Want to be specific here and clarify that I played the original release and not scholar.
This game is flawed for sure, there is no way around that but the hate is def overblown. if you can get your hands on the original release (even though it rarely ever goes on sale) do it and you're in for a much more pleasant experience. dark souls II is if anything experimental and a lot of the time to it's detriment but I wanna say most of the time it doesn't really matter. Most of its issues (aside from maybe how important it is to dump levels into ADP [stupid stat]) are only really exacerbated and made more of a hurdle by scholars terrible enemy placement. This is a fine, somewhat less memorable sequel to a brilliant game.