(Edit)

I played a couple of hours again. Part of my reason for an original 5 is because of how much I played/enjoyed this back in the day (2015). The slow methodicalness of exploring Dark Souls 2's world literally got me to make a series of IRL "Let's Plays" of places like Trader Joe's or Chicago: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZHtvog-1WA , or my Walk Souls series

It got me to start a art project called "Walk Geometry" for a bit, sorta about observing the shape of 3D spaces: https://www.hantani.com/walkgeometry.html .

I even did the "Walk Souls" series for a while, where I'd clear all the enemies out of a Dark Souls 2 level before recording a narrated playthrough of walking around it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oWjBaqefgAE

In other words, you could say Dark Souls 2 may have led to my interest in 3D at all! At first it was used as a way to think about the creation of my 2016 platformer Even the Ocean's levels, and how their shapes matter. But that line very easily extends into what I value in games.

I feel like I was having a lot of fun in 2015, the same way I feel like I have recently. Maybe TOO much fun because Even the Ocean ended up flopping in 2016 (although I think it's really great personally!!)

And, maybe 'fun' is what leads to interesting thinking for games... anyways...

Replaying a bit of DS2 on PS3 nowadays, the density is still quite nice. I would say the worst part of the game is what the series consisted to insist on which isn't so much the dodge roll combat as it is the commitment to an arcade punishment structure that doesn't make much sense. a 30-60 second respawn, running back to where you died. In arcade games the design language for dodging and surviving is usually pretty clear, in these sorts of games you're almost incentivized to run past because engaging in combat means the possibility of doing everything over again - just because you wanted to try learning, but you die to some enemy's super combo while trying to learn how to dodge.

It's an intentional design philosophy to be sure, engineered to create a 'feeling of victory' when you do complete it, but to me it's extremely boring! I could say more to keep twisting a knife, but...

--
(Original, 5/5)

thinking abt this from the 2014 goty event.. while i appreciate recent fromsoft to various extents, I think this is their last work to really capture my imagination, for all sorts of reasons. (Not to say that their post-DS2 games don't have great moments of their own, but that's a matter for another time). I think the main reason is DS2 feels like the the turning point for their focus more towards a very specific sort of action which interests me less overall.

Dark Souls 2 is honestly a little fucked up! But that's what makes it good. There's more levels than there should be, stuff is stitched together nonsensically..

The game keeps going on for like 10-20 hours more than you'd expect with the dragon islands world, the shrine of amana, etc... each area feels like this dense zone that the creators wanted to share, even if it didn't perfectly fit. It kind of has this texture of madness to it and theming that feel so video gamey but manage to work as a coherent and memorizable world. idk. It honestly has that energy of those sprawling wild adventure platformers (think ecco, kid chameleon, dragon slayer 4..), that feeling of 'why NOT add a sick dark green poison cave with gigantic impossible to see giants'). But it's all kept so densely knit, just wild little idea after idea.

The thing is though, when I do pick it up it feels really hard to get into. I have a lot less patience for the whole 'die and run back and slowly try again' thing since i've already done that a lot in the past. i should just make a cheese build or play with save states or something

Dark Souls II me proporcionou uma sensação semelhante à de The Witcher 2: ideias
muito interessantes, porém, executadas de maneira ineficiente. Ao comparar
imediatamente, percebo que Dark Souls II também apresenta um visual
desagradável, com um filtro que me parece um tanto sujo. Pode-se até argumentar
que o jogo tenta transmitir uma sensação de vazio ou morte, mas isso não ocorre; o
jogo simplesmente é feio, e acredito que essa seja mais uma desculpa do que outra
coisa.

Outro ponto fraco em Dark Souls II é o seu sistema de combate. Quando joguei Dark
Souls: Remastered, senti que era uma jogabilidade bastante lenta, porém,
extremamente eficaz. No entanto, ao experimentar Dark Souls II, deparei-me com
um sistema de combate terrível. É um combate extremamente lento e com falhas
notáveis. O personagem tem um delay bizarro para se movimentar, e o sistema de
rolamento do jogo é problemático. É frustrante perceber que você precisa upar
resistência apenas para tornar o rolamento do personagem minimamente utilizável,
o que pode custar várias horas de gameplay e te deixar irritado.

Em relação aos chefes, acho que são pouquíssimos os que são verdadeiramente
divertidos e causam a sensação satisfatória que vencer uma batalha na franquia
Dark Souls costuma proporcionar. Especificamente, o Matador de dragões, A
Pecadora Perdida, Najka, a Escorpiã e o Cavaleiro do Espelho são os que me
proporcionaram esse sentimento satisfatório de ganhar uma batalha, fora isso temos
lutas medianas e algumas terríveis.

O único ponto em que Dark Souls II não erra é a sua história. Felizmente, nesse quesito,
a From Software costuma não errar e sabe muito bem como fazê-la. Como sempre,
é uma narrativa indireta, que pode ser compreendida de diversas maneiras. Da
forma como a interpretei, achei muito bem construída e instigante, a ponto de
certamente vai te levar a pesquisar mais sobre ela no YouTube.

Quanto à trilha sonora, acredito que acerta muito bem na atmosfera que deseja
criar durante os combates contra os seus inimigos. No entanto, quando a
comparamos com as trilhas sonoras de seu antecessor e sucessor, ela fica
consideravelmente aquém. Como mencionei, as músicas são boas, mas não têm o
mesmo impacto memorável que as trilhas dos outros jogos da série.