"Just some overclocks" you mean, unlocks that can completely change how a weapon works and also acomidatw different builds to massivly increase build variety. Just those small things? Im assuming that bc you were grinding for full gold and wanted maximum exp, which is phyco behaviour honestly ngl, that you just ran meta vuild and didnt experient with funns that much, and didnt see just how much overclocks effect the game. Either that or you were deliberately lying to paint the game in a bad light, bc some overclovks can completely change how you use a weapon

Lmao this comment section is hilarious!! Cry babies making excuses for why they're getting their ass kicked 😅

This was my first FS game and a lot of your critique matches mine. First: I get the hype, elden ring and the DLC are special. They're unique both with the gameplay and the level of craft that went into them. But I started ER right after beating Ghost of Tsushima and I gotta say I was a little disappointed with the combat mechanics in ER. A lot of the fighting seems to revolve around memorizing very specific attack patterns of bosses, and fromsoft's scaling of difficulty seems to be simply adding longer move combos, narrowing the window you have to attack. Big battles then felt less like a fighting game and more like guitar hero. My favorite fights were against enemies like the crucible knights and the nameless mausoleum NPCs-- These felt more like actual 'fights' where there was back and forth, I didn't feel like I was fighting a giant Simon Says machine. I think having combat so centered around the s of the roll mechanic kinda gimps the design. Would love to see them lean into and expand the parry mechanic, and give you built-in quickstep or something. Just more options that raise the risk/reward factor of combat and let you interrupt, create your own attack openings (instead of dodging for 10 sec so you can land a slash during a recovery animation), or other tools to make the boss react to the player more often. I hear good things about Sekiro, I might try that next.

World design is peak, exploration is awesome, lore is questionable, and gameplay/bosses are just awful. Every single issue the base game had in regards to combat is made 10x worse here in the expansion. Infinite poise, non-stop attacks and weird delays, barely any openings and way, WAY too much AoE. I really want to love the experience, but it just ends up being so frustrating. Difficult for the sake of being difficult, Fromsoft kinda forgot about being fair along the way.

This video speaks to me, i enjoy fighting bosses 1 v 1, but the 2nd phase of radahn forced me to use summons because i didnt want to go for the boring 0 tank dmg shield build, thats even less statisfying.

You spoke about lack of motivation for our character, yet , all souls games can be looked at this way if you do not know the proper context , as you said "when does that become our problem" but even if we're talking about elden ring specifically, in the main game we are the tarnished who is to become the elden lord , if we choose to progress , that's who we are , and same goes for our story in the dlc , we are still the same tarnished who I believe is trying save miquella, and also stop him from becoming a god for our own benefit

question how to respawn the bosses ?? i wanna fight ranala and mesmur again oh and vile bayle

Bob 2 hands a weapon big enough to give him a bit of poise/armor when his attacks are past a certain frame. If you look closely, the times you flinched him are earlier into his swings. And the times that he armored through, you poked him a bit later.

