I think what I'm starting the realize is that DS2 designers want you to explore these levels much slower and methodically than either DS1 or DS3. These "gank" mobs only really feel cheap if youre not expecting them your first time running through or youre rushing. If you take the time to check your blind spots and agro enemies one by one, it's fairly easy to manage. Not to mention you get out with a lot more souls. However, it is kind of riding against an engrained player habit to run past and ignore areas once you've been through once and rush to the boss. DS2 doesn't really allow you to do that.
Once you know where chokepoints and ambushes are it's easy to run through to the boss. Running through levels is only hard if it's a new level and you don't yet know how to navigate it.
@@Domo3000 Certainly to an extent, however, it is undeniable from my recent experience playing both DS1 and DS2 back to back, that enemies tend to mob up and follow you for much longer distances than they do in the previous game when you're attempting to rush to a boss. Not to mention how certain mobs seem to be designed to block your path on the way back to get you caught and overwhelmed. It forced me to resort to traversing slow each and every time to ensure I don't die.
Also worth noting that actually a boon in DS2's favor is the ability to farm out the enemy's respawns until they stop. This means that (assuming you're not just in the covenant of champions making the game harder lol), you actually can have a free run back. In this regard it actually has better boss run backs then DS1/DS3. I can't say Elden ring cuz....stakes of Merica exist and I haven't actually played demon souls or bloodborne (I'm a pc player lol). I remeber during my playthrough on vanilla I did this multiple times, however it is decently time consuming.
@@Domo3000 I was more so counting this in comparison to both DS3 and DS1, where evreything respawning is infinite. I think the covenant of champions is a pain point for me, because it just means "Oh you want to farm? Well evreything hits harder and has more HP!" in terms of actually farming items, and DS2 does actually have a lot of cool items to get via drops.
"I'm just learning that there is no reason to go through these levels slowly, since there is a cheap death hidden around every corner" - says the person that constantly rushes through new areas and aggroes the whole level instead of just taking it slow and keeping his eyes open which would have prevented all those 'cheap deaths'
Also worth mentioning, something I see a lot of players doing. Running to the boss immediately instead of killing the enemies in their path. Like, you can have a much easier time if you simply farm an area completely dry before taking on the boss. The enemies stop respawning after you've killed them 12 or 15 times. Although this isn't really necessary in areas were the runback to the boss is not very long (or littered with enemies)
@@facundomontivero2299 I think this is a case of other souls games having bad design. In basically all the other fromsoft titles to my knowledge, as soon as you hit A on the fog gate or a big cinematic door you're invulnerable. They intentionally or not reward players for running through a level, whereas DS2 in response tried to make running through a level as hard as possible.
@@facundomontivero2299 it's the same with players complaining how unfair it is that they can get attacked while opening a chest Why would someone open a chest while running away from enemies, and then complain how unfair it is that it didn't magically make them invulnerable? They haven't even earned that chest yet by clearing the level
That tree room at the start of Forest of Fallen Giants is honestly brilliant in Scholar. Teaches you to take things slow with a methodical approach (plus a bonfire just before for easy retries). This is such great lesson for the rest of the game as infamous areas like Heide's Tower of Flame, Iron Keep and Shrine of Amana are made exponentially easier if you just take your time.
it's literally a teaching moment 90% of players REFUSED to learn. it's supposed to teach you two lessons: 1. Be cautious and attentive to your surroundings and anything that looks suspicious 2. don't just run directly for the fog wall, it's a recipe for disaster. it's a really good moment that improved on the same area in ds2v where there was just one challenging enemy you could choose to fight
@@yikes6758yeah that's why I used it as an example to show that Scholar better prepares players for the ambushes that happen later in the game. Vanilla also has plenty of ambushes and traps, but Scholar has been teaching players from the beginning to play carefully and pay attention to their surroundings. It also punishes greedily running towards the items without paying any attention, which again helps a lot further into the game - like for the spider trap chest gank.
I preferred the vanilla one Heide Knight at that area. They killed it for me. It was a great mystery that Heide Knight were so rare in this world. They just removed him and copied pasted him in another area multiple times.
idk what are you all smoking I played ds2 like I played all the other games, where is this methodical approach coming from?? or not running trough the level considered methodical now?
It's baffling how someone can someone can go on for so long about how a game lacks a certain kind of design, only for that design to actually be present at every turn. Makes you wonder what part of these games he actually enjoys compared to what he thinks he likes. 🤔
I agree that most playthroughs I see, people just rush to the boss and get ganged. That's not how I play, I like slow and methodical,, and the last time I played both vanilla and scholar, I had very few deaths. But I hate they created two versions of the game and I am also an outlier that I don't like most of the changes from the original. They should have just stick to the original or at least I would exclude most of the changes and keep few. I am even wondering if it's possible to have a mod with a definite mix between the two, but then who's gonna decide what are the best changes?
@@darkbugo7212 Scholar is objectively the better version. Maybe not every change you agree with, but if you weigh every single change, vanilla is absolutely inferior.
Pretty ironic how DS3 convinced fans that harder bosses make the better game and the levels should be cakewalks with the occasional troll trap or they bring the game down. DS2 levels can be annoying, but most of them can be solved with just being careful.
I'm exaggerating obviously, I don't think that many souls fans actually think this way but its a sentiment I see pretty often online when people compare DS2 to DS3.
I mean ds3 bosses aren't really that much harder than ds2 sotfs bosses. The harder ds3 bosses tend to overwhelm you with speed, combo and AOE spams, like sister friede phase 3, gundyr phase 2, dancer phase 2, ociros, etc. The real harder bosses like nameless king or the twin demons are more in tune with dark souls speeds. And unlike ds2 sotfs bosses, there's no hard mode or harder way of beating a boss, like fume knight with healing or beating alonne without getting hit to get the secret death animation
Falsely accusing the game of being unfair is a great coping mechanism for severe skill issues "In Dark Souls 2s case the player will realize that the developers intention was for them to die no matter how much they try to learn" - says the person that clearly never learned anything from their mistakes and always rushed blindly through new areas
I almost skipped DS2 because of liars like this!!!! There are absolutely problems with the game but the way they make it sound made it seem like it wasn't even worth playing.
@mauricioaguirre7532, "you see the Irrthyil Dungeon gank with jailers is proof why DS3 is a masterpiece, whereas the early ogre encounter in forest of the fallen giants is proof of why DS2 is the worst game"
Honestly I personally found it so disingenuous with his comment that you "get alot of time wasted" when he died in that house that is only like 5 seconds away from the bonfire 😂. This dude clearly doesn't expect his audience to have ever played the game
The person who act like this game is very cheap despite the fact dude this is actually the only Souls game you can level up without encountering a boss or finishing a certain event like literally entire Miyazaki soulsborne. Demon's Souls 1 you always have to encounter the fake first boss and kill the real first boss to level up even A New Game Plus. Dark Souls 1 you always have to kill the Asylum Demon to get out the Asylum to level up intentionally without any bugs. Bloodborne you have to encounter a boss to get insight to activate the Doll to level up. Dark Souls 3 you have to fight a boss to level up Elden Ring you have to encounter a boss to level up because there is no walking past that grafted freak without death even at victory. Dark Souls 2 literally just walk past the tutorial and immediately go to Majula to instantly get access to level up without encountering or fighting in the bosses to do it. Like people really underestimate how nice Dark Souls 2 is really is the fact they are actually generous enough to let you level up before any conflicts and the only soulsborne in the series you can talk to their ghosts to be not completely screwed from their shops. Soulsborne game let you buy life gem and let you buy normal infinite life gem which would have been very useful for Elden Ring since that game has a lot of dungeons that yet to go through the place that would consume a lot of resources for fighting the boss. Like seriously they have no idea how generous Dark Souls 2 is...
It's also very generous with how little leveling up costs. A warrior leveling up 50 times costs a total of 162k and 100 times costs 732k. In DS1 it would cost 324k to level up a Warrior 50 times and 100 times already 2.2 million. The exponential cost increase is much lower in DS2 than in the other games, and you also get a lot more Souls, especially early on. Last Giant gives 10k Souls, Dragonrider 12k and Pursuer gives 17k. In DS1 Asylum Demon gives 2k, Taurus Demon 3k, and Capra Demon 6k So leveling up in DS2 costs less, and you also get a lot more Souls. You get like twice as many levels compared to the other games.
@@Domo3000DS2 haters: that is so bad and clearly shows how the B Team got Lord Miyazaki's vision completely wrong. Your supposed to kill the same tutorial boss over and over again with no option to skip when your finally bored to death! Enemies and early bosses shouldn't drop so many souls to allow you to not only level up faster but gain equipment necessary for your build at the early game to enjoy it, YOUR SUPPOSED TO ENJOY THAT PRIVILEGE WHEN YOU HAVE ALREADY BEATEN THE GAME SO THEN YOU CAN HAVE FUN WITH ONLY HALF A BUILD IN NG+ UNTIL YOU BEAT ALL THE BOSSES AGAIN JUST TO GET THE OTHER ITEMS YOU MISSED BECAUSE THE GAMES WOULDN'T LET YOU FACE A BOSS AGAIN!! THAT IS BAD GAME DESIGN!!
I don't actually think that's an issue though for any of those games, espically because, assuming you don't farm, you ABSOUTLELY won't have enough souls to level up more then once or twice. Even for DS2, this is a thing. You might have enough souls to level up once or twice but that's about it post turtorial. I also FULLY disagree with infinite life gems being generous, as genuinely playing without life gems feels worse and if you get stuck somewhere, more healing is always gonna help. If you need more healing, guess what? You can go farm!
