History VideoGame / DarkestDungeonII

* LovecraftLite: As with ''Darkest Dungeon'' your ragtag band of heroes will go up against various hideous monsters and alien monstrosities, and will slay said horrors with steel, faith and even mystical powers of their own. Furthermore ''II'' takes it a step farther in that the theme of the sequel is very much about rising to overcome your doubts and failings to seek a brighter future. [[spoiler:In particular, unlike the Heart of Darkness which at least ''claims''[[note]]This supposedly invincible cosmic entity that will bring about the inevitable end does ultimately end up being beaten back into a coma by a group of four mercenaries[[/note]] to be undefeatable, this games eldritch god Body of Work [[DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu unambiguously can be beaten.]]

* DanceBattler: The Jester dabbled with this style in the first game, but now embodies it. In addition to the back-and-forth of his Solo & Finale combo, he now moves while executing his basic attacks, causing him to constantly engage in motion as he fights. He also has abilities to move his allies backwards and forwards, allowing your other heroes to become dance battlers as well.

* NothingIsScarier: Alluded to. One restart quote from the Academic is "Nothing, it seems, is the greatest horror of all."

* BittersweetEnding: In a similar vein yet stark contrast to the prequel. [[spoiler:The world still has no end of eldritch horrors (including the Heart of Darkness, which is still set to one day destroy the world), and to slay the one the Scholar unleashed, the Scholar ([[AmbiguousSituation probably]]) needed to sacrifice themself to make sure the Body of Work died, [[HumansAreFlawed but you proved that humanity, for all its horrid flaws, might yet be worth saving]], and the Scholar's memories are undoing the damage caused by the Body, effectively erasing the corruption caused by the Cult.]]

* {{Caltrops}}: The Bounty Hunter still has his Caltrops skill. It does little upfront damage, but inflicts bleeding and movement debuffs. There is also a standalone item called Crow's Feet, which does about the same thing, but is a single-use consumable.
* CelShading: Cel shading is used on the 3D models to reproduce the flat black shadows of the original games, providing continuity in art style despite the use of 3D this time around.

* ConcussionFrags: The Thunderclap Grenade is a powerful combat item which can inflict a party shuffle once it is used, its name suggesting that it explodes and emits a lot of light and noise to confuse the enemy ranks.

** In the Jester's first backstory chapter, the pose and instrument of the old man resembles the Squiffy Ghast enemy from the first game; furthermore, said enemy focuses more on attacking the Jester if present in the party.

** Ripostes return from the previous game. Like all tokens, they now apply per-use rather than per-turn, meaning you can exhaust a riposte by attacking the target enough times.

* CursedWithAwesome: Just like in the first game, some diseases and negative quirks actually have positive features, which in some cases can actually be worth their drawbacks. The Tarantism disease, in particular, is so good some players deliberately seek it out.[[labelnote:Why?]]Tarantism has a small chance to grant the victim a useful Dodge token, with the only downside being a fairly small chance to move back or forward one rank -- bad for some parties, but something that can be planned around. And if the victim is the only hero remaining, they can't move anyway, so there's no downside at all.[[/labelnote]]
* CutAndPasteEnvironments: The background during the stagecoach driving sequences is filled with 2D sprites for litter on the road, buildings and trees on the side of the road, and other minor landmarks. The variety and quality of the sprite helps alleviate the feeling of repetitiveness of the environment, however.
* DanceBattler: The Jester dabbled with this style in the first game, but now embodies it. In addition to the back-and-forth of his Solo & Finale combo, he now moves while executing both of his basic attacks, causing him to engage in constant motion as he fights. He also has abilities to move his allies backwards and forwards, allowing your other heroes to become dance battlers as well.

