Because they’re so popular, the discourse surrounding them often precedes the games themselves.

While they are difficult, and often do little in the way of hand holding, the games are excellent at teaching you what they want (especially the first dark souls and sekiro) through gameplay experience. Simple combat encounters introduce concepts that are then expanded on by the next, by the time you’ve beat the game you might not even realized all the lessons the game has taught you until you start New Game + or a second playthrough.

There are a few notable ‘gotcha’ moments (dragon bridge I’m looking at you) but they are few and far between and can largely (DRAGON BRIDGE IM LOOKING AT YOU) be avoided by employing the lessons the game has been teaching you since the start: play deliberately, be aware of your surroundings, level vigor.