It might be worth a try. I don't really consider myself a gamer anymore - I hadn't really been into a single-player game since I was a kid before I tried Dark Souls Remastered a couple of years ago. I had bought at least a dozen games over the years but never played any more than a few times. Dark Souls got me hooked completely, I ended up playing through the game 3-4 times which I had never done with any game even as a kid.

The online reviews are all nothing but positive but I played this for 3 hours and found it pretty bad. It superficially looks like Skyrim which I really like but really it’s just a game of memorising very specific timings for pressing a button. Combined with basically no direction from the game so you spend ages walking around wondering what you are meant to be doing.

I was like that until I played Bloodborne and just bashed my head against the wall and grinded through the first boss (who was extremely difficult). Afterwards the game "clicks," and you get used to the difficulty. Then it becomes a rewarding experience.

I consider the original Dark Souls as one of the best video games ever made (I quit the first time I played it on Ps3). I played it again after playing Bloodborne, DS2, and DS3. And it aged very well. Sure, some parts are clunky, and it is missing some quality of life features found in later games. But it's a classic.

I haven't either and I've played Dark Souls. A cursory search on YT will yield tons of results and inform you best. Watching someone try and fail to beat a boss 20 tries later is not conducive to wanting to play it, personally. It simply comes across as masochistic and a waste of time.

OTOH, a friend of mine loves the series and Bloodborne. The way he explains it, the satisfaction of finally conquering a boss after so many trial and error runs is unmatchable. In a sense, it's similar to difficult games (platformers for me) of the 80s and 90s, or some old school shooters. A slow and steady build-up of skills culminating in mastery. I'd rather do that with something else than videogames.

My take is that I've gotten lazier over time, wanting to enjoy a game for its escapism and relative challenge it provides, but not enough investment that it becomes a chore.

I wasn't interested until I tried it, because I didn't get it until I experienced it for myself.