@@scorpiowarrior7841 No trust me the infinite life gems is generous especially the cost of it is very very very very very cheap compared to Bloodborne main way of healing you have to farm them and the game will punish you for progressing the game too fast because bloodborne be the only soulsborne in the series to have a progression economy that the prices get progressively more worser the more you progress. Which kind of forces you to rely on PlayStation Plus just to get access to the online chalice dungeons with the power of the come chalice! For the sake of saving Time of your Life. However the life gems stay the same and the only thing has that similar concept is the bright bug stuf, but honestly I feel like later soulsborne games should strive for Dark Souls 2 style of healing well in the sense of only the good side of it like having a main rechargeable healing item like the flask with dark souls 1/3 Elden ring speed of healing and a good chunk of consumables.
Dark Souls 2: SotFS is an incredible game. By far my favorite souls game outside of Elden Ring. I've found much criticism towards Ds2 comes from a lack of skill.
I don't like every change Scholar made, but I do think it overall improved the game. In most cases, I feel like Scholar's most questionable changes were those that were done as a "quick fix" to elements they were unhappy with resulting from the game's troubled development. For instance, the movement of the "Dull Ember" from Iron Keep to The Tower Apart. It makes sense for it to be in Iron Keep, McDuff asks for flame and there's no place in the game with more of it, it's a clear connection players can draw to solve that puzzle. Contrast this with The Tower Apart, which...is pretty close to McDuff for him to not have just grabbed it himself and has no connection to fire. It's very odd for it to be there. At best, you can theorize it a sort of storeroom with supplies for the Bastille, though that's stretching quite a bit. But it's also well-known that the order of levels in DS2 is not even close to what was planned for most of development. I imagine when McDuff and the "Dull Ember" were decided upon the progression path looked very different, and the Scholar change was done to more closely mirror that path with the intent for player experience, even at the cost of cohesion. When you're done with this, do you have any intention of tackling any of the game's other common criticisms? Typically I hear complaints about DS2 being "ganky" or having "bad hitboxes"...but I've never felt it was any noticeably better or worse in either of those regards than the other Souls games, and Scholar largely addressed the former with more thought-out encounters.
Yeah, the Ember makes sense in probable progression sense, not so much location/theme sense. As for addressing "ganky" or "hitboxes" I too would love for comparisons of ganks between ds1, ds2 and ds3. They also have done some hitbox comparisons, posted on reddit, that DO compare between the games, and it's really interesting seeing most hitboxes are actually better matching in DS2 than DS1, and especially better than DS3. The reason they look/feel wonky in DS2 comes down to animation queues, where the rolling animation is queued to complete EVEN IF you get hit by a grab, so the grab animation happens after the roll animation and it looks bad. If the queue system were like Ds3's then it'd cancel the roll animation and one would see that they just rolled poorly.
the Lost Sinner has the souls of the Witch of Izalith, a very fiery character. on the other hand, Iron Keep's whole theme is metalworks and smithing (and the Old Iron King has the souls of Gwyn). both placements make sense lore-wise to some extent, one is just less obvious, but makes more sense in terms of level progression. speculating about the original order of levels is pointless anyway because the whole game doesn't resemble what was originally planned. for example, McDuff was supposed to be young Lenigrast. how does that play into the order of levels? it doesn't. many of the different areas were supposed to be the same places, but just in different times. DS2 has issues, and it's pointless to deny it. we like the game because its other qualities are more important to us. it's fair to criticize the game for its flaws, but I wish DS2-haters stopped acting as if it personally insulted them.
Ok, but we've seen games with far more troubled development come out pretty great. Halo 2 had most of its content rewritten and/or scrapped including its finale. Yet its pretty good. Cp2077 and NMS both had extremely bad dev cycles. Look where they are now, with NMS being great. Fromsoft could've slowly, over the years, kept improving scholar with updates such as fixing its lighting and textures, improving combat encounters, adding more environmental details, etc. I mean the team working on NMS was pretty small too. Distance is an indie game and also came out in 2014. Yet, it STILL got an update in 2024 that added new levels, fixed/improved the visuals of some levels, etc. The troubled development cycle isn't an excuse anymore since its been a decade for fromsoft to fix some of the issues of these games. Even simple things like option to zoom out camera or unlock FPS (better used in ds3) could've been implemented.
But I am sure he would say your argument is invalid because it's "his playstyle" to be a f*cking dumass and intentionally run into a giant blob of enemies. I also realised that this argument of his he straight up debunks in his own video because he shows footage of him fighting the enemies. I thought he hates fighting enemies and just likes to run through the levels? I completed the game numerous times with broken sword or no bonfire+death challenge and I can easily run through levels to a boss without fighting anyone.
Also even if you die to a gank ... The next time you come around that corner you know what to expect and can handle the situation better. Isnt that what Dark Souls as a whole teaches?
Well you see that's fine in other games, like in Bloodborne, when you get to Hypeogen Gael and open that door that leads to blackbeast Pearl then get grabbed by an unsuspecting witch who probably kills you with no hint given, then its the game punishing you for being "careless". But when DS2 throws you several weak hollows who only aggro when you get near them, then it isn't fair
Dude you think killing 8 enemies 12 times in a area is fun? Hell no!!!!! The game is slow and your character is slower enemies are only strong because of unreasonable ganks spamming bs attack especially when a game hitbox is worst than the og ds game
@@KingfAce-qb9xkYou just exposed your ignorance. DS2 actually has the best hitboxes. Domo has a video on that with irrefutable proof. And what's this "killing 12 times thing"? You don't have to kill them 12 times unless you want the to stop respawning, which is completely a YOU decision. You don't have to do that. "The game is slow", okay, that's fair. That doesn't mean it's bad. I like the slower, methodical gameplay of 2. Not a bad thing, just an personal opinion."unreasonable ganks spamming BS attack". You're gonna have to elaborate.
@@Xeno_Solarus ds2 has the best hitbox? Are you for real? I been hit by a overhead frontal attack even if im already 90 degrees from his attack. Tell me is it fun killing 12 same enemies over and over? Because this game isn't design for you to rush to the boss area you need to clear this boring over crowded enemies one at a time because rushing is a suicide. The main issue in this shtty game is the game is tiring these piece of sht annoying enemies are boring to fight and the bosses are a joke. I only had a rough time against that flaming ah in the iron keep because I'm already half max hp. So my point is the game is not hard It's tiring and you don't get any reward like battling an epic boss at the end of level they're so easy.
Honestly this brought up so many good points. if you play through this game, paying attention and watching for ambushes its so much more manageable. The first area is to force you to learn and the fact that they're still complaining about "unfair ambushes" dozens of hours into the game really says a lot more about the player's inability to learn more than it does about the games design.
Also: a casual thinking that Vanilla is better because it felt easier to him as he started it after already having finished Scholar several times Of course many ambushes felt easier in Vanilla if he already ran into them in Scholar, but that doesn't mean that they are in any way better designed.
@@Domo3000 There's also that he plays Scholar in NG+. Because the game is basically the same, right? No, this is DS2, it isn't the same. That's what's so cool about NG+ in DS2. So one has to approach comparisons of areas differently in terms of enemy health and damage alone. It's a very bad video.
I think that the only gank that I really dislike is the three turtle knights that jump from the roof. Those guys are very tanky and deadly early on, specially if you don't have access to strike damage
@bigdumbfatcat2869 You can also jump to the other side to get away far enough to heal, and there's a bonfire, so if you die, you don't have to run for a long time back
@@bigdumbfatcat2869 also: the explosive barrels are only here in Scholar. One of the many encounters that's easier to handle in Scholar if you use the environment to your advantage where Vanilla didn't even give you that possibility
@@ulaznar that is true but thankfully that invader was particularly weak to counter damage and would get stunlocked everytime he pulled out a soul greatsword, so I didn't die to him first time
Neither is better, I have two games in my mind. FromSoft should have never made a version so vastly different than the first one, it's like two different worlds in my mind. Whenever I play either of them I am like "Wait a minute, I remember there was an enemy here and a different item there". I don't know if I remember wrongly from either of the two versions and I hate a lot of changes in the new one while I like few.
souls "fans" when people disparage the difficulty of the games in general: fuckin scrub casuals git gud haha those same "fans" when people say dark souls 2 is unfair: SO TRUE bullshit game fake difficulty bad design its too haaaarrd
DS2 using bosses as normal enemies: "so goddam lazy and cheap B TEAM!!" DS1, DS3, Bloodborne and ER doing the same thing: "a showcase of just how far you come that enemies that were previously bosses are now just fodder for you to dispatch as your power grows, PRAISE LORD MIYAZAKI!!! 👏"
@YEY0806 a lot of hardcore DS 2 haters seem to hate elden ring too, and ive seen them invoke elden ring reusing bosses in their reasoning. more things change...
@@dagothkronk348 yeah I seen that the community do actually engage in critical analysis of Elden Ring, at launch despite it being received favourably there were still and even now critiques that criticised the game design, boss design and RPG design. In my opinion I think the Elden Ring community is alot more self aware when it comes to flaws in the game as compared to for example DS1 or Bloodborne fans. I think It was disingenuous of me to include Elden Ring, since alot of prominent people are critical of that
Have vou addressed the claim that DS2 "teachs you" to ignore enemies and run to the bosses? It''s something that the DS2 haters repear nonstop on their videos, I've never ever on my life heard someone get a game this wrong and backwards.
I tried to address it over the course of the video. Like in the very first clip he's complaining that the game teaches him to just run past enemies and how unfair it is that he gets ganked, but that exact situation would have been prevented if he simply did not rush.
But honestly, there's enough for another video: "does Scholar really teach you to ignore enemies and rush through areas" I just have to brainstorm a list of all the examples of where the game explicitly teaches you not to rush through new areas by actively punishing not paying attention. It could also fit well together with his clips of the second half of Iron Keep, because he regularly got stuck at the guillotine with a group of Alonne Knights behind him instead of just taking care of the enemies by using the traps to his advantage once.
