A Goodbye Letter to Modern FromSoftware's Game Design

[@GIoominary]

Wow, I did not expect this kind of response. This is a super small channel and I honestly didn’t think this video would take off the way it did. Since the comment section feels more like a battlefield mostly occupied by extraordinarily passionate FromSoft cultists, let me make a few things clear about what this video is and what it isn’t. This video is not a comprehensive critique of Elden Ring, Shadow of the Erdtree or the game design philosophy behind modern FromSoftware’s latest titles. It is also not a call for action or change, nor did I intent to “complain” about anything. I simply recorded my thoughts and reasons for why I have come to the conclusion that FromSoftware has changed significantly in how they design their games and what elements they focus on. It’s a personal video concerned with my subjective experience with their games, in particular Shadow of the Erdtree, which, in my opinion, is emblematic for a greater shift in FromSoft’s approach to video game design that probably started sometime around the development of Dark Souls II. The video certainly isn’t perfect, but it is only meant as a reflection on why I fell out of love with this company that I used to love so much. Now, let me address a few points that were raised in the comments by the more obnoxious part of the Souls “community”. First off, many here claim to know what “these games” are all about. Many commentors have pointed out, that they have always been about overcoming challenges in an unforgiving world that doesn’t care for you. That Souls is about failure and how to overcome it in the face of relentless adversity. Let me be as clear as possible. If you believe to know what these games are about, you are wrong. You do not know. I do not know. There is no universal, objective truth in this matter. Souls games and Souls-adjacent games mean different things to different people. There are a million reasons why people enjoy these games. To boil it all down to defeating difficult bosses and overcoming challenges is a painful and embarrassing testament to people’s media literacy or lack thereof. Challenge has always been a crucial factor in these games, that much is true, but to claim that this has always been at the core of the experience for everybody since Demon’s Souls is laughable. It is absolutely fine if you disagree with the points I bring up in this video. I expected as much and I made this video in the first place to encourage discussion. The point was to present an opinion based on personal experience that might differ somewhat from the mainstream. I like videos that challenge my views and opinions and make me reflect on my own biases. I hope this video can do that for some people. For this reason, I would like to keep the comment section active. I have read some constructive criticisms here and I don’t want people to feel excluded. However, the insane amount of insults, your typical braindead “get goods”, gaslighting and overall disrespectful tone will not be tolerated. Please stay civil even if you heavily dislike this video and its content. Thank you.

[@connecticut1123]

yap

[@zomgpie2]

Don’t feel bad man, these frombots have been attacking anyone criticizing this dlc.

[@stefmoneythebigfella7156]

I respect your opinion. I just feel bad that your putting down Fromsoftware games. In my opinion if you do that, It's time to pack up gaming in general. Them, Capcom, and Nintendo are like the best right now. It might be time to find a new hobby 🤷

[@jobbersupreme8720]

​@@zomgpie2Because they all parrot the same points with no other insight lmao

[@zomgpie2]

@@jobbersupreme8720 you’re correct, they do. Iv literally seen people say “skill issue” to criticizing the empty open world, these fanboys are brain dead.

[@geek.hard.]

maybe these games just aren't for you man. fighting the bosses, learning their movesets and dodging their attacks is what's fun and satisfying about them. people who describe souls bosses as "banging your head against the wall until you win" i think have the wrong idea, it's not about racing to the finish line but enjoying the way there, you know... enjoying the game? these bosses are a fun way to test your sharpness skills and get engaged in immersive combat. messmer for example, is a fun boss fight not because i managed to beat him lol, but because he was fun to fight, and honestly i was sad once i beat him because that meant i wasn't able to fight him again.

[@ahkyron8782]

i think you're exactly right 👍

[@Mini-c137]

1. Pve is not skill, youre remembering movesets.. like taking a test. Pvp is skill because you dont know what theyre going to do.. 2. Now pay attention this is the part droids can never grasp.. its not that its difficult, its the way in which they acheive it. Regardless of how you feel about it, this is undeniably true and you should be thankful some people recognise it. If inept toddlers keep praising them for cheap qnd lazy design thats what well get. "Artificial difficulty" their most blatant example would have to be puting 6 guys with guns around every mini boss in sekiro. Its not hard because its innovative and creative. What should be an enjoyable mini boss becomes monotonous task of taking the gunmen out just to fight the mini boss. Their games are not fun to play as a result of the endless persuit of difficulty. The irony is the only thing you need to learn to beat elden ring is to no panic roll.

[@liquidreality472]

​@@Mini-c137is there a game you can give as an example that doesn't fall under this criticism?

[@radonbox6569]

Maybe videos with constructive criticism about things you like just aren't for you man. You can take a break from the internet for a while bud, no one's making you live on Twitter. Relax a little

[@ahkyron8782]

@@Mini-c137 you can’t just say it’s an undeniable fact, it’s not, especially when your ‘fact’ is incorrect. Your example with sekiro isn’t bad design, it’s designed to get you to interact with the stealth mechanics in order to take out the ranged enemies first. Same with Elden ring none of the bosses are poorly designed, they are all designed to be tackled in different ways. Just because you don’t want to adapt and change the element or resistances you are using doesn’t mean the game is bad, it means you’re not playing it right. So no your point isn’t a fact it’s a lie.

[@auranooo]

I kind of don't understand the part where you say that you have to learn the boss pattern and adapt your play style to them because from my point of view, it is the essence of the from software boss, to learn and adapt and thrive for victory. This is this combination of hard to find lore and hard fight that create alchemy in these game and give them this charm.

[@matthewsherren7001]

To add to that that is also the essence of every fromsoft game. Putting you in a dangerous environment and giving you the tools to adapt the that environment and overcome overwhelming odds.

[@12rasalazar]

yeh I have a feeling his first game was base elden ring, where patterns are mostly rng and trading shots is viable -- not so much the case in ds3 and bloodborne. Had he criticized different things about the combat, this clip would be more credible. There are real issues, but many of the ones he listed just are not issues.

[@DrnMontemayor]

@@12rasalazar it has nothing to do with RNG.

[@bunklypeppz]

Agreed. To me, what is great about soulslike games is that practically every boss you encounter makes you feel like a beginner again when you first encounter it. You have to gradually learn the fight through trial and error. Some people act like people who like these games because they are hard are just egotistical and trying to beat the bosses without summons/magic/etc. just for bragging rights to claim how good they are, but I don't think beating a boss like that means you're "good" it means you were persistent enough and embraced the learning process to eventually get through a tough boss fight by learning the mechanics and how to deal with them. These aren't like FPS games where you can just get good at the game itself or the genre and steamroll through content on skill/reaction alone; the bosses in souls games can go from seeming nearly impossible, to being totally intuitive after lots of practice, but that process pretty much sets back to square 1 each time you reach a new boss. Souls games give the player the opportunity to embrace the learning process at every step of the way.

[@12rasalazar]

@@DrnMontemayor There is rng involved + frame 1 reactions from enemies, recovery/attack animation cancelation, etc. their behaviour is much more erratic than before and has less rythm and no strict sequences/patterns -- point is his argument makes no sense, because this is the fromsoft game in which you havethe most avenues of attack, and as I said, trading shots without learning patterns is more viable than ever in the base game. The dlc is less forgiving, so learning patterns is crucial, which has always been the case prior to base elden ring. Some bosses like midra and romina are very reminiscent of dark souls type of combat, w more strict flow, and noticeable pauses allowing the player to do dmg.

