Dark Souls II

Dark Souls II
Cover artwork depicting the game's protagonist
Developer(s)	FromSoftware
Publisher(s)	Bandai Namco Games
Director(s)	Tomohiro Shibuya Yui Tanimura
Producer(s)	Masanori Takeuchi
Designer(s)	Naotoshi Zin
Programmer(s)	Yoshitaka Suzuki
Artist(s)	Keiichiro Ogawa
Composer(s)	Motoi Sakuraba Yuka Kitamura
Series	Souls
Platform(s)	PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, Xbox One
Release	March 11, 2014 PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 NA: March 11, 2014 JP: March 13, 2014 PAL: March 14, 2014 Microsoft Windows April 24, 2014 Scholar of the First Sin JP: February 5, 2015 (PS3 & X360) EU: April 2, 2015 NA: April 7, 2015 JP: April 9, 2015 (PS4 & XONE)
Genre(s)	Action role-playing
Mode(s)	Single-player, multiplayer

Dark Souls II (ダークソウルII, Dāku Sōru Tsū) is an action role-playing video game developed by FromSoftware and published by Bandai Namco Games. The third game in the Souls series, Dark Souls II was released for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360.

Dark Souls II was announced at the Spike Video Game Awards on December 7, 2012. Hidetaka Miyazaki, who served as director on the two earlier games in the series, Demon's Souls and Dark Souls, acted as a supervisor, while the game was directed by Tomohiro Shibuya and Yui Tanimura. Although set in the same world, there is no direct story connection between Dark Souls and Dark Souls II. The game uses dedicated multiplayer servers. Taking place in the world of Drangleic, the game features both player versus environment (PvE) and player versus player (PvP) play, in addition to having some co-op components. As in the earlier games in the series, it again features challenging gameplay, but with a more powerful graphics engine and more advanced AI system.

After some initial delays, the game was released worldwide in March 2014, with the Microsoft Windows version being released on April 24, 2014. An updated version of the game, Dark Souls II: Scholar of the First Sin, was released in April 2015. The title is a compilation of the original game and its downloadable content, and also encompasses a remastered port of the game for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Windows with upgraded graphics, expanded online multiplayer capacity, and other various changes. A sequel, Dark Souls III, was released in Japan in March 2016, and worldwide in April 2016.

Gameplay

In Dark Souls II, each time the player dies their maximum health is reduced by 5% until they use a certain item, or assist another player in clearing a level. There are no auto refilling health bars, healing items are in limited supply, and even the game's most basic enemies are capable of dispatching the player in a few hits.

Dark Souls II allows the game's difficulty to be adjusted by mechanics built into the game. The game designers placed powerful items early in the game allowing newer players higher basic damage and defense than they would normally have at that point. For more experienced players, the designers placed higher skill cap items early that do more damage if executed correctly. Other penalties, such as the health reduction on death, can be significantly reduced with certain items. This allows the player to set the game's difficulty based on their experiences with the game, rather than through a menu option.

Similar to other games in the series, Dark Souls II features a New Game Plus mode. The initial replay is named "NG+", with subsequent replays named "NG++" and continuing until "NG+7" is reached. With each replay the player will retain their levels, souls, and most items.

Plot

The story of Dark Souls II begins with a human who is to become a Hollow, a zombie-like being, after dying. To break this, the undead travels to the fallen kingdom of Drangleic and is tasked by the Emerald Herald with obtaining four Great Souls from other powerful undead. Once obtained, the Emerald Herald directs the undead to "Seek the King" in the capital. After fighting through the remains of the royal guards, the player encounters the Queen Nashandra, who reveals that the king failed in his duty and fled his kingdom long ago. She asks you to slay the king and bring his signet ring to her.

Near the end of the Queen's quest, the player learns that the ruin of the kingdom was in fact caused by Nashandra. She came to the king and deceived him into launching an ill fated invasion across the sea into the lands of the Giants. She coveted their souls and sought to steal their power. Though the raid succeeded in stealing the Giant's power, the Ashen Mist Heart, the Giants retaliated. Invading Drangleic, the Giants eventually destroyed the kingdom. With his kingdom in ruins, the king discovered Nashandra's true purpose and locked himself inside the Undead Crypt.

