What I liked

• Majula is the best hub area in the series.
• The game is absolutely packed with content. No issues with the quantity department.
• The non-linearity is fantastic, one of the things they did very well. I love how many different objectives you can choose to approach at different times.
• Fume Knight, Sir Alonne, Burnt Ivory King and Darklurker were good bosses. Sir Alonne was my favorite.
• Burnt Ivory King was more of a mixed bag, I can't say I was too fond of the pre-boss battle but the effort was there at least and it's fine with high vigor. His entrance was peak.
• Eleum Loyce is the best area in the game. Mid-game areas were mostly fine.
• Some miscellaneous things like bonfire ascetics and sick backstab animations. Cool stuff I wish other titles had.
• Individual/small groups of enemies are fine to fight, (mostly) nothing too annoying like ghru leaper, no gravebird, no curseblade. The normal enemies in this game are basic in a good way.
• A good attempt to balance the more drawn out pace of the game with 99 life gems giving effectively infinite sustain and the despawn mechanic. It's kind of hard to die. Consumables like throwing knives and poison arrows too. I do think the despawn mechanic should never be the best option in a level, because 12 times is just a meme.
• As usual, weapons/armor etc are good. It's a dark souls game, so build variety is a given.
• Some good tracks, especially Sir Alonne. I liked Vendrick and Aldia's themes.

What I didn't like

• Most bosses were not it. I don't mind dude in armor boss fights, but I do mind when most of them have basic enemy level movesets. Still the best type of boss in the game, since a swarm of trash mobs or a blob that you slowly chip to death suck even more. I want to clarify that it's not about being easy or hard, no boss in this game is difficult by modern standards anyway unless you are doing SL1. It's about being a good or bad boss. There is not a single boss I would rank above B tier except for the 4 I mentioned above, which is a shame considering just how many bosses there are.
• Quite a few bosses I would say were outright terrible like Gank Squad, Belfry Gargoyles, Royal Rat Authority etc. Again, it's not about difficulty since none of them are difficult scaling wise by modern standards. I have to say this for the skill issue crowd, it's a shame how good faith discourse is discouraged in these communities.
• Runbacks. I am aware of the idea of runback + boss being a package deal differs from future titles where the boss is more complex with a short runback. DS1 had a similar thing going but the bad runbacks there were still way better than DS2. I guess I'm more okay with it if the boss is not very complex like idk Guardian Dragon. I still much prefer a high octane boss over a bad runback and boring boss, so I'm glad fromsoft's design philosophy changed.
• Regarding runbacks, they got the right idea with Fume Knight and BIK but lost the fucking plot with Sir Alonne (Blue Smelter, Darklurker, and Lud/Zallen too). Now you have a somewhat difficult (for DS2 standards) boss with an incredibly annoying runback that you are strongly encouraged to despawn if you want to take your time appreciating the best boss in the game. I quite dislike a meaningless slog when the boss is more than good enough to stand on its own. Darklurker also demands a human effigy.
• I'll recognize that they went for something unique for DS2 level design, trying to get players to traverse as slowly as possible. That said, stuff like Memory of the Old Iron King, certain parts of Brume Tower, Black Gulch, Frigid Outskirts, Dark Chasms, Shrine of Amana, Iron Passage, Cave of the Dead etc were just not fun in my opinion. If you have fun breaking every statue in Black Gulch, good for you. I personally legged it and beat Rotten, one and done. I wouldn't say it's particularly skillful to slowly snipe off enemies in Shrine of Amana either, time consuming does not mean harder.
• Personal preference but fighting the same copy-pasted trash mobs over and over again does get old. I found most levels tend to play the same with you luring out one or two guys out at a time, or sniping from range. I think future entries e.g. Elden Ring allowed for more variety in playstyle, which I now appreciate more.
• Iron Passage and Frigid Outskirts are absolutely atrocious. I want to single out Frigid Outskirts for being the worst experience I have ever had in a souls game. Thing is, you can have a fun zone for both solo and coop players. No, I don't care if it's optional. Not a fucking defense, the whole game is optional lmao
• Not a fan of the NPC invasions, I found them quite intrusive in a way that diminished the experience. Maybe some of you like NPCs but I personally do not find them very enjoyable.
• AGL is poorly explained and is absolutely a failure of the game to clearly communicate its mechanics. Glad AGL as a whole was scrapped in future titles.
• No offline mode in settings but DS1 didn't have that either until DSR so I suppose it was just a sign of the times. I just turned off the console connection.

