I made a comment response video: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/qLhdlJarrrWpYqs.html Apparently the ps3 and xbox360 versions of Scholar did not change the enemy placement, so this video doesn't apply to those versions. 2 things to correct in the video: 1: Scholar did not get rid of the 1 million souls skip to get to Drangleic Castle. I thought that I had heard this from another Dark Souls 2 video essay, but I was wrong. 2: The dragon skeleton in Aldia's Keep can come alive in Scholar, but you have to light some torches so it's hidden away and I still prefer how Vanilla handled it to Scholar. Also, the comments have told me that Shrine of Amana was nerfed into the ground after release, so that's probably part of the reason why I liked it in Vanilla while other people hated it. I finally decided to make the "In Defense of Dark Souls 2 video" unlisted because it had too many mistakes. You can still watch it with this link. kzfaq.info/get/bejne/aKdmpsKI1pOagIk.html

Don't let this video distract you from the fact the bandit class has high dex and starts with a hand axe, a strength weapon.

You know what's weird? I've developed a guilty pleasure, where I once or twice a year, replay DS2 Scholar, while listening to DS2 critiques.

Correction: the undead dragon does come alive and kill you in scholar. It happens once you've lit all the scones in Aldias keep.

Scholar was the first souls game I ever played and beat. Honestly the torture made me absolutely fall in love with the series

What you don’t understand is that scholar is not a souls game, it’s a horror game and it’s one of the scariest in this field

Scholar was like "we need to balance the game. Life gems were too op so let's crank up the enemies to make it more fair"

Scholar of the First Sin was the first soulslike I ever played, and somehow I got through the fortress as a deprived. I only gave up at Heide's Tower of Flame, because I couldn't figure out how to beat the dragon and killing 20 Heide Knights and 5 Old Knights each time got annoying really quickly.

Just a little note, Scholar of The First Sin definitely didn't remove the 1,000,000 souls trick. worked perfectly fine for me.

Let us never forget when Dark Souls 2 first came out, you could magic infuse the moonlight greatsword and still buff it with crystal magic weapon for over 1k AR. It was beautiful.

Heres some more fun PTSD stories about Shrine of Amana, this time featuring Console Launch Vanilla DS2. The Priestesses used to have an aggro range so gigantic they could quite literally shoot you from outside their visual render distance, so you'd be getting sniped from across the map and couldnt even see what was sniping you, just magic phasing into existence once it enters render range and the piercing sound of it approaching.

I just watched a couple videos comparing DS2 with Scholars, and it's interesting how different they are. In the other video the reviewer had more deaths and was a lower level on vanilla (despite playing it second), while in your video you had more deaths and a lower level on Scholars. I think this suggests that the difference really comes down to playstyle. In the other video he fought most of the new enemies, which gave him more experience and leveled him up faster, making bosses easier. On the other hand you chose to run past everything, missing out on experience and making bosses harder (also more vulnerable to ganks). I don't think either of these is wrong, just two very different perspectives.

You know what I hate? Acronyms that are _almost_ words. Like Scholar of the First Sin. SOTFS. Just look at it. It wants to be SOFTS but it isn't.

Not having any I-frames going through a fog wall until 60% into the animation really sucked.

never played vanilla, but scholar iron keep broke me. I died so many times that most enemies had despawned by the point I finally made it to the boss.

I started with scholar with a friend and we really enjoyed our experience

This is the result of the community massive ego of saying = I can feel better about myself when I tell newcomers the version with higher difficulties is better because by doing so, everyone will think I'm a god gamer so good that I seek pain. And unfortunately this feedback resulted in the difficulty changes we now see in Shadow of the Erdtree. Difficult for difficulty sake utilizing cheap and cheesy mechanics is lame and boring and that's what they went with and we can trace it all the way back to DS2 Scholar of the First Sin.

Vanilla Shrine of Amana was infuriating at launch v1.0. The magic projectiles had insane tracking, enough that even if you dodge them they'd turn around and hit you from behind. They toned it down in a later patch. That's why it earned it's reputation.

