This one is somewhat special to me. I had high hopes for Death's Gambit, as I followed one of the devs' live streams religiously while he was creating the game. I felt like part of the project.

And then it was finally released, and let's say my first impressions weren't very good, and even after the big update that was "Afterlife" (which I admit refined many aspects of the game), the core issues remained.

In a super competitive market like Metroidvanias, a game can't settle for being average. Death's Gambit tries to replicate several ideas you've seen in other games but rarely tries to be creative with any of them.

For me, games like this NEED to have good combat. The game gives you a false sense of choice, that you'll be able to choose your play style, it presents you with classes and different weapons, but in my experience, little change is seen between these choices, and combat is reduced to block-and-dodge tactics.

The enemies are very spongy, you don't feel the weight in your attacks, the controls are awkward, and almost everything feels very clunky. The game's story fails to create a coherent and meaningful impact, I thought that the game's story was trying to be something deep and ... out of the blue, it changes its tone with comic relief, in a way that only harms the experience.

To say that everything is doomed would be unfair, the art direction and the soundtrack are very good, but I'm a bit biased because I love pixel art.

In the end, I tried to complete Death's Gambit three times. Today was the last time.

First of all, the game is very good, there's no question about that, but if you knew me you'd know that I'm not an open-world fan, and most of my complaints stem from that fact.
I think Fromsoftware has done a good job of adapting the souls formula to fit the open world format, but I don't believe it's in this format that the essence of this formula shines through and shows its best form.
For me, nothing incredible is added to the souls formula when you change the structure of the game to something more open, despite the greater freedom to explore, something positive for many, that's not what I'm looking for in games like this, for me it's about navigating intricate and meticulously crafted levels. Add this to other minor complaints such as the repetition of bosses, dozens of very similar dungeons, Fromsoftware's refusal to add field-of-view settings, lack of wide-screen support, and a list of other details and you have the reason why this game is not my favorite experience among FromSoftware's other titles.
That said, this game deserves its prestige and the game of the year award. FromSoftware has managed to pull it off once again, the world is visually stunning, many boss battles are memorable, the story and mythology are great, the variety of equipment allows for more builds than ever before, and the soundtrack is, as always, impeccable.