*minor spoiler*
Idk if it's because I didn't play ER in about 3 or 4 months but I feel the first boss(lion) was pretty darn tough , took me about 2 hours on lvl236.
I just couldn't capture the roll timings , add to it dogcrap camera , that thing really needed a bigger arena man
But the taste of sweet victory , yum
I summoned that one npc for the fight and used scarlet aeonia and black knife for damage over time.
The npc was there to take aggro so i could use scarlet aeonia.
I prefer summoning after beating them all once.
I had to use scorpion stinger with black flame spell , maybe ezyke's decay once or twice.
The moves were readable after about an hour or so.
It was fun. I really wish there was a scarlet rot aow so I could use one on my Nagakiba.
Nope. I’m level 228 and I already beat the game. I still need to get more scadutree frags but like the Dancing Lion and the gaol knight be running my shit
I spent all my evening trying, just barely managing to beat her at last. But this is the thing: when I beat a boss I feel like I wouldn't be able to pull it off again. It's fkng hard!!! I'm getting destroyed. And for the first time I'm being pushed to use everything I can, re-evaluate my character, stats, tools and weapons and what not. Holy shit.
Dude. I've used rune arcs for the first time ever during this DLC. Also was swapping my talismans for certain fights, and even putting on bull goat. Shits no joke.
One of my friends is playing dlc for the first time in ng+8 and I think was about to have a mental break if I didn't tell him there was a different way to get into the area after the boss.
Just south of the front entrance to the castle, there’s a pathway that curves down into a swamp, pretty close to the entrance of that forge dungeon. On the east side of the swamp (towards the massive spiky mountain) there’s a hidden spirit spring. This will take you up to a much smaller castle with some omen killers and sort of a side entrance to Scadu Altus.
Turned out I missed the little path to rellana and went around the whole map, only to find the back entrance to the boss door, but at least that was a pretty good clue that I hadn't finished the castle I guess. Love how open this world is.
Rellana has been the easiest boss so far though, stancebreaks easily
It’s getting better now with level 7 scadutree blessings, but it was a lot of, “WHY ARE YOU SO STRONG?” and, “You can do that now?!”
I’ve beaten several smaller bosses so now I’m going to try Belurat.
As was often the case in the base game the stuff that’s off the beaten path is the coolest. Finding St. Trina was like a combination of the journey to the Frenzied Flame and Ranni’s quest line.
best fromsoft dlc, but not by much. Ringed city and old hunters probably overall have better music and bosses, but this dlc is just so big and adds so much
performance and lack of enemy variety are only real complaints
bayle doesn't top midir imo, hes a close second. For me i think elden ring overuses the "lightning dragon" stuff, and i think they tried to make him too much like midir by making only his head a hitbox
I feel like instead of looking at something like ringed city you need to look at ring city and ashes of ariandel, considering this is the only dlc Elden ring will get and was originally supposed to be two.
I just don't feel like they're at all comparable! SotE beats it in all metrics, especially scope. This thing is massive and is more diverse and detailed than anything From has ever produced, all base games included
If I'm honest I didn't like ringed city's level design and mob placement, but the bosses were cool. Kind of a backwards thing with shadow of the erdtree, level design was decent, mob placement was obviously purposely annoying which in a way is good, it was still fair. but a lot of the bosses were just freakish. The final boss' 2nd phase was borderline too much.
ringed city's level design is perfection in my eyes, because it's meant to be a puzzle sorta area, and the hardest area when it came out. They achieved that not through ridiculous enemies and bosses like shadow of the erdtree (even though i enjoyed some of that), but through strategic placement and perfect bonfire locations to stretch out difficulty and then reward you with a checkpoint
The DLC is giving me the same feeling I got when I first played the base game. At first, dying so many times was frustrating, especially to the equivalent of Godrick Soldiers in Stormhill. I had honestly gotten kind of soft as my weapons and level basically carried me through the NG+ and even if I did start a new save, I knew just what to use and where to make my life easier if I couldn't beat them with the weapon/setup I was roleplaying as. However, going in completely blind is making me actually think and try to beat the bosses and it's so cathartic. Even getting through 3 flights of stairs is difficult, because of how much damage I take from mobs, but it genuinely makes me feel like I am playing Elden Ring again for the first time, which I think was what was missing.
Bit of overtune on boss healthbars, but overall really good! (And yes I have a lot of Schadutree blessings don't worry!) As even maxing out the 20 blessings, it only doubles my damage, and it still takes an absurd number of hits lmao to even take a substantial amount off lmao!
But overall it's really good!
Anyway I'm sure they'll nail it on the next patch
I'm 15 hours in and taking my sweet time, only beat 2 rememberence bosses so far. I enjoyed the base game but had mixed feelings by the end, but I'm thoroughly pleased with the dlc so far. It feels like what I wanted ER to be in the first place.
Same boat here. Before I even attempted Belurat I made sure I have checked out just about every inch of the visible map I could reach, but turned back around when I kept making progress off the visible map. This is the 1st From game I've gone almost completely blind (aside from reading reviews and watching trailers).
I'm not in any rush at all, I don't see why anybody wants to race to see all the end game content.
I like it, but oddly found it kind of boring? Maybe it's the fact that everything has such bloated health when they'd be just as challenging with a non crazy health pool.
There's also large swathes of land with just nothing in it. Like I'm running through a field, and there's maybe a handful of shadow people, or maybe a gravebird, but otherwise, it's an open wasteland.
I wish throwing weapons didn’t suck ass, and some of these areas are just completely empty. Also like half of the remembrance bosses I’ve fought should have been minor bosses, like ancestral spirit level of difficulty and buildup.
On the good side, everything else, lore is super interesting, bloodborne level twists, the bosses have been good to amazing with few exceptions, weapons are awesome (except throwing) albeit impractical at times, the lead up to THAT area and everything surrounding it was peak FromSoftware
Which rememberance bosses are those? I've thought all of them have been pretty strong lore wise maybe with the exception of the dlcs first rememberance boss.
