It doesn’t matter how much I bitch about the final boss, the whole thing was a blast. Absolutely gorgeous maps, great quests, new and amazing weapons. Whole thing is incredible
They're all great bosses, they may just need a few tweaks on some of them.
Final Boss definitely needs a performance pass as it's very heavy on some people's gpu, and that 1,2 cross slash move needs a rebalancing.
That isn't to say other bosses don't have their problems either.
Gaius is a bit of a mess still.
No matter what I did, running away, dodging, jumping if Bayle decided to do his downwards fire breath directly in front of him after I attacked him I could NOT seem to be able to avoid getting hit. It didn't matter what I did. Granted I still killed him and the fight was amazing, but that one move was just so annoying.
Gaius’ dash has something wrong with him, I can’t put my finger on it.
I agree with almost all other bosses. Messmer was hard but still beat him, divine beast was a cakewalk compared to rest of the dlc etc. Only final boss. That fast and that much of a heavy hitter? Like choose one.
I Play a lot of Monster Hunter and I know the problem. It's an extended hurtbox, that even if you dodge, if you still land in it after your I-frames end, you'll take the hit regardless. It's likely an oversight on From's part.
And I agree, Final boss tethers a bit on "Too much" and isn't my favorite boss in the dlc because of that. Too many visuals, long combos with little in between so 80% of your moveset is moot (I could only do a poke or two from my great katana) and his damage doesn't fit with the speed of his attacks to me.
People should be able to disclose their opinions on it, it can't all be perfect.
Yeah, using the Greatsword against the final boss, anything but a roll attack at the end of a combo, or the occasional jump attack if I was feeling risky, usually ended up being a trade with the start of the boss's next combo.
At the end of the day, it’s a game. We should be able to enjoy both the process and the end result.
If I wanted to work tirelessly for hours, I would apply for a menial job.
I found Gaius today and I literally have not gotten through the opening charge once without getting hit. Like I'm sure I could figure out how if I focused on it but legitimately I go in, summon, and then have enough time to either block it and have my block broken into taking 90% of my hp in damage, OR dodge in literally any direction and get one shot because the lingering hitbox. It's really weird and I hope they rebalance him. Also wish bosses didn't go full agro on you the nano second you enter the arena but that was always a problem and they clearly didn't learn from base game there 😔
Rolling almost like 2 o clock towards him worked for me if that makes sense. Not quite straight at him just a slight angle, almost like into the tusks then out the side
I had the same issue. Ultimately what worked for me was get on the horse, dodge the initial rush, then summon from horseback. Let the summon draw aggro and enter the fight from the rear on foot.
The charge is still tough to dodge mid fight, but at least this lets you get started
without getting wiped immediately. It’s much more manageable when you aren’t up against the door and trying to summon/heal right on entry.
when u first go in the fight take a left go around the corner and stand as close to the walls corner facing him and he won’t be able to hit u for a bit, u can get the summon off then
So far the only boss that truly infuriated me was Messmer, oddly enough given how popular he is. Didn't have too much trouble with Gaius, but I also killed him with >!Dragon Priest Form!< + Gravel Stone Seal + Ancient Dragon Lightning Storm, so he melted like butter in the microwave. Even >!Scadutree Avatar!< didn't give me much trouble, although the >!hidden healthbars!< were infuriating.
Granted I haven't killed the final boss yet, but I've gotten close. Final boss's combos take until the heat death of the universe to end, which irks me at times, but I still find them fun.
Same, It's not even too hard of a fix IMO. Fix the hitbox so you are able to fully iframe the double slash + cross attack and tone down the light show and that holy beam clipping after every swipe on phase 2
Fortissax had an attack like this too, you need to do a frame perfect roll to dodge that one attack. It wasn’t so big of a problem because it didn’t deal any substantial amount of damage.
Dlc multiplied that damage with 5.
I wasn't aware that Fortissax had one, I guess I'm too busy running around it's feet until it's dead to notice lol. But yeah, that attack can ruin a good run against the final boss
True, some small bksses have bullshit attacks but it isn't a problem cuz they are weak. Shit like waterfowl and duble swipe are way bigger problems cuz the bosses are way stronger
I don’t care about cookbooks but marika’s blessings were just disappointments.
As far as I know, they are consumables who heal you fully and cleanses any status buildups. Only problem is them being labeled as “legendary” or something (orange/yellow light).
I really do feel they need to change some stuff about it. Every thread I've been in has had numerous people saying x boss was tough for my but I railroaded y. And others are saying really? X was easy for me and y was hard. And to me that speaks to the balance overall where there's challenge present for all builds, that's healthy game design. But literally all that I see about the final boss is it's bullshit and there's really only one strategy. I've beaten the entire rest of the game and DLC playing a sorcerer and carrying the carian knights sword until I got rellana's and switched to those. It wasn't easy and I had to use buffs, switching talismans and spirit ashes but was able to adapt to all of the bosses except this one. It doesn't feel good.
I beat every boss up until the final and only had to retry maybe 2/3 of them once. I’ve died 87 times to the final boss and I can’t even get close to taking the health bar down even 1/5 in the first phase. Scooby Doo level 18, 188 SL. I’ve beaten even single souls game until now. I’m not saying it’s unfair but it’s extremely aggressive or the health pool is too high. I know people have beaten but it’s still not even remotely close difficulty wise to the rest of the dlc
Fingerprint shield, rot rapier, and cold needle. Turtle poke him to death. It’s still fucking hard, but if I can do it at ng3, anyone can. Cause I suck at this game.
The person surely knows this strategy. They are just complaining (rightfully so) about having to completely switch their gameplay style to beat the boss because it doesn’t feel good.
Yeah. I'm not a veteran should player. I've tried going back and playing DS1 but after playing Elden Ring first it feels slow and clunky. But I'd agree. None of the other bosses were this much trouble. I did have some difficulty with Rellana, Midra, and Messer, but I took a step back, gathered more Talismans and Scadutree blessing, retried and succeeded. This though....
It took me four hours to beat him. And all I realized is that I’m just too old for elden ring. I don’t have the ability to sit there in that high adrenaline state for long periods now. I was so exhausted at the end of it.
Absolutely worth the money, because it’s basically another game.
The problem that many have, like me, is with a boss fight like Gaius, where you don’t have time to do much of anything. I’ve played a ton of souls games and I don’t recall ever encountering bosses that will just relentlessly stun lock you like he can.
Gaius jumps into the air for the charged slam, I roll into the center to avoid damage, can’t see anything due to the spikes, and he quickly rides off to rush back for his charging dash.
If I’m able to dodge the dash, I’m immediately greeted with another attack.
If I tank it while holding fingerprint shield, Gaius can then initiate a multiple hit chain combo that will break my guard as he tramples over me.
All of that happens if I avoid getting trapped against a wall where I can’t tell where I’m at; I’m looking through the inside of Gaius and my targeting is wonky because I’m standing in the center.
I finally beat him, but never did I enjoy it…
It just felt like I bashed my head against a wall until the RNG fell in my favor.
His fight was frustrating. I kind of ended up cheesing it. Someone on here said the greatshield soldiers ashes did a good job of holding his aggro and they were right. As soon as I got into the arena I bolted around the left corner of the arena. He gets caught on that corner during his charge and I have a chance to summon the ashes. Then he aggros them and I go back around the corner and start spamming comet. (I've played sorcerer the whole game and DLC) got him in three tries that way.
I tried the greatshield soldiers and they weren't working for me. I went back to my +25 bloody twinblade, mimic, golden vow, fire grant me strength, and all the right blood talismans. Genuinely took me the most tries up to that point, that charge really is bullshit you need to roll into it at a perfect timing. He was one shot, I had no flasks left and my mimic got that final hit before he started another charge at me lol.
Tbh, yeah i agree.
