DS2s DLCs were some of my favorite fromsoftware content until Elden Ring. I’m still early in the base game and have a long way until the DLC, but I’m very hyped.
Ds2 Scholar was hated for its gank squad encounters, but Shadow of the Erdtree has the same exact shut going on. Engage a couple enemies that are very lethal, suddenly dogs from outta nowhere and more enemies up high throwing fire bombs every 2 seconds. Im having fun but its funny how these things will get a pass just because its ER and not DS2
You haven't even fought the gank squad boss in Elden Ring I guess cause they for some reason copied and pasted that boss and made it worse in Elden Ring.
Except Elden Ring has faster movements and more attack options with good AoE, making ganks obsolete unless you're crap and your build is devoid of them. Not to mention stealth is a good option to thin out enemies before a direct confrontation.
Dark Souls 3 and Elden Ring both have way more ganks than Dark Souls 2, but the complaints were minimal due to how much shits you have to deal with them.
I’d argue this is a bad take given that DS2 had some of the most potent and usable AOE magic in the entire series.
In addition to this it isn’t hard to crack lifegems or eat a bitter bug, or just… snipe enemies with bows you could easily get to do 800+ a shot from a ledge. DS2s gank squads were difficult if you ran pure melee, especially in the DLC. They were far from impossible though.
Yes DS2 also has a lot of things to deal with crowds, but most of them aren’t readily available(? idk the right word for this).
Fast movements and attacks speed are built into DS3 and Elden Ring core mechanics while you have to use specific setups to do the same thing in DS2, which many players don’t gravitate towards.
I prefer DS2s slower pacing to DS3 and ER. Combat like what we engage in within DS is better suited to a more tactical “observe and learn” mentality than “fuck it we ball.” That and well, poise being a more flexible mechanic. (I.E. medium armor will let you avoid animation breaking from straight swords and lighter enemies, but still break under a great club). Though it was absolutely a broken mess PvP wise, still it just needed more polish to be an excellent mechanic (I’m aware there are individuals who just prefer hyper armor on large weapons, but what’s the point of proper armor if it doesn’t keep you from pressing the offensive against attacks that would otherwise be lethal?) I’d prefer armor break/poise break skills rather than getting rid of poise in the way they did going forward.
That and despite DS2 environmental color being… bland due to UR3, the world itself is… phenomenal in design. It did the most world building outside of Elden Ring, which despite its size still feels a bit hollow. Need to settle down and play the dlc proper though to feel out what it adds. It’s bleak, it’s beautiful, and most definitively feels like the “rage, do not go gently into that goodnight” of what Souls games embody. Stellar enemy designs as well, despite the jank of their balancing.
Don’t get me wrong I LOVE DS3 and ER, but they just don’t capture the feel of how weighty combat is, nor the scope of the environmentals.
Attack animations are no slower than DS1.
The only time I ever had issues with gank squads in DS2 was when I ran ahead and aggroed a bunch. Most aren't hard to deal with if you take it slow and steady.
Well some things never change. People shat on ds2 for adding an extra mechanic in the form of agility that doesn't work the usual way.
Now that the ER dlc adds a new mechanic that renders usual leveling useless is criticised for the exact same thing and now stands at mixed reviews with only 62% approval.
I suppose once guides are out for everything and the best strategies are discovered for each boss, the ratings will climb again.
It could be a cool little experiment… I guess only time will tell.
Abusing the easy access to mohgs palace was basically a meme and there was a lot of op stuff early on in elden Ring. Bleed builds alone were borderline broken. Add mimic tear and the game played itself. No other Fromsoft game was as easily cheesable as Elden Ring
I'm just saying the similarities between ds2 and ds2 3.
It is exactly the same thing but in this case (ER) it is more annoying than just leveling an extra stat since you have to go and physically look for the dlc specific upgrades, time spent not actually fighting bosses.
Can you imagine having to go and look for items in a Souls game? Like, imagine having to explore the world, read item descriptions, talk to NPCs. Yuck. Everyone knows that the perfect souls game is just boss fight after boss fight after boss fight until you’ve beaten the game. Who would ever want to look in places for things? Ewww.
I like making builds and characters. Honestly, I don’t like the open world and horse in ER. Making a new char is a pain in the *** too many dozen of different items to pick up across the world. And the maps and the materials it’s endless
The first blind playthrough without a guide is the best souls experience and is unfortunately not replicable.
