To call Dark Souls II controversial would be an understatement. Upon its release, discourse about the game was overwhelmed with criticism. Some technical in nature—citing visual downgrades and bugs—others entirely subjective. Many felt that it paled in comparison to its predecessor. Personally... I love this game. It's unrefined for sure, but underneath the rough exterior lies a satisfying RPG experience.
As in the first game, players take control of a customizable adventurer. An opening narration introduces us to the plight of the undead. A curse that gradually drives its victims mad as your memories and identity slowly fade away. Your hopeless search for a cure eventually leads you to the cursed land of Drangleic. A fallen kingdom rich in souls, which eagerly awaits someone worthy of inheriting its throne.
90% of the game still revolves around exploring through areas on your way to boss fights. You deal with traps and enemies, look out for secrets, and gradually accrue souls with which you can purchase goods or upgrade your character. This core has remained largely unchanged, though I'd say that Dark Souls II is a lot tougher in every regard. Areas are often complex, with paths both obvious and hidden splitting off and coalescing everywhere. I know Dark Souls like the back of my hand, but still regularly get lost in Dark Souls II.
Traps and ambushes are a lot more common, and individual enemies are a lot tougher than they were in the previous game. There I praised how the clever placement of enemies makes even the weakest hollows an interesting challenge to overcome. Now you still get that same challenge, except with stronger enemies adding even more punch to it. There are some incredibly devious portions sprinkled throughout the game that remain tough no matter how often I play through them.
Fortunately, your assortment of weapons, magic, and miracles has expanded as well. There is a lot of cool gear to find and interesting playstyles to experiment with. Dark Souls II also has way more equipment with interesting magical effects to it, which feel like great rewards for exploring. It's a lot more thrilling than finding generic swords and armors everywhere that offer only mild, statistical differences. At the same time, this equipment tends to look a whole lot cooler. Fashion Souls is stronger here than it has ever been before.
Dark Souls II also has a lot of minor improvements over its predecessors. Too many to get into individually, so lets do a quick list of some notable ones.
- All-around tighter controls that allow for greater precision in movement and dodging.
- Consumable items are a lot more common and diverse, encouraging players to actually use them instead of hoarding.
- Merchants will always travel to the hub area or can be conveniently accessed from a warpable bonfire, so you can actually reliably use their services.
- Every bonfire is now warpable instead of only an arbitrary selection of them. Additionally, warping can now be done from the start, drastically cutting down on backtracking.
- PvP is more readily accessible.
- Parrying is more worthwhile and reliable.
- Jumping is mapped to a separate button from running.
- 4 ring slots give you much more build variety and, additionally, rings now have much more utility. You can also find upgraded version of some rings, making those effects worthwhile even in end-game.
- A rework of the stats make for far better balancing and more interesting decisions when leveling up.
- You get a lot more titanite and souls, which encourages you to upgrade equipment even if it's only temporary. Or even have multiple different end-game weapons or armor sets you can switch between without needing to grind.
- Souls vessels allow you to entirely reset your stats, of which you get several. Dark Souls didn't have any mechanism to allow you to reroll, effectively punishing players for trying to experiment.
I was planning to only name 5 or so improvements, but this list just kept on growing.
By far the biggest change to the core gameplay is the healing. Dark Souls was praised for its estus system, which gave players 5 potions to use that would be replenished if they rested at a bonfire. Dark Souls II upends this system in several ways. Firstly, you start the game with way fewer estus, giving you even less room for mistakes. You have to explore to find the incredibly rare Estus Shards, which can be traded for additional flasks. Drinking is also a lot slower, making it a big commitment to heal while combat is still ongoing.
To supplement estus, you now have lifegems. These crystals are plentiful and can be crushed to give you a heal-over-time effect. You can even do this to mitigate the damage of poison. This turns healing even more into a decision moment. Do you get a lot of health out of an estus flask at the risk of being hit again or do you crush a lifegem for a quicker, less effective heal. It's an interesting trade-off that also eliminates the complete dependence on estus flasks. Before you were entirely helpless when you ran out of estus; forced to either play perfectly, backtrack to a bonfire, or inevitably die. Now you have multiple options to help you get from one bonfire to the next.
It's not all sunshine and rainbows, of course. Dark Souls II does have some shortcomings that were either preserved from the last game or newly introduced. Backstabs, for example, still regularly fail to trigger. I lost count of how many times I'd see my character perform the animation for a backstab, only to just stop without the enemy taking damage. Hit detection as a whole is dodgy at times, especially for attacks that grab you. Once an enemy even managed to grab me despite me being behind them.
