As a souls fan I was skeptical about playing this game, and the game dragged me in by its fangs and took me to places I could never predict in my adulthood gaming experiences.
Let's start with the story, its a dark and grim adaptation on the well known Pinocchio story, with nice little twists and adaptations. Won't spoil anything here but it sure does it well. With the dark world and adult themes, and great voice acting as well.
Now for combat. It is polished and pretty tight, don't expect to go into the game and brute force it all the way, sure you can do that for the early game bosses, but eventually they will throw all the mechanics into to the game and you will be forced to adapt. It is not a combat I'm used to therefore I struggled with the game, but it was sooo satisfying beating that one boss you died 30 times because you mastered it and all its moves.
Overall it's the best soulslike I have ever played and it seem like the developers truly put their heart and souls into the game. I would go even as far as saying its better then a few souls games itself. So go ahead and try the game out its worth every penny and you will learn to be good at games again.