Dark Souls 2 Vanilla vs Dark Souls 2 SOTFS

HereticBD

HereticBD

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Looking for some input. I've got a DS itch and DS2 SOTFS is on sale and I'm ready to throw down. I have DS2 vanilla on my dust covered PS3, though. What gives me a bit of pause, are some reviews I've seen that says it's inferior due to a ridiculous bump in difficulty, that doesn't feel natural. Like they just threw a bunch of mobs at you, with no thought. I've heard this complaint about the game over the years, but it never registered to me. I thought DS2 was pretty well balanced overall, so now I'm thinking that all those bitch fests I've read about, are talking about SOTFS and not the vanilla version.

I'm probably gonna dive in anyways just for the DLC, but I'd like to know what I should expect. Is it crazy stupid hard because of all the changes, or is that aspect being blown out of proportion?
 
From what I recall when making this choice a few years ago, SOTFS has better lighting/graphics and framerates. They changed some item locations too, for the better?

I'm not sure if Aldia appears in vanilla, but I recall him only being in SOTFS. He's p4p one of the most important lore NPC's in the series.

The game is sometimes made harder with cheap enemy placements.The controls are bit different too (limited directional movement) .

I got used to it pretty quickly. Aside from some rage moments with gank squads, inconsistent hitboxes, and some level design not making sense continuity wise, I love the game. There's so much content, and great content t too, especially tje DLC's.

One tip. Once I stopped using a shield (I prefer melee builds) the game was a lot easier.
 
Some areas are worse and some are easier because of new enemy placements. Heide's Tower of Flame is probably the most obvious example. It was pretty much an early freebie in Vanilla so they went overboard trying to spruce it up.

That said, I've done most of my playthroughs in Scholar and prefer it over Vanilla despite the dumb design choices. Definitely worth it for the performance boost and DLC's.
 
HereticBD said:
Looking for some input. I've got a DS itch and DS2 SOTFS is on sale and I'm ready to throw down. I have DS2 vanilla on my dust covered PS3, though. What gives me a bit of pause, are some reviews I've seen that says it's inferior due to a ridiculous bump in difficulty, that doesn't feel natural. Like they just threw a bunch of mobs at you, with no thought. I've heard this complaint about the game over the years, but it never registered to me. I thought DS2 was pretty well balanced overall, so now I'm thinking that all those bitch fests I've read about, are talking about SOTFS and not the vanilla version.

I'm probably gonna dive in anyways just for the DLC, but I'd like to know what I should expect. Is it crazy stupid hard because of all the changes, or is that aspect being blown out of proportion?
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My recollection is all those complaints you mentioned are actually from the vanilla version. I picked up DS2 on day 1 for my PS3 and right from the beginning people were bitching about “artificial difficulty” compared to DS1. I don’t know if SOFS made things any better or worse, but you may as well go with SOTFS.

Also, I played through SOTFS on PS4 about five years after DS2 vanilla + dlc on PS3 and I personally don’t remember SOTFS being any harder whatsoever than vanilla + dlc.
 
I havent played much of Vanilla, and didnt care for it. Ill try out SoFTs one of these days, but there are always better games to play lol.
 
People sleep on Scholar but it's amazing. So much to do and a lot of depth. And the base weapons you can wield are some of the best. Rapier and mace will carry you to the end of the game. Everything is weak to blunt or thrust damage.
 
Pretty much right outside the Anus Face Giant, or perhaps the true Pursuer fight? Can't remember which comes first.

I'm not a performance whore, but I'll say this, it makes the OG I played feel like slow motion. This is some crisp stuff. Looks and feels great.

I'm challenging myself with this one, so I'm avoiding shields. So far, so good. Rocking a +2 Morning Star at the moment, which is very crunchy. I'm trying to train myself for the Great Swords that come later, and so far I think I'm adapting well to focusing on foot speed and dodges, rather than leaning on the shield. Only got killed once in the early Pursuer area, which I believe added a bunch of enemies in this version. Didn't even get to fight the Pursuer. Just got gang raped.

All in all, liking it a lot. It's all coming back to me.
 
HereticBD said:
Pretty much right outside the Anus Face Giant, or perhaps the true Pursuer fight? Can't remember which comes first.

I'm not a performance whore, but I'll say this, it makes the OG I played feel like slow motion. This is some crisp stuff. Looks and feels great.

I'm challenging myself with this one, so I'm avoiding shields. So far, so good. Rocking a +2 Morning Star at the moment, which is very crunchy. I'm trying to train myself for the Great Swords that come later, and so far I think I'm adapting well to focusing on foot speed and dodges, rather than leaning on the shield. Only got killed once in the early Pursuer area, which I believe added a bunch of enemies in this version. Didn't even get to fight the Pursuer. Just got gang raped.

All in all, liking it a lot. It's all coming back to me.
Click to expand...
You're gonna love Iron Keep
 
Cannot see why someone would choose the vanilla. There are some dumb changes in Scholar , but, they are only small ones here and there, while the extra performance is throughout the entire game. Plus, all the DLC included.
Can definitely deal with the different enemy placements in some areas if it means the entire game runs smoothly. No brainer
 
ObsoleteSoul said:
Cannot see why someone would choose the vanilla. There are some dumb changes in Scholar , but, they are only small ones here and there, while the extra performance is throughout the entire game. Plus, all the DLC included.
Can definitely deal with the different enemy placements in some areas if it means the entire game runs smoothly. No brainer
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4 words. Fragrant branch of yore
 
deadshot138 said:
4 words. Fragrant branch of yore
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LOL, yeah. They even stuck a statue in the friggin' tutorial area. I hated that aspect in the original all the same, so it's shame they beefed it up. IIRC, the branches are pretty rare too. The game has enough path blocking elements, without the damn statues.
 
HereticBD said:
LOL, yeah. They even stuck a statue in the friggin' tutorial area. I hated that aspect in the original all the same, so it's shame they beefed it up. IIRC, the branches are pretty rare too. The game has enough path blocking elements, without the damn statues.
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I love how they stuck one in the path to the second bonfire in the black gulch so you couldn't just run past all the fuckery
 
deadshot138 said:
I love how they stuck one in the path to the second bonfire in the black gulch so you couldn't just run past all the fuckery
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and when you DO run past it you're praying for the slow ass animation to hurry up so you can reach said bonfire. What a troll From can be lol
 
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