Of my main 'gaming' pals, only my brother and I are the Dark Souls fans. Our discord group all bought in, and we could pinpoint exactly what boss someone was at by the mix of rage/resignation/despair they were exuding in comms.

You're right, it's absolute bullshit, and it's still the most accessible of the games FromSoft have put out!

As a big middle finger to the vets, the first big boss was designed to take everything about movement patterns (beaten into players), and throw it out the window. This dude has a windup attack that lasts 2 seconds longer than it needs to; you roll away? He cancels it. His three hit combo? Adds a fourth if you roll in to punish him. Movement tracking? He's got it up until the final second of a move. He can break away faster than you can, and forces you to bring the fight to him. The absolute opposite of what I was trained to handle.

I was so pissed, but eventually pleased that they understood their playerbase well enough to fuck with them so effectively.

I have Inquisition, never started it but I heard a similar description to what you've just offered so I may have to give it a hoon.