Should I skip this and go straight to III?

The vanilla content isn't very good. However the DLC areas are probably the best areas in the souls series. Nothing in Dark Souls III topped Eleum Loyce's level design for me.

It has some big highs and some shit lows. Some stuff is better, some stuff is worst. Bt at least it made me feel something unlike 3. 3 just gave me deja vu.
Bloodborne is the only thing that can compete with the original dark souls imo, shame that it's tied to funbase posting and shitposts.

no, op. dont skip it. if you are going for Scholar specifically, (PS4/Xbone/DX11PC) then absolutely play it. it is arguably better than 3 in many respects, not the least of which is that 3 is incredibly linear and doesnt offer much choice in the way of level progression.

it has it's fun moments, and it has the best pvp. ANY weapon is viable if you want it to be, and it has the bests election of gear. it doesnt have poise like 1, but it has hyperarmor like Demon's Souls. Another aspect which 3 fucked up.

Its better than III, so no

only if you are a nigger

>its another Dark Souls 2 is the worst meme thread

metacritic.com/game/playstation-3/dark-souls-ii

>About 70% of enemies are designed really badly.
>Maps are bad except the DLC maps.
>The design team did a really bad job.
>Bosses are unmemorable.
>Lots of stupid traps that serve no purpose.

Yet:
>Really good weapon designs.
>Most balanced PvP out of the 3.
>DLC's are REALLY good
>I really can't think of something else actually...

Its worth a playthrough if you have the time.
If you value pvp do try it.
If you want pve you need to reconsider.
If you want a good game experience just skip to 3.

go strait to Bloodborne

Fuck the areas with petrifying statues EVERYWHERE and that snow area with the ice deers of buttrape though

>good game experience just skip to 3.

Lemmie correct myself.
"Better" game experience for the first half of the game.

this is the best way ive ever seen it described.

DaS1 was a consistent high, with a bit of a dip for Izalith/Demon Ruins, but then it picks up again.

DaS2 is more of a mixed bag with highs and lows all over. It's highs are really impressive, but the lows are quite bad too. the DLC is really good though.

Honestly i had more fun with 2 than im having with 3.

Oh yeah, that wasteland of reindeer area was definitely something else. I probably should have excluded that in my post.

>If you want a good game experience just skip to 3.
pffft 3 has the worst game experience. it's blatantly trying to be Bloodborne instead of Dark Souls. But without the balances that BB had. so enemies all have 1000 hit combos and hit lightning fast, even the most basic hollow, but you still have equip burden and roll around normally.

the bonfire placement is almost worse than DaS2, and honestly I found the bosses far less memorable, because half of them are all the fucking same. the Lord of Cinder concept was a really huge mistake, because it doesnt allow for boss variety. the game has more "dude in armor" bosses than DaS2.

Oh look, critics who hyped up a shitty product because they missed the boat with DS1!

>Fuck the areas with petrifying statues EVERYWHERE
those were barely a thread dude.

Why bother playing souls trash when skyrim exists?

metacritic.com/game/pc/the-elder-scrolls-v-skyrim

Pretend 3 is 2 and 2 is 3 and you enjoy the series much more

inb4 nioh

DaS2 is a better game than DaS3 at the moment.

I suspect with some patches and DLC it will end up being better, but it's not there yet.

Form your own fucking opinions dude. Pirate if you have to, even watch a fucking playthrough, just KNOW the game before passing any judgement.

The souls games have little to nothing to do with each other, so aside from DEEPEST LORE memes there is no reason to play them in order. That said:
DS1 > DS2 > Demon's > BB > DS3

>skipping best souls

SotFS was the best Souls game.

DS1 > DS3 > DeS > DS2

2 Wasn't terrible. It was a huge slap in the face compared to Dark souls 1. I only really died in Dark Souls 2 because of garbage traps/ ambushes in tight spaces sprung on you last second. While Das2 did have quite a few too many dudes in armor boss fights, I enjoyed it when I stopped mentally comparing Das 2 to Das 1.

I truly loved Power stancing as part of both PVE and PVP. Power stanced maces was awesome. The damage/HP was kind of inflated though. 40 strength / 40 Faith with a lightning blade miracle on a greatsword. Hitting for 1.2k per swing against bosses.

