For Those Who Didn't Enjoy the DLC, What Aspects Specifically Did You Dislike?

[Jackson]

Not meant to be a hate thread, but the DLC didn't feel very catered to my interests. Was just curious what others disliked.

To distill it down for me, I primarily didn't like how much of a scavenger hunt the Scadutree Fragments felt like. I don't enjoy exploration in any game, and it was a focus for this expansion. The winding paths made getting from point A to B difficult and confusing to me.

More to that, I didn't like how the Shadow Blessing Level interacted with the game, the design of percent damage reduction and percent damage increase caused the enemies to feel bloated to compensate.

I also didn't like the Furnace Golem fights. Their health bar makes the fight drag and makes the encounter feel repetitive. I was also surprised how many more dragons were used in the expansion, as I thought there were already too many in the core game, so those were unwelcome to me, but, maybe others really enjoy them.

I think that's most of my grievances, what were your thoughts?

[aristateles]

I hate it that I missed a lot of stuffs by going blind LMAO. I'll have to get them in my next cycle which is NG+6. But I'll treat it as long project run because I want to sweep thru the base game first.

[Taddy Mason]

Trash Panda님이 먼저 게시:

Thats the thing i am an average player, an average dark souls player. Once you've played these games its all the same thing, but with slightly new twists or flashier ideas. You're just mad that you suck at putting basic ideas together to figure out context clues. The Game gives you just enough to figure it out via environmental story telling, not to mention online messages (after sifting through them) especially on day 1 or even just clicking through them, can be quite helpful. Base game Elden Ring has you using gestures for a couple things to unlock them (wizard towers mainly and some NPC stuff) so with that context when i get a gesture thats featured pretty prominently on NPCS (O'Mother) and theres some random Marika statues around i'm gonna try that Gesture and maybe a few others from the DLC on that statue see if it gets me somewhere. Might use Margits shackle to see if theres an invisible wall or knock down a hanging pot. Oh this NPC gave me a map and that MAP shows 3 identifiable locations, lets go explore around them....

what you are is either a liar or delusional. you're either lying about how good you are at these games or have deluded yourself into thinking that you're just an average player despite being capable of everything you've claimed. you can't have it all those ways.

if you're just an average player like the rest of us, then those were lies about easily you 100% completed the series without guides AND were one of the people who helped write guides for the games cause you helped figure out how to complete some of the obscure stuff so early on. if they weren't lies, then you need to get it thru that thick skull of your how absurdly good a player of these games you are. you are not average if you can and did do all that. you don't understand how absurd that is to claim. stop acting irrationally like this

[Persona Au Gratin]

Taddy Mason님이 먼저 게시:

Trash Panda님이 먼저 게시:

Thats the thing i am an average player, an average dark souls player. Once you've played these games its all the same thing, but with slightly new twists or flashier ideas. You're just mad that you suck at putting basic ideas together to figure out context clues. The Game gives you just enough to figure it out via environmental story telling, not to mention online messages (after sifting through them) especially on day 1 or even just clicking through them, can be quite helpful. Base game Elden Ring has you using gestures for a couple things to unlock them (wizard towers mainly and some NPC stuff) so with that context when i get a gesture thats featured pretty prominently on NPCS (O'Mother) and theres some random Marika statues around i'm gonna try that Gesture and maybe a few others from the DLC on that statue see if it gets me somewhere. Might use Margits shackle to see if theres an invisible wall or knock down a hanging pot. Oh this NPC gave me a map and that MAP shows 3 identifiable locations, lets go explore around them....

what you are is either a liar or delusional. you're either lying about how good you are at these games or have deluded yourself into thinking that you're just an average player despite being capable of everything you've claimed. you can't have it all those ways.

if you're just an average player like the rest of us, then those were lies about easily you 100% completed the series without guides AND were one of the people who helped write guides for the games cause you helped figure out how to complete some of the obscure stuff so early on. if they weren't lies, then you need to get it thru that thick skull of your how absurdly good a player of these games you are. you are not average if you can and did do all that. you don't understand how absurd that is to claim. stop acting irrationally like this

Especially delusional mindset to have from a person "helping make a guide" because you're doing something under the presumption that people would need guidance lmfao. Coming in trying to annoy people for their opinions is so weird from that Panda person.

[Phishfood]

large swathes of land where there is nothing interesting to do or pickup. They would have cut the map size in half and just filled it with all the interesting bits.

[Savager]

Aerieanei님이 먼저 게시:

Trash Panda님이 먼저 게시:

OMG Miguella gesturing toward a tree it isn't in the game OMG what are we going to do ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ CALL THE POLICE. Also the quote is LITERALLY just symbolism of uncovering marikas secrets. You just suck at picking up context.

