Is 2 unironically anyone else's favorite souls game...

I just hate how you HAVE to wear the dusk crown because it's a fucking 30% boost and magic is useless otherwise. It's still viable just really annoying to make it work.
Meanwhile in 1 you could Sens skip to get Logan and soul spear at the start and in 2 you could rush Freyja and spam ascetics for css while just sitting back and letting Boyd fuck her up. Alternatively just keep dropping ascetics at the copse and stack normal soul spears.

post-anor londo is really fucking good too and the first half isn't THAT much better
fight me

1 is my favorite but 2 is the one I enjoy replaying the most for the reasons you listed.
I never cared about lore in those games; I went through three Dark Souls games and Bloodborne without knowing (or giving a shit) why I was killing all of those monsters and giant knights

I dunno if it's my favorite but there is a certain itch that only Dark Souls 2 can scratch. The build variety and pvp was the best in the series. It's just the boring level design, boring boss design, and soul memory that makes everyone hate it.

Das2 is by far my favorite gameplay and pvp wise. Everything feels great and balanced and the DLC is the best in the series as well, finding out that Four Kings have fallen to slivers of Manus in the form of his daughters is top-lore

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I unironically enjoy the lore

>tfw Aldia who discovered the one true way to be free from the cycle: become a First Flame
>spooky giants
>based Ivory King
>Vendrick getting fucked with a strapon by his waifu
>whatever the fuck the Rotten is

I like how a lot of armor has pretty unique secondary effects so it actually feels like there's a purpose to a lot of it, varying from plain old stat boosts to shit like backstab immunity. I love being a mage and having a choice of decent looking headwear too instead of the literally nothing but shitty headband in 3

It's fun if I don't think of it as a Souls game. Once you let go and accept it as the casual themepark sandbox that it is, the game becomes much more enjoyable.

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Unironically I just plain prefer it to 3. 3 for me is unimaginable frustration with the way the half-assed Bloodborne combat ported into DS settings work. Nothing feels natural.

2 on the other hand offers so many fun options it's a joy to experiment. The only problem I have with 2 is how long it is and how few areas are rather frustrating but the amount of options is what always make it right for me.

based

yes, I love the huge variety of levels in the game and I unironically enjoy quantity over quality with bosses here

3 genuinely wasn't even all that bad until they buffed hyper armor to fucking shit. Nowadays if you go up against a greatsword and you aren't using one yourself there's nothing you can do. They'll just trade for 10x the damage you give them because not only is greatsword HA fucking unbreakable, they also have a guaranteed 2 hit combo that you can't toggle out of. gg miyazaki
2 did pvp poise right. Low poise = 1 hit break, high poise = can take 2 hits before being broken but heavier weapons often break in 1 hit. The benefits of a heavy weapon are offset by your stamina regen being slow as shit if you try to wear heavy armor with it, so if you're too aggressive you get punished really hard for it. It just felt so much more balanced to me.

all i wanted for 3 was my no way gesture back
why the FUCK did they remove the best thing from that entire game

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Lol just use a lothric str8 sword m8 , 100x damage for 100x less stam

SOUL

I miss pic related more than anything desu. I always wore the forlorn set with it, just blended really nicely. Edgy deerboi

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>haha I rate parts of games instead of the full title
that's complete and utter bullshit, rate the full game proper or don't rate it at all.

Don't forget: the greatest animation in the series.

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emma unironically runs like that in her boss fight, it's less noticeable but it's just as janky

But the Ivory King fell due to completely unrelated reasons; in fact he managed to convince his Manus fragment to protect the world.

Dark Souls 2 has some Merits.
For example The Gutter might be the best exploration based area in the series.

>For example The Gutter might be the best exploration based area in the series.

The Gutter is like Blighttown... but in good and fun.

>MUH 2ND HALF
Cope.
BB=DaS1 > DeS >>> DaS3 >> DaS2

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Just started Scholar a couple of days ago. It's definitely a bad game in all aspects of design but it's an enjoyable challenge nonetheless.

The first time I tried lighting all the sconces I missed the one that was way out in the middle of fucking nowhere on like the side of a building you'd never even think to look at, near the aurous set I think.
Second time I spent 30 minutes running around like a fucking retard trying to find the one I missed until I realized I only lit 5 of the sconces in the star pattern instead of all 6. I don't have good memories of the gutter.

