Oh god, him complaining about the optional ogre and then praising the optional heide knight gave me an aneurysm, I don’t know how you do this

@Domo3000

3 ай бұрын

0:55 in case anyone want to have a laugh at his hypocrisy

@MAYOFORCE

3 ай бұрын

I noticed that's what the other guy Domo assblasted said too.

@soulstice94

3 ай бұрын

@@Kamawan0 agreed, it was nice getting the sword early without having to farm. At least it's still possible to get it early

@Kamawan0

3 ай бұрын

@@soulstice94 Exactly. Just takes a long time, depending on RNG. Drop rates in both games are very bad for certain equipment, literally my only gripe with the games, actually.

@NisseDood

3 ай бұрын

An optional ogre that you pretty much need to stand 1 meter from to even aggro. :V He just want to take a bath in the river so dont bully the ogre.

Comment number 2. I just checked out the other video, weeks ago i left a comment explaining things like how Scholar updated the enemy AI to be less aggressive in groups. Seems like it got deleted. I even sugar coated it just incase the creator saw it in hopes that it would be taken seriously by those of a more arrogant demeanor. Something tells me that this guy doesn't actually care and 100 percent made their video for it's click bait nature. I now disgusted and even more disgruntled at Scholar haters.

@masterowl123

3 ай бұрын

they said they were "moderateing" the comments. not sure about that even if they seem wellmeaning.

@ghostoflazlo

20 күн бұрын

And now the comments are paused

Domo is the definition of "yo check it" and then checking it. We praise our no-bs-policy master

@YEY0806

3 ай бұрын

Gotta love when a youtuber makes a claim by backing it up with actual evidence and comparisons, and not just "I have thousands of subscribers, who needs evidence? My word is enough"

@JoshDoVids

3 ай бұрын

@@YEY0806 Unfortunately thats why this channel has a few thousand views and Xander's video has over one hundred thousand. Welcome to the post-truth world my dude!

@ghostoflazlo

20 күн бұрын

​@@JoshDoVidsthe burden if proof is a lost concept today

Domo doing the Lord's work. One more grudge struck from the book.

I genuinely don't understand why people think vanilla is better , it just had so much more jank and weird things like enemies being able to kill you at a bonfire, spiders not fearing the torch ,etc. Scholar fixed so much jank that was in vanilla that these video essays always leave out.

@Kamawan0

3 ай бұрын

I like both versions!

@zeno6554

3 ай бұрын

nostalgia maybe? I don't know

@Hewasnumber1

3 ай бұрын

Scholar of the First Sin made some changes that were bad, some that were good, and some that just exist. I don’t think it’s a superior way to experience the game, but not inherently inferior either. I don’t understand the divide in the DS2 community between Scholar and vanilla fans. They’re both valid ways to play the game to me.

@Kamawan0

3 ай бұрын

@@Hewasnumber1 I don't understand the split either, but I would wager it has to do with the videos that have been misleading folks. I love both versions, still play both regularly. Feels like I have an extra Fromsoft game in my library.

@Niakra

3 ай бұрын

@@Kamawan0 I think it's various factors. Maybe some people just stayed with whatever version they had. Can't blame Scholar players for not randomly buying another version or vanilla players for buying the "upgraded" one of the game they have already finished a million times. Add some online "discussion", like these videos, and maybe you get people who will die on these hills. I also think that liking vanilla but hating Scholar might be due to wanting to like it, maybe even liking DS2 actually, but admitting as much means you lose street cred with the cool kids. You know, the common Souls crowd watching videos where they expect the usual DS2 bashing and such. Domo's comment sections here also have some haters in denial for whatever reason. I mean what, are you going to spend a lot of money on the other version and invest dozens of hours of your life to "prove" KZreadr X wrong? It's not like they care, the video is old news, the damage is done. And maybe a lot of this discourse is not about good reasons, it's about hating for the sake of it and chasing trends, as it were.

There is so many things that you can genuinely criticize this game but to make things up is just so low and also pointless like what does he get from this.

@YEY0806

3 ай бұрын

My main criticisms would be that there should be better bosses and that the credits can be skipped, make it easier to farm covenant items. but besides that nothing much

@FlexSPJ

3 ай бұрын

unfortunately we live in a world where facts don't matter as much as fostering a pre-existing emotional bias. The human brain rewards you with dopamine whenever other people "confirm" your stance. That stance doesn't have to be based on facts. This translates to easy clicks.

@bartholomewpicca9899

3 ай бұрын

Sunken City has always felt underwhelming to me, at least compared to the other DLCs. Other than that, loved the whole ride.

@CatfishBradley

3 ай бұрын

​@@YEY0806 What's wrong with the bosses? (I haven't played it yet, should be starting next week after uploading the DS1 playthrough). I haven't played dark souls, but I've played elden ring and sekiro; I haven't seen people say "dark souls 1 has bad bosses" but it honestly did. The lore was cool, and the set pieces were cool, but they all felt like absolute pushovers even for a first time playthrough. I think I prefer the "level" part to be a bit easier with more exploration etc... then a hard skill-check in the boss fight, but IMO it's the exact opposite. Blighttown? Cancerous, Quelagg? Stood directly in front of her and never got hit lmao. Ruins? Tough stuff with the ghosts/knights/lack of bonfires, 4 kings? stood in front of them and spammed attack, comfortably tanking hits. Sen's fortress? Definitely can be tough to get to the bonfire while trying to explore everything, Iron golem? May as well be a quick time event, seriously. No hate, I enjoyed the game, I was just surprised that no boss took more than a couple tries, and I've never heard anyone complain about DS1 bosses (but I've heard nothing but bad things about DS2 lmao)

