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If you don't want to use torrent, you can just unequip the ring to summon him 😅

13:50 just a note, The New Ghostflame Dragon IS diffrent from Base game Dragons, diff melee attacks, new flame attacks, more aggressive, and visually distinct, also the Runebears are Upgraded with newer attacks from the base game, idk about you but I had fun fighting the dragons and Runebears, yes the were difficult but they also felt upgraded and NOT THE SAME. if you wanna complain about boss reuses, complain about the ulcerated tree spirit. also Having NO MAP is a -ve IQ take, i struggle to find areas WITH the map, how the f can you play it without it About the scadutree fragments i feel like they are a helpline you need to cosume when you feel helpless or stuck against a boss, i myself did not use them UNTIL i felt stuck against a boss and needed a bit of edge against him. fought radahn at Scadu level 13 and killed him, NO SUMMONS, SHIELD or rot. just dual curved swords

This whole critique kinda sounds like someone complaining that a football game is biring because you play too much football 😩

The only thing I didn't like about the DLC was how easy it was to break quests. The base game was almost perfect in this regard, at least imo.

I don’t understand how on earth could you come up with the conclusion that everybody will just switch to the most meta build any chance they get. For me Elden ring was the most diverse game of all soulsborne, you can literally use any build you want and they all are viable and that’s the best part about this game

I strongly disagree with criticism about upgrade mechanic in dlc. I already beat the game, I have my favorite build, the very thing I want is preserve my build and increasingly become stronger without sofistication

I’m on NG+8 and I’m STILL discovering new things in this game. Experimenting with different build types. Clearing bosses with fewer attempts each time. The base game and DLC aren’t perfect but I can’t think of any other game that comes close.

I have 100% this game multiple times prep after prep waiting for Shadow of the Erdtree. But after doing 1 play through of Shadow of the Erdtree I never want to replay this game for a while I’m sick of it and it’s truly sad. My love of these games is fleeting so hard.

I feel like I wasted 40 dollars with Shadow of the Erdtree when I compare it to other dlc like Phantom Liberty, Iceborne, Burial at Sea, Witcher 3(Hearts of Stone and Blood and Wine 30 dollars in total) even Skyrim(both Dawnguard and Dragon born dlc were 40 bucks in total). Shadow of the Erdtree replayability is lower than the base with as you said scadutree fragments being the most important part of your stats in that area. The content is obviously lower and even the quality is lacking compared to the base game. It doubled down on things that were already bad like enemies that can literally turn around on a dime during an attack to hit you even when they were moving in the opposite direction to the now commonplace combo attacks that screw over slow builds or those that use shields since they deplete stamina near instantly. I can't think of much they actually improved here I wasn't impressed with the design of the major legacy dungeons much either and the open areas were definitely not as awe inspiring as when you first reach Liurnia of the Lakes, Altus Plateau and the underground areas like Siofra River for example. Bosses were hard just to extend playtime with aforementioned combo spam even huge bosses are doing full combos quickly like come on either be big and slow or small and fast not big and fast.

My problem with the DLC is that it feels soo disconnected from the main game and lore . Things you do in the main game outside of killing Radahn and Mohg nothing feels that it has consequences. Also literally NOTHING in the main game indicated that Radahn was going to be the consort of miquella , instead all signs lead to Godwyn having some kind of big role in the DLC. Also the map is empty as hell , a lot of areas have little to no content at all . The final boss fight was ass , not because it was hard but because it makes no sense . And finally most shit they added in the DLC sucks , only 20-30 % of add-ons are cool

If you disable Torrent in open space, then you also should disable enemies respawn in open space. It's the entire reason Torrent is useful to me, so I can zip past areas of enemies I've already cleared before.

I don't know man, I disagree with almost everything you pointed out in the video.

The game doesn’t “trick” you into fighting mini bosses. You fight them for the runes and the item drops, because if it has a health bar it always has a special drop, whether it be extra runes, or equipment. It has nothing to do with if it has any normal enemy counterparts. 😐

A lot of good points. Even from the beginning, I've always felt like exploration in Elden Ring is a chore, and I don't feel that way about other open world games like Skyrim or Dragon's Dogma. I also don't care for the direction that the combat has gone; I miss the slower paced combat of Dark Souls 1 and 2, although they certainly had their flaws. Personally, I'm worried that From is starting to stagnate. It may require some other company coming in with a fresh perspective and a desire to innovate in order for us to get the next great Souls game.

