strangely, I agree with almost everything you say in the video, but I still ended up loving SotE. I think it's a big step up from the base game. maybe you just don't hate the Scadoosh system enough? I, for one, completely refused to engage with it as soon as I caught wind of what it did, and I'm pretty sure this improved my experience. yes, this made the game a bit harder, too, but I don't play these games to have an easy time. the problem with the Skibidi blessings is that there's no depth to this system, it's just a linear difficulty slider. if spending the fragments yielded some kind of special effect with bonuses and tradeoffs, that would've been interesting. but nope… just overall damage and defense. may as well call it an easy mode toggle, because that's what it is essentially.

Its not a perfect system but its definitely not a fatal flaw lol. You are basically expecting semi open world system from this dlc like dark souls when the main game is not like that. This dlc is not different from the main game where you have to find weapons, smithing stones, flask upgrades etc.

Every time you start a new game on the base game your first 2h are basically a scavenger hunt for items and gear, flasks, etc. How is this any different? It literally takes 30min of deliberate exploration to get to scadutree lvl 12 if you know the locations already. I respectfully disagree with your take on this

What I identified the most with in your video was one of the first sentences that said that now is the time for normal people to say what they think. What I want to say is that most people will really play DLC just once or twice and they don't really have ten different saves and all the time in the world to 'git gud'. Nor is it fun when you see it from that perspective. Also, what I noticed in this 'git gud' controversy is that some apologists of FromSoft would actually criticize the game a lot. But first they would attack people who complained about the game. That move made them objective. Then they proceeded to criticizing the game even more. I really found such videos. They start with how annoying people who don't want to git gud are and then they repeat almost all the complaints.

For me it is good, because it makes you happy when you find them. Simple as that.

I agree with almost all your complaints, except two. Firstly, I do enjoy that there is an optional higher difficulty option, by not using the blessings. But they should not be so randomly scattered. I love the idea of getting them after a boss instead AND that would actually explain the boss increased stats too, since they are carrying the blessings to empower themselves. Secondly, I think it's very important the final boss is Radahn in his prime, this carries a tremendous emotional connection, and it's something many players wanted to see, how things used to be before the shattering. I don't think ANY new character would have served nearly as well in his stead.

When you're looking for fragments and the item you find after exploring an area is a cookbook or a spell you can't use it SUCKS

I think youre forgetting the fact that at its core, Elden Ring is an open world game based on exploration. Finding gear and becoming stronger to beat a boss that was kicking your ass eariler is a great feeling. All of the new gear in the dlc, literal new weapon types amongst tons of other new things is why. The whole "dlc is at the end so I gotta do the whole game judt to fet to it" is nothing new with Fromsoft games. All the Souls dlcs minus Ashes of Ariandel were all endgame scaled, you can't get to The Ringed City eithout at least beating Ashes or the entire base game. If they didnt add thr blessing you'd tear thr dlc in half and it just wouldn't be fun. I get that the fatigue of running around and exploring can be tiring at times but it's necessary. No one would enjoy paying $40 for a dlc only to beat it in like 4 hours because you brought out a 150+ character. No matter how you look at it, it's still asingleplayer game, just take a break if need be. Take it slowly, don't hunt thrm all down unless a boss is kicking your ass and then go grab like 1 or 2 levels worth and then try thr boss again.

This is the biggest L tale bruh. Hardest “I got smacked by Rellana” ass type shit.

Great video bro. I feel the same way about the progression system. I really feel that even though From software says that difficulty isn't important to them I think they have kinda fallen in love with their own legend when it comes to difficulty. It really hurt this dlc cause I don't care what any journalist says..... you can't just go through the game without hunting those damn things down!!!

