DS2 is objectively the worst game of the series by mechanics. It is a clunky mess of a game and should've been disowned by Fromsoft
Honestly DS2 was the dark souls game I had the most fun with
DS1 had a lot of bullshit and a was a lot more hostile to a new player, but I did love the atmosphere and what little NPC interaction I could get without a guide. DS2, although the combat was not always great, was still an amazing game. It has a very different atmosphere to DS1, but not a worse one. Majula was a very strong point of the game, almost to the point that I liked having to come back there to level up. Of course, my experience with the game was helped by knowing to level up adp. That could have been a little clearer in-game, but it's no worse than all the unexplained critical mechanics in one. As for DS3, although its gameplay was by far the best, it was the worst in everything else (imo. I know many people love DS3.). The game was really too short to fully utilize the setting, even when you include the dlcs (which I think are the best part of this game). Elden Ring was better than DS3 in gameplay, so I would set it above DS3. The size helps to better use the setting, but it's also a weakness of ER. It's too big. A lot of bosses get reused with either minimal or no changes, and because it's an open world, the level design just isn't as tight as in dark souls. Shadow of the Erdtree does a lot to help with that because it's smaller. There were even a few times in it that I thought to myself, "this feels like dark souls again." It doesn't fully solve the problem. There are still reused bosses, the ghost flame dragons being the biggest issue in that regard. But the level design feels a lot more intentional in SotE than base ER.
