History YMMV / DarkSoulsII

*** Confirmed in Scholar of the First Sin. You meet Vendrick in his prime and he’s so obscenely strong your attacks cannot even deal damage to him. He’s so above you that he can’t even be made hostile, he just chides you for your foolishness in attacking a god who wants nothing more than to help you.

*** Partially addressed in the [=DLCs=], where the "Dudes in Armor" bosses (Fume Knight, Sir Alonne, and the Burnt Ivory King) are frequently regarded as among the best bosses in the game, and sometimes in the entire series.

* ContestedSequel: While some people enjoy the game, finding it even better than the first thanks to its mechanical and multiplayer improvements, tonal shift to heroic fantasy, and progression/build variety, some people hate it, criticizing various aspects of its difficulty design, lore/aesthetic, and implementation of divisive gameplay mechanics. [[TakeaThirdOption Some people think it is still a pretty fun game, but just doesn't live up to the memorable experience of the first, even taking Dark Souls 1's flaws into account]]. There isn't really a consensus.

** Lucatiel of Mirrah remains the most popular character in the game, owing to her tragic character arc and backstory, slick design, and for being a [[ActionGirl badass female knight.]] Her armor set returns in ''Dark Souls III'', and her mask bears her name.

** [[BlackKnight The Fume Knight]], despite being [[ThatOneBoss widely considered the most difficult boss in the game]], is beloved for his {{BFS}}, [[FallenHero interesting backstory]] ([[spoiler: especially his connection with Velstadt]]), and [[SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic deep, imposing battle theme]].
*** [[spoiler: His difficulty and badassery were so [[MemeticBadass memetic]] that his Fume Ultra Greatsword makes an appearance in ''VideoGame/DarkSoulsIII''.]]

** The blue Smelter Demon found in the DLC is affectionately named "Smelter's Revenge".
*** Another popular nickname set for the two is Nacho and Cool Ranch, named for the Doritos packaging colors.

** It is generally surmised that the Old Iron King and Sir Alonne clashed against each other when it was time for the samurai to leave his liege, who at this point had become a power-hungry fool basking in the glory of his kingdom. What ensues next is the ''Souls'' series' greatest example of TragicBromance as Sir Alonne disappeared and the Old Iron King slipped completely into despair.
*** A second version of that scenario is that the Old Iron King ''killed'' Sir Alonne when the latter grew disgusted with the Old Iron King's lust for power.

*** May have become an AscendedMeme in the "Crown of the Sunken King" DLC - [[spoiler: he invades the player, and is ''notoriously'' tough to down]].

** "Gavlan wheel. Gavlan deal!"
** "Praise the Sun" returns!
*** Anything Sunbro related has become an AscendedMeme. Although it's to the point that some people consider it the [[Memes/TheElderScrolls "arrow in the knee"]] of ''Dark Souls''.
** "[=Spin2Win=]"; while not unique to the ''Dark Souls'' fandom, it crops up an awful lot when talking about the halberd's {{game break|er}}ing two-handed running SpinAttack, which covers a lot of ground. That, or the equally overpowered great hammer two handed SpinAttack. It got to the point that [[ThatOneBoss the Ruin Sentinels]] [[CrossesTheLineTwice use their own Spin2Win on you]]!
** More of an in-game meme, when you find skeletons littered around the world, people tend to leave 'encouragement' messages along the lines of "Don't give up, Skeleton!"
*** On that note, all of the raunchy player messages near environmental corpses in 'risque' positions. ("Try tongue but hole" beside a corpse bent over a fence for instance.)
** Boulders are being worshiped as if they were the sun. You will find plenty of "Hurrah for boulder!" messages in celebration of the random rocks and tombstones of Drangleic.
** "horse" [[labelnote:Explanation]] Before the inclusion of Crown of the Ivory King, there was only one, notably disfigured horse in the entirety of the game, and besides this no reference to horses were ever made. (Even in the Ivory King DLC, the "horses" are more like reindeer) This caused some amusement with players who found that one of the pre-selected phrases in the message options was simply "horse". This in turn lead to several hundred messages saying nothing but "horse" left randomly across Drangleic, usually placed facing corners.[[/labelnote]]
** "[[SarcasmMode Dark Souls 2 is a smart, massive, and incredibly rewarding sequel]]."[[labelnote:Explanation]] A meme popularized by WebVideo/{{Zerolenny}} that takes the piss out of the IGN review for the game. Detractors of Dark Souls 2 will often play the audio clip of the review saying this over easily demonstrated wonky hitboxes, bad level design and ganky enemies within the game itself. Indeed, within Lenny's "Spicy Mod", this copypasta replaces the music for [[MemeticLoser Prowling Magus and Congregation]].[[/labelnote]]

