DARK SOULS 2 - PREPARE TO DIE AGAIN (Zero Punctuation)

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This week, Zero Punctuation reviews Dark Souls 2.
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[@EXHellfire]

"I'm just some fuck with a halberd" much truth

[@KratosAurionPlays]

φ First-order logic lol I've used Halberds in both my Dark Souls 1 and Dark Souls 2 playthrough XD

[@EXHellfire]

they really ruined the Halberd's utility in DS2 though, you can't use it as well as in the first one

[@Krebons1200]

+Kratos Aurion Plays I've become oddly attached to my gargoyle's halbeard

[@JacobByus]

+Krebons1200 Not a bad weapon, especially for builds where you have just enough stats to use it and add Lightning or Chaos to it. I've never used Halberds much myself, but the damage on that one is undeniable (I believe it is 599 for Chaos with 10 Humanity, and 574 with Lightning).

[@corvo2696]

+φ First-order logic I never used the halberd but all my friends do, I never got why. In fact, they looked at me like some sort of freak when they came over to my house to play the dlc and saw that my main weapons were the black knight greatsword, moonlight greatsword and the dragon chime(fuck this equip in particular, lost almost all my effigies trying to beat the boss)

[@alilweeb7684]

This is actually one of the most fair reviews of dark souls 2

[@Thejigholeman]

i always felt that dark souls 1 was like an hourglass shape. you start out being able to go to new londo, the burg/parish/lower burg/depths/blighttown/swamp of blight town/ash lake/dark root basin/darkroot garden/undead asylum part 2, then it linearizes into sens fortress, then anorlondo, then it widens out into the rest of the game with tomb of giants/new londo (because now is the time to go there)/demon ruins/dukes archives/the dlc area.

[@Pedro_Colicigno]

well, this is comment digging, but you sir are right. And there is a reason for it. Since the devs know everyone will have to kill O&S in Anor Londo, they can be sure all areas you unlock after it can be harder. Imaginating the difficulty curve, you would have like 4 wavy lines with a max point on all, then one bit going up, then 4 bits going up from that one line. I wish i could draw this explanation... well, go check Matthewmatosis, he explains much better

[@SchadeTree]

@@Pedro_Colicigno But what I feel is the difference between 1 and 2 is that 1 always felt like there was 1 intended way to go. Yeah you can go to the catacombs early or go kill Quelaag within like 5 minutes of leaving the Asylum, but if you don't know what you're doing those areas will spit you right back out. Not that Undead Burg is easy, but it felt clear that that was the intended progression. It opens up more after the church area, with Darkroot and the Depths. DS 2 on the other hand felt way more open at the beginning, pretty much to a fault IMO. Hell the intended first area is more or less hidden, while most people's first time will end up going through Tower of Flame (which is a very difficult area if you don't know you can just run past everyone and trick the boss to fall to its death). Both 1 and 2's progression routes are miles better than 3's, which is basically linear with the occasional side area (although you can kill the Dancer right away and get to Lothric castle early, but there's no reason to do that unless you need chunks or you hate yourself).

[@Pedro_Colicigno]

@@SchadeTree I do agree that DS2 is more direct with its early openness. My point was more on how ds1 has a cutoff point where everyone need to go you can use it to reset the difficulty curve. DS2 also has it when you get to dranleic castle, but I don't respect ds2 as much because of the spambushes.

[@Xxweirdmonkey15xX]

2:52 Ornstein and Twat, Skully Bunch, That Tree Thing, Naturist Dragon, and John, Paul, George, and Ringo

[@thundararious]

this is why I love zero punctuation, Yahtzee always leaves me with this stupid grin on my face

[@Two-for-One_half-off]

The "Abusive DkSII Dad" bit cracks me up.

[@thundararious]

Darkwireman the "pain train" metaphor at the beginning was what got me at first

[@PedroIgori]

as long as he isnt reviewing monsterhunter his reviews are good and funny

[@thundararious]

Pedro Igor shut up you fantard, nobody wants to hear an opinion like that

[@Luciffrit]

thundararious Said like a Fantard to another Fantard.

[@JonnySaysHi413]

2:52 The names he gave to the Dark Souls bosses had me in hysterics.

[@uppsie]

To be fair blighttown was just the valley of defilement pretty much.

[@shadowthetwisted]

Valley of lag* Fixed that for you.

[@SirWetBiscuit]

***** Except that Valley of Defilement didn't really lag.

[@shadowthetwisted]

SirWetBiscuit I dunno what that is, I'm assuming it's an area in Demons' souls.

[@Qarzort]

***** not on pc

[@uppsie]

***** It is. Yahtzee commented on a place in Dark Souls 2 "being basically blightown" Well blightown was basically a retread of the Valley of Defilement, which is an area in Demon's Souls.

[@yourethatmantis5178]

I never noticed before but he gave the four kings the same names as the Beatles

[@reecelongden3500]

+You'reThatMantis Where does he mention the Four Kings?

[@Penningtontj]

2:54 when he's talking about how in Dark Souls the game opens up after beating Ornstein and Smough and has nicknames for the later bosses, with the Beatles= Four Kings at the bottom (for the record the rest are Skully Bunch= Grave Lord Nito, That Tree Thing= Bed of Chaos, Naturist Dragon= Seath the Scaleless)

[@jordanjoestar76]

things that come with age 👍

[@johnclever8813]

Who?

[@aidankeogh9994]

"Before, you could just bash away infinitely until the boss submits out of pity. Just like in my sex life." *Oh, Yahtzee, never change.*

[@Newgenerationkid17]

THE ENDING CREDITS! I nearly shat myself in surprise when the video promptly ended, the ending credits are too damned familiar. I had to check to see if I was dreaming or not. Unfortunately, I am still quite awake, and it is still very, very illegal to wave my junk at old ladies. Hang on, the police are back again.

[@randomlyentertaining8287]

4:16 for one of the best quotes from Yahtzee.

[@RedSoakedSponge]

WE STILL COUNT DEMON'S SOULS!!!! Please play it again damn you!!

[@justindman00]

+RedSoakedSponge Dark Souls 3 is demon souls 2 so its okay

[@georgecataloni4720]

+Justin Druer How does that work?

[@FearTheRelicFighter]

+George Cataloni the main hub is about the same (really similar) as the one in demon souls. There is a magic bar (fp).

[@georgecataloni4720]

FearTheRelicFighter Oh, I thought we were talking about the story.

[@hallowen]

Notice how Yatzee doesn't realise that the mechanic where your health bar gets reduced (down to a certain point) every time you die is lifted directly from Demon's Souls.

[@MMasterDE]

I liked the decorating walls with dudes in armor part. Happened so often for me. Enemies dead bodies respawning halfway inside a wall, like their head is in the wall, and the rest of the body is dangling. :>

[@xyonblade]

I actually like the L3 jump better than the circle button jump after I tried it out after switching to it about halfway through DkS2. Much easier to time my jumps off ledges.

