I know spoilers for DS3 so no needing to hold back.
Still, having only a couple options for movement in 3 isn't really that much of an improvement where 1 let you traverse anywhere up to an orange fog or Sen's Fortress before the bells and 2 gave you Forest, Heide, and the Majula Pit from the getgo. Shaded Woods if you found a couple branches. In 3 you got... Swamp Episode 2 or Undead Settlement Episode 2 ft. the first of way too many cathedrals.
As for difficulty, Irythill had some trouble near the beginning until I realized I can literally just bait every enemy there into a combo and poke away with an estoc.
I'm running a melee quality build because DS3 seems to hate anything that can't attack in a split second. Estoc/Skill Shield/Farron Greatsword/Greatshield.
Above all it's just... So easy. I've had a good few deaths in catacombs and Irithyll sure, but at no time did I feel that I had to improve to overcome an area so much as "figure out how to bait a combo and also maybe upgrade a weapon sometimes."
Also it doesn't help that 3 really hates certain playstyles. The only boss that gave me issue was Abyss Watchers and even then that's because I was trying a greatsword because using my estoc felt like cheesing them. Everything in this game is too fast for so many of the strength weapons unless you're really good at spacing or have prior experience with the enemies. I end up wanting to use my FG (because I favor STR builds on my first run through each Souls game, 1 and 2 namely.) but ultimately I have to switch to the estoc because it's twice as effective.
I don't know. DS3 is still an above-average game but coupled with banking much of it's lore on DS1 nostalgia, completely retconning 2 (including the improvements like powerstancing and lances/twinblades, lifegems), little replayability, and entirely invalidating some builds because it thinks it's Bloodborne, I think it's just... Lazily designed.
Also I don't have the DLC because I've been playing my brother's pirate copy to gauge if I want to buy it properly, so that also eliminates co-op (which I rarely used in the other games anyway) and PVP (which isn't that great in 3 anyway).
Once again though, I really want to like DS3 more because it's still a Souls game which puts it above a lot of games released this year, and I have a lot of fun fighting the faster, more Bloodborne-inspired enemies. Abyss Watchers was [tornado fang]ing TIGHT, dude. I just feel like DS3 is... So lazy compared to DS1 which respected player agency more than any other game in the IP and DS2 which pushed it's own lore separate from 1 and added so many QoL improvements.