History VideoGame / DarkSoulsII

** "What do you want?".

* VideoGamePerversityPotential: Wearing the Smelter Demon Armor as a female can give you ''quite'' the view if you position the camera right. There is also a certain female character who will wear any equipment you give her. Including the aforementioned Smelter Demon Armor. The Prisoner and Desert Pyromancer sets are also, shall we say, somewhat revealing.

* UselessUsefulSpell: The Dead Again hex, which allows you to cause the bodies of dead enemies to explode with dark energy. Perfect for ambushing invaders, right? WRONG! Due to the sheer number of enemies that now fade into ash when they're killed, using the remaining few enemies that do leave a corpse makes the hex completely situational and making it nigh useless.

* PowerFloats: The Pursuer levitates as it fights you. [[spoiler:The most powerful boss in the game, the Darklurker, also hovers above the ground, and can fly for a few of its attacks.]]

* NeverFoundTheBody: A late-game [=NPC=] asks you to assassinate other [=NPC=]s, but only asks for specific items that they own as proof of their death. Every single one of your "targets" can give you said items if you fulfill specific conditions. Heck, you can even ''buy'' the item from your first victim. Your contractor just assumes you actually killed them when you bring the items back to him.

** The Ivory Straight Sword, from the Crown of the Ivory King DLC, has very high raw damage and is a freakin light saber. How cool is that? On the downside, it has zero scaling, you will almost certainly get it in the endgame where scaling is what makes or breaks a weapon, it has ''very'' high dex requirements to even use, and to top it off, it has the durability of wet tissue paper, probably the least durable weapon in the game.[[note]]Technically it's actually the ''most'' durable weapon in the game, as it has a durability of 250, however it consumes ''10 durability per attack'' (something other magic weapons only do when you use their special attack), meaning that without a Bracing Knuckle Ring it will break in 25 attacks, period.[[/note]]

* BattleInTheRain: The duel with the Looking Glass Knight, which takes place at the summit of Drangleic Castle in the midst of a ferocious snow and rain storm. It's actually affects gameplay as well, as being in the rain gives you the "wet" status, which increases fire resistance (useless because the Knight doesn't use fire) and slashes lightning resistance (painful because it ''[[ShockAndAwe does]]'').

* NintendoHard: Another one of its taglines is even "Prepare to Die...Again." Even better, dying makes it easier to die again, so you have to do ''better'' than before just to make it as far as last time.

''Dark Souls II'' is the second game in the ''VideoGame/DarkSouls'' series. It was developed by Creator/FromSoftware and published by Creator/BandaiNamcoEntertainment in 2014 for UsefulNotes/XBox360, UsefulNotes/PlayStation3, PC, UsefulNotes/PlayStation4 and UsefulNotes/XboxOne.

* BonusBoss: There are a number of optional encounters even harder than the final boss.
** The Darklurker, which requires going through the optional "Pilgrims of Dark" covenant.
** [[spoiler:The Ancient Dragon]], a DamageSpongeBoss who will just sit there unless you attack it a few times.
** [[spoiler:King Vendrick]], another DamageSpongeBoss who will just walk around his room unless you attack him.
** All the DLC bosses, who employ unique mechanics but are in entirely optional areas, particularly: [[spoiler:Sinh the Slumbering Dragon and Sir Alonne.]]
*** Even within the [=DLCs=] 3 of the 9 bosses are considered "bonus" ones unrelated to the story of the DLC, each found at the end of a BrutalBonusLevel: [[spoiler:the Blue Smelter Demon]] from the ''Crown of the Iron King'' at the end of the Iron Passage, the [[spoiler:Afflicted Gank Squad]] from the ''Crown of the Sunken King'' at the end of the Cave of the Dead, and [[spoiler:Lud and Zallen, the King's Pets]] from the ''Crown of the Ivory King'' at the end of the Frigid Outskirts.

* BraggingRightsReward: King Vendrick's Blessing. It will stop you from ever Hollowing, but getting it requires finishing all the DLC and beating OptionalBoss [[spoiler:Hollowed Vendrick]], all of which are in late game areas. And worst of all, it doesn't carry over to NG+, so when you enter that, you will have to do all of the above again before you get the Blessing again.

* BossInMookClothing: Vengarl's body, which has 2 powerful weapons, decently high resistances, and a farily high HP for how early it can be found and more than the standard set of invaders. While it does take a bit to find (it's behind no less than 2 petrified statues) it hits as hard and fast as most bosses despite just roaming around the Shaded Woods.

* DifficultButAwesome: Among the new weapon classes added are the Reapers, based off of the Great Scythe and Lifehunt Scythe from ''1''. On paper, their stats aren't amazing, almost all of them lack Bleed, [[Nerf which itself is a shell of what it is in other Souls games]], and they all possess a "sweetspot" mechanic where you have to hit with the actual blade of the weapon to deal full damage. If you learn to properly space and handle the weapon, you're rewarded with deceptively high damage contrary to what its stats tell you and highly mobile and wide sweeping attacks, the only weaknesses at that point being some scythes being ''too long'' for enclosed quarters.

* StableTimeLoop: [[spoiler:One that is caused by your mere existence in Drangleic no less. Over the course of the game various NPCs tell you about the disastrous war against the giants that seemed all but lost, until their king was defeated and imprisoned underneath the fortress in the aptly named Forest of Fallen Giants. Near the end of the game, the Ancient Dragon provides you with the Ashen Mist Heart and cryptically tells you to visit the memories of those long past. Returning to the forest allows you to relive the memories of the giant's and their siege on Drangleic, where you can cross paths with their king and defeat him, thus ending the war and creating the Drangleic you see today.]]

