Fallout New Vegas

I actually agree with basically every point you made. I enjoy watching a good Dark Souls video essay every time a new one pops up. And it's easily one of the best designed worlds in gaming, I fully agree with that. The inter-connectivity and level design is a masterclass.

I didn't mean to imply that "no one has ever talked about Dark Souls again after another Souls-like came out." That would obviously be an insane take (like I said, glazed all the time, timeless classic, cultural landmark, etc.).

However, I still think it's an excellent example to highlight my point. The subsequent Souls and Souls-like games have added to and divided the conversation. So while yes, there are a lot of videos and discussions about how uniquely great Dark Souls is, the community also has lots of discussions about what later games did better, worse, different, what they hope for in the future, etc. And a lot of the community has even found a later game to be their favorite.

So while there are Dark Souls holdouts who tend to talk about it like New Vegas fans talk about New Vegas, they don't dominate the conversation the way they do for New Vegas. Or at least it doesn't feel that way to me.

Though fwiw, even if you think Dark Souls is a bad example, I hope my core point still came across. I'm sure that Dark Souls 1 diehards feel a lot like New Vegas diehards, having watched their beloved series stray so far away from what struck them as truly special. And my intent was never to diminish the validity of that.