i liked how the dlc bosses made me use talismans i never used in the base game and realizing just how tanky you can get. made learning the bosses feel fun.
@@AndrewAung1992 I did and they are not even that much harder than normal run. I recommended level 1 runs of the fact that Wralis liked to use and learn ingame mechanics in the dlc. Inside a level 1 run you are limited of weapons and spells. To extend the limitation it is possible to use certain talisman to boost your stats to use another weapon. But is it worth to do that when u also could a defence of offence talisman? Its possible to have a glass canon build or a tank build even on level 1. Of course there are some attacks that are one shot but they are just a few. Did not started the DLC of Elden Ring on level 1 so far, so i can not talk about that.
@@AndrewAung1992 You come into another converstion and cry that i should do it myself and making false claims of getting one shot from everything. What are u even talking about with: "don't be sensitive; im not offended" -boo huu "Captain Obvious" i know every thing. I am also an average gamer. I didn't though on my first run that i even finish it. But in the end it was much easier than i ever thought. It is worth a try, in my opinion, for everyone who like the games.
It's good to see a positive review that ins't based on the TH-camr shitting on every aspect of the game only to say in the end that it is a masterpiece.
@@loopine The youtube titles should be something like, "I overhyped this dlc to hell and even though it's pretty good content, it's has a few flaws (because everything does) which means it's fromsofts worst dlc ever in history!!"
I just think Radhan is boring because rolling left is the optmial answer to most of his attacks. There aren't a lot of ways to interact with his attacks, especially because of how low his downtime is. The way his hitboxes interact with the slopes in the arena makes me think he was playtested exclusively on flat ground... Clone dash is so cool though. Also unfortunate how useless the map ends up being for all the interconnecting undergound tunnels. They should've given us 2 layers. Crazy that Elden Ring's 40$ DLC has more unique and quality content than BotW's 70$ DLsequel
Radahn with just dodging is kinda boring, agreed. He's also too tanky, so sometimes it lasts forever. However, he became very fun with the sekiro tear for me. Timing blocks is more engaging for my brain somehow, and the damage boost coupled with the ability to sneak guard counters during some combos makes it go much faster. But the best part is how it negates any frustration from the X slash
I mean dodging to the right was basically all you did for Demon of Hatred in Sekiro and he's my 3rd favorite boss in the game, just barely behind Genichiro and the goat Isshin
Yeah, it kind of wastes the positioning gimmick of the fight with the light pillars. They could've made it a bit stricter. They could take a page outta the Norse God of War games by making dodge direction a mandatory mechanic in the fight and taking out i-frames. Instead of just dodging in a general lateral direction, that game forces you to specifically pick between left and right or forward or backward. The final test of positioning
Agreed, I dislike that Guy even today for how limiting It is. Wished they invested more time into giving him stuff like Starcaller follow Up or Metor Attack which feels very satisfying to avoid. Nosedives asides, I really liked what they did with this DLC, is incredible as you said how spending time on making Great bosses and memorable Dungeons are way more worth that spending 7 year on car physics and 2 very Big layers with little more than materials to upgrades a bar and copypasted side content.
the randomized phase-switching was the main thing i thought was neat, instead of the boss changing at an exact health percentage. they should do more bosses like that in future games
@@asare240 it was my favourite boss in the dlc. Made me mad when people were whining about it being unfair on Reddit. They should go play assassins creed or something
@@Vengeance_I_m and Bed of Chaos is garbage because of that gimmick, Scadutree Avatar has most of her attacks but also does a better job of being a boss and not something that the game isn't.
And yeah, please, do a follow up to the soundtrack video! I loved it and the amazing ost for the DLC deserves it. Elden Ring already had a kind of underrated ost with a lot of amazing tracks, but the DLC is just spectacular. Romina, Divine Beast, Midra, Bayle, Messmer, Putrescent Knight... so many bangers man
They did the trailer music super dirty though. It was this fantastically propelling piece in the trailer, but in the game turned into a comparatively quiet and even gutted version in the form of Rellana's theme. What a disappointment.
@@rayzu4380they're talking about the gameplay trailer they released before the story trailer. Rellana's theme has the same string motifs but her theme is much more tame in comparison.
@@toakamar8369 Oh, that is just not true. More than 1 song in the DLC has those motifs in them, the trailer theme was just that, the trailer theme. Rellana just has the most obvious ones. And I love her ost lol
@@rayzu4380 I love her ost as well but the trailer theme they're taking about also was more intense with its choir and the same string instruments. Not saying this to hate on her theme I love it. But I understand why they think the trailer theme was done dirty. 🫶🏿
As silly as it'll sound, this dlc certainly got me over my allergy to the block button for Souls. I've mentally checked out that it was the "coward" way of doing things and was stuck with the whole roll only thing but the Sekiro tear and getting fed up with the patterns enough that it made me attempt to parry did make certain fights like Midra and Radahn a lot more fun. I like the deflecting hard tear, it really is more stimulating than just rolling through the patterns for me and the only thing I'd ask for is to have it a lot sooner to toy around with in the base game. After the dlc, I went back to fist fight Godfrey with the tear on and it was pretty fun turning the fight into a hand to hand combat match haha There's also a joy in actually pulling off 3 parries in a row, I found that I liked doing it to Radahn so much that I finished my run by messing around with parries on Radagon...who I didn't even know you could parry.
I’ve listened to loads of “critiques” and “praises” and gotta to say you up there in the top 1% of understanding what a “review” really is and actually giving a review where it’s clear when it’s subjective and objective and generally know what you’re talking about
40 bucks btw... And THANKS, I also love and enjoy the open world areas with less content but with AMAZING art direction. The main ones are already really dense, so having some optional areas with amazing landscapes and that were made with the "less is more" mindset is super good, specially for Abyssal Woods and Jagged Peak, IMO
@rayzu4380 Yea, the world feels more "empty" but negative space is important to give it a sense of realism to help the atmosphere work and for the terrain to transition naturally.
@@shinyhydreigon7257 And with a lower amount of items you can just remember where and what they are, if you need it, and then go from there. If you aren't making a frenzy build you can just grab the scadu fragments and head to the manse. If you are making a frenzy build then you fittingly spend more time in the frenzy forest
My personal take is that there’s a strong correlation between areas that have very few items to loot, and areas that weren’t ravaged by wars like The Crusade. With a lack of war comes a lack of meaningful loot that our Tarnished can walk away with. It adds a tragic irony to places like The Hinterlands or the Southern side of the map, that the places least influenced by violence and bloodshed have very few useful rewards for that exact reason. It’s only head canon but it fills the empty space, thematically speaking.
I fully agree with your radahn critique, it rubbed me the wrong way when I realised his stomp couldn’t be jumped😂 like why?? When every other stomp is jumpable
@@shinyhydreigon7257 ohhh the foot has a hitbox? But I’ve tried jumping it from behind him and it still doesn’t work. Phase 2s stomp feels unstrafeable too
Also, Giant Hunt is all physical, so pierce damage and often results in additional counter attack damage. Not only that, but Giant Hunt is much better stance breaking option
I'm glad that you mentioned how you don't need to max the scadutree blessings, you've never needed to max anything in these games to have fun. I'm on a new playthrough and I didn't even max out my weapons cause I couldn't be bothered to do caves and tunnels and I still beat the final boss while doing good damage. I think watching your RL1 no upgrades series really made that hit home for me. For these games, getting your mind right is how you learn to appreciate it. The moment I started to see fighting bosses as a puzzle instead of something I wanted to rush through, is when I really started to LOOOOVE Elden Ring and it took coming back for the DLC for that to happen. Fuck Radahn though, I damn near cried when I beat him
If anyone is wondering, the best Scadutree Blessing Level is 12. After that you get diminishing returns. And looking at main path to beating DLC with some of the main remembrance bosses, you get to around at least 13 levels normally. Exploration, just as in base game of Elden Ring, is recommended in DLC, but not the most important, you can still do just fine without going out of your way to explore stuff. And to people who claim DLC is overtuned, at 60 vigor with some of the defensive stuff and medium armor at scad level 12, bosses don't one shot, it takes at least 2-3 hard hits to kill you. Basically as it is in Ringed City. Even if we include Ember hp buff (30%), Morgott's Great Rune gives you just that, 25% additional HP.
Yeah I think more than anything, the number 1 biggest piece of misinfo people will have to fight to correct is that you need every scadutree blessing to beat the DLC. I didn't know the returns were that diminishing after 12 until Loopine mentioned it.
I agree too. By the time I fought dancing lion (I’m trash btw) I had already beaten rellana, Mesmer and gaius at blessing level 12 and I feel like I was over leveled for the fight.
@@ISesseriI It's actually funny cause I really dislike how From made the blessings more powerful. I actively avoid using them to prevent being overpowered in the early/mid game. I thought they should've instead nerfed the blessings.
It's just that people don't understand the clever design of Sote's map. It still has the tremendous verticality of the base game, but it concentrates even more of the interesting and mandatory content upwards, and in my opinion makes it more comfortable to replay the map without worrying about doing everything. Why the hell do people want all the content scattered everywhere? I don't understand this way of thinking.
@@louisferreira1012 I understand the sentiment, and probably the whole experience would have been more consistent if the map was smaller, but man, I'd be lying if say that I preferred them to delete those emptier areas. I was (and still am) genuinely enthralled by the Cerulean coast, the hidden grave, the Abyssal woods and specially the Finger Ruins. Certainly a couple more items, maybe 1 or 2 unique enemies or field bosses, and those areas would had been perfect, but I still like them as they are.
@@louisferreira1012 I don't see any problem with them, for me FS tries to give some coherence in TLB, in the sense of living an adventure, a great epic of how to become the lord of elden and you literally stopped a god in sote. So the world has to keep that coherence of being big. DS3 seems to have a big world, but it's boring when you realize how linear it is, you would like to explore more of that completely destroyed world, but you are only limited.
@@draw2death421 True, literally no one likes the finger ruins. It was hype when I entered the area for the first time, then as I proceeded I was like "huh? That's all there's to it?" I kept trying to get to the outer layer because I thought there's just absolutely no way From would slap such a wide area on the map with almost nothing in it... twice!! But there is no outer layer. And there is no underground section. Just baffling.
The best giant boss fight imo. Midir, Placidusax, Bayle, Elden Beast, all seem to have certain problems in their design. Scadutree Avatar, on the other hand, is very intuitive to learn, has a lot of well telegraphed attacks and you can dodge every single one. The boss functions the same way dragons do, you get significantly more damage by targetting the head. Visuals, atmosphere, OST, attacks and fight mechanics, everything feels just right. It's sad this boss is so underappreciated
@@Vengeance_I_meverything you said is true, I still think Bayle is the best big boss fight, but scadutree avatar is an underrated gem. 3rd phase actually gave me chills, reminded me of Sif when he noticeably gets weaker when he attacks, like you know this thing is in so much pain but its still desparately defending itself, and the music in that phase, absolute cinema
@@Vengeance_I_m The only real complaint about him is when he sends out two rounds of thorns to get you at a distance. The first ones are usually still partially visible when the second volley comes, making it difficult to see. Also sometimes in the third phase he just spams the light explosion which gets kind of tedious, but these are small gripes and overall I love the fight.
