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Recently I’ve been seeing new vids on YouTube arguing about the quality of ds2. Has there been some kind of critical reevaluation recently that I’m unaware of? Also ds2 > ds3 forever.
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Aug 21, 2023 16:38
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hanales posted:Recently I’ve been seeing new vids on YouTube arguing about the quality of ds2. Has there been some kind of critical reevaluation recently that I’m unaware of? Probably more people trying it and going hey, this is actually good
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Aug 21, 2023 16:41
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DS3 is tighter, lots of annoying stuff removed, qol-optimized, and has just the right amount of DS1 fan service. It’s so tight that there’s not many ways to play it. DS2 has ALL THE STUFF! Weird new fun mechanics, fashion, cheap upgrades, lots and lots of build options, weapons and paths through the game. All the wonderful jank. They are both great games, but where DS3 is the ’better’ game, DS2 is the most FUN Dark souls.
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Aug 21, 2023 16:50
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Dark souls 2 was the first souls I played and I loved it to bits. Played the poo poo out of it. Replaying it more recently my biggest gripe is how ugly the game looks, lots of flat boring textures over walls and poo poo.
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Aug 21, 2023 16:56
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axolotl farmer posted:It’s so tight that there’s not many ways to play it. That's what it is! At least for me. Thank you for putting it in to words E: SHISHKABOB posted:Dark souls 2 was the first souls I played and I loved it to bits. Played the poo poo out of it. Replaying it more recently my biggest gripe is how ugly the game looks, lots of flat boring textures over walls and poo poo. Yeah of all the games, 2 would benefit most from a remaster I would love a remake tbh, with all the big pie in the sky dream features they originally planned put back in (lighting, etc). Also the removal of soul memory Son of Thunderbeast fucked around with this message at 17:09 on Aug 21, 2023 |
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Aug 21, 2023 17:07
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dark souls 2 has the souls wackiness that was mostly discarded with dark souls 3 and bloodborne lots of weird short men and rats who give you strange pvp quests
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Aug 21, 2023 17:10
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The yassification of dark souls
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Aug 21, 2023 17:16
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it is an ugly game in a lot of areas, brightstone cove tseldora looks like it was made by a uni student but being one of the only games with not terrible PVP and also being the only game with the rat king covenant can make me overlook a lot
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Aug 21, 2023 17:26
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I certainly don't think it looks more impressive than anything From's put out since but I like the aesthetics of DS2 the most. Everything after looks too clean and polished, and there's little things I preferred like the invader/summon text at the bottom of the screen instead of in the middle.
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Aug 21, 2023 17:55
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dodgeblan posted:dark souls 2 has the souls wackiness that was mostly discarded with dark souls 3 and bloodborne you wish to guard the bell? I feel like at least part of the slow burn appreciation for DS2 is that it's the most thematically consistent entry in the series. All of the trilogy have settings that are decaying but Drangleic is absolutely coming apart at the seams in a way that distorts geography and eats away at the memories of those who journey there (poor, uh, Lucinda?). And at the centre of it all is Vendrick, a king whose mind is so throughly decayed that all he can do is wander obliviously about his throne room.
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Aug 21, 2023 18:42
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SHISHKABOB posted:Dark souls 2 was the first souls I played and I loved it to bits. Played the poo poo out of it. Replaying it more recently my biggest gripe is how ugly the game looks, lots of flat boring textures over walls and poo poo. This just meant it ran like a dream on my lovely laptop and didn't look weirdly poo poo like DS did on it. That's probably why I spent a lot more time with it than the original.
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Aug 21, 2023 19:17
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FireWorksWell posted:I certainly don't think it looks more impressive than anything From's put out since but I like the aesthetics of DS2 the most. Everything after looks too clean and polished, and there's little things I preferred like the invader/summon text at the bottom of the screen instead of in the middle. Yeah like... it's funny. Cause I loved it then, and didn't have any issues with how it looked. So I think it was made well, but just, ya know, ugly lol
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Aug 21, 2023 22:18
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Party Boat posted:And at the centre of it all is Vendrick, a king whose mind is so throughly decayed that all he can do is wander obliviously about his throne room. That's not his throne room.  Which beyond me being pedantic, I think adds to the sadness of it all. In a world where people were being shipped off to the Bastille never to return, the hollowed king didn't fare much better. Ended up naked, mindless, alone in a dark tomb, with a thin veneer of royal pomp trying to make it seem dignified.
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Aug 21, 2023 22:28
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axolotl farmer posted:DS3 is tighter, lots of annoying stuff removed, qol-optimized, and has just the right amount of DS1 fan service.  (Except there's way too much fanservice.)
