DSII: SotFS is my first Souls game, and I'm having a blast with it. Design-wise, I'm really enjoying the variety. After spending some time with Bloodborne, I found myself missing the different environments. Bloodborne is a great-looking game, but the style and color palette is a bit too same-y. In SotFS, I've liked all the areas I've been to so far, for one reason or another. I will say that while the 60 FPS is nice, DSII:SotFS is a bit of a wake-up call as to how much better current-gen graphics are, though. Some of the textures are awful and repetitive. The Shaded Woods has some obviously tiled areas that just look plain bad. Then again, this is to be somewhat expected from a last-gen game. It's a shame, though, because right when I find myself really appreciating the art style, I notice some crappy texture that kind of kills it. Shit, I sound like a PC gamer right now. Moving on.
My one other complaint is the bosses. I'm admittedly way overleveled (with some of this being offset by my lacking skill), but I'm finding the boss fights a bit too easy and a bit too frequent. I feel like boss battles should be memorable, and many of these just haven't been. In fairness, the Ruin Sentinels fight was good, as was the Old Dragonslayer, Dragonrider, The Pursuer (the first few times, at least), the Executioner's Chariot, and the Belfry Gargoyles (still not sure why they stuck the best boss fight in an entirely optional area). However, the Flexile Sentry, Covetous Demon, Mytha, The Lost Sinner, and Scorpioness Najka were all lame. I'll admit my own culpability in this, as my character is far beefier than he reasonably should be thanks to some ridiculous grinding on my part, but some of these fights were just poorly structured. If a boss isn't even getting hits on me (someone who isn't good at this), it doesn't matter what my character's stats are.
My stats are pretty fantastic, though. I'm just about at 30 on everything. I also finally fully upgraded a weapon and I'm really excited about it. My Bandit Axe +10 is brutal (it's at ~400 after scaling). I wonder if I'll be able to let it go and try something new now that it's maxed, or if I won't be willing to give up the damage. We'll see. I really do appreciate all the available build options. I should probably venture out and try new things pretty soon. I might go dual-wield, since I'm barely using a shield already. I'll definitely explore that this week. I was also happy to get some sweet new armor (thanks, Alonne Knights), and I like the look of the Syan set I just picked up as well. So, there's fun to be had in DSII not only in tinkering with weaponry, but in dolly dress-up.
TL; DR version. DSII: SotFS is a great game. The only complaints I have with it are basically spoiled whining about a last-gen game having last-gen graphics and a few forgettable boss battles, which my playstyle is at least partially to blame for. I could talk about SotFS all day. I can't wait to get home and play more of it tonight.
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