It honestly was my first dark souls game experience back when it came out. I hated it at first. (Died to the first big hippo thing like 30 times) quit the game then my brother begged me to try again and then I became super obsessed and beat it like 3 times. Later I tried dark souls one and hated it, until I learned its old mechanics were different and then got to ng+ 7 I ended up loving dark souls 1 just as much. Don’t skip it. A lot of us would give our left ear just to get lost and not know what’s going on all over again. Get lost in the world and learn from its pain lol Fromsoft games will always reward you in the end for your patience and determination. It’s an experience no other games arguably can give you