Confronting the Emerald Herald one final time, she states that Nashandra is a fragment of Manus, holder of the Dark Soul. She asks you to put Nashandra to rest and link the fire. At the same time Aldia, the king's brother, is trying to help you understand that there might be another way, a way out of the cycle of light and dark.

The downloadable content Special Edition slightly changes the ending. The player is instead given a choice, the player can either link the fire, restarting the Age of Fire, and repeating the cycle; or the player can walk away, as they have now collected the four crowns, and can resist the effects of Hollowing, and follow their own, unknown path, beyond light or dark, effectively ending the cycle.

Development

Dark Souls II features gameplay mechanics similar to its predecessor; co-director Tomohiro Shibuya stated that he had no intention of changing the controls. The game features a whole new world, with many weapons that are used to fight the monsters in the game. Covenants, a feature in the original Dark Souls, that allowed the player to align with different factions, make a reappearance, though easier to understand and more accessible. The game world is roughly the same size as in Dark Souls, though content density is much richer, and gives players more freedom in how to progress, with the beginning of the game more accessible to newcomers. The game retains the challenging gameplay known to the original, as the director, Tanimura, explained: "We do not plan on having an Easy Mode since we are creating this game with a thought that challenge and difficulty are core elements of the game."

The development team utilized a more powerful graphics engine for the sequel. New challenges, adding to the series' documented difficulty level, were also added. The game features a more advanced AI system, that allows enemies to react to a wider range of actions by the player.

On September 19, 2013, an announcement regarding the delay of the PC version was made by the game's director Yui Tanimura. He explained that the delay was necessary to ensure an optimal version of Dark Souls II on PC.

Bandai Namco producer Takeshi Miyazoe originally stated in December 2013 that he did not expect there to be downloadable content (DLC) for Dark Souls II. Despite that, in an interview in January 2014, he said that there is definitely potential for DLC for Dark Souls II and that fan feedback is key. On June 4, 2014, FromSoftware announced a trilogy of DLC collectively known as "The Lost Crowns". The first of these, titled Crown of the Sunken King, was released on July 22, 2014. The second, Crown of the Old Iron King, was released on August 26, 2014. The final DLC, Crown of the Ivory King, was slated to be released on September 24, 2014, but was delayed until September 30, 2014 due to unknown reasons. It was then released a day early (September 29) on PC, and a day later (October 1) on PS3.

Scholar of the First Sin edition

On November 25, 2014, Bandai Namco Games announced an updated version of the game, Dark Souls II: Scholar of the First Sin, which was released on April 1, 2015 for PC, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360, along with PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. On all platforms, the game is a compilation of Dark Souls II and its three DLC campaigns. On PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, Scholar of the First Sin also features remastered visuals with more advanced lighting effects, running at 1080p resolution at 60 frames per second on consoles. The re-release also makes changes to the game itself; enemy positions and behaviors have been revised, and the game also supports up to six players in multiplayer scenarios. Its release coincided with patch version 1.10, which was also released for existing versions of the game on February 5, 2015, which included improvements to online play, the addition of the titular Scholar of the First Sin NPC, performance improvements, and adjustments to items and covenants among other changes, but didn't fix a long-standing FPS dependent weapon degradation bug, which was fixed for some time by a fan-made unofficial patch.

The existing PC version of Dark Souls II received the 1.10 patch at no charge; the remastered Scholar of the First Sin edition must be purchased separately, but is available at a discount to existing Dark Souls II owners. The remastered version uses DirectX 11 instead of 9, and save data from the original version is incompatible with it.