Thats why im playing The Convergence every time i play the DLC from now on. They removed scadutree bs and replaced it with regular scaling and weapons can go up to +15 with new shards. Much more enjoyable. My second DLC runthrough was much more enjoyable not having to worry about that system at all

I kinda get it but thats a very subjective opinion. When I started the DLC, Rellana was one of the first bosses I fought and lost multiple times to her to the point I got a bit mad. So what I did was stop trying and went to explore the map. Very similar to how it happened in the base game with Margett. But in no moment I felt like I was being forced to find the Scadutree fragments. I wanted to explore the new world map anyway and needless to say I found several fragment just by mindlessly exploring. Fought all the bosses, a lot of them I only managed to beat after coming back later with more fragments, and I think that system worked just fine. Its important to mention that you CAN beat bosses without collecting fragments. In my case it was harder because I was very underleveled compared to most players, and I dont use summons and purposely cripple myself by using non-meta weapons. I know for a fact that I can start the DLC at level 100+, use the strongest summons, spam the most OP weapon skills and spells, and easily breeze through most, if not all, bosses in the DLC. I know there is a lot of players who did exactly that, which is why I am okay with From Software using Scadu tree fragments as an excuse to make bosses harder. To be honest at first I was mad too but then I realized that the way I play Elden Ring isnt the way most people play it. The DLC bosses werent made with my gameplay style in mind, and I had to adapt to that. Got my fragment levels to around 14 by exploring the entire map, beat every single boss, and genuinely had a good time. Overall there was some bad boss battles but it was still a great DLC.

SMELLS LIKE PUSSY IN HERE!

This all could have been avoided if fromsoft just raised the level cap. It made no sense in base Eldon ring to cap levels at 99 when the game is the size of dark souls 1 and 2 combined. Throw in the DLC which is the size of dark souls 3 and it only compounds the problem. If they had just let players level to 150 per stat instead there would have been no need for tree fragments and players would have had an additional option in the base game to handle the end game content. Rather than using it summons or OP ash of war, they could have equaled the boss in stats.

I bet this video is getting downvoted like crazy. FromSoftware is so many gamers' sacred cow. No criticism allowed. I 100% agree the Scadutree blessing system is bad. I don't like it, and wish the DLC would have just been scaled like an endgame zone. I would have explored anyway. Now I have to run a bunch of chores on any new playthrough. It's not ideal. That said, the system didn't make me leave game. I'm still replaying with new builds with all the new weapons. But I don't hold it against anybody who gets turned off by the fragment system. And without the system, people wouldn't have review-bombed the DLC's difficulty, IMO.

I’ll say this, I initially didn’t get the DLC on release, the moment I seen someone going 100mph 50 foot gap closer spinning lightning ball I said what in the fuck? My point being is they put a extreme limit on some bosses with being unable to see, going fast as fuck, and doing massive combo strings with gigantic hit boxes. After beating the last boss I have 0 intentions (even with my OCD to obtain everything like all unique items and skills/spells) on wanting to even play this DLC again.

Scadutree fragments is a garbage system, completely unnecessary.

You deserve it, that was a very articulate video with plenty of good points, you should definitely make more like that one

Great video man. Elden Ring is my favorite game. Im weird bro I dont really care about the games story line or anything. I just like collecting all the fragments and crafting stuff. Im on my 2nd playthrough of the dlc. 🎉

Like a train wreck I just can't stop watching these bad takes

What also sucks about reusing Radahn is that despite people saying its a totally new fight, it isn't. Many of the attack patterns are very similar to Radahn 1, its just hes smaller with slightly different pacing. The scissor combo, from Radahn 1, the pancake flip, from Radahn 1. The gravity rocks, gravity explosion, even the Radahn-meteor gimmick is back. Like yeah, its the same guy it makes sense for 1 and 2 to be similar. It just sucks because I wanted something different. Ignoring Radahn, I also hate the Scadu "system". Mindlessly inflating enemy health and damage is quite literally the same difficulty scaling slapped on the vast majority of other games. It has always been the lazy way to scale difficulty, and Fromsoft has been brilliant in its game design by specifically not relying on it...until now(mostly). Other than DS2, admittedly all the games have had similar afterthought for NG+ scaling, but at least you had the pleasure of replaying all your favorite fights with all the items you prefer. As it is, Scadu scaling is just a lazy difficulty slider inconveniently missing from the options menu.

