I feel as though this game has a similar problem to DS2 wherein it tries to create difficulty artificially which is annoying, but WOULD be fine if the recycled mini dungeons/bosses and general side content you can do to gain more power was good. Heck, if I could actively avoid doing the side content at all I absolutely would because it is BY FAR the game's weakest asset. It's a shame because FromSoft is typically good at giving you methods to become more powerful and there's definitely more of them in this game than ever before, but it feels spread thin because of all of the bland, dull recycled content.

Moreover, I found that the lategame feels really 'disjointed', so to speak, as in progression from the lategame until the end feels less natural than the rest of the game. It feels like things just... happen, and a lot of the lategame bosses are not that great (with exceptions, of course). On the whole I feel like the lategame feels rushed and not very well balanced compared to the rest of the game and that honestly leaves a really sour taste in my mouth because I was enjoying the game despite the glaring flaws before that.

Verdict: I'll just go back to Dark Souls III because it's a more consistently fun experience, at least for me