@YEY0806

9 күн бұрын

​@bartholomewpicca9899 I have the opposite opinion, I felt like the ivory king DLC was underwhelming compared to Sunken King since it has the least puzzle like design of the DLCS, just run around until you find the knights for the boss fight, whereas Sunken King has a unique aesthetic that hasn't been replicated in the other souls games, with more puzzle and trap elements that gives the DLC a "Temple Of Doom" and "Tomb Raider" vibe, of course I also like Sinh compared to ivory

Has anyone (the aweful and wrong Scholar haters) ever responded to these videos. It would be wise of them no to seeing as they'd be eviscerated, but my hopeful self would like to see them accept their ignorance and switch teams

@kodafuller5232

3 ай бұрын

You have posted cringe, it was like reading a Chris Chan comment lmao

"I lost the vanilla footage. But I *totally* compared them side by side. I didn't just play Scholar for footage and make stuff up. Pinky promise. Upon realizing my footage was lost I also couldn't be arsed to semi-speedrun vanilla to get to the relevant sections and get new footage. Time is money after all." ... how this kinda sounds to me, sorry to say. What I find most curious is how all these videos are so identical. I wonder where the ur-video is. Hater Prime, as it were. The one everybody else seems to copy as they play for their footage.

@Domo3000

3 ай бұрын

He lost his footage, and apparently also all his Bonfire Ascetics 😂

@Niakra

3 ай бұрын

Geez, I figured you might only respawn the terrible duo, but you're right, Nashandra (and Aldia, who knows) probably becomes available again upon using an ascetic. Just inexcusable. Kinda sad we didn't get a mechanic like the bonfire ascetics in any other Souls game so far. Can be used in so many ways, it's wonderful.

@Ashlevon

3 ай бұрын

Maybe the original hater video is Matthewmatosis' critique of Dark Souls 2. He also gets a ton of stuff incorrect/factually wrong, and it was before Scholar released. A lot of his talking points are parroted to this day.

@RavenGamingOverLord

2 ай бұрын

⁠@@Domo3000 I guess he must have lost his save date too lol

One must imagine Domo3000 happy...

Also nashandra DOES have more then one curse orb even in vanilla, i havent killed her in vanilla but when i fought her i very mich remeber like 3 on screen

@Domo3000

3 ай бұрын

Yeah that's because he was just grasping to come up with any reason to hate on Scholar so he just made that part up and pretended that he lost the footage. Here's a video that's older than Scholar so it's certainly Vanilla where you can see 15 seconds in that she spawns 4 curse balls as well: kzread.info/dash/bejne/oaKNr9aYj6a9lqg.htmlsi=0yUmLOrChtVr-Jme

@texandeerhunter7351

3 ай бұрын

@@Domo3000and then there’s the fact that in scholar you can just roll through em while in vanilla you have to attack them, which is much more annoying if you have a big heavy weapon.

@An_Entire_Lime

3 ай бұрын

​​@@texandeerhunter7351 Epic gamer tip: One hand your weapon and just punch the orb, its what I did.

@texandeerhunter7351

3 ай бұрын

@@An_Entire_Lime yeah that’s about what I figured out as well. Still was a bit of a pain to hotswap, however.

@thelegendofxander woke up and said: I love spreading missinformation. But seriously I believe hating on scholar at this point turn out to be a social thing or something, there is no way that nobody checked on this facts before you. Its like there is a global concensus without proof that Scholar is a bad game. I have seen people messing with others just because they consider DS2 SOTFS a good game, or their favourite rather than DS1 or DS3. Its amazing what youre doing.

I watched the feebleking video, and because it lined up with stuff I had already heard, I believed it. But now that I’ve been watching your videos for a week or two, I’ve seen actual direct comparisons of the changes and had the changes put in a wider context. Now it feels easy to say that scholar actually was a good upgrade. And I really do appreciate that, and how your passion for the game shows in your videos. You’ve made me interested in picking the game up again.

Great video. Some afterthought. Exploding hollows actually make a lot of chain noises, so doesn't noticing them before fighting viverns you need to be deaf.

@Domo3000

3 ай бұрын

Listening to audio cues while playing the game? What are you, a non-casual?

@YEY0806

3 ай бұрын

​@@Domo3000more like not having 1 intelligence

@An_Entire_Lime

3 ай бұрын

​​@@Domo3000 I played the game while listening to music on my phone and still couldn't NOT hear the chains every time they showed up. You don't have to listen for them, you WILL hear them whether you like it or not.

When I first played DS2, it was on the PS3. While Scholar of the First Sin was released on the PS3, all it did was automatically include the three expansions, therefore everything else was still vanilla (likely due to performance reasons). I hated the hell out of that game. The hate and frustration was unmatched; I can't even begin to describe how much I despised DS2. It didn't help, either, that I had _just_ finished Dark Souls: I legit downloaded DS2 as soon as the credits finished in DS1. That was two years ago. I played and complete Scholar of the First Sin a few weeks ago on the PC, and I fucking _loved_ it, and that's partly because of the changes made in SotFS, I think. Sure, there were some bullshit moments here and there (same as any FromSoft game), but overall I found myself having one helluva time. All the DS2/SotFS haters are so disingenuous and braindead. Scholar of the First Sin is fucking GOAT'd; DS2 got its redemption from me bc of it.

Every time some SOTFS hater says how there are a thousand mobs ganking you while you're trying to fight a miniboss I just know that they ran around aggroing every single enemy without any care. This isn't how you play the game, or even how a new player might play the game at all. In a video i made a few days ago I pointed out how the only area to me that is genuinely worse in SOTFS is the Iron Keep because the Allone Knights genuinely aggro from too far away and there are way too much of them (plus 2 invaders in the same spot) but I think the rest of the game is fine really. I don't understand the Sotfs hate at all, this feels like people just reverberating opinions they read ln reddit or so. There are genuinely more spots that are much more unbearable in vanilla.

