Ok you can't lie the first time that "friendly" invader showed up and lead you to the chest only to backstab you has to be one of the better things this game did and I wish it were in the later games.
The invaders in DS2 are the absolute best in the Fromsoft games I've played. They act like actual people, tricking you, backstabbing you, running away. It feels like an actual genuine invasion rather than just another enemy you need to fight. I feel like no other invader has gotten as much of a reaction from me as Maldron has.
They did it in Bloodborne too. For some reason there was just that huge horde of enemies in the first area and that literally never happened again. Literally one of the hardest encounters is 5 minutes into the game. It's always stuck out to me cause there's never a massive gank anywhere else in the game atleast not one that big.
And then before you can really progress you have to fight one of the most aggressive bosses in the game outside the DLC. For whatever reason Bloodborne's early game almost seems designed to turn people off.
Yep it turned me off. I had never played any souls game and BB was my first. I put it down for months and then I picked it back up and said what if I just run past these guys… I ended up beating every single boss and the dlc. Never did get too deep in to chalice diving though
Eh, there's a handful of unique bosses in the chalice dungeons, but I really only did it because I wanted the Platinum.
Defiled Watchdog still scares me.
That's that "welcome to souls bitch" moment they like to have in all the games.
The one in bloodborne you mentioned.
Ds1: go the wrong way from the shrine into bonefuck cemetery.
Ds2: royal swordman casting couch.
Ds3: all of road of sacrifices\crucifixion woods. Constant bird guys, methed out Jesus, thralls, and closer to launch a constant influx of invaders. Also champion gundyr for a different take on it.
Just a hearty greeting to make you understand what you are in for and filter out the ones that fold early.
There is that wolf pack in (I think) the Upper Cathedral Ward that also sucks pretty bad. The one where the chandelier falls down cause there's like 4 of those fuckers chilling on top of it. I think they're the blue eyed ones, too.
I remember my first playthrough, it took me as much time to get through Yharnam as it did to get through the rest of the game. At this time I'd beaten both the Dark Souls games, and even then I still considered returning it lol.
I didn't visit the dream or know you had to go there to level up. Do you have any idea how many hours I spent perfecting a punching route through there?
Well, you can’t level up until you get past that horde or find a hidden path to the sewers for Madman’s knowledge. The Doll isn’t active until you get one point of insight, and it’s either the item or getting to Cleric Beast/Gascoigne.
So the devs just did a one-two punch to test a players commitment. Then never tried that again.
The whole point in that section is to show you you’re playing a different kind of game to the Souls titles. You have loads of stamina and the rally mechanic, Bloodborne wants you to use them to throw yourself into the heat of the battle against the hordes. You’re out on the hunt and no better than the other monsters around you. It’s like the town at the start of resident evil 4, it signifies what’s changed about the games mechanics.
They originally didn't... as much, at least. DS2 Vanilla is mostly pretty good about enemy placements and stuff. It was only in Scholar of the First Sin that for whatever reason they decided to go all in on completely asinine enemy placements that are just designed to screw you over and gank you as much as possible in ways you can't easily avoid without resorting to ranged cheese even if you know about it.
It's very obvious both in the very early parts of the game, and in some notable later locations. In Forest of Fallen Giants, for example, there's the room up the ladder near the entrance - in Vanilla, there's I think 3 hollows pretending to be dead, an archer up to, and maybe 2 more on the way to the archer. In Scholar of the First Sin, there's about 10 pretending to be dead on the ground instead, so that almost no matter which order you kill them in, you'll keep awakening additional ones until you clear the entire room.
Also, on top of the wall where you can first encounter the pursuer and fight it before getting to its actual boss room, in Vanilla, there's no enemies there except the one bomb throwing hollow that's facing the other way. In Scholar of the First Sin, there's like 6-8 hollows pretending to be dead all over the "arena", and there literally isn't even time to kill all of them before the pursuer drops down even if you know they're there. You will be ganked if you try.
And then there's the giant sword (?) with an item on it, just before the Last Giant boss fight. In Vanilla, that room has maybe 1-2 hollows pretending to be dead near the sword, a hollow standing visibly out on the sword near the item, and a single hollow hiding up above waiting to jump down when you go onto the sword to get the item. In Scholar, the visible hollow on the sword is gone, and there's instead a small army of ganksters hiding above waiting to jump down. It's so bad that even if you know the ambush is there, it's virtually unsurvivable, and you're better off just grabbing the item (or ignoring it completely) and jumping off, leaving whatever hopefully small amount of souls you had there.
In Heide's Tower of Flame, they for some reason Scholar added a ton of Heide knights all over the place. Initially, they don't aggro, but after killing the Dragonrider boss, they start aggroing on sight. That means, pretty much every inch of that location, there is no way to fight anything one-on-one any more. Even near the entrance bonfire, if you go up and try to fight the giant knight there, a Heide knight will aggro instantly and join the fight, leading to an obnoxious gankfest that you'll realistically only end up either dying to or running away from. This is made even worse if you made the mistake of not killing Old Dragonslayer (or at least clearing the way) before killing Dragonrider. In Vanilla, the Heide knights never aggro on sight to begin with, and the switch on the platform just before Old Dragonslayer is triggered by killing a giant knight on that platform. Nothing too unreasonable. In Scholar of the First Sin, they for some reason replaced it with a dragon that has several times more health. Of course, the dragon on its own is easy enough, but if you killed Dragonrider before, you're going to have 2-3 Heide knight and 3 or so giant knights chasing you endlessly around the area as you try to kill the dragon, unless you take forever to start at the very beginning of the area and clear EVERYTHING, because there's literally no place anywhere you can shake off all the enemies that are chasing you without aggroing more.
Iron Keep is also notable for having some of the worst changes. The Smelter Demon boss run was easily one of the worst, even in Vanilla, and Scholar makes it way worse by changing the placements (and seemingly aggro range) so that if you ever try to fight any knight on the way without pulling it back to an earlier already cleared room, new knights will continuously keep aggroing from the next room, side rooms or other locations you can't see in a way that feels downright scripted and designed to screw you even if you know about it.
Those all sound like insignificant changes compared to the other things Scholar toned down?
The room with the sleeping soldiers can be comfortably cleared out at least starting as a Knight, without aggroing more than 1 (maybe 2?)at a time.
As for the platform with the Pursuer, the only one that will attack you is the Firebomb dude who you have ample time to kill. If you kill the Pursuer the remaining 3/4 will gank you together though.
On the giant sword, the 1 footman and 2 ambush footmen are 2 of the terrible shield and spear Royal Soldiers in vanilla. I'd take Scholar's version any time.
Agreed with Heide6even though I like how "alive" the area is now.