I will never get over the joy of rushing to the gutter, grabbing the great club, and going unga bunga on every boss in this game.

You haven't lived until you've farmed all 50 Loyce souls.

Is the Scholar Iron Keep difficult due to certain builds or something? I went through it with a Guts greatsword and everything was dying to 1-2 hits, so being methodical made the runbacks fast.

It's crazy, I remember back before Scholar that a lot of people were complaining about how many gank squads were in the game. One of the big celebrations that people had when the remake was announced was that they had "fixed the enemy placement". I walked into Forest of Fallen Giants in Scholar and quickly decided that by "fixed" they meant "made it so much worse".

I swear the enemy placement for Scholar of the First Sin was lead by someone involved with the Vanilla DS2 who was mad that people criticised the ganks in the game. So they doubled or tripled the enemies throughout the entire game to get back at the fanbase, and completely screwed up the areas that actually felt balanced and well thought out in the process

I did indeed play vanilla back on 360 and its still my favorite one besides elden ring now. Scholar being described as an optional hard mode is a perfect description

At 35:00 you still have the powerstance description wrong. If you have the stats and two compatible weapons, holding Y toggles powerstance mode. You stay powerstanced and will use that moveset until you hold Y again or toggle your equipped items.

After playing hundreds of hours of vanilla DS2, I remember finishing my first playthrough of Scholar and being so confused at what I had just played. A lot of the changes felt pointless, or just not thought out

I have to disagree about one point here. Vanilla did not cause me to level more and become stronger. I ALWAYS kill all enemies in any game I play so Scholar leveled me a lot more and as such the "harder" areas didn't actually feel very hard to me because I had tons of levels. Vanilla on the other hand, having less enemies and also in some places weaker enemies meant I had way less souls throughout my Vanilla playthrough and that made the bosses feel a lot more punishing which felt way worse. Also you can absolutely still skip the lord soul bosses with enough souls in Scholar, I've opened the door early plenty of times. And the big skeletal dragon also still comes to life and attacks, only it's got a different trigger. To do it in Scholar you need to light all the torches in the level and kill the invaders that lighting them spawns. I'll admit though that this trigger change is terrible, but it is still there unlike what you said.

I played both vanilla and scholar. Played vanilla when it originally came out so when I got to scholar I was like hmmmm I don't remember all these enemies 😭

I think Scholar was released to integrate the dlcs, not to pretend its a new game.

What this tells me is that when I finish my scholar run (of which I've still been able to maintain a sense of fun for the most part) and if I get vanilla, then I'm in for an absolutely relaxing and nostalgic walk through the world again

DUDE! WHAT IF: Game had two ways to populate locations with enemies: 1. For solo/single players - normal enemy spawn from vanilla. 2. For coop players - gank galore and increased spawn from Scholar. That would be an amazing solution to the problem of trivializing game with summons.

Just out of curiosity is this for the ps4 version of Dark Souls 2 SOFTS or the original ps3/xbox360 version?

Idk having a million enemies on every area had the exact opposite effect for me it made kill everything because I’m not running past 5 enemies just so I can get caught somewhere and die at a fog gate or a corner or something. There is nothing more tilting than getting caught out while running would way rather clear the rooms

It kinda feels like the Scholar remix should've been something that activated in NG+ or be an optional activation in-game.

I hate how the enemies just mob on you in packs. And if they approach from off camera they don’t make any noise or footsteps. You just get hit from some enemy that was hiding off camera.

I actually think that Scholar of the First Sin had it's ups and downs. To me, while the ganks were annoying, i did kinda like the new item placements, and some new enemy placements made sense (especially the Dragon by the Cathedral, as it's so close to the Dragonrider, who i figure got their name for a reason!). Also, the new dark areas gave torches more use, in addition to the other features giving reason to backtrack more (but not in any mandatory fashion.) Also, the ember is actually available early, so i no longer have to mix physical/elemental builds if i don't want to! The one thing that grinds my gears, though... is that damn statue placement. If they wanted the random statues blocking the ways to make a lick of sense, and having the petrified bastards look like they were trying to either run from Basilisks or intentionally stuffed in the way to keep intruders out, would have been good.

