Intresting game, bad end boss, horrible dlc.

[Momo]

I bought it on Epic the day it released.
I had a lot of fun exploring and fighting, surviving the dungeons (actually one or two of them were hard enough to be a challenge...) and admiring the enviroment, even tho it was minimalist.
But once I reached the last bossfight, I felt cheated.
Let me explain: the entire game is pretty easy, almost no enemy can be a real threat to you, not even the few bosses the game throws to you. But the last one is absurdly hard. It can one/bishot you, throw your companion (or you) out of the arena, has a lot of hp. Maybe it is meant to be like that, since it is the final one (and lorewise I can even agree...), but the difficulty spike of that boss is like out of nowere. And not only I am an "expert" of those kind of games (got all achievments in most of the souls/soulslike games out there), but I do have a char with high stats (got a lot of feathers), maxed out weapons, and really good charms.
I still have to beat it, a year after. Just because it's so unfair that it's not even an intresting boss fight. And to me it was a huge let down, since the whole game had it's difficulty in stressing you out to reach the next waypoint (narrow paths, pitholes, ambushes, etc.), not in the actual enemies strenght.

Then came the DLC.

No one knew about it, I discovered it like two days ago, and it released the 6th I think. There were no reviews about it, not even a pricetag. Someone thought it was free.

Nope. 10 Euros.

"Ok" I said "Let's read the plot"... so a woman (Amara, a well know companion in the base game) had to find her's doughter on a isle called whatever (I don't even remember the name kek).
"Mmmm, seems nice! A whole new island to explore, for only 10 bucks! It's ok to me, let's buy it!".

And so I did.

Well, let me give you the short story... the DLC has ONE waypoint (the one that makes you fast travel fyi) in the middle of the way to the final boss. ONE mid boss, that is just a common enemy but a little bigger and with a lot of hp (that I knew it was a midboss just because it had a marker on it's head). ONE final Boss, that was the most ridicolous bossfight I encountered. A bunch of new enemies, some reskinned ones, maybe 5-6 weapons (all ugly tbh) and 4 or 5 armors that reskin your character into a companion.

For the duration of, MAYBE, 2 hours in total. That could have been less if I didn't die in some stupid ways and had to redo all the way from the first checkpoint to the end.

To me that was a huge delusion.

And now I wonder if they just did the 10 Euros pricetag to justify a full price release on Steam, since the game will come out with the DLC included.

Because ok, let's be honest here: there are skins and characters for some games (beat'em'ups) that costs like 6-7 euros. So a 2 hrs DLC with new models, some new areas, etc. it is justified to costs 10 euros, no doubt. But on the other way there are games that with the same price are lasting way longer. Even indie ones.

And since the base game lasts like 14 hrs (I had a 16hrs marker with the dlc done) I wonder why they didn't try to improve the whole quality instead of adding something that seems a cut content more than a new adventure. There not even a change in the "main hub" of the game once you complete the DLC. Amara doesn't say a word about that experience, nor you unlock something useful. It is just like any other quest found during the base game.

I mean, it was ok, even intriguing, but once I realized that that was the final boss of the DLC I felt "empty"... like I wasted my money. It started like an epic journey in the depths of an abyss, where to discover an ancient and powerful enemy (linked to the final boss too!), but in the end it felt more like a walk in the park, and the ending boss just a poor creature like any other (even less scary than some normal enemies tho).

I don't really know what to say to those who have still to buy the game. Of course the WHOLE experience is good, for an indie game, if bought at the right price.

But that game is crippled by some poor choices that personally can't understand. From the ending boss to the laziness of that first (and last?) DLC.

[ZAToM]

while they signed the epic exclusive deal the devs lost balls, spine an souls, and so did their game

[Momo]

I don't think those things are actually related, but for sure this DLC was both unexpected and not worth at all. It ends just when the story starts to be intresting. Comparing it with the Dark Souls (1) DLC for example, there we had three bosses, new enemies, huge and detailed locations, and it costed like 15$. It had almost trhee time the content (if not more) and costed just 5 bucks more.
And every enemy, bosses, locations were well made. Artorias was one of the best bossifght, and Manus one of the hardest (if not the hardest) of the entire game. A True endgame content, made for fans.

The Ashen DLC is not an endgame content, but in the fact that the enemies are op (both with hp and damage). But the boss is just pure trash compared to everything else. I don't really know who thought it was a good idea, or who said "ok, this is an endgame content" or something made for players that waited NINE MONTHS.

Because this is the deal... the DLC, that will be already (I suppose) included in the base game here on Steam, could be good since it is in the standards of the main game.

But for those who waited so long, and paid it, and supported the game on Epic despite the supid decision to make it exclusive... it is just a middle finger in the face.

p.s. of course I know that From Software is a "big" (not that much) company compared to the Ashen's one. I know that their content is obviously better in terms of quality. But still, Ashen's devs had the resources to, at least, make the bossfight enjoyable lol