DARK SOULS™ II: Scholar of the First Sin

谷村滚出魂系，手感垃圾，活尸状态扣血量上限，原罪学者满屋的怪，被怪追的跑了356里路，结果还他妈在追我。谷村，你马没了

Dark Souls II: Scholar of the First Sin is the game that truly tested my persistence and patience. While I did enjoy certain parts of it, I cannot overlook the flaws that mark this as the weakest entry in the Dark Souls series and one of FromSoftware's most divisive releases. If you're considering buying this game, I feel compelled to offer a realistic perspective: unless you're a dedicated Souls fan with an iron will, this might not be the experience you're hoping for.

The Early Game: A Rough Start
I consider the beginning of DS2 to be the hardest among all Souls games, though not for the right reasons. The keyboard and mouse controls are poorly optimized and lack customization (for example, you can't even set E to interact solely). Enemy placements and frustrating gank fights feel less like thoughtful challenges and more like attempts to artificially slow down your progress. This leads to many encounters feeling repetitive and, frankly, boring.

The Last Giant, likely your first boss, sets the tone for many others in the game: bosses often have underwhelming movesets, questionable hitboxes, or lack the pacing and respect for player skill seen in other Souls entries. Despite this, there are standout fights that reminded me of FromSoftware's brilliance—Lost Sinner, The Rotten, Darklurker, and Fume Knight were genuinely enjoyable and well-designed.

World and Game Design: Missed Opportunities
One of the greatest strengths of Dark Souls has always been its interconnected world design. Unfortunately, DS2 takes a more linear approach, which feels like a step backward. The lack of cohesion between areas is disappointing, and later games like DS3 didn’t improve upon this either.

Boss runs are another significant issue. Some are so tedious that they feel like a punishment rather than an engaging prelude to a challenge. The Frigid Outskirts epitomize this problem: a barren, frustrating area plagued by random snowstorms and relentless Frozen Reindeers that spam magic projectiles and spot the player from ridiculous distances. It’s the peak of poor design, where the developers seemed to misunderstand what makes a Souls game enjoyable.

Many times, the area leading to the boss is harder than the boss itself (Shrine of Amana and Iron Keep come to mind). This diminishes the satisfaction of overcoming a fight, as the buildup feels more tedious than rewarding. For me, the joy of Souls games comes from battling masterfully designed bosses, learning their movesets, and earning that triumphant dopamine rush. DS2 often undermines this.

Lore and Worldbuilding
The lore has its moments, particularly with Aldia and the ending of Scholar of the First Sin, which is intriguing and worth experiencing. However, while Aldia's role in the story is interesting, the developers completely ruined his boss fight. It feels uninspired, and defeating him gives you nothing of real value, which is a disappointing payoff for what could have been a memorable encounter. However, interactions with the old Firekeepers are far less engaging. Their dialogue, intended to immerse you in the world, comes across as pointless rambling. Mocking the player by constantly reminding you of your inevitable deaths feels more condescending than immersive, especially when anyone buying Dark Souls II knows exactly what they’re getting into.

Gameplay Mechanics: Flawed but Addictive
Healing in this game is poorly balanced. Lifegems, while useful, contribute to the overreliance on gank fights, making many encounters feel cheap rather than challenging. On the bright side, the weapon variety is excellent, offering plenty of options for different builds. I found myself rotating between at least three distinct playstyles, which helped keep the gameplay fresh and engaging as the game progressed.

Highlights: Beauty in the Flaws
Despite its shortcomings, Dark Souls II does have moments of brilliance. The hub area, Majula, is breathtaking, both visually and sonically. The soundtrack here is a masterpiece and provides a rare sense of peace amidst the chaos. Areas like Heide's Tower of Flame and Sir Alonne's boss arena are stunning and left me in awe when I first encountered them.

Final Thoughts: A Flawed Yet Compelling Journey
Ultimately, Dark Souls II: Scholar of the First Sin is a game that gets better the longer you play. The beginning is undoubtedly its weakest point, and it takes considerable patience to push past its frustrating design choices. Over time, though, the experience builds into something more decent, even enjoyable—provided you're willing to overlook its glaring flaws.

