That last part is too accurate lol. We sometimes visited our friend’s family restaurant and he would always be at the counter doing his homework when we walk in.
I say just dive into the real souls games. Like everyone else, I recommend Elden Ring or DS3 (don’t worry about skipping the first 2 games, you won’t get the story anyway, most people don’t lol).
If you insist on trying something to ease you in, I actually recommend Tales of Iron. It’s a 2D game but the combat is very souls like in the sense that it’s challenging and you have to learn enemy timing and attack patterns.