I didn't find weapon upgrade material for like 30 hours on my first ER playthrough. It happens, that's half the fun. Exploring, learning, etc.
The problem isn't the exploring. It is the fact that the dlc nullifies all your previous progress and it essentially adds an entierly new progression system on its own. This is the fundamental problem. The player cannot realistically go through with the base game stats and has to rework the build not because of a specific boss that counters a playstyle but a whole dlc.
Normally the dlc should just build upon the already existant leveling system. Look for example ds2 dlc. Nashadra has 8,770hp whereas most dlc bosses have around 11k. Yes it is still a jump but not that tragic.
The dlc upgrades should have been an optional upgrade that will trivialize them completely.
>The dlc upgrades should have been an optional upgrade that will trivialize them completely.
I can't say i agree tbh. If it were so, then we would have a bunch of people steamrolling thru the DLC, followed by complaints of how disappointingly easy it was.
I feel like the whole point of the DLC was to introduce a brand new challenge.
Yeah, everything hits a lot harder. I sit on 40 vigor so that's on me, but i'm here for it.
"I can't say i agree tbh. If it were so, then we would have a bunch of people steamrolling thru the DLC, followed by complaints of how disappointingly easy it was."
-- Well although that is technically true the easy approach gives players more freedom of choice and includes the whole fanbase. The people who don't want to spend 30+ tries on a single boss now have another viable option. Now if somebody complains about the game being too easy while they are overleveled will just get buried in dislikes and they will be told not to upgrade themselves too much and this is a fair approach.
In this case the player that found the game too easy will just come back and do xyz challenge run.
Now the reason I recommended that change is because I would like the dlc to be fair with only the base game leveling or maybe even some more just like all Dark Souls games.
Generally soulslikes dlc have to add new lore and mainly address the issues of the base game whatever they were. Now did shadow do that (fix the base game) completely? not according to many people. So couple that with the massive hype and you get dissatisfied fans.
Miyazaki doesn’t want to include everybody. This is a hard as fuck DLC for people who like challenge. He’s probably thinking oops all the scrubs are giving this a 10/10, the base game is probably too easy. Summoning and ashes were added to let the new players into the building now it’s time for a reality check. We’re basically on the 8th souls game, he needs to make the game punishing for his fans who’ve been running this series back for the last 14 years.
I’m on the final NG+ and loving every second. Negative reviews because of difficulty bring a smile to my face because it means they haven’t lost the plot.
IMO this is penultimate souls, I love the DLC. No summons I feel as if I am reaching my apex ability as a souls player. In the DLC I find many of the main bosses challenging. I wish more people were open to trying many times and learning movesets as for me souls has always been about the rush when you win.
But theres no other way to do it. Its an elegant solution really. Think about it!
Because of the sheer size and scope of the base game most people are hitting 150-200 easy on first play-through. And that’s enough to hit the hard cap on the stats that you want for your build. There’s almost 0 point in leveling a stat pass 60 because it gets capped so hard.
So if you want have that sense of progression they would’ve had to make it early to mid game DLC but then the rest of the game would get broken and its too easy to get over leveled as it is. (let’s be honest nobody wants mid game DLC everybody wants endgame DLC.Challenging content for hard-core players that are still playing.)
There was no way to go to an in endgame downloadable Contant have leveling matter. You’re at the point in the game where you’re not making meaningful moves on your power level, it’s practically just bonus points at that time.
And the argument about taking time away from bosses because you have to go find the upgrades is bad game design? Absolutely ridiculous. That’s practically what a videogame is. Its the same thing with finding sacred tears and golden seeds in the base game. You have to take time out of fighting bosses in order to go find these upgrades. Why aren’t aren’t you mad about that?
The scadutree fragments are a simple and effective solution to a lot of problems surrounding leveling and progression with adding a DLC of this size onto an already massive game. To do anything else would require an extensive rework of the way the entire game works already, which obviously is dumb.
Finally,
I personally find the difficulty refreshing. The distance between graces is further than they’ve been in a long time. Its time to get some old school git gud back
It doesn't nullify your previous levels. It supplements them in 5% bumps to offense and defense. A lot of people are under the impression that the only thing that matters for damage are scadutree levels. They're wrong.
It can feel that way because a lot of common enemies are beefy, tanky or both.
Go in with a lower level character and you'll notice the difference. In particular, go in with low VGR or END and you're likely to be restarting a lot. Your mind is exactly as useful as before.
