There are bosses and other larger enemies where the wikis specifically instruct to not use lock on because the attack animations can be detrimental to positioning dealing with the camera. I had to fight the hardest boss (IMO) in Bloodborne, Ebrietas in the cursed root chalice dungeon this way to kill it for example. And again, locking on isn’t so difficult. Just one click and flick to change targets, but it’s up to the player to determine when it’s best to use. A cluster will be harder to target since they’re all close together, but if you’re directly attacking a weaker mob then locking is kinda pointless as it focuses damage on only one of them vs the group. The game gives enough tools to approach practically any encounter effectively and it’s partly why there are so many different weapons in the game with different attack types. You wouldn’t use a spear against a mob; switch to a halberd, sword, ax, etc. that has a better way to attack horizontally. Or again, just use any number of spells, pyro, miracle, etc. Or aggro with a projectile to split up a group and focus on the toughest one first, etc. I’m not going to repeat myself any more on this issue as it gets exhausting.
I get not finding mobs fun to fight and agree they can be nuisances, but that’s why they’re typically early game stuff, and not worth always dealing with unless they have a specific drop needed. Hence being able to easily run past them easily. If the game only had bosses it would feel pretty empty, and these games are as much about world building and lore as anything else. SotC got away with being minimalist, but even then it got old when more than half the time spent was just riding around emptiness, holding your sword up as a compass.
Maybe I’ll try it someday if it’s ever a PS+ title, but I have way too much else unplayed as it is to start something that sounds like a huge time sink. Most of the complaints I’ve heard revolve around the end game being where all the good stuff is, so that’s a huge commitment just to try something and hope to like it. I’m sure I could get an idea of the mechanics early on but like, everything I’ve seen on it looks like the character is the equivalent of a tank build from Souls games.
