I used to think like this, before the genre "clicked" for me. But I now understand that "git gud" is kind of what the experience is about.

Sekiro was what did it for me, and that game forces you to learn the enemies attack patterns. Seems insurmountable at first, but after dying a bunch, it clicks, and the enemies become much easier. Some to the point of triviality. And it's like riding a bike, you can come back a year later and after five minutes you're right back in it. That process itself has become enjoyable to me.

Lmao this is such a strawman. Most of the fans I know would say the games are actually pretty easy; that's why we like to do things like Level 1 playthroughs or randomizers to actually add a challenge.

I should also add that I generally find souls like games to be boring boss fights and block/dodging. The difficulty is meh but I just don't find them fun.

You can't pause but you can just quit out of the game and you'll be exactly where you left off so if you need to step away from the game just do that. Loading is super fast anyways.

Elden Ring you can, but it’s a weird workaround. You need to go into the menu, go into viewing an item, and select “menu explanation” or something like that and it pauses.

You do have menus to interact with, but the game continues going while you're in a menu. Not typically an issue if there's no enemies around, but it can take some players by surprise if they try to use it to pause in the middle of combat.

It's kinda nice for advanced players though, since you're able to move through the level and swap equipment at the same time.

The 'savepoints' in the game are where players 'pause/reset' the level. Otherwise quitting out the game entirely is quick, easy, and does mostly the same purpose. Unless you're in a few specific points you're right where you were when you quit out. Enemy positions reset, but otherwise progress is saved in realtime with the exception of bossfights. They reset the room entirely until defeated.

(Players can actually quit out fast enough that they can 'undo' falling off a cliff as the game resets their position to the last point on a solid ground.)

So there is effective pausing of the game, just not a pause while panicking midgame button.

You can pause in Sekiro (best From Software game imo)

I love that game but absolutely suck at timing dodges/counters. Almost every fight I restart because I forget or screw up the enemy patterns.

Still having a blast

The fact that you can’t pause when it’ the enemy’s turn is really frustrating tho, especially for foes that chain 5 attacks every time any character makes a move

Sekiro pauses in the menu

It's been happening since she started her career. I remember being confused seeing a post on Reddit about 10 years ago now about how a bunch of incels were talking shit about an article she wrote or something me

What is even the context? She doesn't have kids, as far as I know.