** The Vulnerable token, which increases damage taken from the next attack by 50%. The Marked status from the first game also returns, but currently it's only used by one enemy.
** The Combo token adds a variety of different effects to attacks hitting the target, which can be either extra damage or an additional StatusEffect.
* DamageOverTime: The DOT game mechanism makes a return. In addition to the Bleed and Blight effects, there is now the Burning effect, which represents when heroes or monsters are set on fire, with the appropriate skills to inflict it and items to cure it.

** One of the main currencies in the game is Hope, which is represented by candles you can find during a run. You also gain a set amount by completing various objectives (such as completing the valley, killing bosses, helping more people etc.) Which are then tallied at the end of a run. If by some ungodly misfortune you end a run having gotten ''zero'' hope ([[EpicFail Which is only possible if you don’t beat the valley, the tutorial level of every run basically]]) all you get at the results screen is the message “You were right to fear the world..”
** The bounty hunter is a recruitable temporary hero who can offer to replace one of your party members at the cost of some hope. It is stated that he has no past, and no future. Attempting to take him to a [[TroubledBackstoryFlashback Hero Shrine]] will simply have him snort and leave the area.
* DieChairDie: During the stagecoach sequences, it is encouraged to run over everything that litters the road, from bushes to piles of burning books. They sometimes yield small rewards like relics or supplies, and there is no penalty for running into them.

* EarnYourHappyEnding: This is how the developers describe the shift in tone since the first game: it's going to be miserably hard, but things can get better. [[spoiler:The ending proper fits with this - after their long slog through a WorldGoneMad and battles against countless monsters, the Scholar and their Heroes manage to restore the world to a state of relative sanity for the time being.]]

* EarlyGameHell: If you thought the first game was tough on new players, ''Darkest Dungeon II'' is even more punishing for newcomers. While in the first game you could hope for two support characters to heal you through the first, short dungeons, now the game lets you fully dive into a journey to the Mountain and forces you into a specific composition where the only healer is the Plague Doctor with a limited use Battlefield Medicine skill. You also begin with little to no resources, with only an Academic's Cache to give you some supplies. Then there are the hero abilities, with some powerful options, including some staples from the first game, needing you to visit Hero Shrines to unlock; for example, Plague Grenade — a reliable Plague Doctor talent that allows her to rain blight on the rear enemy ranks — cannot be used at all until you've completed two Hero Shrines with her.

** At low torchlight, enemies can gain one of several advantages for the duration of the fight. One of them is in fact called "elite enemies", which boosts both their damage and health significantly.
* EnfantTerrible: The Harvest Child is a monstrously mutated baby, and is implied to be connected in some way to the appearance of the Plague Eaters.

** In addition, there is the relationship between the Scholar r and the Heir of the original game. [[spoiler: Whereas the Heir is functionally a BlankSlate, and was oblivious to the horrific atrocities of the Ancestor, the Scholar's descent into the occult directly lead to them becoming the vessel for the Iron Crown and kick-starting the apocalypse personally]].
* ForegoneVictory: Many of the Shrine backstory battles are impossible to lose; though in these cases, "victory" often entails driving the hero to a HeroicBSOD.

* GameGourmet: In contrast to the first game's generic Food provision, the sequel offers a wider range of food items which are only usable in The Inn to heal the party. The items range from disgusting Slime Mold to Stale Bread to delicious Flapjacks. A few Trinkets are also food items, such as the Stiff Drink for the Grave Robber.

* LastChanceHitPoint: The Death's Door mechanic returns, not only for the heroes, but also for the enemies. Heroes and monsters may enter Death's Door when their HP hits zero, suffering from a damage debuff but staying alive and having the possibility to survive the next attack.

* LighterAndSofter: Played with. Per [[https://www.pcgamer.com/au/darkest-dungeon-2-charts-a-new-path-through-terror-in-a-roguelike-road-trip-to-save-humanity/ this interview]], ''DD II'' tones up the bleakness a little bit within the gameplay (it's an even more brutal, punishing slog), but with the hope of a less nihilistic ending. In addition, the Academic is a straight BigGood who is actively helping you out, and one of the major ways you regain light is helping refugees, while lowering [[WantedMeter Loathing]] involves going out of your way to remove entrenched threats.

