Dark Souls 2 Critique

I know this is 9 years late, I'm re-watching your reviews now because I really appreciate you as a content creator and I miss your videos, but... The creatures in Aldia's Keep definitely were capable of easily breaking the cages that held them, but so was Minsc in Baldur's Gate 2. Something he didn't think of doing until you made him angry enough to try.

What a well articulated video, hopefully a smug English man doesnt take your video out of context to make you look bad!

I love Dark Souls and I've played every game in series, Bloodborne and Sekiro included plus a bunch of Soulslikes. Its one of my all time favorite series. Dark Souls 2 is still a great game in its own right and there are some things it does better than other Souls games, but there are a lot of issues that hold it back from being as good as the rest of the series.

I'm so sad that hbomberguy's terrible, terrible response video defending the game has eclipsed this excellent video in both views and likes (I have nothing against him personally or as a creator, just against the video itself).
You gotta make more videos, man! Every one has been gold!

delete this video dude

kinda whacky how many of these criticisms can also be applied to elden ring

Get good

So you complained about DS2 using the Crestfallen Warrior but gave DS1 a pass because of Demons Souls? Brother Demons got it from Kings Field lol FS has been doing this for years

Excellent critique Matt. I've rewatched it a few times over the years. It's almost amazing really how the developers of DS2 fundamentally misinterpreted the logic behind almost all major pillars of the game. My eyes could not have rolled farther back into my head when I saw the silly death counter.

Back in 2023 to watch this masterpiece again.

No disrespect but this video is horribly done

Anyone here after watching the hbomb video?

😂 about every criticism for 2 can be copy pasted to Elden Ring & 3.
"The difficulty was never the point" yea bucko? Have u played their sequels? 😂😂 seems like Miyazaki is just full of shit & taking out his ass. ER get halfway through the game without leveling hp & find out real quick how far u are on the "fuck around" chart 🤣 have u getting 1 shot by random mobs when ur hp bar already half your tv screen got u flabbergasted, got a boss who breaks game mechanics & logic to be DIFFICULT just so people can say shes the hardest & she really aint 😂. But yet they nerd Radahn but not her 🤔 hmm.
The games now are essentially just bosses that have to cheat to kill me or people to trick them to think its difficult in reality its not remove 1 gimmick & shes a joke (Melania).
I personally didnt have a hard time in DS2 outside the giant knight with a greatsword & infinite stamina, the giant knight with a black great hammer, Fume Knight who was true difficulty personified for anyone fighting him, & maybe Lud & Zallen tho im 95% sure i beat them 2nd try so id never have to visit hell frozen over again 😂.
No souls game would i consider hard cheap in parts yes gank squad was hilarious & fun intense fight. If u hated DS2 u better hate 3 & ER too cause it was the same with ER just being trash copy paste simulator.
DS2 the only game with a answer & end at the end essentially of the dlcs like yea u cant stop the curse or cure it but if u wear this crown u good 😂 yea yall all fucked my boys & girls. Some things are left unanswered cause Fromsoft sucks & dont know they own story or plot & dont care about fans or answering anything which is annoying but DS2 did better than the rest.
Im still waiting on where tf is Gwenevere fine ass not speculations actual answer. Wheres fluffy tail waifu & her daughter?
How tf does that girl paint the painted world & aas she always behind it & them?
Why did fillianore or w.e her name was have a egg? Why did she fast forward time to the end of the world & damn did it take Gael that long to find them lords 😂?
Why tf dont we ever see a different age?
The list goes on but for ds2 most if not all questions some may have get answered & i appreciate that plus the bagger dlcs & a finished game. Unlike ER which clearly wasnt finished just like DS1 which is odd cause dude had all the time to fix it & not repeat history but did 😏 kinda like hes a fraud & trash but people to stupid to realize that hmm 🤔

I love ds2 & 3 & 1 platinumed all but ds1 mainly cause going back to play older games hurts my eyes & gives me headaches with kotor being the only exception to that. But ds1 so easy compared to the sequels its gonna be easy af anyway since even Elden Ring i was 1 shotting the end game bosses all but Melania cuck of lil cunt 😂 so its not like a slower game will give me any issues especially with the drake sword from the jump 😂.

