Dark Souls 1 vs. Dark Souls 2

[WarpedAcorn]

Huzzah! A "Versus" thread! I feel like such an outlaw... >_>;;

I want to preface this by saying I love the Souls series. I was really disappointed I never got to try Demon Souls since I didn't own a Playstation, but I did watch a buddy play it briefly. So when Dark Souls was released I ate it up. Its one of the few games I managed to get 100% completion in the achievement department.

Fast forward to present day. I picked up Dark Souls 2 when it was on sale because I had a lot of other things on my plate when it released. I believe I bought it back in May, played it for 15min and couldn't get into it. I tried a couple of more times and haven't been able to force myself to sit down with it until last weekend. At first I thought I just wasn't in the mood. However, after 40 hours of playing the game I have come to this conclusion...

Dark Souls 2 is a weak sequel.

Two of my biggest gripes involve the bosses and the environment. Firstly, I have yet to run into any memorable bosses. They seem horribly designed and lack the creativity of Dark Souls 1 bosses. I feel there are more bosses and sub-bosses overall, and their mechanics are fairly well varied, but overall I can't think of a single boss I want to tell my friends about because it blew my mind (unlike Dark Souls 1 which was nearly every other boss). The second is that the environment feels extremely disjointed. I'm not sure if that was the intent and supposed to represent something deeper, or if this is something they wanted because of the Bonfire teleporting...but Dark Souls 1 blew me away with their level design and how every section tied into one another and how the shortcuts worked between areas. Dark Souls 1 felt like 1 HUGE region while Dark Souls 2 feels very sectioned off.

Gameplay wise I think Dark Souls 2 does outperform the original, but not by much. I don't feel the additional mechanics like dual-wielding add that much to the game. While other aspects like wielding a torch could have been expanded to be a much more desired option. Some mechanics are just plain obtuse such as randomly moving NPC's that allow access to other areas (specifically the Miracle Vendor originally found in Heide's Tower of Flame) or lighting things on fire to proceed (Windmill in Poison area) that had no hint or precedent for the player. I get and understand the concept of Dark Souls being a series that doesn't "care" about the player and doesn't handhold...but there is a difference between making a difficult game and just adding in frustrating roadblocks.

Currently I have not completed the game (on the 4th Great Soul "wing"), but I'm not sure I will have the desire to do New Game Plus like I did in the previous series. Did you guys feel similarly about Dark Souls 2? Or am I just being crazy?

[Poppincaps]

I like to compare Dark Souls 1 and 2 to Fallout 3 and New Vegas. Dark Souls 2 adds some nice gameplay innovations just like New Vegas did, but I feel it lacks the soul of what made the original so phenomenal. Coincidentally, Fallout 3 and Dark Souls are two of my favorite games of all time.

I will say though, that New Game + is actually worth playing in DS2 because it adds a lot of new enemies and some mechanics to the boss fights. It's basically like Heroic mode in WoW and it's really cool. I think my biggest gripe with Dark Souls 2 is it feels very disconnected, which I think they were allowed to get away with the addition of warping from the beginning.

Overall, Dark Souls 2 is a great game just like New Vegas is, but they are great not because of their own merits but the merits they inherited from their predecessors.

[Deleted]

Dark Souls 1 is better than Dark Souls 2 IMO. The environment is so good in DS1 and feels a little lacking in DS2. But the coming game bloodborne seems just epic again in that department.

The PvP in DS2 is better though and the replay value is better with the changes in NG+ and combat overall a little better. Its just that the environment or how the lvls are built and connected in DS1 is better IMO.

Loved Demons Souls too, they are all epic games though.

[Migey]

There's so much I'd like to say about this, but there isn't much point as this video says anything I could say far more eloquently and intelligently.

[Shinzai]

Dark Souls 2 is good, but not as great as Dark Souls 1. It's not outright bad, but it wasn't as great as I'd hoped. The nerfs that kicked in after the first week wrecked a lot of the more interesting fights and watered down a lot of the experience. New Game + is still solid, but normal mode is kind of pointless.

Originally I liked the multiple enemy fights in Dark Souls 2, until I realised they weren't as interesting as the numbers made them initially appear.

[wildemu]

I didn't like the level design of DS2, just felt like a hacked job.

[barackopala]

Just played dark souls 2 (and beaten it) on the weekend, must admit the game has some more nice QoL changes that are appreciated (like dual wielding or offhand 2handing), the consumables i considered were a massive fuckup, the fact that the estus flask was moved to an almost unnecessary element in the game made it feel less rewarding for taking major risks, thus having to play ultra safe that made me feel that str-faith build was just way too ideal.

The boss design felt like a big error, O&S was a nice change of pace on ds1 were you hadn't fought on a 2v1 and you had to adapt on the fly whereas in ds2 you have to expect the most annoying 2v1's and some bossfights that had you fighting a giant mob (the church bossfight) were you could just cheese it with aoe spells...

All i can say is that DS2 felt definately longer and not in a good way, shrine of amana was just hell of level design, felt like a cheap map that obligated you to use bows (and thank god for the dragonslayer bow)

Havent played pvp on ds2 yet so not much to be said.

