Is it worth playing for a fan?

I've played and enjoyed every other SoulsBourneKiroRing game to varying degrees, but never given 2 a real shot.
Curious to hear discussion on whether people think it's worthwhile, though I'm sure plenty of people on here are absolutely sick of the whole DS2 debate. I just never joined in or read those threads since I had no informed opinion.
On a related note, what do people think about whether the original or SotFS is the superior version of the game. ik a common complaint about DS2 is enemy spam and I've heard SotFS took that to the nth degree, but it's also a significant upgrade in frame rate.

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Skip it, literally the worst and the ugliest

I played it on release and really enjoyed the wacky shit that resulted from forced PvP and the community embracing PvP in general. Can't give you an unbiased opinion without that element 8 years later.

If you're a fan then it's absolutely worth your time to experience it because at the end of the day it's still more Dark Souls. I think it's easily the worst game in the series and that SotFS is awful but the worst game is still pretty alright and it's not like SotFS is unplayable, they just railroad you a bit more and add some real fucking bullshit enemy placements.

I think you should play SotFS just because it's the experience most people that play the game have so you'll understand why the game is so polarizing and be able to be on the same page as everyone else when you discuss it.

I hate DS 2 but it's still worth it. If you understand that's it's a much slower experience that'll be uglier and feel jankier, you can still find enjoyment in it. Just be prepared to suffer, it's part of the appeal more than any other souls game

2 is outdated dog shit. Have fun when every enemy swings with homing attacks. If you’re used to dodging the attack and not the time it’s supposed to connect you’re going to be really fucking mad in that game.

It's a 7/10 game filled in a series full of 9/10s and 10/10s. Nowhere close to the others, but still pretty good and worth playing for completeness' sake

Definitely worth it as a fan. DaS2 had a lot of cool ideas and mechanics that were sadly left behind. Stamina is way more important, giving attacks more weight, poise is the best it's ever been, weapons have better baseline scaling and identity, instead of just being able to put heavy/keen gems on everything making every weapon/build feel same.

It's my favorite of the series.
Scholar of the first sin is definitely the version to play.
If you've played 3 and ER the enemy spam/gank/ambush complaints are especially irrelevant, you shouldn't find anything remotely surprising about 2's design.
It plays very differently from the roll spam of 3 and ER, right off the bat it teaches you that rolls are expensive and to be used sparingly. If you appreciate that you'll get the hang of combat pretty quickly.

2's my favorite, personally.
>what do people think about whether the original or SotFS is the superior version of the game
I think it's the base version. SotFS has changes that are just confusing, like how the creatures on the upper ridge in no man's wharf that live in the caves in darkness were completely deleted, or outright bad, like the fact that there are now a million petrified undead blocking off specific paths and areas that all require fragrant branches of yore to unlock.

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I'm playing it for the first time now and have played DS1, 3, BB and Sekiro previously.
It is nowhere near as bad as the reputation it has would have you believe. It absolutely is a worthwhile game, it just unfortunately lacks the umph, polish and dramatic effect you typically expect from a FS game, but it's absolutely worth giving a chance if you're a fan of these games.

People hate on it because it’s cool to hate on it. It’s definitely the black sheep of the series, but it’s a fun game. The worst thing about it are the enemy ganks, there were certain bits I swear the only option is to run past everything.

How long ago did you last play scholar?
- the shadow creatures are still around in no man's, not sure what you mean
- I finished the game with excess fragrant branches, there's only a few petrified enemies in the whole game, and none of them block essential stuff. And like I said, I finished with 2 extra branches.

>they just railroad you a bit more
das2 is the most non-linear game in the series
im fucking convinced you people didnt even play the game

As a fan, I'd say yes. You will see glaring, skullfuckingly bad flaws, but there are glimmers of quality spotted throughout. Some great vistas, nice levels, a few cool bosses (mostly in the DLC), and even some mechanics you might wish made it into later From titles.

Just pump your first 30 levels into adp and figure out how to get the merchant that lets you buy infinite life gems and you'll enjoy the game well enough. It's not good, not even by action RPG standards, but if you like Soulsbornekiroring games enough to play literally all of them BUT this one then you'll like it fine.