It was good when i played it right away But later it felt like it was missing a lot of

I lost count of how many times I discovered a new area, was blown away by the amazing visuals, then immediately crushed to discover it was populated by the same copy/pasted enemies and base-game field bosses I'd faced in every other area. Even the legacy dungeons which boast the best level design are almost entirely populated by regular enemies from the open world areas, so they all feel generic and tedious to explore. Shadow of the Erdtree is by far FromSoft's most disappointing DLC.

No issues with DLC bosses, but the loot in exploration isn't rewarding

If you play offline mode, theres too much place thats way too hidden. Wdym im supposed to roll to a hidden wall that doesnt look like the usual hidden wall? And its not like the unlocked area is negligible

Great video, really well thought out

Interesting and well thought out review! I definitely disagree with some of the stuff here but this is a good, concise video. I'm coming here from your SoTE review so I might copy and paste this review into that video since this comment is essentially commenting on ER as a whole, but either way I figured I'd put my thoughts out there. This'll be sectioned into three parts, what this video made me realize, what I already agreed with, and what I disagree with. I'll just mark this with a simple (1) (2) and (3) for anyone who wants to read one specific part, I'll also mark parts that are more specific to the SoTE review in (DLC) brackets too, although I haven't gotten to the DLC myself so feel free to just disregard everything I say because honestly I would probably do the same. This will also probably be split up into multiple comments so if this ends abruptly just check the replies. (1) I know this sounds dumb but I genuinely didn't even think of the fact that even though the game doesn't give you an explicit waypoint for stuff like churches or evergaols. You can still see it clearly on the map so it has the same effect. It's extra dumb because I found myself looking for those exact markings on a map for whenever I wanted to find them and yet the idea that they were just functionally the same, pretty stupid of me but also pretty funny thinking about it. I never really though about how artifical when and when you can't summon Torrent is, I just accepted it as "well that's how the game wants it to be so ok" but you're right it doesn't make sense in the context of the world or the situation. Also the summoning signs telegraphing when a boss was gonna show up was something I kinda clocked into in the base game but didn't fully analyze until now, again, stupid of me, but kinda funny. (2) The re-usage of bosses has always been something that annoyed me, I don't mind when it comes to stuff like the Tree sentinals, Erdtree Avatars, or the dragons because with the Tree sentinels it makes sense and the dragon, while being a much more egregious example, usually have some small distinction to make themselves different (even if ideally the distinctions should be much larger) but I can't excuse the game just slapping boss health bars onto random enemies and acting like it's a new boss without any tweaks or changes, this is more egregious with the Erdtree avatars because I feel like the avatars should have had different abilities depending on which minor erdtree they were defending, they do this with the Caelid one but that's the only one as far as I'm aware, like why not have the one by Raya Lucaria incorperate some Glintstone magic into it's moveset? maybe give it a staff instead of a hammer? (DLC) I actually noticed that the red rune bear you show in the DLC footage seems to have new attacks and things going for it so despite you citing it as a negative, I actually would consider that a fairly well done reuse of an asset, even if I would have preferred it to be more distinct, same with the GhostFlame dragon you showed which seemed to have a handful of new things to go along with it, basically I don't have a huge problem with reuse of assets aslong as the assets are different enough to stand out, and the red rune bear and Ghost dragon seemed to do that while regular enemies and to