Dark Souls II Review
Played on Xbox One (base)
Developed by FromSoftware Inc
Released 11th March 2014 (Remastered as the Scholar of the First Sin in April 2015)
After the universal acclaim that Dark Souls received 3 years prior, a sequel was inevitable. For perhaps the only time in the Soulsborne franchise, Hidetaka Miyazaki, the legendary director of FromSoftware, acted as only the supervisor for this sequel, while the game was directed by Tomohiro Shibuya and Yui Tanimura. Oddly enough, despite the game being considered by many as the dark horse and the worst Soulsborne title by FromSoftware, it released to some exceptional reviews, going as far as getting better scores than its predecessor on launch and only being criticised for its increased difficulty; rather than its infamous flaws of poorer boss quality and irritating enemy data. It should also be noted that I played the Scholar of the First Sin edition, meaning enemy placements and item locations were drastically different for me than for those who played the original launch edition. I will also exclude the trilogy of DLC from this review seeing as there is enough material for a separate review, and I cannot stand to do another 16-minute analysis.
Story
The story, or more specifically, the lore, is fantastic. The main story that you, the player, embark on, is that you are an Undead; someone who bears the curse to never die and is doomed to eventually become a Hollow (a being with no purpose or memory) and you aim to unbind this curse from yourself. Throughout my 22 hours with the base game, I encountered many plot points that felt akin to that of a cutscene-heavy game - a war in a far-off distant land, going back in time to absorb a formidable power, regicide and much more. However, due to the magic of FromSoftware's storytelling, the narrative was actually intriguing unlike what it would've been if it was dependent on cutscenes. From the main story perspective, the hidden yet descriptive unveiling of the world that the tale is encapsulated in is as great as any other Soulsborne title. However, from a side-quest perspective, I was never intrigued. In fact, I don't believe I completed any side quests for any NPCs of my own accord, due to how uninterested I was in them. There was nothing to pull me into an experience that further richened my engagement with the main narrative and looking back, it feels disappointing.
Gameplay
The gameplay is troublesome in many aspects, however, it still is better than most RPGs out there. While that main selling point could be attested to how the controls and overall core fundamentals of the first game are still present in this instalment, I also believe that some of the new mechanics further help advance the Dark Souls formula.
Mechanics like the despawning of enemies, the bonfire ascetic and powerstancing, all contribute to making this game more bearable. I say bearable because this game's low points bury themselves 6ft deep. The spammed, unfair, not-thought-out placement of enemies, the range at which they are aggressive to the player feels never-ending, and the inconsistent telegraphing mixed with the flimsy, unrealistic hitboxes, are all factors that made a good portion of my playthrough horrible. It wasn't until I doubled down on a strength build that I was able to play through the game at a more acceptable rate, still hitting speedbumps on the way in the form of gank attacks. If you don't know what a gank is, it is when a cluster of enemies gather and gang up on you, attacking you so much that you don't have a chance to recover or fight back fairly. This often results in the player trying to skip the area or using scummy tactics like manipulating the aggro range of each enemy so they can take them down one by one. The enemies' quantity and placement are awful and are essentially littered across the map.
It feels like every alteration and modification that Shibuya and Tanimura made to the Dark Souls blueprint counteracts each other's downfalls and benefits. The placement of enemies can be dealt with with the despawning feature, in which any enemy will despawn permanently after being killed 12 times. This does stop farming of areas but it also helps players who are struggling to clear out areas to better match their pace. The egregious enemy quantities come across as better with how the game is more generous with the number of souls it gives the player to level up, also letting them perform greater deep dives into builds.
Though, there are some bonuses and problems that don't interact with each other. For example, there is an Agility stat that you have to level up, just to increase the number of invincibility frames on your dodging - that's absurd. Or how every fight against an elite enemy or boss feels like a poke'n'run fight due to the hitboxes being incongruous with the actual attacks. However, powerstancing does let you wield two of the same types of weapons, making your attacks deadlier and more plentiful, and the decreased maximum health per death is a justified punishment for worse players, that can be dealt with early on in the game if you find the correct equipment, incentivising exploration and the learning of your foes, rather than just storming through the game and swinging wildly.
