A series that was once at the cutting edge of game design has officially ran out of tricks, although this was pretty much already the case with DS3 6 years ago.
Very frontloaded main quest, exploring Limgrave, Liurnia and accidentally stumbling into Caelid was very impressive and gave the game a sense of adventure.
There is also a staggering amount of freedom given to the player. You can access Liurnia, Volcano Manor and Atlus Plateau and many other areas from the beginning without killing anything.
Unfortunately there is a very evident nose dive after Leyndell, Mountaintop of the giants is practically empty in comparison to the 3 earlier mentioned areas. Farum Azula is practically a straight line with possibly the worst boss in the entire series.
This nosedive extends to the side content as well, the level of recycled content in the dungeons/caves/mines is beyond embarrassing. If this was any other dev aside from the current hivemind darling then forums would be rammed with your typical internet gamer rage.
Overall i'm glad I played it, but it's just clear to me that Souls is tired, the game conforms heavily to the tropes that earlier games established to the point of it being mundane. I was rolling my eyes when the mid boss anime power up cutscene played on the ~10th different fight. Sure it was cool when Ludwig did it but that was back in 2015. Time to get some new tricks Fromsoft.
Very frontloaded main quest, exploring Limgrave, Liurnia and accidentally stumbling into Caelid was very impressive and gave the game a sense of adventure.
There is also a staggering amount of freedom given to the player. You can access Liurnia, Volcano Manor and Atlus Plateau and many other areas from the beginning without killing anything.
Unfortunately there is a very evident nose dive after Leyndell, Mountaintop of the giants is practically empty in comparison to the 3 earlier mentioned areas. Farum Azula is practically a straight line with possibly the worst boss in the entire series.
This nosedive extends to the side content as well, the level of recycled content in the dungeons/caves/mines is beyond embarrassing. If this was any other dev aside from the current hivemind darling then forums would be rammed with your typical internet gamer rage.
Overall i'm glad I played it, but it's just clear to me that Souls is tired, the game conforms heavily to the tropes that earlier games established to the point of it being mundane. I was rolling my eyes when the mid boss anime power up cutscene played on the ~10th different fight. Sure it was cool when Ludwig did it but that was back in 2015. Time to get some new tricks Fromsoft.