THANK YOU for saying these games have only gotten more and more conventional as time has gone on! That's one of the main reasons why DS1 is one of my favorite games of all time and I can't ever enjoy games like Bloodborne and DS3 anywhere near as much as other people do. As time has gone on I feel that a lot of what I love about DS1 has been sanded away to create games with more and more mass appeal. I'm not trying to say that games having mass appeal inherently makes them worse, but rather that in chasing mass appeal you often end up leaving behind a lot of the flavor and vibe that i love so much about games like DS1.
@ryandavid985010 сағат бұрын
Oh, and the lore is trash
@user-th7cw4dl3o14 сағат бұрын
One thing that's been plaguing the souls community since Dark Souls 2 has been bad criticism rooted in a fundamental misunderstanding of the game's intent. It's fine to not like the game's own intent and think it's bad, because you didn't like what it attempts to do, but it's completely another to disregard the clear intent and criticize a misunderstanding of it. Scadutree fragments. FromSoft's stated intent was to mimic a power progression similar to early game Elden Ring, without forcing players to level up. As you correctly say, past level 100, power increase from leveling are severely diminished, so they couldn't rely on it. Not to mention once you get to levels like 400 (which would be needed if they wanted to contain the power progression to leveling), you get to a point where a character can use every weapon and every spell, and it no longer has a build and it also breaks the main game - something they didn't want to do. They could've handled Scadutree fragments better, but as an alternative to grinding levels in Mohgwyn palace, they are pretty good. You talk about how Torrent ruins the game's world - an open world medieval action game without Torrent exists and it's called Dragon Age and it's a total slog to play. Yes, Torrent allows you to run past so many enemies, and whether you run past or fight is up to you - I fight pretty much everything I see. You know why? Because I actually enjoy the game, I simply enjoy fighting things. The simple act of fighting is fun, and I get to practice various tricks, parrying, dodging more complex attack patterns, etc. Maybe if people didn't run past the runebears, they wouldn't have so much problem in the DLC :^) Maybe the enemies on your path are there to teach you how to play, and you chose to run past them. I actually like the minibosses like runebears, deathrite birds, etc. I see them more as elites in a game like Diablo 2, not real bosses, and I enjoy them, as a little thing to break up the open world. You complain about the ability to respec, but you also rant about the need to gather up scadutree fragments, and here's why that's stupid - let's say you're level 80 in Altus Plateau and you realize you don't enjoy your character. You want to now try a katana for example. In Dark Souls, it would take you something like 10 hours to get a new character and get it to a similar position in the game - which would be level ~35 and in Anor Londo. Dark Souls is really short, it can be beaten in a day without speedrunning it. In that sense, "changing your build" by starting anew is a lot smaller committment in Dark Souls than it is here. You also complained about how awful it is to have to get the scadutree fragments on a new character (not really true, they're almost all a part of organic progression), but you want to have to grind 100+ levels if you just wanted to try a weapon with a different stat scaling. The other FromSoft games are really small - one time, to get the Sekiro platinum, I sat and beat it 3 times in a single day. I didn't even speedrun it, it's just a really short game. Elden Ring, due to its size, requires some concessions. Elden Ring encourages build variety through the combination of all its systems - the respecs, the way rewards are given out, and the overall higher level cap, that follows the same progression curve. Then, to acknowledge everything that this leads to, it also gives you a lot more hybrid items, so in the end, you will have a hybrid build. You will organically try out spells, incantations, consumables (which are finally useful), perfumes, not to mention spirit ashes, and how you can get infinite perfumes with them. This is what I mean when I talk about Souls criticism being bad. A lot of people speak from vibes, and fail to understand the design intent underpinning FromSoft's decisions. It's fine to not enjoy it, but to demand the game become a slog, just so it can resemble, on paper, a predecessor that is 1/5 of its length is... in my opinion ignorant. You complain about having to run around and explore, then you also want Torrent taken away. It's clear there's no thought put into your criticism, it's just vibes with some rationalization. Do good critique next time, and think about how the things you criticize fit together. Right now it is not a critique, it's a thoughtless rant.
@6e756c6c21 сағат бұрын
To add to the boss design thing: I hink any move that requires a boss become invunrable for several seconds is bad design. I also found using anything other than a blood infused twinblade made the boss fights tedious, so more bad design. My biggest impression from the DLC? Tedium. I have no incentive to replay it.
@paytonestrada774622 сағат бұрын
The camera is bad on purpose, for artificial difficulty. Dark Souls 2 didn't have that issue, because it's not a Miyazaki game, that guy is a hack who makes the games bad on purpose. ER isn't about creativity, you are encouraged to follow guides and copy meta builds.
@SoulPotato00722 сағат бұрын
I watched your whole video. Although I play and platinum almost every souls like game and can agree that some Fromsoftware and non Fromsoftware games are better than Elden ring (Bloodborne and DS3 or Lies of P), I disagree with your general complaint of Elden ring dlc regarding exploration. Elden ring is an open world game and even the main game incentivises exploration. I don’t know why you would think that dlc would be different.
@axelnilsson2031Күн бұрын
The audio cutting out all the time makes this video painful to listen to. Which is a shame because the points are legit.
@dielectrictruth1040Күн бұрын
Fromsoft fagboys will always defend this game, its how these devs are allowed to get away with copy paste bosses. Ragnarok was a walking simulator but the bosses were so much better than elden ring
@julekenjus__7393Күн бұрын
Bethesda is the same there Fans alwas say it is just Bethesda Jank and this is OK but players from outside are going to criticise Bethesda for it
@wyle2614Күн бұрын
Respec has consequences, but Elden Ring needs it. Imagine gathering all the crap (seeds, bell bearings, whetstones, etc.) for every new build, lmao. Edit: Changing build is fun too, it's not only a tool to counter certain bosses.