Speaking of Dark Souls, what the fuck is this? Playing Dark Souls 3. Anor Londo.

If you spent 2 minutes on the game before deciding that, it shows that you didn't give it a chance and just wanted to be part of the hive mind.

DS1 > DeS > DS2 > DS3

It also changed colors when I went back to my bonfire.

what game is that

Someone hacked into your account, RIP.

I think so. Not only because 2's kind of bad but because 3 feels more original if you skip it, as you won't get the references.

Yes. Only people who defend it are people who started with it, then they end up hating the other 4 games in the series because this one is the fucking odd ball.

no scholar is way better than 3 wait till all the dlc is out and still prob skip 3

what do you mean?

>spend more than 2 minutes
>wow, you played it that long and hated it? bullshit
>spend 2 minutes or less
>you didn't give it a chance!

Prism stone. Marks paths. Placed by players, doesn't really do anything

Severance: Blade Of Darkness

Left overs from anris quest.

first impression is everything. I shouldn't have to give a videogame "a chance".

I stopped caring about "it gets good after 20 hours" years ago.

its good though

Dark Souls 2 is just badly designed from animations, levels, enemies...It excels at nothing aside from enticing lore. Try it out. You'll drop it as soon as you reach Huntsman's Corpse.

so he's enjoying the worst game second? that makes no sense

I wish Ds2 came out after 3.. story wise that is dark souls 3 feels like a true sequel to 1 rather than 2. 2 feels like a spinoff with some ds1 references

pls do not respond to me ever again.

No. It's the best game in the series, no argument. If you skip it you're taking a shitty Cred Forums meme too seriously.

3 feels like a rehash, not a sequel, shit comes back for no reason.

>HEY MEMBER ANOR LONDO?
>HEY MEMBER ANDRE?
>HEY MEMBER ARTORIAS?

2 is a better sequel because it doesnt rely on outright rehashing the first game. it follows up on DaS1's concept of cycles of fire, and makes it clear that an insane amount of time has passed since 1. enough time that the gods from DaS1 are barely legend.

Dark Souls 2 is the definition of Artificial Difficulty. It's hard in an unfair way, just for the sake of being hard and the 'LOL Death Counter' is proof of their shitty marketing.

>Hit boxes are shit.
>Enemies have turret like tracking.
>Enemies have vacuum grab attacks.
>AOE attacks out the ass.

Also if you don't hit the first cap on Adaptability then the game is pretty much unplayable.

Yea right

you mean the second half? everything after drangleic is a straight line

2 is better than 3. It has its problems but at least they made a fucking effort

Google seems to be bringing up Anri's Quest when asking about random light in Anor Londo. What is it exactly though? I'm running through Das3 for like the 15th time now so I'm just skipping over many quest lines and only going places if it has gear I need.

I didn't Kill horace who is hollowed after falling down to ash lake. Which means he kills her.

They aren't items I can pick up either. I thought at first I had been invaded and not paid attention and the invader was fucking with me.

>>Hit boxes are shit.
tell me again?

>>Enemies have turret like tracking.
git gud

>>Enemies have vacuum grab attacks.
>0adp and proud

>>AOE attacks out the ass.
git gud.

...

I never understood this, I honestly don't think 2 is as hard as people say, 1 is much harder, at least for me anyway.

Everything you described applies to the other souls games.

HILARIOUS post. Screencapped.

I was able to beat Dark souls 2 with only 20 adaptability. (90 agility). Everyone said 110 was the absolute minimum for the game to be playable, but if your reaction speed was good, it was fine.

But yea Das2 was cheap in many areas.

Oh yes

kill yourself

>2 is a better sequel because it doesnt rely on outright rehashing the first game

But who was Old Dragonslayer, Bell Gargoyles, Rat Boss (Re-skinned Sif), Chaos Bug, Giant Basilisk, etc.......

DaS2 might have its problems but almost no thought or effort went into Das3. It's a cheap clone of the first and theres almost nothing interesting about it

The fucking Rat Boss made me angry. Carbon copy of Sif mixed with the fact that they just tossed 4 of those toxic inflicting motherfuckers in there for what seems like shits and giggles.

