I discuss this sh*t on discord

@Zod Dekh le aankhe phaad ke

https://x.com/charlieINTEL/status/2001300589360070906 cod 2025 suffered a double digit digital decline compared to last year phil spenders impact, @triggr happy ss?

Completed the game. Level 168, ~160 hours spent. I don’t think I completed 100% as I didn’t want to consult walkthroughs to avoid spoilers and maintain the sense of wonder. I think I would’ve missed some side quests or optional bosses (maybe 90% completed and some 10% missed ?). I played with melee builds throughout. Started as a dex + str character mainly using bloodhound fang (+9) + longbow (switched to pulley bow later). Towards late game, changed to dex/str + fai build once I got the blasphemous blade (+10) (most OP weapon in the game). It made many of the end game bosses manageable. For summons, mostly used Mimic tear (after I got it) and then black knife tiche ashes for some final end game bosses. Upgraded both to +10. Hardest bosses fought (in that order) - - Elden beast + radagon - General Radahn. - Malenia Also, ended up clicking on the blue summon sign and got Ranni’s ending lol. At first, it felt so anti-climatic, I mean I fought the elden beast for over a dozen times and then this ending ? But, after reading the lore, I feel this was perhaps one of the best endings. Pros: - The game has a brilliant core gameplay loop that pulled me in and kept me engaged through out. - The art / graphics is truly amazing. Every region feels different. The palaces are designed beautifully and they do feel like grand palaces ! Some of the NPC’s and their side quests are interesting too. - The world has a nice lore that kept me glued (just like the prev from soft game - blood borne). I kept reading the flavor text on every item to understand more. - The open world is brilliantly crafted with enough checkpoints and stuff to do to not feel frustrated / bored. Cons: - As with other from soft games, there’s little explanation of whats going on and very little assistance in terms of quests / where to go next etc. - Enemy variety is not that great. Many enemies repeat in stronger versions in the later areas. - Boss fights are a hit and a miss - Catacombs / caves have the same environments repeated with similar enemies over and over. It got really boring towards the end. - Weapon switching became a headache as you need smithing stones to level up (irrespective of your level/attributes) and in the early-mid game, you cannot really experiment much (until you find the bell bearings). Overall a brilliant game, I think perhaps one of the few games in which I’ve spent over 150 hours (perhaps only the second one on steam after cyberpunk 2077). Might do another play through some day with more points in INT/ARC attributes which I never really got to explore. Definitely in my top 10 of all time. 9/10 from my end