Summary
- Dark Souls 2: Scholar of the First Sin improves visuals, performance, and integrates DLC organically.
- The game draws inspiration from Zelda with a Master Quest-style campaign for returning players.
- Modders have created similar reimagined experiences for other FromSoftware games, suggesting potential for official altered versions of the core trilogy.
It's telling that Dark Souls 2 is just now starting to come around and get the love it arguably deserves more than 10 years after its initial release. Long considered the "black sheep" of the Dark Souls franchise (partly because of no direct involvement from series creator Hidetaka Miyazaki, among several other factors), Dark Souls 2 is an outlier in one of the most important trilogies of games of the last 15 years. It lacks the interconnected map of the original Dark Souls or the all-star boss roster of Dark Souls 3. However, Dark Souls 2 is still a game worth fans' time, especially when considering the Scholar of the First Sin edition.
Released roughly a year after the game's initial launch, Dark Souls 2: Scholar of the First Sin is more than just a "complete" edition of the game that collects the core experience and all the DLC. Instead, FromSoftware went back and improved Dark Souls 2's visuals and performance, all while rearranging the game's enemy and item placements and figuring out a way to organically integrate the three DLC expansions. Essentially, Scholar of the First Sin is akin to a Zelda-style Master Quest edition of Dark Souls 2, a concept that bears repeating in future FromSoftware re-releases.
Dark Souls 2’s Sir Alonne Continues to Reward Players for Facing the Series’ Toughest Challenge
The Crown of the Old Iron King DLC for Dark Souls 2 leans into the fan base's history of challenge runs with Sir Alonne's unique interaction.
Dark Souls 2: Scholar of the First Sin Makes Good on the Series' Zelda Inspirations
It's no secret that The Legend of Zelda has influenced countless games arriving in its wake, but Nintendo's iconic franchise's connections with the Dark Souls series go a bit deeper. Series creator (as well as current FromSoftware president and director of both Dark Souls and Dark Souls 3) Hidetaka Miyazaki has gone on record citing both Zelda 2: The Adventure of Link and The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time as being two of the games that inspired him to design his own titles. It follows, then, that there are so many throughlines connecting The Legend of Zelda to Dark Souls, but Scholar of the First Sin is perhaps the first title to directly pull from the Zelda series.
Since the original Zelda, the incorporation of a second, harder quest after clearing the main quest for the first time has been a longstanding tradition in the series. These Master Quests allow players who have mastered every aspect of the core experience to come back and return to the world of Hyrule with new puzzles, greater challenges, and completely different item and equipment placements. And while Scholar of the First Sin could be argued as being slightly more forgiving than the original Dark Souls 2 experience, it still provides returning players with a "remixed" Master Quest-style campaign that's worth playing through regardless of how many hours one has put into the base game.
Modders Have Already Started What FromSoftware Could Finish in Future Re-Releases
The idea of a remixed version of a classic Dark Souls experience extends well beyond Scholar of the First Sin, but those Master Quest-style reimaginings of the FromSoftware catalog are exclusive to PC players thanks to mods (for now, at least). Sekiro, the original Dark Souls, and Dark Souls 3 all have fairly impressive mods that players can install that transform those games into reimagined experiences reminiscent of what Scholar of the First Sin did for Dark Souls 2. With the idea of a Dark Souls collection something that has been bouncing around many fans' minds, FromSoft could finish what the modding community has started by developing its own altered versions of the core trilogy's main quest.
A Dark Souls trilogy that collects the three originals, all of their respective DLC expansions, and offers an alternate take on their campaigns that switches up enemy and item placements would be a great way to draw in both new and returning players. Further, it could serve as the impetus for FromSoftware to do something similar with Elden Ring. Most players already can't seem to get enough of FromSoftware's library, but remixing those experiences akin to Scholar of the First Sin would be a way to extend their value even further.
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OpenCritic Reviews
- Top Critic Avg: 87 /100 Critics Rec: 89%
- Released
- April 2, 2015
- ESRB
- T For Teen Due To Blood and Gore, Game Experience May Change During Online Play, Mild Language, Partial Nudity, Violence
- Developer(s)
- FromSoftware
- Publisher(s)
- Namco Bandai, FromSoftware
- Franchise
- Dark Souls
WHERE TO PLAY
Gamers are in for a big surprise in DARK SOULS™ II: Scholar of the First Sin. An unforgettable journey awaits you in a breathtaking world where each dark corner and unexpected encounter will test your resolve. Go beyond what you thought was possible and discover incredible challenge and intense emotional reward. Whether you’ve previously played DARK SOULS™ II, or are new to the award-winning franchise, you are in for an entirely different experience with this exclusive, “Director’s Cut” version of the game.
The definitive edition of DARK SOULS™ II. DARK SOULS™ II: Scholar of the First Sin includes all the DARK SOULS™ II content released to-date in one package and much more!
A brand new experience and challenge. Enemy placement has been overhauled, resulting in a completely different play dynamic than experienced before. The safe zones that some players remembered are no longer safe! A new NPC invader called Forlorn will also play a key role in changing the gameplay experience. Hardened players will have to forget everything they thought they knew about DARK SOULS™ II.
Online play has been enhanced with the addition of a special item to regulate souls acquired in battle - it’s now possible to match up more consistently online. The number of players who can participate in an online session has also been increased, from 4 to 6 people, completely changing the online play dynamic.
DARK SOULS™ II: Scholar of the First Sin brings the franchise’s renowned obscurity & gripping gameplay to a new level. Join the dark journey and experience overwhelming enemy encounters, diabolical hazards, and unrelenting challenge.
- Platform(s)
- PC, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360, Xbox One
- Genre(s)
- Action RPG
- How Long To Beat
- 36 Hours
