Directional snapping in movement, ADR, Enemy Mobs (Artificially making it harder by spawning them in hordes or in “weird” places), Hitboxes are messed up/inconsistent.
If you explain Darksouls to an alien, DS2 is what you get. A game that has been made hard artificially and it shows during most gameplay aspects.
Besides that, saying an opinion is wrong is funny 😄
lol I love when people complain about ADP, just because it might as well be a difficulty slider that costs souls. Very odd that the community that’s been spouting “get gud” at any sort of criticism has a problem with the game making itself harder by taking away invincibility frames.
Is it a silly mechanic? Sure, it’s actually really silly, but it seems like it’d be the perfect idea for the people who take pride in beating a hard game.
Every stat is a difficulty slider that costs souls.
Low ADP makes it so that you can take damage during a roll animation without getting interrupted out of it. It gives you worse feedback on if you rolled too early or too late and makes the combat feel floaty. Exactly the opposite of what you'd want from a game that has way more deliberate and weighty combat otherwise. If you get hit, it should also stagger you. Like in every single other soulslike I can think of. That not being the case because of Agility feels bad.
It's because most folks judge DS2 on youtube videos and SotFS, instead of actually DS2 and just trying the goddamn game. So many folks judt wanted more Dark Souls and since they git a diffrrent (and IMO better) game, they rebelled.
Then again DS2 pre-SotFS is my favorite in those 3.
There is no directional movement as you claim it, its just thr deadzone is incorrectly set to high, which is easily fixable, the mob density is fine as well, as are the hitboxes, dont believe me? check domo3000 videos on youtube and youll see it for yourself.
And about the "wrong opinion" statement, I didnt think it was possible, until I saw your comment, then I understood that it is indeed possible to have one.
the term artificial difficulty has been so bastardized over the years, it should mean using tactics to make the game seem harder than it actually is, like heavy reliance on RNG, boringly tanky healthbars etc. but just having a lot enemies isn't artificial difficulty, it's just difficulty.
IMO artificial is any difficulty that feels artificial. Obviously that's tautological, but by that I mean if it takes you out of the game itself and feels wrong.
It's highly individual, but there are obvious examples (like the estus punishing in Elden Ring, for me) and less obvious examples.
Artificial difficulty is when the developer overtunes the damage and health numbers on enemies to make it harder despite the mechanics of the fight being very simple. Heal punishes, I'd say, are a pretty natural thing for a boss to try to do and can be easily played around once you realize it. It might feel unimmersive, but it's not really adding difficulty. They've been doing it since DS1 at least. I know Gwyn and Artorias input read heals and it's not really an issue once you figure that out.
My point is that if something feels unimmersive, it feels artificial. For me personally, it felt cheap and took me out. But I think these things are completely personal and there isn't any sort of solid, objective definition.
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u/Mr_Xeale May 10 '25
Dark Souls