Dark Souls 2

 the vanilla version, played coop the entire game. its very clear its much inferior to SOTFS edition. enemy placements are garbage, the game is way too easy, entire areas left barren, a very poor dark souls 2 experience, dont bother. still better than a lot of other games though

6/10

 

 

 

REPLAY:
2023-08-26

Obviously my first review many years ago  was shit. Its 3 sentences. A lot of my old reviews are shit. I decided to go back and replay Dark Souls 2, the original version. Not the remaster Scholar of First Sin. I think I was way too harsh on my first review,  I gave it 6/10 but thats only in relation to the Scholar version. If Scholar never existed, I'd probably have given it 8 or something. It was more like "Why would you play this over Scholar!?"  But I think nowadays that opinion is not really what I'd have now. The way I see it now is almost like, you know how in classic Resident Evil after you beat the game, it unlocks Remixed mode, where it changes the enemy placements and items so it keeps the game fresh and exciting to play through a 2nd time? It might be something like that. The "Remix" mode doesnt make the original mode pointless or inferior, its just an alternate mode to play when you want a twist on the experience.

Upon replaying this game the first thing that strikes me is the distinct atmosphere of this game. The Souls trilogy all have their own personalities and intricacies but its almost like none is more distinctively strange than DS2. There are so many little mechanics introduced here that don't exist in any other souls game. How about the fact that when rolling, by default, you don't really have much Invincibility frames, which means you can still get hurt even while rolling past an enemy. But there is now a Adaptability stat, which is dedicated just to rolling and being able to dodge through blades and other attacks. I like that the game tried to seemingly dissuade against roll spamming as is the case in other Souls games because it is too powerful, you can still roll spam to become near invincible, but you have to pay into it.  There are many other stat changes too, like VIGOR is the main stat which determines health now, Endurance is just for stamina, and VITALITY is dedicated solely to being able to equip heavier armor. This makes the RPG component and collecting souls and levelling a more involved process to where youre constantly looking forward to that next level and theorizing how youre going to build your character. You can also respec in this game at any time, with an item that isnt too hard to get, so it even more encourages experimentation and character building.  Many other things this game does which no other souls one which gives it that personalized feeling and its own atmosphere and philosophy, the way you can get hit even while opening doors / going through fog gates, The life gems, The whole system with the torches, theres a real emphasis on light and darkness and whole areas where you have to go around lighting torches almost like a horror game. The weird statues that you can unlock with Fragrant branches. The pharros lockstones, these contraptions hidden around the levels which you can optionally use an item on to unlock potentially good (or pointless) secrets.  Jumping in wells to find new areas. The ability to interact with things in the environment to change how boss fights turn out such as lighting up the area for Lost Sinner or burning the windmill in Earthern Peak. How killing NPC's actually leaves a grave behind after a few random hours and you can respawn them. The way it shows your equip % and it seems to granularly impact your stamina instead of just rigid breakpoints. I could go on about all the weird little quirks of this game but the overall point is it makes it so you'll never confuse Ds2 for any other souls game.

