KF2 is bigger and better than its predecessor and nothing conveys that better than getting dropped off onto the open-air coast of Melanat. The level design is excellent, with an interconnectedness that lays the groundwork for the Souls series. This layout works well for alleviating some of the pains of backtracking since you'll be coming through each area several times naturally. There's a few thoughtful improvements as well, like the addition of a bindable shortcut button.

One of the big issues I had with this game is how ridiculously easy it is to softlock yourself. Sure, maybe it's on me for jumping down a hole in the ground, but sometimes you can see something down there! And if you get down there without having found the items that let you back out...well, hope you saved recently. It's also pretty overly cryptic about some things, I never even realized there was an item appraiser since they spawn randomly or something and I never met them. But I think tracking down old forum posts to glean game info that may or may not be correct is part of the From Soft experience so it's all good. The game also has some major performance issues on the NTSC version so pick up the PAL one instead.

The more I think about it though, the more I feel this game really is something special.