Which dark souls 2: scholar of the first sin do you have? Do you have the xbox 360 one or one of the more modern ones? Just wondering because I have never seen a petrified statue in the tutorial area before in the xbox 360 version of scholar of the first sin.

I played scholar on the 360 in 2016, which was basically just vanilla with the dlc. Having played scholar last month, I can safely say vanilla is a much more enjoyable and less frustrating experience. Scholar just felt tiresome, especially after playing DS3.

I remember playing through DS2 like 7 times when it first came out and remember loving it, then came back for Scholar and at this point I'd have basically forgotten why I even liked it so this was a pretty good reminder

Ofc this video isn't definite and just an opinion but when i played DS2 SOTFS for the very first time i never really had an issue going through the game, it went pretty smoothly for me, i never really truy understood all the hate the game got, it is flawed for sure but it is by no means a bad game.

Oh this is interresting, Which version does the trilogy boxset on PS4 include? ( I assume scholar)

Wait you actually missed the "Talk" prompt at Ancient Dragon and fought him everytime? Holy sh*t hahahaha

Well this Feeble King Dark Souls 2 story arc has been interesting - Got to see how it ends

Losing health to half was in Demon's Souls. It didn't feel bad there.

Something worth noting... Shrine of Amana was nerfed twice, the aggro range of the mages used to be massive... But even then I prefer patch 1.0 shrine of Aman over the atrocities committed by sotfs

The dragón Fossil from aldias keep still comes back to life. But you have to light all of the keep chandeliers that also spawn a one Time only forlorn summon each . I think it gives you something after attacking now. But yeah, the Fossil still comes back to life. Just that instead of being the welcome Its More like a goodbye to the keep because by the Time you unlock it you probably finished most of Its content.

I legit had no idea these differences were there. I've only played vanilla dark souls 2 and always thought it was a pretty good game. Watched your previous video on it and was confused as to why I didn't remember certain things / not anywhere near as many mobs. Edit: Yes, shrine of amana was a lot worse pre-nerf lmao, it was hell for pure melee.

I played DS2 at the time it was released (I never played the Scholar version) and I never thought Shrine of Amana a hard place. It was just a small place that I had to advance very careful and take one enemy at a time (using a bow helps a lot too).

scholar does still have the 1 million soul skip, it just doesnt trigger upon the first time you go to the shrine of winter, you have to find it, leave, and come back.

I always say that I like vanilla more than Scholar edition, but people barely recognize it exists, and if they do, they just say 'but Scholar is the definitive version'

I only ever played scholar… took like 70 hours to do everything. Maybe I just accepted it for what it was because I knew nothing else.

Is it possible that ds2 sotfs for ps3 is like vanilla, besides for the dlc? Since ps3 could not handle all those enemies... I played it on ps3 and from what l see is more like the vanilla... I honestly don't even remember the stone guy in the tutorial...

I've only ever played scholar...I had no idea that the difficulty was that significantly different...I had always heard that vanilla was easier but not to this degree.

Oddly enough, if you were like me and played DS2 on the 360 or PS3, the version of SOTFS we got was literally just vanilla DS2 but with all the DLC goodies added, so the best of both worlds.

dude! I remember playing vanilla on ps3 loving it then years later getting scholar and being baffled by the sheer amount of bullshit and ganks going on. Thanking you for putting this out there lmao

Would you prefer slow health loss of ds2 or spirit form from DeS?

You nailed locked off combat being the key. When I got sick of missing 30% of the time, I switched. That made 2 become instantly fun for me.

I still think you're very spot on about the people who like DS2 as an RPG. I like it for the armors and story. But undeniably I would prefer having got to play it without meticulously trading arrows for 3 minutes straight with ONE guy, just so I could enter a room and fight 8 more without being shot in the back the whole time.

