**Likes:**
- Wider array of weapons and movesets and weapons feel a lot better balanced this time around mostly
- Most levels are really awesome looking and lots of fun places to explore and find loot
- world death counter in Majula
- wide array of NPCs to find in the world
- improvements to dual wielding and magic
- The world is bigger
- More bosses to fight than other games and a wide variety of boss types/strategies
- Enemies are more aggressive and will chase you for a longer period of time than previous souls games which makes the challenge greater
- Healing is a slower over time thing that makes healing more tactical and harder to do increasing the challenge
- Message system expanded upon to allow more customization in your messages
- More traps and ambushes and different kinds of ambushes than prior games making you ever vigilant or you'll die
- Being able to drop your soul sign down and run all over the area and passed fog gated areas and not have it disappear (so long as you don't homework bone or warp)
- Covenants are more interesting than before and all focused around some aspect of PVP
- For example, I love the Rat King Covenant and how you can change your area to increase the difficulty of it with traps and enemies. But if you leave the covenant, those areas stay hard for you. No stopping the traps.
- Non-Boss Enemy HP and Locations are saved if you are summoned or quit the game. Means you can't cheese the game's enemies by quitting out but it also means you aren't punished helping other people while working on an enemy.
- Weapon durability is used up faster (less durability on most weapons) than Dark Souls 1 means you have to be more mindful of your attacks and be ready to switch out weapons for others.
- Hallowing system is a lot more in line with the lore which is pretty cool.
- 4 rings up from 2 is an interesting way to customize your character more so and none of the rings feel so OP that they are MUST wears at all times (minus the ring of life protection which is stupid, I refuse to use it on principle).
- incense system is really neat way to make some spells more viable for more builds.
- Controller vibrates when summoned or invaded or invading which is nice if you are waiting awhile and change to watch TV while waiting or just not paying attention to the game so to let you know another way beyond visual that something happened in your game.
- Jumping being on L3 instead of Circle for PS3 makes for way more comfortable controls to jump with your character (much of an improvement to Dark Souls and for those comfortable with Dark Souls having circle be jump as well as roll can still bind it that way, great for all)
- Things change in NG+ more than just increased enemy HP and damage. That makes you have to still be careful instead of knowing the areas and being able to rush them in NG+ as easy as if it was NG. That's a great thing that adds to the life of a game with an already huge length to it (so awesome).
- Character customization is better than the others (nice to have beards and facial hair). Could use more options tbh, but that's always been kinda "ehhh" in the Souls series. But still great the more customization we have. Would be nice if they patched in more looks.
- Can select how many soul items you wanna use at once (so no more going to hit a button 100 times for all the soul items, can just use all of the same type at once).
- I like that you don't have to quit and load or change the area for the crows in this game. Was a bit of a nuisance in the other souls games.
- Status effects are more interesting and unique compared to one another than in previous souls games (poison, toxic, bleed, curse, etc are all very different from one another).
**Dislikes:**
- Input lag (sometimes menus or actions don't happen when I want them to, mostly seems to happen with the menus, not the combat, though when it does like switching between my dual wielding and one handing, it can be slow to switch and fucking screws me in PVP.)
- Some of the hitboxes/attacks are off, where I should hit but I don't (possibly the Direct Hit not working right, sure it should be less damage with the tip of some weapons only hit, but they still hit)
- Limited Enemy Respawns (I'll get to this in a bigger section below)
- absolutely HATE that you have to keep NPCs alive for 3 boss fights to get their quests done. Especially when their AI is absolute GARBAGE! It's not a fair kind of challenge, it's another bullshit RNG kinda challenge.
- Enemies still have wall clipping attacks (was a problem since Demon's Souls, wish they'd finally fix it)
- Some of the level design doesn't feel as intricate and interesting as Dark Souls 1, likely due to the being able to warp from the start leading to level design not having to connect as well as in Dark Souls 1 with secret/fast paths
- Multiplayer feels less active (not nearly invaded as much as on Dark Souls or even Demon's Souls release, though signs are prevalent, getting summoned is far less for me than even being invaded, Demon's Souls and Dark Souls had more co-op for me even years after their release)
- Soul Memory leaves to unfair PVP where someone is WAY higher level than others (levels don't matter too much against most bosses, but against other players? yep).
- Enemy (player and NPC) arrows will curve at you and follow you a little bit (Dark Souls 1 and Demon's Souls had that too, never liked it, felt unfair and not accurate to arrows)
- Covenants don't have a means to farm items to rank them up in case you can't get online for some reason (perhaps in the future when the servers are taken down). Dark Souls 1 at least allowed you to rank up every covenant (with some minor exceptions) offline fine.Not a huge thing, but I like to think about the long term when the servers are offline or if my internet derps for awhile. Also sucks for the PVP ones that require you to PVP to level up, but if you can't do that because you're too far high in the soul memory/levels then you're not going to be able to rank up the covenants.