90 was considered the minimum to have usable i-frames, while 100 was the "meme" number and provided a bit more leeway. 110 is usually overkill unless you want to do shit like this.

It's got the best co-op and pvp in the series.
Is the most open of the games allowing you to go to pretty much any area from the start.
Also has the most build variety in the series as well

you've probably heard all of its problems already and I'm assuming someone has said why its bad already here, but I'll say some brief negatives:
Bosses are all pretty much the same and easy. They might have some arena gimmick or adds but there's not much else to them.

Enemies also have very little variety similar to the bosses and aren't that difficult either.

SOOO glad they removed i-frames in backsteps and ADP as a whole. Shit was insane. Made PVP a bitch. All you had to do was roll a high ADP and DEX character. I-frames for days and stupid backstab damage.

It doesn't count when modders fix the issue.

i don't understand this meme
the gameplay is very similar to all the other souls games. sure, it has slight variation to design, but the gameplay is almost identical

perhaps its time to really start looking at the entire series as a whole and realizing its just one giant meme

Old Dragonslayer is a rehash. yes. he's also optional content, and placed appropriately in such a way that you are not sure why he's there. its heavily implied he's a fake of some sort.

gargoyles are hardly a rehash if they work differently. not only are they entirely different models, but the fight plays differently. It's more an homage. It's also optional.

Royal Rat Authority is also optional, and reusing a Sif rig is hardly strange for Fromsoft to do. the fight is still entirely different.

Chaos bug is not a boss. just because a chaos bug goes into sinner's eye doesnt make sinner a 1:1 rehash of bed of chaos.

>Giant Basilisk
you mean the enemy? yeah? and? should I be upset because hollows returned too? a basic environment dependent enemy like that is hardly a concern. DaS3 has them too and I dont give a fuck about them there either.

but just arbitrarily bringing back Black knights and Silver Knights is a fucking rehash, because there's no reason for black knights to still exist, and there's no reason for Silver knights to still be in Anor Londo, (which is also a rehashed entirely mandatory area) when all the originals in DaS1 were illusions.

learn the difference between homage and rehash.

most of DaS2's rehashed content was either optional, or altered to the point it cant be called a rehash anymore. in some cases, it's recycling.

but just bringing back anor londo arbitrarily, bringing back silver and black knights, bringing back havel, and rehashing Gwyn, is just lazy.

No, even the worse souls game is better than 95% of other trash that gets released and worth a hundred hours or so.

>DaS2
>modders
holy shit you really haven't played the game have you? you just got killed like a bitch by the first enemy with a grab and like 0 agility and decided you hated the game

yes, agility is a stupid mechanic the way DaS2 implemented it.

But it's still a mechanic, and if you get caught with your pants down and fucked because you had low agility, that's YOUR fault, not the game's fault.

That whole area annoyed me greatly.

>its just optional

Unbelievable.

You should probably just kill yourself and get it over with.

Calm down, I didn't insult your mother or family heritage.

Adaptability and Agility alone are enough to write the game of as hot garbage, everything else that's wrong with it is just icing on the shit pile.

done

tell me, is Anor londo optional in DaS3?

it doesnt extend to just that though, they rehash entire concepts. irithyl Dungeon is just a shittier rehash from DeS. Just like Firelink is a rehash of the Nexus for no other reason than fanservice. which is fine, as long as the game still has it's own identity. DaS2 tried to do the nexus thing too- but the difference was it was more like the nexus combined with Firelink Shrine. it had the level up lady and all the NPC's moved there, but you could access at least 5 different places from it directly without having to warp to the very first fucking stage like in DaS3.

So when DS2 does it, then its Homage. But when DS3 does it, then it's Rehash.

lol

>Adaptability and Agility alone are enough to write the game of as hot garbage
that's just nitpicking then. What. you drop DaS1 too because Resistance was a useless stupid stat? You drop DaS3 too, because of the broken stupid poise system?

...

Played both versions (pirate) and found both kind of shit.

First level after the tutorial is utter shit. Filled to the brim with spear using enemies that only aggro when you walk past them. Its just not fun to constantly have to walk back and forward wiping them out.

Game was squeezed out in like 8 months development time. Its a bit of a turd, though may have some bright spots later on. I dropped it like 6 hours in.

