History VideoGame / DarkestDungeonII

** 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 each MiniBoss having their own unique Exultation.

* LiteralMetaphor: When you begin the "Denial" chapter, the Academic can 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."]]

* WhamShot: In ''The Binding Blade'', managing to find and assemble the Crusader's sword and helm and attaching it to your coach as a Trophy doesn't have an immediate effect... until you enter the next region, where during the map scouting it's revealed that [[spoiler:the region's Oblivion's Rampart has been replaced with a new location, The Caged Knight]].

* BetterToDieThanBeKilled: When a Drummer is the only enemy left alive in a battle, who is an enemy only vaguely capable of harming your heroes (capable of doing around two damage to one of them and causing stress if they use the Focus Fire move on one of them) and mostly exists to buff its allies, it will activate "Death Before Dishonor", which causes it to be killed and cause stress to your entire party. ''Even while it's a reanimated skeleton of a drummer''… which may be why it causes stress to your party, since they probably weren't expecting such a sign of humanity left in it.

* LegacyBossBattle: [[BodyOfBodies The Collector]] returns from the first game, notably serving as the only boss enemy to return from the first game at all.

* MythologyGag: One of the inns you can potentially have your party stay at is called "The Tempting Goblet", named after an infamous attack from the Bone Courtiers in the first game.

* AmbitionIsEvil: After [[spoiler: The Scholar witnessed the failed ritual, they became obsessed with unlocking the cosmological secrets of the Iron Crown, dedicating their life to attempting to deign them- and roping the poor Academic into it, [[CassandraTruth despite his protestations]]. The Academic outright says this was due to the Scholar being consumed by ambition, fueled by [[NiceJobBreakingItHero resentment stoked by the Academic himself]]]].

* AnimateBodyParts: [[spoiler:The final bosses of each confession are various organs of [[GenusLoci the world]].]] "[[spoiler:Denial]]" is a brain, "[[spoiler:Resentment]]" is a set of lungs, and "[[spoiler:Obsession]]" is many eyes, etc. Naturally, this leads to OurMonstersAreWeird.
* AnimateInanimateObject: [[spoiler:The boss of the first confession, Denial, is a set of animated shackles wrapped around a brain]].

** Like each of the Acts final bosses, the Act 5 one, [[spoiler:the Body of Work, will also gain a boost to health every time loathing maxes out. As it's a DamageSpongeBoss to end all damage sponges, the Exultation attack will deal additional damage as well in order to prevent the fight from lasting even longer than it should.]]

* ApocalypseAnarchy: A major theme of the game, with the main factions [[https://store.epicgames.com/en-US/news/darkest-dungeon-2-early-access-interview explicitly representing]] one of several potential reactions to an oncoming apocalypse - catatonic lethargy (The Lost Battalion), gluttonous hedonism (The Plague Eaters), anarchic fury (The Fanatics), desperate self-preservation (The Shroud's fisherfolk), and apocalyptic fervour (The Cultists).

** In keeping with the central theme, the majority of your Heroes are revealed to be this, haunted by specters of regret and failure from their DarkAndTroubledPast. [[spoiler:The Man-at-Arms was a GloryHound politician who got himself [[ThePeterPrinciple promoted to a command he wasn't ready for]] and got most of his men slaughtered as a result. The Highwayman was a troubled and desperate outlaw who [[AccidentalChildKillerBackstory accidentally murdered defenceless mother and child]] during a robbery. The Hellion [[DirtyCoward abandoned her clansmen]] during a doomed battle in a MomentOfWeakness. The Vestal rebelled against her repressed upbringing which resulted in her [[GuiltByAssociation fellow convent sisters being killed for their association with her]]. The Runaway unintentionally set fire to her home in a fit of pyromania, leading to the deaths of her adopted parents. And so on.]]
* AttackFailureChance: Along with its' massive overhaul of how combat works, ''Darkest Dungeon II'' replaces the Accuracy and Dodge stats from the first game with the universal Dodge tokens. Dodge tokens give a minus 50 percent chance for an attack to land, and Dodge+ tokens increase that chance to minus 75 percent. This way, the player is always able to know exactly what the odds are of their attacks landing without having to calculate a bunch of modifiers.
* AWorldHalfFull: A theme of the game. The world may be going to hell in a handbasket, but not everyone has succumbed to madness or despair. [[GameplayAndStoryIntegration It's reflected in gameplay, too;]] helping those you meet along the way keeps the flame of hope alive, while braving challenging encounters lowers the loathing in an area.