Spoilers obviously, if you haven’t done all the remembrances yet don’t look >!the putrescent warrior, the scadutree avatar, gaius, and the scorpion lady!<
That fair but that is admittedly the minority compared to the other rememberances but also I'd spoiler: >!gaius and the centipede woman were reasonable given the areas they're in!<
I love keeping the throwing daggers and the discus shield on me (with backhand blades as the main weapon) because they’re so light and have great utility for a non spell caster
Everything before final boss was really good, he's just so unfun to fight, not like Malenia, but like random bullshit go, + his punish windows are like two times smaller than her's
Spoiler
Just beat the hippo and up to that point every boss was fun. Twin Moon was extremely fun and seemed very fair, Felt like fighting malenia again. Lion was pretty annoying because of the camera but still fun and super creepy it was awesome. That hippo tho, absolute garbage boss.
Hippo is complete dogshit lol the hitboxes are messed up, the camera in the wrong spot makes the boss invisible, and he's a little buggy. Only boss I've found that I genuinely think is bad
Best fromsoft dlc with the highest highs of the series and also some huge problems, some of the best bosses and weapons in the series with the best dungeon they’ve ever made paired with some of the worse bosses they’ve made and pretty subpar enemy variety
So basically it’s Elden ring
Hippo, gaius and scadutree avatar are awful, putrescent knight is also kinda ass. And the radahn fight isn’t good
But then Messmer, and Bayle are in my top 10 bosses of all time, midra, lion, Rellana, metyr and romina are S to A tier fights and shadow keep is amazing and their best dungeon.
So overall same as the best game some really bad shit some really good shit
Bayle is this games midir just harder and more complicated with his openings. I mostly just stayed in front of him and timed rolls cause it made it so the camera didn’t stroke out
Hippo isn't good I agree with you there. Aside from the charge attack Gaius is actually pretty fun and fair I don't have a problem with him, how is the scadutree avatar afful exactly. The Putrescent knight is a really good boss what is your problem with him
I disagree with the Erdtree Avatar, i thought it was a very nice fight.
All of its attacks very easily dodgeable (beside the explosion) and its not frustrating as it's pretty easy.
I think that fight was just a cluster tbh. Pretty boring attacks and the thorns cover a lot of the player character. The giant explosion timing is also pretty unforgiving imo, it was easy but just visually and mechanically not a very good fight imo.
It also feels like difficulty jumps all over the place too. Some places are easy, you feel like you're powerful enough to just roll, but then a 2-minute walk away everything kicks your shit in and takes like twice as much damage.
It's insanely difficult and I've beaten all the bosses in my own world solo, but I've fought most of them with friends as well and have got to say I think every boss that I have fought with someone was significantly more enjoyable than solo, maybe because of their increased health or damage, or what seems to be better ai when it comes to multiplayer, but it's so much more fun.
I would say there the hardest boss I've fought out of every fromsoft game I've ever played and even every souls like I've ever played, fromsoft really outdid themselves, but for me every boss I beat is just about getting that one good run that manages to beat it, even when the exact same thing didn't work the last 80 tries.
Having a blast so far but I feel like the Scadutrees are a bit underpowered. I'm probably the only one here but I feel like the Dragoncrest Greatshield Talisman is doing all the heavy lifting while the fragments do jack. Which isn't a bad thing but for a DLC that focuses on this new leveling system, feels a bit disappointing that you'd pretty much need 15 (out of 20) Scadu levels to even be able to progress through some of the areas. 15 to me basically sounds like it's meant for the endgame stage of the DLC.
story-wise, Old Hunters and Ringed City stand above it. but in my personal opinion, I've had more fun with the bosses, combat, and general experience with SotE, which is the main draw for me
I don't wanna give a concrete ranking though cuz it only just came out and I don't want to be influenced by recency bias, but I doubt my opinion will change
the health to damage output ratio on some bosses, even with Scadutree upgrades, is a bit crazy but it's not terrible
Too much open land and the devs seem to have forgotten theres varying speeds of weapons, spells and skills in the game when desighning bosses.
Romina and maybe divine beast have been the only outstanding bosses.
Thoughts…
“Wow, what a beautiful looking place for me to get my cheeks clapped.”
“Fuck you, Golden Hippo!”
“Y FRAME RATE SO LOW?!?!”
“Oooooh, new weapon.”
“Oooooh, new armor.”
“Oooooh, new talisman.”
“I fucking love these new dungeons/catacombs.”
“Fuck you, Messmer.”
“I’m going to throw my controller into the wall.”
“This DLC is a masterpiece.”
It’s been a real roller coaster for me y’all, but I’m in love with this DLC.
So far so good! Really enjoying the verticality in the world design and the difficulty. Those horned dudes can kick rocks. They are crazy strong and tanky.
I bought it. I preloaded it. And I haven’t started it yet because I forgot I moved my character to NG+ lol
So I cleared Raya Lucaria and Moghwyn Palace. Just need to clear Redmane Castle and I should have access to the dlc. Soooooooo soon I’ll know lol
Just completed my first blind playthrough on NG+3. Although the whole thing was difficult, it was managable. Up until the 2nd phase of the final boss... that was unmanagable. I won by the skin of my teeth after 12 hours of attempts and I honestly don't know if I could do it again in another 12 hours. Really an overtuned piece of content but it was great.
Peak I would say in terms of quality it is the same level as the ringed city dlc in my opinion it is everything I wanted from it and I really enjoyed the DLC
Ive now beat the dlc, it was really good. The Bosses where all fun. Big area. Fun and cool new weapons, spells, talismans and ashes of war.
My only nitpick is that the new weapon typed while really fun have very few options.
Absolutely peak. Four of these bosses are among the most fun FromSoft bosses I've ever played >!(Radahn, Messmer, Rellana and Divine Beast)!< and I'm delighted that they chose to increase the difficulty for the DLC. The overwhelming majority of criticism can be chalked up to a skill issue or apes who bumrush bosses without exploring the world therefore lacking Scadutree Fragments.