Ds2 had by far the best pvp for me too, had this un beatable mage with this spell order that was so op nobody could survive the order i had them in. It was i guess so op 1 day I got on to see I was banned & that character erased which made me furious. Not only cause i never wrote down the spell order & at the time never recorded shit but also cause NOBODY has ever recreated my build & its been lost to the ages as me being the sole user of it 😂 u had havel buttfaces, turtle dicks, runners, jester set forbidden sun spammers, climax 1 shot users, Wog 1 shot users & I was there with a build nobody ever defeated in invasions or the arena & i was the only player smart enough to make it to see it die cause From assumed i was cheating on console or something it was confusing cause it never happened again & i never could find out wtf happened & y.
Remaking it would've taken too much time having to refarm Dukes dear Frieja a few times & im arachnophobic so the 1st times were hell ill be damned im doing it again.

The order i believe went like,
Crystal magic weapon (tho i often used ice rapier but very rarely had to use it thus barely used this power)
Homing crystal soul mass
Soul Vortex
*Soul shower (cant remember order)
Crystal Soul spears
*Soul Shower
Soul Greatsword
Homing soul arrow
Heavy Homing soul arrow
Soul spear
Great heavy soul arrow

It was all about mixups but also familiarity with spells & able to quickly get to whats needed.
As soon as the gate opened id cast the Homing sm, get near opponent & cast vortex if they blocked Crystal Soul spears while they are block locked by Vortex & gg game over.
If they got hit same principle gg.
If they rolled most of it they got hit by soul mass often stopped them in their tracks & 1 or 2 pokes killed them or a Crystal spear to face.
If they double rolled soul shower i believe was used which would trick them into panic rolling & then they'd think i was using it again but instead it was soul greatsword which 😂 caught many who thought they were slick watching my moves.
It was impossibly rare anyone made it farther than this maybe like 10% of people could but by this point they either lost a ton of hp or retreated unsure what id use next which then the Homing arrows would often take out any runners since the 1st is just a regular Homing 2nd is heavy Homing which fucks with their timing on rolls killing them. But if i felt they were particularly smart id send a soul spear just in case which thats alot of pressure 😂 all ending with great heavy soul arrows for damage & speed but I only ever got that far on runner heal spammers a very few times.
Nobody but 1 guy survived the entire order & that was cause I had killed him dozens of times It was like b4 school got out & he was the only 1 on i guess 😅 but he was determined to beat it & me. He died more times than i can count the just stage 1 & 2 alone 😂 by time of stage 3 I lost hope finally he survived all & I had to give him a welcome & a bow & he gave me the have mercy 🤣 from there he managed to survive it everh now & then but mainly Id just ice rapier him to death 😂 cause while i may seemed like a mage only guy im literally about that melee life so anyone reaching me would find out im a threat in melee backstepping rolling backstabs etc but that had to have only happened 2 or 3 times out of say 800 battles.
Those were the best of times.

i can see Miyazaki rolling his eyes watching DS2 gameplay

All the souls games are good in their own way. I honestly had more fun playing 2 over 3

The souls games aren't even difficult. Compared to your typical modern game, sure. But older games were quite difficult on average. It's almost like soulsborne players have never played any old games.

You have made an enemy for life, this man apparently has no idea he is playing a videogame lol

Attention to detail is what let DS2 down. I'm sure the was pressure and deadlines in production but the control system, lack of a cohesive vision dare I say lack of respect for it's predecessor really hurt it. SOTFS was a perfect opportunity to (somewhat) rectify these wrongs but by that time the hype and money had passed. Don't get me wrong still enjoyed playing it! So many great ideas implemented but not full realised is all I'm trying to say.

Don't care how bad DS2 is, it's my favorite souls game ever. The atmosphere is absolurely unmatched and I still haven't found a game to replicate it, the ones that came close are Hero Siege, You Are Empty, Pumpkin Jack and Thief 2014

Critiques back then went hard.."yo fromsoft, ds2 not as dark as tomb of giants, wtf??"😂😂

You do realize even Demon Souls had fights where you should NOT use the lock on feature for the exact reasons you mentioned..

I could somewhat forgive the amount of enemy spam in DS2


IF IT WASNT FOR NG+ ADDING EVEN MORE ENEMIES NOT ONLY TO THE AREAS BUT ALSO SEVERAL BOSS FIGHTS 🤬

When fighting multiple enemies why not just not use the lock-on function exclusively? Fighting against multiple enemies is a skill that one has to learn, but it seems that in your footage you just used the lock-on feature as a crutch for every fight

Also you criticized the bosses' attacks tracking you too often, and then posted footage of The Adjudicator as if other bosses should use one of the most forgettable bosses in any FromSoft game as a blueprint for good boss design

thank the longman, he brought me upon a channel of quality !

