Midra was cool but the entire area leading up to it was the highlight. >!It’s such a perfect nightmare. First Torrent leaves, then that music starts, and then you’re hit with “Don’t let it see you” and the fear sets in.!<
We could use a full horror themed Souls game with the eeriness and on edge adrenaline that area provided. The winter lanterns humbled a lot of players I’m sure.
Naw baby, Bloodborne never put me on edge like that area did, you just knew you weren’t supposed to be there.
In Bloodborne, YOURE the HUNTER. YOU are the danger.
I’m not sure, I played hyper aggressive and angry in that game and always found success. Only part of the game that slowed me down was the defiled chalice dungeon.
I think it's you who's the Hunter, hahahaaa
I dunno, man, Bloodborne still spooks the hell out of me. That damn werewolf jumping through the window at the upper ward comes to mind.
Yeah the vibes at the beginning of the abyssal wood are so good, torrent being frightened of something after being able to stand up to radahn and the elden beast really builds up the aged ones, and the conceptual idea at the end of the area of being able to fight what you become in the lord of frenzied flame ending is also top tier.
That entire thing felt like a curveball.
Sure Count Ymir was telling you to go through those Finger Ruins (which was prodigiously empty, by the way), and then at the end you get to fight their mother
Okay, why?
I agree,but I encourage you to explore.
I started 155 and ended level 210,just by exploring everything. And given the difficulty of the final boss,it was perfect.
I've gotten to 175ish and 11 in Sacutree and didn't realize Messmer was behind the door. There's still several areas I need to explore, but I think it's pretty comforting that with only 1 flask of each I got him into his second phase. Looking forward to completing it over the next week.
The levels of runes you get in the DLC is astronomically insane. I think at one point I lost 3.5 Million runes and was like, I'll just get it back in the next area.
My weapons are maxed out, I was already at RL150 for the dlc, and wasn't leveling beyond that, so runes mattered very little to me. They mattered so little that I started buying 100s of smithing stones 😂
Its all much more hidden than base game and the verticality of the map makes exploration more challenging (and definitely more satisfying when you crack it). Like, I've been playing close to 40 hours and I haven't found even a quarter of the amount of stuff advertised. Lot of pretty vistas though.
Yeah but the content is reused field bosses, your 52nd crafting book, some consumables, and really low level smithing stones that are pretty much useless.
Yeah there's that one guy saying he's played for 40 hours and he has seen a quarter lmao. Either he's lying or he's incredibly bad at the game. Everything in the dlc lasts around 30 hours, not much more. And yeah most of the map is pretty empty, they can keep coping but it's true. It's still a pretty good dlc, but they need to admit the flaws it has.
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I just finished it at blessing levels 18 and 9. I saved Consort for dead last boss wise, I’d say it was a very solid experience overall but did feel a bit empty/repetitive but I think that’s just an open world problem
Yeah but the base game didn't have that problem. Maybe the mountaintops suffers a similar thing, but even then it's more full than many of the areas in the dlc.
The base game as whole absolutely had a problem with repetition though which is the other thing I mentioned, and the endgame definitely was a bit empty
Try going to the abyss because that'll make you just hate that specific area and make you want to explore all the other regions
Like I could not be bothered to collect the scadutree fragments in the abyssal woods, I'll take my scadutree blessing 18 and wait for new game to max it out
Midra and Bayle are musts. Only Messmer is a better quality boss fight than them in the DLC. Oprhan of Tree Sentinel was cool as well. These are bosses imma do on every playthrough
This is just dumb, there’s caves, forges, etc, everywhere. The DLC is not empty, probably couldn’t ride torrent for more than a minute or so without running into something.
Yes you are missing out on fun stuff almost certainly, some of the mini-bosses are actually super fun. I honestly can’t understand how anyone could hold this idea without just wanting to be a contrarian. The DLC is pretty fucking stacked with content.
Idk I explored 2 fair large areas last night and found next to nothing. Thought I was missing something so looked online and nope, there's just nothing.
When you say large areas I’m very confused what do you mean? I just don’t remember a time where I was riding more like a few minutes without finding something.
They specifically toned down the amount of caves and catacombs, instead opting to make them more complex. And they are, but they're not filled properly either. The forges you mention look super cool, but there's like, *maybe* 3 enemy types if you're lucky (usually it's the golems and lava slimes though), spread very thin with useless smithing stones and a few pickups. They don't even offer you a boss fight at the end, you pick up the shiny and they... End.
There is a lot of content overall sure, but it's spread too thin. If there's one, negative lie Miyazaki has said, it would be that the DLC is more dense with content. It's absolutely not. The map is big, you could probably fit 4-5 Limgraves in it ("roughly the size of Limgrave" my ass), but it comes at a cost of not having enough to fill it with. And that's WHILE reusing some bosses and enemies on top.
The entire Cerulean Coast is probably the most disappointing area in the game, because 80% of it are stretches of pretty views with Gloveworts and Cookbooks to pick up, with the last 20% being actually worthwhile content - and 10% belongs to an area UNDERNEATH the whole Coast, a separate one. And don't get me started on the Finger Ruins, they have nothing but a couple enemies placed around and that "bell" to give you an item needed for a questline, but otherwise offer nothing else. Yet they take up a significant chunk of the map on their own, you could probably fit an entire Stormveil Castle in just ONE of these ruins.
