As from dlcs go I actually had a much harder time enjoying this one over the others. Areas felt incomplete and empty, lots of main game copy paste content or even dlc copy paste content like the stupid hippos. The tedious easter egg hunt for skibbidy fragments and weird power scaling. And the atrocious final boss.
Overall I still enjoyed it and the map was beautiful to look at and fun to explore but it feels like a concentration of all the main games flaws. There’s very few fun things to find in the world lots of crafting trash and upgrade materials, surprisingly few useful spells weapons or armor some just flat out worse than whats available in the main game. The skibbidy level scaling felt strange, i struggled with the dlcs bosses until i hit skibbidy level 17 and suddenly they melt within a few hits, i don’t really know how many i need for each fight.
The boss fights that are there are solidly enjoyable, messmer is probably the most fun one to fight. The furnace golems are the STUPIDEST thing from has ever made, painfully tedious and very frustrating copy paste trash thats just a waste of time.
Final boss i had to respec cos no matter what i tried i got minced in the second phase. What worked? Fucking fingerprint shield and pokey stick. The most unenjoyable gameplay method of sitting behind a shield and its really effective. If i don’t use that i need frame perfect dodges and perfect focus for 10 minutes or longer with bo opportunity to make mistakes. First phase was fine but wtf am i supposed to do in the second phase? Be perfect?
I enjoyed all of it, despite the big empty areas. Just the final boss that soured it for me, they really have to start considering how much they want to lean on the hard gaem git gud side of soulslikes. Also the fact that it is 100% separate from the main game is pretty stupid.
The constantly re-used bosses is definitely the weakest point of Elden Ring to me.
I’ve been thinking of going through all the bosses in the game and counting how many of them are actually unique creatures.
I’m echoing your thoughts, almost exactly. It’s the base game, with many of its best and worst aspects cranked up to 11. It’s best parts are its fantastic boss fights.
Rellana was BRUTALLY difficult (at least, at the BL I was at) but I loved every moment of it.
Midra was visually stunning, and EXTREMELY clean to play, while still being a solid challenge.
Messmer was just a solid fight, all around.
Scadutree Avatar initially had me annoyed, but by the time I got through it, it was one of my favorites. Very unique.
Romina needed a massive buff, my goodness. I barely had a chance to DECIDE if I like the fight or not.
The Furnace Golems were a really cool concept, but in gameplay are just tedious and annoying, and had way too many “fuck you, there is no counter to this move, except to abandon the fight for the next 30 seconds” noves that they can just spam repeatedly.
Promised Consort Radahn is also BRUTALLY difficult, but ultimately learnable, like Rellana, but unlike Rellana is 0% fun to fight. One of those bosses that crosses the line from “learnavle because you get more skillful” to “learnable because you figure out how to metagame it”.
Radahn, Consort of Miquella can actually die in a fire. “Let’s take the design concepts that ruined Malenia, even though they were a minority of the fight, and build an entire fight around them, exclusively.” I.E. it’s and entire fight made of Waterfowls. It’s every combat concept that was a step backwards for FromSoft, across the entirety of Elden Ring, rolled up into one. Seriously, guys, your job as devs is to make difficult but learnable challenges that an average gamer can overcome, with enough effort, within the rules that the rest of the game has established, not to engage in an arms race against speedrunners and hitless runners. They are not your core audience.
Overall, an experience thst mostly improves on the base game, but was disappointing due to a few VERY significant lowlights. But it’s still Elden Ring, so still an excellent game.
Overall pretty positive, though it’s definitely soured by the ending.
I think the skibidi scaling works as intended if you go straight for Dancing Lion, then Rellana, then Messmer, but breaks down after that as the world opens up and you become too powerful, right up until the final boss where the difficulty spikes into the stratosphere and you have to go find more. I made it to the final boss at SB level 10 and stood no chance despite first-trying the boss immediately prior, went and fucked off to explore, fight every other boss, and got up to SB 17 before I beat it (went back a few times to grind my face into the wall in the interim to little success). Also I guess it’s worth noting that he attacks your PC directly which made it annoying.
Revered Spirit Ashes are way worse, because even with all of them, everything but mimic tear dies ridiculously fast to the final boss. On the subject of DLC spirit ashes, mimic tear is still just the best and from what I’ve seen none of the new ones are even Tiche-tier.
Some of the new weapons/armors are neat, while others are just pointlessly bad. Like eg the perfumer weapons are fun, but the madness one is just bad because every enemy in the game except NPC invaders is immune to madness. I switched my UGS out for a different one for the final boss but otherwise didn’t really try out other stuff. Blue Blessed Dew talisman fucking slaps and should have been in the base game.
All the low level upgrade materials or crafting materials for pots (which I won’t use because they’re terrible) were pointless, and while it was nice to get some more max level upgrade materials, I think they could have accomplished the same thing by just making a bell bearing for them.
The experiment with more verticality is neat, but frustrating at times when the map just doesn’t show you anything helpful. This is compounded by areas like Abyssal Woods and Dragon Mountain where the map just doesn’t show you anything at all. Having fewer, longer dungeons was also a fun changeup.
The NPCs and their storylines were interesting and made an astonishing amount of sense for a fromsoft game, due to events happening while you were playing as opposed to long in the past.
Boss tierlist (obvious spoilers):
- Peak Tier: Messmer, Bayle
- Great Tier: Rellana, Radahn Phase 1, Gank Squad, the four mausoleum minibosses
- Okay I Guess Tier: Dancing Lion, Midra, the first Furnace Golem
- Forgettable Tier: Romina, Manus Metyr, Putrescent Knight, Commander Gaius, Skibidi Avatar, Dancing Lion 2: Deathblight Boogaloo, every other Furnace Golem
- What Were They Thinking Tier: Radahn Phase 2, Furnace Golem w/ Shin Guards
I loved pretty much all of it. Exploring and finding fragments was very fun, the bosses were a nice challenge mostly. Heading south and finding the cerulean coast was amazing. Almost missed the southeast frenzy forest because I missed a single ladder in shadow fortress. Overall it was just superb.
The only boss I struggled with was of course radahn who I spent about 2 hours figuring out how to beat. Thankfully I love summoning for fights so I don’t struggle like people who try to solo bosses like insane people. But finding a summon who wouldn’t die instantly basically left me with the mimic tear, so mimic it was. Still took an hour of learning the dodge timings and hoping to get a good block on the instant death move. And learning to force him to fight me in phase 1 while letting mimic hold aggro in phase 2 while I blast him with a ranged weapon special. Endurance management ultimately is what wins the fight though. Especially since I use just a medium shield and was only at about 35 endurance. Probably won’t fight him ever again.
But what a journey it was.
What were your thoughts on putriescent knight? When I dropped into a replica of Midirs arena I thought I was in for an epic fight and around the corner runs out bonewheel orphan of koss on a horse. The fight itself was ok but i felt a little disappointed. You don’t just throw in an exact replica of Midirs arena and give me that.
Yeah, midir is such an excellent fight, and the putrescent knight isn’t that good. It suffers from too much retreating which can make fighting it a pain. Once I’m figured out to just jump over his fire attacks it became much simpler and just a matter of learning to keep myself close so I could actually hit him.