@LyllianaTV3 күн бұрын
ringed city at least has new enemies smh, ds2 dlcs has new enemies too
Jokes on you. Monster Hunter has taught me to treat all mini bosses as the same guy and he wants a rematch
@user-kb1su7mg1gКүн бұрын
why are you trans
@cassmodious36793 күн бұрын
Ngl im only 4 minutes and i can tell this is bait
@CreamTheEverythingFixer4 күн бұрын
Paused the vid. Sorry, I am going to jump on your Torrent rant here, without Torrent the DLC would be way too big and grace distance too far. Not to mention the replaybility of the DLC would be shafted, once you collect the Fragments, Spirit Ashes and special items, on a second run of the DLC you would have to slowly traverse every area, with no tangible reward. It would not feel more rewarding. The reward of special items is once, the reward of exploration is once. Without Torrent 90% of the DLC playtime would traversing the large barren map, fighting the same 7 enemies. There's a reason why most people on NG+ and New Characters just blast past most of the open world in the base game, because it not that good.
@LyllianaTV3 күн бұрын
haha, gonna do no torrent run LMFAO
@schmitz80734 күн бұрын
Dlc is shit end of duscussion
@truebacon1335 күн бұрын
The reason scadutree fragments are a thing was to solve the overlevlled character problem when it came to DLCs. However they should've added more to spread them out and allow players to miss some but still get max like golden seeds. Its a hard problem to find a solution to and tbh I think it was a decent attempt.
@StuffAndAlsoThings5 күн бұрын
You’re pretty spot on here especially about the map. Finding map fragments in the base game was so lame because nothing was stopping you from heading to them the second you entered the area. In the DLC you have to work towards finding the right path towards them and it makes uncovering the map so much more rewarding
@larrywestra93055 күн бұрын
All of this game is boring and a waist of time. A big disappointment to me. If you didn’t have to level up for an eternity first maybe the boss fights would be ok but copy and paste bs is all this game offers. This dlc is not better than the game to begin with. This game was an insult to my intelligence and time. Most humans who play games like this would not understand. If you can like this game than you’re easily entertained. This game sucks.
@semtexxx64076 күн бұрын
L review
@shiroamakusa80756 күн бұрын
Gotta' love how the haters both go "I hate looking for Scadutree fragments, it forces me to explore the map" and "I hate how the map is so empty and contains no worthwhile pickups". Shows you lot are just looking for excuses to bash the game and hope your braindead simps are not intelligent enough to notice the contradiction.
@paullogan56277 күн бұрын
Fantastic video. Plz make more
@doomslayer89857 күн бұрын
Issues with the DLC 1. Enemies are overtuned to the point they are playing sekiro while we are stuck with Demon Souls gameplay with small QoL over the last years but with less significant improvements (Bloodborne, Sekiro and Lies of P do a much better job than this) 2. Cheese and OP Builds are heavily incentivized because the majority of the bosses are now build checks where a person with unoptimized build will struggle so hard they will hard swap for meta builds which is terrible game design for a mostly PvE singleplayer game making the fights very unsatisfying. 3. Exploration is unrewarding enough, the fact they had to add a crucial item such as the scadutree fragments to "encourage" exploration damages the replay value because collecting the same material for almost 50 times is lazy game design by artificially gatekeeping the players from naturally progressing at their own pace to make the world a huge scadutree checklist (base game handled this matter much better with the crimson tears/sacred tears scarsed around the map but placed very specifically on early/mid/late game areas which makes it natural as players progress through the game) 4. Rewards are terrible (useless cookbooks, tons of smithing stones that are useless because everyone has at least 3 weapons maxed out and tons of resources spared cause they explored the base game map) where replay value is just a collection checklist (scadutree fragments and very specific armours/weapons/ashes, and thats bad cause it really means the majority of things you will find on the open world will be either useless or extremely niche making it bloated. 5. A lot of copy pasted mobs makes the encounters less special and boring real fast, genuinely fromsoft wanted to bloat the game as much as possible because the quantity over quality approach on an expensive market of 60/70usd games will make players feel they the most of their money back the bigger and longer the game is but bloated. My biggest theory is fromsoft realized how going through a niche market (Linear Hard Games) to a wider demographic with open world concept (Longer and Easier) massively makes more profit than all their older games. By dumbing down the games as a whole sacrificing certain aspects of the souls genre makes more money than anything else they produced in the past, which leads me to think they will keep making games of this kind with the direction of this DLC. Hopefully im wrong because i truly wish we had a souls game with Sekiro+Bloodborne combat together it would be perfect (oh wait we have one, its called Lies of P). Ironic how Lies of P was made by a small studio which adresses most issues with Elden Ring. My overall conclusion is the DLC shows how incredibly stagnated the series has become specially with this title (previous games such as Dark Souls are completely fine as they are) but making games such as Bloodborne and sekiro that were developed way before ER have much better combat system and replayability. This is what they thought "Lets make the DLC as big as possible (don't matter how bloated it is) because most people nowadays value videogames over their length rather than the quality itself". The DLC genuinely feels like a one and done experience (if you think about it the dlc has a lot of requirements and on consoles (the market they target the most) you cant duplicate savefiles before the dlc so you have to make your own way to the dlc again for almost 30hrs (because Mohg is unlocked at lategame) and most people recommend to be level 120-150 which again are lategame stats, it all makes sense on that way (how can you make something replayable when the main requirements to get in there are almost finishing the game itself). It's interesting how Zelda TOTK and Elden Ring DLC suffer from nearly the same issues and both franchises started as linear games but became widespread and more popular once they took the open world approach.
@shiroamakusa80756 күн бұрын
Go back to Ubisoft slop, loser.
@ryanator79358 күн бұрын
Onze really thought he was Virgil with those attacks 🫤
@henryzweihander82828 күн бұрын
Interesting seeing a rather different take on criticism of SotE. Specifically regarding the open world concept. I can't see the long traversals being palatable on repeat playthroughs especially without him as not every enemy is worth fighting. Scadutree fragments I partially disagree on as they are just multipliers. Yes, they lack decision making, but that's fine as they still proportionally enhance your existing rune level decisions. They won't make someone with no int a better sorcerer or make someone with no arc bleed things more. You mention their peers as well. To that I'm not sure there's a good solution as making them like levels ruins the gating process. The idea they could be done away with is an interesting one however. For those less enthralled by the explorative aspects I'm sure it would provide some relief from the demands of the current implementation. The item color coding is a great point though.