* PortingDisaster: [[http://tech2.in.com/news/gaming/pc-version-of-dark-souls-2-to-serve-as-base-for-console-versions/870776 They hope to avert this when it comes to the PC version by inverting it. Essentially, it's apparently going to be built for PC first, with the console versions being the ports.]] According to Durante in [[http://www.pcgamer.com/2014/04/17/dark-souls-2-pc-port-mod-god-durantes-verdict/?mtc=comment-572424#comment-572424 this article]], they succeeded.
** That being said, initially after the PC version was released there has been a tidal wave of complaints in the Steam community review section for the game, including that the in game instructions are for controllers and not mouse and keyboard.

** Weapons and armor have much lower durability this time around, and rings actually have weight, durability and can break. Corrosive hazards are all over the place, too. However, equipment durability is replenished when you rest at a bonfire so long as it isn't broken. As part of these changes, there are now four ring slots and three weapons/shields can be equipped on each hand at one time.
*** The PC version has it worse. Due to a bug with the game engine, durability is tied to the frame rate. Equipment degrades twice as fast on the PC version (60 fps) than the console versions (30 fps).

** Enemy numbers and concentration are greatly increased, as are sight ranges and aggro range. It is very, very easy to walk into an ambush, trigger ranged attacks by archers, or aggro multiple enemies by accident while fighting another enemy.
*** As an addendum to this, in ''Dark Souls I'' only ''four'' boss encounters ever forced you to face more than one enemy at a time[[note]]not counting the Taurus Demon if you neglected to kill the hollow crossbowmen on the tower above your head before you start the battle, or the Gaping Dragon if you were dim enough to leave the Channeller overlooking his boss arena alive[[/note]]- the Bell Gargoyles, the Capra Demon (and its two attack dogs), Gravelord Nito and the infamous Ornstein and Smough, and all of them except Nito were considered to be major {{Difficulty Spike}}s (and Nito could still be very difficult if you got overwhelmed by the respawning skeletons by not having a Divine weapon). ''Dark Souls II'' has HEAPS of gank bosses, whether they're {{Dual Boss}}es, {{Flunky Boss}}es, or {{Wolf Pack Boss}}es, several of which are considered [[FakeDifficulty openly unfair]]. NG+ adds even ''more'' by adding extra enemy spawns to some battles that were one-on-one duels the first time around.

