Now that Dark Souls is "sticking" with me (or I'm sticking with it), I'm noticing that the pacing is good.
Despite its reputation for being punishing, it's not relentless. There are quite a few spaces for taking everything in and contemplating what has happened. It's not too far from Breath of the Wild in that way.
Radiating from recovery points, there's wandering space, some easy (!) opponents, "how do I get there?" teasers, and of course, new and terrifying opponents. The journey back after those guys kill you isn't too disheartening so far, though, perhaps because I'm not in any sort of rush toward completion.
The deaths continue to be hilarious. Me jumping down a hole that was way deeper than I expected and dying and being told YOU DIED made Katt laugh harder anything on that TV in the last year.
Dark Souls takes a more realistic approach to drinking potions than the games that potions usually appear in. Meaning no one waits for you to drink your potion. Enemies are still trying beat your ass, even if you want to drink a potion. So, you have to dash away and try to glug that shit while guys come at you. Stopping your mace attacks to drink a magic Gatorade looks incredibly hilarious in this game.