- Blade of the Darkmoon's Souvenirs of Reprisals could be farmed in Painted World
- Warrior of Sunlight's medals could be farmed in Lost Izalith by Chaos Bugs
- Darkwraith and Chaos Servents required humanity (farmable from rats, baby skeletons before Nito, etc)
- Gravelord Servent's Eye of Death were farmable from Basilisks in the Depths and Great Hallow
- Path of the Dragon's Dragon Scales farmable from Drakes in Valley of the Drakes
- Still can't give Covenants their items more than one at a time (sucked in DkS 1, sucks here too)
- Has some glitches still
- Smelter Demon does a knock back attack that gets you stuck in a wall.
- Falling in some areas can get you stuck on a wall that will get you killed (did this in Doors of Pharros)
- Sounds in the game will sometimes not play properly or at all.
- While there are lots of bosses with lots of strategies that can work, most seem to just be "circle around them to the right (sometimes left) and hit at opportune moments." Kinda dull once you figure that out.
- Ring of Life Protection is a little too strong. in Dark Souls 1 you only had limited amounts of rings to use to not lose souls, but now this basically has infinite uses. Yes you have to go repair them, but it's lame when tied together with the limited respawn system makes death have NO penalty really other than an annoyance (basically like every other modern game).
- While AI can be more aggressive which is good, sometimes they are very dumb and will just walk/run/back off cliffs making it more easily exploitable than the other Souls games (though Souls games have always had some exploitable AI which sucks)
- Bonfires are a little TOO generous in Dark Souls 2. They are way more prevalent and make things a little too easy.
- No patches
truly sad. Sure there's pate and creigh and such, but theere's no Patches
- Hidden doors having both a hit with weapon (like prior series souls games) and a "hit X (or A, whatever) button" to use is a but pointless and can be frustrating with the message system.
- Poise feels a little too weak in Dark Souls 2 compared to 1. It doesn't need to be AS strong as Dark Souls 1 necessarily, but should be better than it is.
- It's bad that crystal lizards have gone back to Demon's Souls "items must be picked up" instead of Dark Souls "upon killing, insta-gets the loot" considering the way they are. But hey, at least it's not as bad as in Demon's Souls where if they run off they die for good and you can't get em again (well if you deplete their respawn counter).
- The game's story is seriously lackluster and not at all interesting and the lore is not as impressive as Dark Souls 1 or Demon's Souls (amusing considering you'd think being able to use all of Dark Souls 1 lore to add to this would make it better, sadly it's not)
**Mixed Thoughts:**
- Effigies are hard to come by which is good cause it means you need to be more careful, but sucks at the same time cause your character is more undead looking than alive and that was something I recall DkS1 dev team saying they weren't happy with. There is another way to become human, but ya.
- Can PVP with people's signs when you're hallowed, but not summon anyone. Might have been nice to summon people when you've only died a few times, but at the same time, would make things possibly too easy so a bit mixed on wanting to summon others (well NPCs for quests), but not wanting to make it easier either.
- Helping players does NOT help you revive to human form like previous Souls series. Which I kinda don't like cause I enjoyed helping other people to revive. But at the same time it can help you revive as if you put a small soap sign down you'll get a stone you can trade to the crows to possibly get you a Human Effigy. But then it becomes an RNG thing and I really hate RNG in that way.
- NPCs killed can be accessed still via grave stone. Kinda sucks cause in other games it made the game far more punishing if you did kill them by closing off the things they offered, but it's also good cause sometimes people died due to putting controller down and accidently killing/hitting them. Though I think it's more bad they did this than good since you can reset your hate NPCs have against you.
- NG+ having new enemies and strats are great, but sometimes it feels like they made NG a little easier than it could have been to move it into NG+. Also not a huge fan of NG+ having all the items because I personally like to get EVERYTHING in NG and then have NG+ be my real fun of just romping through the game and not caring about picking up everything as heavily and completing every sidequest.
**What I'd Have Liked:**
- Trapped chests and mimics should be random chests (with someway to tell visually or hitting it once obviously) instead of always the same chests each play through
- online play was expanded more. Like anyone of any level/soul memory could see your sign down for PVP or co-op and the game (for co-op at least) would scale your damage done/taken bsaed on the level of the person who summons you (to avoid summoning others who are way higher level and having them truly stomping a boss hard. For PVP I think having it be any level (but display the level to pick and choose) is fine (that is for the red soap sign). For invaders, keep the system where they have to be with 10% of your level plus or minus.
- Woulda been nice if they had the game remember the option for items you had last so you could keep the cursor on "leave" instead of the default "top" with "use" so you can speed up the process more. Basically cursor placement memory.
