Yes yes yes like all the cool hipsters it's awesome to rag on that particular transition (there are more guys, diversify a bit) and say DS 2 level design sucks, but let me ilustrate yahtzee's point for all of you:Kitsune Hunter said:Wait a minute, DS2 had level design?.... Really? That's news to me, because it looked to me B team had no idea what they were doing. Just look at the transition from Earthen Peak to Iron Keep, it's nonsensical
Also that ending analogy about the DLC was brilliant
Dark souls 2 levels: abandoned town which splits into several paths with the following enviroments. Path 1: forest with ruined castle OR ruins at sea into pirate cove both leading to a seaside cliff prison/fortress. Path 2: decrepit forest with coloseum into cave system into a quary, leading into a giant windmill/tower filled with poison then leading into a lava covered castle sitting in the caldera of a volcano. Path 3: sewer descent into forgotten tomb into underground corrupted village into corrupted cavern. Path 4: another forest though forest with ruins this time, into underground caverns of an ancient civilization into mining village taken over by spiders and mutants. Now for the endgame paths: Path 5 from path 4 forest into gothic cathedral/castle into caverns with watter into crypt complex. Path 6: from path 4 forest to mansion/mad doctor laboratory to mountaintop dragon nests to ancient lair/sanctuary for dragons. And then the end-game backtrack.
Now compare to Dark souls 3: old graveyard with large cetral tomb that is firelink to gothic cathedral/castle city lothric to abandoned undead vilalge that of course has a gothic cathedral to forest with ruins (to ANOTHER gothic cathedral) to forest with ruins AND swamp to crypt complex (to underwatter lake/more crypt complex) to ANOTHER gothic town+cathedral to path 1: ANOTHER gothic cathedral/palace and also shameless ripoff of dark souls 1 area; path 2: prison complex (to dragon sanctuary) to underground gothic ruins. Backtrack to the first gothic cathdral/town area (lothric) and then (to corrupted garden to carbon copy of abandoned graveyard that the first area was but with no light) to gothic castle to gothic library to endgame area. the parts in () are the optional/secondary areas.
Are you begining to see the problem. Shriek all you want about non-sensical transitions, dark souls 2 rarely repeats itself in architecture and theme. Dark souls 3 on the other hand looks like someone is displeased he can't make more of bloodborne and reverts to gothic cathedral place every 2 seconds.
Oh and to the people complaining about linearity: Dark souls 2 has PATHS you can follow, it has several directions you can travel in (all the directions are a straight line to the end then port to firelink mind you). What does dark souls 3 have? One big giant straight line to travel down with the ocasional 30 minute side room. Oh but the path is all bendy and spiraly now so of course it's not linear anymore ... yeah right.
EDIT: and while I am here, let's shatter something else for you. Namely "dark souls 3 has excelent new boss design! No more dudes in armor!". Oh? have we been playing the same game? Let's go down the list. Gundyr: dude in armor that in phase 2 becomes blob monster; Vordt: dude in armor but but but he's walking like a dog, that's like totaly different guys!; Cursed Greatwood: giant tree with balls you have to pop (ok so wow 3 boses in finaly not a dude in armor); crystal sage: dude in robe; deacons: dudes in robes; abys watchers: dudes in armor; wolnir: giant skeleton in armor; old deamon king: asylum demon but grey; sulyvahn: dude in armor; aldrich: snake; yorhm: giant dude in armor; nameless king: dude in armor riding drake; dancer: dudette in armor on all fours; oceiros: dragon/dude hybrid; gundyr 2.0: dude in armor with no blob transion; Old Dragonslayer Armor: dude in armor; twin princess: dude in armor+dude in robe; Soul of Cinder: dude in armor.
Yeah ... Dark souls 3 is totaly NOT filled with dudes in armor for bosses. I mean they make up the majority but hey ... umm ... they are somewhat different now? (and yeah fine, vordt and the dancer at least have a somewhat differnt move-set than your standard dude in armor, but visualy I feel like I'm watching a mediaval plate armor fashion show with the ocasional body horror boss)