DARK SOULS II: Scholar of the First Sin
Image: Steam store (© respective owners)

How do players who really played DARK SOULS II: Scholar of the First Sin rate it? TrueGG Rating 83.3%

Release date: Apr 8, 2015 Data as of 2026-10-19 View on Steam ↗

Players who really played rate it about the same as Steam overall. Early impressions are weaker, so the first few hours tend to decide whether it clicks.

Good for

  • Players who want dozens of hours of play

Think twice if you are

  • Players particular about controls and UI
  • Players relying on Japanese (Japanese reviews rate it lower)

A rule-based guide from review patterns (no AI). How

TrueGG RatingMethodology ↗
83.3%
± 0.6 pt
vs Steam overall

Positive among players with 20+ hours (last 180 days) · 5,224 reviews

TrueGG, all time
87.5%
Steam overall
83.8%
Japanese, all time
72.1%

Early wall

Reviews written under 2 hours: 3.4% of all reviews. Their positive share is 55.2%.

This is not a drop-off rate; it describes who wrote reviews. Refund guide: within 14 days of purchase and under 2 hours of play (Steam refund policy).

01 / TRUEGG INSIGHTS

Does the rating change the longer people play?

Used for TrueGG Rating (20h+)JapaneseRight: reviews
Positive share by playtimeRanges from 20 hours up are highlighted. Exact values are in the table below.0%25%50%75%100%0–1 h43%1021–2 h46%902–5 h66%3965–10 h68%44810–20 h72%78320–50 h78%2,16750–100 h85%1,906100–200 h90%820200+ h91%331Positive share by playtime0–1 h10243%1–2 h9046%2–5 h39666%5–10 h44868%10–20 h78372%20–50 h2,16778%50–100 h1,90685%100–200 h82090%200+ h33191%

Positive share by playtime at the time of review (reviews from the last 180 days). Ranges under 50 reviews are pale and dashed (indicative only); “—” means no reviews.

Show chart values as a table
PlaytimePositiveJapaneseReviews
0–1 h43.1%—102
1–2 h45.6%—90
2–5 h65.9%—396
5–10 h67.9%33.3%448
10–20 h71.9%0.0%783
20–50 h78.4%61.1%2,167
50–100 h84.7%64.7%1,906
100–200 h89.8%61.5%820
200+ h90.9%100.0%331

How long people play: half of reviewers had played 20+ hours. 73% had 20+ hours and 22% had 100+ hours (all time).

02 / TRUEGG INSIGHTS

Summary

DARK SOULS II: Scholar of the First Sin has a TrueGG Rating of 83.3%: the positive share among 5,224 reviews written in the last 180 days by players with 20+ hours, close to Steam's overall 83.8%. Players who really play it broadly agree with the headline number (all time: 87.5%).

Reviews written under 2 hours make up 3% of the total, and only 55% of them are positive. Some players bounce off early, but those who get past the opening rate it higher. Steam accepts refund requests within 2 hours of play and 14 days of purchase.

In the last 180 days, reviews at 2–5h are 66% positive versus 91% at 200h+: the more people play, the more they like it.

Negative reviews most often mention the story, boredom (more than at launch), and controls and UI (less than at launch).

Among Japanese-language reviews, the TrueGG Rating is 72.1%, 11.2 points below all languages.

Re-weighting reviews by trust signals (playtime, length, how the game was obtained) barely changes the rating (83.4% adjusted), so Steam's number is not noticeably distorted by key giveaways or throwaway reviews.

All figures come from Steam's public review counts, and topics are counted with our published dictionary (no AI). Data as of 2026-10-19.

03 / TRUEGG INSIGHTS

Why it is rated this way

What drives the rating

Complaints center on the game's design (Story, Boring / repetitive, Controls, UI & camera, Movement & pacing). These rarely change with updates, so the rating likely reflects the game itself. Judge by whether it suits you. It is also a game many people bounce off early (early reviews are much less positive than those of players who stuck with it).