an extent, regular dragons and Erdtree avatars don't. I think the only (semi) regular enemy I think this actually works with is the Crucible knights, as they already feel like minibosses in and of themselves and aren't overused and enjoyable to fight. Also in terms of major Bosses like Astel or godfrey that's just straight up BS. And genuinely bad design, they should have just made it so there's a way to refight bosses you've already fought in an arena or a practise sort of way, like, think of some way to "relive your greatest fights" or something like that, I think some mods do that but it's baffling that they didn't do that in base game. There's actually a mod that I've been playing and enjoying alot so far called "Convergance" which actually enhances this issue in an attempt to fix it, instead of fighting regular Erdtree avatars, they just put a random enemy there and call it a boss, those weird cockroach thing's in Caelid, one's a boss now, a Grafted Scion? While actually excusable as the Scion was already a miniboss, it's a boss now. A random Erdtree gaurd? He's a boss now! It's definitely strange because otherwise Convergance has been great so far, just an odd choice to me. They also attempted to add more variety to field boss encounters but so far the only one I've found is a crystal crab boss who just shoots glintstone projectiles instead of water, maybe he did more but that's the only attack he used before I killed him, very dissapointing since it's quite a cool concept. This isn't me slagging on Convergance btw, the new spells and weapons you can play with in that mod are amazing and make it worth it imo. The lack of consequences in ER is also something that has bugged me, it just makes the character and by extension, the world, feel static in a way. I wish there were more diverging paths. More actual consequences, having bell bearings would be fine if the game didn't try so hard to push the illusion of consequences onto you, Convergance just makes the bell bearings something that each merchant gives you which helps this issue. But it shouldn't be in the base game. Characters should react to you doing bad or good things, give you items, treat you differently, have lasting impressions and impact, the characters aren't bad by any means, far from it, I just wish we got to see more of them rather than the static portraits we see throughout the game. I wish the catacombs and ruins were more unique. they serve their purpose and they're alright and kinda fun overall but god are they bland, and the only thing you really think when finding them is "Okay, where's the boss and loot." and I could do just fine without ever seeing another one of those imps. Like I still kill all the enemies in and around them and there are some kinda unique bosses like those shadow monsters and those erdtree statues, but they could have been so much more. Convergance actually does try and fix this by tweaking most catacombs to feel more unique by including different enemies and altering textures and layouts, so one point for Convergance. (DLC) Oh my god the Scadutree fragments are worse than I thought, I admit I initally thought that it was a nice system that made sure players of every skill level had a challenge, and also encouraged exploration, but that was under the assumption that they would be locked behind actually important areas or bosses, not just scattered around the place, and the fact they don't even have a unique glow for when they haven't been picked up yet, my god. And now that I think about it it's kind of counter-intuitive since as you mentioned, you can gauge and catch up with an area because of the runes dropped by enemies, so even if you are underlevelled, you can still get a chance to grow, the fragments don't do that, GOOD THING CONVERGANCE REMOVES THEM ENTIRELY BABYYYYYY ANOTHER POINT FOR CONVERGANCE YEAH LET'S GO, MODDERS FIXING A GAME FOR THE DEVELOPERS WE'VE REALLY REACHED BETHESDA LEVELS LET'S GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO Crafting wasn't needed What, you want more? I'll give as much explanation on this opinion on par with the amount of relevance crafting had. No seriously this isn't even a build thing. (Cont)