Still, I can’t recommend this game to most players.I glanced over some issues like ADP stat and paying Human Effigy to fight Darklurker for the sake of keeping this review shorter. As someone who loves Souls games for their masterful bosses, interconnected worlds, and fair challenges, DS2 left me disappointed and dissatisfied with how FromSoftware handled its development. For die-hard fans, there’s still enjoyment to be found here. For everyone else, proceed with caution.

Cool game about sightseeing castles and looking at many, many skeletons 👍

I think this may be the weakest entry in the 'SoulsBorne' line of games.

Is it fine? Sure. Is it a GOOD game? Ehh...at best the answer is 'Yes, but it hasn't aged great'. Even the official screenshots above look more like something from an old Turok game. It has some design issues that its kin simply don't...To wit:

Combat feels rather clunky compared to other entries, regardless of your weapon or build. Enemy hitboxes and hurtboxes seem imprecise, sometimes to the point of jank. Frame data doesn't feel smooth, whether yours or theirs. Animations don't feel crisp compared to the first game, because they're not.

Difficulty, one of the big draws of the series, feels inconsistently applied here (usually in a broad sense, not within single areas). The DLCs are included, and are much, MUCH harder than the vanilla endgame content- To the point where it feels like it's trying to compensate. Ironically, doing any of the DLC before the vanilla finale will therefore make the latter feel comically, anticlimactically easy. However, there's also no real reward for the DLC otherwise- And it's also fully self-contained and feels quite separate from the rest of the experience. So you'll potentially feel unsatisfied regardless of whether or not you choose to do it.

It's a common criticism of the game but worth mentioning: Where the heck is all the enemy variety? Effectively every foe in the game is simply a humanoid, as opposed to the plentiful monster or 'unique' enemy designs from the other games. But more importantly than that, the bosses (humanoid or not) are all mechanically similar. You'll spend multiple entire areas fighting only humanoids, interpersed with bosses that are also highly interchangable. Welcome to 'Keep Your Distance Until The Boss Makes A Really Obvious Opening Simulator'.

Honestly, if you've not played the game already, you probably shouldn't. You're not missing anything meaningful, and the game lacks the polish, the variety or the satisfying combat dynamics that make the other entries in the series impactful.

Skip this one, play some Elden Ring with randomiser mods instead. You'll have a whole estus flask of fun.

I wish I could leave a mixed review.

This game does a bunch of things right. An interesting world and storyline. Great atmosphere. Faster more fluid combat than DS1.

It also has so many ideas that are poorly executed or just not fun. Mixing up the healing system so you have options in a fight is cool. Making healing take forever is not.

Having multiple enemies to fight brings the challenge up. The lockon and camera then become your enemies and absolutely screw you over at any possible opportunity.

Also this game has so much more of the worst aspects of dark souls. Poorly explained mechanics? Yep. Annoying weapon durability? Yep. Tricky puzzles that reward you with locking you in a cramped room with a mimic that drops garbage? Yep. Annoying areas full of poison or practically unavoidable damage? Welcome to the entire midgame.

The game has weak bosses, areas rivaling the most annoying areas of ds1, and half baked poorly executed mechanics. But despite that the world is still fun to explore. The combat still has that sense of dancing around enemies that leaves you feeling you could perfect any boss fight that would go on to be perfected in DS3 and Elden Ring.

Also annoying fromsoft quirks that don't make any sense being in a game from 2014. Why can I not rebind my controls if I'm using a controller? Why do I have to use my firewall to block the online servers if I want to play offline and still get steam achievements? WHY ARE THERE NO STEAM CLOUD SAVES TO SYNC BETWEEN MY STEAMDECK AND PC??? (It pulls up steam deck's keyboard on character creation so why only half support it??)

If all you want is more souls then this is worth a pickup. If you're here for the story/lore watch a long play on youtube and save yourself the $40

Thousands of hours on console.
Hundreds if not thousands more hours of fun to be hand on PC.
People need to stop playing this game like DS3 and start playing it like DS2.

one of the most shit games ever made. DS 3, Sekiro, Elden ring and ds1 are my favorite games ever made but clearly without Miyazaki the team was beyond useless. The boss fights are piss easy, have really bad hit boxes a lot of the time, and are overall the worst in the series by a large margin even when compared to ds1s lackluster fights. the only difficulty in this game is created by spamming 3000000 of the same enemy at you and even then its not hard more just annoying. I saw the run up for Smelter Demon 2 one time and I was like fuck that its not even worth the annoyance. This game is truly terrible, go buy one of the actually good Souls games.

