In Defense of Dark Souls 2: Scholar of the First Sin
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- čas přidán 26. 06. 2024
- Hello there!
This is a video that is meant to show what I believe is the best defence you can muster for Dark Souls 2 and after that, I present the final arguments for the game being highly flawed in order to have the balance that is needed for a defence.
The video that is arguably being responded to in this video is called "In Defense of Dark Souls" from Hbomberguy - • In Defense of Dark Sou...
Article in relation to the B-Team - web.archive.org/web/201511032...
if you guys enjoyed my work, please consider supporting me on Patreon - www.patreon.com/user?u=4817956
0:00:00 - In Defence of Dark Souls II: Scholar of the First Sin
0:05:55 - Introduction
0:07:44 - Movement
0:07:47 - Snap-point turning
0:11:09 - Ladder blockage event
0:12:42 - Fall damage
0:13:52 - Adaptability
0:15:13 - Lack of clarity
0:16:48 - Detriment to RPG choice-making
0:19:00 - Hitboxes
0:20:50 - Player hitboxes
0:22:04 - Enemy hitboxes
0:24:00 - Explosive barrel example
0:24:31 - Sir Alonne's grab
0:25:34 - Hitbox examples
0:29:44 - DS1+3 examples
0:30:30 - A.I.
0:31:58 - Aggro Ranges/Obstruction
0:34:14 - Pathfinding
0:40:02 - A.I. suicide
0:42:31 - Assorted bugs
0:47:28 - Boss Healing
0:49:43 - Levelling
0:49:43 - Over-levelling
0:51:28 - Weapon levelling
0:54:22 - Human Effigies
0:56:23 - Repair system
0:57:52 - Focus System
0:58:28 - Target Prioritisation
1:01:42 - Weapon inconsistency
1:05:35 - Backstabs
1:05:56 - Backstab failures
1:08:34 - Backstab Inconsistencies
1:11:39 - Lack of Clarity
1:12:25 - Miscellaneous design failures
1:12:29 - Fragrant branches of Yore
1:13:25 - Headshot staggering
1:14:13 - Graphical criticsm/vagueness
1:15:08 - Model Animations
1:16:15 - Miscellaneous modelling
1:18:11 - Audio
1:18:55 - Item pick-up audio cuts
1:19:45 - Boss Music
1:20:37 - Audio inconsistencies
1:21:57 - Minor nitpicks
1:22:03 - Disconnection message
1:22:36 - Unskippable credits
1:23:32 - The "B-Team"
1:25:17 - Overview
1:26:12 - Combat
1:27:16 - Exploration
1:28:21 - Resource management
1:28:47 - RPG Elements
1:29:22 - System subversion/redundancy
1:31:03 - Aspects kept/dropped in DS3 from to DS1/2
1:33:10 - Conclusion
1:35:39 - Comment from Harris
1:36:43 - Video quality upkeep
1:37:47 - Closing
1:40:15 - Final thanks
1:42:12 - Extra clips - Hry
I love the irony of something called "The Pursuer" having an extremely short aggro distance before it gives up and leaves.
This comment is so underrated its depressing.
@@senpaikaroo Well maybe in the lore, his full title was lost to history The "Halfhearted" Pursuer perhaps.
I just experienced that for the first time today. I have never played through DS2 and I was shocked when I saw him spawn behind me. I ran to the opposite end and equiped my buckler and prepared to parry like a champ and then he just disappears through the ground.
@@anti-socialmass1708 Yeah, that sounds like Dark Souls 2. LMAO
He should've been named as "The Retreating Pursuer".
in defense of the lock-system it works flawlessly for enemies, they never miss.
I mean you’re not wrong.
i just started a new game in like 5 years and holy shit u r not kidding lmao they will 180 more than half the time its wild
lmao
lmao
@@mellomoose_ What do you mean its balanced, the npc will ABSOLUTELY not cancel their attack animation, have a 180 turn jumping attack. More health then bosses themselves and have poise for days.
In fairness to DS2 (not that this remotely helps it’s case as a whole), at 1:06:45 , the reason for a lack of backstabs is because Jester Thomas’ set prevents you from getting critical attacks from behind. Not that the average player would know, given the set is sold by Magerold in Iron Keep and most people hardly talk to the guy if ever, from what I’ve heard.
..That said, every other clip there was a hilarious showcase of this game’s horrifically inadequate backstab system.
Bonus: at 37:00, the hollows attacking the tree isn’t a bug or pathing issue, rather, that’s a tree that was formerly a giant, which those hollow soldiers fought. DS2’s best attempt at environmental storytelling I suppose. Though the prioritization of attacking the tree over the player is a.. different matter.
Other than these two minor oversights the video is an excellent critique, and puts into words many of my own scattered thoughts-and issues, regarding this game. I know I’m ages late to the party on this video, but I’m glad to have seen this series.
Also at 45:22, the zombie running ahead of the player is on purpose. The zombie was supposed to be a bait that you chase and it'll lead you to ambushes.
@@akmal94ibrahim On purpose, yes. But it still looks hilarious xd They just took a rando zombo and sped it up 5 times xddd Was there no other way?
@@jigsawharlequin862 If you have a good eye while playing this game, you can sometimes spot regular enemies speeding up in much of the same manner when you're sprinting. It's random and uncommon but it happens.
Claw hand on the controller can help you find it since it happens more often off camera.
@@charlie1234500 yeah a very noticeable example was one of the door ogres in aldia’s keep sprinting at me at mach speed. Then when i wanted him to come to me he walked at normal speed lol
Nerd
The enemy AI is broken because all enemies have special scripts made to ambush you. If you come at them in any other way other than what the developers intended they break. This becomes extremely obvious if you're farming Twinkling Titanite in Shrine of Amana starting from Rhoy's Resting Place. The Archdrake Mages will not notice you until you're right behind them, but if you're running from the other direction (as you would, in your first go through) they'll aggro at you from a kilometer away.
sme with the homing missle mages in amana just aggro from amile away and link everything around them
Never experienced this once ever, "they break" what do you even mean, they fight normally with their moveset as they always do.
Sounds like ur just pissed u got ambushed, which is fine, but don't make up crap about it.
@@AlexisTheDragon did you read the rest of the paragraph?
@@AlexisTheDragon no - he means that they don't aggro if you approach them from the opposite direction the developers intended. Yes, *when* they aggro they use their moveset. They're not that broken. The issue is -
They flatly ignore until almost within melee range when approaching them from one end and engage you at upwards of 100ft from the other end, because they are not coded properly. I love this game, and this is just a fact about it. They wanted the ranged enemies to engage you early. They forgot to consider you will eventually, maybe, approach them from the other end, and forgot to make them aggro at the same range.
You responded to this with "lol u mad at being bad" and I am having to explain it to you instead.
You learn to laugh at how ridiculously shoddy certain parts are because it's still a genuine piece of art. People do make up crap - this ain't it. I despise the fact that we have 8-point snap movement, yet Majula is a positive heaven of atmosphere. Properly loving this game means accepting where it is simply a bit shit. It's denial and insulting people with actual criticisms otherwise.
@@AdamOwenBrowningsneaking up on enemies from behind is an intended game mechanic, not the enemies being "broken" or "a bit shit" you already went through them from the front and beat a boss, why not be rewarded by being able to sneak up on them?
I am pretty sure there is a lore reason they attack the trees. No, seriously. The trees are Giant Trees, and the soldiers fought the Giants, so maybe the Hollowing has made them think the Trees are actual Giants.
Pretty sure this is the case too, though the game botches this in the most awkward way. If it was meant to be evocative that they were attacking the trees, they should have had the enemies spawn directly next to the trees and refuse to strike anything but them (a lone hollow does this in Dark Souls 3 by striking a wall and shaking his head)
bob bobert there are actually 2 hollow soldiers that spawn near that exact tree, and they attack it endlessly, until you aggro them, but I've never seen the hallway soldiers run all the over to it.
Maybe the tree soldiers didn't spawn for some reason, but the game had to have someone attack the tree, so they brought ovet the nearest possible candidate?
The running soldier is supposed to run to the tree to draw your attention to it, that way you would get a hint to where the tree is later in the game. he will always take that path.
Steven Reynolds I've played through this area multiple times, and I've never seen a soldier run all the way over to it. They're usually just there, and you're supposed to notice the tree by following the loud attacking sounds.
I to have played it Multiple times, and that one soldier always sprints to that tree, as for knowing about the tree by sound, the running soldier is a visual cue for the off chance you cant hear the sounds.
I'll never forget the first time I died in this game. The first ladder in Things Betwixt. I found out that pressing B dismounts ladders now, rather than sliding down them in DS1. Fell what looked like 10 feet. Died.
Yeah...almost like your character is made of glass
@@patrickn.4113 glass can handle a higher drop then the undead in this game
*than
Did you remember to level up your Calcium stats? That was new to this game. 😏
Geralt style.
