Anons make it so complicated but its really not.
>souls games used to emphasize the role of grounded exploration in a bespoke world where just getting around the levels was a huge part of the challenge and experience
>later games then placed way more emphasis on memorizing enemy movesets and flashy boss battles, which takes away from the balance the earlier games struck between combat and exploration

Anons who argue
>"bro the games were always about combat!"
are bad faith actors. If you've actually followed the series and played the games (I grew up with day 1 Demon's souls btw) you know that DeS and DS1 capture a unique experience that the later games did not match, which Matt communicates near perfectly in his video which is why it continues to be proven right as the series has become more commercially successful