* BilingualBonus: Looking closely at the signature on the Scholar's confession reveals it to read "Reus Captivus" - approximately "[the] Guilty Captive", reflecting the Scholar's guilty conscience.

* {{Bizarrchitecture}}: The Spreading Stain causes [[CreepyCathedral weird cathedral-like growths]] to protrude out of surfaces that it's corrupted, which violate Euclidean geometry and can even grow upside down. Oblivion's Ingresses are half-submerged versions of these which Cultists congregate at, and Oblivion's Ramparts are fully-formed {{Creepy Cathedral}}s where they worship the Stain. Additionally, [[spoiler:The Mountain gradually sprouts more and more of these over times until it too is a cathedral-like building at the end of Cowardice]].
* BlessedWithSuck: Some positive quirks have downsides. They usually aren't severe enough to be a concern, but for some characters they can be a nightmare. The Breacher quirk, which automatically pushes the character to the front rank and makes them DrawAggro, is particularly infamous for spawning on squishy backline heroes to disastrous results.

You are the protegee and friend of the Academic. One night, the Academic confronts you and informs you that your worst calculations have come true. 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’s now up to you and your party of four heroes to cross the land in your stalwart 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.

''Darkest Dungeon II''[='=]s gameplay is noticeably different from its prior installment. Instead of sending parties of heroes to explore one land, the Estate, you now have to assemble one team of four Heroes available in your roster, but this time, you must cross large distances while trying to manage them the best you can the whole way, with few options to change the composition of your team. You must now ride across the land, choose which path is preferable, fight through malevolent humans and monsters alike, scour the monster lairs on the side of the road, and assist the remaining few good people that you come across. The combat system remains a 4v4 TurnBasedCombat with the same health and stress bars, with notable tweaks to it such as an emphasis on special [[StatusEffect Status Effects]], as well as teamwork. The Affliction system has now been abandoned for the Affinity mechanism, as actions in and out of battle affect the relationships between your heroes and these positive or negative relationships will greatly affect how the heroes do in battle.

* CombinationAttack: Heroes with a positive relationship will sometimes help an attacking teammate with adding more damage by attacking in tandem.

*** The Warlord's men fashions huge, honest and proper bulwarks, reflecting their ShieldBearingMook abilities.

''Darkest Dungeon II'' is the sequel to the acclaimed 2016 GothicHorror DungeonCrawling {{RPG}} ''VideoGame/DarkestDungeon'', developed by Red Hook Studios. The game was in early access through the UsefulNotes/EpicGamesStore since Oct 26, 2021, and had a full release on May 8, 2023 on UsefulNotes/{{Steam}}.

* AscendedFanon: It was very common for the fanbase to depict the beginning Highwayman and Crusader in ''Darkest Dungeon'', Dismas and Reynauld, as being TrueCompanions. Come ''The Binding Blade'', and your Highwayman will refer to the Crusader as his friend when searching for him, which no other character does.

** One of the area missions is "[[Film/FearAndLoathingInLasVegas Bat Country]]," which gives you an encounter with Cultists that needs to be dealt with.

The first DLC, ''The Binding Blade'', released on December 11th 2023. It contained two new heroes, the Duelist and a returning Crusader (and a rather large SideQuest to unlock him), a new miniboss called the Warlord, and several smaller features.

The first DLC, ''The Binding Blade'', released on December 11th 2023. It contained two new heroes, the Duelist and a returning Crusader, a new miniboss called the Warlord, and several smaller features.

*** The Broken Crusade fashions huge, honest and proper bulwarks, reflecting their ShieldBearingMook abilities.

The first DLC, ''The Binding Blade'', was announced in November of 2023 for release on December 11th of that year. It will contain two new heroes, the Duelist and a returning Crusader, and a new mini-boss among other features.