I agree like.. I have no idea how anyone could claim that for DS2, Vanilla or Scholars. It's the ONLY souls game were enemies de-spawn. Plus, it has the SLOWEST fog wall entering animation. Intentionally done to discourage running past all the enemies to get back to the boss. Def worth a video addressing that.
@@scorpiowarrior7841 that comes because in those games once you hit the fogwall or open a door your invincible, so they unintentionally encourage players to ignore everything once they see a door or a fog gate like how monkeys when they see food
I like how these dark souls fans will give a ''analytical'' view of ds1's design, yet fail to see that same design in ds2 sotfs. I gotta say, vanilla ds2 had better colors than scholar. Though the ds2 lightingenginefix mod fixes scholar's graphics. Shame on fromsoft for massively downgrading the graphics and not even leaving in the E3 lighting mode as experimental or mark it as super demanding. Can't believe it took a modder to fromsoft's work for them after a decade. Shame too cause ds2 sotfs is well optimized.
Anything to say about the recent video "how to ruin a good game"? Havent watched it because i assume is just more skill issue whining dude repeating the same thing other people with no brain cells have been saying about ds2
I stopped watching in the Forest section when he complained about the added Turtle Knights in Scholar, but left out the parts where Vanilla had some that got removed in Scholar. And then he complained how there is no reason why an enemy from Lost Bastille would show up here - as if the Royal Swordsmen aren't part of the Kings army that show up in multiple other locations throughout the game and as if it doesn't help the player to learn their moveset before they get ganked when they open the door to the Ruin Sentinels. So it looked a lot like another video that's looking for reasons to hate on Scholar instead of trying to do fair comparisons.
I hate the ds2 argument so much. Ds1 felt so much more clunky to me. In ds1 it always felt like you would get punished for a mistake you made 5 steps ago. And mistake I mean by getting completely stunlocked. Something about the ds1 animation for getting up felt like it took away so much control from the player. It really feels like ds1 was meant to be played with full havel and chugging estus, I'm so glad ds2 is nothing like that
i guess vanilla is better in certain places, i am now stuck in iron keep where there is so much enemies in SotFS and i have to lure them one by one to make it to smelter demon (i dont wanna skip him because levels).
What about No Mans Wharf and Iron Keep which have way more enemies than vanilla? What about the heide knights all aggroing in the tower of flame? Just because they fixed some enemies in some areas does not mean the enemy placement is better overall.
I do have videos about No Man's Wharf and Heide's Tower. No Man's Wharf throws larger groups of enemies at you in Vanilla. It's easier not to get ganked in Scholar. The main path through Heide's Tower is still the same, but the optional side challenge became a bit more challenging to teach the players the Tree Sentinel lesson of exploring more and coming back later. That's not bad. It's only bad for players that also think that they have to immediately fight against the DS1 Graveyard skeletons. Iron Keep only has 3 Alonne Knights more than Vanilla, and it's again easier to fight against them one vs one.
What's funny about the side path to the old dragonslayer is that the old knights and heide knights have really wonky aggro and theyll often just run away for a reason im not sure of. When i reached the dragon on a recent run, all the enemies that i ignored to attempt the dragon just fucked off back to their spawn points as i was attacking the dragon. Even the spear heide knight. Only a single heide knight stayed, and dealing with him as well as the dragon is easy enough.@@Domo3000
Someone show this to alegend of Xander. I tried watching his video, and it just became extremely clear he hates ds2 as a whole and liked it as a teenager qhen he didnt have other dark souls games as they werent out
That could be. I've never taken Thomas down here. Would be interesting to see. Also one thing I've rarely seen mentioned is how much personality summons and invaders in this game have. It's just so much more enjoyable summoning in this game, they are much more like friends than just random NPCs
@Domo3000 yeah I agree, I had such a memorable encounter in Eluym Loyce where I was invaded but didn't see the invader until I got to a chest from which he appeared behind me and backstabbed me. There was this other phantom who felt very much like a real player, he would emote and challenge you to a duel, he would also lure me to other enemies to make it harder to kill him and when he killed me he emoted a decapitation. Literally the best npc invader experience I ever had in these games
this is something that is missing in ER. there are alot of areas you can just run past enemies relatively easily. its been offset with enemies that imo are just incredibly more annoying than anything any of the DS games ever had like having about 4 revenants at the bottom of a section of haligtree. the only thing that makes ER "easier" is that u can easily cheese the game with busted setups that circumvent developing skill in fighting enemies.
0:17 I think it’s hilarious that this guy came to the exact OPPOSITE conclusion the game was teaching. Instead of going slowly and methodically, he states his strategy is to go through the levels running as fast as possible.
By the way man if you kill the manikins right after the bonfire and then trigger the trap, one of the guys from above comes down from the stairs. Also you can just go down the stairs every time one jumps up and they become easy prey.
One that I consider really cheap is in Iron Keep area before the Smelter Demon in vanilla. Despite scholar having more enemies in this area vs vanilla, vanilla has a Captain Alonne archer where the Zweihander is in scholar and that's a pretty hard area to reach if you're not good at the jump and he just spams arrows.
The reason why I disliked SotFS once was, that DS2 Vanilla was my first Souls-experience. So I loved it as it was. Later on, I played SotFS and started to love it. It was DS2, which I played hundreds of hours, but refreshed! Thanks for this video!
To be fair the "gank squad" is really true, the aggro in the later parts of the game is ridiculous especially the Iron Keep. I play every souls game by not just running. I walk slowly and check every corner but with DS2, it is getting old because of how much you have to replay it when you die. It's tedious because you have to repeat the same process all over again which is walking slowly and killing them because you can't just run past through them because you will likely die from the ambush/ganks.
You have to defeat the defeat the 4 early main bosses to progress in this game, or you can just use a Bonfire Ascetic ot two on one of the other ones to get up to a million Souls. So you could skip the whole spider area
@@Domo3000"What!? Giving freedom and choice to NOT do the traditional "kill these guys to get to the next phase of the game" that almost sounds like your making an rpg and not a glorified linear checklist"
I played vanilla first (though very late, 2022) and got to the iron keep before getting frustrated at the game + lack of time. Recently I picked up sotfs and I was a bit put off by the new enemy placement, such as heide's tower not being a playground anymore once the dragonrider died... but somehow, someway it didn't feel like a chore to play and explore the game, and although at a snail's pace I am exploring every nook and cranny of this game. It's not my favorite souls, but sotfs made it way more enjoyable to me, even if I can't pinpoint the exact reason
I didn't even know that was meant to be an ambush. Even if you sprint into the building, you can still hear that guy drop down clear as day and while you deal with him the other guy rolls up so you don't miss him. It's insanity. Could you fucking imagine for even a second, playing any of the souls games, getting 3-4 hours in, and still not understanding to stop and look around on your first time into a zone? To go slow? Because EVERY SINGLE THING BEFORE, no mater the game, has taught you to fucking do that. I do think the only real issue with the windmill is the fact that it doesn't look burnable, and there's like, no minor burnable things before it at any point to lead you to believe it's even a thing. It's not bad, all the games have something cryptic here and there, major or/and minor, but still.
I wouldn’t say more possibilities. More like a better primer to prepare you for them. Either way, I just didn’t have as good a time with scholar as I did with the base game. I felt base DS2 was a bit too easy in a lot of sections, but I still had a lot of fun, but in SoTFS they blocked off areas so you needed more of this branches to unlock them. I liked them batter as a really limited resource that you picked and chooses the most important place to use them in the moment. I honestly had a harder time with SoTFS. I’m sure it’s just a skill issue, but I swear a lot of the enemy placement felt worse than in vanilla. I like to take my time with places and be careful and I still made it through most areas on my first try and a lot of the changes felt kind of weird and pointless, though if they’re there to draw attention to things I already know about, I guess it would. The extra pursuer fights where interesting. I’m not against them, I guess, because I have a lot of fun trying to parry the pursuer and he’s a relatively fun fight, but it’s still gets a little tiring how recurring he became and I don’t think it’s the best change for newer players. I’m sure you could chock up some of my experience to me being annoyed things aren’t as familiar as my brain expects, but I simply didn’t have as good a time with SoTFS. Whatever the reason that’s how I felt. I guess if people feel that way about vanilla for the same reason then that’s fine.
I don't agree with everything in the game but I do appreciate how much effort they put into remixing the enemy encounters and custom NPC summon scripting to provide a more polished experience. Even if you wanted to just rush to the boss, most areas have a summon on the main path but far away from the boss so you could use them to distract enemies potentially.
They really shouldn't have done two versions of the game. That's the shittiest think. Everyone says "oh the scholar is the definite edition". There are thing that are good and many things that are bad. There are few enemy placements here and there and areas that were previously empty, but why did they vastly changed the enemy placement? Now I have to remember two versions of the game, it's like two different games and it's hard for me to decide which is the definite version. And many times I prefer the vanilla.
DS2 DOES have its lows (the entirety of Iron King DLC, lol) and some of them ARE Scholar specific (Heide's goes from an easy initial area to a sea of BS once the knights all wake up and start roaming. The huge aggro for the knights in Iron Keep is a pain to deal with, etc...) but yeah. Every time people just bury any legitimate concerns under a sea of nonsense.... I keep remembering that one guy with the classic "DS2 bad" video complaining about the game being difficult in a way that felt cheap over footage of him in covenant of champions the entire time and... my dude....