[@zillian9882]

I saw a comment on the wiki that went "Can't see shit cap'n". Pretty much sums up most of the "flashy" bosses.

[@zillian9882]

@@Xuhtig they're open, it's just that all I see is flashes of red and white on the screen.

[@sapphireluv2705]

The game is still not hard enough so they have to turned you blind. And then the fromsoft meatrider goes like "Wow, hard but fair 10/10 game design!!!"

[@saeyabor]

I'll normally defend From, but I saw one complaint about SOTE I just couldn't dispute: "This is like fighting Sekiro-paced bosses with an unmodded Dark Souls character." It's not true about all of them, but Rellana is almost the Platonic Form of that.

[@Dabedidabe]

People have really forgotten why DS1 was so good. Elden Ring and SotE aren't bad games, but they definitely don't understand the methodical part that made DS1 so special. The audience apparently also forgot and are dazzled by the cool art and feel proud of being so good at finishing the game that they can't see that, maybe, it's not nearly as good as it could have been.

[@kotzer71]

i personally blame the prepare to die marketing

[@eggmiths3642]

That was DeS (obviously no one played it or care and the remake is a joke) DkS under Bandai Namco was already a bastardization of DeS and clearly pointing towards where we are now.

[@eggmiths3642]

@@kotzer71 Excatly, and that was on the first Dark Souls trailer so...

[@Dabedidabe]

@@eggmiths3642 Yeah, I only played the remake. It was a breath of fresh air too. I do believe Dark Souls improved on some things, but I can see the path from there as well. To be fair, I also think Elden ring improved some things, but the things it lost are just too great.

[@bazplayzyt6207]

im ngl i really miss areas like blighttown and tomb of the giants. something we will never see again

[@sapphireluv2705]

I'm with you 100%. I do prefer way slower and methodical combat on des, ds1, and ds2. It's kinda bad that the majority of the fanbase rn are consist of ds3 sucker who only care about the bosses. Souls game isn't just only about the bosses.

[@filnisius2153]

The old souls games were more then just bosses, they were about exploration, getting lost in maze like levels and unlocking shortcuts. It was about survival, trying to survive to the next bonfire(if there was one). Bosses were the reward for overcoming a difficult area. But that's no longer the case, and big thanks to that is the community that arose around these games. They turned difficulty into a fetish, obsessed over bosses and FromSoft payed attention to these things, and the result was Elden Ring. Very popular with the masses and the people that think these games are about bosses. But for us, that were there since the start, when Demon Souls was officially released, we know that these games used to be a lot more then just a collection of hard boss fights. I still enjoy Elden Ring, and I enjoyed the DLC as well, but I will always prefer their older works.

[@angelamengualcortinas3614]

Elden Ring is just the bosses? What are you talking about? Best level design in From is in ER.

[@JoseGarcia-nq1cg]

Elden Ring only bosses? My friend, what game have you played.

[@HijoDelHongo]

I mean Elden Ring has more exploration built into the game than the other titles. You can be upset at what the game gives you for exploring, but MOST of the content and lore is easily missable if you don't explore. The exploration also adds a lot to the lore of the game, which is leaps and bounds deeper and more layered than any of their other titles. In saying that, I am first and foremost a bloodborne simp, and I miss their smaller dungeon styled games. Although it does exist in areas - Stormveil is one of my absolute favorite FS levels - I miss having a full game of that.

[@GM-xk1nw]

Ah yes, the average annoying Elden ring hater

[@LeEnnyFace]

​@@JoseGarcia-nq1cgMaybe they played the one that has bosses copied and pasted all over

[@Killing_Edge]

The only boss that felt like a chore was phase 2 final boss. The only one I was just relieved to be done. I might never fight that one without ashes or summons again.

[@emdeejay7432]

Why would you ever do that to begin with lol. Fuck those 2.

[@PointlesslyNecessaryConvos]

Have you tried to fight him since the nerf? I felt the same at release but I like the fight post nerf

[@austin0_bandit05]

I think its interesting how angry it makes people if you dont like the DLC. People's egos are tied to it being a good game so when you say "its not for me" they hear "your game is trash bruh". I feel similarly to you. I "got good" but I dont like the direction they're design philosophy is going. People say "well their games have always been hard" which I would counter that they've always been CHALLENGING. I know thats semantics but those like us will understand. I fear that because they became known as the studio that makes "hard games" they've made that their identity. And tbh their games have never been THAT hard. But their games were more than just hard. Demon Souls is precious to me. To this day im still a luttle bummed they dropped the sort of "puzzle" boss design of their early games. It wasnt hard only. It was engaging. It was interesting. It was unique. Im not saying that Elden Ring is bad by any stretch but its the continuation of a long trend that I've dreaded. These games arent being made for you and me anymore. ER set a precedent. Future bosses are going to be harder than Messmer and [redacted]. Its just a slog and a chore for me. But I am not trying to take that away from anyone who enjoys the DLC

[@InfernalMonsoon]

Big agree, I absolutely loved the puzzle boss design in Demon's Souls. I see so many people giving bosses like Fool's Idol tons of crap just because it's a "gimmick boss", even though it's a great boss that challenges not only the player's ability to avoid damage but to also pay attention to their surroundings since the arena is also a huge part of the boss fight. Clearing the clutter, paying attention to the freezing sigils on the floor and finding the right cover from the clones to zero in on the real one is fantastic. They might have tried something similar with the Lamenter but there's not a single boss that's anything like Fool's Idol. And that's not even mentioning my favourite Souls boss of all time, which is Maiden Astraea.

[@eggmiths3642]

@bumtism Yeah forget about all that, people with tiktok brains will call it boring, they want R1 and roll spam with bragging rights, they don't give a shit about how unique a game feels, it's a question of identity as a "hardcore" player nothing else.

[@asdfghjkllkjhgfdsa8725]

​@eggmiths3642 ds3 was their first game. They dont know what made dark souls a masterpiece and they just want to run in a straight line then spam roll and r1.

[@renar3339]

Gimmick and puzzle bosses can be interesting but my issue when Fromsoft does it is that it always results in feeling very frustrating to do. I do really want them to do interesting gimmick fights but from DS 1 - Elden ring, I have not seen a single interesting gimmick bossfight personally (I haven't played demon souls yet). I'm actually a bit glad they got rid of that in Elden ring considering they most recently tried to do that in Sekiro and that gimmick fight wasn't that great imo.

[@eggmiths3642]

@@renar3339 That's because since DkS1 the priority is always frustration, BoC is designed to just cause the most internet salt/strategy guide views possible, if you check Astraea, Fool's Idol, or Adjudicator they were not THAT bad.

[@pastorofmuppets9346]

Nameless king worked bc that was his thing, noone else really delayed moves in that game. Everyone does it in er to ridiculous levels not to mention the tons of other artificial bs

[@oleg4209]

That's so true

[@tonyheckenlively5110]

For many people, beating a hard video game boss is the crowning achievement of their lives.

[@stevemichael652]

It’s okay if you can’t do it without mimic , but shaming players who enjoy souls games is reflective of who you are as a person. A shitty one.