That didn't help anything with the carthus bloodring and rolls costing 0 stamina. Its even worse now.

At least ninja flipping costed stamina even if ninja flipping DSS faggotry was gay. And in DaS 2 you needed 116 agility to get 16 i-frames, which constrained your build.

no. it depends on what it is and how its done.

And most of DaS3's is done very poorly.

>is Anor londo optional in DaS3

No...what's your point? A rehash is a rehash. Because it's optional doesn't excuse it of anything.

if nothing else I commend you for your tenacity.

I like DS2 more than DS3.

...

DaS 2 being bad is a meme perpetuated by people who can't form their own opinion of therefore spout shit they heard e-celebs say. It's flawed, just like the rest of the soulsborne games, but still great.

it does. because it's forced down your throat.

>"HEY REMEMBER ANOR LONDO? YOU LIKED ANOR LONDO RIGHT? HERES ANOR LONDO AGAIN, ISNT THAT GREAT? HERE HAVE SOME SILVER KNIGHTS TOO! AND LOOK! REMEMBER GWYNDOLIN?

This man knows

Dark Souls 3 made Dark Souls 2 better in retrospect.

Not to say DaS2 doesn't have issues. It has tons. Like all Souls games. But I don't get why people shit on DaS2 for being linear and not making sense when DaS3 is even more linear and things are just shoved together.

Also the build variety in DaS2 is the best in the series.

Yes

DS2 felt more original, with great weapon and armor designs, and some great pvp. Also, magic spells, miracles, and pyromancies were way more fun. DS3 only had Nostalgia going for it, and thus was inferior to the first and second game. It had shittier magic, shittier armor since they all looked similar to each other, and shittier weapons.

Resistance and Poise don't make the game unplayable if you don't increase them.

considering all the souls games are 1 step foward 2 steps back that's not all that surprising.

Only really good thing about ds3 was player movement everything else is pretty unremarkable

Because Mathewmattosis told them so.

Comfiest hub music.
youtube.com/watch?v=D8ShsHeYkeI

You're making it seem like the rehashes in 2 were easily avoidable. Anyone who plays Souls games explores as much as they can. They might as well be forced when it comes to fans of the series. In which case, its still just as bad. If you get so triggered by it, that you decide to avoid them is subsequent playthroughs, that's also bad. You shouldn't have to avoid content to enjoy a game.

Majula is best hub.

Getting everyone together and everyone chilling at the end of the world was maximum comfy.

>broken poise
>not making the game unplayable
>when enemies use functional DaS1 poise just fine and use it to fuck your shit up while your "hyperarmor" doesnt start util halfway through the fucking animation of the weapon

and thats not counting other shit like Lothric Knights that outright read your inputs to react to you.

Attack and they block before your animation's barely started. try to kick their shield and they instantly attack you before the animation starts

try to stunlock them? hold on let me just cancel out of stunlock to block your attack so that it can bounce off my shield and then i can attack you

>muh bloody screen
>muh Miyazaki
>muh mob placement

That guy praised Lost Izalith for its design.
You have to be retarded to take him serious.

No its not bad just different, you know how autistic Cred Forums gets

>Referencing the least funny part of New South Park.
>My Vagina

youtube.com/watch?v=5yowioThaXE
I wish that as you brought more people to Majula the music would've gotten slightly more upbeat with every addition. Then, when you've collected everyone the music sounds like this.

and yet on release, you had tons of drones reposting his stupid video as if it were the word of god whenever an argument over DaS2 came up

Thats what you get for trying to tank your way through the game dumbass.

get the fuck out of here with your meme shit

...

It turns out that my playtime is a perfect representation of how good each Dark Souls game is.

Me too man

Me too

Agreed, DaS2 had very little replay value because of how tedious it felt. I have more hours logged into Bloodborne.

I actually had close to double the amount of hours in Das2 compared to 1 or 3. All because of the whole Das2 then Das2 Sotfs debacle. 100% achievements on all 3 games.

why did you buy dark souls ii twice?

This. Anyone who actually started with DS1/DeS hates 2 and thinks 3 is alright. Reminder that 2 was made by a different director and another branch of fromsoft so it's basically the highest budget fan game in recent years.