One thing to know before playing this game: DON'T TRY TO SPEED PAST EVERYONE. There's too many people who say Dark Souls II is unfair gankfest that you die for trying in. That's only *if* you don't slowly fight your way through enemies and learn how and when to properly aggro them. If not you get your ass beat, and it's your fault. I don't have to capacity (or really the determination rn) to write about every good thing in this game, but if you play it, do it right. Don't go against the devs' design

Everyone hates on this one but its not a bad game. The worst in the series due to weird/bad game mechanics that are a downgrade from its predecessor but not all bad. Would for sure play this one if you enjoy the rest of the DS games.

Having played through both Dark souls 1 and 2 for the first time this year, Dark souls 2 is better.

It's not perfect, not by a long shot, in some areas its downright awful, baffling even.

Yet compared to DS1, as someone who doesn't have those rose tinted goggles of nostalgia for the first game? This is better, the bosses are more fun, it controls better, it plays better and thats what matters in a game like this.

It makes less sense and the areas don't connect like the first game, but these games thrive on their gameplay alone, and DS1 is like trying to play a game with your feet. Even the 2018 remaster doesn't fix anything, and DS1 is held together with sellotape and spit.


If you have to pick a Dark Souls game to play at gunpoint, pick 3.

But this is a pretty good second option

Honestly this one gets a lot more hate than it deserves. It has lots of flaws and lots of things I actively disliked, but it does have a lot of cool ideas and the journey of getting through it was very rewarding after a decade of putting it off. I feel like there is a lot of questionable things in this game, but I'm happy I beat it and will be moving onto the rest of the games!

This game is so so good. I can't stop playing it, it may be harsh on a first playthrough but absolutely gets better the more you play it and get better. The build variety, the replayability, the weapons movesets and the DLCs are in my opinion the strongest points of this game PvE wise.

But the PvP? Oh man, the PvP, where do I start? It's absolutely glorious, I thought DS3 PvP was good but this is entirely something else, I've never had so much fun PvP'ing in these games. I probably have more PvP hours than PvE hours honestly. I can't explain why, you just have to try it and you'll see how GOOD DS2 PvP is

Quem não gosta de DS2, bom sujeito não é. Ele é um ponto de inflexão no mundo dos soulslike. Diferente do 1 e do 3; ele é único. Nele o inferno fica para cima e o céu fica para baixo. A hitbox te engana, me engana, nos engana, provavelmente enganaria até quem fez o jogo, mas ainda assim vale a pena o esforço de entender as imperfeições que ela possui. O pvp é pura emoção, vale cada segundo da brincadeira. Os bosses trazem os mais diferentes graus de desafio, desde o nível "até brain damaged consegue" até "prepare to die". Quem gosta de souls like deve um favor a si mesmo: comprar e jogar! "Hey Bearer of The Curse, come to Majula with us!"

A great game but easily my least favorite FromSoftware game. The world had some pretty cool locations but also some of the worst boss runbacks I've ever seen (Frigid outskirts is the worst location in any FS game with the worst path to a boss in history). It also doesn't connect in a way that makes sense compared to the first game. The game felt overall clunky and even after leveling ADP to deal with less i-frame BS it still felt mediocre. Having to travel to Majula anytime you wanted to level up was also frustrating.

Too many enemies within rooms, poor level design compared to the other DS games, including the second half of DS1, Lost Izalith was wayyyyy better then this games' legacy dungeons and level designs. The combat is good but adaptibility to increase roll frames is just a chore to level, and the PVP is quite decent, but spell casting just becomes way better with melee capability & ranged capabilities to top it off. All in all, decent game but isn't that postive in many remarks mostly by the poor enviroment, and enemy placement.

Platinum'd every Fromsoft souls game to date, multiple times. Even SL1 ran this game successfully. This title doesn't deserve all the hate it receives really... IT DESERVES MORE. THIS GAME DISGRACED US THEN, AND STILL CONTINUES TO. TRASH. GARBAGE. DON'T BUY.

confusing mess of a game but I still love it. The arcade version of Dark Souls. Pls don't do Dex, it is terrible late game.

Great platformer with a tutorial to guide beginners. If you enjoyed Super Mario Galaxy then you will love this game.