[@Ale-dd3ek]

The problem of the final boss In the dlc is that it caused epilectic attacks And the hairs make difficult to see what he's doing

[@InfernalMonsoon]

I don't suffer from epilepsy myself, but I can totally see it being genuinely problematic for issues like that. For me the sheer amount of nonsense obscuring the boss just turns the fight into a complete blur for me and I can't even begin to focus, my brain just switches off the moment the pillars of light starts happening and messes up any sense of timing and strategy I had.

[@philfenghan]

Hey thank you for this video. I somehow felt pretty sad too after finishing the dlc. It took me a while trying to understand what happened- and some similar conclusions came up as you presented- boss fights could be too much. Visual clutter, so many delayed attacks, and long consecutive attacks are the main reasons that make it hard for me to enjoy. I actually picked up Lies of P again and damn I enjoyed playing it so much, reminiscent of playing earlier Fromsoft games. It is kinda like a reminder that moderation is always important. In terms of the lore, I like what we have here, and Marika’s part is my favorite; but there is gotta be another dlc. if not they are not doing justice to their own masterpiece.

[@GIoominary]

I have yet to play Lies of P but that sounds very promising, might give it a try soon :)

[@timothy6672]

completely agree- after every boss i beat i just felt like, "okay cool i guess" i would like it much more if it were better balanced

[@frankorellana3406]

I agree with your points. The game only became fun to me when I became OP and overleveled and had basically every scadutree by the third boss. Challenging is fine. Difficult is fine. Why does everything need two phases? Why do some need three phases? Why does the AoE have to hit you every time? You hit the nail on the head when you said, "im never plahing these games again." i caught myself in love with the world and dlc. But continiously just kept thinking "i cant wait until this is over so I can move on." It was like my farewell to FromSoft. I love the genre, but ill be playing the souls like spin offs that are still fun from now on

[@jaydenwebster7510]

The first From-Software game I ever played was DS2; I loved that game to bits. I endearingly called it the best Castlevania game I'd played up to that point. I remember feeling very overwhelmed with the bosses and faster-paced combat when I first played Dark Souls 3. I use to find it pretty rough and I hated getting gatekept by the bosses. After some time I eventually came to find the appeal in the faster combat, but SOTE has been the tipping point where where it's started to lose its appeal for me. In previous games, I swear most bosses still gave ample time to pull off your cool attacks and spells, but for half of the bosses or so in SOTE and ER I would be lucky if I got off one quick spell or heavy attack without being immediately punished for it. I've reached my limit for how much the bosses are demanding of me, and I've personally gotten quite tired of it. It doesn't help that most bosses in Elden Ring are fought the same way, too. There's barely any gimmick or puzzle bosses and they just end up mostly feeling the same to fight.

[@launders]

miyazaki's honour is the challenge not the victory. you can watch rl1 fights from the dlc bosses and see how beautiful they really are. mastery is a core part of japanese culture, if you didnt learn how to beat the boss maybe you had too much help, thats why you didnt feel accomplished. sorry but you dont have to "memorize every attack" to prevail. also exploring is part of the game, you could still upgrade or learn the fight better. putting good items predictably at the end of every hard area is silly as well, when has that ever been the standard in souls games?

[@MrMilitiaOps]

As if I couldnt love you more Launders, you also play Elden Ring?!? I fully agree with you

[@Mini-c137]

The git gud argument or what people with brains read "ive got nothing" the fact you think the game was that hard only speaks to how much trouble you had with it, as everyones granny beat elden ring bud. Youre just missing the point and have no argument. "Ive got nothing" pve is not skill 🤦‍♂️🤣

[@sheenaringofan1]

Love you launders hope your having a good day and enjoying the DLC

[@eggmiths3642]

You can absolutely beat this games without understanding what happened, they're a terrible measure of skill.

[@radonbox6569]

Love seeing all these salty fromsoft fanboy comments, and yet the like to dislike ratio of this video shows that most people are fed up with the way things are heading. Good video

[@huyphung802]

508 like after 2 month is not really most ppl though

[@collapsiblechair9112]

like many i'm not ashamed to admit i used mimic tear and npc summons in every boss fight, otherwise they'd be more of a chore than fun and intuitive

[@gravitydood1554]

My problem with these is they make the game too easy for my taste and I really hate to rely on split aggro, it's hard to find a middle ground between too easy and punishingly hard. OP ashes of war + good defense works quite well for me but I had to do some tweaking to find out what worked.

[@dangox3370]

yeah I havent been having much fun in the DLC either. Main problem is the 2-hit kill combo chains that go on and on giving you barely enough time to do any damage yourself. Even random mobs out in the world do this like the Horned Warriors. Are we really expected to fight these respawning enemies multple times? So learn the timing. Sure, do that but then theres another combo chain that looks almost identical but with slightly different timing. And you have to keep track of all of this with your vision obscured by particle effects and the camera failing to keep up with the boss leaping all over the arena. Oh, and every time you get knocked down, the camera untargets and it can be a real struggle to get it to lock on again.

[@DraftyMood]

OH MY GOD! Same stroy with DS3! I was so confused how people can like it so much

[@yoshomiamoto]

I 100% agree with you on most of what you stated. I dont think souls games have been the same since DS1 and DS2. The bosses in Elden Ring do have a ton of AOE attacks and fight aggressively to the point where there are minimum openings for counter attacks. If this was Sekiro it would not be as big of an issue as the speed of your weapons and attacks can match it. As a result, dex weapon types are more viable than heavy weapon types, which is disappointing. In the older games, every weapon type was viable, and the bosses were balanced around them all. Souls games may never be the same again, which is a shame, but at least i can still go back to DS1 and DS2 whenever I want to.

[@MrFRNTIK]

sorry, but anyone who says dex is more viable than heavy has never used a good heavy build

[@yoshomiamoto]

@MrFRNTIK Unless you are spamming ash of war, heavy weapons are slow against boss that have fast attack strings with minimal punish windows. This was not the case with older titles as the punish window lasted longer in-between attacks. Im not saying its not possible, just not as viable as it used to be. 🤷‍♂️

[@MrFRNTIK]

@@yoshomiamoto first playthrough was collosal weapons and I don't use ashes of war. You can get a couple hits in, dodge, hit again, eventually break their poise and stagger them. Heavy weapons were always slow and I don't recall a souls game where you can get more than two hits on a boss during your opening.

[@kengojuki2581]

That feeling you described about seeing a place and being able to go there, I first had that feeling playing the classic Tomb Raider games. Only, some of those areas in the game were not accessible to explore. Elden Ring was a game that truly removed those boarders from the classic era of gaming and allowed me to experience the true meaning of an open world with similar architecture and world design.

