this post was submitted on 27 May 2025
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Soulslike - Discussion, News, Memes
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This is a community for discussion, news, and memes pertaining to the video game sub-genre "soulslike".
Given Lemmy's size, the definition of soulslike may be treated relatively loosely. While games like the numerous FromSoft titles, the recent Star Wars Jedi games, Lies of P, Nioh and similar games should be the focus, games that incorporate soulslike elements - like Hollow Knight and Blasphemous, for example - may also be discussed here.
Basic Lemmy-quette applies. Additionally, since flairs don't exist yet, please do make sure to include a marker to denote what game your post is about in square brackets for clarity's sake. An example could be:
[BB] This enemy is so difficult!
or
[DS1] Anyone struggling with the gargoyles?
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What's the issue with DS2? I haven't played a souls-like but all the arguments I see are as basic as "it's different!". It reminds me of the hate for mgs2. That game fucking ruled and I played them all in order including the msx ones.
DS2 is my favorite because its so different. Two of the things thats different that i loved was the ability to powerstance to duel wield any 2 weapons. The other was being able to snuff out whole enemies and make them extinct making that 15th treck to a boss so much easier.
It was also the first to introduce fast travel, which meant the areas werent super connected through shortcuts like the first.
Dark souls 1 had fast travel too but not to every bonfire and you had to reach a certain point in the game to unlock it
Demons souls had fast travel too technically but only between the hub and the start of each area (iirc)
That sounds pretty great to me!
Because its movement dead zones look like this:
And its dodge roll frames look like this:
While being less finished than the already jank and unfinished DS1. Also not taking the series in a new direction aesthetically or thematically while having a way less interesting world design than DS1 (which is something that people loved about DS1, there are 3 hour long videos analyzing DS1's map).
Somebody is gonna reply to this comment with a bunch of stuff they liked from DS2. That's great and I'm glad a lot of the cool stuff from DS2 ended up in Elden Ring, but they asked for the reasons people didn't like DS2. Those are the reasons. Somehow people think that a game having a cool thing in it means that any shitty things in it get canceled out and it should be illegal for you to talk about it. Or vice versa.
As someone who played DS2 before DS1, I didn't notice any of the problems you listed. I did notice that DS1 only lets you roll in 4 directions when locked on, though. I think DS1 veterans are most likely the biggest haters of DS2.
Edit: not to say the criticisms aren't valid for long-time players, but noobs like me seem less impacted
What? DS2 was way more finished and polished than DS1 on release. There's not a single area in DS2 that is even half as bad as Lost Izalith, and even the Kiln of the First Flame is clearly an incomplete work. And let me not even start talking about Anor Londor giant empty spaces with zero substance and stupid ass areas that make no sense. DS2 was a finished game on release, they even changed stuff up for the NG+. You don't do that unless your vision is pretty much done.
The iframes been linked with agility/adaptability is controversial but not necessary bad, you can invest some points and have more iframes than a midroll in DS1/DS3
I think the problem most people have is not with the mechanic itself but rather the obscurity and lack of explanations on the game's part. I haven't played the game myself, but afaik, the stat isn't explained all too well, so unless you're willing to put points into stats for the sake of experimentation or you already know what you're getting into, you probably won't be allocating points into this stat. Ultimately, you end up having a worse dodge roll than in other games without even knowing why