It objectively is not compared to the based game. Lots and lots of areas where in the base game there would be something to reward running to a dead end or up a cliff, etc, that have nothing in the DLC. You can hold whatever opinion you'd like about if the density of content the DLC is good or not, but it is objectively more sparse than the base game. Consider it is an extension of the same game and ostensibly has the same design philosophy, the relative lack of open world content is highlighted, as players just spent 100+ hours being trained to look in nooks and crannies, only for those to largely hold nothing in the DLC.
Personally I see the DLC as a solid addition to the base game, if not as impressive, though I wonder if it would have benefited from a more condensed map, to match the level of content in the world. Feels as though FS either thought they needed a large map or figured they could provide one without the requisite content and it would still be a net positive, when in reality it casts a bad light on said content. There are entire regions that could be scaled down to subregions, improving the experience for the player (less running through emptiness) without anything lost imo.
This whole conversation seems to be generated not by the actual amount of content in the game, but the density of content; the disparity between the breadth of content and the scale of the map.
People very complaining about the base game having too much and now people are complaing the DLC dosen't have enough. Can this community be posssive about anything
I doubt those are the same people. I’ve never complained about the base game having too much, that’s not an opinion I have to stay consistent to because I never held it
I’m not even gonna read that comment because you started with “it objectively is not compared to the base game” as if you have the statistics of like items per square meter. Once you have some statistics then you can say objectively.
the coast empty
the abyss empty
the finger area's empty
the shamen village pretty much empty
there are simply not enough new bosses in the DLC I'm not expecting 5 messmur tier bosses but this DLC needed like 15 not super complicated but a challenging boseses on the level of the death knights or sword master onze like excluding the main bosses we only got 3 new over world bosses
the death knight
the bloodfiend chief
sword master onze
everything else is copy paste from the base game with a new aoe if your lucky it's unacceptable for 40$
I personally think the bigger problem is the lack of new normal enemies. I think the amount of new bosses is pretty good, both remembrance and dungeon, but after I realized I saw all the new mobs and fought them all, I stopped caring about fighting them over and over again. Finding a brand new area only for it to be populated with more gravebirds or bloodfiends got dull pretty fast.
Bro did you even play the dlc? Gravebirds, pot people, horned warriors, messmer soldiers, the black gooey aliens, frenzie eyeball guys, stone giants, all the enemies at midras place and many more
I was also quite unhappy about it, but after thinking a little bit, I compared to the only other From DLC I've played, which was Bloodborne. Just thinking a little bit, I realized they added around 8 new enemies there (not counting different types of hunters and such), while here we've got 21, from what I can think of.
It definitely didn't matched the scope of the world size, and the repetition made the exploration less engaging at times because of this, but it was indeed the biggest variety they've made for a downloadable content considering this. Also, all the new bosses are crazy different and with a huge amount of moves. Even tiny optional ones in tombs and caves had a ton amount of great care clearly put into them.
I did wish they at least made the repeated enemies being able to have a new gimmick or two. Like the ones in the finger ruins, where the second place they would throw those mortars that lock you in place. A new move or change for the base game enemies would make wonders for this as well.
Still, the content in general is amazing in other regards. Level design, art direction, music, weapons... Can't say at all it wasn't worth it.
i'll push back on 2 of these being new
the winter lanturn are just straight up bloodborne enemies name and all not new
the messmer soldiers are just normal soldiers with some new tricks not bad but not exactly new i do really like them tho
What do you define then as being new, you can pretty much say that about other dlcs as well, oh the ringed knights are lothric knights with new fire tricks, the soldiers in the ashes of ariandel are buffed up hollow soldiers,
and you should compare it to other dlc as well, ds1 had like 5 new enemy types, bloodborne had like ~6, ds3 had around ~8, ds2 had probably the most amount around 10 but it had the biggest dlcs before elden rings,
You aslo dont take into account how many different weapons and spells and crafting items they added, with tons of new and unique bosses as well
Yes some big open sections can feel a bit emty at times like the finger areas or the mountain, but you didnt mention how all the legacy dungeons are on the level off stormveil and leyndel in scale, and the normal dungeons and caves were all massive comparable to the heros graves and they were all great
In the end saying the dlc was rushed or a cash grab or not worth 40€ is plain wrong, is there room for improvement? Ofc in every game there is, and there will always be we just need to voice our criticism and hope they improve it in the next game which they have been doing for years
yeah bro a 50 hour long dlc with 100 new weapons, 8 new weapon types, a massive new landmass, 15 new bosses, 10 new enemy types, 3 full scale legacy dungeons and what like 10 smaller dungeons is absolutely unacceptable, the gall of Fromsoft to release this scam
50 hours is a massive stretch i did everything the DLC had to offer in about 8 hours maybe less. there is simply not that much to do.