[@bt_traptune9281]

I don't think every Boss in the Dlc is bad like you said, but I also think that the majority really is. I personally really like Romina and Putrecent Knight a lot, but whenever I say that to someone they are always cofused why I like these Bosses more than the other Bosses in the Dlc and the Base Game. The reason is simple, I think that these 2 Bosses have only a little or no Bullshit in their fight. Romina is by far the most fair fight in my opinion with no stupid delay shit, no stupid AOE attacks, but cool combo strings that feel good to dogde, nothing flashy I can't see shit moments, has good tells for every move and not over the top with her moveset in general. Same for Putrecant Knight in my opinion. He has some delay attacks, but these are not as stupid as Messmar's or Midra's in my opinion. His horse combo String is also likely my favourite to dogde in the entire game. His Blue Flame stuff is also cool and not stupid to doge like it maybe seems. In general I think these Bosses are ez to learn, but this also doesen't mean, that they are too ez as well. Just 2 good Bosses in my opinion in a giant pot full of shit bosses. Every other boss in the base game and dlc has either stupid delay attacks, 2-3 stupid AOE's, I can't see shit moments, health steal, bullshit camera, stupid out of nowhere attacks and sometimes even undogable attacks that you can only dogde with luck or the right Pixel perfekt standing. The dlc in general was fun for me most of the time, but the bosses are still bullshit like in the base game. (only my opinion)

[@AR-bj5et]

Personally, as a more reactive player, I 100% agree with your favourite bosses. Sadly though it's hard to say to most people in the community that you actually liked Romina as their first instinct is to assume that you hate challenge when in reality I prefer a reactable boss where its difficulty comes from maintaining a constant tempo. Delayed attacks with broken rhythm are very unfun for me and learning them feels mechanically sterile, and bosses with attacks that have incredibly subtle distinctions in telegraphing or require AI exploits or camera control (ie Elden Stars, close range Waterfowl, Deathrite Birds and Ancient Dragons) break all the immersion they created in what should be an RPG. I imagine those bosses are great for challenge runners but there's a cost to designing a boss like that and it's the reason why a lot of people compare them to modded content since lots of modded content is designed to challenge the hardcore players who have hit the skill ceiling of the base game. No boss I've fought in any game I've played has come close to Nightmare King Grimm in terms of seriously enjoyable challenge and honestly the way Elden Ring designed a lot of their bosses is only moving further away from that potential imo

[@bt_traptune9281]

​@@AR-bj5etI completely agree with you, I mean I beat all the bosses, but was it fun to beat them especially when you try to always stick to the no summon role? I think defenitly no! Don't get me wrong, I also like other bosses as well from the main game or the Dlc, but I just didn't want to talk about all of them, because the comment shouldn't be to long. The thing is that I'm a reactive Player as well and these Bosses gave me that, but the majority just didn't.

[@bt_traptune9281]

For me it is about the fun and not dufficulty. If a boss is hard it can also be fun like Midir, Friede or Fume Knight.

[@jebreggie4225]

Most Of the skill in Elden ring is in how many times you have to die to learn the boss and picking a guide on the internet, then people pretend they "Got gud" After watching a Boss guide that shows you exactly when to dodge the attacks or dying hundreds of times in the process. These same people are the ones who debate about the difficulty online

[@knivy6160]

... You know most bosses can just be walked around right? Like, within a few attempts of the dancing lion I figured you can mostly run under his body for most attacks. People turn these games into rhythm games when they don't have to be, even in sekiro you can dome most things in a few seconds with the tools. Maybe try some other options the next time you play, if you ever do. Edit: also yes, these bosses to take 10 plus attempts for me personally so far, but I feel like I'm learning something almost every attempt. You say people die on bosses as if they're throwing constant insta kill things at you, but if you sit down and think between each attempt you'll find some nifty ways to dodge things that feel like you're own. Also change your weapon, obviously. Idk why people seem to not do that. The lion seemed pretty weak to fire from my testing, as an example.

[@Voodoo_Occasions]

​​@@knivy6160You can only do this on some attacks. On others you will be hit by tracking moves. Again this is memorization which is what the OP said. You memorize what attacks you can walk around and which you can't. That doesn't require much technical skill. Mostly memorization skills.

[@rusticlocust8255]

its 100% possible to learn elden ring bosses without guides, and even if you do use guides who cares lol learning from other people is really cool. also the notion that perfecting something through trial and error/learning from other people isnt "getting good" is a little strange to me. if that doesnt count as "getting good" then i have no idea what does. both trial and error and learning from others are how anyone gets good at anything

[@jebreggie4225]

@@rusticlocust8255 Its possible but it will take more time because you have to experiment yourself and you might die and then have to walk back to the boss. If you watch a video you will already know what you have to work on. Whats more important is having a strong build which is where guides are even more important because you wont waste all your time looking for items you want without knowing what stats you need to use them

[@eggmiths3642]

@@knivy6160 Yet sometimes attacks keep tracking infinitely, sometimes they don't track at all or have a limit on how much they can track but ONLY in one direction, sometimes attacks are clearly going through you and do nothing, sometimes they're clearly NOT close to you and you die, camera is constantly a disaster, and so are many things. Basically, yeah, it's bashing your head against nonsense.

[@saturn580]

You're absolutely correct. Dark Souls is a slow game, but the player and boss abilities are balanced. Bloodborne is a fast game, but balanced. Elden Ring's bosses are so overtuned that the combat mechanics of the game can no longer keep up with them. This forces players to compensate by using cheese builds, summoning or forsaking their own enjoyment of the game to perfectly memorize every attack and dodge/poke the boss to death. Some of the bosses are easy, others are punishingly difficult, but very few of them are actually fun to fight, and that's the key point the bleating fanboys don't understand.

[@matthewjacobs2991]

I've always struggled to find a way to articulate what the big difference is in things like Dark Souls 1, Bloodborne, and for me, games like The Surge 2 and some of the Koei Tecmo soulsian games as well as a lot of 2D souls-likes where you can make mistakes but it's not always about memorization. Its about giving you the pieces you need at all times instead of revealing pieces during a fight. I never felt out of my element in Bloodborne. At least in the base game. 90% of the boss fights were doable from the outset. And I don't know how to describe that to people who don't get it. I always considered it more skill based fights than memorization and repetition. But people tend to argue that memorizing and applying is skill itself. So what do we call it? There's definitely a distinction. Its more likely to enter a state of flow in the old games. And there's a lot less malicious game design in certain entries. A lot of games take the Dark Souls 2 approach of just being mean lol and it sounds like the DLC went this route. All the to say, on the third video I've watched if yours I'm right there with you, in the minority. I'm subscribing. Seems like we're kindred spirits and I look forward to what else I find on your channel

[@GIoominary]

Thank you for your kind words. I truly appreciate it and hope that you'll like my future content; I got some plans.

[@KyngD469]

I completely see where this guy is coming from. I feel bad for people who felt they needed to summon just to beat the final boss. I stubbornly did it with my Greatsword with the only changes needed were guarding and using Golden Vow. It's not the worst, but it doesn't feel like I beat it on my own terms. In previous FromSoft games like DS, DS3, Bloodborne I would go through the game with my preferred equipment and beat it in a fun and fair way. In Chalice dungeons were your HP is cut in half and the enemies 1 shot you, it was still fun getting through the labyrinth and fighting the bosses even if I could only make 1 or 2 mistakes and ended spending the entire afternoon on them. This is because the boss didn't feel unfair, if I messed up a timing it was my fault, and while that is true for Elden Ring, the difference is, I didn't have to perfect 7 dodges in a row to survive. Messing up the timing of a 3 hit combo or a long wind up hit is fine, messing up the dodge between Rellana's 3rd and 4th swing while she's dashing and the camera is swinging around is so unsatisfying and annoying. Elden Ring is a great game, I dont ever want to beat it again. Too much traversal for rewards I dont care about, crafting sucks.

