How Dark Souls 2 Was Saved From Disaster

[@aaronimpactnz]

One thing they got right with Dark Souls 2, sexy fashion.

[@liberifatali666]

Estus flasks shards lol - the one thing that comes to mind when i think about possible positive takeaways :P

[@jetstreamjack5653]

Duel wielding was better too.

[@csarheras5587]

Twinblades

[@greenjoe4202]

many of things, boss weapons being easier to make, the choice to not lose souls every time you die, pvp, combining divinity with lightning, power stance, there is no best weapon, the black knight halberd is no longer a must have.

[@strangegreenthing]

@@greenjoe4202 there is easily a best weapon in ds2, lightning rapier.

[@DanielSabelnikov1]

"... building a whole new engine, completely from scratch ..." what could go wrong...

[@SeekerLancer]

Well the same engine was used in Bloodborne and beyond so it ultimately worked out.

[@Zanemob]

But not for Dark Souls 2...

[@gage2560]

no, Bloodborne used PhyreEngine from Sony which is the same engine in ds, dsk1,dsk3

[@senpaikaroo]

@@gage2560 Well in Dark Souls 2 they screwed it.

[@LavosYT]

@@gage2560 As far as I know, Bloodborne didn't use the Phyre Engine. Neither did Demon's Souls. It was From's own tech, which they have been improving for each game. Here's a source from a guy who worked on the PhyreEngine back then: twitter.com/JasonDoig/status/367528002910822400 and twitter.com/jasondoig/status/955572951927181318 . Hell, I'll even throw in his Linkedin as proof: www.linkedin.com/in/jasongdoig/ . Stayd, a modder who's working on Dks2's Flames of Old mod, explained on stream that all souls games use a different version of the same engine. Dks2's version was modified heavily though. If you're interested, here's a twitch clip about it: clips.twitch.tv/SuperManlyPandaFloof As for Dks3, it seems to be way closer to Bloodborne in many ways (which makes it easier to import content from that game for mods for example). Hope I could clear a few things up.

[@MrDalisclock]

This explains so much, really. Especially how the world feels so patchy in places, like chunks are missing. Because chunks are missing.

[@18skeltor]

illusory wall has a video showing how the gutter was redesigned and it actually looked vastly different

[@MrDalisclock]

@@18skeltor I've seen it. That's one of the things that got my attention

[@doodidam3363]

Bearer seek seek lest

[@mattmanbrownbro]

Yeaa Boiii hahaha!! BSSL erryday!

[@TengrioftheCrimsonSky]

😢 still best waifu

[@nathanbrown8196]

Personally, OG maiden in black is best waifu. Let strength be granted so the world might be mended...so the world might be mended... Also best accent...

[@vitriolicAmaranth]

I like 3's firekeeper telling me to grab her breasts every time I level up. She's also the prettiest imo, though the plain doll is close.

[@Shmeky.]

Feeble cursed one

[@paulburger9904]

This is how you get a lava castle at the top of a windmill.

[@rasta7655]

Don't forget the obese slugs

[@claimingagate]

i like how confusing the map is

[@KarelGita]

@@claimingagate for others it feels like a bunch random assets slapped together

[@Gsmooth84]

@@claimingagate We do get an Achievement/Trophy called "curious map"

[@ryanbauer3680]

I mean would it really have ruined the director's vision if the elevator went down instead of up at the top of the windmill?

[@KaiserAfini]

Interestingly enough, I have been replaying DS2 lately. And in the art direction and enemy design, you can see the echoes of this idea, repurposed to be able to ship the game on time. For every stroke of genius, there is a piece of terrible design, thus brilliance and aggravation walk hand in hand. I theorized this is what happened. Thank you for your hard work researching and presenting this tale in such a concise manner, your timing couldn't have been better.

[@peterlane7128]

KaiserAfini I.... actually liked it that way. I thought it went well with Vendrick's enlightenment on the hubris of mankind. But hey, if it was a happy accident, that's cool too.

[@1980shello]

I would like to see a remastered version with the graphics pumped up.

[@randyslobojan5763]

I bet the designers were hard when they heard that the next gen of consoles were coming out and they got to release scholar. Yes they still had limitation because it couldn't be an entirely fixed game because it was the same but they got to do alot of patchwork

[@SeekerLancer]

it does very much feel like a game that was made from pieced together disparate parts.

[@fumeknightofshovelry3901]

Hi, KaiserAfini! Been a while!

[@Beremor]

"Senior game designers" "We're going to make our own engine with super high fidelity graphics and also a huge gameworld across several biomes!" ""Senior game designers""

[@patlefofort]

They needed senior game programmers.

[@nackskott12]

All with a crazy lighting engine essential to core gameplay, on the same console generation Demons and DS1 were developed for. I'm not sure what they were thinking, it was never going to work out. They could have made DS2 look better than the original by focusing on solid art design and working within their means. The idea of building a crazy new lighting engine made chunks of the game look worse in the long-run, when they had to cut the new lighting and didn't have time to account for the visual downgrade. This is why you have to establish realistic priorities and constraints on a project ahead of time.

[@lordquaz7154]

That is the biggest problem of the game, in their ambition they almost ruined it.

[@lordquaz7154]

@@nackskott12 They where rushed by the publishers so they didn't have the time to do it. It's not a matter of why they didn't do it, it's how they could have done it in time.

[@nackskott12]

@@lordquaz7154 Sure, but they wouldn't be so rushed if the original project lead didn't impose his unrealistic ambitions on the project. Even with more time, I'm not convinced the original lighting would have run on the PS3.

[@adradox]

I love Dark souls 2 even with all it's flaws, I can see how ambitious this game was supposed to be and it's truly saddens me that we unlikely to see it shining in all it's glory.

