I think it's a great game, personally.
That said, it does feel kinda generic and uninspired at times. I assume it's mostly because it was a sequel to a very memorable and near perfect game, and because it was made by the B team and thus feels kinda off, especially in terms of world design. I mean, I think DS2 is by far the biggest souls games both in terms of scope, weapons, variety and skill, but it kinda lacks that tightly knit, interwoven gameworld people were expecting after DS1. I guess it feels like more DS, instead of feeling like a new experience.
I also didn't really get into PVP, mainly due to the heavy emphasis on cheap spellcasting and OP builds making most duels kinda bad. I'm a sucker for old school blade duels, and to me Demon's and Dark 1 did that much better. Heck, I prefer the PVP in bloodborne too...
I also think the story left to be desired. Sure, if you dig down deeper and over-analyse it, it does get somewhat compelling (then again, I wonder how much of the plot is a construction by fans and what was actually meant by the developpers, but it does a terrible job and keeping you involved, from a lore perspective. You literally have no idea what you are doing during your first playtrough , and why it's important you acheieve what you do. That whole thing about the dragons, the giants, the emerald Herald, the ancient ones, the throne of want, nothing is clearly explained, hence the narrative does feel kinda convulted and messy.
Demon's did it pretty good when it comes to storytelling. It introduced the nexus as a sort of purgatory, it introduced the maiden in black as a strong character, the monumentals as the individuals keeping the fabric of reality from basically collapsing. You had a clear goal, to stop the old one from engulfing the world in colorless deep fog, and you knew your objective... To defeat strong demons to break the seal to the old one. In the end, you were given a cool choice, to let the old one be lulled to slumber, or to become the demon's servant... A great premise with a great ending imho... It managed to be both abstract and involving to the player.
Dark Souls was also pretty compelling from a lore perspective. The intro cinematic introduced very cool backstory to the world, with the ancient dragons, the great lords finding the flame, then a chosen undead being brought to Lordran. While the first part of the game might have seemed a little shallow (the part where you ring two bells without really knowing why). But this is pretty much a prelude to a deeper quest... By the time you meet up with Frampt, Kaathe and reach Anor Londo, you learn of your true quest, finding and taking out the great lords, acquiring their flame in the process, then choosing either to rule a world a dark lord, or to self-combust to rekindle the flame for another cycle... By the end of the game, the plot makes sense, and the world feels rich and interesting.
Dark Souls 2... Meh. You,re a cursed being that goes to Lordran to try to find a cure, yet never really searches for one. You wander the map "without really knowing why", defeating generic ancient ones that were not introduced to you (well, the talking cat says a couple cryptic quotes about them, but that's far less efficient of introducing them in the intro like DS1 did. Heck, most of the time, I could not even tell the boss was an old one, especially when regular bosses were often more impressive in terms of design. Upon becoming powerful enough, you get to enter the castle, meet the queen, then wander about doing some wierd "going into the dream of giants" stuff to unlock the throne of want, then you realise the Queen wanted the throne for herelf, but you defeat her anway.
Then you get the ending(s), which are basically reskinned , but more ambiguous in their implications endings from DS1. The DLC did help the overall narrative though, putting more emphasis on how the cycle keep repeating and how each king is seduced by a dark queen, which then brings the downfall of the kingdom. It does make the game more interesting and involving.
In BloodBorne, the narrative is imho much stronger too, granted, it starts as a somewhat generic "hunter hunting beast" story, but you quickly realise that much more than that is a stake, with lovecraftian horrors, dream worlds and a "brink of madness" vibe that makes it way more interesting.The end result is imho one of the most interesting narrative in the series, mostly due to the underlying concept of inter-dimensional beings and reality being much more complex that what the common folks can see. I also love how they defined Yarhnam, a very strong location with deep lore, an unique fixation with blood and a culture that's pretty much a cult worshipping the old ones, with people willingly turning themselves into "beasts" by injecting themselves with blood from old ones, while falling victim to the influence of unseen gods. I always had trouble imagining the world of Demon's, Lordran and Drangleic as real places where people could have lived... But to me, Yharnam does feel like a city that could have existed, functionned for years, then kinda lose it due to an over-abundance of beasts they could no longer control. It feels less like a gameworld and more like a real city.
My two cents .
