Is anyone else here a fan? I'll be mentioning some spoilers down below for ds2 btw, in case anyone cares lmao.
What's your favourite souls game?
Area?
Bosses?
NPC?
Build?
Talk about whatever related to the games here! Even about souls-likes, since some of them are pretty recent and popular like Lies of P.
I'll start the thread with a bit of a controversial take - DS2 is probably my favourite out of the 4 I've played! I truly love how the main characters quest doesn't seem to be as grandiose as linking the fire is, and instead you are taken into a world that is significantly less important to the souls universe as a whole. Once it's finally time for you to meet the King everyone has been hyping you up for throughout the game you set your expectations high - only to instead get shocked at his wandering state. For some reason stuff like that really stuck out to me in ds2 in particular, even though tragic stories are really just fromsoft 101. The combat is significantly slower due to the lack of animation cancelling but it doesn't take too long to get used to. I'll admit it does lead to more poke and run away early moments until you learn the exact animation lengths of the weapon you're wielding but with correct positioning you can avoid this issue on some bosses. I also feel like this slower combat lends itself favourably to slow and heavy weapons, which I came to prefer because of this game. Meanwhile Elden Ring and DS3 are so fast I would often feel overwhelmed with a slower weapon, or god forbid a fat roll, something that feels like an almost impossible choice to go with in those two. I usually play almost naked or in cloth armor anyway so it doesn't concern me but it does feel like the general boss/enemy speed went way up with newer titles. Which isn't bad but it does change how you should approach the game, especially as a new player. Idk I came to appreciate all the differences in playstyles between each title and I can't call DS2 bad simply because it takes a slower approach? Also I definitely enjoyed the PVP most in DS2, DS1 feels like backstab simulator and DS3 is just hmmm too floaty for pvp. Also general pvper culture is a lot more polite and comfy in DS2 but that could just be circumstantial!
Last but not least, I really dislike and am confused by the "DS2 is too ganky" crowd. I feel like I got surprised by an enemy coming out of nowhere way more times in DS1 than DS2, but maybe I'm insane. All the hard runs to the bosses can also be countered by killing a handful of enemies that pose issues, it's not necessary to kill each and every one.... Ok thank you for coming to my ted talk
