Being a Miyazaki's Souls game already make it better than 90% of games out there, i want to make that clear, but i got some problems with it:
I think the open world adds nothing good to the souls formula, sure, we finally have a open world game with top-tier level design castles and dungeons, but souls-games already had that. On the other hand i think that being open world actually hurts some aspect of the souls experience, like NPC Quests, which were already weird and messy on normal souls, but now it's just impossible to keep track or discover it by yourself. Another thing hurt in my opinion is NG+ (a big part of souls-games)
NG+ and FromSoftware style of NPC Quests are not designed for a 150h game, it's way too much. Being totally honest after a reaching like 90~100 hours of gameplay i stop caring about the game and just wanted to rush everything to end it, i was tired/bored of the game. That have never happen to me on any other Miyazaki's game.
Another thing that puzzle me is what the heck was George Martin doing in this game? Cause the story is the same thing Miyazaki is being doing for 14 years... The lore is almost the same if we change Great Runes by Lord Souls.
Also some open world areas like Montaintops, Nokron or Deeproot runs like sht on PS4, literally a power point presentation, the worst performance i have seen on PS4 so far, it's like Dark Souls Blighttown on PS3 again.
The good of the game?
The main legacy location (Stormveil, Raya Lucaria, The Capital, etc) are excellent, on the top of FromSoftware level. I think a shorter game with just those would have being better.
Bosses are ok, but there's a lot of repetition, tho. They got to fill those open world areas with something.
Lot of magics if that's your play style.
Last boss looks cool, but is a horrible fight, it's a "run and try to catch me" game more than a fight.
So, what i'm saying is: It's a good game, but compared to all previous FromSoftware Souls-game i have played (DS1, BB, Sekiro & DS3) it's my least favorite. This is Dark Souls 3 but stretched and diluted on a open world map.
I think the open world adds nothing good to the souls formula, sure, we finally have a open world game with top-tier level design castles and dungeons, but souls-games already had that. On the other hand i think that being open world actually hurts some aspect of the souls experience, like NPC Quests, which were already weird and messy on normal souls, but now it's just impossible to keep track or discover it by yourself. Another thing hurt in my opinion is NG+ (a big part of souls-games)
NG+ and FromSoftware style of NPC Quests are not designed for a 150h game, it's way too much. Being totally honest after a reaching like 90~100 hours of gameplay i stop caring about the game and just wanted to rush everything to end it, i was tired/bored of the game. That have never happen to me on any other Miyazaki's game.
Another thing that puzzle me is what the heck was George Martin doing in this game? Cause the story is the same thing Miyazaki is being doing for 14 years... The lore is almost the same if we change Great Runes by Lord Souls.
Also some open world areas like Montaintops, Nokron or Deeproot runs like sht on PS4, literally a power point presentation, the worst performance i have seen on PS4 so far, it's like Dark Souls Blighttown on PS3 again.
The good of the game?
The main legacy location (Stormveil, Raya Lucaria, The Capital, etc) are excellent, on the top of FromSoftware level. I think a shorter game with just those would have being better.
Bosses are ok, but there's a lot of repetition, tho. They got to fill those open world areas with something.
Lot of magics if that's your play style.
Last boss looks cool, but is a horrible fight, it's a "run and try to catch me" game more than a fight.
So, what i'm saying is: It's a good game, but compared to all previous FromSoftware Souls-game i have played (DS1, BB, Sekiro & DS3) it's my least favorite. This is Dark Souls 3 but stretched and diluted on a open world map.