Ask for the shape of the challenge.

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

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.

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

Souls-shaped in its checkpoints and parry windows without souls-shaped stakes. Grandmaster punishes the block-heavy habits the lower difficulties let you keep.

Modern checkpoint generosity on the surface, with a completion layer underneath that wants every box and no deaths across a level built to cause both.

Kinder than the first in every way that matters — the instant-death platforming is gone — and the map is still built to be read rather than followed.

There is no block button — parrying is a direction plus an attack, aimed at the incoming blow, and the game tells you this once and then assumes it.

NES difficulty with modern checkpoints — and you can smash the checkpoints for gold, which is the game’s whole attitude in one mechanic.

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

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.