Was Dark Souls 2 really made by a “B-Team”?

SegmentNext.com- The first Dark Souls was without a doubt a brilliant game and set a high bar for its followup title. It has to be asked though, did the second installment do justice to the franchise?

[nope111]

Regardless it's still a very excellent game, and if true about a "B Team" they did a swell job.
I wish gamers weren't so quick to call foul when a different team develops a sequel/prequel. Bioshock 2 and Arkham Origins were both great, and the upcoming Borderlands The Pre-Sequel looks awesome.

[rattlesnake_906]

Yes, Indeed.

[joab777]

I thought we had all assumed this by now. They r making a next gen spiritual successor. This game was a cash grab of sorts. Dont get me wrong, it is amazing and better than most everything out there right now...but it was made to tide us over until the next game is announced.

[assdan]

Borderland the pre-sequel cold be a turd or great. And Borderlands 1 and 2 are two of my all time favorites. Bioshock 2 is known to be the bad one of the 3 games. Was it bad? No, but 1 and infinite are on an entirely different level.
Anyways, I don't understand why this game would be made by a "B" team. Demon's souls sold 1.7 million with barely any advertising. And Dark souls the went on to sell about 2.5 million units. These aren't blockbusters, but still very big hits.

[Sly-Lupin]

It is an excellent game, but you can really tell a different team made it. Level design and visual design both feel noticably less polished, and boss design is... vastly inferior to Dark Souls.

Miyazaki's absence is almost palpable.

Still, if Dark Souls 2 represents the series at its lowest point, it's still a damned sight better than any other ARPG ever made.

[3-4-5]

B-Team's contain Prospects though.

[WiredX]

It still is an amazing game. If this B team did this, they did a fantastic job.

[Hellsvacancy]

I'm loving DS2 but it doesn't feel as special as the first two games, even the bosses are all abit "meh" The majority of DS2 is just recycled assets from the first two Souls games (I HATE the lift noises)

That's not to say it's a bad thing, more of the same is better than totally screwing it up I guess

Come on Hidetaka Miyazaki, announce your next game already

[Back-to-Back]

The main thing for me is that the bosses were nowhere near as good or challenging as previous souls games. However, I thought their level design was excellent.

[Hellsvacancy]

I think it's a case of "once you've played one Souls game you've played them all" which is the truth

New players will think it's epic, but i've beaten the Tower Knight, Penetrator, Chaos Witch Quelaag before which felt epic at the time

The last boss in DS2 was a joke

[Sly-Lupin]

There are like three bosses that are just slightly different interpretations of Jabba the Hut.

As for recycled assets... there's a REASON for that. Pay attention to lore.

[Hellsvacancy]

Reused sound fx buddy

[Sly-Lupin]

Oh, well, I have to say in that case... it's even less bothersome. What, you wanted FROM to waste-money recording new audio for every little thing? Really?

Also: have you never played a game, watched television or movies, or listened to radio before? SFX are re-used all the time.

Also: only SFX that bothers me is the sliding-down-a-ladder SFX, because it's very obviously just a half-second sound effect on a loop.

[Hellsvacancy]

"because it's very obviously just a half-second sound effect on a loop"

EXACTLY, the elevator sound fx are used the same way, 2 seconds looped over and over, so YES I do want FromSoftware to spend a little money improving the audio fx, would it really be that costly to change some of the "older" audio files they have kept from Demon's Souls? hell I could record it for them

[WizzroSupreme]

Funny how "B-Team" has such a negative connotation with it. As far as a grade's concerned, always though it'd be "D-Team." XD

[MrSwankSinatra]

When you went from demon's souls to dark souls it felt like it moved the series forward but also felt like a necessary upgrade in the process. playing dark souls 2 not only feels underwhelming but the it hasn't moved the series forward at all imo. It just felt like i was playing something that wanted to be a true to the souls series but in the end felt artificial. I think that sums up dark souls 2 for me "artificial". I really hope that miyazaki directs the next souls game whether it be demon's souls 2, dark souls 3 or newly titled souls game.

[elhebbo16]

If it was made by a "b-team" I cant imagine what an a-team would be capable of since Dark Souls 2 is so good, playing on PC right now and its really some of the best fun I had in a while.

[Studio-YaMi]

Downloading it to my steam account right now,2 hours and a half to go till I can RE-play this awesome game in all it's glory with 1080p & 60fps.

