FromSoftware is one of few developers that realize video games tell stories most effectively by not telling them at all, but instead allowing the player to piece things together on their own. The original Dark Souls excelled at this and crafted an intriguing web of alliances, ancient happenings, quirky characters and powerful Lords without beating players senseless with cut scenes. Dark Souls 2 took this philosophy a touch too far; it tells its story, but in a hushed tone, while wearing a gas mask, and in a different room from the player. Like so many amusing merchants, the veil of mystery that Lordran so expertly wielded is lost in Drangleic, replaced by a brick wall separating gameplay and story altogether. The Emerald Heraldby all rights the most important character in the gameexplains next to nothing to the player, instead randomly appearing as a writer's convenience. The Four Great Ones are treated as nothing more than sentient fetch quests, Nashandra is as inconsistent as the Herald, and the Covenant system wields as little influence as it did in Dark Souls. The end goal of all this is more obscure than it was the first time around, and for most people that struggle concluded randomly with a disappointing and familiar cut scene "rewarding" them with a throne that was never even offered. Beginning a New Game Plus playthrough feels more like a glitch than a resolutiona reason to reload to the game in a desperate effort to get the proper ending, not the haphazard bag of nothing just witnessed.
A freelance games writer, you say? Typically battling his current RPG addiction and ceaseless perfectionism? A fan of horror but too big a sissy to play for more than a couple of hours? Spends far too much time on JRPGs and gets way too angry with card games?
Well that doesn't sound anything like me.
