Ask for the shape of the challenge.

Parry-first combat with windows tight enough that blocking on reflex fails and blocking on rhythm works.

It takes the one thing roguelikes normally give you — time to think — and puts it on a metronome.

Sekiro’s deflection on a 2D plane. Chip damage means blocking is not a plan, and every boss is a rhythm you learn on frames rather than a health bar you widdle down.

The EMMI zones are one-hit deaths with a counter window measured in frames, and the bosses expect dodges on reaction rather than pattern.

Two hits and you are in your underwear, three and the level restarts, and the game expects a second full loop before it will show you an ending.

A directional parry replaces the roll as the answer to almost everything, and the game is markedly better once it clicks and markedly worse until it does.

Steady, honest pressure plus a map that makes you earn the right to know where you are standing.

The mage hunts turn every boss into a chase across the map, which trades the first game’s clean duels for something closer to attrition.

The world is kinder than Dark Souls and the bosses are considerably meaner — almost all of the difficulty has moved into the fog gates.

Heavy attacks with no cancel, instant-death platforming, and guilt fragments that tax you for dying exactly where you were already struggling.