I love the irony of something called "The Pursuer" having an extremely short aggro distance before it gives up and leaves.

in defense of the lock-system it works flawlessly for enemies, they never miss.

In fairness to DS2 (not that this remotely helps it’s case as a whole), at 1:06:45 , the reason for a lack of backstabs is because Jester Thomas’ set prevents you from getting critical attacks from behind. Not that the average player would know, given the set is sold by Magerold in Iron Keep and most people hardly talk to the guy if ever, from what I’ve heard. ..That said, every other clip there was a hilarious showcase of this game’s horrifically inadequate backstab system. Bonus: at 37:00, the hollows attacking the tree isn’t a bug or pathing issue, rather, that’s a tree that was formerly a giant, which those hollow soldiers fought. DS2’s best attempt at environmental storytelling I suppose. Though the prioritization of attacking the tree over the player is a.. different matter. Other than these two minor oversights the video is an excellent critique, and puts into words many of my own scattered thoughts-and issues, regarding this game. I know I’m ages late to the party on this video, but I’m glad to have seen this series.

The enemy AI is broken because all enemies have special scripts made to ambush you. If you come at them in any other way other than what the developers intended they break. This becomes extremely obvious if you're farming Twinkling Titanite in Shrine of Amana starting from Rhoy's Resting Place. The Archdrake Mages will not notice you until you're right behind them, but if you're running from the other direction (as you would, in your first go through) they'll aggro at you from a kilometer away.

I am pretty sure there is a lore reason they attack the trees. No, seriously. The trees are Giant Trees, and the soldiers fought the Giants, so maybe the Hollowing has made them think the Trees are actual Giants.

I'll never forget the first time I died in this game. The first ladder in Things Betwixt. I found out that pressing B dismounts ladders now, rather than sliding down them in DS1. Fell what looked like 10 feet. Died.

I also hate how ds2 and even 1 sometimes used the "Y axis turned" enemies. So basically if you try to circle an enemy to find an opening, most of the time they'll have some sort of side/back attack to cover their flanks. That's perfectly fine. But in Dark Souls 2, there are many cases that the enemy just rotates in one place to face you constantly without any animations and hits you with its forward-facing attacks. The salamander pit section is a prime example of this. Instead of actually giving animations to the enemies to be able to hit you from the side, they just rotate along you to face you constantly. Feels extremely cheap.

Am I to believe you ONLY spent 3 months on this masterpiece of a series? Incredible.

dark souls 2s movement system is the dark souls of movement systems

I'm late as hell but in the backstab section 1:06:54 You can't backstab Jester Thomas because the Jester's Robe Top stops backstabs

If this video has taught me anything, it is that Dark Souls 2 is an amazingly entertaining game when you make fun of all its problems.

I am so glad I watched this entire series, and that this did not disappear under the rug the way you thought it would. You make exceptional content and I look forward to watching the rest of your videos.

The hitbox designer was rubbing his palms together like an evil troll when he made them.

A full play-through of DS2 including the DLCs feels like an Odyssey

"The hitboxes not matching up with the character models is actually a genius decision by the developers - keeping the player constantly on their toes and wondering what will happen next! I like it a lot! I think more games should do it!" - HBomberGuy

That 8 directional movement is something I noticed immediately, it feels like something a mad employee would tweak in after they got pissed off. It drove me so crazy I couldn't even play the game after a few hours.

“Is that a cat?” *Bird noises* “Oh no, it’s a person”

I think power stance was one of DS2s strongest points. I really miss that.

Made it to the "hitbox" section, watching at around 25:00, and all this is doing is making me really, REALLY appreciate Bloodborne, Dark Souls III, Sekiro, and Elden Ring. They clearly improved is all I'm saying.

Regarding the failed backstab attempts against Jester Thomas, the bonus effect of the Jester's top is actually backstab nullification.

I started playing ds2 the other day for the first time and laughed out loud when a knight killed me and then pulled a full 360° degree turn to throw himself off the nearest cliff

"In Defense of Dark Souls 2" MauLer: Well yes, but actually no.

I still like to re-watch these. Mauler, you are a criminally underrated KZfaqr.

