Just completed the DLC and... I would go beyond underwhelming and say it's actually pretty bad. Did it entirely offline so messages couldn't spoil anything for me, since just seeing one on the ground usually ruins the surprise. There was nothing in the entire place that felt memorable, challenging, or like I was ever running a gauntlet. Just a wide open area of mobs. None of the enemies were particularly unique, and the Millwood knights were just a pain in the ass because of a maximal stagger of 2 hits. The Evil Dead rape trees could have been so much more. Throw a Firebomb, mash R1, and collect souls. Or even easier, have fire on your weapon, mash r1, collect souls.
Think Friede took like 5 or 6 tries, and I probably would have done it in 2 or 3 if I weren't using the Astora Greatsword. Weapon art absolutely SHREDS her in Phase 1 if you find her after a jump (~2,100 damage with it + followup charged R2), but large weapons in phase 3 and to a lesser extent 2 are a liability. Most of your attacks end up with you taking counter damage because of the recovery following a swing. Not being able to see her heal Ariandel in phase 2 because she was...standing inside him was total bullshit. Phase 3 was a boring rollfest that really belonged in Bloodborne. I counted 8 attacks, and thus 8 rolls in a row as that was the length of her combo. Absolutely ridiculous. Since she can link several different attacks together to form multiple combos there are times when you have to guess your roll rather than time it. For example after her first horizontal swipe she will either pull back and immediately swipe, or pull back, then delay and swipe. To dodge the former, I had to immediately roll again following my first roll or else I would take the scythe to the face. However, if I do this, the delayed swipe would catch me at the end of my roll before I could roll a third time. Playing a guessing game with action combat is stupid. Maybe I just suck.
After killing her and feeling let down, I didn't even want to fight the Gravetender and Wolf, but I said fuck it and went ahead and did it anyway. Beat him first attempt, and as usual human enemies cheat. There's no way in Hell Valorheart has the stability to withstand 3 2h UGS swings with the Knightslayer ring equipped and still have stamina to weapon art. The Greatwolf felt more like Royal Rat Authority than Sif, and managed to have even shittier hitboxes, and even had the same headbutt / charge which fucked your camera entirely. If they were gonna go for Artorias fan service, they should have gone the whole 9 instead of what they gave us. Jumping down the vines felt too reminiscent of the Great Tree from DS1. It's like they just took random areas from the first game and jammed them together and hoped it would work.
All of this was done at SL 95, which is probably considered too high but fuck it, I like heavy armor.
