Adding more decorations everywhere is genuinely an inspired change. Thats the kind of touch only someone who loves the game would do. I feel like a lot of game mods or fan content fall into the trap of seeming kind of hateful to the source material, and with DS2's mixed reputation I'm glad thats not the case here
I agree with this. I just started playing DS2 recently and I was surprised that this game came out 2014, but looks much older than it is. The lack of details in the environment made me feel like I'm playing an N64 game in some areas, specifically Drangleic Castle and some other areas. Having all the boxy architecture didn't help either.
"Removes the bloodshot eyes in the boss cutscenes" "Borders from cutscenes have been removed" BIG. The borders were so pointless to me and it took so much out of the cutscenes and made them less cinematic, especially when no other Fromsoft Souls game had this issue. Now we get to see the badass intro of Velstadt kneeling in front of the Crypt with gorgeous lighting and NO BORDERS. W change and W mod! W fromsoftserve!!!
Might I suggest for the Primal Bonfire rooms that instead of boxes, crates, and barrels, perhaps use statues and sculptures from the DLC's? Not a big deal ultimately, but it would give the rooms a more ancient "shriney" feel.
I just got to that part of the video and was about to leave the same comment, glad someone else thinks the same. Feels weird that these grand rooms with connections to the lord souls are just being used for storage lol.
Honestly the main thing this mod improves upon for me, is the delay between attack or drinking estus and then rolling. Now it feels more like the other souls games instead of having your character wondering if he left something on the fire after every attack before rolling.
You mean my beloved BSSL no longer savours the moment, contemplating what it _means_ to _use_ an Estus Flask, before they get their act together? I can imagine the horror within the DS2 community at this atrocity!!
For real? Duuuuuude. I've been saying for a while that if you just moved the first actionable frames for various actions forward a bit and then sped the enemies up a bit to compensate (which it seems like this mod did do), you'd have a way better game. And it looks like we got that. So good.
This is pretty much what I wanted from a DS2 "remaster" if you will. The only thing that still bothers me to this day is that somes enemies and bosses with poise don't even twitch or shake when hitting them, like they do in DS3 and Elden Ring, which makes you feel like you are hitting air, as if you are punching in your dreams (like in 5:44). If they modded that in (which I don't think is possible?) that would be my all time favorite
They might be able to get some different body part models twitching without adjusting the actual hitboxes, but that's probably the limit of what could be modded into ds2
I don't know if he fixed this, just putting this here in case. if you hit the flying pyromancers in undead crypt with the second hit of a great hammer r2, (last hit of the combo). they cannot be damaged by anything. also if you have multiple profiles. I had the statue that lowers the elevator already in the activated position even though I hadn't fed it any souls. (at the castle) I had to go on my other profile and use the elevator to fix the bug on my other character.
Am I the only one that don't like that twitching that bosses do in other games? I don't know, it looks clunky and weird seeing the game stuttering every time and land a hint on the boss
@@catarro8045 I know what you mean, but hitting enemies in DS3 and ER doesn't make the game stutter or shake the screen, but rather they react to your hits and their models reflect that, the same way when you, for example, punch a pillow. In DS2 that's not the case. They only react to being stunned. Otherwise, it feels like hitting a ghost.
One thing i'd love to have added to Dark Souls 2 is the ability to get staggered when being hit like in Dark Souls 1. Most of the time I don't even fully register that i've taken damage until I look at the healthbar
@@DedAlexFiveActually there is still an animation for that even if you get a ton of poise. It's just not as prominent. My point is that Dark Souls 2 has absolutely no animation of that kind making it feel very unresponsive
damn this mod looks amazing, hope we can get it working with the lighting engine mod, that would be legendary Edit: holy shit it works with it, I didn't watch the full video when i typed the og comment
I’d really like a mod that will give some barebones customization to the house in Majula. Nothing crazy just some manakins for armor displays, maybe some portraits, and a bonfire in the basement (with firekeeper moved there).
9:56 I believe Stayed fixed the light bleed on hid Flames of Old mod, but unfortunately, has not released it to the public yet, he's been working on this mod since 2018 and still going... Talk about stubbornness mixed with passion lol He won't let ppl help him but wouldn't release a tease either...
@@amberhernandez indeed, he fixed the Falconers poop animation like 3 years ago, no one else has till this point, also added a mountain and with a volcano on top to Earthen Peak. Dude is insane, he even coded a plugin for GIMP and became an official collaborator for the GIMP project 🤣 he’s insanely talented.
Wow, there are some good changes, fixing a lot of the more frustrating "quirks" of DS2! I'm not 100% on-board yet, but I'm positive the comments are actually going to discuss the changes and not turn it into some inane turf war for no reason!
While I find all these ds2 mods cool and probably fun to play, I dislike when some mods are said to "fix" the game. Ds2 doesn't need fixing beyond perhaps some bugs here and there. The base game is the way it is because that's the way it's intended. Ds2 is my favorite in the series and I've been playing since the original Demons Souls on ps3 back in the day when it was barely known amongst rpg players, followed by ds1. Demons was my favorite until last year when I finally picked up SotFS. I've always felt ds2 did the correct thing by evolving the gameplay enough to where it isn't played the same way as ds1. I think that's why most ds2 haters won't give ds2 a chance and call it garbage til this day. They try playing it the same as ds1 and are butthurt that it's not ds1. Most of their arguments support this because they hate basically every change in ds2. If it were just like ds1 then it would be easy to just breeze through the game after getting good at ds1 because it would just be more of the same. Personally ds3 proves this. It has some new features but at it's base it's just ds1 only sped up. That's my opinion and I know ds3 d riders are going to hate my opinion and just try to tear me apart in the comments but I don't care lol. I'm just glad these games exist at all. Most games today hold your hand so much that it's not even a game anymore, it's basically just follow all directions on the screen and watch tue game do everything for you. Anyways, take care everyone and don't you dare go hollow! God bless!