− Most mentioned complaints

  • Story16% of negative reviews (11% of positive) · most common among 100h+ players · ongoing since launch · 11 positive reviews say it improved
  • Boring / repetitive12% of negative reviews (2% of positive) · most common among 100h+ players · more than at launch
  • Controls, UI & camera9% of negative reviews (3% of positive) · most common among under 2h players · less than at launch
  • Movement & pacing7% of negative reviews (4% of positive) · most common among 2–20h players · ongoing since launch · 5 positive reviews say it improved

+ What players praise

No standout topics

＋ 一番好＋ 探究者＋ 綺麗＋ 酷評＋ peak＋ ドロップ＋ 拠点＋ 新鮮− trash− save− awful− lock− boring− behind− attacks− actual

Counted from 527 recent negative and 600 positive reviews in Japanese and English, using our published topic dictionary. No AI is used. Topics overlap, so shares do not add up to 100%. Sarcasm and nuance are not detected, and this does not show cause and effect.How we count

04 / TRUEGG INSIGHTS

Checking the numbers

Figures with a different scope, shown alongside the TrueGG Rating.

MetricPositiveScope
Official Steam rating83.8%All time, all languages · 133,695 reviews
Adjusted rating83.4%Weighted by trust (95% range 83.0%–83.9%), −0.4pt vs official
Japanese-language reviews65.7%All time, Japanese-language reviews (−18.1pt vs overall) · 662 reviews
Show the positive vs negative breakdown

Share of sampled reviews that meet each condition that lowers trust. When a condition is more common on the positive side, the adjusted rating falls below the official one.

ConditionPositive reviewsNegative reviews
Under 2 hours played at review1%6%
Very short text37%27%
Key activated outside Steam32%36%
Received for free2%1%
Owns very few games6%3%
Over 100 reviews written3%4%
Average trust (1.0 = full)0.780.80

The median total playtime of the sampled reviewers is 37.4 hours. 400 positive and 400 negative reviews analyzed · data as of 2026-10-19

05 / TRUEGG INSIGHTS

When did the rating change?

Monthly positive and negative review counts since release, as published by Steam.

