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Dark Souls II
Cross the ruined kingdom of Drangleic, learn each enemy’s attacks and find a path through a dangerous action RPG.
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Dark Souls II sends your character, an Undead marked by a curse, into the fallen kingdom of Drangleic. You explore castles, forests, tunnels and other connected places while looking for a way forward. It is an action RPG: you move and fight in real time, but the weapon, shield, armor and character statistics you choose change how a fight feels. The game does not hand you a detailed route or explain every mystery at the start. If you are new, begin by watching a nearby enemy and learning when it attacks before rushing into a second fight.
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Bonfires are the places where you rest, recover and return after a death. Resting can also bring ordinary enemies back, so a path you already cleared may not stay empty. Defeated enemies give you souls, which you can spend on levels and equipment. If you die, you leave the souls you were carrying at the place where you fell; reaching that spot lets you retrieve them, but dying again before you do can cost them. That risk makes a short, careful trip back to safety feel important. The gallery below shows the original game’s armored characters, bosses and spaces rather than images from a later remaster.
FromSoftware developed Dark Souls II and Bandai Namco published it. Its first North American release was on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 on March 11, 2014; the Windows PC version followed in April. Dark Souls II: Scholar of the First Sin is a later edition, not the same original launch. Start here if you want to understand the 2014 game before comparing editions.
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