fear not the man who has to review a bad game, fear the man who has to review a very good, overrated game

i always heard about this game talked about as "inspired by souslike", and while many good features come from this, such as the relative depth of skill, having to traverse and navigate hallownest and accompanying systems more or less "blind" as well as the great world and characters, this also brings some of the worst parts of the game, like a learning curve that punishes new players extra harshly for being new, boring template "reaction only" bossfights with near zero spectable outside of a few (some even relying on basically getting lucky enough to not get an undodgeable pattern) and godawful runbacks of repeating the same rooms over and over again sometimes taking up to 10-20% of your play session if you're focusing on a boss or two

great experience, way too long, bit too hyped