You are about to be wrong
>Nonsensical and generic areas without any thought put into them
Majula being one of the most open and creative hubworlds out of the 3 games, and is not firelink shrine. Maps such as Earthen Peak keeping you on your toes to survive and needing top thinking to beat some areas without killing yourself to poison. Other maps such as Drangleic Castle being large, open, and genuinely awe inspiring.
>Boring, uninspired boss fights, the whole game has at best 4-5 well designed ones (including DLC)
Ah yes, lets remember the last time you had to fight a giant hunk of flesh in the middle of a lava flooded area. Or a 2 headed sentry in the hull of the ship. TOTALLY generic ideas.
>janky as fuck controls, movement and attacks have zero weight to them
Take your Parkinson medication then, controls in ds2 were hailed at being significantly better that ds1, which were hailed for being tight and simple.
>looks like a PS2 era MMO with its atrocious art and animations
Stop playing on console then, scrub. Thats an issue you brought on yourself.
>retarded double wielding mechanic
Whats wrong with it? I had no issue with it.
>several cheap deaths and unfair situations, totally misses the point of Dark Souls 1's difficulty
Its called "Trial and Error" learning. Dont run into an area you don't know. Git Gud.
>Souls Memory & Agape Ring encourage extreme twinking and effectively prevent you from ever buying consumables if you care about your PVP tier
Then don't do Pvp. Dark Souls 2 is NOT a pvp only game. You realize what the agape ring does right? It stops you from leveling up. So unless you have someone giving you OP shit for PVP, you'll be fine.