Dark Souls vs Dark Souls II

Good question.

One that I cannot fully answer yet, as I have not finished DSII yet.

So far, I THINK I prefer DSII, it's a really nice natural evolution of the series, and it incorporates in my opinion, the best parts of both Demon's Souls and Dark Souls, and has a far more stable online environment than Dark Souls too.

The frame rate is far more stable in DSII than in DS1 too.

Only drawback so far is the boss design is really quite bland in DSII. None of the bosses really give me the impact that say the Tower Knight from Demon's Souls or the Gaping Dragon from Dark Souls gave me. They're still fun to beat no doubt, but they just don't feel so imaginative, and they're often very predictable to fight.

As an overall package though I think I prefer Dark Souls II, we need this asking again though after 6 months, so the novelty of Dark Souls 2 wears off.

It does some things better and some things worse. I can't say which is better overall yet because I haven't finished. I would also have to do at least one NG+ of DS2 because that's how long it took to really get the full effect of the first game

Thanks for the detailed answer! I do have to say though, so far you are the only one who has actually said that they prefer II to the original.

Have you looked in the DSII hype thread? It seemed quite a few there preferred the second.

Again though, needs time to really get a proper response that is definitely not carried on hype.

What I do look forward to though is NG+. It doesn't work in quite the same way it does in NG+ from Dark Souls 1. It adds new enemies, changes item drops and drop rates, and even adds new equipment that cannot be found in the first playthrough.

My vote goes to Dark Souls 2 considering it's multiplayer actually works, the framerate doesn't dip as much as the first, and it seems to be a bit more challenging.

In fact, it's my favorite of the 3 Souls games.

Dark Souls 2, my only problems with it have nothing to do with the actual game. I just hate the trophies they decided to do, just one weapon upgrade trophy and none for collecting all the legendary weapons. I'm gonna do it anyways but I think that's lame.

i haven't even played DS2 and i know it'll be better than DS1 because of length, more complex combat system and more stable online. I'll be all over dis bishes pvp this April

Still have yet to actually purchase DSII but I've played a bit with a friend's copy. Game seems to be a lot tougher with all the bosses where you're fighting multiple enemies and stuff like that, plus it just seems enemies take a lot more punishment, as do bosses. Also, I do not like the idea of soul memory at all, since it essentially punishes you for playing the online. but I still want to buy it and play through it all.

I'm only half way through the 2nd one. But I already prefer the original. It's just better.

Soul memory ruins online.

The world doesn't feel as connected as the first.

Dex characters are useless.

Lame way of handling weapon durability.

Bosses are easy (so far).

Dark Souls 2 all the way

I like they add aspects of demon soul and dark soul, but they also add new problem and map design not inspiring. And they reuse boss again.

Other Soul game remind me of zelda and metroid in 3d map. Dark 2 linear to me in many way, area are not as connected and do not lead back to base like church elevator in part 1, or you can see blight swamp from base camp, or see fortress from castle wall. Map seem lazy design to me, relying on bonfire to connect world instead of clever design.

Covenant are maybe more broken than 1, especial sentinal blue. Invasion are much more rare now because blood covenant, except in bell area where invasion does not stop.

I like they fix broken summon from Dark Soul 1 and more like Demon Soul now, your sign does not dissapear from invisible wall anymore and you can explore while wait to be summon. Becoming human from helping summoner seem not so clear however. I kill multiple boss for master, yet do not become human. I fall off into water and die in master world, and send back as human...

30min time limit for summon also seem broken, somebody I have exploring with me for seem like hour, while other are sent back half way through map maybe 15 min, then having to go back and summon again. This is not weak stone summon either.

Also, game encourage spam use of spell now they are stronger and item can add more uses. Especially effective to boss. So mage character can venture further with less investment than physical character.

Only thing I dislike about the 1st game is the amount of backtracking and grinding to farm certain items.

Heard DSII allows you to fast travel between bonfires which is GREAT!

I've played.. like 300 hours of Dark Souls with different builds trying different things out and what not. In my opinion they improved in almost everything in Dark Souls 2 in the gameplay perspective. But lasting appeal goes to Dark Souls 1 for one key element imo.