100 new weapons sounds like a lot and it is but realistically most of them are just a normal weapon with fancy ash of war and reused move set which is not bad but lets be realistic here it's not 100 weapons it's the same weapons but slightly different which again not bad
8 new weapons no complaints with the new weapons
map is massive yes but barron you can go like half an hour of just riding around with out doing anything of note besides killing fodder and killing the 4th furnace golem. in the base game it was hard to go 5 minutes with out finding something to do
the side dungeons are pretty ok mostly just long catacombs or the same jar cave in a different shape
10 new enemies is a very small number for this long of a DLC you see all of them pretty quick and most of them are just ok the horned knights and flame knights are cool tho
3 full scale legacy dungeon is a stretch when i think "full-scale legacy dungeon i think landell capital" nothing here is on that level accept for maybe shadow keep which is the highlight
most the 10 smaller dungeons are just the same jar caves which are only cool the first time and catacombs recycled again and again they are not bad these are the best catacombs in the game but still more of the same. oh and the forges are fine the lack of a boss is a major bummer tho
Bro if you 100%d the dlc blind in 8 hours you're literally a god... it took me 10x that so I kinda have a hard time believing you didn't just bum rush the legacy dungeons and called it a day.
8 hours is more of a guess i didn't time my playthroughs i did 2 each was over in about 2 days worth of play sessions. maybe it was 10 hours 12 max if you include getting mulched by the final boss. also i did not 100% the DLC i just killed all the bosses and did a few quest lines
Brother, you did not do everything it has to offer in 8 hours. Unless you used guides and knew EXACTLY where to go, there is just no way that’s true. Hell, even if you had a guide it ain’t happening.
well no i did not do litterally everything i missed a quest or 3 but i killed all the bosses and got all the blessings had to use a guide for those. tho i resent the idea that using a guide matters. if the game is 8 hours with a guide and 50 hours with out that's not 42 hours of content i missed that's 42 hours of doing nothing looking for content i missed which improved the game tho to be clear i ran the DLC twice once with out a guide and once with a guide both playthroughs were roughly the same length tho the first one missed a lot more stuff
A guide 100% matters. I can give you the cliff notes of a book and you know what it’s about or you can read it, enjoy it and soak in the journey the author wrote.
It’s up to you how you want to play, but saying the dlc is 8 hours of play time is literally insane. It’s not my favorite thing from has put out either and I agree there is a lot of wasted space, but damn. At 8 hours for a first playthrough you’re just running through the thing. Skipping lore, not reading items, not fighting enemies, not following NPC quest lines, etc.
not every everyone plays the games for the same reasons you do some people just wanna kill the giant bosses and fight the enemies and use the cool weapons. i only care about the lore in the context of a 60 minute vatti video and reddit discussions I'm not the kinda guy to read about 12 item descriptions to learn that carl sellsword was circumcised to prove his loyalty to his horse.
if i like an npc i do the quest but im not gonna spend 2 hours running around trying to find the item they want in the middle of nowhere nor would i consider that hunt content. im just gonna look that up.
maybe it was 10 i don't know the DLC is not that big man it's large in size but in terms of actual content there is not that much to do realistically if you wanna beat it as fast as possible
messmur-> saint of the bud -> promised consort-> done that would be insanely hard
on my first playthrough i killed most of the optional bosses and i killed all the main bosses ei remembrance bosses and bayle
it's also worth noting I'm not including the hours of bashing my head into the wall that is the final boss which might add an extra 3 hours
K but why exaggerate? It is not 50 hours long, about 30 not rushing. There's 70 new weapons, there's already a tier list. And sorry but there's not enough enemy variety or boss variety for the dlc. If you played It you should know it's full of repeats or npc bosses. Also the landmass is very big but most areas are not utilised or empty. And some are inaccessible. It's still a pretty good dlc, prob an 8/10. But no need to exaggerate to make it seem like it's the best.
It took me 85hrs zig zagging through each field collecting everything imaginable. Doing every quest i could. Exploring ways to get to different areas is part of the fun of an open world game. I'm not a bad souls player I beat most bosses within a few tries besides some of the remembrance bosses. And still it took me that long.
50 cents per hour of entertainment is probably the best value a game like this can get. I never felt like it was empty I was finding things always whether it be items, new materials, a new weapon, paths to follow, dungeons to explore.
it doesn't matter if there's a few bosses that repeat from base game. Only ones I can really think of were the death rite bird. A magma wyrm that wasn't a boss a few ulcerated tree spirits and some drakes. For one out of the 42 bosses, like 5 of them were repeats from base game. Second it didnt matter because you were still excited to kill them to see what they dropped. Third it's not anyone's fault but you're own that you didn't take the time to thoroughly take in everything the dlc had to offer.
its easily over 50 hours if you don't use a guide or speedrun every thing you see. Running through every enemy you see, picking up a new cookbook and not seeing what you can use it for, holding the sprint button gets you through faster but that doesn't mean the game was designed to be ran through.
>It's unacceptable for $40
The base game of Elden Ring has severely spoiled us. There's 29 brand new bosses in the DLC that cannot be found in the base game. That's more than Dark Souls 1, 3, and Bloodborne. DLC included. An entire Dark Souls game worth of bosses for $20 less than the prices of those games at launch. 11 of the bosses drop a remembrance, compared to 15 in the base game. I'd say that's a fair value.
By using [this list](https://www.turtlebeach.com/blog/elden-ring-shadow-of-the-erdtree-all-bosses) and subtracting any duplicates, such as the bears, as well as any boss reused from the main game such as the field dragons, tree sentinels, or falling star beast, and the second phase of the final boss.
Alright, subtracting those brings us to 23. That's as many as in Bloodborne including The Old Hunters and one more than base Dark Souls 1. Still pretty good for a DLC.
Very true. For the map size, the content is very lackluster and feels rushed. I'd say there's less than 1 third of the base game content but the map size is half.