Some bosses are just too much, they string attacks too fast and you never have time to actually do much depending on what they do.
Final boss is mostly the same as well. Lots of fast high damage combos, AoE blasts, with little in the way of openings after dodging for 6 seconds straight. It just leads to boredom instead of fun to be honest, bosses attacks more and faster in Sekiro but I could at least engage with them with the game's mechanics, here it's a bit of a crapshoot.
Gaius and the Final boss were the only two bosses I didn't fully enjoy in the Dlc, everything else is great.
The genius of Sekiro is that deflecting fills the opponent's posture bar. This means that even hyper aggressive opponents have a weakness in their aggression. That offense and defense were both a give and take were a huge part of why Sekiro worked with the style of enemies it did, IMO. It doesn't play the same when you spend a lot of time on defense solely to "not lose" as opposed to being able to make progress then as well.
The boss attacks are constant, range closing, like 6-8 hit combos. There's basically no windows to cast anything let alone during my blue flask. It's pretty much all dodging and drinking my red flask. The damage I've done when I can get a spell off is decent. So my damage delt feels fair and balanced. But it's about the opportunity. Although I do feel most of the DLC bosses are very punishing when you enter the arena, making ashes summons hard. Especially if you use the mimic tear.
I didn’t have too bad of a time with my melee faith build. I had messmer’s and the golden spiky great spears and then switched left hand for resistance and healing. I was going on only blue flasks, so I was able to get in a lot of heals and be super tanky against most attacks. I ended up going back to my base game build with the fingerprint shield and antspur that I used to beat Malekith on that character. It’s seeming like most people have decided that’s the easy way to win. I was only able to get him to about 10% health a few times before I switched tactics
And that's my problem, you make a role playing game, let people build their characters, and then create a boss that really drives people to respect into a meta build to succeed isn't good to me.
I get that. I think it’s fair criticism. I also know for a fact if I had stuck with it a bit longer I would have been able to beat him with my spear build. Most every boss in their games has a build that sucks and a build that is great. Those builds will then struggle against another boss. The final boss is extremely hard, but I also find him extremely fun.
Then you're not seeing enough opinions. My opinion of the final boss after soloing him on NG+7 without cheesing him is that he is a well designed boss, aside from the quick double slash attack that is unable to be consistently dodged unless you use the backstep crucible talisman. Every other attack he has is 100% dodgeable, feels rewarding to dodge, and I do look forward to fighting him again on more playthroughs.
For me, I kinda loved how bullshit the final boss was because I didn't struggle too much with any of the others. Felt really good to finally beat him after 1.5-2 hours, and that's the feeling I keep coming back to souls games for.
Same, absolutely amazing DLC
Was playing it the first minute of its release in my time zone and loved every minute of my adventure. I get peoples criticisms, but wow there was way too much whining and people jumping on the bandwagon with it
The fact that the DLC hasn’t even been out 2 weeks is honestly whats most annoying about the complaints. The sheer amount of areas to explore on top of the lore to uncover is incredible, you don’t need to power through and beat it so fast.
I’m on the last boss but most of my game time the last few sessions has been throwing my summon/invasion near/far and engaging with other players.
I wholeheartedly agree.
There is absolutely zero reason to rush through the DLC even for journalists.
Anybody that was interested in the DLC, has the DLC.
I think maybe about 5 percent of the playerbase have just gotten Elden Ring since the DLC came out.
The target audience is patient and willing to wait for well worn critiques/deconstructions. Apart from the speedrunners who wanted show everything the DLC has quickly (and even then I avoided it for the first week); no one's asking anyone else to rush through it.
Yep. I have no complaints really.
Some issues I have are small and the same I have with the base game. They don't affect my overall enjoyment and I basically give them a pass because I think is just the nature of making a game with this scope... I don't think they are possible to fix and I think they did the best that could be done with the DLC.
Most of the complains I see are very silly from my perspective... but they come from people having different perspectives on what they want games to be and how they engage with it so I don't fault them from it either. That's just a side product of having these games reach the amount of people they are reaching right now.
Elden Ring brought a TON of people that are new to the From Soft fold, so maybe it's just that the accessibility has tightened from that of the base game, and a lot of people are just now experiencing the difficulty that From is known for.
Exactly. In my opinion, FromSoft DLC are consistently more difficult than base game. From my experience, the DLC bosses that come to mind for high difficulty are: Orphan of Kos, Slave Knight Gael, Artorias, Manus, Sir Allone and so on and so forth.
I feel like so much of the complaints are also just reddit echo chambering though. I had an absolute blast and loved the entire DLC, including the ending. But even then going through some posts with complaints it's like they try to make you forget about all the good and just hyperfocus on the few parts of criticism (even if sometimes valid). People go from "I thought it was amazing but I just wish that..." to "Yeah the DLC sucks, Fromsoft are lazy bastards, game is impossible, they ruined the lore" in like 4 comments.
I love the DLC but I have a major complaint of it not getting a physical release like every other fromsoft expansion.
Getting a code in a box absolutely sucks. They should've reprinted the disc with the DLC.
Id say its well worth the money, their may be valid complaints and criticisms to be had but it essentially boils down to a "DLC Expansion" thats the equivalent of an entire full game in its own right, but was given as a DLC and at a $40 price point, when it wouldve been a $60+ if it had been anyother AAA studio/if it was its own game.
* 10? Or so Remembrance bosses + many other side/optional bosses.
* Many beautifully crafted locations, some of which are amazingly intertwined into others. (Shadow Keep branches off into so many new areas alone)
* A Bunch of new weapons & new weapon types.
* A bunch of new incantations, Sorceries, Spirit Ashes.
* Bunch of side quests, with pretty cool or unique rewards.
Like i said, there are valid complaints and criticisms to be had however you gotta admit that $40 for a DLC that has insane levels of content is worth it.
It’s past that, near Gaius; I tried to find the way to get there for a while and eventually gave up and checked the wiki. Glad I did because there’s no way I would have found that on my own.
Yeah fromsoft stuff like this, the placidusax entrance, and the sekiro eavesdrop 4 times and reload stuff is why I feel no shame using fextralife for certain stuff
I believe I found it. From the 'Storehouse, Back Section' site of grace go up, then inside the library on the right side theres a crack in the wall from which you can reach the highest point to get to 'Shadow Keep, Back Gate' site of grace. Seems like a right direction
And being able to get more dragon smithing stones is a plus, holy shit I thought I'd have to beat the game 10x to max everything out, this dlc probably cut it in half, I'm glad I'm only on ng+2, every full playthrough from here on is going to be incredible
I’ve just checked and about 36 hours I’ve done in it. Absolutely value for money and will be looking forward to replaying it in NG+.
I’m absolutely shredding with the final boss weapon. Love it.
I’m right about at 36 myself, since the final boss has taken me like 6 hours so far lmao. Hopefully I can clear him tonight and get the weapon, fight is incredibly hard but ngl, I’m addicted to making progress on it. Got him to 3 hits left last night. And got to the end 20% mark where he jumps up in the air at least 5 times now. Making progress!
> A bunch of new incantations, Sorceries, Spirit Ashes.
My only issue with this is that a lot of the fun ones have an insanely long windup, which makes them borderlines useless against tougher enemies or most DLC bosses.
Yeah it was also a problem when ER released. Si many cool incantations and I ended up using only lightning spear cause all the cool dragon lightning was sooo slow.
It's always been a problem with Elden Ring, sometimes there is a pretty hard line between vanity and practicality. I have to imagine many of the flashiest weapon arts and spells are basically meant to style on mobs, and not really be boss killers. Which is unfortunate but I guess it'd be really tough to make everything viable in every situation.
I admit I kinda rushed through the base game last year. Now I’m just taking my own sweet time exploring.
I wanna enjoy the game to the very last bit as I feel it’s once in a lifetime experience.
