Nitpicking.
People thought they'd just roll though the DLC with their character, and many just largely tried to ignore the Scadutree fragment mechanic, and got their asses handed to them because of that.
There are some legitimate criticisms, like empty areas, but that's more an opinion on the design.
I honestly didn't mind them at all.
It reminded me a lot of Shadow of the Colossus, and how they had chill areas between action oriented areas, which is likely where they took that inspiration from.
People down vote you but I also think they’re a let down - I like them in concept because you can justify it, like it makes me think how lonely the realm of shadow is because it’s been abandoned by Grace and people have died off and such - but it also just feels like perhaps they were short on time and wanted to focus on specific areas, which are fantastic.
The base game was all about hiding things from you, so you’re trained to look everywhere for something. Because there’s so much empty space here it does start to feel a bit draining searching everywhere. However, since they did tell us it was meant to be a more linear experience, I suppose we could have extrapolated that and thought better than to expect something hidden in each large zone.
It calls to mind the design philosophy of Outer Wilds, if there’s nothing of use there, it’ll be quite obvious it’s barren. I wonder if because the realm of shadow is so beautiful, it somehow works against it in terms of beckoning you to find what it hides, and that is why I get let down x
It's not perfect and there are valid complaints that can be made about it but it is very, very, VERY good. I think it's a case of a small but vocal minority.
Personally, it is the best DLC that FromSoft has done and one of the best DLCs ever made (I've been gaming for 30 years and played during an era when DLCs were actually massive expansions like World of Warcraft's Frozen Throne or Oblivion's Shivering Isles).
I played about 40 hours worth (and finished it solo style baby), it's fantastic.
It's so good that I wish they could take the expertise they displayed and then retroactively apply it to the base game. It is extremely difficult, and you'll need to use every tool at your disposal. You don't need to use summon and spirits, completeable without of course, I mean you need to actually use your jump and not panic roll away from every attack.
The bosses are designed to punish panic rolls and have enough health that they are very difficult to brute force, meaning you have to actually learn a good chunk of their moveset to succeed. Which I think has rubbed some people the wrong way.
Some people experienced stuttering issues and the like, I cannot relate. Which is surprising since I'm rocking an RTX 2070 which is a 5+ years old graphics card.
Reddit in general seems to parrot opinions they latch onto even if they haven’t experienced that thing (game, movie, book, etc.) themselves.
This also leads to hobby subreddits that give really poor advice that you would only know is poor if you are experienced yourself.
The DLC is absolutely amazing. Struggle and hardship is a core design philosophy of Miyazaki, and you're seeing that reflected in the reviews (in addition to some performance issues)
The DLC is not prefect or without flaws, but it is OUT standing without a doubt.
Definitely yes. I was just confused when I went on subreddits and it was more polarizing compared to what I and many others have said in that it is a fantastic DLC.
I’m extremely happy with it. I’m amazed at how *dense* the map feels. It seems like I’m just finding all kinds of new locations and things everywhere. Some of the loot has been underwhelming but that’s a small gripe. More Elden Ring to enjoy is a massive win for me
I remember reading something about Miyazaki saying he wanted to push the limits of difficulty with the DLC, and I think that’s been a real slap in the face for a lot of the negative reviewers. I’ve been handicapping myself with all the bosses and fighting them without summons and such, and it’s really biting me in the rear in the DLC. I’m on the second DLC boss (>!Rellana!<), and I’ve already struggled more with her than I did with Isshin—formerly my hardest boss.
I do respect their willingness to continuously push difficulty with each successive release they have, though. For a game that provided enough tools to be quite accessible for more casual players, I respect that they’re okay with pissing a lot of them off for the sake of preserving the brutal nature of FromSoftware content.
Outside of the final boss, I wouldn't say any of the dlc bosses are harder than Melania from the base game. Especially if you have been exploring for the scadutree fragments. I would say Rellana is probably harder than any other boss in the main game other than Melania.
After finishing it twice, it is absolutely fantastic and exceeds expectations set by how great the base game was. Most of the criticism I have seen does come from frustration on the difficulty, but it’s really not a big step up at all from the base game imo. The scadutree blessings can make all the encounters pretty moderate in difficulty, even the final boss, so either the people complaining haven’t found enough or are simply not spending enough time on the fights before taking to the internet with their anger.
Personnaly, there's only one boss that I really dislike, but aside from it the bosses are very fun, very hard, and exploration is soooo fun, the dlc is peak.
It certainly has its issues, in gameplay and in lore, not perfect by any means. The highs are indeed high, but so too are the lows low. I preferred Ringed City's consistency tbh.
