I mean, that's good and important work! DS2 is unfairly maligned, and actually quite good in many respects! Is it jankier than any other FromSoft game? Yes, absolutely. Did they make some strange and inexplicable choices that I disagree with? Also yes. But the vibes of that game, the level design, the fashion! Incredible, absolutely S tier. Majula is easily the best "hub" of any of the FromSoft games I've played, and Heide's Tower of Flame might be my favorite area ever, beating out both Leyndell and Fountainhead Palace in terms of shear beauty.

I also like that DS2 doesn't expect or want you to have a comprehensive knowledge of the plot. You can just wander a melancholy, dying world and you're not trying to save it or something, it's been made pretty clear from the very beginning that you're not on some grand quest, really. You're not following the instructions of a weird immortal giant snake or trying desperately to stand before the elden ring or being handheld through the plot by an immortal child. (I do really like Kuro, I don't mean to make it sound like his involvement with the plot is a negative, it isn't.) You're just wandering through a beautiful, sad world, and eventually you'll end up finding the souls you need, because it's impossible not to.

Oh, and the gender changing coffin rules. So weird, but I love it!

Hell yeah! Fellow DS2 simp! Seriously, the atmosphere alone makes it better than DS3 to me. The music, the weapons, the sheer variety of armor sets. Even the kinda ugly textures fed into the dream-like atmosphere.