Reviews per month

■ Positive■ Negative
0 500 1,000 1,500 2,000 2015-04: +1,198 / −201 2015-05: +300 / −47 2015-06: +506 / −84 2015-07: +331 / −42 2015-08: +211 / −35 2015-09: +353 / −65 2015-10: +263 / −27 2015-11: +262 / −29 2015-12: +545 / −68 2016-01: +634 / −77 2016-02: +536 / −86 2016-03: +444 / −55 2016-04: +327 / −45 2016-05: +187 / −33 2016-06: +350 / −74 2016-07: +323 / −37 2016-08: +186 / −35 2016-09: +150 / −25 2016-10: +342 / −59 2016-11: +1,247 / −47 2016-12: +368 / −42 2017-01: +340 / −64 2017-02: +243 / −39 2017-03: +196 / −28 2017-04: +211 / −33 2017-05: +183 / −23 2017-06: +331 / −56 2017-07: +374 / −59 2017-08: +183 / −27 2017-09: +325 / −63 2017-10: +259 / −46 2017-11: +935 / −43 2017-12: +341 / −67 2018-01: +366 / −71 2018-02: +203 / −47 2018-03: +168 / −25 2018-04: +143 / −33 2018-05: +179 / −26 2018-06: +262 / −81 2018-07: +301 / −94 2018-08: +158 / −39 2018-09: +107 / −25 2018-10: +122 / −24 2018-11: +738 / −59 2018-12: +255 / −56 2019-01: +267 / −64 2019-02: +277 / −65 2019-03: +202 / −53 2019-04: +148 / −38 2019-05: +238 / −55 2019-06: +1,014 / −100 2019-07: +998 / −88 2019-08: +133 / −33 2019-09: +186 / −46 2019-10: +226 / −42 2019-11: +953 / −78 2019-12: +1,001 / −93 2020-01: +945 / −117 2020-02: +661 / −85 2020-03: +622 / −71 2020-04: +1,009 / −149 2020-05: +1,199 / −193 2020-06: +1,010 / −173 2020-07: +1,386 / −241 2020-08: +679 / −136 2020-09: +501 / −86 2020-10: +439 / −68 2020-11: +847 / −111 2020-12: +1,162 / −216 2021-01: +1,114 / −201 2021-02: +819 / −128 2021-03: +688 / −122 2021-04: +1,017 / −194 2021-05: +682 / −122 2021-06: +1,265 / −263 2021-07: +1,484 / −312 2021-08: +833 / −205 2021-09: +594 / −122 2021-10: +540 / −121 2021-11: +907 / −165 2021-12: +1,131 / −244 2022-01: +1,274 / −305 2022-02: +664 / −188 2022-03: +629 / −209 2022-04: +551 / −288 2022-05: +337 / −180 2022-06: +315 / −106 2022-07: +290 / −124 2022-08: +356 / −97 2022-09: +274 / −84 2022-10: +374 / −72 2022-11: +532 / −77 2022-12: +467 / −92 2023-01: +546 / −144 2023-02: +403 / −144 2023-03: +439 / −96 2023-04: +329 / −95 2023-05: +303 / −75 2023-06: +300 / −74 2023-07: +756 / −254 2023-08: +508 / −151 2023-09: +547 / −174 2023-10: +415 / −112 2023-11: +546 / −124 2023-12: +519 / −142 2024-01: +463 / −118 2024-02: +635 / −190 2024-03: +624 / −180 2024-04: +442 / −136 2024-05: +746 / −250 2024-06: +602 / −192 2024-07: +631 / −212 2024-08: +521 / −127 2024-09: +423 / −119 2024-10: +779 / −286 2024-11: +537 / −139 2024-12: +669 / −173 2025-01: +615 / −175 2025-02: +646 / −216 2025-03: +529 / −147 2025-04: +434 / −119 2025-05: +939 / −294 2025-06: +643 / −162 2025-07: +625 / −169 2025-08: +484 / −138 2025-09: +358 / −89 2025-10: +562 / −181 2025-11: +595 / −112 2025-12: +676 / −189 2026-01: +554 / −115 2026-02: +639 / −176 2026-03: +668 / −156 2026-04: +628 / −164 2026-05: +707 / −211 2026-06: +501 / −142 2026-07: +428 / −118 2026-08: +444 / −106 2026-09: +479 / −146 2026-10: +588 / −192 2015/042016/012017/012018/012019/012020/012021/012022/012023/012024/012025/012026/01

