FromSoftware’s Elden Ring is in the spotlight again, thanks to Shadow of the Erdtree. The long-awaited expansion is finally available for consoles and PC and sees players venturing to the Realm of Shadow for one last adventure.
Everything fell in place for its launch, from the pre-release hype to universal acclaim from critics. Its player numbers on Steam were (and remain) very strong, and many players are awed by the sheer scale of its content. However, shortly after launch, it began to see a fair bit of backlash.
Though some of this regards PC performance, several others have complained that the difficulty is too high. You may consider this ironic since one of FromSoft’s selling points is the difficulty, but here we are. Do they have a point, though? Is Shadow of the Erdtree unfairly challenging? Find out here.
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Yup. And poor (if any) story writing
I decided to put the DLC aside. For now at least. This wasn't a "rage quit" though. Not exactly. Calling it "too hard' is not accurate for me. The overall experience for me, playing the DLC, is just draining. I wasn't having fun. I beat Messmer. But after beating him, I just felt drained and deflated and did not wish to continue playing. It's not because the boss kicked my ass. No, I beat him but for whatever reason. I stopped caring about making further progress. I repeat: this is not a complaint about difficulty. It's more complex than that. I simply wasn't having a good time. If I hung in there I am sure I could beat this DLC. But I found myself just not caring about it to keep playing.
Solution: get gud
Bosses should not have 1-shot potential ever. I am being slung around the arena living the most insane blows a human could take, but “oh no the dragon bit in a different way than normal” no survivabilty, youre dead. Some of the fights are cool, but the boss just spam AOE’s because thats most of their kit that was developed for them, or theyre lined up to spam attack after attack as soon as you go for a window. Its become so much less skill based and more just wait around and then maybe you get to attack if they havent hit you 2 times.
Not to mention the scadutree fragments feel entirely usless, same with the revered ash, it feels like a bad mechanic that isnt actually implemented at all into the game. I love the sites and the way the bosses look, but the combat has been lackluster at best.
For me it's a 9/10. The only negatives are some minor issues related to the camera during boss fights and also the overaggressive moveset of some bosses (other Fromsoftware games and DLCs didn't have this in that extend) which both of these two problems can't be fixed. Also I didn't like that much the final boss and ending lore and thematically wise. The other Fromsoftware games had a more grand and definite finale with a more satisfying lore and story ending and better designed final boss fight. This felt like cheap fan service in response to the base game. All the other issues that have to do with balance and difficulty will be hotfixed in a patch like always. Performance/optimization sucks but its not a big deal to me.
All the other things were done really well, the new areas, enemy encounters and bosses, art style, weapons. Music was good but not on the same level as the base game or other DLCs.
Hearts of Stone, Blood and Wine, Old Hunters and Ringed City remain my only clean 10/10 masterpieces.
As hard as this game is, I'm surprised they even put a health bar in it.
I’m enjoying the DLC so far. I do think I need to level up to do more damage to these enemies. They just deal way too much damage for me right now.😢
"Oh no I can't spreadsheet my way through the DLC with a thousand buffs to one shot everything and have to learn to actually play the game. Its too hard!" Leaves negative review
Im in NG++ (Level 242) and I am honestly breezing through the DLC bosses with Dragon Incantations and a Great Sword with Giant Hunt. Just get your blessing level up and the game becomes cake for high powered builds.
Gamers want fresh new things and when From adds a new idea to the DLC, the Blessings, some people can't wrap their mind around and start bitching. I got Rellana on my first try and Bayle The Dread melted to Rotten Breath. Also, most players have had 2 years to get gud. New players can't expect to just hop in and own stuff. I for one love the new challenge and exploring the dense world.
It's the PC Masterrace of Casuals. They buy the PC port from a company well known in the industry for bad PC ports (casual behavior). And then they complain about difficulty in a game that is SUPPOSED to be difficult.
Git gud PC MasterNoobs.
The random enemies just do too much damage other than that the dlc is amazing.
Because they are idiots amigo are impatient
I havent had to many issues with any of the bosses except the final boss which is one shoting me even with blessings maxed out at 20. Honestly the mobs on the map have been more difficult then a majority of the bosses.
Hey off topic but is anybody else having trouble playing multiplayer any time I try to summon another player it keeps saying unable to summon every player I try to summon
Are you really blind? Why all of you complain only about balance in the game? This DLC literally empty, you running kilometers in game for… nothing? Or smithing stone 1, 3, cookbooks, cookbooks, again cookbooks. Why OG Elden ring was running in 60 fps, but DLC in locked rooms 40 fps? Where is the story, lore about Erdtree, wars in lands between and e t.c… And yeah, we will add Scadutree Fragments, to make 10 hrs gameplay into 30-40 hrs. And this DLC costs 40$???
Having just finished the dlc last night I am also mixed on it.
It’s redeeming qualities were the areas, the new equipment, new spells etc
I think the scadutree fragments were a bad idea. They tried to level the playing field for people which caused a schism right down the middle for people on the far end of either spectrum (exteeme low level and extreme high level). The aggressiveness of the bosses was noticeable, coupled with super high health and MASSIVE damage (withiut fragments, which are locked behind some bosses anyway) felt weird, very weird. Couple this with the usual fromsoft community wank and you have a recipe for disdain.