** Some armour sets are just ridiculously hard to acquire. The Heide set from the non-respawning Hollow knights requires you to use Bonfire Ascetics just to kill them repeatedly and obtain ''one'' random piece of equipment. The Visible Aurous set takes a step further by requiring you to defeat the area boss, and the red phantom [=NPC=] that drops it is more likely to yield a Stone Twinblade instead of the desired pieces.
*** The Heide Knight set is much easier to get, minus the Great Helm in some cases, in the ''Scholar of the First Sin'' Edition, where Heide Knights are now actually found in Heide's Tower of Flame and are also respawning. Additionally, the Visible Aurous set is found in its entirety in a chest in The Gutter.
** The Company of Champions covenant turns the entire game into one if you're trying to get the signature ring, which is acquired as the final reward for ranking up. Leveling up in the covenant is tedious in itself, too, with the item needed for doing so only dropping when in the covenant, only from specific enemies at an absurdly low drop late, or at a guaranteed drop... [[PlayerVersusPlayer from black phantom invaders]]. While you can simply farm black phantom [=NPC=]s through repeated use of Bonfire Ascetics, they become incredibly hard-hitting as with other mobs, making this a very risky process. This is on top of making the game much, much harder overall. There's a reason the game warns you that you're about to go on an "arduous journey" when you join it.
*** Although the ''Scholar of the First Sin'' update made the Awestone drops much more frequent to make the process easier.
** Both the Brotherhood of Blood and the Blue Sentinels, by way of being the two most popular covenants, have their own share of annoyances. The Brotherhood of Blood has been considered painfully difficult to rank up in, because to do so you must win duels in the available arena. Not a bad idea in itself, except that losing duels will reverse your progress, meaning that the vast majority of players are stuck at the lowest rank even if they have above-average skill. The Blue Sentinels on the other hand rely on their covenant ring to summon them and aid Way of Blue members. The issue with this is that the Way of Blue is a largely underpopulated covenant, on top of the Blue Sentinels ring just flat out not working most of the time. Their alternative method is to use Cracked Blue Eye Orbs to invade sinners, which are known to be notoriously difficult to acquire in decent quantities. Yet just like with the Blade of the Darkmoon in ''Dark Souls'', these orbs rarely find a world anyway.
*** Worst of all, to reach rank 3 and unlock the final rewards (the Great Chaos Fireball pyromancy and the Bountiful Sunlight miracle, required for the Master of Pyromancy and Master or Miracles achievements and only otherwise acquirable in NG+2, Bonfire Ascetics not counting) you need ''[[FakeLongevity 500 points!]]''

* SignatureScene: While the game itself has a rather poor reputation among the fanbase, there is one scene in particular that stands out as being widely loved: [[spoiler:Aldia's]] rant about the nature of the world and mankind's place in it, which both perfectly highlights the despair the character has fallen into and contains some ''chilling'' hints about the nature of the setting [[spoiler:that would ultimately be followed up in the final DLC for [[VideoGame/DarkSoulsIII the sequel]]]].

*** The Heide Knight set is much easier to get, minus the Great Helm in some cases, in the ''Scholar of the First Sin'' Edition, where Heide Knights are now actually found in Heide's Tower of Flame, they're also respawning.

** Prowling Magus and Congregation is far and away the easiest fight in the game, and is the only boss ''in the game'' which does not award a boss soul upon victory. The former has some damaging attacks, but he's a SquishyWizard that dies with a few good hits. The latter can soak up much more damage by virtue of being a WolfpackBoss, but they're much slower and can be run around easily, and it's easy to separate them enough to keep them from ganging up on you [[note]]That's also if you don't let the Clerics pull off their lightning bolt miracles[[/note]]. If you bring Benheart of Jugo along for the fight, he can practically solo the entire boss fight!

** The battle with [[spoiler:King Vendrick]] ends up being disappointing, especially with how the game has been building up your encounter with him. He's a MarathonBoss that you need four Giant Souls to even stand a chance against him, but once you do, he only has a few attacks that are fairly easy to avoid. Although like Old Iron King, he ''can'' one hit kill you if his attacks connect. Of course, this could be regarded as intentional, [[spoiler:as he has long since hollowed and is barely a shell of the king who founded Drangleic]]; were this not the case, he could very well rival Raime in difficulty, as the latter was his ''servant''.

* NintendoHard: Another one of its taglines is even "Prepare to Die...Again." Even better, dying makes it easier to die again, so you have to do ''better'' than before just to make it as far as last time.

* OnlyTheCreatorDoesItRight: ''Dark Souls II'' is the only game Creator/FromSoftware have made since the release of ''VideoGame/DemonsSouls'' got the whole "prepare to die" franchise started to ''not'' be directed by Hidetaka Miyazaki. As a result it's [[ContestedSequel broadly considered the weakest game in the series]].