I actually think intertwining exploration into power increase was genius... so, respectfully disagree completely. It's keeping me exploring the world when i otherwise would have gotten bored ages ago.

have to collect golden seeds in base game: =) have to collect scadutree fragments in DLC: >=( imbecile

Interesting take. I agree with other comments, and also to the short mention of the vertical level design. I don't know how to pinpoint it, but somehow the DLC does not have that certain something as the original game had. Just mentioning: ER is the only FS game I have ever played. And for me Elden Ring is the best game of all times to this day. So everything coming from a place of love too, as the author of the video stated it quite well. One thing that I found for myself liking more in the original game: The implicit linearity of the world, although it is an open world. What I mean is: you start at Limgrave, you accidentally teleport to Caelid and recognize - scary place - come here later again. So you had this sense of discovering something. At the same time you have a huge gate, behind that a big castle - and after that you continue to the next big area. You just recognized so much from the level design and world building - although open they placed things implicitly so that you understand them without recognizing it. While in SotE I ended up at Mesmer with Blessing Level 8 on Ng+. I killed him and then most of the NPCs were gone - I was locked out of multiple quests - using a guide from that point on. I just had missed like two thirds of the game up to that point. OK - I heard they made more vertical levels in DS - but I never played DS. So this kind of more labyrinth world building was somewhat unexpected. With regard to ScaduTree Blessings and Exploration: I agree with the things said in the video. And others saying that you don''t have to collect them - well, the fragments are also an implicit way of saying to the player: "Do this to get more power". And in an RPG you always want exactly that. This system makes the progression seem way more artificial, while in the original game everything seemed to be interwoven organically. So you were gaining power while continuing the adventure into new territories - everything felt like it was one huge fantasy novel. Maybe this is why the fragments system seems so weird to many people. Also, in the video it was said that the intention of this could be to encourage more exploration - I think that this is true, and I think that it was done because the world building is different in the DLC - as mentioned the world is more vertical and more labyrinth like - so you are less guided by it. But this takes away the free choice of exploring - in ER you could explore, and I did it just because I wanted to - I went to every corner. Others might not like to do this - and they didn't have to. In SotE you kind of have to, to collect the fragments - don't misunderstand me - I would explore everything anyway. I am just saying on top of what was said in the video, the Scadutree Fragments make the game feel more artifical, less organic and less open due to "limiting your freedom" to go and discover wherever you want in which order you want (in quotes because it actually doesn't, but it communicates this to you, while in original ER the world communicates this to you in a much more subtle way). On the topic "Wide open areas"": I don't know what to think here. Sometimes I felt during the game, that they could have put more into the places (which had always a great design), and sometimes there were cool ideas. Like that mages in one of the ruins stunning you into one place and teleporting mobs to you, or the unbeatable frenzy mages in Abyssal Woods. I would say that I sometimes had the impression that certain things were unfinished - which may have different reasons. Nevertheless - I sill enjoined the new Legacy Dungeons, the Bosses, and that it's "Elden Ring". I liked that jumping passages were mostly easier when built into levels. I also enjoyed the general dungeon design, that they make you intentionally see something, so that you know that there must be a way (this is something I really love in ER). I think it is also good that they experimented with a different kind of world building - as mentioned in the video - but it kind of didn't work as well as the one before. I also think it is quite difficult to develop such things - so huge respect for ER/SotE in general.

Yeah so.. I just didn't accept the scadutree blessings and its spirit counter part to exist. I didn't use them at all during my 2 dlc runs. 0.

Aside from the fact that external progression/scaling systems were literally never necessary in any Fromsoft DLC before this one, it's interesting how the Scadutree system was described pre-release as a "Sekiro-like" leveling system, only for it to be very different from Sekiro's system and much worse. If they had implemented it like it actually was in Sekiro, where upgrades are primarily rewards for defeating bosses, it would have truly encouraged exploration to fight as many main bosses and mini-bosses as possible to upgrade your character throughout the DLC. If they made it scale faster and gave a surplus of the upgrades so that you don't have to kill every boss, it would have been perfectly fine and make a lot more sense than the system we ultimately got. Even with that said, I think that any system like the Scadutree fragments is still ultimately superfluous for an endgame DLC. You make this point perfectly in this video by asking the question of why it matters if someone, who already bought the DLC, wants to steamroll it with a powerful endgame build. There's no good reason for the DLC to require a separate type of progression scaling other than to artificially inflate its difficulty or length, and the way they went about it makes very little sense compared to other design choices they could have pursued.

Every boss in this DLC is harder than the Orphan of Kos - having 10 hit combos that 2-shot or 3-shot you in addition to late-fight mega moves that 1-shot you, along with near infinite poise so you can't interrupt their combos. You have to learn precise dodge timings for all boss combos and mega moves, which will likely require well over 20 attempts to learn. No thanks. I've beaten every souls, sekiro, and bloodborne boss alone, but with these thrown in the towel and have given up trying to beat these without help. I summon my mimic tear and try to clear the bosses as painlessly as possible.

