So what’s the best version of Dark Souls 2?

entremet · Jan 12, 2018

It looks like I'm almost with Bloodborne. My history with Souls has been Demons, Dark Souls, and now Bloodborne. Bloodborne dethroned Demons as my fave. I have been loving it.

Reading the remaster thread and it seems some didn't care for the current gen update of DS2. Why is that? I still have my PS3 and 360 hooked up so I can play the original version, but it recommended?

Trace · Jan 12, 2018

The current-gen version is the best version of the game. Some of the changes it made are controversial, but on the whole it's an improvement on the base game.

Still worst of the series though.

playXray · Jan 12, 2018

Go for the SotFS edition. It's not perfect, and makes a few backward changes, but overall the improvements and inclusion of DLC make it worth it.

Max|Payne · Jan 12, 2018

I mean, unless PC is also an option, you're choosing between 720p 30fps vs 1080p 60fps for the first time you're going to play it, so I'd say go with SotFS.

Deleted member 249 · Jan 12, 2018

I guess Scholar of the First Sin.

aerie · Jan 12, 2018

Trace said:
The current-gen version is the best version of the game. Some of the changes it made are controversial, but on the whole it's an improvement on the base game.

Still worst of the series though.

This, and just to say i still think its a fantastic game though objectively the weakest in the series.

still my most played though

Deleted member 15457 · Jan 12, 2018

SotFS's graphical and performance improvements make it the definitive version.

Enforcer · Jan 12, 2018

Currently SoTFS.

With Dark Souls 1 getting remastered I'm sure Dark Souls 2 Remastered is on the way.

Deleted member 4090 · Jan 12, 2018

entremet said:
It looks like I'm almost with Bloodborne. My history with Souls has been Demons, Dark Souls, and now Bloodborne. Bloodborne dethroned Demons as my fave. I have been loving it.

Reading the remaster thread and it seems some didn't care for the current gen update of DS2. Why is that? I still have my PS3 and 360 hooked up so I can play the original version, but it recommended?

Scholar of the First Sin, I don't think it si close. PC or PS4, etc. are basically the same, unless you have a hell of a machine.

If you think of the game as something on the order of a hundred "segments", sections from bonfire-to-bonfire, a handful are arguably worse in SOTFS, while dozens are improved. The game generally feels "fuller", with more interesting details, more content, more secrets, etc., like some subtle sidequests that reward the player for lighting sconces, or hidden enemies with drops, or better enemy AI. Things like that.

Saucycarpdog · Jan 12, 2018

Dark Souls 3

No but seriously it's definitely SotFS edition. They actually fixed some enemy placements and glitches that mauraded the game for like a year.

Teeth · Jan 12, 2018

If you're playing on console, it's not even a question- Scholar of the First Sin.

On PC, it's slightly more complicated, as the vanilla version has a few areas that are better, some nice DX9-only mods, and I prefer Durante's SSAO implementation. Scholar is DX11, but has the DLC integrated into the game world (ie-you have to find the items to unlock the DLC areas rather than being just granted the keys on purchase), a cool new questline, and a few improved areas.

If you do decide to go with vanilla, make sure you get the DLC. The DLC areas are the best levels in the entire game and rival areas from DS1 in design.

DaciaJC · Jan 12, 2018

Having played Scholar of the First Sin edition for the first time a couple of months ago, I would actually say I prefer vanilla. SotFS fixes maybe two areas but has plenty of issues or poorly implemented new features (e.g. Pursuer) all its own. Plus, on PC you can use ENBs with vanilla.

SRTtoZ · Jan 12, 2018

Scholars without a doubt on console. 1080p 60fps, PC settings, durability fixed, etc. Don't get the last gen versions.

SunBroDave · Jan 12, 2018

If you can play the original version on PC, that's the way to go. Best combination of visuals, performance, and enemies placed deliberately based on the level, not placed all over the place after the fact just to make the game more difficult.

Oh, and get the DLC packs. They're the best areas in the entire game, and some of the best areas in the whole series.

