Finished this dlc for the second time today, and it's still peak.

Pretty sure I only had three deaths to bosses; one to Demon Prince and two to Midir. Actually did Lapp's quest for the first time, which was a fun look at a classic character and his armor was a nice reward. I summoned him for the Spear of the Church boss since it felt like his quest wouldn't be truly complete otherwise.

Slave Knight Gael was just as fun the second time, and effortlessly defended his spot at #2 on my "Best FromSoftware Bosses" list. I used the Great Corvian Scythe this time, which turned out to be a really fun choice. In the end I was out of Estus, one hit from death, and managed to close it out with some tightly timed attacks in between one of his combos.

Couldn't ask for a better conclusion to the series.

(This is a followup to my previous review of the Artcthrones demo, as there has been a major balance patch since I wrote that review.)

I started a fresh playthrough today to see if the new balance patch would solve my issues with enemy scaling. In short, it absolutely has.

I hadn't actually gotten very far through the mod on my original playthrough, only beating the Angelic Siege Golem boss and running around the beginning of each Archthrone, so I was able to catch up very quickly. The decreased enemy scaling is very noticable and feels far more appropriate for starting characters even outside of the first Archthrone.

A lot of my complaints in the previous review centered on the overturned bosses, and I'm happy to report that they now feel much closer to vanilla DS3 bosses in damage and health. Their movesets are still a bit more complex than I would prefer this early in the game, but at least the punishment for getting hit isn't instant death. I was able to beat the Angelic Siege Golem on my first try at level 15 with a +1 Claymore, and the Pus-ridden Beast on my first try a couple levels higher with a +2 Claymore and some fire consumables. I do not believe they have overcorrected; the bosses were still challenging and if I hadn't had practice with their much harder previous forms, I would not have beaten them in a single try.

Given how much better this mod feels to play after the balance patch I do intend to finish the demo this time around. Previously I had said I didn't recommend the mod, but this patch has changed my mind. Definitely give it a shot if you're a fan of Dark Souls III, Elden Ring, or Bloodborne. I think there's a good chance you'll enjoy it.

Update: I've been playing all day and found a few more bosses, one of which I really liked (unfortunately my obs hotkey failed me so I need to do the fight on another character), and a few others that were decent. Overall really enjoying this demo.

Update 2: The further in I get, the more over-designed the bosses are. Does a mid-game boss really need to have moves from Soul of Cinder, Champion Gundyr, Great Shinobi Owl, Maliketh, Margit, and fucking ISSHIN?!?! There's also a janky version of Great Shinobi Owl as a separate boss in the same mod (the parry timings on that boss are completely fucked, you need to parry WAY earlier than normal for DS3). There's also a Sekiro-ass ninja boss who I really hope is just unfinished because the jank was unbearable but the presentation was really good. These bosses look really cool but borrowing moves from such a wide variety of other bosses (from different games, even) means they have no cohesive feel or flow.

Update 3: I found the secret boss in Phoenix Tower today and laughed out loud at how absurdly janky it is. The lock on couldn't stay on the boss for more than 15 seconds and every move felt completely off-tempo. I'm not even going to say I hope this one is unfinished because if it made it into the full release like this it would be fucking hysterical (this thing makes Maneaters look extremely polished).