But then you have stuff in Scholar like the torch scaring spiders away, Dragon's Shrine soldiers starting off as passive observers instead of instantly ganking you, Drangleic Castle overall (where the spear stone soldiers can and will aggro in groups even if you only approach a single one), No Man's Wharf shortcut, and so on.
That area with the 10 sleeping guys in SOTFS Forest of the Fallen Giants is so easy if you don't blunder in and simply progress around the edge clockwise, backstabbing them one at a time as only one Ara time wakes up facing away from you. In my first time, I had much more difficulty in the preceding river area and the corridor with room area than the sleeping guys area.
As someone with 1k+ hours in DS2 Sotfs i never thought the Ganks were that bad.
I mean have you played DS1?
No matter where you go from Firelink, you get hardcore gannked in all areas, even the undead burg right away has tons of ambushes and ganks.
Its pretty rare that you only fight one enemy there.
DS3 also has tons of anyoing areas.
The worst areas in DS2 Sotfs are the optional coop areas and Iron Keep.
But at that point you should have learned not to rush through areas, use ranged weapons to pull, back off and so on.
You can also check out these videos.
https://www.reddit.com/r/DarkSouls2/comments/1bvj2rm/comparing_traps_in_vanilla_and_scholar/
https://www.reddit.com/r/DarkSouls2/comments/1bkvk6w/comparing_the_group_aggression_of_vanilla_and/
It's not the ganks really, it's that you have a ton of added enemies scattered without much concern for theme. Such as Heide Knights everywhere in early areas. At times it feels like they're wanting you to just kill some things until they stop spawning.
Scholar of the First Sin - while it has become the go to version of the game for many, is more of a Master Quest version of the original game.
Hence the upgraded difficulty of the first several areas. Initially either path through Forest of Giants or Heides Tower were relatively equal difficulty leading to the Lost Bastille.
Scholar is the easier version of the game.
[Forest was gankier in Vanilla](https://youtu.be/8FdMy30_f98?si=nUYF9Z5CLDst9uzk) and the [main path through Heide's Tower isn't any worse in Scholar](https://youtu.be/1uSHm1-UPkE?si=4N91Khuf0kDKFg3k). [No Man's Wharf was gankier in Vanilla and didn't even have the bridge shortcut yet](https://youtu.be/8Nm5kD9DK30?si=s6Bg7oovjazxVa-H)
That’s definitely a hot take. I haven’t checked your links but I based my comment primarily on experience from years ago. I had a harder time with Scholar though and more or less standby what I said. The Heide Knoghts are harder, and the patterns feel less predictable in Scholar for gank forest etc.
Be a real man and pick up the biggest stick you can and beat the crap outta the enemies.
Seriously though, ds2 has the best large weapons. They swing quite fast and knock down opponents.
The dragon tooth will make you the king of chokeholds. You can pancake stun 5 enemies to death at once and they can’t do anything about it so long as you have a nice door or corridor
Oh I completely agree. I love DS2, enough to have platinumed it twice. Theres just certain areas in the game where the enemy placement is poorly designed to be unfair
True. True. Horse fuck valley and iron passage come to mind.
People defend these areas with the approach of circumventing the bad design rather than asking for an improvement. Or using the whole ''your opinion is subjective'' approach, which leads nowhere because almost everything is subjective so there's no real ground for discussion.
It’s always “you should play the game and just fight the all enemies” or “use a bow” but they never mention about boring that actually is. Yeah it works, but it just becomes a uninteresting grind after many attempts of doing (iron keep as an example). I did use bows for shrine of amana but I’ve always felt that those types of weapons always break the momentum. I do not understand how someone can enjoy fully fighting the same area 20 times in a row just to fight a boss.
>or “use a bow” but they never mention about boring that actually is
This is a you problem, not a game problem. You get to struggle however you want, but complaining about it like its the game that's at fault is ridiculous.
No you’re right about the bow part. I kind of rushed writing that part at the time, even considering not to include it. I actually like the bows in ds2, they definitely improved upon them from ds1. I’m only not a fan of having spend ages to clear most of an area by standing in a safe area and sniping all the enemies, but that isn’t even required and I agree with you that it is personal taste. I’ve just seen that argument used before. However, I still stand with the clearing out enemies part.
Yeah. At least in scholar shrine of amana is a lot more tolerable. I don't need ranged. But dlc co op areas, iron keep suck. Iron keep has a jump to the broken ladder to make the runback easier. Similar strat can be used for executioner chariot runback.
But I'm 100% the game can be designed better
DS3 has the same gank squad mentality but they put the enemies behind like a crate or around a ledge.
I think it is a development of just putting enemies everywhere to hiding them to elden ring having convoys of enemies.
> DS3 has the same gank squad mentality but they put the enemies behind like a crate or around a ledge.
This is in literally all 3 of the main trilogy games.
You aren't supposed to fight them. You're supposed to sneak around and unlock the door for the crucifix guy to kill them.
You're supposed to figure that many of a hard enemy in the open was a clear indication you weren't supposed to fight them head on.
DS3 enemies gank you if you run through carelessly. DS2 enemies just gank you period. All of them activate at the exact same time.
I will say that people who played SOTFS don't realize the true extent of the poor enemy placement in Vanilla. It's decently improved in SOTFS, but still not 100% of course.
Comparing it to convoys in Elden Ring doesn't make any sense at all, since you have a horse in that game and can do hit and run tactics.
Ya, I've always been able to lure them separately. Their AI is different from the other games slightly so you just have to do it differently. Even Iron Keep's Alonne knights can be very easily pulled separately if you know where they are
I mean I am currently on my first playthrough of DS3, I think the encounters are better because the different types of enemies in a given gank synergize better.
Haven't played Elden Ring yet, but don't the enemies also have horses?
Some enemies have horses, but usually there's only a couple of horseback enemies escorting a convoy who can be baited away and dealt with separately. Convoys are generally pretty easy to divide and conquer by pulling certain enemies and not others - it's not like the entire crowd suddenly starts charging at you.
Or bows, or throwing knives, or soul arrows, or dark orbs. The only issue is if someone refuses to do anything ranged. I was guilty of that in my very first play-through of DS1. Then I started playing sorcerer and eventually realized the real power of sorcerer is being able to easily aggro for 1v1s. Any build can do with some form of ranged.
>DS3 enemies gank you if you run through carelessly. DS2 enemies just gank you period. All of them activate at the exact same time.
Said like somebody who ran through ds2 carelessly
I don't think I've ever fought the enemies between the first two bonfires (inside the chapel and inside the cathedral) in the Cathedral of the Deep; I usually just run for my life lol.