@menmaro8 күн бұрын
You have contradicted every point you've made so far this has to be bait...
@thomasfaverty67889 күн бұрын
Beat the expansion using only 3 incantations. Most bosses downed first try. No covenants, no improvements for online play, boring open world, new incantations weren't that great except the new Knight lightning spear, but the ancient dragons lightning is still better for most bosses. All more reasons why Elden Ring is my least favorite in the Soulsborne franchise and I've been playing them since 2009 Demons Souls release. Sad to see the downfall but it was bound to happen.
@henryzweihander82828 күн бұрын
The most breakout hit they've ever had and it's their "downfall". Most devs would pray for a "downfall" of in excess of 30 million sales between the base game and DLC.
@jeffosara22069 күн бұрын
While I agree with you on a number of things, I feel like some of the problems you listed are just part of the open world genre and are fine. Torrent is necessary since open world generally need a faster mode of travel on foot than walking and I cannot imagine how much worse exploration would be without him. You also do not have to fight everything. Running past enemies has been a part of Soulsborne games from the beginning and Torrent is just the latest iteration of it. Also respecing your character is not a problem. It is so that both beginners and experienced players can try different builds or correct mistakes in level distribution without making a new character. If a boss is requires a specific build, it is because of the choices of the developer and not the mechanic. Overall I enjoy it more when people are willing to criticize Fromsoft game than blindly praise it because they feel like they refuse to fix problems because they don’t have to. The don’t have to fix the camera for bigger bosses. They don’t have to make NPC feel like actual players by having them do anything but blindly attacking when they can just give them infinite stamina and FP and an amount of health only available to hackers. They don’t have to do anything in New Game + besides make numbers bigger. I enjoy the Soulsborne series but they are not perfect and more people should at the very least acknowledge that.
@mmoodenz9 күн бұрын
05:20 on Torrent being afraid of the frenzied flame, there is an item „Surging Flame of Frenzy“ explaining how it melts spirits, regardless of them being eternal. You can literally experience this when approaching the „Eye of Sauron“ by the Frenzied Flame Village, as your madness builds up, Torrent gradually loses HP.
@arisumego10 күн бұрын
10:54 this is such an amazing point, especially when you consider the mad brilliance of demon souls. This is absolutely something demon souls would've been willing to do in a heartbeat, and it would've been so amazing. If you betray your level up maiden, she stops leveling you up. Would've honestly been brilliant.
@Andi18718711 күн бұрын
Maybe not clickbait, but not correct either. It's not a poor followup. I really enjoy playing it.
@arisumego10 күн бұрын
it's his opinion, it's not up to you to decide whether it's correct or not lmfao. fromdrones are really losing it
these days u cant have an opinion on fromsoft games becuase of how many new people elden ring braught in.And they will just glaze the game to death and as someone who has played multiple souls/soulslike.Even i can say elden ring is not the best due to how many lasting flaws the game will have... -later runs become a horseback simulator -90% of the bosses ar not fun to fight and feel like filler and u dont get satisfaction out of it and u just think OMG thank god thats over -to get to dlc u have to pretty much go through the entire map again wich is tedious and obnoxious -torrent being painfully slow on a big map -alot of bosses being reskined Dont get me wrong i enjoyed the game but i dont see myself playing it in the future if more dlc doesnt get announced.And if it doesnt its probably back to dark souls 3,bloodborne and nioh 2
@joaoluizkfsantos839211 күн бұрын
New players glaze ER about as much as the old ones glaze BB. Some things never change, the future generations will continue glazing their new products while the old timers complain
@thatmemeguy252010 күн бұрын
@@joaoluizkfsantos8392 not really most people say about BB is that its MID without dlc.And the chalice dungeons suck and i think people only really like it because of its combat and setting and personally myself its not the best game but its damn close and NG+ in bloodborne is actuelly hard
@brentontariocanada793512 күн бұрын
In the last 4 years I've played eldein ring , lies of p, hogwarts legacy, armor core 6, sekiro, god of war , jedi survivor, witcher 3 to name a few. Elden ring is my favorite game ! I also enjoyed the DLC/ Expansion. My favorite combat is sekiro then followed up by lies of p. Good video and I agree with a good amount of your points.
@brentontariocanada793512 күн бұрын
Freakin auto correct strikes again.
@laughingman957412 күн бұрын
Here's the thing. If you want to critique something, you should have some baseline/comparison. There is a lot wrong with this """"critique"""" which is really poorly wailed attempt to be click-baity and should not be taken seriously. Here are some moronic things in it. 1. Reusing bosses/enemies. Please provide ONE example of ANY game with this number of different enemies or bosses, including other From titles. I'll wait. If you think about it for ONE SECOND, you would realize that making games includes funding, deadlines and manhours. And while it is not ideal to reuse assets, it is necessary and From does it less egregious than ANY other studio. 2. Scadutree fragments. Again, turn your brain on for one moment. From Soft DLCs were and should always be harder than the main game. So, how are you going to do this AND retain player progression? I'll wait again. Because, if you think a little, you will realize that standard leveling has a drop off point, soft caps exist since DeS, so leveling past soft caps doesn't feel like progress. And "scouring" the open world for fragments is not genuine, because even if you take the critical path, you will find A LOT of them. If you still feel weak, you COULD go and find the rest. 3. Radahn complaint was nothing burger. It plays NOTHING like the base game one, it is not even the same model. It is nothing more than From listening to fanbase and prime Radahn talk and giving it to us. It is a boss that could function with any other model. 4. Torrent trivializing enemy encounters. Again, stupid assumption. Here is how I play EVERY single From game and have been doing it since Des release - clear the areas at least once. That way I learn the enemies and get some of their drops. And I did the same in ER. Torrent is there when I want to traverse something fast. That's it. So, the idea that Abyssal woods is great because it forces you to walk means absolutely nothing. I would do that anyway in the first place. And I know I'm not the only one that does this. Acting like you have to ride past everything is stupid. 5. Build thing. Again, acting like everyone is meta slave and HAVE to use builds found on the internet. I loathe meta builds and will never use them, for one. And guess what, if somebody needs to look up optimized build for whatever thing they are stuck at, I have zero problems with it. So, if you plan to bait the views with the stupid title, you should think about what should you do when you gather views/subs. You have to offer something of value. Which you didn't.
