I mostly agree. The UI is bad, but largely manageable. I don't like the inventory UI or sorting options. I don't like that you can't quickly compare gear against what is currently equipped. I'd like more quick use options (ie while holding Y, hold another bumper/trigger to give another set of face button items). Also wish they had better map marker options, even just numbers so you could write your own notes about markers easier. And you could make them bigger, or blink, or do something to make them harder to miss.

And I think it shouldn't be as hard to find normal smithing stones, nor require you to find a bell bearing to buy them - or if so, make them main-path/unmissable, and have them come earlier in the game. It makes it hard to try out weapons as you find them, making you stick to a very small pool to stay viable. Feels a crime to use so few of the million weapons they shower upon you. Also, let me transmog muh gear - got great stats, but look like I fell into Ye Olde Lost & Found.

I think the somewhat obtuse requirements for sidequests, while bad, isn't as big a deal breaker for me. I DO think there needs to be any easy way to revisit dialog from those NPCs, though, when you're trying to figure out where to go. To a degree, that obtuseness feels like it adds to the specialness or mystery, but it also unquestionably sucks to know you missed out on something. And maybe that something would have been huge for you or your build.

Still, all said, I am enjoying my time with it more than anything else in recent memory. And perhaps more than anything in several years' worth of memories. There are a lot of little things I'd like to change/add, but overall they feel like minor annoyances in the face of everything else I'm enjoying about the game.

I am trying to avoid falling into the trap of appearing like an unreasonable defender of From Software games, but I just thought I would add a few comments. Of course, I appreciate I have built up a LOT of knowledge of how these games work as I have completed all of FROMs games and even managed to platinum a few.

With that caveat out of the way, I would say that personally, I don't think there is anything at all wrong with the stat heavy nature of the game, in my view, it is an essential component in providing the amount of character customisation that the game offers. I would say that perhaps more could be done in respect of tutorials, but the 'HELP' button in the menus does offer guidance here too.

I think the biggest divergence between your position and mine is in respect of quest tracking. I would say that one of the design philosophies implemented by FROM, that all their fans adore, is the vagueness and mystery of the stories and side quests. For me personally, I love the way these stories are handled and I can appreciate that it will seem frustrating to gamers who are new to the way FROM make their games, but it absolutely is something that I think contributes massively to the games. Its this design choice that fosters that community to work at identifying side quest progression and its why there is so much content online on every FROM game.

In previous games I have met NPCs who you might interact with and help, only to find that they go on to kill other NPCs or even turn on you instead. FROM do rely on you reading the scene much more than other games, but I would take this over quest logs and icons on a map all day long. Perhaps there is something to be said that this approach becomes a little more unwieldly in a game of this size and scope, maybe, but I am there with my trusty pen and paper jotting down clues from the different NPCs that I meet and I am finding it thrilling.

@LoveSpuds

I dont have a problem with the game being stat heavy, what I meant was that if the game is so stat heavy, their UI/UX becomes more important and that is why it really falls behind. Sorting, comparing, managing stuff, its all a chore. You cant even compare items from the store to what you already have.

As for the quest stuff, again I can understand that some people like the lack of direction, but for me the problems are more than that.
For example, sometimes you need to talk with a character once to trigger the next step, sometimes twice, sometimes more, sometimes you need to reload the area or fast travel away and back just because. A lot of times characters will have changed locations without any sort of mention they were going to (like the grapes quest).
Sometimes a questline will be completely locked if you reach a location just by naturally getting there even though the character that gives it is right there.
Or advancing past a point in a quest will completely lock you out of another one by a different character in a different area, even though again, the character is right there.
And given how many of the more involved quests usually carry on to multiple much higher level areas than where they start, I find it odd how the game punishes the player in many quests for just continuing to explore and do other quests before reaching the area where you can continue with the quests (unless you check a guide)