me too (saying as someone who has tried to spin this angle in the past as well).
the reason i struggle to get behind the “dreamlike” descriptor in particular is that DS2, far above all the other games, makes me feel the most starkly “awake” and aware of myself while playing it. in fact, it’s all the other souls games that seem to be going out of their way to construct a dreamy atmosphere, with tasteful use of fog, shadow and glow to make distant objects loom ethereally.
DS2 discards this in favour of a universal dynamic lighting engine (even if they did not make the game as ambiently dark as originally planned) and the effect is like being in a dentist’s office – cold and sterile and constantly focused on the here and now. objects feel more physical and immediate, not more vague.
there’s also something disturbing to the way character and enemy models are lit, a kind of oily or glossy coating that makes them leap off the screen and not feel like part of the environment. people sometimes describe the game as feeling “MMO-like”. i wonder if this was tuned for the purpose of making exciting promotional shots and not really considered in the context of the game’s actual flow.