@SetariM13 күн бұрын
There's a lore reason for why Torrent can't be summoned in the Abyssal Forest, read the item's description. That being said, I don't agree with the opinion on Torrent. The world is gigantic, Torrent is a horse, most enemies are on foot. I dunno what you expect lmao. The DLC absolutely entirely became a collectathon for me and it's just... not fun. The entire game was spent following a youtube video collecting fragments, all the way to the end. It sucks. IMO the DLC sucks. I'd rather run a NG+ 10 through the base game naked and talismanless than play through the DLC again on NG+1 even if NG+ retains the blessing from Scadutree fragments. Bosses have too much HP, too much damage output/combos. The base game bosses are far more balanced . You can use mostly whatever build you want in the base game. But in the DLC, it's bleed or fingerprint shield + rapier for most players to beat bosses. If I make a new character I'm just gonna save edit in the damn fragments, all 50 of em lmao
@_JesusIsLord_13 күн бұрын
Their best games have been bloodborne, sekiro and ac6. The souls games are fully founded on level design and that can only be manufactured uniquely so many times. Elden Ring is mostly a open world spectacle machine once you reach a certain power level. And most bosses seem almost incompatible to a trivial move set until you watch an ongbal video. But that should not be the case. The game and its mechanics design itself should inspire us to try to best the boss in different ways. That imo is the dlc’s greatest failure. Overcoming a boss never felt like an accomplishment. Always felt like either random wins because boss ai brain farting or cheese fests. Wholly unsatisfying.
@bladechild244913 күн бұрын
you can just tell these channels wanting to break out were readying this kinda of viewpoint months before release, lol
@MrJabbothehut13 күн бұрын
90% of the problems this game has results from it being open world. I hope FS never make another open world game as it completely breaks the design philosophy that they have learnt and evolved over the last 15 years. Torrent is there because the game is open world. The bosses are severly overtuned because you have the ability to go and overlevel yourself and have access to a million tools that trivialises them. People who don't get this and defend every aspect of this game are the reason why franchises bite the dust.
@DarkMustard133714 күн бұрын
I am finlly trying lords of the fallen and like it more than this dlc
@shirakenpsyop684314 күн бұрын
This is absolutely the best video critique I've seen on this game. I think you brought up many points that aren't being discussed as much as the boss designs but which are equally as detrimental to Elden Ring's drop in quality from their other titles. I feel crazy that I find the game to be overall a mess when even the most critical essays start with, "I really love this game but..." There are moments that are really fun. And there is a staggering amount to appreciate from an artistic design perspective. But overall, I just kept seeing the seams and the cracks and just wanted it to be over with the first time I played it.
@nez965614 күн бұрын
how do i block a youtube channel
@joesheridan94516 күн бұрын
Aw feelings hurt?
@imustconsultwiththeeldergo590614 күн бұрын
16:37 criticizes game for lot of reused shit from main game then proceeds to praise same old level design that he already played countless times in demon's souls/ darks souls 1,2,3/ bloodborne years ago. so do you want new shit or old shit? make your mind please!
@Radioactivesplinterz14 күн бұрын
I've been writing as a hobby for the better part of 8 years and I still cant find the words to adequately convey how trash your takes are. EDIT: And your gameplay.
@joesheridan94516 күн бұрын
Fromsoft cult members don’t take criticism well I guess
@Mohgenstein14 күн бұрын
- Improved minor dungeons - Improved bosses - Improved open world design
@joesheridan94516 күн бұрын
-improved minor dungeons. -worse legacy dungeons. (I only counted 2 and neither where as good as stormveil or leyendell) -worse bosses overall -worse lore -uglier world and art direction -even less unique enemies -even emptier and more boring, lifeless overworld
@Mohgenstein6 күн бұрын
@@joesheridan9451 Shadowkeep > Stormveil
@night_tiime14 күн бұрын
Great video. I agree with most points except your respec one. You’re stating people ONLY respec in order to use the most meta and broken gear but thats incorrect. A large reason people respect is simply to try out new fun things and experience the same game in a different way. Having access to new weapons and spells adds to the longevity and replayability of the game. I play PVP and love trying out everything the game has to offer. If respecing was no longer an option, I would have to wade through the mountains of useless filler content to obtain the gear I want for another character which is time consuming and sucks and highlights that issue of an open world
@CielBlanche14 күн бұрын
this video is the only guy telling the truth about this pile of trash
@evilfungas15 күн бұрын
It improved on basically everything from the base game except progression, which is hard to balance for post-game content.
@joesheridan94516 күн бұрын
How?? Overall boss qaulity worse, legacy dungeons worse, lore worse, art direction and beauty of the world worse, world even emptier and more boring… Final boss was a shitshow. Base game was overall much better experience
@lcoyle199815 күн бұрын
I could not disagree more about the map design. The idea that there are areas only flowing into eachother if you go down the most random holes in the wall is stupid and pointlessly unclear. Especially when 99% of those exact same scenarios lead to either nothing at all or pointless upgrade materials or cookbooks...