One story detail I haven't seen specifically mentioned much is that From brought back an unpopular mechanic they only used in dark souls 2 for this dlc: unique dialogue and npc plot stages locked behind summoning them for fights. Which is kinda terrific, I really liked the feeling of camaraderie with some npcs in dark souls 2, as a longtime defender of that game. It made you part of their stories. But for some reason they only added those unique interactions to fights that are made significantly harder if you summon, namely divine beast and pcr. Divine beast jumps around in all of his moves, making him unable to be hit with melee weapons if he attacks most of the time, and the end lag on his attacks is extremely low, but, he doesn't do it much if he's far away from you, letting you control when and how he attacks to deal with him. If you summon, Frejya or a spirit, there's another body close to him all of the time, meaning he's constantly stringing attacks together and is impossible to attack significantly more often unless you're using ranged, which punishes you for wanting to see Frejya's unique dialogue after the fight. PCR's attacks have such wide hitboxes that if he's attacking someone else, you often get hit yourself with much harder to sight read attacks, but the biggest punishment is just how intense his scaling is if you summon ansbach and thiollier for their unique in fight dialogue, meaning they will almost certainly perish before you finish phase one, leaving you having to deal with his flashbangs for significantly longer if you summon. They focused so much on making the npcs feel like greater parts of the world and punish you if you try to see it all, and it's so weird to me. Yet they nailed it with Igon. And I very much agree with the story assessment, they took good steps for making the world feel more alive rather than already dead with you just recording it all after the fact, but as a result, your character is just by default doing a kill them all run in undertale and you don't get to do anything about it. And it's like, really easy to fix too (in theory not in dev time), just give the base game a new ending if you beat the dlc, by letting you pursue being Miquella's elden lord the way you can for Ranni, and like with Ranni, there's some moral ambiguity in there from the story surrounding him and Trina's request. The final boss can be a challenge for Miquella's hand or an attempt to take his life to defeat a competitor for the throne if you're Ranni or Marika's chosen. This would add more interactivity with the base game, which is another common complaint. It would let the npc questlines actually have branching paths that you're directly involved in, fighting Leda or Ansbach based on the path you've been on to that point, and allow for a greater degree of player character motivation in conversations around this potential branch opportunity in the lead up to the dlc, more conversations with Leda and maybe another blood knight npc that could start the dlc. The game is so hardwired for this idea that it's kind of insane to me how they missed this opportunity so badly, unless they were just really in love with the idea of Miquella only being killable because manipulating people's emotions is the highest form of evil in this universe, ignoring the fact we essentially puppet Marika for the greater will in the basic endings for the game. I want to believe this was originally in the design document, given how the trailers and interviews focused on the story of this collection of travellers pursuing a common goal, but was scrapped during development, leaving just ghosts of a more interesting story behind. This was likely a problem with how rushed some parts of the dlc feel, I think they just ran out of time and had to prioritize the world and base content over the interactivity and balance, but it probably also just runs up against fundamental conflicts in the game's design. A truly involved main quest where you're making decisions and changing the path of a story is difficult in an open world game, in ways that even devs who only make open world games haven't solved in the modern era with modern day development considerations. From's game design has also always had story take a back seat, so trying to merge the story centric developments of Sekiro into an already established souls formula game might've changed the vibe so much that they just killed the idea entirely at some point to save it for their next project. Which really sucks, because this dlc had the potential to be the peak of their narrative design if they had implemented ideas like this. I can hope they'll do something to this effect, add in the new branching story path in a future patch for the npcs where you can either support or kill miquella, which would really just require some new scripting and voice lines, no boss fights would really need to change, together with a new ending cinematic queued if you have the miquella wedding ring or whatever in your inventory when you beat elden beast. They wouldn't even have to make any of it mandatory, having the original storyline be the default if you never talk to a single person in a speedrun or challenge. It would help the empty feeling after it too; being rewarded with an entirely new ending for rising to the challenge of the dlc is tremendously satisfying. But, I doubt it. From doesn't really do story or overhaul patches, just balance updates before abandoning a game entirely for their next project. Which is a shame, cause this was their most story focused project, aside from sekiro, and sticking the landing, with some small patches to game balance for the boss fights, could make this their most memorable dlc ever, instead of its current legacy of being controversially disappointing.

The quests are what get me. I just hate everything about how they do quests.

i’m so glad someone touched on the replayability. no one talks about it, and it’s honestly horrible, from someone who loves replaying souls games, it’s very frustrating edit: finished the video, i agree with a lot of your opinions really well. Radahn was really frustrating, because even though i knew that the deflecting hard tear was an option, i hadn’t used it the entire game, and i wanted to play it like a souls game, not sekiro. But the fight felt unfair and very frustrating, and very difficult to learn, especially when dying very quickly upon reaching phase 2. i eventually caved after hours and hours and used the deflecting hardtear to beat it and just,, did not feel satisfied. amazing video, thank you.

The final dlc boss having a one-shot move even with the 20 skibidi fragments was ridiculous

so on one side we criticise the difficulty of the game, while being able to build your own difficulty with the amount of scadufragments, npc or bell summons, and using strong(broken equipment). but on the other side we criticise weapons and tears to be too strong? idk if the sekiro-tear was intended to be this strong, but just having a negative look on every aspect of difficulty, while ignoring possibilities, seems kinda disingenious.

It's never a problem when a game is too hard. Bosses SHOULD feel insurmountable.

I really wanted to love the DLC, but I just don’t. It feels like Fromsoft is punishing the entire player base just for the actions of a handful of them… I don’t mind the bosses having combos, but some of the damage on certain moves is just stupid af. I’ll definitely be skipping it on my new game plus, once is enough for me lol.

Wow, amazing video!