LogN- · Jan 12, 2018

I liked the vanilla game better, to be perfectly honest. Wasn't too big of a fan of Scholar of the First Sin rearrange.

bemusedchunk · Jan 12, 2018

Having just started SOTFS three days ago on PC, just go with that one.
Get ready for a challenge though, as the enemy remix is quite different compared to some vanilla footage i've seen.

Teeth · Jan 12, 2018

DaciaJC said:
poorly implemented new features (e.g. Pursuer)

I actually thought that was one of the better new features. Nicely lore appropriate and a good surprise.

It does feel like it was implemented specifically for people who played vanilla first though.

aerie · Jan 12, 2018

Teeth said:
I actually thought that was one of the better new features. Nicely lore appropriate and a good surprise.

It does feel like it was implemented specifically for people who played vanilla first though.

I love the pursuer but a part of me felt they should've saved him for NG+.

with the exception of the first none-boss fight where he shows up that you can get a shard from

Icekilla · Jan 12, 2018

Teeth said:
If you're playing on console, it's not even a question- Scholar of the First Sin.

On PC, it's slightly more complicated, as the vanilla version has a few areas that are better, some nice DX9-only mods, and I prefer Durante's SSAO implementation. Scholar is DX11, but has the DLC integrated into the game world (ie-you have to find the items to unlock the DLC areas rather than being just granted the keys on purchase), a cool new questline, and a few improved areas.

If you do decide to go with vanilla, make sure you get the DLC. The DLC areas are the best levels in the entire game and rival areas from DS1 in design.

Aren't you the cuphead developer.

renzollama · Jan 12, 2018

Trace said:
Still worst of the series though.

Flame bait and completely unnecessary to answering OPs question, this is why we can't have nice discussions on the internet.

Max|Payne · Jan 12, 2018

renzollama said:
Flame bait and completely unnecessary to answering OPs question, this is why we can't have nice discussions on the internet.

I mean, the worst Souls game is still a very above average game overall.

Deleted member 31817 · Jan 12, 2018

Scholar of the First Sin, plus it has a dope subtitle! My only issue with the version is the DLC challenge areas are the only soulsborne areas ever made that are pretty much impossible to play solo. And since I don't do souls co-op, I never managed to play them.

Akainu · Jan 12, 2018

Pick any version and it will be bad so it doesn't really matter.

Truant · Jan 12, 2018

Yeah, get SotFS. I like it. Controls and movement are super tight, more so than 3 (if you invest in Adaptability) and I think the art design is quite good. It's an obvious downgrade from the early trailers no matter where you play it, though.

aerie · Jan 12, 2018

Psychoward said:
Scholar of the First Sin, plus it has a dope subtitle! My only issue with the version is the DLC challenge areas are the only soulsborne areas ever made that are pretty much impossible to play solo. And since I don't do souls co-op, I never managed to play them.

Just to put a different spin on this i thought it was really nice that they designed small and optional areas specifically around co-op play. You also didn't need to own the DLC in the base game to join people in these areas, which was pretty great on Froms part (though this is irrelevant in Scholar).

all the bosses are recycled too so you're not really missing anything special if you decide to skip them

Deleted member 31817 · Jan 12, 2018

Akainu said:
Pick any version and it will be bad so it doesn't really matter.

YourBuddy · Jan 12, 2018

I feel like they made the level design feel worse in SOTFS by making the enemy placement feel really weird. Its still better than 30fps, but the top pick goes to the original version on PC.

Tidalwaves · Jan 12, 2018

LogN- said:
I liked the vanilla game better, to be perfectly honest. Wasn't too big of a fan of Scholar of the First Sin rearrange.

I agree with this. Plus scholar allows less early game exploration.

DaciaJC · Jan 12, 2018

Teeth said:
I actually thought that was one of the better new features. Nicely lore appropriate and a good surprise.

It does feel like it was implemented specifically for people who played vanilla first though.

The idea itself is really neat, but in practice, he usually appears either in areas that have a cluster of enemies, areas that are really tight, or both. The player's instinct in these cases is mostly likely to create space, but for whatever reason, the Pursuer doesn't actually "pursue" you that far - he disappears completely after you move outside of a pathetically small radius, and the only way I could figure out to make him appear again is to entirely reload the area from a bonfire. It ended up being more of a hassle than anything.

