About 10/15 hours in now and gotta say, it's incredible.
Held off from doing much in the way of weapon upgrades until I found one that I liked the range/moveset of and by then had enough materials to get to +6 almost immediately. Made a huge difference, especially to horseback combat.
The first major "Dungeon" is fantastic. Brutal, huge and brilliantly designed. The ability to then be able to warp in and out between there and the open world works brilliantly, allowing you to take a respite from the tense, classic souls progression and roam around the wilds looking for secrets and doing a spot of farming.
Going with a hybrid magician, long sword (over the shoulder style, so probably mini greatsword a better description) and it's working fantastically so far. The summons are fantastic too and give you a nice boost when boss fighting without human summons.
So far I'd say it's a masterpiece and possibly my favourite souls of the lot. Gonna be a struggle to actually work from home tomorrow knowing that the house is free and this is available to play!