Khazan managed to fix the problem with difficulty in games.

[LegitHyperbole]

Machina said:

When I played the demo I thought it was neat that you netted exp for a failed boss attempt, and that item drops (which all have set bonuses - another nice tweak on the FromSoft formula) seemed more frequent when replaying an area, so you could mix it up and do either - attempt the same boss multiple times or grind already explored areas.

I agree with your Elden Ring critique: open world + repeat bosses eventually makes the difficulty trivial if you like to explore and 'finish' an area before moving on to the next. It's one of the main reasons I prefer the Souls series.

The main downside to the Khazan demo I felt was that the areas were all quite small, so you were never really that far away from your corpse, and it felt too easy to reclaim your dropped exp. But I only played the demo so maybe things improve in the main game. Part of the appeal of a Soulslike for me is your universal exp being at threat, and I never really felt that in Khazan, which is why it's on my wishlist waiting for a discount rather than being an instant purchase.

I didn't once loose my EXP, they have a consumable to regain your EXP if you're unsure of being able to get to it so I think they wanted that design. A lot of the game is a facade to get it in as a soulsborne title, it's really Nioh but they can't market that as well. 

You don't have to grind areas for gear at all, you get enough weapons during a level that you can TP but to home base and augment your current weapon to bring it up to speed and if you didn't happen to get one with your current level you can buy one at home base and use that. Another QoL thing that goes against Souls philosophy but like I said, this is what the title menu says "A hard-core action RPG", not a soulslike in the general sense, much is added in as a facade to gain that marketing but this is an action game that looks like Souls with the ability to play it which ever way you choose, Sekiro, Nioh, Souls, Bloodborne, it's all there for you to choose. It even has many bosses that force you to change your style, like only dodge bosses, only parry bosses, bosses where it makes no other sense than to hold guard. In doing this it becomes it's own thing and it is pretty special for it.

I'm doing another run for the bighest difficulty trophy and Platinum and I've listened to the story this time, it's actually pretty good and really interesting. The game lacks atmosphere cause of its artstyle but I now realise the story makes up for that. The levels are great in places but some missions are designed really well too, they ate perfect for what they are though, a setting to place the amazing enemies in.