They did a pretty significant marketing push on Twitch for Crimson Desert, but in financial terms I don't know if that is all that expensive, and certainly not in relation to 5 million copies sold.
Ninja Gaiden 2 is calling.
Have you played STALKER Anomaly? It has the looting and shooting without being an extraction shooter, but still scratches a similar itch.
My condolences.
CDPR gambled for the masses and won with Witcher 3. I agree with you and would prefer the combat to be more methodical, require more preparation and be more visceral. I wish you'd have to actually manually brew the correct potions and oils in preparation, and then see those have a huge impact on whether you win or lose the fight.
At the same time, the super lightweight combat they went with allowed the game to be so approachable by the causal market that it sold millions and millions of copies and singlehandedly catapulted CDPR into a AAA studio. So it's hard to argue they made a mistake not catering to players like us.
Some games have started to crop up that straddle the line between Souls and CAG, The Nioh series and First Berserker: Khazan come to mind. I've also heard good things about AI Limit, it looks pretty fast and it doesn't have stamina.
Also not a Soulslike but I assume you've played Ninja Gaiden?
It can be a little moon logic at times and might be frustrating to play without a guide, but yeah it's great and quite funny.
It's a very fun series, they play very differently from a lot of other games so look up some video footage first maybe, but I think they're fun. The missions are somewhat sandboxy and can make you feel pretty clever when you figure out how to set up a nice sequence.
While I think Rise of the Ronin has the better combat, the presentation for the duels in Ghost is much better for sure. I loved the fight amongst the lanterns too, was probably the most memorable part of the game for me as well.
I played some Desperados last year and tbh they hold up pretty well apart from some graphics/UI stuff. I don't think I ever played Robin Hood beyond the demo back in the day, but I played enough Commandos/Desperados to know it's quality.
One final subject i wanted too touch on is that this game makes me wish for a Robin Hood game.
I don't know if it's your type of game but Robin Hood: Legend of Sherwood is a classic.
True gamers make do with a single mouse button. Mac is the ultimate platform.