>2) With respects to weaponry, it's important to acknowledge
>how distinct most of the weaponry is in terms of move sets and
>playstyle. It's not like the 100s of weapons in Dark Souls 2
>were all as dramatic in effect as the Majestic Greatsword (the
>one that gave you Artorias' flips and shit). Instead of 15
>different curved swords with different weights and various
>buffs but a single moveset, you have a single curved sword
>that can transform into a scythe and be fitted with various
>buffs.

true enough but i think there were myriad differences in the dark souls 1 weapons, however subtle they were, i.e. nearly all the spears and polearms having different R2 attacks despite sharing the same R1 attacks and the 40 or so rare/boss weapons having unique attacks and/or properties. plus, if weapons did have identical (or nearly identical) movesets, they had distinct weight/range/damage properties that separated them from similar weapons. and then there's two-handing, which doubled the movesets for every weapon

but what i'm gathering from your post and what i've seen of the game is that the slot system replaces the need for unique variants and the ability to transform makes up for the lack of traditional two-handing

>3) Most importantly, this game is extremely nonlinear, far
>more than the original release of Dark Souls 2 and perhaps
>more than DS1. Less than half of the bosses in the game are
>necessary for completion, and you best believe there's a bunch
>of secret shit. In this era of gaming, it's weird as all hell
>for people to still not know what some items do or how many
>covenants are in the game.

this sounds extremely promising. it's only been a week so i suppose i should take any comparisons to the souls game with a grain of salt