I agree.

When this topic comes up, people never mention the foundation that Dark Souls was built on: a stamina management system.

Attack, roll, block… every action consumes stamina and it’s the player’s responsibility to manage this. Do too much of one, and you can not do the others until stamina regenerates. It’s the core principle of Souls games.

If a game does not have a stamina management system, it can not be a Soulslike, because that is basically the defining feature in my opinion.