Let’s talk about sequels. I did A Quick Look at Cozy Grove: Camp Spirit (Spry Fox), which was the sequel to Cozy Grove. Here’s the second part of that review. I only played a few hours because I just could not get into it. I was thinking about why that was because it’s essentially the same game as the first one, though not as good. I touched on a few of those reasons in the last post, but I wanted to flesh them out more in comparison to Dark Souls II/Scholar of the First Sin (FromSoft).
When Dark Souls II came out, it was proclaimed a disappointment and a failure by hardcore FromSoft fans. This is a gross simplification, but the essence is true. True fans would cite the million things they hated about it, and there were tons of videos on how the game was Not A Worthwhile Successor. So much (virtual) ink spilled!
There was a popular video criticizing the game, and one thing they mentioned was that when you left the swamp area and went up an elevator, you reached the lava area. The video pointed out how jarring this was because swamp to lava? Inconceivable! I read/heard this criticism over and over again, and I wanted to ask, “How many of you actually realized this as you were playing the game?” Because I sure didn’t. Oh hell. Let’s just tackle this now. The level design is not as elegant as the first game, no, but it’s not terrible the way some people like to moan. You know what? No. I don’t want to get to this now. I’ll tackle it later or in another post.
Before I get to that, though, I have to say that there were so many criticisms, FromSoft did a nemake of the game and released it over a year later–under a different name. The original was called Dark Souls II whereas the new version was Scholar of the First Sin. I played the latter first and then went back and played the beginning of the original game. I will say that SotFS is a vast improvement and that I did not finish the original. I’m saying this so it’s clear which game I’m talking about.
I will say that some of the big issues with the original game–I can see it. The hordes of enemies were off the chart and the lack of checkpoints was painful. I made it to No Man’s Wharf, and, I have to tell you, that’s brutal in the SotFS version. It’s ridiculous in the original.
I have to mention a really ridiculous bug in SotFS. Well, I’m not sure it’s a bug, but it’s ridiculous, anyway. It’s the one game that decided to get serious about durability (of weapons). Which, fine. Whatever. I’m not a fan, but eh. It wasn’t that big a deal in the first game. In this game, however, on the PC, there was a thing that made the durability degrade at an alarming rate. So in the aforementioned No Man’s Wharf, you have to carry two usable weapons (or have repair powder) beacuse one weapon will not be enough. You might be able to squeak by depending on how many enemies you kill, but if you’re me, you start worrying when the durability hits 25%.
This is unacceptable. Oh, and this is with the weapons healing full any time you sat at a bonfire. In the first game, you had to go to Andre to repair your weapon, but could leave it forever. I did it whenever I was in the neighborhood, but it really was inconsequential. There is no way in hell I should have to carry two weapons in one area because of durability issues.
The one issue I have with the second game is that the devs (not Miyazaki) developed it as if to say, “You thought the first game was hard? Wait until you see what we’ve done!” Or, they thought, “Hm. People like that the first game was hard, so we’ll make it harder” without realizing what, exactly, were the hard parts people liked about the first game. They did not get the balance right, and I will admit that’s a ding against them.
Here’s the thing.
Hold up. The video I have included above is the launch trailer. I don’t think I’ve seen it before. I certainly don’t remember the banging song in it. I don’t always watch release trailers for FromSoft games because they show so much of the games. It’s hard to understand them without context, but still. They show so much!
Back to the thing I was going to point out. The sequel was never going to win. There was no way for it to be a success on release. Why? Because it was caught in a Catch-22. People wanted something different and innovative, but no, not in that way! This game is too different than the first game.
One thing people hated (and I admit, I did as well) was that whten you died, you permanently lost a sliver of health. This went on until you hit half-health. There was a ring that capped it at 75%, which, once you put it on, yeah it was staying on forever. This was a call back to Demon’s Souls, and I think it was a neat touch. In hindsight and having platted the game. At the time, I just hated it.
This is the thing about the game. They tried to be creative, but didn’t quite get it right. Another thing was that there were torches all over the place. It came out that they wanted to do something with the lighting, but just didn’t have the time to do it properly–so they scrapped it. Except for a few specific cases. One is in the Blighttown of this game, The Gutter. Rickety structures that you have to go up and down, and poison. Lots and lots of poison. So. Much. Poison. This is a terrible area.
And it hides a secret that blew my mind. There are 50 torches in the area (not including the one at the very start). If you light them all, you get invaded by the Gutter Denizen. If you defeat them, they drop the Black Witch Set, minus the hat. That is my favorite armor is the third game (minus the hat), and you only get it in that game at the end of the second DLC. I can’t remember how I found this out. You can also get the set another way. But one time I tried to get the set, I killed the Gutter Denizen, but they dropped the set in such a way that I could not pick it up. I exited out and came back in, but it was not there. I was not happy about that because it’s a pain in the ass to light all the torches. I had to look at a YouTube guide every time I wanted to get the set.
I also like that there are three helms with that set. The hat, the veil, and the Domino’s Mask. There are various ways to get every piece of this set, which is pretty cool to me.
I have more to say, but I’ll get to it tomorrow.