SOTFS is okay! better than Vanilla, the only gripe i have is the placement of the Ember, it could ve stayed in Iron Castle.... It would themetically fit too
DS3 players when they realize that souls games are not only the bosses but exploration and discovery. That happens when you start the series with DS3 and... Basically the worst areas of the series, specially the early game of DS3 is horrendous. Yeah, the bosses are great (The bosses after Irythill), but the areas... Well they are designed for you to not play them more than once, they're not only linear but also extremely short, exploration isn't really a thing in DS3. And people tend to forget that the game encourage you to avoid enemies instead of fighting them. How? Your estus doesn't exist unless you have the estus ring, if you don't, even a hollow hit twice as hard as the HP you get from the flask, and even though the distance between two bonfires is like 1/4 in comparison with DS1 and DS2, you have like 40 enemies between the two bonfires 🤣 What's the problem with that... The people who started the series in DS3 will compare pretty much every other game with DS3 because they loved the bosses (Again, after Irythill), they loved the music (even though there's only epic orchestra and... No much else) But they don't realize that DS3 is the only game in the series that doesn't care about its areas and environment... Demon's, DS1, DS2, Bloodborne, Sekiro and specially Elden Ring, all of them pay extreme attention and detail in their areas, exploration and discovering is a huge part of the experience. Elden Ring doesn't need to be explained since exploration is the core of the whole game, DS1 and DS2 are great too. In Bloodborne is kind of curious because... Most of the game is optional 🤣 you don't really need to kill most bosses to end the game. Just go Gascoigne, farm 10.000 for the emblem, Vicar Amelia, Shadows, Roam, One Reborn, Micolash, Mergo, final boss... Everything else is optional (even the final boss is optional), you're not even getting a max level upgrade if you don't explore the areas. As the only max level material in the base game is highly missable, as it is behind an area that... You're most likely to evade if you don't know what's there. The rest of the blood rocks are in the DLC and the chalice dungeons The DLC, Cainhurst, Chalice Dungeons, nearly 2/3 of the game is missable if you don't explore and try discovering new things Sekiro is much the same as most things are in secondary/hidden paths in a game with great verticality... Playing most games from the series as you played DS3... It's not really a good idea, and neither is it to start the series with DS3 if you really want to understand what the souls are supposed to be. No, the souls aren't just difficult bosses, dodge spam and epic orchestra.
lore wise why wouldn't you try to hide in the corner to get the jump on the player? Why would an enemy just be waltzing around in the open with no care in the world unless it was bait or something.
I remember thinking feebles video was good cause I didn’t know a lot about base and scholar of ds2 But when I heard him talk about the games I knew a lot of with sote and Elden ring I realiser how disingenuous his points can be
Feeble King overall has ass takes, This is only one of his many laughably goofy views. Theres like 1 video on his channel that even remotely makes any real sense.
3:58 the last thing you should be thinking when encountering a METAL windmill is burning it. No logic required in this game, just trial and error, randomness and wiki searching.
Feebleking21 is amateur hour. You need to tackle the Longman himself: MauLer's super mega colossal ultra analysis of DS2 capped off with a ~2 hour video essay on DS2 being shit. Dangitjm is the only other person who's touched that video essay, and he only refuted MauLer's claims about DS2 PvP being rubbish.
I did make some, like this one: ruclips.net/video/1uruA2RjMYk/видео.htmlsi=BUHgcM9tklpYVXBY But there's just so much to tackle in his videos. A lot of complaints are just his skill issues, other things happen in every Souls game but he pretends not to notice in the other games, etc
@@Domo3000 I feel like we need Illusory Wall to come to the rescue with more episodes of Dark Souls 2 dissected. Specifically, episodes that deal with the strangely chunky hitboxes, the randomly sprinting enemy AI, among other such things.
The thing is, many of those "gank squads" in vanilla (And SotFS for 7th gen) have large health bar that need more than 2 attack in order to kill them, while most "gank squads" in Demon's Souls and DS1 could usually be killed in 1 or 2 hits from even small weapons.
Which gank squad has a large health pool? Most are basic hollows or something like Alonne Knights that either get staggered with every hit or die with one hit if you use a blunt weapon
@Domo3000 not everyone knows to use a blunt weapon though, you can't really judge these things based on their most optimal strategies because that just isn't the experience of most players when they first experience the game
@@Domo3000the large open area at the start of the Lost Bastille and the long hallway before Velstadt’s boss room come to mind. The large open area is absolutely packed with dogs, some of which are out of sight and won’t come out until you’ve already dropped down, has lots of archers that are inaccessible unless you come prepared with a ranged weapon (which many melee builds won’t) or drop down to destroy the structures they’re standing on, which are spread out pretty far and take a lot of hits to destroy, and has a hidden pursuer that won’t pop out until you’re already engaged with the gank. This is of course avoidable if you know what you’re doing, but I’m sure many new players have dropped into the area unassumingly, only noticing the archers or a dog or two, and gotten rekt. Velstadt’s runback is lined with statues that will spawn an insane amount of Leydia Pyromancers if the bell hidden under the stairs is rung. Very observant players may notice the opening and kill the hollow waiting at the bell, and even more observant ones may notice the hollow to the left of the room who will come to take the first one’s place, but I truly believe not a single soul could predict the third hollow the comes out of the ground to ring the bell ~15 seconds later. This basically guarantees that the bell will be rung on your first run through of the area, spawning an enormous amount of very powerful enemies on top of the two Syan knights and the Dragonrider blocking the boss fog and practically guaranteeing your demise. I think that Scholar is an unequivocally better and more balanced game than vanilla, but it’s disingenuous to pretend there aren’t any cheap deaths there as well.
I wouldn't care about ganks if ds2 had i-frames on fog gates, levers and dors. But no, you have to slowly painfully clear all the enemies so they dont interrupt you + they don't reset on quiting out. And even if that was fixed my problems with ds2 don't end there
I've been saying for years now that ppl think scholar is a gankfest because they play it the same way they played ds1/3: they bull-headedly rush past every single enemy they possibly can just to get to the next fog wall, and then complain when all the enemies they aggroed are still chasing them. DS2 has virtually no ganks if you just approach areas with caution and employ a bit of awareness. not even iron keep, since you can easily bait out the alonne knights 1-2 at a time. I recently actually finished my first proper playthrough of DS1, and holy shit that game has more *actual* gank squads than any ds2 area. The undead burg is practically a series of them. They're manageable with good timing and footwork, but those are *actual* examples of groups that aggro all at once and put you on the back foot. Darkwraiths in new londo don't aggro all at once, but they're incredibly difficult to even see when you do aggro them, and it's easy to get two or even 3 on your ass at once where they become so tedious to fight. at least in DS2 you can fucking see the enemies. and need I even mention the catacombs? the fucking bonewheels?
The difference is that Souls games are supposed to be punishing so it's all fun and fair if DS1 throws six Bonewheel Skeletons at you, but if DS2 throws 4 Hollow Soldiers at you that's just completely unfair because Souls games shouldn't punish players for rushing.
@@Domo3000seriously i remember getting a comment about the bonewheel gank in aramise and catacombs is fair because you need to "pay attention and take it slow" the absolute irony 😂
![Blox Fruits Dragon Rework Update [Full Stream]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/EqDAp8udhm0/mqdefault.jpg)
I think what I'm starting the realize is that DS2 designers want you to explore these levels much slower and methodically than either DS1 or DS3. These "gank" mobs only really feel cheap if youre not expecting them your first time running through or youre rushing. If you take the time to check your blind spots and agro enemies one by one, it's fairly easy to manage. Not to mention you get out with a lot more souls. However, it is kind of riding against an engrained player habit to run past and ignore areas once you've been through once and rush to the boss. DS2 doesn't really allow you to do that.
Once you know where chokepoints and ambushes are it's easy to run through to the boss. Running through levels is only hard if it's a new level and you don't yet know how to navigate it.
@@Domo3000 Certainly to an extent, however, it is undeniable from my recent experience playing both DS1 and DS2 back to back, that enemies tend to mob up and follow you for much longer distances than they do in the previous game when you're attempting to rush to a boss. Not to mention how certain mobs seem to be designed to block your path on the way back to get you caught and overwhelmed. It forced me to resort to traversing slow each and every time to ensure I don't die.
Also worth noting that actually a boon in DS2's favor is the ability to farm out the enemy's respawns until they stop. This means that (assuming you're not just in the covenant of champions making the game harder lol), you actually can have a free run back. In this regard it actually has better boss run backs then DS1/DS3. I can't say Elden ring cuz....stakes of Merica exist and I haven't actually played demon souls or bloodborne (I'm a pc player lol). I remeber during my playthrough on vanilla I did this multiple times, however it is decently time consuming.
@@scorpiowarrior7841 in Vanilla it required you to defeat them 15 times. In Scholar it's a bit less time consuming as they despawn after 12 times
@@Domo3000 I was more so counting this in comparison to both DS3 and DS1, where evreything respawning is infinite. I think the covenant of champions is a pain point for me, because it just means "Oh you want to farm? Well evreything hits harder and has more HP!" in terms of actually farming items, and DS2 does actually have a lot of cool items to get via drops.
"I'm just learning that there is no reason to go through these levels slowly, since there is a cheap death hidden around every corner" - says the person that constantly rushes through new areas and aggroes the whole level instead of just taking it slow and keeping his eyes open which would have prevented all those 'cheap deaths'
Also worth mentioning, something I see a lot of players doing. Running to the boss immediately instead of killing the enemies in their path.
Like, you can have a much easier time if you simply farm an area completely dry before taking on the boss. The enemies stop respawning after you've killed them 12 or 15 times.
Although this isn't really necessary in areas were the runback to the boss is not very long (or littered with enemies)
@@facundomontivero2299 I think this is a case of other souls games having bad design. In basically all the other fromsoft titles to my knowledge, as soon as you hit A on the fog gate or a big cinematic door you're invulnerable. They intentionally or not reward players for running through a level, whereas DS2 in response tried to make running through a level as hard as possible.
@@facundomontivero2299 it's the same with players complaining how unfair it is that they can get attacked while opening a chest
Why would someone open a chest while running away from enemies, and then complain how unfair it is that it didn't magically make them invulnerable? They haven't even earned that chest yet by clearing the level
@@knivy6160 ymfah also pointed that out. Being invulnerable when passing through the fog gate is bad design.
@@ulaznar haven't played elden ring, but I think they fixed the issue in sekiro at least. Just don't have fog walls, problem solved!