Something that sticks out to me as DS2 being my favorite Souls game is that it was easier to play with a group of friends. My circle of friends played through this entire game together, area to area and through all of the DLC's and I think thats why I love it the most. We were all scattered about the world during that time because of the military and it was nice to experience the game together.

1 hour, 46 minutes, and no ads. He did that shit for us.

One of the Dark Souls 2 devs really got destroyed by Marth in Melee and said “The world will know my suffering”

After finishing Dark Souls and watching this again, I appreciate Souls 1 even more now in spite of enemy attacks tracking with player movement.

I just watched this man destroy one of my most favorite games ever, and every point he made I agree with :'(

Whoa, what the hell, I had no idea that ADP affected the speed that you used estus That would explain why my depraived tank character with only 6 ADP (Yes, I'm serious about that ADP, never leveled it) consumes estus slower than a god damn snail trying to move a mile.

45:30 to be fair, that zombie is meant to just run around the woods

Watched all of this for the seventh time as a New Year present to myself. Good shit.

A fantastic conclusion to an awesome series. Really well done!

Defence of Dark Souls 2: 00:00 Introduction: 05:55 Movement: 07:44 - Snap-point turning: 07:47 - Ladder blockage event: 11:09 - Fall damage: 12:42 Adaptability: 13:52 - Lack of clarity: 15:13 - Detriment to RPG choice-making: 16:48 Hitboxes: 19:00 - Player hitboxes: 20:50 - Enemy hitboxes: 22:04 - Explosive barrel example: 24:00 - Sir Alonne's grab: 24:31 - Hitbox examples: 25:34 - DS1+3 comparisons: 29:44 | AI: 30:30 - Aggro ranges/obstruction: 31:58 - Pathfinding: 34:14 - AI suicide: 40:02 - Assorted bugs: 42:31 Boss healing: 47:28 Levelling: 49:35 - Over-levelling: 49:43 - Weapon levelling: 51:28 Human effigies: 54:22 Repair system: 56:23 Focus system: 57:52 - Target prioritisation: 58:28 - Weapon misdirection/inconsistency: 01:01:42 Backstabs: 01:05:35 - Backstab failures: 01:05:56 - Backstab inconsistencies: 01:08:34 - Lack of clarity: 01:11:39 | Miscellaneous design failures: 01:12:25 - Fragrant branches of Yore: 01:12:29 - Headshot staggering: 01:13:25 - Graphical criticism/vagueness: 01:14:13 - Model animations: 01:15:08 - Miscellaneous modelling: 01:16:15 Audio: 01:18:11 - Item pick-up audio cuts: 01:18:55 - Boss music: 01:19:45 - Audio inconsistencies: 01:20:37 Minor nitpicks: 01:21:57 - Disconnection message: 01:22:03 - Unskippable credits: 01:22:36 - The "B-Team": 01:23:32 | Overview: 01:25:17 - Combat: 01:26:12 - Exploration: 01:27:16 - Resource management: 01:28:21 - RPG Elements: 01:28:47 - System subversion/redundancy: 01:29:22 - Aspects kept/dropped in DS3 from DS1/2: 01:31:03 Conclusion: 01:33:10 - Comment from Harris: 01:35:39 - Video quality upkeep: 01:36:43 - Closing: 01:37:47 - Final thanks: 01:40:15 Extra clips: 01:42:12

I think my favorite part of this video is that in the 5 minutes when he's praising dark souls 2, a ds3 song is playing in the background

You should do more game reviews like this. This video is one of my favorites.

I love the tone shift in the video from the introduction to your actual opinions. It caught me off guard and it felt like I stumbled into a secret, haha

36:46 The Soldier runs to attack the Giant Tree because it thinks it is a giant, right? Because of the war between them and Vendrick.

Your voice reminds me of a less approving Vaati

The editing of this piece is great, but the script? Impeccable. Every sentence has a great rhythymn to it, and the complaints are presented very coherently. Great job!

53:55 idk why but this also makes me laugh so much "SOMETIMES deflects spells"

Am I the only one annoyed by how long some animations are? Like opening a chest and going through fog in ds1 were so much faster...