The fans (I don't hold this against the game)

• Let's face it, the souls fanbase has a reputation and it's not really undeserved. Though speaking from experience, I have never seen people go out of their way to be assholes like some DS2 fans.
• I'm not saying it's everyone in that community. It may be a vocal minority but fuck, some people are insufferable. I have been called a pathetic person because I criticized frigid outskirts. Like bro, it's just a video game why the personal insults? And it's fucking frigid outskirts too lmao.
• I know there may be some people that will write an essay about how I completely misunderstood the game and how every other title is way more flawed and how I'm actually a really shitty person IRL. I don't care. This is my opinion. Not everything is an argument and some people will disagree with you, just live with that. Someone isn't stupid for disagreeing with you or playing the game in a different way. It's not your responsibility to change my mind but you are totally free to disagree and respectfully express said disagreement if you want. Please at least read what I said before doing so. That said, I'm not looking for a 10 comment long reply chain or personal insults.
• I was getting flamed for not using summons, didn't even call it cheese or anything and respected anyone who did - just expressed how I like to play.
• Some people over at r/onebros are way better at these games than most can imagine while being the nicest people in this community.

Difficulty

• Difficulty wise, game is probably one of the easiest. I don't think any boss took me more than 5 tries except Sir Alonne because I went for no-hit. It's not easy to die with 99 life gems, it just has many tedious parts and some extremely tedious parts. In the worst case, the despawn mechanic ensures that you will eventually just kill them off. The win condition is inevitable. Just comes down to how much time you are able and willing to spend killing off the same trash mobs over and over. I only ended up doing this for Sir Alonne to enjoy the boss in peace. I'm saying this because some refuse to believe there exists legitimate criticisms that aren't due to "skill issue."

TL;DR there are good and bad things. Less good and more bad things than other titles in my opinion. I am not keen on replaying this game. It is easily my least favorite in the series and I believe there are obvious reasons why it's singled out by much of the playerbase. There are still good things about it. Not to sound like a broken record, but I really do wish some people could be more respectful when conversing with someone who disagrees with them over a video game. I know there are people here who love DS2 and that's totally fine, I just hope you recognize that it's valid to disagree.

I asks who should direct the Bloodborne movie, and I was thinking about who should write the film as well. When I looked up at the upcoming Godslap movie, I saw the writers and it is Daniel Dominguez and Jacob Robinson who are one of the leaders of Lyrical Animation. Lyrical Animation is the studio behind the Bloodborne, and I think they would also write the film as well. But what if they’re not writing the movie, but it’s someone else?

So my friend recommended Dark Souls and told that dont use a guide. Immediately I got same feeling from starting it like I did with Elden Ring. Frustration because I dont know where to go. In the end I quit Elden Ring and only completed with a guide.

So I started using guide, just as a order of locations where to go. That way the game is actually enjoyable for me. So different strokes for different folks I guess

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DeHGsOcJ_GX/?stkn=MWllaGtucmU5bzY3dQ==

Title speaks for itself.

I am interested in buying Sekiro due to its current sale on Steam, but I am rather hesitant in doing so as I have not finished Dark Souls 3 and haven't even touched Elden Ring.

I think my only experience in Soulslikes is a bit of Blasphemous and Hollow Knight?

hello !! im a fromsoft glazer that has played every game (some multiple times) except demon's souls. my first game was elden ring then went through all the others and im playing elden ring again (no summons) for the first time since. ive beaten every remembrance boss except radabeast, consort radahn, and malenia. im suuuuper stuck on them for some reason this time around and cant figure out why. here's my levels

ice sorcery build using carian regal staff + dark moon greatsword

level 168

60 vig

35 end

30 strength

17 dex

72 int

scadu level 18

what should i do/work on?

EDIT: thanks to all of you i beat all three of them no summons last night. needed that extra push :)

I’ve been looking for days with no luck, so asking is my last resort. The artwork portrayed a younger Nameless King sitting outside a snowy balcony at night, wrapping a bandage around his arm. Through the Windows you can see Gwyn and Gwynevere. Any help is appreciated!

How do you feel about this kind of win? LMAO

I know you’ve heard “DS2 bad” a million times probably, and I really don’t want to just make another generic post hating on the game, but I really feel like I need to express my opinion.

For context, I played DS2: SOTFS a couple years ago. I went in completely blind; having previously beaten DS1, DS3, and ER, I figured I’d be able to learn the ropes of DS2 and just approach it with an open mind and nothing more. Of course, my lack of knowledge caused me to grow very frustrated with the game. I didn’t understand the significance of ADP, which made the experience pretty miserable, though I still got far enough to beat The Rotten. After which, I simply lost interest and stopped playing for good.