I landed on not recommending this game, but I went back and forth on it alot. The first time I played Dark Souls 2 was in 2021. I played it for 2 4 hour sittings and never wanted to touch it again. But after enjoying Elden Ring so much I decided to commit to playing the souls trilogy (plus Bloodborne), I then finally gave this game a fair chance, played to the credits and even finished the DLC.

I simultaneously feel glad I did play this while also regretting doing so.

This game hits some highs but it also hits some of this series lowest lows.The issue lies in the fact that this game feels overcooked and undercooked at the same time. This game experiments with a lot of interesting changes, but it also changes some mechanics for what feels like just for the sake of it. There’s a lot of the obvious problems that people have pointed out here thousands of times. ADP requirement, enemy aggro range, inconsistent boss quality, the list goes on and on. For everything it does wrong, however, I feel like it does something right. Graphics and presentation are just as good as Dark Souls 1, power-stancing is a lasting feature that you can still do in Elden Ring even, magic was heavily expanded, again, the list goes on and on.

I look at this game as necessary growth. The absurd amount of mechanics changed did allow the Fromsoft team to learn what works and what doesn’t. Plus the quality of the DLCs is consistently good outside of one key area in the third expansion. I can definitely understand people who still love this game despite all of its problems, while also completely agreeing with people who absolutely despise this game. When it’s good, It’s REALLY GOOD, the quality you would expect from Dark Souls. But when it’s bad, it’s REALLY BAD, incomprehensibly so.

If you want to see the evolution of this series, or want the gamer status of surviving through this rollercoaster ride, give it a try. You might be the one of many who see past its flaws, even. But if you’re looking for high quality gameplay and something to scratch that Soulslike itch after playing all of Elden Ring, don’t bother. You won’t find it here.

Hands down the best game in the series. It's extremely hostile to new players, hence the reputation of the worst souls game, but the more you play it the better it gets. Best NG+, best PVP, great non-linearity and build variety, gorgeous vistas and atmospheric music. Nowadays the game can't hold a candle to Elden Ring, but it's definitely one of the best games of its time.

Dark souls 2, Let me tell you. This....
is not your typical dark souls game. Everyone else will tell you it's not even dark souls at all and they would be right. In fact, this was my first dark souls game in which I played on the Xbox 360 before I eventually had to return it to the library out of anger. Dark souls 2 is a game in which you play as the chosen undead, ready to go ahead and save the world! (or desert it.) Except if you've played dark souls games before, you know that you'll probably be struggling for a while. The game itself is very hard and if you aren't accustomed to soul-likes/souls-borne you'll probably find this game to be hair-tearing. Not only that but this dark souls game in particular is a walk off the path of the typical dark souls play book. Instead of being held by your hand to teach you how the game is played, you're actually given options to how you actually want to play. Don't need a tutorial? You can do that. Need a refresher? The game rewards you for going through all of that. Dark souls 2 is an open experience in which you aren't locked into a singular path to becoming the chosen undead, instead of being locked into one singular area or boss in the beginning, you can choose which path you wish to travel in order to suit your needs and skill level. Not only that, your character can be any class you wish to choose, aside from a few classes that are..quite frankly useless. There's also a simple yet interesting feature added to this dark souls game, life gems. A resource that allows you for the price of one or a few, be the key factor to beating a difficult boss or rush through a difficult section without needing a checkpoint or a bonfire in order to recharge your "health potions". The bosses are challenging, often unfairly if you're unsure of what you're doing but the game does have ways to allow you to improve to better allow you to proceed. A tough enemy ruining your perfect run? If you defeat that enemy a certain number of times, they disappear entirely. The game would be easier with a walkthrough or a guide for beginners as this game is a far cry from the first and third games. Another thing I should mention is that upgrading your weapons will make the game easier, don't waste your time hording ores as you progress as it'll only make the enemies and the bosses much harder to beat. Most people will tell you to skip this game but once you play through it, (after a long break for the rage to settle down.) you'll want to come back and try a new build, go a new path or even play alongside some friends or duel them to the death. Dark souls 2 isn't everyone's favorite game but it's mine.

Dark Souls II was my first experience into the Soulsborne franchise back in 2014, I'd sunk countless hundreds of hours into it on the PS3. When Dark Souls II: Scholar of the First sin released in 2015 on the PS4 I went and sunk countless of thousands of more hours into it before I moved to PC in 2018 where I've sunk another few thousand hours into this game, needless to say it's one of my favourite games of all time.

