Dark Souls 2 does not deserve the hate it gets, the lore is interesting, the bosses while most of them are weird Sir Alonne , Fume Knight, Ivory King make up for it, Majula is the best hub area in the series hands down.
Only bad thing about this game were some of the new characters other than that the final villian 10/10 the combat is also good, you're wrong if you disagree.