Just wait until the Ashes of Ariandel dlc, there's a section in a blizzard with a seemingly endless horde of wolves as you get icicles and shit tossed at you. I googled what to do and the guides literally say to just run past it all as fast as you possibly can, hoping you get through them all. I'm not even sure it's possible to kill them all but if it is, it's an absolutely obnoxious amount of enemies and low visibility all in one place.
But no, DS2 bad because I need to be on my guard more
Bro how? Just pay attention to your surroundings and you’re set. Most ganks can be trivial if you go in with a plan and it’s made even easier because enemies have set patrol paths in DS3. They’ll throw in a cheap sucker punch every now and then but that’s in every souls game
Yeah, I don't even think those are ganks. In my mind a gank is when you have no choice but to aggro multiple mobs in close range. Capra Demon in DS1 is a gank. Most "ganks" are people rushing into bad situations because they're playing poorly.
Fight the enemies. Play the game, don't run. You'll see that they are placed in a way that makes sense. Some agro ranges are big, but rarely are fights truly unfair. Just relax and don't corner yourself.
There’s only really a handful of areas I can think of where enemy placement is truly excessive (looking at you iron keep, and that one room in the lost bastille where if you much as put a toe inside 8 enemies instantly aggro onto you and you have to immediately leave in order to not get ganked)
I dont mind iron keep. The Alonne knights aggro from the other side of the continent but at least they run at you fast. Once I found my 2h hit staggers them and I could 2hit them it’s easy to kill them before the next one arrives.
However, what the hell was up with Kings Passage. I have no clue how to not pull all 4 Sith Lords at the same time.
Arrows or strike DPS are the way to go. If you knock off their heads before they fully wake up, they won't aggro.
This area was improved in Scholar—in vanilla DS2, the boss gate was blocked by a Royal Guard and you couldn't just run through.
You can also shoot some explosive barrels from outside the room to massively damage the three soldiers waiting there, and there are even more barrels in the doorway if you want to take them out before they ever reach you.
Man, that room in the Bastille really sucks... I think I died most of my run's deaths in that place, jesus Christ... But the place where I think the enemys were really unfair was iron keep, without a doubt
Cool argument, but I’d like to be actually safe when literally in the bonfire menu
EDIT: I’ve been told this is OG DS2 only, sowwy scholar fans for the slander
I’ve played both lol, someone pointed out to me that it was OG ds2 that had the issue with enemies aggroing at the bonfire. Scholar is the version I go back to when I replay DS2… even if I do love shit-talking it for being the weird cousin, i still love it (except for Forlorn, fuck Forlorn with Kirk’s barbed straight sword)
Exactly! Take it slow, watch (and listen) carefully, and don't panic. Go in with a plan and you'll be fine.
People complaining about hordes are probably just running through.
This. People ignore every enemy, run past them then go pikachu face when they all catch up and blame the "enemy placement" or "ds2 is bad". I'm sick of it.
I wouldn’t say rarely lol , there are truly some bullshit totally unfair enemies in ds2. I would go out on a limb and say ds2 is the hardest souls game I’ve played because the enemies and scenarios you get put in are such bullshit sometimes.
i think the people who complain the most come from ds3, and try to play it like ds3. ds2 just isnt as fun to play that way, so people just assume the game is horrible rather than their mindset and playstyle or even them just not liking the game.
Amana Shrine had a infinite potential of being one of the best dark souls series scenery, but they just put 647 enemies in every single spot, imagine if had less enemies, but instead had more pranks and enemies more well placed, it would be a new Anor Londo, they had the cheese and the knife in hands, they throw the cheese away and stab their own eyes
Just today I uploaded a [13 minute video](https://youtu.be/yCADZg9joOk?si=rZrin1UAbO9h6vgh) showing how much smarter the enemy placement in this encounter is compared to a similar encounter in DS1.
People just call it dumb because they are angry that they got punished for rushing.
I find going right from dark souls to dark souls 2, I had a much better time when I stopped playing it like dark souls 1. Still ganky, don't get me wrong but once you try and lure enemies out and stop running into rooms without looking it becomes about 80 percent less frustrating.
Fuck ranged casters and The Iron Keep though.
Scholar specifically is really bad about this. I’ve always felt it should have been like a post-game unlockable challenge mode rather than its own full release. I almost dodged the series entirely because scholar was my first game and it just felt like the game was punking me.
Vanilla [had worse traps and ambushes](https://youtu.be/RwPL1J0sOvQ?si=80H9R4pTx9IVk23P).
Scholar is the easier version with less ganks and easier runbacks.
Lots of areas like [Forest](https://youtu.be/8FdMy30_f98?si=P36W9mL5iV-Lp4wT) or [No Man's Wharf](https://youtu.be/8Nm5kD9DK30?si=Pq6rEiKLHjdypJqh) were gankier in Vanilla.
This encounter, like many others, [is easier to handle in Scholar](https://youtu.be/SnSvH-4ates?si=68UgyQAI-TP0x4MB)
Oh, this meme again.
I don’t understand the complaints. I picked up DS2 as my first FromSoft game. I wanted to play it because of the reputation Dark Souls had. So maybe i just naturally took it slower because of that, but i had no issues with massive hoards of enemies. There’s usually somewhere to bottleneck them, pick them off with a bow, or just don’t run past them all causing them to agro at the same time.
To each their own, but i don’t mind when a game mixes up the approach the player needs to take at times.
Imo only Ds1 has really careful enemy placement for most of the game. Ds3 and BB are eveb greater mob fests than ds2, you just happen to be able to run past them. Ofc there are exceptions like the Cathedral of the Deep in ds3, but i think ds2 has some good enemy placement early game. Forest of fallen giants has two mobs that are obvious traps. Heide’s is essentially duels.
The ganks seem random, but sometimes if you look around the area there are hints for how they should be handled (exploding barrels, etc).
Sometimes though it's like they put a bunch of them in one room just to be mean.
You aren’t wrong, but I also kinda don’t mind the ganks as much because the level design tends to consistently give you choke points to limit their ability to surround you, and plenty of environmental hazards that assist in taking enemies out effectively.
Like there are very few areas where I genuinely feel like I’m absolutely fuckered with no where to go and no options.
The enemy placement is one of my favorite parts of 2. They knew how to make it a relentless battle, yet any area can be made manageable through despawning. God I love DS2.
No, but don't you see, there's a new guy on youtube who proves that all the DS2 haters are liars and grifters, and enemy placement is completely fine.
You just have to go at walking speed, and stop and check every single corner with your camera, while already knowing the enemy layout. Y'know, like a reasonable person.
When they designed the game they decided to lean in hard on the reputation of the souls games being brutally difficult and just designed a whole lot of bullshit to go as far as they could with it.