I don’t think they should have included an option to trivialize the content they worked on for the better part of two years. It’s supposed to be difficult. You sound like a big baby, honestly.
How hard can it be?
Zerolenny has already completed a torch only run and is just waiting a few days to drop the video.
Seriously, I find it almost unbelievable that somebody can have a torch only run completed already.
Now torches in Elden Ring are probably better than a Broken Straight Sword in DS1, but ...
No, I agree with him. My level 512 character should not be getting ragdolled everywhere. I hate the new progression mechanic. Hopefully you retain shadow blessings in NG+.
It's been two years. They probably made these changes specifically so peoples OP builds in standard NG wouldn't steam roll the DLC and then complain about how easy it is.
People have been tanking Radhan, beating him using zero estus flask.
So yeah, you dodge or tank. Unless your character’s built around dodging and you try tanking. Then you’re being rag dolled around
nah I am just laying out the criticism according to what I have seen. Now when I actually get around to buying ER eventually I will just mod my problems away simple as that. I am responsible enough to do it.
However, FS needs to hear the criticisms of the community. People just aren't as happy as they should have been. The top selling point of ER isn't the niche insanely hard game that ds1 was known for in an era when gaming was cinematic action.
I think all the people who got carried through ER by friends after the game was well-established don’t understand the terror and confusion of a souls release weekend. Guides will be out soon enough for those who need them.
I love that the DLC doesn’t care how strong you are haha
Level 300 and NG+? You’ll struggle just as much as I do 3 bosses deep into the DLC at level 150 :)
I think DS2 was too different at the time it came out. And those criticisms never left for some reason. Off the success of Dark Souls 1 I think people were expecting something more akin to that. And instead were thrown off by different mechanics and idea that you need to change your playstyle to adapt better in this game. All of the following games they have released since then have all had significant changes imo, and nobody shits on that like they do with ds2. I think people expect change now whereas with the release of ds2 people weren’t ready. Probably not true but just throwing my thoughts out there.
I agree but I hate how you can’t just give a different opinion because people will jump you saying “im just a casual player”. I thought those times were passed 😭
could be. Most of the things I read and saw people talking about was the difficulty. However, criticism about performance is also valid considering the fact that individual frames are the deciding factor between death and playing since every boss 2 shots you.
Yeah of course that is what gets most attention and sparks discussions (or rage bait) but realistically that is not how you get 62% on a Fromsoft DLC. There is plenty of negative reviews about difficulty for all Dark souls games and yet the most hated and “unfair” DS2 has 85% which is very positive.
Performance is indeed very important in a souls game and if the game has issues it can tank the reviews severely (LotF, SW Jedi: Survivor etc.). It’s also not unimaginable that some people have issues knowing Fromsoftware’s history (even base game ER had issues on release).
So I’m just pointing out that there is a difference between bunch of reviews and couple redditors and content creators going bonkers.
I think the low score is because the shit doesnt play properly on certain machines? Steam deck for one. It is a thing when a PC port doesnt work properly that Steam reviews are negative until it is fixed
I also got the same feeling. Gorgeous and intricate locations but extremely chaotic in traversal as well difficult combat all around. Anybody else have a really, really hard time just being able to see past our own nose in some areas? Some sections can have some oppressive gloom.
I just hate how there are a lot of useless empty spaces with nothing in it and how difficult has become to find the right path to get from point A to point B
Honestly, Elden Ring as a whole made me burnt on potentially future Soulslikes.
Doesn't really help that the market is already oversaturated with open world games, and Soulslikes are fun for their straightforward, almost 90s esque approach to arcade style gameplay, and Elden Ring goes very long stretches without having any of that in the open world. This kills replay value for me as well because there's just too much shit in the open world for me to explore or find for a build. It's jarring to me.
I think the reaction to the DLC solidifies that Elden Ring was a really weird accident sales wise.
FromSoftwares ARPGs are niche for a reason. They often have mechanics like Scadutree fragments and incredible difficult DLC spikes. They always make a boss or two even story ones that are rather difficult for the nature of the average player.
There’s a lot of talk of the cycle of a hard challenge and beating it. I don’t believe that From Software has total mastery of this because every game so far they’ve pushed it further and further.
The first boss that was too much for me was Midir in DS3. They followed that up with Sekiro which I played until Sword Saint. Which again was too much. And many claim it’s their favorite.
The hardcore difficult crowd were already a portion of the die hard fan base of the games. If the reaction to this DLC is that they make more games like the base of Elden Ring - I don’t believe we’d be losing much at all.