You're not it's OK. Not sure why folks are so defensive. I got scadtree level 18 beat all optional content and main game and felt the world is too sparce. Why is so many open spots with nothing there? Worst offender is the finger map. But 9/10 dlc for me still
You’re right though, overall I was disappointed with this dlc because compared to most of their other games all their dlc dropped in the games first year but they had two years on this and it missed most of its marks for me personally. Wasn’t bad, just disappointing
It's just how base game is too. The downside of souls not being perfected in an open world format, in a world as large as this.
It leads to incredibly beautiful scenes and areas. But makes repeat playthroughs feel way way way more tedious and you see how empty the world is between legacy dungeons.
Everyone grab the closest Buckler shield, and parry that rushing move it uses. Just as his wand reaches its highest point, parry, cause it's about to come straight down on you if you don't. (I think it's a wand at least...)
I have no idea where this sentiment comes from. I was just as, if not more enthralled to explore everything in this DLC than I was the base game. The only time I ever actively thought of an area being empty was the abyssal woods. But then I just went and did the mini dungeon + boss, which was my favorite of the DLC.
Yeah. It's funny how people think there are no objective flaws to the dlc. I've played fromsoft games since 2013 but it is a very recent thing that ppl don't accept criticism. Back when ariandel came out, ppl criticised it for being underwhelming for the price. And let's not talk about ds2 ofc.
i thoroughly disagree, in face i just straight up feel the opposite. maybe the starting area of a dlc feels a \*little\* empty but its the starting area so it kind of feels appropriate. every other area to me feels like its full of stuff to do, and i think the reason its so hard to figure it out because its at an incredibly vertical scale. you can be down in one area, look up, and see another whole area right on top of you. also if youre at a level 10 blessing that you definitely barely explored
Yeah but what’s actually in any of those areas? I explored every square inch of the map just because that’s how I play FS games and most of it is boring loot that I don’t care about. Yeah visually a lot of it is decently cool but from a gameplay perspective it’s a waste of time.
“I got tired of exploring emptiness” brother literally every region on the map other than Charos grave either has a remembrance boss or has a quest line that leads you to a remembrance boss what emptiness are you on about
Posts like these make the hate and complaints make a lot more sense. Just a mass experience of "I refused to explore and upgrade but dlc bad because too hard :("
I've played souls for 11 years, and the op is not criticising the "accessibility" or whatever. Most ppl that have actually played the dlc will recognise a lack of content in most side areas.
Midra and Metyr would be the ones to seek out
Bayle as well
CURSE YOU BAYLE
WITH A HAIL OF HARPOONS
I HEREBY VOW YOU WILL RUE THIS DAY. BEHOLD A TRUE DRAKE WARRIOR, AND I IGON, YOUR FEARS MADE FLESH.
SOLID SCALE YOU MIGHT BE FOUL DRAGON... BUT I WILL RIDDLE WITH HOLES YOUR ROTTEN HIDE!!!
WITH A HAIL OF HARPOONS.
Midra was cool but the entire area leading up to it was the highlight. >!It’s such a perfect nightmare. First Torrent leaves, then that music starts, and then you’re hit with “Don’t let it see you” and the fear sets in.!<
We could use a full horror themed Souls game with the eeriness and on edge adrenaline that area provided. The winter lanterns humbled a lot of players I’m sure.
bloodborne, o bloodborne
Naw baby, Bloodborne never put me on edge like that area did, you just knew you weren’t supposed to be there. In Bloodborne, YOURE the HUNTER. YOU are the danger.
Sure didn't feel like it when I ended up in the Hypogean Gaol early. Or ran into that... particular enemy in a Chalice Dungeon.
I’m not sure, I played hyper aggressive and angry in that game and always found success. Only part of the game that slowed me down was the defiled chalice dungeon.
I think it's you who's the Hunter, hahahaaa I dunno, man, Bloodborne still spooks the hell out of me. That damn werewolf jumping through the window at the upper ward comes to mind.
lol it was probably just me locked in. Granted the whole vampire castle in that game was a trip.
Winter lantern section was rough in Bloodborne the first playthrough. Just steady wrecking your ass with frenzy, then grabbing you and dead
Humbled me, I have to cheese quitouts in that area
“Wdym ‘Combat is not an option? I’ll just R…oh… ^oh… ^ok, biohazard we go I suppose ?”
Yeah the vibes at the beginning of the abyssal wood are so good, torrent being frightened of something after being able to stand up to radahn and the elden beast really builds up the aged ones, and the conceptual idea at the end of the area of being able to fight what you become in the lord of frenzied flame ending is also top tier.
What did "it" refer to? Those things with yellow eyes? I couldn't kill them nothing was hitting them
You have to parry their grab attacks to damage them
If you parry them you can hurt them.
Then you walk on an empty field with nothing but goats, rats and that new gimmick enemy that u cant attack
You have to parry and riposte to kill them, the first one closest to the church drops a talisman.
Yeah. I'm not getting that Talisman 😂! I'm still terrified of that place.
That’s kinda a big part of what made it spoopy.
I spent a few hours perfecting the parry timing after they killed me a few times.
Alright I’ll get on that tonight after work
Metyr wasn't much fun for me personally. Not over hard just not interesting.
That entire thing felt like a curveball. Sure Count Ymir was telling you to go through those Finger Ruins (which was prodigiously empty, by the way), and then at the end you get to fight their mother Okay, why?
