Exploring the DLC feels like a chore

[rich handsome]

I am just going in circles. Map is so full of empty space and no sense of direction on how to get there.

[Tao314zdin]

Map has markers, use them to note pathways that you leave for later.

Setting a direction and trying to get specifically there might get tricky, however if you just go around exposing one path after the other you will end up discovering most of the places if not all (depends on how good you are at noticing things)

[stealthkiller22]

same as the main game without looking at guides you lose your way to easily

[Faptor]

The map was the real final boss for me, also >.<

[Sgt. Flaw]

Na...when you get stuck it does..but it's awesome when you finally find that path or open that spring and discover a whole new area that looks completely nuts

[Angrypillow]

I've found how to get to some of the places on my own just by virtue of general exploration...but despite the incredible world design some of the paths to other areas are so convoluted that when I did finally research how to get there I was like "How in the hell are most people supposed to find any of this organically?"

I never found this to be an issue at all in the base game. I found everything on my own, and even on my first playthrough found alternate routes to get places without even knowing they were alternate routes at the time. Everything had a certain flow to it that the DLC simply doesn't.

[toughnails]

The map is actually pretty good, did you know that you can go to Cerulean Coast even before Rellana? But St' Trina's dungeon will be sealed by a golden gate (similar to the one you see when you try to leave Leyndell without beating Morgott first).

[SpaceWombat]

One of the biggest problems with the the DLC map to me is Fromsoft has become too over reliant on making things "secret" just for the sake of it. This is not something the basegame does at all.

secrets are cool if the player has no knowledge of them and happens to find them. Secrets are NOT cool if the player is teased by them on the map or in the distance but the entrance is locked behind some convoluted path that bears no connection to the surrounding geography.

In DS1 Ash Lake was awesome because it was a hidden area that the player had no knowledge of unless they happened to discover the hidden entrance in blighttown. The difference with SotE is that the northeastern area and frenzy swamp are both places the player can see on their map ( taking up a QUARTER of it mind you ) and look down/across into almost immediately. When an area takes up such a sizeable chunk of the map It's natural that the player will assume the adjacent areas will house the entrance not some statue requiring a gesture or illusory wall which has zero indicator of being a false wall.

[Angrypillow]

Originally posted by SpaceWombat:

secrets are cool if the player has no knowledge of them and happens to find them. Secrets are NOT cool if the player is teased by them on the map or in the distance but the entrance is locked behind some convoluted path that bears no connection to the surrounding geography.

This pretty much sums it up perfectly.

[Titan]

I do agree, sometimes I get a little angry at the map design in these games. Like I can SEE where I want to go directly on the other side of that chasm, the boss arena is RIGHT PHUCKIN THERE, so why so I have to loop around the entirety of calid to find my way there instead of there just being a path I can just walk down like a normal human being?

Optional side content, sure, Put that ♥♥♥♥ out of the way so I have to look for it, that's fair. But it shouldn't be that much of a chore to get to main points of progression within the game.