Dark Souls 2 but it's the DAY ONE Release Version

Dark Souls 2 had a bit of a rough start, but with consistent support and updates, it got to a much better state. In this latest installment of my ongoing series where we take a look at games on release, we dive into Dark Souls 2 to see what players experienced back in 2014.
History of Dark Souls 2 Updates - darksouls2.wikidot.com/game-pa...
Dark Souls 2 Downpatching guide - soulsspeedruns.com/darksouls2...
Dark Souls 2 Any% Speedrun WR - • IT'S AN EASTER MIRACLE...
| Music |
Fire Keepers - Dark Souls 2
Yesteryear - Runescape
1 PM - Animal Crossing
Swinging - Rogue Galaxy
Sediment Pool - Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty
The Lost Underworld - Earthbound
Faron Woods - The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
Funk - Mister Mosquito
Stickerbush Symphony - Donkey Kong Country 2
| Socials |
Twitch - / mrmetagross1st
Discord - / discord
#challengerun #darksouls

[@MrMetagross]

Next up: Bloodborne

[@HeavyMetalGamingHD]

the frame pacing was all over the place and the load times were absolutely horrendous.

[@devcrom3]

That's gonna be a 4 hour long video and it'll be 80% loading screens.

[@LordErmac2000]

I'll watch it 'till Sony makes a official port to PC :)

[@darianclark3980]

Use the Rifle Spear MrMetagross. Apparently in 1.00 Bloodborne, it was the most OP weapon bc it was able to use *both* Arcane and Bloodtinge. That's what I've heard from a very old video.

[@indieemil]

This series is so interesting - hope you keep it up!

[@johnny-smith]

RIP faith builds 2014 - 2014

[@colbyboucher6391]

They were STILL extremely good. Most of my builds used Faith anyways.

[@OfficialMetalhead]

At really high levels they become great again, especially sacred oath + sunlight blade at 54 faith with crown of the old iron king

[@diddykangable]

I never knew they nerfed it till i tried to run lightning spear again this year. Holy shit how could they ever leave it at that.

[@DarkAuraLord]

meanwhile, me soloing a host and 2 phantoms with a SM 1m 60 faith build. Heavenly Thunder is cracked.

[@LordDeBahs]

even incesed miracles are helpfull. not sure why its bad . incesed sunligh blade and great heal are still potent even with only 10 faith

[@ArchonZach]

Pre nerf miracles are worth putting up with any bad performance. I'll never forgive them

[@xKinseh]

My buddy took a long break when they nerfed his faceroll bolts.

[@MrNuclearz]

What they did to lightning spear was a war crime.

[@talion4033]

@@MrNuclearzsmelter havelyn was the worst. Especially the shadow dagger jesters

[@ameshizen381]

​@@xKinsehsame for me when they killed chain casting

[@ExplosiveBolts]

Lightning spears were crazy and could carry you through the whole game.

[@kentaIzzy]

"a loading screen fort he loading screen" getting sonic 06 flashbacks

[@HollandTHG]

"IT'S NO USE!"

[@henriqueorsi7115]

18:24 BRAZIL MENTIONED LET'S GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO COÉ MENÓ OS GURI É EMBAÇADO

[@EwiwasSmile]

17:28 Don't know if anyone mentioned it already, this is one of the death sounds of those dagger-wielding enemies in the Ivory King DLC who are normally docile until you kill Aava. It was probably in the files because they were in the middle of developing the DLCs when the game just released.

[@drschwandi3687]

I interpreted this part as a joke but now I'm not so sure anymore.

[@MrMetagross]

@@drschwandi3687 You are correct

[@theundeadempire3640]

The crystal weapon buffed moonlight great sword, omg. Op.

[@antod1602]

It's even crazier when you think about the fact that the buff scales off of elemental (in this case magic) damage. And Moonlight GS is pure magic damage in DS2

[@thibaultgraux4530]

Shrine of Amana PTSDs here . Fighting for every inches of progress in this god forsaken land.

[@wilfredwayne7139]

Poison arrows are a must.

[@thibaultgraux4530]

@@wilfredwayne7139 even like this it takes too long time and you're always a mistake away from losing it all. Like OK it's doable this way but it's still a big, big issue in term of game design.

[@luisfilipe2747]

​@@thibaultgraux4530exactly. Games are supposed to be fun, dark souls fun rely on the challenge, and spending almost an hour on an area slowly killing enemies in a very boring way, because otherwise you'll be jumped and killed, is neither fun or challenging

[@wilfredwayne7139]

@@thibaultgraux4530 definitely arrows were the only reason I continued love the souls series but ds2 was nutty.

