This modder's 'final love letter to Dark Souls 2' is a massive mechanical overhaul and just the excuse I needed for a Majula homecoming

GamesRPGDark Souls 2This modder’s ‘final love letter to Dark Souls 2’ is a massive mechanical overhaul and just the excuse I needed for a Majula homecomingWhen you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.

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(Image credit: FromSoftware)

Dark Souls 2 fight

Even before the ascent of Elden Ring, Dark Souls 2 was all too often overlooked—and unjustly maligned, according to the brave, intelligent, and very cool souls who aredefending Dark Souls 2 to this day. One of those devoted few, modder AoiYozora, just released what they call “a final love letter” to FromSoft’s black sheep sequel:Bearer of the Curse Edition, a “faithful DS2 conversion” mod that refreshes Dark Souls 2: Scholar of the First Sin with a suite of mechanical overhauls.

Bearer of the Curse Edition’s goal isn’t adding new content or entirely redesigning how it plays. Instead, the mod’s main focus is on providing quality-of-life mechanical changes to bring Dark Souls 2 more in line with design conventions from later FromSoft games, add convenience, and sand down some of the friction that might’ve obscured its appeal.

As an example, Bearer of the Curse Edition uncouples dodge roll iframe duration from the Adaptability stat, addressing an oft-reviled mechanic that made it mandatory for most players to drop a handful of their hard-won levels into the stat just to get their rolling up to basic functionality. Now Adaptability is entirely optional, unless you’re particularly interested in being able to swig your Estus flask faster.

Speaking of the Estus flask, Bearer of the Curse Edition lets you chug your healing juice while moving instead of planting your character’s feet while they quaff, providing the same manoeuvrability while recovering that Dark Souls 3 and Elden Ring allow. Also like Elden Ring, the mod gives a dedicated jump button that doesn’t require sprinting, which should help when you’re trying to get to a treasure chest on the other side of a tricky chasm.

Stamina drain has been slightly retooled: Attacking and rolling will use the same amount of stamina, but sprinting will drain much less. It’s a change that leaves combat mostly untouched, but cuts down on travel time.

AoiYozora has added additional clutter to fill out empty areas, and has made visual and lighting tweaks throughout the game in an attempt to improve the atmosphere. NPC, enemy, and bonfire locations have been adjusted, too, and additional shortcuts have been added to provide more routes for circling back to earlier areas.

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Bearer of the Curse Edition makes far more changes than I could cover here, but itsNexus Modspage has the full list of features. All in all, it seems like a thoughtful, considered effort to make the magic of Dark Souls 2 accessible for players who might’ve bounced off it before.

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