@An_Entire_Lime

3 ай бұрын

The strangest part to me is the amount of people who seem to encourage running away BECAUSE of the ganks. *Runs past everyone* *Alerts the whole area and gets ganked* "This place has too many ganks!" "I don't want to fight ganks, so I'll just run past them" Ending up in this disfuncional ouroboros of bad player habits that ends up getting blammed on the game's level design. I've always played by killing pretty much everything and picking foes off one by one and thats the mindset I had when playing DS2 for the first time, I ended up never really struggling with any ganks. I still think the game has too many required enemies at certain points, not because I fight all of them at once and its hard, but because I fight them one by one, and there's a lot of them... Which can get kinda tedious. Shout-out to no man's wharf on that front.

@christopherdunn8767

3 ай бұрын

And yet these same people say DS3 is the best in the series, despite its own problems with enemy swarms. Make it make sense!

@Celatra

Ай бұрын

@@christopherdunn8767 ds3 doesnt really have that many enemy swarms tbh.

These videos are awesome. I only played ds2 a couple times but I'm definitely gonna be going back to it after seeing how much bs is spread about it. It's the craziest thing how hating on ds2 is this massive meme. P.S. it's a pretty big red pill moment when you find out people actually don't care about facts. Most people are just desperate to conform and fit in, even with something as simple as "my swingy swingy slash slash game better than your swingy swingy slash slash game"

@bartholomewpicca9899

3 ай бұрын

the part about your P.S. that bothers me the most is that the people you're talking about, in my experience, are the quickest to boast about their own intelligence, or their knowledge relative to you. In every argument I can remember having with a DS2, or Scholar, hater, they cite their own knowledge about the game as the reason they should win the argument, without, you know, presenting said knowledge (or while just presenting wrong information that they've heard.) One even said he was both a play-tester for DS2, and a developer for a "similar game released at the time" (sure), at the time of DS2s release, and their channel was all youtube animation content.

your channel is great. i only played scholar, and i really enjoyed it. so its great to see you comparing the two versions, and showing that this whole thing of "omg ds2 was a masterpiece but scholar RUINED it", is just not true at all. like what is actually wrong with the soulslike community huh. why is it just full of all these souls "fans" just spreading lies and misinformation. this community is so rotten, and new players will take all these lies as facts because, surely a 1 hour analysis video about how scholar ruined ds2 with 1 million views and 500k likes could not possibly be made up lies right? i love from soft games but the community is full of mindless hollows, for whatever reason.

@Domo3000

3 ай бұрын

The thing is that over 90% of people that played both versions prefer the Scholar version, so those disingenuous KZreadrs know that they can make great clickbait videos by just making outright false claims to get more comments and views. And then people that don't know any better get trolled into buying the gankier Vanilla version with worse runbacks and falsely assume that Scholar must be even worse.

@WolfBergMenace

3 ай бұрын

I also only played scholar and that was WAY after i watched a lot of videos on how scholar ruined DS2 and I honestly did not see it. I loved it and even got every achievement

@YEY0806

3 ай бұрын

​@WolfBergMenace yeah, the funniest thing was that places like SOFA and FO weren't that hard. In the case of frigid Outskirts, the blizzard relents after a certain amount of time granting visibility, also I'm not sure but I think the reindeer don't spawn when that happens meaning that I only fought 5 which were all one on one. Lud and Zullen only taked one try since counter damage with duel rapiers is BUSTED!

@Boc_theSeamster

3 ай бұрын

@@YEY0806 I hate when people do this. Nobody knows what area you're talking about when you squish them into acronym that nobody uses. You must be the first person to ever abbreviate shrine of amana into SOFA. Took me a while to figure out what you were referring to. It doesn't take that long to write out the full name. Might as well abbreviate lud and zallen into L@Z.

@YEY0806

3 ай бұрын

@Boc_theSeamster sorry, just did it for convenience sake

Another day, another scholar hater takedown. You are right Domo, they don’t care about facts, they just want that sweet KZread clickbait algorithm money. Keep up the good work!

@sanctum2fan

3 ай бұрын

all the ds3 fanboys just soak it all up too

as someone who just played Scholar for the first time after DS1 and watched the Xander video it's so obvious that he ran through it without thinking and got frustrated when things weren't the exact same as vanilla. So many times - the royal swordsmen in the forest, the Lost Sinner light, the Dragon Aerie hollows, and ESPECIALLY the Tseldora spiders. it's so funny that he even realized they were scared of fire before the boss room and didn't think to try it elsewhere. As a newcomer to DS2, taking things slowly and using the ingame messages (intended game mechanic by the way) I felt like I was for the most part adequately prepared. "Try torch", "Be wary of trio", etc. And sometimes I had to change my equipment up if it was obvious my weapons weren't good for the area I was in. Some of the ganks were still egregious (the mages outside Ornifex, the pyromancer bells in Undead Crypt, Iron Keep, and Amana second bonfire are the worst examples) but he was way overdoing it. Anyway thanks for calling him out.

FINALLY someone calling out Scholar haters, I’ve been waiting for this. 2:11 Just as a note; those are hollow infantry, not basic hollows. 5:48 Xander does realize that some of her orbs won’t spawn if she’s too close to the edge or the arena, right? Y’know, because it would be unfair if there were orbs floating where can’t reach them without ranged? Great video. Edit: I just went and checked Xander’s video and he paused the comments. Apparently he isn’t too happy about the comment section calling him out and there’s a few comments mentioning you specifically. Thanks for making videos like this, it opens the way for better/more accurate critiques in the future.

