Haha glad to know a fellow glutton for punishment! Yeah, absolutely love everything about the world, enemy design, art direction etc. They're gorgeous dark fantasy worlds. And honestly, I can handle difficult games most of the time, but I think it's the slow that makes me bounce off them when I'm struggling with a boss. Getting slaughtered, then starting back at a checkpoint, running all the way over there again etc. I know that's kinda the point with these games but honestly, if there was a checkpoint outside the boss doors, i could handle all the other punishments. I'd happily fight a boss 50 times in a row, with no breaks. I like that adrenaline you get in other games, where each death like focuses you, as you mash "Try Again" etc. But in the souls games, I feel like starting so far away each time diminishes that focus, if that makes sense, and I end up losing interest.
My hope here is there's gonna be so much to explore and discover that I'll be able to sniff out other ways to level up and test out strategies before coming back to a tough enemy etc