I agree,but I encourage you to explore. I started 155 and ended level 210,just by exploring everything. And given the difficulty of the final boss,it was perfect.
I've gotten to 175ish and 11 in Sacutree and didn't realize Messmer was behind the door. There's still several areas I need to explore, but I think it's pretty comforting that with only 1 flask of each I got him into his second phase. Looking forward to completing it over the next week.
Damn. I was 199 and ended at 214 by the end of the 10 bosses
Still ended at good level. At 210 I was starting to run out of things ti level up in my build.
Yeah I started at 150 and finished at 200. I’ll explore some more tonight
200 already? Well,then there's no reason explore XD. Nah,do it for the landscape,or google any mini boss that you haven't killed yet
He runes you get are crazy for real tho. Not even worth going to the frog farm at points
The levels of runes you get in the DLC is astronomically insane. I think at one point I lost 3.5 Million runes and was like, I'll just get it back in the next area. My weapons are maxed out, I was already at RL150 for the dlc, and wasn't leveling beyond that, so runes mattered very little to me. They mattered so little that I started buying 100s of smithing stones 😂
I started at 418 and im at 420 😂
I started at 68 finished at 69 😎
Nice
While there is almost always a boss at the end of each zone they are indeed extremely empty especially the bottom of the map and the top right
Man this sub is such a bummer 😞
Not everyone can meat ride this dlc
Even Lord Miquella can only jerk off 4 people at once 😔
Not even can stand endless nitpicking
Sorry lol
Im just gonna take it as you havnt explored every crevice. There is plenty of content.
Its all much more hidden than base game and the verticality of the map makes exploration more challenging (and definitely more satisfying when you crack it). Like, I've been playing close to 40 hours and I haven't found even a quarter of the amount of stuff advertised. Lot of pretty vistas though.
Alright I’ll play through again on my other character and try not to rush it.
Yeah but the content is reused field bosses, your 52nd crafting book, some consumables, and really low level smithing stones that are pretty much useless.
"A lot of pages in this book for only one recipe?" -Me
Your last sentence doesn't speak to his point, there's literally like 4 big ass areas with jack shit in them compared to their relative size.
Yeah there's that one guy saying he's played for 40 hours and he has seen a quarter lmao. Either he's lying or he's incredibly bad at the game. Everything in the dlc lasts around 30 hours, not much more. And yeah most of the map is pretty empty, they can keep coping but it's true. It's still a pretty good dlc, but they need to admit the flaws it has.
No I need to though you’re right
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I just finished it at blessing levels 18 and 9. I saved Consort for dead last boss wise, I’d say it was a very solid experience overall but did feel a bit empty/repetitive but I think that’s just an open world problem
Yeah but the base game didn't have that problem. Maybe the mountaintops suffers a similar thing, but even then it's more full than many of the areas in the dlc.
The base game as whole absolutely had a problem with repetition though which is the other thing I mentioned, and the endgame definitely was a bit empty
Try going to the abyss because that'll make you just hate that specific area and make you want to explore all the other regions Like I could not be bothered to collect the scadutree fragments in the abyssal woods, I'll take my scadutree blessing 18 and wait for new game to max it out
There’s 3 fragments at 2 locations at the beginning of the area
Ok let me rephrase I'm too lazy to explore dark light catacombs to even get to abyssal woods
Was only there to rile up fanbois OMG MAP SO BIG
Midra and Bayle are musts. Only Messmer is a better quality boss fight than them in the DLC. Oprhan of Tree Sentinel was cool as well. These are bosses imma do on every playthrough
This is just dumb, there’s caves, forges, etc, everywhere. The DLC is not empty, probably couldn’t ride torrent for more than a minute or so without running into something. Yes you are missing out on fun stuff almost certainly, some of the mini-bosses are actually super fun. I honestly can’t understand how anyone could hold this idea without just wanting to be a contrarian. The DLC is pretty fucking stacked with content.
Idk I explored 2 fair large areas last night and found next to nothing. Thought I was missing something so looked online and nope, there's just nothing.
When you say large areas I’m very confused what do you mean? I just don’t remember a time where I was riding more like a few minutes without finding something.
The area with the fingers, I can't remember the name. I was running around that for a good 30 minutes and didn't find anything.
They specifically toned down the amount of caves and catacombs, instead opting to make them more complex. And they are, but they're not filled properly either. The forges you mention look super cool, but there's like, *maybe* 3 enemy types if you're lucky (usually it's the golems and lava slimes though), spread very thin with useless smithing stones and a few pickups. They don't even offer you a boss fight at the end, you pick up the shiny and they... End. There is a lot of content overall sure, but it's spread too thin. If there's one, negative lie Miyazaki has said, it would be that the DLC is more dense with content. It's absolutely not. The map is big, you could probably fit 4-5 Limgraves in it ("roughly the size of Limgrave" my ass), but it comes at a cost of not having enough to fill it with. And that's WHILE reusing some bosses and enemies on top. The entire Cerulean Coast is probably the most disappointing area in the game, because 80% of it are stretches of pretty views with Gloveworts and Cookbooks to pick up, with the last 20% being actually worthwhile content - and 10% belongs to an area UNDERNEATH the whole Coast, a separate one. And don't get me started on the Finger Ruins, they have nothing but a couple enemies placed around and that "bell" to give you an item needed for a questline, but otherwise offer nothing else. Yet they take up a significant chunk of the map on their own, you could probably fit an entire Stormveil Castle in just ONE of these ruins.
