Ew, Dark Souls™ II
It's not terrible, but its by far the worst FromSoftware game; probably because it wasn't made by the same team. No I don't care that candles in Majula Mansion react to the player's farts because the core gameplay is such a slog.
Movement and combat overall just feels clunky and restrictive, especially dodging. Invincibly frames being tied to a stat and not following roll animation is the biggest fumble in Dark Souls history. Half the time you'll be hit mid-dodge due to this artificial timer, not even realizing it until you glance at the health bar.
Hitboxes are weird and wildly inconsistent, probably thanks to that stupid stat. Your attacks will miss, sometimes the enemy attacks will just miss; sometimes enemy attacks will land when they shouldn't. A lot of enemy attacks hover or linger so if you do dodge the initial attack, you'll still be hit due to the insanely short I-frames.
Locking on to enemies is very finicky, as it seems to consider to proximity, not where your looking. This means you'll snap your neck turning to a enemy that hasn't started attacking yet, while the other b-lines to you.
I HATE the backstab mechanic of this game. No longer is it an immediate animation, but an attack that must make contact with the target before doing the animation. That's fine by itself, but it will always play if your around the back of an enemy, EVEN IF THE BACKSTAB ATTACK WOULDN'T LAND. I can't count the number of times I dodged around an enemy, and attempted to swing at them just for the bearer to attempt and miss a backstab on a motionless target.
Too many areas in this game are ambush, gank, and/or gimmicky. Enemies aren't exactly hard to fight as most only have 1-2 attacks but this game loves to spam them in tight rooms/arenas. Throw a rock at a bees nest and you'll get the same experience. It doesn't help the Bearer finches at a slight breeze as damn near EVERY SINGLE enemy can stun him or stop an attack.
Most bosses are fairly easy (maybe too simple and easy?) and fun to fight. The faster attacks and better combos are welcomed, but it introduces a new problem. Endurance in this game seems to be way too low and slow for the room, enemy, and boss design. It's as if your the same slow and clunky Undead from DS1 (where bosses often only attacked once per combo, and seemly fought the game just as much as you) put into a brand new, faster system. Boss fights often boil down to dodging 2-4 times, attack once, wait until stamina regenerates, repeat. It feels more like a waiting simulator than interacting and dancing with the boss.
This is the most mechanically experimented with Dark Souls, but that doesn't mean it feels good to play. This game is the best at rewarding exploration and has a wild variety of interesting environments/setting, so it made 100% less of a slog. The DLCs are pretty good (mostly thanks to the bosses), but again too many gank rooms. Also, screw those 2 tigers and their horse.