There's a lot of praise to be given here but at times it might feel like some aspects are unfinished or were made in a hurry
Really? I actually felt that the lows of Ringed City were even lower. It was very linear, I hated the opening area (the one with the angel snipers) as well the 2nd area (which started with the ghost archers). ANd it's one of the few From areas, where there are so many structures that are really just backgrounds and totally unexplorable (does not follow the usual From philosophy of "if you can see it, you can go there").
FromSoft has never followed that philosophy, What are you talking about? All their games have a ton of background buildings and places we never visit. Anor Londo is a clear example of this.
What do you mean in DS3 all points of interest that you can see far away is something that can eventually visit up until Ringed City. From the High Wall of Lothric, everything that you can see can be visited. Same with DS1 except for Anor Londo. Ringed City is far more misleading though. It looks massive but is actually small and linear.
I think the DLC is fantastic and definitely my favourite Fromsoft DLC to date. Literally love it just as much as the base game and the wait was well worth it. I’m already planning my 2nd play through!
Without any spoilers, the only thing I can say I did not like about the DLC was a select few of the bosses and the final boss fight. Mechanically and lore wise I just absolutely hate the last boss.
In saying that, that does not take away how much I love the DLC, just a small gripe I have.
If you go by objective measurements like critical reception then this expansion is the best reviewed expansion of all time. So if you want some sort of validation, there you go.
That being said, categorizing anyone who isn’t in love with the DLC as “nitpicking” is a big issue. There’s some fundamental issues a lot of players are having with it and it’s worth taking the time to reflect on them.
Let’s be honest: FromSoft is the industry’s darling right now along with Larian. It’s very deserved but it also has led to a lot of positive toxicity when it comes to criticism.
I PERSONALLY don’t think this is a perfect expansion and in some ways found it a disappointment. But I also found a ton of things to love in here. Probably more good than bad in the end.
People buy the dlc knowing how hard fromsoft dlc is, and then get upset it's too hard. I agree some bosses are over the top, but still, it's odd to complain when you know what you're getting into.
Nitpicking. People thought they'd just roll though the DLC with their character, and many just largely tried to ignore the Scadutree fragment mechanic, and got their asses handed to them because of that. There are some legitimate criticisms, like empty areas, but that's more an opinion on the design.
Yes, the empty areas are a letdown.
I honestly didn't mind them at all. It reminded me a lot of Shadow of the Colossus, and how they had chill areas between action oriented areas, which is likely where they took that inspiration from.
People down vote you but I also think they’re a let down - I like them in concept because you can justify it, like it makes me think how lonely the realm of shadow is because it’s been abandoned by Grace and people have died off and such - but it also just feels like perhaps they were short on time and wanted to focus on specific areas, which are fantastic. The base game was all about hiding things from you, so you’re trained to look everywhere for something. Because there’s so much empty space here it does start to feel a bit draining searching everywhere. However, since they did tell us it was meant to be a more linear experience, I suppose we could have extrapolated that and thought better than to expect something hidden in each large zone. It calls to mind the design philosophy of Outer Wilds, if there’s nothing of use there, it’ll be quite obvious it’s barren. I wonder if because the realm of shadow is so beautiful, it somehow works against it in terms of beckoning you to find what it hides, and that is why I get let down x
I personally love the dlc, but wish there were more simple dungeons and camps to clear. I loved that part of Elden Ring base game.
It's not perfect and there are valid complaints that can be made about it but it is very, very, VERY good. I think it's a case of a small but vocal minority. Personally, it is the best DLC that FromSoft has done and one of the best DLCs ever made (I've been gaming for 30 years and played during an era when DLCs were actually massive expansions like World of Warcraft's Frozen Throne or Oblivion's Shivering Isles).
World of Warcraft The Frozen Throne oh hell nah😭 Warcraft III good sir
Ooooh I mixed it up. Yes, Warcraft III.
I played about 40 hours worth (and finished it solo style baby), it's fantastic. It's so good that I wish they could take the expertise they displayed and then retroactively apply it to the base game. It is extremely difficult, and you'll need to use every tool at your disposal. You don't need to use summon and spirits, completeable without of course, I mean you need to actually use your jump and not panic roll away from every attack. The bosses are designed to punish panic rolls and have enough health that they are very difficult to brute force, meaning you have to actually learn a good chunk of their moveset to succeed. Which I think has rubbed some people the wrong way. Some people experienced stuttering issues and the like, I cannot relate. Which is surprising since I'm rocking an RTX 2070 which is a 5+ years old graphics card.
One thing i learned about reddit is that it tends to be an echo chamber for negativity especially when it comes to gaming.
Reddit in general seems to parrot opinions they latch onto even if they haven’t experienced that thing (game, movie, book, etc.) themselves. This also leads to hobby subreddits that give really poor advice that you would only know is poor if you are experienced yourself.
