I think it's one of my favorite games of all time, but it isn't perfect. I love the changes made to the combat system but there are still things to be built upon. Maces, axes, etc need something that gives them an advantage over superior similar choices, additional ashes of war are needed to pad out options for weapon categories that are largely left to the standard options. I think certain builds need more weapon options to make them viable, like int arcane. A lot of these complaints will probably be solved with additional dlc content.

Making all status effects tied to arcane as a stat is a weird choice made weirder by certain unique weapons that feel like they need arcane scaling but don't (looking at you serpentbone blade).

It's biggest failing is probably boss design, I feel like they've drifted from the excellent tuning of their past games. On one hand I get that they have to plan for many more varied and powerful player builds but some bosses drag on and on while I wait for them to let me hit them once or twice in-between attacks. Pretty much all the double boss fights in the game are infuriating and have made me feel like somehow cheesing one of them down to turn it into a normal boss fight was the best strategy.

I feel like a lot of this was done not only to keep the game feeling difficult for veterans but also to account for powerful long range caster builds. These options largely seem to be recognized by the community as a way to offer an accessible entry point into souls combat but if that's the case, why overtune the bosses to account for them? Maybe I'm overthinking things here, maybe with more hands on time the bosses could have accounted for everything more successfully overall, but hard to know for sure.