Dark Souls 2 - lacking atmosphere?

[buttonsandzips]

A little late to throw my voice in, but: Dks2 and I just didn't click. I've played it through 4 times now (by virtue of it being a souls game, clearly) and I'm just not feeling it. Its world is alright, but it has nothing on the depth (and addictiveness) of Dks1's lore. The PvE is alright (hello armoured man with sword/pole arm; hello quadruped beast), but it has nothing on Dks1's PvE. The PvP excelles, but I've little interest in that. Just meh, over all. For me: Dark Souls>Demons' Souls>>>> Dark Souls 2.

 

[Lovely Mixture]

Dark Souls II has no soul.
It's got so many dumb design choices that it's practically a guide on how-to-not-make a sequel.
I played Dark Souls for over a thousand hours, then I played Demon's Souls and loved it just as much.

I stopped playing Dark Souls II after 200 hours. I watched playthroughs of the DLC online just to laugh at how stupid it was.

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

Dark Souls II has no soul.
It's got so many dumb design choices that it's practically a guide on how-to-not-make a sequel.
I played Dark Souls for over a thousand hours, then I played Demon's Souls and loved it just as much.

I stopped playing Dark Souls II after 200 hours. I watched playthroughs of the DLC online just to laugh at how stupid it was.

And yet you played it for 200 hours. Do you not understand that 200 hours is a lot? There are games that I LOVE that I haven't put even a fraction of that amount of time into. Clearly it's doing something right if you not only played through it multiple times but put 200 fucking hours into the game.

 

[Lovely Mixture]

Dark Souls II has no soul.
It's got so many dumb design choices that it's practically a guide on how-to-not-make a sequel.
I played Dark Souls for over a thousand hours, then I played Demon's Souls and loved it just as much.

I stopped playing Dark Souls II after 200 hours. I watched playthroughs of the DLC online just to laugh at how stupid it was.

And yet you played it for 200 hours. Do you not understand that 200 hours is a lot? There are games that I LOVE that I haven't put even a fraction of that amount of time into. Clearly it's doing something right if you not only played through it multiple times but put 200 fucking hours into the game.

I knew someone would say this.

No.
You are not me.
You do not dictate what my feelings are.
I spend a lot of times on games because I am a completionist and I am thorough.

Also, I did not complete it multiple times. I beat it once and then looked for anything interesting I may have missed during the new game+. Spoilers, the only thing I missed was the worst bossfight in the whole game.

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

Dark Souls II has no soul.
It's got so many dumb design choices that it's practically a guide on how-to-not-make a sequel.
I played Dark Souls for over a thousand hours, then I played Demon's Souls and loved it just as much.

I stopped playing Dark Souls II after 200 hours. I watched playthroughs of the DLC online just to laugh at how stupid it was.

And yet you played it for 200 hours. Do you not understand that 200 hours is a lot? There are games that I LOVE that I haven't put even a fraction of that amount of time into. Clearly it's doing something right if you not only played through it multiple times but put 200 fucking hours into the game.

I knew someone would say this.

No.
You are not me.
You do not dictate what my feelings are.
I spend a lot of times on games because I am a completionist and I am thorough.

Also, I did not complete it multiple times. I beat it once and then looked for anything interesting I may have missed during the new game+. Spoilers, the only thing I missed was the worst bossfight in the whole game.

I'm pretty sure you mean the BEST bossfight in the whole game.

 

[Schmeiser]

Agreed a bit on the atmosphere, even though it's been said already but ye after anor londo ds1 did feel like a chore a bit but they rectified that with the best DLC EVER. The thing that really killed ds2 a bit for me were the bosses, none of them feel really memorable. Ye fume knight is fun, so is alonne but they just can't match the bosses ds1 had. Even the gaping dragon is more fun than most of ds2 bosses.

Though ds2 did some good stuff, armor and weapons are cooler in my opinion, well that's the only thing i can currently think of that ds2 did better. Oh right dual wielding is so much better in ds2.