* MagikarpPower: Certain heroes (such as the Hellion, Occultist, and Runaway) aren't super good out of the box the way others (e.g. Highwayman) are. Once you invest in their hero shrines, they become forces to be reckoned with.

* MoraleMechanic: Managing the heroes' stress is once again an important part of the gameplay. The Stress bar is now scaled from 0 to 10 and works differently than the prior installment. First, the current stress level is measured in phases of Tense, Irritable, and Roiling, changing the odds of positive or negative relationship changes. If the Stress level reaches 10, the hero experiences a Breakdown, which resets the Stress to 2, reduces the hero's health to almost nothing (but never to zero, and can never cause a deathblow), and degrades all relationships by several pips. Stress is accrued at random, by enemy attacks, or by the verbal barbs of teammates. It can be healed by various methods as well.

* NothingIsScarier: Alluded to. One restart quote from the Academic is simply "Nothing, it seems, is the greatest horror of all."

* BattleCouple: What happens when two heroes develop the Amorous relationship. It is usually very positive to have Amourous heroes, except when one hero's stress increases when their loved one is injured, or when there is jealousy over another relationship.

** Amorous and Inseparable relationships, despite being "positive", come with some pretty frustrating downsides. They can randomly cause a hero's partner to become a ClingyJealousGirl, preventing them from using support skills on other heroes even if said skill could mean the difference between life and death. In Inseparable's case, this can also prevent them from moving -- better hope enemies never shove them out of their preferred position.

* ClingyJealousGirl: Heroes in an amorous relationship will get jealous if you attempt to use healing or buffing skills on someone else and may block the action, regardless of who needs it the most.

* RelationshipValues: The game indicates how well a Hero gets along with other members of the party with meters made of rows of diamond pips. When two characters begin to form a positive relationship, these pips will glow yellow. A relationship is fully formed when 6 pips light up, and can be strengthened further by lighting up four large pips. If the relationship is strained, these pips shatter. Conversely, characters who dislike each other light the pips blue.

* NothingIsScarier: Alluded to. One restart quote from the Ancestor is simply "Nothing, it seems, is the greatest horror of all."

** In addition, there is the relationship between the Scholar r and the Heir of the original game. [[Spoiler: Whereas the Heir is functionally a BlankSlate, and was oblivious to the horrific atrocities of the Ancestor, the Scholar's descent into the occult directly lead to them becoming the vessel for the Iron Crown and kick-starting the apocalypse personally.]]

!!Ruin, has found you at last.

* AfterTheEnd: {{Downplayed}}, but only in the sense it's rather ''During the End''; ''Darkest Dungeon 2'' takes place just after an unknown cosmic event (implied to be the destruction of the Heart of Darkness from the first game) has sent the world [[WorldGoneMad "into a spiral of madness"]]… which ''isn't an exaggeration in any sense''; the world really has gone to hell in a handbasket. Entire cities are alit in flames from marauding bands of bandits and doomsday cults springing up. The woods are now infested with the remnants of fallen armies; undead soldiers infused with roots and trees. The few people still sane cling to themselves hopelessly, traveling in roving bands on the road, or holed up in fortified inns. The world of ''Darkest Dungeon'' has become a CosmicHorrorStory HellOnEarth.

** [[spoiler: The Antiquarian]] returns as a SupportPartyMember for the Bandits, having pulled a FaceHeelTurn during the interim out of the desire for greater riches.

* EarnYourHappyEnding: This is how the developers describe the shift in tone since the first game: it's going to be miserably hard, but things can get better.

* OurDragonsAreDifferent: [[spoiler: The Seething Sigh is a very weird one. Its appearance is clearly evocative of a dragon, despite being a giant respiratory system. Its lungs are made to look like wings, and its trachea is hunched and elongated like a serpent, complete with a BreathWeapon.]]

