I'm going to level with you. This was my first Souls game, and I suspect that may be this is my favorite of all the Soulsborne games. A few friends of mine tend to cry foul at this, having pretty strong opinions on Dark Souls II that haven't changed much over the years. It's not really a secret by this point that this is the only game in the franchise that lacked Hidetaka Miyazaki's direction, and along with a troubled development cycle, many would agree it came out of the oven a little undercooked. I'm not inclined to disagree - every now and again I return to it and run up against design decisions that briefly make me consider putting my controller away for the day. But I do return to it. I've played through it the most times of any Souls title. I've spent a lot of time mulling over why, and I think I've finally come to a conclusion.

First, let me tell you what it definitely isn't - the misguided emphasis on difficulty. The level design, aesthetics aside, is fairly haphazard and oftentimes linear. This didn't have to be a huge dealbreaker on its own, but enemy placement is largely designed to turn any interaction into a chaotic brawl that never feels like an even fight. Your foes often come in numbers, hiding in closets or around corners. They sometimes pelt you from afar in places with no cover or vantage points, or wait for you to commit to squeezing through a tight chokepoint before approaching you. If you want to survive, you'll be forced to carefully bait enemies out to keep fights manageable, and learn to memorize every little trap and ambush. This turns gameplay into a slog at times, and some levels - I'll refrain from naming names for the uninitiated - are legitimately painful affairs even once you know what you're doing. This design philosophy of quantity over quality even extends to some of the boss fights. In addition, there are a couple of other unfortunate choices made with respects to balancing gameplay that tarnish the experience. Your dodge roll - a staple of the Souls experience - comes with an uncomfortably low number of invincibility frames by default. You'll find yourself getting hit by moves you swear you should have dodged until you invest a fair number of experience levels into your Agility stat, which was a contentious change, to say the least. What's more, a Soul Memory mechanic was added that keeps track of the total number of souls you've collected over the course of your game, regardless of whether those souls went towards leveling up, gear and items, or went down the drain after a few bad runs. As this number influences random matchmaking, you'll often find yourself encountering antagonistic players who are ostensibly less mistake-prone than you. You'll also have trouble engaging in cooperative or competitive matchmaking if you're too far outside of another's summoning range. There's a sprinkling of a few odd issues - questionable hitboxes, obvious bugs, low-res textures and what have you. How all of this is going to affect your feelings towards the game is largely subjective, but I do feel comfortable in saying this much: Dark Souls II definitely doesn't have the thematic strength or immersive level design of its predecessor, and that combined with the aforementioned issues does make it the objectively inferior game. And yet...

There's a strange sort of fairy-tale charm to Dark Souls II that I don't think any of the other Souls games has. It slips slightly out of the darker end of the fantasy pool and more towards high fantasy, which is almost immediately noticeable when you first step into Majula, this game's stand-in for Firelink Shrine. It's a lonely, dilapidated seaside town in a constant state of twilight, that enchanted me very quickly as the somber music filled in to greet me. On the whole, and despite the way the game sets you up to fail, the immediate tone of our little sequel feels somewhat more hopeful than before. You'll encounter a wider variety of locales than in the first game, which runs the gamut from "fantasy kitchen sink" to "straight outta Dark Souls I". While things feel more disconnected, it does lend itself to a somewhat curious feeling, like wandering through a dream. On that note, while a lot of criticism has been leveled at the narrative's relative lack of nuance, I really must say that I quite enjoyed the story DSII had to tell. There's a lot of interesting themes that are played with, some genuinely moving dialogue, and Scholar of the First Sin adds a much-needed pinch of mystique. It also has something of an oddly nostalgic feel to it, wearing its King's Field influences a bit more openly than the original did. In light of that, I found myself watching the credits roll satisfied with my journey. And after that, I was actually quite eager to go through it all again - the world is more satisfying to explore the second time around, and there are a myriad of secrets and treats to pick over if you're willing to search every nook and cranny (and maybe consult the wiki once or twice).

I think it's the little things that keep me coming back to Dark Souls II. There's a certain angle to its aesthetic that is a refreshing change of pace from the crushingly moody tones of its brethren. The game world is still massive, and really gives the sense of a sweeping fantasy epic as you play through it, especially due to the relatively open-ended progression. There are things such as powerstancing and the broad pool of weapon types and spells that give this game a lot of replay value, especially if you're invested in the player-versus-player aspects. A few of the NPCs have joined my pantheon of favorite Souls characters, and the DLC has, in my opinion, some of the best moments of the whole franchise. And it does still have some legitimately awe-inspiring locales and boss fights. All in all, Dark Souls II has a sort of pleasant warmth to it, almost like a homemade cup of coffee - perhaps a little burnt, just a bit too sour, but I wouldn't want to start my morning without it.

I wholeheartedly adore this game, in spite of its flaws - and make no mistake, it has flaws. But every game does. Don't let the most scathing reviews scare you off of giving it a chance, and if you couldn't stomach it before, I humbly invite you to give it another spin sometime. This may not be the Dark Souls sequel everybody wanted, but it is unabashedly a FromSoftware game, and there's a lot here to love because of it. And while it warms my heart to see that public opinion on the game has softened somewhat over time, I want you to come to your own conclusion.

Nothing could replace the original Dark Souls. In light of that, I think what they managed to make here was unique enough to stand out, for better or for worse. Every time I come home to Majula, I can't help but feel it was mostly for the better.