** The Ancient Dragon has gained notoriety for the most tedious and aggravating endgame BonusBoss in the ''Souls'' series. For starters, all of its attacks are {{One Hit Kill}}s unless you stacked maximum fire resistance, it has impossibly large area-of-effect attacks that force you to back far away from it, and possesses an incredibly random attack pattern depending on the direction and distance you're facing it from. Even ''if'' you negate its fire damage (which is possible by stacking maximum fire resistance), there's still a mountain of health to deal with, making the boss a complete chore to go through. There's a reason fans look down on this dragon as a MemeticTroll of the highest order.

* HilariousInHindsight: In the first ''Dark Souls'', Shiva [[WhatCouldHaveBeen was supposed to have a sidequest]] in which you retrieved the Chaos Blade for him and he'd turn on you à la Master Satsuki and his Makoto from ''VideoGame/DemonsSouls''. ''Crown of the Old Iron King'' features Sir Alonne, whose armour set is strikingly similar to Shiva's, comes from the East like Shiva, and will dice you up with something even more wicked than the Chaos Blade as a badass BonusBoss.

** The achievements for obtaining all of the sorceries, miracles, pyromancies and hexes vary from a bit of a hassle to a ''lot'' of a hassle, since they can only be completed by leveling up in covenants (or purchasing some from Wellager in [=NG+2=]). The Hidden Weapon sorcery is unlocked after attaining the second rank in the Bellkeeper covenant, and the Sunlight Spear miracle is unlocked after attaining the third rank in the Warriors of the Sun covenant. While it is possible to level up in each covenant offline, it's very tedious and time-consuming. Great Chaos Fireball and Bountiful Sunlight (for maxing out the Brotherhood of Blood and Blue Sentinels covenants respectively) are ''far'' worse, requiring ''500 points'' in each, which even aside from the grind involved is almost impossible because of how they work (fortunately you can get these ones from Wellager at least). You also have to complete the Pilgrims of Dark covenant to defeat the [[BonusBoss Darklurker]] and use its soul to craft the Lifedrain Patch hex, which is one of the game's more frustrating sidequests. And unlike the equivalent achievements in ''Dark Souls 1,'' they ''do'' count the spells added in the [=DLCs=] (and there are far more of them than there were in [=DS1's=] sole DLC as well).

* EvilIsCool: Sir Raime might as well call himself Manus' wet dream. For starters, he can be considered as an EvilCounterpart to ''many'' characters in the series, and always ups the ante in one way or another. The result is a terrifyingly powerful BonusBoss who's able to wield the maddening power of the Abyss as if it were a toy.

** Because of its angelic appearance and hooded face, [[BonusBoss the Darklurker]] is jokingly referred to as "[[VideoGame/DiabloIII Tyrael]]".

** Speaking of, Adaptability. In the first game, your roll had a consistent speed and amount of invincibility frames depending on your equipment burden and all items were consumed at the same speed. However, in ''Dark Souls II'' you gain more invincibility frames by raising your Agility, which is tied to your Adaptability stat. This has led to many players complaining that rolling to dodge attacks early game is much more frustrating and ineffective, because by default your character has ''less i-frames than the worst roll in the first game'' and uses items very slowly, meaning that you need to invest several level-ups in a stat that does little else to gain a decent roll at all.

--->[[spoiler:''Once, the Lord of Light banished Dark, and all that stemmed from humanity. [[WhamLine And men assumed]] [[{{Foreshadowing}} a fleeting form.]]'' These ''are the roots of our world. Men are props on the stage of life, and no matter how tender, how exquisite, A LIE WILL REMAIN '''A LIE'''!'']]