C and the potassium stat too
I also hate how ds2 and even 1 sometimes used the "Y axis turned" enemies. So basically if you try to circle an enemy to find an opening, most of the time they'll have some sort of side/back attack to cover their flanks. That's perfectly fine. But in Dark Souls 2, there are many cases that the enemy just rotates in one place to face you constantly without any animations and hits you with its forward-facing attacks. The salamander pit section is a prime example of this. Instead of actually giving animations to the enemies to be able to hit you from the side, they just rotate along you to face you constantly. Feels extremely cheap.
they are old games cuh
@@arditazman6823 2014 is not that old lol
@@arditazman6823 Dark Souls 1 didn't have that problem.
@@arditazman6823stop defending shitty design
@@arditazman6823 It's not an issue of date, many old games are still animated beautifully. It's an issue of absolutely destroyed development. This game went through hell before it was released.
If this video has taught me anything, it is that Dark Souls 2 is an amazingly entertaining game when you make fun of all its problems.
It's like riffing on a shitty movie with a friend.
@@TheSlammurai just in this case, you have to explain the plot and why it make sense to move to the next scene. For some that could be really fun, for others it might become a chore
Kinda like Oblivion?
As one of those people that really does like dark souls 2, this is the best way i have seen it put. The game has it's issues, there is no denying that. Some of the claims in this video, slowly, but lately have been getting debunked (Look up Domo3000, he has great videos covering a lot of claims about it). But in general, yes, it has flaws. Every game has flaws, but in general, once you accept that and start to look at the good sides, it's very enjoyable to play and watch. The constant comedic energy of AI, the bizarre and sometimes downright comedic combat scenarios, the "Bosses' (Looking at you, Prowling magus), it all comes down to an expirence that, if you want to approach just like DS1, it is janky and annoying, but on it's own merits, it's so much fun.
Finished my latest playthrough today, and had a blast doing so, but i will not deny some problems i did encounter
But still less entertaining than Yiik.
dark souls 2s movement system is the dark souls of movement systems
Your comment about dark souls 2’s movement system being the dark souls of movement systems is the dark souls of comments
@@philharvey5519 the part that they’re referring too is at 12:00 minutes in , using your L analog you can only move in 8 directions , it’s hard to notice because just about everyone compensates with their R analog which moves the camera .
@@philharvey5519 I believe they mean it’s challenging. Either that or referring to the fact that every game that’s somewhat hard gets referred to as the Dark Souls of whatever genre it’s in.
@@philharvey5519 bad, considering how much compensation you had to use your R analog as apposed to other games , moving in a straight line in dark souls is only ever easy when facing your camera forward.
@@Sweetluckk so if it’s so easy to counteract then why is it such a big deal? I have a much bigger problem with the restricted rolling in 1, and combat near cliffs becomes a huge issue.
The hitbox designer was rubbing his palms together like an evil troll when he made them.
Oh I agree the hit box detection in this game can be borderline unfair at times
"Let's make the mimic's grab hitbox be their entire fucking body when they specifically attack in front of them. Genius.
@@megashark1013 There is a pathetic youtuber that goes by the name of Odysseus something that went on to defend that garbage mimic hitbox and that grab attacks grabbing you when you're behind them is totally how hitboxes should work. I still like the game a lot but it is genuinely funny how some DS2 fanboys really do go out of their way to defend some of the downright infuriating flaws of the game. I recommend checking some of his DS2 hitbox videos and their comment sections for a good laugh.
Am I the only person who noticed how he said it's bs you can't backstab enemies while he shows a clip of him not being able to backstab jester Thomas lmao
@@Mando23456. Yeah, the game makes it more difficult to circle a locked on enemy to backstab. This doesn't exist in DS1/3. The missed backstab animation seems too frequent in DS2.
Am I to believe you ONLY spent 3 months on this masterpiece of a series?
Incredible.
What's crazier is that he said he played Dark Souls 2 a whopping 14 times in preparation.
I could barely stomach the one I've been able to finish.
@@redgeoblaze3752Exactly. Shows dedication and perfection of the craft. I love DS but in comparison I am laughably bad. 14 runs (on top of those he has played previously!) for one video. He’s insane
@@Skwadley he clearly enjoy the game, like bethesda haters who spend 1000hours on fo4
@@ni9274 Makes no sense
@@Skwadley Yes it make absolutely no sense to do 14 runs of DS2 if you don’t like the game.
Regarding the failed backstab attempts against Jester Thomas, the bonus effect of the Jester's top is actually backstab nullification.
Domo3000 is showing how wrong is Mauler about DS2, and he is doing an amazing job. uwu
“Is that a cat?”
*Bird noises*
“Oh no, it’s a person”
@@jackwelchel3210 oh comment, where were you my entire life? xDDDDD
Impossible
Domo3000 is showing how wrong is Mauler about DS2, and he is doing an amazing job. uwu
I'm late as hell but in the backstab section 1:06:54 You can't backstab Jester Thomas because the Jester's Robe Top stops backstabs
Hey, i didn't knew that. Thanks for correction man, the more you know! :)
Dude, join the discord far far away, and PM Mauler. For what i've seen, he would actually like to know a random thing like this directly. And really nice thing to know... that is, if i would ever play that game...
There's also the fact that the hollow soldiers attack the giant trees for lore reasons (they as hollows aren't aware that the war is over and continue to smack away at the giants' corpses).
@@joshuakim5240 Yes. His argument is that the ai purposefully ignored him to attack, however, that's an easy mistake to make, so i see how you thought that.
The number of times he hit it. The armor should have broke. But since the game cant detect shit it makes that robe a little op.
I am so glad I watched this entire series, and that this did not disappear under the rug the way you thought it would. You make exceptional content and I look forward to watching the rest of your videos.
Domo3000 is showing how wrong is Mauler about DS2, and he is doing an amazing job. uwu
"The hitboxes not matching up with the character models is actually a genius decision by the developers - keeping the player constantly on their toes and wondering what will happen next! I like it a lot! I think more games should do it!" - HBomberGuy
The hitboxes arent shit, people should just learn to git gud,
You know you can just scroll up to the video and see Mauler providing dozens of examples of them not working correctly, right? I dunno why you ignored it to scroll down and reply to me. It's like turning up to a Hitler speech and getting into a fight with a random guy in the crowd for being a nazi@@uberbyte7467
@@frocto1 some are genuinely bad such as the mimic grab. However the ones he showed were mainly grabs that teleport you into the attack. Oftentimes what happens is people forget that you have less i-frames in a roll than the other games so they don't realize they can still be hit mid roll and claim that the attack that actually clipped their foot shouldnt have hit them.
the grabs still look janky as hell but what he neglected to mention was that it happens in other souls games too (dancers grab teleports you and so does the golem from darksouls 1)
If you dont believe me look at some hitbox comparison videos, this guy blows the flaws of the game massively out of proportion.
@@tubasil8786literally just don't stand directly where the mimic will unfold out and you won't get hit
@@uberbyte7467oh yeah fromsoft can never do no wrong, not possible. This "git gud" shit is so corny lmaoooo.
A full play-through of DS2 including the DLCs feels like an Odyssey
That's 100% correct. I'm sometimes replaying all games and Dark Souls 2 always takes the longest
Honestly to me ds2 sotfs feels the most like a journey to me out of a the trilogy
@TS nothing wrong with the map not being interconnected
I just finished it again. It is most definitely an odyssey. I love DS1 but SOTFS holds a special place in my heart
That's actually a great call. The other Fromsoft games feel like a tight progression and story while this game felt like a long journey through many unconnected worlds
I think power stance was one of DS2s strongest points. I really miss that.
You people say that, but most of the time is pretty underwelming, Is good to show up in pvp but for pve those showofy attacks are not as strong, fast or reliable than just using basic atacks.
@@Thegeobot True. But I simply liked the choice. I rarely used it myself, but more choice is always good, especialy when playing fashion souls.
This and good cloth physics and better designs on sets that later re-appeared in 3
@@Thegeobot That solely depends on your weapons of choice for power stancing
In particular for smaller arms the effect of power stancing is rather useful even in pve as it increases the poise damage per attack due to the combined attack with both weapons making it more reliable in regards to stunning enemies
Not to mention that combined counter damage can give a huge boost in overall damage
@@Thegeobot dont forget that if you press (and release) the two-handing/powerstance button in time with ANY attack while in powerstance, you'll negate some of the start-up frames, effectively speeding up the attack.
Very useful for powerstanced greatswords, katanas, great hammers, the list goes on.
Made it to the "hitbox" section, watching at around 25:00, and all this is doing is making me really, REALLY appreciate Bloodborne, Dark Souls III, Sekiro, and Elden Ring.
They clearly improved is all I'm saying.
If I've understood it correctly it's not so much about actually improving as it is about Dark Souls 2 being developed by a sort of B-team within the studio, while the A-team worked on Bloodborne.
Apparently they split the studio into two teams after Dark Souls 1 and most of the talent and resources seemingly went into the Bloodborne team after that.
@@koerel from what I understand, the Ds2 team had 2 directors that studied under Miyazaki, but had differing views on the game, but one took the lead and the other followed.
After something happened, not sure what, the lead director left with the game kind of in a half state, and the other director had to pick up where he left off, and tried to steer the game back into the traditional DS formula, which left the team with the bad assets and the levels that they rushed putting where they could.