Positive share per month

0% 25% 50% 75% 100% Monthly data overall 82.4% 2015-04: 85.6%2015-05: 86.5%2015-06: 85.8%2015-07: 88.7%2015-08: 85.8%2015-09: 84.4%2015-10: 90.7%2015-11: 90.0%2015-12: 88.9%2016-01: 89.2%2016-02: 86.2%2016-03: 89.0%2016-04: 87.9%2016-05: 85.0%2016-06: 82.5%2016-07: 89.7%2016-08: 84.2%2016-09: 85.7%2016-10: 85.3%2016-11: 96.4%2016-12: 89.8%2017-01: 84.2%2017-02: 86.2%2017-03: 87.5%2017-04: 86.5%2017-05: 88.8%2017-06: 85.5%2017-07: 86.4%2017-08: 87.1%2017-09: 83.8%2017-10: 84.9%2017-11: 95.6%2017-12: 83.6%2018-01: 83.8%2018-02: 81.2%2018-03: 87.0%2018-04: 81.3%2018-05: 87.3%2018-06: 76.4%2018-07: 76.2%2018-08: 80.2%2018-09: 81.1%2018-10: 83.6%2018-11: 92.6%2018-12: 82.0%2019-01: 80.7%2019-02: 81.0%2019-03: 79.2%2019-04: 79.6%2019-05: 81.2%2019-06: 91.0%2019-07: 91.9%2019-08: 80.1%2019-09: 80.2%2019-10: 84.3%2019-11: 92.4%2019-12: 91.5%2020-01: 89.0%2020-02: 88.6%2020-03: 89.8%2020-04: 87.1%2020-05: 86.1%2020-06: 85.4%2020-07: 85.2%2020-08: 83.3%2020-09: 85.3%2020-10: 86.6%2020-11: 88.4%2020-12: 84.3%2021-01: 84.7%2021-02: 86.5%2021-03: 84.9%2021-04: 84.0%2021-05: 84.8%2021-06: 82.8%2021-07: 82.6%2021-08: 80.3%2021-09: 83.0%2021-10: 81.7%2021-11: 84.6%2021-12: 82.3%2022-01: 80.7%2022-02: 77.9%2022-03: 75.1%2022-04: 65.7%2022-05: 65.2%2022-06: 74.8%2022-07: 70.0%2022-08: 78.6%2022-09: 76.5%2022-10: 83.9%2022-11: 87.4%2022-12: 83.5%2023-01: 79.1%2023-02: 73.7%2023-03: 82.1%2023-04: 77.6%2023-05: 80.2%2023-06: 80.2%2023-07: 74.9%2023-08: 77.1%2023-09: 75.9%2023-10: 78.7%2023-11: 81.5%2023-12: 78.5%2024-01: 79.7%2024-02: 77.0%2024-03: 77.6%2024-04: 76.5%2024-05: 74.9%2024-06: 75.8%2024-07: 74.9%2024-08: 80.4%2024-09: 78.0%2024-10: 73.1%2024-11: 79.4%2024-12: 79.5%2025-01: 77.8%2025-02: 74.9%2025-03: 78.3%2025-04: 78.5%2025-05: 76.2%2025-06: 79.9%2025-07: 78.7%2025-08: 77.8%2025-09: 80.1%2025-10: 75.6%2025-11: 84.2%2025-12: 78.2%2026-01: 82.8%2026-02: 78.4%2026-03: 81.1%2026-04: 79.3%2026-05: 77.0%2026-06: 77.9%2026-07: 78.4%2026-08: 80.7%2026-09: 76.6%2026-10: 75.4% 2015/042016/012017/012018/012019/012020/012021/012022/012023/012024/012025/012026/01

Months with under 30 reviews are omitted from the rate.

