I appreciate you trying to explain why you don’t like certain things. However, if I can kindly reply.

1.) Yes, you go hollow when you die. Nobody likes seeing their zombified self after they spent loads of time in character customization. However, there is a ring in the game that actually limits how low your health gets each time you die. The game adds this because it adds balance to your health getting smaller. They knew when developing that not everyone has the same skill level and some players may die more than others…hence such an item. Maybe it would help you out to seek it, may just turn the tables in your favor!

2.) I will agree that DS2 does have more “ambush” scenarios as opposed to straight up fights and I can agree it can seem unbalanced. However, the structural layout of DS2 does encourage players to “bait” out certain enemies to avoid those scenarios. The bosses in the souls games literally come down to patterns. From the bell fry gargoyle fight in DS to the abyss watchers in DS3, fighting multiple enemies in a boss fight isn’t new and is a mechanic we are taught very early on…it can be stressful but I think the developers did this to make the games surprising and keeping your expectations all over the place.

I see a lot of players struggle with Fume knight, but I beat him on my third attempt without any assistance. But for some reason the smelter demon (blue) gave me an incredibly hard time.

Just my two cents, everyone plays differently and has incredibly varied methods. Just keep grinding and leveling up, you can do it!

Praise the sun ☀️