@AaryonTeragon11 күн бұрын
I see it from the experience of me literally 100% every surrounding area, blind, and missing a map because I didn't go to a completely optional tunnel. This could have happened twice, but I refused to keep progressing until I found the other map. If you can legit complete 2 MAIN areas before finding the map, in an OPTIONAL zone, the map loses all of its value. It made it easier to find 2 secrets, that were indeed useless materials, and that was about it. Edit: yes, it could have happened twice, which means you can go blind for almost 50% of the dlc, if you don't visit optional areas. That's just bad design.
@cenationofjnu15 күн бұрын
Map is big but either empty empty or full of reused enemies. Many of them are from the main game. Finding path is the most frustrating thing in the game. Shadow keep is the best part of game. If you exclude the boss fights, this game is a disappointment.. It took them 2 years to develop this dlc. It's clear that they spent most of the time in creating a huge map.
@MIKUIEL15 күн бұрын
This is a DLC not a sequel did you expect them to rework the entire game of the year?
@raiden30139 күн бұрын
no. but a dlc should still improve from the experience of the base game. even if its not a sequel your paying half the amount of a new game.
@MIKUIEL7 күн бұрын
@@raiden3013 that’s what they did the boss fights were better there were new stances spells and weapons and better side quest tracking I don’t know what else you want out of them without having to completely rework the games mechanics or create a separate new game most dlcs only add content and maps while touching up some mechanics which is what fromsoft did by a lot I would add
Пікірлер
THANK YOU for saying these games have only gotten more and more conventional as time has gone on! That's one of the main reasons why DS1 is one of my favorite games of all time and I can't ever enjoy games like Bloodborne and DS3 anywhere near as much as other people do. As time has gone on I feel that a lot of what I love about DS1 has been sanded away to create games with more and more mass appeal. I'm not trying to say that games having mass appeal inherently makes them worse, but rather that in chasing mass appeal you often end up leaving behind a lot of the flavor and vibe that i love so much about games like DS1.
Oh, and the lore is trash
One thing that's been plaguing the souls community since Dark Souls 2 has been bad criticism rooted in a fundamental misunderstanding of the game's intent. It's fine to not like the game's own intent and think it's bad, because you didn't like what it attempts to do, but it's completely another to disregard the clear intent and criticize a misunderstanding of it. Scadutree fragments. FromSoft's stated intent was to mimic a power progression similar to early game Elden Ring, without forcing players to level up. As you correctly say, past level 100, power increase from leveling are severely diminished, so they couldn't rely on it. Not to mention once you get to levels like 400 (which would be needed if they wanted to contain the power progression to leveling), you get to a point where a character can use every weapon and every spell, and it no longer has a build and it also breaks the main game - something they didn't want to do. They could've handled Scadutree fragments better, but as an alternative to grinding levels in Mohgwyn palace, they are pretty good. You talk about how Torrent ruins the game's world - an open world medieval action game without Torrent exists and it's called Dragon Age and it's a total slog to play. Yes, Torrent allows you to run past so many enemies, and whether you run past or fight is up to you - I fight pretty much everything I see. You know why? Because I actually enjoy the game, I simply enjoy fighting things. The simple act of fighting is fun, and I get to practice various tricks, parrying, dodging more complex attack patterns, etc. Maybe if people didn't run past the runebears, they wouldn't have so much problem in the DLC :^) Maybe the enemies on your path are there to teach you how to play, and you chose to run past them. I actually like the minibosses like runebears, deathrite birds, etc. I see them more as elites in a game like Diablo 2, not real bosses, and I enjoy them, as a little thing to break up the open world. You complain about the ability to respec, but you also rant about the need to gather up scadutree fragments, and here's why that's stupid - let's say you're level 80 in Altus Plateau and you realize you don't enjoy your character. You want to now try a katana for example. In Dark Souls, it would take you something like 10 hours to get a new character and get it to a similar position in the game - which would be level ~35 and in Anor Londo. Dark Souls is really short, it can be beaten in a day without speedrunning it. In that sense, "changing your build" by starting anew is a lot smaller committment in Dark Souls than it is here. You also complained about how awful it is to have to get the scadutree fragments on a new character (not really true, they're almost all a part of organic progression), but you want to have to grind 100+ levels if you just wanted to try a weapon with a different stat scaling. The other FromSoft games are really small - one time, to get the Sekiro platinum, I sat and beat it 3 times in a single day. I didn't even speedrun it, it's just a really short game. Elden Ring, due to its size, requires some concessions. Elden Ring encourages build variety through the combination of all its systems - the respecs, the way rewards are given out, and the overall higher level cap, that follows the same progression curve. Then, to acknowledge everything that this leads to, it also gives you a lot more hybrid items, so in the end, you will have a hybrid build. You will organically try out spells, incantations, consumables (which are finally useful), perfumes, not to mention spirit ashes, and how you can get infinite perfumes with them. This is what I mean when I talk about Souls criticism being bad. A lot of people speak from vibes, and fail to understand the design intent underpinning FromSoft's decisions. It's fine to not enjoy it, but to demand the game become a slog, just so it can resemble, on paper, a predecessor that is 1/5 of its length is... in my opinion ignorant. You complain about having to run around and explore, then you also want Torrent taken away. It's clear there's no thought put into your criticism, it's just vibes with some rationalization. Do good critique next time, and think about how the things you criticize fit together. Right now it is not a critique, it's a thoughtless rant.
To add to the boss design thing: I hink any move that requires a boss become invunrable for several seconds is bad design. I also found using anything other than a blood infused twinblade made the boss fights tedious, so more bad design. My biggest impression from the DLC? Tedium. I have no incentive to replay it.
The camera is bad on purpose, for artificial difficulty. Dark Souls 2 didn't have that issue, because it's not a Miyazaki game, that guy is a hack who makes the games bad on purpose. ER isn't about creativity, you are encouraged to follow guides and copy meta builds.
I watched your whole video. Although I play and platinum almost every souls like game and can agree that some Fromsoftware and non Fromsoftware games are better than Elden ring (Bloodborne and DS3 or Lies of P), I disagree with your general complaint of Elden ring dlc regarding exploration. Elden ring is an open world game and even the main game incentivises exploration. I don’t know why you would think that dlc would be different.
