Dark Souls II

Though it’s always had its strenuous defenders, Dark Souls 2 is arguably the most divisive game to actually bear the Souls name, and it certainly was not what everyone was hoping for in a sequel to its groundbreaking, landmark predecessor. Its brighter environments weren’t as haunting and iconic, its quasi-time-travel mechanic felt undercooked, and its lore didn’t sink its hooks as deep into our collective psyches. At the same time, in some ways, it felt like just more of the same—a safe, predictable sequel—where what had defined Dark Souls before it had largely been its ambition to shatter our expectations.

And yet, though it didn’t all quite click into place as satisfyingly as Dark Souls had, there was something stirring within this game, some grasping for ideas, that made it linger in the mind, and that perhaps has only come into sharper focus in the years since its release.

In its more open world, we can now see the experimental seeds of what FromSoft would go on to more fully achieve in Elden Ring. In retrospect, it’s easier to appreciate that what appeared to be a conventional and fairly unremarkable sequel was actually FromSoft testing out some new ideas, and although it may have stumbled a bit in the realization of those ideas, it’s admirable that they were willing to take those risks at all.

Dark Souls 2 is, if nothing else, an interesting game, and I’ll take an interesting but flawed game over a conventional one that’s free of glaring issues any time. Today, the golden light of Majula feels quintessentially Dark Souls, beautiful and sad, and in the character of Lucatiel, Dark Souls 2 has one of the most poignant NPCs in FromSoft’s oeuvre, one who enables any of us to see the struggles our characters face throughout the series through the lens of the struggles in our own lives

And isn’t that a huge part of why so many of us find these games so irresistible?

– Carolyn Petit, Managing Editor