This game is really special.
I still can't place whether or not Dark Souls or this is my favorite FromSoft game but this has quickly captured my heart. FromSoft's gameplay tweaks to their usual formula are genuinely brilliant and its such a shame that they don't appear in any of their games after. The atmosphere is amazing and the storytelling and themes are juicy. I never thought throwing the souls genre into an eldritch horror world would work this well but FromSoft was able to pull it off with ease. The trick weapons are a blast to play around with, creating a new layer to every encounter depending on your spacing and the enemies placement around you. While there are less weapons total I feel like it gave them the opportunity to make every one feel nothing like the weapons of the past. The removal of shields is also great(even though I never found a use for them besides the grasscrest for the stamina boost)because it opened the way for gun parries. At first, the vials pissed me off in the beginning and I do think it does make the early hours unnecessarily frustrating but in the middle to end game I felt like it was more than easy enough to get vials to make it to the end. The rally system is also a great addition to the formula that really worked for me as it made me work hard to get into those prime positions to maximize damage on enemies.
I do feel like the game does have its faults as the chalice dungeons were easily the most frustrating part of my playthrough. The first couple were great, giving the player a little variety when you want a break from the overworld levels. However, the Defiled chalice is one of the worst designed challenges in a FromSoft game period. They half your health pool and throw you to the wolves against the earlier chalice bosses with amped up damage numbers. The amount of damage their basic attacks do basically make it that any and all attacks are a one shot. This is not how you balance difficulty and it felt like the game was trying to stretch out the dungeons for every bit of juice they had and it left a sour taste in my mouth for a while. In its defense this is all just side optional content but I feel like it was a difficulty spike that was not earned. Another element that was not as strong was the mid game bosses which often felt gimmicky and not really a real challenge. Thematically they still have the FromSoft charm, but it did leave more to be desired.
The side content was not all bad however haha far from it. This games world is like a complicated mystery box and only when you put in the work to find its secrets do you find the real gold of the game. There are several secret levels that could be entirely missed on a first playthrough and its stuff like this that really made me fall in love with the world of this game. It really makes Yharnam feel like a real and twisted place that actually exists but it will only give you its secrets if you work to find them yourself.
If you haven't played this yet do yourself the favor and pick it up now. $20 for such a masterpiece is highway robbery.
I still can't place whether or not Dark Souls or this is my favorite FromSoft game but this has quickly captured my heart. FromSoft's gameplay tweaks to their usual formula are genuinely brilliant and its such a shame that they don't appear in any of their games after. The atmosphere is amazing and the storytelling and themes are juicy. I never thought throwing the souls genre into an eldritch horror world would work this well but FromSoft was able to pull it off with ease. The trick weapons are a blast to play around with, creating a new layer to every encounter depending on your spacing and the enemies placement around you. While there are less weapons total I feel like it gave them the opportunity to make every one feel nothing like the weapons of the past. The removal of shields is also great(even though I never found a use for them besides the grasscrest for the stamina boost)because it opened the way for gun parries. At first, the vials pissed me off in the beginning and I do think it does make the early hours unnecessarily frustrating but in the middle to end game I felt like it was more than easy enough to get vials to make it to the end. The rally system is also a great addition to the formula that really worked for me as it made me work hard to get into those prime positions to maximize damage on enemies.
I do feel like the game does have its faults as the chalice dungeons were easily the most frustrating part of my playthrough. The first couple were great, giving the player a little variety when you want a break from the overworld levels. However, the Defiled chalice is one of the worst designed challenges in a FromSoft game period. They half your health pool and throw you to the wolves against the earlier chalice bosses with amped up damage numbers. The amount of damage their basic attacks do basically make it that any and all attacks are a one shot. This is not how you balance difficulty and it felt like the game was trying to stretch out the dungeons for every bit of juice they had and it left a sour taste in my mouth for a while. In its defense this is all just side optional content but I feel like it was a difficulty spike that was not earned. Another element that was not as strong was the mid game bosses which often felt gimmicky and not really a real challenge. Thematically they still have the FromSoft charm, but it did leave more to be desired.
The side content was not all bad however haha far from it. This games world is like a complicated mystery box and only when you put in the work to find its secrets do you find the real gold of the game. There are several secret levels that could be entirely missed on a first playthrough and its stuff like this that really made me fall in love with the world of this game. It really makes Yharnam feel like a real and twisted place that actually exists but it will only give you its secrets if you work to find them yourself.
If you haven't played this yet do yourself the favor and pick it up now. $20 for such a masterpiece is highway robbery.