I would eliminate Elden Ring from that list. Elden Ring has MANY of the problems listed in this video, including new ones that are arguably worse. It’s easy to ignore such problems because Elden ring is supposed to be a good game, and ds2 is supposeded to be the one mediocre or bad From game, . . . But in my very extensive Elden ring experience its input coding, hitboxes, and new things like aim punch and etc are as terrible or at times even WORSE than the issues of ds2.
It’s also just foundationally flawed and an inferior souls game IMO but for that don’t listen to me and instead go watch Demodcracy, NeverKnowsBest, John Anderson, and etcs videos on the topic.
@@Nightmare-pj4fg I dunno man, I checked out their videos, and all they really talk about it how disappointed in the game they are and design of the world, nothing about broken mechanics.
@@Nightmare-pj4fg I agree, both Elden Ring and DS3 have plenty of jank/broken hitboxes. In Elden Ring, the action queueing is unresponsive at times, and somehow, after a decade of making these games, the camera still sucks. Not a masterpiece at all.
That 8 directional movement is something I noticed immediately, it feels like something a mad employee would tweak in after they got pissed off. It drove me so crazy I couldn't even play the game after a few hours.
Like it was designed for an arcade stick.
It's way better than ds1's lock on bullshit
Yeah i recently raged quit the game because i kept dying at one point from falling. Just felt unfair and most of the time it was the game just not doing what i thought it should of been able to do.
@@thatitalianlameguy2235 I’ll never understand how ppl had problems w it all u do is MIND YOUR FOOTWORK….
@@JK-vy8vh I’ll never understand how people had problems with typing English - JUST SPELL CHECK YOUR WORK
1 hour, 46 minutes, and no ads. He did that shit for us.
Seriously. Heroic.
That Mauler longman for ye
Uh....there are ads
WinnieTheGrizzly ok I see no ads now but the first time I watched this video there were like twenty
Finnen Devine No, I see ads.
Defence of Dark Souls 2: 00:00
Introduction: 05:55
Movement: 07:44
- Snap-point turning: 07:47
- Ladder blockage event: 11:09
- Fall damage: 12:42
Adaptability: 13:52
- Lack of clarity: 15:13
- Detriment to RPG choice-making: 16:48
Hitboxes: 19:00
- Player hitboxes: 20:50
- Enemy hitboxes: 22:04
- Explosive barrel example: 24:00
- Sir Alonne's grab: 24:31
- Hitbox examples: 25:34
- DS1+3 comparisons: 29:44
|
AI: 30:30
- Aggro ranges/obstruction: 31:58
- Pathfinding: 34:14
- AI suicide: 40:02
- Assorted bugs: 42:31
Boss healing: 47:28
Levelling: 49:35
- Over-levelling: 49:43
- Weapon levelling: 51:28
Human effigies: 54:22
Repair system: 56:23
Focus system: 57:52
- Target prioritisation: 58:28
- Weapon misdirection/inconsistency: 01:01:42
Backstabs: 01:05:35
- Backstab failures: 01:05:56
- Backstab inconsistencies: 01:08:34
- Lack of clarity: 01:11:39
|
Miscellaneous design failures: 01:12:25
- Fragrant branches of Yore: 01:12:29
- Headshot staggering: 01:13:25
- Graphical criticism/vagueness: 01:14:13
- Model animations: 01:15:08
- Miscellaneous modelling: 01:16:15
Audio: 01:18:11
- Item pick-up audio cuts: 01:18:55
- Boss music: 01:19:45
- Audio inconsistencies: 01:20:37
Minor nitpicks: 01:21:57
- Disconnection message: 01:22:03
- Unskippable credits: 01:22:36
- The "B-Team": 01:23:32
|
Overview: 01:25:17
- Combat: 01:26:12
- Exploration: 01:27:16
- Resource management: 01:28:21
- RPG Elements: 01:28:47
- System subversion/redundancy: 01:29:22
- Aspects kept/dropped in DS3 from DS1/2: 01:31:03
Conclusion: 01:33:10
- Comment from Harris: 01:35:39
- Video quality upkeep: 01:36:43
- Closing: 01:37:47
- Final thanks: 01:40:15
Extra clips: 01:42:12
I love you
You droped your cape.
Was this in the description before you posted it?
@@trippyspec1759 no, its a fairly old video but one of my favourites so i made these timestamps and asked mauler if he could add them to the video for ease of viewing
This man is a seasoned gamer, I can tell.
Something that sticks out to me as DS2 being my favorite Souls game is that it was easier to play with a group of friends. My circle of friends played through this entire game together, area to area and through all of the DLC's and I think thats why I love it the most. We were all scattered about the world during that time because of the military and it was nice to experience the game together.
That's touching
You mean after DS1? I agree. But since DS3 came out, that one is easily the best when it comes to connecting with other players. Hell it made it almost too easy. The simple password matchmaking that isn't limited by wonky rings and soul memory made it so that glitching into unscaled was actually possible. There were few barriers keeping you from playing with friends.
@@TheStraightestWhitest The issue with DS3 is that our lives became too busy to play games together a while after DS2 came out. Some of us had kids, some of careers got in the way, etc. It was the last game we played cooperatively.
@@Mr.G69420Bro Ah I understand now. Thanks for the elaboration.
So uhhhh
Happy Souls?
I just watched this man destroy one of my most favorite games ever, and every point he made I agree with :'(
Doesn't mean you can't like it, all games have flaws and if you can like the game even with the flaws then all power to you. My fav is ds3 and it has its flaws. But I still love it.
Like what you want. Even if it has issues! :D
Bro i love this game because its horrible, its so bad but so fun, and fashion
@@zxnch217 bro shut tf up, a majority of people like DS3 even though it's just Bloodbourne with dudes in armor, you'll never know the suffering of being a DS2 fan.
@@Snakeskin94 bro relax for a bit, no need to be toxic
To be fair, I'd love for him to go *into* Dark Souls 1 with the same intent to pick it apart and see what he comes out with (bonus points if he plays through the *original* PC port without fan fixes, so he can see what PC players had to deal with *before* they came into Dark 2.)
One of the Dark Souls 2 devs really got destroyed by Marth in Melee and said “The world will know my suffering”
soko da
Minna
@@GobaGNon miteite kure
Domo3000 is showing how wrong is Mauler about DS2, and he is doing an amazing job. uwu
"In Defense of Dark Souls 2"
MauLer: Well yes, but actually no.
Its a response video to Hbomberguy
@@__-fq4uh a bad response to hbomberguy*
@@_doop8257 what makes it bad?
@@ciaranmcelligott6134 About the only thing I can think of is Mauler’s complete and utter disregard for the entire concept of conciseness.
@@Noplayster13 His whole measured response was literally about that though? Wtf are you smoking?
After finishing Dark Souls and watching this again, I appreciate Souls 1 even more now in spite of enemy attacks tracking with player movement.
I remember my surprise during my first playthrough when, in undead burg, near the first bonfire, one of the hollows down the stairs and to the side did a jump attack towards me that travelled around a 90 degrees angle and up the stairs to hit me.
@@Feanor1988bis That's awful. Sometimes I tried to make him fall, but the game never seems to want to do that when I'm trying to proc it.
@@RorytheRomulan yeah, didn't like it back then, but for now it's just a funny memory. I do think these games, even the more recent ones, have too much tracking on certain attacks, but I guess that with experience and being used to it I just don't notice as much, or just learned to deal with it. Really absurd situations aren't too frequent luckily.
Watched all of this for the seventh time as a New Year present to myself. Good shit.
I just keep coming back to his series. It’s so good, anyway Happy New Years 🎉
@@moose_goose To you as well! 🎊
get a fucking life loser
45:30 to be fair, that zombie is meant to just run around the woods
As are the knights hitting the tree (i.e. old ass giant corpse). I guess you'd think they should stop and attack the player, but, you know, priorities.
@@bsh819 The zombie running is its form of attacking the player. It's supposed to lead you into other enemies and ambushes. It's a tactic used in all 3 Dark Souls games, not just 2.
@@Netirumi I was talking about the tree whackers. Your right about the troll zombie of course. There's also the torch guy in undead crypt that can follow you all the way to Agdayne, causing... problems.
@@bsh819 Oh, sorry about that. Since you were responding to the original comment, I assumed that you were referring to that as well.
@@Netirumi No worries
I started playing ds2 the other day for the first time and laughed out loud when a knight killed me and then pulled a full 360° degree turn to throw himself off the nearest cliff
Welcome to Ds2.
Btw Dragon-Rider is a poor soul who requires help and friends
Also ur DP is fucking glorious
The AI can feel remorse. Scariest game of all time.
Even he doesn’t want to play DS2
180? Or did he actually do a pirouette to jump off the cliff in front of him?
I still like to re-watch these. Mauler, you are a criminally underrated CZcamsr.
You should check out his brother, Mooler
@@john_squatson subbed already but good lookin out ;)
Good thing about packed, long videos is that you can rewatch so many times before they get boring.