Dude I fucking love what you said about Bayle. So sick of chopping away at dragon legs - dragon fights became a grind. Here's a dragon we get to dodge and duck and dive while punching him in the face over and over. And it's SO satisfying. That crunch noise is amazing. I'm not a FS vet by any means, I haven't even finished Dark Souls (sorry) I just absolutely LOVE the Bayle fight. I kept on holding off from beating him - just getting him down to a few HP before practicing the phase 2 dodges. I finally took the win after a run where I only made a couple of small mistakes, but I regret it a little. I just want to go and fight Bayle again.
@@-dizzoj- iirc placidusax is the only dragon where you can’t hit the head with melee until his stance is broken. Normal drakes and ancient dragons leave punish windows long enough to hit their head pretty consistently.
@@Z3d195 True! But with Bayle it felt a lot better, personally. Maybe it was the more structured fight and/or enclosed arena, or the more rhythmic nature of the fight. Compared to Senessax for example, which comes right before - I tried to fight him like I fought Bayle but it was far more frustrating and less rewarding - more of a chore and it felt like I was fighting against how the game wanted me to do it. Putting the two near each other; it was night and day difference for me. Bayle felt like the dragon fight I always wanted but wasn't quite able to get with the other dragons in the game.
@@-dizzoj- I respect your opinion but personally I really loved Senesaxx when I realised I could jump over his aoes and land a jumping r2 to the head really consistently. But everything you said about Bayle was on point
@@-dizzoj- I realized this when Loopine mentioned this on one of his streams, but trying to attack generic Dragons head instead of going for their legs is not only more efficient, but way more fun once you are able pull It off consistently. Otherwise gets very boring and repetitive.
If that's your take on Bayle, then I think you'll also love Darkeater Midir when you get to DS3. It's between him and Bayle for my favorite FromSoft dragon fight and for the same reasons you described.
@@enman009 For Sword Shield Knight, Radahn is very easy. Just playing the block-roll strategy. Block the fast attack, then roll to dodge the next/final attack that pushes away the shield to get a punish window.
@@user-em6rw2pc6nOh, I'm planning to do it with a light greatsword build. It's weird that some people see shields as a crutch when, in reality, just blocking will get you killed by playing passively. Dancing Lion is a great example of "don't hide on your shield or I'll crush you".
I feel validated finally hearing some positivity about this dlc, ive really loved it but everyone kept hating on it for some valid reasons but largely toxic and hateful reasons
Messmer and Bayle are both such masterful bosses that easily rival the best boss fights in FromSoft’s catalogue (such as Ludwig and Isshin). I was getting goosebumps through my entire body during both of those fights. That hasn’t happened to me in a boss fight since I fought Slave Knight Gael for the first time way back in 2018! Also Bayle is one of the most well designed giant enemies that FromSoft has ever made since you can lock on to him for the entire fight without the camera having a seizure and his moveset is so complex that it actually rivals many of the humanoid bosses in terms of combo variation (which is EXTREMELY rare for a giant boss). It’s crazy how much FromSoft continues to outdo themselves with their boss design and I disagree with any criticism saying the bosses in this DLC are underwhelming.
Scadutree Avatar is another great giant boss fight. This boss is even cleaner and more intuitive than Bayle. These two have mechanics of locking on to the head, that takes by far the most damage. It's so unfortunate people seem to never mention that great boss.
@@Vengeance_I_m I only found Scadutree Avatar after I was way too overleveled for him (Scadutree level 15) so I think that’s why he didn’t leave much of an impression on me. I would also argue that Bayle has a MUCH more complex and challenging moveset than Scadutree Avatar. Bayle just has so many moves that expertly test your jump timing, and positional awareness.
@@Vengeance_I_myeah, it's a shame. Avatar, and I'd argue Romina too, would be top tier bosses basically anywhere else. The competition is just insane with ER roster for them to truly stand out. I still love dealing like 5k dmg with a properly aimed fire hit.
@@jameslough6329yeah Scadutree Avatar is very simple. I would say this boss is very similar to Midra in those regards. Since both are very easy yet very clean fights without much jank. Bayle has fire breath deflect off the ground, which is very problematic and makes it rng based. Same with phase transition flight attack, where you run sideways avoiding projectiles, the problem is the random lightnings that can catch you since your camera is locked on to a boss and you're trying to avoid fire ball projectiles. Bayle is still a great S tier fight though, despite those problems. My point is Scadutree Avatar is one of the cleanest and most intuitive fights in Elden Ring along with Midra
Hell yeah, been waiting for this! Just recently found you from your "guide to end all guides" and i really enjoy your style and argumentation. Looking forward to seeing more.
On the topic of the world and exploration: My few complaints with Elden Ring's base game was the way the map was very separated between areas and felt very artificial/video-gamey, like you have starting green area, red area, blue water area, snowy mountains, etc.. I get a lot of video games do this and we're supposed to not question the realism and admire the vistas but it always bugs me out. Worse than that though is the way points of interest are displayed on the map. In the base game, the caves are drawn in the map as well as churches of Marika, and they all look the same. So exploration for me usually went like this: find new area -> scenery change -> find map -> [4 caves, 2 Marika churches 1 dungeon] -> logically get flask upgrades first then do a few caves and then go into the dungeon. rinse and repeat. Obviously I'm simplifying it and I had a lot of enjoyable moments exploring but in the late game you kinda catch on to the formula and exploration becomes tedious. The DLC completely fixed those two issues for me (at least in my first run). The way the map connects with itself and the more subtle scenery and colour changes made exploring way more enjoyable for me, because I couldn't really tell when I had entered a separate new area, there is still drastic atmosphere changes but usually they're done more sparsely and when they happen they make more sense, like getting closer to the scadutree gives the sky a yellow taint but doesn't change the grass itself. Also the caves are tucked behind cliffs in the map and not shown, which makes finding them actually rewarding rather than putting a marker and riding straight to it, that as well as the scadu upgrades are hidden in all sorts of places and not just in churches. I'd say this is From's best DLC they've ever made, my fav before was ringed city but in comparison even if you rush SoTE you're still left with 3 great bosses and 2 amazing legacy dungeons, which is almost what the entire ringed city DLC is.
Gravesite plain to sacduview altus to shadow keep is good and dragon cave to jagged oeak foot to jagged peak is very good, but the random shaman village behind shadow keep and the ruah ruins are not as good and gravesite plain to cerulean coast
I wonder how people would react if ash lake came out today. “Uhh I just ran through all this empty space and I didn’t even get to fight a boss, there was just some stupid dragon, what’s even the point of this”
there's just a copy-pasted hydra (i ALREADY killed one in Darkroot Basin, what the heck) and these boring clamshell enemies. cant believe i did that root-platforming gauntlet full of basilisks and get NO payoff for it. fromsoft fell off hard
@@raghav1026 Rewards sucked in both, but it wasnt about that in either area. Finger ruins could have benefitted from an ost similar to ash lake to set the mood. They definitely had the art direction going for them
Imo the problem is that the dlc is just way bigger, bigger than ds1 so whule in ds1 1 empty themtic location is fine in the dlc we get like 3 and each of them is the size of anor londo and it's just sad
A 28-minute video is somehow more informative, reasonable, and overall better on every aspect than all the 3-hour torture they call criticism out there 40 dollars dlc by the way
Honestly, my favorite DLC. Reminded me to one of my favorites open world experiences (Terraria Calamity is cool af, anyone should try that) and even when it ups and downs, it felt incredible. This is the kind of DLC that shouldn't be called the same as other companies make that rather are about Removing content from the base game and reselling it, or putting worthless stuff at gold price. This is like an expansion, a kind of sequel I would say. Makes Elden Ring one of the most complete games I had ever seen content wise, and im glad they improved upon so many things over the base game. I personally don't want a pure Souls open world again but because that was a package so big and awesome, that an ER sucessor would be just more of the same. The best game of all time? Pff, depends of subjetivity, there is no real response to that! But definetly was one of my favorites experiences I ever had on gaming.
well to be fair, i would say the dlc, if anything, kinda makes the game feel less complete than before, both in terms of lore and some forms of gameplay (lacks of new weapons for each new category, new enemies variety needed for the dlc, some openworld side dungeons which i really love, etc) regardless of how incredible the journey is. Not that i mind it too much though.
@@amilex5805 Nah, is fine. I prefered the experimentation of trying of new things instead of sticking to add 5 of each kind only. I have to count the enemies, but I was satisfied, and I love the quality over quantity minor Dungeons won, made something I wanted from the base Game, and thats ve more memorable. But I see where are you coming from, I kinda agree that Some Lore additions where weird, and SotE feels like more as a sequel sometimes.
When I had PC Radahn one hit away he jumped up and disappeared along with the music. I stood there for a second and immediately got the biggest grin on my face and let out a "HE'S DOING THE THING". Incredible to see the orbital attack again.
There are two types of empty areas in my eye: 1. Areas that serve for lore/buildup purposes (Shaman Village, Abyssal Woods and Jagged Peak) I think these are fine as they do an excellent job at doing their purpose. And the Shaman Village is just the most beautiful area in Soulsborne 2. Areas that are actually empty and have no purpose. Like wtf is Charo's Hidden Grave? I really like what they did with the former, the buildup to Bayle and Midra is amazing. I just wish that there were more frenzied enemies in the Abyssal Wood, other than that I got no complaints. The latter however is very disappointing. Fully agreed on Messmer. He's incredible and definitely a top 5 Soulsborne boss. It's just unfortunate that he doesn't have two healthbar and can die very quickly if you've explored the rest of the map and collected the fragments before fighting him. And yeah, Radahn is also kind of a boring fight especially after fighting him a few times. On my third playthrough of the DLC, Radahn wasn't clicking for me as much as he was during my first playthrough cause I didn't realise how you just dodge left for everything and you're good. There's very little complexity in him
I would agree with your first point on Shaman Village and Jagged Peak. Shaman Village shows us Marika's past and Jagged Peak is just a red carpet to Bayle. I would not agree with Abyssal Woods though because one, unlike Jagged Peak, it's not linear at all and two, it's too big to be just build-up for Midra. Had it been significantly smaller, then I would agree. Agreed on your second point. Finger Ruins also come under that category for me.
@@Stanzbey69 Not really... if you just go straight from the first Wintern Lantern and reach the site of grace, all you do is just head straight again but go south and you'll find Midra's Manse
@@Stanzbey69 I think there would have to be more clearly delineated paths for it to be a maze rather than just wide open spaces fr the most part. There aren't really that many divergences in where you can go.
That entire gauntlet was absolute garbage. You can tell FS had exhausted everything on the first half of the game. They didnt even bother to make Firesage resistant to fire, he’s weak to fire while on fire
I feel they were definitely aware that Messmer's phase 2 is easier than phase 1, he's the only remembrance boss in the entire DLC who phase transitions at 50% instead of 60-65%.