[@BloodyDIMISIS55]

in pc having it at F was super sick... perfect jumps all around

[@asldfkhjaslk]

​@@BloodyDIMISIS55 I know I'm 10 years too late, but why tf are you using keyboard and mouse for DARK SOULS

[@BloodyDIMISIS55]

@@asldfkhjaslk hahaaha jesus 10 years. oh i didnt have a controller at the time. PLUS i found a mod to make mouse 100 accurate with zero acceleration. i can full sprint into enemies back by running forward and turn my camera. DS1 was not designed for that and enemy turn rate cant hande it! so i had free back hits all day.

[@Vattsu]

For any PC gamer waiting for this don't worry there are no real spoilers.

[@loicplayer]

Thank you :)

[@Exaltable]

EH, Several boss fights spoiled. No encounters or secret items although he does talk about a few NPCs... I think very few of the PC crowd care about getting the story spoiled. We care much more about the gameplay sections like ambushes and secrets.

[@Vattsu]

Well not spoiler just a bit detailed. Nothing too serious.

[@jiancosta9042]

i lost it when he said map it to the kinect

[@liksomkonto4909]

Me too

[@SoloMael]

A giant demon waist deep in lava attacking you with slow punch attacks...? ...Like Ceaseless Discharge? Well, it is beneath Dark Souls, all the way down in the Demon Ruins.

[@enman009]

No, this boss is better and the fire level in DS2 is a LOT more polished with better boss fights that DS1.

[@SoloMael]

+Enmanuel Tejada Asencio I wasn't complaining about Dark Souls 2, I was countering Yahtzee's statement. Goddammit, you made me explain the joke.

[@enman009]

SoloMael I know (it was a bit obvious). I just want it to troll :v

[@BurntFrost]

At least Ceaseless LOOKS interesting, Old Iron King was rejected from Doom for being too obvious.

[@enman009]

Myrmeleo At least Old Iron King have a good lore and a decent boss fight. Ceaseless isn't like a boss. Is more like a routine. Is more like "go to this way, wait until his tentacles, attack yourself and repeat".

[@Uzicide]

Was he referencing something when he said "Have a smack and a smack and a smack. How dare you. How dare you. How dare you"? Sounds familiar.

[@rockzyk1291]

I don't think so. I think you're thinking of the High School Musical episode of South Park.

[@LordTurnip_]

It kinda sounds like the comedian Eddie izzard

[@Connorthecatsdad]

I think he's referencing parental abuse

[@dewbs815]

I think this review sums up my feelings pretty well. The only thing I would add is that it's annoying to have to go back to Majula, talk to that one lady, wait for her to stand up, and skip through the same conversation EVERY time you want to level up as opposed to being able to level up at any bonfire any time you want.

[@grimmSOL]

Its no biggie if you've played Demon's Souls, as they've done it there, too. But I get ya, as its kind of a step back, regarding convenience, where Dark Souls is concerned.

[@digitalintent]

grimmSOL The thing is, Demon's Souls was actually designed a lot around the Nexus, and the fact that the only new warp point was after a boss. It is the one place where you feel safe. Stockpile Thomas is there to take equipment, it is one of the only places to repair that equipment, and, there are also NPC story elements that take place there. The Nexus played a much bigger role than most people give it credit for. As for Majula, going back there doesn't make as much sense if there are bonfires every 20 feet and you can do basically everything needed (equipment auto repairs, bottomless box, etc) but level up at them. It makes going to Majula a chore rather than a needed break.

[@Xeronoia]

Digital Intent Also, in demon souls, the level up lady didn't take five million years to let you get on with it. In DS2, it takes ages especially if you have an estus flask shard. It doesn't help that she says the full thing every time instead of just a truncated one-liner like they would do in Demon Souls once you've exhausted a dialogue option. It's sort of like they made Demon Souls, then said "ok how about this" for Dark Souls, then smashed the two together for Dark Souls 2 without actually thinking about the resulting feel/flow, when it comes to a lot of things. (Frankly I'd rather just play Demon's or Dark Souls again, but thats just imo and DS2 DOES have some very nice things about it - Like a functioning netcode).

[@AgentCocopuff]

Yeah grimm thats why i found the hp thing wasnt that bad. Because im used to dieing and half of my life being gone instantly! Dark souls 2 Hp thing and level thing wasnt that bad for me because i was so used to demon souls

[@poochiebar]

Bearer seek seek lest

[@AngryNerdBird]

My main beef with DS2 is it drags on too long. The whole story is building up to your encounter with King Vendrick, which (SPOILER WARNING) turns out to be a total red herring. Instead you just pick up a trinket from his pile of clothes that you need in order to go through four more areas in order to unlock another thing that lets you progress into another three areas, leading up to a boss fight with a person you didn't even know fucking existed until reaching what you thought was the final level of the game. I didn't even know why I was fighting the Queen. it felt really unintuitive and while I LOVED the later level designs (dragon shrine is amazing) it really just felt like it had gone on way too long and needed to be wrapped the fuck up well before I hit the ending. It's almost like they wrote out the main story of the game went OH SHIT WE FORGOT TO INCLUDE THESE OTHER AREAS and then just tacked on an extra couple of fetch quests as an excuse to keep playing the game for another ten or twenty hours. In DS1, the quest is quite clear and I have no confusion as to why I'm fighting these guys The story is vague, but the motivation behind what I'm doing is very clear. In DS2, it's murky and confusing as fuck.

[@therealsamasima]

Goatmon the queen is waiting for you to open the door to the chamber, she cant get near thanks to the guardians imposed by the king, she cant get near to Vendrick thanks to Velstadt, she tells you to reach that place and once you do, she will try to killl you

[@AngryNerdBird]

samasima The game does an extremely bad job of explaining all that to you, though.

[@therealsamasima]

Goatmon to be fair its hard to understand the lore 100% in DS as welll but the story is there, thats why you have to fight the queen, she decieved you to kill the guardians

[@AngryNerdBird]

samasima DS1 is really only vague in the lore. The actual plot is straightforward enough that you understand what you are doing, even if the full reasons behind it are less straightforward. You're replacing Lord Gwyn and are supposed to link the fire. The mission is clear, even if the reason for it is not. In DS2 the game isn't even really clear on who your opponent is at the end until you have to fight her. Nor is it clear on WHY you have to fight her. She just sort of gets in your way and thus you have to take her down, because... otherwise you can't... do something? The game doesn't make it apparent that you're supposed to link the fire until the end cutscene where they outwardly point that out.

[@therealsamasima]

Goatmon the game has been pointing out since the beginning about king vendrick, the lore was understandable, at least I think it was as much as it did in DS1, the DLCs helped confirm the darkness between the queens, since all 3 talked about a king and about a queen, but hey maybe thats my opinion.. I just think the lore was good as well

[@leo_8492]

"When the real version comes out." I cannot agree with you more.

[@amyhunter83]

//snickering in the distance Except if the control port will suck a Scotsman's joysacks just as much as it did in Dark Souls 1's PC port...but hey, you could always hook up a PS3 controller and it will be TOTALLY different then playing it on a PS3... In all honesty, I personally hope the PC port won't be horrifying but lets be honest, they where lazy to do it once when it mattered, who is to say they won't again now that they sold 2 gabijillion copy's of it on the PS3?