[@jenniferguajardo1335]

I'm glad this turned up well in the end. DS2 was my first Dark Souls game, and it made me fall in love with the series.

[@jon3s201]

Same

[@Shyftus]

same

[@evancodsworth2]

Poor Dark Souls 2. It’s a flawed game with some absolutely brilliant elements. Take Majula for instance. Nothing comes close to the sheer beauty and serenity of that place.

[@Arkantos1900]

Evan Codsworth The hunter's workshop is better

[@firofiore6638]

Anor Londo >_> ?????

[@zetastein6031]

Evan Codsworth kiln of the first flame

[@burningknight7]

drangleic castle is much better than majula , its just a barren wasteland .

[@Bawks_FEET]

And the pvp was the best in the series imo

[@abhishekvalsangkar]

There's more to it. The hero director was then given full reigns on the DLC for for Dark Souls 2, and for Scholar of the First Sin. Scholar fixed many of DS2's problems, and the 3 DLCs, imo, surpassed the original in terms of quality. And he went on to supervise the multiplayer segments of dark souls 3.

[@TheApostleofRock]

i feel like scholar polarized the best and worst parts of the game. The design of the dlc worlds and bosses is some prime dark souls. Yet the bonus areas of the dlcs and different enemy placements overall emphasized the gankiness and reskinning of other bosses.

[@onewontdo]

Those are some fighting words

[@drakullify]

DLC=miyazaki plan

[@justanotherblackwhitemicke7817]

Guys, I genuinely thing the worst thing was the enemies placements, Iron keep and those "coop areas" in the DLC are one of my worst experiences I had with the game

[@aerohydra3849]

@@TheApostleofRock I mean, I think scholar overall did more good then bad. The graphical upgrade was well-noticeable, most enemy and item location changes were made to be more coherent and offer better progression (a lot of original late-game stuff was made more accessible like the ember or wisdom staff) , and it made a lot of the game feel less unbalanced in general. It's clear that Tanimura wanted the game to be this way, especially when it came to DLC content where he was able to start from scratch and didn't have to piece together stuff like the original game.

[@LordZylok]

Well this explains a few things. I know DS2 gets a lot of flak, but it's still a good game, just sandwiched between two great ones.

[@knavenformed9436]

Wouldn't call 3 that great tbh

[@LordZylok]

How come? It's mechanically the most diverse, the most balanced, best looking, best running souls game to date. Sure, it re-uses lot's of concepts from the earlier games, but it also perfects them.

[@knavenformed9436]

I mean dudes running around with two giant stone swords shooting fire and fliiping in the air is just not Dark Souls tbh, 1 and 2 felt slow and real while DS3 is just an ankme game with the nonexistent stamina management and busted PvP. Matchmaking is not balanced at all and the PvP is heavily on the Ultra Greatsword side, a lot of the weapons feel unusable just because of their class. DS3 is also the only DS that has crashed for me ever and the performance could be a bit better on PC. It has the best bosses imo in Dark Souls as a constant though. Also graphics, yeah, nice. It's the technically most advanced. But yeah the map layout is even worse than DS2 in the way that it's just a line, making builds almost always needs full completion, twinking is too easy and unrewarding, PvP is unbalanced via matchmaking and weaponry, the netcode is ass and it feels like a recycled DS1 into anime rather than an unique game.

[@NATONIOZ]

Lord Zylok 2 is the mustard not everyone likes that part but its delicious for different types of people -demon souls is the Salad part-

[@LPAtkins]

3 was utter garbage, killed the series.

[@epknight7833]

I love Dark Souls 2! This does explain, however, why they used the Dark Souls 1 engine for Dark Souls 3.

[@vergiltheartofpower6616]

More like Bloodborne Engine is in DS3.

[@ash_1419]

No, Bloodborne uses ds2 engine but it's an upgraded version..same with DS3.

[@reNINTENDO]

This explains... so much. I have many gripes with DS2, but honestly given it's backstory it's incredible how coherent it is at all. Also I can't believe how big the game is given its development. Personally I think it's biggest flaw stems from too much content without enough polish and quality to back it up. Despite how much they probably stripped out of the final release, I have to wonder how much better it could have been if they were even more aggressive.

[@youtubeuniversity3638]

Yeah, From Software IS awkward to say in the middle of a sentence! I just noticed now.

[@LiquidShamanMan]

I imagine that the Japanese probably liked the sound of it despite how it would sound by an English speaker in a sentence.

[@vistagunner]

I never heard of a developer called Software.

[@SoShiBias]

"Hello this message was brought to you From the office of FromSoft From Japan."

[@specialnewb9821]

And for this the community called them... B Team.

[@dangerwarg9682]

"And that game is from. . .From Software." lol

[@TequilaSnakke]

YUI BUILT THIS! IN A CAAAAAAVE!!!! ---- WITH A BUNCH OF **SCRAPS**!!

[@neonnwave1]

This might sound weird, but hear me out: You always make videos and tell stories of inspirational and successful events and people in the game industry, with great morals attached to them. I, and many others love them; They're great. But what about stories involving the opposite, but still provide a great moral? An example would be Digital Homicide and how they reacted to criticism over their games (which were asset flips) and their shady practices, which led to their down fall. The moral to that story would be that you aren't always right, you must be able to handle criticism, and shady practices in order to get money will eventually backfire. It's just a thought. You don't have to do it.

[@funebure]

Neon Wave interesting pitch... Fortunately there are still many stories to approach for them, if it's something they would feel passionate to make a video about at this point I would love to watch it.... I think the time will come for them to touch on such subjects... It would be great a sibiling series about animators and other art Crafters... since this is quite the interesting concept/formula ...Hope the channel keeps growing they deserve it.

