Random question: why do people not like Dark Souls 2 in the Souls series? I'm replaying it after 5 years of neglecting it (and other Souls games) and I'm enjoying it so far. I like the safe space of the main town hub and the travel feature.
Lots of reasons but I can only speak for my own.
- Sluggish, weird character movement with a pretty annoying controller deadzone - essentially, your character has four-directional movement which is highly inconvenient when, say, balancing on some narrow thing. And even without that the character somehow feels like it's wading through mud. Can't really explain why.
- Adaptability. Tying your rolling i-frames to a stat was just a horrible idea.
- The change to parrying was shite. Wait until the opponent falls down because you can't riposte until then... just stupid.
- Often assholish enemy placement, full of stupid ambushes. Scholar of the First Sin Iron Keep can eat a bag of dicks.
- Uninspiring boss design. It has tons of bosses but most of them are just forgettable. Their mechanics, their design, their music.
- Adaptability.
- The online design. In Dark Souls 1 and Demon's Souls, if you wanted to avoid invasions, all you had to do was avoiding playing in human form and body form, respectively. In Dark Souls 2, you can be invaded while hollow so if you want to play in peace, you must play offline.
- Minor thing but I hate how my character sounds when hit or when he dies.
- Also, Adaptability. Did I mention it also has an impact on how fast you drink Estus? Who the feck came up with that idea...
- I also dislike that fall damage is an absolute value instead of a percentage of HP.
- Some enemies are absolute utter bullshit. The mace Drakekeepers with their infinite stamina and animation cancelling are the single most unfair foes in the Souls series.
- No i-frames when opening doors or going through the fog. Annoying when you're trying to hurry.
If you enjoy it, good for you. It did a couple of things right - bonfire ascetics was a good idea. But for me, playing it is an absolute chore and it's by far the weakest in the series.