I just played this game because of research purpose, I never play any souls-like genre anymore after PS2-era but I have experience in some hardcore action games and I think I'll like and able to beat this game.

But, after playing for 3-4 days, I found that I am not the "target player" because it makes me so tired. I like to do an exploration in many games, but here, it is very punishing, even more than the boss fights, especially when you dropped much souls in the middle of your journey.

I tried playing it again until I managed to kill several bosses, because I still like the storyline, and "research purpose" of course. Then, the more I tried it, the more curious I became, I also thought that I had learned about how to beat this game and it turned out to be fun for me, like a rhythm games that I really love. I got the intention of this game that sometimes you have to lose because you need to know the enemy patterns more, while you still feel the enemy is beatable if you try more.

What I also like here is there are lots of interesting hidden things, when you find them you will be even more interested. The lore itself is told indirectly which is cool for me. The consequences of your actions are also something I've never encountered in other games, like you can lose NPCs and their features for the entire session if you like, to kill them for example, or not do something before.

I want to play previous Dark Souls series to know the whole story but I'm afraid that I won't be able to enjoy the controls, based on my friend's story and it's a very old game. Maybe I'll try Elden Ring next (which I think is also good for my next research), whose controls (or perhaps difficulty level) have been "made easier" from this DS3 and also makes me more confident that I can beat it easily compared to DS3. XD