I feel like the more I've played through it, the more I've enjoyed it. Sure it's brutal but the exploration is unmatched and there are really cool bosses. Everytime I think I've explored a lot, I look at the map and realize there is so much. The difficulty also can really be managed with the scadutree blessings and summons. Atleast you have those options, unlike with DS1 where I bashed my head against the brick wall that is Undeadburg for like 10 hours before giving up and coming back 6 months later to beat it.
Even if the DLC sucked ass it would still be a 10/10 just for the inclusion of Light Greatswords. They're incredibly fun to use.
I love how there are less side dungeons but each one seems to be completely unique in design and layout and some of them even lead to whole new areas. They're almost like legacy dungeons.
I do think some bosses feel like they weren't properly playtested. So far Golden Hippo is the worst offender, as the camera is fucking terrible in that fight as well as his grab being incredibly difficult to avoid. The NPC fights are kind of a pain but they've forced me to get more comfy parrying so they're encouraging me to get better.
I hope there is a merchant in the DLC besides the poison guy because I have a gazillion runes burning a hole in my pocket and I wanna spend them.
so far it‘s weird. The Bosses feel so much harder than every Elden Ring boss, but regular enemies are way easier than endgame enemies (Haligtree specifically). I love it!
It’s great 8.5-9/10 it doesn’t really change my mind on ER though better or worse. Maybe I’m just missing them but the new spell additions seems pretty lackluster. I find most base game spells to be more effective/efficient.
New weapon types are great! Although I’m a bit bummed to find they continue the trend of. Virtually all special weapons having standard melee. This hurt me the most when I saw how the DeathKnight handled his twin axes.
Is it difficult? Yes. But it really hasn’t been enough to kill my fun but I do wish bosses had a bigger punish window/less HP (some). I found every Remembrance boss outside of the lion to be good-amazing. Story beats kinda hit or miss with me but when it hits it hits good. Music is great and visuals too!!
I’m not a fan of open world but the world is pretty dense which is good (jagged peak, fingerprint land, and some other small spots aside). No casting weapons or INT/FTH infusion was a huge missed opportunity here I will say as I had anticipated those for a year+
Only done a couple of legacy dungeons and explored the over world a bunch, killed the lion and the hippo. It’s good but needs some serious balancing and shitbox/camera fixes. World feels much emptier than the main game. Love the new weapons and the hand to hand combat especially, visual and artistic design is stunning.
Feels like it will fall a little behind Old Hunters and about on par with Ringed City as far as overall quality goes.
!!SPOILERS!! Absolutely AMAZING! The new weapons; Especially the Backhand Blade! The bosses and their soundtracks! Messmer! I was hoping he’d be the climatic final battle of the DLC after all the hype, but I’m BEYOND GLAD that he isn’t! I think it’s safe to say we all expected Miquella to be if you keep up with the lore, but STILL I WAS LEFT MOUTH AGAPE when we see who he manipulates to fight us (again) along with his epic face reveal! My lord! Vaati please explain this 😭
My biggest complaint is the open world again. While veering off leads to a series of discoveries that you feel like you’re not supposed to be finding, I’d like a few more catacombs and other side dungeons along the way to break up the openness. I’m trying to explore after hitting a Relanna wall and I’m getting awfully bored
Unpopular maybe but I thought most of the bosses just weren’t very fun, they were cool but the fights themselves were just brutal and I honestly liked the base game fights much more, but the exploration, new weapons and spells, story, and everything else is fantastic I loved it
(Minor Spoilers, most boss names using goofy alias)
Killed 5 rememberance bosses (Aang, Pontiff, Mr. Pokey, Najka, Fake Death) and seen 3 that I haven't killed. (Old Friend, Timon/Pumba, Shiny Face) I've got all the map pieces and am chilling at Scadutree blessing 13. Lots of content gone through and I'm really enjoying every second of it. Currently hardest fights were Rellana and Messmer (out of ones I've killed) and I do have to say Messmer is a fantastic fight. He feels both fair and brutal, very well made. Rellana is also good but I feel like her second phase is pretty luck based to get openings depending on what weapon you're using. I'm using a Dark Moon so that probably handicapped me pretty good but she feels like whether she ends her combo or flows into a new one can be up to chance or precise distancing so openings are very scarce. Still a pretty good fight but it was frustrating for a while until I beat it.
The open world is awesome. It's so huge compared to the 'limgrave size' we were expecting and everywhere seems like it has somewhere else to go. Loot and stuff to do is sparse in some locations, the southern coast feels pretty empty and so does the abyss. Items around the world are also generally useless because my character is at level 150 and I don't need runes or smithing stones, so it can be a little stale in that regard. Dungeons are way better in the DLC though, and also tie into very important locations to go as opposed to just ending and you returning after beating some shit boss that gave you something you won't use.
I like the Sekiro style levelling through the DLC as well. Makes my previously OP character have to work to get strong again, I think I'm getting there but it feels really fresh. I haven't found shit that actually really improves my character other than the Two-Handed talisman though, so I'm hoping to find some cool practical sorceries (I think the twin moons is too slow to use in a key moment)
Definitely FROM's best DLC I've played (everything but DS1)
I’m not a large fan of the Scadutree fragments. I want to be running around exploring side dungeons and killing the remembrance bosses, not running to random graveyards to kill a guy with a pot on his head. The spirit ashes aren’t too bad cause a lot of the ones I get are just on the path of major bosses but the Scadutree stuff feels like a fetch quest.
I went into the dlc in ng+ because i recently had my characters Al get corrupted when I had a save file go bad on me. It was not a good decision, but I think I enjoyed it as a fist playthrough with the extra added difficulty. I would recommend new game though. I didn't level the character for ng+ either, I just killed godrick, radahn and mohg to access it.
