It’s definitely matter of philosophy. The traditional soulslike approach is to impose a high skill floor and be unforgiving about certain mechanics, especially dodging. The player character is fragile and the player is expected to learn each enemy and situation so they know precisely how and when to attack, dodge, etc. This leads to players being fully expected to die over and over to the same situations until the proper approach has been learned.

It’s a difficult, deliberate gameplay approach that rewards those who like to apply themselves to a situation until they’ve mastered it. This focus on repetition to achieve mastery is intentional and the enjoyers of classic soulslikes tend to want a game where completion is the kind of challenge you can brag about meeting.

This doesn’t work for me. I have limited patience for being made to repeat sections too often; traditional soulslikes overstress it in the same way frustration platformers do. While I can deal with frequent loss and repetition in something like a roguelike (or roguelite), those have the benefit of short cycle times and self-contained runs. Meanwhile I get the feeling that Dark Souls just wastes my time if I spend five minutes making my way back to where I died, repeatedly.

Remnant deals with this by lowering the skill floor to be on par with most shooters. The emphasis on ranged combat and more capable player character mean that most encounters can be handled with a modest amount of learning; mistakes are far less deadly and death has a lower penalty. You learn your weapons and skills rather than the enemies’ patterns. Even most bosses can be done without precisely learning their patterns. (That excludes you, Barbed Terror.) This makes the game a lot more pleasant for someone who doesn’t appreciate FromSoft’s strict approach.

In essence, it’s like comparing classic Castlevania to Symphony of the Night: SoTN made the series more approachable by introducing stat growth, allowing players to overpower enemies with numbers if their skill wouldn’t suffice. Traditional Castlevanias and Igavanias ultimately are different subgenres that cater to different audiences. Both are perfectly valid. And it’s the same with FromSoft’s games and Remnant.

And that’s why I don’t think that a good ranged weapon would help – the game would have to be designed to accommodate it and if it was to retain its character as a classical soulslike, ranged combat would still have to be deliberate, lethal, and built around precise timing. I wouldn’t want to turn Dark Souls into Remnant; it’s fine the way it it, it’s just not for me.

(Oh, and one note: When I wrote “PD1” in my original post, I meant Dark Souls 1 but mistyped. I’m gonna go and correct that.)