On the topic of exploration, I think people do a disservice when they say there’s very little meaningful loot or the like. In a very simplistic sense, the DLC is basically like 10 big roads, with each big road having multiple little roads coming out of it (that sometimes loop and whatnot). When you explore those little roads, it’s probably quite common that you’ll feel like the reward was underwhelming, sure. But when you consider it in the context of where you came from, and where you’re headed, it becomes very obvious that every main path always leads to at least 1 major reward, but typically you’ll get multiple as you go from beginning to end. Now, compare that to the base game, which had so many big roads and so many little roads, that you can go for hours cleaning 2-3 large paths and STILL not find anything you’ll replace your gear with. Compared to that, the DLCs concentration but also item placement is a massive improvement, because no matter how many useless items you might get on the way, you know the end of the big road ALWAYS has a payoff. I hope that makes sense to anyone who reads. I won’t claim it’s perfect, but it’s definitely proof that Fromsoft are improving in that regard. (Imo)
The road is the reward. The environment, the enemies, the art style, the new weapons, etc. People need to stop being so power-up-focused and start looking at what's right in front of them on the screen. Just LOOK!
No fam, the exploration in the dlc is ass. I want to be able to go off the beaten path and be rewarded for my curiosity, especially when you consider the risk to reward ratio for exploring. I don’t want to run around or against a gorgeous backdrop and have it be a giant nothing burger. This, unfortunately is one of the few areas where the dlc falls short.
Really great video & fair criticisms too. I’ve always put base game Elden Ring OST on the same level as Bloodborne, but after SOTE, now it has the best OST in all of FromSoft games, bar none!
Finally a really great video! For me Shadow of the Erdtree is From Software's best DLC ever. I’m amazed by it, the new weapons, magics & especially the Backhand Blades are really satisfying to play with, the legacy dungeons are absolutely massive, there’s one dungeon that leads you to 5 or 6 different places, it’s phenomenal, The bosses also are as cool as ever, Messmer is in my top 10 best Soulsborne bosses ever, the open-world is extremely dense in every conceivable way, I have some small criticisms about the DLC, some places could’ve been a bit less empty, but then again, I’m a NG+7 character & I got everything in my build, I only needed to collect the new weapons/sorceries/incantations & Scadutree blessings to keep moving through the DLC, those who have low stock of Smithing Stones will be quite happy with the DLC, they’re literally everywhere & that’s a good thing to encourage experimentation & more build diversity, they really COOKED with the DLC music, I can’t believe how good they are! Also Romina & Rellana needed a cutscene & voice-lines for each of them, it pains me to see them not having one. About Consort Radahn: I do think he is one of the greatest bosses From has ever made, you HAVE to learn it inside out to feel great, it’s only hard until you know what to do, phase 2 has many deliberate design choices, it is intently made to throw you off, to confuse the player, puts you in a very pressured psychological warfare, it is very demanding, epitomizes Miquella's ineffable influence on anyone who stands against him. Mechanically, phase 2 is phase 1 but with AOEs that force the player to not back away at all, because if you did, you’ll get greatly punished, stay close to him all the time & it has the big explosive attacks, it’s a masterpiece of a fight with probably the best OST & arena/spectacle. I’ve never experienced excitement by any other boss like this one, maybe Malenia & Ludwig come into mind, yeah it's up there! I almost tear up whenever I hear phase 2 music. and I do agree with many of the mechanical quirks it presented, I just wish they fix some of those hit boxes & adjust that 1-2-X slash attack. What’s unfortunate for me is he doesn’t allow much strafing, using jump-attacks to duck follow-ups, nothing…just a plain old roll-roll-swing fight, which is great, but it felt like a missed opportunity. But people will get used to him with time I'm sure. Overall, it’s From Software’s best DLC yet! 9.5/10 from me.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts on the ER DLC. ...I am saying that because your thoughts are concise, very well-reasoned, and highly considerate towards each of the DLC's many individual aspects. That's far different from the numerous dime-a-dozen "here's twenty minutes of me yapping about one or two of the DLC's components" videos available. So, yeah - thanks. Great stuff.
Your review is a breath of fresh air. You state facts in your review which is something that’s missing from reviews/critique. You can tell he’s an ACTUAL gamer who understands difficulty and acknowledges other issues some ppl are having in regards to the bosses. Also I agree that they practically gave us a whole ass game disguised as “DLC” for 40 bucks 😉
I don’t understand the “its too anime” statement but i hear it everywhere. Why cant weapon arts or spells be flashy/colorful? Why is the tarnished not allowed to pull of these crazy maneuvers in combat? I think it would be really lame if every move or spell or weapon was the same. Grounded, not something untraditional to see with a sword or magic. Why does everything have to be dark and depressing and bland qwq
A follow up to the Elden Ring ost video would be such a banger. Your album recommendations in it were so good and ER’s ost is one of all time favorites, up there with both Nier games!
10/10 video and 9/10 dlc. Elden ring being my favorite game, I hope that fromsoftware will stop there for this game. A new BB, Sekiro or DS style license would be welcome! And yes the music in this dlc is so good. CURSE YOU BAYLE
Bloodborne and DS are outdated. Something akin to Sekiro would be good, looking at what games are viral nowadays (Stellar Blade, Lies of P, Wukong, Mortal Shell, etc). Elden Ring was by far the best thing Fromsoft has produced with Souls genre, and I don't think it gets better than this. They need to move on, take risks and create something completely new, like they did with Bloodborne and Sekiro
@@Vengeance_I_m How are they outdated? No other game, even within this series, has matched the world design of something like DS, or even the satisfying gameplay of Bloodborne. Sekiro is one of the most tedious experiences I've had playing a FromSoft game, so much so that I dropped it halfway through simply because of the combat system. In order for them to match the likes of Nioh or whatever, they first ought to figure out how to make a game that actually has good combat.
@@Vengeance_I_m So I don't really agree that souls and BB are outdated. However yes I agree that they should take more risks like they did in their last games. And given their throws I don't see why they will stop. Normally ds2 and 3 should not even exist. Miyazaki doesn't like making sequels and I think that's good
I think my one point of disagreement would be Romina getting her own mini zone; they did that with the Scarlet Rot pools and Kindred of Rot just prior to her boss room. Anyway, completely agree on the PCR stuff and would enjoy an updated soundtrack video.
Yea i was thinking of that area just more in the depths of rauh. Gotta love a rot swamp. I thinks theres a blight lion there somwhere already though that i never found.
I really agree with the sense that the game doesn't need to justify its space by littering itself with KONTENT every two steps. That said, as far as empty area goes, I do feel like the abyssal woods just needed one more thing to elevate it, like one more enemy, even recycling the frenzied troll if need be or maybe more environmental challenges to complement it, there's already fruits that make noises to mess with your stealth which is great but what about exploding fruits ? How about puddle of frenzy-inducing water ? Anything to make the place even more fucked.
always found it funny how the community will unanimously praise things like prosthetic tools and mostly combat arts in Sekiro to cancel certain attacks or provide new ways to dodge, but will overlook ash of wars that do the exact same thing. Ashes of wars like blinkbolt add so much more depth to the combat and like you said, entire attacks into punish windows, just like how Sakura dance works on lightning reversals. Attacks like the signature move from Isshin Ashina is almost just as bad as Radahn's triple swipe, and it's normalised just to cancel his animation with multiple arts.
I definitely agree with almost all of your points! though I find Gaius to be one of the hardest bosses. He has many though hard to find and use openings on foot and while he’s fun as hell to fight on horse he will casually stunlock you to death if you get hit once. Also the way horse combat works you will often get far away from him even when playing aggressively so he does that one attack that on horse I couldn’t consistently dodge. It’s a true combo and a oneshot unless you’re full so I just dismounted and took the hit since I couldn’t figure out the timing from the tells
I think Gaius is easier on foot since you have more control over your character, considering right positioning makes him a joke. The charge attack is the annoying bit, but some people say you can summon Torrent to avoid that.
Gaius is such an amazing boss fight. I hope they fix his charge attack hitbox, make it more intuitive to dodge and fix this thing where his charge can hit you twice when you're on the ground, resulting in getting one shot. But boy is this boss fun to learn. Not quite Tree Sentinel S tier level, but very close enough, especially if they fix some of that janky stuff
Apart from some little things about bosses, my one nitpick is the 2 hours I spent exploring the finger ruins thinking there is no way they designed this whole area and left it completely empty.
Most underrated souls creator imo. Your videos are so high quality and like a breath of fresh air in the sea of cope that follows every Fromsoft release.
Shadow is the best game content I’ve ever played! My only true issue that u can’t use miquellas fractured rune to remove the enchantment on Leda, Dane, hornsent, Moore and Freyja. Then have them be room summons against an extra Giga Chad Radahn.
This makes no sense tho. They AREN'T enchanted by the time you fight them, every enchantment broke alongside the rune. Leda and Dane were always loyal to Miquella, Freyja wanted Radahn back, Moore was desperate for love and Hornsent is just dumb
@@joaoluizkfsantos8392 since miquella can still charm people such as the player and Radahn, there is nothing that proves he doesn’t still have his followers enchanted.
@@DemonKingHiei I mean, all the dialogue from the followers and the options given to the player point to them not being charmed anymore. You can believe whatever you want, but there's no evidence to support what you suggested (remember that Miquella only charms us after he comes back midway through the fight, and if he could've kept the charm going, why are some NPCs seemingly immune?)
@@DemonKingHiei not immune, no. They aren't charmed however, and we know that because of multiple dialogues after the rune breaks. Like how Leda now wants to hunt the Hornsent and Ansbach due to them not being charmed, or Thiollier remembering and going after Trina. If Miquella could just instantly reapply the charm after the rune break, we wouldn't even be receiving help from those 2, all NPCs would simply be charmed again. Do you have any evidence that contradicts this?
i gotta disagree on the incantations, DLC added quite a few good ones. Heal From Afar is obviously busted, Multilayered Rings of Light is basically an upgrade to Discus that doesn't require INT, Wrath from Afar is fun for bullying humanoid enemies and triggering ambushes like Imps, Knight's Lightning Spear and Pest-Thread Spears are upgrades to their basegame versions as well. The Golden Arc incants and Messmer flame incants are also decent. The only ones I'd say are outright bad are Divine Bird Feathers and the new Crucible ones, though it remains to be seen if future patches end up making them useable. also Electrocharge, but that's a meme on the same level as Fire's Deadly Sin
@@yunuss58 discus still wins for damage to FP ratio and general PvE utility, but it does basically 0 poise damage and the discs have a very narrow hit radius. MRoL is better for larger enemies and for AoE, and for stancebreaking
My reccomendation is to not worry about seeing everything or having the best build for ur first playthrough. Just fully engage and experiment as much as possible. Yea you’ll miss loads but none of the experience will be spoiled by guides etc. making mistakes is as much part of the experience as dying to a boss again and again. Perseverance is the point
Love your soundtrack video, would 100% be down for a follow up video talking about other From Soft games and now including Shadow of the Erdtree in the conversation as well
1:59 I see a lot of hypocritical takes like this in regards to the DLC world layout too. people complained the base game map was flat and empty and added nothing to the game world, that they should have designed it with more complexity like the legacy dungeons. and then the DLC did exactly that with the Land of Shadow, and now the new complaint is "the map is too confusing to navigate, why do i have to go through a random cave to get to this area i can see from this plateau over here?". it's probably different people complaining, but it still is funny how those complaints tend to dominate the discourse, while being complete inversions of each other
People don't understand that no game is for everyone and people have different opinions and preferences about what they like and don't like. You can never satisfy everyone but people don't understand that, which results in unfair hate and weird responses about games.