I unironically enjoy it a lot more than DS3 and ER. Those games felt like twitch reflex tests where you basically spammed roll until you figure out the boss pattern. DS2 rolling uses most of your stamina, so everything feels more careful and methodical. It has some utter bullshit boss fights and terrible hitboxes, but I appreciate the pacing of combat a lot more, I really wish DS3 had improved upon it rather than just ripping off Bloodborne.

you bitchass nigga is a souls fan and never played dark souls 2? fuck outta here pussy ass bitch fuck urself with a plastic cock and dont play dark souls 2

It's the best and only Souls game I enjoyed throughout the entire length.

Not long.
Most of them are, I'm specifically talking about the ones that used to be on the upper ridge at the top of no man's wharf, way in the back, the furthest point from the bonfire. On the way to the lever that brings the ship in, iirc. The devs also deleted some that used to be in the houses.

For the petrified undead (not the lions, the undead, same models as the undead in things betwixt), that's just how it felt to me. Seemed to me like there was at least one in every major area.

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I'm talking in comparison to the base game, where certain areas like the Ruin Sentinels boss fight aren't blocked by a statue that needs a fragrant branch to access and Heide's Tower of Flame isn't randomly way more difficult which forces most new players into the forest instead. SotFS made so many stupid changes, Iron Keep in that version stands out as one of the worst areas in any From game, up there with prenerf Shrine of Amana for the base game.

It's better than das3 at least

>so everything feels more careful and methodical
You just described old FS vs nuFS perfectly.
Methodical combat vs reflex combat.

>Just pump your first 30 levels into adp and figure out how to get the merchant that lets you buy infinite life gems
>It's not good, not even by action RPG standards

cranky because you fucked your build beyond recognition aren't you

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It's impossible to fuck your build in this game, so no.

>common complaint about DS2 is enemy spam
If you can stomach DS3 and ER ganks, then DS2 is fine, too.
Most complaints about DS2 are overblown by Miyazaky fanatics. It's a good game.

>Is it worth playing for a fan
>I've played and enjoyed every other SoulsBourneKiroRing game
Nice bait faggot.

>common complaint about DS2 is enemy spam
Nothing in DS2 is as bad as Lost Izalith enemy spam

No definitely don't pump all your early levels into ADP, that's the opposite of what you should do. It's not until the DLC that you should actually need the fast rolls and higher iframes. For the early game and basically entire base game you should be completely fine with base (8) iframes, and you're much better off spending your levels getting your actual damage build up and running. Having high iframe rolls is a complete waste of levels against enemies that don't require rolling at all.

>SotFS made so many stupid changes, Iron Keep in that version stands out as one of the worst areas in any From game
What changes are you talking about relating to Iron Keep ? I thought they mostly fixed it in sotfs. Way less alonne knight gank squads for example.

there are infinitely worse ganks in DS3 than DS2.

All Scholar did was make the area not completely baby-mode trivial IF you decide to do Dragonrider before Dragonslayer. There is no way to argue that making choosing between the two bosses there a more meaningful decision is a bad thing.

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If someone asks me how to enjoy DS2, I will tell them to pump points into the stat that makes dodging feel the same as it does in other games. Simple as.

The start of the game is easy as shit anyway, only a full blown lobotomite would need to worry about actually putting points into damage-related stats in order to keep up with the tiny health bars, or vigor to tank the plinky damage.

Sometimes I wonder how god awful DS2 fans are at souls games when they go on and on about how pumping ADP at the start fucks your build or makes the game hard. Yes, doubling my iframes in lieu of 20 damage is going to make the game harder. Brilliant.

I honestly can't tell you what's changed about Iron Keep. It's the same to my memory. But it's similar with a lot of the complaints against Sotfs, there's maybe a handful of people on this board who even fucking know anymore. I've played the game 10+ times over the years, a mix of vanilla and sotfs, and I don't feel confident listing the differences between versions beyond a few obvious ones like the giant drake in heide.

The aggro radius there in SotFS is absolutely insane. You have to take it incredibly slow or the entire area pulls, I remember in the base game Smelter Demon was the filter in that area and I did a lot of coop there to help people but in SotFS the area itself filters people way more.

Being an alternative baby area like the forest was fine though and to be fair the giant ass dragon that they added before Dragonslayer acts as a good funnel to get people to do Dragonrider first instead.

If you play Scholar of the First Sin, yes. Don't listen to retards telling you it doesn't change anything or that you can skip it. It's the only mainline Souls game other than DeS that tried to come up with its own lore and world while still maintaining ties to DS1 without endless callbacks like in DS3. Aldia is probably the most compelling and interesting NPC in the franchise and his dialogue fleshes everything out even more. Gameplay is solid, especially with things like power stance and an improved parry/backstab system. The level design is top notch, probably the best in the franchise outside of Bloodborne and Stormveil in ER, and the three DLCs have some of the best content and bosses in the series.