Why fanboys of something shitty or controversial are always so rude and aggressive, I don't get it. Or probably I get it: it's because they are insecure about the fact that they love something that's considered shitty or controversial and they realize that they are minority. In other words, you really should touch that grass, ds2 not dick rider.
13:41 THANK YOU! The time it took to recover was SO annoying to me . The worst part is the fact that the UI doesn't show you whether you can sprint or not, so it was basically a guessing game.
Some people literally complain about the dumbest things... it's a mod for people who had qualms with the game. If you find DS2 perfect, OK good for you? But there's a good reason DS2 is so controversial. I played through all of it (because I'm a masochist) and I wouldn't wish it upon my friends.
It looks cool, I do think that it was unimaginative to make so many of the levels so dark. Dark Souls 2 was like getting us ready for Elden ring by making pretty areas just as brutal as like purposefully gloomy areas
Some of these changes are good, some are legitimately just QoL without much drawback (especially merchants 🙏), but some are actually bad. Like, why is there mismatched clutter? You wouldn't put Aldia Keep science paraphernalia in the Gutter, so why are there Shaded Woods jars in the Lost Bastille? Even the "oh it's just clutter" answer doesn't make sense, since they're two very different civilizations with very different items, and that messes with lore and clashes with the aesthetics of the areas. On the same point of aesthetics issues, changing lighting is not always going to be an issue (Heide's is just fine), but it breaks the color profile and the appearance of some buildings, props, player/NPCs (on the Elite Knight armor, the blue got darker but the yellow got brighter in Majula???), and even obscures the paths forward (all paths out of Majula were darker than the hub area itself, but that is harder to see when everything is already dark). I did notice the Butcher Knife doing extra damage - is that Bleed? Were there any changes done to Bleed, and if so, is it actually usable now? That is one aspect that really needed a change.
lore wise the gutter was actually a dumping ground for aldia's failed experiments, that's why in scholar they put a mimic and those big dogs down there
Would you recommend combining bearer of the curse and lighting engine together or just keep bearer of the curse by itself? Visualy, isnone better than the other or better if combined? I like your mod better as its easier and more friendly to install. No mod managers involved.
The amount of people who comment on your videos like you made the mods or emulators is astounding to me It's a showcase, it's obviously a showcase, and it's not like you hide that fact, so I fail to grasp how so many people still think you make this stuff Hope this doesn't come off like I'm upset with you, as I'm not. I enjoy your showcases a lot
Another thing to add that I noticed on this video that wasn’t pointed out! Using weapon special attacks, no longer instantly evaporates its durability!
I wish this mod also ported the animations from DS1. That default run in DS2 always bothered me because of how “chill” it looked. Almost like your dude is prancing
At first, i feel like the name of the mod's creator seems familiar. And then i realized that it's the same person who made Seeker of Fire, no wonder it's good.
I'm not too sure who stole the concept of transferring mechanics and ideas from other parts to DS2, but I saw more than half of the described innovations in "Seeker of Fire", which was released much earlier on NexusMod. As well as a different placement of items, both key and consumable, as well as ammunition and equipment. As well as the addition of new structures, scaffolding, ladders and logs and other things, it was also there. And yes, I saw the description of the video, I rather have a question about why a mod that does not bring anything new, and brings very subtle settings to the game. Thanks for improving the graphics, without irony or sarcasm, but this is just a carbon copy of Seeker of Fire, I emphasize, at the moment, regardless of how much effort was put in earlier.
i enjoyed the mod, the greatsword attacks has changed and stuff, running takes less stamina, when i got to the primal bonfire after lost sinner, the surrondings of that bonfire is empty like normal. but overall a pretty good mod
so youre telling me i can have a souls game with near DS3 combat pace WITHOUT 60ft sliding 8 hit combos with mid air tracking turns being spammed at me every minute? i- i can play a character that moves at a pace that isnt painfully slow AAAND matches the rest of the setting!? im crying... its beautiful...
Does the mod improve previously lackluster weaponry? As well as this does it add previously unavailable weapons that the enemies use? Things such as the sword wielded by Alonne Captains?
Shame there's no PVP capability. I'll always love DS2 for being my first souls game with incrediblly viable build diversity, fashion and insanely dope crit animations.
DS2 is such an incredibly divisive game that I'd recommend just giving vanilla/SOTFS a fair shot. Imo, just don't treat it like DS1 or DS3, it was directed by a different person than the rest of the series, so it doesn't have the exact same design philosophy. I personally found it pretty refreshing after playing so much of the other games, but if you can't vibe with it that's fine lol.
I know I would, there are some true quality of life improvements here it seems, it makes me happy to want to replay dark souls 2, which I otherwise wouldn't under any circumstance. Sincerely screw those vulnerable fog wall passes, screw the slow stamina recovery for no reason, screw the ADP, and screw like 17 other things, that make me want to puke.