** Sudoku [[labelnote:Explanation]]Stems from a mistake made by loreist [=VaatiVidya=] when analysing Sir Alonne's appearance in the DLC, replacing "{{Seppuku}}" with "Sudoku". Naturally, fans had a field day with it and sometimes depict Alonne playing sudoku in his idle time.[[/labelnote]]

---> '''Straid:''' Still a bit stiff, I'm afraid. Heh heh heh... [=/=] Ooh, you're ''tough'', cursed one! Heh heh…\\

** The "Dudes in Armor" bosses. Detractors usually snark about how the majority of the bosses look, feel, and fight the exact same way - a big guy in a suit of armor who usually takes a couple swings at you before going idle, and then starting again. This gained increased prevalence after the release of ''VideoGame/DarkSoulsIII'', which also had "Dudes in Armor", but gave them special features that provided them with much needed identity. To add to it, many of the "Dudes in Armor" boss fights feel derivative of bosses from previous games, one example being the Old Dragonslayer literally being a previous boss from ''VideoGame/DarkSouls'' but having a much weaker moveset. Meanwhile, proponents point out that many of the Dudes have distinctive designs and/or fighting styles, with special mentions going to the Pursuer, Velstadt, and Looking-Glass Knight, who all have slick designs and twists to their battles that elevate them above the likes of the Dragonrider. Another common argument made in defense of the game is that the other entries in the series have just as many examples of reused boss designs and fights, so it's unfair to point to [=DS2=] as having a particular problem with "Dudes in Armor" bosses (''VideoGame/DarkSouls1'', for example, actually {{Palette Swap}}ped its tutorial boss, the Asylum Demon, not once but ''twice'' as the Stray Demon and the Demon Firesage).

* CompleteMonster: [[BigBad Nashandra]] is the most [[AmbitionIsEvil wicked and ambitious]] of the Children of the Dark. [[LadyMacBeth Seducing King Vendrick of Drangleic]], [[GodSaveUsFromTheQueen Nashandra]] sought to claim the Throne of Want from him and [[ManipulativeBitch manipulated]] the fall of Drangleic by having Vendrick start a war with the giants that led to their extinction, with some being involved in horrific experiments to make them into golems. Thanks to Nashandra, an undead plague ran rampant in Drangleic, destroying the once mighty kingdom while Nashandra seeks to use the Bearer of the Curse to destroy and kill those who hold the keys to the Throne of Want, all so she may claim the First Flame for herself.

** Shrine of Amana. The area has mages which can aggro you from far away and shoot Homing Soul Arrows. These Homing Arrows follow you across great distances and can even change their trajectory. It doesn't help that these mages are almost right next to each other, so you will have more than one coming at you most of the time. There are also monsters that hide under the water that inflict Bleed, and the water slows your movement speed, while they remain unaffected. And similar to Ash Lake from ''Dark Souls'', there are points where the water is actually a BottomlessPit. Finding out where requires either carrying a torch, which will go out if you roll in the water and means using up a hand that could hold a shield, or pointing the camera completely down, making it a bit difficult to notice certain enemies and projectiles. This is ''also'' the first area where there's a respawning Ogre, who can do a OneHitKO on an unwary player.

* CheeseStrategy: There are several of them for the bosses as shown in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HUaLOHGiIFg this video]]. One notable example is the Dragonrider as it can be lured to fall in the BottomlessPit of its own arena, or sniped through an opening from a certain platform.

** The achievements for obtaining all of the sorceries, miracles, pyromancies and hexes vary from a bit of a hassle to a ''lot'' of a hassle, since they can only be completed by leveling up in covenants (or purchasing some from Wellager in [=NG+2=]). The Hidden Weapon sorcery is unlocked after attaining the second rank in the Bellkeeper covenant, and the Sunlight Spear miracle is unlocked after attaining the third rank in the Warriors of the Sun covenant. While it is possible to level up in each covenant offline, it's very tedious and time-consuming. Great Chaos Fireball and Bountiful Sunlight (for maxing out the Brotherhood of Blood and Blue Sentinels covenants respectively) are ''far'' worse, requiring ''500 points'' in each, which even aside from the grind involved is almost impossible because of how they work (fortunately you can get these ones from Wellager at least). You also have to complete the Pilgrims of Dark covenant to defeat the [[BonusBoss Darklurker]] and use its soul to craft the Lifedrain Patch hex, whch is one of the game's more frustrating sidequests. And unlike the equivalent achievements in ''Dark Souls 1,'' they ''do'' count the spells added in the [=DLCs=] (and there are far more of them than there were in [=DS1's=] sole DLC as well).