[@wilfredwayne7139]

@@thibaultgraux4530 sekiro was my road block though stuck on owl father for years.

[@TheLongestChannelNameThoughtOf]

Something not mentioned in the video but was a thing on the day 1 version of the game was the Looking Glass Knight bug. Not sure if that was only on PC or not (I only played on PC). For some reason, the Looking Glass Knight fight would ignore volume settings (both in-game and in your system), so whenever he used a spell or ability, it was as loud as possible for your sound system's volume. The only way to counter this was to change the volume on your speakers/headphones (if your headphones have a volume setting, anyway). I was a little surprised when you didn't mention LGKs sound glitch. "Loud Knight" is a video which demonstrates the bug for those who never experienced it.

[@catarro8045]

It also happens on console

[@TheLongestChannelNameThoughtOf]

@@catarro8045 Thank you, I was hoping for an answer.

[@plasmaflippy9376]

I was preparing for a jumpscare scream but its literally an already ingame sound for that screamer anti piracy, I listened to my character scream so much after dying I wouldn't even be phased

[@stephenandsamledwellmacinn2437]

mr meta uploding may be rare but it is SO worth it

[@MrMetagross]

Hopefully a lot less rare going forward

[@Janzkrieg]

Can i give you a hug for placing Animal Crossing music during the mage build showcase? You tugged on my heart strings!

[@Thejordaneverliving]

Like a baby it took 9 months to grow this miracle.

[@TotallyNotRaven342]

For the idea of "things hitting harder in my head," a lot of the time numbers are misremembered due to the fact that you take additional damage from being damaged during a mistimed roll. Because of Adaptability, a lot of people tend to get punished through rolling in DS2, so damage may just seem way higher than it actually is for newer players.

[@MrMetagross]

Thats reasonable

[@n6h6]

wait is that true? why the FUCK would they do it that way? jesus christ

[@TotallyNotRaven342]

@@n6h6 It's been like that since the first game to be fair xD If you are sprinting or you roll you take additional damage during the animation frames that you can be attacked.

[@n6h6]

@@TotallyNotRaven342 I never noticed in DS1. But then again, in DS1 you don't have to roll nearly as often because enemies aren't so goddamn fast 😭

[@TimeLierG]

I remember this well, what a release. The preorder bonus was also humorous.

[@Shtoops]

One boss that was changed was The Ancient Dragon whose fire breath used to cover way more of the platform AND did more damage. It was bullshit.

[@etonasama]

Can't even imagine that. The boss is still terrible.

[@KyleDoes_Things]

I have the Day 1 release of DS2 on my PS3 and bro, that is the only boss in the game I haven't defeated because its straight up bs. That AOE fire breath is ridiculously huge, like you have to be standing on the edge of the arena to avoid it. Also DS2 is known for its runbacks but the runback to Ancient Dragon might be the worst because all the enemies attack you

[@Shtoops]

@@KyleDoes_Things the one thing I'll give it is that, yeah, that's probably what fighting a real Everlasting Dragon was probably like.

[@zulfikarrangkuti5758]

Can't wait for Dark Souls 3 Fun fact, the spell Pestilent Mist wast named Pestilent Mercury before it was patched

[@leithaziz2716]

Weirdly enough, Dark Souls 3's items apparently had different descriptions and even changed voice lines in both DLCs. I remember watching an old vid of SBFP going through Ashes of Ariandel and Gael's niece just talked about entirely different stuff. The other notable example being the Demon Prince's Soul description originally implying that the Demons are outright doomed now.

[@JotaPS88]

In Spanish the spell is still called pestilent mercury, don't know why

[@larfg]

I guess they didn't care to translate 😂​@@JotaPS88

[@JotaPS88]

@@larfg lmao, maybe

[@etonasama]

Pestilent Mercury is a way cooler name.

[@NarratorUsefulDump]

maan, i was watching the dark souls 1 video after 2 months and seeing this just uploaded is a blessing. Thank you

[@musachi2249]

Great to see you back my guy !🎉

[@cky0444]

So happy to see your upload, hope things are going great!

[@mattmelton7389]

We run and we explode! Excellent.

[@mars7357]

Great vid keep up the good work 🤙

[@hardbody2072]

First time watcher of your channel, I really enjoyed this, great music, great details and info, awesome - new sub

[@MrMetagross]

Appreciate it!