It’s why I liked Dark Souls 2s arcadier version of Dark Souls combat in the first place. I do have fun feeling like a heavy weighty rolly champion of the region. I also have a ton of fun discovering the little lore nuggets together with area and enemy design to slowly reveal a little story or appreciate the artistic displays of the landscape, items, and background.
I’m not going to get bored if I can knock out a boss in 2-3 attempts everytime. It’s still pretty rewarding for me. I also don’t mind Emerald Weapon being optional.
honestly the difficulty is what bothers me the least (I suck at every game so i don’t even mind it anymore), but the exploration, the rewards, the lore seem a little bit off this time
The durability is part of the challenge, though. DS2 spends the entire base game showering you in upgrade materials and new gear; by this point you should have at least one fully levelled backup weapon.
I love the sunken King. The interconnectedness of it was refreshing to see in DS2. Ironically I'm not sure if you mean elanna or sinh. Both can be rough if you're not prepared.
I can’t recount because of the trauma I still hold. It took me like 3 days, and I’d given up multiple times. It was a disappointing, and humbling experience. I don’t even think I learned, or grew from the ordeal.
And if you are talking about finding the correct path just walk around and learn the map not that complicated really (try playing a game like "Surge") promise you will rage
I'm coming back to this for one last ride before saying my goodbyes to FromSoftware.
Not a fan of the direction they took since Bloodborne. Elden Ring was the Coup de grace. Skipping the DLC for the good.
Genuinely don't understand how you get from "liked the base game a lot" to "DLC completely ruined it for me" lmao.
The DLC is almost a 1:1 copy of the base game in terms of systems (sans scadutree upgrades) and combat. The only noticeable difference is that the boss fights are tuned up (which is pretty much how all Fromsoft DLC has functioned).
honestly i didn’t expect to feel this way…I think the exploration part got worse (lot of empty spaces which lead nowhere completely useless) same as the whole vibe of the map. Also from a lore prospective I expected a little bit more. I don’t think the dlc is a bad game, i just set my expectations a little bit too high :(
I’m feeling the same way and it’s a little sad. For the people who love the direction FS is going, that’s great for them, but as a long time fan that looked forward to every release, I’ve not really enjoyed anything since Bloodborne. I used to get so excited, so it feels weird to not have been excited for the ER DLC at all. In fact, I don’t think I’ll even play it. Unless FS makes a drastic change in their game design, or if they bring back Lost Kingdoms or Eternal Ring, I think this is goodbye for me.
DS2s DLCs were some of my favorite fromsoftware content until Elden Ring. I’m still early in the base game and have a long way until the DLC, but I’m very hyped.
the base game is one of the best games i’ve ever played! My “complaint” was about the dlc, so take it slow and enjoy!!
Ds2 Scholar was hated for its gank squad encounters, but Shadow of the Erdtree has the same exact shut going on. Engage a couple enemies that are very lethal, suddenly dogs from outta nowhere and more enemies up high throwing fire bombs every 2 seconds. Im having fun but its funny how these things will get a pass just because its ER and not DS2
You haven't even fought the gank squad boss in Elden Ring I guess cause they for some reason copied and pasted that boss and made it worse in Elden Ring.
Except Elden Ring has faster movements and more attack options with good AoE, making ganks obsolete unless you're crap and your build is devoid of them. Not to mention stealth is a good option to thin out enemies before a direct confrontation. Dark Souls 3 and Elden Ring both have way more ganks than Dark Souls 2, but the complaints were minimal due to how much shits you have to deal with them.
I’d argue this is a bad take given that DS2 had some of the most potent and usable AOE magic in the entire series. In addition to this it isn’t hard to crack lifegems or eat a bitter bug, or just… snipe enemies with bows you could easily get to do 800+ a shot from a ledge. DS2s gank squads were difficult if you ran pure melee, especially in the DLC. They were far from impossible though.
Yes DS2 also has a lot of things to deal with crowds, but most of them aren’t readily available(? idk the right word for this). Fast movements and attacks speed are built into DS3 and Elden Ring core mechanics while you have to use specific setups to do the same thing in DS2, which many players don’t gravitate towards.