[@leo_8492]

amyhunter83 All right. You got me there. But then again, that's the magic of PC: you can play a game any way you like. To be honest, I've played on PC so much that using a controller feels weird to me. Some people are comfortable with the mouse/keyboard, and can always change the controls as they see fit.

[@amyhunter83]

I believe that, I know there are some miracle players that can play on a keyboard and mouse on Dark Souls and to top it off they can play quite well too. My personal situation is when I tried it with a controller I was like ' ' O A O THIS IS AMAZING WHAT IS THIS...oh fuck the stick is as sensitive as grannies nipples...slooooow push....suddenly you run at 100 miles per hour....camel toe's. -.- ' '

[@narutofan4545]

It's going to be the same shit with 1080p and 60 fps, Not much of a difference.

[@amyhunter83]

I don't mind 60 FPS, I don't have a high end PC so I'm sort of used to it.

[@BIadelores]

There are a lotta things Yahtzee doesn't understand doesn't he - The whole "the world is ending soon" thing is a trademark of FROM software, they even do it in the Armored Core series, and they did it in the King's Field series as well. They just like the whole dying world thing for some reason; The whole "waist deep in lava dragon" thing was in Demon's Souls, that's another trademark of FROM, so no, the series isn't "Above that"; I guess he forgot, but in demon's souls, once you died as human, you lost half of your health bar. This game is merciful in comparison to that, as you only lose a pinch of health with each death; Blighttown was pretty much just the valley of defilment again. In fact, the thing with From Soft is that they like to imply connections between their sequels in subtles ways, many of the areas in Dark Souls 2 resemble Dks1 because it is suggested that it is in fact the same place but with a new, risen and fallen kingdom (So that Lordran/Drangleic joke thing seems a little off too), and that the enemies you face, are essentially reencornations of the ones from Dark Souls - Rotten is made out of bodies like Nito was made out of skeletons, the lost sinner has a chaos bug around her, the ones found in Lost Izalith, the old iron king has the old king soul, etc. A bunch of other things I can mention, but I'll leave it at that. Still a really funny review as usual but it seems Yahtzee is only seeing flaws in things he doesn't really understand or has no point of comparison.

[@Incaseofanemerge]

Someone gets it! :D but you just need to keep in mind these zero punctuation reviews are his unrefined thoughts more for the purpose of being funny than a full review. Take it with a pinch of salt.

[@Warhamer116]

Which answers at least two questions: 1. Firstly while the goal and lore was made more "acceccible", it became more entwined with the previous games, and many things are not said or told in item descriptions but instead implied in the actions and places you take, leaving you to decide what you belive correlates to which. Some say that the dranleic was the land where the old deities fled after the flame started fading, leading to massive war and the state where dranleic is now. Some say that the flame had faded, and the world has gone thru loop around itself, like balloon being turned inside out which explains things like old dragonslayer and some pyromancies. Some say that the Dranleic is just Lordran after the flame had faded and after it has been rekindled, like if the whole universe has gone full cirle but not completely unchanged. It brings the game unique feeling and reward to those that want to belive their theories and find proof for them as well as finding out about it. 2. Secondly the Lore as it is and as whole is almost inaccessible and new players and even some old ones will have no clue about the lore other than "You are undead, You dont want to be undead. Kill a lot of things to make yourself no more undead." since the real lore is hidden so deep in the game SERIES so newcomers will not get it.

[@ChristophBrinkmann]

You realize that Yahztee likes the DS series, right? You also realize that his thing is to make snarky, irreverent jokes, right? He does this for every game he plays, including and especially the ones he loves. Most importantly, if you enjoy the game, then why would a throw away joke bother you so much?

[@BIadelores]

Christoph Brinkmann I have been following Yahtzee since 2009, I am aware of how he works. The fact that he jokes about it doesn't mean it isn't an aspect that he actually disapproves of; I pretty much brought up most of the things that could be considered negative in the review, he was joking about all of those so am I just to assume he's saying this game is flawless or something? Especially after he outright mentions that he doesn't think this can compare to the first game. and lol how am I bothered for making a comment, would've you just rather I went "funi rev but ur wrong about the negatives this game is perfect good rev anyway keep up the good work" or something like that

[@Crimsonskies455]

You must be fun at parties.

[@josiahvock5675]

I've come up with the perfect analogy for why I love Dark Souls so much, it's a game I can dive into without being afraid of breaking my neck on concrete.

[@Kniroid]

... but will you buy it again when the REAL-REAL VERSION COMES OUT?!?

[@AdraTheGhost]

Kniroid kind of find it funny how pc snobs will make fun of console players for buying a console and a game that does exist on pc, but I don't think I've seen anyone bat an eyelash at the fact that they rereleased darksouls two with the soul selling point being "the frames are higher now" and I guess the dlc is included so it's like a goty edition

[@Kniroid]

The things that pisses me off is how they hardly even revamped the pre-existant copies... They easily could have released a patch for story elements, weapon and enemy placement, AND FOR SURE THE GODDAMN LIGHTING, but they're just making us buy a new copy. Dont get me wrong, I love the souls series, but the fact that they hardly changed current copies is bull.

[@AdraTheGhost]

IT'S SHINIER!

[@DunkeysLongLostSon]

***** Ignorant twit.

[@Torguish]

***** Then again... People did buy gta 5 3 times.. D:

[@JacobVonRoker]

"Good fucking luck, you shrieking mimsy."

[@samgomez9942]

Lmao, hearing Yatzhees ending zinger and then silence is so much eerier than I could've expected

[@podto0426]

"John, Paul, George and Ringo" that just cracked me up...

[@Dramatic_Gaming]

I only ever watched friends play Dark Souls 1, but got interested enough with it to give DS2 a shot. I was expecting to die a lot and have flashes of controller-snapping frustration, but good lord! I thought that it was kinda cheap that the first game started you off with 10 rechargeable full heals, but now I wish I'd had them earlier. Some of those earlier bosses are a bitch to fight with only 2-3 flasks, and the fact that they hit like runaway ice cream trucks is not alleviated by losing chunks of your already pitiful life bar after each death. I ended up having to restart a character on an online account just to call in support. But then you get the issue of invaders and dealing with asshole covenants (Bell Keeper and Rat King in particular). But once you manage to get through all that, the game opens up a lot and becomes quite fun. In short, I managed to tank the rakes and fell in love with it.

[@lordsylvanus2020]

i have only just finished DS1 and those estus flasks become pretty shitty later on when you havent upgraded them but my friend who is currently on his ++playthrough of DS2 says it is hard and he did do DS1 uo to NG+7

[@Dramatic_Gaming]

TLB95Switchblade Careful with the Mirror Sentry. If I've heard right, on NG+ he summons a phantom of you.

[@TLB95Switchblade]

ClockworkHeart42 I'll keep an eye out and (if I remember) I'll post here what happens. I haven't heard such things but then again I also haven't been looking. If he doesn't an NPC version of the player then I'd rather that then actually have another playing being summoned.

[@danielowentech]

In my opinion he missed the absolute BRILLIANCE of the story in Dark Souls 2. It actually is a COMMENTARY on the endless futility and repetition of sequels. The plot focuses on everything being a cycle. All this has been done before, will be done again, and none of it matters in the end. You are not the first "chosen undead" nor will you be the last. The boss fights are INTENTIONAL rehashes- same with many of the locations. No matter what small variations you make, it is just another piece in an endless cycle where nothing is really new.

