I am close to the end and I gotta rant... This game has the worst story and characters of all the Soulslike that I have played so far.
Take Commander Honglan for example, cool white haired waifu boss that shows up out of nowhere and attacks your playable character for no reason and, although you win the fight, she still kicks your ass in a cutscene and decides to spare you. Later Honglan gets locked up in a jail and you end up saving her, what does she say to you: FUCK YOU! Next time we meet I am going to kill you.
Yes, most souls games don't focus on the story... But most also don't feel like it's missing parts of it. Most of the time playing this game feels like is missing cutscenes or documents explaing stuff...
Yes, I understand that Honglan is like Lady Maria from Bloodborne or Malenia from Elden Ring, but the difference is that in both of those games, before even meeting those characters the player gets information about them and learns who they are and why they attack you.
Also, most bosses lacks an introduction, they just show out of nowhere, we kill them and we move on. The are even bosses where you enter a room, the screen fades to black and when is back you are already on the boss battle, making the game feel like in an early access version, where the cutscenes arent ready or something.
Compared to games like Lies of P or Wukong, this game feels extremely unpolished in some areas.