I just uploaded a video from Bloodborne showing the general movement in combat, as you can see, you can aim all your rolling attacks, & change the direction of every attack in general, this is how it worked in Demon's & Dark 1 as well:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cb0MWa8kCH4
Here is a video I just recorded of Dark Souls 2:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d9OoC0HvELQ
As you can see here, aiming your attacks is extremely wonky, your character often hits a completely different direction than what you intended, that is imo the biggest flaw in Dark Souls 2, not the level design, not the bosses, not the difficulty balance, but this.
Keep in mind that in every situation here, I was aiming my attacks towards the screen, but every single time, my character was hitting to the sides or refusing to attack where I'm actually aiming, it's especially bad with rolling attacks as your character 90% of the time doesn't hit the direction you're aiming.
That's why I can go back to Dark Souls 1 & Demon's Souls & not feel that the combat is wonky, because the combat was never wonky in those games, Bloodborne didn't somehow make the other games obsolete mechanically, they were god-tier the moment they released, & that never changed to this day, judging the previous games by playing Dark Souls 2 is a terrible idea.
I don't have the technical skills to make a side-by-side comparison video, but feel free to use those videos if you want.
(Dark Souls 2 is still better than 99% of the games out there, so it's certainly not "bad' or "shit").