@@xentiment6581 facts
@@john_squatson MooPer is better
This was my first Dark Souls game, and I loved every rage filled second of it.
1:35:35 'this will probably be my most contentious series ever'
Oh LongMan, how times have changed.
what happened
@@mooganify last jedi and claims of sexism due to covering a female fan of it, any coverage is last jedi in general.
Domo3000 is showing how wrong is Mauler about DS2, and he is doing an amazing job. uwu
I think my favorite part of this video is that in the 5 minutes when he's praising dark souls 2, a ds3 song is playing in the background
Dang ik it!
Lol and i was thinking “ oh maybe ds2 does have great music “
Omg dude I was laughing my ass off. Because Dragonslayer Armor was being played. And only in the first minute of the defense.
Yeah that is totally an important point to be made.
If I'm not mistaken there are zero songs from ds2 in this video outside of ingame footage
This should tell how forgettable the songs are in this game outside of Majula theme
53:55 idk why but this also makes me laugh so much
"SOMETIMES deflects spells"
the most funny thing is. you cant even defend it by saying "DUDE ITS OLD GAME GET OVER IT", when dark souls 1 exist before it. LMFAO
Implying DS1 isn't filled to the brim with flaws
@@matheuscruz8574 DS1 has wayy less problems than DS2. Better bosses, areas, lore, interconnectivity etc. Music too.
@@matheuscruz8574 DS2 just sucks bro. Admit it.
@@imtiazmihad1850 Most areas and bosses in DS1 suck, let's be honest. The only thing it does better than 2 is interconnectivity. You're just coping
Whoa, what the hell, I had no idea that ADP affected the speed that you used estus
That would explain why my depraived tank character with only 6 ADP (Yes, I'm serious about that ADP, never leveled it) consumes estus slower than a god damn snail trying to move a mile.
Man that was easily one of the most frustrating things for me going from DS1 to 2. I can understand wanting to change the system a bit to keep things challenging for returning players, I mean I admit I was pretty reliant on estus and lots of it (never less than 10 if I can help it) in DS1. But not only does your character pull their flask out comically slow, but it's not even a quick fill up on HP anymore, it heals over a second or two. When I started the game and had life gems but no flask, and saw how slow those heal... I guess I didn't expect the main heal to be slow too lol. I thought it was bad enough that you only start with one estus charge!
@@Gorlokk666 Two charges if you know where to look, a.k.a, the well in Majula, but yea, I can guess that caught you off-guard a lot
I did the same. I played demon's and ds1 first and never use wikis or guide first playthrough. Had no idea what adp was through the description left it alone. Finished the game, went on the wiki and facepalmed when I realised i'd made it harder for myself.
My 12 year old was watching me.
I was fighting fume, which is one of the only bosses I have trouble with
He was like “yo, you got a tall ass knight with a big ass sword comin at ya. Drink faster man
@@adonisx82 Ah yes, Fume Knight. Weirdly enough, with 6 ADP, I never had a problem with him, and I would frequently be seen with the red eye ring, helping others beat the Fume Knight. I know others struggle with certain bosses, so if I beat them easily, I will go out of my way to help others. It's a nice feeling :>
I actually enjoyed DS2 a lot despite some of these issues. I will say, though, for anyone getting frustrated with the Jester, it is impossible to backstab him and if you get his armor set, it keeps you from getting backstabbed
I just R2 spammed him with my Dragon Tooth and stone ring, fucker couldnt get up
You can't get backstabbed while wearing clown armor hhhmmm
@@beefedcorn ah, so you're a pancake enthusiast
Interrupt his gesture and he won’t attack
@@beefedcorn a man of taste is see.
Its been years since ive played DS2, one of the things i loved about this game more then the other 2 games was the way they handled dual wielding. Having a power stance system that let's you dual wield any weapon was very fun and i enjoyed it a lot
Powerstancing is probably DSII’s greatest legacy since both DSIII and Elden Ring used it.
@@Ett.Gammalt.Bergtroll Not sure about Elden Ring, but Dark Souls 3 definitely did not have powerstancing. There's a couple weapons that are dual-weapons intrinsically, i.e. Gotthard Twin Swords, Brigand Twin Daggers, Farron Greatsword. When you two-hand these weapons they give you a dual-wielding moveset but there's no system where you equip weapons in both hands and you get a dual-wielding moveset
Ds2 was my first ds game and I legitimately didn't know that back stabbing was a mechanic till i played the other games and went back and tried in ds2.
When I played ds2 in 2017 or so I thought it was a much older game. I genuinely thought it came out in like 2007 bc of how janky it felt. Can't explain my suprise when I found out how new it was.
With it being my first game I think it set a weird precedent for the other games. They felt.... weird. I just assumed the other games were meant to feel the same. Not in a sense of mechanics or broken ai, but in a way that they didn't make me as angry. Ds2 often felt like it was intentionally trying to piss me off rather than try and teach me a mechanic or a way to approach a situation and I think this goes back to the 'tough but fair' sentiment from early in the video. And I honestly think it made me enjoy the other games more. So at least one good thing came of it.
I know this is an old video so if you're reading this, hello and thanks for reading. I should really be asleep lol
2 definitely feels like a beta test of a AA title, like something from Eastern Europe, especially when compared to the other titles. Playing it before any of the other ga mes is probably the only way to truly enjoy it for most fans of the series, you don't go in with a bunch of expectations for how things "should" behave or work.
Domo3000 is showing how wrong is Mauler about DS2, and he is doing an amazing job. uwu
36:46 The Soldier runs to attack the Giant Tree because it thinks it is a giant, right? Because of the war between them and Vendrick.
@LeadFaun Still, player is a human, tree is a giant, one is enemy, other is not.
@LeadFaun He is still human sized target. I dont even think hollows can see anything beyond silhouettes.
@LeadFaun
Makes sense to me, the Giant would be a bigger threat, and if some semblance of memory was still in the Hollow soldier's mind they'd probably associate the giant with something that needs to be killed.
@LeadFaun
Well yeah, the shitty scripting spawns him away from the Giant
And no, So long as you've talked to Drummond first, They'll only attack you if you somehow damaged them in one of the memories, which for some reason doesn't reset until NG+
@LeadFaun
Well yeah, they're Hollow, of course they attack you outside of the Memory, and inside they're supposed to be Neutral to you after talking to Drummond unless they take any kind of damage from you, before and after speaking to him.
There's likely a bug involved.
Really bothers me that the Hollows went from dried up, skin-and-bones husks to fleshy--even buff at times--with green skin and open sores.
They turn hollows into green Juans.
It's because zombies were super fucking popular when DS2 came out
He becomes the hulk
That's because hollows don't exist in drangleic. They're all zombies lmao
Well, I guess that's your butthurt, so it's what, your problem?
57:25 Welp, happy to report that Elden Ring finally fucking abandoned weapon/armor durability. (Technically Sekiro did it first, but Sekiro is so widely different from the other games that it can’t really count.)
"Comments are subjective."
-Bilbo Baggins
Am I the only one annoyed by how long some animations are? Like opening a chest and going through fog in ds1 were so much faster...
No! Every time I turn in an estus shard and my character sits there running through the hand folding prayer animation, I wonder how many more shards I picked up and just how long I will have to sit there just to finish turning them in.
They probably wanted to make opening chest better by making the animation longer to create more anticipation, like zeldas do. It's not a bad thing on itself, except for the fact that several times in the game you find 3 or more chests in the same room. Opening them becomes a chore instead of a reward, specially when some of them contain just some random consumable.
To be fair, DS1 did that too in archives and in havel's room, but there were actually reasons for it. In archives, one of the chests was a mimic, and in havel's room i'm pretty sure the point was to convey how massive havel's set is, that it doesn't fit in 1 chest (and there was also a mimic).
Admittedly, DS2 sometimes tries to slip a mimic surrounded by chests too, but most of the time, it just looks like they wanted to waist your time instead of putting a corpse with the item on it.
@@StephanuSneed That's not why they did it. They did it so you can't rush in and snag something and run away from enemies, you are forced to fight what is in the room.
@@FirstLast-yc9lq That might be right, but a lot of the times you find multiple chests there are 1 or no enemies around, so my point stands that it's just obnoxious.
Also, the fact they kept mimics, made wooden chests breakable and added metal unbreakable chests and trap chests supports my point they wanted to make opening a chest more interesting.
Yes facts I have to always fight the enemies because I get knocked out of the fog
Your voice reminds me of a less approving Vaati
He reminds me so much of TotalBiscuit!
Should look up The Spiffing Brit. I thought they were the same person at first.
@@volcanolord100 Yeah, Spiffing Brit for me for sure too :)
Vaati after a long day of babysitting Edwad.
I knew he wasn't Spiff after about 5 seconds with no mention of Yorkshire Tea.
:P :P
A fantastic conclusion to an awesome series. Really well done!
Best part of DS2 is that it is often sold for cheap, allowing new players to get a "rough" taste for what the series has to offer and want mooore
why would you want a taste of arguably the worst game in all souls games. just tell them to play DS1..