[@Pleb2000]

I think the biggest criticism of dark souls is that It got the main, obvious things right and carried them over from the first two games; but it missed out the subtleties like the enemy designs, level design, art direction and overall storytelling.

[@OtakuUnitedStudio]

Level design was unfortunately a matter of the original team bailing halfway through development and B-Team having to basically put together what they already had in half the time after the higher ups came down and told them to hurry it up. Same can be said for lack of enemy variety and storytelling, but the DLC at least helped some.

[@janeyrattray544]

The good thing about jumping being mapped to l3 is that it allows you to roll immediately after sprinting

[@Arexion5293]

My thoughts about the game's first few minutes: WHAT THE FUCK HAPPENED TO THE CONTROLS?! Why the fuck are the controls so fucking clunky?! Wait, was that fucking input lag?! Dark Souls 2 made me appreciate Dark Souls 1's and Demon's Souls' controls a lot more.

[@therealsamasima]

Arexion5293 funny lmao, I enjoy the DS2 controls more, of course I had to master them in the first week and almost dropped the pc version thanks to the controls, but once I got used to them I really lked them

[@Arexion5293]

samasima I'm used to them too, but they still annoy me a lot. I find the concept of 12-directional movement baffling, and the overall movement just makes everything feel.. dull and restrictive. Fighting NPCs in Dark Souls 1 was fun because I had so much control over my movement and I could all sorts of tricks. But in DS2 they turn into a dull waiting game. Sometimes I wonder if some of the enemies and bosses in DS2 were designed with DS1 controls in mind rather than DS2, because with DS2 controls they're nothing but a grind. Oh.. and input buffering in DS2 doesn't seem to always work. It's completely different for shoulder buttons and facebuttons, and sometimes spamming the button even during an action leads to nothing happening. I don't understand the input buffering in it at all.

[@josiahvock5675]

unless you're me and like to dual wield through the entire game, which i should mention is actually impossible in the first game thanks to not being able to roll at angles

[@Arexion5293]

***** Or try rolling without lock-on? I haven't used a shield for blocking for such a long time now..

[@Arexion5293]

***** That's a bit overkill, don't you think?

[@over9000ftwbaby]

2:52 Am I the only one who knew right off the bat which nickname matched each boss? Ornstein & Twat: Ornstein and Smough Skully Bunch: Gravelord Nito That Tree Thing: Bed of Chaos Naturist Dragon: Seath the Scaleless John, Paul, George, and Ringo: Four Kings

[@over9000ftwbaby]

***** Thought not.

[@MrJake8555]

Unfinished open heart surgery dragon=gaping dragon

[@over9000ftwbaby]

MrJake8555 Yahtzee shows an image of that one so it's hardly a mystery, but, then again, neither are any of them.

[@AlluMan96]

Edward Boone ...... Wait. You're telling me that the game *really* starts spreading out only after those 2 wankers!? I thought the game had already opened up quite substancially after beating the Bell gargoyle (and actually thought that those 2 names were silly nicknames for the 2 Gargoyles). Jesus, well at least I have something to look forward to after I gather enough fucks to give to even attempt beating out those 2 (Yeah, I only sorta really tried that boss once before I just got bored of Anor londo and decided to head back to clean up some of the things I neglected to do earlier).

[@over9000ftwbaby]

AlluMan96 In terms of opening up, it only allows you to warp between bonfires. This is a good way to go back to previous areas to collect things and then teleport to a blacksmith or merchant to buy things. After the Four Kings are defeated, you can face the last few bosses whose areas were blocked beforehand.

[@KrankuSama]

DS2 get's better on NG+ I think (which isn't really a point in it's favour.) But you get more enemies spawning, more black phantoms, new items only available in NG+, New boss souls (with more lore.) and slightly different boss encounters. For me DS2 seems to be the more technically sound and better optimised of the two, it cuts out a lot of the bullshit and lagg from the first game. But it is a lot less inspired, it doesn't have as many cool areas, some bosses are copy-pasted from the last game and like Yahtzee said some bosses are just "dudes in armour." That said I love the mechanic in which you gradually lose health as you become more hollow, it gives you a reason to be human and reminds me of the Nexus from Demon's Souls.

[@KrankuSama]

Came back to this comment, lol sctrach that, ds2 is a dissappointing piece of shit, play ds1 instead.

[@johnkarras8217]

Kranku LMAO I love the realization 2 years later

[@glctcthnkr8059]

Kranku you gotta love how you probably wrote the first comment before playing the game since everyone falls DS2 super underrated

[@SchadeTree]

Lol. I actually love both games since they're trying to do different things and DS2 is just unique in general. But yeah, DS1 has aged far better than DS2, which looks and plays like total ass.

[@Nazo-kage]

I never got the feeling that the items used reverse Hallowing were finite. I find them all over the place it also helped I managed to grab that one ring that decreases how much health you lose to the point where it’s barely noticeable. And there was this weird glitch that I was in the least bit complaining about, where are the fire sword that you can get in the tunnel with the fireballs, was for some reason passing it’s fire attribute to any weapon I was wielding. (whether it was true or not all I know is everything I was hitting with a different weapon was catching on fire) So I just kept the sword in my second weapon slot and grab the hardest hitting weapon I could get.

[@bioforce5]

When DS2 first launched they were in fact strictly finite. At the time doing coop didn't restore you to human form and the Company of Champions didn't make enemies respawn infinitely. Those features came later. This meant there was hard limit to how many times you could turn human because eventually the enemies that drop human effigies would permanently despawn. Once they were gone and you had picked up all the ones that are just laying around, that was it. Granted, that still gave you a decently large number of effigies to work with so it wasn't a big problem for better players, but for a lot of people it meant playing through most of the game at 75% hp and with a ring slot wasted on the Ring of Binding with no option to do multiplayer.

[@nukeclears]

If you watch Zero Punctuation in a chronological order you can see him starting out on an old laptop, then going over to console gaming and lately slowly becoming part of the Master Race.

[@Briggie]

He wrote a blog post on escapist a few months ago. He bought a gaming pc and had a lot of good things to say about how gaming on PC has changed in the past few years.

[@Caroleonus]

I know this comment is 6 years old now, but sitting here in 2020 listening to him say he needs to "pump his graphic card with steroids" for TES IV: Oblivion is mindblowing

[@shplamana]

What's up with no endings to the videos now?

[@TLB95Switchblade]

I honestly don't know, the end credit roll is still there on Escapist's website. "Got too greedy with his follow up swipes" is what the Dark Souls 2 end screen said.

[@shplamana]

TLB95Switchblade Yea this is either the second or third video in a row without the end credits.

[@Cosmuh]

Its just not the same...

[@EllipsisMark]

Yeah. Those closing one-liners don't feel the same without that guitar rift following right after.

[@jokujunahi]

It was so frigging loud. If they do decide to put it back I hope it isn't as loud as the old one.