>"but the PvP was best in 2!"
No it was trash at first just like all the games PvP are. Difference is DS2 had 3 content expansions to fix it when all the others game got one.

Sotfs came with all the DLC, DX11 instead of DX9. Plus I had steam credit to burn. Figured I might as well get the "updated" version. I.e. the version of Das2 that was un-pussified.

>Speaking of Dark Souls, what the fuck is this? Playing Dark Souls 3. Anor Londo.

if it's outside the giant doors of Anor Londo, it's a part of the Anri of Astora quest. if you've been following it at that point they'll be a "reverse summon sign" on the ground, and interacting with it will summon you to help Anri kill Aldrich

Only a fool would do such a thing. That goes double for any empty headed parrots who believes the "DS2 is bad" meme. It's the best of the trilogy.

>the version of Das2 that was un-pussified
I don't think adding more enemies into the game makes it better or harder

Yes skip. The only redeeming factor this game has was its PVP scene, which is now pretty much dead (as tends to happen for all souls games once a new one comes out...unfortunately)

It has the absolute weakest singleplayer content of all the souls (and bb) games, but it had some of the best pvp. As such it is no longer worth playing.

You can stop trying to force your shitty opinions on the rest of us. We all played DeS first too, and it's still the worst game in the series. Also, no one cares that the supposed "B" team made 2. Please take off your nostalgia goggles, then find a rope and hang yourself.

If you value your time, yeah, skip it. This game is painfully mediocre. DS3 is way better. Some memeshitters on Cred Forums will pretend otherwise, but it's only until the DLC comes out and then it's God Tier bla bla, same old routine with every other Soulsborne game. DS3 is good as it is for pve, the only problem is weapon balance as straight swords are the best choice by far. DS1 is better all things considered, but DS3 had very refined combat and some of the bosses were the best in the series by far, way better than those in DS1.

ok buddy

Started playing Soulsgames last year and pretty much finished DS1+2+3 one after another.

Therefore i don't suffer from any form of nostalgia or other forms of bias.

DS1 certainly left the biggest impact on me. And that only for the singleplayer content. The game was incredibly atmospheric and i had a great time playing it.

Playing Dark Souls 2 after that was very weird. Things felt off - In the way the game play and in the way it was designed. But the more i played the more it grew on me and at the end i even finished the game on NG++ because replaying it was very enjoyable - Even more than replaying DS1. Scholar also got me into PvP - something DS1 failed to do. And i had lots of fun.

And so i eventually got to Dark Souls 3. It started better than DS2 originally did and Abyss Watchers was like the first really hype moment for me that brought back some DS1 feelings but after that it never really got me again. The game didn't get into me like DS1 did and it wasn't as fun as DS2 was at its later times. I missed Bonfire Ascetics and the PvP of Dark Souls 2. One can only hope that it gets that stuff with the DLC because that could give DS3 the chance to beat Scholar for me.

Why play skyrim when you could be playing the undisputed game of the century? WItcher 3.

No

You're not alone. Cred Forums is just full of such wannabes so desperate to be part of a hive mind that they'll latch onto anything that they assume is Cred Forums groupthink.

I fucking love how Das2 can look even better than DaS in some areas but worst than Dark souls 1 in others.

Try playing darksouls 1 without mods, atleast on the pc, never had a worse time with a videogame.

This.

>somebody was so assblasted they cropped this gif to make it look like they didn't get hit
He gets hit in the foot in the original version, it's as clear as day. The only goofy looking thing is that he gets teleported afterwards, but that doesn't invalidate the hit.

how the fuck else am i supposed to use an ultra great weapon? they are specifically designed to hyperarmor through attacks

what was the problem(s) you had on PC? I played Das1 on PC with no mods at all and the only problem I saw was a drop to 22 FPS in blighttown.

That's just because of how graphics work and some stupid decision the devs made to make the game more visible.

Basically, the reason that graphics look nice in gaming is because of the illumination or, rather, the selective lack of it. Everything in the game is actually mapped properly but because the devs forgot to turn the damn lights off in most of the areas, you don't actually get to see the maps doing their jobs since the maps need both a direction light AND darkness to work properly otherwise everything just looks kinda like it's glowing, hence making things like height and normal maps invisible.

