Dark Souls II
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Dark Souls II
Dark Souls II was a critical and commercial success. A remastered version of the game, titled Dark Souls II: Scholar of the First Sin, was released for
Gameplay
Dark Souls II is an entry in the
The game allows its difficulty to be adjusted by mechanics built into the game. The game designers placed certain
Plot
The story of Dark Souls II begins with a human who has become Undead, cursed to never die and doomed to eventually become a Hollow, a zombie-like being with no memories or purpose. The protagonist is also known as the Bearer of the Curse. To break the curse, the undead travels to the fallen kingdom of Drangleic and is tasked by the Emerald Herald with obtaining four Great Souls from powerful Old Ones whose names are long forgotten and forbidden. Once obtained, the Emerald Herald directs the undead to "Seek the King" in the capital. After fighting through the remains of the royal guards, the player encounters the Queen Nashandra, who reveals that the king failed in his duty and fled his kingdom long ago. She asks the protagonist to slay the king.
Near the end of the Queen's quest, the player learns that the ruin of the kingdom was in fact caused by Nashandra. She came to the king and deceived him into launching an ill-fated invasion across the sea into the lands of the Giants. She coveted their souls and sought to steal their power. Though the raid succeeded in stealing the Giants' unspecified power, the Giants retaliated. Invading Drangleic, the Giants eventually destroyed the kingdom. With his kingdom in ruins, the king discovered Nashandra's true purpose and locked himself inside the Undead Crypt.
In order to confront Nashandra, the player character travels to the keep of Aldia, the King's brother, to obtain the Ashen Mist Heart, an artifact that allows a form of time travel, by accessing the "memories" of corpses. The player must enter the memories of a deceased Giant to defeat the Giant Lord during the invasion and claim his power for their own. Confronting the Emerald Herald one final time, she states that Nashandra is a fragment of Manus, the final boss in the Artorias of the Abyss expansion in Dark Souls. She then asks the protagonist to put Nashandra to rest and to take the Throne of Want.
In the Scholar of the First Sin version of the game, the base story changes slightly, notably with the addition of Aldia after the defeat of Nashandra. If the player has defeated King Vendrick, Aldia attempts to help the protagonist understand that there might be a way out of the endless cycle of death and rebirth. The player is given a choice: they can either take the throne, thus allowing the cycle of Age of Fire and Dark to continue; or the player can reject the throne, resisting the effects of Hollowing and following their own unknown path beyond light or dark.
Development
Dark Souls II was announced at the
Dark Souls II features gameplay mechanics similar to its predecessor; Shibuya stated that he had no intention of changing the controls. The game features a whole new world, with many weapons that are used to fight the monsters in the game.[8] Covenants, a feature in the original Dark Souls, that allowed the player to align with different factions, make a reappearance, though it is easier to understand and more accessible.[8] The game world is roughly the same size as in Dark Souls, though content density is much richer, and gives players more freedom in how to progress, with the beginning of the game more accessible to newcomers.[9] The game retains the challenging gameplay characteristic of the original, as Tanimura explained: "We do not plan on having an Easy Mode since we are creating this game with a thought that challenge and difficulty are core elements of the game."[10]
The development team utilized a more powerful graphics engine for the sequel.[11] New challenges, adding to the series' documented difficulty level, were also added.[11][12] The game features a more advanced AI system, that allows enemies to react to a wider range of actions by the player.[12] In September 2013, an announcement regarding the delay of the PC version was made by Tanimura who said it was necessary to ensure it was optimal.[13]
Additional content
Scholar of the First Sin
On November 25, 2014, Bandai Namco Games announced an updated version of the game, Dark Souls II: Scholar of the First Sin, which was released on April 1, 2015, for PC, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360, along with
The existing PC version of Dark Souls II received the 1.10 patch at no charge; the remastered Scholar of the First Sin edition must be purchased separately, but is available at a discount to existing Dark Souls II owners. The remastered version uses
Reception
Aggregator | Score |
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Golden Joystick Award[49] | Best Gaming Moment (Nomination) |
Dark Souls II received universal acclaim, according to review aggregator Metacritic.[52][51][50] Critics praised the game's story, atmosphere, visuals, and environmental design, though some were critical of the boss quality, combat mechanics, and increased difficulty, adding that, in these regards, it fared poorly in comparison to the previous games (Dark Souls and its spiritual predecessor, Demon's Souls). Famitsu reviewed the game with four reviewers giving their opinions, who gave it 9/10/9/9, bringing the total score to 37/40.[30] IGN's critic Marty Sliva gave the game a score of 9/10: "Dark Souls II is a smart, massive, and incredibly rewarding sequel. It's crammed with deep systems, tense encounters, and enough clever multiplayer and New Game Plus elements to make me want to restart the second I saw the end credits. Not all of the tweaks and additions worked out for the best, the penalty for dying made the game almost unplayable but with such great enemies and levels to fight and explore, Dark Souls II made 60 hours of pain and agony so much fun they flew by in a heartbeat."[36] Daniel Tack of Game Informer gave the game a 9.75 out of 10, stating: "Dark Souls II is an epic adventure from start to finish packed with wondrous environments, imaginative and terrifying foes, and the continual adrenaline-apprehension rush of passing through each fog gate makes this title a must-play."[32] Polygon's Phil Kollar also gave it a 9/10, and similarly praised the ambition displayed by the team in creating such a vast RPG universe for the player to explore, the notorious difficulty, and the sense of triumph that comes with eventually defeating the game; he notes that his character died 235 times before completing it.[41]
Dark Souls II won the "
Sales
A few weeks after release, the game had shipped over a million copies within the United States and Europe.[55][56] A year after release, the game had sold over 2.5 million copies worldwide.[57]
Notes
References
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When you restart the game, you'll keep hold of all the levels you acquired in the first playthrough - as well as all of your items and souls - but you'll lose your keys and your Fragrant Branches of Yore
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There's no excuse for the durability bug to be part of Scholar of the First Sin. It's not limited to the PC version, either. The PlayStation 4 and Xbox One versions run at 60 frames-per-second. FromSoftware and Bandai Namco have not yet responded to my request for comment. You might not be surprised to learn that fans have decided to rescue the game again, however. DS2fix removes the durability bug from the game, in addition to addressing a few other issues.
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