Despite being a fan of the FromSoft games for several years now, with the original Dark Souls being my introduction to their games, I have always avoided playing Dark Souls II. For several years I had been content knowing that I’ve completed all of their other Souls games from Demon Souls to Elden Ring, and I had purposefully avoided touching Dark Souls II due to the negative reception the game generally has within the community. Well, following the hype of the new Elden Ring DLC, I finally decided it was time that I really play all of the Souls games, and stop leaving Dark Souls II behind.

I went into this game knowing about its reputation; however, I did not go into it seeking a negative experience. In fact, I went into this game really hoping that I would like it, and you know what… I kind of did. I finally decided to buckle down, give the game an honest try, and I found that as the final cutscene played I had overall enjoyed my experience with Dark Souls II.
So, what did I think about Dark Souls II? I think that Dark Souls II is a very ambitious title that was sadly hurt by a poor development schedule. As I was playing the game I realized that there were so many things about it that I genuinely enjoyed and might even say are real improvements over the first game. It really seems like the developers had a lot of great ideas that were hampered by the poor development. The first thing that you will notice about Dark Souls II compared to the first game is the new movement system. Dark Souls II uses an 8-directional movement system with dead-zones, this is something that DS1 does not do. DS1 uses a full 360 movement system. Within the Dark Souls community there appears to be a debate about which system is better, and while during my initial starting of the game I was nervous about this noticeable change in movement, I found that by the end of my 16 hour playthrough I had grown to really like it. I believe that the DS2 movement system sort of makes certain things easier than they would be in DS1. Like walking in a straight line and chaining attacks together. It is easier.

I also didn’t mind all the ways they attempted to make the game more challenging, I enjoyed the harsher penalty for dying, I didn’t mind only being able to level up at one bonfire, and I actually really liked that they tied iFrames to the ADP skill in this game. Once again, that is a change that is very controversial and will confuse you if you’re a new player coming in from one of the other games, I didn’t like it at first either. However, when I really thought about it, I found that tying iFrames to a levelable skill like ADP instead of Equip Load was a really good change that allows the player to try out different clothes and armor sets without having to worry about the irony of becoming more vulnerable.

Also, I generally really like how Dark Souls II looks compared to the first game. Majula as the introductory area is really nice and relaxing. The game carries its own unique atmosphere that sets it apart from the rest of the FromSoft games honestly even to this day. I really like how the implemented the UI design, and I really like the lighting in the game too. I know that the lighting seems to be decisive in the community, but in my subjective opinion I like it. In regard to the art direction the thing that I dislike the most is really just the player character. The NPCs in the game all look somewhat realistic for the graphics of the game, however, your player character has a weird cartoon look in comparison that I can’t help but notice. Sure, you can edit the character to your heart's content and make them look more realistic, make the eyes smaller, the face more proportional, but the player character doesn’t seem to escape this slightly stylized look and once again in my subjective opinion I honestly believe the player looked better graphically in Dark Souls 1.

During my playthrough of Dark Souls II, I really enjoyed most of the boss fights in the game. The weird part is that I didn’t find many of them to be super memorable, there were no standout bosses in this game like Ornstein & Smough or The Abyss Watchers from the other Dark Souls titles, however, I distinctly remember having fun while fighting them. The most interesting boss encounter in Dark Souls II to me is the Looking-Glass Knight. This goes back to what I said near the beginning of the review, about the game having a lot of good ideas on paper. The Looking-Glass Knight is a boss that has a big shield with a mirror on it. The boss is able to use the mirror to summon real-life other players to help him fight you. I found this idea to be really cool and was surprised when it actually worked to this day, honestly, I was surprised by the number of online players I found still enjoying this game. Those interactions were fun.

So, I seem to have said quite a lot of positive things about Dark Souls II, what did I dislike about it? Well, DS2 suffers from three issues that really hold the game back and I believe these issues are what led to the games negative reputation. The three issues I have with Dark Souls II are as follows: Level Design, Enemy Placement, Poor Programming. The game has so much good to offer, but these three things really hamper the experience and for me it felt like I had to learn to get used to these quirks in order to enjoy the game as much as I did. The level design can be decent in many places and there were a few areas like Dragon Aerie that I found to be pretty cool looking, however, there are many other places that seem a lot less inspired like the Shaded Woods. I also felt that the interconnected level design found in the first game was missing here, however, you could argue that because the game allows you to Fast-Travel from the very beginning, the developers weren’t as concerned about creating shortcuts back to Majula.

Now, enemy placement, this is a controversial one. Let me start off by saying, I do not think that the game is totally unfair and I think that most of the areas in the game actually have fine enemy placement. I did not attempt to speedrun the game, it took me 16 hours so clearly not, I took my time and killed things and made my way through most of the game just fine. But one has to admit that there are some places, like Iron Keep, where the enemy placement just gets a little too nutty. I did not make it past Iron Keep and the Smelter Demon boss until I had reset so many times that the enemies simply stopped spawning. Maybe that is a skill issue on my part, but putting 10 Alonne Knights in those tight spaces I thought was kind of bogus.

The final of the three points, Poor Programming. Now, obviously I’m not going to pretend that I have the skills of the people who programmed this game. They are clearly more experienced than me, however, I am willing to still make observations about a couple of things which I believe were better in the previous game, DS1. When playing Dark Souls II initially I was really bothered by the lack of responsiveness compared to the first game. There are many times where I would take damage, but my character would have absolutely no reaction to it. The enemies would slide through me like butter and the health bar would drain, no flinch, no grunt, nothing. This is one of those things that I simply got used to while playing, and leveling up my ADP certainly helped too, nonetheless I feel that in some aspects Dark Souls II feels weirdly unresponsive compared to the first game which was praised for its responsive, polished, and fair combat.

At the end of the day, I’m happy to say that I have finally sat down and completed Dark Souls II. It was a game that I avoided for many years, but now I’ve done it. I’ve completed all the Soulsborne games. I was nervous about Dark Souls II, but thankfully, it seems that this is a game I would definitely enjoy giving a second attempt.

Erm... WHAT THE SPRUCE?! Josie Gang, we have a video game now...