A few things I that fell short for me were:
- I miss some more low-level gear options. I really enjoy the beginning of souls games, where your feel like every random drop has a chance to become your main weapon for the playthrough. I don't mean that I need random drops in this game, but I feel like early encounters should give more basic, low-power weapons, that might work very well for a specific build.
- The last fight was too much based on luck for me. I knew that it's mathematically achievable, but I always rolled the worst possible ways right until the end. The -2 max Health from the Gnarling Tree really hurt me, and I felt like it would be great to gain more equipment, but I didn't want to travel back and forth only to reset the world and start collecting the lore again. I feel like this could be mitigated by turning the LEARN after defeating the Lost Knight into a SEARCH, and making their journal an item you get to keep on travel, and giving you +3-4 Lore in the Grim Coast. This would actually encourage players to explore and come back later, which is kind of Elden Ring-ey.