The first Souls game I played was Elden Ring, and had a blast with it. The next game I played was Bloodborne because I so often heard this was the best game in the series. I even hear it's some people's favorite game. So my expectations were high going into this one. And any differences between the two for me I expected to be nothing but just a simple preference thing. But this game has 1 major flaw that both shocked and annoyed me, especially since I hear nobody mention it, and that is the healing system. It is atrocious. I personally don't find it fun to have to grind up for healing items when I run out of them because a boss kicked my ass six ways to Sunday. Now if this was something that was optional or less prevalent throughout the game, then I wouldn't even be complaining about it. But this is a central core part of the game, and when it's like this through the whole game, then I can't ignore it, and I consider it just an objective flaw with this game.

The parry system is something that I enjoy, but itself isn't perfect. When used against enemies closer to your size, it works, and is satisfying to pull off, but it's simply not viable to use against much larger opponents. While it's still technically possible to parry a large beast with your gun, it's not worth doing. If it was able to be used more effectively on the towering beasts that come your way, then I'd be more inclined to say it's a great mechanic. But all I can see it as is a good mechanic that needed some tweaking.

The boss selection here, for the most part, is actually really good, and I don't have many complaints about it aside from Micolash, but that's like beating a skeletonized horse.

The insight system in theory I enjoy, but I don't think was a necessary feature of the game. Why add this on for the sake of added immersion or whatever Miyazaki was thinking for it? The game is hard enough, I generally don't think it needed to be there.

Everything else I have to say is just positive. The environments, atmosphere and music are all very well done.

Overall, I'd say I enjoyed my time here quite a bit, but was left disappointed by the end.

I think having a strong protagonist can go a long way in making any form of media more enjoyable. Regardless if they're a good or bad person, if the character is well written, it can make a whole lot of difference. After all, this is the character we're gonna be spending the most amount of time with. And while I find DanganRonpa to be an enjoyable mystery with some fun and well written side characters, the protagonist here, Makoto Naegi, falls short in being a good character in my opinion, and the game honestly suffers for it, I feel. Makoto not understanding a lot of things, and Kyoko having to drip feed him information bogs the game's writing down. It feels entirely for the sake of the player and not for any actual story reason.