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Let me preface this by saying that I've never played Dark Souls or that style of game. After talking with some friends who have, let me state that if you don't like Dark Souls or that type of game, this game is probably not for you. I didn't know what to expect coming into this. The devs said DS was their inspiration and they've seemed to borrow heavily from the mechanics. When you start the game it asks you to pick a difficulty. There is Story, Normal, Hard, and Jedi Master I believe? Each difficulty has a set of meters to show you what you're getting into. Story being the easiest has the parry timing meter maxed out, and the damage taken really low. So even if you don't like DS games but you want to experience the story, they are accommodating to that. Basically the harder the difficulty the more damage you take and hitting the parry moves are unforgiving if you mistime it. Combat is slow and methodical. You must block, dodge, parry, and choose when you attack. Only the most basic enemies can you slice down without much thought. And there aren't many of those unless they're served as fodder to allow the bigger enemies to try to get a hit in on you while you're distracted. At least at first. As I gain more force abilities I've noticed combat against mobs is getting easier. But to start out you only have an ability to slow a single target. You can block almost everything, but at the cost of a stamina meter. Which I've only ran out of once so far. Each enemy type has an unblockable attack. When this triggers they'll glow red letting you know you must parry. I'd say you can only get 2-3 swings of your saber in at a time before having to evade or parry. The bigger beasts I don't have much problem with, but Storm Troopers with rocket launchers are bullshit. They're always far away on a pearch shooting rockets while you're occupied with smaller enemies. Rockets hurt, and they can't be dodged or deflected. You just have to back roll or run away out of the blast. The only advantage is that they may accidentally shoot their own men and kill them saving you a little bit of time. One other gripe I have is trying to parry on a narrow area. This game doesn't have many if any invisable walls or any kind of mechanic that will assist you from falling off the edge. Sometimes fights take place on narrow structures and when you parry, if you do it just a little wrong you'll fall off the side and die. Also leveling up results in skill points. There are no true levels, but if you get killed by someone/thing in between skill points you lose all that XP. You can go back and hit the enemy that killed you to get all the XP back, but it has a time limit on. Save locations act as your place to spend skill points and "rest". The HP system relies on healing canisters that as far as I can see only replenish when you choose rest at these areas. It will also refill your HP bar. When you do this it will also respawn every enemy you've killed in the area. You'll have to choose wisely on if full HP is helpful too you. For the most part these points are placed well for the pace of the story, but a few are a bit of an asshole. So far every map has had places I can't get into until I get the right force powers. While fighting mechanics can be stressful, I'd say the game is 70% puzzles and exploring and 30% battle. With that you'll find hidden chests with health cannister expansions and cosmetics. The light saber has 5 different customizable parts, and your outfit, BD1, and your ship can all be skinned by things you find in the chest. Its an interesting experience by far for me. I never wanted to play a DS style game but here I am, it will probably be the only one.