I got it yesterday too, and I think it's fantastic. This is one of the few soulslikes that feels right.

You can tell it's a love letter to the FromSoft games, made by people who understand what makes them fun: big intimidating bosses, different playstyles to experiment with, largely linear levels with secrets and paths that loop back on top of each other.

The difficulty feels well tuned and challenging. Some bosses have given me a little trouble, so I get to chase that high of "mastering" the fight by the time I beat them. I'm really enjoying it.

I've bought collectors edition of all fromsoft souls-games and initially I really like this, it's pretty cool so far, although I've only just arrived at the hotel.

I tried the game for a few hours but I just couldn't get into it.

Something about the dodge mechanic was not feeling right and I hated the overreliance on blocking/parrying. It's the one mechanic I've hated in all soulsborne games and never used when beating the games.

Also noticed how some enemies seem to have their attacks rubberbanded onto you even when you dodge.

Realizing I would have to rely on the parrying for the whole games was what made me finally stop playing today. I just don't find that fun or enjoyable.

I'm hopeful that they can rework the dodge more, but that was also my hope from playing the demo too and I still don't like it as it is now in the full game.

Hold the parry button rather than clicking it quickly. When you first hold the parry button is when the window starts, and it lasts a few frames while held. This works for perfect guard as well.

You'll still need to time it properly, but holding it longer should have a noticeable improvement in the consistency of your parries.

I was really interested, but heard that they added Denuvo after the review window, which is somewhat offputting.

I just finished the 2nd boss. This game feel funny to me. I played Soul Like with parrying consecutively (Sekiro , Wo Long, Jedi Survivor), so my instinct is to parry, but not seeing stagger bar and hearing people calling it Blood Bourne cause me to try to dodge primarily instead. Hey, it got me this far.

I will try playing it with parrying and see if it make my life easier. Those damn charging enemy with their multi hit drill require parrying on every tick. I'm not gonna Daigo that shit lol.

I think this game need Hanbei to teach the player basic. Those punching bags are so useless.

I've been playing a lot and it's the first soulslike that's genuinely great. It obviously borrows a lot but the mechanics they added in like the arm, skill tree, weapon assembling etc. do a great job at expanding some ideas rather then just copy pasting.

I agree with some people that it's deceptively more similar to Sekiro than Dark Souls. Even with the first dodge upgrade I feel like it's a bit undertuned compared to perfect blocks. Dodging feels finnicky because it has little I-frames and many enemies and bosses have insane tracking that's hard to dodge. Hopefully they might balance it out a little in the future.

I'm very happy the game didn't turn out to just be puppets as the first few areas suggest. The game really gets going when you come across some real monster variety. The area I'm in now is straight out of resident evil 4.

The one other complaint I have is the dialogue. It's so hit or miss. Like it's trying to be Bloodborne but also a comedy? It feels bizarre to see a lot of horror and be completely taken out by Gemminy making jokes. Just doesn't work for me.