The hub area known as Majula has got to be one of the best and most atmospheric hubs in the whole of the Soulsborne Franchise. It has a warm and welcoming feel, with the music in the background being slow, calm and relaxing, really reinforcing how much of a safe space the area truly is in comparison to the other hostile areas throughout the game. The Hub is also home to our favourite Waifu: The Emerald Herald, Shanalotte.

The levelling system while introducing a new mechanic called Adaptability was not all that bad, unlike Resistance in Dark Souls I, Adaptability has an actual use. That being that it increases the speed that you use consumables like your Estus Flasks but it also increases your IMMUNITY FRAMES, a thing that most new players tend to not know and complain that the game is too hard because the dodges feel impossible to do which in the early game is rough, but spending a few points into Adaptability fixes the dodging issue entirely.

Another controversial mechanic introduced is Soul Memory, matchmaking based on how many souls you've collected along your journey, I assume this was intended to stop twinking (The act of making a low level character intended for competitive PVP or COOP.) but this is also counteracted by the Agape ring, a ring that prevents souls from being earned by any means, unfortunately twinking is still common, at the cost of a ring slot.

The story is much like the other Soulsborne titles, where you can follow it at a baseline and if you're truly invested in it you can talk to NPC's, explore areas or even look into the item's descriptions that you collect for a deeper understanding of areas, enemies and bosses. You do not need to be an expert to understand and enjoy these games by any means.

Fashion Souls is an important part of any Soulsborne title and this one certainly delivers on that front, a lot of armors working well together, colours of fabrics, tints of metals, weapons complimenting said outfits, a personal favourite combination of mine being:

• Black Witch Hat / Black Witch Veil
  
• Black Witch Robe
  
• Ruin Gauntlets
  
• Ruin Leggings
  
• Moonlight Greatsword
  
• Golden Wing Shield
  
• Staff of Wisdom
  

• Desert Sorceress Hood
  
• Alva Armor
  
• Alva Gauntlets
  
• Desert Sorceress Skirt
  
• Black Knight Greataxe
  
• Blossom Kite Shield
  
[*] Pyromancy Flame / Dark Pyromancy Flame

Lore is great, atmosphere is great, gameplay is beyond trash.

For everything it did right, it did seven things wrong:
Bad bosses, bad enemies, bad levels, and bad mechanics.
And for the people defending this game, you're either so clouded by nostalgia that you'd somehow find a way for rape to be nostalgic, or you're so mentally challenged that you know the difference between a good and bad tasting glass window

Dark Souls 2 gets a lot of hate but this game is great. There is so much content in this game and maybe its not as refined as the other titles but it is certainly still worth playing. Not for the faint of heart but if you are a souls fan and have not yet played this game you should.

worst of the souls games unbalanced and the worst mecahnics. too slow and dumb bosses

This is so much more angering than ds1 and ds3 combined if you hate yourself 10/10 thats why I play it.

this game is good but not as good as 1 maybe its as good or worse or better than 3 i don't know yet i will see but i do reccomend it i like it play it yes i like this game

Not bad. Has a lot of charm. I got this one cuz the normal one was full price. This was on sale. I like it. Its fun.
I mostly picked this up after watching "things only Dark Souls 2 did" video.

My only issues after almost 5 hours, Im still doing 20 damage and everyone got 300 plus health. The starting area is rough. Im finally doing 100 damage per hit so now it doesnt take 10 minutes to take out a guy. My other issue is its extremely confusing but almost in a good way. The level designs are fresh and interesting but the rewards and fights are just not balanced. I know this game has been out for a long time. I beat Elden Ring several times by now. Its really hard to call the game balanced with the starting class and the first area. Still I respect the games hidden secrets and characters. The world design and art is amazing. A lot of this game is amazing. But the actually fighting feels very unfair. I am impressed by how many changes from dark souls 1 to dark souls 2. They really went all out.

Overall, recommend for all the cool unique ideas and world building. The game itself, combat, the price of items, feels very unbalanced. I mostly want to keep going cuz every corner of this game has a secret and Im just blown away by how many hidden areas theyre are.

Anyone who says this game is still good despite its many shortcomings might be mentally challenged. If you're into terrible enemy placement and artificial difficulty (hordes of enemies in tight spaces) this game is perfect for you, ya weirdo. Have fun with the boss run backs!