It’s not “open world” for a reason. It defeats the purpose of “open world” if you don’t gotta explore to find the fragments.

I love it i have no problem with it. It's very enjoyable. God war might be for you then.

You raise a lot of good points here with good reasoning. As I hear you explain this I can't say I disagree with you, especially considering the burden on repeat playthroughs. They're not encouraging exploration but rather forcing it, and if the open world fatigue wasn't felt already in ER's base game it will *really* be felt in SotE. That is the main criticism I had for the base game that I was hoping they would remedy in SotE. At least after you've beaten the game you should be given the option to re-fight bosses any time at your leisure and not force this tedious collect-a-thon every playthrough.

I mean... Bloodborne's DLC, DS2's DLC had interconnectivity with their base games, and DS3 with the other DLC, so.... Not really a new thing

Okay so I don't know how that slipped but the blessing levels do cary over! However, it's still dumb

Thank you for making this video and presenting this issue in such a clear way. In my opinion, the Scadutree Fragment system is one of the worst mechanics I've ever seen in any game, and I hope they never do something like that again. And this is coming from a studio that has had some truly terrible mechanics in their games before, such as Soul Memory and the weapon durability system in Dark Souls 2. Actually, speaking of DS2, Scadutree Fragments are basically a reskinned version of the Giant Souls from that game, where each one you collect makes a certain part of the game (just one boss in DS2) more properly scaled compared to the rest of the game, after being artificially inflated in terms of they amount of health they have and damage they do in order to enforce exploring and clearing other parts of the game. Except, as stated by you about Golden Seeds and Sacred Tears, the Giant Souls in DS2 were fairly straightforward to find, with all of them besides for one dropping from Giants, most of them within the memory trees, and one as a drop from Ancient Dragon. Likewise, Golden Seeds are all at Golden Seed trees, which you can see from far away, and Sacred Tears are all within churches, of which there are only a few of within each region of the Lands Between. Scadutree Fragments are like... some of them are by Miquella's Crosses, visible from far away like how Golden Seeds are. Some of them are by Marika statues inside churches or along roads. Some of them are dropped by shadow people with pots on their heads. Not all of them, though. Some of them drop Revered Spirit Ashes or uh, random consumables. Some of them are dropped by Golden Hippos in out-of-the-way areas. Some of them are just found on random corpses with nothing setting them apart from normal loot corpses, like the one at the bottom of the waterfall in Scadu Altus or the one on the north side of the Abyssal Woods. Also, I approve of calling them "scadoo", because if it's an Old English pronunciation, first off that's a different language than modern English, and second off, in modern English (the language the rest of the game is in), C is pronounced like C, not like H.

The Scadutree system is just a band-aid to cover for the fact that there's no real way to keep challenging players with new mechanics. All they can do is amp up the rate enemies attack at, and mess with the raw numbers to make it feel like you're growing more powerful. You know what I'd rather have? Bloodborne or Sekiro's quick dodge. Mechanics that let me deal with Radahn's BS with skill instead of praying for good RNG.

If the Scadue Tree Blessing is a response to the comments of the fans, I don't know what to think about FromSoftware. It is literally the same problem as the base game: "do you feel weak against the new enemies? Roam around and find random shit to be stronger", except, this time, the blessings give you rough numbers instead of some new mechanical stuff, like the Physics Flask, different weapons, more healing flasks, etc

I respectfully disagree. The fragments make you investigate the map (hence you have a motivation to look everywhere) and the difficulty forces you to go around and get stronger, meaning you are ‘forced’ to experience the full width of the map. Had it been straightforward and easy people would have cried out loud for FS and HM’s heads for making it too easy. DLC has nice balance and it’s fun to explore a couple of times. On NG+ cycles just go straight to the best bits (as you do in the main game).