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Aug 21, 2023 23:14
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John Murdoch posted:That's not his throne room. Exactly, he's not dead but he's in the royal tomb while his Queen has essentially usurped the throne
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Aug 22, 2023 01:38
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Maybe if Nashandra wanted to rule the world she shouldn't have been so weak to lightning damage
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Aug 22, 2023 01:46
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Shame, I never finished this game. Had a too-hard boss fight at the end of a long walkway under the Castle, some unfinished DLC, and was working on the Giant Memories (which makes me feel I was very close to the end), but I'd started the game right after finishing DS:R and didn't have the endurance to finish it. Don't really want to go back now either, as I'm rusty and having to jump into a hard boss fight near the end of the game isn't gonna go well for me. Might try out DS3 next year sometime, anyone care to spoiler the ending / what's the deal with the king and the lady pushing you forwards?
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Aug 22, 2023 01:54
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Serephina posted:Shame, I never finished this game. Had a too-hard boss fight at the end of a long walkway under the Castle, some unfinished DLC, and was working on the Giant Memories (which makes me feel I was very close to the end), but I'd started the game right after finishing DS:R and didn't have the endurance to finish it. it doesn't really add up to much, it's mostly about mood. the queen wants someone to do the walk-away ending from ds1, the king looked like he was going to but lost his nerve and sealed himself in a tomb (among other things) to make it harder for anyone coming after him to do it. the lady pushing you forward is a synthetic immortal fire keeper made by the king's brother, a mad scientist who made himself into some kind of perpetually burning tree, who seems to just want to see someone come along and change something
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Aug 22, 2023 02:03
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My standard line is that DS3 is the most fun to push buttons in. The moment to moment gameplay is wonderfully slick and feels good and for as much as people complained about the pace being off and too Bloodborne-esque, I think it was largely fine and it was the only game of the bunch that I felt like I could see myself replaying sooner rather than later just to try different weapons and enjoy it as an action game. Everything else about it...ehhh...it has technically better graphics but I didn't always like the visual design. Boss fights are all the gently caress over the place ranging from some of the best in the series to some real clunkers. The story is a lot more fragmented and throwaway. The map design lost a lot of the meticulous dungeon crawling in favor of more BB-style enemy gauntlets and lots of instances of areas being built for stealth only for that to not actually end up in the game. The whole thing is just kinda uneven, but clearly DS3 had to walk so Elden Ring could run.Tungsten posted:it doesn't really add up to much, it's mostly about mood. I thought it was the other way around? The queen wanted somebody bold enough to sit on the Throne of Want (aka possibly? the Kiln of the First Flame) so she could gain access to its power. She hyped up Vendrick into doing it, but he got cold feet after the Giant War. Aldia meanwhile comes off like he managed to mad science his way into separating his melty tree head rear end entirely from samsara and is now just an amused outside observer wondering if your character is dumb enough to sit on the throne and restart the whole cycle or walk away not realizing if you don't do it some other dumb fucker will. I'm also honestly not sure if there is a totally coherent explanation for the Emerald Maiden, is there? Even just what you've said is new to me. Then again, the last I was getting stuck into the lore we were still working off theories like the Emerald Maiden was the one who put everything in motion and also the game is a whole weird time travel thing. One missing bit that the DLCs flesh out that you missed: The queen was actually a fragment of Manus, representing one of his emotional aspects, I don't really remember which. All the stuff with the Giants was her doing, egging Vendrick on, presumably trying to turn him into a big enough man to go sit on the Throne. Well it turns out there were three other fragments of Manus who ended up in three other kingdoms, all of which similarly got corrupted and hosed up for one reason or another.