[@Ultratistic]

I thought you quit or died or something lol. A new video is such a pleasant surprise! This has made my day

[@Lil_Tatsu]

I know it's a good day when Mr Meta drops a video

[@nickcashman2908]

Eyyy runescape music. Nice

[@somecanadianboy667]

17:28 bro that is NOT a screamer 😂

[@Tokito935]

That is a creamer 🤫

[@theapexsurvivor9538]

I don't know, sounds like what happens when I screamer...

[@cuddlequeen3225]

It's been 10,000 years! Nice to see you back.

[@Goda_Plays]

Excited for dark souls 3 day one. These videos are fun

[@porgy5978]

Man, this is nostalgic. Unlike Dark Souls 1, which I got to only after the Prepare to Die edition launched on Pc, I was there very shortly after day 1 with Dark Souls 2 and man oh man do I still remember a lot of this stuff. Especially how broken the spells were. Just recently I returned to Dark Souls 2 with a mage build, specifically a hex mage, and was surprised how little damage Climax did. I thought I just misremembered from almost 10 years ago at this point but this just confirmed my memories. Feels good to see these adventures into the past. Keep it up

[@molkwi9077]

I like how they re-used the screamer sound for the Retainers death scream. Neat.

[@szymonkarpinski4410]

I missed you man :)

[@frogpuffin]

The GOAT is back let's go

[@bigchum3984]

I really like your understated sense of humour

[@MrMetagross]

Thanks

[@FreyRosfield]

As a Brazilian person, i almost died laughing when you made that joke about Portuguese people talking Brazilian Genius

[@MrMetagross]

I was fearful people would actually think I was being serious about that

[@FreyRosfield]

@@MrMetagross Portugal people may take it seriously, but it is because of recent events that caused the country to be extremely xenophobic towards the Brazilian population, but we in Brazil love this kind of joke, we ball

[@brancor14]

not gonna lie i needed to rewatch because i didnt understood at first haha

[@brancor14]

​@@MrMetagrossrelax those portuguese suckers don't deserve respect neither place to talk,besides everybody who speaks portuguese knows that the brazillian version is better, its not every language that you break their own rules and somehow it still make sense, like "did you thinged the thing i thinged?"

[@augustofigueiredo6989]

​@@FreyRosfieldwhat events? Im curious

[@chiusan1528]

No way, Star field gameplay in darksouls 2 1.0

[@Atine98]

i remember almost all of this. i definitely remember soul geyser carrying me and my friend through the gargoyles fight. i remember moonlight greatsword could be buffed to do ridiculous damage. i also remember people using monastery scimitar as a parry tool in pvp, which was apparently broken for reasons i cant remember

[@Nostradankus]

I was curious and looked into it, the monastery scimitar was OP because it didn't used to have any start-up frames on its parry, making reaction parries or parry spam way too easy.

[@Atine98]

@@Nostradankusincredible! ty for looking into that

[@sturmmagnunstein1008]

I killed so many gamers on day one soon i was getting invaded by blues who were 200 levels above mine. It was amazing while it lasted.

[@mastermarkus5307]

7:50 - I'm glad we had the same thoughts when it came to Andy's Ring Only run, lol.

[@JellyJman]

Thank you SO much for this video. I was just playing through vanilla the other day on PC and was wondering what the game was like on 1.0 since I really liked your Dark Souls 1 video. Any chance for a Demon's Souls video down the line?

[@MrMetagross]

Maybe at some point

[@JellyJman]

@@MrMetagrossCool, thanks again for all your hard work 😊❤

[@JO3Lzzz7948]

Excellent videos bro. I would like to see the original demon's souls day 1 🔥🔥

[@blackmetalbreadstick]

Vanilla miracles were so hilariously broken hahaha

[@NymphieJP]

I liked the video. You asked if I did at the end so thought I'd tell you lol

[@smugs7921]

yeah I distinctly remember getting one show with forbidden sun pre patch move was insane

[@user-zy5ny4jg7t]

Oh my goodness the Moonlight Greatsword totally changes color when it was buffable? Could you please post a gallery of the different buff colors?

[@EthanCyr]

During the pandemic my brother and I roomed together, and he had our old 360, with a physical disk of Dark Souls 2, so my first complete play through was this version with no patches or updates

[@christopherregan1654]

I still have this original 2014 Xbox 360 version of Dark Souls 2.

[@SwedetasticGames]

Pre-nerf Climax was one or the coolest spells in the entire series. No 5k Souls + Scaling cap while still draining all, you could literally hit for millions of damage, but only once.

[@Jay-zd9qs]

hell yeah new meta content

[@SwedetasticGames]

Also dear god I had pushed the Havelasselyns (Havel armor + Smelter Head + Dual Avelyns) with thier old, actuall wrist-breaking-animation tracking in PvP. That's some deeeeep PTSD.