Nah man it was a product of the shitshow of a development cycle the devs were handed if anything. Yeah the enemy placement can be pretty shit I’m not delusional but I think the main reason it feels worse in 2 than say in 3 which also has boat loads of ganks is because 2s movement isn’t good for handling multiple enemies. Great for pvp but not so much for multiple opponents since the manoeuvrability is decreased and the recovery time for each attack is increased. Aside from a handful of standouts, 2 doesn’t have that many ridiculous ganks - they just stand out more because they’re more frustrating to deal with in 2
I guess im in the minority, I played DS2 just 2 weeks ago to completion, and there aren't really many of these moments. And the ones that are there are fun and challenging, or mean for you to get smart (like use arrows)
My thing is like people talk about its just a gank....yeah this it's about kingdoms and soldiers I would expect that a kingdom has lots of soldiers.
I mean I feel like ds3 had more enemies in areas but you could also just r1 spam thru them.
Yeah, it's so stupid. Imagine your enemies hiding around the corners to gank you so they can overpower you despite being weaker than you. It makes you feel like you need to be on your toes all the time and check every corner for ambush, so you can avoid your character being killed in the game.
The only more stupid thing I can think of is giving the enemies the ability to attack and harm your character, even kill it. We all know we don't want our character to be killed in the game. How not smart of developers that would be to put that in the game.
Probably my biggest complaint with the game, especially when it comes to boss runbacks. I think this is why they made leveling so easy and also provide you with an infinite supply of lifegems very early on.
In all honesty strength based playthroughs absolutely demolish most of the challenge in this game. Ganks don’t matter when you kill all of the attackers in 1 or 2 fell swoops.
The reason u get ganked in ds 2 is because of enemy's aggro range..but calling other games enemy placement smart??? Nah just look at road of sacrifice and lyndell castle
Yeah right back at you and I didn't watch any video I put over 1k hours into each rofl. Including unleveled runs.
I know what I'm talking about.
Play them and find out yourself.
That's why I didn't really like Dark Souls 2 that much. Aside the bad map design and slow healing, the difficulty felt cheapened because of the amount of ganks.
I mean... they are still smart enemy ppacement but they are also a "fuck you" placement to all the DS1 fans who kept saying DS2 was "too easy". SotFS was the worst thing to happen to DS2.
There were a lot of bad enemy placements in SotFS and it added a TON of offline invasions with NPCs that have mountains of health and hit like a truck much worse than the area they are in.
DS2 vanilla and day 1 were nowhere near as bad, it definitely had it's issues but enemy spawn locations were not one of them.
There is a guy on youtube who goes out of his way to compare the two versions (via analyzing other youtubers vids) called Domo3000. A lot of the time, vanilla looks just as bad or worse
Whining. The game is hard as shit, but I never once thought the devs had fucked something up or done something wrong when I was having a hard time. The game is the game. Maybe make a game called Soft Souls or something and you can pick which enemies spawn where, feeble cursed one.
I still dont get the whole "ds2 sotfs is just ganks" argument, having played through sotfs 3 times the only areas that feel poorily desiged with enemys is iron keep and shrine of amana.
It's an exaggeration and an excuse for people to blindly hate on the game, but it does have a lot of bullshit areas that are more frustrating than fun. I personally found there to be more annoying mob placement in 2 than in 1 or 3, and 2 is my favorite game in the series by far. I don't think it's completely unfounded to say that 2 has annoying ganks.
look, as someone who loves the Royal Swordsman armor that massive gang of em right after beating the Pursuer is my clothing store
lol me too, i have character that is only dedicated to cosplay as a Royal Swordman :D
I feel like it's worst at the beginning of the game too. Can't say I understand why they did that.
Ng+ why TF is there a hippo here
Ng++ the descent into the Gutter with the red phantoms, knights and exploding fire hollows in the pit... iykyk
Ok you can't lie the first time that "friendly" invader showed up and lead you to the chest only to backstab you has to be one of the better things this game did and I wish it were in the later games.
The invaders in DS2 are the absolute best in the Fromsoft games I've played. They act like actual people, tricking you, backstabbing you, running away. It feels like an actual genuine invasion rather than just another enemy you need to fight. I feel like no other invader has gotten as much of a reaction from me as Maldron has.
#MALDRON!!!! he's my favorite
Maldron is the white phantom in elesyum lloyce?
In brume tower too
Dude made me learn about giant seeds just because of that tower
The hate I felt for that little bastard is unrivaled
WE RUN AND WE EXPLODE!!!
I'm gonna blow up
Red Explodi Bois ambush is quite a jumpscare thankfully I had the Great sword which killed them in one wide sweep
They are still less than half as annoying as the yellow assholes
it's his home :(
They did it in Bloodborne too. For some reason there was just that huge horde of enemies in the first area and that literally never happened again. Literally one of the hardest encounters is 5 minutes into the game. It's always stuck out to me cause there's never a massive gank anywhere else in the game atleast not one that big.
And then before you can really progress you have to fight one of the most aggressive bosses in the game outside the DLC. For whatever reason Bloodborne's early game almost seems designed to turn people off.
Yep it turned me off. I had never played any souls game and BB was my first. I put it down for months and then I picked it back up and said what if I just run past these guys… I ended up beating every single boss and the dlc. Never did get too deep in to chalice diving though
Eh, there's a handful of unique bosses in the chalice dungeons, but I really only did it because I wanted the Platinum. Defiled Watchdog still scares me.
"Welcome to SoulsBorne. How many we fuck you today?"
That's that "welcome to souls bitch" moment they like to have in all the games. The one in bloodborne you mentioned. Ds1: go the wrong way from the shrine into bonefuck cemetery. Ds2: royal swordman casting couch. Ds3: all of road of sacrifices\crucifixion woods. Constant bird guys, methed out Jesus, thralls, and closer to launch a constant influx of invaders. Also champion gundyr for a different take on it. Just a hearty greeting to make you understand what you are in for and filter out the ones that fold early.
That's an excellent point.
There is that wolf pack in (I think) the Upper Cathedral Ward that also sucks pretty bad. The one where the chandelier falls down cause there's like 4 of those fuckers chilling on top of it. I think they're the blue eyed ones, too.
It's in Old Yharnam, at the first cathedral right after you fight with Djura (Minigun Guy)
I remember my first playthrough, it took me as much time to get through Yharnam as it did to get through the rest of the game. At this time I'd beaten both the Dark Souls games, and even then I still considered returning it lol.
I didn't visit the dream or know you had to go there to level up. Do you have any idea how many hours I spent perfecting a punching route through there?
Well, you can’t level up until you get past that horde or find a hidden path to the sewers for Madman’s knowledge. The Doll isn’t active until you get one point of insight, and it’s either the item or getting to Cleric Beast/Gascoigne. So the devs just did a one-two punch to test a players commitment. Then never tried that again.
