thief sticks out to me in that list. all the others are run-based with metaprogression (except the original rogue of course) which means there is never a time where you get stuck. you die, you restart, you get an entirely new experience. thief is not only linear and slow, it is almost entirely devoid of combat and encourages savescumming because that was the style at the time. by thief 3 that was mitigated.

souls games, in contrast, are not run-based, heavy on combat, and not liberal with the opportunity to save. in addition there’s the retrieval mechanic which means that when you fail, your only option is to redo the run that you just failed but with higher difficulty.

and with “plays like a video game”, my main gripe is the dissonance between the world and what you do. the story is interesting, but it’s like the game itself doesn’t care about it. the developers do, and the player is supposed to, but the game doesn’t.