Sapo84 · Jan 12, 2018

Psychoward said:
My only issue with the version is the DLC challenge areas are the only soulsborne areas ever made that are pretty much impossible to play solo. And since I don't do souls co-op, I never managed to play them.

I've played them solo and they doable, in particular if you feel like cheesing.
Sunken King's area is not that difficult and the bosses are easily beaten by running around in order to fight them one at the time (it doesn't sound funny and it's not, co-op areas are terrible).
Iron King's area is difficult, but it can be cheesed easily with poison arrows (unless they were patched poison arrows are stupidly broken), then you can have super-fun fighting the smurf smelter demon.
Ivory King's area gave me PTSD, but the ponies can be cheesed with (broken) Santier's Spear 2H + Stone Ring (they get permastunned), then you will still die against the copypasted bosses (best chance is probably some kind of broken build or NPC summoning).

I don't think the problem of those areas is that they are too difficult to do solo, real problem is that they are bad, compared to the rest of the DLCs (which have above-average level design) the drop in quality is astonishing.

Syder · Jan 12, 2018

Scholar feels like the NG+ version of vanilla. It's objectively more difficult than the initial release.

aerie · Jan 12, 2018

Sapo84 said:
I don't think the problem of those areas is that they are too difficult to do solo, real problem is that they are bad, compared to the rest of the DLCs (which have above-average level design) the drop in quality is astonishing.

This is also true, it does feel like you're just supposed to kind of brute force your way through them, though i did have a lot of fun with the Sunken King and Iron Passage areas in co-op.

Deleted member 29909 · Jan 12, 2018

Imho the improvements in sotfs were pretty much canceled out by some of the other changes, so I'd say it's a wash. The DLC is the best part though, and is the same for both, so you can't go wrong there.

JigglesBunny · Jan 12, 2018

Yeah, Scholar of the First Sin is your best route.

That said, I couldn't imagine coming off of Bloodbourne and going to DS2 next. Keep your expectations low.

DealWithIt · Jan 12, 2018

Prefer the gameplay of vanilla, but it's hard to argue with the graphical and other enhancements of scholar of the 1st sin. If you've never played dark souls 2 scholar is probably the right way to do it

2112 · Jan 12, 2018

OG PC version.

Kinsei · Jan 12, 2018

I've only played Scholar of the First Sin so I can;t say if it's better than vanilla DS2, however I can say that it's a great game. It's my favorite of the Dark Souls trilogy.

Teeth · Jan 12, 2018

Icekilla said:
Aren't you the cuphead developer.

I'm one of them, yeah.

Didn't you hear? Cuphead is the Dark Souls of Bloodborne.

Psychoward said:
Scholar of the First Sin, plus it has a dope subtitle! My only issue with the version is the DLC challenge areas are the only soulsborne areas ever made that are pretty much impossible to play solo. And since I don't do souls co-op, I never managed to play them.

They are totally beatable solo, I've done it on Vanilla and Scholar. They definitely take unique strategies, really make you think about routing, and (2 of the 3) bosses require overcoming challenges that aren't anywhere else in the series. I remember thinking that double tigers was impossibly hard until I did it. I actually found that fight easier than when I didn't summon help because the boss' HP goes ridiculously higher with each extra person.

DaciaJC said:
The idea itself is really neat, but in practice, he usually appears either in areas that have a cluster of enemies, areas that are really tight, or both. The player's instinct in these cases is mostly likely to create space, but for whatever reason, the Pursuer doesn't actually "pursue" you that far - he disappears completely after you move outside of a pathetically small radius, and the only way I could figure out to make him appear again is to entirely reload the area from a bonfire. It ended up being more of a hassle than anything.

Well, he "pursues" you insomuch as that every time you beat him, he keeps coming back for more. I thought the placement was mostly smart, requiring differing strategies verses his bog standard moveset based on the environment.

Deleted member 4090 · Jan 12, 2018

Tidalwaves said:
I agree with this. Plus scholar allows less early game exploration.

