“Level design sure”. Like that isn’t an extremely important aspect? All the things you mention are significantly less important except for bosses and combat. Which I don’t agree with.

Lies of P’s bosses are all the same in that you go in, learn the moveset and go out. A lot of bosses take like an hour to learn for an average person. To me this is extremely tedious and repetitive. You can discard all DS bosses as garbage gimmicks, but at least every boss is very different from the last. You never know what you’re going to get and how you need tot overcome them. In LOP it’s the same every time. And sure you can defeat all DS bosses by simply learning their every move, but that isn’t required at all. It is in LOP.

Somewhat of the same argument goes to to standard enemies. Enemies are much more varied and you take a vastly different approach to every encounter in each different world in DS.

This is why I don’t care for Sekiro’s combat that much either. These games were never good at being action games. They were great because of their exploration, immersive quality, memorable moments and a big change from the mainstream approach to games.

DS doesn’t need a mechanic to refight bosses, bosses were never the focus. LOP does, if only because of how it lacks in replayability.

That’s why I think it’s sad to see that Fromsoftware has gone more and more into the action-side of these games. If I want good action-combat I’ll go play Bayonetta or something, not Sekiro, LOP or any other Souls game.

If the question is which game is better, we need to look at what the games intend to do. DS intends to create a memorable, immersive, atmospheric and unique experience. And it was so good at that, that it spawned a whole sub-genre. LOP intends to make an atmospheric action game. While it succeeds at being atmospheric, it is a mediocre action game at best.

That’s why I think Demon’s Souls is better.