So far I love it! (lvl 75) It’s indeed varied, combat feels great and different enough to feel like a new combat style. I really like how there are seemingly more resources to manage instead of just adrenaline, as well as the flexibility that lack of some cooldowns offers. The city is beautiful and really feels like it’s coming back to life as I level and summon more souls.
I like the preparation phase of rituals. Preparing the glyphs and candles for the right ritual seems fitting. I was a little disappointed in the rituals themselves though. I was hoping to actually see a magical ritual. I guess I imagined the player using necrotic energy to weave a pattern, getting more complex as the ritual progresses. A sense of power building up during the ritual. Random skeletal things as disturbances could have been blockages in the flow of soul energy or other problems with the pattern instead.
But the only thing so far that has really disappointed me has been the quests and lore, the part I was most looking forward to. The quests are just wrapper. It feels a bit similar to Menaphos release, a beautiful city with awful quests that leave the place feeling hollow. Although, admittedly the quests aren’t as bad as the Menaphos ones. There was also a lore error (calling Dr Nabanik Azzanadra) in dialogue. The only redeeming factor of the quests/lore released with this skill (that I’ve completed so far) has been Rasial and the interactions the player has with him. Sadly those have been rather limited and brought down a bit by how the player character is portrayed, but he actually feels like an interesting character. I especially like the whole villain as a teacher thing.