@@joedatius Because the stigma of Dark Souls only being for fat masocist loosers doesn't make people want to spend 30+ dollars. I shared this belief at first until DS2 went on sale. For 5 dollars you can't really complain, and I ended up loving the game and smashing most of the stereotypes. Yeah its lost most of its charm since I played DS1 but hey, best 5 dollars I probably ever spent. See what I mean??
I finally understand what's weird about the movement in DS2. Thank you for that.
I’m use to turning my camera around while moving as well
@Thadson makes rolling through certain attacks wonky and also allows the player to backpedal diagonally when retreating which reduces your chance of jumping off the ledge like a scrub. unpopular opinion but 4 directional rolling made the combat feel weightier and made me more conscious of my positioning.
@@dikasmusha6194 Nah the 4 directional rolling was disgusting. After Ds2, BB and Ds3 the 4 directional rolling became so obsolete
Is this only a problem with the PC ports, because I didn't notice this on the Xbox 360 version?
@@crazyinsane6640 The issue occurs only in the Scholar of the First Sin edition. Including the dx11 pc port.
27:34
"What is he doing?"
"He's beginning to believe."
That hitbox was gorgeous. That kind of thing could never happen in DS2.
@@TheSlammurai 29:44 Is even tighter. And people say DS3 has bad hitboxes... What the actual fuck?
I love DS2. I just love DS1, DS3, and Bloodborne more. From Software needs to bring back Bonfire Ascetics.
In my opinion mauler is strait up wrong about a lot of things and he seems to bring up a bunch a fancy terms and stretches their meaning. Hitboxes all the games have a couple bad ones but alot of people I know blame there bad dodging skills on say delayed attacks with bad hit boxes. The bosses in my opinion overall are better than ds1 while there are bad ones the good ones are plentiful like raime velstadt nasandra is a good boss lore wise gameplay wise it was a bit lacking but still better than gwyn a boss with bad pacing or a boss killed by spamming parry in 30 seconds. It feels like he's more critiquing differences from dark souls one than anything else. Oh you can't walk around enemies and chain backstab backstabs are useless. He goes on tangents about everything and it feels like he mixes his personal gripes with the actual few good criticisms the dude has.
@@ahkosorsomesaykosby9999 are you serious?
@@sephiroth7701 yeah
@@ahkosorsomesaykosby9999 are you high?
@@ahkosorsomesaykosby9999 OK who is the real final boss
"I interpret the ending of the Clown as the end of its beginning. No one cares or understands. The Clown is now happy and the pain, and finds it interesting."
"I explain the end of the Clown for the end of its beginning from scratch. No one cares or understands. I am happy about the pain now, and I find it interesting."
-Flute Musician
_MauLer:_ *masterfully and exhaustively expounds upon this game's innumerable flaws*
_Me:_ *"Time to reinstall!"*
ive actually been playing DS2 alongside watching his RE: series as well as this and there are times where i can have first hand experience that prove for his points but as you say im still playing it and still having fun.
@@ninyndolvr That's a very important thing to know when watching Mauler: He is (or at least tries) to be extremely objective and has a complete disregard for our subjective parts.
I love ds2 and prefer it vastly over ds3 but ds3 is much better designed and has many less broken features.
@@tomvandalen2212 i can't play ds3, and not sure why. I think it just chagned too much, and in regards to if it's a better game or not, I'm leaning on the side of no since it seems to be hard for hard sake, where as dark souls 1 was a realistic level of difficulty, imo.
It's opinion, and yeah, combat is fast paced, but it's like they learned how people played and enjoyed Dark Souls 1 and said, nah, let's stop that, no fun allowed.
@@Bjorick Oh yeah Ds3 is a little bit frustrating because of bloodborne and the difficulty meme.
@@tomvandalen2212 for me, dark souls 1 is still the best, i love it, and demon souls is a close second
i love a game that works and that i can get op in if i choose to (i love the disgaea games, for example), and the game never drops the challenge, so it's not just stats, it's also a degree of skill, but not 'my whole life is dark souls' level skill, more 'you never forget how to ride a bicycle' skill.
everyone has their preference, but DS3 disappointed me about as much as mass effect 3 :P
That was a plot twist at the beginning. I love this game though, but it DEFINITELY has its flaws
Finally, someone that has a good palette in their tongue and can actually take criticism.
TomatoMan4 same here my dude
Every game has flaws and everything is subjetive.
@@andr0zzsenpai bad hitboxes arent subjetive XD Thats a objective flaw. Like the Game all you want, but dont Tell me an aple is an mango.
@john oboczky I I ähh I dont understand I am ehm. Okay.
I just started DS2. The enemies are crazy, you hit them 3 times with a broadsword and 1 microsecond later they immeadiatly attack. My best advice for anyone else new. Get a bow and a lot of arrows. Much easier to slowly progress after sniping them, or else you will get these headshots mentioned in the video.
No they don't. Some enemies do have terrible telegraphs (looking at you Heide knights), but if you're mashing the attack button and getting hit, that's on you, not the game.
@@watereagleplays7472 enemies not staggering or their hitboxes still being active after being interrupted or killed is not your fault, it's definitely the game's
@@xolotltolox7626 Getting hit when you just mash the attack button hoping to stagger enemies is 100% your fault. Stay mad.
@@watereagleplays7472 my problem is after you hit someone it takes to long to dodge or block. And then they stunlock you for 3 hits. I get this with big enemies but its with regular soldiers as well. All enemies have high poise. Its just a bit boring when you cannot combo with light weapons cause in the middle of the combo they counter attack. So you just end up poking hits here and there or use big heavy weapons. Sure once you know all of this you can work around it. But when you just start DS2 after playing 1 and 3 its certainly something you have to get used to
@@repaleonhalo9754 Definitely fair, enemies have fairly high poise in DS2.
You should do more game reviews like this. This video is one of my favorites.
How much of the ai walking to their deaths do you think might be caused by them being tied to the same 8-directional movement that you have, while lacking player sensibilities?
I think Dragonrider is just suicidal.
@@SorowFame *fart noise*
I think that 8-directional movement is limited on the pc port. Never experenced any problems on the ps4.
@@erenemre9461 I can confirm it's present on Xbox 360 and Xbox One Scholar edition, but I also never noticed that was specifically what was happening while playing the game until I watched the video and it was pointed out, and now I can't un-see it
@@snowboundwhale6860 Hmmm interesting. That sounds like lazy programing.
The AI pathfinding problems are more to do with nodes. The reason the square in Shulva is inaccessible to the enemies is because at some point that square can become a pit for an elevator. Instead of putting nodes over the gap when it's closed and removing them when it's open, they didn't put nodes at all, out of convenience of development I guess, which means enemies literally can not walk onto there.
A lack of nodes basically explains most examples of "bad AI" like the gargoyle not jumping- it doesn't jump because there are not any nodes for it to jump to.
The connections between nodes is also hilariously bad in this game. More than once have I seen a group of enemies take the same zigzag path through an empty room- they all followed nodes laid out in an inexplicably bizarre fashion.
LSDO the funny thing is that I tested it and he went for me. Idk how programming as I only know how to do 3D models but maybe they have put some specific path finding on it so that he need to get on a specific placement for being able to advance? He did took a lot of time turning around me but he did eventually attack. Have you an idea on what it could be?
@@raphicoco there's explanations I can think of, but none of them can really be confirmed. I'm guessing either that there is a "leash" these enemies can break our from that will eventually allow them to take unorthodox routes. You said the enemy attacked you so it could be that the attack animation itself pushed him over the edge, so to speak. Can't really confirm it without footage though.
Is that why enemies try to attack you through walls and sometimes succeed? Since the nodes they have might not account for the environmental obstructions?
@@tytsty5716I think that has more to do with how the game handles player detection for enemies. If they succeed in hitting you thats just a hitbox issue.
@@tytsty5716 I did test out how and when they do it and realized that they don't attack you wen you are behind a wall. Wen they do, it is because they have already started there attack animations way before you got behind it. It is a consistent problem in every single souls games. But I guess they cant just make there attack animation stop or bounce it off the walls as it would have been extremely exploitable.
Malenia in DS2 would be an absolute fucking nightmare
Now that's too much. A near broken boss in an almost broken game is beyond punishment.
@@deathrodamus9608 exactly, it's only okay to have a broken boss if it's not in Dark Souls 2, if it's Dark Souls 2 then oh my god all bets are off
@@shortbreadhead bro! The times I died to the second Drakekeeper in Dragon Shrine is extremely infuriating, but I managed to kill his ass by pyromancy (fire balls).
Later this night I am going to kill him so that he won't respawn anymore, I hate that dude.
@@shortbreadhead Malenia was incredibly difficult but I did it. When I saw the horrible impale hitbox on Sir Alonne it made me think of Malenia’s impale. With hitboxes so unforgiving as DS2 she would be an absolute nightmare 😭 I’m perpetually amazed by how good the hitboxes are in ER and even DS3.
