This review contains spoilers
First off, whoever thought of tying in Covenant awards to the Sorceries, Miracles, Pyromancies, and Rings achievements, I will have your spine on a dinner plate! In minecraft.
To keep it as short as I can, the game is extraordinary. The developers at FromSoftware clearly learn from their past, as each game they make improves on what the last game did. Most notably their bosses, both from a design perspective and a gameplay one. Certain people will look at the gameplay and say that it's just a game of dodge, attack, dodge, and maybe heal. Personally, I don't see it that way. The best fights will feel like a dance of sorts, meaning they will have a rhythm you can follow. Which is why Pontiff Sulyvahn is, at least in my opinion, a terrible boss compared to everyone else. His attacks are poorly telegraphed, which results in there being no flow. Also, simplifying any game to its core makes it sound stupid. "Yeah, Mario Odyssey is kinda mid; all you do is run and jump, and maybe throw your hat around." The main point is that, sure, the mechanics don't sound that special; it is how you use them that creates the interesting scenarios.
FromSoft has always been competent in enviermental storytelling; as a matter of fact, that is your best way to distinguish what has happened. Although the main premise is explained to you at the start: the world is on its dying breath, and the Lords of Cinders have been brought back, only to reject Linking the First Flame. Meaning you have to step in and bring back the Lords as what they are: you have to bring them back as Cinders. However, this is a FromSoft game, so you have to have critical thinking skills and be analytical about the game. If you are, you will, presumably, think that saving the world is not worth it. After all, it does not look like a dying world; it looks like it is already dead—a corpse masquerading as something else. So the question becomes: Is it worth saving a world in pain or letting it die? That is the main question, and I believe the answer is obvious. Which is why Linking the First Flame ending is actually my favorite. The game makes an effort to tell you not to link it, and if you do, you are greeted with an intentionally bathetic ending. In a weird way, it treats you like a fool for believing this to be the right answer. And before anyone criticizes the game for being too similar to the first Dark Souls game, remember that the other themes involve cycles and/or repetition. You are not the first to be the valorous hero who has come to save the day. Many have tried, and in reality, you aren't that special. You just got farther than everyone else. This makes the game sound nihilistic, and that is a valid reading of the game. And so is existentialism; it is not as simple as "nothing matters; therefore, the world needs to die." It is more intricate than that. Death does not always mean the end; for example, in tarot cards, death does not literally mean the ending of existence; rather, it means an end to a phase of your life, so it can blossom into something new. In simpler terms, it means change, which is what the world is scared of—it is what you are scared of. It is true that change is indeed scary; it can be bizarre, but it would certainly be better than living in a world of ash and cinders.
Music is pretty peak when used, as the game will only play it at certain areas or during a boss fight. Outside of that, your ears will only pick up the ambient noise of the area. The Soulsborne games soundtrack usually carries that bombastic grandiose feel to it, and Yuka Kitamura nails that in this game. The second phase of Twin Princes is always baller.
After writing all of this, the main reason it is not a 5/5 is because I really dislike areas like the Catacombs of Carthus and Irithyll dungeon, and Pontiff Sulyvahn, out of all of the bosses, sticks out like a sore thumb because of how bad he is compared to them. The runbacks to the bosses can be atrocious, and there are times when the "difficulty" was the developers spamming a bunch of enemies. And the level of design ranges from great to eh, although that ties back to the areas I disliked. The environment and vistas suffer from being analogous in that the general color scheme of the entire game is gray and yellow (not the piss color filter). Of course, that ties back to the overarching theme, and it makes areas like Irithyll of the Boreal Valley stand out a bit more visually from the rest. Either way, it is still a criticism worth bringing up. Aside from that and minor nitpicks, this game is truly great and, in my opinion, the best in the trilogy. Honestly, I believe what I have written does not do the game justice. Also, the best boss is the final one, Soul of Cinder, as he represents the entire game in one boss fight. It is in the name: SOUL of CINDER.
To keep it as short as I can, the game is extraordinary. The developers at FromSoftware clearly learn from their past, as each game they make improves on what the last game did. Most notably their bosses, both from a design perspective and a gameplay one. Certain people will look at the gameplay and say that it's just a game of dodge, attack, dodge, and maybe heal. Personally, I don't see it that way. The best fights will feel like a dance of sorts, meaning they will have a rhythm you can follow. Which is why Pontiff Sulyvahn is, at least in my opinion, a terrible boss compared to everyone else. His attacks are poorly telegraphed, which results in there being no flow. Also, simplifying any game to its core makes it sound stupid. "Yeah, Mario Odyssey is kinda mid; all you do is run and jump, and maybe throw your hat around." The main point is that, sure, the mechanics don't sound that special; it is how you use them that creates the interesting scenarios.
FromSoft has always been competent in enviermental storytelling; as a matter of fact, that is your best way to distinguish what has happened. Although the main premise is explained to you at the start: the world is on its dying breath, and the Lords of Cinders have been brought back, only to reject Linking the First Flame. Meaning you have to step in and bring back the Lords as what they are: you have to bring them back as Cinders. However, this is a FromSoft game, so you have to have critical thinking skills and be analytical about the game. If you are, you will, presumably, think that saving the world is not worth it. After all, it does not look like a dying world; it looks like it is already dead—a corpse masquerading as something else. So the question becomes: Is it worth saving a world in pain or letting it die? That is the main question, and I believe the answer is obvious. Which is why Linking the First Flame ending is actually my favorite. The game makes an effort to tell you not to link it, and if you do, you are greeted with an intentionally bathetic ending. In a weird way, it treats you like a fool for believing this to be the right answer. And before anyone criticizes the game for being too similar to the first Dark Souls game, remember that the other themes involve cycles and/or repetition. You are not the first to be the valorous hero who has come to save the day. Many have tried, and in reality, you aren't that special. You just got farther than everyone else. This makes the game sound nihilistic, and that is a valid reading of the game. And so is existentialism; it is not as simple as "nothing matters; therefore, the world needs to die." It is more intricate than that. Death does not always mean the end; for example, in tarot cards, death does not literally mean the ending of existence; rather, it means an end to a phase of your life, so it can blossom into something new. In simpler terms, it means change, which is what the world is scared of—it is what you are scared of. It is true that change is indeed scary; it can be bizarre, but it would certainly be better than living in a world of ash and cinders.
Music is pretty peak when used, as the game will only play it at certain areas or during a boss fight. Outside of that, your ears will only pick up the ambient noise of the area. The Soulsborne games soundtrack usually carries that bombastic grandiose feel to it, and Yuka Kitamura nails that in this game. The second phase of Twin Princes is always baller.
After writing all of this, the main reason it is not a 5/5 is because I really dislike areas like the Catacombs of Carthus and Irithyll dungeon, and Pontiff Sulyvahn, out of all of the bosses, sticks out like a sore thumb because of how bad he is compared to them. The runbacks to the bosses can be atrocious, and there are times when the "difficulty" was the developers spamming a bunch of enemies. And the level of design ranges from great to eh, although that ties back to the areas I disliked. The environment and vistas suffer from being analogous in that the general color scheme of the entire game is gray and yellow (not the piss color filter). Of course, that ties back to the overarching theme, and it makes areas like Irithyll of the Boreal Valley stand out a bit more visually from the rest. Either way, it is still a criticism worth bringing up. Aside from that and minor nitpicks, this game is truly great and, in my opinion, the best in the trilogy. Honestly, I believe what I have written does not do the game justice. Also, the best boss is the final one, Soul of Cinder, as he represents the entire game in one boss fight. It is in the name: SOUL of CINDER.