I'm just going to make an incoherent string of thoughts because I just don't care and don't like this game. I've put 50 hours into this game and I just genuinely feel burnout because I have nothing to look forward to. I hate so much and I'm just disappointed and so sad I dislike it. I love the first game and this game is just so simplified and boring.

The Shrine of Reflection system is lame, I like the gameplay segments in them (expect the one Jester one, that one is awful and unfair with no explanation at all) but the lack of them sometimes can be annoying, Flaggelant only has one and while its a good boss fight I wish they were all given more, but the main reason I hate them is because it just ruins the experience. I felt no desire but to beeline straight towards them and quite literally not do anything else just so I could maybe get some good skills for my characters. Maybe if some of the starting skills weren't so dog ass I wouldn't feel this way.

I don't like the candle system at all for a number of reasons, I don't like that it ties to unlocking customization for characters, unlocks trinkets, stat levels, and is the currency for the Bounty Hunter. On one hand, would I spend it on something meaningless like Stagecoach skins and Character designs when I should use it for locking something important like more trinkets and items I could find on my quest. On the other hand, I don't like needing to spend the candles to unlock trinkets and important items when I feel these should be naturally found on my quest and journey.

Why do I have to hire the Bounty Hunter, a character who is mediocre at best? Why does he want candles? That doesn't make sense, why doesn't he want gold? Why does he have to be hired? The whole world is dying and going made, either doing be involved at all or put your personal shit aside and just suck it up and come along.

Some of the bosses are just so awful, Harvest Baby is a shithead, Leviathan feels like a less fun Hag, the Librarian is a joke, and the Dreaming General is fucking awful. The Exemplar is THE WORST, I feel like I'm playing chess versus an opponent who is allowed to play chess in 4D and go over and under the board to slap me if he feels like it. The minibosses are..fine, but I think it is BULLSHIT they don't give you a trophy you can take to the mountain. The Warlord is hard but Oh! I guess not hard enough to warrant a trophy, because that makes sense I guess.

I don't like either of the new characters. Runaway just feels like the obligatory "Oh, we made fire a DOT now, here's the fire character" who is boring to play. I hate the Duelist with a burning passion, it feels like Red Hook saw one of those modded characters from the first game and thought "Oh, we can do that" and made a character who has a major text and reading overload, and feels like a style and gameplay that you put so much time into building up it doesn't feel rewarding.

And Finally, I hate the god-awful relationship system and simplified stress, neither of these work well and need to be fixed imo. Why can my characters hate each other and become envious of skills, SKILLS I HAVE NEVER USED AND WOULD NEVER USE BECAUSE THEY ARE GODAWFUL. Only have "Meltdown" and "Resolute" for the Affliction is lame, it just means I lose health and doesn't mean I uniquely interact with my other teammates that well.

Also, whoever came up with "Breacher" and thought it was a positive quirk, NEEDS TO BE SHOT.

While technically a sequel, Darkest Dungeon 2 offers a completely different vibe of gameplay, tone and combat than the first game. All while still keeping the harsh yet fair gameplay I love. Now, if you wanted a sequel that does what the first game did, I wouldn’t bother with this. Rather than having percentage stats with hit chance, damage and so on, this game has a token system. Block tokens make it so you take 50% less damage. Dodge tokens give you a 50% to dodge an enemies attack. Debuff tokens such as damage and hit chance work the same as well. Meaning heroes like Grave Robber, who in the first had a high dodge chance, won’t dodge at all without a dodge token. If you want to win, you need tokens and you’ll need to lessen the effects of debuff tokens. It’s a fun system and the UI in combat is less cluttered than the first.

The returning 12 heroes (Crusader is a DLC) now have 11 skills, can equip 5 skills and 3 hero paths which change how you play them. Vestal and Plague Doctor, who were purely for support in the first game, can now be decent damage dealers. Highwayman, can have support moves like removing enemy tokens. Now, in order to get all these moves you need to complete a heroes memories at shrines you find. Some of these memories are interactive, but most are just narration. I’m fine with that, but some visual aid would be nice. And while all hero paths are viable, some are better than others. Thankfully Red Hook has recently tweeked Grave Robber and Highwayman to be more balanced, and hopefully in future will see more changes like this. I say this cause this game rewards damage focused teams over buffing and defensive teams. Healing in this game is much more limited and for some reason certain attacks cause status effects which were weirdly the thing that ruined some of my runs.

While I prefer the first, I’m glad this game took a more different approach. It offers a new experience while still keeping core aspects of the first. I still think some balances are needed, and a new area would be nice. But overall all, I highly recommend it.