@@Skwadley on my fist weapons only run the lower hitbox after a heavy jumping attack was malenias downfall...good hitbox good
"And there but you know nevermind" had me dying
He had item making immune too backstabs lol but you know never mind 2 implemented so many things I wish I was in 3 but you know never mind
The point with ADP is especially frustrating since I played DS2 directly after DS1 and in DS1 everybody told me not to put points in resistance as it's some kind of joke from the developers so I thought "Oh it will be the same with ADP I guess" and then I wondered the whole game why enemy swings always hit me even when I thought I rolled away early enough.
Ahahah, the same exact thing happened to me
Yeah same, haven’t gone back to make a build that uses it, but after watching this series I just might have to
Literally sunk like 30 hours into my character and beat most of the game and dlc and only realised what adp actually was and why I was getting hit so much💀💀
I quit like 2/3rds through the game out of pure frustration, never putting a single point into ADP lol might have to revisit it
@@humbelgeniustv5594 I did. Deleted the game again but after some perseverance I decided to make a brand new character and start from scratch. The game honestly isn’t that bad it’s just some of the choices they made were pretty stupid. The whole thing with ADP was so stupid. Nothing about the skill tells you what it does so some of us went through the whole game thinking our rolls were unfair because we didn’t have a single point. But also the fact that certain bosses are extremely easy when your rolls throughout the game are constantly getting better and better. They didn’t think that ADP would have to work around the game and each boss specifically in order for there to be balance
“In defense of Dark Souls 2”
*spends the next hour and a half shitting all over the game*
thats the joke
It says in the description he is just pointing out it’s flaws in order to defend the game not really a joke
i love DS 2 and i dont think its shitting hes right on point
You have to find criticism in things you enjoy. it’s your responsibility to voice them so that the thing you enjoy doesn’t slip into mediocrity. ( i.e NBA 2K or madden.) From soft learned from these criticisms and gave us DS3 and bloodborne🤷🏾♂️
@@ryanburke9490 Nah m8, I pretty much agree with everything Mauler said. But when I wrote that comment I didn't realize it was a response to hbomberguy's video and thought this was supposed to be another defense of the game.
Dude... much respect for your investigative work!
Anybody else want to see more of the dude who was laughing at the Hollows running to and attacking the giant-tree? Seems like he'd be a lot of fun to watch.
I can’t defend any of these points, they are all absolutely truth. There’s nothing to defend, these are facts - Yet, I still enjoy the game. Is it too hard to acknowledge something’s faults, yet still enjoy it? Nice video!
I enjoy DS2. But I also hate it. It is objectively poorly designed and broken in several fundamental ways and yet you and I and even MauLer enjoy playing the game.
Why cant everybody be a sensible human being like this
Indeed. A flawed diamond is still a diamond. DS2 is an amazing game. Flawed, yes - but still had so many great moments and hours of entertainment.
Dark Souls 2 is a fun game, hell I'd even say it's an above average, very good game. It's got a buttload of content, above average ARPG gameplay(I'd give it a six, which is more than I'd give to ff15, or even TW3, even if that game is a masterpiece in it's own way.) and at least has a decent foundation for lore that makes it more than pure generic mediocrity. It's got decent music and while not a pretty game when it came out, was far from bad looking.
Dark Souls 2's problem is it's part of a series that is full of bare minimum fantastic games to masterpieces. It's the big fish in a small pond, but only to realize that there are sharks in the ocean it just entered. It's just worse than it's brothers, it feels more like a decently made soulslike game than something made from the original developers, whether it be lore or gameplay. It lacks the polish, the atmosphere, the memorable characters, the ridiculous amounts of detail in the environment and the snappy, responsive gameplay. It's good, it's just not great, and great is the minimum in a souls game before it.
One could say it's First Sin was it's very name, as it would be called fun and good soulslike if it were in it's own fantasy verse(which it could honestly get away with by changing some names of spells.). It wouldn't be seen as great like the others, but it wouldn't be as scrutinized as it was.
When I first watched the video, I pointed out one mistake. On backstabs, he shows himself trying and failing to backstab Jester Thomas. Now, the jester is wearing the jester set, in which every piece has a special effect. The torso makes you immune to critical attacks, including backstabs. That's *one* case where he criticizes the game for him not knowing the game well enough.
Aside from that, while the way weapons some weapons track is annoying (and most weapons have problems in my experience), weapons like Ultra Greatswords are working as intended when they attack in the direction you are moving your analogue stick. It sucks for people who are unaware playing PvE, but apparently that was a decision that was appreciated and even wanted by PvPers.
That's two cases that can be defended (jester armor working as intended and controlling big weapon swings independently of targeting, which I've personally never liked) , but I concur, more than 90% of the criticism is entirely appropriate. And to be clear: I don't even like the things that can be defended. Would rather they weren't a thing.
the game has a lot of problems but I find the movement to be the worst one. The horrible dead zones and the wonky animations for everything is just a direct downgrade from DS1. Worst thing by far is the roll; in DS1, DS3 and BB the roll/dodge will always keep you faced towards the locked-on enemy. There is a different roll animation depending on if you roll left, right, forwards or back. The attack directly after rolling will always be towards the target. In DS2, there is only 1 roll animation and it's directly forward, so if your attack is timed to come out the moment the roll ends your character will not have enough time to rotate and correct itself towards the enemy before the attack plays out (as seen at 1:03:24). On top of that they decided to only allow about 20° of freedom to pivot most attacks. All that does is take away player control and make everything feel way more stiff.
Also I'm sure someone has told you already but the manual aiming of large weapons like great hammers and ultra greatswords using the left stick is actually a feature, not a bug. I agree it takes the whole point of locking-on away but someone developing the game decided that was a good idea. It is even included in DS3 as a lock-on option. I've only known 1 person who actually preferred it, he said it was useful for PVP.
Hi dusty
Dongo
Come on now, I hate ds2 as much as the next guy but to say that DS1 had better rolls is dumb. In ds2 you can atleast roll in more than 4 directions while in lock on.
@@crim1188 Ds1 has better movement over all. I've played the shit out of both and I never get tired of Ds1. I got second hand rage at seeing the dogshit hitboxes and gay movement system montage. Brought back a flood of memories. Ds2 was the only one in the whole series that made me actually mad. Ds1 is way better than the floaty bullshit.
@@marvelousdex9678 me personally I get bored of ds1 and ds3 way to easly because ds1 and ds3 new game+ don't feel new and improved
Now, lets say, hypothetically, that somebody once told me that the world would proceed to roll me, and made the claim that I was not, the smartest tool in the shed. Which would lead us to look at the facts and see that she was looking kind of dumb, due to the fact that she had placed her finger and her thumb, in the shape of the letter L, located on her forehead.
This would mean that the years would start coming, and logically wont stop coming, that I was, hypothetically, fed to the rules, which would proceed with me hitting the ground running. Which didn’t make sense, to live for fun, in a way that your brain gets smart, yet your head gets dumb, seeing as there’s so much to do, and so much to see, so now I must pose the question, what is wrong with taking the backseat? This is due to the fact that you’ll never know if you don’t go, nor you will shine if you don’t glow.
For you see, you are, at this moment, an All-Star, so get your game on, and proceed to go play, indeed, you’re an All-Star, get the show on, which would entitled you to get paid. That would mean that all that glitters, is indeed gold, and that only shooting stars, can participate in the process of breaking the mold.
There are a few minor points of contention that don't diminish the overall points, but do render certain examples used inappropriate. The first is the FoFG mobs attacking trees. The trees are the giants they fought long ago, and their attacking them is completely intentional. Next, that hollow in Huntsman's Copse is meant to run from you and never attack. In the backstab section, Jester Thomas is wearing the Jester armor set, which prevents backstabs. As I said, this is pretty hyper specific context and doesn't affect the overall messages of the sections.
1:12:10 I was muttering: " don't bother, those guys are immune to backsta..." WTF they can be backstabed! LOL!!!
"The point of it is to provide a genuine defense of Dark Souls 2... without focusing on any negatives."
Proceeds to completely bury the game and piss on the grave.
Awesome review, he focuses on every part, exemplifying the good and shitting on it where it deserved to be shat on.
Christian Noah he spends 5 minutes on the good, and an hour and a half on the bad. The game is flawed, but the bad is nowhere near that overwhelming
Zachary Stolte i agree its goods outweigh the bad for me
@@MHMega Completely disagreed, there's way more bad than there is good objectively speaking, to just go "durr there's more good than bad" after MauLer went from top to bottom to be as detailed as possible in showing the bad of the game is pretty stupid.
@@wordsoflove8787 you're just being disingenuous, I've never experienced any of the problems mentioned in this video solely in ds2, in fact I've experienced more of these issues in ds1. The one that really bugged me was the upgrade materials section, comparing it to bloodborne that has like 25 weapons to ds2 which has at least 100. Hoe tf am I supposed to know what weapon I'll want to use my 1 blood rock on when I'm a new player. "Oops I dont like this weapon, now I have to go to ng+ just to get the one I want"
I love the tone shift in the video from the introduction to your actual opinions. It caught me off guard and it felt like I stumbled into a secret, haha
Nothing better illustrates the hitboxes than otz's ds2 all bosses no hit journey
could you imagine in blighttown im dark souls 1, the poison dart spitters managed to hit you through the walls because the walls werent considered as a mesh?
