Following on the discussion about "Souls-lite" the other week I'll be playing one this weekend: Rise of the Ronin. Okay listen, it's definitely emphasis on the lite and not the Souls, but it does have bonfire equivalents and you do have an upgrade currency you temporarily lose if you die, and permanently lose if you die again before collecting it.
Overall I'm surprisingly enjoying it quite a bit. The combat takes a while to get going with a lot of stuff locked behind unlocks, but have heard a lot of praises about it and I can see that it's got some cool depth to it. Also a very heavy parry focus, which is fun (when I hit them). So far it feels like a better version of Ghost of Tsushima for me, despite the difference in reception of the two games. It doesn't look as good, mind. I also haven't run into any performance issues, so they may have been fixed in patches.
Personally I've been in both camps, first playthrough of Dark Souls was absolutely a sword-and-board, shield raised rounding every corner kind of gameplay. I have progressed with time, and these days I am more of a dodge and weave kind of player, but I did sometimes resort to using a shield in Elden Ring whenever I thought a boss or situation called for it. Helps that I played right at launch (pre Barricade Shield nerf).
I do think it's more fun to dodge/parry, but it's not always fun enough to risk not beating the boss.
I'm looking forward to trying to master the combat, there is a lot of cool tech with stance switching and weapon switching and whatnot. Looks like it's very deep if you want to get into it, I'm already struggling with remembering everything I can use in combat and I haven't even unlocked all the stuff yet!