I have not finished the game. Not even close. But I NEEDED to make a review right now to talk about one thing that Fromsoft almost always nails: The soundtrack.

This. Fucking. Soundtrack. Not enough people are talking about this absolute KING SHIT. Legitmatley my new favorite game OST. I have no clue how From continues to pull it off but the sound department kills it. Every. Single. Time.

Such an amazing roster of composers: you've got new talent from Yoshimi Kudo and Tai Tomisawa; you've got Fromsoft sound veterans Shoi Miyazawa and Tsukasa Saitoh making their debut as composers; and of course the heavyweight Yuka Kitamura returns to somehow continue a hot streak of quality tracks. There is such an amazing variety of absolutely fantastic, bombastic, emotional, and beautiful OSTs that the game doesn't even know where to put them all. (The Godskins absolutely do NOT fucking deserve their theme.) Literally some of the bosses go from alright to A-tier fights from presentation and music alone.

There is one particular boss theme that I will not spoil here, but I just want to say that Fromsoftware has not gone this hard on an organ since 2009. You'll instantly know it once you hear it.

Literally if you don't even play this game at all, I don't care. Just listen to the OST. It's that good. Some of the ambient overworld tracks are just kinda OK, but everything else is perfection.

A massive game with so much to love that even it's (admittedly also massive) flaws are overshadowed by it's scope

The most frustrating part of the game is that it's major flaws could be fixed really easily.

-Underpowered horse: There are like five horseback/horse bosses that could give small or significant upgrades depending on their level ([Draconic] Tree Sentinels, Night's Calvary, Ancestor Spirit, Lorettas)

-Obnoxious bosses: literally just simple balance tweaks would completely overhaul some bosses from dogs hit to incredible. Radahn is the only one they changed and it's definitely the best fight now

-repetitive bosses: Maybe instead of Regular Dude You've Fought Before as an end-dungeon boss, use one of the actual boss enemies like Fallingstars or Magma Wyrms. Maybe include 4-5 more of those kinds of enemies to to replace some bosses like Borealis and Ezeykes.

Don’t really have much to say, mostly cause I don’t really have to. I’ve played it, you played it, it’s a childhood classic, isa good gaem.

With that being said… this is probably, unsurprisingly, the game I’ve spent the most time with out of any other game I've ever played, mostly because I’ve been playing it since the 5th grade. The replay value that this funny block game holds is insane. (Forgive me for going rapid-fire.) The art style is genius, C418’s music is god-tier, random generation is great, the exploration is fun with all the biomes, caves, and structures, the combat is simple and satisfying, the building/crafting mechanic is genius and limitlessly creative, mods and npcs add more interactivity, the items and loot you can get each add a little extra fun to the sandbox, Redstone is a complex and in-depth system that's satisfying to master, and command blocks basically allow you to completely change how the game works. There’s tons of ways to play the game, and the regular support and massive content updates the game has received for the last decade keeps adding to an already limitless game, and that’s just vanilla. There are so many community mods and shaders and maps and packs and multiplayer servers (most of which my potato mac can’t run) that you can sink hours into and time just flies. There's a ton of nostalgic and unique fan content and a huge bustling community. It’s the kind of game that you’ll get in the mood for and play for a month straight, then drop it for another two months. I’m in that second phase at the moment. Caves and Cliffs looks cool, it’s one of the best games of the last decade, Yadda yadda yadda, it’s good ok? You probably already know that.

Now can we stop the circlejerk before the game becomes annoying again? Christ.