LogFAQs > #963468239

the more time that passes the more ridiculous dark souls 2 haters look. literally remember at the time one of the big complaints was that the game 'punishes you too much' by reducing your Max HP when you die. a mechanic which is now featured in 3 out of the 4 games with "Souls" in their title. out of those, Dark Souls 2's health mechanic is the most forgiving one; it only reduces your hp by a small % with each death, but allows you to completely refresh it with a single consumable which you find all over the place.

that being said I do agree that dark souls 2 should not have been the sequel to dark souls 1. it should have been demon's souls 2. feels incredibly obvious; both games have a hub world that splits off into four separate dungeon paths. once you clear all four of the main branches, you unlock the endgame section. the ability to warp directly into any of the previously reached archstones or bonfires without needing to walk everywhere. it's a huge difference which sets them apart from the dark souls 1 'interconnected world on a loop' philosophy.

the main thing that dark souls 2 builds onto the classic demon's souls formula is that there's just a ton more content. like, way more. I do understand that the game has a bit of filler but I also think if you removed all of the filler areas there would STILL be an incredible number of well designed areas, and they did manage to make it so that the most important areas in the game are usually the ones that got the attention they deserve. shulva and the brume tower in particular are some of the best dungeons, and they're balanced around the end game. this extends the amount of content you can enjoy while playing the game after you've reached the point where you should be most satisfied with your completed build. eleum loyce is a bit of a mixed bag with some incredible moments but more 'this is just annoying' sections than any other dungeon in the game.

(this change would also make dark souls 3 into the actual dark souls 2, which makes a lot more sense, because it's basically intended to be as directly influenced by dark souls 1 as possible...)