[@Greendalewitch]

How many videos do you think she would need to make in order to talk properly about Ea? It would be a interesting video series, not to mention the morals about how you should NOT behave.

[@neonnwave1]

@Lutece It think, if there would be a video on EA, the moral would be more on the consequences of being greedy and thinking you won't receive any consequences for your actions.

[@funebure]

I don't think that it's a matter of video Quantity,... but of what kind of message she/they want to put out there, if they grow out of it and want to try something new or just want to experiment, I mean I would love to see their take on more crude subjects, but everybody talks about EA (and yeah what they do Sucks) and the majority of the internet is this more 'negative' place, so it's good to have this cutesy illustrated inspirational stories (but again this style with those subjects could create some contrasting and entertaining material) , so if they wish to and feel passionate to take those subjects I bet it would be interesting to say the least, but at the same time I would like to see them branch out to some areas other than video games (that's just me though).

[@GabeSweetMan]

At the very least the PVP of DSII is still the best in the series, imho, as a result of the sheer wealth of build options compared to every other SoulsBorne game. This was likely the result of the misallocated resources being dumped into asset creation very early on in development. It makes more sense now why the locations of equipment had much less specific lore implications compared to the other entries aside from just being little side stories about how the dude or dudette lived or died before you came along and looted their corpse.

[@hisholiness4537]

Thanks for making this. I've been saying "Tanimura saved Dks2" for years, amd most people thought I was memeing.

[@SuperGamer61499]

Well, this explains why Darksouls 2 feels so off as a sequel. I can at least empathize with what From Software were trying to do. Still, it does kinda suck Darksouls 2 could of been so much more. It particularly stands out too because of the lack of Miyazaki's involvement. I guess really, no matter how you feel, something about two was different.

[@selwing666]

Super Gamer61499 its a successor not a sequel x3

[@TheManeymon]

no, dark souls 1 was a successor to demon souls. Dark souls 2 was a sequel to dark souls 1.

[@JXZX1]

The lack of Miyazaki's involvement made it the best Souls game since Demon's Souls.

[@TheBrazilRules]

It could be *gasp* better than Dark Souls 3!

[@Nutt_lemmings]

I mean Miyazaki isn't that great like look at ds3 I believe the best thing would be if all the directors worked on it

[@doctorhunter5553]

After seeing thia video, i felt very bad for the director and while the game maybe flawed but there are things that are great like majula's beautiful view, bosses like mirror knight, velstadt and perhaps few bosses that are quite intressting for their lore and disign. I played the ps3 version and it was very buggy but fixes made the game sligthly ok until i played the scholar of the first sin version, it ran smoothly but the flaws are still there like hitbox issue. I still think the game is okay but not great or perfect.

[@TheCivildecay]

Dark souls 2 was great, and barely holding together at the same time :)

[@kindergrinder3920]

I played and finished Demon's Souls, Dark Souls Remastered, Dark Souls 3 (with both DLCs) and Bloodborne and am currently playing Dark Souls 2 SotFS. Bloodborne is my favorite game from this list and, as it seems, Dark Souls 2 will be on 2nd place. It is that good, at least for me.

[@alphasdarkknight7523]

Kinder Grinder will you ever try nioh

[@kindergrinder3920]

*ALPHA's Dark Knight* I might. I heard good things about it.

[@DWFTW]

Bare in mind, Scholar of the First Sin did change a LOT of elements from the original release. Mostly in the form of enemy placements and lighting, as well as graphical quality, but the original had a lot more issues.

[@Ghorda9]

it also made changes to play through routing.

[@TheStraightestWhitest]

Kinder Grinder Glad to hear it, but for the life of me I can't understand how you find it a better game than DS3.

[@frostedmczk]

Yui Tanimura the GOAT He saved Dark Souls 2 and now is co-director of DS3 and Elden ring

[@jamesp.8564]

Honestly, very inspirational. Dark souls 2 may have loads of weaknesses in its design, and may not have accomplished all it'd set out to do, but the mere fact that it exists is kind of a testament to how even the largest messes can be made into something amazing.

[@Phos9]

A bunch of developers had to crunch for months to put out an OK-ish game because Bandai Namco wouldn’t delay the game. That mask was changed. That mask shouldn’t have been changed.

[@Carl_Shackleford]

Phos9 Agreed, but I thought that was a copyright issue with the mask

[@Phos9]

They never released an official explanation.

[@TheBrazilRules]

I don't understand what you mean

[@rogerfvb]

"it's okay to pause" Nice try, you can't pause in Dark Souls. Oh... We're taking real life here? ... I've heard of it.

[@m33p0]

this was my first Dark Souls... and i enjoyed it alot.

[@AberrantVision]

I hope that we ever get a port of the untouched version which wasn't graphically downgraded, I'm really curious how the game was supposed to look

[@sarkadisf]

It would amazing

[@aerohydra3849]

I think that the scholar of the first sin changed a lot of the graphics to be more similar to the un-downgraded game. The torch/dynamic lighting system is a lot like how it was originally envisioned to be and places like Heides look a lot better in SotFS compared to the original game.

[@louisgworld]

To my memory, Tomohiro Shibuya was the sole director in the early process. Yui Tanimura was brought on late into the development due to the game being an absolute mess due to technical and design issues. It was clearly an unnecessarily bloated game. I still love it, more-so than Bloodborne or DARK SOULS III. I greatly respect Tanimura and would like to see him direct a brand new title.

[@bradaultom542]

Same he gets a lot of hate for no reason, he did a good job fixing a mess.

[@visualeyezdoug8158]

Blood borne is best

[@SeekerLancer]

@@bradaultom542 A lot of people don't realize that Tanimura directed the much better DLC from the ground up which hints at what DS2 could have been if he had designed it from the start. He also did a lot of work on Dark Souls 3.