Interesting and well thought out review! I definitely disagree with some of the stuff here but this is a good, concise video. I'm coming here from your SoTE review so I might copy and paste this review into that video since this comment is essentially commenting on ER as a whole, but either way I figured I'd put my thoughts out there. This'll be sectioned into three parts, what this video made me realize, what I already agreed with, and what I disagree with. I'll just mark this with a simple (1) (2) and (3) for anyone who wants to read one specific part, I'll also mark parts that are more specific to the SoTE review in (DLC) brackets too, although I haven't gotten to the DLC myself so feel free to just disregard everything I say because honestly I would probably do the same. This will also probably be split up into multiple comments so if this ends abruptly just check the replies. (1) I know this sounds dumb but I genuinely didn't even think of the fact that even though the game doesn't give you an explicit waypoint for stuff like churches or evergaols. You can still see it clearly on the map so it has the same effect. It's extra dumb because I found myself looking for those exact markings on a map for whenever I wanted to find them and yet the idea that they were just functionally the same, pretty stupid of me but also pretty funny thinking about it. I never really though about how artifical when and when you can't summon Torrent is, I just accepted it as "well that's how the game wants it to be so ok" but you're right it doesn't make sense in the context of the world or the situation. Also the summoning signs telegraphing when a boss was gonna show up was something I kinda clocked into in the base game but didn't fully analyze until now, again, stupid of me, but kinda funny. (2) The re-usage of bosses has always been something that annoyed me, I don't mind when it comes to stuff like the Tree sentinals, Erdtree Avatars, or the dragons because with the Tree sentinels it makes sense and the dragon, while being a much more egregious example, usually have some small distinction to make themselves different (even if ideally the distinctions should be much larger) but I can't excuse the game just slapping boss health bars onto random enemies and acting like it's a new boss without any tweaks or changes, this is more egregious with the Erdtree avatars because I feel like the avatars should have had different abilities depending on which minor erdtree they were defending, they do this with the Caelid one but that's the only one as far as I'm aware, like why not have the one by Raya Lucaria incorperate some Glintstone magic into it's moveset? maybe give it a staff instead of a hammer? (DLC) I actually noticed that the red rune bear you show in the DLC footage seems to have new attacks and things going for it so despite you citing it as a negative, I actually would consider that a fairly well done reuse of an asset, even if I would have preferred it to be more distinct, same with the GhostFlame dragon you showed which seemed to have a handful of new things to go along with it, basically I don't have a huge problem with reuse of assets aslong as the assets are different enough to stand out, and the red rune bear and Ghost dragon seemed to do that while regular enemies and to an extent, regular dragons and Erdtree avatars don't. I think the only (semi) regular enemy I think this actually works with is the Crucible knights, as they already feel like minibosses in and of themselves and aren't overused and enjoyable to fight. Also in terms of major Bosses like Astel or godfrey that's just straight up BS. And genuinely bad design, they should have just made it so there's a way to refight bosses you've already fought in an arena or a practise sort of way, like, think of some way to "relive your greatest fights" or something like that, I think some mods do that but it's baffling that they didn't do that in base game. There's actually a mod that I've been playing and enjoying alot so far called "Convergance" which actually enhances this issue in an attempt to fix it, instead of fighting regular Erdtree avatars, they just put a random enemy there and call it a boss, those weird cockroach thing's in Caelid, one's a boss now, a Grafted Scion? While actually excusable as the Scion was already a miniboss, it's a boss now. A random Erdtree gaurd? He's a boss now! It's definitely strange because otherwise Convergance has been great so far, just an odd choice to me. They also attempted to add more variety to field boss encounters but so far the only one I've found is a crystal crab boss who just shoots glintstone projectiles instead of water, maybe he did more but that's the only attack he used before I killed him, very dissapointing since it's quite a cool concept. This isn't me slagging on Convergance btw, the new spells and weapons you can play with in that mod are amazing and make it worth it imo. The lack of consequences in ER is also something that has bugged me, it just makes the character and by extension, the world, feel static in a way. I wish there were more diverging paths. More actual consequences, having bell bearings would be fine if the game didn't try so hard to push the illusion of consequences onto you, Convergance just makes the bell bearings something that each merchant gives you which helps this issue. But it shouldn't be in the base game. Characters should react to you doing bad or good things, give you items, treat you differently, have lasting impressions and impact, the characters aren't bad by any means, far from it, I just wish we got to see more of them rather than the static portraits we see throughout the game. I wish the catacombs and ruins were more unique. they serve their purpose and they're alright and kinda fun overall but god are they bland, and the only thing you really think when finding them is "Okay, where's the boss and loot." and I could do just fine without ever seeing another one of those imps. Like I still kill all the enemies in and around them and there are some kinda unique bosses like those shadow monsters and those erdtree statues, but they could have been so much more. Convergance actually does try and fix this by tweaking most catacombs to feel more unique by including different enemies and altering textures and layouts, so one point for Convergance. (DLC) Oh my god the Scadutree fragments are worse than I thought, I admit I initally thought that it was a nice system that made sure players of every skill level had a challenge, and also encouraged exploration, but that was under the assumption that they would be locked behind actually important areas or bosses, not just scattered around the place, and the fact they don't even have a unique glow for when they haven't been picked up yet, my god. And now that I think about it it's kind of counter-intuitive since as you mentioned, you can gauge and catch up with an area because of the runes dropped by enemies, so even if you are underlevelled, you can still get a chance to grow, the fragments don't do that, GOOD THING CONVERGANCE REMOVES THEM ENTIRELY BABYYYYYY ANOTHER POINT FOR CONVERGANCE YEAH LET'S GO, MODDERS FIXING A GAME FOR THE DEVELOPERS WE'VE REALLY REACHED BETHESDA LEVELS LET'S GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO Crafting wasn't needed What, you want more? I'll give as much explanation on this opinion on par with the amount of relevance crafting had. No seriously this isn't even a build thing. (Cont)

