Dark Souls 2 is an interesting game. It has a great many mechanics that people, including myself, struggle with. It definitely plays pretty differently to DS1, especially in the early game. I was initially super frustrated with stuff like the health penalty or the sheer number of enemies per level (I do enjoy the thematic importance of the health penalty, but it definitely didn't help my early game experience of beating my head over and over). But I feel like once I actually got past the first area, and got an item that was able to mitigate the health penalty, I started to enjoy it a lot more.
Dark Souls 2 is a different game to 1 immediately in terms of the world design. You get the ability to warp anywhere from the outset, and so each area ends up feeling more disconnected from the whole. But I think this really works for what 2 is going for! One thing I really enjoy about this game is that is that the vibes of the world while being very atmospheric and cool, also can change quite a bit depending where you are. At the end of the day, a souls game is an adventure game where you go through many areas vanquishing bosses and overcoming your inexperience, and to that end Dark Souls 1 had a clear artistic vision with its interconnected and cohesive world where everything fit together somehow, but I think 2 being disconnected also works because I feel like the game has a general dream-like quality to it that I think its world design contributes to. Some of the areas being next to each other makes just like no sense but I think I enjoy that, because it manages to continually make the areas feel different and you never feel safe, you never feel like it falls into a pattern. They all feel isolated and in their own pocket and I feel like this makes the areas feel that much more creepy and fantastical. Which really helps.
The atmosphere and vibes of the world in general are awesome. It feels like each time you discover something you've found something that isn't right, that doesn't feel comfortable. Which yeah, it's not supposed to and it rules. I think it helps even more that the rules of the lore of DS1 are played fast and loose with, because I feel like the cryptic storytelling of Dark Souls fits with this perfectly. Not just because I feel like the freedom afforded by this allows Dark Souls 2's general narrative to come into its own in a really good way - it is able to build on the general framing of Dark Souls 1 and uses it to build and enhance on its themes that manages to create something I actually care about a fair bit and think is philosophically awesome - it also means that Dark Souls 1's events feel like this half forgotten dream, that adds further to the unsettling vibes of the areas in general. Events are not that set in stone and they're not supposed to be in a world where thousands of years can pass before you get to see their effects. And they loom like this shadow of myth that I think really perfectly captures a really unique approach to the feel of a world where gods and monsters and magic continually influence it that I don't think I've seen very much. I don't know how better to explain why the atmosphere is this good, but it's just really cool. I haven't been commenting on the individual lore of this series so far because I didn't find a good place to, but I really also enjoy piecing together this world from item descriptions, cryptic NPC dialogue, etc. It makes me feel like an archeologist observing a world where there are a million things more important than me.
Now when it comes to the gameplay of this game, I feel like I don't have much new things to say about why the loop of this hyper difficult style of game appeals to me so much that I didn't already say in the previous review for DS1. So I'll instead jump into trying to describe why DS2 was a more fun game to me than 1. DS2 may have some bad mechanics but it also has some awesome ones. Power stancing added a whole new dimension to this game that made me care a lot more about my weapons in general. Stat reallocation actually allowed me to strategize much more interestingly as I would use different loadouts for different bosses and I'm so stoked I was allowed to do this. There are definitely some other mechanics I am not mentioning, too.
The area design of DS2 is also just, really enjoyable, and I'd say on an individual level even better than 1? It feels more Zelda coded than 1, in some areas even very directly, which was a big plus for me as a big Zelda fan. But in general I feel like, the 50 million enemies notwithstanding (which I do understand is a big issue), that they're more satisfying to overcome and traverse.
The bosses are probably similar in quality to 1. Overall it has a slight edge over DS1 I think, but only slight, considering it has much more than 1 and as a result also has more bad bosses than 1. But it isn't a number that is unforgivable to me, so it's fine.
The DLC is the one area I would make an exception for the above point. Even with each DLC optional area and optional boss that managed to be just. really miserable. The main parts of all of the three DLC were so good that I don't care. The bosses are all just fucking awesome and the areas are so so fun to go through, definitely my favourite areas in the series so far and having my favourite bosses in the series so far.