Idk why but a lot of the complaints I see from the DLC can easily be applied to the base game too. Like "too much empty space." What about Liurnia? Sure, has a good amount of content, but it's still 80% nothingness. Mountaintops and Consecrated Snowfield? I doubt anyone can name a single important thing in the Snowfield other than Ordina Town and the Mohgwyn Palace portal, and it's MASSIVE, bigger than Limgrave and Caelid. But of course, "Abyssal Woods was empty" (which was a unique thing they tried to scare you with, and disabling Torrent because Midra's fire can permanently kill him) and also more comments on how half the area in the map is filled with nothing. If you did a quick run of Elden Ring from Margit to Radabeast, it would take you a couple hours. If you did the same for Sekiro, it would take you half the time, even though Elden Ring is at least 10X bigger in terms of land area and quantity. It's always just been mostly empty space.
The base game map is filled to the brim with stuff when compared to the majority of the DLC map, with the exception of the Mountaintop of the Giants. The problem with SOTE is that is has a bunch of medium-to-small sized ''main'' areas that are largely empty, so it neither succeeds in giving you the satisfaction of exploration you find in larger more expansive zones, nor in giving the player a tight, well-designed little sub-region to navigate. Jagged Peak, Abyssal Woods and the Finger Ruins, what do they contain? Virtually nothing, so they feel like a massive waste of space. Even something as pretty as the Cerulean Coast is completely lacking because it's sparse. I almost missed Charo's Hidden Grave on my first playthrough, and now that I've explored it, do I think I would feel as if I missed out on something if I had never found it? No way, because again, it's completely lacking in any sort of interesting content.
you've probably heard this already but the lifesteal crystal tear is ass lasts under a minute and regens under 1% max hp per hit the great stars' lifesteal is more potent
The snake attacks begin to take the center focus, thus making the fight easier than phase 1 where you had to go full-on on Messmer, they are pretty tricky at 1st but get pretty easy once you nail them down. Still it is a masterpiece of a fight don’t get me wrong, I’m actually glad they made it that way.
Smaller attack pool, almost no combo flowcharts/very linear combos (some being just 1 or 3 highly telegraphed snake attacks) and somehow even longer end lag combos with bigger hurtboxes to the point where you can double hit him while un-transforming and easier combo finishers like the corkscrew just being slapped on the end of everything while his previous explosion finishers have way worse tracking now.
Please don’t talk bad about greatshield users. You have to dedicate points to endurance and understand stamina management to use them with guard counters. That came off as snobby. You are easily in the top 1% of players in this game, so talking about doing RL 1 runs like it’s no big deal comes off as out of touch.
@@sandiavida6118 I think Elden Ring with a Greatshield was way harder than Bloodborne, where you can't use a shield. The difficulty of properly using a shield and dodge rolling are the same. I think players have convinced themselves that one method is more difficult, and therefore more elite, than the other. But both methods come with their own parameters.
The quality of your videos have been amazing. Massive props to you. Wanted to ask specifically what you thought of Romina's OST? It was easily my favourite in the DLC and I was hoping you'd mention it while talking about her. (Please do that follow-up OST vid the first was amazing) My biggest complaint for the DLC would be the lack of cutscenes. Romina, Rellana and Gaius badly need them imo. What do you think of the Scadutree Avatar? Surprised you didnt talk about the boss. Its got an awesome design and the fight is a perfect example of how to do a fun "large scale" boss with a good camera when you focus on the head. The 3 phase surprise was cool as well.
You actually can jump at least one of radahn’s attacks, both phase 1 and 2 versions of his double sword delayed circle swipe (the one where if you get hit he brings you up in the air and slams you back down). He swipes really low to the ground for that one. I was able to jump it. Honestly I have to give you credit for having that kind of experimental mindset, I wouldn’t have thought about trying it before I watched your vid on how to beat bosses. Idk about any of his other moves though lol
God I feel so fucking seen by what you said about Gaius. He took me 3 attempts to fully learn and take down my first time, my first playthrough of the DLC was a Deflecting Hardtear setup with Milady, and I found him very easy, my deaths were mostly due to just fucking up timings as you'd expect. But then I get online to look at the discourse after I'd finished the game and I saw so, so, so much Gaius hate. LOADS of people calling him insanely overtuned, throngs of people claiming they just cheesed him because he was too hard, and I thought I was in a different universe entirely. It felt really strange, so I'm glad somebody else had roughly the same sort of view of him as I had.
@@metalsludge8205 I'd agree if Gaius also had a gigantic amount of health and covered the screen in projectiles. I've never had much of an issue with Fire Giant myself, but I can see the comparison to a degree.
Whilst i agree with alot of the things said, i dont agree about radahn. He is not a good boss, difficulty was definitely the main thing fromsoft thought about when making him, but his hitboxes extend past his sword, the camera forced uowards when youre close can make some attacks almost impossible to see at a angle, and the areana full of ditches and hills. These are just a few examples of radahns sucky design and falls really flat, and incase anyone comes for me, feeling good about beating a boss does not always mean its a good fight.
An underrated "mechanic" of Radahn's that I think gets dismissed too easily is how you can't see his entire attacks in Phase 2. I actually enjoy it as it adds some depth to his moveset in a unique way, and serves to further enhance the overwhelming atmosphere that they were clearly going for as the final boss. You will see his moves so many times that visuals become less important as timing, Radahn almost reminds me of Sword Saint in a way. Also there are a few attacks you can strafe if you are on his left (your right) side, its a shame that hugging left has become meta so people dismiss it entirely. Same as what happened with Waterfowl and circle strafe too. I also thinking having too many strafeables/jumpables may harm the overwhelming atmosphere of the fight so I don't mind its not a focus, there is still more positional gameplay than 95% of Souls bosses.
my biggest critique of the game is that the number of the waterfalls without caves behind them is too damn high.
I know I was thinking the same thing. Behind every waterfall in the DLC, there's just a bunch of messages complaining about lack of treasure
Hey, the ruins of Unte and therefore the whole Abyss are hidden behind a little waterfall in Shadow Keep!
So real
@@showlottathingsonce I found the twin turtle talisman I checked every waterfall to find nothing 😭 sadge
It makes the ones that are hiding things that much better.
i liked how the dlc bosses made me use talismans i never used in the base game and realizing just how tanky you can get. made learning the bosses feel fun.
I recommend you level 1 runs, because of that.
@@AndrewAung1992 I did and they are not even that much harder than normal run.
I recommended level 1 runs of the fact that Wralis liked to use and learn ingame mechanics in the dlc. Inside a level 1 run you are limited of weapons and spells. To extend the limitation it is possible to use certain talisman to boost your stats to use another weapon. But is it worth to do that when u also could a defence of offence talisman? Its possible to have a glass canon build or a tank build even on level 1. Of course there are some attacks that are one shot but they are just a few.
Did not started the DLC of Elden Ring on level 1 so far, so i can not talk about that.
@@AndrewAung1992 I don't get why you are so offended by it. First i haven't spoken to you at all. It is totally fine not doing it.
@@AndrewAung1992 You come into another converstion and cry that i should do it myself and making false claims of getting one shot from everything.
What are u even talking about with: "don't be sensitive; im not offended" -boo huu "Captain Obvious" i know every thing.
I am also an average gamer. I didn't though on my first run that i even finish it. But in the end it was much easier than i ever thought. It is worth a try, in my opinion, for everyone who like the games.
@@AndrewAung1992 I hope your ego is still intact, have a nice day.
It's good to see a positive review that ins't based on the TH-camr shitting on every aspect of the game only to say in the end that it is a masterpiece.
SotE is a frustrating nightmare and an unplayable masterpiece
@@loopine The youtube titles should be something like, "I overhyped this dlc to hell and even though it's pretty good content, it's has a few flaws (because everything does) which means it's fromsofts worst dlc ever in history!!"
"A vailed masterpiece"
The twilight princess music for Gaius was chef's kiss
The armored boar immediately reminded me of King Bulblin. Gaius really is just a combination of him and Gyobu from Sekiro
I just think Radhan is boring because rolling left is the optmial answer to most of his attacks. There aren't a lot of ways to interact with his attacks, especially because of how low his downtime is. The way his hitboxes interact with the slopes in the arena makes me think he was playtested exclusively on flat ground... Clone dash is so cool though.
Also unfortunate how useless the map ends up being for all the interconnecting undergound tunnels. They should've given us 2 layers.
Crazy that Elden Ring's 40$ DLC has more unique and quality content than BotW's 70$ DLsequel
Radahn with just dodging is kinda boring, agreed. He's also too tanky, so sometimes it lasts forever.
However, he became very fun with the sekiro tear for me. Timing blocks is more engaging for my brain somehow, and the damage boost coupled with the ability to sneak guard counters during some combos makes it go much faster.
But the best part is how it negates any frustration from the X slash
I mean dodging to the right was basically all you did for Demon of Hatred in Sekiro and he's my 3rd favorite boss in the game, just barely behind Genichiro and the goat Isshin
Yeah, it kind of wastes the positioning gimmick of the fight with the light pillars. They could've made it a bit stricter.
They could take a page outta the Norse God of War games by making dodge direction a mandatory mechanic in the fight and taking out i-frames. Instead of just dodging in a general lateral direction, that game forces you to specifically pick between left and right or forward or backward. The final test of positioning
I agree about Radahn but I will say he's extremely rewarding to parry and deflect. If you're tired of rolling I recommend giving it a try.
Agreed, I dislike that Guy even today for how limiting It is. Wished they invested more time into giving him stuff like Starcaller follow Up or Metor Attack which feels very satisfying to avoid.
Nosedives asides, I really liked what they did with this DLC, is incredible as you said how spending time on making Great bosses and memorable Dungeons are way more worth that spending 7 year on car physics and 2 very Big layers with little more than materials to upgrades a bar and copypasted side content.
I dont care what anyone says about the camera, i LOVE Divine Beast Dancing Lion. The music, the atmosphere, the visuals, peak Souls experience imo.
the randomized phase-switching was the main thing i thought was neat, instead of the boss changing at an exact health percentage. they should do more bosses like that in future games
@@asare240 it was my favourite boss in the dlc. Made me mad when people were whining about it being unfair on Reddit. They should go play assassins creed or something
Fighting that boss made me genuinely enjoy godskin duo for the first time.