Bossfights
The bossfights are incredibly lacklustre. Every single boss was extremely limited in their movesets, having around 3 or so recognisable attacks and none of them having a boss-like flair to them, sapping the whole duel of style and memorabilia. There are 19 bosses that are unskippable and with a similar amount found as additional content that the player will most likely stumble upon like I have. This much larger cast of foes attributes to nothing except for padding the game out more and making the worst and least impactful fights become even more forgettable.
There quite simply is nothing in most of these fights that would want to make me fight them again - no eye-catching design, no unforgettable soundtrack and no enjoyable challenge. In fact, these bosses fluctuate heavily between the two extremes: so easy that I first tried, and so damn hard that I had to use a cheese technique online from 8 years ago. The problem of there being an artificial difficulty is shown here more with the bosses than it is with the regular combat. You'll almost always be hit with a wide-range attack where the hitbox extends past its animation or you'll be hit with some quick, poorly telegraphed attack that nearly vigour-checks you.
I do have a couple of favourite bossfights, but their redeeming qualities are not that outstanding. Demon of Song's aesthetic was engaging, Lost Sinner was possibly the most balanced fight, Executioner's Chariot was genuinely one of the greater puzzle bosses that FromSoftware has made and The Rotten's atmosphere and moveset fell second to Demon of Song and Lost Sinner, respectively.
Characters
I've mentioned this already in the story section, however, I'll reiterate my points: the NPCs and the sidequests that are coupled with them are uninteresting, at least for me. It might be due to their abundance, but the NPCs never became ingrained in my head the same way they did in Dark Souls, Elden Ring or Bloodborne. Maybe if I ever gave them the benefit of the doubt I could've encountered some rich lore and intriguing personas, but on the outside, from their designs to their initial dialogue, I was never hooked enough to actually do so. There are some characters that I enjoyed the company of; Gavlan, Emerald Herald, Rat King, Maughlin and Head of Vengarl just to name a few, however, my intrigue or enjoyment never progressed further than what it was when I first met them.
Atmosphere
Despite all the negativity I've had up to this point in the review, I can assure you that the atmosphere is on par with its predecessor and that's mostly due to Majula. Majula is the hub area of this game the same way the Firelink Shrine was in Dark Souls 1 or Hunter's Dream was in Bloodborne. The difference, however, is that it's superior to them all. The soothing and calming soundtrack that plays while the sun sets in this beautiful orange-yellow hue past the peaceful sea is enough of a reason to remake this game. If BluePoint decides to ever remake anything from any more FromSoftware titles, I'd want them to do Majula because I know how damn good it'd look with ray-tracing and 4K performance.
For other areas of the game, they'd look amazing if only the level design was also great. For example, Heide's Tower of Flame does look good and it has the potential to look magnificent if it wasn't for the wonky, uncomfortably openness of the area. Harvest Valley could look like a horrifying, poisonous landscape if it wasn't for its overuse of blander colours and the very videogame-y route of progression. All these areas have the potential to look fantastic but they all have an obvious obstacle in the way of achieving that goal.
For the soundtrack, well, it's FromSoftware, I genuinely don't need to repeat anything I've already said in my other reviews because, quite frankly, the level of quality that is present in those games' audio is present here, albeit not so much for the bossfights.
Story - 8/10
Gameplay - 7/10
Bossfights - 3/10
Characters - 5/10
Atmosphere - 8/10
Mediocre
Dark Souls II is quite average. The overall content and quality that the game brings sometimes surpasses many RPGs for me, however, when the game stumbles upon a flaw or a poor design choice, it trips, rolls around and crashes into an oncoming truck. It could've been a mechanically impressive step forward for the Soulsborne series, yet, due to their poor control and design over the enemies, the game fumbles backwards more than it progresses forward.
