It's not?
Their previous, "legacy" gameplay had me 100% focused on careful exploration of tightly designed levels while minding scarce resources in a tense, survival affair. But here I'm 50% of the time IIIEEEEEE HAAAA!!! superfast on my horse through empty maps ignoring monsters for collectibles, while the other 50% of the time I'm on a mild version of that "legacy" experience where I can insta-teleport back to farm for next level instad, and so losing precious runes/souls/runes is never an issue?
ER is the easiest From game, or at least it can be as easy as you make it.
When I said it's the same I referred to the mechanics, gameplay, options, tools etc. I didn't mention the new additions: vast open world, horse, crafting, guard counter.
Literally the only new features of the title. The game is also made easier by the sheer amount of bonfires/graces available and being able to teleport to any of them with the the only restriction that you're not in combat.
The same elements from the previous games are: UI, weapons and weapon arts/ashes of war, spirit summoning, same inventory, same layout and ways of selecting and equipping gear, spells, consumables, weapons, NPCs and the way you interact with them and do their quests, how they teleport from one place to another, how you have to reload an area to get them to move after exhausting their dialogue, same overall story/lore concepts, same menus, same stats, same status effects maybe old ones reworked a bit and renamed, same structure with areas and area bosses, minibosses, bonfires, shortcuts, secondary locations, resting at a bonfire respawns the enemies, heals you, access a storage box, select NG+ and on and on and on. These are not all negative things, just the sameness I was referring to.