Honestly i think i'm part of the minority but i prefer this one over the first one, the battle system feels so much better made, the characters and the rogue-lite aspect to me feels way more fun than the original, don't get me wrong, i still love the first DD for what it offered and how it's constructed, but i find myself installing DD1 just to uninstall it the next day and keep playing 2, and with it finally getting more updates regularly and soon getting a new game mode, i think i will stick with this one for a while.

My review might change in the future, but for the time being, i still prefer this one, even tho DD1's final boss is superior, the journey to the final boss is what puts me back from playing it again lol

The story about the worst road trip of all time.

A disclaimer for this game: If you are expecting a true continuation of Darkest Dungeon 1, you are going to be disappointed. Go play the Black Reliquary mod instead.

That being said, it is a totally different game from its previous installment which in my opinion, isn't totally a bad thing. There are some positive changes to combat such as debuffs still kind of being RNG, but they can be controlled more easily since they created a sort of "token" system for buffs and debuffs. I also like that you are able to create synergies with party members that like each other. The opposite also applies, in which you have party members that hate each other which can be run ending. The new roguelite format feels less punishing for losing characters than the first game (but that's what made DD1 fun...).

What I would describe this game in general is a more refined and streamlined Darkest Dungeon experience (As controversial as that may be). There's less micro managey mechanics and more of a focus on min-maxing your current run. I like this game as someone who's played over 400 hours on DD1. I think it's grossly overhated.

I love the first game but just couldn't click with 2.
The combat isn't better enough to carry the direction change with the rest of the gameplay for me.

I feel like half of darkest dungeon to me was the management and build-up of the town and your roster throughout, so this was a let down. Though I do understand some people's frustrations when losing higher levelled dudes, but I miss that personal attachment.

The modding community was huge in 1 and it doesn't seem to have much going for it here. I'm not sure if it's the switch to 3d models, or just a lack of modding tools but it's definitely a step back.

I can certainly see how many people may enjoy it and I may change my mind if modding becomes big again (mainly if overhauls become a thing), but for now it just doesn't work for me.

This game is not for everyone. For fans of the first, it's a completely separate beast, keeping only the difficulty and the art style. However, to me, this game has too much going for it to make me want to rage quit. While there are some aspects done better in the first game, the combat has much more to do. New ways to play with heroes like the paths and the affinity system make it much more interesting and engaging. The music, just like the first, is top notch, and a lot of the tracks are even better than ones in the first. The biggest drawback to many people is the apparent difficulty, with how some situations feel absolutely unbeatable, and the complete shift into a roguelike (along with features gone from the first game like the town management and permanently losing heroes forever). I've never had a problem with a lot of these complaints though, and to me, this game is everything I loved about the first game but better.

Imagine everything that on the surface makes you think of Darkest Dungeon but none of the fun you'd get from actually playing it.
The combat is worse, the slow roguelite progression over every failed run feels bad, and the driving is actually terrible.
I'd rather not keep forcing myself to keep playing or hold out for when I finally have enough stuff to make the game fun.
Please stop making games like this that are only fun after you've sunk cost fallacy'd yourself into not being able to remember how much you had to grind to get there.
Darkest Dungeon 1 is a genuinely good and fun party/town management game with a great aesthetic. Darkest Dungeon 2 just feels like it's chasing the roguelite trend with systems that work against wanting to play multiple runs again and again.
Please just go play Darkest Dungeon, this ain't it chief.

I wish I liked this game more. Everything about the visuals, sounds and music are a step above the original. The biggest flaws relate to the dumbing down of the gameplay, and the shift from a large-scale campaign to a run-based roguelite with some meta-progression smattered in there.

They somehow have fewer characters than base Darkest Dungeon and they are sorely missed (backline always feels like it's missing something). They only released 2 new characters (1 from the most recent DLC) overall with several fan favorites still MIA.

I definitely had more fun than I expected, but It's definitely a miss for me... Catch it on sale, because I don't feel it's worth $40 AT ALL.

It's definitely different from DD1, but I wouldn't call it a step back from the original. It improved many things from the previous game. While DD1 is very focused in long-term planning and progress, having a quite heavy impact in mistakes by making them punishing in terms of progress; DD2 is more focused in improvisation, most systems aren't nearly as detrimental as in the original as they would be literal run killers. I found the roguelite nature to be something positive for this game, as it makes it way more approachable and learnable compared to the first game. DD2 is an amazing sequel, Red Hook didn't want to make the same game twice and they didn't. I have to say it though, it still feels a bit unpolished, but I'm sure they will improve that throught patches and DLCs.