2.5/5 ★ – AllieN7's review of Dark Souls II: Crown of the Ivory King.

I really wish I loved this, I had a lot of fun with Dark Souls 2’s other dlcs despite their flaws, and the snow settings in these games have always been a massive highlight for me, but this just fell so flat. The vibe and aesthetic is great, this is a beautiful location to look at and stands out so much from the rest of this game, I always appreciate the variety of locations and levels, but it falls into so many of the same trappings the rest of the main game and it’s dlc do and it just made it such a painful experience. Easily the most visually appealing place in the area game for me is turned into a miserable experience by simply exploring and running through the said area. I really like the idea of having to collect the loyce knights for the final boss (and by extension the final mandatory boss of the entirety of dark souls 2 if you wanna say you beat the game and dlcs) but it’s such a headache having to go through the confusing levels and fighting the underwhelming enemies. Aava the king's Pet is a really fun opening boss with an interesting move set and boss arena, and it continues one of my favorite themes of having to explore to make the boss more doable, I really like it! The Ivory King, aka the last boss is both incredibly fun and amazing, while also being absolutely needlessly frustrating and annoying, it’s like the best of both worlds. The idea of going from the snowy castle all the way down into the bottom of hell with your knights is such an awesome spectacle, as you get farther from the snow and closer to the flames that await you at the bottom, one of the coolest of not THE coolest moment in the game, and fighting the king’s small army is so cool… the first time because you gotta do it every time you see the game over screen… yeah. I really like fighting these knights and like I said, having to get your own backup by exploring the castle is a really cool concept, I just wish the fight was more doable without having to seek out reinforcement and I really wish this fight wasn’t let down by such a underwhelming execution. Just not fun at all having to replay the same fight over and over again while draining resources until you get another opportunity to fight the actual boss again, it’s especially annoying by just how hard hitting the boss is, as he could easily kill you in just one combo if you’re not careful. Would love the boss to death if there was some sort of checkpoint or something after the knights, because he’s a really satisfying and fun final boss, cool move set, incredible ost, great arena, and the build up is great. And of course this does suffer from the same enemy placements as the rest of the game does, just a really frustrating and disappointing experience. Don’t even get me started on the Frigid Outskirts, another admittedly cool concept completely butchered by its execution. Without a doubt the single worst location (and boss run back) in the entire souls series and something I will never play again, thank god it is optional content. I really think a lot of this dlc, as well as the others feel more so designed for coop play with the amount of hard hitting enemies and run backs, and you know what? I think it’s interesting to design locations in dark souls for more multiplayer focused content, especially since the multiplayer in these games are so interesting and unique, but it should absolutely be less painful solo. Without a doubt my least favorite dlc from all the Souls games, and some of the worst content in this franchise. At least it is finally over and I have done everything dark souls 2 related. I think there’s some cool ideas in this pack of expansions that could be used for future games, but absolutely needs more focus direction and less enemy spam.