Any truth to these complaints?

This topic is essentially a quasi-Dark Souls versus Dark Souls 2. I think this game seems to be well-suited to my taste. I like the explorational aspect, the fact that you have to be methodical in the way you progress the game and I don't mind the challenge. I heard that Dark Souls 2 is the best entry point for series' newcomers (better UI, performance, environment variety, etc.).

However, I read on gamefaqs (I know it's plagued with trolls) that the animations in this game, compared to Dark Souls are not as fluid. In addition, weapons swings don't carry as much weight and impact, but feel a little "floaty". I also read that the level design is not as excellent as the previous instalments, which causes some pacing issues. I just don't want to end up with the inferior game, so is there any truth to these complaints?

Lastly, I have a couple of questions: how is the loot? And in the Quick Look, when Brad tries to retrieve his souls, after being killed by the trap chest, he gets stuck in an enemy's attack animation, what the hell was that? Well... thank you in advance.

Just go buy Dark Souls 1 or Demon Souls if you aren't certain. If you like it, then go ahead and get DS2. This way you'll save some cash and you'll get your answer.

If anything the animations feel more fluid. The previous games had several weapons that didn't even have proper combo animations and this is the first game to have a proper dual-wielding stance with dual-wielding animations. Many of the animations are different, so it would be no surprise if some people preferred some of the old weapon animations, but I can't fathom why anyone would call them less "fluid." The weight also feels roughly the same same.

Every game had its high points and low points as far as level design goes and this game is no different. Anyone who would claim that the level design was unanimously excellent in previous games and completely inferior in this game is either lying, delusional, or completely biased. In fact I haven't seen anything that matches the low points of previous games, yet. Not sure why the level design would cause pacing issues. This game does feel less linear than the others, but i don't think that makes for bad pacing.

The loot is loot. Souls games aren't super loot centric, but I feel this game has better variety than previous games. They also did a better job making loot feel like it matters IMO.

As for the Quick Look, I don't recall the moment you're talking about, but he was probably stun-locked because he had low poise.

Well, it hasn't really been long enough to say whether or not Dark Souls or Dark Souls 2 is better, and even saying whether one or the other is more accessible is debatable. From what I've seen of DS2, it may be more accessible menu-wise, but that's still no reason to miss out on the original Dark Souls. There are enough innumerable resources out there today to make Dark Souls plenty accessible. DS2 is still more of an unknown property that people are figuring out.

As far as those gamefaqs comments, you're right to be skeptical in how much weight to put in them. The animations are fine, weapons vary in their impact weapon to weapon. The level design is maybe not as great, but mainly just different. Don't get too swept up in the natural Internet arguments there will be over subjective stuff like that.

Loot? I guess some people would call it that, but yeah, you get some cool equipment and weapons. I never really thought of the Souls games as loot games like Diablo though; "loot" just sounds odd to me. And Brad got caught by an enemy because there aren't invincibility frames and his poise may have gotten broken. Enemies are out to kill you, and if their sword, claws, or throbbing tongues hit you, you're very likely going to get hurt. It's as simple as that.

As for not wanting to get the inferior game, well, it's not like DS2 is Dark Souls Ultimate Edition or something. They're different games. Dark Souls is Dark Souls, and Dark Souls 2 is Dark Souls 2. A ton about them is similar or the same, but they're still different.

If I were you, I'd check out Dark Souls first, because you can get it for ridiculously cheap, especially on PC. And there are so many guides and tips out there that can help you get into it. Don't let any reputation it has deter you from giving it a shot. Sure you may need a little help, but honestly, you'd still need some help for DS2, as well. In Dark Souls case, though, there's already an enormous community providing help for every possible question you could have. Jump in. The water's fine.

Assuming money is not an issue, I'm going to disagree with playing Dark Souls before Dark Souls 2. Not saying it's a bad idea, but I don't think it's necessary , and now is really the best time to jump into Dark Souls 2, when everyone is talking about it and discovering new things and there are co-op signs friggin' everywhere. (And they're not already twinked out to one-shot everything.) )That's part of the ideal Souls experience as much as anything.

I can't imagine anyone finding the animations in DS2 to be less "fluid". So far almost all of the animations have seemed extremely smooth, they flow very well and transition naturally without jerky movements or jumps.

I wouldn't consider the items you get in Dark Souls 2 to be "loot." To me, loot is either randomly generated or there is a loot table with chances to drop various items and enemies can be farmed. The Souls games don't really have any of that. The items you pick up from chests or bodies on the ground are fixed, and the items that some types of enemies drop are also fixed.