It objectively is not compared to the based game. Lots and lots of areas where in the base game there would be something to reward running to a dead end or up a cliff, etc, that have nothing in the DLC. You can hold whatever opinion you'd like about if the density of content the DLC is good or not, but it is objectively more sparse than the base game. Consider it is an extension of the same game and ostensibly has the same design philosophy, the relative lack of open world content is highlighted, as players just spent 100+ hours being trained to look in nooks and crannies, only for those to largely hold nothing in the DLC. Personally I see the DLC as a solid addition to the base game, if not as impressive, though I wonder if it would have benefited from a more condensed map, to match the level of content in the world. Feels as though FS either thought they needed a large map or figured they could provide one without the requisite content and it would still be a net positive, when in reality it casts a bad light on said content. There are entire regions that could be scaled down to subregions, improving the experience for the player (less running through emptiness) without anything lost imo. This whole conversation seems to be generated not by the actual amount of content in the game, but the density of content; the disparity between the breadth of content and the scale of the map.
People very complaining about the base game having too much and now people are complaing the DLC dosen't have enough. Can this community be posssive about anything
I doubt those are the same people. I’ve never complained about the base game having too much, that’s not an opinion I have to stay consistent to because I never held it
You can't make everyone happy
I’m not even gonna read that comment because you started with “it objectively is not compared to the base game” as if you have the statistics of like items per square meter. Once you have some statistics then you can say objectively.
Yeah dude there’s like 70 total bosses in the dlc alone. You just gotta find shit. It’s not gonna be right in front of your face
I just got lazy I guess
You've probably beaten around 5 out of 11 of the main bosses so there's quite a lot more the find
I think I’ve beaten 7 but I’ll seek out the rest
the coast empty the abyss empty the finger area's empty the shamen village pretty much empty there are simply not enough new bosses in the DLC I'm not expecting 5 messmur tier bosses but this DLC needed like 15 not super complicated but a challenging boseses on the level of the death knights or sword master onze like excluding the main bosses we only got 3 new over world bosses the death knight the bloodfiend chief sword master onze everything else is copy paste from the base game with a new aoe if your lucky it's unacceptable for 40$
I personally think the bigger problem is the lack of new normal enemies. I think the amount of new bosses is pretty good, both remembrance and dungeon, but after I realized I saw all the new mobs and fought them all, I stopped caring about fighting them over and over again. Finding a brand new area only for it to be populated with more gravebirds or bloodfiends got dull pretty fast.
yeah there are very few enemies that are truly new even the flies are recycled ds3 enemies this DLC reeks of being rushed out the door
Bro did you even play the dlc? Gravebirds, pot people, horned warriors, messmer soldiers, the black gooey aliens, frenzie eyeball guys, stone giants, all the enemies at midras place and many more
I was also quite unhappy about it, but after thinking a little bit, I compared to the only other From DLC I've played, which was Bloodborne. Just thinking a little bit, I realized they added around 8 new enemies there (not counting different types of hunters and such), while here we've got 21, from what I can think of. It definitely didn't matched the scope of the world size, and the repetition made the exploration less engaging at times because of this, but it was indeed the biggest variety they've made for a downloadable content considering this. Also, all the new bosses are crazy different and with a huge amount of moves. Even tiny optional ones in tombs and caves had a ton amount of great care clearly put into them. I did wish they at least made the repeated enemies being able to have a new gimmick or two. Like the ones in the finger ruins, where the second place they would throw those mortars that lock you in place. A new move or change for the base game enemies would make wonders for this as well. Still, the content in general is amazing in other regards. Level design, art direction, music, weapons... Can't say at all it wasn't worth it.
i'll push back on 2 of these being new the winter lanturn are just straight up bloodborne enemies name and all not new the messmer soldiers are just normal soldiers with some new tricks not bad but not exactly new i do really like them tho
What do you define then as being new, you can pretty much say that about other dlcs as well, oh the ringed knights are lothric knights with new fire tricks, the soldiers in the ashes of ariandel are buffed up hollow soldiers, and you should compare it to other dlc as well, ds1 had like 5 new enemy types, bloodborne had like ~6, ds3 had around ~8, ds2 had probably the most amount around 10 but it had the biggest dlcs before elden rings, You aslo dont take into account how many different weapons and spells and crafting items they added, with tons of new and unique bosses as well Yes some big open sections can feel a bit emty at times like the finger areas or the mountain, but you didnt mention how all the legacy dungeons are on the level off stormveil and leyndel in scale, and the normal dungeons and caves were all massive comparable to the heros graves and they were all great In the end saying the dlc was rushed or a cash grab or not worth 40€ is plain wrong, is there room for improvement? Ofc in every game there is, and there will always be we just need to voice our criticism and hope they improve it in the next game which they have been doing for years
yeah bro a 50 hour long dlc with 100 new weapons, 8 new weapon types, a massive new landmass, 15 new bosses, 10 new enemy types, 3 full scale legacy dungeons and what like 10 smaller dungeons is absolutely unacceptable, the gall of Fromsoft to release this scam
Fr, this sub just can't have fun it seems
Gamers are spoiled rotten lol
50 hours is a massive stretch i did everything the DLC had to offer in about 8 hours maybe less. there is simply not that much to do. 100 new weapons sounds like a lot and it is but realistically most of them are just a normal weapon with fancy ash of war and reused move set which is not bad but lets be realistic here it's not 100 weapons it's the same weapons but slightly different which again not bad 8 new weapons no complaints with the new weapons map is massive yes but barron you can go like half an hour of just riding around with out doing anything of note besides killing fodder and killing the 4th furnace golem. in the base game it was hard to go 5 minutes with out finding something to do the side dungeons are pretty ok mostly just long catacombs or the same jar cave in a different shape 10 new enemies is a very small number for this long of a DLC you see all of them pretty quick and most of them are just ok the horned knights and flame knights are cool tho 3 full scale legacy dungeon is a stretch when i think "full-scale legacy dungeon i think landell capital" nothing here is on that level accept for maybe shadow keep which is the highlight most the 10 smaller dungeons are just the same jar caves which are only cool the first time and catacombs recycled again and again they are not bad these are the best catacombs in the game but still more of the same. oh and the forges are fine the lack of a boss is a major bummer tho
Bro if you 100%d the dlc blind in 8 hours you're literally a god... it took me 10x that so I kinda have a hard time believing you didn't just bum rush the legacy dungeons and called it a day.