Does it really? There's the dragon in Heide's and a few statues in a few spots, but you get much earlier access to the de-petrification, opening up one of the main paths earlier.

Merton · Jan 12, 2018

Akainu said:
Pick any version and it will be bad so it doesn't really matter.

There it is, that's the terrible comment I was looking for. Surprised it took that long.
Dark Souls 2 on current gen versions is fantastic, play it on one of those.It's a great game.

aerie · Jan 12, 2018

Neoweee said:
Does it really? There's the dragon in Heide's and a few statues in a few spots, but you get much earlier access to the de-petrification, opening up one of the main paths earlier.

You can get the Dull Ember quite a bit earlier in Scholar too which is nice.

DaciaJC said:
The idea itself is really neat, but in practice, he usually appears either in areas that have a cluster of enemies, areas that are really tight, or both. The player's instinct in these cases is mostly likely to create space, but for whatever reason, the Pursuer doesn't actually "pursue" you that far - he disappears completely after you move outside of a pathetically small radius, and the only way I could figure out to make him appear again is to entirely reload the area from a bonfire. It ended up being more of a hassle than anything.

I always took that as how the fight increases in difficulty throughout, its the arena and additional enemies that changes making it more interesting. It is also ultimately completely optional, but i felt it was a strong addition.

Duffking · Jan 12, 2018

Roughly similar, SotFS makes some decent changes, but also makes some completely stupid ones. It made areas like Iron Keep isanely fucking boring for example. Like it's a kind of dull generic lava castle in the vanilla game with a boss where a random hole with lava in it is about 100x the threat of the actual boss, but in SotFS it's possibly the most boring fucking slog in videogaming history.

It's a very good game overall and IMO the most replayable since 3 kind of unsubtly wants you do do melee and 1 can just be a pain upgrading stuff but it's noticeably lacking the finesse of those 2 games.

Kaiser Swayze · Jan 12, 2018

I don't know why you would choose a lower res, lower FPS, and lack of included DLC over the alternative. Now I'm curious to see what all was changed, because I wasn't aware it was anything of note. I though it was basically a remaster with DLC.

Deleted member 4090 · Jan 12, 2018

Duffking said:
Roughly similar, SotFS makes some decent changes, but also makes some completely stupid ones. It made areas like Iron Keep isanely fucking boring for example.

What's so bad in Iron Keep? It is just about the same number of enemies, except the enemies charge at you from afar rather than standing in a set spot. It helps give the player a feeling that they're invading the castle and being met by enemy guards, while barely increasing the actual number of enemies you aggro en route to the first boss.

Kaiser Swayze said:
I don't know why you would choose a lower res, lower FPS, and lack of included DLC over the alternative. Now I'm curious to see what all was changed, because I wasn't aware it was anything of note. I though it was basically a remaster with DLC.

With the extra horsepower, they were able to add whatever enemy they wanted, wherever they wanted, with additional AI, so most of the non-DLC zones are reconfigured. They also redid item/weapon placement, added a bunch of more of the petrification statues that block the way, but a lot more of the items to undo it. A handful of areas are arguably worse, while tons are improvements.

They should have made more changes to the DLC areas, IMO. They feel kind of bland as a result of sticking to the "old" rules of how enemies could be placed (little variety per segment).

aerie · Jan 12, 2018

Kaiser Swayze said:
I don't know why you would choose a lower res, lower FPS, and lack of included DLC over the alternative. Now I'm curious to see what all was changed, because I wasn't aware it was anything of note. I though it was basically a remaster with DLC.

There are two versions of Scholar of the First Sin. A 360, PS3 and DX9 PC version, they are Dark Souls 2 1.10 version bundled with all the DLC. The PS4, Xbox One and DX11 PC version (yes, its a different version) have some small visual fidelity and engine improvements and remixed enemy and item locations. Some areas benefit from this, others don't, but i think overall its the better version.

The 8th gen/DX11 does like to go for higher enemy counts in some areas, but i actually quite like this and think the games systems handle it well. Just don't lock on, adapt your build for it as some weapons and magic favour group combat and have some life gems as back up.

