Oh thanks for telling me! I had heard they literally learned nothing from the first and did the exact same boo boos in 2 I appreciate knowing that because now I'm going to avoid it, I had considered trying it on sale but no way now

Picked it up yesterday and I'm working on beating the tutorial boss. Hardest one yet, I think—the power level difference is pretty rough! I know they know that people like me kill the tutorial bosses, so I wouldn't mind if they'd throw me a bone and let me just reset the fight without making a new save file. The runback really cuts into the practice time.

Even with p2p it becomes unbearable

Give us a Recluse breastsplate, you cowards!

Or there is another earlier puzzle that can be solved with the sandwich or the balloon. If you solve it with the sandwich to bad you can't finish the game.

I!...am Melania (bladeofmiquellaandihaveneverknowndefeat)

It's a whole vibe. What Fromsoft has done has yet to really be replicated in its entirety. The combination of old and new school design philosophies is a big part. Another is changing the story to fit the game, and not changing the game to fit the story. Lots of games replicate the 3rd person perspective, the stats, the dodge and parry mechanics, the respawning mechanics and bonfires/checkpoints, but still fail to get the vibe right when it comes to the actual story and storytelling. The worst offenders are things like Remnant that have BOOKS of exposition that tries to explain every little thing instead of allowing the player to figure it out and having things open to interpretation. Or Lords of the Fallen that just fail to have anything interesting going on in their worlds and have flat, one-dimensional characters. The closest thing that has managed to get most of everything right, including the vibe, is Lies of P. That's a dev that really understands what it is they are imitating and the things it doesn't live up to are super minor.