This review contains spoilers
This fucking game man...the sense of relief I felt when first getting stuck in and realising this was not a Ubisoft-esque mess of quest markers and checklists was so refreshing. The feeling when first exploring this game, and having its scope zoom out further and further to reveal a truly immense landmass, I feel will not be recreated quite like this again. And that's not even mentioning the marvel of jumping on a random, unassuming elevator in the middle of a forest to then reassess your life and reckon with an entire underground map!
This game is SO CLOSE to a flawless masterpiece, with a select few glaring issues holding it back; the highs are dizzying, but the lows truly are subterranean. Ulcerated tree spirits suck all of the joy out of the room, and there are multiple bosses that have been copy-pasted that kind of rob them of their uniqueness and sense of spectacle (I'm looking at you Godefroy and Astel, Stars of Darkness). When discovering Astel during Ranni's questline, my eyes immediately bounced off as I was forced to sort my shit out, git gud, and bear witness to such a glorious lovecraftian monstrosity. To then stumble across homeboy in a random mine up North kind of felt like Elden Ring was tripping me up and stealing my lunch money.
That being said, however, one could argue that these doubled up bosses were a welcome "rematch" given the absence of a "bonfire ascetic" item (peep the dark souls 2 fans sitting in a dark corner weeping softly at the lack of this item for the last 10 years). But by Marika's tits, the reuse of the Ulcerated Tree Spirit really is egregious.
That fact that I still consider this game a solid 10/10 speaks volumes to the positives. The exploration, build variety, difficulty level and tools to adjust it, are unparalleled. It's refreshing for a video game to respect your time and intelligence in a world where open world gaming holds your hand, tugs your dick and spells everything out to you like a goddam toddler.
Grow up, pick up a giant lump of wood and run around in your underwear already; this game stomps so much ass.
This game is SO CLOSE to a flawless masterpiece, with a select few glaring issues holding it back; the highs are dizzying, but the lows truly are subterranean. Ulcerated tree spirits suck all of the joy out of the room, and there are multiple bosses that have been copy-pasted that kind of rob them of their uniqueness and sense of spectacle (I'm looking at you Godefroy and Astel, Stars of Darkness). When discovering Astel during Ranni's questline, my eyes immediately bounced off as I was forced to sort my shit out, git gud, and bear witness to such a glorious lovecraftian monstrosity. To then stumble across homeboy in a random mine up North kind of felt like Elden Ring was tripping me up and stealing my lunch money.
That being said, however, one could argue that these doubled up bosses were a welcome "rematch" given the absence of a "bonfire ascetic" item (peep the dark souls 2 fans sitting in a dark corner weeping softly at the lack of this item for the last 10 years). But by Marika's tits, the reuse of the Ulcerated Tree Spirit really is egregious.
That fact that I still consider this game a solid 10/10 speaks volumes to the positives. The exploration, build variety, difficulty level and tools to adjust it, are unparalleled. It's refreshing for a video game to respect your time and intelligence in a world where open world gaming holds your hand, tugs your dick and spells everything out to you like a goddam toddler.
Grow up, pick up a giant lump of wood and run around in your underwear already; this game stomps so much ass.