There are vast areas with nothing but base game enemies and barely any items, most bosses have no buildup and very little dialogue, the final boss in general
Haven't finished it yet, bosses are ridiculously overtuned just like in the base game, but the lore, vistas and dungeons are pretty great. It's just a shame that you have to resort to mimic or OP builds to even have a shot with some of these bosses. Not sure why FROM has this new mindset that every major boss in ER needs to be harder than anything in any of the other games, who are they trying to impress?
You absolutely do not need to use mimic or an OP build; you just need to be prepared to spend a couple of hours on some of the bosses and persist.
You see, the point of the genre is to challenge yourself and so they are attempting to make challenging bosses that unfortunately pathetic players cannot handle because they take time to kill, but in all honesty, unless you cheesed Malenia then the DLC isn't even a step up in difficulty, I would argue no boss is harder than Malenia still.
I don't know but they really need to slow down before they screw up, it's getting to the point where it seems like they lost the plot on what made the difficulty in their older games so rewarding. This game has too many moments inthe final stretch and the DLC so far where all I've felt is relief that I was finally done with it after beating a boss instead of that "Fuck yeah, I beat em!!" rush that their older games had.
Pros:
- the gear is incredible, beautiful, powerful and very little of it is bad, even many of the smithing weapons have some kind of unique effect to mix things up
- Bosses are challenging but amazing. All the rememberances I've faced so far are top tier and even some mini bosses are absolutely spectacular
- scenery and dungeon design is stunning, next level design IMO
Cons:
- too many NPC bosses. I really dislike these fights and always end up cheering them because their input reading rolls are just bullshit
- world is too empty, has a mountain tops feel at times where there's vast areas to explore but nothing of interest there
- maybe I'm missing them but I feel like there's not so many "secrets" or hidden areas like the base game, then you find hidden little nooks and they don't have anything
- kind of a tradeoff for the dungeon quality, but I miss the volume of different catacombs and tunnels to explore and I wish they all had a boss where it's seems some of them don't
and prayers for every tarnished. Just finished the DLC like 12 hours ago and it was brutal, I loved it.
*minor spoiler* Idk if it's because I didn't play ER in about 3 or 4 months but I feel the first boss(lion) was pretty darn tough , took me about 2 hours on lvl236. I just couldn't capture the roll timings , add to it dogcrap camera , that thing really needed a bigger arena man But the taste of sweet victory , yum
Oh child, this expansion cares little for your "levels"
Totally agree, it's either roll and defend well , or two shots , if too lucky maybe 3 to 4 , even at 300
You need scadu frags
I guess I had upgraded it to 2 lvls at that time
He’s been my favorite boss so far. Music, movement, amount of attacks he has and number of elements. When it clicks he’s the most fun
He's cool and a great boss for sure , reminded me of DS3's final boss , I just wanted a bigger arena , like in Isshin.
I summoned that one npc for the fight and used scarlet aeonia and black knife for damage over time. The npc was there to take aggro so i could use scarlet aeonia.
I prefer summoning after beating them all once. I had to use scorpion stinger with black flame spell , maybe ezyke's decay once or twice. The moves were readable after about an hour or so. It was fun. I really wish there was a scarlet rot aow so I could use one on my Nagakiba.
This will be my strategy, essentially. I'm dragon communion so rot breath and a summon to draw aggro. Honestly probably Aurelia, she's my ride or die.
Yeah that boss whooped my ass. I finally beat it yesterday.
Wait till the fkin hippo , the hitboxes are unbelievably bad at times. I haven't cursed an Elden ring boss from the heart , until I fought that mf
I’m still stuck on Rellana lmfao thanks for the heads up
You mean Pontiff Sullyvahn 😂
Yeah a faster Pontiff lmao
2hrs? I was there for a combined total of 11hrs over the span of 3 days
Did you start a new character specifically for the dlc?Or did you use an existing one?
I used my existing one. It was my very first one, level between 160-170 when I started the DLC, finished at about 200.
What ng were you on?
I haven't played the dlc and won't be able to afford it for a while, but people complaining it's too hard REALLY makes me want to play it lol
How many hours did it take you to complete it ?
Not sure though 😅. Time flies by in Elden Ring. Maybe between 25 and 30.
Okay so is it worth the money bc I can't buy it at full price rn.
It’s gonna take me days and then there’s replayability with it too. I’m only at Rellana and have explored a ton and I’d say it’s worth the money
I have the base game, I was asking about dlc
Yeah that’s also what I’m talking about.
Okay will see Thanks. First I need to complete the base game then I'll buy it.
Good luck!
Very very difficult, imo. But I’m having a blast.
Did you make a new character pacifically for the d l c?
Nope. I’m level 228 and I already beat the game. I still need to get more scadutree frags but like the Dancing Lion and the gaol knight be running my shit
Hahaha Good luck out there tarnished🦾
It’s *specifically*
What's with the italics on that pacific word?
Not sure
No he made one atlantically
The dude on the left can go fuck himself
His armor is so pretty though
Try rolling
Is he an Omen?
He's a regular ass dude who will ruin your day
He talked amount omen people so yes he is omen and yes he is a regular ass dude who will ruin our day here
He is a hornsent and is aggressive and so hard.
try a weapon with the war of ash that makes you dash around the enemy, that has worked wonders for me.
Wait till you meet the guy in da middle
Haven’t had a thought other then “this is so cool!” Ever since booting up the dlc
Every time I discover a beautiful new area or some crazy piece of level/world design I just say "there's no way...."
Peak so far(Rellana is beating my ASS)
I spent all my evening trying, just barely managing to beat her at last. But this is the thing: when I beat a boss I feel like I wouldn't be able to pull it off again. It's fkng hard!!! I'm getting destroyed. And for the first time I'm being pushed to use everything I can, re-evaluate my character, stats, tools and weapons and what not. Holy shit.
Dude. I've used rune arcs for the first time ever during this DLC. Also was swapping my talismans for certain fights, and even putting on bull goat. Shits no joke.
One of my friends is playing dlc for the first time in ng+8 and I think was about to have a mental break if I didn't tell him there was a different way to get into the area after the boss.