I enjoyed it.

The red big bears have story significance! They are big red scary bears and people are afraid of them....... That's it lol

Great video boss. Hardly anything to disagree with you heavily on. They should hire you lol you would objectively make the game better.

They should have hired you, the dlc is a scam compared to the base game. Won’t spend another hour in this ugly repost, only thing that was essentially good is messmer, and it still feels like a failed attempt to recreate Morgott and Malenia in some way. As you said the bosses are the same in being too flashy, mass destructive, camera breakers, with the monkey mode somewhere. Not a single boss felt actually unique. Unlike in the base game, where you can see a handful work in the main bosses and how diverse and difficult the experience. I’d rather fight the Godskin duo any day than consort Radhan. It is the pinnacle of disappointment by any measurable means. Specifically in terms of writing, this Radhan has no reason or possible connection to be there, not a single piece describe in detail how he was transferred from the festival in Caelid to the divine gate, fromsoft pulled the lazy emergency card as always “berserk”. I can’t believe that the same people made Maliketh Godfrey Astel Margit/ Morgott and Malenia, made also Rellana Midra Bayle consort Radhan. The previous felt fresh unlike the latter, you are definitely right in every single point especially the disconnection from the main game and SOTE felt unmotivating, it us actually repulsive. I want to add that the visuals were great, but knowing fromsift the level design imo was terrible. You can understand and explore or plan your way in the base game but in SOTE it is a cluster with that points to all directions, and the rune bear is killing tbh. I had much higher expectations on the shape, scale, development, user compelling, effort, long lasting the dlc would be. It was a disappointment in every way I could have imagined, Idk what happened to fromsoft but that is never like what they were used to be. They weren’t paid well is my only plausible reason, thanks for this video finally someone got it.

14:00 I was interested in seeing what they did with the bears since they were new. Also seeing what they would drop. 14:41 This is something I think you're kind of overblowing because "Enemy Defeated" is clearly different from "Great Enemy Defeated" or "Demigod Felled". You say things like the dragons and bears are elevated to boss status because of the health bar, but the game itself labels them as enemies. They're not misleading us. There are categories to this. About reused bosses and enemies in general, well... If I enjoyed it the first time, I know it's an enjoyable fight and so I'll do it again. If I didn't enjoy it, I figure out why not and see if I can understand what was intended. 21:36 The more builds are possible, the shallower the combat has to be. I get what you're saying, but the issue is player balance. Not sure what you mean about every boss being the same boss. Like... Being fast and combo-heavy doesn't make them all the same. Midra and Rellana are far from the same experience. I do think it's a shame that they focus more on pushing the bosses than making oppressive areas as roadblocks. Like DS1 and 2. Especially 2. That was such a good experience

"people like to pretend that this game isn't mainstream so they can feel cool about beating it" Can't believe I heard some truth nuke in elden ring video.

One thing I can agree with is the scadu blessing is a poor concept. It's an understandable mistake by the designers. With how open Elden Ring is, it's difficult to control when and with what character build a player will begin the Land of Shadow. I think it would have worked out better if enemies and bosses in the shadow realm were tuned to be on par with the later end game areas in the main world. But they could have had one new specific damage type (a thematic shadow damage) that hit hard, and could be mitigated by finding blessings around the shadow realm. I don't agree that the open world is bad for the FromSoft formula, and I do consider Elden Ring's world design one of the very best of its kind. There is a lot of genius to how its open world is laid out and it is very technical in how it must be navigated and explored. It is understandable if fans of their games simply don't want a large world - it's a matter of preference. The expansion however does indeed have a problem with content - the world map and its concepts are fantastic. But there IS a lack of enemy variety and significance. Consider the main world map. There are quite a few cleverly laid out enemy camps and placements that make exploration more tense and dangerous than it appears at first given the speed and agility of Torrent. (Caelid: *exists* ) The Land of Shadow however is too sedate. The generic Hornsent shades are very thematic and cool to see milling around, but they're no replacement for the open world enemy types and scenarios in the main game map. Mesmer's soldiers are good and offer many interesting scenarios. But they're not everywhere, leaving much of the map under-used for conflict navigation. And of course we have the Finger Ruins, arguably the strangest in any FromSoft game for enemy placement and balance. They do truly feel unfinished, like placeholder maps.

