It's time to become a Hollow.
I never touched DS series. I knew about lore, setting, bad narrative and other Babazaki game-design ♥♥♥♥ but I decided to try and play. I'll give you some points of the game that i liked and did't like.

+Pros - Dark Age setting + lore, cool and varied set of bosses and regular mobs, as well as their design, decent visual for remaster, most locations are atmospheric and interesting to explore for the first time, good combat constituent.

-Cons - bad game balance, you literally can obtain a weapon with +500 dmg (if you reinforced it) in early game, broken camera in boss fights, afk bosses, Tomb of Giant (worst location ever exist), DLC content, i just skipped 5 DLS bosses 'cause i did't even know how to get to them and i can't kill them after beating main game, it's so weird for the RPG, absolutely terrible UI, bad narrative there is literally one cut scene in the game with a grain of plot, it's a crime to make cool lore and not talk about it at all.

My thoughts after ending:
Despite all the disadvantages of the game, I liked it. This is a good and atmospheric slasher. I've heard a lot about the hardcore nature of this series of games (this definitely doesn't apply to the DS1), but I don't agree with that. The game may seem difficult at the first couple of bosses, but then it becomes incredibly easy with good leveling of your character and weapons. The game is simple and short. If you want to play soul like, then this is a good option for you.

8 lost humanity out of 10