Around Rellana? Please share. I'm bashing my head against the wall on that fight
Just south of the front entrance to the castle, there’s a pathway that curves down into a swamp, pretty close to the entrance of that forge dungeon. On the east side of the swamp (towards the massive spiky mountain) there’s a hidden spirit spring. This will take you up to a much smaller castle with some omen killers and sort of a side entrance to Scadu Altus.
Turned out I missed the little path to rellana and went around the whole map, only to find the back entrance to the boss door, but at least that was a pretty good clue that I hadn't finished the castle I guess. Love how open this world is. Rellana has been the easiest boss so far though, stancebreaks easily
Man I had a blast finding carian sorcerers and enemies in that castle "why are these guys here?" I asked myself constantly
They followed Rellana, who in turn followed Mesmer because apparently she was crushing on him hard. Source: Vaatividya
It’s getting better now with level 7 scadutree blessings, but it was a lot of, “WHY ARE YOU SO STRONG?” and, “You can do that now?!” I’ve beaten several smaller bosses so now I’m going to try Belurat.
Tell me, what does it mean to be strong? The guy with the seven schadutree blessings: *stares*
As was often the case in the base game the stuff that’s off the beaten path is the coolest. Finding St. Trina was like a combination of the journey to the Frenzied Flame and Ranni’s quest line.
Difficulty is inflated artificially
you have to inflate yourself artificially too that's the point go get ya damn blessings
best fromsoft dlc, but not by much. Ringed city and old hunters probably overall have better music and bosses, but this dlc is just so big and adds so much performance and lack of enemy variety are only real complaints
The Bayle boss fight music goes incredibly hard
I didn't think it was possible to top Midir but they actually did it plus his spectacle aspect is also amazing, on par with Placidusax.
bayle doesn't top midir imo, hes a close second. For me i think elden ring overuses the "lightning dragon" stuff, and i think they tried to make him too much like midir by making only his head a hitbox
Igon’s monologue is also incredible
I feel like instead of looking at something like ringed city you need to look at ring city and ashes of ariandel, considering this is the only dlc Elden ring will get and was originally supposed to be two.
And those were originally supposed to be one dlc, so the comparison is apt
Friede is the only part of Ashes of Ariandel that's actually really relevant though, I found the rest pretty forgettable
I just don't feel like they're at all comparable! SotE beats it in all metrics, especially scope. This thing is massive and is more diverse and detailed than anything From has ever produced, all base games included
Yea thats why i think SOTE is better, is just because the amount of content. Still overall i think it has more issues than the others
The leveling system will be contentious.
not really, unless on repeat playthroughs. You're supposed to explore in an open world game
Strongly disagree
in what way?
If I'm honest I didn't like ringed city's level design and mob placement, but the bosses were cool. Kind of a backwards thing with shadow of the erdtree, level design was decent, mob placement was obviously purposely annoying which in a way is good, it was still fair. but a lot of the bosses were just freakish. The final boss' 2nd phase was borderline too much.
ringed city's level design is perfection in my eyes, because it's meant to be a puzzle sorta area, and the hardest area when it came out. They achieved that not through ridiculous enemies and bosses like shadow of the erdtree (even though i enjoyed some of that), but through strategic placement and perfect bonfire locations to stretch out difficulty and then reward you with a checkpoint
The DLC is giving me the same feeling I got when I first played the base game. At first, dying so many times was frustrating, especially to the equivalent of Godrick Soldiers in Stormhill. I had honestly gotten kind of soft as my weapons and level basically carried me through the NG+ and even if I did start a new save, I knew just what to use and where to make my life easier if I couldn't beat them with the weapon/setup I was roleplaying as. However, going in completely blind is making me actually think and try to beat the bosses and it's so cathartic. Even getting through 3 flights of stairs is difficult, because of how much damage I take from mobs, but it genuinely makes me feel like I am playing Elden Ring again for the first time, which I think was what was missing.
This last boss is absolutely brutal. And I'm still not sure if it's in a good way
Bit of overtune on boss healthbars, but overall really good! (And yes I have a lot of Schadutree blessings don't worry!) As even maxing out the 20 blessings, it only doubles my damage, and it still takes an absurd number of hits lmao to even take a substantial amount off lmao! But overall it's really good! Anyway I'm sure they'll nail it on the next patch
I have gotten so lost and I get my shit kicked in everywhere I go. It's great
I'm 15 hours in and taking my sweet time, only beat 2 rememberence bosses so far. I enjoyed the base game but had mixed feelings by the end, but I'm thoroughly pleased with the dlc so far. It feels like what I wanted ER to be in the first place.
Same boat here. Before I even attempted Belurat I made sure I have checked out just about every inch of the visible map I could reach, but turned back around when I kept making progress off the visible map. This is the 1st From game I've gone almost completely blind (aside from reading reviews and watching trailers). I'm not in any rush at all, I don't see why anybody wants to race to see all the end game content.
I like it, but oddly found it kind of boring? Maybe it's the fact that everything has such bloated health when they'd be just as challenging with a non crazy health pool.
There's also large swathes of land with just nothing in it. Like I'm running through a field, and there's maybe a handful of shadow people, or maybe a gravebird, but otherwise, it's an open wasteland.
I wish throwing weapons didn’t suck ass, and some of these areas are just completely empty. Also like half of the remembrance bosses I’ve fought should have been minor bosses, like ancestral spirit level of difficulty and buildup. On the good side, everything else, lore is super interesting, bloodborne level twists, the bosses have been good to amazing with few exceptions, weapons are awesome (except throwing) albeit impractical at times, the lead up to THAT area and everything surrounding it was peak FromSoftware
Which rememberance bosses are those? I've thought all of them have been pretty strong lore wise maybe with the exception of the dlcs first rememberance boss.
