That last paragraph is basically how Dark Souls 1 went for me. Everyone laughs “git gud” anytime a complaint is related to difficulty, but I am adamant that drop-on-death does NOT fit exploration-based games well. It was fine in Shovel Knight because you’re making linear progress, and it’s just a dare to do better than before.

Tunic basically took it out late in development - having you drop a measly 20 gold - and Another Crab’s Treasure added multiple accessibility options to either grab your current loss or disable the system, and both games are easily my favorite Soulslikes.