Pretty decent mod, although the balancing felt awful all around. I do understand that it's level design is similar to that of Demon's Souls, but the strange progression and very inconsistent difficulty made for an... okay experience. Also, too many reused movesets from other bosses of the fromsoft games...
An absolute triumph and a visual feast when it comes to presentation, but it's gameplay is unbearable, and terribly balanced. Thankfully this can all be fixed with balancing, but in it's current state the only joy you'll feel when you finish bosses is that they are over.
For a free fan project, there is much to praise: the new enemies and bosses feel fresh, (some of) the voice acting is good enough to put in an actual release, and the whole thing is visually phenomenal. The use of the perfect guard mechanic and parrying also make it distinct from the rest of the series. However, only more than half of it feels original, with two of its five available worlds being directly lifted from DS3.
Additionally, for a project attempting to emulate the design philosophy of Demon's Souls, it fails as there is an obvious disparity between the challenge of the areas. They really can't be tackled in any order as enemies will just have too much health and damage, unlike in DeS where even the daunting Shrine of Storms could have been tackled from the start if you had the appropriate equipment.
This is a tangible issue with the entire package - it feels like a DLC to be played after DS3 but you're starting with a low level character. Though it may be too late to go back and change things now, I think it would have done a lot of good to start players with higher level characters (Maybe 20-25) and scale up the easier areas to bring everything to a more solid baseline while also permitting the greater build variety players would expect from such a challenging entry to the series.
Additionally, for a project attempting to emulate the design philosophy of Demon's Souls, it fails as there is an obvious disparity between the challenge of the areas. They really can't be tackled in any order as enemies will just have too much health and damage, unlike in DeS where even the daunting Shrine of Storms could have been tackled from the start if you had the appropriate equipment.
This is a tangible issue with the entire package - it feels like a DLC to be played after DS3 but you're starting with a low level character. Though it may be too late to go back and change things now, I think it would have done a lot of good to start players with higher level characters (Maybe 20-25) and scale up the easier areas to bring everything to a more solid baseline while also permitting the greater build variety players would expect from such a challenging entry to the series.
This overhaul mod really frustrated me because the story, the voice acting, the art direction, and the level design are all pretty fucking great. But the boss fights are either slightly changed Fromsoftware fights, or they’re not changed at all.
I was pretty damn disappointed when I realized that only 1 fight in all of this mod so far felt new to me, and I couldn’t even be sure it was entirely new considering I haven’t fought every Fromsoftware fight.
The inclusion of Sekiro and Elden Ring boss fights also frustrates me honestly. Elden Ring fights often can rely heavily on the jump mechanic (like Godfrey) and fighting without the jump mechanic in DS3 definitely feels jarring.
Then you have the Sekiro fights. Sekiro fights are so much more quick paced than any other Fromsoftware souls like, this is fine in Sekiro where you have a very agile Wolf, super quick, can jump high, and has a very quick and reliable parry. This does not work in DS3 where you can’t jump, the parries are much slower and less reliable, and you don’t run nearly as fast.
So ultimately the boss fights end up feeling like repeats of bosses I’ve already fought, and they feel downright unfair with what we’ve been given with our character, so when I got stuck at a boss I felt no real reason to continue to fight them. I got no satisfaction from beating the Godfrey reskin or the Cleric Brady reskin, so I doubt I’d get any satisfaction from beating the Owl reskin.
And I’m only so passionate about this critique because the rest is so good.
Entirely new areas, NPCs, music, weapons, even losing screens? It’s so impressive in every way except the boss fights.
I was pretty damn disappointed when I realized that only 1 fight in all of this mod so far felt new to me, and I couldn’t even be sure it was entirely new considering I haven’t fought every Fromsoftware fight.
The inclusion of Sekiro and Elden Ring boss fights also frustrates me honestly. Elden Ring fights often can rely heavily on the jump mechanic (like Godfrey) and fighting without the jump mechanic in DS3 definitely feels jarring.
Then you have the Sekiro fights. Sekiro fights are so much more quick paced than any other Fromsoftware souls like, this is fine in Sekiro where you have a very agile Wolf, super quick, can jump high, and has a very quick and reliable parry. This does not work in DS3 where you can’t jump, the parries are much slower and less reliable, and you don’t run nearly as fast.
So ultimately the boss fights end up feeling like repeats of bosses I’ve already fought, and they feel downright unfair with what we’ve been given with our character, so when I got stuck at a boss I felt no real reason to continue to fight them. I got no satisfaction from beating the Godfrey reskin or the Cleric Brady reskin, so I doubt I’d get any satisfaction from beating the Owl reskin.
And I’m only so passionate about this critique because the rest is so good.
Entirely new areas, NPCs, music, weapons, even losing screens? It’s so impressive in every way except the boss fights.