Alright, I just beat the DLC.

I have very mixed feelings about it.

While the game was full of almost everything I wanted, the numbers department was not cooking. Primarily like everyone else, I'm going to talk about scaling and the difficulty. within this.

Again, I just beat the DLC I just beat Radahn so I feel like I have the means to speak on this.

Many many Spoilers are ahead (I will bar them) but I just wanna let you guys know ahead of time. I'm not going to spoiler Messmer as his name is all over the advertising for this DLC. He was the main focal point of this DLC advertising so I don't see it necessary to bar his mentioning.


To get everything else off the plate before the criticism. I think Fromsoft hit the mark on just about everything. I personally believe the world design, boss design (looks), the aesthetics, etc etc are damn near perfect. I'm quite unsure what Miyazaki was on when he said the size of Limgrave. This DLC is the feels the Size of Limegrave, Caelid, and Liurnia combined. It could be it's own game honestly. Not to mention the layers the DLC has is crazy, You'll go down a ladder, or down an elevator only to keep going down and down and down. You could argue the dungeons are "drawn out" but It felt good so good. Some dungeons don't even have bosses just weapons or other things you can use. I really enjoyed it. The boss aesthetics is second to none. Every boss felt insanely unique and remember-able like every FromSoft title. From the (true final boss) Black Gaol Knight, to Messmer the Impaler, every boss felt like it offered something new and unique. They even touched up on the dragons a little, so it was very nice to see.



Similar to just about everyone else, we have GOT to talk about scaling and the overall difficulty of the expansion. Words cannot describe to you how difficult this expansion is. Black Gaol knight is a meme for a reason. He is the boss that slapped everyone in the face. He was the cornerstone to how hard the rest of the DLC is going to be. I've seen my buddies with max poise, max strength and high Vigor builds for the full unga bunga experience get COMPLETELY one shot by him. Additionally, these builds are ones that have extremely high poise damage/stance break yet somehow this knight and tanking this attack and still hitting you? Truthfully his moveset is not problematic at all in my opinion. I wouldn't mind him being capable of this IF he wasn't killing you in a single blow.

This is a perfect time to talk about their scaling system. I'm unfortunately unsure what the actual numbers are on just how much they scale you down. However, what I do know is how the system works, which I'm going to explain. The Shadow Of the Erdtree DLC has a scaling system specifically for the DLC. Essentially whether you are level 500 or even level 50, you'll be feeling no real difference in your damage output/input. Additionally, all the enemies scale with you level if I'm not mistaken. Additionally, within the DLC your scaling can be increased, being that your damage output can be increased and your damage intake can be decreased if you collect these Scadutree Blessings (there is also a separate system like this for your spirit ashes which you can also level up). Again, I'm unsure what the numbers are but the nerf to your character is INSANELY significant. The whole idea is supposed to be for you collect these blessings and level them as it will increase the capabilities of your character.

However, truthfully, I was not seeing this significant boost within my character. I felt as if my damage was still minimal and their (boss/enemy) damage was incomprehensible. I'm no (at least for this run through) an unga bunga lord, however, for my caster, I'm still sitting at a solid 60 vigor (this is the stat soft cap that increased HP for those who aren't aware). I made sure to go out of my way to collect all the shards as the wiki/reddit/forums were updating to find these accursed things as they are supposed to be the things that push your capabilities. Bro. I'm Level 20 (the cap for the Scadutree blessings) and I'm still getting 2 shot. The only reason I didn't died to most bosses in a single hit or lived through a combo, is because I'm adding 25 different buffs before the start of a fight (this number is exaggerated but you get the point). If there is a "resistance" to something, I had it on before I started a fight. And I started doing this very quickly as the physical reduction black flame spell was my best friend as an example.

