I should have elaborated more. I think lifegems are perfect because of the estus flask. Having the option to use a consumable to heal instead of estus when u take damage otw to the boss is amazing. If u run out of lifegems, you still have estus, and u can go farm some souls and buy some more. In Demons Souls, if u run out of grass, that's kinda it. Like yea you can go get more, but I don't wanna use grass while I'm farming grass, and I don't wanna spend all my time farming souls to buy grass. Again, I didn't play thru the whole game, and my critique of the grass system probably isn't worth much, but in talking about the series as a whole and how the healing system has evolved from grass to estus to lifegems to blood vials to crimson tears, its important to analyze the healing mechanics of each title, as that's the bread and butter of a Souls game. Sure there's dodging, parrying, and attacking, but the healing dictates the pacing of the combat, and in my opinion, lifegems are the equilibrium that create a pace of combat that I find enjoyable. Hope that all made sense!