I actually enjoyed DS2 a lot despite some of these issues. I will say, though, for anyone getting frustrated with the Jester, it is impossible to backstab him and if you get his armor set, it keeps you from getting backstabbed

This was my first Dark Souls game, and I loved every rage filled second of it.

Dude... much respect for your investigative work!

Really bothers me that the Hollows went from dried up, skin-and-bones husks to fleshy--even buff at times--with green skin and open sores.

1:35:35 'this will probably be my most contentious series ever' Oh LongMan, how times have changed.

Its been years since ive played DS2, one of the things i loved about this game more then the other 2 games was the way they handled dual wielding. Having a power stance system that let's you dual wield any weapon was very fun and i enjoyed it a lot

What a master peice of analysis. Ive been a fan for years, elden ring made me curious to finally watch this thing. Thnx bruh

I finally understand what's weird about the movement in DS2. Thank you for that.

“In defense of Dark Souls 2” *spends the next hour and a half shitting all over the game*

Wow I tried avoiding this vid but I found your star war vids and liked them but I never knew you made this, “where did that lead you, back to me”

The movement thing explains so much!! felt like I was too dumb

_MauLer:_ *masterfully and exhaustively expounds upon this game's innumerable flaws* _Me:_ *"Time to reinstall!"*

I can’t defend any of these points, they are all absolutely truth. There’s nothing to defend, these are facts - Yet, I still enjoy the game. Is it too hard to acknowledge something’s faults, yet still enjoy it? Nice video!

Currently playing through DS2 in preparation for elden ring. This video is amazing, especially when you watch happy souls right after.

Ds2 was my first ds game and I legitimately didn't know that back stabbing was a mechanic till i played the other games and went back and tried in ds2. When I played ds2 in 2017 or so I thought it was a much older game. I genuinely thought it came out in like 2007 bc of how janky it felt. Can't explain my suprise when I found out how new it was. With it being my first game I think it set a weird precedent for the other games. They felt.... weird. I just assumed the other games were meant to feel the same. Not in a sense of mechanics or broken ai, but in a way that they didn't make me as angry. Ds2 often felt like it was intentionally trying to piss me off rather than try and teach me a mechanic or a way to approach a situation and I think this goes back to the 'tough but fair' sentiment from early in the video. And I honestly think it made me enjoy the other games more. So at least one good thing came of it. I know this is an old video so if you're reading this, hello and thanks for reading. I should really be asleep lol

The AI pathfinding problems are more to do with nodes. The reason the square in Shulva is inaccessible to the enemies is because at some point that square can become a pit for an elevator. Instead of putting nodes over the gap when it's closed and removing them when it's open, they didn't put nodes at all, out of convenience of development I guess, which means enemies literally can not walk onto there. A lack of nodes basically explains most examples of "bad AI" like the gargoyle not jumping- it doesn't jump because there are not any nodes for it to jump to. The connections between nodes is also hilariously bad in this game. More than once have I seen a group of enemies take the same zigzag path through an empty room- they all followed nodes laid out in an inexplicably bizarre fashion.

That was a plot twist at the beginning. I love this game though, but it DEFINITELY has its flaws

Thank you so much for this series and this video in particular man. I would love to see more in-depth videos like yours on youtube

honestly this whole video (and the 10hours series before it, why did I watch it all in 2021 O_O, excellent content btw :P). this whole video and talk of DS 1 & 2 has me wanting to revisit them for all the marvel even 2 can offer, especially with such a forewarning beforehand. Feels like it could be an amazing experience of good and bad, does and don't in game making that's simply worth experiencing for it's highs and lows. I know there was a mod for DS 1 that basically redid every single area, mobs and even drops in a genuinely inspired and balanced manner, one that shows the mod maker's time and effort into re-imagining the content for new players and experts alike to relive DS1 in a fresh way. I wonder if such a mod could essentially do the same for DS2, mechanical bugs aside, redoing area enemy placement could show just how much the game has to offer in a way that would shame SotFS patch for the money grab it is xD

How much of the ai walking to their deaths do you think might be caused by them being tied to the same 8-directional movement that you have, while lacking player sensibilities?