The audio cutting out all the time makes this video painful to listen to. Which is a shame because the points are legit.
Fromsoft fagboys will always defend this game, its how these devs are allowed to get away with copy paste bosses. Ragnarok was a walking simulator but the bosses were so much better than elden ring
Bethesda is the same there Fans alwas say it is just Bethesda Jank and this is OK but players from outside are going to criticise Bethesda for it
Respec has consequences, but Elden Ring needs it. Imagine gathering all the crap (seeds, bell bearings, whetstones, etc.) for every new build, lmao. Edit: Changing build is fun too, it's not only a tool to counter certain bosses.
ringed city at least has new enemies smh, ds2 dlcs has new enemies too
Complaining... complaining... complaining... absurd.
Jokes on you. Monster Hunter has taught me to treat all mini bosses as the same guy and he wants a rematch
why are you trans
Ngl im only 4 minutes and i can tell this is bait
Paused the vid. Sorry, I am going to jump on your Torrent rant here, without Torrent the DLC would be way too big and grace distance too far. Not to mention the replaybility of the DLC would be shafted, once you collect the Fragments, Spirit Ashes and special items, on a second run of the DLC you would have to slowly traverse every area, with no tangible reward. It would not feel more rewarding. The reward of special items is once, the reward of exploration is once. Without Torrent 90% of the DLC playtime would traversing the large barren map, fighting the same 7 enemies. There's a reason why most people on NG+ and New Characters just blast past most of the open world in the base game, because it not that good.
haha, gonna do no torrent run LMFAO
Dlc is shit end of duscussion
The reason scadutree fragments are a thing was to solve the overlevlled character problem when it came to DLCs. However they should've added more to spread them out and allow players to miss some but still get max like golden seeds. Its a hard problem to find a solution to and tbh I think it was a decent attempt.
You’re pretty spot on here especially about the map. Finding map fragments in the base game was so lame because nothing was stopping you from heading to them the second you entered the area. In the DLC you have to work towards finding the right path towards them and it makes uncovering the map so much more rewarding
All of this game is boring and a waist of time. A big disappointment to me. If you didn’t have to level up for an eternity first maybe the boss fights would be ok but copy and paste bs is all this game offers. This dlc is not better than the game to begin with. This game was an insult to my intelligence and time. Most humans who play games like this would not understand. If you can like this game than you’re easily entertained. This game sucks.
L review
Gotta' love how the haters both go "I hate looking for Scadutree fragments, it forces me to explore the map" and "I hate how the map is so empty and contains no worthwhile pickups". Shows you lot are just looking for excuses to bash the game and hope your braindead simps are not intelligent enough to notice the contradiction.
Fantastic video. Plz make more
Issues with the DLC 1. Enemies are overtuned to the point they are playing sekiro while we are stuck with Demon Souls gameplay with small QoL over the last years but with less significant improvements (Bloodborne, Sekiro and Lies of P do a much better job than this) 2. Cheese and OP Builds are heavily incentivized because the majority of the bosses are now build checks where a person with unoptimized build will struggle so hard they will hard swap for meta builds which is terrible game design for a mostly PvE singleplayer game making the fights very unsatisfying. 3. Exploration is unrewarding enough, the fact they had to add a crucial item such as the scadutree fragments to "encourage" exploration damages the replay value because collecting the same material for almost 50 times is lazy game design by artificially gatekeeping the players from naturally progressing at their own pace to make the world a huge scadutree checklist (base game handled this matter much better with the crimson tears/sacred tears scarsed around the map but placed very specifically on early/mid/late game areas which makes it natural as players progress through the game) 4. Rewards are terrible (useless cookbooks, tons of smithing stones that are useless because everyone has at least 3 weapons maxed out and tons of resources spared cause they explored the base game map) where replay value is just a collection checklist (scadutree fragments and very specific armours/weapons/ashes, and thats bad cause it really means the majority of things you will find on the open world will be either useless or extremely niche making it bloated. 5. A lot of copy pasted mobs makes the encounters less special and boring real fast, genuinely fromsoft wanted to bloat the game as much as possible because the quantity over quality approach on an expensive market of 60/70usd games will make players feel they the most of their money back the bigger and longer the game is but bloated. My biggest theory is fromsoft realized how going through a niche market (Linear Hard Games) to a wider demographic with open world concept (Longer and Easier) massively makes more profit than all their older games. By dumbing down the games as a whole sacrificing certain aspects of the souls genre makes more money than anything else they produced in the past, which leads me to think they will keep making games of this kind with the direction of this DLC. Hopefully im wrong because i truly wish we had a souls game with Sekiro+Bloodborne combat together it would be perfect (oh wait we have one, its called Lies of P). Ironic how Lies of P was made by a small studio which adresses most issues with Elden Ring. My overall conclusion is the DLC shows how incredibly stagnated the series has become specially with this title (previous games such as Dark Souls are completely fine as they are) but making games such as Bloodborne and sekiro that were developed way before ER have much better combat system and replayability. This is what they thought "Lets make the DLC as big as possible (don't matter how bloated it is) because most people nowadays value videogames over their length rather than the quality itself". The DLC genuinely feels like a one and done experience (if you think about it the dlc has a lot of requirements and on consoles (the market they target the most) you cant duplicate savefiles before the dlc so you have to make your own way to the dlc again for almost 30hrs (because Mohg is unlocked at lategame) and most people recommend to be level 120-150 which again are lategame stats, it all makes sense on that way (how can you make something replayable when the main requirements to get in there are almost finishing the game itself). It's interesting how Zelda TOTK and Elden Ring DLC suffer from nearly the same issues and both franchises started as linear games but became widespread and more popular once they took the open world approach.
Go back to Ubisoft slop, loser.