[@oleg4209]

Only thing that I have to say: Curse you, Defiled Watchdog and Defiled Amygdala!

[@teh0wnz0r76]

i feel exactly how u do. long gone r the days of demons souls, dark souls, n bloodborne. we wont ever get those quality games from FROM again. too much pressure from bandai namco n dude bro doritos munchin mountain dew chuggers for "hardcore dude" games.

[@graff6768]

You summarize my feelings exactly. I could not bear myself to buy and play the DLC knowing that it would just be more head-bashing against a brick wall. But unfortunately these days elitist fanboys are everywhere, and FromSoft Souls-like games has become completely impervious to any sort of constructive criticism. But I loved Armored Core 6, so FromSoft isn't completely hopeless. They can still make good action games.

[@gravitydood1554]

I think there's a lot of valid criticism to be made about Elden Ring bosses but at the same time, I see many veteran Souls players who insist on using a mele weapon without using ashes of war, I was guilty of it myself, these things don't even exist in 1 and 2 and they're very situational in 3. In Elden Ring, they are extremely important and bosses became a lot easier once I understood that. It became a lot easier to deal damage and break stances. Another important thing is you can (and very much should) stack a lot of defense before a boss fight. Opaline hard tear, talismans, boiled crab and various buffs will make the game a lot easier and more enjoyable. Again, there's a lot of valid criticism to be made about Elden Ring and its bosses, I hope they realize what they're doing at From Soft and tone it down a little because some of those bosses are walking a fine line between challenging and annoying.

[@iamtheEldenFish]

You make valid points ngl, I partially agree with you: I think it's OK for fromsoft to do these crazy flashy bosses, but they should have the simpler bosses like you spoke of in the video. A good ballance.

[@stevemichael652]

Er gave too many freedoms and variables then made bosses around those freedoms. So when you are a veteran player not wanting to use ash summons and cheese builds, you’re going up against a design philosophy that wasn’t created and balanced for you which is why they are merciless and unfair. Playing ER as if you’re playing ds3 is a self imposed challenge on top of the initial challenge when not using the ash summons, and it’s not good. Looking ahead , at this pace one can say FSW may make a coop only souls game next.

[@TheMadara222]

If people played their games for years and got used to the systems ofc they will change the system and bring more challenges to their very experienced players not to bore them.

[@Chicaya4267]

I'd like to thank you for putting out this valuable perspective, even if it might be against the mainstream. As you mentioned, there are a lot of different aspects to FromSoftware's games and as many different reasons why players would enjoy them. I always found it rather weird that the difficulty always seemed to be an overpronounced topic in that regard and many players were mainly looking forward to the boss fights as the 'highlights'. I played and enjoyed all Souldborne games of FromSoftware. For me, it was never about 'overcoming a challenge' as the main point of it. It was about the exploration, the feeling of surprise and awe in the face of a new fascinating universe that opens up in front of you; the secrets, investigation and lore hunting, the philosophy and the deeper theme to the world and story. It was the video game equivalent of looking at the night sky in full awe while soaking up a feeling of being small inside an endless space. I would even go as far to say, I probably liked these games despite their difficulty, not because of it. That said, the last boss seemed outright ridiculous to me in terms of combat. There are just some people that do not enjoy the repetitive 'learning' of boss patterns and trying the same thing over and over. I don't mind giving a nice boss a try for 3-8 times, but did I have fun fighting Malenia, the Elden Beast and the last DLC boss dozens of times? Nope, I personally didn't. I understand your frustation, but I also think that still, FromSoftware is delivering us the best quality in this segment compared to their competition. Despite all the critique, the games are still very outstanding and I am far away from turning my back on them. Curious what the future brings.

[@ALocalClown]

I really am starting to feel that this might be the consensus with people who started with Demon's Souls, maybe Dark Souls 1. As someone who started with Demon's, I'm also really just tired of each game seemingly upping the difficulty in the way it has. I'd really prefer a return to a King's Field type approach, something where the difficulty is found in not the incredibly hard bosses and memorising combos, but in the stamina required to overcome well designed encounters, spot and avoid traps, managing resources, to feel like a dungeon crawling adventurer. To those who say "this series isn't for you", I feel like they're talking about every game after Dark Souls 2, where it feels like a pretty sudden turn was made. Great video, as someone who's been playing these games since 2010, and has gone back to hit up the classic Fromsoft catalgoue, a lot of this rang true for me.

[@jirarudo]

iv been noticing this kind of videos and opinions more and more. which doesnt surpris me. The combat of this games is so simple that elden ring as a whole made it a chore with so many battle encounters. The issue imo isnt the bosses, the bosses on a bubble are fine but the way to beat them feels the same. you go, roll sometimes, memorize the atatcks and see if you passed the vigor check to not get one shoted. i didnt feel like i was fighting consort radahn, ranalla the sister or rennala,comander gauis the old friend of radahn or the frenzied flame lord...i felt i was fighting a computer. people will say other games are about overcoming big challenges and they are right...but they have more challeneges than jsut the bosses, traps, sparce bonfires, difficult traverse,game deciding options and harder management on stamina make them over all a harder first expereince than anythihg on elden ring. If only one part of elden ring is hard then it makes for subpar experience. And dont take me wrong i had fun and i think you probably had fun too otherwise you wouldnt have finsihed the dlc. I think we both liked the game...but we didnt love it as previous one and in retrospection we see the flaws of this game. i will buy the new FS game when it comes out since i like being entertained but i know that the things i loved are no longer here. And my favorites would still be the older titles.

[@knivy6160]

Maybe a bit bold, but I don't think the "trial and error" boss design is a post ds1 thing. Maybe i missed something you said, but most bosses in ds1 easily fuck you up if ill prepared, and can be made a LOT easier if you explored or did questlines beforehand. Think of the demon with the two dogs in ds1. Unless you picked a bulkier class, you will have a much harder time without the poise from their armor. At the same time, getting a massive poise boost from the forest is literally a 2 minute walk from the blacksmith, and you can choose from the poise ring, the elite knight set, or both. You can also just skip said demon if you stumble into the hidden forest path to blighttown. This is also true for elden ring, you just have the mechanics or flow from ds3\sekiro. I understand not liking the enemy design, but this trial and error to win mechanically, or go and gear up and come back design has always been around since dark souls.

[@GIoominary]

I agree that trial and error played a huge role when dealing with bosses since the early days. That is not a unique trait of the Souls series, boss fights in any RPG are designed as a kind of puzzle for the player to solve. In a Souls game, you solve that puzzle by observing the enemy, trying out different strategies, builds and so on. It's a journey that ultimately leads to success if you keep trying. The main question is if that journey is fun. To me, in the earlier games like Demon's Souls, Dark Souls and Bloodborne, I found it extremely fun. That's what I tried to express in that video. Fighting a boss in Dark Souls feels like a dance, a back and forth between the player and the boss. The boss is throwing everything they have at you and so do you. But it feels fair. Bigger bosses are naturally slower, smaller bosses are faster. Attacks are readable and give you time to respond. Bosses don't keep spamming attacks until the end of time and when they hit you, it's rarely a one shot. It's still trial and error but you don't have to die through a fight for 5 hours before making any progress or rely on any cheese strategy. In Shadow of the Erdtree, the bosses feel like they are playing a different game than you. They feel like they aren't part of the same universe as the player. As I said in the video, bosses keep delaying their attacks in unnatural ways. The boss raises their sword into the sky. When are they going to attack? Directly? Or will they wait 5 seconds before slamming down? Or only 2 seconds? Maybe sometimes they will hold it for 5 seconds and the next time only for 2. There's no way to know intuitively. You learn that of course by getting hit in the face 10 times until you memorize every action of the boss and how to respond to it. In Shadow of the Erdtree, getting hit 10 times means dying 10 times. And so, I asked myself if that was fun. And the answer to me is no, it's lame. It's boring as hell.