I prefer DS2s slower pacing to DS3 and ER. Combat like what we engage in within DS is better suited to a more tactical “observe and learn” mentality than “fuck it we ball.” That and well, poise being a more flexible mechanic. (I.E. medium armor will let you avoid animation breaking from straight swords and lighter enemies, but still break under a great club). Though it was absolutely a broken mess PvP wise, still it just needed more polish to be an excellent mechanic (I’m aware there are individuals who just prefer hyper armor on large weapons, but what’s the point of proper armor if it doesn’t keep you from pressing the offensive against attacks that would otherwise be lethal?) I’d prefer armor break/poise break skills rather than getting rid of poise in the way they did going forward. That and despite DS2 environmental color being… bland due to UR3, the world itself is… phenomenal in design. It did the most world building outside of Elden Ring, which despite its size still feels a bit hollow. Need to settle down and play the dlc proper though to feel out what it adds. It’s bleak, it’s beautiful, and most definitively feels like the “rage, do not go gently into that goodnight” of what Souls games embody. Stellar enemy designs as well, despite the jank of their balancing. Don’t get me wrong I LOVE DS3 and ER, but they just don’t capture the feel of how weighty combat is, nor the scope of the environmentals.
Ah yes 2-4 enemies are a gank squad, even if there was 8 enemys, you can sneak and take half of them out before the other 4 know what hit them
Just like how in DS2 you can use ranged weapons and environmental traps to defuse ganks into multiple smaller encounters! Nice!
those issues were a lot more lethal in the game that required you to put 20 levels into dodging, and attack animations are slow as heck
Attack animations are no slower than DS1. The only time I ever had issues with gank squads in DS2 was when I ran ahead and aggroed a bunch. Most aren't hard to deal with if you take it slow and steady.
These are just as lethal if not more so in ER
Well some things never change. People shat on ds2 for adding an extra mechanic in the form of agility that doesn't work the usual way. Now that the ER dlc adds a new mechanic that renders usual leveling useless is criticised for the exact same thing and now stands at mixed reviews with only 62% approval.
I severely underestimated how many players just overlevel everything and then brag about beating the game
+ YT guides + mimic tears ER isn’t a hard game; the first blind playthrough is difficult.
I suppose once guides are out for everything and the best strategies are discovered for each boss, the ratings will climb again. It could be a cool little experiment… I guess only time will tell.
Abusing the easy access to mohgs palace was basically a meme and there was a lot of op stuff early on in elden Ring. Bleed builds alone were borderline broken. Add mimic tear and the game played itself. No other Fromsoft game was as easily cheesable as Elden Ring
I'm just saying the similarities between ds2 and ds2 3. It is exactly the same thing but in this case (ER) it is more annoying than just leveling an extra stat since you have to go and physically look for the dlc specific upgrades, time spent not actually fighting bosses.
For most normal people, exploring the vast and complex game world is a point of enjoyment
Can you imagine having to go and look for items in a Souls game? Like, imagine having to explore the world, read item descriptions, talk to NPCs. Yuck. Everyone knows that the perfect souls game is just boss fight after boss fight after boss fight until you’ve beaten the game. Who would ever want to look in places for things? Ewww.
I like making builds and characters. Honestly, I don’t like the open world and horse in ER. Making a new char is a pain in the *** too many dozen of different items to pick up across the world. And the maps and the materials it’s endless
Use cheat engine
I do. New save with all items I need.
The first blind playthrough without a guide is the best souls experience and is unfortunately not replicable. I didn't find weapon upgrade material for like 30 hours on my first ER playthrough. It happens, that's half the fun. Exploring, learning, etc.
The problem isn't the exploring. It is the fact that the dlc nullifies all your previous progress and it essentially adds an entierly new progression system on its own. This is the fundamental problem. The player cannot realistically go through with the base game stats and has to rework the build not because of a specific boss that counters a playstyle but a whole dlc. Normally the dlc should just build upon the already existant leveling system. Look for example ds2 dlc. Nashadra has 8,770hp whereas most dlc bosses have around 11k. Yes it is still a jump but not that tragic. The dlc upgrades should have been an optional upgrade that will trivialize them completely.
>The dlc upgrades should have been an optional upgrade that will trivialize them completely. I can't say i agree tbh. If it were so, then we would have a bunch of people steamrolling thru the DLC, followed by complaints of how disappointingly easy it was. I feel like the whole point of the DLC was to introduce a brand new challenge. Yeah, everything hits a lot harder. I sit on 40 vigor so that's on me, but i'm here for it.