• First off: There's more places in the game. In a game like Dark Souls that's something you can always appreciate.
• Secondly: The covenants feel more finished, in dark souls 1 some of them felt incomplete and not completely thought out.
• Third: The character sluggishness. A lot of people say the gameplay is the same. It is not, the rolling and guarding is more limited. The time it takes to bring up the shield between attacks or roll out is longer than what it did in Dark Souls 1. For example in DS1 i could carelessly attack and guard and unguarded to maximize stamina consumption and recovery at no extra catch. On this one you try that out you're gonna eat everything if you don't time it right. So it feels like you need a bit more skill on this one than on DS1.
• Fourth: You instantly get Teleportation from the beginning. That was a very very very! annoying part about Dark Souls, the having to run through places over and over again in the first half of the game.
• Fifth: The difficulty feels pretty good. As a Demon and Dark Souls veteran i couldn't breeze through this game. There were parts in the game were i had to be careful on, and use my better judgement. I feel they've done a great job on the difficulty. Even for people who are familiar with the game still had to go back to use basics to survive.
• sixth: The stats. While this is more personal than any other i think it's great we have more stats around to have to bring yourself to limit your choices. Everyone in Dark Souls one easily max out the breakpoints on endurance that gave you the armor and stamina advantage. That was insanely huge. Now you have to consider more you stat points and it makes builds a bit more important.

The things that Dark Souls did better.

With out a doubt in my mind. The lore and characters and world in Dark Souls 1 was far more interesting. Dark Souls one felt like you was playing through the left over of history of that land trying to make a future of it even go as far as going to the past to meet legendary characters and take part of that legend. On Dark Souls 2, you start the game and you beat it and you're like what the fck just happened in my 40 hour journey ? you just remember your play-through. But did any of the adventure make sense to you? hell no. Which in turns makes for a disappointing last boss almost makes it seem like the last boss was just totally random. Unlike Dark Souls 1 who you know who you're going to end up fighting and know the importance of that character in the world you've given your time to get to know.

It's honestly a wash. Some things are better, some things are worse. I wish they just left Demon Souls altogether. Nothing about Demon Souls was better than Dark Souls. Why is there a lady who levels you up? It doesn't add anything to the game besides annoyance. I also feel that maximum health penalty discourages exploration, which is a flaw in DS2. The best part of DS1 was trying crazy jumps/runs to get items, seeing what's around the corner. But if you keep getting penalized for dying, it makes you not want to take risks. Which makes me minus points from Dark Souls 2. Also, being under constant invasion threat, even when hollow, was never a good idea.

I have mixed feelings on the finite enemy respawns. I also don't mind the new durability system.

I like the new estus/healing system. I also like how the online actually works now. I like being able to warp between bonfires from the start. I like how covenants actually do something now.

@ninjapirate2000: Yeah, I found that crush weapons pretty much dominate the game. I didn't mind the durability system, though.

Demon Souls is better than both and Demon Souls 2 will be as well with Miyazaki directing it and PS4 exclusive visuals.

Ugh, i really can't decide. They both do things better than the other. The only conclusion i can come to is that the lore in DS is much better. But you know fo sho my panties dropped to the floor and ran around the corner when Ornstein made his appearance.

They need to add the shadow of colossus/dragon's dogma climbing boss mechanic and then they would be the perfect games. I would love if you could climb up the gaping dragon. The stamina bar is there, the enemies are big it would be awsome. Just imagine an ogre grabbing your face as you are stabbing him in the head and he throws you off a cliff.

For me at the moment, Demon's > Dark 2 > Dark 1

I felt the combat was better in DS2. However, the bosses seem more forgettable and I'm not a fan of pvp in it's current state.

@StrongBlackVine: Atlus commented on Demon Souls 2 back in February they said there will be no Demon Souls 2. Google it it's on IGN.

The trophies are a little lame yes, but I wouldn't say for just that reason.

Some of the pyromancies/miracles/spells/hexes are locked behind highest rank of some covenants, and that annoys me a little that I have to swap between covenants so much in a single playthrough just to grab spells I'm never going to use. I know this was the same in Dark Souls 1, but there's far more locked behind covenant ranks this time...

Agreed with the combat and bosses... but what's wrong with the PVP?

I'm just not a fan. Poise and slow weapons seem kind of pointless right now. Everyone's using a fast weapon to try and stunlock.

