Main story and most side content: 17 hours
After DLC: 26.5 hours

I have incredibly mixed feelings about Dark Souls 3. I will update this review after I finish the DLC, but right now I don't have all great things to say about this game. To be entirely frank, the first half or so of the game sucks. Each boss up until Abyss Watchers is not very good (except Gundyr, he is a good tutorial) and even after AW there isn't a good boss again until Pontiff (one of my personal favorites). Like the bosses themselves, each area corresponding to each of these bosses is not very good either (except High Wall of Lothric, which is actually pretty good). Fortunately, Pontiff and on the game is pretty incredible. Some areas and enemies are still frustrating but overall the boss quality improves exponentially, so much so that I don't even understand how they were so comfortable tagging so many terrible bosses onto the first half of so many great ones. The first 50% of this game is probably a 3 out of 10 for me, yet the second half is so strong that on its own could easily be a 10 out of 10 experience.

Post DLC thoughts: The DLC were both pretty great. Ashes was a little light on content, but as a package deal with Ringed City it was well worth it. Bosses were good for the most part (gravetender was boring, PvP boss before Gael is probably one of the worst decisions in any game I've ever played). Riding on the high that was the second half of DS3, these were a good way to top off that journey. Changing my final score from a 7 to an 8 out of 10. The early portions of the game are still pretty bad, but everything past the halfway point is so good that it sort of saves the game.

More in-depth discussion here: https://youtu.be/aTmjNDfX698?si=VmscQ32R4lEdwZga

Some of the other reviews for this game are pretty much the worst takes I've ever seen. This game IS balanced. In my opinion, all but two of the bosses are fun, easily readable, and perfectly balanced around how you should be progressing through the game. Enemies are extremely distinct from one another, there is an absurd amount of variety that should make Fromsoft embarrassed. ALL the bosses are unique both visually and from a gameplay perspective. The story is engaging, the world is intriguing, the characters are interesting, and most of all, its just a fucking blast of a game from start to finish.

Another bullet point list

- Great bosses
- Great level design
- So much build variety
- Insane secrets
- Surprising amount of replayability

Also: the DLC that's released so far is really good as well, same points as the main game with probably the best level design.

I talked about this more extensively on my youtube channel, so this review is going to be lacking a lot of information. I'm sure I missed a lot but I can't be bothered to think of more for this pros/cons list. The game is good, but it does not hold up very well.

Pros
- Inventory management (sometimes)
- Setting
- Characters

Cons
- Horrible controls
- Game is mostly non-linear, but key information is missing before even starting the game
- Feels terrible compared to modern games

Really good story. Good character writing. This game doesn't hold up very well though. The pacing is, to put it simply, absolutely terrible. Most of the major sections drag on wayyyyy too long. I often closed the game and would find myself dreading the next time I pick it back up. There is almost no encounter variety, combat begins intuitive but very quickly shows its flaws and becomes boring/repetitive. I have pretty high expectations for the sequel. It looks amazing, I love control, I enjoyed Quantum Break, and given that the major issues here are with the gameplay, I think they'll knock it out of the park. But we'll see!