Im just so tired of getting cool, new shit to use, and then the game is actively designed against me using said new, cool shit unless I do a 360 backwards jump, reach up my bum, break the boss' ai, or summon an ash, effectively doing the above... Radahn's new weapon is split into 2 different weapons with dofferent skills. It requires str, dex, and int to use well, but deals holy damage. Skills are cool and flashy, but take 4 years to use. We have stances ffs. Make them one weapon. Give it faith scaling. Speed up the aow or something to make ot practical to use. Poleblade of the Bud. Absolute joke of an AoW. Rot buildup sucks, damage sucks, takes 4 years to use, but it looks cool af. Another ball-buster. Spear of the Impaler. Borong af moveset (spears, rapiers, estocs, ect. did more than poke. They were effective ve slash weapons too. Fucking sick of only poking weapons), AoW is, yet again, cool af, but takes another 4 years to use. ...and that's just weapons. I'm tired of getting fun toys, but the game is punishing me from isong my rewards. I'm stuck woth dodging multi hits and doing 1 counterhit...and don't bring up PvP. That shit's been gutted since DkS3. It's just so frustrating.

Well said.

It’s personally so funny for me that most of your critiques I did not face at all simply because I play games like a psychopath (I never: used Torrent to skip enemies or skip enemies in general, over-levelled myself (I think I was always under levelled 😂) or checked the map much, whilst theory-crafting why odd things existed (such as the mentioned traps in the catacombs) even if they were clearly just mechanics). Elden Ring is truely my niche game, and I think it’s the same for other likewise gamer-sadists. That’s why the Elden Ring fandom is so dedicated.

This is just another small creator trying to get viral by criticizing elden ring. U created solutions for non existent problems u cant label something u dont like as bad design or a problem with the game.

Do a no-map no-torrent no-fast travel run of elden ring and see how much fun you actually have

I never really liked the base game so didnt bother with the dlc. I think Fromsoft kind of forgot the formula that made their previous games great

This is what happens in a capitalist economic system. Every product gets inexorably watered down and degenerate until it no longer abides by any genuine principle, in entertainment markets especially. We all thought FromSoft was immune to this, but we said that back in 2016. It's 2024. FromSoft has just fallen prey to what most devs have: a churning market where menial growth and profit is never enough.

I don't have the time to do justice to getting into the semantics of this debate, but I will say two things about statements I felt were a bit misguided or missing the point: 1] youd keep pointing out that you were sick of fighting the same things, and hearing the same music for fights and stuff, but my guy that is exactly what a DLC is. I don't think it's a fair criticism of the design quality because you ask for a DLC because you want more of the game you're playing. You buy the dlc because you finished the main game and you wish to experience more of that. Sure it's new areas and stuff but I think for some reason a lot of people are upset because they were expecting something closer to a fully fleshed out, new IP. But that isn't what this is, all this is is more of the same content you got in the main game. So to say that it's bad design and a boring snoozefest because you're tired of it - why did you get the DLC, then? If you had played elden ring to a point of feeling like you had enough of the world and the gameplay therein, it makes no rational sense that you would spend money on exactly that and when you later come to the conclusion you're bored its like.. of course you are 😅 you kept playing when you had lost interest. Thats what happens. 2] when you say that we should not show fromsoft any respect because they are wasting our time with this product, I think that's unfair in the context of the wider games landscape. Objectively, the product they've given us here is more polished, visually detailed and free of predatory marketing than anything else on the market in recent years. Fromsoft are literally the only devs on the planet that still seem to give a crap about user experience at all, so I think comments like this are extremely bad faith and the staff that worked on this IP, as well as brought you all the other experiences you cherish, deserve better from us the fans. I think we can be critical of things in the game design without making statements like this that essentially appeal to people to turn on the entire company and talk about them and their work like absolute dirt, all for the shocking and abhorrent crime of "wasting our time" by making a game that we can choose to play or not. Intrusive ads waste my time. Sponsorship segments in videos waste my time. Fromsoft do not waste my time. And honestly, considering everything they have done up until now I, for one, am more than happy and willing to have my time a little bit wasted by them. I think theyve earned a bit of my tolerance and patience and it surprises me to hear so many people claim to be such huge fans of previous titles and play them for hours and hours, then at the slightest sense of disappointment IMMEDIATELY turn on not just the game, but the company in general and start assuming the worst of everyone involved in the game. 🤷‍♂️

The fact that some people expected massive improvement on elden ring from the dlc😂😂😂

Every souls born and souls like game has innovative ideas and mechanics in one way or another... Our holy grail will be a game that combines everything in a very natural and well designed way.

Games journalists: " it's more elden ring" the internet at large... (see above video and many more like it)

''The map would've been removed entirely.'' Are you insane? The open world is already a mess and 99% of people don't have 1000 hours to put it in to figure out where to go next. You also hate the horse? You'd want to WALK through the entire thing?!

