Recent reviews by Parmelion

+ We have received everything that was promised - Mesoamericas, countries that were left out of Domination, and countries that were left out of King of Kings.
+ Overall approach of the devs. They were open and transparent with their plans with the DLC, and were very responsive to the playerbase feedback, tweaking numerous things thanks to it (making Hungary formable, renaming the Blood mechanic, adding the Bohemian Commonwealth rename, just to name a few).
+ High quantity of content that is qualitatively on the same level as King of Kings, which was generally very well received by the fanbase (and was one of the best rated EU IV DLCs ever). There are no consistency issues which were present in older expansions like Domination. The content it is clear, and well-paced.
+ Overall, all European 'great powers' which were updated really needed it, as the updates since LotN made those nation's content feel visibly aged compared to the recently updated great powers, such as Sweden, England or France.
+ Tons of content for the most important pre-Columbian civilizations of the Americas. This is probably the only "New World DLC" that does them justice.
+ Good and varied selection of new great projects. I can't believe it took this long to give Vienna, one of the most important cities of the EU IV timeline its own monument.
+ Continued addition of highly requested, and in some ways even revolutionary, modding additions (especially further support of GUI modding) that are greatly appreciated by the modding community.
+ The new horde mission tree is one of the most expansive, flavorful and best-paced mission trees I have ever seen. I had no idea you could make playing hordes this flavorful. Hats off!
+ The accompanying update brought heavily requested updates to generic mission trees which enhance the gameplay experience of hundreds of tags as well as custom nations.

? The scope of the update looks strange at best, and is reminiscent of Leviathan, which might trigger PTSD in some people, myself included.
? People seem to be conflicted with some additions, like Austria-Hungary, but I do not necessarily view it as something negative or completely out of place.

- I find some of the choices of updated tags a bit strange. Germany for example is a nation that most players will never see or rarely get to form, yet it is receiving attention that in my opinion could have been given to great powers already existing on the map that were ignored (India, North Africa). The choice to update Venice and ignore Genoa feels a bit strange too.
- Incan and Aztec mission trees should have been regional, just like the Mayan one is. It's a shame that the decision was made to give mission trees to 2 tags instead of like 30, and they would not even have to make more mission trees. Although admittedly you can adopt those MTs via a decision or gain access to them by forming Inca.

9.5/10 - This update, like all of them, has its flaws and adds potentially controversial stuff. Despite that, this is an amazing DLC with tons of content which is very well worth the money. If this is indeed the final expansion of EU IV as many suspect it could be, Winds of Change is a worthy final chapter in its long journey.

+ Huge amount of content for some of the most important nations in the entire game, qualitatively on par, if not better, than the few previous DLCs.
+ Preview of branching missions is one of the greatest QoL updates of the mission tree system since its introduction.
+ Scriptable interface and additive on_actions are likely the most useful and impactful modding additions to the game ever.
+ Massive improvement in terms of readability and consistency of tooltips and checkmarks compared to Domination, maybe with the exception of the Byzantine mission tree with huge and ugly looking event insights.
+ Improvement in terms of mission tree design too compared to Domination. Overcomplicated missions that had kilometer long triggers are gone.
+ A lot of quality content for some of the most difficult tags, such as Ardabil and Karabakh, which does not trivialize the difficulty of their early game.

? Like many others, I am disappointed that important nations with a lot of potential were skipped over, namely Timurids, Mughals, Hormuz, Trebizond or Hisn Kayfa. However, as a content designer myself, I completely understand the reasons why you cannot update everything in a single update, and I am happy that we have got a confirmation that these skipped nations might be getting updated in 2024.

- Addition of an ahistorical and unjustified Syria as a starting Mamluk vassal.
- Zoroastrian Persia, and well even Sunni, with access to the Qizilbash estate and missions feels extremely out of place. It's comparable to having Janissaries as a Christian nation, which obviously makes no sense. The other new estate, the Ghilman, is pretty much the same.
- I am personally sad that this is yet another DLC which basically adds mission trees, reforms, privileges etc., instead of adding new mechanics, but then again, I don't think we'll get a mechanically oriented DLC ever again.

9/10 - While it is understandable that many people are disappointed by the scope of the update and by the fact that many tags that were left out, I think we whould appreciate the update for what it is. If you like the list of updated tags, the DLC is well worth it because the content this DLC adds is excellent. If you don't care about the updated tags, not buying the DLC will not deprive you of any global mechanics or improvements.

Ante Bellum main theme in vanilla EU IV? Based

+ The first truly global DLC in years.
+ Missions for very important nations whose older trees felt very dated compared to a lot of newer stuff, such as LotN trees.
+ Huge amount of high quality content such as estates, disasters, reforms and more for some of the most important nations in the game, making playing as great powers both fun and challenging.
+ Addition of amazing features for modders, ranging from moddable government mechanics to highly requested features such as the ability to recolor countries and many many more.
+ Slovak finally moved to the West Slavic culture group, yay! Only took 7 years.

? I personally dislike event insights but I understand why they were added and why people might like them.

- New mission trees feels extremely inconsistent and this inconsistency can be seen almost everywhere: mission requirements (Ming vs Russia), rewards (one mission gives you 4 different things while other gives you perma claims and mana), branching missions and/or their absence, many missions are becoming overly complex and I am not sure if it benefits the game in any way.
- Visual clutter in tooltips: It has become worse than ever before, this DLC has the worst tooltips I have ever seen. Some tooltips are massive and you have to spend like a minute reading about the possible rewards or requirements. In general, they feel very opaque and bloated. There's a lot of inconsistency when it comes to the use of checkmarks (some new trees have them, others do not), colors (inconsistent use of teal for alternate rewards, different colors used for the same thing), inconsistent use of flags in tooltips to refer to countries, wording, double empty lines and more.
- Cosmetic country renames should not be forced. For example, Kirishitan Japan sounds extremely silly and is the equivalent of renaming your country to Protestant Prussia or Shia Persia and yet, you have no option to not take it.
- Some weird and illogical mission tree pathings and requirements, such as Ottomans having to take Hungary and Austria before being able to go into Italy, whereas historically Ottomans first attempted to invade Italy from the south.

8/10, great DLC and a worthy continuation of the post-Leviathan redemption arc. I'd definitely recommend it.

Arguably the best DLC in recent years. New mission trees of unparalleled quality (well, at least in the base game), much needed rebalance, and a lot of cool new modding tools.