The fanboys will not let that slide😂

I just don’t get how we go from bosses like Mesmer, Bayle, Radahn, Midra to bosses like Golden Hippo, Gaius, and Scadutree Avatar… like Ik Elden ring is all about having a broad scale of bosses and environments but these bosses just felt so random to me and the quality drops sometimes. I’m replaying ds3 rn and I can’t help but realize how the base game and dlc feel more grounded than shadow of the erdtree. I also don’t get why we got such few cutscenes for each boss, Bayle, Rellana, Putrescent Knight, ect. Like don’t get me wrong I enjoyed my first playthrough but looking back a month later I realize how underwhelming the dlc is in terms of the boss fights. I loved the different atmospheres and the lore that was expanded on but like it feels so rushed, that last cutscene after defeating Radahn is so underwhelming which Ik is fromsoft fashion but this was like another level of underwhelming. Ik they said they don’t plan on making any more Elden ring content as of now but I pray they eventually do a second dlc. Maybe it feels off because I played the dlc after beating the base game when you’re supposed to enter the dlc mid game after defeating mogh but idk.

It isn't said, but we're there to prevent Miquella's reign. While we're with everyone else in following in his footsteps, we aren't blinded by him. We're kind of an agent of Marika, preventing Miquella from usurping the Lands Between. All he would do is give the world another Golden Order-like rule; and we already saw how that ended.

I have 350h and 24 promotions. That's 15h per promotion. Just taking my time, enjoying the ride, these 350h are spread across 2 years, and the first year was all on low hazard. I'll reach All Gold at around 400h. I'm not an avid completionist, but I completed Slay the Spire and it took me roughly 380h. Maybe it's normal?

They are calling from the other side, see y o7

This is the first video of yours that I have watched, but I must say this won't be the last! Good job and keep up the good work!

I love the DLC but the final boss is just disappointing. It reminded me of the run up to the Blue Smelter Demon boss in Dark Souls II..

Rellana was one of my favorite fights, took 3 attempts along with messmer. Radahn took me 4 hours. Hate the final boss

🔥😱intro was🔥

14:06 I have issues with the DLC's story, but I feel like this part makes sense. We have to kill Miquella because if he becomes a god he will prevent us from becoming Elden Lord.

crikey milady brutalises midra 😮

The whole “why am I doing this?” thing definitely affected me too. Especially when it came to Messmer imo. That entire thing could have been avoided if you were just able to say “the lands between is screwed your mom is held captive by the greater will”.

I enjoyed the dlc right out the gate and was having fun up untill i found myself in the cerulean coasts. I spent 2 hours looking for a site of grace so i could take a moment and explore just to have to go onto the wiki and look one up. I played the entirety of the base game with no guides or help and managed to find all but one site of grace. I was frustrated and disappointed because elden ring was a glowing example for me of how to reward curiosity so to then go from that sense of excitement of exploring to just wanting to get it over with kinda killed it for me. I felt cheated at the last boss fight and when i looked it up and got to see the hitboxes on his attacks i felt vindicated but mostly just sad. The game i have grown to love had spat in my face for doing all the things it encoraged me to do for hundreds of hours. I know i haven't killed all the bosses like the big finger monster but i really dont have any desire to play the game anymore and thats what hurt the most.

Lies of p > Shadow of the erdtree 10000%

Square footage size, yeah it’s probably the size of limegrave or slightly larger. Cubic footage size it’s probably equal with the base game

Radahn sucks but I honestly dont see how people are hating on all the bosses for having to roll and poke. Bayle and messmer had intresting movesets and felt pretty fair.

Another thing i really enjoy is the score, holy hell is the music good

When I, and a lot of people first approached this game I don't think achievements or achievement speedrunning were ever on any of our minds, neither do I think the devs ever really properly thought of them either. I think the achievements are there either as an little extra challenge for those that want it (the barrel hoop) or just something to say "oh neat" to whenever you got it (promotion achievements), rather than something to grind painfully towards. So in that regard, while I don't believe this review is accurate to a wider communitys perspective, it still represents an audience who have/want to/do play this game. Thus for those that do wish to look at the game from this angle, this video certainly has many valid points to be considered.

I swear to god bro Car pool is hardest achievment to do

Second phase of dlc final boss was based on 2d game (Terraria) boss - empress of the light and put into 3d, merged with radahn moveset. Both bosses cover arena with lights after attacks and create fake clones.