1:35 Just to add this in case anybody thinks the opposite, IMO the heide knight when I was new to the game was way harder than the ogre. Hated Heide's tower

@Domo3000

3 ай бұрын

I would even argue that the Ogre is great for new players because if they do try to fight him they quickly learn that they can bait out attacks that they can easily punish, and that they can farm Souls with him. The Heide Knight with an unupgraded weapon and being completely new to the game is so much harder.

DS 2 Slander will NOT be tolerated

Crown of the Domo King when?

@crewds

3 ай бұрын

Domo King’s Blessing

@blainedz

Ай бұрын

@@crewds all hitboxes in the game are visualized lmfao

Ive been going off about this video for weeks on my friends who have decided to never try dark souls 2 due to it "not being fair." (Although, one said he stopped when he was killed by the invisible knights in shaded woods, and i wish they became visible earlier than they do)

@Domo3000

3 ай бұрын

Those invisible knights were a problem in Vanilla, but in Scholar you can distract them by hitting the face trees. They will drop their aggro and focus on the tree instead: kzread.info/dash/bejne/pGqJ0K9wYdbbmbg.html

@dagothkronk348

3 ай бұрын

it's literally such a shame that people are getting swindled into cheating themselves out of one of the most unique experiences in the whole souls series.

No, they don't

share the video guys

Amazing content I hope this video can be suggested to as many people as possible, to fix the blatant misinformation cause by that guy

i do miss the heide knight under the tree

😂 Shitting on the ogres in forest, but praising the optional heide knight. The ogre is optional too, haven't fought it in 3 years. Ancient dragon was the bane of my existence in vanilla. Took me two weeks to beat. And he doesn't even include changes in the enemy placements from bonfire to Ancient. In Scholar, you have to fight 4-5 mandatory enemies with small enemies that even BOW TO YOU to signal their passive nature (if you fight fairly). In vanilla, this area was hell.

@Domo3000

3 ай бұрын

He does actually mention the changes to Dragon Shrine as one of the only good change in Scholar

I watched that guy's video and I could not believe what I was hearing. Thanks for the facts 👍

The Legend of Xander disabled the comments on his video, what a piece of ***

@Domo3000

2 ай бұрын

Don't be mean. He must already be feeling sad after my videos.

Other M sent me. DaS2: SotFS is my favorite Souls game. Absolutely beautiful. I love Majula, the Rotten, the Shrine of Amana, the Dragon Aerie, the builds, bonfire ascetics, all of it. I only wish they hadn’t implemented Soul Memory because the Agape Ring doesn’t do it for me. I’m on break but I’ll be back to comment on the video itself. Big Ups! Edit: That Dragon Aerie section is peak absurdity. I have hundreds of hours in Scholar and I adore the Aerie and never once have I had to fight one of those exploding hollows while I fight a dragon. These goofballs go and disingenuously aggro everything, record it and say, “Look how awful the ganks are!” Gimme a break. That is not normal play nor is it a common, or even reasonable, experience.

These videos give me life

Many people mistake Scholar for having a higher quantity of enemies opposed to vanilla as the issue. The truth is that the enemy types, placements, and interactions with said enemies are what makes Scholar more frustrating for many players. For instance, in Pates trap, it's true that scholar has fewer enemies compared to vanilla. What you didn't show is that in Scholar, more enemies aggro once you activate the trap opposed to vanilla which keeps a majority of its enemies on the stairs, making the gank more difficult and irritating in scholar.

i thought i was crazy in thinking the last giant did less damage to me in SOTFS.

As someone who put a good chunk of time into both: Vanilla DS2 is lacking QOL when you compare it to scholar (especially with upgrade mats). Farming certain items was tough as some items just had lots of areas or bosses to get through first and a lot of them weren't even that useful by the time you got there. The runbacks are very long too, there's a few shortcuts that aren't in the original. Scholar improves on the original in most ways, balance is a bit better, but it's still a souls game so you know the balance will still be all over the place. Main thing I like from Scholar is the changed spawns offer loads of new item farming/looting opportunities without having to defeat certain bosses first or having to go to new game plus. This is especially nice for covenant items, certain weapons, certain armors, and upgrade mats as well as consumables. Early access to the agape ring is nice as well. A must if you plan to pvp or coop in certain brackets.

Been binge watching your videos recently, especially the series about debunking the fake "soulstubers" with their bs ds2 vids, and i decided to subscribe. Your channel deserves more recognitions!

I have to say I really appreciate your videos!!! You have really opened my eyes to scholar and now Im really excited to play it after I finish up with ds3!!!

@Domo3000

3 ай бұрын

Remember to get 92 agility early game, 96 mid game and 100 or 105 late game. This removes the hitbox issues people complain about when they get hit mid roll.

@daylen7010

12 күн бұрын

​@@Domo3000 Knowing this, and that not having enough stamina for a roll reduces your I-frames helps a lot, though I still try to get 99 Agility in the early-game, 20 ADP is just nice to look at.

Heide's knights being literally everywhere but not at Heide's. Finding McDuff in like couple hours, and only unlocking his speciality after being through half of the game. Yeah, right, vanilla was sooo "intentional"

@tomasstargamer6308

9 күн бұрын

Heide Knights lore wise are lost, wandering knights, it makes sense they are NOT at Heide.

I'm glad I didn't find videos like this that scared me away from playing ds2. Ds2 had to be one of the best first playthroughs of any game I've had in a long time. It's not my favorite but it is an amazing game and watching someone lie to people who haven't even played the game about how bad it is is disgusting.

Leaving a comment to help you on algorithms as always But seriously tho, i'm deeply disgusted by souls game content creator who made a false accusations to these games.

