I love souls-likes, but nothing about them has ever felt organic go me. I view them as akin to rythm games. You learn the attacks, the inputs to counter those attacks, and the timing at which to do those inputs, then just grind it out like a song and dance.
With that view, an attack added in to punish a roll isn’t cheap, it’s just the wrong input, like playing the wrong note in Guitar Hero. (Which is a huge simplification, but you get the idea)
I also love rythm games.
Yeah, the beginning of this game is a slog. I did not enjoy the first chapter at all, which sucks since the rest of the game is pretty chill and fun and the start does not represent it.
I was also playing it on the hardest difficulty which is not a good idea for your first playthrough of the first chapter…