I like this video. It’s nice seeing a critique about the normal version of the game. Most critiques I see about dark souls two is about scholar of the first sin, people saying that the vanilla version of the game is actually good when the scholar of the first sin version is bad, when in reality the vanilla version of the game is bad and scholar of the first sin version is worse

Subscribed! ❤

Good things about DS2 (my opinion)

the armour sets (they look f***ing awesome)

The weapons (same as the armours)

Bonfire aesetics

Power stance (while not as good as people make it out to be. Its still got some good benefits)

The upgraded kings crown (basically an infinite human effigy until you go to the next playthrough)

Some bosses ( darklurker, sir alonne, etc)

Entering memories ( could be flushed out more but cool)

Dragon head and torso stones ( the dragon look is so f***ing awesome in DS2)

the way to change boss souls into weapons and spells

Aldia and his boss music

Some area designs (heides tower of flame, shrine of amana, castle drangleic etc)

Lifegems (i like em)

Simpleton and skeptic spices (good idea but they could make em so they only take 10 levels off requirements rather than reducing requirements to 10)

9 years later and this video is still dogwater

I agree with quite a bit of this review but to say the atmosphere wasn't there is just absurd. The atmosphere and thematic elements are what draw me back to Dark Souls 2, theres such a thick layer of melancholy pretty much everywhere you go

People still defending this game in the comment is hilarious as hell.

Dark Souls 2 is the worst souls game by far but I still like it, it is not a bad game by any means, just not worthy of the Dark Souls name imo.

I assume you hated sotfs then hahahaha. it cranked up your reasons for complaints up to ten imi

Going from his DS1 commentary to this is night and day.

Goes from pleasant and quaint discussion of a video game to straight up therapy 😂 the amount of extra sass in Matthew’s voice is fantastic lol does he get this angry in other videos?

seriously the second half of your dissertation looks like cheap shots. Some bosses do original stuff in dark souls 2, just because they are unexpected or "non-sensical" doesn't mean they are doing it wrong. So what if Freja farts laser beams? I was actually quite pleased at that because I had first thought that it would be a boring yadayada-giant-spider-casting-a-web-around-me-fight. As to setting the windmill on fire, that's optional you know. Some people choose to fight Mytha in her poison swamp. But as to how to find out? If you happened to have an NPC summon with you, it would have pointed it out for you.

You started strong with your dissertation and raised some really valid points, but I think you ran out of steam at about the 30-minute mark and are now just looking for straws to grasp.

you aim your frustration to dark souls 2 with regards to covenants, but this was clearly the same wording in dark souls 1. You also moan about having to use a ring slut for the blues, but that is also the case in dark souls 1, AND now you have 4 ring sluts instead of 2. so I think you are being a little off the mark on those 2 points

I have never been less immersed in a videogame that can’t help but accidentally remind me it’s a videogame every five seconds. This games level design is so bafflingly disconnected, nonsensical, and incoherent that it makes even the worst levels in other From Software games look fucking incredible.

First time ive heard someone say they enjoy boss runbacks 😅

This sounds like an IGN review hahaha

this game is perfect

This video may have been the biggest definition of skill issue I have seen on a long time

I love DS 2!

Truly petty and vindictive game design.

Honestly I don’t know how people treat DS2 like the black sheep when DS3 is such a bizarre departure from the dark souls formula.

DS3 is an action beat-em-up with tacked-on RPG elements while DS2 is a game of D&D where the dungeon master hates your guts.

That aside, I respect a valid critique. I just wish people would actually describe what they enjoyed in the same level of detail instead of the usual offhand “but I enjoyed it” or the backhanded “a bad souls game is better than most games.”

i think the biggest critique is the fact the game is called dark souls 2. Gives a false expectation

The comments are insane for not pointing out how half of your critique is posioned by being in the Covenant of Champions for like half of it. Like jesus c'mon

Also leaving covenants loses rank within them, same as dark souls 1

You still haven't said anythink about ds3 or er, have you lost your interest in the series or just didn't wanted to make anymore videos on fromsoft games?