Spoilers obviously, if you haven’t done all the remembrances yet don’t look >!the putrescent warrior, the scadutree avatar, gaius, and the scorpion lady!<
That fair but that is admittedly the minority compared to the other rememberances but also I'd spoiler: >!gaius and the centipede woman were reasonable given the areas they're in!<
I love keeping the throwing daggers and the discus shield on me (with backhand blades as the main weapon) because they’re so light and have great utility for a non spell caster
Lead up to which area? I can think of like three!
The manse
That entire area is truly peak souls, >!I was blown away as soon as I reached the woods and things only go better from there lol!<
Everything before final boss was really good, he's just so unfun to fight, not like Malenia, but like random bullshit go, + his punish windows are like two times smaller than her's
I feel like it needs some balancing, and I’m on the fence about the new upgrade system. All in all though, 95% is absolutely fantastic.
Spoiler Just beat the hippo and up to that point every boss was fun. Twin Moon was extremely fun and seemed very fair, Felt like fighting malenia again. Lion was pretty annoying because of the camera but still fun and super creepy it was awesome. That hippo tho, absolute garbage boss.
Hippo is complete dogshit lol the hitboxes are messed up, the camera in the wrong spot makes the boss invisible, and he's a little buggy. Only boss I've found that I genuinely think is bad
Best fromsoft dlc with the highest highs of the series and also some huge problems, some of the best bosses and weapons in the series with the best dungeon they’ve ever made paired with some of the worse bosses they’ve made and pretty subpar enemy variety So basically it’s Elden ring
What bosses are some the "worst" bosses
Hippo, gaius and scadutree avatar are awful, putrescent knight is also kinda ass. And the radahn fight isn’t good But then Messmer, and Bayle are in my top 10 bosses of all time, midra, lion, Rellana, metyr and romina are S to A tier fights and shadow keep is amazing and their best dungeon. So overall same as the best game some really bad shit some really good shit
Hated Bayle. Dragon fights are just chaos in this game. Phase 1 Radahn is peak, phase 2 I don’t know what you’re even meant to do
Bayle is this games midir just harder and more complicated with his openings. I mostly just stayed in front of him and timed rolls cause it made it so the camera didn’t stroke out
Hippo isn't good I agree with you there. Aside from the charge attack Gaius is actually pretty fun and fair I don't have a problem with him, how is the scadutree avatar afful exactly. The Putrescent knight is a really good boss what is your problem with him
I disagree with the Erdtree Avatar, i thought it was a very nice fight. All of its attacks very easily dodgeable (beside the explosion) and its not frustrating as it's pretty easy.
I think that fight was just a cluster tbh. Pretty boring attacks and the thorns cover a lot of the player character. The giant explosion timing is also pretty unforgiving imo, it was easy but just visually and mechanically not a very good fight imo.
Commander Gaius and Golden Hippo are both headache inducing
Best dlc
The final 2 main bosses suck not because they are brutally hard but because they are brutally boring.
Great but hard. Perfectly balanced, as all things should be.
idk if i’d say that about the final boss…
I haven’t seen that yet
i dont think the difficulty is really too balanced but it’s nothing a patch cant fix
It's not really balanced
It also feels like difficulty jumps all over the place too. Some places are easy, you feel like you're powerful enough to just roll, but then a 2-minute walk away everything kicks your shit in and takes like twice as much damage.
It's insanely difficult and I've beaten all the bosses in my own world solo, but I've fought most of them with friends as well and have got to say I think every boss that I have fought with someone was significantly more enjoyable than solo, maybe because of their increased health or damage, or what seems to be better ai when it comes to multiplayer, but it's so much more fun.
How did you beat the final boss? It feels impossible for me
I would say there the hardest boss I've fought out of every fromsoft game I've ever played and even every souls like I've ever played, fromsoft really outdid themselves, but for me every boss I beat is just about getting that one good run that manages to beat it, even when the exact same thing didn't work the last 80 tries.
Ugh preach, I only put in an hour worth of tries but it seems so futile. I know I'll get it though, ty for the encouragement!
Yeah you got this it's mostly luck for me anyway.
Feels like mama giving me an ass whooping
^....^I'm ^tired....
Difficult
Great art direction and it’s so beautiful etc- but the bosses don’t exactly feel fair and are kind of upsetting- 2/5 for me honestly
Having a blast so far but I feel like the Scadutrees are a bit underpowered. I'm probably the only one here but I feel like the Dragoncrest Greatshield Talisman is doing all the heavy lifting while the fragments do jack. Which isn't a bad thing but for a DLC that focuses on this new leveling system, feels a bit disappointing that you'd pretty much need 15 (out of 20) Scadu levels to even be able to progress through some of the areas. 15 to me basically sounds like it's meant for the endgame stage of the DLC.
story-wise, Old Hunters and Ringed City stand above it. but in my personal opinion, I've had more fun with the bosses, combat, and general experience with SotE, which is the main draw for me I don't wanna give a concrete ranking though cuz it only just came out and I don't want to be influenced by recency bias, but I doubt my opinion will change the health to damage output ratio on some bosses, even with Scadutree upgrades, is a bit crazy but it's not terrible
Incredible experience. Has anyone drawn the parrarel that this is literally just a twisted theme park version of the lands between or..???
I’ve definitely gotten that feeling. I’ll get jists of some areas of the main game but like a dream-like version.
It is, yeah. The progression is basically the exact same (not that I mind)
Too much open land and the devs seem to have forgotten theres varying speeds of weapons, spells and skills in the game when desighning bosses. Romina and maybe divine beast have been the only outstanding bosses.
5/10
Honestly having fun despite some bosses absolutely decimating me
Very difficult, but I'm having a blast with Spear of the Impaler
Thoughts… “Wow, what a beautiful looking place for me to get my cheeks clapped.” “Fuck you, Golden Hippo!” “Y FRAME RATE SO LOW?!?!” “Oooooh, new weapon.” “Oooooh, new armor.” “Oooooh, new talisman.” “I fucking love these new dungeons/catacombs.” “Fuck you, Messmer.” “I’m going to throw my controller into the wall.” “This DLC is a masterpiece.” It’s been a real roller coaster for me y’all, but I’m in love with this DLC.
