I had given DS1 a try on PC back when I saw the game played by PewDiePie (jesus this was ages ago) and didn't really get the game at all; keyboard controls prior to PTD edition probably didn't help either lol
My first real venture into soulslikes was Bloodborne and it went horribly to say the least. I killed the Cleric Beast and Gascoigne the first evening I tried the game and put down the game afterwards but it was just too much for me. I was scared, didn't know what I was doing, and it was just waay to hard for me.
Took me a couple of years to get back to it and give it another shot. One of my all-time favourite games today.
How about you guys?
Tried DS1, immediately put it down. Years later tried Sekiro, immediately put it down.
Then I played Elden Ring until the Fire Giant and put it down.
Then I finished Elden Ring multiple times, finished Sekiro, finished Lies of P, and am now making my way through Black Myth: Wukong.
Took some time to really get invested, but now I love Soulslikes! I often find myself doing a couple of boss attempts, doing something else for 30 minutes, and then doing another bunch.
I feel like this is the experience most people getting into these games go through. It's just a very different kind of game compared to what's out there and usually played. It's funny if you think about too: soulslikes, at their core, are also just 3rd person action adventure games with combat, story, whatnot, but the way the combat is the focus of the games makes for a very different experience