Onze really thought he was Virgil with those attacks 🫤
Interesting seeing a rather different take on criticism of SotE. Specifically regarding the open world concept. I can't see the long traversals being palatable on repeat playthroughs especially without him as not every enemy is worth fighting. Scadutree fragments I partially disagree on as they are just multipliers. Yes, they lack decision making, but that's fine as they still proportionally enhance your existing rune level decisions. They won't make someone with no int a better sorcerer or make someone with no arc bleed things more. You mention their peers as well. To that I'm not sure there's a good solution as making them like levels ruins the gating process. The idea they could be done away with is an interesting one however. For those less enthralled by the explorative aspects I'm sure it would provide some relief from the demands of the current implementation. The item color coding is a great point though.
You have contradicted every point you've made so far this has to be bait...
Beat the expansion using only 3 incantations. Most bosses downed first try. No covenants, no improvements for online play, boring open world, new incantations weren't that great except the new Knight lightning spear, but the ancient dragons lightning is still better for most bosses. All more reasons why Elden Ring is my least favorite in the Soulsborne franchise and I've been playing them since 2009 Demons Souls release. Sad to see the downfall but it was bound to happen.
The most breakout hit they've ever had and it's their "downfall". Most devs would pray for a "downfall" of in excess of 30 million sales between the base game and DLC.
While I agree with you on a number of things, I feel like some of the problems you listed are just part of the open world genre and are fine. Torrent is necessary since open world generally need a faster mode of travel on foot than walking and I cannot imagine how much worse exploration would be without him. You also do not have to fight everything. Running past enemies has been a part of Soulsborne games from the beginning and Torrent is just the latest iteration of it. Also respecing your character is not a problem. It is so that both beginners and experienced players can try different builds or correct mistakes in level distribution without making a new character. If a boss is requires a specific build, it is because of the choices of the developer and not the mechanic. Overall I enjoy it more when people are willing to criticize Fromsoft game than blindly praise it because they feel like they refuse to fix problems because they don’t have to. The don’t have to fix the camera for bigger bosses. They don’t have to make NPC feel like actual players by having them do anything but blindly attacking when they can just give them infinite stamina and FP and an amount of health only available to hackers. They don’t have to do anything in New Game + besides make numbers bigger. I enjoy the Soulsborne series but they are not perfect and more people should at the very least acknowledge that.
05:20 on Torrent being afraid of the frenzied flame, there is an item „Surging Flame of Frenzy“ explaining how it melts spirits, regardless of them being eternal. You can literally experience this when approaching the „Eye of Sauron“ by the Frenzied Flame Village, as your madness builds up, Torrent gradually loses HP.
10:54 this is such an amazing point, especially when you consider the mad brilliance of demon souls. This is absolutely something demon souls would've been willing to do in a heartbeat, and it would've been so amazing. If you betray your level up maiden, she stops leveling you up. Would've honestly been brilliant.
Maybe not clickbait, but not correct either. It's not a poor followup. I really enjoy playing it.
it's his opinion, it's not up to you to decide whether it's correct or not lmfao. fromdrones are really losing it
@@arisumego”from drones” yeah whatever bro😭touch grass
these days u cant have an opinion on fromsoft games becuase of how many new people elden ring braught in.And they will just glaze the game to death and as someone who has played multiple souls/soulslike.Even i can say elden ring is not the best due to how many lasting flaws the game will have... -later runs become a horseback simulator -90% of the bosses ar not fun to fight and feel like filler and u dont get satisfaction out of it and u just think OMG thank god thats over -to get to dlc u have to pretty much go through the entire map again wich is tedious and obnoxious -torrent being painfully slow on a big map -alot of bosses being reskined Dont get me wrong i enjoyed the game but i dont see myself playing it in the future if more dlc doesnt get announced.And if it doesnt its probably back to dark souls 3,bloodborne and nioh 2
New players glaze ER about as much as the old ones glaze BB. Some things never change, the future generations will continue glazing their new products while the old timers complain
@@joaoluizkfsantos8392 not really most people say about BB is that its MID without dlc.And the chalice dungeons suck and i think people only really like it because of its combat and setting and personally myself its not the best game but its damn close and NG+ in bloodborne is actuelly hard
In the last 4 years I've played eldein ring , lies of p, hogwarts legacy, armor core 6, sekiro, god of war , jedi survivor, witcher 3 to name a few. Elden ring is my favorite game ! I also enjoyed the DLC/ Expansion. My favorite combat is sekiro then followed up by lies of p. Good video and I agree with a good amount of your points.
Freakin auto correct strikes again.
Here's the thing. If you want to critique something, you should have some baseline/comparison. There is a lot wrong with this """"critique"""" which is really poorly wailed attempt to be click-baity and should not be taken seriously. Here are some moronic things in it. 1. Reusing bosses/enemies. Please provide ONE example of ANY game with this number of different enemies or bosses, including other From titles. I'll wait. If you think about it for ONE SECOND, you would realize that making games includes funding, deadlines and manhours. And while it is not ideal to reuse assets, it is necessary and From does it less egregious than ANY other studio. 2. Scadutree fragments. Again, turn your brain on for one moment. From Soft DLCs were and should always be harder than the main game. So, how are you going to do this AND retain player progression? I'll wait again. Because, if you think a little, you will realize that standard leveling has a drop off point, soft caps exist since DeS, so leveling past soft caps doesn't feel like progress. And "scouring" the open world for fragments is not genuine, because even if you take the critical path, you will find A LOT of them. If you still feel weak, you COULD go and find the rest. 3. Radahn complaint was nothing burger. It plays NOTHING like the base game one, it is not even the same model. It is nothing more than From listening to fanbase and prime Radahn talk and giving it to us. It is a boss that could function with any other model. 4. Torrent trivializing enemy encounters. Again, stupid assumption. Here is how I play EVERY single From game and have been doing it since Des release - clear the areas at least once. That way I learn the enemies and get some of their drops. And I did the same in ER. Torrent is there when I want to traverse something fast. That's it. So, the idea that Abyssal woods is great because it forces you to walk means absolutely nothing. I would do that anyway in the first place. And I know I'm not the only one that does this. Acting like you have to ride past everything is stupid. 5. Build thing. Again, acting like everyone is meta slave and HAVE to use builds found on the internet. I loathe meta builds and will never use them, for one. And guess what, if somebody needs to look up optimized build for whatever thing they are stuck at, I have zero problems with it. So, if you plan to bait the views with the stupid title, you should think about what should you do when you gather views/subs. You have to offer something of value. Which you didn't.
