Dark Souls II - Extra Credits on Dark Souls II's Approach to Game Difficulty

[killias2]

Popular YouTube games commentators Extra Credits have created a video discussing Dark Souls II's approach to game difficulty. And, no, it's not just another video discussing how hard the Souls games are. It's about the specific choices made to balance Dark Souls II and how the player is given space to tailor the difficulty to their own needs.



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[Soulbane]

The first half of the video has some interesting and less well-known insights about how DS2 handles difficulty.

That said, no matter how much I still like DS2, it still got as many things right about difficulty (like its implicit adjustability explained here) as it got things wrong (mostly boring bosses or overused adds mechanics). With the DLCs some of the bad things were enhanced and corrected, but by the time you get to them you are through a not-so-good first 70% of the game.

As for picking and building a caster (especially a dark caster), I think the vid is a bit outdated, because since the nerfs in the last patches, casters are much, much, much less viable for... basically anything.

Aaaand... "If you're struggling with the Dragonrider boss..." Well, if you do, you should quit playing then and there.