From Software makes some of the best video games ever. In other shocking news, fire is hot and birds fly. Practically every single game they release is a masterpiece developed by the most talented people in the industry. These games are very near to my heart, and given their overwhelmingly positive reputation, it’s clear I’m not the only one.
Recently, I decided to go back and play through all the Souls games yet again. Since I always play big-boy strength builds, I wanted to mix it up and play a magic build, complete with the iconic Moonlight Greatsword. Along the way, I aimed to complete the NPC questlines that I always either failed to finish or completely ignored. My aim was to experience these games in a brand new light.
Including ‘Dark Souls 2′. As much as I didn’t want to. While I adore almost every game From Soft puts out, DS2 is the one glaring exception. I have finished ‘Demon’s Souls‘ three times. ‘Dark Souls‘, five. ‘Dark Souls 3‘, four. ‘Bloodborne‘, seven. ‘Elden Ring‘, four once again. DS2? Only once. And I hated it. I only ever finished it as a matter of pride.
But that was nearly ten years ago. I’m a completely different person now. Particularly because I’m much, much better at games. Not to toot my own horn, but I can beat ‘Peggle‘ in just under four hours. Maybe now I could finally understand why so many people defend this game.
Thirty hours and dozens of deaths later, I’ve finished it. My patience has been tried, my controller brought to the brink. Was it worth it? Do I finally like ‘Dark Souls 2‘?
No. But also yes? Honestly, I’m still not sure.
Everything I hated about this game is still just as awful as I remember it. For every one good boss fight, there are five terrible ones. Enemies come at you by the dozen until you’re sick of looking at them. The hit boxes and controls are jankier than any other game in the series. Adaptability is a terrible stat; whoever thought to tie dodge roll I-frames and healing speed, the most important abilities in the game, to a stat and not explain it to the player in any way should be branded as a war criminal. Playing this game made me so angry I actually gave myself a headache more than once.
Yet despite all of that, I kept coming back. No matter how upset the game made me, I always wanted to keep playing. To press forward until I overcame whatever obstacle was looming over me, however obnoxious it may have been. Every now and then, every once in a blue moon: I actually had fun playing ‘Dark Souls 2‘. A lot of fun!
With that said, it’s time for us to set off. Consume a Human Effigy and dive into the whirlpool. It’s time for us to return to Drangleic.
Early game ‘Dark Souls 2‘ is easily the worst part of the game. A good number of the starting classes begin with either terrible stats or awful equipment. Whether you pick one of these or one of the actually good ones, you’ll inevitably be faced with the Adaptability problem. Remember: you need this stat for your dodge rolls and healing items to work. Ergo, leveling it as quickly as possible is downright mandatory.
Here’s where the problem arises. If you level Adaptability straight away, your character’s base stats will suffer. If you choose to level the stats you actually want, your dodge rolls will be useless and healing will take far too long. Whichever road you choose to walk, you’re in for a miserable early game experience. Especially because your healing supply is extremely limited, with only one Estus Flask and a handful of healing gems.
Now, there are items you can find to make the early game easier. The rapier is straight-up broken; you can melt enemies and bosses with this thing for practically the entire game. Even more so if you kill the Pursuer before his boss fight and snag his ring. There are also a handful of Estus Shards easily accessible from the starting areas, letting you raise your Estus count from one to three before the first boss. This being my second playthrough, I was able to snag some of these items and level my character more efficiently.
And thank god for that. Once you overcome the early game ADP hurdle, build customization becomes much easier and more enjoyable. There’s a tangible sense of growth in levelling from this point on. I didn’t feel that my build was fully complete all the way to the end. I was always eager to return to Majula and chat with the Emerald Herald.
Which brings me to my next positive point: the setting. The world of Drangleic has always been one of DS2’s greatest strengths. Majula is downright enchanting; it has some of the best hub area music in the series, and the perpetual sunset shining over the ocean is downright beautiful. After finishing a blood-boiling level like The Gutter, Black Gulch, or Frigid Outskirts, a five-minute breather in Majula was enough to have me ready for the next challenge.
Except the Frigid Outskirts. Seriously, who thought this zone was a good idea? This was the worst level in any video game I have EVER played! Running blindly through a blizzard while being assaulted by highly-aggressive, infinitely respawning enemies is the exact opposite of fun. And your reward for trudging through it? A recycled boss from that same DLC. At that point, it would have been better just to cut it out entirely. I would rather stab my eyes with used heroin needles than ever play through this area again. Literally the only positive thing I can say about it is that it’s optional.
To be fair, not all of the levels are terrible. Oddly enough, I actually had a ton of fun in Sinners’ Rise. Drangleic Castle and Dragon Aeire are both drop-dead gorgeous and surprisingly fun to traverse. For the most part; there’s annoying bullshit in every single level of this game. But there are a few diamonds in the rough. Even the most miserable levels are awe-inspiring to look at.
The same can be said for the bosses. At their worst, they’re just mobs of enemies with a big health bar or a recycled fight from earlier in the game. Remember Smelter Demon? Fight him again, but now he’s blue! Did you like the Dragonrider? Hope so, because now there’s two of them! Fuck it, here’s a horde of rats! And don’t even get me started on Ancient Dragon! Not only are they as well designed as premade Unity assets slapped together in a student project, they’re also piss-easy. Out of over forty bosses, roughly ten of them managed to actually kill me. Of those, only five did so more than once.
