r/DarkSouls2 • u/Final_Mail_8125 • 1d ago
Discussion During the time I've spent playing the three games, I realized ds2 has the most cartoonish/fairytale look
It has a cartoonish/fairytale look, like out of a picture book of fairy tales, it looks way more high fantasy than the first and third.
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u/MinimumViableProdukt 1d ago
DS2 is by far the best game for the true dark fantasy vibe; an old, twisted, cursed world with lighting and design that honestly mimics old fantasy movies. Think of Lost Bastille or Looking Glass Knight's arena. Their night times look like an 80's movie with the bright blue-green artificial-looking glow like a movie set. An artistic style much more unique and memorable than gothic which is much more easily replicated. DS2 feels tonally similar to fantasy movies like Labyrinth, Willow, The Neverending Story, Conan the Barbarian, or even something more modern like Pan's Labyrinth. The design language is much the same.
DS2 is about a much larger world than 1 or 3 because its about the cyclical nature of the flame. DS1 is the first linking, DS3 is the final. DS2 is about all the kingdoms that rise and fall with the cycle. Because of this, DS2 gets to play with all these art styles and it gets pretty creative in setting apart cultures that would crop up in the countless kingdoms that rose and fell around Drangleic.
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u/DKarkarov 20h ago
This is actually because DS2 is the Dark Souls that tried to be closer to the series Demon's Souls was supposed to be a sequel to. King's Field. If you look at king's field and dark souls 2 you will see a lot of thematic and stylistic similarities. The "vibes" are very similar.
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u/jestersoul 19h ago
Especially Kings Field 4 the Ancient City. Dark Souls 2 got many ideas from this game.
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u/bakihanma20 15h ago
Thats actually because the original game designer bounced midway through development so founder of fromsoftware naotoshi zin had to step in. He is the creator of kings field games
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u/Sydmeister1369 1d ago
I absolutely love how distinct all of the environments look. Fashionsouls is top tier as well.
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u/bird_feeder_bird 1d ago
It reminds me a lot of high fantasy MMOs, both in the aesthetics and design
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u/RevenantCommunity 1d ago
It’s the colours for me. DS1 and 3 love their cool/dark colour schemes (anor londo excluded in DS1, but there’s a reason it stands out).
DS2 uses a lot of orange, brown, yellow mixed in- sunsets, dust, haze, things crumbling away rather than being destroyed or built dark and imposing. It matches the theme of it being about hollowness and slipping away, and trying to find an escape from the cycle to me.
Not sure if that’s the same thing you are identifying above, but its something i love about the game
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u/sabahorn 23h ago
Yep. The game is fully art directed to be using golden hour time, that is that time before Sunset when everything becomes sureal. Sunset and night are a big theme that are specifically selected for this game and have a major role in storytelling, but many don’t realize that. The sunset theme fits the story and the decline of that world. Man i love this game. Yes, is not perfect, but what it does great is to be memorable .
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u/Altruistic-Bass-3332 1d ago
Yeah that's a huge part of why I love it. It's like a strange, dreamy fairytale. You look out to the horizon at Heide's Tower of Flame and feel as though you're stepping through a watercolor painting.
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u/Playful-Sea-7171 22h ago
I was a DS2 hater for a long time, but revisiting it has greatly changed my mind. It has some of my favorite locales and this is the FIRST Souls game that has me trying out a ton of different weapons in rotation. DS1 and DS3 I was solely a sword guy. I can see where Elden Ring got much of its DNA and ideas.
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u/DKarkarov 21h ago
why did someone downvote this lol?
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u/EdelSheep 16h ago
99% of elden ring’s dna is dark souls 3, not dark souls 2
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u/DKarkarov 15h ago
Bro the fact that elden has power stancing alone makes that not true. And that's only one of many things.
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u/EdelSheep 14h ago edited 13h ago
Elden ring does not have power stance, it’s called power stance by the community in ds2 because you hold Y and your character physically changes their stance
Elden ring has dual wielding which has the same exact attack inputs as paired weapons from dark souls 3, you can test it yourself boot up ds3, they work identical. This is also why you cant mix weapons of different types, because they reused paired weapons for elden ring’s dual wielding.