There's a lore reason for why Torrent can't be summoned in the Abyssal Forest, read the item's description. That being said, I don't agree with the opinion on Torrent. The world is gigantic, Torrent is a horse, most enemies are on foot. I dunno what you expect lmao. The DLC absolutely entirely became a collectathon for me and it's just... not fun. The entire game was spent following a youtube video collecting fragments, all the way to the end. It sucks. IMO the DLC sucks. I'd rather run a NG+ 10 through the base game naked and talismanless than play through the DLC again on NG+1 even if NG+ retains the blessing from Scadutree fragments. Bosses have too much HP, too much damage output/combos. The base game bosses are far more balanced . You can use mostly whatever build you want in the base game. But in the DLC, it's bleed or fingerprint shield + rapier for most players to beat bosses. If I make a new character I'm just gonna save edit in the damn fragments, all 50 of em lmao
Their best games have been bloodborne, sekiro and ac6. The souls games are fully founded on level design and that can only be manufactured uniquely so many times. Elden Ring is mostly a open world spectacle machine once you reach a certain power level. And most bosses seem almost incompatible to a trivial move set until you watch an ongbal video. But that should not be the case. The game and its mechanics design itself should inspire us to try to best the boss in different ways. That imo is the dlc’s greatest failure. Overcoming a boss never felt like an accomplishment. Always felt like either random wins because boss ai brain farting or cheese fests. Wholly unsatisfying.
you can just tell these channels wanting to break out were readying this kinda of viewpoint months before release, lol
90% of the problems this game has results from it being open world. I hope FS never make another open world game as it completely breaks the design philosophy that they have learnt and evolved over the last 15 years. Torrent is there because the game is open world. The bosses are severly overtuned because you have the ability to go and overlevel yourself and have access to a million tools that trivialises them. People who don't get this and defend every aspect of this game are the reason why franchises bite the dust.
I am finlly trying lords of the fallen and like it more than this dlc
This is absolutely the best video critique I've seen on this game. I think you brought up many points that aren't being discussed as much as the boss designs but which are equally as detrimental to Elden Ring's drop in quality from their other titles. I feel crazy that I find the game to be overall a mess when even the most critical essays start with, "I really love this game but..." There are moments that are really fun. And there is a staggering amount to appreciate from an artistic design perspective. But overall, I just kept seeing the seams and the cracks and just wanted it to be over with the first time I played it.
how do i block a youtube channel
Aw feelings hurt?
16:37 criticizes game for lot of reused shit from main game then proceeds to praise same old level design that he already played countless times in demon's souls/ darks souls 1,2,3/ bloodborne years ago. so do you want new shit or old shit? make your mind please!
I've been writing as a hobby for the better part of 8 years and I still cant find the words to adequately convey how trash your takes are. EDIT: And your gameplay.
Fromsoft cult members don’t take criticism well I guess
- Improved minor dungeons - Improved bosses - Improved open world design
-improved minor dungeons. -worse legacy dungeons. (I only counted 2 and neither where as good as stormveil or leyendell) -worse bosses overall -worse lore -uglier world and art direction -even less unique enemies -even emptier and more boring, lifeless overworld
@@joesheridan9451 Shadowkeep > Stormveil
Great video. I agree with most points except your respec one. You’re stating people ONLY respec in order to use the most meta and broken gear but thats incorrect. A large reason people respect is simply to try out new fun things and experience the same game in a different way. Having access to new weapons and spells adds to the longevity and replayability of the game. I play PVP and love trying out everything the game has to offer. If respecing was no longer an option, I would have to wade through the mountains of useless filler content to obtain the gear I want for another character which is time consuming and sucks and highlights that issue of an open world
this video is the only guy telling the truth about this pile of trash
It improved on basically everything from the base game except progression, which is hard to balance for post-game content.
How?? Overall boss qaulity worse, legacy dungeons worse, lore worse, art direction and beauty of the world worse, world even emptier and more boring… Final boss was a shitshow. Base game was overall much better experience
I could not disagree more about the map design. The idea that there are areas only flowing into eachother if you go down the most random holes in the wall is stupid and pointlessly unclear. Especially when 99% of those exact same scenarios lead to either nothing at all or pointless upgrade materials or cookbooks...
I see it from the experience of me literally 100% every surrounding area, blind, and missing a map because I didn't go to a completely optional tunnel. This could have happened twice, but I refused to keep progressing until I found the other map. If you can legit complete 2 MAIN areas before finding the map, in an OPTIONAL zone, the map loses all of its value. It made it easier to find 2 secrets, that were indeed useless materials, and that was about it. Edit: yes, it could have happened twice, which means you can go blind for almost 50% of the dlc, if you don't visit optional areas. That's just bad design.
Map is big but either empty empty or full of reused enemies. Many of them are from the main game. Finding path is the most frustrating thing in the game. Shadow keep is the best part of game. If you exclude the boss fights, this game is a disappointment.. It took them 2 years to develop this dlc. It's clear that they spent most of the time in creating a huge map.
This is a DLC not a sequel did you expect them to rework the entire game of the year?
no. but a dlc should still improve from the experience of the base game. even if its not a sequel your paying half the amount of a new game.
@@raiden3013 that’s what they did the boss fights were better there were new stances spells and weapons and better side quest tracking I don’t know what else you want out of them without having to completely rework the games mechanics or create a separate new game most dlcs only add content and maps while touching up some mechanics which is what fromsoft did by a lot I would add