Havin the dark soul for SOTFS i can tell you the worse part of it is. Getting the needed sunlight medals in order to get all miracles, and the kills for bell keepers for all spells. The rest can be got via ng+2. Thats it.

@Domo3000

3 ай бұрын

Sunlight Medal farming is yet another plus for Scholar. You can just go to the first bonfire in Tseldora or the Shaded Woods Crossroads and farm the Falconers. In Vanilla they only showed up in NG+ Things Betwixt, so you always had to run further for less enemies.

@maninthesnow4393

3 ай бұрын

@@Domo3000 still the drop rate is low evn with maximum item discovery and you have to join the championship covent in order to farm all of them for both sunlight and bellkeepers, or you can use bonfire astehics which has a minor boost to item discovery until ng+8 or 9. Either way it takes several days depending on how long you farm for per session.

@genericyoutuber5533

3 ай бұрын

@@maninthesnow4393 to be fair, covenant farming in all three games is pretty bad 😂 DS3 took me forever!

@maninthesnow4393

3 ай бұрын

@@genericyoutuber5533 ds 1 had the easiest if we are talking about achievements. Seeing how you need three runs and you can just loot all items needed to until the miracles/pyromanices needed. 3 i can agree on being a pain, atleast we can level luck!

@genericyoutuber5533

3 ай бұрын

@@maninthesnow4393 yeah it basically goes DS1>DS2>DS3 in terms of how hard the achievements are Elden Ring is pretty easy too imo, just takes a bit of grinding

Thank you for your videos. Dark Souls 2 has always been my favorite. Seeing Ds2 in a new light now. Yea some fights may be gank, but as you point out, there is strategy to every one. Ds2 GENUINELY made you think about the map your going in and way to circumnavigate, wether it be via torches lighting up the map makinfmg certain enemies cower, or explosions that bkew open walls for shortcuts. THAT is whats missing from modren souls, especially Dark Souls 3 and Elden Ring. My main problem in souls was that i want to rush to the boss and level as quickly as humanly possible, which then in turn leads to the classic dark soul rage. Remembered this isnt made by Miyazaki so this self harmjng formula just doesnt work in this game. Replaying ds2 after watching and analyzing your criticisms, these videos brings a newfound joy on an already awesome game. These videos point out bothe the pros AND the cons in a light ive never seen. Actual demonstrations and repeat examples comparative to the others in series. Not just "ds2 bad, therefore ds2 bad" type arguments that been around for years. Thank you for that. Realizing now that Dark Souls 2 looks and plays like a classic RPG, much like the classic Zeldas, rather than your typical "soulsbourne" formula. I think in the coming years people will slowly realize this gem.

9:07 This is such a strange thing to complain about.

girl, I'm getting crazy de-ja-vu writing this. anyway, I hadn't watched the 'scholar bad' video, but I assumed it was true. I haven't watched this video to completion, because I haven't played dark souls 2 yet, and I want to, but clearly you're right. the talk about the ogre and heide knight made me a little closer to hollow. I know there's a little bit of division about the demon's souls remake and if it's really better, if you have anything to say about that, I'd watch it if I saw it. from my admittedly completely outside perspective, having only played dark souls 1 and a tiny amount of dark souls 3, I think I'd like dark souls 2, and I get the impression that some of dark souls 2 salt is just about people who had a bad time at launch because classic fromsoftware obfustication, and poor knowledge/incomplete wikis on the new game. but I'll just have to play it to find out

Great video. For the last point, however, I do not think they are asleep if you have destroyed any eggs. Obviously, this can be avoided but still something to point out.

The ds2 hate train is so pointless... Without this game, bloodborne, ds3, sekiro, and even elden ring would not be nearly what they are today. Ds2 created the most diverse world in the series. It has issues, but everyone just glances over ds1 issues cause nostalgia, ds1 suffered rushed development just like ds2. Izalith being the most horrific contender, but honestly? I liked izalith, i loved its weird layout and environmental storytelling that was intended. I like much of ds2, even parts people didn't like, i liked them myself. I like the frigid outskirts for the unique placements of structures the challenge of napping through a huge wasteland, and it was optional, the kieran enemies were tough but genuinely fun to fight, and the lud and xallen boss fight was genuinely really cool, it was like aavas fight but even more hectic and challenging. Getting lost in that area was honestly really cool cause it had such a layer of mystery with the ice fog coating everything periodically.

I love your channel and the work you've done debunking shit tubers so far. I have so many ideas to create and compare. And ofc to also debunk. My parody video defending ds2 unfortunately didn't get much attention. Would you be up to do a colab?

lmao he paused the comments

@AtreyusNinja

2 ай бұрын

true, wtf

@EdgyPuer

14 күн бұрын

He still has them paused XD

Doing the work of a true Monarch! Your DS2 vanilla/DS2 SotFS comparisons give me sanity! Even your hitbox comparisons between DS1/DS2/DS3 have been fun to see. I'm not sure if you'd be down for it, and it'd certainly be a lot of effort, but also comparing ganks/ambushes between the games would be interesting

@Domo3000

3 ай бұрын

I've already been brainstorming which situations to compare. In DS1 you've got several times where you get ganked when you greedily pick up an item and enemies climb up from a ledge, which is similar to the sleeping hollows in the DS2 Forest. In DS3 Undead Settlement you've got the Flamberg Thrall where another one drops down behind you, which is similar to Huntsman's Copse where a Rogue drops down behind you. I would just need a list of a lot more ganks/ambushes in all three games and then compare how each game indicates danger and how they let you prevent these situations.