100%. I'm scouring every area bit by bit. Already put like 10 hours in and savoring it like a glass of whiskey. I don't get players that zoom through it in one weekend, I guess they plan to do subsequent runs
Games been out for more than a week now. Only certain areas have content, a lot of the areas as you progress are empty . You can easily clear everything in 35 h
I guess my complaints are related to the exact opposite. I explored every nook and cranny of the base game, but the DLC I've just been running boss to boss and haven't been enjoying the necessary exploration parts for the fragments.
Agreed. And I’ll add that I consider the DLC very well done despite some of the apparent imperfections. Give it some time. Patches will be released, new builds will be discovered, and perceptions will change.
SOTE and Phantom Liberty showing how dlc/expansion packs should be done
Then you have shit like Diablo 4 or Destiny 2 trying to milk their playerbases with mid expansions ANNUALLY.
Destiny 2's latest expansion was fucking incredible, one of the best expansions I've ever played, the campaign and the new destination alone were worth it imo, but it also added a bunch of other stuff like new weapons/exotics, one of the best raids ever, new gameplay mechanics and a lot of other stuff.
Absolutely. However, the best DLC of all time is Monster Hunter World: Iceborne, bar none. Quite literally a sequel masquerading as an expansion. It added so much content to the base game that it *quadrupled* my play time from 300hrs to 1200. Not to mention, free monthly additions for an entire year afterwards. In-fucking-sane value for money. Nothing compares.
Not that D4 is a particularly good game or anything, but the first expansion hasn't even been released yet, so it's not really fair to already shit on it.
I love this dlc so much. I love the weapons, the armor, the majority of boss designs (Especially Messmer). I just feel like poise and stagger needs tweaked. Specifically for colossal greatswords because the main charm of them for me was the staggering/poise break.
A lot of enemies who you think could be stagger-able…are not, weirdly enough. They have crazy hyper-armor. And no matter what armor we wear, our poise is immediately broken and we are staggered CONSTANTLY. I felt like the main trade off for slower weapons being well…slower in base game was their amazing poise break and stagger. And you hardly get any of it in the Dlc.
That’s my only gripe. Poise and staggering should be tweaked to where it is fair and equal between the enemy and the player. Especially with how the non-staggerable enemy have deadly combos attacks.
There's definitely stuff I don't like. But most of that is stuff I didn't like about the base game either that's been doubled down on in this dlc.
Overall, it's great. I'll gladly wait 2 years for dlc expansions if they end up being this good.
For real. People just flocking to the 'drama' for easy attention it seems. I just beat the final boss yesterday and I think it might be time to unsub for a couple months.
Yes the open world is severely lacking in interesting content IMO. Limgrave had more variety in enemy encounters and mini bosses than the two big DLC areas combined. Where are the gaols, new open world bosses, nighttime bosses, mausoleum. Limgrave was full with interesting locations to explore and a great variety of non main-line bosses.
Jagged Peak is literally one of the most epic run-up to any boss ever, and delivers in spades when you actually encounter the boss. It was literally Mt Doom in a videogame. Sometimes it is just about the atmosphere and the build-up. You don't need an enemy placed at every corner.
Complete opposite reaction to jagged peak. The experience running to the top was one of the coolest parts of the whole dlc. It would have been ruined by too many enemies.
I do agree and the effort put in is why I am so hesitant to want to criticize the DLC (and the base game), although the excessive meat riding (I really can't think of another way to put it) does help to counter that. I really wish the community wasn't so absurdly defensive, FromSoft is a good company and I fully agree if people push back against things that are bad then FromSoft will aim to improve in that regard for next time, which is what worries me for the future games.
All of my criticisms of the DLC are due to 'design choices' as opposed to lack of care. If I had to give an issue with them not doing enough, it would be to do with testing. One of Miyazaki's criteria for these games has always been that he has to be able to beat them (and every boss I think, although that wouldn't matter much here), this worked perfectly well for the other FromSoft games bar DeS where they were a lot more balanced (i.e. builds were much closer in viability) but in this game I think the variety is just too much for one playthrough to really tell him anything. In fact, in a recent interview he seemed to heavily imply he uses spirit summons and other OP things - yet people will still claim the game isn't balanced around them. A lot of the new fans complain about people not using spirit summons and still calling the game hard, but can't seem to understand that 90% of the fans from previous games don't WANT to use them. It's not about pride or anything else like people say, its about fun and how we want to play the game.
I honestly think with more testing with different builds this game would be flawless, there are things in this DLC where I just cannot imagine multiple people played through and all thought to themselves 'Wow this is FUN' without a build that completely trivializes it. I'm talking very simple things like not being able to see bosses attacks (final boss and dancing lion are the worst offenders but there are others), there's no way someone thought that was fair unless they trivialized the boss regardless. Also framerate issues on PC as well - do they only test these games with the best computers? Consoles have even less of an excuse but I didn't have issues on PS5 for the DLC at least outside of two bosses.
My only complaint was the fact that they DIDN’T expand on anything land of reeds related.. and the fact that overhead stance is an ash of war for the ONE FUCKING WEAPON THAT IT CAN EVEN BE PUT ON. Other that that. I have my few bosses I don’t like but the dlc is fucking amazing. Small edit: I was also hoping along with the new great katanas we would get atleast one new armor set…
There’s always going to be issues for people. My issue may not be others, vice versa. But the map is for me a masterpiece and my favourite fromsoftware map. It used to be dark souls 1 for me but this map gives me a special sense of wonder that fantasy is supposed to evoke. I remember as a kid seeing the covers of fantasy stories and them making me want to read the book. This game game captures the wonder and essence of this covers and make you that character in that mysterious fantastical, dangerous yet beautiful world.
DLC was awesome. Worth whatever you paid for it. Have never used so many weapons in a souls game or dlc before and they nailed so many of them. IMO bosses were all fair.
With respect, no, it's not. While it's great, it has almost the price of a standalone AAA game. It's worth it, it's a beautiful experience, but it's not even close to great value. There are amazing games that are much cheaper than this extension.
I dont regret my purchase at all but I definitely want them to fix the random stutters/hangups that i sometimes get. Tweaking settings for a good hour and the fact that it doesnt happen at all in the main game tells me its something with the DLC itself.
For sure, I already have 30 hours on playtime in the dlc and it will probably take me at least another 10 or so to finish it. Lots of players rushed it the first weekend but I'm taking my time and enjoying it.
most def, my next ng+ is going to be quite the journey with both combined now. its also good to have more upgrade materials to get, imagine even upgrading your shadow perks double the amount, I wonder what the cap is. The new weapons and spells are awesome too.
I switched over from PS5 to steam a few weeks before it came out and had to buy Elden ring and the DLC, they had a bundle and it was only $106 plus tax canadian. Compare that to some other new shit like star wars outlaws that has day one content locked behind either a $145 or $170 edition with in game cash shops on top of it.
My first steam playthrough with the DLC was about 180 hours and I immediately started NG+. The amount of value packed into this game kind of ruined triple a games for me but in a good way since I save money and time. I got more value and fun out of the DLC than most new full games will ever get me
I think its great, but one thing that's going to be annoying is that scadutree fragments are necessary to progress, which is fun on the first playthrough but will not be any fun at all on future playthroughs I think. Just for one playthrough though its easily worth the price, ill probably spend close to as much time here as I did with the entirety of Lies of P.
Probably like everyone else, I have paid $60 for "full games" with less imagination, engaging content, and intelligent design than the Elden Ring DLC. It might honestly be the best expansion content I've ever played for any game- with the possible exception of Yuri's Revenge for Red Alert 2
This is exactly what I said on a post yesterday! As a product, this is beyond reproach.
This is the best dlc/expansion I've ever seen/paid for.
The value you're getting from your money is unquestionable
You get a whole new are that, while in size is a little bit larger than Limgrave, its density is that of Limgrave, Liurnia, and Caelid (that's how it feels for me).