I liked vanilla better too as a matter of fact. I lost my mind when I saw that they placed a dragon and the tower level while trying to avoid a knight and the big black Knights. Definitely doable but for an early level it was a little much. The vanilla game as you said at least felt somewhat balanced. Scholar just felt like they intentionally tried to make it as difficult as possible without even trying to hide it.

I played Scholar first and honestly loved it. It’s very hard but rewarding imo.

I played the vanillas Dark Souls and then Scholar came out, and I read that they had changed enemy placements and the like, but was pretty much breezing through the first area, so I shrugged and proceeded... then I went into that cathedral area with the white knights and giant suits of armors to farm and encountered a dragon at the very end which killed me in one go and was like "Ahh... it's going to be like that." Personally I enjoyed both versions and played the heck out of both.

I'm playing SOTFS and I KNEW there was something strange about the enemy placement! It just does not feel right at all

The funny part about Scholar is, that all the new content and fixes ARE available in Vanilla DS2. It was a giant patch. "Scholar of the first Sin" in the sense of a separate purchaseable entry only has the new enemy and item placement. Oh, and some lighting "fixes". So you actually need the torches now. But that's it. It's completly redundant to play Scholar (the new entry)! xD

I'm still not sure which version i played. i bought it for my ps3 2 years ago and it downloaded an update before playing. I always wondered if it updated to scholar or if the update was just a vanilla update. I loved my time with DS2 anyway

Why are you using the vanilla starting knighy equipment in every clip?

I always played the "kill everything while you go" game... so honestly, I don't buy the "the game teaches you to avoid combat" thing... you choose to do it. I could be the exception, but I never felt the game was telling me to avoid enemies. in fact, I felt like i should kill them more, because if anything, they stop existing eventually

If you want to know something funny, most of the map changes that screwed the player in Scholar are actually very similar to the optmized(ish) route the players had made early on in DS2. I'd reccomend checking the oldest Let's Play of Dark Souls 2 by Northernlion, notice the path he makes and then see how most of them have turned obsolete by the changes in Scholar. They didn't just randomly add more mobs, they added mobs where people found convenient to move just for the sake of making those areas harder - it's like if Dark Souls Remastered placed 5 basilisk where you could do a dragon-butt skip in painted world.

They nerfed everything in Scholar, I mean if you are going to nerf everything why would you not buff something ?

Song at 4:03 ?

Just finished SOTFS and this video actually makes me wanna try vanilla now

Finally a good DS2 take popped up in my recommended. I always thought SotFS felt like playing a randomizer or something

This seems blown out of proportion

I agree with this man but there is one reason that makes me prefer SOTFS . which is giving the player the dull ember after killing the pursuer boss in the forest of the fallen Giants istead of picking it up from Iron keep

The shrine was nerfed because the tracking on the enemy’s magic projectiles was insane. It was basically impossible to dodge.

DS2 fans drink the pickle juice first from the jar then eat the pickles.

i also like the original better just because you have more options early on. i used to like to kill the dragonrider, then kill ornstein and kill the covenant dude after him for his halberd but now it's extremely annoying to do it. i also used to like to start as deprived and go grab the nameless knight armor but for some reason there's a statue in front of it now?

I agree with several of your points. The only area I believe your critique may be skewed is when you talk about enemy placement in scholar feeding a negative feedback loop. I dont think the intention of FromSoft (or any developer) is to create content with the hopes of you running by it blindly. I just finished a 100 hour playthrough of SOTFS and will admit, it was definitely more challenging than vanilla, but it did not feel intentionally unfair. I was over-leveled as a result of the challenge and constant enemy killing. In most cases the SOTFS ganks can be avoided with observation and utilization of consumables and weapons. SOTFS definitely taught me to appreciate the alternate pathing of ds2 as well as the vast amount of items and resources. Lastly, a game’s worth or critical assessment should never be validated off one’s own self-imposed challenges-ie “broadsword only runs”. These self imposed challenges or viewpoints of what makes a “worthwhile” play through” hold no pertinence to a games overall ability to convey, play, and express a story.

