Since the dawn of gaming, eager, tech-savvy fans have tinkered with their favorite games, messing around with their assets and mechanics to deliver an all-new experience. Thisculture of moddinghas only grown increasingly popular over the years as the hobby has become more accessible, and the scope of those mods has also increased exponentially. Now, it’s commonplace to see a mod that completely reinvents a game, fixing many of the issues fans had with the original experience.Dark Souls 2’s Bearer of the Curse mod does exactly that.
Initially uploaded last October,Dark Souls 2’s Bearer of the Curse mod was created by modders AoiYozora and Fromsoftserve (with the credits also citing Moonlight Ruin, TriviaVanille, Lord Radai, Katalash, Aintunez, and nomorevideos). This total conversion mod transformsDark Souls 2: Scholar of the First Sin, adding and tweaking a plethora of features that go a long way in fixing some long-standing complaints about the black sheep of FromSoftware’s Soulslike catalogue.
Dark Souls 2’s Bearer of the Curse Mod Revolutionizes The Game
How The Bearer of the Curse Mod Improves Dark Souls 2’s Gameplay
Described as a “love letter” toDark Souls 2by its creators,Dark Souls 2’s Bearer of the Curse modtries to remain as faithful to FromSoftware’s original vision as possible while still providing many of the changes fans have been asking for since 2014. Some of the mod’s biggest changes and additions are as follows:
Probably the change that long-timeDark Soulsfans will notice immediately is thatDark Souls 2’s Bearer of the Curse mod finally fixes the game’s ADP issue. In the original version ofDark Souls 2, the player’s iframes (frames of invincibility when dodging) were directly tied to the Adaptability stat. Players would need to level up their Adaptability stat quite a bit if they wanted to receive the same iframes given from the get-go in the firstDark Souls. This mod makes ADP an optional stat, giving players a more reasonable number of iframes off the bat.
Quite a number of changes have been made that affect the general flow ofDark Souls 2’s moment-to-moment gameplay. For instance, the ability to drink Estus while walking gives players a bit more agency in fights. Boss attack patterns have also been tweaked to be a little faster, giving players less time to heal in between strikes. Some changes have also been made to stamina and its related animations, allowing players to recover faster after swinging a weapon and reducing the amount of stamina consumed while sprinting.
Dark Souls 2’s level designis also altered in the Bearer of the Curse mod. Some shortcuts have been added to a handful of areas and some more backtracking opportunities have been added, such as ladders that allow players to revisit an area that they’ve just dropped from.
The Bearer of the Curse mod only works with the Scholar of the First Sin edition ofDark Souls 2, and it’savailable right here.
Other Improvements That The Bearer of the Curse Mod Makes to Dark Souls 2
TheDark Souls 2: Bearer of the Cursemod also adds a slew of quality-of-life improvements to the decade-old game, with some of the most notable being:
Dark Souls 2may not be as strong as its FromSoftware siblings, but it’s still a great game, and the Bearer of the Curse mod really taps into its true potential.
