This is such a hard thing to rate, for one this DLC has some amazing exploration for example, but it also brings in a new heap of issues on top of that.

Let’s first go over my favorite thing about this DLC; the exploration. I love it, you see things in the distance and you just think “the fuck is that? I wanna check it out”, then you grab a map and see so much stuff to do. You’ve gone through an area where you thought you’d explored everything, but there’s an area right next to it that seems inaccessible, so you go back and explore every inch of that area to finally find what you’re looking for and more. This was the most fun part of the DLC personally.

Next I’d like to talk about the bosses. There are a variety of cool bosses here, some very unique ones like “Metyr, Mother of Fingers” and “Midra, Lord of Frenzied Flame”, but like the base game they also re-use some here in some places. It’s nothing too offensive though, except maybe the Divine Beast Dancing Lion, that should’ve been a one-time boss (now that I think about it they kinda did the same with Godrick in the base game). These bosses are varying in difficulty but the bosses that are really difficult, are REALLY difficult. Which brings me to my biggest issue with this DLC.

This DLC comes with a new mechanic, the Scadutree Blessings. These basically make you take less damage in the DLC and makes you do more damage as well. I’m guessing these were meant to be an incentive to explore, and yeah it really was but in the worst way. The bosses in this DLC are ridiculously strong, they can be very tanky while simultaneously basically two-shotting you, especially in the end game with Messmer and Radahn. At that point they don’t feel like an incentive, they feel like a necessity. That’s a thing that kinda ruins optional exploration since now it doesn’t feel optional anymore. And it also ruins some of the bosses since if you don’t have enough of them they’re just straight up impossible. And this ties in to my next issue and one which a lot have already said. It feels as if some of these bosses are difficult, just to be difficult. To the point where they’re straight up unfair sometimes. Like with Radahn’s whole second phase and whatnot. But that’s just a minor gripe.

Something positive I wanna point out is how beautiful this DLC is. Each area is absolutely gorgeous and unique, offering new visual aesthetics everywhere you go. The base game was already visually stunning but this just ramps that up to the next level. Although I feel that I gotta at least mention this, even though I don’t give a shit, I did notice that the frame rate dipped in certain places and even in a boss fight (specifically Divine Beast Dancing Lion). But I honestly couldn’t care less, I mean Bloodborne’s still my favorite, which is locked at 30 fps.

All in all this was an absolutely amazing DLC, the ending was a little lackluster, the bosses could’ve been a little more fine-tuned and the new mechanic was a bit meh. But this is what I wanted from the DLC, a huge new amazing area to explore with great bosses, so in the end I’m pretty damn satisfied. In total; I died 168 times to all the bosses combined, the hardest boss easily being Radahn with 57 deaths.

9/10