[@duckchen2676]

@@GIoominary Tbh if a boss is doing a charge animation I've never had insufficient reaction time for when they decide to start their swinging their sword to dodge. If they are holding their attack, you should reasonably be expecting it to happen eventually and will have better reaction time anyway. And the next time I see it, I understand that I have enough time for a R1 or R2. Or maybe I can jump the swing and get a jumping R2 etc.

[@Mr_Sim]

Exploration is disapointing in this DLC. In the base game, there is an item hidden in every corner. These were often cheap items, or arterias, but it was something. Something to rewards you for going in this hidden corner. In the DLC, this is not the case. There are so many corners, but almost none of them have an hidden item.

[@mokadelic4037]

If you haven't, try Armored Core 6. You won't regret it.

[@_Sin_]

Goated game,loved it

[@francoproano2378]

I dont believe he would like that game because there are just as much visual stimuli that he mentioned he didnt like

[@scragglie]

no, ac6 was an unfinished mess, and felt more like a tech demo youd show to investors rather than a full game.

[@_Sin_]

@@scragglie That's literally one of the worst takes i've ever hear.

[@oleg4209]

​@@_Sin_ FCK the chapter 4 end boss, but everything else is very great

[@Sephirothkingdom782]

sekiro is not really anything like ds3 so I dont know what your issues were, unless it was that the boss quality was too good which you'd be right

[@GIoominary]

That's a good point. Let me try to explain what I meant by that. When playing Sekiro, I felt like the developer designed boss fights in this game in a way to specifically mess with players who had a "Souls" mindset when picking up Sekiro. In a way, it felt like the game was designed for the player or at least with the player in mind. Approaching Sekiro like a Souls game didn't work even though the game did feature similar mechanics. The game actively punished you if you played it like a Souls title. And that's where it felt somewhat similar to Dark Souls 3. Challenge didn't feel as natural anymore. Bosses were hard because they needed to be hard, not because it would make sense for this specific boss to be hard. It's a little difficult to explain. Let me give an example. In Dark Souls 1, the final boss isn't the hardest in the game. That makes sense because of his backstory. That character, by the time you meet him at the end of the game, is a hollow, a shadow of himself, nothing is left of his former glory. So, why would he be the hardest boss in the game even though there are other powerful creatures who haven't literally burnt themselves to a crisp to keep the first flame going? He isn't. Can you imagine Sekiro not having the hardest fight at the end? No, because difficulty is what FromSoft started focusing on at some point. Sekiro's final boss had to be the hardest because that's what the game was about. I felt the same way about Dark Souls 3, that's why I drew the comparison there. But it wasn't always like this and Dark Souls 1 is a good example of that.

[@OrgBrent]

its not skadoo as in doodoo or shadoo as in doodoo, its shado(w). its just a weird take on the Old/Middle English spelling of the word Shadow.

[@Izak_Klark]

Doodoo 🤣

[@ZargorrOG]

I think you should drop the ego and just use spirit summons to ignore most of the mechanics from the bosses. We can't go back to Demon Souls or Dark Souls 1 and 2, the vast majority of bosses on these games are too simple and too easy for the majority of the playerbase. And it wasn't Dark Souls 3 who started modern boss design, it was Dark Souls 1 with Manus. Also, farming runes is boring as fuck, and I understand people that did that on previous games, but why the fuck would you do that with Elden Ring? Unless you want to get to your build faster on Moghwyn's Palace, you don't need to stop playing and start grinding to get stronger. Go somewhere else, find a dungeon, find another weapon or spell, defeat some side bosses. With the DLC, you do the same thing, but instead of doing it for the runes, you do it to get the new stuff and more fragments. I first encountered Messmer when I was level 9, died in one combo rotation and realised immediately I wasn't ready for the fight. So I explored the map, found a lot of new stuff and fragments, got back at level 14, and the fight was way more fair. This is the main essence of Elden Ring, and the DLC delivered it.

[@Sephirothkingdom782]

I agree the only issue is that the way scadutree fragments are scattered around the map couldve been better. I feel like half the bosses in this dlc were great while the other half not so much

[@sm-ot6gz]

Dark souls was actually perfectly balanced considering you can play the game with your preferred fighting style. You can make the game more difficult if you choose to, shadow of the erdtree is a 1 shot dlc no matter what without end game weapons and hours upon hours of searching for scadutree fragments. Not to mention I would bet 90%+ of players had to rely on mimic tear and summons. I played souls games offline with no summons and was captivated by the world. The souls series were based upon combat, shadow of the erdtree is based on how OP you can stack items buffs talismans and AOWs while still being overpowered by multi hit combos that can last forever. The last boss was horrible and the ending was underwhelming. It still doesn’t compare to the feeling of beating Gwynn lord of cinder, it was epic and balanced.

[@duvetboa]

​@@sm-ot6gzHow were you getting one shot? What was your vigor, did you have armor or damage reduction talismans?

[@eggmiths3642]

You could even say False King was the first...but I'd say BB is the first in wich they really tried to complicate boss encounters overall, while your character and tools were great, and in DkS3 they tried to go 3 steps further, while your player and tools are absolute garbage. ER is like 35 steps forward from DkS3 and your character is still DkS3 protag...and yeah, it seems like there's no turning back, we can only imagine how the bosses will be in the next Eldens of the Blood or DemonBorne or whatever, and you don't get why this guy is just leaving? lol.

[@sm-ot6gz]

@@eggmiths3642 ds3 tools are garbage? I beat the game with the starting straight sword lol

[@TGTigerEvelynn]