[@AureliCross]

What's funny is when you get to the Earthen Keep and you look up, you don't see a giant bowl that's covered with dripping lava or anything....and then you think "How the fuck did I get here" when you get to Iron Keep

[@Prophet017]

Yea, didnt the elevator after sake-girl go upwards? It doesn't make sense cuz that is already in the tower.

[@Arexion5293]

Welcome to Drangleic, we have floating volcanoes.

[@tmsphere]

+TheHazamukara some people would say volcano but 'bowl' is also fine i guess

[@AureliCross]

From my perspective, it really looked like a bowl...I suppose it was the first thing I thought of when I saw it.

[@tmsphere]

Actually I'll correct myself: The lava indeed is entirely contained within the castle, its like the bottom of the castle has spontaneously turned to molten lava, and is somehow at the top of earthen peak with no mountain involved whatsoever, its .... weird

[@DaLatinKnight]

I feel like grinding is no longer necessary, considering you get more souls than you know what to do with.

[@RittiFruity]

also you need less souls to leveling up, compare to the first one it get ridiculously high after lvl 50

[@DapperBrick]

RittiFruity Im alreday a level 71 and i got the game two days ago.

[@DaLatinKnight]

Super Dragon its been a week and a half for me and I'm level 130, not sure what I'm wasting my souls on

[@musy345]

Super Dragon Got the game 3 days ago and I'm already finished :D

[@FoifurYT]

DaLatinKnight spend them on more levels, since the invasions work off of souls accumulated instead of level.

[@Nazo-kage]

I’m currently playing ‘the first sin’ Version of dark souls to and I’ve got to say when it comes to the effigies they don’t seem to be only a fixed number of them and fortunately I was lucky enough to find a ring that so long as you have it equipped it halves The amount of your max HP that is reduced with each death so I was able to shoot myself out that brick wall a little bit more. On a sidenote the Mooks I hate the most so far in this game are the mannequins because if you get two of them attacking you with the same time you were screwed because they have this multiple swipe attack that causes bleeding damage (even with your shield up) and that’s just with one of them add into at the same time end your life fades away faster then you can say: “praise the sun”

[@TheRamblingRamReviews]

The best part of finishing my own review of this game is finally getting to see what Yahtzee thinks. As usual, he delivers a lot of important "witticism" in the space of 5 minutes. What people don't appreciate is the limitations Yahtzee works with and how well he's able to cope with them. I'm really happy to see that I am not alone in thinking the way I do about this game. I actually think Yahtzee showed a lot of restraint in his review, especially considering how blunt he can be with his opinion. Overall, great review!

[@gilgamesh310]

Well sometimes he doesn't cope well at all and just talks plain shit. This is one of his better videos, though. He should go back and play Demon's Souls and then re review it.

[@Thehypicriticalgamer]

I appreciate alot of changes in this game; 4 ring slots, 3 weapon slots, archery is actually worth a shit now, even the performance is better, graphics look slightly nicer, matchmaking is easier but why does this game just feel so inferior to its predecessor? Demon Souls areas all felt original, dark, atmospheric, intimidating if a little disjointed. Requiring you to go back to the Nexus to travel somewhere new. Then Dark souls managed to fix that, by joining those amazingly designed areas together through elaborate pathways, old elevators and clever positioning of open areas to see where you'll be going and where you once were . Considering this was one of the highlights of dark souls (all respected by critics) then why did FromSoft revert back to the old formula with dark souls 2. They make it worse, by creating some truly boring level design and some were just straight up rips from dark souls 1 (as Yahtzee said- the gutter is just Blight Town and so on.) There is some awesome stand-outs such as the Dragon palace, which has you traversing rickety foot bridges, while dragons swoop over head, defending what looks like Anor Londo. You look down and see your 1000s of feet above what was the sea, you were looking out at in Majula. I believe if the game designers put that amount of time and effort into over areas we'd be looking at some of the nicest artwork ever. Although I think some areas of dark souls 1, i thought were just terrible was the crystal cave, that felt very "video gamey" and really took me out of the experience. As did seeing like 20 Taurus demons in the fire area all standing in a line waiting for you. It looked so ridiculous and out of place. But back to ds2 as pointed out by Yahtzee, the bosses (all but 3 or 4) feel like absolute cannon fodder chucked in there to raise the boss count and make it feel like you're progressing, when really most of the bosses are pretty easy. Dark Souls 1 bosses all felt authentic to the world and a part of Although all credit due for the last giant, the pursuer, ancient dragon and dark lurker bosses. They all had pretty cool designs and were pretty difficult in their own right (excluding the last giant.) And if you're still reading this I congratulate you, because you've suffered through my bitching... so well done you.

[@LiamSwan2011]

lavulman Really? Tomb of Giants, Duke's Archives and New Londo (Lost Izalith blows though undeniably) are some of my favorite parts of the game.

[@MrCarrot14]

Blighttown is just the like Valley of defilement but with visibility.

[@PeskeyStrider2]

Plus scaffolding

[@ZhouTie47]

And no poison swamps. :(

[@Marzipan178]

IsaacAmrenZhouTai Did you never reach the bottom of blight town?

[@ZhouTie47]

Sylvester Holmes Whoops, I thought we were talking about the new "Blight Town".

[@FlyingTurtleLP]

"When the REAL version comes out" ... oooh yeah... Did not buy the PS3 version... waiting patiently for the PC version.

[@jpmmm333]

23 days left and I'm already feeling like a junk that runned out of coke

[@FlyingTurtleLP]

Colossal Titan w-w-wait... one single playthrough can take up to 600 hours?

[@virginiasupersand2917]

FlyingTurtleLP No. 60+ tops on your first run. Maybe more.

[@striken4pot]

I've already put in 100+ hours, and I haven't even beat the game yet.

[@FlyingTurtleLP]

Stricken4Pot 10hours and I just rang the first bell and I'm on my way to Blighttown

[@striken4pot]

Wow, I don't think he's ever given a more positive review... he even admitted in the video he'd buy it twice xD

[@PSyCHoHaMSTeRza]

His most positive review ever was probably Portal imo. You could almost hear him ejaculate honey and cream puffs in the background.

[@Sheepy007]

Brandon-Luke Richardson Regarding the technical Fuckup that was the original Dark Souls 1 PC release, I would be careful with all this Master Race talk. PC game developing is still outside the usual for japanese devs-

[@sammarkie]

It is really too bad they didn't try to release it on the next gen consoles. They had to dumb down the original game for the consoles because of framerate/performance issues.

[@DaLatinKnight]

Sam Markie At least it doesn't act like Blightown did

[@16moons]

Psyconaughts

[@msarge2853]

2:22 WAS THAT A SUBTLE MONTHY PYTHON REFERENCE? if so so that was amazing XD

[@liambaillargeon1875]

+M Sarge Subtle Yahtzee is subtle.

[@FilthyNobeard]

+M Sarge Props to you for catching that.

[@FireheadLazzo]

+M Sarge Considering that that joke has been plastered all over the internet since the internet first came to be, I think it could have been subtler.

[@ryanotte6737]

The image of a dude in armor with his arms and legs cut off is so iconic and attached to Monty Python and the Holy Grail that it is always a reference when used. Always.