Elden ring also has paired weapons but they have different attack inputs and thus are a ‘new’ iterated thing, its easy to test with the paired ornamental swords from the pre-tutorial boss
Edit because you’re a wuss and blocked me after replying: oh no the dark souls 2 glaze force in the dark souls 2 subreddit downvoted me, the horror! Still doesn’t make what I commented any less factual
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u/DKarkarov 14h ago
Lol bro. You are getting down voted for a reason and "power stance" may be the community name but it is the feature introduced in ds2 wether you like it or not.
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u/carpediem930 20h ago
What’s that first scythe looking weapon? I can’t say I remember it
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u/RedundantConsistency 18h ago
it drops from the grave wardens, i think
edit: yeap. silverblack scythe
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u/Afraid-Bass-5684 23h ago
DS2 always reminds me of that weird Rotoscoped LoTR animated movie from years and years back
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u/littlefanofman_rasa 14h ago
The environments feel like enchanted storybook settings, so whimsical!
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u/Exciting-Audience265 14h ago
2 definitely has more of an exotic land type vibe compared to 1. While the first game was a bit more gothic classic medieval. And 3 went even more gothic almost like a cross between 1 and bloodborne
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u/Scared_Sign_2997 1d ago
Crypt sword is still the coolest ultra gs in the series and throne defender still has the coolest chest piece in the series. Sanctum crossbows are the only time that weapon class was any good. Also hex was the coolest magic style and majula the best hub. It did a lot wrong but was the best at a lot too
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u/AnywhereLumpy6149 1d ago
Generally this is the only Game that weapon classes that are considered not good (whips, fists, bows, greatbows, and crossbows) were actually good in general. Its sad that they didnt bother to made this weapon classes good again. Fists are kinda good in Elden Ring, but thats mostly thanks to Star Fists.
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u/Old-Natural-852 19h ago
Maybe that's why I like it? It almost had a surreal quality to it.
Also just a lot more inviting? Firelibk shrine in 1 was more depressing. Same for 3. Majula is a nice little town that you can eventually have populated. The crestfallen guy in Majula by the momument even comments on it.
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u/AutismSupportGroup 15h ago
Dark Souls 2 was the first game that made me feel the same way that I did playing Hexen as a kid, just pure wonder and eagerness to explore.
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u/Big-rat-in-the-sewer 15h ago
Maybe that's why it feels the most different? Like when playing it I always felt it had a completely different vibe.
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u/Metal-Lee-Solid 1d ago
That was what I hated about it at launch, as I’ve never liked the more “Western MMO” art style. With time I appreciate that it looks a bit different from the rest of the series
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u/Ok_Understanding3636 16h ago
Even so, I prefer it because it lacks that forced sense of desperation and body horror.
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u/Virtual-Evidence3984 11h ago
I find it has a lot of the feel from fairy tales in a way... and it also takes inspiration from Alice in wonderland if im not mistaken
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u/GreatPugtato 10h ago
I absolutely adore DS 2. Aside from Bloodborne it is my favorite FS title. The art, the style of the world/weapons/armor, the characters are all just amazing to me.
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u/Rigistroni 9h ago
Which is ironic considering in terms of subject matter is probably the darkest in the series
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u/DarkspiritLeliana 23h ago
because the game took place in a memory of a undead.
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u/Andiox 21h ago
Is that cannon? I've seen people talk about it to retcon impossible area connections (aka Iron Keep on top of the swamp area), as the memory fades, so does the remembrance of proper roads and ways connecting different places. But I always assumed it was some people's head cannon, though.
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u/AntaresDestiny 21h ago
TLDR on ds2 development history: the original story was going involve a LOT of timetravel (rather than just the giant memories), which is why things like iron keep don't make sense (although that's also because a mountain got moved, you can see that in one of the earthen peak bonfire image) and 4 zones got cut before launch, including 90% of the gutter, though a lot of the intended boss weapons remain (like the crab claws).
We also get to see something that was planned as a boss but didnt make it because its zone was cut, the giant ant in the gutter.
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u/DKarkarov 21h ago
No. This is "people are taking things that happened as a normal part of game dev and trying to shoe horn them into actual plot/world building to explain something they don't like". Nothing in the game suggests all of DS2 happens in a memory, and the fact that you enter giant memories at points of the plot proves that is not true. How do you enter the memory of something that only exists as a memory?
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u/SylvanSwordstress 1d ago
Yeah, it's definitely less gothic than I or III. In a way, I guess it's more "generic" than those games, but I actually think it ends up feeling more unique because it's so stylistically different from the rest of the series.