[@blaakheart8]

Shhhhh we need to have nice things.... Ds4

[@sui2553]

This explains why the early areas suck

[@rickyblitz9679]

The original DS is one of my favourite games

[@benireges]

This is about DS2; not 1.

[@Greendog208]

I really don't get the constant negativity around DSII. People act like it's completely unplayable, but it's my favorite one in the series :(

[@ChimerFox]

same, people say "Dark souls 3" was less linear, but...its the most linear of all the games, the only gripe i really had was the hitbox issues, i was okay with the world not making sense, that's kind of the whole thing with these games, you DONT know what's going on, and especially in 2 your sanity is basically lost, so going form a valley, into a sea of lava, in the sake of thinking about the sanity of the un named undead being lost, and going hollow, makes sense to me

[@DevilsKnight777]

Its Very weird Even the Base game With the dlc Was very good, and I thought that it didn’t deserve the Hate. The Pvp Was amazing and had alot of memorable Characters and Bosses.

[@ChimerFox]

Ochinpo I picked the one I liked the most. Dark souls 2 had more of a sense of exploration and discovery than 1 or 3 for me. Dark souls 3 was fairly straightforward for the most part. Save things like archdragon peak or the area after the dancer (didn't say due to spoilers)

[@UncreativePontiff]

Chimer's Corner Ok, even if the game was supposed to be an analogy to insanity, which it isnt, its an analogy to saving yourself, that doesnt prevent it from being criticized for what was perhaps the worst level design in the series, the most boring and predictable enemy patterns and design, the less "bossy" bosses in souls as a whole, and the most amount of technical flaws ever, from animations to hitboxes to balance as a whole. And ds3 wasnt anymore linear, levels certainly werent, you do have a point if you talk about the world as a whole, but levels in ds2 were literally a hallway that led to other multiple hallways you could take.

[@egioch]

when your character is locked on an enemy, turned in the enemy direction, has full stamina bar and still manages to sweep the sword in the opposite direction and completely misses the target, and does so consistently, yes, I'd say it's unplayable you end up constantly compensating for it's weird buggy behavior instead of actually playing it and the enemy animation is sometimes just awful I loved the visuals though, and the good thing is that it's much less linear then DS3

[@barkingspiderproductions3286]

Dark souls 2 nailed NG+, better than any souls.

[@jimmyeng663]

This was a strange video, everything spoken about was vague and didn't really say much at all. 'Certain characters and enemies had to be reworked entirely' Which ones? The world had to be rebuilt using the locations that were already made. So which ones were discarded or altered?

[@goncalocarneiro3043]

When a PS5 comes out, I want to see DS2 as it was supposed to be, I want a remake, not a remaster, not a "Scholar of the Second Sin". i want it as it was originally meant to be, with no time constraints.

[@JohnathanJWells]

This is so laughably unrealistic it's not even funny.

[@ibrahimhassan6566]

Ps5 will be a movie player

[@DevilsKnight777]

That Can Never Happen. Firstly With No time constraints, There always is Time constraints Thusly all of the cut stuff it will always happen there has to be a release date And If they can’t meet this It just gets delayed and delayed over and over again. And There Always working on more things That Would take Yeeeaaars to make with a very small team Theres tons of stuff I could go over but You get the point Although it would be cool.

[@JayWalkZ]

pittkendoka no. If he does then we'll have another dks1.5. I actually want dark souls to move forward and not be stagnated.

[@ishakplayz8008]

persona 5 or Play station 5 ?

[@aphidamas1]

This video was pretty great! I happened to watch after a particularly tiring stint at work so your lullaby voice atop the video's mellow pacing gave me a bedtime story that is sure to set me off dreaming of many "You Died" screens.

[@Svallforce]

Earned a sub. You're great at making these videos

[@adevilscupoftea]

I like that you used the Faraam helm when you said "broken". I think we can all agree that staring at the sunset behind the monument in Majula, basking in its glorious warmth and presence, watching the waves dance as sunlight reflects on its shimmering surface invokes a sense of longing, of what things could be in Dark Souls II and to remind us of our dear Solaire. Praise the Sun ☀ \[T]/

[@arenkai]

It's the worst Souls game, but still manages to be better than most modern day RPG out there.

[@zacharyh.2910]

arenkai this is the best way to describe ds2 thank you

[@ducksauce2696]

Yeah it's way better than Bloodborne, Persona 5, Nier Automata, The Witcher 3 or Divinity 2....

[@TheRitva26]

Actually dark souls 3 is easily the worst

[@christophereric2778]

Souls 2 is amazing it's my favorite sorry not sorry

[@josearcanjo5079]

After Dark Souls 2 I actually thought they wouldn't make any more Souls games, since it got soo whack. But ironically enough, I feel like DS2 was responsible for bringing more people to the fanbase. I mean, I can't really speak for someone whose first DS experience was DS2. I guess that if you start from DS2 and then go DS2 DLC's, DS1 + DLC and then DS3, you will experience an ascending curve in quality in every single aspect.

[@robzsarmy5471]

José Arcanjo except ds3 is nowhere near as good as DS1 and blood borne

[@josearcanjo5079]

Robz Sarmy Yes, Bloodborne is way better. However, it's arguable whether DS1 is better than DS3. I feel the same way, but overall DS3 brought some good quality of life improvements and some crazy good boss fights (Yhorm, Nameless King, Wolf bros, Dancer, Twin Princes, Soul of Cinder, Gael). I'd say both stand shoulder to shoulder. And although I still prefer DS1, I can't really point out why other than... nostalgy I guess?

[@magejag2977]

José Arcanjo except ds1 is nowhere as good as ds2

[@josearcanjo5079]

ściek Yea... Hey, that's, like, your opinion, right? I disagree, but whatever.