Just skip it

>All Scholar did was make the area not completely baby-mode trivial
No, they made it a slog to go through by adding tons of heide knights that can spot you from miles away.

Does anybody have the gif of the pursuer flipping out before impaling the player? Need to show it to someone

595666883
"give me attention i want a shit flinging fight with someone"
nah

I'll just reiterate, don't waste your early levels on ADP on the advice of memelords. Spend it on your main stats, and level ADP if you find your rolls to be limiting you. I only started leveling ADP in the DLC when enemies start getting into DS3 levels of agility, and I needed to rely on rolling much more.
The game is also obviously more enjoyable when your stats are high enough to use the weapons and spells you want to use, rather than having 4 more iframes per roll but you're stuck using your starting longsword.

What's the optimal way to go through Scholar of the First Sin?
My path so far has been Entry > Majula >FotG > Heide-to-No man's Wharf (took me until way later to find the switch for the boat) > Shaded Ruins > Brightstone > Freya > Last Bastille > Last Sinner > Gutter > the Rotten > now at Huntsmans's Cove because I'm a retard and only found the new path now (after looking it up).

>"give me attention i want a shit flinging fight with someone"
Not replying to someone who's both unwilling to so much as reply to my post, let alone hold a conversation longer than 2 replies long without crumbling into a schizophrenic mess like you are now.

It's pretty shit. Maybe play it to get a greater appreciation for the other games.

the club and the rapier are 2 of the best weapons in the entire game, that's why people say do adp first because you can use those from near the start of the game without needing to put in any points. shove on the old leo ring and your rapier is now hitting for stupid amounts of damage if you counterattack.

Yea you skipped iron keep. My path is usually
Majula
Forest
Bastille (pre-Ruins)
Heide - Wharf - Bastille (Full) - Lost Sinner
Earthen Peak - Iron Keep - Iron King
Grave of Saints - Gutter - Gulch - Rotten
Shaded woods - Ruins - Doors - Tseldora - Freja
Then onwards to drangleic and the rest.

Why would you come on here and just spout blatant lies like that?

>A ton
You mean Six. Six that are spaced out enough that you never have to fight more than one at once.
And again, you don't even have to fight them at all if you just do Dragonslayer first

>zero arguments
Concession accepted *superior scholarly smirk*

I go for the flame longsword in the little tunnel. That thing carries you through a huge chunk of the game with poking.
Even then I wouldn't recommend ADP first. Level vigor, endurance, vitality if you want fashion souls. ADP is just not very useful until late game or DLC.

I find it funny that Freja is supposed to be beat last when I thought I was overlevelled beating her as my first Great Soul after Last Giant.

Unless you're desperate for more Souls when there are so many other games worth your time in the genre, skip it.
It's pretty bad, it was my first and I'm shocked that I stayed with the series after playing it.

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What's bad about it? Inform us.

Skip Bastille and Freja, do Iron Keep, Gutter, Sunken King, and Ivory King instead.

No
DS2 is bad and every game they've made other than it is good

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>You mean Six.
Six heide knights in an area this small is a lot, yes. They're strong mobs.
>And again, you don't even have to fight them at all if you just do Dragonslayer first
IIRC you have either the option to fight some of them one by one or risk aggroing the knights that are on your way to Ornstein while you're sprinting past them, which I don't see why anybody would want to do that unless they're speedrunning or they generally know exactly what they're doing since they will follow you to the end of the Earth, and very quickly at that. Either way, it's a slog and a worse area than the one in vanilla 2, in my opinion.

holy

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>ESL shitposters hate DS2
Another reason to like it

first half of ds1 > ds2 > second half of ds1 > ds3
objective powerranking

>Is it worth playing?
Yes; it's fun once you get over the initial shock of how clunky and unpolished it is.
>Vanilla or Scholar of the First Sin?
I prefer vanilla to SotFS; SotFS feels like a romhack of the original with some shaders injected here or there, a buttload of NPC invaders, and some cool new ideas. Vanilla and SotFS are both available on PC as separate products and both run at 60fps. Vanilla was relased for 7th gen consoles and SotFS for 8th gen consoles so SotFS is only a performance upgrade if you're on console (be aware that the "Scholar of the First Sin" released for PS360 is just a basegame+DLC bundle, and is not actually the SotFS version).

