challenging, or exciting. gameplay is a bit better than the first game but nowhere near as good as it could, or as it will be with the third installment (heck, bloodborne is a better choice for me at 30 frames per second, and I'm not too fond of that framerate). this game focuses more on the cinematics and visuals which are nice touches. even though the scenery looks good, the level design of this game is horrendous. i remember playing ds1 and having my mind absolutely blown away every single time a new shortcut made its way to the firelink shrine, it was such a good designed map for the caliber of the first game. honestly, it didn't have to be that good and should be taught in classes for my fellows majoring in game design.
overall enjoyable experience, if you can make yourself forget it's a soulsborne (and that's a big if because otherwise this one is a chore to play).
the thing with ds games is that how many tries it takes, if the design of a boss is great (which they usually are), the feeling of self-accomplishment just after beating one is an amazing feeling. however, i finished this game just about 15 minutes ago as of writing this review, and i'm pretty sure i'll forget about every boss there is (even now, i can't count more than three). none of them are memorable, challenging, or exciting. gameplay is a bit better than the first game but nowhere near as good as it could, or as it will be with the third installment (heck, bloodborne is a better choice for me at 30 frames per second, and I'm not too fond of that framerate). this game focuses more on the cinematics and visuals which are nice touches. even though the scenery looks good, the level design of this game is horrendous. i remember playing ds1 and having my mind absolutely blown away every single time a new shortcut made its way to the firelink shrine, it was such a good designed map for the caliber of the first game. honestly, it didn't have to be that good and should be taught in classes for my fellows majoring in game design.
overall enjoyable experience, if you can make yourself forget it's a soulsborne (and that's a big if because otherwise this one is a chore to play).
Boas ideias, má elaboração, e execução. Apesar dos pesares, o que mais me pego fascinado em rejogar na franquia.
SEEK ADVERSITY.
SEEK ADVERSITY.
All over the internet, I would constantly hear how bad of a game Dark Souls 2 is. I was reluctant to play it myself because of this but after finishing it, I'm quite glad I tried it out for myself. This game is very overhated and absolutely has problems, but I'm starting to realize that most of the criticism that's posted so loudly is not from regular fans of the series but rather Dark Souls veterans that are crazy deep into the series and have the highest of expectations.
This game made quite a few unnecessary changes from the first like removing the humanity count, tampering with the weapon degradation system, adding the adaptability stat, and many others, all of which felt unnecessary and just weren't improvements from the first. This game in general is basically more Dark Souls 1 with worse quality of life additions, I don't think there's anything this game does that's unique or stands out in a positive way from the rest. I also found it a bit too long, some areas were a bit bland and could have easily been removed. I've only played Demon Souls and DS1 so I'm not sure how hard the series gets but I found this game very challenging. Most bosses I could get the hang of but there were areas that had a frustrating amount of difficult enemies, like Heide's tower as an example. I think I've created irreversible anger management issues from when I was trying to traverse from the bonfire to the dragon fight and then the Ornstein 2.0 boss fight. The amount of enemies you have to go through all close to each other so they all gangbang you is just not fun game design. This is a problem I found constantly in areas. Eventually, I popped in a Human Effigy and got through it by summoning an NPC which is another issue I have with this game. DS1 had such a nice balanced difficulty in almost every way including NPC summons. In this game; however, you can either struggle to the point of insanity as a non hollow (if you're not a DS sweat) or mow down everything in your overpowered human form, there's no in between.
Despite all these negatives, I had a lot of fun with it. Maybe it is the worst in the series, I couldn't say at the moment, but it definitely is not a bad game. It would hit me sometimes with it's beautiful scenery and music and gave me a few "damn" moments. Although Majula's theme isn't as good as Firelink Shrines, I gotta say, leaving that beginning cave and entering Majula for the first time with its permanent sunsets was certainly a "damn" moment. The DLC was also enjoyable with quite an amount of content, and some of the hardest bosses I've fought in Soulsborne's this far, them being Fume Knight and Sir Alonne. Personally, I still found the DS1 DLC superior due to liking the world more and the Artorias fight but I can see why people praise this games DLC specifically.
I would definitely recommend giving this game a chance.
This game made quite a few unnecessary changes from the first like removing the humanity count, tampering with the weapon degradation system, adding the adaptability stat, and many others, all of which felt unnecessary and just weren't improvements from the first. This game in general is basically more Dark Souls 1 with worse quality of life additions, I don't think there's anything this game does that's unique or stands out in a positive way from the rest. I also found it a bit too long, some areas were a bit bland and could have easily been removed. I've only played Demon Souls and DS1 so I'm not sure how hard the series gets but I found this game very challenging. Most bosses I could get the hang of but there were areas that had a frustrating amount of difficult enemies, like Heide's tower as an example. I think I've created irreversible anger management issues from when I was trying to traverse from the bonfire to the dragon fight and then the Ornstein 2.0 boss fight. The amount of enemies you have to go through all close to each other so they all gangbang you is just not fun game design. This is a problem I found constantly in areas. Eventually, I popped in a Human Effigy and got through it by summoning an NPC which is another issue I have with this game. DS1 had such a nice balanced difficulty in almost every way including NPC summons. In this game; however, you can either struggle to the point of insanity as a non hollow (if you're not a DS sweat) or mow down everything in your overpowered human form, there's no in between.
Despite all these negatives, I had a lot of fun with it. Maybe it is the worst in the series, I couldn't say at the moment, but it definitely is not a bad game. It would hit me sometimes with it's beautiful scenery and music and gave me a few "damn" moments. Although Majula's theme isn't as good as Firelink Shrines, I gotta say, leaving that beginning cave and entering Majula for the first time with its permanent sunsets was certainly a "damn" moment. The DLC was also enjoyable with quite an amount of content, and some of the hardest bosses I've fought in Soulsborne's this far, them being Fume Knight and Sir Alonne. Personally, I still found the DS1 DLC superior due to liking the world more and the Artorias fight but I can see why people praise this games DLC specifically.
I would definitely recommend giving this game a chance.