I also keep wanting to come back to DS2 for the long journey with so many cool locations.

Salt and Sanctuary really holds a special place for me. The atmosphere is absolutely top notch; we’re talking Hollow Knight levels in my opinion. The map design is also phenomenal along with tons of secrets and shortcuts. Not sure if the recent patch fixed it, but the combat is kinda unbalanced from what I recall. Heavy armor is more or less useless so you might as well go fashion-souls. And 2-handed strength weapons are king.