For a demo made by 2 people its great. I love the mix between historical combat animations and more contemporary game controls (not too dissimilar from many souls-like games); you don't need to try and juggle 3-5 inputs for fully controlling every detail of technique the player uses unlike other medieval/HEMA inspired games, yet you still get some variety in moveset. I'm unsure on the historical accuracy of this, but I do think it'd be nice to be able to switch guard stance mid-combat as opposed to being locked into the highest ranked stance unlocked, for the cases where, say, vom tag might be more fitting than pflug or whatever the case may be. It'd be fun IMO to not only unlock more basic stances but also better techniques from earlier stances, so that even nebenhut and alber change from wildly swinging like a bad unwieldy Dark Souls colossal weapon animation to something more in line with a proper zwerchhau or a reverse edge cut, but I admittedly might be getting too far into the weeds here. Regardless, its cool to see some more proper HEMA based combat animations in a game, not just the typical fantasy wild swing.

Otherwise, the only complaints I would have would be things fixed by having a larger team and/or more of a proper finished game instead of just a combat gameplay demo: things like dialogue quality is literally TTS, combat feels a little too sluggish and weighty at times, with staggers taking a bit too long to recover from (though in fairness the player CAN at least recover while NPCs concede when they're staggered), and while it may just be skill issue, there were times it felt like my inputs weren't being read properly and I was stuck blocking when I was trying to dodge or something along those lines.

That said, its nothing that can't be worked out with a bit of polish. I can't wait to see where this goes, and I'm glad to see something come out of #medievalcombatreference.

Me :Re-reading Fate/Stay Night for the 2000th time (now with an official international release, yay)

Me to me: "That's hell you're walking into"

People judging a 30-40+ hour expansion main story by the first few hours are absolutely forgetting the classic saying "Don't judge a book by its cover" as they're missing how well SE cooked this time. Sure, the first couple hours might have some characters that are uninteresting to some, and it may be a little trope-y. That's pretty much all within the first few levels though, and by the halfway point things really start to pick up. Frankly, its enjoyable. It might not be some blockbuster finale of a story straight on the heels of a climax many consider the team's best work, and it was never meant to be nor advertised as such, yet it still is a great start to a new chapter in FFXIV. I've thoroughly enjoyed it so far, playing just about every waking moment from the time servers launched, and there is still a bombastic back half of the story that keeps getting better that I have barely scratched the surface of at the time of writing.

With that out of the way. Graphics update is incredible, with seemingly little impact to performance at least anecdotally. Dual dye channels on gear is a nice long-awaited feature that in some cases looks great, though in others it might leave room for improvement, particularly when the second channel is a barely noticeable button or strap. New classes look and feel great, and most changes to old classes are solid as well, with a few objective exceptions and a few more subjective. Other minor changes like mounts leaning into a turn and certain actions having hotbar replacement options have been good quality of life improvements as well, however the former has admittedly caused some motion sickness in some others, and not having an option to disable it isn't the best design, though I would imagine it might come at a later date with feedback.

Overall, solid 8/10 expansion. Might not replace any favorites, at least not yet, but its better than people give it credit for.

TL;DR: Most people complaining about quality of story have gotten through the equivalent of half a paragraph of the prologue, and don't know the banger they're missing out on.

Urianger's milkshakes bringeth all yon gentlefolk to his yard
and lo, they reply "'Tis better than thine!"
Verily, 'tis better than thine
He could apprentice thee, but he would'st levy a fee

One of the best I've played. It's a dark, gruesome game with such a difficulty that give a sence of accomplishment when you are successful; however, you WILL die. A LOT. In terms of graphics, this game is greatly improved over its predecessor, Dark Souls (I), especially if the user mods it for improved graphics options (although that's not neccesary for a great looking game). I would definitely recommend this game for anyone, given they can handle the sight of grotesque monsters and the darkness of the depths (Its not too dark, but some areas could use a torch). This is not a casual game by all means, so be prepared for anything.