Furthermore, I want to talk about the boss designs. because the number system with the scaling is only part of the problem. Again, lemme reiterate. The bosses are amazing. However, very few; and I mean very few. Felt actually enjoyable to fight. There is a FINE LINE between difficult, and infuriating. Difficult is base Elden Ring. Infuriating is 99% of this DLC. (SPOILER AHEAD) Not only does the scaling system make everything significantly harder, BUT the bosses/enemies don't make it any better. I cannot explain to you how many times I would fight something and ask when is it my turn? When can I actually play the game and attack you, instead of rolling for 45 seconds at a time. You could chalk it up to "oh your panic rolling that's why". No, this is beyond that. There are genuinely many move sets/combos/chain attacks that bosses would do on a whim that you've never seen before. How do you die to a boss 40+ times and die to something new? Radahn used his gravity pull move 6 times back to back one time? There is no world where I should have to find a hyper-specific window time for myself to do an action before going into another 45 hit combo. My play through again was caster. There were so many moments I had to decided when fighting bosses on whether or not I drink an FP Flask (mana), HP (health), or maybe try and attack? Regardless of what I chose, I only had time to do that one action before whatever boss I'm fighting recovers from his 45 hit combo, only to go into another one. Also once again if I haven't stated the primary focal point on this review. The scaling is atrocious, thus, every single hit in this 45 piece combo is a Life Ender . Additonally, if you get hit by one, you get hit with the remainder of the chain. Which by itself isn't a new concept, however, bosses CONSTANTLY stringing these attacks is insane. Especially in regards to either:

a.) How fast they come out
b.) how long the 1 combo is combo is
c.) combo into a a diff combo
or
d.) All of the above

So many bosses got attacks off quick as hell. Some I still honestly don't know if you can dodge. And Radahn ] is the pinnacle of this issue. Lord have mercy on my soul. He has the same after image attack that Malenia does, but his comes out 900x faster than Malenia does. Truthfully, imo the ONLY reason I would rank Malenia being harder than Radahn is because of her healing. Even then it's CLOSE . When it came to Radahn I still don't know what the hell I was fighting. I had no clue what was going on. While his fight isn't the only one that had this problem. I'm just going to use him as he is the final boss of the DLC. So many attack tells are shielded via random visuals from their previous attacks. I think Messmer had it the WORST. Where he would use an attack and I couldn't see what he was going to do next as his flame on his weapon from the previous attack is blocking the view. I highly doubt this was intended because the flame/whatever visual lasted way longer than normal. And if it was intentional, take it out or reduce visual clutter some way. Again these bosses do way too much and move way to fast to be blocking my LOS (line of sight) of them. (ran out of space will continue in comment)

