Scott, you’ve written a detailed explanation and you have my respect for that since most players come to this forum without having thought carefully about the criticisms they make.
That said, I think you approached the game with the wrong mindset and this led to a bad experience. In fact, the problems you encountered (which are real and many have been fixed in the new versions) have been magnified out of proportion because of this approach.
The “casual gamer” situation:
In my experience, when it comes to the “casual gamer” I’ve encountered two archetypes (or sometimes a mix of the two):
The first is the player with little experience and or little time to play (I assume you fall into this category since you played Ori which is not a very easy game.).
If you’re this type of gamer, I recommend playing simpler games in the same genre first, especially Death’s Door & Another Carb’s Treasure. By playing these games, you should have all the resources (skill and experience) you need to enjoy NRFTW on medium difficulty (which is the intended difficulty, and therefore also the best experience as a first playthrough).
The second archetype is the player who sees the game as a power fantasy adventure where he wants to be able to advance without much difficulty. This player is interested in relaxing while playing the game, he just wants the right resistance to make the gameplay interesting. For the rest, he is interested in the story and therefore dying more than 3/4 times in an area or from a boss while exploring becomes frustrating for them, they just want to go forward and see what’s beyond the obstacle of gameplay and explore the world and the story.
If you are this type of player, you can set the difficulty to easy and read the tutorials carefully (which are now much more numerous and better written (still not perfect)) and the effects of the enchantments, you can play this way, but if you have 0 experience in the genre you might still have to put in a bit of effort, and you should play the game once it’s fully released (so you can see the whole story without waiting for updates).
Direct answers to your concerns:
The enemies at the beginning of the game have attack combos that may seem very fast and dangerous, but once they finish an attack combo they stop for a while and you have a clear opportunity to hit them.
Once you get to Sacrament you can choose multiple paths, you can also go back to the starting area to level up and get some loot (the enemies and houses change so it’s not a repetitive experience)
Perry is a mechanic that is designed to be riskier than dodging and in exchange gives you a greater reward when you execute it correctly you can complete the game without doing any perry you are never forced to learn this mechanic (is intended to be used by the most skilled players and ignored by the less skilled players).
There are very few attacks that are unclear and don’t work well. This is an impression you may have due to your lack of experience. You may have difficulty reading the animations because you are not used to isometric view (this is why I recommend playing Death’s Door).
It’s a punishing game, it’s when you make a mistake or get hit or die, but you’re not punished for doing the right thing, you only get punished when you make a mistake, so this statement isn’t true. Furthermore, the punishment isn’t that big, you just have to walk a little way to get back to where you were, and the enemies you’ve already defeated don’t come back.
Now there is an easy mode, but even before there were ways to make your life easier, for example you can level up, you can use consumable items that you find around, and generally by exposing the easy areas instead of the difficult ones the game naturally becomes easier.
Weapons and armor do not take damage with use but lose their use every time you die (tools (pickaxe, axe, shovels and peck cane) are excised but they wear out when you use them) so this impression of yours comes from the fact that you die often.
This is an intentional choice by the developers, designed to make the player take breaks when they die a lot. I have a lot to say about this mechanic, both positive and negative, and I think I’ll write a topic about it.
Now the descriptions are more readable and easier to understand but the system still has many problems. I have discussed them here: The RNG Problem, Enchantment System Vs Gem System (Refined) and I also proposed a very detailed solution.
Now the tutorials are there but there is still no way to comfortably re-watch the tutorials that have already appeared. However they confirmed that they intend to resolve these issues.
I have not encountered this problem, I think you just need to increase the brightness of the game from the settings.
The vendors are all near the same square except one, and now they’ve also removed the loading times to enter their stores.
It’s done in post to increase replayability but the Devs said they will make sure you also have the possibility to obtain things in a precise and consistent way. For example, the next update will add a research table that will allow you to obtain blueprints of Items you are researching.
I think you have this impression because you are not used to the isometric camera, even in my opinion it would be a good idea to make the fall damage less punishing
The game continues to improve in this area and the developers intend to bring the game to the Switch 2 as well, so as long as your system is better than a Switch 2 you shouldn’t have any problems (in the finished product).
The Multiplayer Update is the next update.
The game’s combat is designed to make you think about every possible move. It’s not difficult just because it’s difficult, it’s difficult because you have to learn it.
I think it’s somewhat true but no one said that NRFTW has to be your first Souls game or your first isometric view game, That’s why I recommend you play games like Death’s Door & Another Carb’s Treasure first to introduce yourself to the genre, so you can better appreciate this game.
I agree that they can do better but the current situation is not terrible and the game continues to make progress in these areas in every update.