Reception

Reception

Aggregate score

Aggregator	Score
Metacritic	PC: 91/100 PS3: 91/100 X360: 91/100[±]

Review scores

Publication	Score
Computer and Video Games	10/10
Edge	9/10
Eurogamer	9/10 (Italy) 9/10 (Portugal) 10/10 (Spain) 9/10 (UK)
Famitsu	37/40
Game Informer	9.75/10
GameRevolution
GamesMaster	96%
GameSpot	9/10
GamesTM	9/10
IGN	9/10
Joystiq
PlayStation Official Magazine – Australia	9/10
PlayStation Official Magazine – UK	9/10
Play	90%
Polygon	9/10
VideoGamer.com	10/10
Digital Spy
Metro GameCentral	9/10
The Escapist

Awards

Publication	Award
Golden Joystick Award, 4Players, Empire, Eurogamer, Sky Magazine	Game of the Year
GameTrailers	Best Role-Playing Game
Golden Joystick Award	Best Gaming Moment (Nomination)

Dark Souls II received critical acclaim. Aggregating review website Metacritic gave the Xbox 360 version 91/100 based on 30 reviews, the PlayStation 3 version 91/100 based on 69 reviews and the Microsoft Windows version 91/100 based on 36 reviews.

Reviews for Dark Souls II praised the increase in difficulty, atmosphere, and visuals in the game, seeing it as a large improvement over the first two installments in the series. The German magazine M! Games gave it a 90% fresh rating, with their reviewer stating that it took him more than 60 hours to complete. In a behind-the-scenes video released on February 26, 2014, Peter Serafinowicz, the voice actor for Pate, states that in his 30 years of playing video games, he had never played anything better. Famitsu magazine reviewed the game with four reviewers giving their opinions, who gave it 9/10/9/9, bringing the total score to 37/40.

IGN gave the game a 9/10, with critic Marty Silva saying: "Dark Souls II is a smart, massive, and incredibly rewarding sequel. It’s crammed with deep systems, tense encounters, and enough clever multiplayer and New Game Plus elements to make me want to restart the second I saw the end credits. Not all of the tweaks and additions worked out for the best, the penalty for dying made the game almost unplayable but with such great enemies and levels to fight and explore, Dark Souls II made 60 hours of pain and agony so much fun they flew by in a heartbeat." Game Informer's Daniel Tack released a review, giving the game a score of 9.75 out of 10, stating: "Dark Souls II is an epic adventure from start to finish packed with wondrous environments, imaginative and terrifying foes, and the continual adrenaline-apprehension rush of passing through each fog gate make this title a must-play." Polygon's Phil Kollar also gave it a 9/10, and similarly praised the ambition displayed by the team in creating such a vast RPG universe for the player to explore, the notorious difficulty, and the sense of triumph that comes with eventually defeating the game; he notes that his character died 235 times before completing it.

Despite the almost universal praise from critics, the game was criticized for aspects relating to its unyielding difficulty. In an "alternative take" review, as a newcomer to the series Justin Haywald of GameSpot gave the game a 5/10, claiming that it "too often sacrifices fun, replaces it with tedium, and tries to defend that choice by calling it a challenge." The game was also criticized by the veterans of the series for being a step backwards from its predecessors. Eric Kain of Forbes described that the flaw of Dark Souls II is that it "fails in almost every way not only to live up to the games that came before it, but to find and establish its own identity".

As of March 31, 2014, the game had shipped 1.2 million copies within the United States and Europe; and according to a 2014 Bandai Namco financial report, the game also sold very well in Brazil. As of April 2015, the game has sold over 2.5 million copies worldwide.

At the 2014 Golden Joystick Awards, the largest video game award show with over nine million votes cast, Dark Souls II won the 2014 Game of the Year award.

Sequel

On 6 June 2015, rumors that Dark Souls III would be revealed at E3 surfaced, claiming a 2016 release date. Sources included leaked screenshots and new content, such as the sacrificial-ritual mechanism and a bonfire change that enables the player to light their bonfires autonomously. 45 new enemy types, 15 new bosses and 12 new map-areas would also be added, with a sixty-minute in-game bonus of cut-scenes. Dark Souls III was released in Japan in March 2016, and worldwide in April 2016.

External links

• Official website