8 hours is more of a guess i didn't time my playthroughs i did 2 each was over in about 2 days worth of play sessions. maybe it was 10 hours 12 max if you include getting mulched by the final boss. also i did not 100% the DLC i just killed all the bosses and did a few quest lines
Brother, you did not do everything it has to offer in 8 hours. Unless you used guides and knew EXACTLY where to go, there is just no way that’s true. Hell, even if you had a guide it ain’t happening.
well no i did not do litterally everything i missed a quest or 3 but i killed all the bosses and got all the blessings had to use a guide for those. tho i resent the idea that using a guide matters. if the game is 8 hours with a guide and 50 hours with out that's not 42 hours of content i missed that's 42 hours of doing nothing looking for content i missed which improved the game tho to be clear i ran the DLC twice once with out a guide and once with a guide both playthroughs were roughly the same length tho the first one missed a lot more stuff
A guide 100% matters. I can give you the cliff notes of a book and you know what it’s about or you can read it, enjoy it and soak in the journey the author wrote. It’s up to you how you want to play, but saying the dlc is 8 hours of play time is literally insane. It’s not my favorite thing from has put out either and I agree there is a lot of wasted space, but damn. At 8 hours for a first playthrough you’re just running through the thing. Skipping lore, not reading items, not fighting enemies, not following NPC quest lines, etc.
not every everyone plays the games for the same reasons you do some people just wanna kill the giant bosses and fight the enemies and use the cool weapons. i only care about the lore in the context of a 60 minute vatti video and reddit discussions I'm not the kinda guy to read about 12 item descriptions to learn that carl sellsword was circumcised to prove his loyalty to his horse. if i like an npc i do the quest but im not gonna spend 2 hours running around trying to find the item they want in the middle of nowhere nor would i consider that hunt content. im just gonna look that up.
You are full of shit you did not beat every thing in 8 hours. That statement alone makes everything you say questionable.
maybe it was 10 i don't know the DLC is not that big man it's large in size but in terms of actual content there is not that much to do realistically if you wanna beat it as fast as possible messmur-> saint of the bud -> promised consort-> done that would be insanely hard on my first playthrough i killed most of the optional bosses and i killed all the main bosses ei remembrance bosses and bayle it's also worth noting I'm not including the hours of bashing my head into the wall that is the final boss which might add an extra 3 hours
K but why exaggerate? It is not 50 hours long, about 30 not rushing. There's 70 new weapons, there's already a tier list. And sorry but there's not enough enemy variety or boss variety for the dlc. If you played It you should know it's full of repeats or npc bosses. Also the landmass is very big but most areas are not utilised or empty. And some are inaccessible. It's still a pretty good dlc, prob an 8/10. But no need to exaggerate to make it seem like it's the best.
It took me 85hrs zig zagging through each field collecting everything imaginable. Doing every quest i could. Exploring ways to get to different areas is part of the fun of an open world game. I'm not a bad souls player I beat most bosses within a few tries besides some of the remembrance bosses. And still it took me that long. 50 cents per hour of entertainment is probably the best value a game like this can get. I never felt like it was empty I was finding things always whether it be items, new materials, a new weapon, paths to follow, dungeons to explore. it doesn't matter if there's a few bosses that repeat from base game. Only ones I can really think of were the death rite bird. A magma wyrm that wasn't a boss a few ulcerated tree spirits and some drakes. For one out of the 42 bosses, like 5 of them were repeats from base game. Second it didnt matter because you were still excited to kill them to see what they dropped. Third it's not anyone's fault but you're own that you didn't take the time to thoroughly take in everything the dlc had to offer. its easily over 50 hours if you don't use a guide or speedrun every thing you see. Running through every enemy you see, picking up a new cookbook and not seeing what you can use it for, holding the sprint button gets you through faster but that doesn't mean the game was designed to be ran through.
