What is Dark Souls II: Scholar of the First Sin?

A second edition that is also a second draft: the Lost Crowns, a new scholar, and a different ending.

Bandai Namco announced Scholar of the First Sin on November 25, 2014, and released it in April 2015 across the original platforms plus PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. It compiles the base game with its three DLC campaigns, The Lost Crowns: Crown of the Sunken King (July 22, 2014), Crown of the Old Iron King (August 26), and Crown of the Ivory King (September 30), and, on the newer hardware, rebuilds the presentation: remastered lighting, 1080p at 60 frames per second, up to six players online, and enemy positions and behaviour revised throughout.

It also revises the story. The free 1.10 patch (February 5, 2015) added the Scholar himself, Aldia, brother of King Vendrick, who confronts the player with the trilogy’s heresy: perhaps there is a path beyond light and dark, and beyond the throne. Scholar players can walk away from the ending the original game offered.

WHICH VERSION IS WHICH

A collector’s note

Two PC versions, incompatible saves

The remaster runs on DirectX 11 against the original’s DirectX 9; save data does not transfer, and the two were sold side by side, with a discount for existing owners. On a shelf, they are different objects.

The crowns cure the curse

Finish all three Lost Crowns and a fourth, combined crown can be won from Vendrick’s memory, a wearable answer to the game’s premise: the only Dark Souls II ending that fixes the protagonist.

What is Dark Souls II: Scholar of the First Sin?

WHICH VERSION IS WHICH

THE FIRST WORD