Wow, because the little bit of that which happened in Dark Souls completely turned me off. Because everyone was all about the challenge and the skill level and all that jazz. But no. If the game is about memorization and repetition and stuff, that isn't a good show of challenge or skill level. That's trial-and-error. Memorization. And as you say, masochism, or for the game's sake, it's sadism. I don't consider being forced to die, a challenge. I'd play Lords of the Fallen, for a game that wants to give real challenge, and not be cheap or ridiculous. But it sounds like it may have swung the pendulum too far the other way and is then too easy for a game of its style. But then again, that just puts it in the realm of God of War and Darksiders, and not necessarily a bad game. But I lost interest in those games too

I'm glad the Souls games give the fans what they generally want, but they are truly not for me. Especially after playing something like Alien Isolation, which had about the same level of stress and deaths, but at the same time, I could navigate huge swaths of the game, relying solely on my actual skill to survive and have a pretty good chance if I was just patient enough. There was never any parts that were pretty much set-up just to kill me off and make me have to re-tread and re-learn what was going on in that area the way Souls always did when you went somewhere new. I love that kind of challenge and I'd like more games to embrace real challenge. I always considered Souls challenge to be cheap. But I guess if you're okay with dying a lot, then the challenge is only trying to retreive your lost souls. To each their own. Just not for me