One more thing i forgot, lifegems totally killed ds2 for me, it made fighting to the boss a lot easier compared to ds1 since you really didn't have to use estus until the boss. Whenever i ran out of lifegems, burn a bonfire ascetic, kill the old iron king voila infinite life gems.

P.S. why does the fume ultrasword require 30 dex

 

[VincentX3]

I played and beat Dark souls 3 times

- Solo
- Coop with a friend
- Coop with the same friend with the aggressive mobs mod

and currently beating Dark souls 2 again with all the DLC and a fresh character.

The only 2 things that kinda put me off during Dark souls 2 was

-Heide's Tower of Flame-

You enter the area, it seems grand and beautiful and are probably instantly reminded of Anor Londo.
Yet, once you beat the boss and cross the bridge to fight the reskined Ornstein I look back and think...
"That's It?"

The area really makes the illusion of seeming bigger than it really is, once you cross a few platforms and fight the boss that's all there is too it. So I kinda felt dissapointed it wasn't as grand as other area's (And of course it pale's to Anor Londo)


-The Elevator-

You know the one.
So you go through this poison area, with nothing but ruins, a windmill and clear sky above your head.
You ascend the Windmill, the tallest place in the area, fight the boss and spot an elevator.

I enter the elevator and say to myself
"Going Down"

And I start... ascending
In a windmill...
Through the sky?

Something that has no visible connection on the outside world, and suddenly I'm in a place covered in Iron and lava.
"Just... What? How?"

Seriously, how those 2 area's connect is beyond me even if this is a Soul's game. It really had me thinking for a good 10 minutes or so and how I got to where I was.

On the other hand, if It had just descended it would have made more sense both geographically and the fact you cant see it from outside.


Other than those 2 nitpicks, I had a blast in both games and really cant complain.

 

[joest01]

...

You actually inspired me to shell out for a PS3 and Demon's Souls and I had a blast. I'll never forget the first time I came across the Fool's Idol. That was a really great sequence. And the end of the Valley of Defilement? Brilliant. The attack animations were all way more stylish and fun to watch too. Granted it became a little bit of a disappointment near the end as I overlevelled with a sword and board character and killed every boss first time, but on my next run I'm going to go shieldless and cap myself at 30 or so. A Demon's 2 set in the same world would be very nice. I'm really excited for Bloodborne too. Here's hoping I win the lottery or something in the meantime so I can afford it.


...

My pvp gal is around that level so I've been there. I went plain +10 weapon. for armor, if you play male get Dorans armor as soon as possible. As a gal Selen Vinland's.

I'm not sure about Bloodborne yet.

p.s. for a completely different "souls" type atmosphere play through Tina Tinas DLC in Borderlands 2. Ideally on ultimate vault hunter mode. Solo There is a DS easter egg in there, but overall the whole DLC is a massive nod to DS.

 

[default]

-The Elevator-

You know the one.
So you go through this poison area, with nothing but ruins, a windmill and clear sky above your head.
You ascend the Windmill, the tallest place in the area, fight the boss and spot an elevator.

I enter the elevator and say to myself
"Going Down"

And I start... ascending
In a windmill...
Through the sky?

Something that has no visible connection on the outside world, and suddenly I'm in a place covered in Iron and lava.
"Just... What? How?"

Seriously, how those 2 area's connect is beyond me even if this is a Soul's game. It really had me thinking for a good 10 minutes or so and how I got to where I was.

On the other hand, if It had just descended it would have made more sense both geographically and the fact you cant see it from outside.

See, lots of people rail on DS2 for its nonsensical geometry but I didn't mind it so much. It was almost non-euclidian and surreal in a way, like your sanity was literally fading away as you wandered for months to these places and it only felt like minutes. Look out from the top of Earthen Peak. No landmarks to be seen for miles. Look from anywhere in Dragon's Shrine, there is nothing familiar on the horizon at all and it's only down the bloody road from Majula in gamespace. Granted, if this was what the developers were in fact going for (and I feel like I'm giving them a bit too much credit here) they didn't bring it across very well...


