Andrew Lochner

This DLC was highly disappointing, but still good if you are a longtime FromSoft fan. The devs built an enormous beautiful world with insane interconnectedness very reminiscent of Dark Souls. However, much of this massive world is empty and has pointless loot. It feels like the worlds were not play tested at all. They were blindly accepted due to a phenomenal art design. The bosses are where this game both shines and utterly fails for me. From had some of the most phenomenal bosses like Rellana and Mesmer, and then added in awful fights like Gaius and Putrescent Knight. Some of the fights you can tell they put the effort in and play tested while the other two it is clear if they tested, they were only testing with spell casters. I tried to chase these insanely fast bosses over and over as they’d do a drive by 5 hit combo with confusing hitboxes and then ride far away where I can’t get an opening to hit them. If it was just two bosses that do insane damage and leave almost 0 punish windows I would accept that, but the majority of the bosses are like this. The final boss has a second phase where I thought I was going to have a seizure due to the abrasive strobing. For those of us with eye issues, I can tell this boss was not thought out or the same care put into him as usual. The thing I love about FromSoft games is a hard challenge that includes phenomenal exploration, and an interesting yet cryptic narrative. This DLC failed at all of these things with the exception of a handful of minor triumphs. Very disappointed as a longtime fan of From. It feels like they are so busy trying to change the formula that they are losing what made it great for all these years.