Atlus does not own the Demon Souls IP so what they say is irrelevant. The lead person behind Demon Souls and the original Dark Souls was not a part of Dark Souls II...make of that what you will, but Demon Souls II on PS4 is very likely.

@jdc6305:

They then said that the ball is in Sony's court considering they're the ones that own the Demon's Souls IP.

I disagree. The poise means you have more chance to roll out of a stunlock, and I have seen plenty of people using (and kicking ass with) massive slow weapons. I feel stunlock is too easy to obtain though in this game, almost like it was in Demon's Souls, where you're pretty much screwed if the opponent has enough stamina.

I do however feel magic is overpowered. Some of the spells people can use are incredible, and very few shields or armour provide much protection against magic. Not only that, but infused weapons (even lightning and fire) nearly all scale with intelligence or faith which is unfair for those who are a strictly melee build.

The first game also allows you to do that, but it takes a while to acquire. It's cool that you can do it here from the get-go.

What I find odd is that you can only level at Majula. I'd rather be able to level at a bonfire, and continue my journey, rather than sitting through a load screen.

I have to adjust to the changes. It's just weird to get stunlocked by a dagger when wearing full havels. I have had a lot of success after getting my adaptability to 40 though.

Yeah that is a bit weird. I got stunlocked by a rapier as well at one point... A poison one no less....

Still managed to then slaughter them with my Dark bastard sword +10 though.

Adaptability is an amazing stat to level up. I think my agility is somewhere around 120 now. I'm still learning exactly what ways the agility helps though.

I switched to a quality build and started to use the sun sword. I've been faring well with it. Still trying to figure out how to counter pure casters though.

In terms of progression, I'm about an hour in (but with like 9 hours of play time). I can't answer that question.

I can say however that mechanically, II is much of an improvement over both Demon's and Dark, and the PC version is going to be amazing if they can nail 1080p @ 60fps.

This I don't get. It seems like they wanted to make it more difficult to level (by placing the sole person doing it back at the beginning), but give you a means to warp to that person at any time from any bonfire, making it essentially just like Dark Souls, only, like you said, making the player sit through (two, there and back) load screens to get it done.

This is one of those "bad design oversights".

I think it was designed so that the player feels more of a significant connection to Majula, and forces the player to appreciate the place more as a hub World and a safe zone than Firelink Shrine in Dark Souls.

That's the only reason I could think of for it being this way.

Pure casters are highly annoying. Especially since they can just spam the spells and even restore uses.

Only thing I have been able to do is carry a magic magic shield +9 (yes I infused a magic shield with magic so it blocks 100% magic) on my character off hand slot at all times. It's very light, but it's useless at blocking anything other than magic, and it has very little stability.

dark souls 1 had much better pve imo. but dark souls 2 has better pvp.

then again the community at large hasnt figured out how to break the pvp yet with cheap cookie cutter builds, but so far it feels alot less broken than dark souls 1 imo.

I'm saying Dark Souls because there was something "magical" about that game that isn't in the 2nd one. That doesn't mean Dark Souls 2 isn't an AWESOME game though.

@_Matt_: definitely, I looked through all the miracles, sorceries, and pyromancies and there is a shit ton more than dark souls. This platinum trophy is going to take a while, I also screwed up Lucietal of Mirrahs trophy .-.

It's likely the lore. Dark Souls 1 had awesome characters and an interesting story line with the characters.... Dark Souls 2 feels like it has too many characters filling in the spot and no boss in the game feels like it has any significance at all. Even the last boss feels kinda random even though she's the Queen and all. It feels like you have to force importance into her because the game didn't do a good job at it.

like that bastard that tries to kill the priest and you in dark souls 1 for example. Or the jerk that kills the fire keeper. Or Boobs being a giant illusion, and the story with the 4 knights.

Demons Souls. Can't forget the original Game Of The Year now can we that started it all ;)
Dark Souls 2 looks like a harder game to complete entirely.

Such a hard thing to answer for me. I love both to death

I'll put it this way, gameplay wise DSII is the better game. Combat is more refined and all the stats and the items are better balanced and laid out. Some enemies stop spawning with certain items and you can't farm the game as easily as in DS1. There is a lot better enemy variety in general and it has a great range of visually different areas. Online is better in DSII as are covenants and PVP. Keeping the levelling system tied to one are was also a stupid move, it adds in needless backtracking and tedium. I'm going to a bonfire to head back to Majula to level up just to go back to the bonfire and warp all the way back to where I was. Why not just do it at the bonfire again and save all that hassle?

