I played Dark souls 1 and Dark souls 3 before Ds2:SotFS, and even with that ds2 is my favorite. Its challenging but never really gets really frustrating like the others, the game performs beautifully, and I love the freedom offered by things like the soul vessels.
I also like how you get some choices on where to go first at some points, mainly in the beginning and at the memory sequence part.
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When i first got it i thought "ds 1 so much better" But over time i came to realize DS 2 shines in pvp. I played that game for hundreds of hrs not becauss of pve at all but just for pvp. Dark souls 3 pvp only makes me miss two so much more