The personality in Dark Souls 2 comes through in many other ways than just the myriad of new and odd mechanics. The levels are almost the most varied and distinct of all the series. The whole game feels like a weird dreamworld fantasy, where each level isn't even really connected to the next in a coherent sensible way, but this loose dreamy leap from vision to vision of these strange worlds. Years after the first playthrough, I could still distinctly remember fondly many of the areas and moments in this game. Sure, it has its share of pretty annoying and dreadful levels, but as a whole most of the areas stick out in your mind and are memorable.  After the introduction and you arrive at the breathtaking hubworld of Majula, which has amazing calming music and this really cozy long draw distance of this coastal area with very impressive and pretty graphical effects of the ocean, the color scheme of the bright warm yellow sun lighting up the area, it makes the place feel warm and invicting but also melancholic and downtrodden. Like some kinda eternal morning where everyones sitting around contemplating on their past. So You start off in Forest of Fallen Giants, then all of a sudden you're at a dead end so you go back and talk to the classic Crestfallen guy and he gives you a bunch of advice and tips on where to go next. So you arrive at Heides tower of flame which is another amazing looking area, but its like completely detached to anything previous and its just a bunch of giant floating platforms in the ocean with these huge giants guarding the path. It feels really video gamey and arcady in a way but I like that a lot about it. The game has a bunch of nods to the previous games, how for some reason it retains the Demons Souls health system, when you die and become hollow you gradually keep getting locked off from using your entire health pool until you become human again, how already at Heides Tower you get reintroduced to Ornstein from DS1, and so on. I don't have a problem with that, I think its cool when they do some fan service and quickly bring back these classic fights, even in just the next sequel.  I dont think its filler or lazy but its more of what excited us in the first place, hes a bit different this time around too and has new moves so I enjoyed it. After Heides tower you find yourself in No Mans wharf which is almost this typical coastal fishing village but with a twist, you make your way up top and theres crazy nightmarish monsters up here that hate light and darkness, once again bringing up the Light & dark theme, it gives the game a horror vibe which adds a lot to the excitement. Then you make your way through the village, ring the bell which calls the big Ship in and you fight the next boss inside this ship half filled with water which makes a really cool scenic boss room. 

A lot of the game keeps up this theme of distinct levels that are almost completely different than the last one, it almost reminds me of a Mario game or something, obviously not mechanically, but in the sense of how one level can be completely different than the previous one in theme and tone and scenery. This is further impacted by how right at the beginning of the game you can Warp to any level from the bonfire. Unlike DS1, where you only get the ability to warp halfway through the game or so, in DS2 you can warp instantly and it even shows you these big detailed pictures of the areas youre warping to which makes it have this even stronger arcade feel and makes each zone more memorable and unique. You have to do a cheeky little jump into this odd mysterious hole in Majula to progress to more, weirder parts of the game. There is a talking NPC cat which sells a ring that lets you take less fall damage, which helps you fall into this hole, or you can wait for another NPC to show up whom you can buy a ladder from. Speaking of NPC's, theres a lot of them, tons of merchants with interesting and strange items you can buy and discover, and even more NPC's you can summon to help alongside you (which I never do in these games). I'd say overall the NPC dialogue and games writing is as usual pretty great, they talk in this cryptic almost olde english style sometimes and always have this somber weird tone to them, atleast theyre not always laughing like in DS1 but in this game they're more sorrowful or something. You make your way through Lost Bastille, which is a series of strongholds and prisons, Huntsmans Copse which is this other outdoors foresty area, Earthern Peak which is almost like the Sens Fortress of DS2 with its long vertical in doors areas based around Windmills, then shortly after this you have the weirdest and maybe worst levels in the game. You have The Pit which is this level based around total darkness, on these wooden platforms and buildings where everything looks the same. On the one hand, the concept is pretty interesting and yet again has that horror vibe, crawling around in the dark in confusion and mystery. But on the other hand its like most of your deaths here will be due to falling off the map or running around in circles getting lost because everything looks the same. The level directly after this, Black Gulch is just some kind of deranged nightmare of poison pits, poision spitting statues, and oil tar pits and giant weird hand monster things. The poison in this game is even more sadistic than DS1 and kills you really quick, which can sometimes make for a frustrating yet tense experience.

The game has tons of levels, I think something like 30+. Only a few of them I don't really enjoy exploring, such as maybe The Pit. But each of the levels is cram packed with tons of secrets and optional areas, bosses, and NPC's and items to find. Speaking of items, exploration in this game is one of the best parts of it. It feels almost like it has even more weapons and armor to explore and use than any previous game in the series, which makes you want to check every single nook and cranny to find all the possible things you can look at. The weapons in the game have really interesting unique designs, and theres tons of armor sets some with unique effects like increasing spell casting time and other effects, plus theres a lot of 'fasion souls' because they all have such striking appearances too.

