Glad you brought Dark Souls 2 because, although I was trying to be nice by not bringing it up, it's exactly the source of my fears.
Glad you asked what I'm talking about...
That game did a lot of things to simply be more accessible to people coming to Souls for the first time. But not all the fat they trimmed from the Souls games was just fat, it was flesh and bone too.
You tell me, bringing almost every damn merchant you needed to Majula wasn't FROM just trying to be accessible to the masses? "Let's not let new players have to go to where the merchant actually lives! That's too hard. Let's just have them just sin at the peaceful new hub and be there whenever the player wants".
How about the storylines of those NPCs? Almost non-exestitant. "Let's not move characters around too much or do too much because our new players won't be able to figure out what's going on. Let's keep it simple for the new players' sake." Now, because the fans complained so loudly, some of the NPCs in Scholar are finally going to do some stuff. How much, now one knows just yet.
Very linear levels. "Let's not let new players get lost. Too much flipping back and rerouting new players will just confuse and frustrate them. So let's just keep things more A to B."
Warping immediately given to the player was another deep cut into the flesh of Dark Souls 1... without EVEN explaining how -- it simply became a video game mechanic. In Dark Souls, you obtained the Lord's Vessel. In Dark Souls, you find Warp in your menu and hop around. If they would've even tried to say why you could now warp (perhaps mentioning a change that happened years ago with a device called the Lord's Vessel) would have been welcomed. So... "Let's allow new players to not have to back track too much"
Rings can fixed was another travesty. "Don't want to lose your souls, new player? Well just collect Rings of Life protection and for a mere 3000 (or almost a single enemy kill midway in the game), you never have to go hollow. Just a quick trip to Majula and you're set. Will give you the opportunity to get THREE of them in a single playthrough to minimize your Majula Fix Trips!"
And the Cardinal Sin of all, DESPAWNING enemies. "If the game's too hard for new players, let's just put a cap on the number of times an enemy can respawn. Sure it goes against the grain of what SOULS is SUPPOSE to be about. But we don't want new players to rage quit and leave our franchise!"
What am I talking about, you ask? THAT'S what I'm talking about!