Absolutely pains me that the best areas in all of the Souls trilogy, Dragon's Sanctum, Shulva, and Dragon's Rest ares stuck in Dark Souls 2. Additionally, the fact that these areas are so short and take place after the main game just adds salt to the wound. Obviously recommended levels don't mean you HAVE to be a set level to play, I do think it's sad that it takes upwards of level 110-120 before getting to the recommended level to play the otherwise best part of this game.

Dark Souls 2 grumpiness aside, Crown of the Sunken King asks the question of "what if we put a Zelda Dungeon in Dark Souls lol" and discover fucking lightning in a bottle. The use of range weapons and switches, although a simple concept, are performed excellently with Dark Souls-action RPG combat. The entire gimmick is based around pressure plates, so there’s doors that are giant circles with different sized entrances each time— only one you can walk through, but other interactions (such as shooting an arrow through a hole to hit another pressure plate) can be made. The area rewards you for experimenting and also creates fun traps. For example, turning the wheel door could open a space for an enemy archer to get you or open a spot for bug enemies to crawl in and try and kill you... but at the same time you could turn it and 4 gem lizards will run into the room all at once. It's both fun and encourages exploring and playing with the mechanics in the area-- something that the rest of the game fails to do. The base game has a specific area that comes to mind when it comes to discouraging playing with mechanics, and that is The Door of Pharros. The cool interaction mechanics like the pressure plates is similar to the Pharros' Contraptions and Pharros' Lockstones, doors that have a LIMITED amount of keys in the entire game-- unless you feel like farming with the Royal Rat Authority (fucking lol). On top of that, only a select few of those doors have things behind them or will turn on things— most them will negatively affect you (such as statues that throw axes at you, mammoth warriors being on the other side of the door, or just nothing in the door, making you waste a key). The positive things behind the Pharros doors can be found anywhere else in the world, making it a complete waste. Sunken King differentiates itself by making their take on the doors both essential to move around in and offer multiple results, both traps and rewards. Additional level design that I really enjoyed featured a stealth section with enemies that looked like a bootleg version of the Imprisoned from Skyward Sword. A particular section that really stuck out to me was a staircase that had a dead body on the floor. Dead bodies with loot are common in souls games, so this didn't seem out of place, but when you go down the staircase, it's a super deadly spike trap. I really like the environmental storytelling on this, but because it's a Souls game, it kind of falls flat because the game conditions you to expect dead bodies to just... sort of be around. Additionally, the mainline bosses in Sunken King are genuinely fun, something that Dark Souls 2 really struggles with. The Squalid Queen's arena is fantastic as well as the reveal to Sinh's chamber. The storytelling is also really solid with how it works enemies, with the inhabitants of Shulva being decayed and poisoned and the invading knights surrounded by empty chests and corpses-- they're raiders. Its just a solid and overall great piece level design and storytelling, I just wish it was in a better game.

I have cussed and bitched and moaned about this games for many years, ever since I played it for the first time. This was my first ever souls games, which my friends know is a big deal-- especially with my love for Dark Souls 1 and Bloodborne. But when I first played it, I only got half way through, thinking about how miserable of a time I had. At time I had finally given it another shot, it had been four years minimum. I had expected that experience and the recent trend in revisioning the game in a positive light might give me a different perspective... I've finally finished the base game after all these years and it disappoints me that my opinion hasn't changed at all. Mechanics for stats linked to I-frames in dodge rolls, attempts of garnering a reputation as "the hard game", and worst of all-- just not being fun. Gameplay wise, it's a mess, punishing the player for everything achieved in previous titles and attempting to expand on ideas from Demon Souls that weren't brought back in Dark Souls. Despite how unfun it all is, the story is there and the world is there, for those elements alone, it is perhaps the best piece of worldbuilding and storytelling out of all three of the Souls games... it's just incredibly disappointing that it is stuck in the game that its stuck in. As of writing this, I am playing through all the DLC, reviewing each of them individually.

Also fuck you Shrine of Amana, The Gutter, and Black Gulch