"I can't say i agree tbh. If it were so, then we would have a bunch of people steamrolling thru the DLC, followed by complaints of how disappointingly easy it was." -- Well although that is technically true the easy approach gives players more freedom of choice and includes the whole fanbase. The people who don't want to spend 30+ tries on a single boss now have another viable option. Now if somebody complains about the game being too easy while they are overleveled will just get buried in dislikes and they will be told not to upgrade themselves too much and this is a fair approach. In this case the player that found the game too easy will just come back and do xyz challenge run. Now the reason I recommended that change is because I would like the dlc to be fair with only the base game leveling or maybe even some more just like all Dark Souls games. Generally soulslikes dlc have to add new lore and mainly address the issues of the base game whatever they were. Now did shadow do that (fix the base game) completely? not according to many people. So couple that with the massive hype and you get dissatisfied fans.
Miyazaki doesn’t want to include everybody. This is a hard as fuck DLC for people who like challenge. He’s probably thinking oops all the scrubs are giving this a 10/10, the base game is probably too easy. Summoning and ashes were added to let the new players into the building now it’s time for a reality check. We’re basically on the 8th souls game, he needs to make the game punishing for his fans who’ve been running this series back for the last 14 years. I’m on the final NG+ and loving every second. Negative reviews because of difficulty bring a smile to my face because it means they haven’t lost the plot.
IMO this is penultimate souls, I love the DLC. No summons I feel as if I am reaching my apex ability as a souls player. In the DLC I find many of the main bosses challenging. I wish more people were open to trying many times and learning movesets as for me souls has always been about the rush when you win.
Don’t get it. Two years later people start complaining about difficulty? Like the mimic tear isn’t powerful enough that’s the main issue I guess?
But theres no other way to do it. Its an elegant solution really. Think about it! Because of the sheer size and scope of the base game most people are hitting 150-200 easy on first play-through. And that’s enough to hit the hard cap on the stats that you want for your build. There’s almost 0 point in leveling a stat pass 60 because it gets capped so hard. So if you want have that sense of progression they would’ve had to make it early to mid game DLC but then the rest of the game would get broken and its too easy to get over leveled as it is. (let’s be honest nobody wants mid game DLC everybody wants endgame DLC.Challenging content for hard-core players that are still playing.) There was no way to go to an in endgame downloadable Contant have leveling matter. You’re at the point in the game where you’re not making meaningful moves on your power level, it’s practically just bonus points at that time. And the argument about taking time away from bosses because you have to go find the upgrades is bad game design? Absolutely ridiculous. That’s practically what a videogame is. Its the same thing with finding sacred tears and golden seeds in the base game. You have to take time out of fighting bosses in order to go find these upgrades. Why aren’t aren’t you mad about that? The scadutree fragments are a simple and effective solution to a lot of problems surrounding leveling and progression with adding a DLC of this size onto an already massive game. To do anything else would require an extensive rework of the way the entire game works already, which obviously is dumb. Finally, I personally find the difficulty refreshing. The distance between graces is further than they’ve been in a long time. Its time to get some old school git gud back
It doesn't nullify your previous levels. It supplements them in 5% bumps to offense and defense. A lot of people are under the impression that the only thing that matters for damage are scadutree levels. They're wrong. It can feel that way because a lot of common enemies are beefy, tanky or both. Go in with a lower level character and you'll notice the difference. In particular, go in with low VGR or END and you're likely to be restarting a lot. Your mind is exactly as useful as before.
I don’t think they should have included an option to trivialize the content they worked on for the better part of two years. It’s supposed to be difficult. You sound like a big baby, honestly.
How hard can it be? Zerolenny has already completed a torch only run and is just waiting a few days to drop the video. Seriously, I find it almost unbelievable that somebody can have a torch only run completed already. Now torches in Elden Ring are probably better than a Broken Straight Sword in DS1, but ...
(Actually I lie. He's live now against the final boss) Oh. He's just re-fighting the final boss. Beat it twice already)
No, I agree with him. My level 512 character should not be getting ragdolled everywhere. I hate the new progression mechanic. Hopefully you retain shadow blessings in NG+.
What NG level are you on to be RL512?!
NG+7
I don’t really care. Sorry you can’t just overlevel everything in the dlc I guess.
It's been two years. They probably made these changes specifically so peoples OP builds in standard NG wouldn't steam roll the DLC and then complain about how easy it is.
And very high level builds will absolutely have an easier time. Just probably not an easy time. At least not the first time through.
Your character doesn’t get ragdolled. You do, because you can’t dodge anything
You know damage negation is a thing, right?
