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After I played the first Dark Souls in mid 2013, I was desperate for any other game to give me the same feeling. I had no way of playing Demon's Souls, so that was out of the question. Though, if I had played Dark Souls any earlier, I might have been stir crazy enough to acquire a PS3 just for that game. Lucky for me, the second game would release only a year later, when I would have my first gaming laptop to play it on this time. The novelty of booting it up on my own computer mixed with my excitement for the followup game meant my hype was astronomical. There was just something special about playing games on my own device that I could customize and move around. Those were my feelings at the time at least.<br><br>Exploring the lands of Drangleic, I felt the same as I did playing DS1 for the first time, only this time I didn't have the first few areas of the game spoiled myself. It was certainly much more linear than the first game, but there were still multiple branches you could explore off the of the main hub of Majula. So many beautiful vistas complementing twisty level design that is such a joy to navigate and create mental maps of in my head. Maps which I very much use to my benefit on repeat playthroughs.<br><br>There is a good number of armored foes, I will admit, but there are also so many weird little guys scattered throughout this game. One of my favorite bosses in the entire From Software catalog is in this game, which is the Demon of Song (frog with face). The soundtrack is great, though it's mostly intense boss music, so it's not something I regularly listen to aside from the Majula theme. And the combat, though admittedly a bit more stilted compared to the previous game, was still top notch in my opinion, especially with few other games at the time containing this slow style of swordplay.<br><br>Adjacent to my feelings around playing Dark Souls II on my own computer, I didn't hesitate to choose to play as a woman in this game, even if I couldn't fully understand those feelings at the time. Getting to really play dress up with the variety of fashion options in this game was my only real way to explore that part of me back then.<br><br>I actually got so addicted to this game, that I brought my laptop with me to high school one day to play during downtime. It was near the end of my senior year, so I allowed myself a little senioritis. In my AP European History class, we were doing a work day on assignments and I finished early and whipped out my entire gaming laptop, headphones, and a controller to play a little DSII only to immediately get a scolding from my teacher to work on something else, which is fair. I was deep in the sauce as it were.<br><br>As for the DLCs of this game, I had bought the season pass at the time and played them as they released. They were definitely the most challenging part of the game for me. With multiple bosses taking me I'm not even sure how many tries, but possibly triple digits. The Fume Knight especially was one that would follow me into my first semester at college that Fall before I eventually felled him. On repeat playthroughs, I've never touched any of these DLCs again, possibly because of the stigma I held against them for being so difficult, and also because the game is fairly lengthy already. One day, though, I will return to them.<br><br>If it wasn't for the first Dark Souls' interconnected world design in its first half, this game might be my favorite from the entire From Software lineup. Alas, it will be relegated to a comfortable second place.<br>