Do urself a favor nd ignore the 1st 2 replies. I played all soulsborne games except this nd bloodborne cuz no playstation. When i tried playing this one after the rest of the trilogy, it feels like shit. The movement and animations feel off and enemy placement is trash. Ima give this mod a try for my actual first complete playthru, id recomend u do the same. The base game is just bad after youve played the rest of froms catalogue.
Ahh, Brightstone Cove is no longer a One-Way road I take it by this logic? That would be nice I´m ususally a bit sceptical about these mods as the last one I played had some nice changes but changed a lot of the game to the point were it felt foreign, but this looks quite good
I've been waiting for this mod for awhile now and followed the progress, since it seemed to fix almost everything that i had problem with DS2 despite that i still enjoyed my first playthrough of it. Glad to see you got it released! after the bloodborne emulation i was afraid that will this project get abandoned. I'm glad it didn't! Congratulations for the release! I need to try it out soon. PS. Is fleshy hollows mod compatible with this and did you make any alterations to runbacks of the darklurker or dlc bosses? Those were kind of ridiciolous tbh 😅
I'm assuming this doesn't change the death punishment at all because I didn't find anything about it. I personally don't like hollowing mechanic in ds2 because it punishes blind exploring too hard, especially in early game when human effigies are still scarce. Sure, you could always just use ring of binding, but that's kinda same argument for adp but just instead of wasting souls, you waste ring slot. I personally liked ds3 system more where deaths don't punish you but you get free ember activated for boss kills which gives you nice health boost, and you will lose it by dying.
Sorry if my question is dumb, but does this work for The Scholar Of The First Sin version? Cause I downloaded the mod but I don't see the bearer of the curse title in the main menu
I've always stood by my opinion that Dark Souls 2 would've been more well received had it just been a stand alone game like Bloodborne or Sekiro and was named Bearer of the Curse, and not been a sequel to Dark Souls. The game already has very few direct ties to Dark Souls (unlike Dark Souls 3, which IMO is the true Dark Souls 2), it's very easy to alter a few things for the world and lore to be unique to just Drangleic. And look at the Dark Souls 2 references in Dark Souls 3... yeah, there are hardly any, and they're more so an Easter egg when there is one. They don't call Sekiro something like Dark Souls 4: Isshin, because people would flame it for not being a Dark Souls game, but as its own world bereft from DS, it has massively succeeded.
I have yet to play Dark Souls 2. Would that be considered the straight-up better way to play it now even for a first time? Some people recommend the original version over SotFS; since there’s already two competing versions of the game, is this mod just better than both?
Sotfs absolutely makes the game awful. They tried to make it a “hard” version and it just has a lot of bullshit aka you’ll be running past monsters more than killing them. I would play this before anything tbh
@@Mongrel214 It's actually the opposite. The game wants you to kill all the enemies and doesn't want to run past them/ I'm assuming you aggro to many enemies and get ganked by them. The game is just boringly aggroing one or two enemies from a big room to an empty place and repeat until all of them are gone.
I’ve played both vanilla and Scholar and I’m tired of seeing misinformation being spread about both. Scholar is not more ganky than vanilla, it has an increased amount of enemies trying to ambush you, but a patient and observant player will be able to turn any ambush on its head. Vanilla on the other hand has significantly worse sections at times: The Shrine Of Amana being chief among them. The Amana priestesses in vanilla had significantly more range and aggroed from a greater distance, making the area much worse in vanilla than Scholar. That said, it’s not impossible so long as you’re the type of player who thinks for creative solutions to a problem, rather than bashing your head into a wall repeatedly until it eventually gives way. The point being that Scholar improves a lot upon vanilla’s shortcomings and that vanilla wasn’t perfect by any stretch of the imagination. But that does not mean either vanilla or Scholar are anything but fantastic. Dark Souls 2 at its core is a well-built game that made many improvements on Dark Souls 1. The improved viability of many of the weapons and the addition of powerstancing alone makes Dark Souls 2 one of the most fun and replayable games in FromSoftware’s catalogue due to the insane build variety. The story and world are thought-provoking and emotional; more than worthy to succeed Lordran from the first game. Vanilla and Scholar are both good versions of the game, but Scholar has more creative and thoughtful enemy placement and encounters and introduces a lot of new, interesting ways to interact with the world (the torch scaring the spiders in Tseledora and the ability to shoot the bell in No Man’s Wharf are prime examples), plus a wealth of new encounters and content. Scholar is strictly the better version of the game, though vanilla is still a solid experience worth playing.
@@Hewasnumber1 Thanks for the thorough explanations. Now having said all that, would you recommend to play SotFS first, or go straight to this mod? The changes seem great and pretty sensible to me, but not sure if they might change the experience too much since I don’t have much points of reference for DS2, outside of having played other Souls games.
@@MerryBlind I wouldn’t recommend playing with the mod at all. It changes the Dark Souls 2 gameplay experience to be more akin to Dark Souls 3’s, but those two games play completely differently and shouldn’t be approached the same. Dark Souls 2 has slow-paced, careful gameplay that encourages the player to be wary of new spaces and enemies, whereas Dark Souls 3 is more fast-paced and combat intensive. If you WANT to play the mod do it after playing one of the original Dark Souls 2 games without mods, so you at least have a frame of reference of what the game is trying to do and what it wants from the player. Dark Souls games are very deliberate in the experiences they provide, mods inevitably alter those experiences to the point that the artistic vision is muddied. I’d recommend Scholar Of The First Sin, since it has a more active community and more content, but I started with Vanilla and had a great time.
