Started with Elden Ring, going through all the DS games in order now. I've heard A LOT of negative things about DS2, so many things that I thought a lot of the worst this game had was going to be most of it.
-Controls are a little different from DS1 and get some getting used to, and it was really weird not being able to change directions while attacking out of a roll for instance.
-Really weird decision to tie agility to the i-frames on your roll (LOL???)
-Hitboxes are at times questionable, usually with attacks that impale you, they teleport you onto the sword even if you've already rolled behind them, it's bizarre
-"This game is 90 percent dudes in armor" is a correct criticism, but the bigger problem is the bosses are too easy because their movesets are minimal in size, variation, and mix-ups. Oh hey, the stationary boss hits twice close to them with the exact same timing and has no other melee options, how novel. One of the bosses that killed me the most has like 5 moves and only killed me so many times because his damage, poise damage, and HP are just so overtuned. Just take a boss with a very simple moveset, give them some gratuitously large hitboxes and jack their stats and you have a boss! Nice.
-Lifegems are to me a positive addition since they aren't the best for healing mid-fight and are mainly just used in between fights for prolonging exploration runs 90 percent of the time. Sure, it makes the feeling of relief when you finally make it to a bonfire lesser, but the trade-off is a less stressful experience in general which usually means I play for longer.
-Souls games in my experience usually have a rough start until you manage to get a build going but man does this game really wants you to quit early. The hollowing mechanic reducing your HP repeatedly until it hits 50% and giving you only one Estus Flask can make things really hard especially when you consider enemies not respawning if you kill them too much. I'll admit I almost considered quitting early but stuck it out. Get the Estus Shards from Majula and only use Human Effigies early if you've accumulated multiple deaths. Unfortunately you have to respect the basic hollow enemies in forest because they learned from the Elden Ring school of PVP and camp behind greatshields while poking with a spear.
-There's a lot of BS level design but a lot of it is manageable either once you die to it the first time and think about how to approach the room, or you just play under the assumption that there's a gank or some ambush around every corner. The worst this game has to offer in levels is THE WORST, but that's not ALL the game has fortunately. It has some good stuff and if you just approach things carefully and safely in general you should be alright.
-Bonfire Ascetics are a really cool mechanic and it's also very cool that there are actual differences between NG+ and the base game??? Why don't the other games do this?
-Economy on some items is bizarre. Slabs were extremely rare in 1 but in this game I've always had twice as many Slabs as I had chunks, and the shop only starts selling them in unlimited stock once you beat the game? Great. Why is Ring of Protection only 3,000 souls to repair infinitely? It effectively removes the soul recovery and hollowing mechanics with the only trade-off being such an insignificant amount of souls it's laughable. Maybe some of the complaints about lifegems breaking balance would be offset by simply making them not cost so little. Make them like 3k per small lifegem or something, and the ring cost 10k to repair.
-It's just more Dark Souls so I enjoyed it when I wasn't in Frigid Outskirts, Cave of the Dead, Black Gulch, the Pit, or doing some cancerous boss runback. Sir Alonne is the GOAT and Burnt Ivory would be 10 times better as a 1 on 1 duel without all the shit before it, even if the idea is cool on paper.
-Controls are a little different from DS1 and get some getting used to, and it was really weird not being able to change directions while attacking out of a roll for instance.
-Really weird decision to tie agility to the i-frames on your roll (LOL???)
-Hitboxes are at times questionable, usually with attacks that impale you, they teleport you onto the sword even if you've already rolled behind them, it's bizarre
-"This game is 90 percent dudes in armor" is a correct criticism, but the bigger problem is the bosses are too easy because their movesets are minimal in size, variation, and mix-ups. Oh hey, the stationary boss hits twice close to them with the exact same timing and has no other melee options, how novel. One of the bosses that killed me the most has like 5 moves and only killed me so many times because his damage, poise damage, and HP are just so overtuned. Just take a boss with a very simple moveset, give them some gratuitously large hitboxes and jack their stats and you have a boss! Nice.
-Lifegems are to me a positive addition since they aren't the best for healing mid-fight and are mainly just used in between fights for prolonging exploration runs 90 percent of the time. Sure, it makes the feeling of relief when you finally make it to a bonfire lesser, but the trade-off is a less stressful experience in general which usually means I play for longer.
-Souls games in my experience usually have a rough start until you manage to get a build going but man does this game really wants you to quit early. The hollowing mechanic reducing your HP repeatedly until it hits 50% and giving you only one Estus Flask can make things really hard especially when you consider enemies not respawning if you kill them too much. I'll admit I almost considered quitting early but stuck it out. Get the Estus Shards from Majula and only use Human Effigies early if you've accumulated multiple deaths. Unfortunately you have to respect the basic hollow enemies in forest because they learned from the Elden Ring school of PVP and camp behind greatshields while poking with a spear.
-There's a lot of BS level design but a lot of it is manageable either once you die to it the first time and think about how to approach the room, or you just play under the assumption that there's a gank or some ambush around every corner. The worst this game has to offer in levels is THE WORST, but that's not ALL the game has fortunately. It has some good stuff and if you just approach things carefully and safely in general you should be alright.
-Bonfire Ascetics are a really cool mechanic and it's also very cool that there are actual differences between NG+ and the base game??? Why don't the other games do this?
-Economy on some items is bizarre. Slabs were extremely rare in 1 but in this game I've always had twice as many Slabs as I had chunks, and the shop only starts selling them in unlimited stock once you beat the game? Great. Why is Ring of Protection only 3,000 souls to repair infinitely? It effectively removes the soul recovery and hollowing mechanics with the only trade-off being such an insignificant amount of souls it's laughable. Maybe some of the complaints about lifegems breaking balance would be offset by simply making them not cost so little. Make them like 3k per small lifegem or something, and the ring cost 10k to repair.
-It's just more Dark Souls so I enjoyed it when I wasn't in Frigid Outskirts, Cave of the Dead, Black Gulch, the Pit, or doing some cancerous boss runback. Sir Alonne is the GOAT and Burnt Ivory would be 10 times better as a 1 on 1 duel without all the shit before it, even if the idea is cool on paper.