Haha, I actually don't hate DS2, it's just pretty badly balanced (PvE wise, of course; I can't speak on PvP). The levels are the bosses in that game (with a few exceptions), which makes going through them quite tedious after a failed run. If they dialed down the density of enemies and possibly buffed some of them in compensation, it could possibly almost tie almost evenly with the other 2 games for me. Oh, and got rid of the obnoxious Soul Memory system, god what a terrible idea that mechanic was/is.

What I do really enjoy about the game are the interesting and somewhat diverse locales, with some levels having some great design going on. I love the item and gear variety. I also really liked being able to reinforce my armor along with weapons. It made light armor a lot more competitive in the late game and I am a little sad they got rid of that feature in DS3 (among other things DS3 abandoned). I also enjoyed the sheer number of secrets in the game (Side note: One thing that saddens me in Elden Ring, is how little fake walls and secret passages there are). But it's not just walls/passages; for example, in No-man's Wharf, accidentally discovering that those freaky spider things fear fire/light and seeing them retract into the shadows was an awesome detail.

Anyway, I'd love for them to someday truly remaster DS2 and bring the enemy placements more in line with the original DS2 (SotFS is the current "remaster" and there are way more enemies/gank squads in it than vanilla DS2). If they did that and got rid of soul memory, replacing it with the same MP system as DS1R and DS3, I'd love to play through it again.

Sorry for the tangent, I'm just in full on Souls/ER mode this week.