Dark Souls 3 - Review - Ashes of Ariandel short but great

Let's talk about the pros and cons!

!!SPOILERS AHEAD!!

First things first

The beautiful scenery of Ashes of Ariandel

HOW DO YOU GET THERE
To start your journey in the Painting of Ariandel you will need the small doll from the Deacons of the Deep boss; They will drop this item when you kill them. This is the exact same item which grants you access to Irithyll of the Boreal Valley.

When you have slaughtered the DotD boss you should go back to the the Cleansing Chapel Bonfire, if you teleport to this bonfire you will immediately hear the NPC after some dialogue and a cutscene he will teleport you into the Painting of Ariandel and your journey begins!

There is bug currently that does not spawn the NPC, just teleport to the Firelink Shrine and back to the Cleansing Chapel for the NPC to spawn. 

CONS

Ashes of Ariandel is a bit short as in around 4-6hours if you explore everything and don't rush too much.
Like all From Software games NPC's are cryptic like always but I had the feeling that one particular NPC (Sir Vilhelm) was more cryptic then normal; He does tell you that you should turn back after talking to Sister Friede which he is very loyal to, but seeing as we are here on mission which is setting this world in flame....we are not leaving.

The next time you meet him he is hostile and wants to kill you...really? I am just walking around here I haven't done anything wrong...yet. Usually with the Souls game there is always a certain prequest you need to do (kill a certain boss, killed a certain NPC etc) before the NPC disappears or becomes hostile but not here Vilhelm just gets pissed off you still are in the painting and fights you.

PROS
Painting of Ariandel is a beautiful zone that plays in a huge snowy mountain with cliffs and caves to explore. It is by far one of the prettiest zone of the game and it's inhabitants are no pushover either.

The inhabitants of the painting all are great and some are more frustrating than the other. I will going through all of them in another post because they really do deserve more credit.
All i can say is that every one them has challenged me(Crab battle!) to a certain point..well except the docile Corvians(human/bird hybrids).

The items are unfortunately not that hidden but they are great items with some lore that connects some question from the main game (where is Sulvayn from? he is from the painting) and they look pretty badass. The Millwood set for example makes you looks like a hulky viking conquering the snowy mountains. The Slave set gives you a pretty nice lore about our great buddy at the Cleansing Chapel and it doesn't look bad either. There are many other items which all have their own unique look and personality that all connect to the zone very nicely.

Now the part we all are waiting for ...the bosses.
This DLC counts only two bosses and they both are probably the hardest in the Dark Souls series, maybe even the "Soulsborne" series. The "main" boss is up there with Orphan and Ludwig from the Bloodborne: The Old Hunters for sure and it is amazing!

Two bosses?!? thats it? Yeah that's it but they are very memorable. The first (optional) boss (which are two in one) you can find after you destroy the bridge to acces the depths of the Painting. It does give you some nostalgia from the first Dark Souls with Sif and I think the developers really wanted a Sif 2.0 because that is what it is but with extra aggressiveness which keeps you on your toes and surroundings while you trying to keep an eye on both of them.
This boss also drops the Champion's Bones that gives you access to the Arena which i will be talking about later in the post.

The "main" boss is none other than Sister Friede and her companion Father Ariandel (yes we are invading his world/painting) This boss fight has 3 phases and they all keep you awake and focussed.
The first phase Friede will be fighting you alone and she is pretty easy to parry or dodge eventually she will use her invisibility ability just try to stay close to her and she will appear or look at the way the snow particles are going if it goes straight up just turn and run straight ahead and she will appear if the snow goes left you go left, if it goes right you go....right. After you finised her first phase Father Ariandel will go berserk during a cutscene and will set the boss arena on fire which will resurrect our Sister. The second phase start with both Father Ariandel and Sister Friede fighting you.
My advice is focus on Ariandel during this phase and just dodge the attacks Sister throws at you (it is usually just a dodge from the Frostbite that she has on the ground) Sister Friede also heals our berserked Father Ariandel when she does this just run over to her and stomp her and run back to Ariandel.

The third phase starts after you kill Ariandel or Friede and she will become Blackflame Friede and this is the phase that will make you hate everything about boss mechanics and R1 spamming.
She is MUCH faster and has Dark Flame and Frost attacks at her disposal. She just doesn't give you any breathing room either so if you decide to try the "hit and run" tactic...don't you will most likely get caught up in one of her insane combos. The best tactic that worked for me is to let her do her massive attacks and just stay at an safe distance eventually she will lunge at you to decapitate you; dodge it and hit her a couple of times and create the distance again. She also has a crazy crazy combo that looks that there is no end to it...but luckily there is and she closes this combo usually with jump and a big slam that creates a big AoE frost damage area on the ground.
While she is jumping you should try to dodge/lunge at her so you end up behind her so you can get in some couple of hits again. After she starts swinging like a lunatic again you create the distance and "bait" her again do this a couple times and she will go down. I would advise against running up to her like in phase 1 when she goes invisible just let her do her attack and dodge as much as possible.

The Hollow Arena
The DLC also added a much requested feature and that is The Hollow Arena and it is pretty cool.
The Arena finally gives the pvpers the spot/area they always wanted and all they need to do is get the Champion's Bones and burn it in the Firelink Shrine.

You can enter in two types of matches Duels or Brawls and they are pretty self explantory.
In duels you...well duel with another player and in brawls its a team effort you can sign up for two-vs-two and three-vs-three and a FFA (free for all) brawl.

I entered a couple matches and it was very fun.

The duel mode does not allow for any Estus and a limited number of Ashen which makes the games pretty quick or super long while both players are running around circle there is a time limit though to prevent people just running around.

The brawl gives you a limited number of Estus and Ashen AND you resurrect to rejoin the brawl which is very fun because sometimes you just get railed on while your team member is trying to cast some spell from 50 yards away.

Everyone should atleast try out the Brawl mode even if they don't like the PvP. The Arena gives a whole diffrent spin to the "Souls" series because does this mean people won't invade anymore like they used too and just queue up in their Firelink shrine? I don't know to be honest; I enjoy invading and looking for the host while he is hiding or try and lure him to a certain area and i found myself invading after a couple rounds of the Arena so I really think that part game is still very much alive.

So there you have it my thoughts about Ashes of Ariandel.

It is one of the better DLC in my honest opinion although BB: The Old Hunters still has the number one spot for me boss wise (Ludwig says hi) Sister Friede phase 3 is a very very very close second.
The zone is number one for me though. I really like the atmosphere of this area and it by far the prettiest too. The Arena is a very nice addition to the game and hopefully keeps players hooked to the game because invades do lessen over the course of time.

Good luck in the Painting of Ariandel.