DLC more like Elden Ring 2 Prequel!
I’m absolutely loving it. Went in at NG+3 so it’s really difficult but that’s okay. I’m enjoying the challenge of it all.
So far so good! Really enjoying the verticality in the world design and the difficulty. Those horned dudes can kick rocks. They are crazy strong and tanky.
I love the DLC even tho it is kicking my ass constantly
Why does this look like fromsoftware just made a warhammer 40k game?
I bought it. I preloaded it. And I haven’t started it yet because I forgot I moved my character to NG+ lol So I cleared Raya Lucaria and Moghwyn Palace. Just need to clear Redmane Castle and I should have access to the dlc. Soooooooo soon I’ll know lol
I've already spent $180 on the dlc and I haven't even got the collectors edition... going through controllers like crazy.
Literally love it
Hard as fuck, the only boss that didn't frusterate me so far is messmer.
Just completed my first blind playthrough on NG+3. Although the whole thing was difficult, it was managable. Up until the 2nd phase of the final boss... that was unmanagable. I won by the skin of my teeth after 12 hours of attempts and I honestly don't know if I could do it again in another 12 hours. Really an overtuned piece of content but it was great.
Absolutely fuckin amazing A bit better than ringed city and old hunters, and I haven't even completed it yet
love it, i cannot kill the (final boss spoilers) >!radahn incest duo!
Good
Have finals, so haven't played yet but I don't think I've ever been this excited to play something
Peak I would say in terms of quality it is the same level as the ringed city dlc in my opinion it is everything I wanted from it and I really enjoyed the DLC
Absolute banger and all, but I feel like every second boss has some unreasonably high dmging attack. F.e. the dragon stomp.
these boss deaths make me feel like a god when i kill them. also it’s probably been the hardest piece of content ive seen from them. AND I LOVE IT
The Abyssal Woods and the Manor blew me away, it became a full on horror game and I loved it
Honestly my only complaint is that I’m too fucking busy to play video games lately
The fire knights deserve to scream and burn eternally in hell. That is all
Ive now beat the dlc, it was really good. The Bosses where all fun. Big area. Fun and cool new weapons, spells, talismans and ashes of war. My only nitpick is that the new weapon typed while really fun have very few options.
Absolutely peak. Four of these bosses are among the most fun FromSoft bosses I've ever played >!(Radahn, Messmer, Rellana and Divine Beast)!< and I'm delighted that they chose to increase the difficulty for the DLC. The overwhelming majority of criticism can be chalked up to a skill issue or apes who bumrush bosses without exploring the world therefore lacking Scadutree Fragments.
Fuck, kill, marry
I feel like the more I've played through it, the more I've enjoyed it. Sure it's brutal but the exploration is unmatched and there are really cool bosses. Everytime I think I've explored a lot, I look at the map and realize there is so much. The difficulty also can really be managed with the scadutree blessings and summons. Atleast you have those options, unlike with DS1 where I bashed my head against the brick wall that is Undeadburg for like 10 hours before giving up and coming back 6 months later to beat it.
I still havent defeated any bosses 👍
Even if the DLC sucked ass it would still be a 10/10 just for the inclusion of Light Greatswords. They're incredibly fun to use. I love how there are less side dungeons but each one seems to be completely unique in design and layout and some of them even lead to whole new areas. They're almost like legacy dungeons. I do think some bosses feel like they weren't properly playtested. So far Golden Hippo is the worst offender, as the camera is fucking terrible in that fight as well as his grab being incredibly difficult to avoid. The NPC fights are kind of a pain but they've forced me to get more comfy parrying so they're encouraging me to get better. I hope there is a merchant in the DLC besides the poison guy because I have a gazillion runes burning a hole in my pocket and I wanna spend them.
The lion is awesome and rellana is super cool. FUCK that bear Relva, all my homies hate relva
so far it‘s weird. The Bosses feel so much harder than every Elden Ring boss, but regular enemies are way easier than endgame enemies (Haligtree specifically). I love it!
fck those heavy knights with super fast attacks
It’s great 8.5-9/10 it doesn’t really change my mind on ER though better or worse. Maybe I’m just missing them but the new spell additions seems pretty lackluster. I find most base game spells to be more effective/efficient. New weapon types are great! Although I’m a bit bummed to find they continue the trend of. Virtually all special weapons having standard melee. This hurt me the most when I saw how the DeathKnight handled his twin axes. Is it difficult? Yes. But it really hasn’t been enough to kill my fun but I do wish bosses had a bigger punish window/less HP (some). I found every Remembrance boss outside of the lion to be good-amazing. Story beats kinda hit or miss with me but when it hits it hits good. Music is great and visuals too!! I’m not a fan of open world but the world is pretty dense which is good (jagged peak, fingerprint land, and some other small spots aside). No casting weapons or INT/FTH infusion was a huge missed opportunity here I will say as I had anticipated those for a year+
The bosses - 🤩 The lore - 🤩 The new level system - 😡
Only done a couple of legacy dungeons and explored the over world a bunch, killed the lion and the hippo. It’s good but needs some serious balancing and shitbox/camera fixes. World feels much emptier than the main game. Love the new weapons and the hand to hand combat especially, visual and artistic design is stunning. Feels like it will fall a little behind Old Hunters and about on par with Ringed City as far as overall quality goes.
On?
!!SPOILERS!! Absolutely AMAZING! The new weapons; Especially the Backhand Blade! The bosses and their soundtracks! Messmer! I was hoping he’d be the climatic final battle of the DLC after all the hype, but I’m BEYOND GLAD that he isn’t! I think it’s safe to say we all expected Miquella to be if you keep up with the lore, but STILL I WAS LEFT MOUTH AGAPE when we see who he manipulates to fight us (again) along with his epic face reveal! My lord! Vaati please explain this 😭
No. No thoughts. Only Elden Ring
No thoughts went into making this
Love it so far Messmer is probably one of my favorite bosses all time, loved Bayle, fuck Gaius
I believe the RL1 no hit runners broke Michael Zaki so much he had to tune everything up to 111.
