I had another short session, I have to say I am softening on the game but for reasons to do with me, I need something easy (Yeah, I know there are hard bits) and effortless to play and this game does that. No real thought needed aside from timing dodges and attacking, maybe a bit with some medicinal items and what build to choose but very lightly. I now actually happen to like the way to game feels, what I thought of as floaty at first is actually kind nice however I'm still not a fan of doge not working under certain conditions, it should cancel everything and work every time regardless since it is your only means of defence. The vibe is nice and soothing and the map keeps me from having to press against invisible walls for the most part.
They say that once you get out of the first area the boss gauntlet feel goes away and the game opens up. I have tempered but high hopes.

I don't play soulslikes, but from the overall gaming news and buzz it seems the hype died down pretty fast after launch. I guess people found out it was good but not great.

It was hyped right into the game awards, nominated for GOTY and won the peoples choice. That's a lotta hype post launch. 

Right now is 07:50 a.m EST and for a single player game that launched 5 months ago almost 50.000 players on steam is still a good number.

Exactly. There still is hype and it is actually backed up by numbers. It's stuff like this that is driving me through the first part of this game and onto where people say it gets great. 

The beginning of the game is very easy, however, it gets much more difficult as you progress.

Nice one. I was surprised by how easily I beat that big furry boss that was in the initial reveal, big disapointment but I hear the game opens up too and that's what I am waiting for, it's very linear boss to boss but I'm still very early I would reckon cause HLTB has this at 47-50 hours all styles, mains and sides. 

Based take and to get it a step further: even the same person may feel different about a game depending on the time in their live it hits, depending on their experiences in the genre or gaming or entertainment, depending on connections they can make or not make and even depending on their mood in the moment they picked up the controller. A 5 on Monday can be an 8 on Tuesday.

Exactly. This is such a good point. I'm going through some shit right now and I bet it has an effect on my view of this game cause I have to park KCD2 also.

The players mood, their life situation and all those little things DO effect how the player eases into a game. I picked up FF7 Remake 4 or 5 times before I restarted and ended up thinking it was great and Rebirth too even though I hated it the first few times.

I bet what you ate over the last week effects your sentiment to a game you choose to pick up in a slight way. 

That was actually very close to its daily peak.

Charting at 2% of peak users 6 months in isn't all that unusual, though, just a bit on the lower end, especially for a 40-hour+ game.