3:23 the fact that most ds2 haters make a lot of false claims without knowing anything about the lore is mind blowing amazing video + sub

@Domo300 - Do Scholar haters even care about facts at all? Me- No they don't most of them anyway 😢

yeah but facts are boring. "How scholar ruins lifes, starts wars and diseases" clickbait titles are way more entertaining for the "confirmation" bias crowd Sarcasm btw

I feel like Scholar makes a lot of good changes and additions to vanilla. Stuff like a bunch of Drangleic Castle enemies being unpetrified because of you, the interloper, brings me back to creative fantasy books I used to read. Even feels like King's Field to me, it's great. Also when he said "there were no changes to any other bosses" my mind immediately thought of Ancient Dragon; does the dude not remember its damage?! It's still really high in SOTFS, but not one-shot tier like before.

Excellent video, you're doing Gods work ❤

> Heide Knight in Forest of Fallen Giants: no issue :) > Royal Swordsmen in Forest of Fallen Giants: unacceptable >:( zero brain activity

@YEY0806

3 ай бұрын

Basically, he is admitting that he died to a royal swordsman 😂

I wonder what do you think about Matthewmatosis' Dark Souls 2 critique? I know it's a bit beyond the scope of what you've been covering, he made it before Scholar came out, but there are some things in the video that Scholar addressed and some that weren't because they were rooted in the foundation of the game.

@janehrahan5116

3 ай бұрын

Most of the things that "werent addressed" were wrong critiques to begin with, but id love domo to live video evidence why.

@Domo3000

3 ай бұрын

​@@janehrahan5116like him complaining that consumable healing items don't belong in a Souls game, and how bad it is that you get the Ring of Restoration so early. I don't see how that's a bad thing and it's like he never played Demon Souls and acts like this makes him an expert of what belongs in a Souls game. Towards the end of DS1 I used Humanities like faster Lifegems, but that's just more annoying as they are so rare.

@dagothkronk348

3 ай бұрын

"guys look at this footage of me plinking away at a mammoth knight with arrows LOL b-team bad design" repeat for like an hour and that's the whole video

@MAYOFORCE

3 ай бұрын

@@Domo3000 Not only did he play Demon Souls he made an entire commentary on the game because he loves it so much and other than the healing the majority of his complaints in souls games after DS1 is that they aren't like DeS. He likes DS1's healing more because it's harder to cheese with but he also mainly plays as a knight without magic or projectiles.

@MAYOFORCE

3 ай бұрын

​@@janehrahan5116 I was thinking about stuff like the game arbitrarily telling you to go to places without saying why or controlling your character before you create them but those were his personal opinions and was probably thinking too hard about it. The best counter you could say about them is "that's just your opinion, man".

I confuse this guy with feeble king. This is the guy I watched a little while ago. I can't stand this wyvern and rupturig hollows part and stop the video. He complains same things over and over again and his gameplay is horrible. Agroing Wyvern and rupturig hollows at the same time is simply means death wish. He just plays badly. By the way Feeble King is horrible as well.

Keep cooking, man. Really good video.

It really surpised Me how immersed I am playing thru Dark Souls 2, despite all the negative comments it recieved.

I don't know why people need to hate so much, like you can have your own opinions but don't contradict yourself and definitely don't lie. I love all three dark souls games but the fans piss me off tbh because they're always arguing which one is best, again have your own opinions, but I think everyone just gets blinded by hate for the other, so that any of their arguments aren't productive. Can't we just get along guys all the games are great, and all of them have flaws 💀

Man, i am really glad i didn't watch this liar's video whenever it kept getting recommended to me.

Both versions offer an interesting yet slightly different experience. I prefer vanilla, but scholar is excellent.

as far as i've seen both versions look about the same, that is, gameplay wise. i don't think scholar is better than vanilla but i also don't think it ruins it either, if anything it adds even more replayability to the already most replayable souls game. also scholar just looks ways better the dynamic lighting is really nice looking.

I just finished playing DS1, currently editing the VODs down for a YT video; Next week I'm starting DS2 (Doing the whole trilogy blind), I have a lingering suspicion that DS2 will be very good, likely even preferable to DS1 for me. Based on what I've seen regarding mechanics, enemy placement etc... They made DS2 harder, and the classic "gitgudders" suddenly needed to actually expand their brain and "git gud" in slightly different ways, and in response they hate it. That's also precisely why I think Sekiro is a hard sell for so many; " I love super punishing games so long as I don't need to be punished for my lack of knowledge or mechanical ability" (OBVIOUSLY not all of the community, but undoubtedly some...) Regardless, I JUST watched the video you're responding to, and the commentary/editing felt weird to me, but I can't say one way or the other... YET >:D Thanks for spreading the truth! Excited to check it out myself!!

This is a really good video honestly, you back up what you say with facts and it all comes together nicely. Now, does this change my opinion of personally finding this game to suck in lots of ways? No. But I don't think we need to stretch things (whether intentional or not) to make our opinions seem better lmao.

It's almost like as if these DS2 haters secretly miss getting their asses torn up in vanilla and treat scholar as their coping mechanism for ruining their gank experience

@shambleshef

3 ай бұрын

That and the pre patch mundane shadow dagger landing 2k+ crits, if I had to guess

5:23 Hi I just finished Dark Souls 2 just this week, actually quite liked it a lot, and while I agree with most of your videos and points, as a 4 vigor swordsman I absolutely got one shot by scholar last giant at max hollowed. Since it was very slow attacks I didn't mind too much, but being one shot is absolutely on the table. In fairness I had some pieces of the starting armor on because I just liked how it looked better than the swordsman set, maybe that had something to do with it?

