SotFS as someone's first Dark Souls game?

All this Souls talk lately has me considering jumping into the series. I re-watched Vinny's playthrough of Dark Souls in its entirety (still one of my favorite pieces of content on the site), so I feel like I've seen enough of that game to where starting with it wouldn't offer all that much. Also, I'd have to fire up the 360 if I wanted to play Demon's Souls, Dark Souls, or Dark Souls II, which I'm not entirely averse to doing, but prefer to do my gaming these days on the Xbox One if possible.

Enter DSII: SotFS. I'm intrigued, but the problem is that SotFS appears to be designed specifically for not just veterans of the Souls games, but those who have already put hundreds of hours in DSII itself. Would it be just an absolute beating for a newbie to hop into SotFS? I've seen enough of the Souls games to know to expect a good amount of bullshit like hidden skeletons kicking you off a cliff or dragon's tails brushing you aside to your death, and that's fine. What I'm really wondering is if I'll just get wrecked over and over again by a bunch of OP enemies repeatedly until I've mastered the controls, builds, techniques, etc., which may take a while. I can deal with some of this as a learning process, but at some point, I'll want things to stop being pure frustration. I'd appreciate some thoughts on this before I drop $60 on it. Thanks in advance duders.

I'm not an authority on the topic, but I read somewhere that while the early areas have seen an influx of harder enemies, some of the areas later have had some of the harder enemies swapped out - the idea being that the difficulty is a bit more of an even slope, instead of an exponential ramp up.

Disclaimer: I've not played much Dark Souls 2, and zero Scholar of the First Sin. This is just the scuttlebutt I've heard.

[edit: I accidentally a present-tense]

It should be perfect for you. DS2 was never hard for a Souls game, so the ramp up doesn't mean much. Take that with a grain of salt, though; you're still gonna get your ass handed to you by a few bosses and areas.

I finished my first playthrough of DSII: SotFS a couple of days ago, having never played the original version and only a little bit of the first Dark Souls. I had a great time with it overall. There were periods of frustration at the beginning when I was running through the same areas or dying on the same bosses for hours, but I just accepted it as part of the learning experience since I was just bad at the game. Nothing really felt unfair, so that was easy enough to deal with. I'm definitely going for at least one more play through with a different character. I don't see any reason why you shouldn't get this if you're interested in playing it it.

I would say that this rendition of the game actually feels fairer than the original, like others have said, there has been a nice level of difficulty throughout the game and would certainly recommend it as your first souls game. As always you just have to be cautious and keep an eye on your surroundings, you really want to be in control of your enemy encounters rather than letting them get the drop on you (for which I've always found the bow to be extremely useful).

But yeah, I think you'll be fine, good luck and I hope you have a great time with the game!

Awesome, I'll pick this up. Thanks, duders!

The DLC is pretty handily the hardest stuff in the series, Drakebreaker Mace Guy is an internet meme all his own, Darklurker and Smelter are harder than anything in other Souls games as well. But it's probably the best game so why not?

I can attest to this, as an experienced player playing Scholar. Also, a friend who didn't like Souls before is doing fine at the beginning with this edition.

So as a guy who played DS2 on PS3 and on PC and probably has over 300 hours in it.... I just got around to playing Scholar for the first time today and put in a couple hours. My opinion is thus.

Have you played DS2 before? No? You should be fine with Scholar. The enemy placement so far hasn't been "that" different and despite not seeing a few ambushes coming I have still cruised through the game with only one death so far in like 2-3 hours due to trying to juke a tubby for some pine resin and just dodging poorly. The game isn't very different though, the enhanced graphics are nice, and I don't feel like it is particularly harder at the start (maybe I am not the right person to ask about that though). The durability thing is a bit surprising and as a guy who already played at 60fps on pc I can tell you it is a little more pronounced than it used to be. Still not a big deal once you pick up some weapon options.

My opinion if you have never played DS2, Scholar is worth the look and you should go for it. If you have played DS2 before? Unless you are a serious die hard I would avoid it. There isn't enough different to validate buying it yet again and the graphics while nice are not that big a deal.

i feel like this game is really hard in the beginning and should not be played as first souls game

like srsly hyde knights and old stone knights at the same time?! bullshitttt

I will say I think Dark and Demon's Souls do better to set the games up. I've dabbled with Scholar and I'm completely lost as to where to go. That happens in the other Souls games but they do a better job of nudging you in certain directions with enemy placements and just straight forward dialogue.

"Hey, ring these two bellls. One is up, one is down." did more for me than the list of things you could do from the outset in II.

Yea, I don't think there is a game that is a bad jumping on point (I started with DS2, and then played the older games). I just hope you get to play DeS and DS1 someday, because I think they are much better games in terms of cool shit to see your first time.

I only got to play Dark Souls for about 6 hours before my xbox died and half of those were fighting those skeletons in the graveyard area. I was really enjoying myself with it, but red rings happen. (5th time, now they want money, fuck off Microsoft, sorry.) Bought Dark Souls II for the PS4 and have died a lot due to my complete ineptitude. I ALWAYS try to go for that extra hit. And going back and forth between this and Bloodborne makes it feel weird. BB is fast, fluid where DS2 is more methodical and tactical.

Anyway, I am having a good time in death with DS2. I am not a uber awesome "this is easy awesomesauce" guy, so it takes a lot of time to get any progress, but it is still super fun.

The first areas/hours are a lot harder. Kinda prepares you though