First, this is Dark Souls. Any game in this series needs figuring out before you can judge. The complaints you mention sound an awful lot like people who haven't figured the basic game out yet. If you haven't figured out the first Dark Souls, you're going to have a bad time as well. In short, there is nothing wrong with Dark Souls II, it just has a lot of subtle changes to the game's mechanics so that even veteran... especially veteran... Dark Souls players will need to take time to get used to it. If you haven't played Dark Souls yet, you won't even recognize any of the complaints, because you're not used to something else.

More on point:

1. Animations are different in Dark Souls II than in the first game. It now takes time to perform certain actions like raising your shield. I've already hear numerous people say this is why they think it's 'less fluid'. It's just a mechanics thing though. In Dark Souls, the second you pressed the button you were blocking. Even if there was a nano-second between you hitting the button and the enemy hitting you (not accounting latency, just trying to make a point). In DSII it takes time to raise. About half a second maybe, depending on your prior action. In hindsight, being able to block immediately made a lot of the encounters a bit easy for my taste. I like the DSII system better. Also, you can decrease the time it takes to perform animations by raising your Agility stat (through Adaptability leveling). A lot of people are not aware of this.

2. The level design is outstanding. The environments look really cool. I thought one environment looked kind of bland, but that's about it. Great art design throughout. I think it looks better than Dark Souls, but it is different in the sense that everything was interconnected in Dark Souls, whereas that mostly seems missing in DSII; which is too bad. I liked that about the first game.

3. The loot is at Dark Souls loot is. Though this time around there are a lot more different items it seems like. But most of them are variations on other ones. So far, I haven't had much use for the vast majority of them. It seems a little weird also. I have these items that can cure me of poison and heal me a bit, and then I have this one item that cures me of poison and heals me a greater bit. But only one. Haven't found any other one since. Seems kind of silly to equip one item of such a minor upgrade. There are a lot of items like that.

4. When Brad got stuck in an animation, it was just staggering him. There is a poise stat that determines how sturdy you are basically. Every attack does a certain amount of poise damage. What it boils down to is: if the poise damage done to you is greater than your poise defense, you'll stagger; caught in an animation. But this has been in the games since Demon's Souls.

Remember, 90% of the people on forums are complaints because most people who own Dark Souls 2 are playing it :P

I understand negligible complaints from people who have spent hundreds upon hundreds hours with the original, but honestly, Dark Souls 2 is an absolute masterpiece and you should definitely just pick it up!

Surely for a beginner DaS2 is the way to go, because of all the improvements in UI and streamlined systems. It doesn't have all the bullshit running around that the original Dark Souls had, you won't to worry about some shiny idiot killing your Fire Keeper, because there are no Fire Keepers, the weapon upgrade system is simpler and less obscure, no humanity management bull... overall, from the user experience it's a better thought-out game. Accessibility isn't a bad thing.

As for the animations, I didn't notice anything wrong about them, the game runs pretty smooth on my PS3. It's true that some stuff takes longer, like healing and recovering from being staggered, but that's just how the new game approaches difficulty change. Personally I like Dark Souls 2 better than the original because it's not as confusing and saves you a lot of time. Also, the online aspect is much better than it was. Go with DaS2 first.

@el_tajij: @zevvion: yes and yes. Souls games are the kind of games that the hardcore are still figuring out like a year after release. It is entirely too early to proclaim "this one is better!". I have already beaten it and on my second playthrough and I feel like I am still just learning about the game.

Initially, I didn't want to create a topic so soon, but the 'We're Playing Dark Souls Too!' featurette got me really excited to try it out. I actually wanted to buy Dark Souls from the Xbox marketplace sometime ago, but it wasn't available in my country! So I guess I'll pick the second one for now, and hopefully if I like it enough, I'll get the first one retail. Thanks all for the great response; your replies were immensely useful. In fact, I'm kind of more excited to play it, since the community around this game seems to be very welcoming :P

It is all internet bullshit my friend , dark souls 2 plays wonderfully and the people complaining are well idiots for not being able to wrap their minds around the changes done. I still would recommend Dark Souls 1 tho , heck even Demon´s souls (if you have a PS3) as that game it is already fully explored and you can find answers to any doubt you could have , but if you wanna join in the zeitgeist of a new Souls game well DS2 is your best bet.

I'm getting my copy next week but I've seen gameplay videos and the way the character walks/runs is rather weird, like even though it's mo-cap it looks less realistic than DaS1. Also I saw a boss fight in which the character was literally sliding across the floor, the walking animation was clearly slower than the speed at which he was moving.

@aetheldod: Sadly, I don't have a PS3. I watched the Demon's Souls Quick Look earlier today, and the gameplay seems to hold up surprisingly well. One of the reasons why I'm leaning towards Dark Souls 2 is because I'd like to discover the world as everyone is.

@militantfreudian: Then play DS2 :D !!!!!