Divine lion music is so incredibly good
@@octagonseventynine1253Aesthetically he’s a very cool boss, but the camera and “do not attack me” lighting phase ruin it for me.
The Furtive Scadutree Avatar, so easily forgotten...
it's what bed of chaos should of been
@@Ghorda9 they're very different though. Scadutree Avatar is a normal boss, while Bed of Chaos is a gimmick boss fight
That was my favorite boss lol
@@Vengeance_I_m and Bed of Chaos is garbage because of that gimmick, Scadutree Avatar has most of her attacks but also does a better job of being a boss and not something that the game isn't.
Probably one of the best breakdowns of the dlc I've seen. Fine work, skeleton.
He's not a skeleton he's a human bean..
And yeah, please, do a follow up to the soundtrack video! I loved it and the amazing ost for the DLC deserves it. Elden Ring already had a kind of underrated ost with a lot of amazing tracks, but the DLC is just spectacular. Romina, Divine Beast, Midra, Bayle, Messmer, Putrescent Knight... so many bangers man
They did the trailer music super dirty though. It was this fantastically propelling piece in the trailer, but in the game turned into a comparatively quiet and even gutted version in the form of Rellana's theme. What a disappointment.
@@kimlee6643 ?
The trailer theme was Romina's theme, not Rellana's
@@rayzu4380they're talking about the gameplay trailer they released before the story trailer. Rellana's theme has the same string motifs but her theme is much more tame in comparison.
@@toakamar8369 Oh, that is just not true. More than 1 song in the DLC has those motifs in them, the trailer theme was just that, the trailer theme. Rellana just has the most obvious ones. And I love her ost lol
@@rayzu4380 I love her ost as well but the trailer theme they're taking about also was more intense with its choir and the same string instruments. Not saying this to hate on her theme I love it. But I understand why they think the trailer theme was done dirty. 🫶🏿
As silly as it'll sound, this dlc certainly got me over my allergy to the block button for Souls. I've mentally checked out that it was the "coward" way of doing things and was stuck with the whole roll only thing but the Sekiro tear and getting fed up with the patterns enough that it made me attempt to parry did make certain fights like Midra and Radahn a lot more fun. I like the deflecting hard tear, it really is more stimulating than just rolling through the patterns for me and the only thing I'd ask for is to have it a lot sooner to toy around with in the base game. After the dlc, I went back to fist fight Godfrey with the tear on and it was pretty fun turning the fight into a hand to hand combat match haha
There's also a joy in actually pulling off 3 parries in a row, I found that I liked doing it to Radahn so much that I finished my run by messing around with parries on Radagon...who I didn't even know you could parry.
Agreed 😂 that tear is the best item in the dlc to me, and it ain't even close
I’ve listened to loads of “critiques” and “praises” and gotta to say you up there in the top 1% of understanding what a “review” really is and actually giving a review where it’s clear when it’s subjective and objective and generally know what you’re talking about
40 bucks btw...
And THANKS, I also love and enjoy the open world areas with less content but with AMAZING art direction. The main ones are already really dense, so having some optional areas with amazing landscapes and that were made with the "less is more" mindset is super good, specially for Abyssal Woods and Jagged Peak, IMO
@rayzu4380 Yea, the world feels more "empty" but negative space is important to give it a sense of realism to help the atmosphere work and for the terrain to transition naturally.
Abyssal Woods would be weaker if it had items/content all throughout IMO. You are supposed to feel lost in the Woods, not exploring an on rails level.
@@shinyhydreigon7257 100% agree
@@shinyhydreigon7257 And with a lower amount of items you can just remember where and what they are, if you need it, and then go from there. If you aren't making a frenzy build you can just grab the scadu fragments and head to the manse. If you are making a frenzy build then you fittingly spend more time in the frenzy forest
My personal take is that there’s a strong correlation between areas that have very few items to loot, and areas that weren’t ravaged by wars like The Crusade.
With a lack of war comes a lack of meaningful loot that our Tarnished can walk away with. It adds a tragic irony to places like The Hinterlands or the Southern side of the map, that the places least influenced by violence and bloodshed have very few useful rewards for that exact reason.
It’s only head canon but it fills the empty space, thematically speaking.
I fully agree with your radahn critique, it rubbed me the wrong way when I realised his stomp couldn’t be jumped😂 like why?? When every other stomp is jumpable
It is jumpable? You are usually just too close and get hit by the foot. Its much easier to strafe the whole AoE though for a punish.
@@shinyhydreigon7257 ohhh the foot has a hitbox? But I’ve tried jumping it from behind him and it still doesn’t work. Phase 2s stomp feels unstrafeable too
@@Z3d195you can jump it, but if you’re too close to him it will just hit. It’s stupid
I don’t think I’ve ever been hit by that stomp while jumping lmao
@@_Sevren_chad Godfrey can’t relate 🤣
I agree on everything EXCEPT flame skewer being a giant hunt upgrade. Nothing beats launching people in the air.
Also, Giant Hunt is all physical, so pierce damage and often results in additional counter attack damage. Not only that, but Giant Hunt is much better stance breaking option
Truuue. The fire buff on skewer was kinda crazy
I'm glad that you mentioned how you don't need to max the scadutree blessings, you've never needed to max anything in these games to have fun. I'm on a new playthrough and I didn't even max out my weapons cause I couldn't be bothered to do caves and tunnels and I still beat the final boss while doing good damage. I think watching your RL1 no upgrades series really made that hit home for me. For these games, getting your mind right is how you learn to appreciate it. The moment I started to see fighting bosses as a puzzle instead of something I wanted to rush through, is when I really started to LOOOOVE Elden Ring and it took coming back for the DLC for that to happen. Fuck Radahn though, I damn near cried when I beat him
If anyone is wondering, the best Scadutree Blessing Level is 12. After that you get diminishing returns. And looking at main path to beating DLC with some of the main remembrance bosses, you get to around at least 13 levels normally. Exploration, just as in base game of Elden Ring, is recommended in DLC, but not the most important, you can still do just fine without going out of your way to explore stuff. And to people who claim DLC is overtuned, at 60 vigor with some of the defensive stuff and medium armor at scad level 12, bosses don't one shot, it takes at least 2-3 hard hits to kill you. Basically as it is in Ringed City. Even if we include Ember hp buff (30%), Morgott's Great Rune gives you just that, 25% additional HP.
Yeah I think more than anything, the number 1 biggest piece of misinfo people will have to fight to correct is that you need every scadutree blessing to beat the DLC. I didn't know the returns were that diminishing after 12 until Loopine mentioned it.
I agree too. By the time I fought dancing lion (I’m trash btw) I had already beaten rellana, Mesmer and gaius at blessing level 12 and I feel like I was over leveled for the fight.
@@ISesseriI It's actually funny cause I really dislike how From made the blessings more powerful. I actively avoid using them to prevent being overpowered in the early/mid game. I thought they should've instead nerfed the blessings.
Fine work
Great video, man. My first thought when I beat the DLC and saw the discourse was that I couldn't wait to hear what you had to say.
It's just that people don't understand the clever design of Sote's map. It still has the tremendous verticality of the base game, but it concentrates even more of the interesting and mandatory content upwards, and in my opinion makes it more comfortable to replay the map without worrying about doing everything. Why the hell do people want all the content scattered everywhere? I don't understand this way of thinking.
@@raydark100 same, wish the same content had actually been put in a smaller map to make it feel less sparse
@@louisferreira1012 I understand the sentiment, and probably the whole experience would have been more consistent if the map was smaller, but man, I'd be lying if say that I preferred them to delete those emptier areas. I was (and still am) genuinely enthralled by the Cerulean coast, the hidden grave, the Abyssal woods and specially the Finger Ruins. Certainly a couple more items, maybe 1 or 2 unique enemies or field bosses, and those areas would had been perfect, but I still like them as they are.
@@louisferreira1012 I don't see any problem with them, for me FS tries to give some coherence in TLB, in the sense of living an adventure, a great epic of how to become the lord of elden and you literally stopped a god in sote. So the world has to keep that coherence of being big. DS3 seems to have a big world, but it's boring when you realize how linear it is, you would like to explore more of that completely destroyed world, but you are only limited.
Please tell me then the clever design of finger ruins. Tell me i beg you.
@@draw2death421 True, literally no one likes the finger ruins. It was hype when I entered the area for the first time, then as I proceeded I was like "huh? That's all there's to it?"
I kept trying to get to the outer layer because I thought there's just absolutely no way From would slap such a wide area on the map with almost nothing in it... twice!! But there is no outer layer. And there is no underground section. Just baffling.
Been hyped for this. Old Hunters and SOTE are so peak
Finally, a SotE review where someone jumps over Rellana's attacks. Couldn't be said better about the sheer quantity of playstyles on offer.
You forgot about the Scadutree Avatar!😭😭😭
My poor goat
The best giant boss fight imo. Midir, Placidusax, Bayle, Elden Beast, all seem to have certain problems in their design. Scadutree Avatar, on the other hand, is very intuitive to learn, has a lot of well telegraphed attacks and you can dodge every single one. The boss functions the same way dragons do, you get significantly more damage by targetting the head. Visuals, atmosphere, OST, attacks and fight mechanics, everything feels just right. It's sad this boss is so underappreciated
@@Vengeance_I_meverything you said is true, I still think Bayle is the best big boss fight, but scadutree avatar is an underrated gem. 3rd phase actually gave me chills, reminded me of Sif when he noticeably gets weaker when he attacks, like you know this thing is in so much pain but its still desparately defending itself, and the music in that phase, absolute cinema
@@bombthingyeah OST is so tragically beautiful. Has the same feel as Gwyn's plin plon theme
I fkin knew i was forgetting a boss as i watching it render lol
@@Vengeance_I_m The only real complaint about him is when he sends out two rounds of thorns to get you at a distance. The first ones are usually still partially visible when the second volley comes, making it difficult to see. Also sometimes in the third phase he just spams the light explosion which gets kind of tedious, but these are small gripes and overall I love the fight.
Dude I fucking love what you said about Bayle. So sick of chopping away at dragon legs - dragon fights became a grind. Here's a dragon we get to dodge and duck and dive while punching him in the face over and over. And it's SO satisfying. That crunch noise is amazing. I'm not a FS vet by any means, I haven't even finished Dark Souls (sorry) I just absolutely LOVE the Bayle fight. I kept on holding off from beating him - just getting him down to a few HP before practicing the phase 2 dodges. I finally took the win after a run where I only made a couple of small mistakes, but I regret it a little. I just want to go and fight Bayle again.
@@-dizzoj- iirc placidusax is the only dragon where you can’t hit the head with melee until his stance is broken. Normal drakes and ancient dragons leave punish windows long enough to hit their head pretty consistently.
@@Z3d195 True! But with Bayle it felt a lot better, personally. Maybe it was the more structured fight and/or enclosed arena, or the more rhythmic nature of the fight. Compared to Senessax for example, which comes right before - I tried to fight him like I fought Bayle but it was far more frustrating and less rewarding - more of a chore and it felt like I was fighting against how the game wanted me to do it. Putting the two near each other; it was night and day difference for me. Bayle felt like the dragon fight I always wanted but wasn't quite able to get with the other dragons in the game.