[@magejag2977]

"ds3 is inferior to ds1 and bloodborne" - "okay" "ds1 is inferior to ds2" - "that's only an opinion" how predictable

[@TyronMakeka]

This explains alot about why Dark Soul 2 felt so off. I will say however that all of the DLC that were released for the game was really good! My favorite one of them being the Ivory King DLC.

[@sicdefsic1980]

DS2SOTFS was my 1st DS game after beating Bloodborne 2x. i loved it, and the lore still interests me. Finally finding the King hollowed, walking in circles blew me away, one of my favorite vg moments ever

[@hitdude6]

Props to yui tanimura and tomohiro shibuya for trying to follow hidetaka's footsteps. Those are big shoes to fill and they both deserve credit.

[@YappyDK]

Dear Video Game Story Time, Your videos about games or about people are always interested to watch. Your morals always make me think about my life or other's peolpe life. I cant wait until the next video, keep on making fantastic videos and keep on doing what you do. Love.Potato

[@kristianj.8798]

I consider BOTH Dark Souls 1 and 2 to be flawed masterpieces (each in their own way). Bloodborne, however, is the flawless masterpiece.

[@evancodsworth2]

Kristian J. I’d agree that Bloodborne is a masterpiece but it’s far from flawless. Just my take though.

[@kristianj.8798]

Well, I can't even begin to care about multiplayer in any of FromSoft's games; it has never interested me. Which is why I'm happy to hear that their next game won't feature any multiplayer component. I think multiplayer has always held FromSoft back from making something truly awe-inspiring.

[@kristianj.8798]

I wholeheartedly disagree with what you like about Souls, it would seem. To me, everything else other than the multiplayer is what makes Souls great games. PvP is just not interesting, mechanically or thematically; it's just a simple matter of who has the best level-stats. I appreciate the component's arguable contribution to the series, as far as longevity is concerned. But, and I don't mean to presume on the opinions of the developers (I speculate based on how tacked-on and unbalanced the PvP is, and generally bosses in co-op), it's the least cared-for aspect of Souls, making it very trivial to care so much about it.

[@DWFTW]

I agree with you about the PvE elements being much more important than the PvP in actual game quality with the Souls games.... But the PvP is nothing close to as simple as "who has the best level-stats". I'm not really sure how you could think that just based off PvEing. Maybe if you said based on what equipment they were using, but even that isn't accurate, as skill comes into it a lot. Someone who has never PvP'd before might never even touch an experienced player, even if said experienced player was using a joke build with no real damage. Skill matters a lot more than stats do.

[@MrBlue-ge4yv]

It’s not flawless. The Chalice Dungeons are majorly flawed. Even the PvP isn’t so great due to connectivity and prolonged battles. However I would say the rest of the game is almost a masterpiece. The only thing I wish Bloodborne has was the interconnected world design of DS1. All the areas is BB are so great. The atmosphere is amazing that I just wish I had a reason to run back and forth through them like I do in DS1. But even so the game is great

[@Gsmooth84]

I already knew the story of what happened with Dark Souls 2 and its decline in quality. But after looking at this video, It is better detailed, and goes step by step over how Dark Souls 2 became what it is. I feel if Yui Tanimura had been the only one in charge of the project, the core game would look entirely different environment wise. Considering the incredible work he did with the three dlc's

[@Gsmooth84]

But then again if it weren't for the mess up I never would have met Lucatiel or Rosabeth.

[@theatheistbear3117]

@@Gsmooth84 I wonder the same thing is he was the director from the start. This is why I want to see him be the leas director of more FromSoftware games in the future. I think that it would be very interesting. And yeah we probably wouldn’t have had the game as it is; let alone the DLCs. Not having Sir Alonne as a boss would’ve been tragic for sure.

[@swaggyline7883]

Ending hit really close to home. Don’t know how to feel about it, but thank you

[@BFCnational]

I was pretty harsh on ds2 for a long time. This made me rethink my stance on it, and be thankful that we got the game that we did and not a completely broken mess.

[@iHF95]

& they did a great DLC's, Sir Alonne is one of the coolest & well made boss in the entire series

[@Dravianpn02]

iHF95 and the Ivory king story, music, and fight! Even though they have similar mechanics lol

[@flashwithsymbols2779]

Some incorrect information here. DS2 didn't have 2 directors working at the same time, it was initially under Shibuya and then eventually went to Tanimura since the board decided Shibuya's direction was not appropriate for Dark Souls.

[@murtazarizvi368]

i really really really hope elden ring gets flop and fromsoftware shutdown for good. asshole devs

[@Zakzattak]

The co op was fun as hell though

[@juanmarodriguez6010]

“Seek strengh, the rest will follow “

[@KronosSupreme]

I want them to release the graphical heavy version on PC.

[@KirkWilliams300]

Dark souls two had great ideas and deviations to the core concept overall, but many of these things clashed to make a somewhat jarring experience to parts of the fan base

[@samcombs9121]

Ivory King lore is epic af.

[@NigelGrab]

I'm welling up. The ending was exactly what I needed to hear today. Thank you so much.

[@somedaygamin8851]

Kinda nice to have some explanation as to why the game seems somewhat like a technical regression. They did fairly well considering everything

[@IchiSwagger]

I don't care what anyone says, I LOVE Dark Souls 2. Fight me.

[@nathanbrown8196]

Only if you empty your estus first. No heals bruh!

[@hobo_warrior7777]

Nathan Brown ha!!

[@Zanemob]

So you like to suffer or are you just numb to it?

[@nathanbrown8196]

@@Zanemob I think it's fair to say that all dark souls players are numb to suffering. Personally I don't feel it was a bad game, it made a lot of much welcome additions to gameplay and the ability to reset areas. It had its issues but as a game, objectively speaking, it wasn't bad. As a dark souls game however it has places were it fell short. None of which broke the game, it just needed some polish.