I think too many people are trying there damndist to convince other people that the game they enjoy is bad. Not everyone is gonna like elden ring and you know why? Elden ring wasn't designed for everyone to enjoy, and thats even more prelavent with this dlc. Also all criticism is just very specific and biased complaints. I'm so tired of hearing people complain about how items and weapons are useless cause it doesn't work for there build. That's how all the dark souls games work. You know how many times in dark souls 3 i spent a lot of time and effort to get an item that is literally useless to me, but guess what, i understand thats how this shit works. Not every item is meant for your build. Also dont tell people that they shouldnt enjoy something they do infact enjoy. You've done that multiple times and it shows that really your just a pretentious souls player who think only demon souls and dark souls are good games. Ive played all the games and its so hard to go back to the old games. Hell i quite playing dark souls 3 a month ago because the first dlc bored the shit out of me. Does it mean its bad? No but i just have lost interest in the game. I dont tell people to not play the old games i just personally dont wanna play them anymore. Some people dont wanna talk about eldrings flaws and some people will never stop d*ck hugging the old games, thats how its always going to be.

If I’m being honest, I enjoyed this DLC quite a lot. I found the bosses to be fun, the weapons and armor you can get are cool, the fact that the DLC encourages you to explore in order to get stronger is perfectly fine (it’s an open world game after all), I can even forgive the scadutree fragment system, which while a bit annoying, it does encourage exploration. Pretty much everything changed for me with the final boss. I feel like they designed it primarily for souls pros who can perfectly dodge the boss’s attacks and can punish and dodge with godlike timing. However for a more casual souls player such as myself who’s just trying to play the game, it is absolutely miserable both to fight and to learn. O don’t know what fromsoft will do with their next souls game, but I sure hope they go back to how they made bosses in Dark Souls 3, I don’t want another boss like the SOTE final boss ever again

with scadutree blessing system i was able to enter dlc at lv 70 without even entering altus, and completed it easily

Crazy bait

The dlc was a letdown to me

Shadow of the Erdtree is pathetic. Not only the bosses feels lazy and fight like one of those poorly made modded bosses. Fromsoft put zero effort in this dlc. The soundtrack, story, lore, weapons, ending, final boss, narrative, the writing of the characters, designs, recycled bosses, reused ds3 assets and movesets like Relanna and Bayle with Midir and Sulyvahn movesets, etc. Everything feels so "I don't feel like trying hard and doing my job" (even if they coocked this joke for 2 years lmao) Fromsoft and Miyazaki did everything wrong with this dlc....

The open world in Elden Ring completely lacks the genius level designs of Demon's Souls and the Dark Souls series. Here the progression was mainly tied to defeating a boss to get access to a new area and with this perhaps also getting access to new upgrade material or better weapons. So defeating a boss was not just for obtaining more Souls, but it was crucial to make progress in the game. All the Dark Souls games had only few optional bosses. In Elden Ring and the Shadow DLC, on the other hand, almost all bosses in the open world are optional. And also all bosses in the side dungeons and catacombs are optional as well. They tried to give the player some sense of progression with the Scadutree fragment collectibles, yet, in reality they are nothing but checklist items that force one to scan all parts of the map (which would be useless otherwise, because most of the other loot in the DLC is usless for your current build, particularly smithing stones and all that). Fromsoft failed to combine the open world in Elden Ring with a meaningful and rewarding progression path which motivates a player to do long horse riding segements to reach all parts on the map. In more common RPGs like Skyrim or the Witcher the progression is tied to a quest system and usually the main quest automatically sends you to all different parts of the map. In Dark Souls a structure like this wasn't required, because of the very few optional areas and content mentioned. But in a game with a huge (sandbox like) open world like Elden Ring I feel like something like a quest guide or similar would have made the gameplay significantly better.

How would running past open world enemies on foot be considered better than running past them on horseback?

most of the gated of regions of the map are just annoying to find. hidden parts in souls games are rewarding to find. there's nothing rewarding about running around clifftops looking for the one way down or looking for some random cave at the base of the cliffs is such a dull experience I have no idea how people can call the map exploration for this game good

"Borrowed power" exactly. Its garbage and unnecessary. I dont think ghostflame dragons were too bad because they did have new moves and there was something different about each encounter of them. The Jagged peak drakes were much worse.