re: Lords of the Fallen

Finished my first run.

So far, I probably can say I enjoyed it more than DS1-3 and Elden Ring.

I have not played Bloodbourne or Lies of P at the moment either.

I mainly compare Lotf to DS/ER because it is actually souls like where as the majority of the games labeled souls like are only souls like on the surface. Nioh is probably one of the best examples of this where the game is dramatically different.

The primary difference maker for me is the combat is just more interesting in Lotf than the closest comparison point games which is the DS series. I've been wanting FromSoft to improve on their combat for years, but they just haven't done it unfortunately.
It's not mind blowing interesting combat, but it's still improved compared to those titles for me. Nioh ruined me to be fair

I enjoyed the Umbral realm concept more than I thought I would. Using it for creative level design was a major plus for the game.

My primary complaint is the very strange decision to not have vestiges in NG+. Vestige seeds are still an option, but you only have 1 active at a time so doing other endings/quests on NG+ would be a tremendous chore.

Other complaints I have are not unique to the title as it clearly took heavy inspiration from Souls titles. The bizarre lack of information in menus and the UI is just frustrating since you realistically don't know if an item is good or bad since you normally get generic descriptions without actual numbers.
No in game legend for UI icons is also frustrating as usual since some icons are not clear.

Overtly convoluted questlines with NPCs teleporting to sort of random places which require you to look those quests up if you want to retain your sanity.

Ranting about that aside, I enjoyed it overall and will probably do the other endings at some other time on fresh chars. If you want the DS3 feel but with more interesting combat, Lotf feels like that to me.