Dark Souls 2 Looking Glass Knight - Before and After (Demo Vs. Retail Graphics Comparison)

Both are on PS3, apparently...

Gosh. The battle looked and felt much more epic and grand before the downgrade. PC version maybe?

Don't get me wrong, I did not buy the game for the graphics, but it would have been grand if Fromsoft did not have to downgrade the graphics, but oh well, the game is still amazing.

This is what happens with 7 year old hardware.

Dark souls 2 mirror knight
Dark souls 2 looking glass knight
Dark souls 2 mirror knight
Dark souls 2 looking glass knight
Dark souls 2 E3 mirror knight
Dark souls 2 graphics
Dark souls 2 graphics comparison

[Horrorfreak]

It would be nice if they re-released this game on next gen consoles using really good graphics to looks similar to the demo.

[rwbraz]

It's all about ambience and not graphics. They ruined the ambience (particles and light) of the game. You don't even need a torch to see in the dark on the retail versions. In the PC version is the same bulls***, it's only have better textures and frame rate....But leaving all that aside, Souls games have never been about graphics and it's still a good game anyway.

[heresjohnny]

Weirdest grapical downgrade I can remember. Besides the lighting, particle effects and reflections I still don't get why the game colors have changed dramatically. The green in this boss fight doesn't even blend well with the lightning.

[axelbrionac]

The FPS drops in the demo would've been an annoyance to deal with in the retail version. Still, ds2 problems are mostly derived from gameplay aspects, not graphics but the atmosphere certainly would've been better with improved lighting. Waiting for Flames of Old mod to replay this game.

[RadagonTheRed]

I love how even in the pre-release footage the framerate tanks when the LGK attacks with lightning.

[shiverius]

I think "Looking Glass' is perhaps a more appropriate title than "Mirror" given the circumstances. The term "Mirror" implies the importance of reflection, and while the Knight can certainly bounce spells off his shield, that isn't really his signature trait. A looking glass, while being another name for mirror, has different lore connotations attached to it. Whereas the term "mirror" deals with reflection, "looking glass" deals with entities passing into and out of a reflective glass surface. So I think "Looking Glass Knight" more properly denotes his summoning ability.

Also to be noted is since the graphical downgrades to accommodate gameplay, his armor no longer possesses the sheen it had, further detracting from the "mirror" concept.

Just my opinion.

[shawnmarcum]

The graphics even make the physics and animations look even better. Holy crap.

[Lofirainbows]

It actually did look like this no false advertising; it was genuine footage of the game on PC. It would've looked like this on consoles, except it was on next-gen consoles exclusively; it was only afterwards decided to be cross-gen as to bridge the gap between 1 on the last gen and 3 and Bloodborne on the next-gen. The fact my favourite game of all time got downgraded the way it did, just breaks my heart to think about honestly... I've never given up hope one day it will come out, that orginal version is more desirable to me than anything else in the world.

[ammanus]

And the massive frame dip when he lands his lightning attack says everything about why it was downgraded

[zoexp]

I recently played DkS 1 and I can't believe it looks better than DkS2, I'm still impressed.

[TheDkmariolink]

PC version has been compared by IGN. Looks nothing like this.

[bibbisbibbis]

One thing that's really interesting with these comparisons (but that no-one ever wants to mention) is that the beta version is very clearly suffering from some major FPS drops when things get really intense, while the release version is constantly smooth.

[MananaMan]

It's so bizarre that Dark souls 1 got a remaster, even though there was really nothing wrong with the game aside from Lost Izalith which wasn't changed, rather than Dark souls 2. If it were to be remastered I would 100% give it a try.

[WoofySKD]

Release version obviously has a more greenish color & a darker mirror, but I don't really think these changes can be considered downgrading.

Well the mirror change is a bit bad since he seems to have less pronounced lighting effect (by the way none of these _mirrors_ actually reflect the real world as some of you believed it to).

However you can see the demo version *didn't have* the cool rain splash effect on the ground, and that's because it was unfinished, now this is a blatant fact.

[Pan_Z]

The unfortunate result of the downgrade is the loss of the reflections on armour. The Mirror Knight looks less reflective, ill-suiting his moniker.

[Fire-jkye]

anyone notice at about 2:10 the mirror knights shield looks like the one from E3 for about 1 second? Wonder if the advanced graphics are still there, just turned off.

[AnUncleanHippy]

In my honest opinion, I believe there were many reasons for changes. The main change I see is a change in backdrop and lighting, during the before, you can see that the fight is a lot more darker with most of the lighting shining radially through the arches and spires (In the after you get the same look during the lightning strikes). The entire scene in the after seems to have been brightened from the original hence why the armors reflection is different in the after. Note that in the before there is no gate to Amana meaning that is just another opening for backdrop making it seem larger. I honestly don't care about the reduction in the lightning particle effect, there is a huge frame drop as the attack finished which would honestly annoy players more than a worse lightning particle. Same applies to the phantom shooting out of the mirror and the effects of the sword hitting the ground. They just reduced the strain of particle effects so that the game would run on consoles, simple as that. People overestimate consoles by miles.

[iWillWakeYouUp]

Look closely at 2:14, folks! The boss turns from "unreflective metal" kinda looking and a black shield to REFLECTIVE metal AND a reflective mirror!


That's why he was called "Mirror Knight" originally, and I still think it was an absolutely horrible choice to call him Looking Glass Knight. I bet it has to do with the downgrade, what with "Mirror Knight" not making any sense anymore because the shield is black except when he glitches or something. It could be that various lighting effects or textures are just glitching on "on" and then to "off" or something, or it could be the lightning that illuminates everything and the game clumsily just retextures him instead of producing REAL lighting on the boss, OR it could be something similiar, just him walking through the "shadows", or in the virtual "hitboxes" of the destructable pillars, where he's also clumsily retextured/effects enabled instead of doing it in realtime.

I'll love the game when I'll play it, I know that, but it's sad to see what could've been. I hope so much they make me happy and announce a next gen port at E3. We'll see how PC turns out. I have no PC, but for the love of all that is good, let it be good... At least give the option to enable all the fancy REALTIME lighting on PC, FROM!

[Hannuraina]

i knew the lighting was changed. but something about the cloth in the demo looks amazing by comparison

[franciscoestrada]

I hate how the whole game wasn't like this I would've gladly waited a few more months for a whole game experience like this me being a dark souls 1 player I only hope a dark souls 3 comes out with nextgen to look swag #/Save DarkSouls #/Dark Souls 3