Crawling Mushroom · Jan 12, 2018

the best would be a current-gen version with the option to play the vanilla and SOTFS game, both have their strong points

don't believe the people who say that DS2 is a horrible game, i've played all games and DS2 (in both iterations) is the one i've played through the most, it has amazing build variety and graphically it sometimes reminds me of the King's Field series

BLLYjoe25 · Jan 12, 2018

DS2: Scholar is the best version.

ultra best version: Scholar on PC because the PS4 version can't maintain a solid 60fps.

Duffking · Jan 12, 2018

Neoweee said:
What's so bad in Iron Keep? It is just about the same number of enemies, except the enemies charge at you from afar rather than standing in a set spot. It helps give the player a feeling that they're invading the castle and being met by enemy guards, while barely increasing the actual number of enemies you aggro en route to the first boss.

There's waaaay more Alonne Knights in the first large area and as you say, they all aggro from miles away. If you decide to go for Smelter Demon it just makes it an astonishing slog retrying it if you die. It was aggravating even with a few playthroughs of DS2 under my belt and only dying a couple of times to the guy, I can't imagine how annoyed I'd have been if I'd never played vanilla.

As far as I could tell if you do try to run past everything it's really hard to get through the fog barrier without getting interrupted and then ganged up on by like 3-4 Knights, and if you stop to fight anything it just takes forever because there's so many enemies continually aggro-ing from all over the place and you have to keep kiting them back to the entrance as well so you're out of sight of the archers. It's such a slog. Whereas in vanilla it's easier to run past everything and there's only like 2 enemies that you need to fight first if you want to try and skip past the dude by the fog door.

They're also boring enemies in general with about 2 moves, that silly "spin on the spot without moving your feet" tracking that is typical of 2, and annoying amounts of poise.

DaciaJC · Jan 12, 2018

Teeth said:
Well, he "pursues" you insomuch as that every time you beat him, he keeps coming back for more. I thought the placement was mostly smart, requiring differing strategies verses his bog standard moveset based on the environment.

The Woods said:
You can get the Dull Ember quite a bit earlier in Scholar too which is nice.

I always took that as how the fight increases in difficulty throughout, its the arena and additional enemies that changes making it more interesting. It is also ultimately completely optional, but i felt it was a strong addition.

I didn't mind that he would spawn in difficult situations. What annoyed me was his tendency to just *poof* once I'd moved more than ten feet away. Like, of course I'm not going to stand next to him and try to fight him while I'm getting mobbed by a pack of dogs and some crossbowmen at the same time; but once I would get into a more favorable position, clear some enemies, he would be gone, leaving me without the ability to fight to him outside of respawning at the bonfire and trying all over again.

Duffking said:
There's waaaay more Alonne Knights in the first large area and as you say, they all aggro from miles away. If you decide to go for Smelter Demon it just makes it an astonishing slog retrying it if you die. It was aggravating even with a few playthroughs of DS2 under my belt and only dying a couple of times to the guy, I can't imagine how annoyed I'd have been if I'd never played vanilla.

As far as I could tell if you do try to run past everything it's really hard to get through the fog barrier without getting interrupted and then ganged up on by like 3-4 Knights, and if you stop to fight anything it just takes forever because there's so many enemies continually aggro-ing from all over the place and you have to keep kiting them back to the entrance as well so you're out of sight of the archers. It's such a slog. Whereas in vanilla it's easier to run past everything and there's only like 2 enemies that you need to fight first if you want to try and skip past the dude by the fog door.

This is very true. It's practically impossible to run from the Iron Keep bridge bonfire to Smelter Demon without getting interrupted while you pass through the fog gate and subsequently dying. At the same time, SotFS improved a couple other boss gauntlets drastically, such as the one in front of Velstadt in Undead Crypt.

ThePrince · Jan 12, 2018

I'd go with Scholar, it has some frustrating changes - especially with regards to enemy aggro - but it's generally better I think. It also contains all of the DLCs which are definitely some of the best areas in the game.

Just make sure you level up adaptability if you want a functional roll.

So what’s the best version of Dark Souls 2?

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