That tree room at the start of Forest of Fallen Giants is honestly brilliant in Scholar. Teaches you to take things slow with a methodical approach (plus a bonfire just before for easy retries). This is such great lesson for the rest of the game as infamous areas like Heide's Tower of Flame, Iron Keep and Shrine of Amana are made exponentially easier if you just take your time.
it's literally a teaching moment 90% of players REFUSED to learn. it's supposed to teach you two lessons:
1. Be cautious and attentive to your surroundings and anything that looks suspicious
2. don't just run directly for the fog wall, it's a recipe for disaster.
it's a really good moment that improved on the same area in ds2v where there was just one challenging enemy you could choose to fight
@@yikes6758yeah that's why I used it as an example to show that Scholar better prepares players for the ambushes that happen later in the game.
Vanilla also has plenty of ambushes and traps, but Scholar has been teaching players from the beginning to play carefully and pay attention to their surroundings.
It also punishes greedily running towards the items without paying any attention, which again helps a lot further into the game - like for the spider trap chest gank.
I preferred the vanilla one Heide Knight at that area. They killed it for me. It was a great mystery that Heide Knight were so rare in this world. They just removed him and copied pasted him in another area multiple times.
idk what are you all smoking I played ds2 like I played all the other games, where is this methodical approach coming from?? or not running trough the level considered methodical now?
@@keimist7398 Just sprinting through the level and ignoring everything is kinda the opposite of a methodical approach, yeah.
Not to mention, there are almost always messages in front of the windmill that say “try torch” “try fire” etc.
Feeble King: "that sign can't stop me since I can't read!"
@@YEY0806 LMFAO
@@Kamawan0it would be funny if his DS2 stats showed Intelligence at 1, that would explain everything 😂
@@Kamawan0 that would REALLY justify his excuse of "role playing" as a complete dumbass that never learns
If you have NPC helper (found around the ladder leading to the windmill) they will point at the windmill just in case you are offline.
It's baffling how someone can someone can go on for so long about how a game lacks a certain kind of design, only for that design to actually be present at every turn. Makes you wonder what part of these games he actually enjoys compared to what he thinks he likes. 🤔
the bosses. ds2 haters want a boss rush game, they only care about the bosses. it's that simple
@yikes6758 No wonder they love Dark souls 3, since that game literally has nothing going for it besides bosses.
He likes his fogwall s and spam roll mechanics
I agree that most playthroughs I see, people just rush to the boss and get ganged. That's not how I play, I like slow and methodical,, and the last time I played both vanilla and scholar, I had very few deaths. But I hate they created two versions of the game and I am also an outlier that I don't like most of the changes from the original. They should have just stick to the original or at least I would exclude most of the changes and keep few. I am even wondering if it's possible to have a mod with a definite mix between the two, but then who's gonna decide what are the best changes?
@@darkbugo7212 Scholar is objectively the better version. Maybe not every change you agree with, but if you weigh every single change, vanilla is absolutely inferior.
Pretty ironic how DS3 convinced fans that harder bosses make the better game and the levels should be cakewalks with the occasional troll trap or they bring the game down. DS2 levels can be annoying, but most of them can be solved with just being careful.
I'm exaggerating obviously, I don't think that many souls fans actually think this way but its a sentiment I see pretty often online when people compare DS2 to DS3.
I mean ds3 bosses aren't really that much harder than ds2 sotfs bosses. The harder ds3 bosses tend to overwhelm you with speed, combo and AOE spams, like sister friede phase 3, gundyr phase 2, dancer phase 2, ociros, etc. The real harder bosses like nameless king or the twin demons are more in tune with dark souls speeds. And unlike ds2 sotfs bosses, there's no hard mode or harder way of beating a boss, like fume knight with healing or beating alonne without getting hit to get the secret death animation
@@siyzerixds3 bosses are definitely harder than ds2 bosses,most of which you can defeat within 5 attempts
DS2 haters intentionally walking into as big of a "gank" as possible to misrepresent the game. A tale as old as time.
Falsely accusing the game of being unfair is a great coping mechanism for severe skill issues
"In Dark Souls 2s case the player will realize that the developers intention was for them to die no matter how much they try to learn" - says the person that clearly never learned anything from their mistakes and always rushed blindly through new areas
ds2 on top, haters have a skill issue
every other Souls game have the same gank and cheap deaths, but they won't admit them.
I almost skipped DS2 because of liars like this!!!! There are absolutely problems with the game but the way they make it sound made it seem like it wasn't even worth playing.
@mauricioaguirre7532, "you see the Irrthyil Dungeon gank with jailers is proof why DS3 is a masterpiece, whereas the early ogre encounter in forest of the fallen giants is proof of why DS2 is the worst game"
7:49 I just realized the spiders in the hole are a King's Field reference. And also 10:40 for the faces.
I run pass all the enemies and then they all ganked on me. Totally games fault
Honestly I personally found it so disingenuous with his comment that you "get alot of time wasted" when he died in that house that is only like 5 seconds away from the bonfire 😂. This dude clearly doesn't expect his audience to have ever played the game
yes but, gavlan wheel?
Gavlan wheel, gavlan deal.
Gavlan want many many soul!
💯
The person who act like this game is very cheap despite the fact dude this is actually the only Souls game you can level up without encountering a boss or finishing a certain event like literally entire Miyazaki soulsborne.
Demon's Souls 1 you always have to encounter the fake first boss and kill the real first boss to level up even A New Game Plus.
Dark Souls 1 you always have to kill the Asylum Demon to get out the Asylum to level up intentionally without any bugs.
Bloodborne you have to encounter a boss to get insight to activate the Doll to level up.
Dark Souls 3 you have to fight a boss to level up
Elden Ring you have to encounter a boss to level up because there is no walking past that grafted freak without death even at victory.
Dark Souls 2 literally just walk past the tutorial and immediately go to Majula to instantly get access to level up without encountering or fighting in the bosses to do it.
Like people really underestimate how nice Dark Souls 2 is really is the fact they are actually generous enough to let you level up before any conflicts and the only soulsborne in the series you can talk to their ghosts to be not completely screwed from their shops.
Soulsborne game let you buy life gem and let you buy normal infinite life gem which would have been very useful for Elden Ring since that game has a lot of dungeons that yet to go through the place that would consume a lot of resources for fighting the boss.
Like seriously they have no idea how generous Dark Souls 2 is...
It's also very generous with how little leveling up costs.
A warrior leveling up 50 times costs a total of 162k and 100 times costs 732k.
In DS1 it would cost 324k to level up a Warrior 50 times and 100 times already 2.2 million.
The exponential cost increase is much lower in DS2 than in the other games, and you also get a lot more Souls, especially early on.
Last Giant gives 10k Souls, Dragonrider 12k and Pursuer gives 17k. In DS1 Asylum Demon gives 2k, Taurus Demon 3k, and Capra Demon 6k
So leveling up in DS2 costs less, and you also get a lot more Souls. You get like twice as many levels compared to the other games.
@@Domo3000 Indeed
@@Domo3000DS2 haters: that is so bad and clearly shows how the B Team got Lord Miyazaki's vision completely wrong. Your supposed to kill the same tutorial boss over and over again with no option to skip when your finally bored to death! Enemies and early bosses shouldn't drop so many souls to allow you to not only level up faster but gain equipment necessary for your build at the early game to enjoy it, YOUR SUPPOSED TO ENJOY THAT PRIVILEGE WHEN YOU HAVE ALREADY BEATEN THE GAME SO THEN YOU CAN HAVE FUN WITH ONLY HALF A BUILD IN NG+ UNTIL YOU BEAT ALL THE BOSSES AGAIN JUST TO GET THE OTHER ITEMS YOU MISSED BECAUSE THE GAMES WOULDN'T LET YOU FACE A BOSS AGAIN!! THAT IS BAD GAME DESIGN!!
I don't actually think that's an issue though for any of those games, espically because, assuming you don't farm, you ABSOUTLELY won't have enough souls to level up more then once or twice. Even for DS2, this is a thing. You might have enough souls to level up once or twice but that's about it post turtorial. I also FULLY disagree with infinite life gems being generous, as genuinely playing without life gems feels worse and if you get stuck somewhere, more healing is always gonna help. If you need more healing, guess what? You can go farm!
@@scorpiowarrior7841 No trust me the infinite life gems is generous especially the cost of it is very very very very very cheap compared to Bloodborne main way of healing you have to farm them and the game will punish you for progressing the game too fast because bloodborne be the only soulsborne in the series to have a progression economy that the prices get progressively more worser the more you progress.
Which kind of forces you to rely on PlayStation Plus just to get access to the online chalice dungeons with the power of the come chalice!
For the sake of saving Time of your Life.
However the life gems stay the same and the only thing has that similar concept is the bright bug stuf, but honestly I feel like later soulsborne games should strive for Dark Souls 2 style of healing well in the sense of only the good side of it like having a main rechargeable healing item like the flask with dark souls 1/3 Elden ring speed of healing and a good chunk of consumables.
unfathomably based, ds2 scholar enjoyers are kings
Thanks!
Dark Souls 2: SotFS is an incredible game. By far my favorite souls game outside of Elden Ring. I've found much criticism towards Ds2 comes from a lack of skill.
It's basically wannabe speedrunners who didn't take the time to learn the levels and how to approach enemies who are complaining
I don't like every change Scholar made, but I do think it overall improved the game.
In most cases, I feel like Scholar's most questionable changes were those that were done as a "quick fix" to elements they were unhappy with resulting from the game's troubled development.
For instance, the movement of the "Dull Ember" from Iron Keep to The Tower Apart. It makes sense for it to be in Iron Keep, McDuff asks for flame and there's no place in the game with more of it, it's a clear connection players can draw to solve that puzzle.
