Was anyone else super letdown by the Cerulean coast?

[Not_L_Username]

The area looks absolutely incredible but there's nothing there? 1 reskin dragon with some ads, 1 demi human and one NPC boss. Like I want this area to be my favorite in the game and I get huge DS2 nostalgia vibes, but it just kinda sucks no?
There were so many items all of which turned out to be glovewort and smithing stones I don't need, Like what gives?

[RedEssence]

Yeah a bunch of the DLC areas feel empty

the Abyss
Cerulean coast
The finger ruin areas, they are all just super empty with not much to do

[Not_L_Username]

Originally posted by RedEssence:

Yeah a bunch of the DLC areas feel empty

the Abyss
Cerulean coast
The finger ruin areas, they are all just super empty with not much to do

yeah it's like the legacy / linear dungeons I HAVE done have been super solid but I am quite torn about the open world, and I'm not even that far into the DLC.

[Gym_Leader_Myth]

I feel like some areas were created specifically for the Vistas. the beautiful view. Like, the Cerulean Coast is there almost entirely for one dragon, some glovewort, and that one really deep hole that you can parkour down - It's beautiful, but nothing really provides a story explanation of those weird structures (at least, not that i have found yet).

The Finger Ruins area is there purely for the Lampreys and Finger Creepers. it's deliberately open to give you the feeling of vacancy -but it really just screams "there should be a weird boss fight here" and we don't get that until Finger Bell #3 has been rung, and it's in an entirely different location.

[ZTL-Altima]

I don't stress too much with empty space in open world, it can just serve as sense of adventure. The chaotic way the map was designed is a more serious offense. That all being said, a compact open world serving 100% game design functions would result in a much better game.

It's not open world, the area traversed is not too big, but the best adventure in entire Souls series is still Firelink->Depths->Blighttown->Firelink loop in Dark Souls 1.

[S3NTI3NT]

Dont forget its a DLC. But I get what your saying. At least you cant ride torrent, unlike the abyss.

[Not_L_Username]

Originally posted by ZTL-Altima:

I don't stress too much with empty space in open world, it can just serve as sense of adventure. The chaotic way the map was designed is a more serious offense. That all being said, a compact open world serving 100% game design functions would result in a much better game.

It's not open world, the area traversed is not too big, but the best adventure in entire Souls series is still Firelink->Depths->Blighttown->Firelink loop in Dark Souls 1.

I'm still mad at myself for going Firelink - darkroot garden - blighttown - hike back out - discover sewer key after Anor Londo 🤣

[Not_L_Username]

Originally posted by Gym_Leader_Myth:

I feel like some areas were created specifically for the Vistas. the beautiful view. Like, the Cerulean Coast is there almost entirely for one dragon, some glovewort, and that one really deep hole that you can parkour down - It's beautiful, but nothing really provides a story explanation of those weird structures (at least, not that i have found yet).

The Finger Ruins area is there purely for the Lampreys and Finger Creepers. it's deliberately open to give you the feeling of vacancy -but it really just screams "there should be a weird boss fight here" and we don't get that until Finger Bell #3 has been rung, and it's in an entirely different location.

Nice way of looking at it tbh

[Echorion]

Yeah I thought I made a mistake and was missing everything and checked the fextralife map with everything turned on and.....just barely anything.

The rest of the DLC is packed though, and so is the base game, so a "brief respite" is kinda nice

[Key]

Honestly I was let down by a lot of areas in terms of enemies/rewards/exploration.

You have to admit, though, the evironmental artists knocked it out of the park. It's insane how pretty some of the areas look.

[Sifer2]

It's a little similar to how the late game snowy areas of Elden Ring felt more empty too. Like they ran out of time. The whole southern part of the Shadow realms map along with the Finger areas feel pretty empty. At least compared to the extreme density of everything in the northern part of the map, and the Black Fortress.