Alright, I just beat the DLC. I have very mixed feelings about it. While the game was full of almost everything I wanted, the numbers department was not cooking. Primarily like everyone else, I'm going to talk about scaling and the difficulty. within this. Again, I just beat the DLC [spoiler]I just beat Radahn[/spoiler] so I feel like I have the means to speak on this. Many many Spoilers are ahead (I will bar them) but I just wanna let you guys know ahead of time. I'm not going to spoiler Messmer as his name is all over the advertising for this DLC. He was the main focal point of this DLC advertising so I don't see it necessary to bar his mentioning. [h1] What they did check off [/h1] To get everything else off the plate before the criticism. I think Fromsoft hit the mark on just about everything. I personally believe the world design, boss design (looks), the aesthetics, etc etc are damn near perfect. I'm quite unsure what Miyazaki was on when he said the size of Limgrave. This DLC is the feels the Size of Limegrave, Caelid, and Liurnia combined. It could be it's own game honestly. Not to mention the layers the DLC has is crazy, You'll go down a ladder, or down an elevator only to keep going down and down and down. You could argue the dungeons are "drawn out" but It felt good so good. Some dungeons don't even have bosses just weapons or other things you can use. I really enjoyed it. The boss aesthetics is second to none. Every boss felt insanely unique and remember-able like every FromSoft title. From the (true final boss) Black Gaol Knight, to Messmer the Impaler, every boss felt like it offered something new and unique. They even touched up on the dragons a little, so it was very nice to see. [h1] The Actual Review [/h1] Similar to just about everyone else, we have [b] GOT [/b] to talk about scaling and the overall difficulty of the expansion. Words cannot describe to you how difficult this expansion is. Black Gaol knight is a meme for a reason. He is the boss that slapped everyone in the face. He was the cornerstone to how hard the rest of the DLC is going to be. I've seen my buddies with max poise, max strength and high Vigor builds for the full unga bunga experience get [b] COMPLETELY [/b] one shot by him. Additionally, these builds are ones that have extremely high poise damage/stance break yet somehow this knight and tanking this attack and still hitting you? Truthfully his moveset is not problematic at all in my opinion. I wouldn't mind him being capable of this [b] IF [/b] he wasn't killing you in a single blow. This is a perfect time to talk about their scaling system. I'm unfortunately unsure what the actual numbers are on just how much they scale you down. However, what I do know is how the system works, which I'm going to explain. The Shadow Of the Erdtree DLC has a scaling system specifically for the DLC. Essentially whether you are level 500 or even level 50, you'll be feeling no real difference in your damage output/input. Additionally, all the enemies scale with you level if I'm not mistaken. Additionally, within the DLC your scaling can be increased, being that your damage output can be increased and your damage intake can be decreased if you collect these Scadutree Blessings (there is also a separate system like this for your spirit ashes which you can also level up). Again, I'm unsure what the numbers are but the nerf to your character is INSANELY significant. The whole idea is supposed to be for you collect these blessings and level them as it will increase the capabilities of your character. However, truthfully, I was not seeing this significant boost within my character. I felt as if my damage was still minimal and their (boss/enemy) damage was incomprehensible. I'm no (at least for this run through) an unga bunga lord, however, for my caster, I'm still sitting at a solid 60 vigor (this is the stat soft cap that increased HP for those who aren't aware). I made sure to go out of my way to collect all the shards as the wiki/reddit/forums were updating to find these accursed things as they are [u] supposed [/u] to be the things that push your capabilities. Bro. I'm Level 20 (the cap for the Scadutree blessings) and I'm still getting 2 shot. The only reason I didn't died to most bosses in a single hit or lived through a combo, is because I'm adding 25 different buffs before the start of a fight (this number is exaggerated but you get the point). If there is a "resistance" to something, I had it on before I started a fight. And I started doing this very quickly as the physical reduction black flame spell was my best friend as an example. Furthermore, I want to talk about the boss designs. because the number system with the scaling is only part of the problem. Again, lemme reiterate. The bosses are amazing. However, very few; and I mean very few. Felt actually enjoyable to fight. There is a [b] FINE LINE [/b] between difficult, and infuriating. Difficult is base Elden Ring. Infuriating is 99% of this DLC. (SPOILER AHEAD) Not only does the scaling system make everything significantly harder, BUT the bosses/enemies don't make it any better. I cannot explain to you how many times I would fight something and ask [b] when is it my turn? [/b] When can I actually play the game and attack you, instead of rolling for 45 seconds at a time. You could chalk it up to "oh your panic rolling that's why". No, this is beyond that. There are genuinely many move sets/combos/chain attacks that bosses would do on a whim that you've never seen before. How do you die to a boss 40+ times and die to something new? [spoiler] Radahn used his gravity pull move 6 times back to back one time? [/spoiler] There is no world where I should have to find a hyper-specific window time for myself to do an action before going into another 45 hit combo. My play through again was caster. There were so many moments I had to decided when fighting bosses on whether or not I drink an FP Flask (mana), HP (health), or maybe try and attack? Regardless of what I chose, I only had time to do that one action before whatever boss I'm fighting recovers from his 45 hit combo, only to go into another one. Also once again if I haven't stated the primary focal point on this review. [b] The scaling is atrocious, [/b] thus, every single hit in this 45 piece combo is a [b] Life Ender [/b]. Additonally, if you get hit by one, you get hit with the remainder of the chain. Which by itself isn't a new concept, however, bosses CONSTANTLY stringing these attacks is insane. Especially in regards to either: a.) How fast they come out b.) how long the 1 combo is combo is c.) combo into a a diff combo or d.) All of the above So many bosses got attacks off quick as hell. Some I still honestly don't know if you can dodge. And [spoiler] Radahn [/spoiler]] is the pinnacle of this issue. Lord have mercy on my soul. He has the same after image attack that Malenia does, but his comes out 900x faster than Malenia does. Truthfully, imo the ONLY reason I would rank Malenia being harder than Radahn is because of her healing. Even then it's [b] CLOSE [/b]. When it came to [spoiler] Radahn [/spoiler] I still don't know what the hell I was fighting. I had no clue what was going on. While his fight isn't the only one that had this problem. I'm just going to use him as he is the final boss of the DLC. So many attack tells are shielded via random visuals from their previous attacks. I think Messmer had it the WORST. Where he would use an attack and I couldn't see what he was going to do next as his flame on his weapon from the previous attack is blocking the view. I highly doubt this was intended because the flame/whatever visual lasted way longer than normal. And if it was intentional, take it out or reduce visual clutter some way. Again these bosses do way too much and move way to fast to be blocking my LOS (line of sight) of them. (ran out of space will continue in comment)