this here, is why this game will never come even close to dark souls

So this is wrong? The lantern holder's ranged attack goes through walls and deals so much damage on your shield that blocking is suicide. I don't know how to beat that move.

you need mobility and fast hit for this one. so remove all your gear and have a fast weapon with a gun. forget your shield. this fight is all about having balls to fight head on. if you try to play it safe you will get destroyed.

Use coop mode and add a higher level character and then switch between your main and alt characters while doing damage with the higher level one and hiding your main behind objects and walls. attack and re hide main. rinse repeat .