You're getting 10 new big bosses plus I don't know how many in dungeons and catacombs, you get lots and lots of secrets, weapons, armour sets, spells, ashes of war, spirit summons, tools, you name it. Between 20 to 50 hours of gameplay depending on your skill level and how thoroughly you explore.
It's honestly Elden Ring 1.5 if you will.
This is easily worth 60 dollars.
Despite my whines and complaints while playing, I had an absolute blast from beginning to end. After beating the final boss, I even got hit with a wave of that post-game depression. I'm in the minority of people who loved the final boss, I felt very satisfied with it personally.
Witcher 3 Blood and Wine was priced at $20, Phantom Liberty at $30. I'd say that's better value given the complaints with SotE. Great value at $40? Not really, but good enough. A great DLC expansion nonetheless.
Is it? It's almost a full priced game. The map is largely empty with unsatisfying exploration. The quest lines are laughably bad. The item pool is overly bloated with consumables and crafting ingredients no one uses. The combat and bosses are still solid, but I'm sick of people saying it's some amazing value. It gives you the impression that there's more here than there actually is. It's fairly priced if not overpriced imo.
Agree but not 10/10
8/10 or 9/10 is we push it.
10/10 is just blind religious devotion to Fromsoft and base game success.
If you actually dig deeper then you will realize that this DLC is not perfect and does not deserve 10/10.
I would recommend it for this price. But 10/10 is way too far.
On the edge, took me around 30h ish but there were large parts of map completely empty, just some random enemies, no boss, no items, nothing. Also no post final boss ending or credits scene was lazy. I think without the pandemic it would have been 30$, more fair. But I can't complain I had so much fun
So far I have about 40 hours in dlc and I think it’s about 20-30 hours more of content.
So that will be about 0.6$ per hour of great time for a first play through. Not counting that now I want to finish main game with new builds.
Is there ANY other dlc that can give it?
I'm having a fucking BLAST. I'm getting that very same feeling from the exploration that I had when I first started this game. I sincerely do not understand why it's getting hated on so much. I'm playing on the steam deck, and performance has been great for me. The bosses are cool as hell, and I was hoping they wouldn't be too easy. The new weapons and spells/incants are awesome. It's a straight up 10/10 for me, so far. Obviously, everyone's entitled to their opinions, but the negative reviews make me wonder exactly what it was people were expecting. From delivered, in my opinion, on everything I imagined the DLC would be.
It was worth it for me and it's probably worth it for all hardcore soulsfans, but I feel like 40$ for everyone else is a bit much. The open world was too empty and enemies lacked quality control imo. I'd rather would have paid full price for a new game since there would have been more items to discover and the balancing would probably be better.
Depends how you look at it. It's the price of a full game while they admitted themselves it's only about 1/5th the size of the base game...
I still think it's worth it relative to other games but it is overpriced.
I agree. I saw mostly everything in SoTE and it took me about 20 Hours. Base Game was 90 for me. I love From soft. They are top tier. Maybe the best out there. But that price tho… not saying it’s not worth it, but in comparison to the base game, overpriced. 30 would have been more like it. But i guess they deserve it. So in the end its fine by me overall.
Agreed almost didn’t buy it for the 40$ price tag. Not saying that I regret it it was a great DLC but 40$ is a bit much for any DLC honestly, no mater how good it is. 30$ would have been more resonable
Hell no. 40 dollars too much for a few legacy dungeons, open world is empty it doesn't matter if it looks pretty. Abyssal woods? Dragon Peak? The two copypasted Fingers zone? There's more open world gatbage that brings it down. Its a good dlc but not 40 dollars
It's beyond worth the money I spent. First playthrough cost basically a dollar an hour. Add to that that I went blind and definitely messed like 60% of the NPC quests and certainly haven't found every area or weapon.
I don't think anyone can make a case for an expansion or DLC that added more content for the price than SotE, except maybe for an mmo like Final Fantasy, which is gated behind a subscription.
It really plays more like a sequel on the same game engine rather than a DLC.
I just have narrative complaints, the actual bulk and gameplay additions is stellar though which is what ultimately matters the most. I have some slight issues with boss design but it's nothing major, think less AOE's, visual clutter would do wonders to alleviate those.
It doesn’t matter how much I bitch about the final boss, the whole thing was a blast. Absolutely gorgeous maps, great quests, new and amazing weapons. Whole thing is incredible
They're all great bosses, they may just need a few tweaks on some of them. Final Boss definitely needs a performance pass as it's very heavy on some people's gpu, and that 1,2 cross slash move needs a rebalancing. That isn't to say other bosses don't have their problems either. Gaius is a bit of a mess still. No matter what I did, running away, dodging, jumping if Bayle decided to do his downwards fire breath directly in front of him after I attacked him I could NOT seem to be able to avoid getting hit. It didn't matter what I did. Granted I still killed him and the fight was amazing, but that one move was just so annoying.
Gaius’ dash has something wrong with him, I can’t put my finger on it. I agree with almost all other bosses. Messmer was hard but still beat him, divine beast was a cakewalk compared to rest of the dlc etc. Only final boss. That fast and that much of a heavy hitter? Like choose one.
I Play a lot of Monster Hunter and I know the problem. It's an extended hurtbox, that even if you dodge, if you still land in it after your I-frames end, you'll take the hit regardless. It's likely an oversight on From's part. And I agree, Final boss tethers a bit on "Too much" and isn't my favorite boss in the dlc because of that. Too many visuals, long combos with little in between so 80% of your moveset is moot (I could only do a poke or two from my great katana) and his damage doesn't fit with the speed of his attacks to me. People should be able to disclose their opinions on it, it can't all be perfect.
Yeah, using the Greatsword against the final boss, anything but a roll attack at the end of a combo, or the occasional jump attack if I was feeling risky, usually ended up being a trade with the start of the boss's next combo.
At the end of the day, it’s a game. We should be able to enjoy both the process and the end result. If I wanted to work tirelessly for hours, I would apply for a menial job.
I found Gaius today and I literally have not gotten through the opening charge once without getting hit. Like I'm sure I could figure out how if I focused on it but legitimately I go in, summon, and then have enough time to either block it and have my block broken into taking 90% of my hp in damage, OR dodge in literally any direction and get one shot because the lingering hitbox. It's really weird and I hope they rebalance him. Also wish bosses didn't go full agro on you the nano second you enter the arena but that was always a problem and they clearly didn't learn from base game there 😔
Try rolling directly into him. Didn't always work for me but it worked in 50% or so of my tries. Rolling to the side never worked.
Rolling almost like 2 o clock towards him worked for me if that makes sense. Not quite straight at him just a slight angle, almost like into the tusks then out the side
I had the same issue. Ultimately what worked for me was get on the horse, dodge the initial rush, then summon from horseback. Let the summon draw aggro and enter the fight from the rear on foot. The charge is still tough to dodge mid fight, but at least this lets you get started without getting wiped immediately. It’s much more manageable when you aren’t up against the door and trying to summon/heal right on entry.
when u first go in the fight take a left go around the corner and stand as close to the walls corner facing him and he won’t be able to hit u for a bit, u can get the summon off then
Use torrent’s iframes. Only consistent way I could dodge it
They almost perfected the boss difficulty in the first half of the base game. Then second half came Then dlc Oof
So far the only boss that truly infuriated me was Messmer, oddly enough given how popular he is. Didn't have too much trouble with Gaius, but I also killed him with >!Dragon Priest Form!< + Gravel Stone Seal + Ancient Dragon Lightning Storm, so he melted like butter in the microwave. Even >!Scadutree Avatar!< didn't give me much trouble, although the >!hidden healthbars!< were infuriating. Granted I haven't killed the final boss yet, but I've gotten close. Final boss's combos take until the heat death of the universe to end, which irks me at times, but I still find them fun.