[@dragonkingofthestars]

I just figure out why darks souls 2 has less demons and more dudes in armor. Demon in dark souls come from the bed of choas, which in dark souls one you kill.

[@hellraiser5671]

But portal 2 is better that the first one in every way.......

[@roman5209]

Oh, did Chell TELL you that?

[@Bat0541]

I disagree, Portal 2 was good in different ways than Portal, but I still feel like it really lacked something, maybe it was just that Valve went completely pansy on the difficulty at the last second because they didn't want to lose out on the casual audience for the game. Whatever it was there was a certain essence to Portal that the sequel was sort of missing for me, still a fun game though.

[@hellraiser5671]

Erwin Schrodinger The difficulties were relatively the same in both games, not to mention portal 2 was much longer.

[@KrankuSama]

hellraiser5671 Longer doesn't mean better, longer means more levels where you wander around a warehouse looking for answers to obtuse puzzles.

[@Bat0541]

hellraiser5671 The difficulties were relatively the same yes, but the problem with that is that I (and I think a lot of other people) were expecting Portal 2 to get a little more complex, especially after all the stuff they showed prior to it's release, the problem with the difficulties being about the same is that Portal still felt harder, because the concept was new, where in Portal 2 you already know how to "think with portals" the learning curve is gone so it feels easier, and I felt a little cheated.

[@awelcruiz]

The only thing I took from the ending is that Yahtzee doesn't know the difference between a power bomb and a piledriver.

[@mightytaco123]

Also in ending of darksouls 1. When I first saw gwyn and the music and how he just rushes you when you first step in it just made me feel something like scared and sad at the same time and also getting that rush of how you're about to die feeling. It was the music and how seeing The Lord of sunlight hollowed mixed with that music is what made it very emotional. The only emotional part of darksouls one is when you meet the king. It kinda reminded me of gwyn. I wanted a darksouls!

[@Akilroth234]

Too bad Gwyn was the easiest boss fight in the game (except for pinwheel)

[@31Rexitron57]

The music was supposed to you sad for him not you aince he is now a sheĺl of his formerself.

[@31Rexitron57]

Rexitron *since

[@31Rexitron57]

Rexitron *since

[@shadowthetwisted]

Rexitron since*

[@fullmetaladam86]

5:03 That wasn't A powerbomb. It was A piledriver.

[@ThatSpecificIndividual]

ornstein and twat- good ol O and S skully bunch- Nito that tree thing- bed of chaos naturist dragon- Seath the scaleless john, paul, George and Ringo- four kings

[@AzureKite]

I like calling O&S Pikachu and Snorlax or any assortment of famous duos. I used to have a spreadsheet handy whenever the need to mention Tom and Jerry came up.

[@ChestOfDoom]

skinny pikachu and snorlax

[@Thenextworldwar]

Honestly, I think "Dudes in armor" work better as bosses in these games than "giant thing that wants to murder me that I kill by stabbing its leg".

[@jjj7790]

"Dudes in armor" give the option to use all the mechanics that are used in PVP, while giant fuck off monsters usually end up being puzzle fights.

[@CreamFacial]

"I might buy it again when the real version comes out"

[@TheFaroe]

I lost it when he said that Best line ever!

[@Nait6661]

I'm only going to buy it when the real version comes out

[@TheDrCN]

I might buy it a couple months after the real version comes out, when it can be had at an affordable price.

[@BaneDane_JB]

I absolutely hate PC gaming as I've run into no less than 3 problems requiring additional installs, downloads, ect. for EVERY game I've played on my 900$ gaming Brick (though I've only played about 8 games on it so im probably just really unlucky and don't think people calling themselves a "master race' would tout it so much if all the games are like this) And im still looking forward to DS 2 PC version (even knowing how sucky the first one was on PC)

[@CreamFacial]

BaneDain I dont need additional downloads or installs so I have no fucking clue what you are on about

[@FioreFire]

I liked DSII but some of the areas seemed very weirdly connected. Go up the elevator from the top of a toxic-foggy windmill to come up in... an iron castle submerged in a sea of lava...?

[@OtakuUnitedStudio]

The possible in-lore explanation is "Not only is time convoluted, but so is space now that the Flame has been dwindling for so long" (which also explains the environment in The Ringed City DLC for DS3). The real reason is that the elevator was put in backwards (whoops) and many of the other areas were meant to have extra connecting areas to make them make sense, but got scrapped due to lack of time.

[@SJLuis]

If it makes you feel better there was a different director, and Miyazaki is back for DS3. He was making Bloodborne meanwhile.

[@greatswordofvictory1271]

+SJ Luis But now people are just screaming and bitching that it's a Bloodborne re-skin. -_-

[@SJLuis]

GreatSwordOfVictory I haven't heard that yet, especially since it doesn't actually play like Bloodborne. I just heard people say it's the same vein of Bloodborne in terms of quality and visual style, which is good.

[@DrnMontemayor]

+SJ Luis People are actually complaining that it looks "just like Bloodborne", even though it clearly doesn't. Just because it is faster than Dark Souls 1.

[@targusnazg3963]

+Drn Montemayor I would argue that its more like Dark Souls 1 than Bloodborne. Yes there's more emphasis on speed, but Dark Souls was as well, at least more than 2.

[@DrnMontemayor]

TargusNazg I wouldn't go as far as to say emphasis, because it is just a bit faster paced, like Demon's Souls, even if marginally faster. Dark Souls 2 was extremely sluggish.

[@Rezuvious]

the real version...hmm that reminds me of basically any dynasty warriors game released for the xbox only to find out a couple months later the PS got a better version

[@blunger1516]

i keep promising myself i won't buy another dynasty warriors game, then i get another one out of nostalgia, play it for ten hours, remember what sucks about the series and then i don't touch that version again

[@Rezuvious]

blunger1516 besides DW6 and the empire games (havent played those) i enjoyed every DW game since 4. certainly miss some things from the older games though. like being challenged to a 1v1 by enemy officers. enraged officers where a lot stronger back in DW5 then any game after it. Also miss how you could play the campaign through as every character, sure you saw the same stages over an over but they had a lot more back then as well. Still miss being able to see the campaign from everyones PoV and even opening up what if's. sure we have hypothetical stuff now but back in DW5 you only needed to play as the character to trigger the what if.

[@chimeraelite]

Believe me, we certainly count Demons Souls. Believe me, it has some of the best atmosphere of the souls series. Tower of Latria I'M LOOKING AT YOU AND YOUR MINDFLAYERS

[@MCHellshit]

Agreed, Demon's is my favourite of the Souls games

[@sarnicholas4053]

I feel like he'd have a much more enjoyable experience with it if he went back. The Souls series is all about your mindset, and he clearly had the wrong one at time of writing for the Demon's Souls review, and nowadays he's gotten the idea :D

[@raulrojas9253]

Demons souls is my less favorite and i played first but thats because I SUCK AT THAT GAME is the hardest game of all 3, the second being the easiest one. Dark SOuls Difficulty it feels just fine but is has some of the most Cheap ASS areas in the whole series.