[@maninthesnow4393]

One thing i am still curious about is. Was there ever anything on the back of the globsl death piller in majuala? All i have ever seen is that it is unreadable.

[@MrMetagross]

I think it had stuff on it when the DLCs were coming out?

[@soulsguy120]

@@MrMetagross This is correct, they updated the message on the back before each of the DLC’s came out, around the same time that they were updating the Majula Basement Chest with items. If you are offline, this message tells you your total deaths!

[@kaibowman4803]

The first time i beat DS2 it was a blind playthrough of the unpatched version, without leveling ADP, lighting up the gutter, beat sinner in the dark, it was just an awful time. I had accidentally skipped every boss past Najka, including her. I didnt have any of the DLCs either. However, if still say that blind playthroigh was my most fun playthrough. (Except amana)

[@JKLeeds]

Fantastic video man! Love this series but I just have one thing to say.... ........Tyranitar > Metagross

[@MrMetagross]

You son of a gun

[@plasmaflippy9376]

@@MrMetagross Metagross is cool but like what is that design, its so weird

[@swyjix]

I just like that its name translates as “Bigbig”

[@rishnix]

You left out how insanely strong the Ancient Dragon was before it got nerfed.

[@ecotix]

The Thumbnail being the Shrine of Ammana is so real. Those guys were using magic missile, that shit TRACKED.

[@sir.richard5346]

That happy souls reference was not lost on me

[@darkmoonblade4165]

speaking of brazillian portuguese, the old faded text behind the majula monolith used to have a text related to the giant invasion, it was patched out later

[@DarkTheHunterTheReal]

Yazmania would LOVE to try the day one version with all the alternative builds he could try lol

[@Ashlevon]

As a happy soul once said, "YEAH LIGHTNING"

[@LordErmac2000]

CONGRATULATIONS for this content my man! totally worth the time, DS2 did not appear to be a clusterfuck at release if we compare it to DS1, at least in terms of difficulty. Many of us agree that they really screwed the game big time with SOFTS, like they force you to follow a path or you're gonna bite the dust, I still prefer the vanilla version. Funny story, I played DS1 on Xbox 360 offline from a physical copy I got, then got the chance to update it mid-game, and boy was that not a huge difference, it was jaw-dropping to realize how little amount of souls I was getting from enemies, like The bell gargoyles in 1.0 only give you 1,000 souls in comparison to the 10,000 you get with the last update. It's always interesting to see these minor changes that can impact your experience so much, now I look forward to the DS3 video. P.S.: I F*CKING LOVE DS2, so much replayability.

[@Nicholas_Steel]

Smooth sweeping camera movements during cutscenes would've been a great way for showing off the frame pacing issue. Or slow camera movements with the analogue stick.

[@Moe1002]

after bloodborne, is ds3, I'm really excited to see how ds3 has changed

[@VaultTecCitizens]

One of my fondest memories of the dark souls 2 launch was when we put the bell keeper ring on for the first time. There were so many players online that we'd be summoned for a fight then summoned to another one so fast that we couldn't get the ring off for some time. I was so happy.

[@SaladaSla]

18:26 probably the funniest shit I've heard all week

[@Kakuruma]

Saying you won't put a jumpscare is way scarier than an actual jumpscare. lol (Nice video. :D)

[@zatchary]

I lightning speared/hexed my way through this version on xbox 360 and this made it my favorite souls game. I played SOTFS much later and never had as much fun as my initial play throughs

[@shirohime4752]

Immolation Damage was bound to the Pyromancy-Flame Upgradelevel it means that a higher Pyro-Flame increased the Immolation Damage (That´s what i know from the PS3 Version of DS2)

[@justsomejerseydevilwithint4606]

All I Know is lightning bolt go BZZZZT

[@bohr7610]

here comes 10 years for Souls 2!

[@ftir1450]

I recently played through the "vanilla" version on 360 (although it was updated) and the Firekeeper's spoken lines usually wouldn't play so I would just see the subtitles. Load times were also painfully long

[@shoobydoo]

17:29 I don't think the "lore" behind that sound bite is accurate but I could be wrong lol. That's the death sound of the Retainer sorcerers in the Ivory King DLC.

[@lunarbreeze5019]

A big change I remember is 1.0 not having any rumble effects and them having to be patched in.

[@little_chimy]

Dark souls 2’s history of patch notes is one of the best examples on how to make your game not fun.

