Bloodborne is without a doubt my favorite FromSoft game. The combat is bloody and visceral. The atmosphere and setting is positively gripping. Sound design and animation is top notch. It is a joy and wonder to play.
With game after game of dark, gothic medieval fantasy, FromSoft settings seem a bit same-y to me. Granted, art direction is consistently strong in these games, but I can only take so many poison swamps and zombies in armor. By setting its world in a monster-infested, cramped Victorian hellscape, From Soft is playing to its strengths while taking the world building and visuals in a whole different direction. The sights, sounds, and creatures in the world of Bloodborne feel wholly unique, yet resonant in a way that makes me hungry for more. The story is fascinating, and with the game slowly peeling back the layers of who controls what, I feel that it is a great commentary on cycles of exploitation.
The combat is simply incredible. Monsters are fast and their attacks feel overwhelming. Without a block option, the game forces you to engage in figuring out it's enemies. Often their attacks make them fly forward, so back rolling is not really an option. The trick weapon system lets the player change their combat styles depending on the situation at hand. Each boss is terrifying and imaginative. Parrying with your gun feels amazing. I think this is one of the best combat systems I have ever played in.
Bloodborne definitely gains a lot from shaking off some of the systemic cruft of Dark Souls. Dark Souls has a minimalistic atmosphere, but often has a ton of obtuse and confusing systems get in the way of enjoying it. Figuring out a build in DS or ER requires a lot of research. In Bloodborne, weapon upgrades are simple and reversible. Co-op is easier to understand. Stats are simplified and make a lot more direct sense to your build. Levels are more linear, which honestly makes the game feel a lot more focused. There are a lot fewer weapons, with trick weapons pulling double duty. All in all, the game seems to pull a lot of its simpler, more elegant ethos from other Studio Japan titles like Ico. It is definitely to its favor.
In terms of ludonarritive, the game does an amazing job. NPCs are consistently interesting. The Insight mechanic is inspired. The way the environment changes as you play makes it extremely rewarding to backtrack. The way the game transitions from traditional horror to cosmic horror is incredible.
Level design is top notch. It has the same verticality as other Soulslikes, but without a lot of run backs. The fast travel is tasteful with the tombstones at the hunters dream. Environments are varied with not a ton of re-used creatures. The optional area is incredibly refreshing at the point of the game you get to it.
For being such a great example of its genre, the game actually has a surprising amount of issues. The biggest being chalice dungeons. After you go through 3-5 floors of chalice dungeons, you have seen all there is to see. More than any other levels, the enemies feel cheap and overpowered. Other than some cool bosses, the rewards are middling. They are easily the worst part of the game. Good thing they are mostly optional. I also have issues with the consumable blood vials. Getting stuck on a boss early and having to grind for blood vials feels awful. The first big skill check of the game, Father Gascoigne, had me grinding between each attempt. It was not a good time. I also feel that the Winter Lantern enemies are bullshit.
All of that being said, Bloodborne is one of my favorite games, and easily my favorite Soulslike. If you play, I also recommend picking up the DLC. Like every other fan of this game, I am hopelessly pulling through for a sequel and /or a PC port.

The best thing I can say about Moonlighter is that its pixel art is incredibly detailed and textured. Everything else about the game feels like video game comfort food.

The core loop involves selling items in your shop, to upgrade your equipment, and then find new items in dungeons to sell in your shop. Both the selling items and running through dungeon halves of the game are quick and rewarding enough to make you want to always do the next step. It feels very similar to the "just one more turn" feeling you get from being in the middle of a game of Civ. Unfortunately, one of those halves lacks enough teeth to make it interesting, while the other progresses way too slowly in complexity.

Combat in the game is an uncomfortable mix of modern 2d action game verbs (dodge rolls, switching weapons, elemental damage, etc) and classic Zelda action verbs (you attack the direction you're moving, no animation cancelling). It's a serviceable set of systems, but it never feels great to play. Often it feels like enemies are simply more nimble or versatile than you. All you can do is rely on damage output to compensate, which is easy enough to do. It's just not very frenetic or strategic, unlike a more thoughtful 2d action classic like Hades.

The selling systems are the real highlight of the game. It is extremely satisfying to find the right price for an item you're selling, then selling 10 of them at once for lots of money. There is a progression of more interesting mechanics than price setting as the game goes on. You can sell items for a high price with higher demand in display cases. You have to stop thieves from stealing your items. Customers can put in special orders. But i found this progression a little slow for my liking. By the time I got to the more interesting mechanics, I was making enough money to avoid penny-pinching, giving all these new systems way lower stakes. Your mileage may vary.

Here are other things I neglected to mention. The weapon upgrades are fairly shallow, making it less satisfying as time goes on. The townsfolk don't really do much aside from telling you canned phrases. The backpack mechanics are fairly thoughtful, and packing your bag while dungeon diving is usually a fun puzzle to engage in.

All in a, the whole game feels like indie comfort food. If you want a low low difficulty roguelite, this is a good option. Otherwise, I'd recommend Hades if you haven't given that a go.

Tiny Tina's Wonderland is a delightful game. I'd say that the most astonishing thing about this is that they made a full length AAA game with high-budget voice casting that's a send-up of D&D. What was once a niche hobby is now squarely in mainstream spaces, and that makes me very happy.

Aside from that, it is truly just standard borderlands fare. Get guns, watch numbers go up, and bad jokes that go on way too long. It helps that the bad jokes are some pithy observations about D&D now. It's a way fresher subject matter than the 3 games of bad jokes about aliens and rednecks.

The gun variety is decent, and the game puts an emphasis on elemental damage now. The elemental damage offers a tiny bit of strategy to the gunplay, but not enough for it to matter.

The magic system sucks. Not sure why they put ranged magic attacks w/ cooldowns in a game centered on firing guns. Melee kind of sucks too. They no real reason to use it, because it's not strong enough to be worth using. This game would have benefited from a melee finisher system like Doom 2016, I think.

The character customization is really nice. The way that they handle characterization is great. Essentially, your character will have canned voice lines for a ton of interactions, but it seems like the script for those canned voice lines change depending on which character voice you pick during creation. And there are a ton of voices, each with distinct personalities.

It's worth playing, especially on PS5 with its adaptive triggers. It's worth picking up when it inevitably goes on sale.