What the fuck is fun about this franchise

The franchise? Beats me, the best one in the bunch is the first and it's just downhill from there to me. The first had a new type of gameplay that was interesting when it came out, it's tight in design and has great atmosphere. The second one feels more aimless and bloated, some good things are added but the atmosphere is severely diluted, the difficulty progression feels more like a rollercoaster than a smooth increase, and it starts to feel more like a late Blizzard game (less soul, more sleek and sterile polish). Anything after two is an abomination.

D2 is peak Blizzard soul

Are there any diablo style games with more dynamic fighting in them? The gear side of things is great but ultimately when you get down to it it's just click, click, click

Even "normal attack/strong attack/block/parry" would've opened the game up a tonne for melee players at least

>D&D angels pop up
>"worldstone"
>"epic" globe hopping fantasy story that isn't overwritten at all

Nah. Peak Blizzard soul is Warcraft2, Diablo, possibly Starcraft as well. D2 is when the slow decline towards WoW-tier bad writing and overpolish started. This can be proven by the fact that D2 is one of the first Blizzard games that truly started to have normie appeal.

You could try Revenant, if you can get it running

Skinner boxes

Optimizing builds and getting more power with rare drops
If you dont find the core gameplay for your liking it just isnt for you because otherwise its practically isometric dynasty warriors at end game(not counting d1 obviously)
Mid to early late game can be pretty demanding to work around your stat shortcomings though
And even with decent endgame gear shit like claw vipers and stygian dolls and black souls can still get you if you arent careful

Wolcen has a dodge button but thats about all I can think of

Diablo II can get pretty complicated depending on which class you use. I use frequently at least 8 or 9 skills with my Skelemancer in Hell difficulty. It all comes down to know when to use your skills.

its got neat music, necromancer is cool, unique items and runewords are cool in D2. simple as
youtube.com/watch?v=Q2evIg-aYw8

I don't know, it gives me a dopamine rush

making builds is fun

talking about Diablo 1's soundscape
>tristam is brought up as 'best' track
erry tiem

Atmosphere and how easy it is, that's why all the kids liked it.

Ys series is a bit similar gameplay but much less focus on mindless grinding. Many different bosses with mechanics to learn.
Ys Origin even has 3 different styles to play the game in. Average, range and full on offence fun.
It has some anime and jrpg cutscenes which are stupid though.

not the first one. well, kind of, but it is a perfectly fine and enjoyable game simply playing though it once for the atmosphere and the experience.
something that all subsequent entries and imitations lost completely.

D2 was like a fart in the face with its slapdash random bosses like pukemongrel the scabrous who is bright blue and pink and its lackluster music.

because there is truth to it, even though I think the catacomb track is better.
and he didn't really say that it was the "best", he only implied that it was very good, seeing as he chose to present it as an example of a "special atmosphere"; and he chose well.

It's the melodic track. The catchy one. The rest is all soundscapes.

Same with any game. Arcanum might've had an hour's worth of soundscapes but people mostly just remember the Tarant theme.

Blade & Sword homie

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Man I tried playing that, the pacing was all out of whack. All gear is gems you have to embed, every map is a slog of trying to clear it without getting hit because healing opportunities are nearly nil, all enemies are sponges and most skills suck ass, the combo system doesn't matter with your shitty stamina, ehhh.