I've always maintained that I love Shrine of Amana. It's beautiful, it's actually difficult, the boss is just fucking cool. I just like it.

I'm playing SotFS now and not really noticing much of a difference. I'm an experienced player so I didn't use the Branch in Things Betwixt until later in the game, it gets you a Twinkling Titanite so I considered it worth it. I'm at Drangleic Castle and have unpetrified all the statues so far but one in the Shaded Woods. Iron Keep literally teaches you how to use a bow/crossbow. get up on the high platform up the ladder then snipe them all. I kind of like it forces you to use one because I can't think of other Dark Souls games where you need to use a bow. you literally get a +3 Heavy Crossbow in Earthen Peak, you don't even have to upgrade it for it to be viable... Shrine of Amana is yet another example of outsmarting the enemies & is my favorite level because you have to think about your strategy. the most annoying thing so far seems to be the extra Red Phantoms, it seems like there are more than in the original version. 2 at the Iron Keep entrance was a bit much with all the other enemies you have to deal with. DS2 has always reminded me of Demon Souls, because the environment is the challenge you have to overcome. I understand some people may not like that. the bosses are mostly either a joke or very gimmicky.. thankfully DS3 gave us the best boss battles in the series.

Tbh og shrine of amana was one of my favorite areas in vanilla tbh. I ran a faith build and would always end up invading the guilty there and managed to beat a lot of ganks with all of the water around

Feeble: "I HATE ds2" Also Feeble: "In defense of ds2..." Also also Feeble: "ds2 is good, scholar is bad..." *Confused screaming*

As a note, the giant dead dragon in Aldia's Keep *does* attack you in Scholar, if you light all the torches in the area. It gives you a key to bypass the ogres in the doors leading to the dragon just behind as well. Great video though, I've always defended the second game by saying Scholar actually made it worse, and it's nice to see someone with a similar opinion for once. Sorry to hear people were such jerks about it though.

See, your first mistake was using a broadsword. Either use an Ultra Greatsword like the Greatsword (great naming scheme btw), or use a Rapier (halberds are great too). Never use a straight sword. I should know since I made that mistake my first Scholar playthrough, and it was a living hell playing it that way. Second mistake was just entirely a skill issue ngl. Why would you run past all the enemies when you KNOW that doing so usually winds up getting you killed? Like sure, yeah I get it, your dps was low and the game having more enemies than Vanilla means you have to spend more time taking them all out, but choosing to run past everything just ENSURES that you’ll get swarmed by the enemies. “Try luring out” is some pretty basic advice found in the player messages because people know that getting swarmed sucks. When you take on the enemies one at a time instead of getting your blood veins ruptured because YOU allowed yourself to get swarmed by all 17 of the enemies within the area- look man, that’s just plainly on you. Ngl though, seeing that Vanilla had a big Basilisx in the Shaded Woods DS2 is really cool. That’s good game design right there; showing me cool ass shit. Hell yeah, Vanilla

I think Scholars was meant as a hard version of the game, for people who already completed the vanilla version. The price tag was a joke but it has some quality of life changes that makes it hard to skip, so i get the confusion with it, but i still think you've meant to play vanilla first and then softs. I actually played scholar first and had a pretty rough time with it, but it makes sense for me as 'hard mode ds2', not so much as the 'definitive version'.

The problem with Vanilla Shrine was that in unpatched there were more enemies and that they could shoot you with magic before they had even rendered.

After exclusively playing Scholar for over a year, I finally played Vanilla and it feels so much more coherent and less infuriating (for the most part) in comparison. If my computer liked dx9 more and didn't randomly lagspike, I would easily pick Vanilla over Scholar.

What’s the song at 00:56?

