4/5 stars given that I personally find the story to be a greatly important part of a game, and this game is quite short (which is a shame, given how expensive it is) and its story lacks depth. Plus, even though it has some ray tracing implementation, for the current standards, its graphics are not particularly impressive.
The bright side is that its mechanics, although a little bit weird at first, are actually very fun and addictive (in a good way😁), and just swinging endlessly through the city does hit different... 😊

First and foremost, this is a spiritual successor to King's Field IV! Both the latter in comparison with the previous KF games and the former in comparison with the other DS games have a brighter, sometimes comforting and sometimes intriguing, visual aspect... this applies to the enviroment, its colours, its materials, the lighting, the music...
Dark Souls II was criticized for a lot of its unique ideas weren't well implemented, making us frequently wonder if it even was a Dark Souls game after all. Not only that, but beware of strange and usually unfair hitboxes, alongside some very noticeable artificiality to its difficulty (most often in New Game +).
I have to say, though, that because it is so different, experimental, with so many new concepts and ways of thinking the same things, it is my favourite Dark Souls! What would be Elden Ring without it! I quickly grew a great love for this game during my first play after feeling how interesting and heart-warming it can be in its little details. It's a beautiful game in many ways: graphically pleasing, much more interesting in its little details that it seems and has a beautiful and comforting sound track, just as exciting.
In a normal New Game play, it can be quite an easy game, although New Game + can clap your cheeks 😂
Finally, I give it 4/5 stars because of the artificial difficulty that comes in NG+, the bad hitboxes and the fact that getting an NPC killed during a boss fight can ruin their questline completion.

As a lover of souls games, I have to point out that this game combines every good to great detail that ever appeared in the previous titles, and in an incredibly natural and intriguing way!
I can even see here things that started in King's Field IV!
To those who are wondering about its difficulty, let me quickly explain it to you: this game can be one of the easiest ones, just as it can be the hardest one; such is the level of variety of play style and helper resources that this game offers. You can use various kinds of resources to help you in every combat situation, just as you can experience it in a more "traditional" way, relying only on your equipment and skills. The latter allows you to realize that this game is hard for the right reason: no such thing as a completly artificial difficulty, where the enemies/bosses deal a lot of damage for free and always stagger you no matter what... this game does have a little bit of "input reading" (actually more like animation reading [such as the healing animation]), but in general, the difficulty comes from the complexity of enemy attacks, as can be seen in the number of attacks, number of unique combos and different timings along each attack (even what seems like a delayed attack). To try and be short, if you intend to face it the hard way (no summons, no multiplayer, no sorceries or incantations etc.) you'll really be punished for not knowing a part of (or even the entire) set of possible combos of a boss, just as you'll be punished for not reading it fast enough in some cases; you'll have to learn it, be quick, control your dodges and your healing pauses.
About the adventure... if you like to f*ck around and find out, that's the game for you! The story is told through the bossess cutscenes, the items's descriptions, the environment, the dialogues with NPCs (none obligatory), their (numerous) quests and the consequences of your actions upon the world. And you're always well rewarded for exploring! Knowing more and more about the story is just and curious and fun as going out in any direction to explore the (vast and open) world! From Software isn't afraid of hiding entire massive places from the not so curious player...
If you're curious about it's relation with the previous From Software titles, besides what I already mentioned, do know that this is a spiritual successor (not in story) of Dark Souls II, just as the latter is a spiritual successor of King's Field IV.

Anyways... a lot of thoughts, a lot of details, but the best way to really figure it out and actually feel what the game is about is still playing it. I super duper recommend it!!! It's my favourite one!