If you read DS or DS2 forums, the fan base has crazy, elaborate theories about the "story" in those games. I loved the mystery aspect, but IMO 1/2 of the "story" was lost in Japanese-to-english translation and the rest is made up crap. Some of the first DS bosses were unforgettable though.
Dark Souls 2 doesn't give you a Hollywood style story with a happy ending all neatly tied up and concluded.
Either does real life.
But there is a story unfolding in your life comprised of the events that take place within it.
Your Dark Souls 2 story will be different to everyone else, as your real life will be, but they all start the same way.
Consciousness begins.
I think therefore I am.
What do you see? What do you discover?
What have you learned about yourself through the events in the game? Lose your temper? Try to shift the blame from yourself to the game in your frustration?
What interactions with other "souls" do you seemingly randomly encounter on your walk through "life". I wonder what their journey has been like? Surely similar, surely different. We all face many of the same issues in real life as we're pushed from institution to institution from birth, yet we all feel unique.
No one wants to be told their story. You'd probably be offended if anyone tried. If you could learn the date you are to die in the future would this information be a blessing or a curse to you?
Dark Souls 2 shares many of the themes of real life.
The story of your life is
yours to write. Life has no apparent purpose, we're born alone, we die alone, our time alive is finite, and yet, like the games NPC Lucatiel, it's so precious to us we'd likely kill another to preserve whatever time we have left of it - even as we're unaware how long that may be...
Mortality is the curse we're all born with and this theme has never been more fully realised than in the Dark Souls games.