I am very conflicted about this game. There's a sort of focus and confidence to the design that is beyond what earlier Souls games displayed. However, I also feel a lot of the best experimentation and design aspects were lost as this game over-specialized into its combat design. Don't get me wrong, the combat here is much better than in Dark Souls or Demon's Souls. But it's also not all that great compared to something like the Devil May Cry or Kingdom Hearts series.
The introduction of trick weapons is probably this game's best inclusion. It allows for a single weapon to have two different modes of attack, which greatly increases the variety of gameplay even as you spec into that one weapon. That said, this game has much less weapons than a typical Souls game, as each acts as two unique weapons as opposed to fitting a category. For such a great system, the game doesn't have all that great of a variety of enemies for you to use them on.
Bosses here are a bit of a disappointment. The game hits you early with masterclass fights like Father Gascoigne and Blood Starved Beast, but later fights are generally against big enemies with wide sweeping attacks that aren't all that fun to deal with in this system. The game does redeem itself a bit with Gehrman, possibly one of the best "final boss" type fights the series has had. However, it's a real shame the best combat the series has had is paired with the second weakest boss lineup, only beat in unoriginality by Dark Souls II.
The music and visuals never disappointed in this game, but I expected more with all the praise this one gets. The level design was incredibly solid for the early parts, so it was a shame to see the game doesn't vary a lot in terms of structure as it goes. It kind of feels like wandering through a forest for a really long time: at first it's interesting, but as it goes the monotony of the walk through similar areas really gets to you.
I can't say I didn't enjoy my time in Yahrnam, but I was expecting a lot more. For the supposed "masterpiece" of the Souls series, this game has very little variety or ambition of its own. This game is too long for its own good, with so much to do that nearly all feels exactly the same. I don't see myself coming back to this one much.
The introduction of trick weapons is probably this game's best inclusion. It allows for a single weapon to have two different modes of attack, which greatly increases the variety of gameplay even as you spec into that one weapon. That said, this game has much less weapons than a typical Souls game, as each acts as two unique weapons as opposed to fitting a category. For such a great system, the game doesn't have all that great of a variety of enemies for you to use them on.
Bosses here are a bit of a disappointment. The game hits you early with masterclass fights like Father Gascoigne and Blood Starved Beast, but later fights are generally against big enemies with wide sweeping attacks that aren't all that fun to deal with in this system. The game does redeem itself a bit with Gehrman, possibly one of the best "final boss" type fights the series has had. However, it's a real shame the best combat the series has had is paired with the second weakest boss lineup, only beat in unoriginality by Dark Souls II.
The music and visuals never disappointed in this game, but I expected more with all the praise this one gets. The level design was incredibly solid for the early parts, so it was a shame to see the game doesn't vary a lot in terms of structure as it goes. It kind of feels like wandering through a forest for a really long time: at first it's interesting, but as it goes the monotony of the walk through similar areas really gets to you.
I can't say I didn't enjoy my time in Yahrnam, but I was expecting a lot more. For the supposed "masterpiece" of the Souls series, this game has very little variety or ambition of its own. This game is too long for its own good, with so much to do that nearly all feels exactly the same. I don't see myself coming back to this one much.