I also have mixed feelings about the game's tendency to despawn enemies once you have killed them a few times. It makes zones easier if you have been struggling with them for a while, which is nice on the surface. Except it feels awful. You're already annoyed at having to retrace the same path dozens of times and now the enemies don't even care to show up anymore? The disrespect!
Boss fights remain the highlight of the game and here too Dark Souls II scores points. There are bosses mandatory and optional everywhere, many of which have tricks up their sleeves to make their fights memorable. Hulking monsters, corrupted knights, eldritch abominations, awe-inducing dragons, you name it. One of my personal favorites is the Flexile Sentry. A conjoined creature that wields different weapons on either side of its body. It defies the usual logic of getting behind the boss and hitting it until they die. On top of that, their arena slowly floods as the fight drags on. Gradually slowing you down without affecting the boss itself.
Some have argued that the fights are too generic. The "dudes in armor" argument. I disagree with that notion. Both because there are plenty of bosses that deviate from that description and because the dudes in armor are, with few exceptions, diverse enough to be individually interesting. Some like the Dragon Riders aren't exactly spectacular, but they eventually become regular enemies so it's not a big deal. The same thing happened to the Taurus and Capra demons in the first game after all.
My problem is instead that a lot of bosses still take too long to get back to. Forcing you to track through entire zones or deal with hordes of enemies every time you want to have another go at them. Take the Lost Sinner for example. You have to get through some knights, take a slow elevator down, fight a mini-boss, then drag yourself through a sewer filled with ambushes, and then still run quite a ways to get to the actual arena. You do that for every single attempt at beating this boss.
I lost interest in the DLC this time around while trying to battle Sir Alonne. Every time you die you get booted out to a different zone, so it's a loading screen to respawn, then a loading screen back to Alonne's area, and then you still need to get through several rooms filled with powerful enemies before you can retry the fight.
It is such a waste of time. Bonfire placement has gotten more convenient for a lot of cases, but there is still a lot of room for improvement here.
Getting back to the story for a moment, I enjoyed it a lot. Dark Souls always had an interesting setting and lore, which it liked to deliver subtly. You could engage with the game as just a hack & slash adventure, taking everything you're told and experience at face value. You're just a dude killin' monsters and saving the world. Then you'd have item descriptions and conversations that revealed the nuances of the conflict you're involved in. It was good stuff.
What changed is that the game doubled down on the approach itself. You have to pay even more attention to figure out what is really going on in Drangleic. You have to decipher metaphors and pay attention not just to what characters say, but also how they say it. Ask yourself, for example, what Drangleic even is. You arrive there by way of some magical gateway, but no exit seems to exist anywhere. Everyone you meet is undead and, as a result, gradually losing their memories. Many have already forgotten why they even came to Drangleic or by what means. And lacking that sense of purpose, they are doomed to slowly go hollow.
Is Drangleic a prison? A place where you enter on some grand quest that you are doomed to slowly forget about. Forced to wander around as your mind rots away, casting you deeper and deeper into despair. If so, then how true are the promises of a cure. Will becoming the next monarch even mean anything in the end? Or is it just another loose thread to grasp unto as the curse festers within you?
If you like crafting theories, then Dark Souls II has a lot to offer. Especially if you have also played the first game.
Sadly, the game's excellent story is not matched by its cast of characters. There are some endearing figures like Lucatiel, Vengarl, and Bernhart that have compelling tales to follow, but they are very much in the minority. Most characters are rather drab. They have about 10 lines of dialogue and then sit around for the rest of the game, doing nothing.
A good comparison would be Big Hat Logan versus the sorcery teachers in this game. Logan is a fascinating character with his own lore, his own quest, and fun dialogue. He's an adventurer like you and so your journeys overlap at times, giving you the option of helping him out. Even if you're not a magic user, you can have a great time with Logan and feel a connection with him. The magic teachers in Dark Souls II literally won't talk with you unless you're specced for magic. They have about 3 conversations they loop between when you talk with them and they never move from their spot once settled in Majula.
Characters like this feel more like a resource than a person. As such, your interest in them as the player is defined by the utility they offer. Or how sexy their clothing happens to be.
Dark Souls II is forever haunted by the specter of its predecessor. It's in the unenviable position of having to compete with a game that was so groundbreaking that history tends to ignore its shortcomings. As such, Dark Souls II gains no credits for the many improvements it brought to the table, yet is criticized for not being as innovative. That's rough.
In recent years I have seen people come around to Dark Souls II and for good reason. Its a fantastic hack & slash RPG with a steep challenge, complex levels, cool equipment to find, and fantastic boss battles. It's my favorite Dark Souls game to replay for a good reason. Whether you're new to the series or a fan of the other games, I urge you to give it a chance. This game deserves a better reputation.
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