Completely agree on Dark Souls 2, I’ve played almost all of the Souls games, yet I keep finding myself coming back to Dark Souls 2, I’m not sure what it is about the game, because there are definitely things I don’t like about it (Mainly adaptability and hollowfication reducing your health) but it’s still easily my most replayed Souls game. I especially love the early game, where you have 4 different paths you can take from Majula, it lets me leave if I am struggling with an area and come back to it later after playing a different path for a while

I’ve been meaning to play salt and sanctuary for a while, but haven’t done it yet. I might pick that game up next time my bank account is a bit more full, because that sounds right up my alley