Dark Souls Remastered (PC/PS4/XB1/NSW) May 2018

[Elcura]

DS2 just doesn't really understand what makes Souls games good and just throws shit at you randomly hoping it'll stick. They changed healing to make it both better and worse, you don't need consumable items with a refillable HP drink.

Agility being a stat is a huge mistake because it creates massive inconsistencies they couldn't have hoped to balance, so most fights just throw more shit at you than actually making it interesting or challenging.

Level design is overall decent (a couple of stupid shit spots like NPCs near enemies or enemies near bonfires) except for some stuff but the flow between levels is awful.

Bosses are mostly uninspired and fight generally the same, enemy tracking on attacks makes questionable hitboxes even worse. I could go into more detail but the PVE experience is just bad and very confused.

DS2 does do variety and fun gimmick builds right, and the DLC is an infinitely better PVE experience (even if it does still follow DS2's stupid PVE rules.).

[Nitsuki]

I agree at least on the DLC part, that was the overall best part of ds2. To get to the dlc however, you have to deal with the overall bad start of the game. Hitboxes were all forms of fucked up, and game felt way slow and easy. The game is by far the easiest of the entire soulsborne game library. I believe that game was the pure definition of clunky. PVP was fun however, at least that game and ds3, i had the best pvp experience.

Oh and the insane amounts of “gank squad” fights trying to recreate Ornstein and Smough, but they failed. The difficulty was absolutely artificial and at most times, deaths just felt completely unfair and out of your control rather than the fact that you know you fucked up and should learn (example bosses are royal rat authority, the havel gank squad fight)

[JonnyC]

DS2 was my first Souls game and its fine, people act like its a Turd for some reason but its not much worse than all the rest aside from having mostly Humaniod Bosses and 1 or 2 level transitions that make no sense.
I say Bloodborne is soo much better than the Souls games because it has much better style (fuck rolling, dodging looks 1000000 times cooler) gameplay wise they all pretty much rank the same for me, i love souls but people think the gameplay is much more involved than it really is.

[fantasticdan]

What's the overall consensus for the hate on DS2? I played the shit out of that one.

Some of it has already been mentioned but; the agility stat (iframes for rolls, speed at using items and shield blocking) shouldn't have existed, soul memory (your pvp and co-op brackets were determined by how many souls that character had ever collected, even if they were lost, rather than character level), clearly unfinished areas (shaded woods anyone?), the worst hitboxes in the series, the worst world design (as in the way the areas are connected, they put alot of effort into this in dks1 for example, but here it is just a bunch of areas connected by corridors that makes 0 sense, they even physically overlap), clunky/floaty controls, and a good number of really uninspired bosses.

One thing that also really got me was the huge nerfs to certain things after launch; the mundane infusion for example was only good on a couple of weapons (daggers, crossbows, santier spear) even if you made build complete dedicated for it, but it was a fun way to play, than they nerfed it so hard it was 100% worthless. Many spells also got this treatment like the firestorm line, soul vortex, etc.

That said, some of the areas and bosses were alright (especially the DLC), it had the best spellcasting in the series, a lot of viable build diversity and replayablity, and IMO the best invasion pvp despite soul memory. It tried a lot of new things which I can appreciate even if all of them didn't work out. I still liked dks2 more overall than dks3 honestly.

[Kalmado]

I've only done one run on DS2 but I really enjoyed it, especially the DLC. Put a lot of hours into it. I first bought the Black Knight (I think?) version and it seemed super clunky. When a sale for SoTFS came out I bought that and while probably in my head, it seemed to play better. I'm only partially into 3 and barely touched DeS, but I'd probably put 2 as my bottom soulsborne game. However, it's still leagues ahead of many other games in general.

[Mythe_Seraph]

I think that's the asterisk in a lot of the criticism people have for these games. While DS2 may be the worst in the series... it's still a heck of a lot better than what is out there. I enjoyed DS2 and put wayyyy more hours into it than I did DS1 (platinum achievement on PS4 for DS2 SofS) but my time on DS1 was just unbelievable. An incredible gaming experience for me that I'll never forget and I'm hoping this remastered edition can bring back a touch of that magic. That's part of the reason why I'm saving DS3. I know I'll only ever get to experience it once and they haven't (and probably wont?) announce a DS4.

[Elcura]

Yes, it pretty much goes without saying a lot of the time, but DS2 is still better than most games out there.

[Kalmado]

I did 100% achievement on Steam for DS1. Haven't got around to it on DS2. Started DS3 but it didn't grab my entire attention. I am absolutely hooked on Far Cry 5 so I won't be going back to DS3 for awhile. After that I have so many games to play including: Doom, Mafia 3, MGS V, Dying Light, and the list goes on.

[6souls]

Network Test for PS4 & XB1 on May 11th & 12th

Bandai Namco Entertainment America Inc. has confirmed today that the Dark Souls Remastered Network Test will be running May 11-12, 2018, at specific times listed below, for the PlayStation 4 computer entertainment system and Xbox One. The network test will take place within the Undead Parish location and have players summoning co-op partners or invade others’ games.

More details regarding the Dark Souls Remastered Network Test can be found below:

• What: Dark Souls Remastered Network Test for PlayStation 4 system and Xbox One

• When: May 11th and May 12th from 6:00pm PDT to 11:59pm PDT each day for the Americas

• How: Download the Dark Souls Remastered Network Test client from May 1st through 11:59pm PDT on May 8th on PlayStation 4 system and Xbox One (Xbox Gold subscription required to participate) to be part of the test. At 11:59pm PDT on May 8th the network test client will be removed, and no new participants will be accepted.

[Souj]

So many Dark Souls threads to post in, I'll just choose the newest.
Tarot cards for purchase - not official but we'll done.

Spoiler: show

https://www.etsy.com/ca/shop/StefTastan

[Nitsuki]

Doesn’t the network stress test start today?

[Krazy]

Yep.
Asia/Australia
5:00PM - 10:00PM CST/HKT/SGT
7:00PM - 12:00AM AEST

Europe/Africa
18:00 - 00:00 CEST
17:00 - 23:00 BST

North + South America
6:00PM - 12:00AM PST
9:00PM - 3:00AM EST

Edit: Well, I tried it. Don't worry, lagstabs are still in the game!

[fantasticdan]

They removed dead angles lol.

[Nitsuki]

They removed dead angles lol.

Dead angles?? That’s guilty gear terms for me.

[fantasticdan]

Basically crossups, attacking from off angles (IE not facing your opponent) to change the direction your attack must be shield blocked from. It was one of the few things that added depth to pvp.

[Nitsuki]

Basically crossups, attacking from off angles (IE not facing your opponent) to change the direction your attack must be shield blocked from. It was one of the few things that added depth to pvp.

So that’s what they’re called? I knew something felt off when playing.

[Souj]

I've decided I'm not going to pick this up. I've come to the conclusion all this is is just a lazy money grab. They changed too little and expect too much money.

[Nitsuki]

I've decided I'm not going to pick this up. I've come to the conclusion all this is is just a lazy money grab. They changed too little and expect too much money.

I hate to say this, but i 100% agree. PC version gonna be $20, but shit that's not even gonna be enough for me to play the game at "proper" 60fps, the switch version intrigues me still because it's portable dark souls, but holy shit the stress test made me go from to insanely fast.

[6souls]

[Kalmado]

I have no issue with the current PC version so I will not be buying this. Still trying to get through Dark Souls 3 but it's a struggle for some reason.