I beat Dark Souls 2 and I’m so happy I don’t ever have to play it again
Discussion
God, it had some issues. The hit boxes were wildly innacurate and full movement range dropped to 8 directions!
I intend on exposing more people.
Honestly, if not for the lore & art/env direction it would be pure dogshit. The combat system is cooked, fuck whoever came up with “adaptability” as a stat to increase your dodge i-frames and do almost nothing else, and fuck the glitchiness of the game too. Outside of those issues it’s aight. But I’m genuinely never touching it again. DS1 was way better, and DS3 seems sick so far.
Adaptability is literally the only state you need. That's not a joke. The most optimal stat to always build is adaptability, always. It's awful.
And the i-frames were fine but the hit boxes were fucked. I've seen an analysis that broke it down per frame to show hit boxes were artificially large and didn't align with the visuals players would see, unlike 1 and 3. They will slide behind enemies to hit players that were literally behind the enemies.
My issue with 3 is the studio (same as 1) were too concious of the internet and cheating. They didn't bother to make a intricate level like the first game because they knew some players would cheat with wikis. That's one reason Bloodborne and Dark Souls 3 feel so good mechanically and are so well balanced, that became the primary focus. My gripe is that all of Dark Souls 3 is that it is literally a single path with 2 mandatory side deviations. It lost its labyrinthine metroidvania level design 😩
Honestly though, it's so fun to go through all three of them with friends and partners that I don't even mind the mechanical issues of Dark Souls 2. I guess I got so used to it my frustrations come from everyone else quitting 🤣 (Sin of the First Scholar fixed a couple things, I think, but not enough)
Yeah I pushed it up to get 12 I frames but then stopped, once you get there it plays pretty close to other titles. What I meant about the I-frame thing is the system is stupid. The frames feel fine and function appropriately once you’re at 12 minimum, but the method of getting there through adaptability is dumb. I agree on the hit boxes they’re absolutely shit, a great example is Fume Knight, his sword would hit you if you were behind him.
So far I’m liking 3 but I’ll post my thoughts on it once I’ve played more, I just beat Vordt last night.