

Other reasons: Slowest estus chugging making it hardest to heal in a fight, adaptability stat making you have to invest levels just to get normal rolling i-frames, it has the most bullshit hitboxes in the series, it has mini-bosses thrown into the levels which the other games don't and the health reduction penalty for dying can eventually leave you at 5% hp (normally it will cap at 50% though but that's still less than DS3 which is about 70% unemebered). Even the bosses are gank overload you thought fighting two gargoyles in Dark Souls was hard? Well DS2 makes you fight SIX! The reason for DS2:SOTFS being the hardest is mainly the much bigger emphasis on ganks whereas in the other games you would come across a couple of enemies in the exact same spot, in DS2: SOFTS you could get mobbed by 4-5 enemies in the exact same spot, and not just weak naked hollows, but also stronger enemies. I have played the heck out of the Dark Souls games and Demon's Souls for an entire decade (not Bloodborne though because I dont have a PS4), beating every single DLC, optional area and boss multiple times using different builds and on different NG's. Dark Souls 2: Scholar of the First Sin edition is honestly the hardest Souls game that I've played without a doubt.
