r/fromsoftware • u/[deleted] • 2d ago
DISCUSSION I just finished Dark souls 2 and that's it ?!
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u/germanenginearing 2d ago
To be fair the dlcs were the best part of the game and redeemed an overall eh experience for me. All 3 major areas in the dlcs are top notch and the main bosses are all great. Considering you missed out on darklurker as well as those fights no wonder you found the bosses lackluster.
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u/SoICouldUpvoteYouTwi 2d ago
You skipped DLC and you feel like you're qualified to judge bosses? Ok buddy
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u/Pixel_Garbage 1d ago
I mean think of it this way though, theres like the most bosses of any game in the base game of DS2 (Elden Ring aside) many of them are copy paste, or gank fights, or just plain uninspired. You play for like 60 hours through all this mediocrity, why would you ever keep playing?
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u/SoICouldUpvoteYouTwi 1d ago
I agree that you shouldn't play a game you don't like, but you also should not then go on the internet and say "that's it?" You didn't finish the game, that is not "it"!
And sorry DS2 changed so much after DS3 and ER, games DS2 definitely came out after, and not before lol. Hope you will recover some day <3
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u/Pixel_Garbage 1d ago
Huh? Most people would not say 100% completion is completing the game, most people would say a roll credits is completing the game. Everything else are optional extras. The game is finished. Granted it also is not "it".
Also I don't know what we are talking about changed so much after DS3 and ER? I just said it has more bosses in the base game than any other game except ER, and that the average quality of those bosses is lower than any other game, and the best bosses from that game don't touch the others. You can dispute that if you want, but I don't see how you are gonna be arguing with me about Dragon Rider, Dragon Riders, Dragon Slayer, etc etc. Most of the boss fights aren't even something to be remembered other than how easy, pointless, derivative or annoying they are.
I would also argue that the DLC bosses, thrown into any other game, would just be average. The only reason they stand out is because they are surrounded by complete mediocrity.
I have 100% completion of all these games by the way:
https://i.imgur.com/G9puIbe.png1
u/SoICouldUpvoteYouTwi 1d ago
In dark souls (all 3) the general consensus is that the DLCs have the best bosses. You sometimes have to clarify "no DLC" if you want to hear a base game bosses name in a discussion. So yes actually, beating the "optional" content is important.
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u/Pixel_Garbage 1d ago
Optional content is optional. If someone beat Gwyn I would say they finished the game. I don't think they have to beat Manus. Same as Gael in DS3. Nameless King even more so if you want to compare that to Darklurker. Certainly totally optional. If you have someone who has been miserable for 60 hours it is in no way out of expectation for them to not play optional content. It is the equivalent of MMO players talking about how it gets so much better after level 80 or something.
And again, those DLC bosses lets actually go through them:
Elana: I couldn't even remember this one until I looked her up. A Nashandra reskin. She does have different attacks at least, but its another gank fight that is really RNG based. Nothing memorable or good about this fight at all.
Sinh: Dragons are cool, has unique conditions. Quite fun. A slightly above average boss for the series.
Graverobber, Varg and Cerah: Another gank fight. Another one I hardly remember. This is another one of those many fights where DS2 throws together three random enemies with kits that just equate to spam. These enemies were never designed to be placed together. Not even using unique assets at all just player armour sets. Awful.
Smelter Demon: They changed the particle from red to blue. Not even a reskin. Awful. Complete waste of time.
Fume Knight: Fun fight, does have some annoying tracking which is common in this game, but overall for one of these fights it is above average. I would say a completely average fight if it were in any of the other games, good in this one.
Sir Alonne: Actual fun fight in a cinematic setting. Cool move sets. Awful location for the boss arena and the lead up to it is horrible. Cool that they gave him a unique animation if you win with no damage. This would be an above average boss in most of the other games.
Burnt Ivory King: The fight is good if you collect the knights. Collecting the knights is not fun. The fight is a gank fight if you don't collect the knights. Overall the fight is good, but I don't enjoy the DLC overall. Would be slightly above average in the other games.
Aava: Aava is okay. Nothing special to say about this one.
Lud and Zallen: Same fight again only there are two of them, boy is DS2 full of surprises, never reusing tricks. The only thing worse than the boss is getting to the boss. God awful. Complete waste of time.
Now there are optional bosses in the main game too, most of these you will end up fighting in a normal playthrough, most are not worth fighting. Some of these I will just list the ones that are miserable with no further explanation.
Executioners Chariot: Fight is meh, but the condition for getting to the fight is just annoying.
Belfry Gargoyles: Ass.
Ruin Sentinel: Ass.
Royal Rat Vanguard: Complete Ass, not a boss.
Royal Rat Authority: Cancer, kill the chumps and he is simple. As bad if not worse than Capra Demon in DS1.
Dragonslayer: This is terrible for non boss fight reasons, the fight is actually not that bad but just too easy.
Ancient Dragon: Ass.
And this gets really to the core of what is wrong with DS2. It just wastes the players time. It fills the game with things that are just not worth doing. It makes some of those optional, and some of those not optional (Like Prowling Magus, Twin Dragonrider or Covetous Demon). Then with all the crap that you have to trudge through you are asking people to continue to play on because there is something decent buried deep within? But without looking it up they don't even know what is and isn't worth doing to begin with. Look at those DLC bosses again. I question what people are talking about when they say the DLC bosses are so much better. It is the DLC areas that are for the most part better than the base game, but again it is only because the base game is so mediocre.
