@fredchuckdave: I hope this doesn't ruin the magic for you, but there totally are moments in which the mechanics you mention are nearly identical. One can't do actions, quite often, in Dark Souls, for a substantial amount of time. Whenever one swings a sword, initiate a roll, etc. you are locking your character into a move selection that will take some time to complete. In some fights this can mean one's character is uncontrollable for more time than he is controllable. This is not dissimilar to the concept of "global cooldown" in most MMOs; however, the ways in which Dark Souls' "cooldowns" are implemented are much more logical, seemless, and beautifully animated. As a result they are almost completely invisible to the naked eye, as a opposed to many MMOs which quite literally show you are a shader progress across most abilities on your user interface.
As for your point to cast bars it is effectively identical to the previous point. Dark Souls does not, strictly speaking, have cast bars. However, nearly every enemy one encounters have significant casting/combat animations which tip the player off concerning their next actions. Again, compared to a cast bar, From Software has created a substantially more elegant solution. However, you would be fool to say one is doing nothing in an MMO during this period, and the same applies to Dark Souls. A player would typically be looking to minimize the effect of the cast/ability, in order to prolong their own life.
My overall point is this, many games have similar mechanics which create great, fun, and engaging core gameplay loops. The ways in which developers disguise, dress up, or enhance those mechanics can vary significantly. Thus, in my opinion, the games, all games really, are not as dissimilar as you convey. Though perhaps you realize this, and have adjusted your range of diversity so drastically that the two do seem like day and night, which in some respects they are. Though the gameplay systems you mentioned are not among those factors which make them so incredibly and brilliantly different.
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