I beat the game on very low blessing and had no problem. Tbh SotE is basically on par with the nornal difficulty of the usual fromsoft game. The base game was way too easy to break in half. The dlc is like ok, how about you dont do that? And people cant fucking handle it and lose their minds because their one shot builds dont work anymore. 😂 After all these year i cant believe we still have to unironically tell people to git gud. 😂

Womp womp, you have to collect items in a Japanese RPG once per Save File... Get over it😊

I love being rewarded with glass shards and mushrooms while thoroughly exploring an area. 😠

Also, get this! Fragments that are to be found by killing the ethereal shadow npcs carrying pots on top of their heads, they can dissapear/despawn, taking the fragments with them for good. For some players restarting the game won't reintroduce the items, even if the enemies will be back. Another fragment that's buggy is one dropped by one of the two hippo bosses that are close to each other. One of them will simply not have the fragment for some players. So now you're chasing after nothing after wasting time with guides and videos and trying to figure out the map and the way to get there! Dreadful, and you're right, it makes a chore of exploration.

Agree big time, when I thought the fragments would just be placed at miquella's crosses and the statues of Marika (two things that somewhat stand out in the environment) I thought it was fine. But with them being placed on random pot enemies, Hippos, and even locations with literally no distinction from normal loot, I got fed up and just looked up a guide. People commenting on here saying "you're just too lazy to explore" are only making points against themselves without realizing. Exploration shouldn't feel like a chore, I had almost no incentive to cross the multitude of giant, barren areas in the DLC either full of garbage loot or literally nothing (so basically all the finger ruins) just to find another stupid fragment just so I do anything more than scratch damage to the bosses despite having a maxed out weapon and 80 strength. Amplified by how *HUGE* areas can be gated by going through a random cave you might not even see, or worse, behind a puzzle that requires you to use a gesture. Same with the false comparison to smithing stones, golden seeds and sacred tears. Besides there being way more of those than you actually need (including literally infinite smithing stones with their bell-bearings), these exist in conjunction with each other and not as *one* thing you have an absolute limit on.

The smithing stone in DLC are useful for fresh character, i played coop and finish the dlc before accessing leyndell royal capital and those smithing stones are so helpful on upgrading weapon that we got from dlc area.

to be fair i dont mind radahn as last boss, they put lore that somewhat make sense, also who doesnt want prime radahn. it was somewhat disappointing to see malenia is way harder than radahn eventho she lost against him and run away.

Except it isn't a fatal flaw and arguably improves the experience as it still allows for a feeling of progression. "They could've done nothing and it would've been better." No, then you would've just complained that "there's no sense of progression."

skill issue

4:16 You are starting the base game with 4 flasks giving you 4x250= 1000 hp healing in total, by the end if you collect all 12 sacred tears and most golden seeds you end up with 14x800=10400 hp healing all obtained by exploration, weapon upgrades also being optained in a similar manner, it's basically the same system in the DLC. You can technically beat the game just by leveling your character without weapon of flask upgrades if you don't want forced exploration, but I don't think that's how you did it for the fist time.

Me personally, I felt the fragments were the only thing keeping me exploring. The world was so empty and devoid of any reward besides Crafting Material, crafting books and smithing stones. It became aggravating. The fragments at least gave me something useful and a reason to explore around because aside from that there is nothing really. Beautiful world, but going back to the base game for a RL1 run and it’s glaring how much more is going on in the open world of the base game and how there’s almost always something for the player to find/use. I tried to ignore how lackluster the dlc was till about halfway through I accepted that I don’t need to check every corner and behind every building. Truly a bummer. And kinda do hate how in the base game you still collect golden seeds that you can’t use. Annoying how that became something not worth collecting vs there being an exact amount you need. Makes sense for the game but I prefer there to only be the correct amount needed to upgrade to fully.

The issue i have with the last boss if it's Mohg's vesel where are the omen horns or any evidence of it? idk imo they could have created something incredible here

The System does indeed feel busted, bosses like Midra taking 90% of your health with 2 normal swings with the biggest range ever, while you have 2k health and beast champion armor set, and also spamming arena wide madness attacks doesnt feel good to play, its almost as if they are forcing players to play a cheese build for certain bosses, same with Radahn 90% of the players offering help outside had the fingerprint shield and a spear weapon, such a a boring playstyle, i managed to beat him with my Beastman's Cleaver but had to use the mimic tear, also the spamming of blinding attacks is not fun at all doesnt even let you learn the move set and makes you spam dodges, im happy with Messmer as an end boss, that was such a cool fight.

It is certainly the only aspect of the DLC that I didn't like. Could have set the stat levels similar to Farum Azula and no one would have complained.