I've beaten DS 3. The weapon selections giving you different power attacks pale in comparison to games that actually focus on having a meaty combat system, magic is slightly more interesting - at its best it just lets you skip stuff by pressing the "I win" button but most of the time it's just useless.

Parrying in Dark Souls is the weakest mechanic by far, because the games are incredibly inconsistent about telling you what can and can't be parried - like a lot of those games' bullshit, you end up having to use a guide because if you fail a parry it's impossible to tell if you failed it because your timing was off or if you failed it because that particular attack can't be parried.

Then there's the fact that the game's design is antithetical to actually practicing parries and dodges and testing different magic spells in the first place. If walking back to the boss takes several minutes every time you die, practicing becomes a massive test of patience because fuck that. There's a few bosses right by bonfires but it should be every boss.

Also: boy I sure can't wait to walk through poison swamp #357 this game sure is more well designed than fucking Zelda! Imagine playing a game where you know which direction to go in order to progress the story won't catch me doing that cringe shit LOL