** No Man's Wharf: [[DroughtLevelOfDoom There is exactly one bonfire at the start]]. Pray your weapon durablity, limited estus, consumables, and spells lasts long enough to get towards the shortcut at the very end. The only redeeming features of the area are [[EnsembleDarkhorse Bradley]] [[ThePaladin of the Old Guard]], who'll carry you through one section as a Shade, and that you meet [[MemeticMutation Gavlan]], who is Gavlan.

** Other than an invader, a couple of cheap scares from Ogres behind doors and a boss, all the hostiles in Aldia's Keep are behind bars until you decide to pick a fight with them. Then you go to Dragon Aerie, which is optional. It features dragons in rather vulnerable spots that won't bother you as long as you don't break their eggs and pesky explosive-corosive undeads that'll be more of a threat to your time and souls wallet. The Dragon Shrire in ''[=SotFS=]'' is changed to series of four one-on-one duels on the way to meet the Ancient Dragon, of which only the second and last are any difficult. Picking up a fight with him, however, is another story.

** The "Dudes in Armor" bosses. Detractors usually snark about how the majority of the bosses look, feel, and fight the exact same way - a big guy in a suit of armor who usually takes a couple swings at you before going idle, and then starting again. This gained increased prevalence after the release of ''VideoGame/DarkSoulsIII'', which also had "Dudes in Armor", but gave them special features that provided them with much needed identity. To add to it, many of the "Dues in Armor" boss fights feel derivative of bosses from previous games, one example being the Old Dragonslayer literally being a previous boss from ''VideoGame/DarkSouls'' but having a much weaker moveset. Meanwhile, proponents point out that many of the Dudes have distinctive designs and/or fighting styles, with special mentions going to the Pursuer, Velstadt, and Looking-Glass Knight, who all have slick designs and twists to their battles that elevate them above the likes of the Dragonrider. Another common argument made in defense of the game is that the other entries in the series have just as many examples of reused boss designs and fights, so it's unfair to point to [=DS2=] as having a particular problem with "Dudes in Armor" bosses (''VideoGame/DarkSouls1'', for example, actually {{Palette Swap}}ped its tutorial boss, the Asylum Demon, not once but ''twice'' as the Stray Demon and the Demon Firesage).

** Lore-wise, the Giant Lord gets hit hard by this. One one hand, the Giants' invasion of Drangleic could be attributed by their feelings of hatred (it's stated that humans tried to reconcile with them, but the Giants didn't understand forgiveness) and disproportionate revenge for Vendrick having attacked them first and having stolen "a prize" from them, [[spoiler:which was allegedly all according to Nashandra's plan to harness the key to the Throne of Want]]. On the other, it's probable that he was an EvilOverlord and planned the invasion all along, and Vendrick was doing his best to stop it, [[spoiler:with or without Nashandra's manipulations]].
** Now properly explained in the ''Scholar of the First Sin'' content: [[spoiler:Vendrick captured some of the giants as slaves during his invasion for Aldia to use guinea pigs for their experiments with the golems and breaking the cycle.]]

** Sir Alonne, likewise, is either a honorable Samurai who kills himself if you best him completely, or a AxCrazy BloodKnight controlled by his cursed blade, who is killed by it for his inability to sate its thirst for blood.
*** The pristine appearance of his arena may suggest the former. Usually during major bosses in the series, the arena reflects their inner state.

