As someone who likes the game despite its deep flaws, I do like the DLC! But I think it really serves to further highlight the flaws of the base game.
All the new content is locked into the 2 (3 because of the enhanced Balancers ig) expeditions. The new night bosses, points of interest, enemies, and raids, all only for Dreglord or Balancer expeditions. Even the new shifting earth doesn't work on existing targets! Ultimately this is just an extension of how the seed system works, as it seems unlikely they would go back and update the existing 40 seeds for every expedition. Why they couldn't at least add 5 for each expedition for the new shifting earth is odd, but that probably comes down to the fact that they're trying not to divide the player pools more than they already are.
If you relegate the DLC content to the new expeditions, you're just dividing in the same way that players are only queued with other players queuing for the same Nightlord. But if they added the new POIs, raids, and bosses to the existing Nightlords' expeditions? Would they be toggle-able, or would people who own the DLC forever be cordoned off from those who don't? People without the DLC can't queue for the new Nightlords, sure, but in an attempt to prevent them from accessing any of the DLC content, From has effectively locked any of the DLC content from being compatible with the original expeditions, outside of Deep of Night.
And this just further highlights the lack of meaningful randomness in the game, no? New shifting earth that is literally a whole new map, except you can't play it on the old expeditions. The 8 new night one and two bosses (which, mind you, are all returning bosses from the Fromsoft catalogue) are only for the new expeditions as well. This means that fighting the old Nightlords will still see you facing the same bosses with the chance for the same raids. You cannot get the Libra raid on Caligo, and you know you never will. You won't get the Caligo or Gladius raids on any of the old bosses, and the Balancers literally only raid Dreglord expeditions! I've literally not even fought Artorias yet because I've mainly been focusing on getting the new relics which I needed to grind Sovereign Sigils for. The only new content that can mix with the old expeditions is the relics and the new Nightfarers, and I think the new map but only in Deep of Night?
Ultimately what this game needs is a true random mode, which would allow the repertoire of bosses to really shine, especially with the DLC additions. There are some night bosses I rarely see just because I avoid the associated Nightlords, and while DON helps this by facing you off against a random Nightlord, once you see who it is on the character select, you know what you're in for. You know the possible raid(s), the likely night bosses, and even with the hidden Nightlord effect (which I've yet to see) is negated by the fact that you can easily piece together what nightlord you'll face after seeing the night bosses! Not to mention, I don't particularly care for the "ranked" aspect of DON, nor the ridiculous damage scaling that enemies get at higher (deeper?) depth ratings. A mode that *truly* generates a random run with random POIs, raids, shifting earth, and night bosses would be a godsend for replay ability, but based on the existing systems that the game operates on, I doubt it'll change.
This isn't even touching on the god awful relic system lmao.
The game is still good but it's definitely an experiment that has not fully succeeded. It's a good game but a terrible roguelite.