Would it be possible to play this mod online? I mean I'm guessing is not a thing playing it on official servers (assuming u may get banned or is it safe?) but maybe a mod so we can play with other ppl who are using this mod?
Does it fix hollowing mechanic? Also there are some things like the poison in the Mytha arena, and hidden important bonfires behind walls with no way of knowing especially in the dlc. Also does it fix dlc boss' resistance to magic which is insanely high.
How the player character is highlighted and POPS OUT in front of everything else in this recording looks terribly awkward to me. I hope the mod creators take notice of this and I hope it's easy to fix. I mean, tone down that effect 50%? Or 30%? Because otherwise, it seems like a superb mod that would be very fun to explore.
I've never had a problem with ds2, it was the first one I played (and it's my favorite), and I never felt the necessity to level up adp, by consequence I always thought ds1 and ds3 were too easy because it had too much Iframes when you rolled and estus was too quick and you could just run to the fog with no punishment, only after I went to the internet I saw that people for some reason diddn't like ds2, I never understood really, to me is the most fun dark souls, it has omnidirectional roll unlike ds1, a better variety of weapons and armor, and it isn't all gray, sad to look at, and filled with reused assets like ds3, I hope the mod will bring more people to play it though
Yeah yeah bro we've seen this same copy pasted comment a million times. Dark souls 2 was horrible brother. Just because it was your first souls game doesn't automatically make it a good game
@@Ferreiro_André Yeah yeah man we've heard this copy pasted comment a million times. Dark souls 2 was terrible. Just because it was your first souls game doesn't make it good all of a sudden
you can download the mod here: www.nexusmods.com/darksouls2/mods/1328
Fuck. This looks so good
Does it work for regular ds2 not scholar ?
Does it work for Steam Deck? I did everything in the instructions but when I load DS2 it still says Scholar..
I wish all DS2 enjoyers a very pleasant evening
I could see the meme associated with this comment
Thank you.
🗿 DS2 Enjoyers rise up 🗿
Dark Souls 2: Bearer of the Curse Seek Seek Lest Edition.
You- Know- One- Thing- I- Should-
😂
Bear, seek, seek, lest
@@whentheyD Excuse me for one moment
"Huh, don't waste my time.."
Adding more decorations everywhere is genuinely an inspired change. Thats the kind of touch only someone who loves the game would do. I feel like a lot of game mods or fan content fall into the trap of seeming kind of hateful to the source material, and with DS2's mixed reputation I'm glad thats not the case here
Not the typhlosion pfp 😭🙏
@@Anthonnnnn FREE MY BOY HE AINT DO NOTHING
@@Anthonnnnn pokemon fans have one joke man
@@Rukir the joke was the recent games for a while tbh
I agree with this. I just started playing DS2 recently and I was surprised that this game came out 2014, but looks much older than it is. The lack of details in the environment made me feel like I'm playing an N64 game in some areas, specifically Drangleic Castle and some other areas. Having all the boxy architecture didn't help either.
"Removes the bloodshot eyes in the boss cutscenes"
"Borders from cutscenes have been removed"
BIG. The borders were so pointless to me and it took so much out of the cutscenes and made them less cinematic, especially when no other Fromsoft Souls game had this issue. Now we get to see the badass intro of Velstadt kneeling in front of the Crypt with gorgeous lighting and NO BORDERS. W change and W mod! W fromsoftserve!!!
I love your stuff, but toning down the colors in majula is criminal
Slight confusion. The mod isn't by him. See the description.
Might I suggest for the Primal Bonfire rooms that instead of boxes, crates, and barrels, perhaps use statues and sculptures from the DLC's? Not a big deal ultimately, but it would give the rooms a more ancient "shriney" feel.
I agree
I just got to that part of the video and was about to leave the same comment, glad someone else thinks the same.
Feels weird that these grand rooms with connections to the lord souls are just being used for storage lol.
2:20 You *Could* See Heide's Tower Of Flame Before, But It Was Just A 2D Cardboard CutOut In The Water
While it’s great to not spoil everything, it would be nice for people who are console only to be able to see the rest of the mod. Great vid!
well, he said he's going to stream himself playing through the mod, so you can just watch that
@@naidr0xmust have missed that part. Thanks!
Congratulations on this release!
I'm currently playing the PS3 version of Dark Souls 2 right now. I'm prepped to fight the Dragon at the shrine.
Honestly the main thing this mod improves upon for me, is the delay between attack or drinking estus and then rolling. Now it feels more like the other souls games instead of having your character wondering if he left something on the fire after every attack before rolling.
You mean my beloved BSSL no longer savours the moment, contemplating what it _means_ to _use_ an Estus Flask, before they get their act together? I can imagine the horror within the DS2 community at this atrocity!!
For real? Duuuuuude. I've been saying for a while that if you just moved the first actionable frames for various actions forward a bit and then sped the enemies up a bit to compensate (which it seems like this mod did do), you'd have a way better game. And it looks like we got that. So good.
just do recovery cancels
Huh? Doesn't alden ring have the worse input lag?
