[azemetre]

Literally spent 50 hours mucking around exploring everything I could before realizing that you have to fight Margit to progress the story. I honestly thought it was a game like Shadow of the Colossus where you freely explore and just fight bosses.

Fun game but some very terrible UX decisions that seem spiteful at times.

[ar_lan]

I did the same exact thing. In fact, the whole rest of lakes of Niurnia I had found far earlier than I found Margit because I accidentally found the shortcut and thought - well, he was blocking this path, so I guess he's not necessary.

[rubyist5eva]

I didn’t find the shortcut around Stormveil until my second character. After a while I realized that Margit-Stormveil-Godrick are all completely optional.

[crtasm]

Well, you can explore the world in Shadow of the Colossus but the boss fights have to be done in a fixed order.

[rubyist5eva]

You don’t have to fight Margit, he is completely optional and so is the entirety of Stormveil and the boss there.