Board 8 > Board 8 Ranks the Dark Souls II Bosses and Areas - THE LIST

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BOSS
1. Fume Knight
http://vignette3.wikia.nocookie.net/darksouls/images/9/9d/SotFS_Raime.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20150429031603
SCORE: 67
2 First Place Votes

Axl - 1
Maria - 1
Tazzy - 2
Metal - 3
Sorozone - 3
Angel - 4
TV - 4
Altma - 5
Robazoid - 10
John - 14
Ulti - 20

Axl
A menacing figure stands, wielding a longsword and a massive greatsword. The second I looked at Fume Knight, I knew I was in for a fight and by god I was not mistaken. The first half of the fight becomes predictable enough while keeping you on your toes but then when he relinquishes the longsword and coats his greatsword in flames, the battle becomes epic. It was immensely satisfying to finally come out as the victor in this epic battle. Not only is this the best fight in the entire 3 DLCs, it is one of the best fights in the series. Period.

Maria
I don't think any game in the Souls franchise tests your mastery and rewards high level play more than this fight does. that remark does not apply to Bloodborne. but in terms of just the bosses in the Souls titled games, Fume Knight is at the very top for me. feels scummy ranking this coward about Velstadt, though. you should have stayed with your king.

Tazzy
A lot of people complain about too many dudes in armor boss battles, but I think that’s where the series has always been at it’s finest. Fume Knight is hard to describe for me other than being mechanically perfect for what it’s trying to do, much like Artorias. I love the way this transitions. He’s really hard to dodge in his first phase, but his attacks don’t have a ton of weight. He buffs himself in the second phase and is way easier to dodge, but hits about twice as hard. It’s a really great flow to the battle. I also like how he encourages exploration of the level due to the healing bonuses he’s given, even if there is that design hiccup where you can use all of the wedges available to you before you get to the fight.
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AREA
1. Frozen Eleum Loyce
http://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/darksouls/images/d/d2/CotIK_location_Eleum_Loyce.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20141001150832
SCORE: 52
3 First Place Votes

Robazoid - 1
TV - 1
Ulti - 1
Sorozone - 2
Axl - 3
Tazzy - 3
Angel - 5
Altma - 8
Maria - 10
Metal - 18

Ulti
I normally never say things like this but anyone who doesn't put this at #1 is objectively wrong. This place has the best atmosphere, the best graphics, the best boss fights, the best regular enemies, and the best of everything else. The only thing better in the entire game is standing on the giant chain of the tower and looking out at the world.

Axl
Dark Souls II needed the icy snowy area which was missing in the main game. Not quite on the level of Dark Souls' Painted World of Ariamis but you really can't go wrong with these type of atmosphere.

Tazzy
I think you spend a bit too much time walking around in the blizzard, and the ice rabbit enemies are actually poorly designed, but I still love this place. Once you kill Aava, you’re basically intended to explore the level, since the boss is brutal without the knights hiding in the area. You really get a since of how beautiful the place is, and the way it’s designed is so wonderful. From really knocked it out of the park on this game’s DLC.

Maria
I consider all of my listed top 10 to basically be perfect in terms of design. As I've remarked a few times on the list, this just happens to be my least favorite of the "perfect" levels to replay. It requires a bit too much time and investment to clear the whole thing a second, third, etc. time. I will say though visually it is a very stunning place. The explorer within me was immediately impressed by this area, as I was with much of the content in this game but especially the DLC.
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I didn't rank locations but that probably would've been my number 1
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interesting results
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good top 5 for both lists. makes me wish more of the main content of dark souls 2 was as good as the dlc!

now on to the best souls game!
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Fume Knight at No.1 is really all that matters for a legitimately good Dark Souls II list :)

Everyone in this topic should start playing Nioh if you haven't already. Seriously that game deserves a topic like this (if not for areas, at least for bosses) by the time Dark Souls III is done. There is a lot of time to do so. I myself have to get back to Ringed City soon, P5 is seriously taking all my free time away.
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Good list.

Axl_Rose_85 posted...

Everyone in this topic should start playing Nioh if you haven't already. Seriously that game deserves a topic like this (if not for areas, at least for bosses) by the time Dark Souls III is done.

I like Nioh but I feel like a lot of the areas are boring and samey. It definitely doesn't hit the Soulsborne highs in terms of areas or enemy variety.

Fun gameplay though.
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But the Bosses are all great-amazing. That's why I suggested at least a Bosses Ranking since Areas will be difficult being mission based.
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i will definitely play nioh, but probably not until later this year. i think i already missed the boat on the "zeitgeist" for that, so i don't mind waiting some more until it eventually goes on sale and i've also cleared out some of my backlog. maybe the dlc for that will be discounted too!
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Nioh has a better combat system than dark souls and that really helps. But the non-connected world and sever lack of enemy variety really hurt the game. It's still fun but you fight many of the same exact enemies in every level for the entire game.

Hyped for Bloodborne ranking. I liked it more than any of the Souls games, and I'll actually be able to rank areas because they stand out more in my mind.
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Altma15 posted...