I see ds2 content creator debunking haters, I sub

I’ve gotten every achievement in both versions of the game, and I have to say you’re right on the money with your comments and claims. As a whole for any curious, scholar also just, feels, better to play. The enemy variety and enemy placement feels a lot smarter overall, while being less annoying.

My only experience with DS2 is Scholar. I played it after Elden Ring so my expectations were maybe even skewed. I had played DS1, 3, and BB before Elden Ring but always avoided DS2 because of the hate it got. When I tell you that I enjoyed it maybe even more than ER I’m not exaggerating. There are a good bit of harsh runbacks and gank spots, but you can LITERALLY STOP ENEMIES FROM RESPAWNING. Like???? Just kill them a few times. Literally that’s it. I seriously don’t get the complaints because the issue gets solved by playing the game. It seriously just happens naturally. If you explore you’re bound to die and unless you run through every section without fighting (which again why would you not collect souls while exploring) then the mobs naturally thin out. This game felt more alive and lived in than many others I’ve played and I cherished it. I guess I’m not really arguing for scholar more than I’m arguing for DS2, but I just wanted to express some love for the only version of the game I’ve played. I’ve not tried the pvp in it and I’m really looking forward to hopefully finding a few invasions when I can get on my computer. Man, I really do want to play it soon.

@Domo3000

3 ай бұрын

It really does feel the most alive. Even the summons and invaders have more personality than in any of the newer games, many with specific emotes they use when they join or defeat you. Like Jester Thomas always tries to lure you to go for backstabs because he's wearing armor that makes him immune to it or Maldron who's just a troll.

@buttbuttwhat1

3 ай бұрын

@@Domo3000 oh my god dude I forgot about getting emoted on by NPC invaders. Thank you for reminding me. When I played I kept feeling like I was playing something from the PS2 era. There’s something about the lighting, the music, the animations, and of course Majula. It was just such a living experience and I was happy to be apart of it. It didn’t feel like a game to “beat.” I didn’t want to beat it and I never wanted to run out of new areas to explore. Also I just want to add that I loved the Shaded Woods and No Man’s Wharf SOOOO MUCH. Those areas were just so fun to me.

@texandeerhunter7351

3 ай бұрын

Gotta say, it’s great to see someone else who enjoys DS2 more than ER and who gets flak from his friends over it

I think he must be mixing up the pate trap enemies that are being more aggressive when the trap activates in scholar, as a lot of the enemies from inside the building will rush out at once during that first event. It could be why he thinks there are more enemies, when really the enemy count could be the same they just swarm you giving the illusion there are more

Og Ds2 is what everybody thinks ds2 is loool. I enjoy ds2, currently playing it rn, and while I haven't beat yet, my only real complaints so far, are the stupid ass stone statues, idc if there's lore reasons or whatever, I think they're dumb and shouldn't have been added. Some enemy placements are annoying, I can see why people would get upset, but mainly Shrine of Amana, and Iron Passage so far for me. And as much I as I don't like decreased health, I do think it makes sense in context of the game

I watched these videos from 3 to 1 and, wow, yeah seeing a side-by-side comparison is mind boggling. I've never played the original, I bought SotFS a few years ago and despite my griped with the game I've still played it for 238 hours. But every complaint I have with it would probably be doubled if I played the original now. Enemies are easier to approach in a smart way, bosses deal less damage, there are overall less enemies, and you have access to more options earlier in the game. I genuinely don't understand why people hate the SotFS edition so much for being *harder* when it is easier. It's probably because any complaints about the game being *easier* are easily ignored because it's closer to that balancing point of difficulty and ease of access.

Awesome job dude

I remember the beginning quarter or third of my ds2 sotfs playthrough to be pretty miserable, so when I heard how there were just tons more enemies in sotfs I figured that was to blame. Am I learning that Vanilla was about the same?

@Domo3000

3 ай бұрын

No, you are learning that Vanilla had even more ganks, worse runbacks and more frustrating moments. Scholar addressed a lot of issues people had and is generally fairer and easier.

Thank you for defending such a beautiful and fun game this game i didn't play vanilla but i would have liked to and i think sotfs is just very misunderstood and got its bad reputation form disingenuous or spiteful people

People complaining bout DS2 prolly never tried Demon Souls back in PS3 xd

As always I appreciate your videos, but for me DS2 Vanilla remains much better than the Scholar version in terms of challenge, I find the Vanilla version better in placements, much more difficult and intelligent, when you say that in scholar it is easier and truer, however it doesn't apply to all areas, like forte ferro or heide to name a few, an example in vanilla heide is very simple and you can easily find the binding ring before the old dragon slayer, however in shcolar you are forced to defeat a knight of heide, furthermore in vanilla you can find the ring of vital protection much more easily which protects you in case you lose it saves you by breaking at the cost of a few souls you can repair it avoiding loss of souls, while in scholar they are more difficult to find and repairing them costs much more , I still like scholar for some improvements, but vanilla and on another level.

Small brains only play one version Galaxy brains play both versions and get two different experiences that are equally awesome

Long time ds2 player here. It's my favorite video game, have 3k hours on it. Would like to chime in and say THANK YOU for defending scholar a bit, while not perfect, it is not nearly as bad people whine it out to be. I personally enjoy alot of the changes, and still think ds2 itself is a fantastic And creative sequel tbh.

Yeah it's funny that a lot of the changes made (imo for the better) actually confused me at first 'cause when I played the original ds2 some areas and bosses I feared were only BECAUSE they were so hard in DS2. Like the dragons being asleep and Ancient Dragon usually one or two-shotting you. Imo, Scholar is just a more fun experience over all. I think the negative reputation that DS2 gets is because the original wasn't thought out as much. Not saying it's a bad experience, but there's definitely a lot of parts that make me question what the designers were thinking compared to Scholar that just made sense in a gameplay perspective.