@@narutofan4545 honestly even on a ps4 at 30 fps ER didn't have bad input lag. But to be fair the s are pretty generous in ER
The slow chest opening animation was great. It made me always remember what I got out of them
Heide's Tower of Flame is a pun.
The Blue Sentinels are based on Sikhism so it's "Heide and Sikh".
This is pretty much what I wanted from a DS2 "remaster" if you will. The only thing that still bothers me to this day is that somes enemies and bosses with poise don't even twitch or shake when hitting them, like they do in DS3 and Elden Ring, which makes you feel like you are hitting air, as if you are punching in your dreams (like in 5:44). If they modded that in (which I don't think is possible?) that would be my all time favorite
i man ds2 can be thought of as a dream no? opening cutscene
They might be able to get some different body part models twitching without adjusting the actual hitboxes, but that's probably the limit of what could be modded into ds2
I don't know if he fixed this, just putting this here in case. if you hit the flying pyromancers in undead crypt with the second hit of a great hammer r2, (last hit of the combo). they cannot be damaged by anything. also if you have multiple profiles. I had the statue that lowers the elevator already in the activated position even though I hadn't fed it any souls. (at the castle) I had to go on my other profile and use the elevator to fix the bug on my other character.
Am I the only one that don't like that twitching that bosses do in other games? I don't know, it looks clunky and weird seeing the game stuttering every time and land a hint on the boss
@@catarro8045 I know what you mean, but hitting enemies in DS3 and ER doesn't make the game stutter or shake the screen, but rather they react to your hits and their models reflect that, the same way when you, for example, punch a pillow. In DS2 that's not the case. They only react to being stunned. Otherwise, it feels like hitting a ghost.
One thing i'd love to have added to Dark Souls 2 is the ability to get staggered when being hit like in Dark Souls 1. Most of the time I don't even fully register that i've taken damage until I look at the healthbar
Huh? You dont get staggered when hit in Dark Souls 1 as well if you have enough Poise
@@DedAlexFiveActually there is still an animation for that even if you get a ton of poise. It's just not as prominent. My point is that Dark Souls 2 has absolutely no animation of that kind making it feel very unresponsive
@@bmxgu2361 except it does, your character slightly buckles and walks slower momentarily.
All I can say is thank you to the creator for making this game a lot more enjoyable
How dare you mess with perfection? Lol just kidding. I'm a DS2 sycophant
damn this mod looks amazing, hope we can get it working with the lighting engine mod, that would be legendary
Edit: holy shit it works with it, I didn't watch the full video when i typed the og comment
they do work together, just delete the filter files from this mod
Super interesting. I have to check this mod out, thanks, for the announcement! :D
man iam hyped as fuck bro
Holy Vendrick, it's actually peak.
I noticed the new statue in front of the enemy holding the poise ring which was real cheeky.
I’d really like a mod that will give some barebones customization to the house in Majula. Nothing crazy just some manakins for armor displays, maybe some portraits, and a bonfire in the basement (with firekeeper moved there).
🤨
I've been waiting all week for this. I'm so hyped!!
I think I might stream a playthrough for this:) THANK YOU FROMSOFTSERVE!!!\[T]/
This is beautiful, man. Thanks for all the work you put into this community.
Looks great. Really impressed with how quickly you managed to do all this.
9:56 I believe Stayed fixed the light bleed on hid Flames of Old mod, but unfortunately, has not released it to the public yet, he's been working on this mod since 2018 and still going... Talk about stubbornness mixed with passion lol
He won't let ppl help him but wouldn't release a tease either...
Truly the George R. R. Martin of DS2 modding
@@amberhernandez indeed, he fixed the Falconers poop animation like 3 years ago, no one else has till this point, also added a mountain and with a volcano on top to Earthen Peak. Dude is insane, he even coded a plugin for GIMP and became an official collaborator for the GIMP project 🤣 he’s insanely talented.
I wish we get that mod one day, dude is absolutely insane modder, caught his stream a couple of times, seems like a good guy too.
Thanks for popping up in my feed. Mod looks a lot like it grabbed a ton from seeker but will be fun to try a different take on it
It's amazing. I just finished it the other day.
Looks cool man, will try whenever I get time
Wow, there are some good changes, fixing a lot of the more frustrating "quirks" of DS2! I'm not 100% on-board yet, but I'm positive the comments are actually going to discuss the changes and not turn it into some inane turf war for no reason!
While I find all these ds2 mods cool and probably fun to play, I dislike when some mods are said to "fix" the game. Ds2 doesn't need fixing beyond perhaps some bugs here and there. The base game is the way it is because that's the way it's intended. Ds2 is my favorite in the series and I've been playing since the original Demons Souls on ps3 back in the day when it was barely known amongst rpg players, followed by ds1. Demons was my favorite until last year when I finally picked up SotFS. I've always felt ds2 did the correct thing by evolving the gameplay enough to where it isn't played the same way as ds1. I think that's why most ds2 haters won't give ds2 a chance and call it garbage til this day. They try playing it the same as ds1 and are butthurt that it's not ds1. Most of their arguments support this because they hate basically every change in ds2. If it were just like ds1 then it would be easy to just breeze through the game after getting good at ds1 because it would just be more of the same. Personally ds3 proves this. It has some new features but at it's base it's just ds1 only sped up. That's my opinion and I know ds3 d riders are going to hate my opinion and just try to tear me apart in the comments but I don't care lol. I'm just glad these games exist at all. Most games today hold your hand so much that it's not even a game anymore, it's basically just follow all directions on the screen and watch tue game do everything for you. Anyways, take care everyone and don't you dare go hollow! God bless!
