Got some 14 hours in, bunch of thoughts.
First off, surprisingly good optimization and performance on my end, most of my rig is in the recommended region but my video card is the bare minimum and even still, the game is pretty smooth with like a handful of chugs in my entire playtime even on high settings.
Secondly, some shit that annoys me. In terms of a PC port, they somehow managed to regress from Sekiro when it comes to UI and controls. Can't map most of the shit on the keyboard and the game doesn't bother telling you anything but controller prompts in pretty much everything. And as it turns out, the map button is G, the only way to find that out is by trying every button on the keyboard to see what does what. Additionally I feel some of the stuff could've used some testing/work, yes the game is MASSIVE, but several of the mini-boss fights feel super jank, hell one of them straight up bugged out by the looks of it and the dude just kept dodging into the wall while i got free hits in until he died. Also the horse is a bit jank to control, not exactly precise, which wouldn't be an issue if the game didn't expect you do some precision platforming with the damn thing, the combat on horseback is hit-and-miss, it makes certain fights cakewalks but for most of the time you feel like you're flailing around and it's a crapshoot if you'll land a hit or not. Finally, some of the UI stuff, while better than before is still obtuse at times, especially some of the status effects which you can only guess at as to what the icons mean.
On the positive side of things, it's pretty much a culmination of a decade of them making games and it shows, shit is polished and iterated upon to a stunning degree in places. The feel of the combat is pretty smooth and even though I'm still getting used to jumping being a useful thing it's a pretty strong addition to your moveset even if you don't do jump attacks, just in terms of dodging certain shit it's a lifesaver. I'm also digging the exploration and it's done in the best way possible where you set out somewhere with a specific goal in mind but then keep getting sidetrack by constant 'ooh shiny' moments along the way, and before you know it you've ended up god knows where and you're way in over your head but that doesn't matter because you're having a blast just trying not to die to any of the terrifying new things that are trying to squash you. On aspect of the open world approach that I'm not entirely sold on just yet are those blue jump-gate thingies that pretty much guarantee sequence breaking and I'm not entirely sure why they're there when regular fast travel exists. Other than to possibly fuck with the player by intentionally throwing them into the fire and seeing how they react.
Now on to spoilery shit!
So as far as bossfights go, I've pretty much only done mini-boss stuff, I've encountered the Magrit dude but after a few tries I've shelved the encounter and pissed off to fill in the southern part of the map. Did a bunch of the smaller dungeon bros, some were fun, some were awful (like those two demi-human chieftains, that fight is just a clusterfuck), in some I got smacked once so hard that I realized that I should probably go back and level some more.
Done 3 of the evergaol dudes so far, mixed bag tbh, lost hero was enjoyable even if not terribly difficult, battlemage was a joke with being so easy to chain backstabs on and the hound guy was scary at first but then you realize that his damage and hp aren't that high so you can pretty easily power trough him if you manage your bleed gauge properly.
One thing that's kinda bugging me atm is how few weapons there are at the start, got the basic grab bag of swords and a few maces/clubs, even a spear, but that's about it, kinda feel bad for doing a depraved start and hoping for an early UGS as I've pumped a ton of levels into strength and endurance to be able to wield something I haven't found yet and have no idea when I'll actually do find it. Still, learning that powerstancing is back in has alleviated that as running around with dual longswords feels pretty damn good so far.
Still haven't found how to summon ashes, which is fine I guess as I'm generally ok going solo, but I can see how having some cannon fodder would be really good in certain fights.
Also did you guys know you can modify your armor too? I'm not sure what exactly that entails since I only got the basic kit to do it but apparently no suitable resources/armor pieces to modify just yet. It's kinda crazy that you could probably go the entire game without realizing it's a thing since the menu doesn't actually show up until you've picked up the thing that enables it.
And finally, have you guys tinkered around with the Ashes stuff? I've got a bunch of neat ones but I'm not sure if the thing is consumed in the process or if you get it back once you overwrite it with something else. Seeing how the roundtable vendor has an option of duplicating them I'm thinking maybe you lose them when you overwrite them, but it could also be so you can have two different weapons with the same art :V]So as far as bossfights go, I've pretty much only done mini-boss stuff, I've encountered the Magrit dude but after a few tries I've shelved the encounter and pissed off to fill in the southern part of the map. Did a bunch of the smaller dungeon bros, some were fun, some were awful (like those two demi-human chieftains, that fight is just a clusterfuck), in some I got smacked once so hard that I realized that I should probably go back and level some more.
Done 3 of the evergaol dudes so far, mixed bag tbh, lost hero was enjoyable even if not terribly difficult, battlemage was a joke with being so easy to chain backstabs on and the hound guy was scary at first but then you realize that his damage and hp aren't that high so you can pretty easily power trough him if you manage your bleed gauge properly.
One thing that's kinda bugging me atm is how few weapons there are at the start, got the basic grab bag of swords and a few maces/clubs, even a spear, but that's about it, kinda feel bad for doing a depraved start and hoping for an early UGS as I've pumped a ton of levels into strength and endurance to be able to wield something I haven't found yet and have no idea when I'll actually do find it. Still, learning that powerstancing is back in has alleviated that as running around with dual longswords feels pretty damn good so far.
Still haven't found how to summon ashes, which is fine I guess as I'm generally ok going solo, but I can see how having some cannon fodder would be really good in certain fights.
Also did you guys know you can modify your armor too? I'm not sure what exactly that entails since I only got the basic kit to do it but apparently no suitable resources/armor pieces to modify just yet. It's kinda crazy that you could probably go the entire game without realizing it's a thing since the menu doesn't actually show up until you've picked up the thing that enables it.
And finally, have you guys tinkered around with the Ashes stuff? I've got a bunch of neat ones but I'm not sure if the thing is consumed in the process or if you get it back once you overwrite it with something else. Seeing how the roundtable vendor has an option of duplicating them I'm thinking maybe you lose them when you overwrite them, but it could also be so you can have two different weapons with the same art :V
Also also, that divine tower thing off in the dragon barrows is both terrifying and super cool to explore, no idea what's at the bottom/top of it yet as the big sword guys that explode you with sorcery are in my way but I'll get there eventually
Anyways, took a while to post because I wanted to double check something in-game and ended up playing a bit :V
Edit: whoops fucked up that spoiler majorly :V
