I am fully redoing this review after playing this game for...a few hours. Scholar of the First Sin is the definitive way to play Dark Souls II. The difficulty is actually significantly reduced in plenty of areas in comparison to the original game and there are accessible summons in many areas there hadn't been before for those who are struggling. Adjusted enemy placements are almost always used to encourage a cautious playstyle in the player. This game thrives on having the player adopt a very cautious and tentative playstyle; one where you have to take encounters enemy-by-enemy, step-by-step. It's not that this game is necessarily hard; it's that the game has a very different approach to the nature of combat from the other games in the Soulsborne franchise from FromSoftware. It doesn't sit well with some people and that's okay. You don't have to like the way that the game plays. That's part of the territory for being a highly skill-based, intentionally-difficult game. However, that doesn't mean that it's a bad game. The Shrine of Amana can be really easily gotten through by taking enemies down slowly and methodically, one-by-one, instead of running through the area trying to get to the Demon of Song. This is just the way that it's designed.

At the end of the day, this game does have plenty of flaws, and it is a genuine fact that its development was very rushed. However, it's also true that DS1 had a very rushed dev cycle as well and most people find it to be a masterpiece. I just feel most people have to come back and approach DS2 with a different lens and many many more people would enjoy it for what it is. It is a very well-crafted experience that genuinely makes me have some of the most fun I've ever had with a video game.