* BattleInTheRain: The duel with the Looking Glass Knight, which takes place at the summit of Drangleic Castle in the midst of a ferocious snow and rain storm.

* JoustingLance: Lances, which are heavier, slower, stronger, and usually scale better with strength than regular [[BladeOnAStick spears]]. [[spoiler:You can trade the Soul of the Executioner's Chariot with Straid of Olaphis for one, and loot a chest hidden in the Giants' Memories for another. In [=SotFS=] edition, the Lance hidden in the Giants' Memories have been moved to one of the noob caves areas after the hub area.]]

%%* WhipItGood: Whips return, with longer reach, improved base damage, added damage against Hollows, and the ability to parry and riposte. However, they all have low durability.

* BareFistedMonk: The Vanquisher's Ring from the Company of Champions lets the player enter Power Stance with bare hands, and gives their fists a humongous damage boost.
* BadassCape: Many high level chest armors come with a billowing capes. Examples include the Drangleic Armor, the Llewellyn Armor, and Velstadt's Armor.
* BadassLongcoat: A good number of armour pieces sport this, the most notable being the Faraam Armor, this game's IconicOutfit.
* BadassNormal: Benhart is one of the few characters totally unaffected by the curse - he's just passing through Drangleic to find giant monsters to kill.

** There is a pyromancy and a miracle obtained by earning Rank 3 in the Brotherhood of Blood and Blue Sentinels, respectively, which essentially amounts to getting 500 [=PvP=] victories ''for each covenant''. This would have taken ages to achieve even back when the game was new and full of players, and takes even longer now. Fortunately, if you still want the achievements for obtaining all pyromacies/miracles, you can just buy both of these spells from Chancellor Wellager... on NG++ (and no, Bonfire Ascetics don't work). Sure, you have to play through the game 2 and a half times, but that's still less tedious than doing it the normal way.

** In ''Scholar of the First Sin'', killing either of the bosses in Heide's Tower of Flame (the Dragonrider blocking the way to No-Man's Wharf or the Guardian Dragon sleeping in front of the Blue Cathedral entrance) will make all Heide Knights in the level agressive.

** Do you like [=PvP=]? Then become a Black Phantom and invade other players' worlds for their souls. Try the Brotherhood of Blood convenant to duel over the favor of the war god Nahr Alma and to hunt your own Undead kind, the Bell Keepers covenant to protect the Belfry Sol and Luna, and the Rat King covenant to defend the Doors of Pharros or the Grave of the Saints from would-be intruders. The Dragon Remnants covenant, on the other hand, duel over dragon scales to level up in their covenant.

** ''Crown of the Ivory King'' adds a similar item to the Chime of Screams in the form of Azal's Staff. Decent-to-high scaling for Dark magic? Sounds good. Casting speed of ''30'', durability of ''4'' and spell amount quartered into ''1/4''? Not quite. [[LethalJokeItem Nevertheless]], the unpredictable delay due to HitboxDissonance combined with some Hexes such as Dark Orb and Affinity, it has the protential to kill most [[PlayerVersusPlayer PvP]] opponents in [[OneHitKill one hit]].

** The Great Scythe, the best weapon for Dex builds in the first game, is signifigantly less useful here due to A: no longer causing Bleed and B: its moveset being much less efficient; it is for all intents and purposes an entirely different weapon, which will still upset players prone to [[invoked]]ComplacentGamingSyndrome.

** A woman fused with an arachnid that serves as a boss, as well as another person/arachnid hybrid related to them that can only be spoken to by way of a specific ring. [[note]]Queelag and her sister the Fair Lady, Scorpioness Najka and her mate Manscorpion Tark[[/note]]

* ThePowerOfHate: The Giants practically run on this. The Last Giant ignores the stalagmite still impaled in its chest and even ''tears off its own arm'' in its desperation to [[spoiler:take its revenge against the warrior who defeated it in the past]]. The entire reason the Giant War lasted so long in the backstory was because the Giants absolutely refused to forgive Vendrick for stealing from them and enslaving their bretheren. [[spoiler:Even in death, their hate for Vendrick is so strong that the mere presence of their souls weakens him.]]

* SceneryGorn: Drangelic is littered with half destroyed fortresses, cities and so forth.

* VideoGameCrueltyPunishment: ... However, there are a few more punishments for extremely dickish behavior than the first game, both in the main game and the multiplayer. If you happen to invade the world of a member of the Way of Blue covenant then you had best be prepared to get counter-invaded by a Blue Sentinal in retribution (not to mention the ever-present possibility of being triple-teamed by a well prepared invadee and their two phantom summons), and if you go on an [=NPC=] murder spree than you are going to miss out on a ''lot'' of lore and items, some of which can be {{Permanently Missable|Content}} in the right circumstances. For instance, if you kill the Emerald Herald the minute you get to Majula, then say goodbye to the Estus Flask and the ability to level, which can just about ruin a character or run on that save file. Murdering [=NPCs=] willy-nilly also raises your sin rating, opening you up for more Blue Sentinal invasions and potentially causing your maximum hollowing to cap out at ''5%'' of your total health bar should you accumulate 100 points of sin. You better really enjoy that wanton murder.

* WhipItGood: Whips return, with longer reach, improved base damage, added damage against Hollows, and the ability to parry and riposte. However, they all have low durability.