The souls games have reached a threshold on their power creep. If you thought it was already at that spot in the base game, well then Shadow of the Erdtree blows right through it.

Some of the most awe-inspiring content ever put to a video game buckles under it's own weight amongst its context as a game which must be bigger, harder, and more over-the-top than anything that came before. What this culminates into is an experience that buries itself in it's own grandiosity.

Damage endured is excessive (even with scadutree blessings), bosses will disregard intuitive rythyms purely for the sake of catching players off-guard, each one has gap-closers and extensions, attack-strings are longer and less forgiving than ever, and finally, player punish windows have never been smaller or less rewarding. Don't even get me started on the final boss cutting my framerate in half.

At some point or another I had to ask myself what I value in a souls game and whether or not that is still present. Mystery, atmosphere, and laser-focused meaning are still here in droves, and yet SotE's direction feels intent on not making them what I'll remember once I've moved on.