As from dlcs go I actually had a much harder time enjoying this one over the others. Areas felt incomplete and empty, lots of main game copy paste content or even dlc copy paste content like the stupid hippos. The tedious easter egg hunt for skibbidy fragments and weird power scaling. And the atrocious final boss.
Overall I still enjoyed it and the map was beautiful to look at and fun to explore but it feels like a concentration of all the main games flaws. There’s very few fun things to find in the world lots of crafting trash and upgrade materials, surprisingly few useful spells weapons or armor some just flat out worse than whats available in the main game. The skibbidy level scaling felt strange, i struggled with the dlcs bosses until i hit skibbidy level 17 and suddenly they melt within a few hits, i don’t really know how many i need for each fight.
The boss fights that are there are solidly enjoyable, messmer is probably the most fun one to fight. The furnace golems are the STUPIDEST thing from has ever made, painfully tedious and very frustrating copy paste trash thats just a waste of time.
Final boss i had to respec cos no matter what i tried i got minced in the second phase. What worked? Fucking fingerprint shield and pokey stick. The most unenjoyable gameplay method of sitting behind a shield and its really effective. If i don’t use that i need frame perfect dodges and perfect focus for 10 minutes or longer with bo opportunity to make mistakes. First phase was fine but wtf am i supposed to do in the second phase? Be perfect?
I’m echoing your thoughts, almost exactly. It’s the base game, with many of its best and worst aspects cranked up to 11. It’s best parts are its fantastic boss fights.
Rellana was BRUTALLY difficult (at least, at the BL I was at) but I loved every moment of it.
Midra was visually stunning, and EXTREMELY clean to play, while still being a solid challenge.
Messmer was just a solid fight, all around.
Scadutree Avatar initially had me annoyed, but by the time I got through it, it was one of my favorites. Very unique.
Romina needed a massive buff, my goodness. I barely had a chance to DECIDE if I like the fight or not.
The Furnace Golems were a really cool concept, but in gameplay are just tedious and annoying, and had way too many “fuck you, there is no counter to this move, except to abandon the fight for the next 30 seconds” noves that they can just spam repeatedly.
Promised Consort Radahn is also BRUTALLY difficult, but ultimately learnable, like Rellana, but unlike Rellana is 0% fun to fight. One of those bosses that crosses the line from “learnavle because you get more skillful” to “learnable because you figure out how to metagame it”.
Radahn, Consort of Miquella can actually die in a fire. “Let’s take the design concepts that ruined Malenia, even though they were a minority of the fight, and build an entire fight around them, exclusively.” I.E. it’s and entire fight made of Waterfowls. It’s every combat concept that was a step backwards for FromSoft, across the entirety of Elden Ring, rolled up into one. Seriously, guys, your job as devs is to make difficult but learnable challenges that an average gamer can overcome, with enough effort, within the rules that the rest of the game has established, not to engage in an arms race against speedrunners and hitless runners. They are not your core audience.
Overall, an experience thst mostly improves on the base game, but was disappointing due to a few VERY significant lowlights. But it’s still Elden Ring, so still an excellent game.