** The FinalBoss of the "Denial" chapter is a WolfPackBoss. Each one you defeat provides a unique buff to the others for the rest of the fight: [[spoiler: The Latch of Regret boosts damage, the Bolt of Lamentation boosts critical rate, the Shackle of Despair gives their attacks a chance to inflict blindness, and the Padlock of Wasting [[SacrificialRevivalSpell gives the others a large heal]]]]

* WantedMeter: Loathing, the amount of power the Cultists and their monstrous allies have, works like this — It starts off at 2 by default and every region after that will add more loathing if you don’t clear it. The more loathing there is, the more power and bonuses your enemies get, the faster your torch depletes (giving them ''more'' power and bonuses), and if you reach maximum loathing, you’ll have to deal with an [[TheDreaded Exemplar]] Fight. However you can force it down by destroying Resistance landmarks (places where monsters have built smaller bases than true Lairs) and Cultist encampments.

* BadassNormal: Most of the heroes, even moreso than in the first game. Characters using faith-based magic are notably absent here, leaving only the Occultist with explicitly supernatural powers. (At most, a few abilities like [[IntangibleTheft Highway Robbery]] are MaybeMagicMaybeMundane.) The heroes are all ordinary people armed with only their own grit and skill against {{Eldritch Abomination}}s.

* EvilStoleMyFaith: A ''worldwide'' example; the apocalypse has driven so many people to madness that the last Holy Flame, a supernatural manifestation of hope, is a mere ember resting on top of your rickety carriage, and all (overly) religious classes[[note]]the Leper is still present, but his backstory reveals he preferred being a just and ''vindictive'' king over being religious[[/note]] from the previous game ''are absent''.

* BittersweetEnding: In a similar vein yet stark contrast to the prequel. [[spoiler:The world still has no end of eldritch horrors in the world (including the Heart of Darkness, which is still set to one day destroy the world), and to slay the one the Scholar unleashed, the Scholar needed to sacrifice themself [[HumansAreFlawed but you proved that humanity, for all its horrid flaws, might yet be worth saving]].]]

* BittersweetEnding: In a similar vein yet stark contrast to the prequel. [[spoiler:The world is still doomed, and you still needed a sacrifice for victory - yourself - [[HumansAreFlawed but you proved that humanity, for all its horrid flaws, might yet be worth saving]].]]

''Darkest Dungeon II'' is the sequel to the acclaimed 2016 GothicHorror DungeonCrawling {{RPG}} ''VideoGame/DarkestDungeon'', developed by Red Hook Studios. The game is available in early access through the UsefulNotes/EpicGamesStore since Oct. 26, 2021.

* StalkedByTheBell: Run out of light, and your wagon is pulled into a shadowy dimension to fight [[EliteMook Cultists]] with all the buffs from dim light snuffed out — or worse, [[BonusBoss the Shambler]]. You ''can'' win, and in so doing revive your torch halfway — generally enough to reach the next Inn — but it is ''never'' easy, and there are far safer ways to get Cultist or Shambler loot than inviting an ambush.

* {{Foil}}: The Academic, the narrator this time around, in contrast to the (possibly) regretful VillainProtagonist Ancestor, always comes off as a KnightInSourArmor rather than dangling false hope; he never says that anything is more than a HopeSpot, and talks down your expectations constantly, but when your party inevitably dies, he gives you encouragement and a supply for a new journey. He is also explicitly alive, and rather than hiding lore behind boss fights, he reflects on his and the {{Player Character}}'s friendship with him. On the occasions you find his own experiments with eldritch forces, he freely admits to it, but became aware it was a bad idea and stopped early, as opposed to the Ancestor going full MadScientist.

** Many of the hero specializations introduced in the Beasts & Burdens update boost the hero's damage at the cost of max HP, making them much stronger but also more fragile.