Reviews per day, last 30 days

0 20 40 60 2026-09-20: +12 / −2 2026-09-21: +19 / −0 2026-09-22: +17 / −5 2026-09-23: +20 / −4 2026-09-24: +14 / −5 2026-09-25: +29 / −3 2026-09-26: +33 / −10 2026-09-27: +37 / −19 2026-09-28: +31 / −9 2026-09-29: +33 / −14 2026-09-30: +26 / −13 2026-10-01: +28 / −13 2026-10-02: +35 / −9 2026-10-03: +38 / −14 2026-10-04: +43 / −14 2026-10-05: +37 / −9 2026-10-06: +38 / −10 2026-10-07: +24 / −9 2026-10-08: +33 / −18 2026-10-09: +40 / −8 2026-10-10: +35 / −15 2026-10-11: +44 / −12 2026-10-12: +35 / −7 2026-10-13: +33 / −12 2026-10-14: +27 / −7 2026-10-15: +26 / −5 2026-10-16: +21 / −7 2026-10-17: +28 / −4 2026-10-18: +22 / −18 2026-10-19: +1 / −1 09/2009/2710/0410/1110/18
Show monthly data as a table
MonthPositiveNegativePositive
2015-041,19820185.6%
2015-053004786.5%
2015-065068485.8%
2015-073314288.7%
2015-082113585.8%
2015-093536584.4%
2015-102632790.7%
2015-112622990.0%
2015-125456888.9%
2016-016347789.2%
2016-025368686.2%
2016-034445589.0%
2016-043274587.9%
2016-051873385.0%
2016-063507482.5%
2016-073233789.7%
2016-081863584.2%
2016-091502585.7%
2016-103425985.3%
2016-111,2474796.4%
2016-123684289.8%
2017-013406484.2%
2017-022433986.2%
2017-031962887.5%
2017-042113386.5%
2017-051832388.8%
2017-063315685.5%
2017-073745986.4%
2017-081832787.1%
2017-093256383.8%
2017-102594684.9%
2017-119354395.6%
2017-123416783.6%
2018-013667183.8%
2018-022034781.2%
2018-031682587.0%
2018-041433381.3%
2018-051792687.3%
2018-062628176.4%
2018-073019476.2%
2018-081583980.2%
2018-091072581.1%
2018-101222483.6%
2018-117385992.6%
2018-122555682.0%
2019-012676480.7%
2019-022776581.0%
2019-032025379.2%
2019-041483879.6%
2019-052385581.2%
2019-061,01410091.0%
2019-079988891.9%
2019-081333380.1%
2019-091864680.2%
2019-102264284.3%
2019-119537892.4%
2019-121,0019391.5%
2020-0194511789.0%
2020-026618588.6%
2020-036227189.8%
2020-041,00914987.1%
2020-051,19919386.1%
2020-061,01017385.4%
2020-071,38624185.2%
2020-0867913683.3%
2020-095018685.3%
2020-104396886.6%
2020-1184711188.4%
2020-121,16221684.3%
2021-011,11420184.7%
2021-0281912886.5%
2021-0368812284.9%
2021-041,01719484.0%
2021-0568212284.8%
2021-061,26526382.8%
2021-071,48431282.6%
2021-0883320580.3%
2021-0959412283.0%
2021-1054012181.7%
2021-1190716584.6%
2021-121,13124482.3%
2022-011,27430580.7%
2022-0266418877.9%
2022-0362920975.1%
2022-0455128865.7%
2022-0533718065.2%
2022-0631510674.8%
2022-0729012470.0%
2022-083569778.6%
2022-092748476.5%
2022-103747283.9%
2022-115327787.4%
2022-124679283.5%
2023-0154614479.1%
2023-0240314473.7%
2023-034399682.1%
2023-043299577.6%
2023-053037580.2%
2023-063007480.2%
2023-0775625474.9%
2023-0850815177.1%
2023-0954717475.9%
2023-1041511278.7%
2023-1154612481.5%
2023-1251914278.5%
2024-0146311879.7%
2024-0263519077.0%
2024-0362418077.6%
2024-0444213676.5%
2024-0574625074.9%
2024-0660219275.8%
2024-0763121274.9%
2024-0852112780.4%
2024-0942311978.0%
2024-1077928673.1%
2024-1153713979.4%
2024-1266917379.5%
2025-0161517577.8%
2025-0264621674.9%
2025-0352914778.3%
2025-0443411978.5%
2025-0593929476.2%
2025-0664316279.9%
2025-0762516978.7%
2025-0848413877.8%
2025-093588980.1%
2025-1056218175.6%
2025-1159511284.2%
2025-1267618978.2%
2026-0155411582.8%
2026-0263917678.4%
2026-0366815681.1%
2026-0462816479.3%
2026-0570721177.0%
2026-0650114277.9%
2026-0742811878.4%
2026-0844410680.7%
2026-0947914676.6%
2026-1058819275.4%
Show daily data as a table
DayPositiveNegative
2026-09-20122
2026-09-21190
2026-09-22175
2026-09-23204
2026-09-24145
2026-09-25293
2026-09-263310
2026-09-273719
2026-09-28319
2026-09-293314
2026-09-302613
2026-10-012813
2026-10-02359
2026-10-033814
2026-10-044314
2026-10-05379
2026-10-063810
2026-10-07249
2026-10-083318
2026-10-09408
2026-10-103515
2026-10-114412
2026-10-12357
2026-10-133312
2026-10-14277
2026-10-15265
2026-10-16217
2026-10-17284
2026-10-182218
2026-10-1911
06 / TRUEGG INSIGHTS

Recent sentiment

PeriodPositiveReviews
Last 30 days77.2%1,725
Last 180 days79.0%7,039
All time83.8%133,695
Japanese, last 180 days61.1%54
08 / TRUEGG INSIGHTS

About this verdict

Every figure is computed from review data that Steam makes public. No AI estimation is used.

Review text is never stored or republished. Read the actual reviews on Steam.

If you disagree with this verdict, please reach us via the contact on the About page. About

Read the methodology and its limits Read reviews on Steam ↗