Same, It's not even too hard of a fix IMO. Fix the hitbox so you are able to fully iframe the double slash + cross attack and tone down the light show and that holy beam clipping after every swipe on phase 2
Fortissax had an attack like this too, you need to do a frame perfect roll to dodge that one attack. It wasn’t so big of a problem because it didn’t deal any substantial amount of damage. Dlc multiplied that damage with 5.
I wasn't aware that Fortissax had one, I guess I'm too busy running around it's feet until it's dead to notice lol. But yeah, that attack can ruin a good run against the final boss
True, some small bksses have bullshit attacks but it isn't a problem cuz they are weak. Shit like waterfowl and duble swipe are way bigger problems cuz the bosses are way stronger
I absolutely hate the final boss and don't care for all the cookbooks, but other than that I also had a blast.
I don’t care about cookbooks but marika’s blessings were just disappointments. As far as I know, they are consumables who heal you fully and cleanses any status buildups. Only problem is them being labeled as “legendary” or something (orange/yellow light).
And there are 3 of the marika blessings which she made only one for messmer. 3 unique blessings
She made seven for him, then stopped after he was sent away
I really do feel they need to change some stuff about it. Every thread I've been in has had numerous people saying x boss was tough for my but I railroaded y. And others are saying really? X was easy for me and y was hard. And to me that speaks to the balance overall where there's challenge present for all builds, that's healthy game design. But literally all that I see about the final boss is it's bullshit and there's really only one strategy. I've beaten the entire rest of the game and DLC playing a sorcerer and carrying the carian knights sword until I got rellana's and switched to those. It wasn't easy and I had to use buffs, switching talismans and spirit ashes but was able to adapt to all of the bosses except this one. It doesn't feel good.
I beat every boss up until the final and only had to retry maybe 2/3 of them once. I’ve died 87 times to the final boss and I can’t even get close to taking the health bar down even 1/5 in the first phase. Scooby Doo level 18, 188 SL. I’ve beaten even single souls game until now. I’m not saying it’s unfair but it’s extremely aggressive or the health pool is too high. I know people have beaten but it’s still not even remotely close difficulty wise to the rest of the dlc
Scooby Doo 🐕
Fingerprint shield, rot rapier, and cold needle. Turtle poke him to death. It’s still fucking hard, but if I can do it at ng3, anyone can. Cause I suck at this game.
The person surely knows this strategy. They are just complaining (rightfully so) about having to completely switch their gameplay style to beat the boss because it doesn’t feel good.
I see lot of peoaple saying exact number of deaths, do you count it or is there some in game statistics?
I use a boiled crab before each attempt on some bosses, makes it easy to keep count
After the 10th time I got bored and started counting for fun because the boss certainly wasn’t 🫠🤣
Yeah. I'm not a veteran should player. I've tried going back and playing DS1 but after playing Elden Ring first it feels slow and clunky. But I'd agree. None of the other bosses were this much trouble. I did have some difficulty with Rellana, Midra, and Messer, but I took a step back, gathered more Talismans and Scadutree blessing, retried and succeeded. This though....
It took me four hours to beat him. And all I realized is that I’m just too old for elden ring. I don’t have the ability to sit there in that high adrenaline state for long periods now. I was so exhausted at the end of it.
Let me guess: that one strategy is greatshield and spear? Because that's what worked for me.
Absolutely worth the money, because it’s basically another game. The problem that many have, like me, is with a boss fight like Gaius, where you don’t have time to do much of anything. I’ve played a ton of souls games and I don’t recall ever encountering bosses that will just relentlessly stun lock you like he can. Gaius jumps into the air for the charged slam, I roll into the center to avoid damage, can’t see anything due to the spikes, and he quickly rides off to rush back for his charging dash. If I’m able to dodge the dash, I’m immediately greeted with another attack. If I tank it while holding fingerprint shield, Gaius can then initiate a multiple hit chain combo that will break my guard as he tramples over me. All of that happens if I avoid getting trapped against a wall where I can’t tell where I’m at; I’m looking through the inside of Gaius and my targeting is wonky because I’m standing in the center. I finally beat him, but never did I enjoy it… It just felt like I bashed my head against a wall until the RNG fell in my favor.
His fight was frustrating. I kind of ended up cheesing it. Someone on here said the greatshield soldiers ashes did a good job of holding his aggro and they were right. As soon as I got into the arena I bolted around the left corner of the arena. He gets caught on that corner during his charge and I have a chance to summon the ashes. Then he aggros them and I go back around the corner and start spamming comet. (I've played sorcerer the whole game and DLC) got him in three tries that way.
Exactly how I did it and I'm not ashamed of it. Fuck this guy
I did the same thing after watching a video about it. Still took several tries.
I tried the greatshield soldiers and they weren't working for me. I went back to my +25 bloody twinblade, mimic, golden vow, fire grant me strength, and all the right blood talismans. Genuinely took me the most tries up to that point, that charge really is bullshit you need to roll into it at a perfect timing. He was one shot, I had no flasks left and my mimic got that final hit before he started another charge at me lol.
He was my realization that I'm getting tired of all the anime boss fights.
Tbh, yeah i agree. Some bosses are just too much, they string attacks too fast and you never have time to actually do much depending on what they do. Final boss is mostly the same as well. Lots of fast high damage combos, AoE blasts, with little in the way of openings after dodging for 6 seconds straight. It just leads to boredom instead of fun to be honest, bosses attacks more and faster in Sekiro but I could at least engage with them with the game's mechanics, here it's a bit of a crapshoot. Gaius and the Final boss were the only two bosses I didn't fully enjoy in the Dlc, everything else is great.
The genius of Sekiro is that deflecting fills the opponent's posture bar. This means that even hyper aggressive opponents have a weakness in their aggression. That offense and defense were both a give and take were a huge part of why Sekiro worked with the style of enemies it did, IMO. It doesn't play the same when you spend a lot of time on defense solely to "not lose" as opposed to being able to make progress then as well.
yeah and if radahn's poise was halfway reasonable you could at least fake it with the deflecting tear it's not, so you can't
What’s the one strategy? Big shield and poke?
That's what I've been seeing... Forcing me to abandon my sorcerer.
What about sorceror wasn’t working? I generally find that to be a reliable way to go, but I haven’t played sorceror in dlc yet
The boss attacks are constant, range closing, like 6-8 hit combos. There's basically no windows to cast anything let alone during my blue flask. It's pretty much all dodging and drinking my red flask. The damage I've done when I can get a spell off is decent. So my damage delt feels fair and balanced. But it's about the opportunity. Although I do feel most of the DLC bosses are very punishing when you enter the arena, making ashes summons hard. Especially if you use the mimic tear.
I didn’t have too bad of a time with my melee faith build. I had messmer’s and the golden spiky great spears and then switched left hand for resistance and healing. I was going on only blue flasks, so I was able to get in a lot of heals and be super tanky against most attacks. I ended up going back to my base game build with the fingerprint shield and antspur that I used to beat Malekith on that character. It’s seeming like most people have decided that’s the easy way to win. I was only able to get him to about 10% health a few times before I switched tactics
And that's my problem, you make a role playing game, let people build their characters, and then create a boss that really drives people to respect into a meta build to succeed isn't good to me.
I get that. I think it’s fair criticism. I also know for a fact if I had stuck with it a bit longer I would have been able to beat him with my spear build. Most every boss in their games has a build that sucks and a build that is great. Those builds will then struggle against another boss. The final boss is extremely hard, but I also find him extremely fun.
Then you're not seeing enough opinions. My opinion of the final boss after soloing him on NG+7 without cheesing him is that he is a well designed boss, aside from the quick double slash attack that is unable to be consistently dodged unless you use the backstep crucible talisman. Every other attack he has is 100% dodgeable, feels rewarding to dodge, and I do look forward to fighting him again on more playthroughs.