[@fernandogomezyuri3757]

I really liked the silence after the brazilian portuguese joke, like, giving us time to process lol

[@burro8372]

What's the song from 6:01 to 7:13? I've searched through the tracks given in the description and I can't find it

[@MrMetagross]

1 PM from original Animal Crossing

[@burro8372]

@@MrMetagross thanks

[@emanuelperez3595]

Fun fact still last year at 2023 around November and December I play this game on PS3 there's still people playing the game somehow and ironically I play most of it again and a lot of the issues you just mentioned are still present even on their latest patch. A lot of frame rate issues input issues sitting at bonfire issues menu issues there's always like a weird slight delay but is so so so slight but you can still feel it. I think the worst frame rate enemy I ever face were boxes If there's a place with many boxes and you break them all at the same time the game just goes weird. I'm a bit sad that I don't remember much of the 1.0 patch release back when I played it. I got this game day one and I played it straight away. The one thing I do remember was that vendrick was just broken as fuck. I remember my game nearly crashed because the spot that he was walking on had so many blood stains My framerate just went downhill and he was far more aggressive and faster I felt always. After a couple of patches he never felt the same as that one time I literally the same day the game came out I was able to get to him I played that psychotically. I did not slept nor went to school this was far more important 😂

[@C3lticlord]

day 1 shrine of amana without patches was a nightmare

[@ilfondale]

Thx for avoiding the jumpscare

[@MlguelPires]

18:29 please tell me you where taunting us with that comment lmao

[@juliet4093]

That scream is used by an enemy when it’s dying

[@itlahic566]

Diablo 2's 1.0 is brutal and a whole different game compared to what people know of now. Also super fun and broken.

[@christianboi7690]

I remember following bluelizardjello’s everything possible before a boss playthrough of dark souls 2 and he did the shrine skip in it, but it was patched out so I had to grind for hours if I wanted to get enough souls to open it and still not beat a single boss. It was painful, but I did it. Now it looks like I could have just downgraded since I was playing on the ps3 version at the time.

[@jjcaralegal]

On day one, more or less month one, i remember that i could put crystal magic weapon on the moonlight greatsword.... that was fking insane

[@AutumnWynds]

Strange to see you do the shrine skip without that bird shield, idr what it was

[@easyperrin8326]

Sad to see a distinct lack of Great Resonant Soul, Lightning Spear, and Santier's being showed off here

[@quadbinilium8612]

One funny glitch is that poison wouldn't stop hurting you in cutscenes, so in the Black Gulch, you could easily die while watching the Rotten cutscene

[@blockwearingman]

we has shit like this but people nowdays are saying studios keep bumping out unfinished games

[@sandman_04]

Yeah i had a whole save file to be corrupted because of the rage quit thing on my xbox 360 copy, to this day i miss my dear poison build :(

[@loganfox9424]

Happy 10 years to this amazing game. DS2 is amazing.

[@MaskedHeroLucky]

Something you didn’t mention was the enemies with infinite stamina in the Dragon Shrine.

[@nerdymidwesterner3662]

Maan finally, Mr Metagross is back 🗣🗣

[@tj3423]

Great vid, but you should note that this isn't the exact version people would be playing on day one. This is the pre-release version they put on the disc months in advance when the game goes gold because manufacturing dics and distributing them ahead of release takes time. So some of these things would have already been fixed in a day 1 release patch.

[@RustyShackleford-hq2mr]

Dark Souls 2 at launch soured me on the game. I came back to it occasionally because Majula was enchanting, but I would get my fill of it and decide id rather play the first Dark Souls.

[@TheMeekMingeMaster]

reminds me of when i was hyped af to get ds3 day 1, played it for 8 hours in a sitting, fell through the map when opening a door to a new area that i died 4x for, then i quit out and went to bed feeling like that was enough ds for the day, just to come back the next day and find out my save was corrupted from falling through the map. couldnt load it even after a couple patches and went a few years without palying it again as a result bc of frustration lol

[@viniciustigre5146]

Day one: Miracle build ❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤

[@drschwandi3687]

Maybe the only version where magic might not have been useless in the DLCs.

[@selensewar]

"We run and we explode!" :"D

[@ikej1200]

Shrine of Amana is one of those areas that even on my 3rd playthrough, I still died a lot and lost soooo many souls haha

[@LFGP-je7sw]

Whats the song in 6:13??

[@blayzcool7897]

Hey Bro idk if u remember me, but man when are u starting streaming again?

[@MrMetagross]

I remember you Blayz, and to answer your question, I would like to stream sometime this week if possible

[@ballisticthreat]

I played this version, still have the PS3 disc.