Nioh has a better combat system than dark souls and that really helps. But the non-connected world and sever lack of enemy variety really hurt the game. It's still fun but you fight many of the same exact enemies in every level for the entire game.

yeah, i've heard the criticisms. sounds like it's not gonna be the true "successor" to souls since great/interesting level design is definitely a hallmark of the series as much as the combat.

at least i'll be coming into it with my expectations set. looking forward to the challenge!
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UltimaterializerX posted...

It changed my opinion a lot. I legit had no clue it would adjust behind you if you tried to lock on with an enemy behind you. I figured it would just lock on like Zelda or Kingdom Hearts. It got SO much better after kev told me that.

DS2 does have legitimate camera problems though, and the series in general has never done well with super large enemies. Zooming in so you see less of them is generally really stupid.

I still remember you describing or showing something bizarre as all hell specifically in DS2 that legitimately sounded like something was going specifically wrong in your game. Something specific to multiple targets, I think?

BB was where you started having me scratch my head because most (but certainly not all) of the bosses in that game have pretty wide open areas, but eventually you said something that made me think of that. I actually tend to forget it exists myself because I'll just bump up camera speed to 10 and adjust while rolling in these games, but I'm glad it helped you out!

Maybe I'll actually pay attention and participate for BB and DS3 for these topics. (Granted, I haven't actually played DS2 still myself, so I have an excuse there.)
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TVontheRadio posted...

Altma15 posted...

Nioh has a better combat system than dark souls and that really helps. But the non-connected world and sever lack of enemy variety really hurt the game. It's still fun but you fight many of the same exact enemies in every level for the entire game.

yeah, i've heard the criticisms. sounds like it's not gonna be the true "successor" to souls since great/interesting level design is definitely a hallmark of the series as much as the combat.

at least i'll be coming into it with my expectations set. looking forward to the challenge!

When you first start nioh seems harder because it's much less forgiving in terms of raw damage. You can often quickly get 2-3 hit comboed and be dead before you know it.

But once you master the combat system the main game is relatively easy aside from a few hiccups here and there. Since you fight many of the same enemies the whole game you learn basically every move and every tell they have and the combat is super quick and responsive so you can dodge around everything all day. You definitely feel really good at the game

TVontheRadio posted...

Altma15 posted...

Nioh has a better combat system than dark souls and that really helps. But the non-connected world and sever lack of enemy variety really hurt the game. It's still fun but you fight many of the same exact enemies in every level for the entire game.

yeah, i've heard the criticisms. sounds like it's not gonna be the true "successor" to souls since great/interesting level design is definitely a hallmark of the series as much as the combat.

at least i'll be coming into it with my expectations set. looking forward to the challenge!

The criticism for level and enemy variety is definitely exaggerated. While it is not on the level of Dark Souls it has a wide range of different enemy types. It just makes the mistake of introducing too many of them too fast. Considering Nioh is about twice as long as Demon's Souls and Bloodborne or even Dark Souls III, it is to be expected.

The Bosses are amazing though and consistency-wise it is better than Dark Souls, which again is to be expected since Nioh is mission based whereas Dark Souls games are more Open.

The Combat and Bosses alone are enough to put it on Souls level and the Areas and Enemies are also only just a tier beneath Souls.

If I have to rank the Soulsborne games and Nioh it would be

Dark Souls > Bloodborne > Dark Souls III >= Nioh > Demon's Souls > Dark Souls II

All games range from excellent to GOAT tier for me. I just love Soulsborne and Nioh is more than a worthy addition to it. I can't recommend it enough to Soulsborne fans enough and of course to people who loved Onimusha to a lesser extent since it shares the same lore and even has an identical story to Onimusha: Dawn of Dreams (damn what an underrated gem that was).
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No the enemy variety is not exaggerated. Name a dark souls game that has an enemy type that appears in every single area. You can't. Nioh has multiple.

Level design is not quite on souls level either. There are a few highlights though for sure.

You don't realize how vital the huge interconnected world of souls is until you don't have it in nioh. Mission based just isn't the same, you lose immersion.

Nioh is a solid game but it is not quite on souls level overall. Mostly it's just too damn long and you spend that entire long game fighting the same vanilla yokai over and over and over. the bosses are quite fun though, I found the bosses to be the highlight for sure.

The other problem is lack of weapon variety. There are five weapon types, but each sword, spear, etc has the exact same move set. The loot system is also pretty uninspiring. Almost all the loot is randomized and you spend a large part of the game just managing a ridiculous number of items in your inventory.

UltimaterializerX posted...

Altma15 posted...

No the enemy variety is not exaggerated. Name a dark souls game that has an enemy type that appears in every single area. You can't. Nioh has multiple.

Bloodborne sort of has this problem but I don't care. If it's fun it's fun.

My point is that it's not as fun to fight the same enemy for the entire game. Nioh seems really difficult for the first 25%, but you've basically seen it all at that point and mastered the combat, so it's pretty smooth sailing from there until you get to some of the endgame optional stuff. The progression of difficulty is not great.

I know I'm ragging on it a lot but I did overall enjoy the game. The combat gameplay is maybe the best I've played of this style. You really feel like a god once you get good. Ki pulse was an ingenious idea, it creates a beautiful ebb and flow to battle. But in my mind it doesn't have the polish or attention to detail or variety to quite be on the same level as the souls series.