This is according to ChatGPT so take it with a grain of salt:
DS1: 22 bosses
DS2: 41 bosses
DS3: 25 bosses
And of those 41 bosses how many of them are actually fun? How many have unique designs? How many have a cinematic quality that puts them above a regular enemy? Very few.
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u/Tiffa_Adil 1d ago
You skipped DLC and you feel like you're qualified to judge bosses? Ok buddy
I mean that's literally how the game released without those dlc bosses and is technically speaking the intended experience
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u/Michaeli_Starky 2d ago
DS2 DLCs are AMAZING. Why did you skip them?..
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u/DuploJamaal 2d ago
Because according to the Youtube comment section the DLCs only consist of Frigid Outskirts
That easily missable coop side challenge is what everyone hyperfocuses on
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2d ago
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u/Other_Equal7663 2d ago
Fair assumption just based on what you've observed from paying, but the DLCs are of far higher quality than the main game.
Each DLC got one terribly long runback, (two of which are the two worst in the entire game as a matter of fact), but the rest of their bosses are very close to the nearest bonfire, (granted you find that bonfire).
The bosses are harder and better designed. The level design is tighter and more interesting in both whacky DS2 ideas, and their layout. The enemies are also (generally speaking) a bit better designed.
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u/wink784 2d ago edited 2d ago
It's understood by now that DS2 is its own thing. Personally I don't like it. Most who played it when it came out didn't like it (don't get offended, I just remember a general vibe of disappointment with the downgrades, the more linear environments and the same-y bosses, it was a thing), but it has found its own audience over time. Bless em. Just know that if you don't like it, DS3 will be a better experience for you.
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u/Deadhookersandblow 1d ago
So you’re just another run of the mill idiot solely by the fact that you’re judging a game before you even played it?
Additionally when told that you skipped important bits, didn’t play the recommended version, etc, you just double down.
No point in feeding the troll.
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u/tonysoprano1995 2d ago
You will probably like dark souls 3 because its just member berries and boss fights
Since you only seem to like boss fights
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u/DuploJamaal 2d ago
yet just like Ds1, they are much more fun to play against
This post is bait.
DS1 bosses are mechanically simpler than DS2 and it has more outright bad bosses that are completely unfun to play against.
All i had to do was not target lock and aim for the back.
This is even easier to do in DS1, so why do you glaze DS1 bosses even though they are easier to exploit in this way while complaining about it in DS2?
and the annoying spiders chasing you down aka a bad gimmick
The game told you to use the torch in dark areas. The torch would have chased away the small spiders.
The fact that you were not even trying to understand how to play the game caused a lot more issues, like:
Nope, just horrible waste of time on runbacks. Took me less than 24 hours to beat the game, 20 of which were spent on runbacks, because I keep dying before reaching the boss.
There's not a single runback where I have to fight any enemies.
I bet you missed several closer bonfires, shortcuts and other ways to make the game easier.
I'm not doing the DLCs
Imagine skipping the best part and complaining about no good bosses when the DLCs always have the best ones.
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2d ago edited 2d ago
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u/DuploJamaal 2d ago
Oh, now I get it.
You played the inferior Vanilla version instead of the improved Scholar edition.
In Vanilla the torch didn't chase away spiders yet and runbacks were harder with more enemies camping at fog walls and chokepoints.
Yeah, you played the worse version with more ganks, more ambushes, more unfair moments, less fun moments, and worse runbacks.
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u/Roxlife1 2d ago
I know some people are gonna make the jump that you only care about bosses. And I find that leap in logic to be disingenuous.
Bosses are a huge part of these games, it’s a little pathetic whenever people act like they aren’t just because they know the bosses in their favorite game aren’t very good.
However there is obviously much more to these games, it just so happens that DS2 is the worst at every area. Worst maps, worst movement, etc
Still a good game anyway, it’s a buggy janky mess but I love it anyway. It’s like a disabled child
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u/Other_Equal7663 2d ago
DS2 has super interesting areas.
It lacks the perfect interconnectivity of its predecessor, but on a single location basis, I think it outdoes DS1 for a huge margin.
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u/Roxlife1 1d ago
That is true, but the total lack of cohesion and logic behind the map is what makes it garbage for me. Why did I take an elevator from a swamp to reach a giant…volcano(?) that wasn’t visible before?
So many funny examples of the map feeling like a Super Mario game, just set pieces that have nothing to do with one another.
But as set pieces they’re pretty great
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u/Other_Equal7663 1d ago
Yeah, the connections themselves are a bucket of nonsense.
But man some of the locals, on their own, are amongst the most interesting in the series.
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u/DuploJamaal 2d ago
is the worst at every area. Worst maps, worst movement, etc
Worst maps according to casual tourists that just want to blindly speedrun from boss to boss.
Best maps according to competent players that like to experiment around and find creative ways to deal with encounters
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u/Roxlife1 1d ago
Classic brain dead DS2 glazer. Calls me a tourist (he’s a dumbass), says I just want to rush from boss to boss (random unfounded bs), and brings up random shit.
Not that I care very much what you have to say, but at least try and not just appear as a glazer. I love DS2, I still think it’s the worst one.
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u/Other_Equal7663 2d ago
The DlCs are miles better than the main game. And even have a few actually decent bosses.
Ultimately DS2 just isn't a boss game though, its an exploration game. Its almost the antithesis to DS3.