@@-dizzoj- I respect your opinion but personally I really loved Senesaxx when I realised I could jump over his aoes and land a jumping r2 to the head really consistently. But everything you said about Bayle was on point
@@-dizzoj- I realized this when Loopine mentioned this on one of his streams, but trying to attack generic Dragons head instead of going for their legs is not only more efficient, but way more fun once you are able pull It off consistently. Otherwise gets very boring and repetitive.
If that's your take on Bayle, then I think you'll also love Darkeater Midir when you get to DS3. It's between him and Bayle for my favorite FromSoft dragon fight and for the same reasons you described.
"Radahn punishes shield crutchers" What the fuck are you smoking? That's how most people cheesed this fight bro
For Greatshields yes, but for regular shields he's a basterd and will kill you.
@@enman009 For Sword Shield Knight, Radahn is very easy. Just playing the block-roll strategy.
Block the fast attack, then roll to dodge the next/final attack that pushes away the shield to get a punish window.
@@user-em6rw2pc6nOh, I'm planning to do it with a light greatsword build. It's weird that some people see shields as a crutch when, in reality, just blocking will get you killed by playing passively. Dancing Lion is a great example of "don't hide on your shield or I'll crush you".
@@enman009or just spam blck woth deflectong tear
Not a 10/10 because they didn’t give us the Crucible frog spell 😔😔😔
@@aguy1077 Ligma spell
I loved your soundtrack video and would love to watch an update with the dlc included!
I feel validated finally hearing some positivity about this dlc, ive really loved it but everyone kept hating on it for some valid reasons but largely toxic and hateful reasons
Messmer and Bayle are both such masterful bosses that easily rival the best boss fights in FromSoft’s catalogue (such as Ludwig and Isshin). I was getting goosebumps through my entire body during both of those fights. That hasn’t happened to me in a boss fight since I fought Slave Knight Gael for the first time way back in 2018!
Also Bayle is one of the most well designed giant enemies that FromSoft has ever made since you can lock on to him for the entire fight without the camera having a seizure and his moveset is so complex that it actually rivals many of the humanoid bosses in terms of combo variation (which is EXTREMELY rare for a giant boss).
It’s crazy how much FromSoft continues to outdo themselves with their boss design and I disagree with any criticism saying the bosses in this DLC are underwhelming.
Scadutree Avatar is another great giant boss fight. This boss is even cleaner and more intuitive than Bayle. These two have mechanics of locking on to the head, that takes by far the most damage. It's so unfortunate people seem to never mention that great boss.
@@Vengeance_I_m I only found Scadutree Avatar after I was way too overleveled for him (Scadutree level 15) so I think that’s why he didn’t leave much of an impression on me.
I would also argue that Bayle has a MUCH more complex and challenging moveset than Scadutree Avatar. Bayle just has so many moves that expertly test your jump timing, and positional awareness.
@@Vengeance_I_myeah, it's a shame.
Avatar, and I'd argue Romina too, would be top tier bosses basically anywhere else. The competition is just insane with ER roster for them to truly stand out.
I still love dealing like 5k dmg with a properly aimed fire hit.
@@jameslough6329yeah Scadutree Avatar is very simple. I would say this boss is very similar to Midra in those regards. Since both are very easy yet very clean fights without much jank. Bayle has fire breath deflect off the ground, which is very problematic and makes it rng based. Same with phase transition flight attack, where you run sideways avoiding projectiles, the problem is the random lightnings that can catch you since your camera is locked on to a boss and you're trying to avoid fire ball projectiles. Bayle is still a great S tier fight though, despite those problems. My point is Scadutree Avatar is one of the cleanest and most intuitive fights in Elden Ring along with Midra
@@joaoluizkfsantos8392Yeah fire damage is absurd on this boss. I one shot all 3 phases using my optimised Blasphemous Blade ash of war build
Hell yeah, been waiting for this! Just recently found you from your "guide to end all guides" and i really enjoy your style and argumentation. Looking forward to seeing more.
On the topic of the world and exploration:
My few complaints with Elden Ring's base game was the way the map was very separated between areas and felt very artificial/video-gamey, like you have starting green area, red area, blue water area, snowy mountains, etc.. I get a lot of video games do this and we're supposed to not question the realism and admire the vistas but it always bugs me out.
Worse than that though is the way points of interest are displayed on the map. In the base game, the caves are drawn in the map as well as churches of Marika, and they all look the same.
So exploration for me usually went like this: find new area -> scenery change -> find map -> [4 caves, 2 Marika churches 1 dungeon] -> logically get flask upgrades first then do a few caves and then go into the dungeon. rinse and repeat. Obviously I'm simplifying it and I had a lot of enjoyable moments exploring but in the late game you kinda catch on to the formula and exploration becomes tedious.
The DLC completely fixed those two issues for me (at least in my first run).
The way the map connects with itself and the more subtle scenery and colour changes made exploring way more enjoyable for me, because I couldn't really tell when I had entered a separate new area, there is still drastic atmosphere changes but usually they're done more sparsely and when they happen they make more sense, like getting closer to the scadutree gives the sky a yellow taint but doesn't change the grass itself.
Also the caves are tucked behind cliffs in the map and not shown, which makes finding them actually rewarding rather than putting a marker and riding straight to it, that as well as the scadu upgrades are hidden in all sorts of places and not just in churches.
I'd say this is From's best DLC they've ever made, my fav before was ringed city but in comparison even if you rush SoTE you're still left with 3 great bosses and 2 amazing legacy dungeons, which is almost what the entire ringed city DLC is.
Gravesite plain to sacduview altus to shadow keep is good and dragon cave to jagged oeak foot to jagged peak is very good, but the random shaman village behind shadow keep and the ruah ruins are not as good and gravesite plain to cerulean coast
I think SOTE and The Ringed City both suck lol.
I wonder how people would react if ash lake came out today. “Uhh I just ran through all this empty space and I didn’t even get to fight a boss, there was just some stupid dragon, what’s even the point of this”
@bigbird3759 wheres the boss, wheres the reward? Wish they deleted it to tighten up ds1
there's just a copy-pasted hydra (i ALREADY killed one in Darkroot Basin, what the heck) and these boring clamshell enemies. cant believe i did that root-platforming gauntlet full of basilisks and get NO payoff for it. fromsoft fell off hard
Ash lake was awesome, atmospheric and had things to find. The finger ruins have literally NOTHING except the one talisman you get from each.
@@raghav1026 Rewards sucked in both, but it wasnt about that in either area. Finger ruins could have benefitted from an ost similar to ash lake to set the mood. They definitely had the art direction going for them
Imo the problem is that the dlc is just way bigger, bigger than ds1 so whule in ds1 1 empty themtic location is fine in the dlc we get like 3 and each of them is the size of anor londo and it's just sad
this whole channel is just 🗣🔥🔥🔥
So true, always let Loopine cook
Wtf it's a good channel its not a dumpster fire how dare you!! It only sucks a bit...
I can always trust you to drop a great review on souls games, props man.
A 28-minute video is somehow more informative, reasonable, and overall better on every aspect than all the 3-hour torture they call criticism out there
40 dollars dlc by the way
The same type of people probably like spiderman miles morales and think it was worth the price. Lol.
You only say that because he liked the DLC, no other reason.
@@Al-ji4gd Yeah he liked the dlc because it's good. Simple as that. Lol.
@@justaguy1071 And I don't think it's good, so I don't like it that much, now what?
@@Al-ji4gd Now nothing lol. I still think it's good.
Honestly, my favorite DLC. Reminded me to one of my favorites open world experiences (Terraria Calamity is cool af, anyone should try that) and even when it ups and downs, it felt incredible.
This is the kind of DLC that shouldn't be called the same as other companies make that rather are about Removing content from the base game and reselling it, or putting worthless stuff at gold price.
This is like an expansion, a kind of sequel I would say. Makes Elden Ring one of the most complete games I had ever seen content wise, and im glad they improved upon so many things over the base game.
I personally don't want a pure Souls open world again but because that was a package so big and awesome, that an ER sucessor would be just more of the same.
The best game of all time? Pff, depends of subjetivity, there is no real response to that! But definetly was one of my favorites experiences I ever had on gaming.
I agree with everything you said, I think Elden Ring is my favorite game of all time & its DLC further cemented that for me.
well to be fair, i would say the dlc, if anything, kinda makes the game feel less complete than before, both in terms of lore and some forms of gameplay (lacks of new weapons for each new category, new enemies variety needed for the dlc, some openworld side dungeons which i really love, etc) regardless of how incredible the journey is. Not that i mind it too much though.
@@amilex5805 Nah, is fine. I prefered the experimentation of trying of new things instead of sticking to add 5 of each kind only.
I have to count the enemies, but I was satisfied, and I love the quality over quantity minor Dungeons won, made something I wanted from the base Game, and thats ve more memorable.
But I see where are you coming from, I kinda agree that Some Lore additions where weird, and SotE feels like more as a sequel sometimes.
When I had PC Radahn one hit away he jumped up and disappeared along with the music. I stood there for a second and immediately got the biggest grin on my face and let out a "HE'S DOING THE THING".
Incredible to see the orbital attack again.
There are two types of empty areas in my eye:
1. Areas that serve for lore/buildup purposes (Shaman Village, Abyssal Woods and Jagged Peak)
I think these are fine as they do an excellent job at doing their purpose. And the Shaman Village is just the most beautiful area in Soulsborne
2. Areas that are actually empty and have no purpose. Like wtf is Charo's Hidden Grave?
I really like what they did with the former, the buildup to Bayle and Midra is amazing. I just wish that there were more frenzied enemies in the Abyssal Wood, other than that I got no complaints. The latter however is very disappointing.
Fully agreed on Messmer. He's incredible and definitely a top 5 Soulsborne boss. It's just unfortunate that he doesn't have two healthbar and can die very quickly if you've explored the rest of the map and collected the fragments before fighting him. And yeah, Radahn is also kind of a boring fight especially after fighting him a few times. On my third playthrough of the DLC, Radahn wasn't clicking for me as much as he was during my first playthrough cause I didn't realise how you just dodge left for everything and you're good. There's very little complexity in him
I would agree with your first point on Shaman Village and Jagged Peak. Shaman Village shows us Marika's past and Jagged Peak is just a red carpet to Bayle. I would not agree with Abyssal Woods though because one, unlike Jagged Peak, it's not linear at all and two, it's too big to be just build-up for Midra. Had it been significantly smaller, then I would agree.
Agreed on your second point. Finger Ruins also come under that category for me.
@@static4802 abyssal woods are clearly supposed to be a maze though
@@Stanzbey69 Not really... if you just go straight from the first Wintern Lantern and reach the site of grace, all you do is just head straight again but go south and you'll find Midra's Manse
@@mingQWERTY that’s after figuring it out.