I feel this. Playing Scholar now. This is like my 5th time restarting it. I was wondering why there were soooo many enemies. I played and thoroughly beat all other From games, this one is different. I don’t die that much but I have way more hours in it with not as much progress as I should

Vanilla Dark Souls 2 was my first souls game. I'm almost finished with my second run of the game, and you are so right about the game teaching you at a perfect pace how to survive. My first run was slow going and I did not have a high opinion of it, but once I began to learn combat through the well balanced gameplay, my opinion changed for the better. My second run, certain areas that had me stuck for a while the first time through like no man's wharf and the gutter I just blew through. I highly recommend new souls players that go for 2 first to beeline for heide's tower of flame, the bonfire next to an old knight right at the entrance is the PERFECT place to practice basic controls against large enemies, and the knights drop a good number of souls for early game level ups.

I beat scholar of the first sin with around 72 deaths, I thoroughly enjoyed the game, but now seeing footage of the vanilla version, I feel like I was robbed of my money. Thank you for making this video man👌

This kinda explains why I liked my release run better than later reruns. I bought the release version and much later the "complete" sotfs and the feeling was somehow different. Not sure if it would be worthwhile to upgrade vanilla, season pass is discounted 12.49€ today.

I think what youre supposed to do, is kill all the enemies and farm for souls until the enimes completely disappear. Upgrade your character, then do the actual boss for the level.

I bought Scholar to get all 3 DLCs at once and played it after 100%ing DS2 base game. I didn't notice that difference in enemy AI but the different placement begged some questions. After 100% Scholar as well I felt completely burnt out and never wanted to touch that thing again. Maybe giving the vanilla version another go could be fun.

I exclusively played Vanilla, from 2015-22. Played it all the time. It’s been a source of constant frustration that DS2 gets almost wholly judged on Scholar edition. Finally, my PS3 died, so I got Scholar on PS4. Beat it with 14 deaths. Playing Scholar , finally, simple reinforced my thoughts about it , after having watched it streamed many times. Vanilla is the superior single-player first playthrough experience. Vanilla gives you a great balance between exploration and combat. Scholar is better suited as a co-op experience. Scholar wants to fill all your holes. Pretty much every area Vanilla leaves open for exploration, Scholar adds enemies there. It should be noted that Scholar lets there be 3 summons, instead of Vanilla’s 2. Something worth mentioning is how very different item placement is. Vanilla has a much more difficult item placement. The Dull Ember is in Iron Keep. The Bastille key is after Gargoyles. Uber weapons like Grand Lance, Staff of Wisdom, or Dragons Tooth, are very late game. Many armor sets were very difficult to obtain in Vanilla, like The Armor of Aurous, Warlocks Mask, and Heides set. A couple notes. I use lock on. Works great. Not sure why there’s been a recurring emphasis in these videos that no lock on is necessary. Lifegems are not a band aid. Another recurring complaint. They’re the grasses, from Demons Souls. There’s a ton of Demons DNA in DS2. Like reducing max hp after dying. Lifegems are a functionally different way of healing. And serve to compliment the way Estus works differently. In combat, do you stay mobile, and get a small, slow heal, or plant yourself for a big chug? I frames tied to a stat is functionally no different than tied to a roll type, except for naked pro players. And it’s more interesting, bc not every game starts with access to the best roll, before even taking a step, by getting naked. Hit boxes are fine. Level s, and they’re no worse than other souls. Players are confusing what looks like a fast roll and should have s, but doesn’t, as a bad hitbox. Level s, and you’ll roll just fine. Bosses should be judged against other souls bosses after ng+, at least. To understand why, you need to understand how Bonfire Ascetics work. Basically, the devs wanted to encourage players to use this genius new consumable. To do so, they didn’t act like other souls, and make the bosses give you all you can handle. If they made them too tough, players would never use a incredibly powerful and fun item. From my experience, bosses in ng+ use more rare attacks, punish healing and ranged better, and more follow up swings on combos. You can definitely see the AI stepping up its game. But if it was like that during the first try, far fewer players would interact with the game using Bonfire ascetics. DS1 has a great map before Anor Londo. A masterpiece. No other game compares. But from Anor Londo on, nothing special. I’m sick and tired of hearing how great DS1’s map is, bc only a portion is. DS2’s map is Demons Souls inspired. A hub, with spokes. Fun fact- you can walk everywhere, except to Lost Bastille, in DS2. Not every weapon has a guaranteed combo. You’ll have to react to the times when the enemy is out of range for the second hit. Like the Mace, sometimes you need to do the heavy instead of the second light, bc the enemy was pushed back. If a true combo weapon is that goddamn important to you, pick something else that does that. There’s plenty to choose from. Story is a personal thing. Both games have their merits, narrative-wise. Personally, i like the agency DS2 gives the player, to make a decision, instead of a pawn in the lord’s power-struggle. One thing I feel like mentioning is that I never cared to replay DS1 in ng+. Not once. But i have multiple high ng+ cycles characters in DS2. The game makes real changes to the world, not just in ng+, but for every one of the next 6 cycles. Plus, you can reallocate levels, and try new builds, or weapons. DS1 felt suffocating in that way. Want to be a Wizard after awhile, but have been a big bonk build? In DS1, that means start over. DS2’s PvP and invasions are the best in the series. DS1 requires a PhD in glitches, and DS3 is roll-spam wars of attrition. DS2 is the sweetspot. That alone is going to keep DS2 forever in the limelight. Is DS2 perfect? Hardly.