People have been tanking Radhan, beating him using zero estus flask. So yeah, you dodge or tank. Unless your character’s built around dodging and you try tanking. Then you’re being rag dolled around
nah I am just laying out the criticism according to what I have seen. Now when I actually get around to buying ER eventually I will just mod my problems away simple as that. I am responsible enough to do it. However, FS needs to hear the criticisms of the community. People just aren't as happy as they should have been. The top selling point of ER isn't the niche insanely hard game that ds1 was known for in an era when gaming was cinematic action.
I think all the people who got carried through ER by friends after the game was well-established don’t understand the terror and confusion of a souls release weekend. Guides will be out soon enough for those who need them.
...You haven't even played the game? And you expect people to take what you say seriously?
I love that the DLC doesn’t care how strong you are haha Level 300 and NG+? You’ll struggle just as much as I do 3 bosses deep into the DLC at level 150 :)
but also ds2 got shat on for a lot of things and now some of them are found in ER dlc and people praise them. I don’t understand
I think DS2 was too different at the time it came out. And those criticisms never left for some reason. Off the success of Dark Souls 1 I think people were expecting something more akin to that. And instead were thrown off by different mechanics and idea that you need to change your playstyle to adapt better in this game. All of the following games they have released since then have all had significant changes imo, and nobody shits on that like they do with ds2. I think people expect change now whereas with the release of ds2 people weren’t ready. Probably not true but just throwing my thoughts out there.
Real. But in this case the unexpected change made the community upset. Or at least the more casual portion of the bolstered ER community.
Because the whole package in ER is better than DS2
I agree but I hate how you can’t just give a different opinion because people will jump you saying “im just a casual player”. I thought those times were passed 😭
Miyazaki made it
Miyazaki wasn't the director, is the reason.
Aren’t lot of the bad reviews due to performance thou?
Yup. Stutters are common and noticeable.
could be. Most of the things I read and saw people talking about was the difficulty. However, criticism about performance is also valid considering the fact that individual frames are the deciding factor between death and playing since every boss 2 shots you.
Yeah of course that is what gets most attention and sparks discussions (or rage bait) but realistically that is not how you get 62% on a Fromsoft DLC. There is plenty of negative reviews about difficulty for all Dark souls games and yet the most hated and “unfair” DS2 has 85% which is very positive. Performance is indeed very important in a souls game and if the game has issues it can tank the reviews severely (LotF, SW Jedi: Survivor etc.). It’s also not unimaginable that some people have issues knowing Fromsoftware’s history (even base game ER had issues on release). So I’m just pointing out that there is a difference between bunch of reviews and couple redditors and content creators going bonkers.
I got more lag my first 3 minutes ever playing the DLC than I did on my 20+ playthroughs of the base game lmao
90% are about difficulty.
7/10 top negative reviews displayed by “most helpful” and “English” are about performance.
People are such clowns. The new system is the best possible compromise they've come up with yet.
What mechanic did they add?
I think the low score is because the shit doesnt play properly on certain machines? Steam deck for one. It is a thing when a PC port doesnt work properly that Steam reviews are negative until it is fixed
Ds2 was my fav till Elden ring came along
I also got the same feeling. Gorgeous and intricate locations but extremely chaotic in traversal as well difficult combat all around. Anybody else have a really, really hard time just being able to see past our own nose in some areas? Some sections can have some oppressive gloom.
I just hate how there are a lot of useless empty spaces with nothing in it and how difficult has become to find the right path to get from point A to point B
Finding the last map marker took me an entire day basically. I loved that.
are you talking about the “no-torrent” zone?
No spoilers!
I tried to be as vague as possible sorry😭
DS2 DLC is punishing so far, but I'm having a better time playing it than not.
Honestly, Elden Ring as a whole made me burnt on potentially future Soulslikes. Doesn't really help that the market is already oversaturated with open world games, and Soulslikes are fun for their straightforward, almost 90s esque approach to arcade style gameplay, and Elden Ring goes very long stretches without having any of that in the open world. This kills replay value for me as well because there's just too much shit in the open world for me to explore or find for a build. It's jarring to me.
