Here's a closer look at what I think makes Dark Souls a superior game to its sequel. I take a look at the overall design of the games and how the loss of Hidetaka Miyazaki as lead director of the series ended up hurting the overall aesthetic appeal of the second game.
"Dark Souls: Archthrones is like playing a brand new FromSoftware game, and that speaks volumes about just how much good modding can do," says Hanzala from eXputer.
Parrying has been creeping into more games, with almost every high-profile title of the last few years featuring it in some way. Why?
i understand the authors frustration i'm not the best at parrying in games. not that i can't complete a game that requires it but it is a definite harder thing for me than other kinds of techniques in games. which might be the main reason it's so heavily added in games nowadays. want to make your game challenging without having to do a lot of work? just add a parry boss. (what i mean by parry boss is a boss you have to beat by parrying such that their attacks will kill you otherwise)
I always think it's fine as long as such games also have the roll/dodge panic button. But I understand the will to parry, it seems so cinematic in a fight when you pull it off.
Dark Souls 2 remains a divisive entry in the landmark RPG franchise, but Hidetaka Miyazaki believes it led to the success of Elden Ring.
DS2 was fine. While there was a bit of recycling assets or ideas for bosses, it was a bigger more open Dark Souls. The Fume knight boss is one of the hardest bosses in the series until Sekiro and Elden Ring were released.
The problem with Dark Souls 2 was the same problem when a different director takes over for a sequel to an outstanding movie. It typically (there are exceptions) doesn’t have the feel and vision of the previous movie.
I wouldn’t say Dark Souls 2 is terrible. Had Dark Souls 1 never been a thing and we got this, I think it would have been praised more. The problem is it didn’t have the Miyazaki touch to it and felt pretty derivative. The soundtrack is a banger though.
And it will happen in the future when he doesn’t touch them as he is planning on.
I like DS 2, might even be my favorite of the 3. But it's a hard sell, there's so many obscure things you need to do to make it an enjoyable experience. So always find it hard to recommend, but it is worth the trouble.
I agree with every point you had. I don't consider DkS2 to be a bad game at all, but it feels unpolished and definitely inferior to the first game in every way.
I completely agree. I like Dark Souls 2 but the first thing I did notice was how the different lands weren't connected like in Dark Souls 1. To me that design was brilliant, when I saw the fast travel I did roll my eyes a little.
It's still a good game but Dark Souls 1 is far superior.
Because the main From team is busy with demon's souls 2 for PS4
I feel DS1 was graphically superior because it is much smoother than DS2 and has a better frame rate.
Glad to hear I'm not alone in all this. I was afraid a lot of people would be angry at my thoughts on Dark Souls 2. I absolutely love the first game and although, like a few of you said, the second game isn't a "bad game," it lacks the refinement of the first.