- late game areas Shunning Grounds, Consecrated Snowfield, Dragonbarrow, Mohg's entire area, the pre-Fire Giant section of the Mountaintop of Giants, feel overtuned in combat balancing+feel awkwardly designed with little to discover/obtain in contrast to the pain of exploration. CS in particular is easily near top 3 most hated FromSoft areas.
- legacy dungeons are mostly downhill after Stormveil, which feels like an entire best-of Soulsborne area unto itself. it was a very high high and the rest of them feel either too linear or too empty. not that theyre bad, just not up to Stormveil quality.
- feel certain enemy types are a bit overtuned, not just in stats but in their general design. crucible knights (the input reading makes them a pain, and yes i know its not 'input reading' but rather reacting much much much more quickly to your estus chugs and spellcasts than most enemies in DS/BB/ER, miss me), giant prawns (forgivable since theyre kind of a lovable meme enemy that can be ignored in most encounters), the wolf archers, im sure theres more, they just arent fun to fight on most builds unless you are overlevelled. ulcerated tree spirits are another candidate; they arent terribly difficult, but just awkward and poorly design in terms of hitboxes flopping around.
- minus goofballs like Ancient Wyvern, feel DS3 and BB had the best selection of bosses in this niche.
- PvE feels a little skewed towards incorporating Faith in some way, it has the best toolbox by far.
even with those issues (i wont count the last complaint about Fth, its a balancing thing that will likely be continually tweaked), i still wouldnt drop this below a 90 on my vague and undefined scale.
main complaint i disagree with is the copy-paste dungeons/minibosses... i think it's fine by open world RPG standards, a bit better honestly. would be nice to see unique tilesets and minibosses and etc everywhere but im fine with the variety and gimmicks they roll out to keep it somewhat fresh.