@Ilovegames1992: The more challenging something is, the more rewarding it is when you win. Being invaded sucks, no doubt, but there is also fun to be had... the thrill of the duel, and the thrill of stomping that invader. You know hes just trolling and griefing so it's that much better when you beat him.

One example is that I used to love zelda games, but i can't even get into the new ones anymore because of how stupid easy they are. Maybe I'm just old school... lol

I guess I like that punishment. It really makes you take your time and REALLY think about what you are doing, because if you screw up, the game only gets harder. In DS2 who cares... you lose a tiny bit of health and restart at a nearby bonfire.

There is only one single thing more challenging about DS2 and that is that they have boss fights with multiple opponents. All this does is force you to summon phantoms. Demon's souls was beatable without phantoms. It seems like Dark Souls 2 takes into account the fact that you will probably summon them, so makes it harder via quantity rather than quality of the boss.

The rest of DS2 was no where near as challening as Demon's Souls. The game was a cake walk due to multiple bonfires and lack of punishment upon death. They did have some cheesy hard parts, but again, not as bad because you respawn 10 feet away and try again.

@mastermetal777:

Pacing? In what way? I do enjoy the numerous sub bosses. If that is what you mean by pacing, then I do agree with that. However, SovietsUnited said it best. For ever step forward, they took two steps back. I can find things that they did better, but for ever 1, I can find 2 that they failed on.

I don't understand what you mean by giant safe zone? The nexus? The nexus was no more safe than the bonfires of the Dark Souls games. The difference is that there are bonfires everywhere in Dark souls 1&2, especially 2, and NONE in Demon's Souls. Demon's souls had the style of old nintendo games. You have to be a level from start to finish, including the boss. Sometimes there was a short cut, but if you die at the boss, you start the level over. Maybe being an old school gamer I can appreciate this more than many other younger gamers though? I wouldn't call it being masochistic. It is more rewarding beating a hard game than it is an easy game. Demon's souls was harder and thus more rewarding.

I already agreed with your third point. The connected world of Dark Souls was way better than the separate worlds of Demon's souls.

In my opinion, there were minor changes that made the Dark games better, but so many big changes that ruined the feel.

For starters, I'm not saying this is a bad game by any means. It's better than any other game out on ps3 (other than it's predecessors) in my opinion. I guess that I just expect the designers to improve upon previous games rather than make them worse. I even sent From Software a message telling them what to fix with Dark Souls and they did the complete opposite! lol, yeah I know, like they give a shit.

My gripes... (there might be spoilers)

PvP- The amazing part about Demon's souls is that you ran around in fear 24/7. Damn, was that an experience or what? No game has ever matched that feeling of despair and I've been gaming since the Atari days. I feel like they catered to the cry babies. Random invasions in Demon's souls were exhilarating. Yes they sucked, but that's the point of the Souls games, they hit you with so much BS that when you succeed you are over joyed. In DS2, you spend expensive cracked orbs to invade someone. The invaded goes and summons 2 people, and you get to 1v3 without heals. Limited much?

World - This is one thing DkS had over Demon's Souls. Everything was just one big world. Sure DS2 was one world, but it was too spread out and unconnected in a feel sort of way. So often in Dark Souls you could look over across the horizon and see a different part of the world you were in previously. Not true in Dark Souls 2.

Atmosphere - Demon's Souls destroys in this area. Neither of the Dark games matched Demon's as far as dark, nasty, creepy ass shit. The Tower of Latria and Valley of Defilement... need I say more? Even the Boletarian palace was dark all because of that fat creepy looking Official guy laughing at you, sinister.

End boss - Wow, Nashandra was effing lame. First off, I didn't even know it was the end boss until I killed her. Very anticlimactic. Second, too easy. Many other bosses were harder. She was simple. Get in close, dodge attacks, do some damage. Dodge some attacks, heal. Rinse, repeat, dead. Very disappointing.

Anyone else feel the same? Not that the game was bad... just... let down. Not as impressive as Dark Souls, and not as emotion invoking as Demon's Souls.

PS3 seems to be lacking in the co-op hack n slash or dungeon crawl type games.

I am looking for some games that the family can play together. They both seem to like games such as baldur's gate 1&2 for PS2. Other than dungeon hunter alliance which was nothing special, I can't seem to find others like baldur's gate. Any suggestions?

I'll be damned if I am paying twice for me and my g/f to play this game. I played the demo and its pretty, and fun, but it's still just a hack n slash. Blizzard thinks they are putting a stop to piracy by doing stupid crap like requiring a constant connection and forcing every computer to have a seperate key. Nope, all they did was stop me from buying the game... lol

It's a great game but it still has tons of flaws. PvP is sorely unbalanced. Sure you can DO some weird random stuff, but it doesn't mean your win % is goin to be all that high. There are tried and true builds, and few of them.

On top of this, basic mechanics... for example backstabs should only be capable with daggers or very small quick swinging weapons. Sorry, but backstabbing with a sword or hammer the size of a truck is just dumb. Also, doing backflips or even diving rolls with 200lbs (whatever havels weighs) of armor is absurd.

The ending sucked too, but w/e... Still a great game... I just hope the design team actually learns something. Though there were no huge changes from Demon Souls to Dark Souls, but w/e.