Hello, so allow me to do my word here. I will say, as a bit of a disclaimer, I'm over 3k hours in so my vision on this may be a bit biased. I played the entire DLC start to finish all 45 bosses on my first run-through without shadutree blessings. I enjoyed most of the game, but by the time I reached the final boss. I also reached a point of being exhausted. I'm a very good player, so this extra challenge did not really get me stuck anywhere or anything. Just meant that some bosses took longer than they needed to because of the damage I took. A self-imposed challenge, of course. This made me think why I didn't enjoy the DLC and why I got exhausted. The difficulty was not the problem because, as I stated I made it as hard as possible on myself to begin with. After Rellana (the first rememberence boss), all the bosses besides maybe the hippo become high maintenance fights, meaning you have to play well in order to squeeze out a win. This is where I think a lot of the DLC went wrong. We all know by know that only two out of the 45 bosses are mandatory to get to the final boss by now. I have seen a lot of people get to the final boss relatively quickly because they didn't care for the exploration as much and this set them back big time. Underprepated and just fighting high maintenance boss after high maintenance boss. The visual clutter will make anyone, no matter how good they are, exhausted. I took away my enjoyment by implementing my self-imposed rule, but by doing so, I also became more aware of the average player experience. I will say five bosses (dancing Lion, Messmer, Gaius, Dancing Lion 2, Bayle and the final boss) all to me feel visually very stimulating. While I think Messmer is very well designed, I don't necessarily think the others are. To give a couple of examples, Gaius hitboxes are bad, Dancing Lion can phase transition mid combos, which makes the fight super chaotic and visually cluttered. While something like the scadutree Avatar, I felt was really wel designed. Some others sometimes felt as a chore due to the amount of stuff they throw at you. It is said that some of the more enjoyable, difficult bosses are tucked away in corners or as secrets. Even Bayle which is a very cool boss, the sound design combined with his attacks is a lot to take in sometimes, add the fact that he likes to keep moving, just gets very overwhelming, especially if you are trying to learn him. So, TLDR... Bosses have a lot of visual stimulation, which can lead to the brain being overwhelmed to the point where you feel exhausted. Due to the mainline progression, a lot of the bosses seem to be high maintenance and therefore it CAN take away the enjoyment of the DLC. The majority of the content in regards to bosses don't seem to be this high maintenance. However, they are optional and therefore easily missed, therefore leading to an unbalanced, unfun experience.

[@TGTigerEvelynn]

Sorry for the long comment, I wanted to explain and express my findings with the intention that I might help people understand perhaps their frustration.

[@GIoominary]

Don't be sorry, it was an interesting read, especially coming from someone who genuinely enjoys challenge runs. I thought for people who do enjoy these kinds of challenges, Shadow of the Erdtree would be like the best thing ever but apparently, that is not universally true either.

[@nameless4635]

I wish they can do another Sekiro, you have 2 lives, and posture bar. It just makes the fight longer for the player, thus learning is also faster. Unlike ER where you just get smacked and see the loading screen right after. Boss agressiveness also benefits Sekiro, In ER you just watch and wait for enemy long animations.

[@JimPooter]

I believe the boss shenanigans actually started with the old hunters dlc. With bosses like Ludwig and the orphan. Since then it seems like they've been in a loop of trying to outdo themselves game after game when it comes to difficulty. They have made a couple of incredible bosses in that time period however. Gael and Midir are both exceptional with the former being probably the best boss ever put to a video game.

[@Ale-dd3ek]

At least Bloodborne allowed you to be faster The quickstep, the rally mechanic, parry from afar with the gun

[@litt420]

Gael best boss ever btw what 😂😂😂

[@miriam7192]

dying to a boss in a souls game is a GREAT thing, bc it means u get to fight them again! the fight itself is where the fun is, not beating it. I adored the nameless king, partly because it took me so long to beat him that by the end, it would be this perfect, almost meditative dance. Theres nothing more satisfying imo theres a lot to say abt elden ring bosses being overtuned to the point of being occasionally unfair imo, but if u dont enjoy the basic concept of fighting & learning bosses for a long time, idk, thats kinda the whole point of souls games

[@piece-kun4168]

Big problems with elden ring fights is that a lot of the time they are not built for the fight, they are built for spectacle. A lot of bosses are designed to have hyperspecific gaps for counterattack unlike others where they just have gaps that weren't put there on purpose, but a natural byproduct of the reasonable moveset. In soulsborne boss is a fun process, in elden ring bosses are spectacle to overcome. And it's especially designed around massive amounts of in universe accessibility features like summons. Soulsborne games were always designed around player being alone Vs elden ring players never being alone.

[@miriam7192]

@@piece-kun4168 yea thats a fair point for elden ring for sure, i also dislike a lot of design choices that they made prioritising spectacle over a fair & fun moveset - i think its a mess in terms of balancing (summons being the tip of the iceberg imo) w the open world & so many tools being made available to the player that they maybe felt they had to make the bosses completely ridiculous at points. i think i maybe misunderstood you in thinking you generally dislike having to fight bosses over & over again in fromsoft titles across the board - i think only elden ring & its bs oneshot attack combos make that a chore, its a pleasure in previous titles imo - rlly didnt mean for my comment to come across as if i'm just toxically saying "git gud" or something lol

[@seinarusenshii4224]

thats so similar to my fight with ishhin. Almost to a point to where I either dont get hit or I die cuz I messed up once. Its really beautiful, to the point to where you lose a fight because you know if you win it is over

[@kotzer71]

the problem is fighting and learning boss's for a long time was not the whole point of souls games and i would not say that is true till ds2 demon souls and darksouls 1 were made to be challenging everything past that was made to be hard for the sake of being hard most boss's up until late ds2 and bloodbourne era you could beat first try reasonable and if you failed well it was your fault the newer game's boss's are designed to kill you 1/2 a sec and require you to know how to dodge 10 hit combo's before you get 1 hit in and don't get me started on these 30 foot boss's fliping and flying across arena's and the over abundance particle effect's making keeping track of these boss's a chore

[@AR-bj5et]

Comments like this are what make me think that masochism is a requirement when it comes to enjoying these games if you're not a challenge runner

[@TalZadios]

You remind me of my friend who's banging his head against the wall on the final boss. Totally unwilling to change his playstyle to beat any bosses, saying its lazy design if every build isn't somehow viable for every boss. Furthermore he gimps himself by saying he cant use Npc/player summons or Ashes summons or rot or poison or bleed basically constantly limiting himself less and less because its cheap and he saw someone else do it. It's designed to be winnable through sheer memory regardless of builds for the most part some will struggle more than others and some might feel borderline impossible. You dont prove anything beating something designed to be beaten. PvP on the other hand is a different animal.

[@jacobtrout2303]

You act like the special effects vomit doesn’t tank fps constantly because From poorly optimized the DLC. That and you just can’t see crap.

[@duvetboa]

Didn't you know? You only beat a boss if you did it with the most awful nonsense build possible. Personally I use a strength build with only 10 points in strength and 99 in Int because investing in useful stats is cheese.

[@TalZadios]

@@jacobtrout2303 please point out where I claim special effects don't tank fps.

[@monto4944]

I kinda agree, to me personally bosses in FromSoft games are the least exciting part. I'm all for exploration, atmosphere and combat in general. This escalation in difficulty regarding bosses will soon lead to something awful (unless devs will reconsider in next installments).

[@crowunchained2856]

Thank you. Thank you so much for this video! I also had a weird feeling about the DLC. But I didn't know how to express my feelings about it. Your video pretty much describes everything what I had in my mind about this. You can say it's a perfect explanation of my view of the DLC!

[@TheSqueak100]

Thank you for this video. It's nice to know at least a few people out there feel similarly.