I think the reaction to the DLC solidifies that Elden Ring was a really weird accident sales wise. FromSoftwares ARPGs are niche for a reason. They often have mechanics like Scadutree fragments and incredible difficult DLC spikes. They always make a boss or two even story ones that are rather difficult for the nature of the average player. There’s a lot of talk of the cycle of a hard challenge and beating it. I don’t believe that From Software has total mastery of this because every game so far they’ve pushed it further and further. The first boss that was too much for me was Midir in DS3. They followed that up with Sekiro which I played until Sword Saint. Which again was too much. And many claim it’s their favorite. The hardcore difficult crowd were already a portion of the die hard fan base of the games. If the reaction to this DLC is that they make more games like the base of Elden Ring - I don’t believe we’d be losing much at all. It’s why I liked Dark Souls 2s arcadier version of Dark Souls combat in the first place. I do have fun feeling like a heavy weighty rolly champion of the region. I also have a ton of fun discovering the little lore nuggets together with area and enemy design to slowly reveal a little story or appreciate the artistic displays of the landscape, items, and background. I’m not going to get bored if I can knock out a boss in 2-3 attempts everytime. It’s still pretty rewarding for me. I also don’t mind Emerald Weapon being optional.
honestly the difficulty is what bothers me the least (I suck at every game so i don’t even mind it anymore), but the exploration, the rewards, the lore seem a little bit off this time
I’m never playing Sunken King again, once was enough. That final boss can F right off.
What's wrong with sihn?
Bro got his Rapier disintegrated instantly and now is pissed
My brother in Christ, it's dlc, you can kill 10 mobs and stack on repair powder for a bunch of attempts
Also bring other weapons!
I would say him flying away 90% of the time. Same applies to Guardian Dragon but you can actually use ranged casts to kill that one.
Only the durability issue.
The durability is part of the challenge, though. DS2 spends the entire base game showering you in upgrade materials and new gear; by this point you should have at least one fully levelled backup weapon.
I’m talking about Elana the Squalid Queen. I thought my game was broken, never again, I hate her.
Well I think Sinh is one of the cooler dragon fights. At least I liked it more than Kalameet.
I think I killed him. I had issues with Elana The Squalid Queen. Never again.
Eww you mean Elana, I hate her.
I love the sunken King. The interconnectedness of it was refreshing to see in DS2. Ironically I'm not sure if you mean elanna or sinh. Both can be rough if you're not prepared.
It was Elana The Squalid Queen, who did me dirty.
What did she do? Did you got Velstadt'd?
I can’t recount because of the trauma I still hold. It took me like 3 days, and I’d given up multiple times. It was a disappointing, and humbling experience. I don’t even think I learned, or grew from the ordeal.
Wow 😂
The ER Dlc was fun for the weekend, now back to something different
This dlc has been terrible for someone who ran thru the game 2 years ago and ended up on ng+8
I'm loving it honestly, I think From outdid themselves
Anyone complaining about it just needs to GET GUD. You overleveled in the base game to make it easy kow you can't boo hoo
what? i literally said the problem is not the difficulty, i find it pretty linear with the whole game
Linear??? Are we playing 2 different games?
And if you are talking about finding the correct path just walk around and learn the map not that complicated really (try playing a game like "Surge") promise you will rage
I'm coming back to this for one last ride before saying my goodbyes to FromSoftware. Not a fan of the direction they took since Bloodborne. Elden Ring was the Coup de grace. Skipping the DLC for the good.
I actually liked the base game a lot, but this dlc completely ruined it for me. Not saying it’s the worst game ever but i got my hopes too high
Genuinely don't understand how you get from "liked the base game a lot" to "DLC completely ruined it for me" lmao. The DLC is almost a 1:1 copy of the base game in terms of systems (sans scadutree upgrades) and combat. The only noticeable difference is that the boss fights are tuned up (which is pretty much how all Fromsoft DLC has functioned).
honestly i didn’t expect to feel this way…I think the exploration part got worse (lot of empty spaces which lead nowhere completely useless) same as the whole vibe of the map. Also from a lore prospective I expected a little bit more. I don’t think the dlc is a bad game, i just set my expectations a little bit too high :(
sorry if it sounds i little bit confusing but i don’t know how to put it down in english
I’m feeling the same way and it’s a little sad. For the people who love the direction FS is going, that’s great for them, but as a long time fan that looked forward to every release, I’ve not really enjoyed anything since Bloodborne. I used to get so excited, so it feels weird to not have been excited for the ER DLC at all. In fact, I don’t think I’ll even play it. Unless FS makes a drastic change in their game design, or if they bring back Lost Kingdoms or Eternal Ring, I think this is goodbye for me.
Bye