A lot of people who aren't very good at video games or who don't have a lot of time to play are put off by games that are compared to Dark Souls.

No one ever says a game is "the Dark Souls of genre" because they're saying it has great atmosphere, deep lore, and an incredibly well-made level system that connects its levels together so well — which are all great attributes of the first Dark Souls.

What people usually mean by "the Dark Souls of genre" is unrelenting difficulty, a brutal checkpoint system, complicated inventory management, and harsh consequences upon death.

I can totally get why someone who only has maybe an hour a day to play would see something compared to Dark Souls and decide to avoid it because they don't want to spend weeks dying to the same boss until they've perfectly memorized its moveset — which is the image of Dark Souls that a lot of its fanbase has cultivated.

To be clear: I fucking love Dark Souls. I've played and replayed Demon's Souls, DS1–3, Bloodborne, Sekiro, and Elden Ring more times than I can count.