Clunky combat, terrible controls, the controls fight you harder than the enemies, and the camera twists and jerks like it’s possessed. Invasions while hollowed? Brilliant. Nothing like being kicked when you’re already dead inside.

This game is a huge slog to get through unlike the other games in the Souls Series, enemy placements don't make much sense, bosses are either too easy or a gank squad, hit boxes are questionable at best and all your weapons are made of cardboard. I played both SOTFS and 1.0 and definitely liked vanilla more than Scholar, I don't hate Ds2 and did have some fun but comparing this to the others in the series it's just not as fun.

Bearer of the Curse... Let me say, i did go into this game negative af. Seen a lot of vids on yt on why this is the worse game in the series. I'll say this, while some if not a lot of criticism it true ESPECIALLY how many gank squads in here and some awful hitboxes, and of course leveling ADP, the biggest gripe is if you play on k+m (and i changed all binds to be more like the controls in ds1-3 and Elden ring respectfully) the option for "double click mouse disabled" is a must. It will make attack instant with no delay. The only problem is every time you close app and re-launch it you will manually have to switch off the double click disable and turn it on again because some reason it reverts back to being off even when it still says its activated. Beside this the game was still fun. Majula is probably my second favorite hub in the series. The story is loosely its own thing although there are clear call backs to DS1. There is a lot of cheap deaths but that didnt really make it unbearable or too annoying. The areas are not as well woven and sometimes confusing af, often asking yourself where tf to even go but the environments themselves are pretty cool and the art direction is more dark fantasy this time around imo. The Bosses are hit and misses, but nothing i would call bad except for maybe three of them. The DLC'S are bangers, but the frigid outskirts is dogwater lol. The weapons/Spells/Hexes/Miracles and armor are bountiful and the covenants are still a grind. Its simultaneously the easiest Dark souls and the hardest do to the punishment of having your health taken each death as a hollow, but how many life gems you got can make you invincible non stop healing which makes it kinda cheapened, however flask now take time to heal you and you stand still as opposed to life gems let you walk while using one. Last new game+ is handled a little different along with bonfires and humanities.

Finally if you played elden ring and dark souls 1-3 and avoided this one because of the negatives surrounding it, take it with a grain of salt. It is different and has flaws, but its definitely NOT a bad game at all. This definitely had very fun moments and good levels and enemy designs, the darker fantasy vibe was well done and i had FUN. Give Dark Souls 2: Scholar of the First Sin 8.5/10

Decent but worse than ds1.
Playable with 25adp otherwise you have 0 i-frames on roll and you die mid roll animation.
However there is no i-frames on actions like going through the fog to boss or pulling levers, gl with that.
No ultrawide screen support. Game also occasionally breaks display settings and can increase size of all open windows under the game.
Enemy aggro range is entire zone and chasing range is entire game map so you can't skip most of enemies.
Rapiers are balanced but bonk is too later on.
Two handing everything because shields are overrated.
If you plan do souls run - get this one on discount.

this game is one of the best souls games in my opinion but i under stand it is not for every one i would like to say if you are unsure about playing this game because of all the hate it gets i think you should still give it a try and it will probably suck at the start of the game but if you push trough you may end up really enjoying the game (ps great sword and ultragreat sword builds are some of the best builds in the game and they carried me through my first play through)

Even with the weird stamina nerf, the vulnerable fog walls, the really bad health reduction on death system, the extremely slow and exposing animations, the weak final boss, the fact your Hoilow goes bald after a few deaths, and the incomprehensible addition of the ADP stat, I still loved this game.

8/10

I was hesitant going into this one since it gets a lot of hate, but honestly I really loved it.

I think the game is set up expecting players to make versatile builds (e.g. not just specializing in pure melee or pure sorcery) with how may levels it gives. I like this because in other games I usually felt the slightly forced to specialize. However, for players who would not want to do this, the amount of fights with enemy snipers or hoards could become incredibly infuriating.

Additionally, the bosses (with several notable exceptions) were quite underwhelming, even if only compared to DS1. I think focusing less on the quantity of bosses(cuz damn there's a lot) and more on making each feel interesting would have made it much more exciting.