Why fanboys of something shitty or controversial are always so rude and aggressive, I don't get it. Or probably I get it: it's because they are insecure about the fact that they love something that's considered shitty or controversial and they realize that they are minority. In other words, you really should touch that grass, ds2 not dick rider.
13:41 THANK YOU! The time it took to recover was SO annoying to me .
The worst part is the fact that the UI doesn't show you whether you can sprint or not, so it was basically a guessing game.
Some people literally complain about the dumbest things... it's a mod for people who had qualms with the game. If you find DS2 perfect, OK good for you? But there's a good reason DS2 is so controversial. I played through all of it (because I'm a masochist) and I wouldn't wish it upon my friends.
You made my whole day with this.
Seeker of fire 2.0 was the best overhaul for me for a long time. But being able to riposte bosses here completely changed that
yaknow what. as soon as you said ADP was gone. i was IN.
It looks cool, I do think that it was unimaginative to make so many of the levels so dark. Dark Souls 2 was like getting us ready for Elden ring by making pretty areas just as brutal as like purposefully gloomy areas
I waited so long for a mod that makes me enjoy ds2 the way I enjoy the others. Thanks!
Does this fix the 8-directional movement?
Sadly, all of those wonderful toys, tweaks, fixes, etc, is usable only offline and private servers, if any exist for DS2
Some of these changes are good, some are legitimately just QoL without much drawback (especially merchants 🙏), but some are actually bad.
Like, why is there mismatched clutter? You wouldn't put Aldia Keep science paraphernalia in the Gutter, so why are there Shaded Woods jars in the Lost Bastille? Even the "oh it's just clutter" answer doesn't make sense, since they're two very different civilizations with very different items, and that messes with lore and clashes with the aesthetics of the areas.
On the same point of aesthetics issues, changing lighting is not always going to be an issue (Heide's is just fine), but it breaks the color profile and the appearance of some buildings, props, player/NPCs (on the Elite Knight armor, the blue got darker but the yellow got brighter in Majula???), and even obscures the paths forward (all paths out of Majula were darker than the hub area itself, but that is harder to see when everything is already dark).
I did notice the Butcher Knife doing extra damage - is that Bleed? Were there any changes done to Bleed, and if so, is it actually usable now? That is one aspect that really needed a change.
lore wise the gutter was actually a dumping ground for aldia's failed experiments, that's why in scholar they put a mimic and those big dogs down there
@@numbersbubble That is absolutely not the lore what
@mobiusone6994 not in vanilla, but it is in scholar, they changed other lore and various item descriptions
@@numbersbubble No they absolutely didn't. Nowhere in any description is this ever mentioned in any description.
Oh wow, almost-dedicated jump button!
Dang it's small too, only a single gigabyte in size. It was also really easy and quick to install. Pretty stoked
Would you recommend combining bearer of the curse and lighting engine together or just keep bearer of the curse by itself? Visualy, isnone better than the other or better if combined? I like your mod better as its easier and more friendly to install. No mod managers involved.
Seeker of Fire Remastered
It's nice when a new ds2 mod comes out. The game needs more love
what an absolute treat this is
The amount of people who comment on your videos like you made the mods or emulators is astounding to me
It's a showcase, it's obviously a showcase, and it's not like you hide that fact, so I fail to grasp how so many people still think you make this stuff
Hope this doesn't come off like I'm upset with you, as I'm not. I enjoy your showcases a lot
Amazing, Ds2 needs some love
Another thing to add that I noticed on this video that wasn’t pointed out!
Using weapon special attacks, no longer instantly evaporates its durability!
dude i just started playing again, this is great man
i love the lighting
I wish this mod also ported the animations from DS1. That default run in DS2 always bothered me because of how “chill” it looked.
Almost like your dude is prancing
When you say run do you mean when you're "jogging" or fully sprinting?
Nice eu vou trazer pro canal com toda certeza, um abraço para os criadores do mod
At first, i feel like the name of the mod's creator seems familiar. And then i realized that it's the same person who made Seeker of Fire, no wonder it's good.
I'm not too sure who stole the concept of transferring mechanics and ideas from other parts to DS2, but I saw more than half of the described innovations in "Seeker of Fire", which was released much earlier on NexusMod. As well as a different placement of items, both key and consumable, as well as ammunition and equipment. As well as the addition of new structures, scaffolding, ladders and logs and other things, it was also there.
And yes, I saw the description of the video, I rather have a question about why a mod that does not bring anything new, and brings very subtle settings to the game. Thanks for improving the graphics, without irony or sarcasm, but this is just a carbon copy of Seeker of Fire, I emphasize, at the moment, regardless of how much effort was put in earlier.
Looks like ds2 with the ds3 engine. While i am not happy about adp this does look hella fun
Maybe I'll actually enjoy DS2 with this mod!
Now all we need is password matchmaking and the removal of soul memory (in matchmaking) and we’re good to go
Love for DS2 Restored
Which version of DS2 does this run with, just checking? Base DS2 or SOtFS?
