What's your gripe with Dark Souls? Haven't honestly played that game, either. And I think a large part of it is probably the online component, then. I found myself just grinding with monsters quite a bit when I played the game. Must have killed hundreds of Great Jaggis just to upgrade my armor and weapons to the next level. At some point, it just stopped feeling like a grand adventure, and more like an endless grind. Different strokes, though :) I'd love to play it again, but I gave my 3ds away to a friend in need! Also, I appreciate the write-up! Your style of writing is great, I've read a few of your blog posts.
I'm gonna write about Dark Souls one of these days, so I can just link you then, haha. Also, I'm not sure which one you played, but MH4 really cleans up the grinding. It's definitely the best one to date for newcomers, everything is 10x more streamlined, the learning curve is smooth the whole way through, they actually explain skill gems and shit - anyone who was even a tiny bit interested, but turned off when they played it, I would definitely recommend MH4 to them.