This game offers an impressive experience overall, though not without its flaws. One of the standout elements is its accessibility. I managed to defeat most bosses on my first or second try. While some may see this as a testament to the game’s fairness, it also points to a relatively straightforward boss design. The movesets, while elegant and effective, are often easy to read and predict.

That said, there were several encounters that stood out as particularly memorable. Among my favorites were the Looking Glass Knight, Mytha, Sir Alonne, and the Fume Knight.

The game’s atmosphere is another strong point. Majula, in particular, deserves special praise—it stands out as one of the most beautiful and atmospheric hub areas I’ve encountered in the entire series.

The arsenal of weapons is impressive, but i’ve got the game using only katanas :)

As for the world design, the locations themselves are visually distinct and enjoyable to explore. However, the connections between them occasionally feel disjointed, which can detract from the sense of a cohesive world, BUT some areas left a lasting impression—especially the Shrine of Amana.

For now, I plan to finish with DLC content and then tackle NG+ and NG++ in order to try other builds and get the plat as well.

Dark Souls II is a great game, no doubt. It's beautiful, challenging, and has its own unique charm. However, it's far from perfect and can be pretty frustrating at times. The hitboxes often feel off, leading to unfair hits, and the gank situations—where enemies team up to stunlock you to death—can feel cheap and unforgiving. Compared to Dark Souls 1, the environments, bosses, and story don’t have quite the same magic or allure.

At first, the game feels clunky; the movement and controls can take some getting used to. But if you stick with it, there's a truly beautiful game waiting beneath the rough edges. It's actually amazing when you realize that the developers only had around a year to put this together. With patience, you find yourself adjusting, and the game becomes a memorable experience you won’t soon forget.

One thing that might disappoint some players is how the game’s difficulty curve flattens out as you go along. The bosses become somewhat repetitive, often just big guys in armor or humanoids with predictable movesets. I never really felt "stuck" in the same way I did in other Souls games, which meant that some victories felt less rewarding. However, New Game Plus flipped that on its head and gave me a real challenge that humbled me fast.

Then there’s the ending, and wow—that’s where it truly hit me. The theme that plays during the ending is beautiful, and it’s something I still listen to even outside of the game. It was the best reward I could’ve asked for after pushing through all the frustrations, struggles, and victories. Dark Souls II may have its flaws, but it’s a game worth playing, and one that stays with you.

There's a reason this company has never been in charge of a souls game after this... lets put a thousand enemies outside of almost every boss room. And lets make it so you can be hit crossing through a fog wall. Super smart moves...

Nowhere near as bad as the internet will have you believe. I really think that the people who hate this game are just too attached to the mechanics in Dark Souls 1 (DS1) and 3 (DS3) and failed to adapt. There's also a lot of misinformation regarding its "unfairness", for some reason.

It certainly has its flaws and questionable design decisions at certain points, and visually it's a downgrade from the first game. But I personally enjoyed it more than DS3, which I feel tried too hard to emulate DS1.

If you're a Soulsborne fan, you should play it. Be open to its weirdness, and form your own opinion on it.

It is more linear and has less flashy level design than DS1, but it is a solid soulslike nonetheless. Feels a bit simple compared to newer entries in the genre, but it is still great. The gameplay changes from 1 to 2 feel correct, but the lore is less pronounced this time around.

This is a difficult one to review. The early and mid portions of this game are actually quite fun, but the game drags on for way to long and in the end game the technical fallacies and some design choices (4-directional movement, inconsistent lock-on, loss of health on death, etc.) get really annoying. Definitely the worst one of the soulsborne games. But its worth a try if you played all the other soulsborne games and it is not as bad as many say.

I've never heard a legitimately substantial negative review about this game that's wholly true.

"But adp!" counterbalanced by having the easiest leveling in the series by a longshot, you can effortlessly bang out solid adp basically right at the start of the game

"But ganks!" most of which have to be rallied together manually, you have to TRY to make the ganks unmanageable. Still, that doesn't matter, because this is the only souls game wherein enemy spawns are limited and then manually refreshable whenever you want them back.

"But health reduction on death!" which is comparatively less of a detriment to you than your ability to snuff enemy spawns is to their ranks; you don't need any amount of health when there's nobody left to challenge you.

"But I can't aggro everybody in an area and then make myself vulnerable to them without dying!" What.

"But I don't wanna fight enemies at all! Let alone deplete enemy spawns! That's so boorinnnggg!" Listen Asskickaton Prime, I get that you have preferences, but why are you playing the fight-stuff game?

