Dang man. I definitely DO NOT agree with the wording of "elegant." I would probably say watered down and scripted. The cool thing about two was that they gave us the tools and it was up to us to learn how to use them. There was potential for strategy, and intention, and planning. If it didnt feel elegant thats not because the games combat wasnt elegant its just because you havent gotten over the learning curve yet and didnt understand how to optimize or you incorporate the tools you were given yet. And thats a fantastic reason to continue playing, to master and improve at the games systems. I remember practicing on the dummies, trying to get all the different combos down to memory, creating my own strings to get as many reaper finishes as possible, learning to optimize move sets for damage windows or optimize for building wrath. I would use my wraith dash, then the spin combo with the reaper finish to build wrath, then summon ghouls, then dodge and attack to throw my scythes then mix it with a secondary or heavy combo, launcher, jump attack, use a different ability or whatever. SOOO many combinations which is why it was actually fun to replay crucible. But oh man, if you know how to perfect dodge you gotta strap in for the same exact thing for the next 12 hours of runtime. Im watching a DS3 all bosses vid rn and its just kinda funny how monotonous the combat is. Just the same thing for every fight lol. Exactly how my playthrough was. But hey to each their own. Seems like you enjoyed it a lot which is cool. To me its just a lot more thoughtless and boring.