DS1 though is better level design wise I think and they had an overall visual consistency to them that was nice and made the world feel big and connected. Warping right from the start felt good in DSII but it's only there because the levels/areas are too big for their own good. They're not as tightly interconnected the same way DS1 is. The shortcuts are lazily placed and you get far too many of them in DSII. I mean one area (location spoiler) the black gulch is tiny but has 2 bonfires in it at either end. The area is tough and poison land but having a bonfire right beside the boss made the area redundant. Bosses in DS1 are also far and away better, they have more style and panache and DSII's bosses sometimes feel really damn sloppy or rehashes of other bosses in previous games.

Overall I'd say I still like DSII more because it's a great game to play. I like Bonfire ascetics sending certain areas of the map into NG+ mode and I like the visual variety in DSII even if it feels a bit disjointed at times but it keeps the game fresh. I also liked the characters in DS1 more, not just the NPCs but the bosses and the people in stories and the lore. It felt dark and mischevious and very overpowering, haven't had a connection to the story or lore yet in DSII.

Ah screw it I love both for very different reasons lol I can't decide

I finally sat down and beat Demon's Souls about 3 weeks ago and LOVED it! I am now about half way through Dark Souls 1, and I got to say, while Dark Souls definitely has more bosses, and is an overall deeper game, I prefer Demon's Souls to Dark Souls. I like the dark environment Demon's Souls offers. Dark Souls feels a bit too "happy" for the type game it is. I like the way the worlds are connected in Dark Souls, but for some reason I still prefer the way Demon's Souls world is layed out. The environment in Demon's Souls to me just makes it feel like an overall better game than Dark Souls. With that being said, I have not played Dark Souls 2 yet, but I do plan on it in the near future.

Same here. Finding Dark Souls 2 to be substantially more fun, less cheesy, easier to connect with other players, more interesting and overall more fun than dark souls.

kind of funny that most people her ehave a hard time stating outright which is better, and I think I agree.

I like the mechanics and refinements to gameplay that dark 2 brings to the table, but so farI find the setting somewhat less interresting, it is still a good setting, but not the area of dark souls, and let alone demon's.

I think that overall I still prefer demon's the most, I liked how it was pretty much a gritty take on D&D with many long loved creatures from the PnP days making appearences (abeit with odd names and twists). It is likely that i playied that first that both the dark games has a less interresting setting.

But between dark 1 and 2? I have not gotten through dark souls 2 but I have not had the oh snap moments of the earlier games yet, but it is hard to recreate something that gives that exact feeling time after time, so might just be me that has gotten use to the kind of designs we see. I feel that it is right that there are more of a focus on pvp, which is my least favored part of the souls games. But great that was improved. I would not say that dark 2 is a harder game, but some of the conditioning and thought patterns we learned in souls 1 simply do not apply here, and that may be what people claim is a higher difficulty.

Dark Souls 1 has better bosses.

Dark Souls 2 has better gameplay.

Demons Souls still has the best end boss.

No way I'm playing dark souls II on a crappy ps3 or x360.

april 22 th is the day I start playing it

Having just finished my first play through, I definitely think it's the best Souls game yet. It has the openness of Dark Souls but also the ability to fast travel straight away to any bonfire discovered. This cuts down a lot of unnecessary running around. I also appreciated how enemies stopped re-spawning after you kill them many times. It was nice when I was stuck for a long time on an area, to eventually notice enemies not coming back, and I still found plenty of opportunity to farm souls.

One negative was a lack of responsiveness with the controls compared to the previous games. The main thing has been when the run button doesn't respond (even with plenty of stamina), especially annoying during a boss battle. Then again, I think maybe this has improved as I leveled adaptability (up to 20 now). I know it's meant to help movement in general. Maybe that's a part of it. It hasn't been a big problem.

I only played online once so far, but it seemed far easier to connect with others and that's what I've read.

Apart from those main differences, it's exactly what I expected from a new Dark Souls, and it still feels fresh to me.