@@Stanzbey69 I think there would have to be more clearly delineated paths for it to be a maze rather than just wide open spaces fr the most part. There aren't really that many divergences in where you can go.
16:12 Ceaseless Discharge+ Centipede Demon+ Demon Firesage+ 10 capra demons+ 10 taurus demons+ BED OF CHAOS 🔥 Literally fire bosses and a fire area
That entire gauntlet was absolute garbage. You can tell FS had exhausted everything on the first half of the game. They didnt even bother to make Firesage resistant to fire, he’s weak to fire while on fire
I feel they were definitely aware that Messmer's phase 2 is easier than phase 1, he's the only remembrance boss in the entire DLC who phase transitions at 50% instead of 60-65%.
On the topic of exploration, I think people do a disservice when they say there’s very little meaningful loot or the like.
In a very simplistic sense, the DLC is basically like 10 big roads, with each big road having multiple little roads coming out of it (that sometimes loop and whatnot).
When you explore those little roads, it’s probably quite common that you’ll feel like the reward was underwhelming, sure. But when you consider it in the context of where you came from, and where you’re headed, it becomes very obvious that every main path always leads to at least 1 major reward, but typically you’ll get multiple as you go from beginning to end.
Now, compare that to the base game, which had so many big roads and so many little roads, that you can go for hours cleaning 2-3 large paths and STILL not find anything you’ll replace your gear with. Compared to that, the DLCs concentration but also item placement is a massive improvement, because no matter how many useless items you might get on the way, you know the end of the big road ALWAYS has a payoff.
I hope that makes sense to anyone who reads. I won’t claim it’s perfect, but it’s definitely proof that Fromsoft are improving in that regard. (Imo)
@@fahimtajwaar2521 Fromsoft went to quality over quantity, which is a real step Up to making me remember more than 3 side Dungeons for good reason.
The road is the reward. The environment, the enemies, the art style, the new weapons, etc. People need to stop being so power-up-focused and start looking at what's right in front of them on the screen. Just LOOK!
No fam, the exploration in the dlc is ass. I want to be able to go off the beaten path and be rewarded for my curiosity, especially when you consider the risk to reward ratio for exploring. I don’t want to run around or against a gorgeous backdrop and have it be a giant nothing burger. This, unfortunately is one of the few areas where the dlc falls short.
That clip with the falx killed me lmao, love you man
Six hits?!?!?!
I die in two by almost every single enemy!!!💀
Couldn't agree more with your review on golden hippo, spot on man
Hehe = critique
If there's one person I've wanted to hear talk about SOTE, it's you. Thanks for the video!
Dope video. This DLC was absolutely fantastic. I really can't wait to see what FromSoft does next.
Messmer is so handsome ❤
Malenia, Messmer, Radagon, Rellana. So many of these bosses promote one-handed gameplay
So real. Gender envy.
Rellana, is that you?
Really great video & fair criticisms too. I’ve always put base game Elden Ring OST on the same level as Bloodborne, but after SOTE, now it has the best OST in all of FromSoft games, bar none!
Finally a really great video! For me Shadow of the Erdtree is From Software's best DLC ever.
I’m amazed by it, the new weapons, magics & especially the Backhand Blades are really satisfying to play with, the legacy dungeons are absolutely massive, there’s one dungeon that leads you to 5 or 6 different places, it’s phenomenal, The bosses also are as cool as ever, Messmer is in my top 10 best Soulsborne bosses ever, the open-world is extremely dense in every conceivable way, I have some small criticisms about the DLC, some places could’ve been a bit less empty, but then again, I’m a NG+7 character & I got everything in my build, I only needed to collect the new weapons/sorceries/incantations & Scadutree blessings to keep moving through the DLC, those who have low stock of Smithing Stones will be quite happy with the DLC, they’re literally everywhere & that’s a good thing to encourage experimentation & more build diversity, they really COOKED with the DLC music, I can’t believe how good they are! Also Romina & Rellana needed a cutscene & voice-lines for each of them, it pains me to see them not having one.
About Consort Radahn: I do think he is one of the greatest bosses From has ever made, you HAVE to learn it inside out to feel great, it’s only hard until you know what to do, phase 2 has many deliberate design choices, it is intently made to throw you off, to confuse the player, puts you in a very pressured psychological warfare, it is very demanding, epitomizes Miquella's ineffable influence on anyone who stands against him. Mechanically, phase 2 is phase 1 but with AOEs that force the player to not back away at all, because if you did, you’ll get greatly punished, stay close to him all the time & it has the big explosive attacks, it’s a masterpiece of a fight with probably the best OST & arena/spectacle. I’ve never experienced excitement by any other boss like this one, maybe Malenia & Ludwig come into mind, yeah it's up there! I almost tear up whenever I hear phase 2 music. and I do agree with many of the mechanical quirks it presented, I just wish they fix some of those hit boxes & adjust that 1-2-X slash attack. What’s unfortunate for me is he doesn’t allow much strafing, using jump-attacks to duck follow-ups, nothing…just a plain old roll-roll-swing fight, which is great, but it felt like a missed opportunity. But people will get used to him with time I'm sure.
Overall, it’s From Software’s best DLC yet! 9.5/10 from me.
I refuse to rever to this as a DLC. This is a full video game for 40 dollars. Miyazaka and his crew went nuts with this DLC masterpiece.
Despite all the flaws with radahn i still think he is one of my favorite bosses he is just so fun to fight
So true, I agree!
Thanks for sharing your thoughts on the ER DLC.
...I am saying that because your thoughts are concise, very well-reasoned, and highly considerate towards each of the DLC's many individual aspects.
That's far different from the numerous dime-a-dozen "here's twenty minutes of me yapping about one or two of the DLC's components" videos available.
So, yeah - thanks. Great stuff.
Your review is a breath of fresh air. You state facts in your review which is something that’s missing from reviews/critique. You can tell he’s an ACTUAL gamer who understands difficulty and acknowledges other issues some ppl are having in regards to the bosses. Also I agree that they practically gave us a whole ass game disguised as “DLC” for 40 bucks 😉
My man literally forgot that scadutree avatar existed.
The best take, im just happy to see someone as stoked as i am about the awesome boss fights, super cool areas, and new gear!
Too late, I've already watched the Feeble King review and I'm obliged to complain about all the bosses being too hard
_'Golden hippo was kinda funny'_
I feel like there's a story there...
Why does King Bulblins theme make commander Gaius seem so much cooler oml
Same character btw
Finally a new Loopine video to finger myself to during lunch👏
erm what the sigma
Ear orgasm
Based and lunchpilled
@@Polevolter Eargasm
when you were like, wait i forgot something at 12:00 i thougtht for sure you were gonna come back with the, "CURSE YOU BAYLE"
I don’t understand the “its too anime” statement but i hear it everywhere. Why cant weapon arts or spells be flashy/colorful? Why is the tarnished not allowed to pull of these crazy maneuvers in combat? I think it would be really lame if every move or spell or weapon was the same. Grounded, not something untraditional to see with a sword or magic. Why does everything have to be dark and depressing and bland qwq
A follow up to the Elden Ring ost video would be such a banger. Your album recommendations in it were so good and ER’s ost is one of all time favorites, up there with both Nier games!
10/10 video and 9/10 dlc. Elden ring being my favorite game, I hope that fromsoftware will stop there for this game. A new BB, Sekiro or DS style license would be welcome! And yes the music in this dlc is so good. CURSE YOU BAYLE
Bloodborne and DS are outdated. Something akin to Sekiro would be good, looking at what games are viral nowadays (Stellar Blade, Lies of P, Wukong, Mortal Shell, etc). Elden Ring was by far the best thing Fromsoft has produced with Souls genre, and I don't think it gets better than this. They need to move on, take risks and create something completely new, like they did with Bloodborne and Sekiro
@@Vengeance_I_m How are they outdated? No other game, even within this series, has matched the world design of something like DS, or even the satisfying gameplay of Bloodborne. Sekiro is one of the most tedious experiences I've had playing a FromSoft game, so much so that I dropped it halfway through simply because of the combat system. In order for them to match the likes of Nioh or whatever, they first ought to figure out how to make a game that actually has good combat.
@@Vengeance_I_m
So I don't really agree that souls and BB are outdated. However yes I agree that they should take more risks like they did in their last games. And given their throws I don't see why they will stop. Normally ds2 and 3 should not even exist. Miyazaki doesn't like making sequels and I think that's good
I think my one point of disagreement would be Romina getting her own mini zone; they did that with the Scarlet Rot pools and Kindred of Rot just prior to her boss room.
Anyway, completely agree on the PCR stuff and would enjoy an updated soundtrack video.
Yea i was thinking of that area just more in the depths of rauh. Gotta love a rot swamp. I thinks theres a blight lion there somwhere already though that i never found.
@@loopineyeah it’s in the same area and requires you to do some fuckass parkour
I really agree with the sense that the game doesn't need to justify its space by littering itself with KONTENT every two steps. That said, as far as empty area goes, I do feel like the abyssal woods just needed one more thing to elevate it, like one more enemy, even recycling the frenzied troll if need be or maybe more environmental challenges to complement it, there's already fruits that make noises to mess with your stealth which is great but what about exploding fruits ? How about puddle of frenzy-inducing water ? Anything to make the place even more fucked.
always found it funny how the community will unanimously praise things like prosthetic tools and mostly combat arts in Sekiro to cancel certain attacks or provide new ways to dodge, but will overlook ash of wars that do the exact same thing. Ashes of wars like blinkbolt add so much more depth to the combat and like you said, entire attacks into punish windows, just like how Sakura dance works on lightning reversals. Attacks like the signature move from Isshin Ashina is almost just as bad as Radahn's triple swipe, and it's normalised just to cancel his animation with multiple arts.
double thumbs up for dlc soundtrack video
Honestly the best part of radahn was his boss music, I don’t normally pay attention to the music but I just couldn’t ignore his
A video on the DLC OSTs will be very welcome.
Also please bombard us with album suggestions again.
I definitely agree with almost all of your points! though I find Gaius to be one of the hardest bosses. He has many though hard to find and use openings on foot and while he’s fun as hell to fight on horse he will casually stunlock you to death if you get hit once.
Also the way horse combat works you will often get far away from him even when playing aggressively so he does that one attack that on horse I couldn’t consistently dodge. It’s a true combo and a oneshot unless you’re full so I just dismounted and took the hit since I couldn’t figure out the timing from the tells
I think Gaius is easier on foot since you have more control over your character, considering right positioning makes him a joke. The charge attack is the annoying bit, but some people say you can summon Torrent to avoid that.
Gaius is such an amazing boss fight. I hope they fix his charge attack hitbox, make it more intuitive to dodge and fix this thing where his charge can hit you twice when you're on the ground, resulting in getting one shot. But boy is this boss fun to learn. Not quite Tree Sentinel S tier level, but very close enough, especially if they fix some of that janky stuff
Please Loopine, with how good the DLC music is I think that the follow up video about music would be soooo good 🥺
Apart from some little things about bosses, my one nitpick is the 2 hours I spent exploring the finger ruins thinking there is no way they designed this whole area and left it completely empty.