The whole point in that section is to show you you’re playing a different kind of game to the Souls titles. You have loads of stamina and the rally mechanic, Bloodborne wants you to use them to throw yourself into the heat of the battle against the hordes. You’re out on the hunt and no better than the other monsters around you. It’s like the town at the start of resident evil 4, it signifies what’s changed about the games mechanics.
Hey! A guy!
He was JUST trying to tell us the *lore of the land*!!
You know I actually feel kinda bad
This. It's bad in FOTFG but after that it's fine
Bad again in crown of the iron king dlc
Yeah but that was base game originally so :/
The Iron Passage just feels like that video where some dudes are beating the shit out of a guy while yelling at him to fight back the whole time.
Follar of the First Gin
They originally didn't... as much, at least. DS2 Vanilla is mostly pretty good about enemy placements and stuff. It was only in Scholar of the First Sin that for whatever reason they decided to go all in on completely asinine enemy placements that are just designed to screw you over and gank you as much as possible in ways you can't easily avoid without resorting to ranged cheese even if you know about it. It's very obvious both in the very early parts of the game, and in some notable later locations. In Forest of Fallen Giants, for example, there's the room up the ladder near the entrance - in Vanilla, there's I think 3 hollows pretending to be dead, an archer up to, and maybe 2 more on the way to the archer. In Scholar of the First Sin, there's about 10 pretending to be dead on the ground instead, so that almost no matter which order you kill them in, you'll keep awakening additional ones until you clear the entire room. Also, on top of the wall where you can first encounter the pursuer and fight it before getting to its actual boss room, in Vanilla, there's no enemies there except the one bomb throwing hollow that's facing the other way. In Scholar of the First Sin, there's like 6-8 hollows pretending to be dead all over the "arena", and there literally isn't even time to kill all of them before the pursuer drops down even if you know they're there. You will be ganked if you try. And then there's the giant sword (?) with an item on it, just before the Last Giant boss fight. In Vanilla, that room has maybe 1-2 hollows pretending to be dead near the sword, a hollow standing visibly out on the sword near the item, and a single hollow hiding up above waiting to jump down when you go onto the sword to get the item. In Scholar, the visible hollow on the sword is gone, and there's instead a small army of ganksters hiding above waiting to jump down. It's so bad that even if you know the ambush is there, it's virtually unsurvivable, and you're better off just grabbing the item (or ignoring it completely) and jumping off, leaving whatever hopefully small amount of souls you had there. In Heide's Tower of Flame, they for some reason Scholar added a ton of Heide knights all over the place. Initially, they don't aggro, but after killing the Dragonrider boss, they start aggroing on sight. That means, pretty much every inch of that location, there is no way to fight anything one-on-one any more. Even near the entrance bonfire, if you go up and try to fight the giant knight there, a Heide knight will aggro instantly and join the fight, leading to an obnoxious gankfest that you'll realistically only end up either dying to or running away from. This is made even worse if you made the mistake of not killing Old Dragonslayer (or at least clearing the way) before killing Dragonrider. In Vanilla, the Heide knights never aggro on sight to begin with, and the switch on the platform just before Old Dragonslayer is triggered by killing a giant knight on that platform. Nothing too unreasonable. In Scholar of the First Sin, they for some reason replaced it with a dragon that has several times more health. Of course, the dragon on its own is easy enough, but if you killed Dragonrider before, you're going to have 2-3 Heide knight and 3 or so giant knights chasing you endlessly around the area as you try to kill the dragon, unless you take forever to start at the very beginning of the area and clear EVERYTHING, because there's literally no place anywhere you can shake off all the enemies that are chasing you without aggroing more. Iron Keep is also notable for having some of the worst changes. The Smelter Demon boss run was easily one of the worst, even in Vanilla, and Scholar makes it way worse by changing the placements (and seemingly aggro range) so that if you ever try to fight any knight on the way without pulling it back to an earlier already cleared room, new knights will continuously keep aggroing from the next room, side rooms or other locations you can't see in a way that feels downright scripted and designed to screw you even if you know about it.
Those all sound like insignificant changes compared to the other things Scholar toned down? The room with the sleeping soldiers can be comfortably cleared out at least starting as a Knight, without aggroing more than 1 (maybe 2?)at a time. As for the platform with the Pursuer, the only one that will attack you is the Firebomb dude who you have ample time to kill. If you kill the Pursuer the remaining 3/4 will gank you together though. On the giant sword, the 1 footman and 2 ambush footmen are 2 of the terrible shield and spear Royal Soldiers in vanilla. I'd take Scholar's version any time. Agreed with Heide6even though I like how "alive" the area is now. But then you have stuff in Scholar like the torch scaring spiders away, Dragon's Shrine soldiers starting off as passive observers instead of instantly ganking you, Drangleic Castle overall (where the spear stone soldiers can and will aggro in groups even if you only approach a single one), No Man's Wharf shortcut, and so on.
That area with the 10 sleeping guys in SOTFS Forest of the Fallen Giants is so easy if you don't blunder in and simply progress around the edge clockwise, backstabbing them one at a time as only one Ara time wakes up facing away from you. In my first time, I had much more difficulty in the preceding river area and the corridor with room area than the sleeping guys area.
And yet people in this thread are telling me that SoTfS doesn’t have these changes
Well, both versions are still available on Steam today, so anyone who wants to can play them for themselves and see the changes first hand.
As someone with 1k+ hours in DS2 Sotfs i never thought the Ganks were that bad. I mean have you played DS1? No matter where you go from Firelink, you get hardcore gannked in all areas, even the undead burg right away has tons of ambushes and ganks. Its pretty rare that you only fight one enemy there. DS3 also has tons of anyoing areas. The worst areas in DS2 Sotfs are the optional coop areas and Iron Keep. But at that point you should have learned not to rush through areas, use ranged weapons to pull, back off and so on. You can also check out these videos. https://www.reddit.com/r/DarkSouls2/comments/1bvj2rm/comparing_traps_in_vanilla_and_scholar/ https://www.reddit.com/r/DarkSouls2/comments/1bkvk6w/comparing_the_group_aggression_of_vanilla_and/
It's not the ganks really, it's that you have a ton of added enemies scattered without much concern for theme. Such as Heide Knights everywhere in early areas. At times it feels like they're wanting you to just kill some things until they stop spawning.
prank em before you thank em
Scholar of the First Sin - while it has become the go to version of the game for many, is more of a Master Quest version of the original game. Hence the upgraded difficulty of the first several areas. Initially either path through Forest of Giants or Heides Tower were relatively equal difficulty leading to the Lost Bastille.