So far that's my list of things I like and dislike and mixed thoughts and what I'd have liked to seen done. Most of the dislikes are really minor or issues the other series had anyways or issues that can be easily patched (the intricate level design can't be, but it's not BAD level design either, it's still good, just not as good as Dark Souls 1 I think). But the two that really get to me are the soul memory bs that seem to affect online play and the limited respawns which is just at terrible system in general. Soul memory we need some more experimenting with, but for the limited respawns? Well here are my thoughts on that:
**Limited Respawn System**
The limited respawn system is the biggest problem in Dark Souls 2 as it's a system entirely against the very staple of the Souls series to date. The staple of the series has always been punishingly hard and uncompromising. You were to improve and learn and work around enemies and levels in Demon's Souls and Dark Souls or you didn't advance at all. A limited respawning system leads the player only having to bash their head against the wall hard enough and eventually the enemies just stop respawning and being obstacles to even have to maneuver around on the way to the boss of the level. People argue that it doesn't make things easier, but it really does. You reach a boss with more consumables to use that help survive the boss when you have less enemies to possibly use up your consumables. It also makes the rat king covenant (and invading in general) far less enjoyable because part of the fun is having the NPCs to use against players is part of the fun. Impatient players that think they should charge you into the NPCs to finish you off is a very fun aspect of the online (don't complain about dishonorable PVP, if you want honorable PVP there are other ways for that in Dark Souls 2).
Further more, the arguments I have heard from such people in favor of it seem shortsighted or not understanding the souls series at all. Such arguments are as followed
- "Limited respawn means less enemies to farm souls and level up"
Yes, this is true, if levels meant as much in the Souls series as they do in say Final Fantasy or Dragon's Quest or Dragon's Dogma or anything. Levels eventually stop mattering as much because of diminishing returns in Souls series and the fact that a single level doesn't give as big a boost to your stats as it does in other RPGs. Yes, levels will help, but not nearly as big a factor as other RPGs. The other problem with this argument is that it ignores that souls are still very easily farmed with online co-op. Helping people with bosses and levels and that has no limit. So really, it doesn't stop from farming levels at all. And if you really wanted to stop farming of souls, why not leave the respawning in tact, but lower or remove the dropping of souls after awhile? Still, it doesn't matter if people wanted to farm souls, as I stated, the levels eventually stop making a big difference (They certainly won't help you much in NG+ and beyond anyways)
- "It emphasizes less on grinding and encourages people to move on to see more levels"
I'll ask you, why do you think people weren't moving on in other Souls games? If it was because they were having too hard a time with a boss and couldn't beat the area, that's just the experience of a Souls game. If you think it's because they wanted to stay in that area because they liked farming there for whatever reason, why is that a problem? It's their personal play style. And if it's because that's the ONLY place to farm an item and you think that's bad, then make it so the item can drop in more areas of the game if they want more people to see everything. But there's no evidence that people weren't exploring everywhere in the Souls series so far. As long as they learned and adapted to the game, they were able to progress. And this limited respawns requires less learning to be needed overall, just enough zerging down of an area to remove all the challenge from the area.
- "It makes the game harder becaues they can't farm items"
Which items do you think any enemy has dropped in a souls series that would so game breakingly good that it turns the game into easy mode as soon as a player gets it? There is none. There are good items they can drop, but many don't get good until they are leveled up anyways. And even then, you can beat the souls games by learning patterns and dodging well enough with your bare fists (there are runs of this happening on youtube you can check out and I know I've done it with Dark Souls 1 and Demon's Souls). All it does is punish players who want to collect every item and they might do it for completionist sake, not for the sake of having an OP item.
- "Bonfire Ascetics respawn the enemies anyways, so it's still an option to farm fine"
Bonfire ascetics aren't in infinite supply and they don't just respawn the enemies, they respawn NG+ enemies. While you might go "hah, you don't want it harder" I don't think that. It's fine that they are harder (usually just means more health and more damage anyways, means more emphasis on dodging and timing attacks and just more swings, that's fine). But the problem is this then screws over players who want to upgrade all the weapons and test them all against the same enemy. It's going to screw over that player that likes to test everything and they need a good base case. If every enemy's stats are changing as you have to use a bonfire ascetic (which, again, is in short supply in the game anyways) then you can't get a proper base case to test against and your tests are ultimately pointless. And if you love the bonfire ascetic system so much, why not have the reverse? Why not let enemies respawn and have an item that stops them from respawning? That way a player having particular trouble in an area can make JUST that area easier on them and move onto the boss (though I still am against this as that goes against the staple of the Souls series I stated above).
- "The other Souls games had some limited respawning enemies"
Emphasis on some. They were not meant to be there at all points to make it challenging, just a one time challenge thing. They were mini-bosses, not regular enemies. They just didn't get a cutscene and the same treatment as regular bosses. And they didn't have to be a problem against RNG for their item drops because From made it so the very last one in the game would drop, 100%, the items they had to offer if you didn't already get them.
Really, this system doesn't offer itself well to the Souls series. It just makes an area easier for players, screws over players who like to get all the items (making them more reliant on RNG which sucks) or screws over players who want to test things against the same base case and it doesn't have a good arguement as to why it should be implemented beyond "it helps new players have an easier time" and, as I said, that's not how the Souls series has been. Dark Souls did not compromise itself nor did Demon's Souls for the players who were having a hard enough time. This compromises the essence of the series all for the players who are having a tough time with a level and want things easier.
Also found here: http://www.reddit.com/r/DarkSouls2/comments/20m08s/my_thoughts_on_dark_souls_2/