Yeah that would be..fun...💀
Yeah, but virtually all of Earth population agree Blighttown is shit. Fortunatly for us, you can skip the whole area without losing anything.
@@dearcastiel4667 through the Valley of Drakes? You do lose quite a few souls and items and honestly, um, it's not that bad of a place if you have the right gear!
@@brocolyrics4331 the only thing you're missing is Power Within and eventually the iaito, both of which can be grabbed in a single suicide run before leaving the area for the Valley. Also at that point you normally don't have access to poison-resistant gear (the only aviable is Dusk's set but then you have no poise, and the poison-bite ring costs so much no normal player have it at this point.
I generally go through the area for power within because that spell is absolutly OP in NG, but if somehow I don't need the spell I clearly don't bother doing blighttown, and even skip gaping dragon as well.
@@dearcastiel4667 I guess it's just my personal desire to not skip any part of games that just pushes me to go through these kinds of areas!
Dark souls has to be one of the only series that has such a vast amount of videos that are over an hour long
The movement thing explains so much!! felt like I was too dumb
I made it to the end. Amazing series. I can appreciate how in depth you went.
I know I'm late to the party guys, but I have one question. Has Harris ever replied to these, and if so where can I find his response?
To my knowledge, he never made a video response. The most he did was snipe on Twitter, and poorly at that. He made several comments, none of which I remember verbatim, but the general gist of his points were, "Your series is too long (Long man bad)," "Your time investment for your response means you're obsessed with me," and "You pretend your opinion is the only one based in facts." I think most of those were after he eventually watched it, because he initially was like, "I'm not gonna sit here and watch a 9 hour video series," then took a few points from the beginning of the series, misrepresented them, and called it a day.
"I'm not directing that at anyone in particular, but I'm sure you understand *Harris.* "
I love being British and having access to that level of sudden and unexpected vitriol.
I'm super duper late but who is this Harris? Is that who this is in response to?
@@xelic1996 It's a CZcamsr named HBomberGuy (the H likely stands for Harris) who made a terrible video praising Dark Souls 2 by pretending Dark Souls 1 was bad by comparison. I could be wrong, but I think him and MauLer are friends to an extent. MauLer enjoys his videos and respects Harris, at least.
Thanks, I've now watched his video on it and working my way through the series in proper order now. The dude seems decent, but just made a lot of on the spot arguements without trying to really back anything up
@@xelic1996 He's an okay guy, but the way he misrepresents Matthewmatosis' points and cuts his video, completely changing his points, is really damn scummy. Also the extremely smug and condescending attitude he had towards him for no good reason is really disgusting to listen to. A lot of people, including myself, regard Matt as a very good critic and it was just so strange and gross to see this stuff.
@@TheSlammurai Indeed, but Harris does not respect mauler, in fact Harris seems to react very childishly to criticism in general. Pretty unfortunate since Harris genuinely makes fantastic videos
Your video is amazing and clever, BUT FOR THE LOVE OF GOD YOU SHOWED ME THE MOVEMENT PROBLEM AND NOW I HAVE TO THINK ABOUT IT EVERY TIME I PLAY xD
lol, 8 directions, 8 directions, 8 direc...
This is hell.
There is a way to fix this on PC!
- Exit Dark Souls 2 : Scholar of the First Sin
- Download the file named, "Durazno v0.6-43.7z"
- Extract to your Dark Souls 2 SOTFS install location (easily located by right clicking on the title in your Steam games list, left clicking on the "Properties" option, left clicking on the "Local Files" tab, and left clicking on the "Browse Local Files" option, and then double left clicking on the "Game" folder) you may need a separate tool to complete this part
-Once extracted double left click on the "x64" folder that has appeared, select all items present in this folder, copy it, and paste it into the "Game" folder
- Right click the "Durazno.exe" and run it as an administrator
- Change the options to the ones down below;
LinearADZ: Checked
Deadzone: 20
AntiDeadzone: 36
- Close the Durazno program
- Launch Dark Souls 2 : Scholar of the First Sin
- ???
- Profit massively from having normal, reasonable, and expected movement rather than 8-directional nonsense
Praise the Omnissiah.
Edit : This only works if you're using a controller on PC.
Double Edit : Additional instructions because SotFS is a 64-bit program.
@MysteriousAeon It's a possibility. I have had a friend get banned for (in theory) just using this but I have not. There are rumors people have been soft banned for using graphic injectors (SweetFX and ReShade, for example), x360ce (Xbox 360 Controller Emulator, used to play the game with controllers other than an actual Xbox 360 one), and/or the DSFix/DSFix64.
Same I didn’t know it existed but I felt something fishy was going on with the movement but I couldn’t tell why and now it’s confirmed I am awestruck that they changed something that the first game in the series had so they didn’t even need to put in the work they actively did this whyyyyy
You bring up almost any of the mechanical issues to a DS2 fan, they'll either attack the other games "All the Dark Souls games have bad hitboxes lol", or they'll just straight up gaslight you. I'll bring up how 20% of the time when locked on my character will just do a 180 and stab the ground: "That's never happened to me bro, maybe your controller is broken." If you genuinely like this game, I have no problem with that, but I can't stand when people will just flat out lie and pretend that the innumerable issues this game has just don't exist at all.
Wow I tried avoiding this vid but I found your star war vids and liked them but I never knew you made this, “where did that lead you, back to me”
That whole part about you attacking in the wrong direction instead of where you're locked on to is unbelievably prominent in the Aava & Lud & Zallen fights for some reason.
The amount of times I tried to swing my great sword and missed was nuts. I originally thought my focus was massing up because I fiddled with the camera while focus was on. It wasn't the case, just poor focus mechanics with bigger weapons.
You all 3 need to know that even if locked on, large weapons in dark souls 2 *must* be manually aimed. Any control stick input during the attack and it will go that direction, locked on or not
@OX XY because it's not a flaw, it *is* intentional
Lud and Zallen might be the worst designed battle in the series, even worse than Bed of Chaos because Bed of Chaos at least saves your progress
@OX XY Then plant your feet and it will go exactly where the enemy was at the time you pressed the attack button.
There's enough text in this comment section to put together a novel.
Fitting for a series that takes longer than cinematic trilogies to watch.
*Several Novels
rightfully so. IMO the worst video of Mauler. It seem he brought a lot of his own bias into this video
what sane person put words like IMO into their arguement?
I already work saturday
I really enjoy the story for DS2, its an interesting spin on retelling the original. Vendrick realized the cycle he was stuck in and made his best effort to escape it, unable to cure hollowing but found a way for our character to nullify it, and thus exist outside of the cycle. Would have been cool for Dark Souls 3 to have an npc like that, thats existed outside of time with all the knowledge they've garnered
I liked the curse of want angle. It's essentially the same spirit of the first game but without the fire metaphore.
It was also much better delivered. I feel ds2 is the only one that did the best at trying to explain the jist of things without Google necessary.
i mean ds3 did kinda have that with patches / lapp
Slave Knight Gael somewhat fits your description of said NPC. He's elderly but still on a quest to create a new world without this cycle. Many believe Gael is the player character from 2. I don't think that lines up logistically, since Gael has some backstory lore that conflicts with this game. Still, I love the theory and choose to believe it.
In Dark Souls 3, you end story mode by fighting the character from DS1. There's poetic pleasure in ending the final DLC by fighting the player character from DS2.
@@casketbase7750 That is my lore pipe dream, because it saddens how ds3 kinda ignores 2 and just keeps focusing on ds1 instead of progressing and exploring thing on the cycle and beyond
@@iago110DS3 has plenty of references to DS2. You can see the ruins of Earthen Peak in the Dreg Heap, there’s a massive variety of returning weapons, armor, and rings from DS2 as well. There’s also paintings of things like Nashandra or Eleum Loyce in the room with all the silver knights in Irithyll. Also the spell “Soul Stream” literally has a reference to Aldia in its item description.
What a master peice of analysis. Ive been a fan for years, elden ring made me curious to finally watch this thing. Thnx bruh
I often feel like I am in a wierd fever dream any time I play this game. There is something about the controls never being fast enough and the constant illogical things happening that is very nightmarish. The flotiness of combat makes this even worse, because you can't feel the impact.
Still better combat than the first one and the roll only in 4 directions
@@mytotim8978 -Having to aim your swings even with lock-on
-8-Directional movement
-I-frames tied to stat
-Some weapons being unable to target enemies from the floor
-Lock-on targeting enemies that are far away
-Enemies having an insane tracking
Sure
@@mytotim8978 Keep repeating this lie to you. One day, you'll eventually believe it.
I have replayed all 3 games recently and there is something very uncomfortable i've found during that time.
DS1 is very slow but you're just as slow as the enemies, in DS3 you're pretty fast but so are the enemies too. There's consistency in speeds and reaction times for both of you.
