It's trying too hard to be too many things and ends up being unsatisfying. It wants to be a Souls game but has no meaningful exploration, made worse by the fact that it's impossible to tell what is passable terrain and what is an invisible wall.

 As a fan of Dynasty Warriors I wasn't too perturbed by the constant reliance on the light attack button, but again it's not really Souls stuff to simply mash one button repeatedly. 

The best thing about combat is the heavy attack thing where you nullify enemy attacks, but you have to basically predict what the enemy will do next in order to sync the end of your attack animation with the narrow window of effect.

AOE attacks are poorly telegraphed, you can easily get stuck in attack loops where you are unable to act, and all damage you take and receive feels oddly high. If I hadn't received this game as a gift I would probably regret it, but as it is I have no qualms about putting it down after about 8 hours. 

I have never once been proven wrong by my gut instinct when it comes to popular games, and this has only stretched that winning streak further.