[@Zanemob]

@@nathanbrown8196 I still don't understand the awful decision to remove respawning enemies in a game designed for farming...

[@XcaptainXobliviousX]

I'm now really curious to see what the original vision for DkS2 looked like.

[@postychan8466]

watch crobcat video on dark souls 2 before they had to deconstruct it. it looked amazing

[@XcaptainXobliviousX]

seen it, already aware of the visual stuff. not what im curious about. i wanna know about the extensive restructuring the map and story apparently went through.

[@MrBlue-ge4yv]

I played DS2, quit after I couldn’t get passed the big ass crossbow room in the Forest of Fallen Giants. Beat Bloodborne then went back to DS2. I loved DS2. I put over 300 hours into it. Then I played DS1 and then DS3 when that came out. Then I finally played Demon’s Souls. My point is when playing through DS2 the only reference I had on a Souls game was Bloodborne. I didn’t experience DS1 and the interconnected world. DS2 was a great game for me. Especially after just getting done putting in hundreds of hours into Skyrim I appreciated the linearity of DS2. I wasn’t expecting anything from this game except that it was gonna be a challenge. And it was. And it was fun and mysterious and the game that has the most content available. DS2 was for me what DS1 was for everyone else. A brand new and exciting experience. An unknown world with unknown characters aid creatures. I had totally forgotten about BB. I didn’t even care to play through again on NG+. I head having too much fun in DS2. Which btw has the best PvP BY FAR out of any SoulsBorne game. But I do understand the flaws that DS2 has. I recently tried getting back into DS2 and it was hard. Mostly cuz my character got erased so I had to start over. 300+ hours gone really takes my what to play out of me. So I went back to DS1 and played through that about 3 times. When I got bored of it I tired DS2 again and nope. Same thing happened. I realize how great the first half of DS1 is. The second half is bad besides the Duke’s Archives. Crystal cave is a disappointment tho. And I definitely prefer the interconnected world of DS1. I think if DS2 got the proper guidance that DS1 did it would’ve definitely surpassed DS1 as the better game. DS3 has the goal to try and fix the mess that DS2 created and was just terrible. I beat the game 3 times barely got into the PvP and quit playing even before the first DLC came out. All in all I hope u enjoyed reading this pointless story/opinion of mine lol

[@theTYTAN3]

Man... if I beat a game once, I feel like it's generally pretty good. Especially if it's a long game like Dark Souls. I gave up on DS2 because it wasn't fun, Bloodborne and DS1 blow DS2 away, haven't touched DS3 yet.

[@ahalan13]

The best part of dark souls 3 is the ringed city dlc in terms of boss design, so if you like boss fighting you get demon prince and slave knight gael, 2 of the 4 bosses that absolutely nailed. I played ds2 and ds3 and by far my favorite boss is gael, most epic fight with a freaking simple moveset.

[@Robertward111]

What is with all the hate surrounding DS2? In the past 2 years alone video's tearing into it have been springing up everywhere on KZbin. It's not perfect ya but c'mon it's still pretty great. Someone on a steam review even called it the ME: Andromeda of the souls series! Really?!

[@Wamrage76]

Dark Souls 2 is a great game, folks are mad because they can't beat it. Git gud folks and STFU.

[@TheSandkastenverbot]

It's always a shame when management has the balls to be ambitious and it doesn't work out

[@anonymousfwefwefwefweff]

You forgot to mention that Tomohiro Shibuya, quit From Software, mid development... he was responsible for the level design... That`s the reason why the level design is so messed up! Yui Tanimura did a good job putting it all together and I enjoy ds2 better than ds3. The online gameplay of ds2 is the best in the series.

[@Sentinel543Reborn]

What I loved from ds2: kept the exploration like previous souls games. Fashion souls, the armors in this game are the best in the entire saga of dark souls (1,2,3). Base character anatomy: each gender has their animations, something that in dark souls didn't happen. What I hated from ds2: History: basically they had to take places from ds1 and bosses such blightown and other areas that I can easily compare with the previous game. Controls, settings, hit boxes, bad performance etc.

[@hollow3900]

Makes me appreciate DSll even more! Turned out to be my favorite game of the Dark Souls series

[@danieladamczyk4024]

Is your favorite becouse you can play it properlly or like bleak world, boring bosses and ADP with soul memory?

[@iprainwater7461]

You sir are a trooper.

[@danieladamczyk4024]

Strats for the Win Stand down from the rest of the games. Not only souls but in gaming. Hard find level desing that boring like ds2.

[@Crum5h0t]

Chandler Holloway my least favorite...but still very very fun to play

[@magejag2977]

Daniel Adamczyk jesus christ stop, tell me one ds1 area that is better designed than no man's wharf or eleum loyce

[@frostare]

YES! New story time! And with Breton's unique narration voice! =)

[@amitasis422]

Well this video came to me just in time i started for my first time dark souls 2 this week and i got a new job offer, in my first time i got an offer for drawing and painting (what i wished for) and they gave me a task, im trying to do this task with all my might... But im starting to see that im probably going to stay in my regular job... Although im still trying to get this job, i accept that its ok if i will not succeed... Maybe another time or in another place... I will get there

[@peppuccino4556]

You can see how a lot of this ambition plays into Elden Ring and it's CRAZY!!! While it sucks that we didn't get the Dark Souls 2 they'd planned, at least we can see their ideas come to life in Elden Ring. Absolute fire

[@funebure]

I love this channel work, interesting, inspirational/motivational ... A positive much needed light shall I say, in an entertaining way, thanks for the hard work.

[@tonberryknight3725]

You just got a subscriber ma'am! Great content!