[Necro_559]

It did not do DS1 justice. I mean, the brain behind the souls series. The reasons those games are the way they are. Art design. Story telling. Atmosphere. So on and so forth. Is because of a man named Hidetaka Miyazaki. He literally is why Dark Souls is the way it is. Its his brain child. They told him to step aside to bring on new directors that have barely shipped any games. And the ones they did ship arent that great. This destroyed the game. Dark Souls is Hidetaka Miyazaki and the other reason it was a really great game was because it was a small team, which made communication with Hidetaka Miyazaki much more tight, which meant that his idea got implemented correctly. They brought in a huge team for DS2. Almost everything about the game is worse then DS1. Even the graphics. Story was boring and forgetful. Characters were bland and forgetful. Atmosphere wasnt the same. Art design was terrible. New mechanics were terrible. PVP is terrible. Level design was boring and forgetful. By terrible i mean in comparison to DS1. All of my opinions are in comparison to DS1. If DS1 or DeS didnt exist. Then DS2 would be a pretty good game. But because of the greatness of DS1, which i consider to be the greatest RPG ever created. Hell one of the greatest games ever created. DS2 just cant compare. Its like a knock off version of what DS2 could have been if Hidetaka Miyazaki made the game. Lets just hope they bring Hidetaka Miyazaki back on for the next game.

[VsAssassin]

This! Hidetaka Miyazaki envisioned a dark-fantasy game in the form of Demon's Souls and pulled it off. Though it wasn't perfect, it was a critical (and sales) success. Dark Souls, although quite similar to Demon's, improved a lot things. Dark Souls' level design was awesome, and so was the progression of the entire game.

Dark Souls 2 is by no means a bad game. It's actually "still" a great game; however, you'll know something's amiss right around the time when you encounter the next boss almost immediately after the previous one. Seriously, DS2 is a boss fest probably because they want everyone to go jolly-cooperating and have fun - while there's nothing wrong with that, it's just too-boss-rush-mode to me.

DS2 also feels like the level design was rushed. Make no mistake: the areas still look forebodingly and painfully beautiful and unique from each other. That said, however, when you only have a bonfire after a 'major' boss fight so you could warp back to the game's hub (Majula), you'll concede that the areas aren't so connected; In other words, they're disjointed.

The one thing that I truly love about DS2 is the Bonfire Ascetic. The inclusion of this item is a love-hate thing. You'll love it because you can pretty much get an NG+ experience without seeing the end-game credits roll first, but you'll also hate it because its inclusion also means enemies will 'despawn' after you kill them 12 times.

I can see a bright light at the end of this 'dark' (pun intended) tunnel though. I can see the original game director making a true spiritual successor to this beloved series. Why else would he leave if he didn't like the development and the end-product of the game? This means he wants his original vision preserved, and leaving his team was the best course of action.

[OmegaShen]

Didn't come close to the last two games, I been going back and playing Dark Souls and Demon's Souls. An they seem much harder then this, I even try new game plus on Dark Souls 2 and felt like they were trying to hard.

They made you lose health each time you die, were Demon's Souls made you weaker and die to much an things get stronger. I been able to get through Dark Souls 2 without dying or at best I fall because they make the walking space small.

I hope the next one lives up to the other two, because this one seem to be made to get people to play it vs pushing people away because its to hard.

[Salooh]

It makes sense :) . Still , even though it's true that it's not as good as DS1 but the game is great and fun. I will complete it today :D

[eraisu]

urm,,, maybe cus the A-team still working on demon soul 2 or even armored core 6 for PS4, verdict day it's garbage tho

[nucky64]

don't tease me - i would LOVE to see a sequel to demon souls!

[memots]

Ds1 and ds2 used to be short for dead space 1and 2 ...

[Master-H]

I think so, you can tell by some of the level design and bosses, for me it's not the masterpiece that DS1 was but overall DS2 is still an epic game and more fun than the majority of games on the market , i hope Mayazaki is working on a Tenchu title since they own the right to that, and after he finishes he start working on a Souls game for next gen that comes out like 2-3 years from now.

[Predaking77]

Still a very good game.

[Psychotica]

I don't care if the janitorial staff made it, it's a great game..

[A LIVING LEGEND]

The B team...?!,I'm thinking C or D in some cases.
Decent game but this isn't great material by any stretch.