** The Fanatics at the Sprawl are more than happy to use this against your party when they are not [[BookBurning burning books]]. They'll even light themselves on fire to gain buffs!

** An interesting case of the ''enemies'' getting these: Cultists generate "Worship" tokens every time they act, and can transfer these tokens to stronger Cultists. After two transfers, MiniBoss Cultists can use the tokens to perform a powerful "Exultation" attack, with every Cultist having their own unique Exultation.

** When you begin the "Denial" chapter, the Academic has a chance to say, "The shackles of denial must. Be. Destroyed." [[spoiler:The FinalBoss of the chapter is a set of ''literal'' shackles binding the Brain of Darkness, which is referred to by the Academic as "The Great Denier."]]
* TheLostWoods: The Tangle, a large creepy forest where the undead Lost Battalion roam, is one of the possible levels in the game. In addition of the dense vegetation with numerous bushes blocking the view and large trees tangled in vines, the Tangle is visibly the site of an old battlefield as one can see abandoned cannons, tents, barricades, and small mounds indicating grave pits, as well as the occasional Outpost or even a Keep in which the level's boss resides. The party is most likely to fight formations of the Lost Battalion, undead soldiers animated by plants that still keep on fighting, with drummers, bishops, arbalests, and knights supporting the foot soldiers.
* LovecraftianSuperpower: The Cultists use powers bestowed to them by whatever new eldritch deity they now follow to impede your heroes. The Cultists in this game have fleshy mutations that resemble cephalopod limbs like vampire squid legs for the Evangelists or octopus tentacles for the Deacons, Cherubs, and Cardinals. Much like the original game, the Cultists use shadowy powers to inflict stress, debilitate your heroes, and even empower themselves. Of course, one of your returning heroes, the Occultist, also makes use of eldritch magic as well to fight and heal for you.

** The relationship mechanics are somewhat reactive to your actions but, more often than not, happen entirely due to random chance. Relationship gains and losses on the road are random, and it's random whether relationship-building events will trigger in battles. You can only reliably avoid relationship damage if you can keep stress low, but [[NintendoHard good luck with that]].
** Unless you are extremely well-prepared, you ''will'' be taking a metric ton of death's door checks against the "Denial" boss -- and stun checks, for good measure. Its damage output is so extreme that you stand no chance of regaining ground with heals. You can boost your resistances with trinkets, but it's still ultimately up to random chance.

** Several quirks and diseases can cause this, just like in the first game. Special mention goes to the Brittle Bones and Malaria diseases, which inflicts ''cumulative'' HP reduction for every fight you endure. It can be reversed, but only by curing the disease.
** Eating the rotten meat in the battle with the Harvest Child will inflict significant HP reduction on your heroes that lasts for the duration of the fight, though fortunately it is cured afterwards.

* MoraleMechanic: Managing the Stress of the heroes is once again an important part of the gameplay. The Stress bar is now scaled from 0 to 10 and works differently compared to the prior installment. First, the current stress level is measured in phases of Tense, Irritable, and Roiling, which changes the odds of positive or negative relationship changes occurring. If the Stress level reaches 10, the hero experiences a Breakdown, which resets the Stress to 2, reduces the hero's health to almost nothing (but never to zero, and can never cause a deathblow), and degrades all relationships by several pips. Stress is accrued at random, by enemy attacks, or by the verbal barbs of teammates. It can be healed by various methods as well.

* NothingButSkulls: Even by ''Darkest Dungeon'' standards, the Tangle has an excessive number of the things.

* ClingyJealousGirl[=/=]CrazyJealousGuy: Heroes in an amorous relationship will get jealous if you attempt to use healing or buffing skills on someone else and may block the action, regardless of who needs it the most.

** The Leper's regular attacks are as strong as most characters' crits, but his accuracy is even worse than in [[VideoGame/DarkestDungeon the first game]], as his attacks have a high chance to saddle him with a Blind token. This makes him even more of an all-or-nothing character than Grave Robber.

