I'm giving this an actual serious review because I have a LOT to say about this DLC.
First off, Elden Ring's base game is one of my favorite games of all time. I've beaten it three times now, each with different builds, and each run hitting at least every remembrance boss (I think one of the saves I skipped Malenia because I didn't feel like it but she's a good boss)
As for the dlc: I think the level design, art direction, writing (maybe? I'm not a lore guy I'm here for the game part), voice acting, and the ost were superb and as good if not better in some spots than the base game.
However, the complaints (which there's been a lot of online obv) I have is mainly with, you guessed it, the combat.
Scadutree Fragments are a very cool concept, it enables a game that was already (probably) a nightmare to balance to be able to be a progressive experience for everyone.
The problem lies in its execution. The scaling doesn't make much sense, the areas you get most of these are hidden, which wouldn't be a problem, but if you aren't high enough level than bosses and normal enemies one-two shot you with menial hits, and take 8 years to kill. Now, that wouldn't be a problem, if, say, you got this material from fighting enemies, like you do runes, but you dont. They're entirely miss-able and don't scale very noticeably until you're level 12 or higher.
Then there's the bosses. I think some of the bosses in the dlc are phenomenal. Dancing Lion and Rellana are some of the coolest bosses in the ENTIRE game, and yet, a common theme with this DLC that is much much MUCH more of a frequent issue, is...
The camera.
Now I know a lot of people are like "that's what makes it hard, it's like that on purpose", but I dont buy it. Whenever you die to a camera issue, you don't get to learn dodge timings, you don't get to learn tells, all because you CANNOT see the enemy on screen.
Bayle and the rest of the dragon battles are the easiest to point to, as they were already an issue in the base game (although I think Bayle is ironically the least annoying).
Other bosses, like Messmer and the final boss's phase 2, have the problem of that their attacks have so many goddamn particle and special effects that completely block the attacks to the point where you can't really see where you're going.
I genuinely think it's possible for these games to be hard without the clunky camera. Lies of P, for example, has a significantly less janky camera, and still has some insanely hard bosses on par with Malenia (the final boss of Lies of P is just as hard as her in my personal opinion).
I think we've reached a point where the camera is a genuinely inexcusable problem. They have not improved their camera in any meaningful (and often noticeable) way since the jump from Demon Souls to Dark Souls 1. I can't say I'd know how to FIX the issue, per se. Maybe have a different camera angle for specific bigger enemies, maybe have boxed-in arenas have two walls, one the character and boss can't go through, and one further back that allows the camera to zoom out through the wall but still see the action. Other games, like the recent SMTV overworld or, again, Lies of P, have camera systems designed like this.
I still think Elden Ring is in my top 10 games of all time, but I can say with certainty that I will not be playing Shadow of the Erdtree ever again.
First off, Elden Ring's base game is one of my favorite games of all time. I've beaten it three times now, each with different builds, and each run hitting at least every remembrance boss (I think one of the saves I skipped Malenia because I didn't feel like it but she's a good boss)
As for the dlc: I think the level design, art direction, writing (maybe? I'm not a lore guy I'm here for the game part), voice acting, and the ost were superb and as good if not better in some spots than the base game.
However, the complaints (which there's been a lot of online obv) I have is mainly with, you guessed it, the combat.
Scadutree Fragments are a very cool concept, it enables a game that was already (probably) a nightmare to balance to be able to be a progressive experience for everyone.
The problem lies in its execution. The scaling doesn't make much sense, the areas you get most of these are hidden, which wouldn't be a problem, but if you aren't high enough level than bosses and normal enemies one-two shot you with menial hits, and take 8 years to kill. Now, that wouldn't be a problem, if, say, you got this material from fighting enemies, like you do runes, but you dont. They're entirely miss-able and don't scale very noticeably until you're level 12 or higher.
Then there's the bosses. I think some of the bosses in the dlc are phenomenal. Dancing Lion and Rellana are some of the coolest bosses in the ENTIRE game, and yet, a common theme with this DLC that is much much MUCH more of a frequent issue, is...
The camera.
Now I know a lot of people are like "that's what makes it hard, it's like that on purpose", but I dont buy it. Whenever you die to a camera issue, you don't get to learn dodge timings, you don't get to learn tells, all because you CANNOT see the enemy on screen.
Bayle and the rest of the dragon battles are the easiest to point to, as they were already an issue in the base game (although I think Bayle is ironically the least annoying).
Other bosses, like Messmer and the final boss's phase 2, have the problem of that their attacks have so many goddamn particle and special effects that completely block the attacks to the point where you can't really see where you're going.
I genuinely think it's possible for these games to be hard without the clunky camera. Lies of P, for example, has a significantly less janky camera, and still has some insanely hard bosses on par with Malenia (the final boss of Lies of P is just as hard as her in my personal opinion).
I think we've reached a point where the camera is a genuinely inexcusable problem. They have not improved their camera in any meaningful (and often noticeable) way since the jump from Demon Souls to Dark Souls 1. I can't say I'd know how to FIX the issue, per se. Maybe have a different camera angle for specific bigger enemies, maybe have boxed-in arenas have two walls, one the character and boss can't go through, and one further back that allows the camera to zoom out through the wall but still see the action. Other games, like the recent SMTV overworld or, again, Lies of P, have camera systems designed like this.
I still think Elden Ring is in my top 10 games of all time, but I can say with certainty that I will not be playing Shadow of the Erdtree ever again.
FrozenRoy
2 days ago