[@tamsinsandrielle]

Thank you for this video! Thanks for your time and your work :)

[@justafish1910]

Maybe the best review of Ds2 and one of the most pleasant voices. 10/10

[@gregjenkins7979]

DS2 was my first souls game, and I really enjoyed it. I've played all of them since, and honestly I still think DS2 has the best 'home base' music. That sound of Majula is great imo. I would also love a story on the Halo 2 development. It reminds me of a similar story, where ambitious developers really just want to make the best that they can, but for a plethora of reasons they have to make cuts.

[@dragonpixel1809]

Your stories are awesome! How do you not have more subscribers? I found this channel by watching your scott cawthon story and i have been subscribed ever since!☺

[@chrispollard2611]

You can see when you play the game that the ambition was huge and hearing this story about the difficult development explains why some of the game is as it is. It's hard not to compare it to DS1 because it's a sequel, but in a way you shouldn't. I don't think DS2 is perfect but neither is DS1. There are so many new and interesting ideas which I would have love to have seen continued in DS3, but i think the fan backlash lead them to make it a very safe (yet still amazing) game with loads of fan service. I have grown to really like DS2 for what it is. It feels very unique and despite the flaws something about it feels special. That could be that I've played it way less than the other 2 so it still feels new, but the more I play it the more I want to continue playing it. Enjoying it for the game it is without comparing it to the first one. Sure enemy placement isn't great, the lock on system is flakey and you will constantly be ganked by an absolute gang bang of enemies, but in the words of every Dark Souls dick head out there.............Git Gud. Also level up you ADP. You'll be untouchable.

[@lunch_trey]

Dark Souls II was my first experience with Dark Souls, but I never got to finish it when i initially bought is as I was about to make the jump from 360 to XB1. Well, I finally got to replay it last year and after having more experience with the series, I can say that I understand some of the complaints about it, but I don't hate it. In fact, I still really like it and my complaints about it are very lacking. Pressure on the dev team and a lack of coordination really hurt this game, but who knows? With the remake of Demon's Souls recently, someday Dark Souls II might get the spick and span polish it originally strived for.

[@juliodias4675]

My first dark souls. I had unique moments with this game because I was still learning (and struggling) about souls mechanics. Dark souls 3 and 1, that I got much later, couldnt provide the same atmosphere or challenge, because I had already git gud enough. Today, ds3 is my favourite, but that ds2 moments!!!!

[@dc1939]

Wow what is this great channel I've only just discovered ?

[@BabeTheAstrologer]

Oh yeah so saved, except my character is running and swinging weapons under invisible water.

[@fergusferguson5304]

I really enjoyed DS2, I have the PS4 version. I didn’t realise it wasn’t made by the main creator at the time but I enjoyed it for what it was, despite it seeming like a different series compared to the other two. The reduced health from dying and limited respawning enemies where the two elements I think really damaged it though.

[@magejag2977]

"the reduced health from dying " wasn't it the same in demon's souls?

[@jazzmaster909]

śmieć yeah and thats why they removed it in DS1 and Bloodborne.

[@magejag2977]

"thats why" ? what's "why"?

[@Andres33AU]

Now it makes sense why the early screenshots looked more graphically impressive, but I'll take more frames per second and gameplay over graphics any day.

[@drew8235]

Having just gotten into seriously playing Dark Souls 1 for the first time (tried years ago and even got about halfway though Demon Souls), it's exciting to know that there are 2 more games in the series to play after, to say nothing of Bloodborne and Sekiro. It's also a bit disheartening to know that both of them are relatively lackluster in comparison to the first.

[@mastaroshi23]

Did you end up playing ds2 and bloodborne yet? Just started my first run of BB, wow it's good so far.

[@vitriolicAmaranth]

It didn't just win over the majority of critics or survive, Dark Souls 2 was the best-received entry in the series by critics.

[@ducksauce2696]

That's because critics missing the original Dark Souls hype-train because they were circle jerking over Skyrim in 2011 and felt like they could make up for it by inflating Dark Souls 2 review scores. For the life of me I can not grasp how DS2 managed to get the highest average on metacritic out of all the Soulsborne games. I bet the majority of 'gaming journalists' fell into the 'I must like this because if I don't I loose my hardcoregamer procard' trap. They were suddenly into it because it started to become a trend among gamers to play Dark Souls. You know how many lame clickbait, low effort articles most gaming media outlets published over the past 5 years to get some of that nice Souls-pie. 'Dis game is like the Dark Souls of rhythm games hurdur', 'Our staff reacts to seeing teh first boss omgomg'....

[@vitriolicAmaranth]

No, Dark Souls 1 got a LOT of fanfare from journos and a fair bit from critics. Critics and journos aren't contractually obligated to only celebrate one game per year. If any Souls title had won VGA/Spike GOTY you might have a point, since only one game can get that per year and one game can potentially overshadow another (for instance, NieR: Automata got shafted because it was unfortunate enough to release it the same year as Breath of the Wild), but they've never received that acclaim so it's a moot point- Skyrim didn't in any way inhibit Dark Souls 1 or allow Dark Souls 2 to get a leg up on it (as if anyone with their head on straight thinks it's a competition). Dark Souls 2 was the highest rated by critics because it was the best title (in their reckoning- And I'm inclined to agree). It was widely panned by fans (as opposed to critics) because they felt lied to when the game that was released was completely different from the game that was advertised in the months leading up to that, even though most of what changed between what we were shown and what we got was just graphical. If you aren't a fool who falls for hype trains only to be inevitably disappointed, or a different kind of fool who imitates others' opinions and assertions rather than forming your own, I think it's pretty obvious that 2 has the best gameplay of the franchise, and is just as valid a choice as the others (as in, it's largely a matter of personal taste) for best environments, bosses and music (personally I think 3 wins in the last regard, though), in addition to having around three times the content of the other titles, even after being purportedly heavily pared down. Anyway, let's assume your hypothesis is correct- Then what is your explanation for the fact that Dark Souls 3 didn't get even more praise? I mean, I guess you might be one of that rare breed who thinks the series just steadily got worse over time, but there seem to be two schools of thought almost everybody falls into, that 2 was the best and that 2 was the worst. Almost nobody thinks it's in the middle.

