The First AAA Souls-Like: Lords of the Fallen — what went wrong?

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Lords of the Fallen was the first souls-like with a budget that tried to imitate the success of Dark Souls. It's a mixed bag, but why exactly doesn't it measure up?
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TIMESTAMPS
0:00 intro
0:53 the biggest problem
2:57 story/main character
3:37 starting classes
4:10 first impressions, first area, animations
4:46 boss designs(?)
5:34 bonus exp, visuals
6:38 npc dilemma
7:14 floaty combat
8:40 recovering exp is a problem
9:18 boss 3 & 4, demon zone, heavy breathing
10:16 broken magic
11:39 catacombs & sidequest rant
13:26 boss 5, the citadel, story context
14:20 enemy design problems
15:48 the remaining 5 bosses
16:57 closing thoughts
18:20 sponsor/outro

thank you to help from:
Grapfic for help with the thumbnail:   / grapfic  
Onua for creating the SFM pose of the Solaire and the Lords of the Fallen guy in the thumbnail:   / odynom