Thank you finally another soul who didnt find Gauis a BS boss... He is actutally a really fun boss
Most underrated souls creator imo. Your videos are so high quality and like a breath of fresh air in the sea of cope that follows every Fromsoft release.
I think your soundscapes video is my favorite of yours, so a follow up would be awesome
Shadow is the best game content I’ve ever played!
My only true issue that u can’t use miquellas fractured rune to remove the enchantment on Leda, Dane, hornsent, Moore and Freyja. Then have them be room summons against an extra Giga Chad Radahn.
This makes no sense tho. They AREN'T enchanted by the time you fight them, every enchantment broke alongside the rune.
Leda and Dane were always loyal to Miquella, Freyja wanted Radahn back, Moore was desperate for love and Hornsent is just dumb
@@joaoluizkfsantos8392 since miquella can still charm people such as the player and Radahn, there is nothing that proves he doesn’t still have his followers enchanted.
@@DemonKingHiei I mean, all the dialogue from the followers and the options given to the player point to them not being charmed anymore.
You can believe whatever you want, but there's no evidence to support what you suggested (remember that Miquella only charms us after he comes back midway through the fight, and if he could've kept the charm going, why are some NPCs seemingly immune?)
@@joaoluizkfsantos8392 ur assumption is they are immune, there is no evidence that supports anything you just said
@@DemonKingHiei not immune, no.
They aren't charmed however, and we know that because of multiple dialogues after the rune breaks. Like how Leda now wants to hunt the Hornsent and Ansbach due to them not being charmed, or Thiollier remembering and going after Trina.
If Miquella could just instantly reapply the charm after the rune break, we wouldn't even be receiving help from those 2, all NPCs would simply be charmed again.
Do you have any evidence that contradicts this?
Ironically, I respecced into a tank build with great shield for Radahn, blocked through everything and killed him by accident via poking
i gotta disagree on the incantations, DLC added quite a few good ones. Heal From Afar is obviously busted, Multilayered Rings of Light is basically an upgrade to Discus that doesn't require INT, Wrath from Afar is fun for bullying humanoid enemies and triggering ambushes like Imps, Knight's Lightning Spear and Pest-Thread Spears are upgrades to their basegame versions as well. The Golden Arc incants and Messmer flame incants are also decent. The only ones I'd say are outright bad are Divine Bird Feathers and the new Crucible ones, though it remains to be seen if future patches end up making them useable. also Electrocharge, but that's a meme on the same level as Fire's Deadly Sin
Eh I still think Discus can rack up more damage especially since you can chain cast it without the previous ring disappearing.
@@yunuss58 discus still wins for damage to FP ratio and general PvE utility, but it does basically 0 poise damage and the discs have a very narrow hit radius. MRoL is better for larger enemies and for AoE, and for stancebreaking
I will personally pay you 40 bucks to make a follow up to the soumdtrack video
Free case of beer and Chinese food? Fuckin' good deal.
Yes more soundtrack lectures please
My reccomendation is to not worry about seeing everything or having the best build for ur first playthrough. Just fully engage and experiment as much as possible. Yea you’ll miss loads but none of the experience will be spoiled by guides etc. making mistakes is as much part of the experience as dying to a boss again and again. Perseverance is the point
Man commander gaius having the twilight princess music does Mae me like him more lol
18:37 lmfao pretty happy that's all you had to say
Love your soundtrack video, would 100% be down for a follow up video talking about other From Soft games and now including Shadow of the Erdtree in the conversation as well
1:59 I see a lot of hypocritical takes like this in regards to the DLC world layout too. people complained the base game map was flat and empty and added nothing to the game world, that they should have designed it with more complexity like the legacy dungeons. and then the DLC did exactly that with the Land of Shadow, and now the new complaint is "the map is too confusing to navigate, why do i have to go through a random cave to get to this area i can see from this plateau over here?". it's probably different people complaining, but it still is funny how those complaints tend to dominate the discourse, while being complete inversions of each other
People don't understand that no game is for everyone and people have different opinions and preferences about what they like and don't like. You can never satisfy everyone but people don't understand that, which results in unfair hate and weird responses about games.
Idk why but a lot of the complaints I see from the DLC can easily be applied to the base game too. Like "too much empty space." What about Liurnia? Sure, has a good amount of content, but it's still 80% nothingness. Mountaintops and Consecrated Snowfield? I doubt anyone can name a single important thing in the Snowfield other than Ordina Town and the Mohgwyn Palace portal, and it's MASSIVE, bigger than Limgrave and Caelid. But of course, "Abyssal Woods was empty" (which was a unique thing they tried to scare you with, and disabling Torrent because Midra's fire can permanently kill him) and also more comments on how half the area in the map is filled with nothing.
If you did a quick run of Elden Ring from Margit to Radabeast, it would take you a couple hours. If you did the same for Sekiro, it would take you half the time, even though Elden Ring is at least 10X bigger in terms of land area and quantity. It's always just been mostly empty space.
The base game map is filled to the brim with stuff when compared to the majority of the DLC map, with the exception of the Mountaintop of the Giants. The problem with SOTE is that is has a bunch of medium-to-small sized ''main'' areas that are largely empty, so it neither succeeds in giving you the satisfaction of exploration you find in larger more expansive zones, nor in giving the player a tight, well-designed little sub-region to navigate. Jagged Peak, Abyssal Woods and the Finger Ruins, what do they contain? Virtually nothing, so they feel like a massive waste of space. Even something as pretty as the Cerulean Coast is completely lacking because it's sparse. I almost missed Charo's Hidden Grave on my first playthrough, and now that I've explored it, do I think I would feel as if I missed out on something if I had never found it? No way, because again, it's completely lacking in any sort of interesting content.
I'd love another soundtrack video!
I loved your Soundscapes video and would be super interested in a follow-up about the SotE soundtrack
Flame Skewer doesn't launch smaller enemies into the air unlike Giant Hunt
Yea and giant hunt is pure physical. It being a true combo plus a fire buff like flaming strike is what made it seem better to me.
Someone with actual context reviews Elden Ring DLC? What? Lol. gg
you've probably heard this already
but the lifesteal crystal tear is ass
lasts under a minute and regens under 1% max hp per hit
the great stars' lifesteal is more potent
That twilight princess music tho...
I truly do not understand, in the slightest, the idea that Messmer gets easier in Phase 2
The snake attacks begin to take the center focus, thus making the fight easier than phase 1 where you had to go full-on on Messmer, they are pretty tricky at 1st but get pretty easy once you nail them down. Still it is a masterpiece of a fight don’t get me wrong, I’m actually glad they made it that way.
Smaller attack pool, almost no combo flowcharts/very linear combos (some being just 1 or 3 highly telegraphed snake attacks) and somehow even longer end lag combos with bigger hurtboxes to the point where you can double hit him while un-transforming and easier combo finishers like the corkscrew just being slapped on the end of everything while his previous explosion finishers have way worse tracking now.
Please don’t talk bad about greatshield users. You have to dedicate points to endurance and understand stamina management to use them with guard counters. That came off as snobby. You are easily in the top 1% of players in this game, so talking about doing RL 1 runs like it’s no big deal comes off as out of touch.
But it’s objectively easier than just rolling like the majority of the player base does…
@@sandiavida6118 I think Elden Ring with a Greatshield was way harder than Bloodborne, where you can't use a shield. The difficulty of properly using a shield and dodge rolling are the same. I think players have convinced themselves that one method is more difficult, and therefore more elite, than the other. But both methods come with their own parameters.
The quality of your videos have been amazing. Massive props to you.
Wanted to ask specifically what you thought of Romina's OST? It was easily my favourite in the DLC and I was hoping you'd mention it while talking about her. (Please do that follow-up OST vid the first was amazing)
My biggest complaint for the DLC would be the lack of cutscenes. Romina, Rellana and Gaius badly need them imo.
What do you think of the Scadutree Avatar? Surprised you didnt talk about the boss. Its got an awesome design and the fight is a perfect example of how to do a fun "large scale" boss with a good camera when you focus on the head. The 3 phase surprise was cool as well.
I knew i was forgetting a boss lol. Rominas track is top tier
Abyssal Woods was the most disappointing area. That was no boss outside that haunted mansion. It was just woods
Feebleking is in shambles
You actually can jump at least one of radahn’s attacks, both phase 1 and 2 versions of his double sword delayed circle swipe (the one where if you get hit he brings you up in the air and slams you back down). He swipes really low to the ground for that one. I was able to jump it. Honestly I have to give you credit for having that kind of experimental mindset, I wouldn’t have thought about trying it before I watched your vid on how to beat bosses. Idk about any of his other moves though lol
very cool video!
God I feel so fucking seen by what you said about Gaius.
He took me 3 attempts to fully learn and take down my first time, my first playthrough of the DLC was a Deflecting Hardtear setup with Milady, and I found him very easy, my deaths were mostly due to just fucking up timings as you'd expect.
But then I get online to look at the discourse after I'd finished the game and I saw so, so, so much Gaius hate. LOADS of people calling him insanely overtuned, throngs of people claiming they just cheesed him because he was too hard, and I thought I was in a different universe entirely. It felt really strange, so I'm glad somebody else had roughly the same sort of view of him as I had.
gaius is just a repeat of Fire Giant, in the sense that people hating him largely comes from them forgetting that they can use Torrent in bossfights
@@metalsludge8205 I'd agree if Gaius also had a gigantic amount of health and covered the screen in projectiles.
I've never had much of an issue with Fire Giant myself, but I can see the comparison to a degree.
@@metalsludge8205 or the exact opposite, seeing you can summon torrent and feeling like they have to be on him the entire time for some reason
Great analysis. My only gripe with the DLC is having to collect fragments every time.
Whilst i agree with alot of the things said, i dont agree about radahn. He is not a good boss, difficulty was definitely the main thing fromsoft thought about when making him, but his hitboxes extend past his sword, the camera forced uowards when youre close can make some attacks almost impossible to see at a angle, and the areana full of ditches and hills. These are just a few examples of radahns sucky design and falls really flat, and incase anyone comes for me, feeling good about beating a boss does not always mean its a good fight.
An underrated "mechanic" of Radahn's that I think gets dismissed too easily is how you can't see his entire attacks in Phase 2. I actually enjoy it as it adds some depth to his moveset in a unique way, and serves to further enhance the overwhelming atmosphere that they were clearly going for as the final boss. You will see his moves so many times that visuals become less important as timing, Radahn almost reminds me of Sword Saint in a way.
Also there are a few attacks you can strafe if you are on his left (your right) side, its a shame that hugging left has become meta so people dismiss it entirely. Same as what happened with Waterfowl and circle strafe too. I also thinking having too many strafeables/jumpables may harm the overwhelming atmosphere of the fight so I don't mind its not a focus, there is still more positional gameplay than 95% of Souls bosses.
It's not underrated, it's just most players don't find obscured vision to be a particularly engaging form of creating difficulty.
damn people will defend anything 😭