The point with ADP is especially frustrating since I played DS2 directly after DS1 and in DS1 everybody told me not to put points in resistance as it's some kind of joke from the developers so I thought "Oh it will be the same with ADP I guess" and then I wondered the whole game why enemy swings always hit me even when I thought I rolled away early enough.

Anybody else want to see more of the dude who was laughing at the Hollows running to and attacking the giant-tree? Seems like he'd be a lot of fun to watch.

I made it to the end. Amazing series. I can appreciate how in depth you went. I know I'm late to the party guys, but I have one question. Has Harris ever replied to these, and if so where can I find his response?

could you imagine in blighttown im dark souls 1, the poison dart spitters managed to hit you through the walls because the walls werent considered as a mesh?

Your video is amazing and clever, BUT FOR THE LOVE OF GOD YOU SHOWED ME THE MOVEMENT PROBLEM AND NOW I HAVE TO THINK ABOUT IT EVERY TIME I PLAY xD

30:00 yooo those were so satisfying hot damn. The double dodge with the weapon art is *chefs kiss*

There are a few minor points of contention that don't diminish the overall points, but do render certain examples used inappropriate. The first is the FoFG mobs attacking trees. The trees are the giants they fought long ago, and their attacking them is completely intentional. Next, that hollow in Huntsman's Copse is meant to run from you and never attack. In the backstab section, Jester Thomas is wearing the Jester armor set, which prevents backstabs. As I said, this is pretty hyper specific context and doesn't affect the overall messages of the sections.

27:34 "What is he doing?" "He's beginning to believe."

"I'm not directing that at anyone in particular, but I'm sure you understand *Harris.* " I love being British and having access to that level of sudden and unexpected vitriol.

I feel as though some of the lock on inconsistensies where you may miss, specifically with greatswords is because of a default setting called lock on free aim in which you are able to free aim your weapon which can come in handy at times but is ultimately something veterans may find more use with especially in PVP where being able to aim may get you the hit rather than miss it. This is mostly useless of course against big, non agile enemies like bosses.

I love DS2. I just love DS1, DS3, and Bloodborne more. From Software needs to bring back Bonfire Ascetics.

"The point of it is to provide a genuine defense of Dark Souls 2... without focusing on any negatives." Proceeds to completely bury the game and piss on the grave.

I often feel like I am in a wierd fever dream any time I play this game. There is something about the controls never being fast enough and the constant illogical things happening that is very nightmarish. The flotiness of combat makes this even worse, because you can't feel the impact.

“Your feelings aren’t relevant” dude you just got a new sub 😂I loved that

the most funny thing is. you cant even defend it by saying "DUDE ITS OLD GAME GET OVER IT", when dark souls 1 exist before it. LMFAO

That whole part about you attacking in the wrong direction instead of where you're locked on to is unbelievably prominent in the Aava & Lud & Zallen fights for some reason.

This was an amazing end to an amazing series. Thank you so much for putting in all that work! I love Dark Souls II but I agree with about everything you said. I've watched this series in only two days, it's been enjoyable all the way through. You have earned yourself another sub. Edit: forgot to tell you that I found the little poop sounds at dumb boss behaviours way too funny

Among the greatest videos I've ever seen. Exemplary argumentation and a clear example that sophistry will always lose when held up to scrutiny. Ironically your video makes me want to replay ds2, because I love the fact that it sucks

I like the Big Doors. Big fantasy Doors are neat. I love the guys in armor. 1v1 fights are the best. Super cool. I like that there are so many mobs cause fighting multiple enemies is super cool.

This was the first Souls game I played. I platinumed the shit out of it.

1:12:10 I was muttering: " don't bother, those guys are immune to backsta..." WTF they can be backstabed! LOL!!!

