Let's add two more to the list.
Outer Wilds. A game I've heard about much. Not heard much about, seeing as it's integral you know as little as possible going into it, and its players respect that. Which is why I will not elaborate much. It's... a sci-fi mystery game. A compelling one, and again, crucial you know little-to-nothing about it going into it. But I highly recommend it. It sticks with you.
And now for the other game that's sticking with me but for completely different reasons: Bloodborne. I've actually had my eye on this one for a while, despite bouncing off Dark Souls twice... as chronicled years ago in this very thread. Something about its aesthetics and its more aggressive style appealed to me more, but for a few years I didn't have a PS4, and when I did get one, I had other games on my plate before my PS4 sadly just got kind of neglected. But with Another Crab's Treasure priming me, I just very suddenly felt in the mood. And I saw it was on sale for $17.50 with the DLC, so I jumped on it. Struggled quite a bit with the first boss until I realized I had misunderstood the visceral mechanic, although even then it was a close victory. But from then on, relatively smooth sailing. Yeah, an area or two was a struggle, but I even managed to first try a handful of bosses and didn't need more than a few tries on most... until the DLC. And okay yes, I used NPC summons when possible, but shut up.
I'd heard about the performance issues and chalked it up to exaggeration, like how people complain about the smallest framerate dips. Turns out... nah, they were mostly right this time. It even gave me headaches at first but I adjusted. And the load times... I am now one of the countless begging for it to be freed from the PS4. The. PriSon 4. But ultimately it was still worth it. The world is awesome, the visuals are fantastic, the gameplay is largely fun, I just had a complete blast. I didn't bother with any of the chalice dungeons after poking around the first, but I cleared every boss otherwise, base and DLC. And got the true ending boss for the main game. Fuck, that DLC final boss... took me two nights and goddamn was my heart racing in the winning run. I had to take a break after that... for only a couple hours before I went back in to finish the main game. Yeah, I loved this game.
That said, I do not see myself trying out any other FromSoftware games anytime soon. The soulsbornes, that is, although I admit I'm not particularly interested in Armored Core or any of their other offerings. If I did, it would likely be either Elden Ring or, in a sense of "unfinished business," Dark Souls. But I have no interest in returning to that Xbox 360 copy of mine and would rather play the modern version... if it ever went on a decent sale at the perfect moment for me to capitalize. It's also a case of like... nothing particularly grips me about the Souls or Elden Ring aesthetics. Bloodborne and Another Crab's Treasure are proof that aesthetics will go a long way with me. I love both of those games, so maybe I might find myself in the land of [insert whatever the name of the lands in Souls or Elden Ring are], but it won't be any time soon.
...
Saw Cleaver for life.