[@pikanew95]

Wow, Skully Bunch, That Tree Thing, Naturist Dragon, and, John, Paul, George & Ringo. These are quite possibly the best names for those bosses I have ever seen!

[@caoimhinjpnlevel3552]

" When the real version comes out " LOL, got to love the arrogance of PC gamers ha

[@RamonaLachmayer]

Awesome review as always. But... Outro? :

[@Ikazu-san]

I'm pretty sure nobody ever read credits at the end and just watched that lil animations while listening to some guitar riffs. (me included)

[@MRSketch09]

Poorfag-chan I read them on every video I watch because he always says something "smart" And I like his sense of humor.

[@NimhLabs]

Sounds like a glowing review of high praise... I mean, when you translate it from Yahtzee into "not a jaded irritated brit living in a land where everything tries to kill you, who was raised on british biscuits and bitter hatred"...

[@UristMcTubedwarf]

1:48 the world already ended and began again when the chosen undead relights the first flame. in the second one the world is dying again so naturally someone has to relight it again.

[@dakotahayes8709]

It's not so much a long winded last gasp so much as the first fire going out is a cycle. There was enough time either between cycles or enough cycles between the first one and the second one to result in geographic changes and new kingdoms to arrise.

[@luisnecro2696]

"When the real version comes out" My sides are killing me... lol

[@ZlatkoTheGod]

Why do they cut out the end credits now?

[@kasig2013]

The bit with the two puppy head was too cute.

[@BenjaminSteber]

2:26 Bloodbourne awaits.

[@DrakeFellwing]

Praise the sun to jump.

[@Dusty--]

Can you like..put the heavy metal solo back?

[@QooperG28]

There is a reason why the outro is missing. Currently there is a new add on the end of the videos on the escapist side (were all the episodes of ZP are available one week earlier btw. ) which refers to something specificly designed for their users and therefor isnt in the youtube episodes. Thats why the outro is missing.

[@ThePCgamewalkthoughs]

The L3 jumping works just fine, if not better, at least for me.

[@sarnicholas4053]

I like this review. Being a huge long time fan of the souls series, I'm here to tell you that it doesn't matter how long you've been on the pain train, because this review is thoughtful, fair, and intelligent. "Praise the Sun! and then Nice Work ahead."

[@WuIfsige]

if all enemies go away you can use the bonfire ascetics :)

[@BloodyDIMISIS55]

and enjoy NG+ in your first run HELL YEAH! ...T_T....TT_TT

[@WuIfsige]

it's not that hard :D

[@BloodyDIMISIS55]

oh realy? but i hear that its effect keeps going in ng+ so it will be like NG++

[@WuIfsige]

yes, but areyou ready for the challenge?

[@WuIfsige]

i have bonfire's at8 because of farming XD

[@TheNadroj18ful]

This is one of your best reviews yet. Well done.

[@CdrChaos]

Which character was he talking about that opens up a vital part of the game?

[@50centpb7]

I felt dirty after beating Dark souls 2; the game is just too easy. I was able to walk into boss fights blind and emerge victorious, even unscathed. Somehow by making me more powerful, it made me feel all the more tiny and insignificant. Almost made me feel like a... casual. Almost.

[@OfSoulShadow]

ng0 is made for noobs but if you play on ng+ that's another story.....

[@50centpb7]

I'm currently playing on NG++ in the Company of Champions and I'm still wiping my pastey white ass with the bosses. I'm not even good if my pvp record is anything to go by. Don't get me wrong, DS2 was fantastic. 9/10. Just without that core difficulty and the excruciatingly complex boss fights that appealed to me so much in DS1, the game just feels a bit, well.. hollow.

[@50centpb7]

omarct​ Lightning spears.

[@50centpb7]

Yes, but I found I came to rely on the lighting much too frequently. I would even summon NPCs to distract bosses while I pelted them from a distance. That is why I must castrate myself.

[@TheRaveous]

twiddle Dee Yeah, spells are horribly broken in DkS2.

[@Sergei_Ivanovich_Mosin]

My biggest question is why is the game even called Dark Souls when there's no more humanity. The first game was all about humanity and the bonfires, humanities being shards of the fifth great soul spread among an entire species by the pygmy, the dark soul, being a soul of darkness and thus poisonous to the gods of the dying world. So why call it dark souls 2 when the dark soul and its shards play literally no part in the game. I get the sequel thing but it seems they could have found a way to still make humanity relevant (human effigies don't really count as humanity)

[@Evnyofdeath]

It takes place in the same universe for one. Beyond that, Human Effigies are implied to be a form of Humanity, simply by the fact they reverse Hollowing. Also..."fifth great soul"...for starters they were called Lord Souls. And there were only 4 of them.

[@Sergei_Ivanovich_Mosin]

Evnyofdeath Yes there were technically only four lord souls, however Darkstalker Kaathe refers to the dark souls as a "fifth unique soul." Which is why I called it the fifth soul. As for why I said great souls instead of lord souls... I'll admit I'm a little drunk right now.

[@scratchmcgrady3821]

remember that 5th dark soul and who it belonged to? the progenitor of humanity (the species) and then manus, father othe abyss who [spoilers] was killed in the past and whose soul shattered and scattered, the smallest of which formed Nashandra of Dark Souls 2 who is the next iteration of Manus "THE DARK SOUL" Bam!

[@Diogo1Bastos]

+Sergei Ivanovich Mosin well i cant tell you the connection without some big spoilers, so here it goes: **SPOILER ALERT** king vendrick is actually the chosen undead from dark souls 1 who after vanquishing the 4 great ones kindled the primal bonfire making all undead feel cosier inside and ruled the kingdom of drangleic. Then nashandra, aka the queen, came along, convinced him that crossing the sea and waging war against the giants was a good idea and then when the giants invaded and the undead started dying again and again in the war and going hollow everything got back to where it started. Eventually, the king himself started hollowing and thus exiled himself in the undead crypt. **SPOILER ALERT** In the end, you realize that you cannot stop the curse of undeath and thus you choose to just become the next monarch and restart the cycle all over again. By the way, the game is called "dark souls" and not "dark soul" because every undead has a small piece of the original dark soul, because the furtive pigmy was not an egostistical prick like the other 4 lords and actually shared his power with as many people as possible.

[@Sergei_Ivanovich_Mosin]

Diogo Bastos Wait, how did you make the connection between King Vendrick and "spoiler character," I don't remember any item description/dialogue implying that,

[@KratosAurionPlays]

3:31 Finite yes but you can just help another player out on their quest and you get your humanity back automatically. I think it's a neat mechanic to encourage people helping others. I never helped anyone in Dark Souls 1 because I never saw the point of doing so but I am constantly helping others in Dark Souls 2. It's also a good deal because you get a few extra souls for leveling up along the way.

[@Number1TaxEvader]

+Benjamien Smolders \[T]/ praise the sun!

[@phycov1217]

***** That's all well; said and done, for players like you who enjoy that part. But for someone who can't or doesn't want to play with others, it has the potential to make the game allot harder or even lock of content in extreme cases. Rather counter productive in any case.

[@KratosAurionPlays]

Phycov 121 I suppose. Though at the very least the fininite amount they supply seems to be very high and the ring they give to slow down health degredation works pretty well too based off my limited experience using it. (By the way is it even possible to prevent invasions while playing in online mode? You could still get some through the occasional invasion if you can beat your opponent.)