>exploration-based zone in which you navigate an expansive, highly vertical maze of scaffolding and light torches to help you see and mark where you've been
>primarily environmental hazards and slow enemies with low-HP that hit hard but can be entirely circumvented by clever navigation
>open-ended enough that you can cross as the crow flies with clever jumping, yet never requires platforming to advance
>multiple tangents and possible paths through as well as hidden secret areas
>secret reward for exploring the area completely and lightning every torch
Given it looks ugly as fuck because DaS2's development was a disaster, but the Gutter's level design and layout is fantastic.

I definitely loved the fuck outta the gutter, sounds like I need to go back and light the sconces.

>cope
based incelbro

Idk man, i've replayed Dark Souls twice on PC (originally played it on PS3 during launch) and both times i lost my will to play once i reached the 4 lord souls part. It's not even that bad but for some reason that's just always the point where i get bored.
On the first PC replay i just stopped playing entirely, and the second time i managed to push through but only because i was using the Prepare to die again mod that changes things up.
Going through Artorias of the Abyss again is similarly boring.

Playing Nioh for the first time. How would you all rank it compared to Soulsborne? I'm having quite a bit of fun with the stances, but the amount of loot is a little ridiculous for my taste

I'll agree with the build diversity and online components

almost my most played game for that reason alone, it's Arcade Souls to me

Since 2 it feels like From is overly paranoid to make anything viable except how they want you to play it. I had so many stupid fucking builds in 2 that were all pretty viable. It was a blast

>Game has some kind of development mishap, likely the scope is too large and development is directionless
>Game is scrapped and the scrap is salvaged
>Corridors, elevators and spit hold together whatever they could save or add last minute

A directionless development with a bloated scope is likely to leave a lot of traces of shit that is good but unfinished.
I still prefer DaS1 even if that got rushed towards the end to the point of being worse than most of 2 in parts (I even remember my first impression of 2 being that they spread out the bad all over the game so that it was merely mediocre). Meanwhile DaS3 has the same kind of unfinished feeling that 1 does but also the salvaged from scrap feeling that 2 does (since a lot of the areas have been puzzled together) but to a smaller extent with a dash of taking the path of least resistance to knock out a mediocre title.

Soulsfags can you guys help me out? I like Souls gameplay but I dislike the story and tone. Are there any Souls-like games with a brighter, more hopeful tone that I can play?

the build variety and online connectivity systems are the reason why I've put the most hours into 2, but I still prefer 1 purely for atmosphere and world design
if the devs had more time to nail that with 2 it would've been a masterpiece, the DLCs are proof of this

>most build variety in the series
no

>completely open level design, can grab endgame shit at the start if you're good enough
there's still a ton of shit locked behind the shrine of winter

>ascetics
yes

>spices
yes

>powerstance
good idea, terrible execution. takes so much stamina and damage increase is so small you're almost always better off two-handing your weapon

>buffing infused weapons
yes

>pvp that actually works most of the time + better arenas
soul memery, worst netcode in the series, no red eye orb

>incentive to go into ng+
yes

>huge dlcs
yes

>npc quests that aren't cancer
kill 3 bosses with me to get my clothes

>fashion
no

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The dark lord endings are hopeful. All you're doing is ending the tyranny of the gods/lords/whatever and establishing man as ruler. Dark doesn't necessarily = bad.

t. has never tried 99 str powerstanced iron king hammers

build variety and fashion are a definite yes though, you're just retarded

I'm a fucking casual so yeah, it's my fave in the series.

Exploration was great, atmosphere was great. Loved the feeling of being lost in a strange land.

>this image

Are we now pretending that DS1 doesn't have mmo tier bosses as well?

That image is basically implying that anything with 2 legs or is a fantasy creature (dragon, wolf, boar) is an mmo boss and "lazy"

Lets grab a few from DS1

>Taurus Demon
>Stray Demon
>Seath
>Sanctuary Guardian
>Moonlight B
>Manus
>Artorias
>Iron Golem
>Sif
>Capra
>Kalameet
>Gargoyles
>Asylum Demonn

God, you're a fucking idiot if you post that pic unironically

Dark Souls 2 is my favorite Souls game, I'd even say it and Demon Souls are the only ones i had any fun with. The only major criticism to have with it is the graphical bait and switch, everything else is zealotry overblown fanboy autism from people who now fuck all about video games.

>every design not ripped from berserk is mmo tier

Bloodborne > 3 = 2 > 1 > Demon's desu