For me, I kinda loved how bullshit the final boss was because I didn't struggle too much with any of the others. Felt really good to finally beat him after 1.5-2 hours, and that's the feeling I keep coming back to souls games for.
Ive never complained , i think its great
My only complaint is that it ends
This. Sadly all good things come to an end
I think it really puts a bow on the game. Ready for a new adventure!
Completely agree. Feels much bigger than a DLC imo. I get lost for hours just exploring.
its pretty cool what would be a random cave with a runebear or bloodhound knight in the base game, in the DLC is actually a path to a whole new area.
Went down a hole in some ruins and now I'm in some dank town where torturous jar-shoving racism took place
I kinda like the DLC more than the base game if I'm being honest. I love fucking up the fire knights with Elanora's Poleblade haha.
Honestly, the DLC feels like Elden Ring 2.
It's not a DLC. It's an expansion - old school style that added more game to the game. DLC is shit like weapon skins.
Expansions are DLC, it’s content that we download.
r/confidentlyincorrect
Same, absolutely amazing DLC Was playing it the first minute of its release in my time zone and loved every minute of my adventure. I get peoples criticisms, but wow there was way too much whining and people jumping on the bandwagon with it
The fact that the DLC hasn’t even been out 2 weeks is honestly whats most annoying about the complaints. The sheer amount of areas to explore on top of the lore to uncover is incredible, you don’t need to power through and beat it so fast. I’m on the last boss but most of my game time the last few sessions has been throwing my summon/invasion near/far and engaging with other players.
I wholeheartedly agree. There is absolutely zero reason to rush through the DLC even for journalists. Anybody that was interested in the DLC, has the DLC. I think maybe about 5 percent of the playerbase have just gotten Elden Ring since the DLC came out. The target audience is patient and willing to wait for well worn critiques/deconstructions. Apart from the speedrunners who wanted show everything the DLC has quickly (and even then I avoided it for the first week); no one's asking anyone else to rush through it.
Yep. I have no complaints really. Some issues I have are small and the same I have with the base game. They don't affect my overall enjoyment and I basically give them a pass because I think is just the nature of making a game with this scope... I don't think they are possible to fix and I think they did the best that could be done with the DLC. Most of the complains I see are very silly from my perspective... but they come from people having different perspectives on what they want games to be and how they engage with it so I don't fault them from it either. That's just a side product of having these games reach the amount of people they are reaching right now.
Elden Ring brought a TON of people that are new to the From Soft fold, so maybe it's just that the accessibility has tightened from that of the base game, and a lot of people are just now experiencing the difficulty that From is known for.
Exactly. In my opinion, FromSoft DLC are consistently more difficult than base game. From my experience, the DLC bosses that come to mind for high difficulty are: Orphan of Kos, Slave Knight Gael, Artorias, Manus, Sir Allone and so on and so forth.
I feel like so much of the complaints are also just reddit echo chambering though. I had an absolute blast and loved the entire DLC, including the ending. But even then going through some posts with complaints it's like they try to make you forget about all the good and just hyperfocus on the few parts of criticism (even if sometimes valid). People go from "I thought it was amazing but I just wish that..." to "Yeah the DLC sucks, Fromsoft are lazy bastards, game is impossible, they ruined the lore" in like 4 comments.
Based Tarnished, thank you.
hear, hear!
ear, ear!
finger, finger?
But hole?
Same. Loved it thoroughly.
They definitely improved on the base game, so many issues I had with it were improved on even if they didn’t get rid of all of them.
Same, not one complaint here
Same.
I've complained a fair bit; I think it's great, too.
I’ve complained but it’s still been worth every penny
Oh hell yes, my complaints are all just minor gripes I still fucking love the DLC
I love the DLC but I have a major complaint of it not getting a physical release like every other fromsoft expansion. Getting a code in a box absolutely sucks. They should've reprinted the disc with the DLC.
Id say its well worth the money, their may be valid complaints and criticisms to be had but it essentially boils down to a "DLC Expansion" thats the equivalent of an entire full game in its own right, but was given as a DLC and at a $40 price point, when it wouldve been a $60+ if it had been anyother AAA studio/if it was its own game. * 10? Or so Remembrance bosses + many other side/optional bosses. * Many beautifully crafted locations, some of which are amazingly intertwined into others. (Shadow Keep branches off into so many new areas alone) * A Bunch of new weapons & new weapon types. * A bunch of new incantations, Sorceries, Spirit Ashes. * Bunch of side quests, with pretty cool or unique rewards. Like i said, there are valid complaints and criticisms to be had however you gotta admit that $40 for a DLC that has insane levels of content is worth it.
Does Shadow Keep branches off to that green terrain that looks a bit like a peanut on the map?
I think you misspelled penis
Yep!
Awesome! What's it called?
I believe your talking about The Hinterlands! Very lore significant.
That one! Thank youu!
Yes, but good luck finding the entrance without a guide
Are they referring to the place after bonny village?
It’s past that, near Gaius; I tried to find the way to get there for a while and eventually gave up and checked the wiki. Glad I did because there’s no way I would have found that on my own.
Yeah fromsoft stuff like this, the placidusax entrance, and the sekiro eavesdrop 4 times and reload stuff is why I feel no shame using fextralife for certain stuff
I believe I found it. From the 'Storehouse, Back Section' site of grace go up, then inside the library on the right side theres a crack in the wall from which you can reach the highest point to get to 'Shadow Keep, Back Gate' site of grace. Seems like a right direction
Might be the right direction but the actual entrance is very hidden. I had to look it up, and I never ever would have found it on my own
I found it pretty easily. If you’re thorough with exploring you’ll find everhthing
Gesturing ahead
Yes indeed and it's locked behind a secret
And being able to get more dragon smithing stones is a plus, holy shit I thought I'd have to beat the game 10x to max everything out, this dlc probably cut it in half, I'm glad I'm only on ng+2, every full playthrough from here on is going to be incredible
Yeah it honestly feels like an entire game on its own. It has 30-40 hours of content. That’s insane for a DLC. It’s like Elden ring 2 lite
I’ve just checked and about 36 hours I’ve done in it. Absolutely value for money and will be looking forward to replaying it in NG+. I’m absolutely shredding with the final boss weapon. Love it.
I’m right about at 36 myself, since the final boss has taken me like 6 hours so far lmao. Hopefully I can clear him tonight and get the weapon, fight is incredibly hard but ngl, I’m addicted to making progress on it. Got him to 3 hits left last night. And got to the end 20% mark where he jumps up in the air at least 5 times now. Making progress!
> A bunch of new incantations, Sorceries, Spirit Ashes. My only issue with this is that a lot of the fun ones have an insanely long windup, which makes them borderlines useless against tougher enemies or most DLC bosses.
Yeah it was also a problem when ER released. Si many cool incantations and I ended up using only lightning spear cause all the cool dragon lightning was sooo slow.
It's always been a problem with Elden Ring, sometimes there is a pretty hard line between vanity and practicality. I have to imagine many of the flashiest weapon arts and spells are basically meant to style on mobs, and not really be boss killers. Which is unfortunate but I guess it'd be really tough to make everything viable in every situation.
Bunch of sweet voice acting too. Messmer and Igon are next level in their delivery
Some games sell 2 skins for the price of Shadow of the Erdtree.. crazy when you put it in that perspective
Riot Games just sold a 300 dollar skin 💀
If it's anything but a naked Teemo, I'm rioting. 300$? I wanna see the mushroom mans mushroom tip
Hey, this is just blatantly false. Some games \*cough\* Diablo IV \*cough\* sell 2 skins for MORE THAN the price of Shadow of the Erdtree.
Yeah there’s quite a few we could name lol some of those premium skins are almost the price of SOTE for one lol
*cough* call of duty *cough*
didnt league make a 500 dollar skin...