I'm just going to go on another short silly rant here over something that I really noticed while playing the game this evening: the people that wrote the text in the game have absolutely zero sense of self-awareness and subtlety.

This is the item description for the Ring of the Dead:

"The wearer of this ring appears human even when Hollow.
They say that in the Undead Crypt, we can reacquaint ourselves with the dead. We all suffer loss. And none of us can escape death. Then, what is the fascination with reclaiming that which has already passed into that beyond?"


It reads like a 15 year old's personal philosophy journal, and nearly every single item has some silly little thing they add on that does nothing except sound pretentious. Dark and Demon's Souls didn't have that shit. They just told you what the item did. The games were subtle and well-presented enough in their own quiet way that they didn't need to add that crap in. I'm sure there were problems during localisation. The Japanese sense of language never really translates very well, but still...

Okay, I'm done.

...

You actually inspired me to shell out for a PS3 and Demon's Souls and I had a blast. I'll never forget the first time I came across the Fool's Idol. That was a really great sequence. And the end of the Valley of Defilement? Brilliant. The attack animations were all way more stylish and fun to watch too. Granted it became a little bit of a disappointment near the end as I overlevelled with a sword and board character and killed every boss first time, but on my next run I'm going to go shieldless and cap myself at 30 or so. A Demon's 2 set in the same world would be very nice. I'm really excited for Bloodborne too. Here's hoping I win the lottery or something in the meantime so I can afford it.


...

My pvp gal is around that level so I've been there. I went plain +10 weapon. for armor, if you play male get Dorans armor as soon as possible. As a gal Selen Vinland's.

I'm not sure about Bloodborne yet.

p.s. for a completely different "souls" type atmosphere play through Tina Tinas DLC in Borderlands 2. Ideally on ultimate vault hunter mode. Solo There is a DS easter egg in there, but overall the whole DLC is a massive nod to DS.

Huh, interesting about the Borderlands thing. I'll have to check it out.

But yeah, I'm hopeful for Bloodborne. It's looking pretty strong from what we've seen so far. Excellent sense of aesthetics, really violent and festering and dripping. The combat looks like very good fun too. The removal of shields and a focus on dodging, fast, aggressive behaviour and reading enemies really appeals to me.

 

[VincentX3]

-The Elevator-

You know the one.
So you go through this poison area, with nothing but ruins, a windmill and clear sky above your head.
You ascend the Windmill, the tallest place in the area, fight the boss and spot an elevator.

I enter the elevator and say to myself
"Going Down"

And I start... ascending
In a windmill...
Through the sky?

Something that has no visible connection on the outside world, and suddenly I'm in a place covered in Iron and lava.
"Just... What? How?"

Seriously, how those 2 area's connect is beyond me even if this is a Soul's game. It really had me thinking for a good 10 minutes or so and how I got to where I was.

On the other hand, if It had just descended it would have made more sense both geographically and the fact you cant see it from outside.

See, lots of people rail on DS2 for its nonsensical geometry but I didn't mind it so much. It was almost non-euclidian and surreal in a way, like your sanity was literally fading away as you wandered for months to these places and it only felt like minutes. Look out from the top of Earthen Peak. No landmarks to be seen for miles. Look from anywhere in Dragon's Shrine, there is nothing familiar on the horizon at all and it's only down the bloody road from Majula in gamespace. Granted, if this was what the developers were in fact going for (and I feel like I'm giving them a bit too much credit here) they didn't bring it across very well...

Well, I actually do think your giving the developers to much credit.
In that area for example, I never felt the "losing of sanity" or anything of the sort.

It just felt like another elevator ride which just felt off geographically.
It doesn't really bother me anymore, but in that moment I couldn't help but wonder why they made it go up instead of down.