you’ll love it. Initially the game was designed with only your portable bonfire and the main hub. There’s a billion shortcuts.

There are ways to regen magic although non consumables (infinite, constantly dropping) are a way into the game. There is also regenerating ranged ammunition on rest (and consumables to refill) so all builds get ranged options.

NG plus cycles progressively return the game to the devs original design deleting the bonfires. Initially it was just NG plus but people who hate fun complained very loudly :(

As mentioned you have portable bonfire you can plant many places. That used a consumable you can farm or buy which mostly you get from killing bosses. Other checkpoints can be blighttown levels of slog between them before you learn the map and open it up.

The game gives you a styilised map (showing landmarks) to help you identify the critical path, each level has many side paths with treasure or routes between the levels.

Not a flawless game but I haven’t really liked soulsy stuff since ds1 and this one is blowing me away.