I love fromsoft and I normally give their games a 5/5 after completion but there’s been a lot of things that have tested me this play through. I wanna start off and say 2 things, I’ve personally never really been an open world type guy, so the way this game is structured threw me off a LOT. I liked the linearity of fromsoft games and just going to a place a beating the boss. This game felt like it put exploring and grinding over that, makes sense since it’s an open world game, right? The other issue is that since the game is so big, fromsoft recycled a lot of bosses and dungeons which makes exploring even more of a chore for me. Another thing I wanna mention is a lot of the bosses felt like they were purposely made to be obnoxious instead of fun. You’re probably thinking “oh it’s a fromsoft game it’s meant to be hard” but that’s not what I mean. Some bosses like the godskin duo are REQUIRED to progress and are completely unfair for the player. It’s a 2v1 fight and depending on what build you have you may have to kill each boss three times in 1 fight for it to count as a victory.

SUPER SPOILER SECTION

The final boss fight sucks. The stage itself is not impressive at all and the only thing I liked about the fight was the first phase. The second phase is your typical annoying big boss that covers the stage with its massive body and massive aoe attacks. I’m disappointed because from the fromsoft games I’ve played the final boss fight has always been a beautiful 1v1 with a humanoid boss on a beautiful stage, this fight had neither. With souls like games, if the final boss is bad then what was the whole journey for?

But anyways enough about the negatives, I gave this game a 3.5/5 meaning I did enjoy things about it. This is fromsoft most innovative game yet. The game can be improved on but for a first crack at open world I’d say it’s a decent start. Annoying things from previous titles basically do not exist here. They gave us horses, graces are pretty generous, durability on weapons doesn’t exist, the player has a dedicated jump button, you can summon your friends from anywhere and a LOT more. I think the game is great but maybe if it wasn’t open world it would personally be better for me. I will replay like I do with all fromsoft titled and maybe my opinions will change but this is how it is for now.