Recent reviews by Corvo

They're trying to make me gay and it's working

I feel like an insane person seeing this game with an overwhelmingly positive rating, this easily the most disappointed I've been with a game this year.

Shadow of the Erdtree is an amazing DLC. Not quite FromSoft's best, The Old Hunters still holds that title in my book, but it gives it a real run for it's money. And considering Bloodborne is my favourite game of all time, that's high praise.

My favourite part of the base game was the sense of adventure and exploration, and they absolutely knocked it out of the park on that front. In fact, the layered approach they took with crafting this map, and the drop dead gorgeous art direction of the new areas (Cerulean coast, Ancient rauh ruins, and the final legacy dungeon in particular) made me enjoy exploring even more than in the base game. While there were a couple areas which were a bit lacking in stuff to do, (the finger areas and the Hinterlands specifically) for the most part I felt like my curiosity was always rewarded. Whether that be with Scadutree fragments, awesome new weapons, new and improved dungeons, or even entire, easily missable sections of the map. Like, I felt like an absolute genius figuring out the convoluted ass path to the Abyssal woods without a guide.

In terms of combat, not much was changed from the base game (which is a good thing in my book), but there are a few cool additions, and a good handful of new enemy types. My favourite things for sure were the new weapon types. I tried out maybe 4 or 5 of them, but the ones I ended up sticking with were the back blades and the great katana (specifically the dragon one). I made myself a super fun bleed build, and ended up using those for a solid 90% of my time with the DLC. I also enjoyed fighting most of the new enemies. I'd say the acrobatic guys with the rounded blades, the bird knight guys, and those big mouthed imps were my favourites. While not all the new enemies are up to their quality, I'd say the only truly bad enemy is the wicker man, whose inflated health pool and slow attacks make them an absolute chore to deal with. It felt as if they're simply too big to be fun in this combat system. It's a shame too, cause they're design is awesome. I also wish there a little less base game enemies. I'd say the balance between old and new is something like 50/50. It would've been nice to be a bit closer to 60/40, especially since some of those returning enemies were ones I was NOT happy to see again. Though that is a minor complaint.

Of course, the main draw of a souls game made by FromSoft is the boss battles, and I'd say this DLC has a fantastic roster. I've seen quite a few people saying that the bosses in this DLC do too much damage, or they simply aren't fun to fight because of various other reasons. With one exception, I don't agree at all. That exception being Gaius, who's hit-and-run AI and janky hit boxes which can result in an insta-death made him the only main boss I disliked. And while they're still good, I didn't find the flower and the scarlet rot boss to be as fun as the others. Aside from that, I found all of the other main bosses to be ranging from great to peak FromSoft. While tough as nails, all of the bosses move-sets were incredibly enjoyable to learn, and even more fun to master. Even when it took me an hour (or hours in one case) to get it right. My absolute favourite bosses in this DLC was the Dragon fight at the top of the Jagged peak, and the final boss. The former is probably now the best dragon fight FromSoft has ever made, and was an absolute sceptical while still being fun and engaging to fight from start to finish. The final boss is for sure the hardest fight in this DLC, and probably the whole game. It took me about 4 hours to finally beat with no summons. But while it was definitely the hardest thing this game has thrown at me, I never felt cheated into a death, or like there was no way to keep up with the boss. It's move-set is incredibly fast and punishing, but it also has quite a few gaps where you can get in some extra damage. This made learning the ins and outs of this fight an absolute joy. There simply is no describing the rush of pure ecstasy you get from finally killing the boss that once seemed so impossible after learning and adapting to everything it can throw at you. Truly amazing stuff. Both of these fights (especially the final boss) are well on their way to becoming some of my favourite bosses FromSoft have ever made. Also as an aside, I don't have too much to say about the non-rememberence bosses as they tend to not be quite as interesting, but I will say loved the death knights and the little katana wielding demi-human.

Shadow of the Erdtree is not perfect, and it is clearly not for everyone, but I LOVED it. Like lighting striking twice in the same spot, it managed to give me that same magical, child-like sense of wonder and adventure the that my first playthrough of the base game gave me. And that's gonna stick with me for a long time to come.

I get to gamble with my sanity instead of money

Just as good, if not better than the main game. Which is saying A LOT.

I will never emotionally recover from this... Splendid.

Absolutely loving the game itself but ♥♥♥♥ SEGA

Yeah they were right, this is one of the best games of all time.

I've died to gravity more times than any monster

Kaito.