We know Fromsoft likes to cut things. They couldn't even finish adding in the rest of Trina's cutscenes with dialogue like
"Thank you, finally he will be free." The sound files are there. They just didn't finish making the cutscenes.

Knight of the Gloam Eyed Queen is the name of the files for Putrescent Knight. Which in the DLC we got he actually has nothing to do with Gloam Eyed Queen as he serves Trina in the final. So the whole Gloam Eyed Queen in the DLC was scrapped.

Miquella's not gesturing at the sun he's literally healing the Scadutree and removing the drapery so that it reveals the Lands of Shadow into the Lands Between. Miyazaki already confirmed that the veil drapes keeps the Lands of Shadow hidden. Removing those veil drapes would be world changing. The Lands of Shadow was hidden under the Scadutree to conceal the genocide of the Hornsent. The Lands of Shadow also line up with the missing parts on the Lands Between Map.

IGN Interview:
Hidetaka Miyazaki: "In terms of setting and themes, it technically occupies the same space as the Lands Between, the same universe. But due to something story related that we won't reveal today, this has become physically disconnected, and you'll travel to the Shadow of the Erdtree land as a separate place."

Famitsu Interview:
Hidetaka Miyazaki: "Yes, the shadow lands in which the DLC take place are sundered from the Lands Between where the main story takes place. It has been removed from and hidden from the outside world and this veil is a symbol of that."

Mimic's Veil: When Godrick was hounded from Leyndell, the Royal Capital, this was one of a multitude of treasures he took with him. Also known as "Marika's Mischief".

Marika hid the Lands of Shadow but Miquella is reversing what Marika did in that cut cutscene. This is huge because it never happens in the DLC as it would dramatically change the ending of the DLC. All you get at the end of the final DLC is Miquella sitting there talking about Radahn being his consort. The Lands of Shadow never returns back to normal in the final version.

Cut Dialogue for the old cutscene:
Section 50 [21050000] I hereby swear. [21050050] Lord brother. [21050100] To every living being, and every living soul. [21050150] At long last, you are returned. [21050200] Now comes the age of our Eden. [21050250] [21050300] A thousand year voyage guided by compassion. [21050350] Tarnished one. [21050400] Beginning here, love encompasses all. [21050450] Aspiring Lord of the old order. [21050500] No living thing will be denied, no deed censured.

Ranni's version of the ending we have:
“I do solemnly swear.
To every living being, and every living soul.
Now cometh the age of the stars.
A thousand year voyage under the wisdom of the Moon.
Here beginneth the chill night that encompasses all, reaching the great beyond.
Into fear, doubt, and loneliness…
As the path stretcheth into darkness.
Well then. Shall we?”

It's clearly an ending since it's similar to Ranni's.

Thanks for this man, interesting info. I felt it was odd that the only thing we get after the endboss is the memory with a few lines of dialogue. Would be cool if someone found out secret ending that was in the DLC all along but i guess that would have already happened by now.

[PETROL SNIFFER]

i don't like how you cant play it without first killing two bosses in the base game

[TropicalLad]

Exploration for the hell of it, sure. Wow and awe at the level design and art direction. Except if I wanted to do that, i'd go to an image board. Beyond the scadutree fragments which already don't even give that much of an incentive. There is nothing in the way of exploration rewards that you couldn't reap better in the base game.

[That One Person]

Lore is ass, and as somebody before said, that was a surprising lack of spectacle for some bosses. I don't want nor expect some ~dazzling~ display, but many bosses felt very... emotionless I guess? E.g. just the presence of Mohg and his confidence would kill me on the spot, but Rellana is just kinda there, chillin' out and doin' nothin' and then kicks your ass. One of the reasons Messmer and Midra are 2 of my favorite bosses in the DLC (other than just being good f-ing fights), they had personality! Hell even the Dancing Lion had some spice to it (also one of my favorites, minus the damn camera)!

I didn't really mind the world being kinda empty because i'm always happy to just -look- at things and say "PWETTY!" but I completely understand other people being disappointed at the empty space and enemy re-skins.

The Camera.
Mind you, I thought the DLC was pretty good/ok. Oh, and i'll just say this again, THE LORE IS ♥♥♥♥!

[rabureta]

Skibidifragments. They shouldn't exist, and if they must exist they should be tied to bosses like Sekiro.

"But without an alternate progression system people would just steamroll the DLC by overleveling!" We already have a solution for that, it's called softcapping.

[Key]

Alright, I overall somewhat like the DLC but I have a ton of complaints that left me overall disappointed.

• Too much empty space, the maps are gorgeous but there are huge sections that have absolutely nothing of worth in them.
  