In DS2 however, I felt something was off. My attacks and some enemy attacks can come out really fast, but the speed of the game is completely botched by other, unnaturally slow animations. This is especially true for enemies. They tend to have ridiculously long recovery animations which, tied with DS2's habit to have a fuck ton of enemies doing a 3 part combo, makes it really boring to look at. They will also have huge windows of doing absolutely nothing and looking at you before doing a fast attack that contradicts such a long wait time. The player is also plagued by this inconsistent speed. You can swing your weapons very fast, yet you will chug estus at the speed of a snail. You can spam roll almost as fast as DS3 but if you try to roll after attacking you will be locked by long recovery frames before you can actually start doing it. This is not a problem in DS1 because everything is equally slow as fuck, and it's not a problem in 3 because you can skip the recovery frames, you can roll as soon as your attack landed.
Overall DS2 displays a lack of consistency in its speed, which tends to make everyone look as fast puppets locked behind a one time action before needing to reload a gigantic battery.
I recently heard someone say DS2 feels like everything is underwater and yeah that just about captures it.
This was the first Souls game I played. I platinumed the shit out of it.
im sorry for your loss
@@josephmcauley3305 the 300+ hours required is indeed a heavy toll, one i cannot undertake
@@josephmcauley3305 "iM sOrRY fOr yOuR lOsS" you say while invading at Pontiff and getting ganked by the whole population of Anor Londo, and after you die, everyone starts pointing down & throwing dung pies, then the hatemail starts coming in "You're trash" "You're a fucking idiot" "Racial slur". After that you hear a knock on your door - the gankers are coming for you irl. You try to run but they catch you. They start beating you up and when theyre done they spit on your unconcious body and set your apartament/house on fire.
@@_doop8257 the most accurate description of anor londo i have ever
Heard
Its my first too. I am enjoying it, dope game
“Your feelings aren’t relevant” dude you just got a new sub 😂I loved that
Currently playing through DS2 in preparation for elden ring. This video is amazing, especially when you watch happy souls right after.
The dark souls 3 hit boxes looked soo dope
I can’t believe I didn’t recognize the whole snap points thing when playing. I knew the movement felt clunky and off. It just seems so dumb to have included this
I maintain that Dark Souls 2 was an ATTEMPT to create another Dark Souls game. Whether or not that victory was achieved is up to one's own opinion.
It not only did but feels like it actually expanded on what DS1 did while DS3 was Bloodborne with Dark Souls 1 nostalgia bait.
I feel as though some of the lock on inconsistensies where you may miss, specifically with greatswords is because of a default setting called lock on free aim in which you are able to free aim your weapon which can come in handy at times but is ultimately something veterans may find more use with especially in PVP where being able to aim may get you the hit rather than miss it. This is mostly useless of course against big, non agile enemies like bosses.
Late to the party on finding this video, but as a professional AI programmer for video games this video makes me cry inside because I understand why a lot of the AI bugs are happening, especially the pathing the ones. Assuming they used nav mesh, which is commonly used for pathing, the "square of torture" happens because they painted that area as somewhere the ai can't go. The ai perceive that square as a hole, there is nothing there they can walk on to them. They did that because at some point the square will open. However you can turn the pianter on and off so that way the ai will walk over it when it is closed and not mistakingly fall into to it when it is open.
This game is extremely janky and weird but it's still my favorite. It has the most build variety by far. Only in DkS2 can somebody beat your ass with a Dark-infused Ladle.
I agree with the build variety, its definitely very strong and is better than other games hugely in that department.
That's how I feel about DS1 remastered. DS2 feels better to play and less janky to me. To each his own
The only thing that would made me play this game again would be to try out different builds but at this point i already made every kind of build
This is what I love about it. I spent more time just PVPing in it on launch than I probably have playing the rest of the series all together, just because there was so many builds to try and experiment with. DS3 just had R1 spamming estocs and straight swords. Personally I thought it felt way better to control than either DS1 or DS3 but I will admit it took some getting used to coming off the first one.
@@SentientBratwurst I agree. I like the feel of the controls in DS2. Just finished 3 and something just didn't feel quite the same.
If i'm remembering correctly, i looked into the issue with the hitboxes when the game was still in it's prime. The community came up with 2 possible answers: either the collisions are proximity based (they're close enough so a hit is registered), or the scripting decided whether the hit landed at the very beginning of most animations. The most notorious example is the mimic grab.
Among the greatest videos I've ever seen. Exemplary argumentation and a clear example that sophistry will always lose when held up to scrutiny. Ironically your video makes me want to replay ds2, because I love the fact that it sucks
Ds2 suck if u suck at ds2
Troll?@@AtreyusNinja
I feel like the most backwards thing about ADP hasn't been mentioned yet:
It makes the game easier not because the player is getting good, but because of a stat increase. In all other souls games, the difficulty of the game increases over time to compensate for the stats you get by leveling up. Because of this, the game stays challenging from start to finish on a normal playthrough. Enemies you encounter later in game have more HP, absorb more damage, hit harder etc than enemies you encountered earlier. To compensate having more i-frames in later stages of the game, enemies would have to hit for LONGER with each attack. This is obviously not the case.
Even a player that doesn't learn from his mistakes, a player that doesn't get good, will have an objectively easier time towards the end of the game than in the beginning, thanks to this one stat. I feel like this is completely contrary to the design philosophy of the combat and therefore a massive shame.
piai55 good point I beat one a little bit ago and just finished all of fire fade edition of 3, bloodborne and am trying to get into this game and it feels so much more clunky but I guess I’ll push through and figure it out
This stat was a total fail. Invest in it and things can become a cakewalk, don't invest in it and some parts will be pure hell.
Yes. And Dark Souls 1 even acknowledges that with the Gargoyles by putting it with the SAME stats later in the game.
You are dealing more damage by this point and you should also be able to take more. Yet, by any mean, there's a good chance you won't even need it. Because the Gargoyles can't touch you anymore because you've internalized game mechanics and you know how to dodge every thing the simplistic Gargoyle pattern can throw at you.
On my first play through the game, I did something I am very proud of while seeing the Gargoyle when you meet another one. I ran back to the fire, put on ALL the gears that I had used to beat the Gargoyles on the church and I beat this one easily while having the same equipement as the first encounter.
I wanted to see if I was getting better at the game or if my equipement/stats were.
Turn out, it was me, I was getting better at this. And it showed. It also showed when I started a new character.
Pitty the second game never give you that.
like I think DS2 is complete shit but your point is just wrong you also got a lot stronger by increasing stats in the other games
I think I 4 hit the last boss in DS1 he could not even stagger me and I just crushed him with the dark knight great axe
and the enemies in DS2 also get stronger
@@peddazz2365 Evidently you did not really read or understand what I posted. Let me explain it again: In DS1 and DS3, no matter what stats you level up, there is a way for enemies to counteract it to a certain extent. You have basically 2 types of stats: you can either take more damage, or deal more damage. Which gets counteracted by the enemies dealing more damage or being able to take more damage. This is what you call standard, good game design. If you grind the shit out of the game of course you are going to break the balance the devs implemented into the game. Off the top of my head I cant even think of a single game implementing a similar system where this isn't true. You purposefully breaking the decently balanced ingame system is not bad game design. I doubt you would call Skyrim's, Borderlandses or Diablo's leveling system bad JUST BECAUSE you can out-level the enemies, just to name a few well known ones.
What IS bad game design is a system like the one in DS2: where you gain stats that enemies CAN NOT counteract. ADP can not be counterbalanced by the game, because enemies would have to hit LONGER.
Let me give you my actual real world example:
In DS2 I knew that ADP was the stat to go for because I had to google why my dodges just weren't working. The internet told me to dump a bunch of points into it early on and to not focus on anything else. The result I got was a game that had a spike in difficulty early and was ruined after my ADP dump. If DS1 or DS3 get so easy that it spoils the fun, I just stopped leveling my HP or Strength and let the enemies catch up (which didn't even take too long to be honest). The souls I invested into items, armor and weapons. In DS2 once you dumped too many points into ADP the only way to increase the difficulty that was lost thanks to enemies not being balanced around long dodge times is to delete your save file and start over.
This video is absolutely golden, I go to sleep to this.
I think the reason the enemies kill themselves so often is because they use the same 8-directional pathing you do. That and they’re just stupid.
it happen more often in ds3 wdym, ds2 enemies go around the elevator holes, in ds3 they just fall
same for elden ring, at least in ds2 they try to avoid the hole.
@@AtreyusNinja Did you watch the video? Give any examples of enemies in other Souls games acting the way they do in DS2.
Are you retarded?
@@Pikachuwhichissurprised In DS1 it's incredibly easy to bait just about every single skeleton in the catacombs to falling to their deaths in some way
@@joshwenn989 I'd credit that more to their kamikaze diving attack and the sheer amount of cliffs in that area than bad AI.
A new fan here and this is the first Dark Souls game I play and finished. I sighed of relief when I find out the hitboxes, AI, and Health Reduction mechanic are actually real downsides and are not actually the main reasons of why the game is challenging. I thought DS2:SOTFS is already a masterclass in giving the whole Dark Souls experience.
After learning some objective flaws and also having experienced it myself, I'm kinda hyped for other installments in the series that will deliver what this game didn't.