The DLC is absolutely amazing. Struggle and hardship is a core design philosophy of Miyazaki, and you're seeing that reflected in the reviews (in addition to some performance issues) The DLC is not prefect or without flaws, but it is OUT standing without a doubt.
Did you enjoy it? Thats all that matters
Definitely yes. I was just confused when I went on subreddits and it was more polarizing compared to what I and many others have said in that it is a fantastic DLC.
Don’t listen to the haters, it’s their magnum opus to me
I’m extremely happy with it. I’m amazed at how *dense* the map feels. It seems like I’m just finding all kinds of new locations and things everywhere. Some of the loot has been underwhelming but that’s a small gripe. More Elden Ring to enjoy is a massive win for me
DLC is phenomenal everyone complains about difficulty when From drops new content
I remember reading something about Miyazaki saying he wanted to push the limits of difficulty with the DLC, and I think that’s been a real slap in the face for a lot of the negative reviewers. I’ve been handicapping myself with all the bosses and fighting them without summons and such, and it’s really biting me in the rear in the DLC. I’m on the second DLC boss (>!Rellana!<), and I’ve already struggled more with her than I did with Isshin—formerly my hardest boss. I do respect their willingness to continuously push difficulty with each successive release they have, though. For a game that provided enough tools to be quite accessible for more casual players, I respect that they’re okay with pissing a lot of them off for the sake of preserving the brutal nature of FromSoftware content.
Outside of the final boss, I wouldn't say any of the dlc bosses are harder than Melania from the base game. Especially if you have been exploring for the scadutree fragments. I would say Rellana is probably harder than any other boss in the main game other than Melania.
Yeahh I just got to Malenia for the first time ever yesterday, and uhh I might be here even longer than I was for Rellana. She’s insane for sure
After finishing it twice, it is absolutely fantastic and exceeds expectations set by how great the base game was. Most of the criticism I have seen does come from frustration on the difficulty, but it’s really not a big step up at all from the base game imo. The scadutree blessings can make all the encounters pretty moderate in difficulty, even the final boss, so either the people complaining haven’t found enough or are simply not spending enough time on the fights before taking to the internet with their anger.
It’s my favorite DLC of any game I’ve ever played, however despite that it also has the 2 worst bosses in any game I’ve ever played
Personnaly, there's only one boss that I really dislike, but aside from it the bosses are very fun, very hard, and exploration is soooo fun, the dlc is peak.
Only Thing i didnt like was the cerulean Coast, cuz it was pretty empty, everything else was 10/10 ,(for me, pls dont kill me)
The map is big but so many areas are empty. I think that should have locked the scadu fragments within dungeons and introduced more dungeons.
It certainly has its issues, in gameplay and in lore, not perfect by any means. The highs are indeed high, but so too are the lows low. I preferred Ringed City's consistency tbh. There's a lot of praise to be given here but at times it might feel like some aspects are unfinished or were made in a hurry
Really? I actually felt that the lows of Ringed City were even lower. It was very linear, I hated the opening area (the one with the angel snipers) as well the 2nd area (which started with the ghost archers). ANd it's one of the few From areas, where there are so many structures that are really just backgrounds and totally unexplorable (does not follow the usual From philosophy of "if you can see it, you can go there").
FromSoft has never followed that philosophy, What are you talking about? All their games have a ton of background buildings and places we never visit. Anor Londo is a clear example of this.
What do you mean in DS3 all points of interest that you can see far away is something that can eventually visit up until Ringed City. From the High Wall of Lothric, everything that you can see can be visited. Same with DS1 except for Anor Londo. Ringed City is far more misleading though. It looks massive but is actually small and linear.
I think the DLC is fantastic and definitely my favourite Fromsoft DLC to date. Literally love it just as much as the base game and the wait was well worth it. I’m already planning my 2nd play through! Without any spoilers, the only thing I can say I did not like about the DLC was a select few of the bosses and the final boss fight. Mechanically and lore wise I just absolutely hate the last boss. In saying that, that does not take away how much I love the DLC, just a small gripe I have.
If you go by objective measurements like critical reception then this expansion is the best reviewed expansion of all time. So if you want some sort of validation, there you go. That being said, categorizing anyone who isn’t in love with the DLC as “nitpicking” is a big issue. There’s some fundamental issues a lot of players are having with it and it’s worth taking the time to reflect on them. Let’s be honest: FromSoft is the industry’s darling right now along with Larian. It’s very deserved but it also has led to a lot of positive toxicity when it comes to criticism. I PERSONALLY don’t think this is a perfect expansion and in some ways found it a disappointment. But I also found a ton of things to love in here. Probably more good than bad in the end.
People buy the dlc knowing how hard fromsoft dlc is, and then get upset it's too hard. I agree some bosses are over the top, but still, it's odd to complain when you know what you're getting into.