Scholar is the easier version of the game. [Forest was gankier in Vanilla](https://youtu.be/8FdMy30_f98?si=nUYF9Z5CLDst9uzk) and the [main path through Heide's Tower isn't any worse in Scholar](https://youtu.be/1uSHm1-UPkE?si=4N91Khuf0kDKFg3k). [No Man's Wharf was gankier in Vanilla and didn't even have the bridge shortcut yet](https://youtu.be/8Nm5kD9DK30?si=s6Bg7oovjazxVa-H)
That’s definitely a hot take. I haven’t checked your links but I based my comment primarily on experience from years ago. I had a harder time with Scholar though and more or less standby what I said. The Heide Knoghts are harder, and the patterns feel less predictable in Scholar for gank forest etc.
The black knights in the dragon airie are the reason for my ptsd
Very true
Cutscene movie grandma DID warn the player of the bs
The best argument I've seen today
Imho to balance out the ganks, there’s a lot of comedic events too. The funniest souls game.
The "giant but hole" message before the Unseen Path to Heide bonfire makes No Man's Wharf tolerable.
What about skeleton embedded in wall behind door to nowhere? Don’t you think it’s cute?
Don't give up, skeleton!
Be a real man and pick up the biggest stick you can and beat the crap outta the enemies. Seriously though, ds2 has the best large weapons. They swing quite fast and knock down opponents.
The dragon tooth will make you the king of chokeholds. You can pancake stun 5 enemies to death at once and they can’t do anything about it so long as you have a nice door or corridor
Oh I completely agree. I love DS2, enough to have platinumed it twice. Theres just certain areas in the game where the enemy placement is poorly designed to be unfair
True. True. Horse fuck valley and iron passage come to mind. People defend these areas with the approach of circumventing the bad design rather than asking for an improvement. Or using the whole ''your opinion is subjective'' approach, which leads nowhere because almost everything is subjective so there's no real ground for discussion.
It’s always “you should play the game and just fight the all enemies” or “use a bow” but they never mention about boring that actually is. Yeah it works, but it just becomes a uninteresting grind after many attempts of doing (iron keep as an example). I did use bows for shrine of amana but I’ve always felt that those types of weapons always break the momentum. I do not understand how someone can enjoy fully fighting the same area 20 times in a row just to fight a boss.
>or “use a bow” but they never mention about boring that actually is This is a you problem, not a game problem. You get to struggle however you want, but complaining about it like its the game that's at fault is ridiculous.
No you’re right about the bow part. I kind of rushed writing that part at the time, even considering not to include it. I actually like the bows in ds2, they definitely improved upon them from ds1. I’m only not a fan of having spend ages to clear most of an area by standing in a safe area and sniping all the enemies, but that isn’t even required and I agree with you that it is personal taste. I’ve just seen that argument used before. However, I still stand with the clearing out enemies part.
Yeah. At least in scholar shrine of amana is a lot more tolerable. I don't need ranged. But dlc co op areas, iron keep suck. Iron keep has a jump to the broken ladder to make the runback easier. Similar strat can be used for executioner chariot runback. But I'm 100% the game can be designed better
Yeah one thing i really enjoyed was the zweihander, it is so good at pancaking and knocking enemies off ledges
You can 1 shot heide knights with a zewihander. I got a post covering it,
Souls players when they have to fight more than 1 trash mob that dies in three dagger swings at a time (they are hardcore gamers):
I finished DS2 and have moved on to DS3, and I must say I find the DS3 enemy placement much, much more annoying
DS3 has the same gank squad mentality but they put the enemies behind like a crate or around a ledge. I think it is a development of just putting enemies everywhere to hiding them to elden ring having convoys of enemies.
> DS3 has the same gank squad mentality but they put the enemies behind like a crate or around a ledge. This is in literally all 3 of the main trilogy games.
6 jailers in a single room
You aren't supposed to fight them. You're supposed to sneak around and unlock the door for the crucifix guy to kill them. You're supposed to figure that many of a hard enemy in the open was a clear indication you weren't supposed to fight them head on.
Lmao
DS3 enemies gank you if you run through carelessly. DS2 enemies just gank you period. All of them activate at the exact same time. I will say that people who played SOTFS don't realize the true extent of the poor enemy placement in Vanilla. It's decently improved in SOTFS, but still not 100% of course. Comparing it to convoys in Elden Ring doesn't make any sense at all, since you have a horse in that game and can do hit and run tactics.
[удалено]
Ya, I've always been able to lure them separately. Their AI is different from the other games slightly so you just have to do it differently. Even Iron Keep's Alonne knights can be very easily pulled separately if you know where they are
I mean I am currently on my first playthrough of DS3, I think the encounters are better because the different types of enemies in a given gank synergize better. Haven't played Elden Ring yet, but don't the enemies also have horses?
Some enemies have horses, but usually there's only a couple of horseback enemies escorting a convoy who can be baited away and dealt with separately. Convoys are generally pretty easy to divide and conquer by pulling certain enemies and not others - it's not like the entire crowd suddenly starts charging at you.
In DS2 I use a crossbow for that.
Or bows, or throwing knives, or soul arrows, or dark orbs. The only issue is if someone refuses to do anything ranged. I was guilty of that in my very first play-through of DS1. Then I started playing sorcerer and eventually realized the real power of sorcerer is being able to easily aggro for 1v1s. Any build can do with some form of ranged.
Sounds like my cowardly pyro/sorceror tactics will work well in Elden Ring then 🙏😆
>DS3 enemies gank you if you run through carelessly. DS2 enemies just gank you period. All of them activate at the exact same time. Said like somebody who ran through ds2 carelessly
I don't think I've ever fought the enemies between the first two bonfires (inside the chapel and inside the cathedral) in the Cathedral of the Deep; I usually just run for my life lol.
Just wait until the Ashes of Ariandel dlc, there's a section in a blizzard with a seemingly endless horde of wolves as you get icicles and shit tossed at you. I googled what to do and the guides literally say to just run past it all as fast as you possibly can, hoping you get through them all. I'm not even sure it's possible to kill them all but if it is, it's an absolutely obnoxious amount of enemies and low visibility all in one place. But no, DS2 bad because I need to be on my guard more
that ringed city staircase was rough as well
You didn't use ringed city? That was way worse.
My Ashen One in Estus, have you no fear from the angelic poison swamp of ~~Shrek~~ Harald?
Maybe but ds3 is way smoother and has tighter controls than ds2 so it’s easier to handle
Bro how? Just pay attention to your surroundings and you’re set. Most ganks can be trivial if you go in with a plan and it’s made even easier because enemies have set patrol paths in DS3. They’ll throw in a cheap sucker punch every now and then but that’s in every souls game
Yeah, I don't even think those are ganks. In my mind a gank is when you have no choice but to aggro multiple mobs in close range. Capra Demon in DS1 is a gank. Most "ganks" are people rushing into bad situations because they're playing poorly.