  
• I didn't find bosses to be particularly hard, but I find them to be really bland to fight against, they're extremely difficult to read and rely way too much on long strings and two-three shotting the player. They also blur together as there's no specialized bosses, all of them have long strings, AoEs, dashes and projectiles. You essentially fight every boss the same way. It feels like fighting variations of the same boss.
  
  In addition to this, the fact that a lot of people seem to be cheesing most bosses is, to me, a clear sign that they are a failure in game design. Bosses used to be the best part of Souls games and players would complain about not being able to fight them again, fighting a boss was its own reward. Now a lot of people would rather look up a build to essentially skip them than actually engage with them and learn their patterns.
  
  
• Almost all DLC weapon overshadow the base game weapons in their respective field, most of the new ashes of war are completely over the top, which will soon make twinking unbeareable.
  
  
• Some enemies, like Curseblade Omens and the large scimitar knights are insanely overtuned, high poise, long strings, high damage and high hp, with very low rune drops on top.
  
  
• The re-use of enemies is pretty extreme, even moreso than the main game. 80% of enemies are stone birds and Messmer Soldiers/Knights, dogs and enemies from the base game.
  
  
• A lot of areas in the open world lack interesting or creative enemy placement, there's a lot of zones where they plopped down 20 of the same enemy and called it a day. It feels like a Korean MMO, and I hate that the environmental artists knocked it out of the park just to have the level designers do nothing with the locations.
  
  
• The scadutree system is yet another system that will force you to run around for an hour in every playthrough before you get to actually have fun. It was one of the main criticism of the main game and they doubled down on it. Adding a % of damage and defense isn't a leveling system and has no meaningful impact on the direction of your build. The DLC would play exactly the same if they kept the boss progression flat and didn't frankestain this blessings system on top.
  
  
• DLC being locked behind an endgame boss guarantees that it will be completely disconnected from the main game, meaning the new items will provide no variety in the main playthrough.
  
  
• More than half of Miquella's crosses say absolutely nothing of value, it's just the same "I leave here part of my flesh".
  
  
• 80% of the exploration rewards are incongruent with where the DLC is located in the progression, plenty of low level smithing stones, and gloveworts that have no use at this point in the game are placed as precious items in chests and secret locations.
  
  
• Most of the DLC talismans are direct upgrades of the main game ones, they don't encourage decision making and don't open up new build options.
  
  
• The lore is overall very mediocre, with a bunch of stuff that is clearly stitched together from ideas that were originally heading in another direction, and a bunch of elements, like St. Trina, are left completely unexplored. The ending is incredibly disappointing, and everything happening in the lands of shadow amounts to nothing. Radahn feels like he's there for fanservice more than because he should be there.
  
  
• Lastly, and this is minor: Enough with the f*cking dogs. This game should be called Elden Dog, there's dogs everywhere, in every location of the base game and in every location of the DLC, there's f*cking 9 dog variants now. I'm tired of seeing them, i'm tired of fighting them and it doesn't make sense that the population of this world is 50% dogs.

[Lilly Satou]

They reused an original boss for the final boss of the DLC lmao

[Key]

Aerieanei님이 먼저 게시:

There are dogs in places where there shouldn't be and characters are still showing off their dogs. Igon has nothing covering his dogs. Miquella's cutscene is just him and his dogs. Messmer and Frejya show off their dogs but not all of it. Just some of it. Leda has the decency to cover her dogs and try to hide her Yandereness. But there is a lot of dogs. You'll even find dogs in random caves, random crypts, random houses. There's literally random dogs in random ruins next to scorpions for no reason.

So I'm not the only one who's tired of seeing dogs everywhere, good to know.

[Umbral Knight]

There's got to be a lot of dogs because no one is every asking what the dog doin'?

That aside ♥♥♥♥ the amount of rats too. I can give a rat's ass.

[hade1]

Project Purple님이 먼저 게시:

Boss HP and damage mainly

I swapped to a no intelligence strength build and the bosses still suck even when I'm dealing 1700 damage a hit

This.
Bosses needed extra hp bars/phases (or a lot larger hp pool) and to offset that should do less damage and as mentioned elsewhere in this thread "have more breaks" in/between their combo chains to allow us to heal/get more than 1-2 hit counterattacks in. This would lead to longer fights that feel more rewarding to learn/master and then finally beat (with no flasks remaining), similar to their main bosses in recent previous games (e.g. Sekiro, Ringed City, Malenia in base ER etc).

Currently boss fights are over too quickly (they kill you quickly, or you kill them quickly - even more so once you pump up your skadu blessing), which doesn't feel as satisfying as those previous games/bosses mentioned.

[poppindancers]

Mostly the anime attacks.