Scholar
i'm hoping the soul gains reflect the increased health and damage that seems to be given to the enemies
i downloading that right away idc
i enjoyed the mod, the greatsword attacks has changed and stuff, running takes less stamina, when i got to the primal bonfire after lost sinner, the surrondings of that bonfire is empty like normal.
but overall a pretty good mod
so youre telling me i can have a souls game with near DS3 combat pace WITHOUT 60ft sliding 8 hit combos with mid air tracking turns being spammed at me every minute?
i- i can play a character that moves at a pace that isnt painfully slow AAAND matches the rest of the setting!?
im crying... its beautiful...
hi, newcomer to ds2 and I'm wondering if I should just start with this mod or give the non-modded a go first? (playing the sotfs btw)
Definitely play it through without this mod first but I recommend Lighting engine mod and the mod that removes health loss on death
If you find the controls/heals/fogwalls quirky install this mod but I would not recommend playing the SotfS version.
amazing job guys
Does the mod improve previously lackluster weaponry? As well as this does it add previously unavailable weapons that the enemies use? Things such as the sword wielded by Alonne Captains?
Great mod looking forward to playing it 😁
Shame there's no PVP capability. I'll always love DS2 for being my first souls game with incrediblly viable build diversity, fashion and insanely dope crit animations.
This with scholar of the second sin 🔥
Is this mod compatible with achievements in the Steam version?
No way... they fixed dark souls 2...
Would you recommend the mod on a first playthrough? This is one of the two soulsbourne games I've yet to finish
DS2 is such an incredibly divisive game that I'd recommend just giving vanilla/SOTFS a fair shot. Imo, just don't treat it like DS1 or DS3, it was directed by a different person than the rest of the series, so it doesn't have the exact same design philosophy.
I personally found it pretty refreshing after playing so much of the other games, but if you can't vibe with it that's fine lol.
Probably better to try and play the base game first, otherwise, you'll actually have no idea whether you like the actual game.
I know I would, there are some true quality of life improvements here it seems, it makes me happy to want to replay dark souls 2, which I otherwise wouldn't under any circumstance. Sincerely screw those vulnerable fog wall passes, screw the slow stamina recovery for no reason, screw the ADP, and screw like 17 other things, that make me want to puke.
Do urself a favor nd ignore the 1st 2 replies. I played all soulsborne games except this nd bloodborne cuz no playstation. When i tried playing this one after the rest of the trilogy, it feels like shit. The movement and animations feel off and enemy placement is trash. Ima give this mod a try for my actual first complete playthru, id recomend u do the same. The base game is just bad after youve played the rest of froms catalogue.
Ahh, Brightstone Cove is no longer a One-Way road I take it by this logic? That would be nice
I´m ususally a bit sceptical about these mods as the last one I played had some nice changes but changed a lot of the game to the point were it felt foreign, but this looks quite good
Nice video and mod, cheers from Germany
I've finished Seeker of Fire mod twice, how dramatically different is this mod to that one?
I've been waiting for this mod for awhile now and followed the progress, since it seemed to fix almost everything that i had problem with DS2 despite that i still enjoyed my first playthrough of it. Glad to see you got it released! after the bloodborne emulation i was afraid that will this project get abandoned. I'm glad it didn't! Congratulations for the release! I need to try it out soon.
PS. Is fleshy hollows mod compatible with this and did you make any alterations to runbacks of the darklurker or dlc bosses? Those were kind of ridiciolous tbh 😅
I'm assuming this doesn't change the death punishment at all because I didn't find anything about it. I personally don't like hollowing mechanic in ds2 because it punishes blind exploring too hard, especially in early game when human effigies are still scarce. Sure, you could always just use ring of binding, but that's kinda same argument for adp but just instead of wasting souls, you waste ring slot.
I personally liked ds3 system more where deaths don't punish you but you get free ember activated for boss kills which gives you nice health boost, and you will lose it by dying.
Sorry if my question is dumb, but does this work for The Scholar Of The First Sin version? Cause I downloaded the mod but I don't see the bearer of the curse title in the main menu
Did the other guy ever finished the graphic's overhaul mod?. Don't remember his name, he was sort of giving the game it's E3 graphics back.
we need renaming to "Ber Seek Seek Lest"
I've always stood by my opinion that Dark Souls 2 would've been more well received had it just been a stand alone game like Bloodborne or Sekiro and was named Bearer of the Curse, and not been a sequel to Dark Souls.
The game already has very few direct ties to Dark Souls (unlike Dark Souls 3, which IMO is the true Dark Souls 2), it's very easy to alter a few things for the world and lore to be unique to just Drangleic.
And look at the Dark Souls 2 references in Dark Souls 3... yeah, there are hardly any, and they're more so an Easter egg when there is one.
They don't call Sekiro something like Dark Souls 4: Isshin, because people would flame it for not being a Dark Souls game, but as its own world bereft from DS, it has massively succeeded.
I have yet to play Dark Souls 2. Would that be considered the straight-up better way to play it now even for a first time?
Some people recommend the original version over SotFS; since there’s already two competing versions of the game, is this mod just better than both?
