http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/zero-punctuation/8945-Dark-Souls-2-Prepare-to-Die-Again

I thought it was a pretty solid review. Mirrored a lot of my sentiments in regard to occasionally uninspired bosses/lore and not being quite as cohesive, but overall a good game.

Seems fine, didn't really have any substantive complaints but any positive review from Yahtzee means the game must be mana from heaven.

Rather funny how positive he is about Dark Souls 1 and 2 when you consider the original Demon's Souls review.

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/zero-punctuation/1321-Demons-Souls

@turambar: That one's still a classic; he sort of explains himself elsewhere though. "Lady with pancakes stitched to her face" is a really great way to describe the Maiden in Black for example.

Does he? I'd like to read that.

It's worth mentioning that he addresses this in his Dark Souls 1 review, where he claims that he tried several times to get into the game and finally got over the initial hurdle that Dark Souls 1 has. In his Dark Souls 2 review, he mentions that going back to try Demon's Souls again is a possibility.

@turambar: Here's a fewarticles

Still crazy to think of Demon's Souls being this niche little thing that was rife with nothing but love and hate of equal measure way back when. And now at Dark Souls 2, it's arguably one of the most popular (or at least passionately revered) 'core' franchises going. It's good to see more people open up to it, but I can still remember lot of sentiments even on this very board of Demon's Souls being a game for people who hate themselves/crazy people ect... Which was founded by people who didn't care to understand it (GB staff for one example) and then spread by people who (more than likely) never even played it.

Just sorta funny how things change.

@yummylee: Demon's Souls was a great success, far from a niche title; sure it's more popular now but it was really popular back then, too. Game sold millions of copies.

@yummylee: I find that interesting too. The souls games started as a series that was for people who were serious enough to import in as it was uncertain if the game would even come out to being a franchise. One that when released outside Japan was released in limited quanity and met with extreme reactions both negative and positive. Now it is a series most game players will know of and everyone seems to love the series.

@fredchuckdave: Well, comparatively speaking then.

Again, to be fair, Dark Souls (probably Demon's as well, but I've never played it) doesn't exactly make its systems all that clear. Going for outside help to understand a game isn't something that anyone should have to do, and that's really the hurdle that made it take this long for Souls games to take hold. The whole "it's for crazy people!" initial sentiment isn't hard to understand. However, at this point, it's common knowledge that leaping into a Souls game means you're going to have to bang your head against a wall for a little while and read a Wiki some before getting everything straight. Fortunately, that information is easy to find and it looks like DS2 made a pretty good effort to ease new players in. And it's not like this isn't a problem shared by other great games (ahem, DnD CRPG's circa 2000)

What's even crazier than all of this is thinking that the spiritual successor to King's Field - motherfucking King's Field - is one of the more passionately revered core gaming franchises now, and that Demon's Souls almost wasn't even published in the West. I think Atlus stepped in and offered to do it but I'll need to go fact checking that one.

@believer258: The wiki is never absolutely necessary, though. I've completed all three souls games without the use of wiki or guide at my side. Though it's of course most important to emphasise Demon's Souls in particular, since by Dark Souls II a lot of the systems are almost common knowledge amongst most whom have only even dabbled in a prior Souls game. I imported the US version (for £52, which is really unlike me) and while truth be told I barely even scratched the surface of things regarding a lot of its more intricate systems and hidden mumbo jumbo, I was still able to complete the game multiple times without even realising how to unlock the services of the second blacksmith of the game. Which in itself can change the game rather drastically.

To truly understand each Souls game to their very core and to be able to compile everything one of 'em has to offer, a wiki/guide is almost outright necessary to be sure, but it's not a necessary tool for simply playing the game. There's knowing everything, and there's knowing enough to still get by, and I'd say each one has successfully provided the latter.

I actually bought Demon's Souls around when it launched (late 2009) and considered it my favorite game of that year. I got into Dark Souls around 2012-2013ish and thought that was better. I'm now playing DS2 and finding it.....tepid....I feel like I've played this game before 2 times and was impressed for the innovation of Demon's and the open-endedness of Dark Souls, but finding little to be wowed by here. It's just not very creative.

Yeah this seems about right, the game is excellent but one of the most interesting parts of Dark Souls was the world and lore and DS2 just doesn't do anything like as good a job with it, there are too many obvious references to the previous game and they don't build up the lore of Drangleic anywhere near as well as Lordran dispite the fact that one could basically be build on the other.