TLDR: If you were scared off from trying this game due to it being "the bad one," you would be doing yourself a disservice by not experiencing this.

Looking back at the development history of this game, as well as the discourse that surrounded it at launch and how it affected the overall public consensus, Dark Souls II is a REALLY interesting game. I truly believe that, if the internet had not collectively written this game off as a disappointment compared to the original Dark Souls, this game would have been considered a cherished oddity rather than an underwhelming sequel.

Instead of taking what Dark Souls did well and just doing that again, the team here experimented with basically everything they could think of, and threw it in whether it was actually a good idea or not. The result is a game bursting at the seams with equal parts "oh, that's cool!" and "oh, that's bullshit!" While some would aggregate these experiences and determine the game to be mediocre as a result, I have to commend the devs for leaving their comfort zone. Even in the frustrating parts, I was more amused than frustrated (except for Black Gulch, but that should really go without saying).

I'm aware of a ton of the changes made to Scholar of the First Sin and how they improved the game in some cases and made it a more...chaotic experience in others. Regardless, the higher enemy count doesn't do much more other than screw over the quality of a couple areas - namely, Heide's Tower of Flame and Iron Keep. Other than that though, I'm happy I went with version because this game is BEAUTIFUL! I was constantly captivated by the landscape and setpieces. The art design here is incredible.

Something I can't believe I didn't hear about prior to playing this game is how great the characters were. I liked a couple in Dark Souls 1, but I found them to be far more memorable in this game. My favorites are Lucatiel, Creighton and Aldia. Whenever these characters are on screen, I shut up and pay close attention.

Generally, I also found the lore here to be just as interesting as in the first game, and even better in certain places. They really go all in on the cyclical nature, and it's honestly exactly the type of story that needed to happen after Dark Souls 1 established everything with Gwyn and such. What else can you do for the middle child of a trilogy with a start and end that come full circle, other than to demonstrate the perpetuity of the cycle so heavily emphasized in the lore?

The DLC was overall quite good. I still think DS1's has all three of these beat, but some of them come close. My favorite is Crown of the Old Iron King due to the lore and bosses being spectacular (shame about the runbacks though).

I think it says something about Dark Souls II that I finished the game, beat all the bosses, and yet I still want to go back and play more for whatever insane reason. Is this Stockholm syndrome or is the game actually really fun? At this point, why not both?