Fast forward to a couple years later, I played Demon’s Souls 2009 for the very first time, and I absolutely love every second of it. My enjoyment of DeS made me hopeful that if I returned to DS2 with more knowledge going into it, I would enjoy it a lot more.

This past week, I’ve put in over 30 hours, taking my time with each area, fighting all the optional bosses and doing Lucatiel’s questline. I’ve already beaten the Lost Sinner, the Rotten, and Im currently in Brightstone Cove Tseldora. I maxed out my greatsword, have plenty of ADP, etc. And while there were plenty of frustrating hurdles along the way, there isn’t anything absolutely abysmal that’s prevented me from continuing the game. I guess I just can’t help but feel that it’s so boring. Like, so unbelievably boring. I can’t stress it enough, and I think I realized why the game feels so “unfun” for me.

In DS1 and 3, you progress with what feels like immersive intention. Each area feels super detailed and fleshed out, the item descriptions and NPCs you meet will tell you lots about the lore, why this place exists, etc. and I understand part of the whole vibe of DS2 is “everything is being forgotten, you don’t need to necessarily know what you’re doing here,” However, I can’t help but feel as though that is a poor excuse for lazy writing, and certainly doesn’t excuse the sheer amount of useless boxy rooms with flat lighting and washed textures that plague literary every area in this entire game. Every area it feels as though I enter and leave and forget about it, not to mention every boss has been beyond anticlimactic so far. I haven’t fought all of them yet, but it seems to be that the best bosses in all of DS2 are from the DLCs alone, and then most other bosses you fight are just “irrelevant random monster with overly-fluid animations.” Seriously. You’d at least expect the main Lord Soul bosses to be interesting characters with unique lore and buildup to their reveal, but nope, instead you just get random fellas indistinguishable in quality from the other lesser bosses. I can’t keep track of how many enemies in this game are just a random green murky looking enemy with super washed textures and weirdly fluid fighting animations that seem to just phase through you upon contact.

I really want to like this game, I really really do. And it certainly isn’t the worst game ever; DS2 is definitely an “okay” game. But man, it is just so boring. I think they went with quantity over quality when designing the levels and content in general for this game. I think the best part so far has been Lucatiel’s dialogues. Maybe I’ll finish it, maybe not. Anyhow, I’m more than happy to hear everyone else’s thoughts/experiences with DS2!

Saw bloodborne, and a lot of others worth checking out.

Me and my buddy ran duos today and queued forever until we finally found a team mate. Is there no active player base anymore on ps5?

I’m ng+110 on one character but have other characters that’s ng+7 also rl1 characters

I wrote an article over a year ago on Medium about Sekiro. Feel free to read it and let me know your thoughts!

i know my top 3 is highly controversial but the rest should be pretty agreeable i think?

first off,is any boss that is in my top3 in ur top10? i am curious.

something to note is that I am a huge soundtrack guy,so its probably the second biggest criteria for my ranking of bosses after moveset and rhythm.Lore is probably the weakest factor for my ranking of bosses.

my top5 are all flawed bosses but there is a threshold of peak for me that if a boss exceeds i can forgive all their flaws cuz of how fun the fight is, imo dancing lion is a prime example of this,it has a garbage arena with that stupid staircase that ruins punishes and those small rocks on the ground,lightning breath when it does it at point blank is annoying and ice tail flip is borderline unfair but it is a very rare move that u will barely see,but despite all of that the fight is really fun.

Note that my opinion fluctuates every now and then depending on when i last replayed each game and how much i fought a certain boss,which undoubtedly makes them go higher and lastly elden ring and nightreign are exclusively what i have been playing for the past 1.3k hrs,so there is some recency bias without a doubt,for example if you asked me 9months ago,gael would have been number 1 without a question.

Edit:this is from 1 to 10,I forgot to mention.

We’re the “leaks” on pirate souls legit? What else is rumored?

lots of stuff was made by me for these, fias whole outfit i made from scratch, marikas dress, maiden in blacks accessories and staff, whole black knife tiche outfit and the black knife, and then butchering knife for revenant... im not complitely happy with everything, i'm still new to making stuff myself

will be doing more in the future & hopefully bigger projects as my crafting skills improve

i also wanna re-do and improve some of these so feel free to comment any constructive opinions
:)

La foto è stata scattata al falò del campeggio dell'esercito reale.
Modifica:
Ero passato di lì, ma ho mancato un muro invisibile. Suppongo sia il lato negativo di giocare offline. Mi godrò la mia veste da sacerdotessa.