Dark Souls II a.k.a. Throne of Wunt(y)

From can't have junked all the work done on the original version surely?
Then again, if they'd kept it I suppose it would have appeared on PC. This IS From, after all.

Yes

I'm still finding new things I didn't know about. Going through Eleum Loyce with the boy the other day and he's like "you can kill the golems before they even come alive". Turns out he was right. Also, in Shulva, I'm positive you couldn't harm the ghosts at all before you destroyed their bodies, so all these years I've been legging it past them to smash the corpses up first. Again though, the boy tells me you can kill them, they're just a bit tougher.

Didn't know that. Didn't know that. I also don't think I knew about the large boar in Majula.

Anyway. I'ts a fucking awesome game and I still love playing it. I love playing them all mind you. But DS2 always feels a bit more like my comfort zone gaming.

Only played the vanilla one (+DLC) before and don't remember much to be honest, so it'll be a hoot!

Not the EG massive, but the internet as a whole seemed to hate on it quite a lot. I recall the EG thread always being quite positive about it.

Definitely 

I really enjoyed it a lot but after parrying and riposting every single thing in Dark Souls I hated the change to that mechanic 

Also did not like the soul memory mechanic, which destroyed the ability to create summon specific builds

They've kind of ruined summon builds ever since tbh. Even now in DS1 remastered you're nerfed if you create a strong low soul level character and get summoned or you invade.

Easily. There aren't many pleasant areas in From games. I've always liked making trips to Majula- it's similar to going back to town in Diablo

Agree with most of this apart from the last bit.

I finished it twice back in the day (one vanialla, one SOTFS) - every time I've tried to go back to it subsequently I drop it as soon as I get to the dull brown of Earthen Peak/Huntsman's Copse/Harvest Valley.

My biggest gripe is that the bosses are just a bit shit throughout (DLC excluded). DS1 had some pants bosses but they also had O&S, Sif, Gwyn etc. The only decent boss in the base game was Mirror Knight and even he wasn't much of a challenge. DLC bosses are fantastic throughout though.

I've only followed Souls content for about 7 months, but even in that time public opinion kept shifting as major influencers on stream and Youtube set the tone. Apparently, for a long time popular content creators like Asmongold kept saying that DS2 is shit. Then last year there was a popular video on YT saying that DS2 was actually good but SotFS ruined it (btw the same guy who recently made another video claiming that SOTE is the worst Fromsoft DLC ever), and others followed suit and so the trending opinion became "DS2 good, SotFS bad". Most recently, a smaller Youtuber gained traction with videos calling out these SotFS haters as dishonest manipulative arseholes and again opinion is now shifting towards DS2 actually not being a bad game in any version--and to me the linked article looks like a part of this resurgence.

So in little over half a year, I witnessed the prevalent opinion shifting from DS2 bad to SotFS bad to both good. I've only played through the trilogy once and DS2 (SotFS) was indeed my least favourite of the 3, but I'd never call it an outright bad game. I do think it has some specific issues the others didn't have, but at the same time it seems that it's become a lightning rod to deflect criticisms from the other games in the series, like annoying runbacks and some terrible hit detection. E.g. I've seen many videos of some terrible hit detection in DS2 with descriptions like "DS2 amirite lol" as if that was a problem only in that one game. When Elden Ring has some similarly scandalous hit detection, it's much more likely to be handwaved away (often with "git gud" comments) because apparently the Miyazaki games don't deserve the same thrashing as DS2.

I can imagine that at some time it was more positively received because it was simply the newest, youngest entry in the series, but after the return of Miyazaki with the more popular DS3, in popular opinion it became the unwanted middle child from a different father that's ok to use as a punching bag. It's not quite the same, but it reminds me of how western Super Mario Bros. 2 was once a beloved new Mario game but nowadays the consensus is that it sucks because it's not a Mario game.

Aw man. I was showing the boy the E3 trailer the other day. Still gutted it never released like that. I mean, the version they DID release was crisper and more detailed, but the lighting... That would have been fucking immense.

It looks, to my crap stupid eyes (and I'm probably wrong), that what possibly happened was that they changed engine. From what I've read in the past (and again, could well be wrong), it seems like DS2 uses a completely different engine from DS1. The E3 trailer looks more on a par with DS1 (and in fact, DS3 and Bloodborne), because of the kind of "melty" texture look. If you fire up DS2 now, it's very obvious it's VERY different in that regards.

Again, may be talking out my bumhole.

I've never even noticed the Estus thing (although I do tend to invest in ADP). The bosses being largely easy reduces the issue a bit anyway. Plus it's the only from game where you can carry around a load of alternative healing items