I still don't really comprehend what this game is

Dark souls with fists.

Its a 3rd person fighting game. Are we really gonna be calling every game that has melee combat dark souls now?

have you seen the walkthrough video's of this game with the developer explaining the mechanics? the way it's structured, the difficulty, the technical combat system. it's literally a souls game with fists. it even has a PVP system similar to that of souls/nioh.

hell, don't take my word for it, read a preview. most of them mention the souls games at some point.

here are a few quotes to save you some time

"It’s a martial arts simulator, with elements of both Dark Souls and Zeno Clash but a combat system all its own."

"There’s a lot to think about during every encounter, which is where the Dark Souls connection comes in. Every time you raise your fists, concentration is key and you’ll need to keep your wits about you, relying on feints and parries as well as the structure of your deck."

"New Absolver trailer shows it's the Dark Souls + Destiny + kung fu game you never knew you wanted"

"Dark Souls-Inspired Absolver Meshes Customizable Combat With Exploration"

"I found myself relying on the dodge as my primary defense. It is more of a quick sidestep, very similar to Bloodborne's, and I actually quickly fell into my familiar Bloodborne gameplay patterns when facing AI-controlled enemies. Coincidentally, Tarno told me that the Dark Souls games directly inspired the game. "The way we thought about building the world and level design--[the Souls games are] supreme lessons in level design," he told me. "And [Absolver has] that combat where you get into your timing, and every hit matters and you shouldn't just be doing things [chaotically].""

"At one point, we unlocked a shortcut to an earlier checkpoint, suggesting level design that borrows from titles like Dark Souls, with levels that double back on themselves, rewarding careful attention and minimizing the need for backtracking."

"Absolver is Dark Souls But Kung Fu Where You Build Your Own Fight Style"

hell, the title to one preview is literally "Absolver (You got Journey In My Dark Souls)"

so no, not every game is going to be called dark souls. but the games that are clearly souls inspired (from the developers mouth no less) most certainly are.

so, you were saying?

It has a lot of dark souls elements but I was mostly talking about the actual melee combat. Im just getting a little bit tired of every game that has challenging combat with dodging, parrying etc its called basically dark souls and i really like ds btw. But i think the reason im clearly annoyed is because i really want someone to shake up the dark souls formula in a big way, they really burnt me out with so many dark souls-like games these past 2 years

It popularised it and is arguably the best example of it. I don't see it as any different as people comparing every third person cover shooter to gears. Its simply a point of reference.