Damn dude, what a fantastic conclusion to a fantastic video series. I know I’m late to the party by a few years but I stumbled upon this series after finding DS2 lacking in ways that I couldn’t put my own finger on, and you delivered. I don’t think I’d ever watched a KZfaq epic from start to finish before this, but hey, here we are. Just two things I kinda disagree with in the whole series and was wondering if we could discuss a bit. 1. I get what they meant in regards to similarities with Zelda tbh, because it feels like a similar type of game. It’s a 3rd person action adventure where you need to dodge and/or block attacks and learn enemy patterns to progress through the game, and they also contain puzzles and secrets. I’m not defending the platforming in DS at all, and I completely agree that less is more for DS games, just that I get where people are coming from when they make the “adult Zelda game” comparison. 2. This might just be purely semantics, but I think FromSoft has fantastic storytelling in general, even though the story itself and the way they present it is sometimes lacking. What I mean is that you discover the story for yourself most of the time, and that you can learn more and more the more you dig. I love exploring different environments and seeing the story told in these environments without actually being told. Which, to be honest, is another thing I didn’t like about DS2: the lack of subtlety. And I appreciate when playing these games that I don’t have story thrown at me constantly, and was left to discover as much or as little as I wanted. Granted, they aren’t always fleshed out and yeah, the story is often very lacking. I actually agreed with basically everything you said in the story part, so this might just be semantics, but that’s how I’ve always thought about storytelling in games: the way the game presents the story through playing it. Anyway, not sure if you’ll even see this comment since you’re much more popular now, but I’m curious to see/hear what you think regardless!

I just started DS2. The enemies are crazy, you hit them 3 times with a broadsword and 1 microsecond later they immeadiatly attack. My best advice for anyone else new. Get a bow and a lot of arrows. Much easier to slowly progress after sniping them, or else you will get these headshots mentioned in the video.

Good job getting through the video, have a Titanite Slab.

the game has a lot of problems but I find the movement to be the worst one. The horrible dead zones and the wonky animations for everything is just a direct downgrade from DS1. Worst thing by far is the roll; in DS1, DS3 and BB the roll/dodge will always keep you faced towards the locked-on enemy. There is a different roll animation depending on if you roll left, right, forwards or back. The attack directly after rolling will always be towards the target. In DS2, there is only 1 roll animation and it's directly forward, so if your attack is timed to come out the moment the roll ends your character will not have enough time to rotate and correct itself towards the enemy before the attack plays out (as seen at 1:03:24). On top of that they decided to only allow about 20° of freedom to pivot most attacks. All that does is take away player control and make everything feel way more stiff. Also I'm sure someone has told you already but the manual aiming of large weapons like great hammers and ultra greatswords using the left stick is actually a feature, not a bug. I agree it takes the whole point of locking-on away but someone developing the game decided that was a good idea. It is even included in DS3 as a lock-on option. I've only known 1 person who actually preferred it, he said it was useful for PVP.

57:25 Welp, happy to report that Elden Ring finally fucking abandoned weapon/armor durability. (Technically Sekiro did it first, but Sekiro is so widely different from the other games that it can’t really count.)

A new fan here and this is the first Dark Souls game I play and finished. I sighed of relief when I find out the hitboxes, AI, and Health Reduction mechanic are actually real downsides and are not actually the main reasons of why the game is challenging. I thought DS2:SOTFS is already a masterclass in giving the whole Dark Souls experience. After learning some objective flaws and also having experienced it myself, I'm kinda hyped for other installments in the series that will deliver what this game didn't.

I feel like the most backwards thing about ADP hasn't been mentioned yet: It makes the game easier not because the player is getting good, but because of a stat increase. In all other souls games, the difficulty of the game increases over time to compensate for the stats you get by leveling up. Because of this, the game stays challenging from start to finish on a normal playthrough. Enemies you encounter later in game have more HP, absorb more damage, hit harder etc than enemies you encountered earlier. To compensate having more i-frames in later stages of the game, enemies would have to hit for LONGER with each attack. This is obviously not the case. Even a player that doesn't learn from his mistakes, a player that doesn't get good, will have an objectively easier time towards the end of the game than in the beginning, thanks to this one stat. I feel like this is completely contrary to the design philosophy of the combat and therefore a massive shame.

I can’t believe I didn’t recognize the whole snap points thing when playing. I knew the movement felt clunky and off. It just seems so dumb to have included this

If i'm remembering correctly, i looked into the issue with the hitboxes when the game was still in it's prime. The community came up with 2 possible answers: either the collisions are proximity based (they're close enough so a hit is registered), or the scripting decided whether the hit landed at the very beginning of most animations. The most notorious example is the mimic grab.

