You can trash on DS2 all you like but I still think it’s better than DS1. Picking up the original and playing that eased my mind it was just so calming to play and didn’t include vast amounts of enemies that scholar adds. I’m not criticizing the new addition of enemies but if you’re starting off or it’s your first time playing DS2, I would suggest you don’t. Scholar was made for souls vets, they wanted to change it drastically for the purpose of creating a different game, this in turn made the game much harder than its original.

Lighting sucks just like what they did with DS1 remaster. Playing DS2 made me appreciate a lot of the art that was absent in scholar because scholar increased gama and lighting making small details fade away. Honestly it is a different experience, one less annoying, very chill and just an overall great game. The dlc is some of the best in souls next to DS3 dlc. I just despise DS1 so much the dlc is boring as is the rest of the game.