** The "Dudes in Armor" bosses. Detractors usually snark about how the majority of the bosses look, feel, and fight the exact same way - a big guy in a suit of armor who usually takes a couple swings at you before going idle, and then starting again. This gained increased prevalence after the release of ''VideoGame/DarkSoulsIII'', which also had "Dudes in Armor", but gave them special features that provided them with much needed identity. To add to it, many of the "Dues in Armor" boss fights feel derivative of bosses from previous games, one example being the Old Dragon Rider literally being a previous boss from ''VideoGame/DarkSouls'' but having a much weaker moveset. Meanwhile, proponents point out that many of the Dudes have distinctive designs and/or fighting styles, with special mentions going to the Pursuer, Velstadt, and Looking-Glass Knight, who all have slick designs and twists to their battles that elevate them above the likes of the Dragonrider. Another common argument made in defense of the game is that the other entries in the series have just as many examples of reused boss designs and fights, so it's unfair to point to [=DS2=] as having a particular problem with "Dudes in Armor" bosses (''VideoGame/DarkSouls1'', for example, actually {{Palette Swap}}ped its tutorial boss, the Asylum Demon, not once but ''twice'' as the Stray Demon and the Demon Firesage).

** The new healing mechanic. You can use your Estus, which has a slowed down animation but heals quickly, or a Lifegem, which heals slowly over time but isn't interrupted. Now, the problem that arises is that one leaves you open to attacks and the other doesn't, despite its finite quantity. This means that in a way, the Estus is less useful in combat, and more of an "After battle"-heal. The fact that you have a skill (Adaptability) dedicated to speeding up the animation further drives home why it's a scrappy mechanic.

* TooBleakStoppedCaring: Despite being, ultimately, rather more optimistic than the original and possibly even HighFantasy instead of DarkFantasy, several critics took issue with [=DS2's=] attitude towards failure, highlighting in particular the opening sequence with the old women who taunt you about how you're going to die and lose your souls over and over again and that your failure and degeneration into a mindless hollow is inevitable. They felt the point of ''Dark Souls' ''infamous difficulty was to challenge you to overcome, not beat you into submission, and that the developers had ended up fixating on the "You Died" aspect of the game over "Victory Achieved". This distortion of the original's deliberate and considered design ''ethos'' can be seen in the game's gank fests. Whereas ''Dark Souls'' was generally forthright with the challenges its enemies posed and kept their scale comprehensible,[[note]]though it could be a bit rough in its excecution, particularly towards the end[[/note]] ''Dark Souls II'' just puts more enemies in its levels and places them in ways that surprise and possibly overwhelm the player – or just take time to clear – and justifies the player's deaths with a "This is Dark Souls" trophy, showing its simplistic focus on how you were supposed to "Prepare to Die" in the original.

* AuthorsSavingThrow: ''Scholar of the First Sin'' rectifies the whole AntiClimaxBoss business with [[spoiler:Nashandra]]. If the player lights all four Primal Bonfires and defeats [[spoiler:Vendrick and Nashandra]], they get themselves a [[ClimaxBoss properly tough]] TrueFinalBoss fight against the Scholar himself, [[spoiler:Aldia. Defeating him also grants players a choice between taking the throne or walking away, whereas the vanilla game left the player automatically assuming the throne]]. While the quality of the boss is up for debate, adding another boss at least makes the finale more intense than it was originally.

* ContestedSequel: While some people enjoy the game, finding it even better than the first thanks to its mechanical improvements, improved multiplayer, and wide build potential, some people hate it, criticizing various aspects of its gameplay design, music, storytelling/lore, and visual aesthetic as uninspired, lazy, and poorly thought-out compared to the first game, or filled with ScrappyMechanics that do not meaningfully add fun to the game. [[TakeaThirdOption Some people think it is still a pretty fun game, but just doesn't live up to the memorable experience of the first, even taking Dark Souls 1's flaws into account]]. There isn't really a consensus.