Contrast this with The Tower Apart, which...is pretty close to McDuff for him to not have just grabbed it himself and has no connection to fire. It's very odd for it to be there. At best, you can theorize it a sort of storeroom with supplies for the Bastille, though that's stretching quite a bit.
But it's also well-known that the order of levels in DS2 is not even close to what was planned for most of development. I imagine when McDuff and the "Dull Ember" were decided upon the progression path looked very different, and the Scholar change was done to more closely mirror that path with the intent for player experience, even at the cost of cohesion.
When you're done with this, do you have any intention of tackling any of the game's other common criticisms? Typically I hear complaints about DS2 being "ganky" or having "bad hitboxes"...but I've never felt it was any noticeably better or worse in either of those regards than the other Souls games, and Scholar largely addressed the former with more thought-out encounters.
Yeah, the Ember makes sense in probable progression sense, not so much location/theme sense.
As for addressing "ganky" or "hitboxes" I too would love for comparisons of ganks between ds1, ds2 and ds3.
They also have done some hitbox comparisons, posted on reddit, that DO compare between the games, and it's really interesting seeing most hitboxes are actually better matching in DS2 than DS1, and especially better than DS3. The reason they look/feel wonky in DS2 comes down to animation queues, where the rolling animation is queued to complete EVEN IF you get hit by a grab, so the grab animation happens after the roll animation and it looks bad. If the queue system were like Ds3's then it'd cancel the roll animation and one would see that they just rolled poorly.
the Lost Sinner has the souls of the Witch of Izalith, a very fiery character. on the other hand, Iron Keep's whole theme is metalworks and smithing (and the Old Iron King has the souls of Gwyn). both placements make sense lore-wise to some extent, one is just less obvious, but makes more sense in terms of level progression.
speculating about the original order of levels is pointless anyway because the whole game doesn't resemble what was originally planned. for example, McDuff was supposed to be young Lenigrast. how does that play into the order of levels? it doesn't. many of the different areas were supposed to be the same places, but just in different times.
DS2 has issues, and it's pointless to deny it. we like the game because its other qualities are more important to us. it's fair to criticize the game for its flaws, but I wish DS2-haters stopped acting as if it personally insulted them.
Ok, but we've seen games with far more troubled development come out pretty great. Halo 2 had most of its content rewritten and/or scrapped including its finale. Yet its pretty good. Cp2077 and NMS both had extremely bad dev cycles. Look where they are now, with NMS being great.
Fromsoft could've slowly, over the years, kept improving scholar with updates such as fixing its lighting and textures, improving combat encounters, adding more environmental details, etc. I mean the team working on NMS was pretty small too. Distance is an indie game and also came out in 2014. Yet, it STILL got an update in 2024 that added new levels, fixed/improved the visuals of some levels, etc.
The troubled development cycle isn't an excuse anymore since its been a decade for fromsoft to fix some of the issues of these games. Even simple things like option to zoom out camera or unlock FPS (better used in ds3) could've been implemented.
@@siyzerixJesus, you're f*cking everywhere. Getting real tired of seeing your complaints and blind FromSoft hatred.
@@Xeno_Solarus Then ignore it if you got nothing to say.
But I am sure he would say your argument is invalid because it's "his playstyle" to be a f*cking dumass and intentionally run into a giant blob of enemies. I also realised that this argument of his he straight up debunks in his own video because he shows footage of him fighting the enemies. I thought he hates fighting enemies and just likes to run through the levels? I completed the game numerous times with broken sword or no bonfire+death challenge and I can easily run through levels to a boss without fighting anyone.
Running? I did the ones people complain about the most by just walking, like Sir Alonne: ruclips.net/video/OYkhyKm3GSA/видео.htmlsi=8Ihvz04YQY961opr
Also even if you die to a gank ... The next time you come around that corner you know what to expect and can handle the situation better. Isnt that what Dark Souls as a whole teaches?
Well you see that's fine in other games, like in Bloodborne, when you get to Hypeogen Gael and open that door that leads to blackbeast Pearl then get grabbed by an unsuspecting witch who probably kills you with no hint given, then its the game punishing you for being "careless". But when DS2 throws you several weak hollows who only aggro when you get near them, then it isn't fair
Dude you think killing 8 enemies 12 times in a area is fun? Hell no!!!!! The game is slow and your character is slower enemies are only strong because of unreasonable ganks spamming bs attack especially when a game hitbox is worst than the og ds game
@@KingfAce-qb9xkYou just exposed your ignorance. DS2 actually has the best hitboxes. Domo has a video on that with irrefutable proof. And what's this "killing 12 times thing"? You don't have to kill them 12 times unless you want the to stop respawning, which is completely a YOU decision. You don't have to do that. "The game is slow", okay, that's fair. That doesn't mean it's bad. I like the slower, methodical gameplay of 2. Not a bad thing, just an personal opinion."unreasonable ganks spamming BS attack". You're gonna have to elaborate.
@@Xeno_Solarus ds2 has the best hitbox? Are you for real? I been hit by a overhead frontal attack even if im already 90 degrees from his attack. Tell me is it fun killing 12 same enemies over and over? Because this game isn't design for you to rush to the boss area you need to clear this boring over crowded enemies one at a time because rushing is a suicide. The main issue in this shtty game is the game is tiring these piece of sht annoying enemies are boring to fight and the bosses are a joke. I only had a rough time against that flaming ah in the iron keep because I'm already half max hp.
So my point is the game is not hard It's tiring and you don't get any reward like battling an epic boss at the end of level they're so easy.
@@KingfAce-qb9xkyou being bad doesn't make the game shitty. 😅
Honestly this brought up so many good points. if you play through this game, paying attention and watching for ambushes its so much more manageable. The first area is to force you to learn and the fact that they're still complaining about "unfair ambushes" dozens of hours into the game really says a lot more about the player's inability to learn more than it does about the games design.
More like FeebleFraud am I right fellas?
FeebleMind
Feeble Cursed One!
He's a ragebait channel
6:30 ah yeah the running hollow. thats Jimmy. He's a lover, not a fighter.
ds2 chads rise up
A casul thinking that because he managed to beat the games, he got gud
Also: a casual thinking that Vanilla is better because it felt easier to him as he started it after already having finished Scholar several times
Of course many ambushes felt easier in Vanilla if he already ran into them in Scholar, but that doesn't mean that they are in any way better designed.
Souls games can be beaten in variety of ways, doesn't mean one is good at them. You can brute force the game without really learning the fundamentals
@@Domo3000 There's also that he plays Scholar in NG+. Because the game is basically the same, right? No, this is DS2, it isn't the same. That's what's so cool about NG+ in DS2. So one has to approach comparisons of areas differently in terms of enemy health and damage alone. It's a very bad video.
I think that the only gank that I really dislike is the three turtle knights that jump from the roof. Those guys are very tanky and deadly early on, specially if you don't have access to strike damage
You can go around them and climb back up, they can't follow you. Also the explosive barrels
@bigdumbfatcat2869 You can also jump to the other side to get away far enough to heal, and there's a bonfire, so if you die, you don't have to run for a long time back
@@bigdumbfatcat2869 also: the explosive barrels are only here in Scholar.
One of the many encounters that's easier to handle in Scholar if you use the environment to your advantage where Vanilla didn't even give you that possibility
@@YEY0806 Well, at least in Scholar, you get invaded in that bonfire, so if it is your first time there, you'll likely die, no matter what.
@@ulaznar that is true but thankfully that invader was particularly weak to counter damage and would get stunlocked everytime he pulled out a soul greatsword, so I didn't die to him first time
This has honestly been a contentious topic for years now.
Is this channel dedicated to disproving the people saying the vanilla is better? Finally someone does it.
Neither is better, I have two games in my mind. FromSoft should have never made a version so vastly different than the first one, it's like two different worlds in my mind. Whenever I play either of them I am like "Wait a minute, I remember there was an enemy here and a different item there". I don't know if I remember wrongly from either of the two versions and I hate a lot of changes in the new one while I like few.
I swear feeble is playing with no sound, or just has poor eye sight
Or is Feeble Minded!!
Feeble cursed one!
@@michaelkara3436 no i dnt think he can handle spells. He seems to be a melee purist
@@maninthesnow4393as a melee purist that only has pyromancy to add flames to my sword I like both versions of DS2 a lot
@@Treyman-yi7ei I like to use bombs and knives for range as a dex or strength build, they are surprisingly useful
souls "fans" when people disparage the difficulty of the games in general: fuckin scrub casuals git gud haha
those same "fans" when people say dark souls 2 is unfair: SO TRUE bullshit game fake difficulty bad design its too haaaarrd
DS2 using bosses as normal enemies: "so goddam lazy and cheap B TEAM!!"
DS1, DS3, Bloodborne and ER doing the same thing: "a showcase of just how far you come that enemies that were previously bosses are now just fodder for you to dispatch as your power grows, PRAISE LORD MIYAZAKI!!! 👏"
@YEY0806 a lot of hardcore DS 2 haters seem to hate elden ring too, and ive seen them invoke elden ring reusing bosses in their reasoning. more things change...
@@dagothkronk348 yeah I seen that the community do actually engage in critical analysis of Elden Ring, at launch despite it being received favourably there were still and even now critiques that criticised the game design, boss design and RPG design. In my opinion I think the Elden Ring community is alot more self aware when it comes to flaws in the game as compared to for example DS1 or Bloodborne fans. I think It was disingenuous of me to include Elden Ring, since alot of prominent people are critical of that
@@YEY0806 i mean im drawing a distinction between legit criticism and just blind hats
@@dagothkronk348 Elden ring = Dark Souls II 2
Have vou addressed the claim that DS2 "teachs you" to ignore enemies and run to the bosses? It''s something that the DS2 haters repear nonstop on their videos, I've never ever on my life heard someone get a game this wrong and backwards.
I tried to address it over the course of the video.
