Cool so what, now, is real at the circus? Just the shitty carnival style food? Honestly hard pass just retire the poor concept already and be done with it.

I'm curious what you found challenging in DkS2 over say DeS or DkS3? I found the main game not so bad but the DLCs messed me up a bit

Either you've only seen the end result of the grinding that led up to it or you HAVE seen the awful grind that has been required for these things and aren't discussing this in good faith. Just because it can be done doesn't mean it isn't flawed.

I love the Soulsborne series and soulslikes but it really does a disservice to their constant improvement to act like the series has no flaws, if indeed they are flaws. I would hazard a guess to say Malenia wouldn't be a good representative of her lore if she didn't have any semblance of bullshit to back it up.