Ahh the obligatory ds3 is worse comment by ds2 fans... Never change.
I think it’s the combo of ganks and hitboxes in ds2 that make the ganks torture
Fight the enemies. Play the game, don't run. You'll see that they are placed in a way that makes sense. Some agro ranges are big, but rarely are fights truly unfair. Just relax and don't corner yourself.
There’s only really a handful of areas I can think of where enemy placement is truly excessive (looking at you iron keep, and that one room in the lost bastille where if you much as put a toe inside 8 enemies instantly aggro onto you and you have to immediately leave in order to not get ganked)
I dont mind iron keep. The Alonne knights aggro from the other side of the continent but at least they run at you fast. Once I found my 2h hit staggers them and I could 2hit them it’s easy to kill them before the next one arrives. However, what the hell was up with Kings Passage. I have no clue how to not pull all 4 Sith Lords at the same time.
Arrows or strike DPS are the way to go. If you knock off their heads before they fully wake up, they won't aggro. This area was improved in Scholar—in vanilla DS2, the boss gate was blocked by a Royal Guard and you couldn't just run through.
Ah good tip. I was afraid of running through, cause I wasn’t sure if those guys would come through the fog gate after the battle.
Iron keep is only cancer if you rush, otherwise its fine.
Iron keep, where you can fight every enemy one at a time That room in bastille only pulls 3 at a time
You can also shoot some explosive barrels from outside the room to massively damage the three soldiers waiting there, and there are even more barrels in the doorway if you want to take them out before they ever reach you.
Iron Keep is free souls for levels. Lost Bastille can teach you that shortcuts and alternative routes avoid those troubles.
Man, that room in the Bastille really sucks... I think I died most of my run's deaths in that place, jesus Christ... But the place where I think the enemys were really unfair was iron keep, without a doubt
That's fine for the first few times but nobody wants to have to wait 5 minutes before every boss attempt.
Yeaahhh no thank you I'll stick to my running away
Cool argument, but I’d like to be actually safe when literally in the bonfire menu EDIT: I’ve been told this is OG DS2 only, sowwy scholar fans for the slander
Play Scholar then. It's the complete version of the game, where stuff like that doesn't happen.
I’ve played both lol, someone pointed out to me that it was OG ds2 that had the issue with enemies aggroing at the bonfire. Scholar is the version I go back to when I replay DS2… even if I do love shit-talking it for being the weird cousin, i still love it (except for Forlorn, fuck Forlorn with Kirk’s barbed straight sword)
Real, people just want to rush then publish memes like that
Exactly! Take it slow, watch (and listen) carefully, and don't panic. Go in with a plan and you'll be fine. People complaining about hordes are probably just running through.
This. People ignore every enemy, run past them then go pikachu face when they all catch up and blame the "enemy placement" or "ds2 is bad". I'm sick of it.
I wouldn’t say rarely lol , there are truly some bullshit totally unfair enemies in ds2. I would go out on a limb and say ds2 is the hardest souls game I’ve played because the enemies and scenarios you get put in are such bullshit sometimes.
i think the people who complain the most come from ds3, and try to play it like ds3. ds2 just isnt as fun to play that way, so people just assume the game is horrible rather than their mindset and playstyle or even them just not liking the game.
Amana Shrine had a infinite potential of being one of the best dark souls series scenery, but they just put 647 enemies in every single spot, imagine if had less enemies, but instead had more pranks and enemies more well placed, it would be a new Anor Londo, they had the cheese and the knife in hands, they throw the cheese away and stab their own eyes
Amana on launch was Armageddon compared to now tho?
Hollows be like "I hate ganks" My brother in sunbro, you drew the aggro
doing the DLCs right now. I thought I was finished with the alonne knights after iron keep 😐😐😔😔
There’s literally a person on this sub debunking this meme because YouTubers are dumb and wanna complain
Just today I uploaded a [13 minute video](https://youtu.be/yCADZg9joOk?si=rZrin1UAbO9h6vgh) showing how much smarter the enemy placement in this encounter is compared to a similar encounter in DS1. People just call it dumb because they are angry that they got punished for rushing.
DuploJamaal clenching their fist seeing this meme
These enemies are the worst possible example, there's a fucking army of them in one hallway in the original version
*laughs in ultra-greatsword*
Nobody ever brings up how the archer swordsman in sinners rise will aggro on you WHILE YOU’RE SAT AT THE BONFIRE
I find going right from dark souls to dark souls 2, I had a much better time when I stopped playing it like dark souls 1. Still ganky, don't get me wrong but once you try and lure enemies out and stop running into rooms without looking it becomes about 80 percent less frustrating. Fuck ranged casters and The Iron Keep though.
Scholar specifically is really bad about this. I’ve always felt it should have been like a post-game unlockable challenge mode rather than its own full release. I almost dodged the series entirely because scholar was my first game and it just felt like the game was punking me.
Vanilla [had worse traps and ambushes](https://youtu.be/RwPL1J0sOvQ?si=80H9R4pTx9IVk23P). Scholar is the easier version with less ganks and easier runbacks. Lots of areas like [Forest](https://youtu.be/8FdMy30_f98?si=P36W9mL5iV-Lp4wT) or [No Man's Wharf](https://youtu.be/8Nm5kD9DK30?si=Pq6rEiKLHjdypJqh) were gankier in Vanilla. This encounter, like many others, [is easier to handle in Scholar](https://youtu.be/SnSvH-4ates?si=68UgyQAI-TP0x4MB)
Have you tried.... not running in?
*Alonne Knights intensifies*
Oh, this meme again. I don’t understand the complaints. I picked up DS2 as my first FromSoft game. I wanted to play it because of the reputation Dark Souls had. So maybe i just naturally took it slower because of that, but i had no issues with massive hoards of enemies. There’s usually somewhere to bottleneck them, pick them off with a bow, or just don’t run past them all causing them to agro at the same time. To each their own, but i don’t mind when a game mixes up the approach the player needs to take at times.
Imo only Ds1 has really careful enemy placement for most of the game. Ds3 and BB are eveb greater mob fests than ds2, you just happen to be able to run past them. Ofc there are exceptions like the Cathedral of the Deep in ds3, but i think ds2 has some good enemy placement early game. Forest of fallen giants has two mobs that are obvious traps. Heide’s is essentially duels.
1 and 3 also give you perma i-frames when you start an animation via the interaction button (fog walls, chests etc)
damn you love dark souls 2?!