In conclusion, I felt desperate throughout 80% of my playthrough of the DLC, and when the final boss lay slain at my feet, I felt relief that the expansion was over, not joyful or satisfied.
I think if they make a DLC again in future, they should just give it an allotted level/equipment requirement, not this new scedutree system
The exploration reward is too little.
For me it's not the difficulty, it's the map layout.
The people complaining the dlc is too hard are probably also stubbornly refusing to use tools the game provides you. You are allowed to use spirit ashes if you want to tone it down a bit.
It's because for the normal player, they never got good they just over lvl, and you can't do that here. They like to explore, and anyone they summon is bad, too. I beat the two hardest bosses on my first 5 attempts because they are like the Val queen in good of war.
Sekiro: Learn the moves, memorize patterns, hesitation is defeat.
Elden Ring dlc: 80 trillion HP and 726 hit combos
This dlc ain't it
Thankfully Fromsoftware doesn't listen to cry babies.
Literally just get good. We have been through this before with every fromsoft darksouls DLC. Yall here forgetting the ass beatings of Orphan of Kos or Midir. Git gud.
4:18 dude even i who went full STR without using my brain could tell you that you are already doing it wrong…
One handed greatsword and doing light attacks… See you really deserve it
Thanks for ruining my experience with the DLC by casually showing the final boss without warning. Quit YouTube. Mean that wholeheartedly.
wtf is the guy from the video weapon, a pussy as an armor and a tampon as a shield? Oh right! It's the games journalist armor set
i finished yesterday:
I used the black knight hammer with prayerful strike. Did a lot of damage and heals. I had the super armor from that first npc boss at the start. Most times i just face tanked mobs and bosses. Mimic tear was almost invincible. He healed a lot with prayerful strike.
Also summend coop people for some fights. Like the death bird. I never tried any boss more than five times. On the last boss i used a cheat engine and made myself invincible.
At the end i was at scadutree fragmet level 18. DLC Spirit ash on level 9. I was on NG. It was still my first playthrough which i never took to ng+. Level 411. Everything on 80 except strenght, dex and arcane which where still at 30.
Also Scarlet rot is the "i win button".
I love the new butterfly incantation.
It wasn't that hard.
Because they got humbled and cant cheat the game by farming lvls anymore to cheese every boss 😂
I compelted the DLC its not about tough bosses ,but its about copy pasted boss like radahn , enemies and empty areas for example Charos , and blue rose land or jagged oeak or fingers of ria eere empty
Sometimes when I fight a boss too many times I feel like I beat him just due to lucky rng. Does anyone else feel like that. It’s not very satisfying. Just makes me want to restart. I want to master him not luck it out
I think as long as it’s possible to no hit win a fight then in my book it’s not too hard.
The game is great, but my issue lies with cheap 1 shots and unavoidable attacks like from the Hand Queen boss which I know is optional but it’s pretty obvious they need to fine tune some things. But what is the worst and hardest part for me is traversing that god awful map and world design. A step back from base game for sure.
This whole "get gud" argument is totally pedantic. If a normal player needs to spend 3 days to defeat a boss then it's not the player's problem, it's very pedantic for a certain games to expect every player to be a master of the craft. Players pay to see a full product and not to be stuck at some part of it just because some very toxic and pedantic niche of gamers keep saying they find it too easy.
It's supposed to be unforgiving… So you learn the patterns of the bosses!
It’s the wonky hit boxes that’s what’s honestly pissing me off the most. You get hit with things that you clearly shouldn’t.
I don't even know why we should be bothering ourselves with useless video games in the first place. Now, the game wants me to spend a whole day to "git gud" to fight a boss? That's very pedantic for a useless video game. I've just stopped playing, it's not worth it. If your reward system needs this type of pleasure from useless video games it's not healthy. Let's put video games where they deserve, as innocent leisure activities you can just casually play, other than that it's unhealthy behavior. Go play a sport, socialize, and learn new skills for your life.
This DLC takes everything that is already bad about Elden Ring and makes it worse.
– So many empty areas and dead ends. Exploring was boring and pointless.
– Many areas are downright ugly. For example that red area in the south. Abysmal…
– The Scadutree fragment system is like wtf… What's wrong with a normal RPG style character scaling system? This one feels lazy and out of place.
– Bosses… meh. I won't complain that it's too hard. Some of the bosses just suck. Like the dancing lion. Or commander Gaius and his shitty arena.
– Those Wickerman fire things. What were they thinking? How much fun is it to fight a pair of legs like a dozen times?
– Re-used boss enemies. AGAIN! Plenty of them.
– Dragons still look all the same and behave all the same. Yawn.
PC ports are a joke.
Same interface for 20 years.
Pathetic keyboard mouse controls.
Ultrawide exists you stupid bastards.
If they spend time actually doing the pc version correctly.
instead of relying on garbage interface to artifically make the game more difficult.
We don't need a video to know that
They are just "Casuals"