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It's part of the fun non-linearity of the game for me. Iron King is pretty much a pushover but Smelter Demon and even just the area around Smelter Demon filters the shit out of people. The Gutter and Black Gulch are almost entirely environmental hazards with weak enemies, and the Rotten is manageable at any level. Freja is probably easier than the scorpioness before the doors of pharos. And Ruins Sentinel can be entirely skipped to rush to Lost Sinner.

I never understood this meme. I enjoy the second half of DS1 more than the first half and always have. Duke Archives is pure kino, Izalith and TotG are the most creative areas in the game even if they have flaws, New Londo is okay but the fact you fight kings who were trapped into an Abyss is peak lore kino.

Demon Ruins and Izalith are objectively unfinished and genuinely pretty bad, carried strictly by lore. People just call the entire back half bad just because of these two areas (and Bed of Chaos).

>Demon Ruins and Izalith are objectively unfinished and genuinely pretty bad
The only part I found egregiously bad was the running through lava with kaizo dinos section which barely warrants any exploration so isn't that bad so long as you find the bonfire. Everything else is perfectly good/fine.

The Scorpioness became simple to me once I realized I could just roll backwards to dodge every one of her attacks.

it's worse than the other games in pretty much every way but I do like the basic gameplay, it's like DS1 but more balanced. DS3 and ER lean much more into the action elements, DS2 keeps a slower pace. I don't mind the increase in enemies but the aggro range is obnoxious, the enemies are fucking relentless and will chase you inside the boss arena after you kill the boss. they just never give up

It's worth playing so you can shit on it accurately, if you don't play you won't really know

The enemy placement just becomes very haphazard, and I'm not even of the opinion that reusing the Capra and Taurus demons is some cardinal sin or a sign of laziness. It's just how they're placed that strikes me as rushed. Izalith is cool and designed okay enough for what it is, but it's so ridiculously small that it still feels pretty unfinished. The bosses in this area are also pretty forgettable. When the Centipede Demon is the closest thing to an interesting encounter, you've got a rough lineup of bosses.

I think it's an overhated area too, but it's pretty bad. Regardless, TOTG, Duke's Archives, and New Londo are all incredible areas and the back half of the game is very unfairly judged too negatively. Fuck the Crystal Caves though.

I wonder how many people who criticize things like the aggro range stupidly went into the Covenant of the Fittest.

I'm playing the PS4 version and it's a solid "okay". No online so I don't give a fuck about soul memory, but the early game balance feels kind of fucked and the enemy placement seems harder than the original release from what I've compared online.
I like how you can spread out to different areas Megaman style, and using the actual "dark" as a gameplay concept is neat.

Still the best in the series.
>first replay without online
Feels fucking weird.

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I went into Way of Blue actually and yes, the aggro is ridiculous in DS2. Now I remember why I used a bow all the time on my last playthrough

Yes it's worth it. Even as someone who bitches a lot about the bullshit the game can throw at you, and the various design flaws, I'd still recommend it because beneath the jank is a fun experience. I played SoTFS, so no idea what the difference is between base.

company of champions?
yea i got my ass blasted on my first blind playthrough by joining that immediately.
I'm still convinced that a lot of the hate for the game comes from people having an experience like mine, because I joined company of champions, didn't know about lifegems, and didn't find the extra estus shard early on, and I was getting absolutely assblasted in the Forest with my one pathetic estus flask for healing.

Personally I found TOTG to be the worst area by far due to obnoxious enemies behind every corner design and the distance from the previous catacomb bonfire but can still see why people would like it.
New Londo was just very disappointing to me other than the kino of the bosses, it felt half-baked like the developers had ideas for it that never went anywhere.
I honestly felt like Demon Ruins/Izalith were second best behind the Duke's Archives because they at least has creativity behind them. What other area can you honestly say is similar in tone to Demon Ruins/Izalith in any of the other games?

Funny because I'm playing through it now and the aggro ranges have been pretty normal to me.

>Covenant of the Fittest.
I didn't realize this increased difficulty and I'm halfway through the game

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These are the types of people who play these games as a speedrun boss gauntlet when they're designed for the exact oppsoite approach: careful methodology.
Oh well Elden Ring has catered to them now so they cannot complain.

The aggro ranges is a really odd complaint for me. Like "I want the enemies to forget about me if I run 10 feet past them". No? They'll chase you down and kill you after you aggro everything in the level...so, don't do that? Even so you can obviously run past everything, it just requires slightly more planning than DS1 did.

Name a better game that released in 2014