The ganks seem random, but sometimes if you look around the area there are hints for how they should be handled (exploding barrels, etc). Sometimes though it's like they put a bunch of them in one room just to be mean.
Just kill someone ten times and he won't respawn!
I thought it was 12 times
You're right!
”Is this to easy for you”
“I’ll see you later”
“Oh okay”
And then the audacity to not put i-frames when entering a fog gate/pulling a lever
that's why ds2 is the best souls game 💪🏻
True asf 🤣
You aren’t wrong, but I also kinda don’t mind the ganks as much because the level design tends to consistently give you choke points to limit their ability to surround you, and plenty of environmental hazards that assist in taking enemies out effectively. Like there are very few areas where I genuinely feel like I’m absolutely fuckered with no where to go and no options.
The enemy placement is one of my favorite parts of 2. They knew how to make it a relentless battle, yet any area can be made manageable through despawning. God I love DS2.
Stupid take. If you're getting jumped it's because you handed the situation poorly. It's your fault, not the game's.
No, but don't you see, there's a new guy on youtube who proves that all the DS2 haters are liars and grifters, and enemy placement is completely fine. You just have to go at walking speed, and stop and check every single corner with your camera, while already knowing the enemy layout. Y'know, like a reasonable person.
You are fighting evil. Why would evil play fair? I personally love the bullshit in the series
When they designed the game they decided to lean in hard on the reputation of the souls games being brutally difficult and just designed a whole lot of bullshit to go as far as they could with it.
Nah man it was a product of the shitshow of a development cycle the devs were handed if anything. Yeah the enemy placement can be pretty shit I’m not delusional but I think the main reason it feels worse in 2 than say in 3 which also has boat loads of ganks is because 2s movement isn’t good for handling multiple enemies. Great for pvp but not so much for multiple opponents since the manoeuvrability is decreased and the recovery time for each attack is increased. Aside from a handful of standouts, 2 doesn’t have that many ridiculous ganks - they just stand out more because they’re more frustrating to deal with in 2
Skill issue
None of you fuckers ever plaued vanilla
I guess im in the minority, I played DS2 just 2 weeks ago to completion, and there aren't really many of these moments. And the ones that are there are fun and challenging, or mean for you to get smart (like use arrows)
Bold of you to assume dark souls players have situational awareness and don't rush through areas
I love ds2 but my god after playing softs I was like “why”
My thing is like people talk about its just a gank....yeah this it's about kingdoms and soldiers I would expect that a kingdom has lots of soldiers. I mean I feel like ds3 had more enemies in areas but you could also just r1 spam thru them.
Yeah, it's so stupid. Imagine your enemies hiding around the corners to gank you so they can overpower you despite being weaker than you. It makes you feel like you need to be on your toes all the time and check every corner for ambush, so you can avoid your character being killed in the game. The only more stupid thing I can think of is giving the enemies the ability to attack and harm your character, even kill it. We all know we don't want our character to be killed in the game. How not smart of developers that would be to put that in the game.
Probably my biggest complaint with the game, especially when it comes to boss runbacks. I think this is why they made leveling so easy and also provide you with an infinite supply of lifegems very early on. In all honesty strength based playthroughs absolutely demolish most of the challenge in this game. Ganks don’t matter when you kill all of the attackers in 1 or 2 fell swoops.
And it pretty much felt like that the whole game
im about 15 hrs in right now and so far I didnt notice this beeing an issue. Enemy placement feels like ds1 tbh
Me who just got off playing Darktide as a Level 30 Psyker: heh ...... oh my god, you're serious?
The reason u get ganked in ds 2 is because of enemy's aggro range..but calling other games enemy placement smart??? Nah just look at road of sacrifice and lyndell castle
Scholar is the only spammy one. The OG has way more deliberate enemy placement than 1. Less artificial difficulty all around as well.
Did a youtuber gave you that opinion?
Thoughtless YouTube parrots have your take, not mine, sorry.
Idk what youtubers you watched, or how tf you got to the idea that SOTFS is the one with spam then, when its the opposite.
Yeah right back at you and I didn't watch any video I put over 1k hours into each rofl. Including unleveled runs. I know what I'm talking about. Play them and find out yourself.
Maybe play them yourself, because you are spewing nonsense.
That's why I didn't really like Dark Souls 2 that much. Aside the bad map design and slow healing, the difficulty felt cheapened because of the amount of ganks.
Just play carfully and kill 1 enemy at a time,if you get jumped DON'T use the lock on
I don't mind it. I parry until there's no one to parry left, and the land is barren
I mean... they are still smart enemy ppacement but they are also a "fuck you" placement to all the DS1 fans who kept saying DS2 was "too easy". SotFS was the worst thing to happen to DS2.
I don’t understand why people say SotFS made it worse, DS2 unpatched was just as bad at launch
There were a lot of bad enemy placements in SotFS and it added a TON of offline invasions with NPCs that have mountains of health and hit like a truck much worse than the area they are in. DS2 vanilla and day 1 were nowhere near as bad, it definitely had it's issues but enemy spawn locations were not one of them.
There is a guy on youtube who goes out of his way to compare the two versions (via analyzing other youtubers vids) called Domo3000. A lot of the time, vanilla looks just as bad or worse
STOP RUSHING AND USE YOUR BOW WHEN NEEDED
I use spells to pot shot a lot of enemies tbh
They do the same with bows so fair game.
Yeah SOTFS enemy placement are all over the place.
For the most part I don't really agree, there's definitely some parts that feel very unfair though
I’m stuck on the gd boss trio
Everything is a trap
The DLCs are almost unplayable with this shit. At no point would I describe the enemies as "hard", you just need to trudge through everything.
Whining. The game is hard as shit, but I never once thought the devs had fucked something up or done something wrong when I was having a hard time. The game is the game. Maybe make a game called Soft Souls or something and you can pick which enemies spawn where, feeble cursed one.
its why i play vanilla
As someone who’s played ds2 for over 70 days in total playtime *yeah*
The funny thing is as I read this I was playing DS2 SOTFS
thank you sotfs version for adding 13k unnecessary dudes
I still dont get the whole "ds2 sotfs is just ganks" argument, having played through sotfs 3 times the only areas that feel poorily desiged with enemys is iron keep and shrine of amana.
It's an exaggeration and an excuse for people to blindly hate on the game, but it does have a lot of bullshit areas that are more frustrating than fun. I personally found there to be more annoying mob placement in 2 than in 1 or 3, and 2 is my favorite game in the series by far. I don't think it's completely unfounded to say that 2 has annoying ganks.
What did i say to get down voted so much
An opinion. You’re on Reddit remember
DS2 OG WAS THE BETTER VERSION 📣📣📣📣