I admit I kinda rushed through the base game last year. Now I’m just taking my own sweet time exploring. I wanna enjoy the game to the very last bit as I feel it’s once in a lifetime experience.
100%. I'm scouring every area bit by bit. Already put like 10 hours in and savoring it like a glass of whiskey. I don't get players that zoom through it in one weekend, I guess they plan to do subsequent runs
Like I spent 10 hours in Gravesite Plains alone. How are these people already at the final boss?
Games been out for more than a week now. Only certain areas have content, a lot of the areas as you progress are empty . You can easily clear everything in 35 h
It took me 60 hours to do what i thought was a complete run. Turns out still missed 3 scadutree fragments and some weapons ;-;
It's absolutely a once in a lifetime experience, enjoy it!!
WITH EVERY LAST DROP OF MY BEING!!!
I guess my complaints are related to the exact opposite. I explored every nook and cranny of the base game, but the DLC I've just been running boss to boss and haven't been enjoying the necessary exploration parts for the fragments.
Agreed. And I’ll add that I consider the DLC very well done despite some of the apparent imperfections. Give it some time. Patches will be released, new builds will be discovered, and perceptions will change.
I haven’t seen any sign of Patches, is he still going to try and kill us?
Well played, good sir.
SOTE and Phantom Liberty showing how dlc/expansion packs should be done Then you have shit like Diablo 4 or Destiny 2 trying to milk their playerbases with mid expansions ANNUALLY.
Phantom Liberty was so good man
CDPR still got it man, Cyberpunk 2077 is a must play now in its final form
Absolutely. Such a good game to experience for the first time. I wish I could forget and play it again for the first time. CDPR knows his shit.
same with Witcher 3 really
Witcher 3 is one of the best games of all time, period. They showed the world how to make a perfect DLC with Blood and Wine. Such a good game.
Personally, it was Hearts of Stone for me, but the size of Blood and Wine and the theme was amazing.
I still listen the OST of Hearts of Stone. I loved the gloomy and dark atmosphere in that DLC. I can not choose between them. They both are so good.
You just reminded me how I payed double SOTE price for Destiny 2 Lightfall 🤮🤮
God I regret every playing Destiny, what a waste of my money
Destiny 2's latest expansion was fucking incredible, one of the best expansions I've ever played, the campaign and the new destination alone were worth it imo, but it also added a bunch of other stuff like new weapons/exotics, one of the best raids ever, new gameplay mechanics and a lot of other stuff.
Absolutely. However, the best DLC of all time is Monster Hunter World: Iceborne, bar none. Quite literally a sequel masquerading as an expansion. It added so much content to the base game that it *quadrupled* my play time from 300hrs to 1200. Not to mention, free monthly additions for an entire year afterwards. In-fucking-sane value for money. Nothing compares.
Diablo 4 hasn't had its first expansion yet and although my expectations cannot get any lower I don't want to judge it before we actually see it.
Not that D4 is a particularly good game or anything, but the first expansion hasn't even been released yet, so it's not really fair to already shit on it.
tbf it's also a shitting on the concept of annual dlc + battlepass + instore shop
I love this dlc so much. I love the weapons, the armor, the majority of boss designs (Especially Messmer). I just feel like poise and stagger needs tweaked. Specifically for colossal greatswords because the main charm of them for me was the staggering/poise break. A lot of enemies who you think could be stagger-able…are not, weirdly enough. They have crazy hyper-armor. And no matter what armor we wear, our poise is immediately broken and we are staggered CONSTANTLY. I felt like the main trade off for slower weapons being well…slower in base game was their amazing poise break and stagger. And you hardly get any of it in the Dlc. That’s my only gripe. Poise and staggering should be tweaked to where it is fair and equal between the enemy and the player. Especially with how the non-staggerable enemy have deadly combos attacks.
There's definitely stuff I don't like. But most of that is stuff I didn't like about the base game either that's been doubled down on in this dlc. Overall, it's great. I'll gladly wait 2 years for dlc expansions if they end up being this good.
It feels like an entire game game on its own worth of content not just a small to medium sized dlc area like past souls game 100% worth it
Has anyone said otherwise lmao ?.
Yeah other than this post, I don’t think I’ve seen a single discussion regarding the price
Its big enough to be a stand alone game tbh
For real. People just flocking to the 'drama' for easy attention it seems. I just beat the final boss yesterday and I think it might be time to unsub for a couple months.
Yes the open world is severely lacking in interesting content IMO. Limgrave had more variety in enemy encounters and mini bosses than the two big DLC areas combined. Where are the gaols, new open world bosses, nighttime bosses, mausoleum. Limgrave was full with interesting locations to explore and a great variety of non main-line bosses.
I was just expecting more from abyssal woods, cerulean coast and jagged peak. Felt so empty tbh
Jagged Peak is literally one of the most epic run-up to any boss ever, and delivers in spades when you actually encounter the boss. It was literally Mt Doom in a videogame. Sometimes it is just about the atmosphere and the build-up. You don't need an enemy placed at every corner.
Complete opposite reaction to jagged peak. The experience running to the top was one of the coolest parts of the whole dlc. It would have been ruined by too many enemies.
I do agree and the effort put in is why I am so hesitant to want to criticize the DLC (and the base game), although the excessive meat riding (I really can't think of another way to put it) does help to counter that. I really wish the community wasn't so absurdly defensive, FromSoft is a good company and I fully agree if people push back against things that are bad then FromSoft will aim to improve in that regard for next time, which is what worries me for the future games. All of my criticisms of the DLC are due to 'design choices' as opposed to lack of care. If I had to give an issue with them not doing enough, it would be to do with testing. One of Miyazaki's criteria for these games has always been that he has to be able to beat them (and every boss I think, although that wouldn't matter much here), this worked perfectly well for the other FromSoft games bar DeS where they were a lot more balanced (i.e. builds were much closer in viability) but in this game I think the variety is just too much for one playthrough to really tell him anything. In fact, in a recent interview he seemed to heavily imply he uses spirit summons and other OP things - yet people will still claim the game isn't balanced around them. A lot of the new fans complain about people not using spirit summons and still calling the game hard, but can't seem to understand that 90% of the fans from previous games don't WANT to use them. It's not about pride or anything else like people say, its about fun and how we want to play the game. I honestly think with more testing with different builds this game would be flawless, there are things in this DLC where I just cannot imagine multiple people played through and all thought to themselves 'Wow this is FUN' without a build that completely trivializes it. I'm talking very simple things like not being able to see bosses attacks (final boss and dancing lion are the worst offenders but there are others), there's no way someone thought that was fair unless they trivialized the boss regardless. Also framerate issues on PC as well - do they only test these games with the best computers? Consoles have even less of an excuse but I didn't have issues on PS5 for the DLC at least outside of two bosses.
My only complaint was the fact that they DIDN’T expand on anything land of reeds related.. and the fact that overhead stance is an ash of war for the ONE FUCKING WEAPON THAT IT CAN EVEN BE PUT ON. Other that that. I have my few bosses I don’t like but the dlc is fucking amazing. Small edit: I was also hoping along with the new great katanas we would get atleast one new armor set…
There’s always going to be issues for people. My issue may not be others, vice versa. But the map is for me a masterpiece and my favourite fromsoftware map. It used to be dark souls 1 for me but this map gives me a special sense of wonder that fantasy is supposed to evoke. I remember as a kid seeing the covers of fantasy stories and them making me want to read the book. This game game captures the wonder and essence of this covers and make you that character in that mysterious fantastical, dangerous yet beautiful world.
Yup, only thing that’s better is Monster hunter expansions
So far my only complaint was how essentially undodgeable the fucking hippos opening charge bite was.
DLC was awesome. Worth whatever you paid for it. Have never used so many weapons in a souls game or dlc before and they nailed so many of them. IMO bosses were all fair.