Later levels in the game which are memorable are Iron Keep, which is this big stronghold surrounded by lava, a very classic fantasy theme but executed well with these challenging but really fun to fight armoured humanoid type enemies, Shaded Woods, where you have to navigate through these foggy woods while being chased by invisible ghosts you cant really damage, while its kind of an annoying that isnt a 'real' level, its conceptually cool and again invokes that weird mysterious tense horror vibe, so I appreciate it. Drangelic castle is the main ending area of the game, it has this giant epic cinematic buildup of approaching the castle from outside, almost like something out of Lord of the Rings and then navigating through this eerie, almost empty castle devoid of any real content with empty throne rooms and barely any items, giving this weird unfinished impression but also intriguing questions about lore implications.

As for the enemy placements in the original game, it may feel like some areas are empty, but I dont think the game is too easy. One complaint I will have is that it seemed like the majority of the time, my deaths werent even due to the enemies, but just platforming mistakes, walking off the map, standing on the wrong brick and sliding off the map - stuff like that. So it feels like theres a lot more cheap pitfall deaths, which could really annoy me at times. Also, you seem to get way more souls and level ups in this game, but this is balanced by the fact that the RPG stat system has more stats in it than any other souls game, requiring you to invest in Adaptability, Vigor, Endurance, Vitality separately. This ultimately means you level up more frequently and have more choices to make, which is something I found fun and its almost like DS2 has the most rpg vibe out of all of the games.  

Maybe it comes down to this,
For a first time SINGLE PLAYER playthrough, DS2 vanilla is the way to go. It has enemies placed in a sensible way, its never too overwhelming or crazy, but at times it can feel a bit empty or underdeveloped, but it makes for a good experience. However, playing co-op in the original game can really start to show the games  limited enemies perhaps. I played through the game co-op again, both as sorcerers, and for the most part we were just blasting through the enemies without much problem, the main problems came from falling to our deaths or having trouble summoning (A system which is mostly functional, yet still commonly has technical issues). As with the rest of souls games, of course you have to basically play through the entire game twice, once in each players world, but I'll reserve judgements on if this system is good or bad because its not exclusive to this game, thats just the souls formula.

The take away from DS2 vanilla is that It has a ton of unique elements to it, its emphasis on lighting graphical effects and visually stunning coastal viewpoints make it have a distinct unmistakable vibe, The animations in particular are the most strange and exaggerated out of the whole franchise, further making it unmistakable which Souls game youre looking at. It definitely isn't a simple copy+paste redo job, they reinvent the wheel almost every time with these Souls games, so I appreciate each game for their own quirks. The overall bright but melancholic aura with tense moments of fear and horror, the tons of weird little mechanics and stat changes from previous games,  it all comes together to make a very memorable game that stands out in the series. As for the bosses, theres a lot of those too. Something like 30 I think. For the most part, theyre good. Theres a few stinkers like the rat 'boss' which is a play on old tricks something like Pinwheel, a few head-scratchingly easy bosses such as Covetus Demon, whom kinda just stands there doing not much of anything, the last 2 bosses in particular are kinda disappointing in their almost unimaginativeness and boring and timid moveset where Nashandra is just this random blob of shit that doesnt really move much and shoots beams at you across the map, then the giant tree boss guy is mostly invincible the whole time you have to wait for his shield to go down until you can do damage, in the mean time he kinda just shoots roots out of the ground or shoots fireballs at you. Those bosses are meh. But the rest all have defining qualities and good memorable designs, I like the fan service call back bosses espescially the optional Belfry Gargoyles boss fight on the roof by the bells like Ds1, except this time theres many more than 2 of them, that was cool. Dukes Dear Freya spider boss, Scorpioness Najka, Ruin Sentinels, Lost Sinner, are all fun boss fights,   and Looking Glass Knight especially is almost iconic in his design and boss area, with the rain falling around you reflecting off his mirror shield, if you shoot spells at his shield it bounces back at you, a very cool fight. 

Dark souls 2 gets a bad rep, I think because it wasnt directed by the head guy Miyazaki and because it had a troubled, rushed development, but working with what they had they managed to make yet another amazing Souls game, and my first time around I was too harsh on the vanilla version. I like its stripped back nature with the enemy placements, in hindsight it makes Scholar feel like a Ultra-giga XTREME alternate remix mode or something, both are great versions, and both can be enjoyed on their own terms for what they each have to offer.

8/10