Graphics look like it's a ps1 game, you can't really play with a mouse either, also if i recall correctly you can't change the xbox controller layout and the layout feels very outlandish.

>Also the build variety in DaS2 is the best in the series.

DaS2 is great because it allows, and expects, you to utilize everything you can, but makes you earn it first.

DS1: shit
DS2: good
DS3: shit
DS4: neverever

Less atmosphere than in first part. More comfortable to play, than first.
If u want to feel that exp. u should try it. If u want to play story mode - skip this shit.

...

...

prime example of why you should skip DS2. Turns you into an oddball fan that hates the 4 other games.

Skip 2 and enjoy the other games THEN you can come back to 2, it's not like there is anything besides minor references to DS2 in the 3rd game anyways. All the big references are toward 1st game.

...

Same

I like DS2 more than DS1.

...

Agreed, once you take off the hood, there is so much more to offer in this game, all the other souls games felt stripped of content.

DaS2 had it's pretty moments.

also, I always thought this was a nice touch. the idea that the image of Gwyn has morphed over time basically into Ra, was clever

...

DeS > DaS > Bloodborne >>> DaS2 DLCs >>>>>>> DaS3 >>>>> Dogshit >>>>> DaS2

how much do you get paid to shill these exact same webms in ever single Dark Souls thread?

0

DaS2 > DaS3

Shulva sanctum city was the very best of all the DLC zones.
I ended up hating Eleum Loyce due to forcing you to explore it twice to get the loyce knights to help with the ivory king.
And we do not talk here about the frigid outskirts.

how is ds2 scholar edition on ps4? Are people still playing pvp?

Only if you want to skip the best game in the series.

i cant decide whats worse : the frigid outskirts or the cave right before the bluesmelter. I didnt have online so i couldnt coop

Yes, skip 2

have you ever seen highlander 2? that's what dark souls is. An episode that everyone with taste would rather forget, including the creators.

Frigid outskirts had a better boss than the caves imo

the backtracking in loyce was kind of dumb, but I liked the idea of it. it's rooms just needed some more clutter and reason.

although, when you think about it, Elleum Loyce was High Wall of Lothric before it was cool.

Speaking of enemies with poise, the Cathedral knights with ultra greatswords bug the fuck out of me.
I understand that these big ass enemies need poise since its the AI and everything to stand a chance against a human player, but they swing as often if not more than the drakekeepers from ds2, and thats just bullshit.

Fucking nigger. 2 minutes isn't even enough time to sprint to the handmaids and listen to their dialgoue. Get the fuck out of here.

>I understand that these big ass enemies need poise since its the AI and everything to stand a chance against a human player
bullshit. if the player can't have poise, then the enemies shouldnt either. this is why DaS was so well balanced. most enemies followed the same rules as you, especially the humanoids

Fucking agreed. I also wish they didn't have a broken version of the Stomp weapon art. I ran through ng++ Consumed Kings Gardens after literally only pvp-ing for the last few weeks. I saw one knight get into the stomp animation, spaced myself accordingly as one would do, then he takes 3 giant steps towards me and hits me from the equivalent of full screen.

They tried too hard to make the pvp like bloodborne. High Vit + stability builds are literally fucking impossible on new game and they are underpowered even when optimized.

Its good. I played it there. Don't listen to anyone. You really should give it a run through.

Also, watch Happy Souls. Good for a laugh.

Was faith really nerfed that bad in 2?
Im at SL 120 and got myself 20 casts of great lightning spear, hitting for 700 averrage, and thats more than enough to carry me through the whole thing so far.

...

using GLS in 2 is akin to cheating

which is ok because the game sucks and does cheap shit constantly.

Skip it if only if you dont want to hate what ds3 disregarded what ds2 did right.

Linking to memecritic
At least 2 had the better covenants and arsenal.

This. DS2 had good stuff in it, which will only make you upset when it isn't in DS3. Skip if you want to not experience this.

I powerstanced 2 lightning Defender Greatswords with 40 faith and did alright.

Warrior or Explorer for pure quality?

No, Ni Oh does not look fun, it looks like a shitty soulsclone, please stop posting the exact same fucking webms every fucking thread

No.

nah