[Ausr]

DS1 > DS2.

It feels like the only way they tried to make it harder is just to plop hordes of enemies + unoriginal mob designs. Every one of them is a god damn humanoid.

[Nirawen]

I prefer #1 to #2 but still think both are great games. Part of the reason #2 didn't feel quite as great to me does stem from simply knowing what I was doing going into it, I enjoyed the feeling of being lost/helpless at the start of #1 (I didn't play Demonsouls) but it was impossible to recapture for the sequel.

[Deleted]

Dark Souls is the better Game but I have never done a NG+ run there, because its too easy and there is nothing new in NG+. In DS2 i'm at least half way through NG+. Its just more fun to start a new Character.

[mordale]

dark souls 1, end of discussion.

[barackopala]

That's kind of my fear with bloodborne, the fear that i'm so used to dark souls that bloodborne might just feel way too similar up to a point im not interested in it.

The thing i did enjoy on ds 2 was that you could teleport since the begining, it felt so nice but the game felt way too linear with little possibilities of shortcuts (in ds1 you could just instantly go to blighttown if you felt like a badass and wanted to get your ass broken), on the flipside... weapon durability, it flat out sucks and even more on pc.

[Rustedsaint]

darksouls one, thou they messed up the online part too much.(can't even begin to describe how many failed summons and what not I experienced, or the amount of lv1 griefers that had ridiculus gear)
darksouls 2 had some nice new mechanics thou the storyline and pvp were getting old(1 shotting ppl with sunlight lance got old rather quick =p)

[barackopala]

darksouls one, thou they messed up the online part too much.(can't even begin to describe how many failed summons and what not I experienced, or the amount of lv1 griefers that had ridiculus gear)
darksouls 2 had some nice new mechanics thou the storyline and pvp were getting old(1 shotting ppl with sunlight lance got old rather quick =p)

Didnt have any issues with "failed summons" in ds1 (im mostly a pve player so i did a lot of coop on gargoyles and O&S (once on capra) which tend to be the most summoned fights), had some twinks lv1 in ds1 invading me (a guy in ornstein armor, the top hat from the dlc vendor and firestorm, pretty obvious and a guy wearing boar helm and dark wood grain ring with artorias sword).

I just cheesed DS2 with faith greater sunlight spear, agility was a massive letdown for me.

[RoKPaNda]

I didn't really like either game to be honest, but I liked 2 a lot more than I liked 1 because it felt a lot less cheap. Roughly half of the times I got my face owned in 1 were a result of "LOL you didn't see that one coming did you?!" type mechanics. Didn't have that so much in two, just a couple of times.

[Deleted]

I think from a straight analyse of the actual game, and not what gave me the most enjoyment, I think I would actually go with Dark Souls 2.

I think what "ruined" my experience of Dark Souls 2, was Demon Souls and Dark Souls. There wasn't really that many new things outside of different looking armor and weapons, the story is somewhat the same (take that with a grain of salt, this is my own experience of the story), and I just can't get past the underlying feeling is the exact same for all the Souls games. Same reason I am extremely unhyped (I don't hate it, and will likely buy it) for Bloodborne, it just doesn't do it for me with the grey and misery anymore, it is already overdone for me.

[crakerjack]

I haven't played DS2, but my cousin has the first one on his xbox since it was free for xbox live. I've beaten the giant tauren and gargoyles and smaller bosses that are along the way. I enjoy it, but it's not as hard as everyone made it out to be. It just has no room for error, so you have to play defensive and attack when you know you can.

[Deleted]

I didn't really like either game to be honest, but I liked 2 a lot more than I liked 1 because it felt a lot less cheap. Roughly half of the times I got my face owned in 1 were a result of "LOL you didn't see that one coming did you?!" type mechanics. Didn't have that so much in two, just a couple of times.

Prepare to be disagreed with, because a majority thinks it is reverse

[RoKPaNda]

Prepare to be disagreed with, because a majority thinks it is reverse

That's fine, if I was afraid of people disagreeing with me I wouldn't be posting on the internet. Especially about something that's super hyped up.

[barackopala]

I didn't really like either game to be honest, but I liked 2 a lot more than I liked 1 because it felt a lot less cheap. Roughly half of the times I got my face owned in 1 were a result of "LOL you didn't see that one coming did you?!" type mechanics. Didn't have that so much in two, just a couple of times.

In the 1st one it only happened for me on the hellkite dragon, in ds2 i remember getting a bit more disappointed due to cheap mechanics like spellcasters in amana and the boulder in the forest of giants.

- - - Updated - - -

I haven't played DS2, but my cousin has the first one on his xbox since it was free for xbox live. I've beaten the giant tauren and gargoyles and smaller bosses that are along the way. I enjoy it, but it's not as hard as everyone made it out to be. It just has no room for error, so you have to play defensive and attack when you know you can.

Once you get the grip on the game you can play extremely agressive, that's part of the fun of ds, your playstyle gets better and you get used to new movesets, sadly i didnt like greathammers and slow weapons all that much and played with the fire longsword from the forest of fallen giants +10 and a lightning infused +10 talisman (it changed name in ds2 but it's the same use, faith build).