[@mr.dapper5386]

+Kratos Aurion Plays imo the advantage of helping others in ds1 is that you get to figure out the patterns before you go in yourself, and risk those souls of yours.

[@Z0MBAZINATOR]

1:45 Predicts Bloodborne

[@Riasiru]

Oh, wait till NG+. There are enemies that don't even appear in the first play through. Gonna get wrecked!

[@Charon85Onozuka]

Best type of NG+ "You thought the game was hard? Here's enemies we thought were too difficult to include in the normal game!"

[@joshuamartin7382]

The game seems to lack the artistic design and magnificence of its predecessors. It seems Miyasaki's absence from DkSII did indeed make a difference in the game. When creating the Undead Dragon for DkSI, the creature was originally drawn covered in gore and writhing maggots. Miyasaki, however, said that it shouldn't look like a perversion of nature, but instead a magnificent being that fell from grace. Thus, it was redesigned, and one can see its glorious appearance in the Hollowed husk that remains. Without Miyasaki, the grace of the art and story seems to have left the game, leaving it just as Hollow as the beings wandering the land.

[@8ToxicTears8]

I just realized the line on the Undead's face is supposed to be his cheekbone, not a frown.

[@NIGHTXSKYX]

''because the dran part is now in the beginning of the name'' HOW DID I NOT NOTICE THIS

[@Rajyrr]

The part about humanoid bosses and enemies is one of the most aggravating parts of Dark Souls II.

[@josiahvock5675]

coming from the guy with a sir alonne profile picture...

[@Rajyrr]

***** Hey, hey. Don't mess with Artorias and Puppy Sif. What did Puppy Sif ever do to you? Just look at that downy mane. Amazing ...

[@MrJake8555]

YO BUT THE SIR ALONNE FIGHT ARE YOU KIDDING ME, that boss fight. That fucking boss fight was amazing

[@marting4089]

MrJake8555 Backstep R1 katana user "xXDARKSAMOURAIALONNE619Xx"

[@albalmer7]

+MrJake8555 Samurai with like 3 moves, dodge on instant reaction over and over again. You got shit taste or just soft in the head? Possibly the most overrated boss in the series. Fume Knight was way more intricate.

[@TheSuperrrtomas]

Oh, I will buy it again when the real version is on sale

[@specialnewb9821]

According to the translation of the notes for the next patch, successful co-op will result from in you returning to human. Even the little soap stone where you don't have to beat a boss. Late in the game you can also open up a place that will revive you to human IF you have no human effigies.

[@silversoldier9015]

Ornstein and Twat just made my day

[@DiscardedSlinky]

This is the reason why I hate when you review a game and haven't even gotten half way through it yet. There is a lot to learn about the world in the later game, mostly in the castle with the she-demon.

[@DrMcFly28]

And the real version came.

[@just-missed7930]

+McFly The realer version.

[@Kanista17]

I just want to say Thank You. You nailed every point on that video.

[@Costar58]

If anyone's wondering, Dark Souls 2's excuse for featuring mostly dudes in armor is (Implied on the Royal Soldier's Ring) That King Vendrick favoured simple soldiers who relied on strenght alone. 1:50 Hey, Yahtzee. Did you pay attention in Dark Souls 1? If you linked the fire you prolong the Age of Fire, and thus prevent doom (for now)and thus Drangleic eventually comes about, if you let everything die, eventually the Hollow find the Embers and usher forth the new age of fire regardless (Like those Hollow in the opening of DS1)

[@J-Dizzle95]

Yeah but it's not like you fought a lot of crazy monster in dark souls 1 just because Gwyn thought it would be sweet to recruit a bunch of monsters You know what I mean?

[@Costar58]

Jared Lucus True enough, still I didn't mind so many dudes in armor, mainly because I knew deep down I'll eventually get to wear all the cool armor sets :3

[@J-Dizzle95]

I still think that you could be onto something And I definitely have to agree with you there! :D

[@superfreegoat]

it's weird to get used to at first but L3 for jump is actually way fucking better than the double tap method. going back to dark souls 1 makes me miss that.

[@josiahvock5675]

yeah i would just be running away from something and trying to roll when oh joy i jumped like an idiot

[@tcoren1]

***** it's worse the other way around. i need to do some platforming so i start running. i let go of the button to jump but i press it again too slowly, so rather than jumping elegantly to the buttress/whatever, i roll to my death. the joy!

[@DunkeysLongLostSon]

superfreegoat It's even easier on PC with keyboard and mouse, you don't even need to hold space to run.

[@annaliviadanielle]

Since when do we not count Demon's Souls?

[@Jagrofes]

It actually isn't in the "Dark Souls" universe and lore so it isn't part of the series. There was a developer statement about that sometime ago.

[@stardrifter4849]

***** The Souls series is technically Dark Souls and Dark Souls 2. Dark Souls was the spiritual successor to Demon's Souls.

[@stardrifter4849]

***** Fair enough.

[@Costar58]

Star Drifter Some people speculated Demon's Souls Bad Ending sets up Dark Souls while the Good Ending (Where both Sorceries and Miracles die with the old one) sets up Bloodborne.

[@SuperSecretAgentNein]

Radoslaw: ahh, I call that Zelda Timeline Syndrome. Where fans try and imagine connections that just aren't there. I'm not even knocking it! I sorta love it!

[@Rycluse]

What character is he talking about at 3:06? Is he referring to the shifty priest lady that opens the way to Huntsman's Copse?

[@josiahvock5675]

or more likely laddersmith gilligan to get down into the gulch, if he went for other stats over vgr he might not have been able to fall down

[@Rycluse]

***** I doubt it's him, since Majula is a place you have a reason to go back to Plus, the character he depicts is female, so it's most likely Licia

[@josiahvock5675]

DrRaklryja except you need to talk to him on that little ledge near where you burn the windmill though

[@Rycluse]

***** Yahtzee says this character is in a place you have no reason to go back to. You only have to talk to Gilligan once (and he isn't hard to find). Besides, he's not essential for getting down the pit. Shalquior's ring works just fine.

[@DINONERD27]

***** Gilligan goes to Majula after you kill the headless snake lady

[@greywalker505]

2:28 I think that sums up what the monsters in Bloodborne (particularly the BSB, Cleric Beast, and Vicar Amelia) were screaming as they attacked you.

[@jackfromm]

Dark Souls 2 is fucking awesome, like you though I dont exactly know if I would say it was better than the first, but I do just like how its something new. What pisses me off is how they didn't include an NPC with a shotel who is a total dick to you, Yurt and Lautrec are my favorite characters in this game. :( Sure Creighton of Mirrah is a psychopath but he doesn't have a shotel nor does he kill anyone who is actually important

[@signingoutnow]

The real version! ohhhhhhhhhhhh

[@mccabe1990]

Shots fired!!!

[@Thraim.]

4:10 I'm not the only one who likes the old jump better? Who would have thought.

[@stephen19590]

I like that last comment......and how it ends like someone that says you suck and then runs away before you can say or do anything