I loved pretty much all of it. Exploring and finding fragments was very fun, the bosses were a nice challenge mostly. Heading south and finding the cerulean coast was amazing. Almost missed the southeast frenzy forest because I missed a single ladder in shadow fortress. Overall it was just superb.
The only boss I struggled with was of course radahn who I spent about 2 hours figuring out how to beat. Thankfully I love summoning for fights so I don’t struggle like people who try to solo bosses like insane people. But finding a summon who wouldn’t die instantly basically left me with the mimic tear, so mimic it was. Still took an hour of learning the dodge timings and hoping to get a good block on the instant death move. And learning to force him to fight me in phase 1 while letting mimic hold aggro in phase 2 while I blast him with a ranged weapon special. Endurance management ultimately is what wins the fight though. Especially since I use just a medium shield and was only at about 35 endurance. Probably won’t fight him ever again.
But what a journey it was.
I do not much care for Bloodborne. The combat does not work for me, I need a block to enjoy combat. So I’ve never even played old hunters, but I’ve seen like 4 streamers play it completely. It seems okay. But it can’t be me. Also I loathe the Victorian cosmic horror aesthetic so the game was just pushing against me with everything. I got to the mind palace boss fight and tapped out.
Ringed city is god damn amazing though and I need to replay it. That Gael fight is just superb, midir such a joy.
I’d put shadow behind ringed city. Old hunters falls into the void of never playing it.