But when these boss fights are good, they are damn good! Sinh, the Slumbering Dragon was one of the most enjoyable dragon bosses in the series! Sir Alonne makes for a badass one-on-one duel! Burnt Ivory King has one of the coolest boss setups in the game, even if his hit boxes are absolute BS. Darklurker is basically a Diablo boss, both in design and magical tool kit, and I do mean that as a compliment. Lost Sinner is simple, but he poses a challenge that is fair and satisfying to overcome. Few though they may be, the truly good bosses of ‘Dark Souls 2‘ deserve to stand among the franchise’s best.
Besides, we can’t pretend that every other From Software title has nothing but bangers. I’d take every boss in DS2 over the Bed of Chaos any day of the fucking week.
One thing that really impressed me this time around was the multiplayer component. In my first playthrough, I all but ignored it, choosing to traverse Drangleic on my own. This time around, I shared that journey as much as possible with whatever NPCs and stray players I came across.
Maybe it’s just that misery begets company, but partaking in jolly cooperation made this game far, far more enjoyable. Having a buddy or two to help mitigate the endless hordes of enemies made even the most tedious slogs into a fun challenge. Dividing paired bosses transformed my frustration into excitement as I raced to finish my foe and save my companion. I straight-up turned the final boss into an MMO raid, fighting through all three final bosses with a squad of three summons like my very own Knights of the Round Table. You may call me a filthy casual, but if it means I can actually have a good time playing ‘Dark Souls 2‘, then your sticks and stones will not break my bones.
More than that, it made me engage more with the NPCs I met along the way. Benhart of Jugo became my Moonlight bro, and Lucatiel of Mirrah’s tragic fate broke my heart. Aldia, Scholar of the First Sin is genuinely one of the best characters in the Dark Souls trilogy; David Gant gave an incredible performance, delivering some of the coolest lines I’ve ever heard.
Once, the Lord of Light banished Dark and all that stemmed from humanity. And men assumed a fleeting form. These are the roots of our world. Men are props on the stage of life, and no matter how tender, how exquisite: a lie will remain a lie!
Young Hollow, knowing this, do you still desire peace?
I give this game a lot of crap but when it wants to, the writing goes hard as hell!
Unfortunately, not every NPC is created equal. Most of them are bland, underwritten, and forgettable. If you asked me to name my favorite characters from any other From Software game, I could give you a dozen names off the top of my head. Solair of Astora, Eileen the Crow, Seigmeyer and Seigward of Catarina, Alexander the Warrior Jar, Ostrava of Boletaria, Greirat the Thief, Gehrman the First Hunter, Trusty Patches, Big Hat Logan, the list goes on. Put a gun to my head and tell me to do the same for ‘Dark Souls 2‘, and I’ll close my eyes and accept my fate.
An incredibly cool mechanic I honestly wish would come back is the Bonfire Ascetic. With this item, you can elevate any area in the game from New Game to New Game +. Since enemies don’t infinitely respawn in DS2, this will bring them back, as well as all the items you’ve collected and the area’s boss. This allows you to more efficiently grind for souls, and more importantly: get duplicate items. When used properly, this allows you to break the game, creating some truly nonsensical builds to flex in co-op or PVP. Such as power-stancing two Moonlight Greatswords.
I didn’t do that because I’ll be fucked if I’m going through the spider-zone a third time just for a meme build. But it’s cool that the option is there.
After a long and arduous journey, I reached the Throne of Want. Knights of the Round at my side, I made quick work of the Throne Watcher and Throne Defender, Nashandra, and Aldia. With both my enemies and my allies dead at my feet, I was faced with a choice: take the throne or abandon it. Inherit the order of this world or destroy it. Shouldering the Moonlight Greatsword, I left the throne behind, thus bringing my second journey through Drangleic to an end.
Playing ‘Dark Souls 2‘ again was a truly bizarre experience. Even now that I’ve written this article, I’m still not sure if I’d call it a positive one. Yet at the same time, I can’t say it was a negative one either. There’s so much here that I think is incredible, but there’s even more that I find completely unbearable.
This game is like a cousin you only run into once every few years. You don’t necessarily get along with them; they can be kind of annoying and they get way too political when they’re drunk. But every now and then, you share a moment of genuine connection that makes it impossible to truly despise them. Whatever issues you have with them, you care for them just enough to not cut them out of your life completely.
That may be too specific an analogy for anyone other than me.
It’s not hard to figure out why DS2 is such a mess. The troubled development behind the scenes is hardly a secret at this point. All things considered, it’s a miracle the game came out at all. Especially because it’s still a remarkably solid game compared to a lot of what comes out nowadays.
Do I like ‘Dark Souls 2‘ now? I’m not sure. Do I hate it as vehemently as I used to? Not at all. All grievances aside, this playthrough was a vastly more enjoyable experience than my first one. Who knows? Maybe once I finish a third, I’ll be able to hop off the fence.
Just not right now. Or any time soon. As high as the highs were, there were some truly unbearable lows I am in no rush to repeat.
If you’ve made it this far, thank you very much for reading. This article wasn’t planned; as I said at the beginning, I was only playing these games again on a whim. But I’m glad I did. Partly because it helped me sort through the mess of thoughts and feelings I have towards this game, and partly because writing it was a good time. I hope you enjoyed yourself as much as I did.
Take care, everyone. And don’t you dare go Hollow.
There is no path. Beyond the scope of light, beyond the reach of Dark… what could possibly await us? And yet, we seek it, insatiably…
Such is our fate.
Jonah's Books & Rants 
Leave a comment