Dark Souls II was always going to be a longshot. Following the masterful first entry, but without Hidetaka Miyazaki at the helm, it had it's back against the wall from the jump. In my opinion, the shadow looming was too large, but they still managed to craft a mostly-fun video game.
In terms of level design, it was always going to be outclassed. Most games are against DS1. There's plenty of variety to be found. All the poison swamps, shadowy forests, lava castles, and crumbling ruins a guy could ask for. They're absolutely fun to explore and there were moments that made me stand in awe. When I heaved open the doors to Aldia's Keep, I barely moved at all and rotated the camera around the entire room. Seeing an ancient, skeletal dragon draped over the grand staircases and balustrades had me completely frozen. I cherish these moments, but losing the labyrinthian interconnectedness will always be too huge of a blow, no matter the set pieces. There's also a lot of stupid bullshit. As fascinating as they are to look at, the Iron Keep and the Shrine of Amana are really frustrating and threaten to ruin the level with absolutely awful enemy placement and long-distance aggro. It's hard to revel at the landscape when samurai knights are sprinting ass from 2 miles away to throw you down the stairs. I can't take in the ethereal, drowned ruins when I'm being sniped by magic dicks from all across creation. (I really have to check my bias here, DS1 had some godawful sections too and I have no idea why I'm more forgiving) All that being said, I will say Majula's sunset and shoreline and music might be superior to the absolutely iconic Firelink Shrine.
Enemy, weapon, equipment, and magic variety are all present as well. Seems to me you can craft any manner or class of character you can conjure up. I love some of the creature design. It's not the most interesting fight, but the Rotten's design and concept is one of the more horrifying monsters I've seen in all of gaming. Amalgamated, tortured souls all bound together in chains to form one writhing, demonic mass shuffling across the stage because of the slithering and grasping of prisoners' bodies and limbs...I thought about that for years after the fact.
As a franchise fan, I can honestly say I like, enjoy, and appreciate this game. If you want the familiar difficulty, sprawling levels, and fun enemy battles, I couldn't possibly see how anyone could be disappointed with fairly-tempered expectations. It's not a masterpiece, but it's also clearly superior to damn near every other RPG on the market besides it's own kin. No Dragon Age or Elder Scrolls or whatever can touch it. They look clumsy, unimpressive, and bland stacked next to Souls. Even the worst of them are kings in this medium.
In terms of level design, it was always going to be outclassed. Most games are against DS1. There's plenty of variety to be found. All the poison swamps, shadowy forests, lava castles, and crumbling ruins a guy could ask for. They're absolutely fun to explore and there were moments that made me stand in awe. When I heaved open the doors to Aldia's Keep, I barely moved at all and rotated the camera around the entire room. Seeing an ancient, skeletal dragon draped over the grand staircases and balustrades had me completely frozen. I cherish these moments, but losing the labyrinthian interconnectedness will always be too huge of a blow, no matter the set pieces. There's also a lot of stupid bullshit. As fascinating as they are to look at, the Iron Keep and the Shrine of Amana are really frustrating and threaten to ruin the level with absolutely awful enemy placement and long-distance aggro. It's hard to revel at the landscape when samurai knights are sprinting ass from 2 miles away to throw you down the stairs. I can't take in the ethereal, drowned ruins when I'm being sniped by magic dicks from all across creation. (I really have to check my bias here, DS1 had some godawful sections too and I have no idea why I'm more forgiving) All that being said, I will say Majula's sunset and shoreline and music might be superior to the absolutely iconic Firelink Shrine.
Enemy, weapon, equipment, and magic variety are all present as well. Seems to me you can craft any manner or class of character you can conjure up. I love some of the creature design. It's not the most interesting fight, but the Rotten's design and concept is one of the more horrifying monsters I've seen in all of gaming. Amalgamated, tortured souls all bound together in chains to form one writhing, demonic mass shuffling across the stage because of the slithering and grasping of prisoners' bodies and limbs...I thought about that for years after the fact.
As a franchise fan, I can honestly say I like, enjoy, and appreciate this game. If you want the familiar difficulty, sprawling levels, and fun enemy battles, I couldn't possibly see how anyone could be disappointed with fairly-tempered expectations. It's not a masterpiece, but it's also clearly superior to damn near every other RPG on the market besides it's own kin. No Dragon Age or Elder Scrolls or whatever can touch it. They look clumsy, unimpressive, and bland stacked next to Souls. Even the worst of them are kings in this medium.