I think the biggest problem with ds2 is that you clear an area of enimies and make it to the bosses fog door but then have to run back to bonfine to repair weapon then run back to boss door again.

15:13 As far as I recall, the Shrine of Amana nerf was just reducing the tracking of the magic projectiles of the enemies there. It was never as bad as some people make it out to be. 19:26 The dragon skeleton actually can be activated in Scholar as well, but it requires lighting a bunch of braziers further inside the keep, so if you do that it's pretty much always going to activate while you're behind it, and you'll just watch it crumble from far away. Yeah, I don't know why they thought this was a good idea. 19:31 I'm fairly sure the statue in Dragon Aerie can be skipped by going around a different way, but yeah, it's totally pointless. 32:11 I can't speak for anyone else I guess, but I played Dark Souls II vanilla to death when it first came out, and I came to pretty much the exact conclusion you did about Scholar when I first played it in 2015 or so, despite having played through vanilla an ungodly number of times before that. I honestly don't understand how anyone can defend most of the crap changes that were made. Initially I figured it was just that they played Scholar first and got used to all of its ridiculous bullshit, but since you apparently played Scholar first and still prefer vanilla, maybe that's not it either.

I played scholar first, but never felt like I should run away from the "unfair bullshit". I approached the levels in a paranoid and methodical manner, learning how to single out enemies, find cover from archers, check my surroundings for ambushes, etc. Sometimes I would reach the boss gate and decide to go back because I couldn't clear the area with a reasonable amount of healing left. By the end, I was not lacking in levels. I'm not saying I would have enjoyed the saner difficulty less, just that my experience was very different from yours. edit: Shrine of Amana did break me, tho, it was traumatizing.

As someone that liked the Frigid Outskirts, Elden Ring's consecrated snowfield is nostalgic. Miyazaki is like "Yeah, I know how most of you hated this map, guess what, a cameo would be great!"

only thing to add: vanilla dx9 ds2 can be almost entirely played on 1v1s if you use a bow or magic to separate the enemy clusters. and as a recomendation, you can download reshade, and apply video filters so it looks more like the trailer. I truly enjoy ds2 more than ds1 or ds3, i like the disjoint feel, more like a mtg planeswalker jumping around time and space instead of a common adventurer, i have enough games like that.

19:22 I know this video is old and you probably know this now but the undead dragon in Aldias Keep does come alive in SOTFS. You just have to light the 4 braziers in Aldias keep first. Thats how you get the key to the keep as well in sotfs.