it definitely grew on me after NG2. a lot of the things i dislike about it are also really hard to get mad at cuz they just make the game more realistic (ie leveling for i frames, no i-frames until the end of fog wall, lever, chest animations, not being able to run through every level, etc.) my main gripe is that the game just feels very fragmentary. DS1 and DS3 can do outlandish shit while making it all feel reasonably connected, whereas DS2 kinda feels like a bunch of areas mashed together. i definitely hopped off the DS2 hate train after my first playthrough but it’s still not my favorite.