Man i started playing sotfs a couple of weeks ago, i was going in blind just shortly after finishing ds1 remake, so to see a headsup i wanted to check reviews, that "critique" was the first video that popped of for me, and im glad i didnt gave in, cause after playing it myself, i realized game WAS rough, specially at the start but nowhere as rough as these trash videos claim to be, i just finished iron castle, so im supposedly past the "oh my god shit game" part, i did got frustrated a couple of times but nothing deal breaking so now im omw to finish it

I've only played sotfs. But it's amazing. IDK how anyone can say it's bad. Gamers just cry about everything now days. They definitely improved the game from ds1. Is it perfect? No not at all. But the hate it gets is undeserved. It's an amazing game that's challenging but not impossible. I've played all 3 and this is my second favorite dark souls.

I read the title without seeing the thumbnail and immediately thought this was going to be about anti-science people and stuff

bit late here, but thank you for breaking down the lies of scholar haters, I wish they stopped wasting everyone's time trashing our beloved game :] DS2 scholar is my favourite in the trilogy as well, even with all of its flaws.

I wanna be like Domo when I grow up

When looking to an environmental narrative perspective, vanilla enemy placement was all over the place and that's one thing that motivated the changes other than just balancing: in a videogame like dark souls, especially DS2 where the lore is much more confused than any from software game, putting the wrong enemy in the wrong place (see the heide's knights scattered around Drangleic without any reason) is way worse than two or three ganks more in Scholar!

@Domo3000

3 ай бұрын

Tomorrow I'll upload a video detailing how Scholar improved lore accurate enemy placement, eg moving the Flexile Sentry from Shrine of Winter to Sinner's Rise

with all the videos doing refutes on people who dis on ds2, have you considered doing videos on why you like it?

When I didn't know about vanilla my main issue with Scholar critics is "How about lore, plot and several added locations, without them Dark Souls 2 would be a lot lesser"

Tbh would like to see you defend falconer animations

I was literally turned off from this game due to KZreadrs like him. Now that I have 10 hours in the game (and continuing) it’s almost laughable how wrong people like him are. The game is very fair in enemy placement. And the only turn off is sometimes the oversized hit-boxes (which aren’t hard to dodge). The game is incredibly good so far!

if something it's really so bad you don't need to make up anything to make it looks bad

@abrahamrangel2326

3 ай бұрын

Ds2 haters in a nutshell

@dagothkronk348

3 ай бұрын

people love hyperbole, and they will exaggerate to make their negative feelings seem more legitimate. sad but true

"The chad Scholar of the First Sin defender." For real though, having recently finished my first playthrough of Scholar, I found the game really fun; Certainly not the trainwreck of a game that the vast majority of the Souls fandom would lead me to believe.

As a certified scholar hater, its on me to admit that most things that i am not a fan of are not exactly flaws in the game and rather personal taste. The enemy placement is a talked to death non point. Neither are good and neither are bad. Scholar ironically made the main path easier while making some optional areas more difficult which i think is objectively better. While i personally dislike the placement of enemies in scholar, its definitely disingenuous to say it made it "worse." Scholar also made weapon progression easier early if memory serves my correctly so, in theory it should be even easier to throw down. Some particularly unfair sections were changed and some bosses were toned down. Mechanically scholar is an improvement. There are some things in scholar i absolutely disagree with, the enemy placement being one though i disagree its a worse placement. More fragrant branches and locations to use them on was annoying and other gripes such as this. I own both versions of the game and have logged probably 300ish hours in both (on various platforms over the years), the original simply appeals more to me. I would encourage playing the original if asked, and would then encourage scholar if they wanted more. Dark souls 2 is a very flawed (but fun!) game. And choosing to proclaim that your version is better is like saying you'd rather die in a fire than die from a fall.

@halcyon1644

2 ай бұрын

I really do want to give the OG a try, not necessarily because "SOTFS better" but because one of my friends played the original so much, and spoke pretty highly of it. Is it still available on steam?

*Optional ogre with small aggro range "this is too hard for new players!!! 😠" *Heide Knight "yeah, you can fight him if you want challenge 🤓" Stupid take.

Vanilla was better, the enemy placement in scholar is just horrible, ds2 haters use this as an actual argument and i sadly agree, the game was meant to be played slow

@Domo3000

3 ай бұрын

Vanilla enemy placement is just getting ganked by default. Scholar enemy placement get you ganked in the worst case, but gives you several ways to handle it smarter. Like the Lost Sentinel Clown Car has the same amount of enemies, but Scholar placed an explosive barrel in there that explodes when an enemy hits it which let's you kill several at the same time.

@mohgceoofblood8235

3 ай бұрын

@@Domo3000 i dunno man, that dragon in heide's beg to differ, also petrified enemies placements were weird in scholar

@Domo3000

3 ай бұрын

@@mohgceoofblood8235 Vanilla also has statues for several important things: Shaded Woods, Straids and Ornifex Scholar has more statues, but you get a lot more Branches in early game. You can access all the important things that are locked behind statues way earlier than in Vanilla.

After watching this I have decided that I just don’t like DS2 in general. But still crazy to see how he manipulated the footage to be in his own benefit

I played the scholar version on the ps3 and it was kinda confusing at first, cuz its like vanilla but has the dlc(s) so watching these videos always confused the shit out of me FYI: it is called the scholar of the first sin

I stopped watching that guys video around 9 minutes with his rant about the turtle knights because at that point in my own vanilla playthrough comparison I was doing I just got done with that area in vanilla and was screaming "OH MY GOD HOW MANY TURTLE KNIGHTS ARE THERE HERE". That guy just straight up be lying :V