I love how much of DS1 is quiet and empty between encounters. In fact i think it strikes a near-perfect balance between combat-dense areas and combatlite areas, including inter-level (with “level” being defined as "anywhere that has a title card and that lovely ‘doom-doooom’ noise).
Like, Anor Londo, famous as it is for being one of the most challenging parts of the game, has huge stretches between DODGE 'EM! fights where you walk across a vast expanse and gaze at the horizon, or carefully inch across the rafters of a giant cathedral. Sen’s Fortress’s first half is a tense, difficult climb through a tower of swinging blades and narrow ledges and lighting-throwing sneople, and its second half is a relaxing jog around austere brick towers. Even one of the most seemingly combat-dense areas, the catacombs, literally bottoms out into carefully picking around a dark crevasse to avoid deadly rolling skelewheels (or else try running straight through). I mean even Blighttown has the relatively easy, sedate swamp area after the frictional barbarians-and-planks-and-ladders first half.
DS2 seems like it constantly wants to throw new combat challenges at you… i have a harder time drawing distinct points out where it doesn’t want to shower you with enemies (Heide’s Tower and Dragon’s Aerie kind of did this in the original, but then Scholar threw up a bunch of new shit!).
My favorite parts replaying 2: SotFS were when enemies were reduced and/or made more logical; the bit that stuck out to me most was early in the Forest of Fallen Giants, when you climb the first ladder after the first bonfire. The original version immediately set a bunch of hollows on you as soon as you mounted the top, with an archer shooting at you from an immediately unreachable wall. This introduced the kind of “ring around the rosey” approach a lot of enemy encounters in DS2 have, where you have to alternate between running/dodging and occasionally getting 1-2 attacks off. I have mixed opinions about that and i think the DLC so far has over-relied on it.
Scholar turns this area into a room littered with hollows playing dead. The hollow on the wall just throws bombs, so you’re harried if you approach him, but otherwise can take your time walking around the room and watching the soldiers of the old war the area is trying to impress upon you jump up and start fighting once more. It is excellent and despite technically involving a lot of combat, is a deliberate pumping of the brakes of the sort that i got a lot out of in DS1 and Demon’s Souls. And Bloodborne, tbh, as much as that game is pretty combat-dense it knows when to slow the fuck down and let me take a breath.
As for how engaging the combat is, uh, i dunno i simply think DS2 feels simultaneously too heavy and too floaty and has animations/SFX with too little impact. I would rather try a million different weapons in DS1, a game i have basically mastered, than more than 3 or 4 in DS2. The basic act of walking up to a shitty hollow and hitting him with my longsword feels better to me in DS1 than it does in DS2. That’s a real sticking point for me and i’m increasingly bewildered at how alone i am in having this opinion across the internet… compared to the other games in the series, DS2 is like waking up in my own home and finding all the furniture in every room moved around, and also my feet and arms are still asleep.
