Dark Souls 2 is not a bad game, but it falls to explain itself to the player and is difficult to enjoy, if you did not play Dark Souls 1 and Dark Souls 3 before. Many decision actively work against the player and make a blind run (which is the norm for Dark Souls) a chore.

After the resounding success that was Dark Souls it had been decided: A sequel is to be made and it should surpass the predecessor in difficulty. Which means that they actually created a monument [venturebeat.com] to showcase how often people died and made it ambush the game. They wanted to surpass the prequel in every aspect and sometimes From Software [without Miyazaki] succeeded. More often they failed.

“Whenever Dark Souls 2 tried to do anything good, it made 2 things worse” ~ Me, 2020.
Just to compare Dark Souls 2 with the other Dark Souls games (and to showcase where it failed):
1. The game is made of ambushes everywhere. If you are not seeing at least 20 enemies on your screen, you did not find every enemy that will engage.
2. The sound design is atrocious. You will not realize that you have been hit. One time I was at one HP and did not even know it till I looked at my health bar. Omae wa mou 1 HP
3. If you do not know how the numbers work: You are going to get rekt. Either get a math degree or read TL;DRs from guys that know how it works. And because of a rerelease (this version) and patches not everything is going to be an accurate reflection of the game.
4. Most bosses are mediocre and do not earn the title. Spamming and increasing the difficulty was considered good design. If you do not like to fight big knights in armor, it won’t be enjoyable as these fights are the highlights.
5. There is no connected level design. Walking down multiple linear paths with clear end goals is what is going to happen. Exploration becomes boring and most shortcuts will not be used again. There is absolutely zero appreciation from me for this.
6. Hitboxes are not working in any capacity.

Dark Souls 2 is a sequel that has been made with wrong intentions and the dumb things heavily outweigh the good. But it was brave. Dark Souls 3 felt like a Bloodborne reskin with Dark Souls 1 flavor and lacked any identity on it’s own. Dark Souls 2 looked at Dark Souls 1 and said: How about we try to make our own thing.
The story hasn’t been recycled and there was a serious effort to enrich the world and From Software absolutely succeeded. When I will look back in the future at this game I will remember the best moments when I finally felt this spark again. The spark of originality and pure fun that Dark Souls 3 just did not quite manage to catch (for me personally).
The infusion system that was carried to Dark Souls 3 and is not as needlessly complicated as in Dark Souls 1 and does not waste your resources so you can test every build you want.
Estus shards are way smarter than kindling bonfires later on as humanity can be farmed pretty effectively. The game has a uniform difficulty and rewards exploration. Another good aspect that carried over to Dark Souls 3.
Poise has been nerfed in comparison to Dark Souls 1, but heavy armor is still viable and kicking. Actually everything is viable and fun to play. There is nothing as a superior playstyle and I really admire that. The PVP is the best the series has to offer and this is an achievement in itself. Well done From Software. So why did you make it worse yet again in 3?

Dark Souls 2 is not up to the standard of the others and way less consistently well made. But it made many good things and while not everything worked out, it is original, creative and crafted with the intention to surpass the predecessor. Something to be respected and an intention that failed. But it is better to fail and to learn from your experiences instead of being stagnant.
Always stay positive
Still: Only play this game if you are ready to adapt to unfairness.

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