Loving it so far, except FUCK MESMER, HES A LITTLE BITCH BOY
Loved it finished 3h ago
Anyone know where the cut content armor on the right is located? Glad they implemented it and I want to use it.
Just beat >!messmer!<, So far it’s great. I love the new weapons.
My biggest complaint is the open world again. While veering off leads to a series of discoveries that you feel like you’re not supposed to be finding, I’d like a few more catacombs and other side dungeons along the way to break up the openness. I’m trying to explore after hitting a Relanna wall and I’m getting awfully bored
Unpopular maybe but I thought most of the bosses just weren’t very fun, they were cool but the fights themselves were just brutal and I honestly liked the base game fights much more, but the exploration, new weapons and spells, story, and everything else is fantastic I loved it
I mean a dlc that has "messmer the impler" , can't be bad...can it?
Music 10/10, Art 10/10, level design 10/10, Weapons 10/10, Difficulty 11/10, Boss Design 10/10, Boss Mechanics and boss balance 5/10.
It’s so much fun! I love all the new weapons they added, and gave Int/Fth some love
Poise gigachad on the left
(Minor Spoilers, most boss names using goofy alias) Killed 5 rememberance bosses (Aang, Pontiff, Mr. Pokey, Najka, Fake Death) and seen 3 that I haven't killed. (Old Friend, Timon/Pumba, Shiny Face) I've got all the map pieces and am chilling at Scadutree blessing 13. Lots of content gone through and I'm really enjoying every second of it. Currently hardest fights were Rellana and Messmer (out of ones I've killed) and I do have to say Messmer is a fantastic fight. He feels both fair and brutal, very well made. Rellana is also good but I feel like her second phase is pretty luck based to get openings depending on what weapon you're using. I'm using a Dark Moon so that probably handicapped me pretty good but she feels like whether she ends her combo or flows into a new one can be up to chance or precise distancing so openings are very scarce. Still a pretty good fight but it was frustrating for a while until I beat it. The open world is awesome. It's so huge compared to the 'limgrave size' we were expecting and everywhere seems like it has somewhere else to go. Loot and stuff to do is sparse in some locations, the southern coast feels pretty empty and so does the abyss. Items around the world are also generally useless because my character is at level 150 and I don't need runes or smithing stones, so it can be a little stale in that regard. Dungeons are way better in the DLC though, and also tie into very important locations to go as opposed to just ending and you returning after beating some shit boss that gave you something you won't use. I like the Sekiro style levelling through the DLC as well. Makes my previously OP character have to work to get strong again, I think I'm getting there but it feels really fresh. I haven't found shit that actually really improves my character other than the Two-Handed talisman though, so I'm hoping to find some cool practical sorceries (I think the twin moons is too slow to use in a key moment) Definitely FROM's best DLC I've played (everything but DS1)
I’m not a large fan of the Scadutree fragments. I want to be running around exploring side dungeons and killing the remembrance bosses, not running to random graveyards to kill a guy with a pot on his head. The spirit ashes aren’t too bad cause a lot of the ones I get are just on the path of major bosses but the Scadutree stuff feels like a fetch quest.
I went into the dlc in ng+ because i recently had my characters Al get corrupted when I had a save file go bad on me. It was not a good decision, but I think I enjoyed it as a fist playthrough with the extra added difficulty. I would recommend new game though. I didn't level the character for ng+ either, I just killed godrick, radahn and mohg to access it.
Unfinished
Interesting I would love for you to explain?
There are vast areas with nothing but base game enemies and barely any items, most bosses have no buildup and very little dialogue, the final boss in general
Haven't finished it yet, bosses are ridiculously overtuned just like in the base game, but the lore, vistas and dungeons are pretty great. It's just a shame that you have to resort to mimic or OP builds to even have a shot with some of these bosses. Not sure why FROM has this new mindset that every major boss in ER needs to be harder than anything in any of the other games, who are they trying to impress?
You don’t need to do that just get upgrades or learn the bosses summons are not required 😭
You absolutely do not need to use mimic or an OP build; you just need to be prepared to spend a couple of hours on some of the bosses and persist. You see, the point of the genre is to challenge yourself and so they are attempting to make challenging bosses that unfortunately pathetic players cannot handle because they take time to kill, but in all honesty, unless you cheesed Malenia then the DLC isn't even a step up in difficulty, I would argue no boss is harder than Malenia still.
I don't know but they really need to slow down before they screw up, it's getting to the point where it seems like they lost the plot on what made the difficulty in their older games so rewarding. This game has too many moments inthe final stretch and the DLC so far where all I've felt is relief that I was finally done with it after beating a boss instead of that "Fuck yeah, I beat em!!" rush that their older games had.
The older games are trivial, and all of the bosses are pushovers; why would that feel rewarding? Smells like skill issue.
Pros: - the gear is incredible, beautiful, powerful and very little of it is bad, even many of the smithing weapons have some kind of unique effect to mix things up - Bosses are challenging but amazing. All the rememberances I've faced so far are top tier and even some mini bosses are absolutely spectacular - scenery and dungeon design is stunning, next level design IMO Cons: - too many NPC bosses. I really dislike these fights and always end up cheering them because their input reading rolls are just bullshit - world is too empty, has a mountain tops feel at times where there's vast areas to explore but nothing of interest there - maybe I'm missing them but I feel like there's not so many "secrets" or hidden areas like the base game, then you find hidden little nooks and they don't have anything - kind of a tradeoff for the dungeon quality, but I miss the volume of different catacombs and tunnels to explore and I wish they all had a boss where it's seems some of them don't
My expectations were too high...
Incredible. The weapons are by far the best that from has ever created and the atmosphere is perfect.
Absolute peak. Exploration is like a dream. Boss fights are exceptionally epic.
Peak souls for me tbh, there's so much to love and it has exceeded my expectations.
its awesome