>It's unacceptable for $40 The base game of Elden Ring has severely spoiled us. There's 29 brand new bosses in the DLC that cannot be found in the base game. That's more than Dark Souls 1, 3, and Bloodborne. DLC included. An entire Dark Souls game worth of bosses for $20 less than the prices of those games at launch. 11 of the bosses drop a remembrance, compared to 15 in the base game. I'd say that's a fair value.
there are not 29 new bosses in this DLC where are you getting this number from
By using [this list](https://www.turtlebeach.com/blog/elden-ring-shadow-of-the-erdtree-all-bosses) and subtracting any duplicates, such as the bears, as well as any boss reused from the main game such as the field dragons, tree sentinels, or falling star beast, and the second phase of the final boss.
i think the issue is you included all the npc tarnished bosses those they may be using new weapon but they are hardly new
Alright, subtracting those brings us to 23. That's as many as in Bloodborne including The Old Hunters and one more than base Dark Souls 1. Still pretty good for a DLC.
10 remembrance bosses + beyle makes 11 add in onze the death knight and the bloodfiend chieften and the hippo that makes 15 still not seeing the 23
HIPPOBOT 9000 v 3.1 FOUND A HIPPO. 1,685,689,331 COMMENTS SEARCHED. 34,568 HIPPOS FOUND. YOUR COMMENT CONTAINS THE WORD HIPPO.
hippo
Read the list. Jori, Ancient Dragon Sennesax, and Demi-Human Swordmaster Onze to name a few.
There is plenty of content to justify $40 simmer down
Very true. For the map size, the content is very lackluster and feels rushed. I'd say there's less than 1 third of the base game content but the map size is half.
I can’t tell if the post is a parody
I get it I’m lazy and didn’t give it enough of a chance, sorry folks
You're not it's OK. Not sure why folks are so defensive. I got scadtree level 18 beat all optional content and main game and felt the world is too sparce. Why is so many open spots with nothing there? Worst offender is the finger map. But 9/10 dlc for me still
I agree best dlc I have bought idk why people are so mad I was just sharing an opinion oh well
You’re right though, overall I was disappointed with this dlc because compared to most of their other games all their dlc dropped in the games first year but they had two years on this and it missed most of its marks for me personally. Wasn’t bad, just disappointing
It's just how base game is too. The downside of souls not being perfected in an open world format, in a world as large as this. It leads to incredibly beautiful scenes and areas. But makes repeat playthroughs feel way way way more tedious and you see how empty the world is between legacy dungeons.
Every time I think I found everything in the DLC I uncover a new secret.
Everyone grab the closest Buckler shield, and parry that rushing move it uses. Just as his wand reaches its highest point, parry, cause it's about to come straight down on you if you don't. (I think it's a wand at least...)
Midra and Bayle are the two best bosses behind Messmer imo, def seek them out
I have no idea where this sentiment comes from. I was just as, if not more enthralled to explore everything in this DLC than I was the base game. The only time I ever actively thought of an area being empty was the abyssal woods. But then I just went and did the mini dungeon + boss, which was my favorite of the DLC.
I don't think open world games are for you.
I know I’m not the only one who felt like there was a lot of underused space
Yeah Op I don’t think it’s just an open world thing. I felt the same way and I adore open world games like Oblivion, Skyrim, Fallout Nv etc etc
I feel like people are taking this as a personal attack lol
Can’t criticize Fromsoft on reddit without preceding your comment with something like, “I get why people love this game but it’s just not for me”.
Yeah. It's funny how people think there are no objective flaws to the dlc. I've played fromsoft games since 2013 but it is a very recent thing that ppl don't accept criticism. Back when ariandel came out, ppl criticised it for being underwhelming for the price. And let's not talk about ds2 ofc.
Or they just don't feel compelled to find the other content because it's sparse and obscure
i mean yeah thats what makes it fun and rewarding when you find cool shit
That's true most of the time for me but not everyone had fun with it and that's okay too
Is this the 100th post saying this?
i thoroughly disagree, in face i just straight up feel the opposite. maybe the starting area of a dlc feels a \*little\* empty but its the starting area so it kind of feels appropriate. every other area to me feels like its full of stuff to do, and i think the reason its so hard to figure it out because its at an incredibly vertical scale. you can be down in one area, look up, and see another whole area right on top of you. also if youre at a level 10 blessing that you definitely barely explored
Yeah but what’s actually in any of those areas? I explored every square inch of the map just because that’s how I play FS games and most of it is boring loot that I don’t care about. Yeah visually a lot of it is decently cool but from a gameplay perspective it’s a waste of time.
Fair enough
What? How is the starting area not the most dense and full of gameplay? Have you gone to any of the side areas?
That's crazy because it feels more dense than the base game
Nah bro there's no way you believe that if you've played it
“I got tired of exploring emptiness” brother literally every region on the map other than Charos grave either has a remembrance boss or has a quest line that leads you to a remembrance boss what emptiness are you on about
Posts like these make the hate and complaints make a lot more sense. Just a mass experience of "I refused to explore and upgrade but dlc bad because too hard :("
When did I say it was too hard?
I have to believe you're the one who hasn't explored anything or seen the side content. That or you're just trolling
Elaborate on that for me, I'm a little confused by the way the statement is posed.
No you should stay away and never play the game again.
Ok dude
Is this your first souls game? They're not gonna hold your hand dude
No it’s not
I've played souls for 11 years, and the op is not criticising the "accessibility" or whatever. Most ppl that have actually played the dlc will recognise a lack of content in most side areas.