Why Dark Souls 2 Ng+ was the best

Dark Souls 2 easily had the best New Game Plus of all the FromSoft games... mostly because it was the only to offer something beyond the standard difficulty scaling. But let's take a look at all the cool stuff it tried that never returned for some reason.

0:00 - Begin Journey 1
1:39 - RED PHANTOMS 👹
5:18- SEEK SOULS 🌌
9:14- SHOP UPDATES 🛒
11:13- NEW ITEMS 🛍️
12:18- NEW ENCOUNTERS 💀
16:17- NIL SWORD 🗡️
18:55- NEW ENEMIES 🧙‍♀️
21:36 SPIDER 🕷️
25:28- thanks🙇

Credits-

Big thanks to my Patreons for the painting guardian set 🖼️

[LimitBreakers]

📌CORRECTIONS! 📚
1- There's 1 Priestess, the other 2 are Ng+
2- Ng+ increases item discovery... ʷᵃᵗ

[grfrjiglstan]

The DS2 dev team wanted to have a running theme where area bosses would stalk you outside of their arenas throughout the game, before dev time got too crunchy. Only Pursuer and Freja do it ingame, but I've got a running theory that Old Iron King's ability to dive into lava and reemerge elsewhere is also a leftover fragment from this idea.

[Phantasmus]

This video just confirms the world is ready for a sequel to Happy Souls.

[Spook_is_Back]

Dark Souls 2 has set a standard for NG+ that, in my opinion, should have continued in every fromsoft game after its release. I am consistently disappointed each time NG+ is not given the attention it deserves. The replayability of DS2 is something B-Team put a lot of time and thought into.

[truepickle]

Love the Happy Souls referance, that is a LEGENDARY animation. DS2 really was a great game

[SondreGrneng]

the phantom with the pickaxe and porcine shield is probably the most obscure hint ever.

[uuop]

you are one of the only youtubers who do this game justice, the videos you do on this game really show just how unique and interesting this game truly is. also where is miracle build old man

[rangopistacho]

the fact that they added so much content that It actually makes the game almost feel like your playing it again for the first tame just with better starting gear and stats is incredible, I wish there was this in every souls game and that they all did it diffrently, new game play us fun but at the same time I kinda wish that there was extra content

[teldoroteldoro]

I think Bloodborne was the one game that could have benefitted most from these NG+ changes, since the base game was pretty short. Imagine if some of the Chalice Dungeon bosses were just wandering around Yharnam in NG+

[Squiggums]

Don't forget that if you manage to kill Freja on the NG+ cliff encounter before she retreats, your save will become permanently corrupted. For some reason, she's a load-bearing spider.

[SwaxMainu]

I miss bonfire ascetics. It was cool to bump up the difficulty and be rewarded for it

[guunarlarsensmith]

DS2 was the only souls game I did multiple ng+ runs on, so much content to enjoy

[hunterotte]

I wished 2 got the development time it needed. These guys were cooking up some cool and interesting stuff and I want to see what the fully baked product would have been like.

[Consumstra]

I don't think you mentioned it but item discovery increases by +150 until bonfire intensity 8 as well to a max of +375

[nikitos]

DS2 is a game where I still discover things even after many years. Like this one Heide knight in the Gutter.

[ZieIuX]

They are unique red phantoms encounters in 2nd DLC at ng+7:
-Ash soldier duo (near 1-st bonfire)
-Possessed Armor (next to iron scepter tower fog wall)
-Possessed Armor (before bridge to the maldron tower)
-Minotaur boi (tower key pickup)
-Minotaur boi (before fume knight)

[renegaderaven]

Honestly, DS2 had some pretty neat stuff. They put a lot of love into ng+ for this one that the other titles in the series just don’t have.

[BlueShellshock]

Ah, DS2, I really did like how it mixed up NG+ to give a new challenge. You think you know an area and bam, pincer manoever by two phantoms, adds in the fight that weren't there before, and red versions of big mobs. Add to the Forlorn invaders which could spawn *anywhere*, and your NG+ playthrough could feel much different from your NG. I wish they'd done similar measures in Elden Ring.

[pizzatide]

Fun fact: Freja appears outside her arena in the day one release of Dark Souls 2 as well!
Additionally her arena slows player movement like a swamp and torches have no effect on spiders in that version.

[coatgoat]

The Happy Souls bit just hit me with so much nostalgia. I've been replaying DS2 SotFS lately so this was *chef's kiss* and now I am even more determined to dig up NG+ shenanigans. Thanks so much!