I'm going to level with you. This was my first Souls game, and I suspect that may be this is my favorite of all the Soulsborne games. A few friends of mine tend to cry foul at this, having pretty strong opinions on Dark Souls II that haven't changed much over the years. It's not really a secret by this point that this is the only game in the franchise that lacked Hidetaka Miyazaki's direction, and along with a troubled development cycle, many would agree it came out of the oven a little undercooked. I'm not inclined to disagree - every now and again I return to it and run up against design decisions that briefly make me consider putting my controller away for the day. But I do return to it. I've played through it the most times of any Souls title. I've spent a lot of time mulling over why, and I think I've finally come to a conclusion. First, let me tell you what it definitely isn't - the misguided emphasis on difficulty. The level design, aesthetics aside, is fairly haphazard and oftentimes linear. This didn't have to be a huge dealbreaker on its own, but enemy placement is largely designed to turn any interaction into a chaotic brawl that never feels like an even fight. Your foes often come in numbers, hiding in closets or around corners. They sometimes pelt you from afar in places with no cover or vantage points, or wait for you to commit to squeezing through a tight chokepoint before approaching you. If you want to survive, you'll be forced to carefully bait enemies out to keep fights manageable, and learn to memorize every little trap and ambush. This turns gameplay into a slog at times, and some levels - I'll refrain from naming names for the uninitiated - are legitimately painful affairs even once you know what you're doing. This design philosophy of quantity over quality even extends to some of the boss fights. In addition, there are a couple of other unfortunate choices made with respects to balancing gameplay that tarnish the experience. Your dodge roll - a staple of the Souls experience - comes with an uncomfortably low number of invincibility frames by default. You'll find yourself getting hit by moves you swear you should have dodged until you invest a fair number of experience levels into your Agility stat, which was a contentious change, to say the least. What's more, a Soul Memory mechanic was added that keeps track of the total number of souls you've collected over the course of your game, regardless of whether those souls went towards leveling up, gear and items, or went down the drain after a few bad runs. As this number influences random matchmaking, you'll often find yourself encountering antagonistic players who are ostensibly less mistake-prone than you. You'll also have trouble engaging in cooperative or competitive matchmaking if you're too far outside of another's summoning range. There's a sprinkling of a few odd issues - questionable hitboxes, obvious bugs, low-res textures and what have you. How all of this is going to affect your feelings towards the game is largely subjective, but I do feel comfortable in saying this much: Dark Souls II definitely doesn't have the thematic strength or immersive level design of its predecessor, and that combined with the aforementioned issues does make it the objectively inferior game. And yet... There's a strange sort of fairy-tale charm to Dark Souls II that I don't think any of the other Souls games has. It slips slightly out of the darker end of the fantasy pool and more towards high fantasy, which is almost immediately noticeable when you first step into Majula, this game's stand-in for Firelink Shrine. It's a lonely, dilapidated seaside town in a constant state of twilight, that enchanted me very quickly as the somber music filled in to greet me. On the whole, and despite the way the game sets you up to fail, the immediate tone of our little sequel feels somewhat more hopeful than before. You'll encounter a wider variety of locales than in the first game, which runs the gamut from "fantasy kitchen sink" to "straight outta Dark Souls I". While things feel more disconnected, it does lend itself to a somewhat curious feeling, like wandering through a dream. On that note, while a lot of criticism has been leveled at the narrative's relative lack of nuance, I really must say that I quite enjoyed the story DSII had to tell. There's a lot of interesting themes that are played with, some genuinely moving dialogue, and Scholar of the First Sin adds a much-needed pinch of mystique. It also has something of an oddly nostalgic feel to it, wearing its King's Field influences a bit more openly than the original did. In light of that, I found myself watching the credits roll satisfied with my journey. And after that, I was actually quite eager to go through it all again - the world is more satisfying to explore the second time around, and there are a myriad of secrets and treats to pick over if you're willing to search every nook and cranny (and maybe consult the wiki once or twice). I think it's the little things that keep me coming back to Dark Souls II. There's a certain angle to its aesthetic that is a refreshing change of pace from the crushingly moody tones of its brethren. The game world is still massive, and really gives the sense of a sweeping fantasy epic as you play through it, especially due to the relatively open-ended progression. There are things such as powerstancing and the broad pool of weapon types and spells that give this game a lot of replay value, especially if you're invested in the player-versus-player aspects. A few of the NPCs have joined my pantheon of favorite Souls characters, and the DLC has, in my opinion, some of the best moments of the whole franchise. And it does still have some legitimately awe-inspiring locales and boss fights. All in all, Dark Souls II has a sort of pleasant warmth to it, almost like a homemade cup of coffee - perhaps a little burnt, just a bit too sour, but I wouldn't want to start my morning without it. I wholeheartedly adore this game, in spite of its flaws - and make no mistake, it has flaws. But every game does. Don't let the most scathing reviews scare you off of giving it a chance, and if you couldn't stomach it before, I humbly invite you to give it another spin sometime. This may not be the Dark Souls sequel everybody wanted, but it is unabashedly a FromSoftware game, and there's a lot here to love because of it. And while it warms my heart to see that public opinion on the game has softened somewhat over time, I want you to come to your own conclusion. Nothing could replace the original Dark Souls. In light of that, I think what they managed to make here was unique enough to stand out, for better or for worse. Every time I come home to Majula, I can't help but feel it was mostly for the better.