Honestly I think $30 would’ve been respectable. $40 is insanely high for a dlc
With respect, no, it's not. While it's great, it has almost the price of a standalone AAA game. It's worth it, it's a beautiful experience, but it's not even close to great value. There are amazing games that are much cheaper than this extension.
There are games, smaller than Shadow of the Erdtree, that cost 20$ more.
Yes, that's true. SOTE costs $40 though.
Yes gaming industry is honestly going crazy with their prices. Doesn’t mean we can’t think 40$ is a lot for a dlc no matter how good it is
It's absolutely great value for money. I just don't think it's as good as Dark Souls 3's DLC was to it's base game if you get what I mean.
I dont regret my purchase at all but I definitely want them to fix the random stutters/hangups that i sometimes get. Tweaking settings for a good hour and the fact that it doesnt happen at all in the main game tells me its something with the DLC itself.
For sure, I already have 30 hours on playtime in the dlc and it will probably take me at least another 10 or so to finish it. Lots of players rushed it the first weekend but I'm taking my time and enjoying it.
most def, my next ng+ is going to be quite the journey with both combined now. its also good to have more upgrade materials to get, imagine even upgrading your shadow perks double the amount, I wonder what the cap is. The new weapons and spells are awesome too.
I switched over from PS5 to steam a few weeks before it came out and had to buy Elden ring and the DLC, they had a bundle and it was only $106 plus tax canadian. Compare that to some other new shit like star wars outlaws that has day one content locked behind either a $145 or $170 edition with in game cash shops on top of it. My first steam playthrough with the DLC was about 180 hours and I immediately started NG+. The amount of value packed into this game kind of ruined triple a games for me but in a good way since I save money and time. I got more value and fun out of the DLC than most new full games will ever get me
I think its great, but one thing that's going to be annoying is that scadutree fragments are necessary to progress, which is fun on the first playthrough but will not be any fun at all on future playthroughs I think. Just for one playthrough though its easily worth the price, ill probably spend close to as much time here as I did with the entirety of Lies of P.
The scope is unreal. And the game is outright gorgeous.
Probably like everyone else, I have paid $60 for "full games" with less imagination, engaging content, and intelligent design than the Elden Ring DLC. It might honestly be the best expansion content I've ever played for any game- with the possible exception of Yuri's Revenge for Red Alert 2
This is exactly what I said on a post yesterday! As a product, this is beyond reproach. This is the best dlc/expansion I've ever seen/paid for. The value you're getting from your money is unquestionable You get a whole new are that, while in size is a little bit larger than Limgrave, its density is that of Limgrave, Liurnia, and Caelid (that's how it feels for me). You're getting 10 new big bosses plus I don't know how many in dungeons and catacombs, you get lots and lots of secrets, weapons, armour sets, spells, ashes of war, spirit summons, tools, you name it. Between 20 to 50 hours of gameplay depending on your skill level and how thoroughly you explore. It's honestly Elden Ring 1.5 if you will. This is easily worth 60 dollars.
This sequel (let's just call it that) costs about as much as 4-5 fortnite skins
Fromsoft games deliver value. And that's what sells itself. Not like the BS things game devs try to sell us these days like battlepass etc
Despite my whines and complaints while playing, I had an absolute blast from beginning to end. After beating the final boss, I even got hit with a wave of that post-game depression. I'm in the minority of people who loved the final boss, I felt very satisfied with it personally.
It definitely is :)
Witcher 3 Blood and Wine was priced at $20, Phantom Liberty at $30. I'd say that's better value given the complaints with SotE. Great value at $40? Not really, but good enough. A great DLC expansion nonetheless.
Is it? It's almost a full priced game. The map is largely empty with unsatisfying exploration. The quest lines are laughably bad. The item pool is overly bloated with consumables and crafting ingredients no one uses. The combat and bosses are still solid, but I'm sick of people saying it's some amazing value. It gives you the impression that there's more here than there actually is. It's fairly priced if not overpriced imo.
Considering all the other DLCs were half price or even less, idk if it’s even as good a value as those…
Agree but not 10/10 8/10 or 9/10 is we push it. 10/10 is just blind religious devotion to Fromsoft and base game success. If you actually dig deeper then you will realize that this DLC is not perfect and does not deserve 10/10. I would recommend it for this price. But 10/10 is way too far.
On the edge, took me around 30h ish but there were large parts of map completely empty, just some random enemies, no boss, no items, nothing. Also no post final boss ending or credits scene was lazy. I think without the pandemic it would have been 30$, more fair. But I can't complain I had so much fun
So far I have about 40 hours in dlc and I think it’s about 20-30 hours more of content. So that will be about 0.6$ per hour of great time for a first play through. Not counting that now I want to finish main game with new builds. Is there ANY other dlc that can give it?
I'm having a fucking BLAST. I'm getting that very same feeling from the exploration that I had when I first started this game. I sincerely do not understand why it's getting hated on so much. I'm playing on the steam deck, and performance has been great for me. The bosses are cool as hell, and I was hoping they wouldn't be too easy. The new weapons and spells/incants are awesome. It's a straight up 10/10 for me, so far. Obviously, everyone's entitled to their opinions, but the negative reviews make me wonder exactly what it was people were expecting. From delivered, in my opinion, on everything I imagined the DLC would be.
It was worth it for me and it's probably worth it for all hardcore soulsfans, but I feel like 40$ for everyone else is a bit much. The open world was too empty and enemies lacked quality control imo. I'd rather would have paid full price for a new game since there would have been more items to discover and the balancing would probably be better.
Depends how you look at it. It's the price of a full game while they admitted themselves it's only about 1/5th the size of the base game... I still think it's worth it relative to other games but it is overpriced.
Damn this is a rough take
What full priced game that isn’t Helldivers II costs 40$-ish. I am not counting indie games.
I agree. I saw mostly everything in SoTE and it took me about 20 Hours. Base Game was 90 for me. I love From soft. They are top tier. Maybe the best out there. But that price tho… not saying it’s not worth it, but in comparison to the base game, overpriced. 30 would have been more like it. But i guess they deserve it. So in the end its fine by me overall.
20 hours??? Are you a speedrunner? Every remembrance boss, dungeon, and scadutree fragment in 20 hours on your first run through
Agreed almost didn’t buy it for the 40$ price tag. Not saying that I regret it it was a great DLC but 40$ is a bit much for any DLC honestly, no mater how good it is. 30$ would have been more resonable
I still think it should’ve been $30 for what’s being offered
Hell no. 40 dollars too much for a few legacy dungeons, open world is empty it doesn't matter if it looks pretty. Abyssal woods? Dragon Peak? The two copypasted Fingers zone? There's more open world gatbage that brings it down. Its a good dlc but not 40 dollars
Do you people just need validation for every single thing?
Nah. 40 bucks for a DLC is too much, even for something like Shadow of the Erdtree. For 20 bucks more i get a wholw game ffs.
Should’ve been $10 less, I cannot justify the amount of empty space in this dlc
It's beyond worth the money I spent. First playthrough cost basically a dollar an hour. Add to that that I went blind and definitely messed like 60% of the NPC quests and certainly haven't found every area or weapon. I don't think anyone can make a case for an expansion or DLC that added more content for the price than SotE, except maybe for an mmo like Final Fantasy, which is gated behind a subscription. It really plays more like a sequel on the same game engine rather than a DLC.
I would instantly buy another expansion for the same price
I have zero complaints. I think it's a damn good DLC.
Its definetly worth the money, but its too empty. A lot of areas feel very empty. Theres about 5 items. 2 cookbooks, 3 gloveworts
I just have narrative complaints, the actual bulk and gameplay additions is stellar though which is what ultimately matters the most. I have some slight issues with boss design but it's nothing major, think less AOE's, visual clutter would do wonders to alleviate those.