Just wanted to say I'm glad you bring up the issue of the story and especially motivation, as it's not really a critique I've seen brought up elsewhere, and it feels important. We, as the player, have basically no reason to be there other than to experience the content. We don't have any loyalty to Miquella, we're not charmed as far as I can tell, as if we are, that would break the moment we enter shadow altus. We don't really have any reason to mistrust Miquella either, although we do learn in shadow keep that he is planning to do some kind of ritual involving radahn and mohg. The thing is...at a certain point, Leda basically tells us, we need you, the Tarnished, to burn down the sealing tree with Messmer's flame. So why don't we just...not? When I got to that moment in the story I was thinking, why would I even do this? The only person that benefits from the sealing tree being burned is Miquella. The Tarnished could walk away at this point, take Messmer's flame with them, Miquella would be stuck in the Land of Shadow forever and Radahn would never be reborn. The whole conflict feels contrived and the only reason to push on is because you want to finish the DLC, which ironically, has no impact on the base game anyway. It's strange because Fromsoft is normally really good at creating worlds that feel old, but 'lived in', where you're kicking up dust and disturbing things that have been long forgotten. SotE's world instead feels...static. Like, the player is the only thing with agency in this world and everything there is just waiting for the Tarnished to come along and stir shit up. Worse, a lot of the stuff we discover feels like it should be more consequential than the base game. We literally get a sidequest to find the Mother of Fingers, and another one to kill the dragon that crippled Placidusax himself. How is there only one person in this entire land that has investigated the giant finger ruins that take up a huge chunk of its landmass? Why include another Lord of Frenzied Flame when he adds next to nothing to the lore, and interacts with you exactly the same regardless of if you accepted the flame? it feels like a remix of Elden Ring's greatest hits, but without the natural cohesiveness that made the world of the base game so great. I don't mean to sound overly negative, but I really went into this DLC hoping to explore more of ER's great world and story, and I felt like I got empty calories in return. The spectacle was great, but the lack of a strong story in this DLC left me feeling like SotE was just more for the sake of more.

Legendary Team is the achievement that forced me to continue playing the game, but even after completing it I didn't stop, it sucked me back in alcoholic dwarf insanity and Im glad it did. It forced me to try more loadouts, strategies and ways to play the game and I think that's the reason it exists. It wants you to explore the game and classes deeper, but at the same time not making itself a something impossible to complete or locking you from 100% like TF2 for example, it just requires some time and you don't have to spend this time in one week or month, just keep playing and you'll eventually get it, just don't forget about Karl.

I love the dlc but it's so incomplete ... it doesn't connect at all in the vase game like u can't even tell gideon about the realms its odd since it would have been somthing he must have somthing to say at least I mean it just seems so disconnected negatively I know it was the point but it would have been so nice if the player could become the link between the two realms maybe add a questine that started in the shadow realm and connected back in the real world .. also a lack of cutscene even the remeberwnce bosses like sait of the Budd didn't have any cutscene its just sad so sad man I love these games so much am intrested in the worlds and I know them ti be the best games in the industry but I just expected a bit more connection and acknowledgement dark souls series also reacted in more ways to players choices than the dlc..

Needle Knight Ledda let's you know before the fight what happened. You were never under his spell, it was the will of the fingers that the New Elden Lord, God of the old order fight the God of the new, along with his promised consort. To see who would win.

I really wish Fromsoft made the deflecting Hardtear a base game mechanic from the start. Too many enemy and boss encounters feel more in tuned for the Sekiro play style over the OG Dark Souls roll and attack style. Otherwise ER as it stands has not been all that much fun compared to previous Games imo.

loved the video. really well scripted and edited and i loved the wit on display in your writing. hoping you continue to see success!

Just never play a souls game again. Thanks. I hope you get a lot of dislike for this, and never tell your opinion ever again.

Little nit picky, but some attacks will wiff you after you do a jumping heavy. As you land, your head ducks, and gets you low profile. That has been in the game since day one

The story in the dlc expands on the main story and gives context to a lot of stuff but as you said there isn't really a "goal". In the base game we clearly knew that we were fighting to become elden lord but here you just go on a rampage and kill anything 4fun really.

There is always this type of guy. Oh well, let's move on.

We conflict with miquella because we are trying to become elden lord. Also miquella proved himself unworthy of godhood. Because of that we have to stop him.

The difficulty for the DLC was all over the place. I found a lot of the bosses really hard and I told myself if I died over 30 times I’d use my mimic. Problem was when I used my mimic the boss was a total cake walk. And the game seems to have suspected most players would use the summons, especially the mimic, which is why they also offer summon upgrades as an integral part of the game. This just didn’t work for me. In the main game I only seldom used my mimic to get past the really brutal encounters. And when I did the bosses still weren’t a cake walk. But with the DLC I either really struggled and got 1 shot, or I blitz through it. Only the last boss, where I used my mimic, did I scrape through.

Question about the respawn boss fight mod, were you able to still use your current save after removing the mod and reverting back to vanilla?

"Promise Escort", I don't know if it's a joke or a mistake but it made me laugh so much!! 🤣