In my opinion, cutscenes, a shitton of NPC dialog, and visual design are more than enough to establish a theme. The main theme for DS2 is about the curse and the destruction of self that it brings. And the curse is very, very central to DS2. Since, as a gameplay example, when you die, you permanently lose a chunk of HP until you use a human effigy, which helps you remember yourself.
In my opinion, cutscenes, a shitton of NPC dialog, and visual design are more than enough to establish a theme. The main theme for DS2 is about the curse and the destruction of self that it brings. And the curse is very, very central to DS2. Since, as a gameplay example, when you die, you permanently lose a chunk of HP until you use a human effigy, which helps you remember yourself.