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Aug 22, 2023 02:27
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John Murdoch posted:I'm also honestly not sure if there is a totally coherent explanation for the Emerald Maiden, is there? Even just what you've said is new to me. She tells you "My journey is already complete. My name is Shanalotte. The dragon gave me this name, for I was born with none. I was born of dragons, contrived by men. By ones who would cozen fate herself… They are the ones who created me. But they failed. I did not come out as intended. Fate would not be bested, and men were cursed once again." I thought the purpose of Aldia's keep was to recreate dragons. Who really knows in what way they were trying to trick fate, keeping the age of fire alive or trying to engineer a primordial grey wastes situation would both count there, I suppose. Maybe she wasn't even intended to be a fire keeper. Maybe she was supposed to be a prototype for a new humanity that's immortal but not hollow? And breeding new dragons from experiments on hollows and giants was just a step on the way to that? Tungsten fucked around with this message at 02:37 on Aug 22, 2023 |
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Aug 22, 2023 02:34
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I never really put it together that way, such that there was a straight line connecting all of that together. Though also probably because my approach to deep lore is asking a question, looking for an answer, either finding one that sounds cool or not finding one at all, shrugging, and then going back to disregarding the lore.  Obviously works better in 2 where mood carries 90% of it anyway.Funnily enough I just came across this lore theory on Youtube about Aldia and DS3 and as with most of these sorts of things it's an interesting idea combined with the most bizarre misinterpretation/willful ignorance ever (and of course a whiff of distrust towards those treacherous translators), but it was timely. John Murdoch fucked around with this message at 06:29 on Aug 22, 2023 |
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Aug 22, 2023 06:22
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John Murdoch posted:I never really put it together that way, such that there was a straight line connecting all of that together. Though also probably because my approach to deep lore is asking a question, looking for an answer, either finding one that sounds cool or not finding one at all, shrugging, and then going back to disregarding the lore. yeah i'm more of a lore maximalist and just make poo poo up until something contradicts me
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Aug 22, 2023 14:49
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Tungsten posted:yeah i'm more of a lore maximalist and just make poo poo up until something contradicts me 
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Aug 22, 2023 14:51
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John Murdoch posted:I never really put it together that way, such that there was a straight line connecting all of that together. Though also probably because my approach to deep lore is asking a question, looking for an answer, either finding one that sounds cool or not finding one at all, shrugging, and then going back to disregarding the lore. Lokey is literally the worst person to ever have happened to lore videos
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Aug 23, 2023 10:05
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Y'all are using spoiler tags in the Dark Souls II thread, lol. DS2 is the best souls game
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Aug 23, 2023 21:48
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It's always someone's first time encountering Aldia's. All-dia's nuts!
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Aug 23, 2023 22:10
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Guillermus posted:Get ready for another DS2 ymfah video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FigIAAYHoW8 Do not skip this one.
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Aug 24, 2023 14:43
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giZm posted:The video is out and it's top notch, ymfah really kicked it into high gear this time. Was about to post it! 
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Aug 24, 2023 16:35
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giZm posted:Do not skip this one. Emptyquote
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Aug 25, 2023 07:53
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giZm posted:The video is out and it's top notch, ymfah really kicked it into high gear this time. ymfah has become too powerful
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Aug 25, 2023 08:08
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Next up, ymfah beats DS2 with only 4 1/2 A-press.
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Aug 25, 2023 08:18
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I fear what pannenkoek could do with dark souls 2 and a little time
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Aug 25, 2023 08:20
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giZm posted:The video is out and it's top notch, ymfah really kicked it into high gear this time.
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Aug 25, 2023 08:23
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Watching this video it made me want a Dark Souls 2 remaster in the animation and graphical side of things. That's my biggest gripe with the game, even more than the ADP tax.
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Aug 25, 2023 19:06
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I think at this point I have fully Stockholmed myself into genuinely liking the gritty underdone textures and animations. Except for maybe the skinless dog in the gutter and it’s garbage one frame swipe attack.
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Aug 25, 2023 21:45
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Yeah I like to think of ds2 as less of a souls game and more of a generic action RPG but made by from soft. So ugly textures, nonsensical items etc are par for the course for the genre but DS2 still sits above average compared to other titles in this genre so it's extremely enjoyable Proto elden ring really. With that one they were like hey we have a massive budget let's loving goooo Anyways the jank is very much an acceptable and even enjoyable part of the package when you recontextualize it into a generic super fun action RPG a la kingdoms of amalur with souls combat instead rather than a follow up to tight in scope dark souls 1
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Aug 26, 2023 01:16
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The other two Dark Souls are far worse than two. Dks1 is a boring slog where you can skip a fourth of the game and three is a total mess of areas and story all slapped around haphazard.
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Aug 26, 2023 01:23
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Gameplay wise you could argue that sure but DS1 and DS3 nail the level design and atmospheric elements in ways that most video games simply don't, including DS2. DS1 truly reminded me of the way I felt when I played my first Zelda game, everything is so mysterious and bigger than life and the game mostly does a great job of maintaining that momentum in enemy design, levels, items, sound effects, all good stuff DS2 is like hey stop playing poo poo RPGs like world of Warcraft come play in our circus instead *gets cut in half by buffalo man wielding two axes while a nearby midget rants incoherently about a bell*
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Aug 26, 2023 01:36
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Look. It’s simple. You can’t ring the bell. It’s the prince’s. You could guard the bell if you wanted. If you guard the bell you can ring it.
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Aug 26, 2023 02:50
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KingSlime posted:DS1 truly reminded me of the way I felt when I played my first Zelda game, everything is so mysterious and bigger than life and the game mostly does a great job of maintaining that momentum in enemy design, levels, items, sound effects, all good stuff Mostly doing a lot of work here for a game whose entire back third is kind of terrible
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Aug 26, 2023 02:54
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