Dark Souls & Other Souls-Likes

Well, though it's not stark and clear that it's artificial, limiting yourself to the Deprived's starting stats is also self imposed and not in line with the developer's design. Albeit, it's part of the design, but you are intended to level up. You're intended to level up in a way that makes the current area you are in far easier than it was when you arrived at it, though when you first arrive you're more than capable of killing every enemy and the boss.

Of course, they know that people like to do low level playthroughs, which is why they brought back weapons that possess high attack power, but do not scale. These are the bread and butter to a low level playthrough in this one, because even the base version of those weapons are as strong as a +3 or 4 reinforced normal weapon with scaling(though if you trained in what it scales with, it's equal or better). Of course, this means that reinforcing your gear is akin to leveling up, and they even took that into account with invasion rules. Like you won't be able to invade someone whose weapon is +/-2 reinforcement levels of your highest upgrade. Though there's also the path you've taken, which is to reinforce your weapon, and then buff it with a spell. Even the weakest buffing spells in this one will add +75 damage to your weapon.

You may not be able to take many hits, but you can dole out the damage as if you were a similar level to the boss you're facing, if you've got that portion of the game's weapon upgrades accomplished. I mean, it's impressive for a level 1 person, despite any buffs or weapon reinforcements, to kill really, any of the bosses in the game. But with the amount of damage you're capable of with reinforcements, you might as well be level 50+ as far as dealing damage goes. Can you imagine fighting the Dancer with a +1~2 weapon that you can't buff(granted there's not a lot of time for buffing in phase 2 but...), but also only 5~6 Estus Flasks+0? It'd take so much longer, and you'd be bound to make more mistakes or run out of Estus flasks from patching up minor ones. I mean, you'd probably still be fighting her, if you'd known about her sooner(well, have had to fight her for a longer period of time). As it stands, by the time you found out about early Dancer access, you were already at or above the reinforcement values for her fight.

I mean, I guess the TLDR is basically... Weapon reinforcement/infusion is just levels that are gained with a different currency at a more controlled or gated pace, because Weapon Reinforcement is more powerful than leveling up for about 30~100 levels depending on how you look at it.

It's a lot more like Dark Souls 1 in this one, than in DS2 where every weapon type had scaling. I mean, you can't consider what you're doing as natural, or part of the process. Not using soul levels, but using reinforcement ones is just a player choice. It's just as artificial as playing with your feet or reseting on death.

I mean, I'm not denying your skill. Like I said, I couldn't do what you are doing lol(I mean, I don't have the patience for how long it would take me). Not trying to disparage what you find makes the game challenging or fun. Just giving out my 3AM thoughts on why what you're doing is artificial. I also think that you will find a boss or two in the endgame and optional areas to be more fun than the Dancer. There's one in particular, that I don't think you'll be able to kill in a single evening. I could be wrong though, it will partially depend on your luck with its moveset choices.

Horace falls into the area under the bridge in the catacombs of carthus and eventually goes hollow/killed by you. if you choose not to tell Anri she leaves prism stones where she's been at for him to find her. Or him.. its always the opposite of your gender.

If you collect all the white young branches throughout the game he will die... it makes it even more sad because the description of the branch he gives you says "good friend, no hit". *** MURDERERS.

The Final Boss in DS2 can work out 2 ways, in SotFS a 3rd way is added.

Way 1 - You go there before having all the other keepers killed. You fight to 2 Knights and then have to come back later after you killing the keepers

Way 2 - You go there after killing the keepers.
You fight the 2 Knights then the Final Boss fight immediately.

Way 3 - In SotFS an additional boss is added for after you clear all 3 of the Crowns.