[@tonesdad0408]

I love Dark Souls 2. Dreariness personified in certain areas. Thank you UE

[@gregathol]

This is the greatest channel. Can't wait for more.

[@rulercamelot3687]

Supposed to be fully snowy environments? Makes sense why the Ivory king was the best part of the game then, at that point they did what they wanted to from the start

[@miko5167]

Yeah... "best part"...

[@Not3xactly]

dark souls 2 is only a sub-par game by From software standards. It's still a very fun game despite its flaws.

[@paulsheldon8838]

I don't know what youtube does, but it just doesn't notify me. Your content is great.

[@shadowzero3983]

Im still a bit diserpointed in DS2 but since DS3 was what DS2 shoud have been. Ill be forgiving and since bloodborn and Sekiro are back to Legendary status again. I see it as a slip up.

[@2k13Ghost]

What do you mean about legendary status?

[@shadowzero3983]

@@2k13Ghost I mean that there going to be talkt about for jears to come, u know like a legend?!? Like a influence to other games, like if a game coins a new term Metroidvainia, souls like that kind of legendary status

[@KainH93]

If I may say it what a beautifull voice you have mazing stuning se ma bella, the narrative is already interesting and well played but that voice is the cherry of the cake my congratulations

[@kuro_kishi]

I guess this explains why the game felt so unpolished, broken, and disappointing when I played it on the first day. Still, I cannot rank Dark Souls 2 very highly in comparison with the other titles. But I can still appreciate it for what it is, and it how survived from such hellish development.

[@DWN037]

"How Dark Souls 2 Was Saved From Disaster" Angry DS1 fans: "Saved?"

[@nublaccpromoteam4552]

Can we agree that powerstance was an amazing feature, and DSII had the most unique build variety of all Souls games?

[@magejag2977]

what is powerstance

[@brandanimations3790]

Use weapons with bouth hands with combined attacks(you have to stay with the double or more stats than you need to use the weapons)

[@Shortokeiki]

Maybe its all the wine Ive had tonight but the overall message of these videos is hitting hard

[@jim0_o]

8:30 IF this is the explanation of why they ripped out the awesome lighting system they showed off in promos ex. Crowbcat 's video "Dark Souls 2 downgrade full comparison" I get the feeling that doesn't fully make sense, why not hide that behind a setting called Future-Proof-Lighting or something. Edit: It seemed finished enough, at least if it was generated from light sources when it was pre-baked.

[@svenko]

The problem is that FROM makes games primarily for consoles and DS2 was built for PS3 & XBOX360. Those platforms couldn't run the game with that lightning and don't have graphics settings. Though I do not get the reason for not including those graphics on the PC.

[@jahrfuhlnehm]

Remember Dark Souls 1 on the PS3 and Xbox 360? Remember Blighttown? You know where I'm getting at. The game could barely run in that area, what they were originally trying was something that I imagine they had PS4 and Xbone in mind but Bamco wanted it for the then-still-bigger user base for the PS3 and X360. No way were they going to get that to run without a shitload of problems. PCs could probably handle it, yes, but we don't live in a day and age anymore where major PC exclusives with downgraded console ports if any are a thing. Whatever the consoles get was what the PC was going to get.

[@evomichel9900]

Loved DS2. Much better gameplay then 1st and 3rd together. Weaker world comparing to DS1, but still better then the world of DS3. Then only thing DS3 did great was boss fights. Everything else felt like a step backward from dark souls 2... DS2 is still my favorite DS game.

[@yhorm9959]

I personally disagree. And that DS3 has better gameplay. Though I do have to say that even though I adore the lore in 3, the lore in DS2 is my favourite in the souls series (not including Bloodborne, as its lore perfect).

[@evomichel9900]

To me, DS3 isn't bad. Far from it, but they took out too many things that worked great on DS2. Like the cool pyromancies, duel wielding (proper not like ds or ds3), the new game plus system with different enemies, bonfire ascetics, and many other minor things.

[@jazzmaster909]

Justin Mayberry Yeah how dare Dark Souls 3 be an actual sequel. I guess Doom 2 was just fan service to the fans of Ultimate Doom.

[@TheBrazilRules]

You can't be serious about DS2 gameplay being better than DS1. The game was completely unbalaced, with mobs of monster just to force you to grind to tank the attack and lot's of dumbing down of mechanics. But yeah it was a good game, and I can't decide wich i find worse between 2 and 3.

[@magejag2977]

"The game was completely unbalaced," define "balance" what is "mobs of monsters"? isn't mob and monster the same thing?

[@soulchewer]

This is like listening to a baby book except it's about things I care about

[@MidnightatMidian]

Thx for the advice at the end, but Im not planning to hang myself at the end of the day lol!!

[@jamesbakewell298]

the moral of this story: 2 heads are not always better than one head.

[@cccristol]

Seems like I remember this being a controversy near the release of the game.. A lot of people screaming bloody murder about the graphics not looking as good as the early promo vids and pics of the game. All in all I think they did a good job. It was definitely unique from the other games but still retained what it needed to be part of the Souls series. I'll say this though, the part where you drop down to help the white ice knights fight the black scorched knights was hella brilliant, especially during co-op play. I didn't see anything that fun in Dark Souls 1 or 3.