Prime example of a game that is excellent in it's lore, progression and atmosphere but with a few things that drag it down immensely the more the game goes on:
- The stamina bar feels extremely sluggish here compared to Bloodborne and Elden Ring, even with a stamina regeneration ring. I don't know if it's because I'm using a dual wielding set or if it's just me but most of the time when I'm fighting fast enemies I barley have any time to counter attack because I'm waiting for the mf'ing stamina bar to recharge after dodging all their attacks, only for me to then waste more stamina dodging their next barrage.

- How is it fair when I'm fighting enemies in a hallway and my weapon bounces off walls but the attacks of enemies don't? On one hand I like how it forces me to think about my surroundings but when the game is obsessed with having enemy encounters in corridors then it becomes extremely annoying.
It's especially a joy when the enemy traps you in a corner by continously staggering you while not facing any repercussions about their weapons, because they can just go through walls can't they? But my sharp weapons will bounce off the one tiny tree trunk that just happened to be close by, ruining my combo?

- I thought the boss run backs in Bloodborne and Hollow Knight (and occasionally Elden Ring) were annoying but nothing prepared me for this. I don't know what went through the developers heads thinking that running back to the boss room upon dying repeatedly (which is likely going to happen first time) is a good idea.
The only reason I can think why they did this was to make the run back, along with the enemies along the way, mess with your muscle memory slightly. If that's the case, please don't make it overly long where I have to wait for an elevator / bridge to collapse then make my way up and / or down a tedious pathway every time I die, with big bulky enemies as a cherry on top.
It was this point alone that put me off Dark Souls 1 and 2 because I've seen some of those boss run backs and... sheesh.

- Why in the genuine fuck does this not have the ability to turn off invaders when doing co-op / online? I've seen some people try to defend this as the game's "style" but I don't think you should remove quality of life features for something like that. Due to this, you can't play with a buddy without the worry of some cheap smurf coming along and killing you. This might be the point that baffles me most.

I feel sad that I have to treat this review as more of a rant but I hate things that could easily be one of my favourite games but then they had to make weird design choices like the above that make the game harder to fully praise.

UPDATE: Some of my problems like the stamina bar was me being bad I think, but the other issues still stand after completing the game. Even with all that negativity said, this game still slaps.