I'm in between all the Souls games, including ER, and it dawns on me that Dark Souls just hits so different. Yes, it's kinda linear, but that's the charm. For instance, I spent the entire day trying to kill the Moonlight Butterfly. I ended up killing it and getting the drops. I went back to the blacksmith to give him the item from the bridge I was on. Came back strong against the knights that I had issues with and decided to take the elevator down....to where I first started.
I could have been mad and frustrated, but it just felt surreal. Like an eternal cycle where every action leads you back to square one. It's poetic. Compared to Elden Ring where the open world is beautiful and all, but missing something.
Most open world games just feel like a void of binary, compared to games like Bioshock and etc where the environment tells the story. You lose that element of thought in open world games outside of GTA.