I recently tried this via family sharing. Its basically a 2D version of Dark Souls. Similar types of mechanics with Iframes via rolling, and you can even parry => riposte with a shield.
I’ve only played the game about 6 hours, but I’ve noticed some weapon types are just complete junk compared to others. The only weapons worth using appear to be Greatswords and Greathammers.
I just found my first greathammer. Not even upgraded, it does twice the damage per hit over the greatsword which was at +2, and that greatsword does twice the damage of any of the 1h weapons I got. So at this point its looking like I’m gonna go heavy armor + heavy shield + greathammer.
Maybe my timing is off, but I’ve seen a lot of attacks from several bosses that appear to hit if you’re in the vicinity of the attack whether you’re rolling or not. I’ve been hit by leaping attacks from bosses while trying to roll underneath them, just to end up getting pinned underneath them when their sprite wasn’t visibly touching me. Now if you can’t roll under these attacks then there aren’t too many other options other than to hold up a strong shield and face tank it, which is what I’ve been doing mostly. Yes, shields are good enough where rolling is optional in this game. Or rolling isn’t good enough to discourage the usage of shields. However you wanna look at it. Personally, it feels more like the later.
Something else that discourages rolling, and promotes shield usage, is when bosses get lower HP they chain more attacks together leaving themselves open for less time, while making your approach more dangerous. Its even more dangerous if you don’t have a shield and if you’re trying to find openings via rolling. Rolling vs blocking was more balanced in Dark Souls. While in this game, I’m discouraged from rolling entirely. After enough failed rolling attempts I get sick of it and decide to grab a shield. I’m not a masochist. Rolling is best used to position behind a mob that’s attacking. Not to avoid attacks. Shield parries aren’t hard to land vs mobs that can be parried. Unfortunately, most mobs can’t be parried. At least most of the ones I’ve seen so far. And the ones that can be parried typically got low enough HP to get oneshotted with a greathammer swing.