You are the protegee and friend of the Academic. One night, the Academic confronts you and informs you that your worst calculations have come. A malevolent eldritch power is affecting the entire earth, driving the population mad, stirring the dead, corrupting the land and its inhabitants, and driving onward hordes of monsters. The Academic gives you the last scraps of Hope, a mere spark which you fit on the Torch at the top of your stagecoach. It is now up to you and your party of four heroes to cross the land in your solid stagecoach and reach the Mountain, the lair and prison of the source of the evil that has cursed the planet, and to slay its occupants.

* CriticalHitClass: The Graver Robber's attacks have high critical rate and wide damage variance. Since critical hits always deal maximum damage, her regular attacks are unreliable, but her criticals are very powerful. She gains a huge critical bonus when attacking combo-primed targets to help with this.

* CriticalHitClass:
** The Graver Robber's attacks have high critical rate and wide damage variance. Since critical hits always deal maximum damage, her regular attacks are unreliable, but her criticals are very powerful. She gains a huge critical bonus when attacking combo-primed targets to help with this.
** The Leper's regular attacks are as strong as most characters' crits, but his accuracy is even worse than in [[VideoGame/DarkestDungeon the first game]], as his attacks have a high chance to saddle him with a Blind token. This makes him even more of an all-or-nothing character than Grave Robber.

* NoSell: As in the first game, enemies can have resistances in excess of 100%, making them immune even with resistance-lowering effects.

** With path specializations, heroes can get in on this too. Sergeant Men-at-Arms have a complete immunity to forced movement, Poet Lepers are immune to both movement and stuns, and Tempest Lepers are immune to disease.

** All of the bosses have some shade of this, with special mention going to The Dreaming General. His VideoGameSetPiece lets him inflict a stackable curse on your heroes that severely harms and disables them if it gets too far. How do you survive this? [[spoiler:Attack the tap root behind him. Though it's invulnerable, this will cause it to retract its vines from a single hero.]] Of course, you still can't get ''too'' complacent -- do this too many times in a row, and [[spoiler:the tap root will use "The Soil Stirs", which sets up two heroes for a powerful attack by the General]].
** Exemplars become much easier once you realize [[spoiler:The Fall only generates Worship against targets with Combo tokens. If you can remove the Combo (or avoid triggering it through guards and taunts), the Exemplar won't be able to summon a new enemy, making the battle significantly simpler.]]
** All of the Shrine backstory battles are this, revolving around figuring out which specific moves to use at which specific points. Particularly notable in the Jester's case, where you have to carefully arrange musical notes through his moves in order to advance the battle.
* ReligionOfEvil: The Cultists from the first game make a return, but are now noticeably more threatening as a force and much more organized than in the prior installment. Gone are the Eagle-Clawed wannabes and dark priestesses, replaced with a fully-mutated army barely hiding their monstrous forms behind sleek metal helms and elaborate black robes. Their ranks are now filled with massive Deacons wielding giant metal axes, horrific Cardinals who will debilitate your heroes with their mastery of the void, svelte-levitating Evangelists DualWielding swords coupled with lightning and shadow, and monstrous flying Cherubs whose disgusting existence will drive your heroes further into madness.

* MultipleChoicePast: Heroes will occasionally remember their previous lives, specializing them for certain skills. For example, the Grave Robber can either have the "Deadeye" path, allowing her to deal more ranged damage at the expense of melee, or the "Nightsworn" path, allowing her to deal more damage from stealth and benefits her Lunge and Pirouette skills.
* NoCureForEvil: Averted. Most factions have at least some means of healing -- Fanatics and Plague Eaters can consume corpses for healing, Cultists can heal by worshipping stronger Cultists, and Bishops of the Tangle can actually ''resurrect'' their fallen comrades.