This is a great game, but not without flaws, as it is usual in the genre. Many of its flaws are also the usual too.
I think that as of now this ties with The Surge 1 as my favorite soul like outside of FromSoftware.
I think I will do another playthrough right away.


What's good:

- Some enemies were fantastic. My favorite is Victor. Some areas were very good too.
- Performance, flawless. I have never notice any fps drop or problem and neither with the demo.
- Having cheap respect options.
- Many weapons and also weapon combinations are amazing. Being able to mix blade and handle is genious. This will probably be my main reason for replaying this game.


What's ok:

- Story and characters. I wasn't expecting anything but they were actually good and interesting most of the time.
- The dialogue choices had more depth than I expected.
- Customization was better than I expected. But I miss having tanking options like poise and not just physical damage mitigation.
- They did a good job with the combat changes. I think it would be better if the amount of guard regain you lose on taking damage was much much less, even having the P-organ makes almost no difference.
- The pacing of the game. I had the sense that I was reaching the climax for a very long time, which made me be even more eager to continue. I think this went on for 10 hours at least.

What's a bit bad:

- Attacks feel floaty. Particularly heavy attacks feel like they have unreal speed and acceleration, making some of the animations weirdly fast, making those attacks hard to read.
- Attack patterns feel unnatural and bait you into attacking before they are finished. This happens almost with every boss. Sadly it is an increasingly common trend in these games but in this one is pretty much a norm.
- Bosses attacking when they are supposed to be stunned after a charged attack when they are staggered. There are only a few instances of this, but it is like the previous point, something to spice the combat but in a bad way in my opinion.
- Combat distance. There are a couple of bosses with a moveset that makes them frustrating with certain short weapons because they move back constantly at the same time they are giving you an opening. Particularly Fuoco.
- The game is extrimely linear. The only secrets you find are part of backtraking quests that are only possible after finding the hint item.
- Hitting enemies with a charged attack after they become vulnerable is more difficult when playing a motivity (strength) build, because those weapons are usually considerably slower and with less reach. This is annoying at the beginning of NG but it becomes tolerable once you find better weapons. The trick is that you can use certain items to proc it instead of a charged attack and also switch to another weapon with more reach and speed just for triggering it (upgrades and stats don't matter). But still it can be annoying with fast enemies and in hard situations.
- A bit too many ledges with snipers. They didn't give me much trouble but I can see how they could be frustrating, particularly when there were more than 1.


What's bad:

- Some hit boxes. Particularly those that hit before that part of the enemy actually makes contact with you. I know they are hard work, but they are extremely important.
- Many attacks are too fast and some are almost impossible to see. Having a boss is no excuse to give it ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ attacks. I think this could be fixed just by giving 1-2 frames to most of those attacks and some more to those very few lightning fast attacks (yes I am referring to you Laxasia).
- That quest that requires you to have a certain terrible boss weapon, with a quartz reward.
- Gang fights, particularly the gang boss, twice.
- Weapon bouncing at walls, while hitting enemies through walls just fine. This happens in a lot of spots and with many weapons.
- Not having poise. There is some hyper armor though.
- Having to reach NG+ to fully unlock the P-organ tree. In NG you don't even know in that there are more hidden parts in the tree, making it 7 subtrees instead of 5. There is a mod in nexusmods called P-organ 7 phase unlock that allows you to reach the last part in NG, making it a better experience than vanilla, because many options in the P-organ tree feel like filler and are very dependant of your playstyle, and I personally find a lot of those useless or weak.


In any case, you can beat the game just fine with a bit of patience, consumables or the summoning system.

This is a great game, but not without flaws, as it is usual in the genre. Many of its flaws are also the usual too. I think that as of now this ties with The Surge 1 as my favorite soul like outside of FromSoftware. I think I will do another playthrough right away. What's good: - Some enemies were fantastic. My favorite is Victor. Some areas were very good too. - Performance, flawless. I have never notice any fps drop or problem and neither with the demo. - Having cheap respect options. - Many weapons and also weapon combinations are amazing. Being able to mix blade and handle is genious. This will probably be my main reason for replaying this game. What's ok: - Story and characters. I wasn't expecting anything but they were actually good and interesting most of the time. - The dialogue choices had more depth than I expected. - Customization was better than I expected. But I miss having tanking options like poise and not just physical damage mitigation. - They did a good job with the combat changes. I think it would be better if the amount of guard regain you lose on taking damage was much much less, even having the P-organ makes almost no difference. - The pacing of the game. I had the sense that I was reaching the climax for a very long time, which made me be even more eager to continue. I think this went on for 10 hours at least. What's a bit bad: - Attacks feel floaty. Particularly heavy attacks feel like they have unreal speed and acceleration, making some of the animations weirdly fast, making those attacks hard to read. - Attack patterns feel unnatural and bait you into attacking before they are finished. This happens almost with every boss. Sadly it is an increasingly common trend in these games but in this one is pretty much a norm. - Bosses attacking when they are supposed to be stunned after a charged attack when they are staggered. There are only a few instances of this, but it is like the previous point, something to spice the combat but in a bad way in my opinion. - Combat distance. There are a couple of bosses with a moveset that makes them frustrating with certain short weapons because they move back constantly at the same time they are giving you an opening. Particularly Fuoco. - The game is extrimely linear. The only secrets you find are part of backtraking quests that are only possible after finding the hint item. - Hitting enemies with a charged attack after they become vulnerable is more difficult when playing a motivity (strength) build, because those weapons are usually considerably slower and with less reach. This is annoying at the beginning of NG but it becomes tolerable once you find better weapons. The trick is that you can use certain items to proc it instead of a charged attack and also switch to another weapon with more reach and speed just for triggering it (upgrades and stats don't matter). But still it can be annoying with fast enemies and in hard situations. - A bit too many ledges with snipers. They didn't give me much trouble but I can see how they could be frustrating, particularly when there were more than 1. What's bad: - Some hit boxes. Particularly those that hit before that part of the enemy actually makes contact with you. I know they are hard work, but they are extremely important. - Many attacks are too fast and some are almost impossible to see. Having a boss is no excuse to give it bullshit attacks. I think this could be fixed just by giving 1-2 frames to most of those attacks and some more to those very few lightning fast attacks (yes I am referring to you Laxasia). - That quest that requires you to have a certain terrible boss weapon, with a quartz reward. - Gang fights, particularly the gang boss, twice. - Weapon bouncing at walls, while hitting enemies through walls just fine. This happens in a lot of spots and with many weapons. - Not having poise. There is some hyper armor though. - Having to reach NG+ to fully unlock the P-organ tree. In NG you don't even know in that there are more hidden parts in the tree, making it 7 subtrees instead of 5. There is a mod in nexusmods called P-organ 7 phase unlock that allows you to reach the last part in NG, making it a better experience than vanilla, because many options in the P-organ tree feel like filler and are very dependant of your playstyle, and I personally find a lot of those useless or weak. In any case, you can beat the game just fine with a bit of patience, consumables or the summoning system.