9/10 Game. Looked forward to every play sesh.

This is one of games where I would really wish for a mixed rating.

I really like the tone of the world. (until a certain point) Its dark and gritty, makes you feel like you are nothing. Filled with ruthless killers that make you feel unwelcomed. Therefore does the base really feel like a home and I really like how it progresses over the story and side activities.
But then suddenly you leave the ashen scarred landscape, dark and dangerous dungeons and enter a bright colorful city. Surely this can be for you but this kinda breaks the immersion for me since the tone was set and suddenly it looks warm and welcoming even tho it still wants to break you.
The exploration is fun since the world is filled with lots of loot to discover, but there is just too much of it. Its the upgrade materials I am talking about. After a certain point you will have multiple stacks worth of stuff laying around. The weapons are too similar for me to utilize the pile so I kept finding more and more not having a use for it, becoming discouraged after a while even.
7/10

This feel very stale and uninspired. It tries to limit you even with you needing to use a lantern in dark places, which takes a lot away from the gameplay imo. Just having the option to put the lantern on your belt or something would fix that easily. You also need to not be locked onto enemies to use your dodgeroll with pressing A once which feels very inconsistent and sluggish. You otherwise only have a sidestep which doesnt cover much ground and makes you tank hits nearly everytime unless you doublepress A.
The weapons are basically reskins of oneanother with a few stats tweaked so nothing much to play around with.
4/10

Oof.
This hurt me the most. There are only a few and most of what I've seen has barely any design to it. Only a few moves each and a sh*tload of health. Its not even that challenging but it just takes forever and doesnt feels like you did anything since you only wait and then smash attack and wait again. They are atleast sorta cool looking but thats it.
What broke me wansn't the design tho. It was during the second last boss. He surely is more active but its just another endurance fight with a sh*tload of mobs spawning. It was toward the last 2% of his health on my first try. I ran out of healing, but didnt notice. I tried to heal once more but instead of healing I used a homeward bone since it automatically switches to the next bound consumable, and the bone doesn't teleport you to the last point of rest but rather to the hub. Which means that I would have needed to do the whole dungeon infront of the boss again to give it another try since you also can only teleport to a few bonfires. This was surely on me but with everything else mentioned above, this took away the last bit of good will I had left and therefore did my playthrough end right there.
I don't mind smashing my head against a wall and trying a boss a couple dozen times, but the design must be on point to enable me to do so.
1/10

This game had me. I really enjoyed the first 10ish hours a lot. There are a lot of cool ideas but a lot of the concepts are not put into practice in a fun and engaging way. I wanted to like this game a lot but it spat in my face in the end.
4/10

I like the game and the mechanics but it keeps freezing. I can't even finish Rod and Stone quest. Only downvoting for performance. If it worked, I'd recommend