Covenants of the Abyss — The Origin Abyss now runs to Depth 20. Every step further down lays one more named rule across your back, and a covenant once taken never lifts. You can read what you're agreeing to before you step through.
Combat Feel Rework — Hitting things feels different. Killing a foe now has its own moment, and the freeze on impact eases back instead of snapping.
Improvements
Attack animations now play all the way through — some characters were being cut off before their final pose, while others finished early and stood frozen waiting. Fast or slow, first hit or finisher, the motion now runs start to finish.
When a shell ability triggers, its name and remaining time appear together above your character. Displays that were scattered across the bottom and corner of the screen are now in one place.
Rebuilt the scene where you first show Marina the shard of light — you actually hold it up now, and you speak up first about what you saw.
Balanced hit sounds so they aren't buried under the swing. Critical and kill sounds now vary slightly in pitch, so rapid attacks don't repeat the same note.
Bug Fixes
Fixed the Chapter 1 boss becoming immune to attacks after burrowing — the one where only ground pounds connected and normal swings passed through.
Fixed swing trails on the second and third hit vanishing before the motion finished.
Fixed an idle pose slipping in between chained attacks.