"But how could we take an elevator up from a tower into a lava lake? Bad level design, much?" Complete oversight. Fromsoft had no clue what kind of vibe they were going for with the flow between environments, and certainly never legitimately intended for there to be any kind of funky dissonance there. You are utterly vindicated, totally gottem there! bad game indeed.

"Nope! Game's too hard, this is all artificial difficulty! >:(" It takes like 4 seconds to kill most enemies, you don't even need a specialised build for that kind of damage. You're literally handed some of the easiest build variety in the entire franchise bar elden ring, while maintaining the ability to completely remove the most problematic enemies from the equation if you focus them down often enough. This isn't even "le funny souls fan elitism xdd", this shit is easier than most games; if you can move, attack, and adapt even just a little bit, you pretty much can't hit a wall.

Not that you aren't allowed to dislike the game, that's whatever, but I'm talking to the people who are hesitant to get into this one because people won't stfu about how "objectively indefensibly bad" the game as a whole is because they got burned for their poor decisionmaking or whatever. Elden Ring's issues run circles around DS2's, but everybody adores that one. DS1 got popular for being anti-gamerbrain; it beats zen into your skull until everything clicks. So did this one, so did DS3. This one wasn't as lenient about running from your problems though, and so it became easy to dogpile as if people never learned anything from the first entry.

Just finished the 3 dlcs along with the main story. It was my first souls experience, enjoyed every bit of it. Had no idea it was hated by the fandom, I wonder if they played the same game as I did cause in my opinion this is a near-perfect game. Highly recommend.

This is my favorite souls-like game.

It has plenty of questionable design decisions (IE: Adaptability) but it has far more redeeming and endearing qualities.

In my opinion, it has many of the best looking armor sets in the series, the most memorable environments, and the single best boss fight in all the FromSoftware games. And while many of the characters aren't as charming or interesting as others in the series, it all contributes to a cohesive experience and a compelling storyline that reflects the core values of the Dark Souls franchise. The gameplay may take a little getting used to, but it is rarely (but occasionally!) unfair.

Negatives include a poorly designed online matchmaking system (known as soul memory), the aforementioned adaptability stat that affects the player's rolling invincibility frames, and occasionally questionable hitboxes (although its predecessor wasn't known for its fair hitboxes either). The hollowing mechanic can be annoying to interface with, especially for newer players. Level design is consistently appealing, but there are certainly a few areas that are a little obnoxious and many areas that are downright confusing. And many boss fights have external factors (occurring outside the boss room) that affect the difficulty of the fight in question, which might make the fight seem unfair if overlooked.

Overall, I believe this is the most rewarding experience out of all the FromSoftware souls-like games! But I do concede that its design can appear hostile to many players, so while I would recommend this game it would be with the caveat that it's an experience that improves with understanding of the game. Veterans of the series should feel at home here, and new players should be prepared to face adversity, confusion, and the possibility of making decisions that have unforeseen possibly negative repercussions.

this doesnt get enough hate

-weak ass bosses
-terrible hitboxes
-bad level design compared to other entries like ds1 or bloodborne. they are not interconnected. they are just several branches connecting to the same place (majula)
-boring environmental design
-cant see shit in some areas and they thought this was a good design choice?
-plot is irrevelant to other souls games and side characters are not memorable.
-UGLY ahh graphics. seriously how did you guys manage to make your game look worse than ds1?
-Octagonal movement system.Like...wtf?

its still a souls game, better than your average 3a shit so

7/10...

At first glance, the game can be a lot tedious but if you persist and check the wiki for some guidance (or a friend who has played the game), it can be a nice journey!!

The best of the three souls games. Better graphics than the first, and an original setting and characters (unlike the third). While DS1 has more iconic characters, I felt much more invested in the storylines of characters in this game. The aesthetic of the game is also generally more appealing, as it doesn't feel like everything sucks and is hopeless.

Don't let anyone tell you this game sucks. I am playing it for the first time and I am personally having a blast. I started with Elden Ring then went on to play DS3 and DS1 Remasterd. I am now on DS2 and for me it has been so much fun. Maybe I am missing something since I am not deep into the game yet but so far for me it has been a blast. I would give it a shot if you are on the fence about getting this game or not. 8.5/10 IMO