My steam profile: http://steamcommunity.com/id/fantasyheaven/

The game that I would like to request is DARK SOULS™ II: Scholar of the First Sin, which is currently on sale with a 75% discount.

Dark Souls is one of my most played games on Steam at 103 hours.

I enjoyed both the plot and the gameplay of the game. While the core of the plot is fairly generic, the minimalist method of story telling made it interesting for me. Only the bare minimum of the lore is told to the player so that they can understand and advance the plot, while the rest of the world-building information is scattered throughout the game as item descriptions. It made discovering new items a pleasure, as each new thing obtained provides something of value - either in utility as an item or a source of lore.

That said, what kept me playing the game for so long was the combat system. It had an authentic feel to it in the attack animations of both the player and enemies - there is a sense of realism in the speed and weight of the attacks. This appeal to attacks having weight is enhanced by the poise system, which determines one's ability to withstand hits without flinching. When combined with the stamina gauge, the battles feel believable - neither player or enemies can withstand powerful blows as if they were raindrops, nor could they attack endlessly as if exhaustion is a foreign concept.

Another crucial thing about the game: the level of difficulty was challenging but fair. While character stats and equipment do help, what matters the most in determining the outcome of a battle is player skill. The consequence of this is that mook enemies can easily kill you if you become complacent. Players have the ability to roll (which have invincibility frames) and enemy attack's are telegraphed, so being hit can only be attributed as a failing of the player to pay attention to the fight. Learning and adapting a fighting style to win against a new enemy made me feel like I am improving with each victory without dying.

As such, I would like to play something similar and therefore request for Dark Souls 2: Scholar of the First Sin. I understand that there were several quality-of-life improvements to the gameplay mechanics (such as 8-directional rolls and proper dual-wielding), but there are also criticisms by that enjoyed playing the first game. While they are not that important in the grand scheme of things, some of the criticized changes that caused me to raise an eyebrow were:

• Enemies stop respawning. I enjoyed refining my fighting style against enemies, so this change is troubling. That said, the different enemy placement in NG may offset this.
• A lower variety of weapon movesets.
• There is only one rolling animation (goodbye fat rolls).
• Tail cuts yielding unique weapons.

I would like to see the changes in design between the first and second game for myself. Since I have already spent my monthly gaming budget on upgrading my operating system (from Windows Vista 32-bit to Windows 10 64-bit) and the sale ends before the month ends, I am making this request in the hopes that someone would answer it.