I had some of the most fun I've had in a fromsoft game up until finishing leyndel. Although I did think the game was spread a bit thin at times I'm not sure moments like siofra well would work if you expected to consistently find cool reveals like that.

Almost everything after that was a tedious slog. It's a crying shame since places like haligtree brace have some stellar level design ruined by cut and paste spam of annoying enemies and completely bonkers damage scaling.

I bounced hard off the dlc although I don't know what I was expecting.

DS, DES, and sekiro are all wonderful in their own way. I think they excell at smaller projects that are original. If elden ring ended at the erdtree it would have been a terrific high, although I'm unsure how much replayability is there because of how much loot there is and how spread out it is.