Overall I'd say the reason I prefer 2 to 1 is that it has a lot of little differences that coalesce into a game that's much more sricore as a result. Cannot wait to play the rest of the series.
Dark Souls 2 is a different game to 1 immediately in terms of the world design. You get the ability to warp anywhere from the outset, and so each area ends up feeling more disconnected from the whole. But I think this really works for what 2 is going for! One thing I really enjoy about this game is that is that the vibes of the world while being very atmospheric and cool, also can change quite a bit depending where you are. At the end of the day, a souls game is an adventure game where you go through many areas vanquishing bosses and overcoming your inexperience, and to that end Dark Souls 1 had a clear artistic vision with its interconnected and cohesive world where everything fit together somehow, but I think 2 being disconnected also works because I feel like the game has a general dream-like quality to it that I think its world design contributes to. Some of the areas being next to each other makes just like no sense but I think I enjoy that, because it manages to continually make the areas feel different and you never feel safe, you never feel like it falls into a pattern. They all feel isolated and in their own pocket and I feel like this makes the areas feel that much more creepy and fantastical. Which really helps.
The atmosphere and vibes of the world in general are awesome. It feels like each time you discover something you've found something that isn't right, that doesn't feel comfortable. Which yeah, it's not supposed to and it rules. I think it helps even more that the rules of the lore of DS1 are played fast and loose with, because I feel like the cryptic storytelling of Dark Souls fits with this perfectly. Not just because I feel like the freedom afforded by this allows Dark Souls 2's general narrative to come into its own in a really good way - it is able to build on the general framing of Dark Souls 1 and uses it to build and enhance on its themes that manages to create something I actually care about a fair bit and think is philosophically awesome - it also means that Dark Souls 1's events feel like this half forgotten dream, that adds further to the unsettling vibes of the areas in general. Events are not that set in stone and they're not supposed to be in a world where thousands of years can pass before you get to see their effects. And they loom like this shadow of myth that I think really perfectly captures a really unique approach to the feel of a world where gods and monsters and magic continually influence it that I don't think I've seen very much. I don't know how better to explain why the atmosphere is this good, but it's just really cool. I haven't been commenting on the individual lore of this series so far because I didn't find a good place to, but I really also enjoy piecing together this world from item descriptions, cryptic NPC dialogue, etc. It makes me feel like an archeologist observing a world where there are a million things more important than me.
Now when it comes to the gameplay of this game, I feel like I don't have much new things to say about why the loop of this hyper difficult style of game appeals to me so much that I didn't already say in the previous review for DS1. So I'll instead jump into trying to describe why DS2 was a more fun game to me than 1. DS2 may have some bad mechanics but it also has some awesome ones. Power stancing added a whole new dimension to this game that made me care a lot more about my weapons in general. Stat reallocation actually allowed me to strategize much more interestingly as I would use different loadouts for different bosses and I'm so stoked I was allowed to do this. There are definitely some other mechanics I am not mentioning, too.
The area design of DS2 is also just, really enjoyable, and I'd say on an individual level even better than 1? It feels more Zelda coded than 1, in some areas even very directly, which was a big plus for me as a big Zelda fan. But in general I feel like, the 50 million enemies notwithstanding (which I do understand is a big issue), that they're more satisfying to overcome and traverse.
The bosses are probably similar in quality to 1. Overall it has a slight edge over DS1 I think, but only slight, considering it has much more than 1 and as a result also has more bad bosses than 1. But it isn't a number that is unforgivable to me, so it's fine.
The DLC is the one area I would make an exception for the above point. Even with each DLC optional area and optional boss that managed to be just. really miserable. The main parts of all of the three DLC were so good that I don't care. The bosses are all just fucking awesome and the areas are so so fun to go through, definitely my favourite areas in the series so far and having my favourite bosses in the series so far.
Overall I'd say the reason I prefer 2 to 1 is that it has a lot of little differences that coalesce into a game that's much more sricore as a result. Cannot wait to play the rest of the series.