Damn, the intro got me but I stuck around 😂 Kudos mate, that sent my sides into orbit lmao

The dark souls 3 hit boxes looked soo dope

Dark souls has to be one of the only series that has such a vast amount of videos that are over an hour long

Thank you for making not only this video, but this whole series. It’s appreciated. I went from only hearing about ‘how bad DS2’ was, to playing it, disliking it, appreciating it, to loving it (all for a whole myriad of reasons). I started playing video games at 39, and started with DS3, then DS1, before playing DS2, so I know I’m out of the ‘norm’ with my introduction to these games, but whilst still able to recognize the massive flaws throughout, I find DS2 engaging, immersive, and maybe the one I replay the most. I found this video after Harris’s video and Matt’s, and (as you like to say in this video… alot…), embarrassingly agreed with most of Harris’s point BEFORE I watched this. Some I still agree with, honestly, but I must say, you are far and away more correct in your assessment (also, I’ve definitely come to realize he’s a smug prick who’s flat-out wrong most of the time). I DO wish you’d have gotten more into the co-op issues with DS2. I was not around playing when DS1 was released, so I’ve really only had the password option in my Souls games, but gods, Soul Memory is just a TERRIBLE mechanic. I’ve put thousands of hours into the Soulsborne series, have platinumed them all now, so when I play now, it’s almost always a co-op affair. My friends, whether Souls vets or ones I’M now just getting into the series, are immediately put-off in our play by SM, and for players like me it’s just become… almost a chore to have to take it into account if we want to play through again. I’d just have liked a little more time spent objectively evaluating that as a mechanic, but I guess that’s primarily down to Harris himself (at least in the first 8 parts) not getting into it. Finally-and I realize this might be smug or harsh, or petty… or all three…)-that one guy you keep showing with the blue box around him… I wish you’d have pick another person as the subject of some of your examples. His appearance throughout nearly made me stop watching multiple times, because he comes across as… just not a good player who constantly complains when he doesn’t succeed, and blames the mechanics you’ve (rightly, objectively) discussed the issues with, and instead of learning how to take advantage of the system (with all its flaws), simply continues to play haphazardly and poorly, almost seeming to be willfully ignoring them (hitboxes, Iframes, ambushes/mobs/‘spambushes’/movement, lock on, etc) for some reason. You say he’s a ‘veteran player,’ I believe, and he absolutely boasts about all the DS1/3 he’s played, so I was confused by his very poor performance in the examples you’ve chosen to give, and his constant, inevitable blaming of the game and it’s mechanics for his failures… over and over and over, where as your other subjects expressed their dislike/issues in stride with the game and all it’s ‘jank.’ It was just… yeah. Otherwise, again, very good series which, ironically, perhaps, has given me a new perspective on DS2 and it’s many MANY flaws, but not decreased my enjoyment of it. Cheers, and thank you.

Hearing about all these problems makes me have even more respect for people like Otzdarva and all those other madlads that do no-hit-runs of this game. Amazing video with a very well crafted analysis of the problems. Stumbled upon the video and did not expect THIS.

There's enough text in this comment section to put together a novel.

This game is extremely janky and weird but it's still my favorite. It has the most build variety by far. Only in DkS2 can somebody beat your ass with a Dark-infused Ladle.

I'm aware I'm late and I bet someone has already explained this but at 29:20, you're correct that this game has a lingering hitbox issue. I've farmed the Giant Lord for quite some time and I've noticed that all his attacks have lingering hitboxes, to the point where I'll strafe a stomp, go back to hit him, and then be flung back as if the stomp had landed. This has happened multiple times and even happened a couple times with his sword. It's to the point where I wondered why no one brought it up when mentioning the poor hitboxes.

I really enjoy the story for DS2, its an interesting spin on retelling the original. Vendrick realized the cycle he was stuck in and made his best effort to escape it, unable to cure hollowing but found a way for our character to nullify it, and thus exist outside of the cycle. Would have been cool for Dark Souls 3 to have an npc like that, thats existed outside of time with all the knowledge they've garnered