Sotfs absolutely makes the game awful. They tried to make it a “hard” version and it just has a lot of bullshit aka you’ll be running past monsters more than killing them. I would play this before anything tbh
@@Mongrel214 It's actually the opposite. The game wants you to kill all the enemies and doesn't want to run past them/ I'm assuming you aggro to many enemies and get ganked by them. The game is just boringly aggroing one or two enemies from a big room to an empty place and repeat until all of them are gone.
I’ve played both vanilla and Scholar and I’m tired of seeing misinformation being spread about both. Scholar is not more ganky than vanilla, it has an increased amount of enemies trying to ambush you, but a patient and observant player will be able to turn any ambush on its head. Vanilla on the other hand has significantly worse sections at times: The Shrine Of Amana being chief among them. The Amana priestesses in vanilla had significantly more range and aggroed from a greater distance, making the area much worse in vanilla than Scholar. That said, it’s not impossible so long as you’re the type of player who thinks for creative solutions to a problem, rather than bashing your head into a wall repeatedly until it eventually gives way.
The point being that Scholar improves a lot upon vanilla’s shortcomings and that vanilla wasn’t perfect by any stretch of the imagination. But that does not mean either vanilla or Scholar are anything but fantastic. Dark Souls 2 at its core is a well-built game that made many improvements on Dark Souls 1. The improved viability of many of the weapons and the addition of powerstancing alone makes Dark Souls 2 one of the most fun and replayable games in FromSoftware’s catalogue due to the insane build variety. The story and world are thought-provoking and emotional; more than worthy to succeed Lordran from the first game.
Vanilla and Scholar are both good versions of the game, but Scholar has more creative and thoughtful enemy placement and encounters and introduces a lot of new, interesting ways to interact with the world (the torch scaring the spiders in Tseledora and the ability to shoot the bell in No Man’s Wharf are prime examples), plus a wealth of new encounters and content. Scholar is strictly the better version of the game, though vanilla is still a solid experience worth playing.
@@Hewasnumber1 Thanks for the thorough explanations. Now having said all that, would you recommend to play SotFS first, or go straight to this mod? The changes seem great and pretty sensible to me, but not sure if they might change the experience too much since I don’t have much points of reference for DS2, outside of having played other Souls games.
@@MerryBlind I wouldn’t recommend playing with the mod at all. It changes the Dark Souls 2 gameplay experience to be more akin to Dark Souls 3’s, but those two games play completely differently and shouldn’t be approached the same. Dark Souls 2 has slow-paced, careful gameplay that encourages the player to be wary of new spaces and enemies, whereas Dark Souls 3 is more fast-paced and combat intensive. If you WANT to play the mod do it after playing one of the original Dark Souls 2 games without mods, so you at least have a frame of reference of what the game is trying to do and what it wants from the player.
Dark Souls games are very deliberate in the experiences they provide, mods inevitably alter those experiences to the point that the artistic vision is muddied. I’d recommend Scholar Of The First Sin, since it has a more active community and more content, but I started with Vanilla and had a great time.
I have some friends who haven’t yet played DS2, would this mod be good for them for a first playthrough?
Tbh i think one should always experience the normal version first
You should always play vanilla first before modding so you understand the changes better.
Absolutely not.
The biggest change is also the most overlooked and more needed, now this is a real love letter to DS2
Would it be possible to play this mod online? I mean I'm guessing is not a thing playing it on official servers (assuming u may get banned or is it safe?) but maybe a mod so we can play with other ppl who are using this mod?
this mod slaps
12:03 skill issue
really cool mod btw!!!!!!!!!
Everything seems fine. But to change Majula landscape is heresy.
Did they change the location of the Chloranthy ring? I can't seem to find it.
Isnt this just Seeker of Fire? Haven't finished the mod yet but everything you've shown here is in that mod
Does it fix hollowing mechanic? Also there are some things like the poison in the Mytha arena, and hidden important bonfires behind walls with no way of knowing especially in the dlc. Also does it fix dlc boss' resistance to magic which is insanely high.
Does it fix how your character moves/how the camera feels
Unpopular opinion lol but I liked the "one way trips"
How the player character is highlighted and POPS OUT in front of everything else in this recording looks terribly awkward to me. I hope the mod creators take notice of this and I hope it's easy to fix. I mean, tone down that effect 50%? Or 30%? Because otherwise, it seems like a superb mod that would be very fun to explore.
I've never had a problem with ds2, it was the first one I played (and it's my favorite), and I never felt the necessity to level up adp, by consequence I always thought ds1 and ds3 were too easy because it had too much Iframes when you rolled and estus was too quick and you could just run to the fog with no punishment, only after I went to the internet I saw that people for some reason diddn't like ds2, I never understood really, to me is the most fun dark souls, it has omnidirectional roll unlike ds1, a better variety of weapons and armor, and it isn't all gray, sad to look at, and filled with reused assets like ds3, I hope the mod will bring more people to play it though
Yeah yeah bro we've seen this same copy pasted comment a million times bro dark Souls 2 was dogshit brother
Yeah yeah bro we've seen this same copy pasted comment a million times. Dark souls 2 was horrible brother. Just because it was your first souls game doesn't automatically make it a good game
Crazy hot take
@@Hideyourtoes_miyazaki Ok
@@Ferreiro_André Yeah yeah man we've heard this copy pasted comment a million times. Dark souls 2 was terrible. Just because it was your first souls game doesn't make it good all of a sudden
We need a Whip riposte 😢😢😢 I just can't play a Belmont in every single souls game