Like in the very first clip he's complaining that the game teaches him to just run past enemies and how unfair it is that he gets ganked, but that exact situation would have been prevented if he simply did not rush.
But honestly, there's enough for another video: "does Scholar really teach you to ignore enemies and rush through areas"
I just have to brainstorm a list of all the examples of where the game explicitly teaches you not to rush through new areas by actively punishing not paying attention.
It could also fit well together with his clips of the second half of Iron Keep, because he regularly got stuck at the guillotine with a group of Alonne Knights behind him instead of just taking care of the enemies by using the traps to his advantage once.
I actually still think DS1/3 teach you to ignore enemies and rush to the bosses a lot more then DS2 does.
I agree like.. I have no idea how anyone could claim that for DS2, Vanilla or Scholars.
It's the ONLY souls game were enemies de-spawn.
Plus, it has the SLOWEST fog wall entering animation. Intentionally done to discourage running past all the enemies to get back to the boss.
Def worth a video addressing that.
@@scorpiowarrior7841 that comes because in those games once you hit the fogwall or open a door your invincible, so they unintentionally encourage players to ignore everything once they see a door or a fog gate like how monkeys when they see food
I like how these dark souls fans will give a ''analytical'' view of ds1's design, yet fail to see that same design in ds2 sotfs.
I gotta say, vanilla ds2 had better colors than scholar. Though the ds2 lightingenginefix mod fixes scholar's graphics. Shame on fromsoft for massively downgrading the graphics and not even leaving in the E3 lighting mode as experimental or mark it as super demanding. Can't believe it took a modder to fromsoft's work for them after a decade. Shame too cause ds2 sotfs is well optimized.
Anything to say about the recent video "how to ruin a good game"? Havent watched it because i assume is just more skill issue whining dude repeating the same thing other people with no brain cells have been saying about ds2
I stopped watching in the Forest section when he complained about the added Turtle Knights in Scholar, but left out the parts where Vanilla had some that got removed in Scholar. And then he complained how there is no reason why an enemy from Lost Bastille would show up here - as if the Royal Swordsmen aren't part of the Kings army that show up in multiple other locations throughout the game and as if it doesn't help the player to learn their moveset before they get ganked when they open the door to the Ruin Sentinels.
So it looked a lot like another video that's looking for reasons to hate on Scholar instead of trying to do fair comparisons.
@@Domo3000 fair enough, i also dont like to hear whining for almost two hours
I hate the ds2 argument so much. Ds1 felt so much more clunky to me. In ds1 it always felt like you would get punished for a mistake you made 5 steps ago. And mistake I mean by getting completely stunlocked. Something about the ds1 animation for getting up felt like it took away so much control from the player. It really feels like ds1 was meant to be played with full havel and chugging estus, I'm so glad ds2 is nothing like that
i guess vanilla is better in certain places, i am now stuck in iron keep where there is so much enemies in SotFS and i have to lure them one by one to make it to smelter demon (i dont wanna skip him because levels).
What about No Mans Wharf and Iron Keep which have way more enemies than vanilla? What about the heide knights all aggroing in the tower of flame? Just because they fixed some enemies in some areas does not mean the enemy placement is better overall.
I do have videos about No Man's Wharf and Heide's Tower.
No Man's Wharf throws larger groups of enemies at you in Vanilla. It's easier not to get ganked in Scholar.
The main path through Heide's Tower is still the same, but the optional side challenge became a bit more challenging to teach the players the Tree Sentinel lesson of exploring more and coming back later. That's not bad. It's only bad for players that also think that they have to immediately fight against the DS1 Graveyard skeletons.
Iron Keep only has 3 Alonne Knights more than Vanilla, and it's again easier to fight against them one vs one.
What's funny about the side path to the old dragonslayer is that the old knights and heide knights have really wonky aggro and theyll often just run away for a reason im not sure of. When i reached the dragon on a recent run, all the enemies that i ignored to attempt the dragon just fucked off back to their spawn points as i was attacking the dragon. Even the spear heide knight. Only a single heide knight stayed, and dealing with him as well as the dragon is easy enough.@@Domo3000
Great video my dude
Someone show this to alegend of Xander. I tried watching his video, and it just became extremely clear he hates ds2 as a whole and liked it as a teenager qhen he didnt have other dark souls games as they werent out
I think im addicted to your random videos about ds2 in depth I'll give a subscribe
Also I think ALL the summons of that area point at the torch, not just the ones before it.
That could be. I've never taken Thomas down here. Would be interesting to see.
Also one thing I've rarely seen mentioned is how much personality summons and invaders in this game have. It's just so much more enjoyable summoning in this game, they are much more like friends than just random NPCs
@Domo3000 yeah I agree, I had such a memorable encounter in Eluym Loyce where I was invaded but didn't see the invader until I got to a chest from which he appeared behind me and backstabbed me. There was this other phantom who felt very much like a real player, he would emote and challenge you to a duel, he would also lure me to other enemies to make it harder to kill him and when he killed me he emoted a decapitation. Literally the best npc invader experience I ever had in these games
this is something that is missing in ER. there are alot of areas you can just run past enemies relatively easily. its been offset with enemies that imo are just incredibly more annoying than anything any of the DS games ever had like having about 4 revenants at the bottom of a section of haligtree. the only thing that makes ER "easier" is that u can easily cheese the game with busted setups that circumvent developing skill in fighting enemies.
Sharing this fact cheking video on social media makes ds2 haters loss their minds.
This Video Need to Show to Asmongold He is Just Stupidly Hate Darksouls 2 just Because He like To bash his Head to the Wall till its Bald
because he has no opinion of his own to share
Best vid I’ve seen in a while
0:17 I think it’s hilarious that this guy came to the exact OPPOSITE conclusion the game was teaching. Instead of going slowly and methodically, he states his strategy is to go through the levels running as fast as possible.
By the way man if you kill the manikins right after the bonfire and then trigger the trap, one of the guys from above comes down from the stairs.
Also you can just go down the stairs every time one jumps up and they become easy prey.
One that I consider really cheap is in Iron Keep area before the Smelter Demon in vanilla. Despite scholar having more enemies in this area vs vanilla, vanilla has a Captain Alonne archer where the Zweihander is in scholar and that's a pretty hard area to reach if you're not good at the jump and he just spams arrows.
The reason why I disliked SotFS once was, that DS2 Vanilla was my first Souls-experience. So I loved it as it was. Later on, I played SotFS and started to love it. It was DS2, which I played hundreds of hours, but refreshed! Thanks for this video!
To be fair the "gank squad" is really true, the aggro in the later parts of the game is ridiculous especially the Iron Keep. I play every souls game by not just running. I walk slowly and check every corner but with DS2, it is getting old because of how much you have to replay it when you die. It's tedious because you have to repeat the same process all over again which is walking slowly and killing them because you can't just run past through them because you will likely die from the ambush/ganks.
Oh wow, I'm for sure not playing DS2 after seeing that spider gank. That's horrifying
You have to defeat the defeat the 4 early main bosses to progress in this game, or you can just use a Bonfire Ascetic ot two on one of the other ones to get up to a million Souls. So you could skip the whole spider area
@@Domo3000"What!? Giving freedom and choice to NOT do the traditional "kill these guys to get to the next phase of the game" that almost sounds like your making an rpg and not a glorified linear checklist"
I played vanilla first (though very late, 2022) and got to the iron keep before getting frustrated at the game + lack of time. Recently I picked up sotfs and I was a bit put off by the new enemy placement, such as heide's tower not being a playground anymore once the dragonrider died... but somehow, someway it didn't feel like a chore to play and explore the game, and although at a snail's pace I am exploring every nook and cranny of this game. It's not my favorite souls, but sotfs made it way more enjoyable to me, even if I can't pinpoint the exact reason
Is it bad that I like both versions for different reasons?
I didn't even know that was meant to be an ambush. Even if you sprint into the building, you can still hear that guy drop down clear as day and while you deal with him the other guy rolls up so you don't miss him. It's insanity. Could you fucking imagine for even a second, playing any of the souls games, getting 3-4 hours in, and still not understanding to stop and look around on your first time into a zone? To go slow? Because EVERY SINGLE THING BEFORE, no mater the game, has taught you to fucking do that.
I do think the only real issue with the windmill is the fact that it doesn't look burnable, and there's like, no minor burnable things before it at any point to lead you to believe it's even a thing. It's not bad, all the games have something cryptic here and there, major or/and minor, but still.
12:12 I'm actually surprised that DS2 haters didn't use ancient dragon staircase as a gank.
Mauler'a video essay had alot these crtiques too...funny
finally somebody using his eyes and brain
I wouldn’t say more possibilities. More like a better primer to prepare you for them. Either way, I just didn’t have as good a time with scholar as I did with the base game. I felt base DS2 was a bit too easy in a lot of sections, but I still had a lot of fun, but in SoTFS they blocked off areas so you needed more of this branches to unlock them. I liked them batter as a really limited resource that you picked and chooses the most important place to use them in the moment. I honestly had a harder time with SoTFS. I’m sure it’s just a skill issue, but I swear a lot of the enemy placement felt worse than in vanilla. I like to take my time with places and be careful and I still made it through most areas on my first try and a lot of the changes felt kind of weird and pointless, though if they’re there to draw attention to things I already know about, I guess it would. The extra pursuer fights where interesting. I’m not against them, I guess, because I have a lot of fun trying to parry the pursuer and he’s a relatively fun fight, but it’s still gets a little tiring how recurring he became and I don’t think it’s the best change for newer players.
I’m sure you could chock up some of my experience to me being annoyed things aren’t as familiar as my brain expects, but I simply didn’t have as good a time with SoTFS. Whatever the reason that’s how I felt. I guess if people feel that way about vanilla for the same reason then that’s fine.
