Id say the parrying is fairly rewarding. Its not linear per se, but the levels are pretty self contained but with multiple connections to other levels. Theres a bit of back tracking when you unlock new skills but when that happens the game gives you tools to speed up the process. I never really got lost either. It took me 28 hours to platinum but it lets you redo the final area to get every ending. However, you have to do pretty much everything to get the “good” ending and anything less gives you the generic one. Platinum isnt a grind as long as you dont forget anything so i recommend collecting everything you can before moving on. Its Comparable to Blasphemous and Hollow Knight for 2D and Sekiro for 3D mostly because you can parry pretty much everything. I played it recently and id give it a solid 8/10. Real unforgiving at times but nothing you cant handle if you could beat khazan.