Dark Souls 2 is so unbelievably good. Visually stunning and distinctive-looking, the story is amazing -especially- in SOTFS, characters like Vendrick and Nashandra and Lucatiel, Pate and Creighton leave this unmistakable impression. Really, I think that once you understand how 'adaptability' works and don't have such a narrow dodge window, the game even plays amazingly, with an unprecedented variety of weapons, builds, and styles.

I do feel like I see more positive talk about Dark Souls 2 nowadays though! Hopefully the tide of opinion of shifting!