I don't agree with everything in the game but I do appreciate how much effort they put into remixing the enemy encounters and custom NPC summon scripting to provide a more polished experience. Even if you wanted to just rush to the boss, most areas have a summon on the main path but far away from the boss so you could use them to distract enemies potentially.
this man is doing the LORDS work
This is an old DS2 patch ..... are you sure you got it updated ?
@@justmoody5797 it's the latest version
They really shouldn't have done two versions of the game. That's the shittiest think. Everyone says "oh the scholar is the definite edition". There are thing that are good and many things that are bad. There are few enemy placements here and there and areas that were previously empty, but why did they vastly changed the enemy placement? Now I have to remember two versions of the game, it's like two different games and it's hard for me to decide which is the definite version. And many times I prefer the vanilla.
DS2 DOES have its lows (the entirety of Iron King DLC, lol) and some of them ARE Scholar specific (Heide's goes from an easy initial area to a sea of BS once the knights all wake up and start roaming. The huge aggro for the knights in Iron Keep is a pain to deal with, etc...) but yeah. Every time people just bury any legitimate concerns under a sea of nonsense.... I keep remembering that one guy with the classic "DS2 bad" video complaining about the game being difficult in a way that felt cheap over footage of him in covenant of champions the entire time and... my dude....
"DS2 punched my mother."
SOTFS is okay! better than Vanilla, the only gripe i have is the placement of the Ember, it could ve stayed in Iron Castle.... It would themetically fit too
DS3 players when they realize that souls games are not only the bosses but exploration and discovery.
That happens when you start the series with DS3 and... Basically the worst areas of the series, specially the early game of DS3 is horrendous.
Yeah, the bosses are great (The bosses after Irythill), but the areas... Well they are designed for you to not play them more than once, they're not only linear but also extremely short, exploration isn't really a thing in DS3.
And people tend to forget that the game encourage you to avoid enemies instead of fighting them.
How? Your estus doesn't exist unless you have the estus ring, if you don't, even a hollow hit twice as hard as the HP you get from the flask, and even though the distance between two bonfires is like 1/4 in comparison with DS1 and DS2, you have like 40 enemies between the two bonfires 🤣
What's the problem with that... The people who started the series in DS3 will compare pretty much every other game with DS3 because they loved the bosses (Again, after Irythill), they loved the music (even though there's only epic orchestra and... No much else)
But they don't realize that DS3 is the only game in the series that doesn't care about its areas and environment...
Demon's, DS1, DS2, Bloodborne, Sekiro and specially Elden Ring, all of them pay extreme attention and detail in their areas, exploration and discovering is a huge part of the experience.
Elden Ring doesn't need to be explained since exploration is the core of the whole game, DS1 and DS2 are great too.
In Bloodborne is kind of curious because... Most of the game is optional 🤣 you don't really need to kill most bosses to end the game. Just go Gascoigne, farm 10.000 for the emblem, Vicar Amelia, Shadows, Roam, One Reborn, Micolash, Mergo, final boss... Everything else is optional (even the final boss is optional), you're not even getting a max level upgrade if you don't explore the areas. As the only max level material in the base game is highly missable, as it is behind an area that... You're most likely to evade if you don't know what's there. The rest of the blood rocks are in the DLC and the chalice dungeons
The DLC, Cainhurst, Chalice Dungeons, nearly 2/3 of the game is missable if you don't explore and try discovering new things
Sekiro is much the same as most things are in secondary/hidden paths in a game with great verticality...
Playing most games from the series as you played DS3... It's not really a good idea, and neither is it to start the series with DS3 if you really want to understand what the souls are supposed to be.
No, the souls aren't just difficult bosses, dodge spam and epic orchestra.
lore wise why wouldn't you try to hide in the corner to get the jump on the player? Why would an enemy just be waltzing around in the open with no care in the world unless it was bait or something.
I remember thinking feebles video was good cause I didn’t know a lot about base and scholar of ds2
But when I heard him talk about the games I knew a lot of with sote and Elden ring I realiser how disingenuous his points can be
You gotta do a video on feebles elden ring video hes so bad on that game as well. Also add a outro to your videos
Feeble King overall has ass takes, This is only one of his many laughably goofy views. Theres like 1 video on his channel that even remotely makes any real sense.
Rushing through a area in any game like dark souls will get you killed I think that would be obvious
im playing through vanilla for the ten thousandth time I'll play scholar my next run and I'll make my own conclusions
2:04 Da ist wohl jemand Deutsch
Tbh, from what I've seen, both versions are entirely playable as long as you take it slow.
such style
No one is looking for these ambush on a first play through like you are in the vid
3:58 the last thing you should be thinking when encountering a METAL windmill is burning it. No logic required in this game, just trial and error, randomness and wiki searching.
It’s clearly wooden…
@@dreux_ nope! it even has rust on it.
Feebleking21 is amateur hour. You need to tackle the Longman himself: MauLer's super mega colossal ultra analysis of DS2 capped off with a ~2 hour video essay on DS2 being shit. Dangitjm is the only other person who's touched that video essay, and he only refuted MauLer's claims about DS2 PvP being rubbish.
I did make some, like this one: ruclips.net/video/1uruA2RjMYk/видео.htmlsi=BUHgcM9tklpYVXBY
But there's just so much to tackle in his videos. A lot of complaints are just his skill issues, other things happen in every Souls game but he pretends not to notice in the other games, etc
@@Domo3000 I feel like we need Illusory Wall to come to the rescue with more episodes of Dark Souls 2 dissected. Specifically, episodes that deal with the strangely chunky hitboxes, the randomly sprinting enemy AI, among other such things.
The thing is, many of those "gank squads" in vanilla (And SotFS for 7th gen) have large health bar that need more than 2 attack in order to kill them, while most "gank squads" in Demon's Souls and DS1 could usually be killed in 1 or 2 hits from even small weapons.
Which gank squad has a large health pool? Most are basic hollows or something like Alonne Knights that either get staggered with every hit or die with one hit if you use a blunt weapon
@Domo3000 not everyone knows to use a blunt weapon though, you can't really judge these things based on their most optimal strategies because that just isn't the experience of most players when they first experience the game
2 words git gud
noobs telling how dumb they are on the internet
Can you voice over the video with your own voice? "Text to speech sounds bad" is certainly not a rare sentiment.
True, they both have many cheap deaths.
Can you name some specific cheap deaths in Scholar?
@@Domo3000the large open area at the start of the Lost Bastille and the long hallway before Velstadt’s boss room come to mind.
The large open area is absolutely packed with dogs, some of which are out of sight and won’t come out until you’ve already dropped down, has lots of archers that are inaccessible unless you come prepared with a ranged weapon (which many melee builds won’t) or drop down to destroy the structures they’re standing on, which are spread out pretty far and take a lot of hits to destroy, and has a hidden pursuer that won’t pop out until you’re already engaged with the gank. This is of course avoidable if you know what you’re doing, but I’m sure many new players have dropped into the area unassumingly, only noticing the archers or a dog or two, and gotten rekt.
Velstadt’s runback is lined with statues that will spawn an insane amount of Leydia Pyromancers if the bell hidden under the stairs is rung. Very observant players may notice the opening and kill the hollow waiting at the bell, and even more observant ones may notice the hollow to the left of the room who will come to take the first one’s place, but I truly believe not a single soul could predict the third hollow the comes out of the ground to ring the bell ~15 seconds later. This basically guarantees that the bell will be rung on your first run through of the area, spawning an enormous amount of very powerful enemies on top of the two Syan knights and the Dragonrider blocking the boss fog and practically guaranteeing your demise.
I think that Scholar is an unequivocally better and more balanced game than vanilla, but it’s disingenuous to pretend there aren’t any cheap deaths there as well.
I wouldn't care about ganks if ds2 had i-frames on fog gates, levers and dors. But no, you have to slowly painfully clear all the enemies so they dont interrupt you + they don't reset on quiting out. And even if that was fixed my problems with ds2 don't end there
All I have learned from this video is that both versions are bad.
also that annoying ass ai voice does not help your points just use your normal voice unless you don't have a microphone or something
English isn't my first language. I can't pronounce English words right even if I try, still need to work on that.
@@Domo3000 Honestly, listening to Feeble King get roasted by an AI text to speech voice is funny af.
Bruh disagrees but has nothing to say so he complains about bot voice lol
@@MattTheMan2708 when making the video I was laughing hard when I heard the AI roast him at 11:30
@@Domo3000 It is weirdly charming in a way, especially with how deadpan it talks!
Most ds2 defenders arguments are normally so bad that its hard to argue against them as its so stupid
Go troll somewhere else
@@Domo3000 Sorry, it was a bit harsh.
I actually agree on some of your points tho
I've been saying for years now that ppl think scholar is a gankfest because they play it the same way they played ds1/3: they bull-headedly rush past every single enemy they possibly can just to get to the next fog wall, and then complain when all the enemies they aggroed are still chasing them.
DS2 has virtually no ganks if you just approach areas with caution and employ a bit of awareness. not even iron keep, since you can easily bait out the alonne knights 1-2 at a time.
I recently actually finished my first proper playthrough of DS1, and holy shit that game has more *actual* gank squads than any ds2 area.
The undead burg is practically a series of them. They're manageable with good timing and footwork, but those are *actual* examples of groups that aggro all at once and put you on the back foot. Darkwraiths in new londo don't aggro all at once, but they're incredibly difficult to even see when you do aggro them, and it's easy to get two or even 3 on your ass at once where they become so tedious to fight. at least in DS2 you can fucking see the enemies. and need I even mention the catacombs? the fucking bonewheels?
The difference is that Souls games are supposed to be punishing so it's all fun and fair if DS1 throws six Bonewheel Skeletons at you, but if DS2 throws 4 Hollow Soldiers at you that's just completely unfair because Souls games shouldn't punish players for rushing.
@@Domo3000seriously i remember getting a comment about the bonewheel gank in aramise and catacombs is fair because you need to "pay attention and take it slow" the absolute irony 😂