Seriously though, you have to wake up from that dogmatic dream where Miyazaki is a
genius director, because he isn't. Do you know how he is telling that story in some interviews that he wants his design to be "elegant and dignified"? That's such a bullshit! In fact if you compare games in the series, you will realize that Dark Souls 2 is the most elegant and dignified, whatever it means.
Demon's Souls is 100% about horror and grotesque. I challenge you to pin point a single elegant design in this game. Dark Souls 1 is a different story: many locations are simply glorious (Anor Londo, Ash Lake) and/or show a particular dignity of times long past (ruins, huge castles, cities). However you will rather find more examples of grotesque than dignity: 8/10 bosses are distorted abominations (contrary examples: Kalameet, Priscilla, Ornstein [BUT NOT Smough], Sif, Butterfly). Dark Souls 2 takes the series to another level. Not only you will find many magnificent locations and bosses that will satisfy your hunger for chivalry and laudable encounters, but also:
a)
https://youtu.be/pKzJWoZWMOI - Dark Souls 2 never becomes over ambitious, it never throws too much craziness and wow factors that would make it obviously feel like a developed sequel instead of a natural sequel. It never forcefully tries to be grander, ridiculous and over blow the scale of the original
b) Dark Souls 2 introduces bunch of genuinely mature themes:
The giants perhaps were a solution to the Human problem, selfishness and want. Perhaps the curse, nature, or years of evolution had finally molded a perfect race through cyclical years of trial and error. This is the great tragedy of dark souls 2. Killing the giants off, the representation of selflessness and unity, and the reality that selfishness and ego are very strong human characteristics to the point that we refuse to die off and extinct other races or enslave them for our own benefit even after our collapse was long due.
Of course Dark Souls 2 also has many examples of pure horror and atrocity, but my point is that it is the most beautiful game in the series, the game is positively surprising like no other game in the series.
Then comes Bloodborne and nothing about bloodborne is elegant or dignified in design. It explores new concepts and alternatives, so that's that. But Bloodborne leave a mark on Miyazaki's next game, Dark Souls 3:
a) Dark Souls 3 throws too much craziness. Just look how literally every regular enemy in the game is taller than player character. Every monster is huge and horrific. Do you remember that exploding hollow that turns into a gigantic abyss monster from open beta and/or gameplays? It's a jump scare...
b) Dark Souls 3 tries to be grander and looks like a ridiculous copy or parody of Dark Souls 1. I can't go into much detail, because spoilers, but you can get an idea from my previous posts :D
c) Dark Souls 3 feels like a direct sequel. I counted armor sets in Dark Souls 3 and found out that more than 50% of armor sets in the game comes from Dark Souls 1, like you will find regular Sorcerer Set from DS1 in DS3, and Black Sorcerer Set from DS1 in DS3, and so on ...
... DS2 has only 6 sets from DS1 out of over 100 ...