[@ShisuiSama]

I mostly agree with u there are less viable options to have fun in the DLC and u don't have the proper tool to match the bosses agro unlike in sekiro or bloodborn but if u want u can still have an incredibly easy experience I beat every boss in the DLC solo in under 50 sec with my Blessing only lv 10 I beat the Final Boss solo in Under 45 sec Blessing lv 18 and no i don't used any op stuff that they patched i used mostly base game wepons u just need the right build for the right Boss and YES I made a video for every boss so u can check it out urself if u dont believe me this game is huge and it hides some truly broken stuff and if u build ur character properly -best buffs before the fight (golden vow flame grant, me strenght,damage negation spell depending on the boss) -best consumables boiled crab + blood boil aromatic -best tears in ur mixed physick pysick (a tear that boosts the element damage ur using+ Bloodsucking tear) -best armor Bullgoat if u want to tank or the rakshasa armor if u want extra damage + white mask if u use a blood build - the 4 best talisman for exact this fight -the perfect weapo for exact this thight with the ideal ash of war + scaling like u have so much tool and so on u can legit 1 shot the final boss if u stack theese buffs even after patch because it is all intended and doesn’t require any glitch but despite it I still agree with u that it isnt fun watching the boss doing a 30sec combo waiting for ur turn just for the boss do run away again and u couldt even punish they need to improve ur tools to match the bosses like in sekiro with the perfect parry and players need to see the difference between good and bad difficulty some bosses have really bad hitboxes (messmers snakes in phase 2 and the hippo for example but I think they already patched the hitbox of the hippo), + they do input reading and the moves are not well telegraphed so u cant tell when to dodge so u need to find out trough many trys to learn a boss my fav bosses are : messmer really liked the movset he was good to read he did much damage but his health was also really low so it felt fair but the hitboxes of his snakes i phase 2 were really bad the other perfect Boss was midra really fair movest and an epic atmosphere movset was fair and if u use consumables against madness the fight is fun and fair Bayle the atmosphere was EPIC the Voice behind igor needs a rise the only fight i used a summon just to hear the voice the fight was fair even tough the boss uses arena wide AOW attacks it still felt fair and epic Probably the only good dragon fight were u not just slash his feet the entire fight wghout seeing even his full body unlike other dragon fights

[@The_Fire_Giant]

I think this comment pretty much summarizes my opinion DLC is great But the open world feels a bit empty and the rewards could be better Smithing stones and cookbooks are not satisfying rewards Also really don’t like that the have the exact number of fragments in the game to reach the max lv I mean even in the base game u have way more golden seeds than u need to get lv max feels like a step backwards But remember this is criticism on such a high lv Comparing this game to any late Ubisoft titles This is a 9,4 While any Ubisoft title is a 2,4/10

[@T0NY2.0]

Yeah we can criticize from software and it think criticisms is indeed needed Because look how good the game already is and how good it can be if it gets constructive criticism What I would add is -Some areas are really empty (I get it some are empty because of lore and for the atmosphere but still) -The rewards of exploring could be better a cookbook or a smithing stone is not a good reward -infinite rebirth is needed so u can change ur build as often as u want (U already have much larval tears but some players rather safe them for a harder boss and ending up finishing the game without using them once So don’t limit them) -Loadouts would be great so u can safe a build (talisman weapon armor spells consumables) So u can switch ur build faster -The open world is fantastic and enormous huge but it felt like the map was to small for the content it contained If they improve this the game would be a 10/10 From software is already one of the last if not the last studio that cares about the customer and their content and not about the investors I really love their gameplays formula and the limited UI u really play the game urself and find ur own paths and soulutions if u care u finish some quest on ur own but if u don’t pay attention u finish the game without finding any quests In any other modern games u don’t play the game urself u have exactly the same experience as any other player I follow the markers on ur minimal and check up the quest lock do all quest makers on the minimap Grind XP to process because they force u to because of bad scaling so the game time is longer but they sell u XP booster so u can grind faster And in the and u finish the story Non of ur decisions made any difference and u have the same experience and ending as any other person who played the game

[@jakeislavic3024]

"[...] no i don't used any op stuff [...]" Video of you using Spinning Gravity Trust on a bleed greatsword LMAO

[@ShisuiSama]

@@jakeislavic3024 sorry forgot that AoW are too OP next time I’m doing a lv 1 run with bare fists to make it more fair

[@eggmiths3642]

In a game that sells itself as an rpg in wich you're a variety of classic roles like Cleric or Mage, respecing conveniently for every boss encounter to be an aberration of Havel/Ninja/Sorcerer normally involving great shields, bleed, or both looks and feels like shit ngl. The thing is that in older games you could finish the fights in 9 seconds, naked, maintaining YOUR build consistent, and you didn't even needed to be that good to manage that. Just seeing how some of your builds look makes me not want to touch anything FROM ever again in my life, if that's the alternative I have, this was sold as mainly a sword and board game, that was the face of the series, it LITERALLY was in the cover, now it's a Havel Mage simulator? (or Verdigris Ninja, even worse) nah, not worth it.

[@byte-bg4ob]

I think Miyazaki himself said that he wants to stop making souls games after Elden ring. I think he will take the gameplay from souls games and make a game with deeper RPG systems next and throw those other elements from souls games out the window. I think he just used the souls games as a bridge to make the RPG he wants to actually play. He likes games like everquest the most, and most likely wants to make something like it.

[@SalehAbuRashid]

Yeah, i had that feeling. I just felt like the lore in the DLC and its bosses was odd.

[@narutotrickzxtv3D]

I honestly want to say that I agree with a good portion of your sentiments. I have a friend who recently got me into the monster hunter world space that I absolutely loved and been dying to get me into dark souls like games as well i like very flashy and visually appealing games something that to me the souls games didn’t peak my interest. I also started to an attempt with from soft with DS3 and it just never clicked then fast forward to Elden ring, where I feel like I finally found that happy medium of RPG meets flashyness for me in the sense of the tools you choose to fight with not just poking and jumping out of a boss fight waiting for your moment like some kind of extreme Pokémon battle but being able to fight in a legitimate style that suits every players sense of combat. Getting to the point of this comment I never understood the sadistic appeal of spending hours upon hours studying an overtuned boss with your only options being to stick and move hit and run tactic because to me that doesn’t even feel like much of a fight it feels robotic and limiting to the players experience where the end goal is beat the boss does it really matter how you get to that point is suffering really a side reward that every player should thrive for? I just don’t get it to me a real boss fight is using all the tools you can in a 50/50 split where you an the boss goes head to head but the from soft formula to me feels shallow and always stacked against the player base elden ring fixed that allowing you to level then come back to combat the boss only to seemingly retract that same sentiment through scadu fragments limiting how you play the game and making the fights a lot of the time in favor of the bosses which to me makes it feel like some lame attempt at artificial difficulty by cutting a players stats in half so the boss would appear stronger or allow them to hit harder then their suppose to wasn’t trying to turn this into some complaining rant more so to express a different point of view where suffering and replaying a boss for hours is not an appealing game to some just to gain some intangible piece of bragging points or social validation.

[@duckchen2676]

It seems like your main problem with these bosses are that you need to have a learning period where you figure out how to fight them through trial and error, instead of high-action (I don't use this word insultingly) spectacles that might take a lot of effort in the moment but not your time or brain space. AC6 is a Fromsoft game that does the latter while still being fun. Going past Elden Ring Miyazaki said he would like to let younger talent direct future games to experiment more (which was case with AC6), so I would still keep them in mind if you do end up enjoying it.

[@HiroThatDude]

"it took away some of my freedom of how I want to explore the world (your referencing the fragments)" I don't understand what you mean when you say that because no matter how you explore the world there's a fragment in every corner not literally but you get what I mean. For example, in my first run, I obviously did all of gravesite. I did castle ensis then did maybe just a little bit of plateau then found the coast and the bottom and jagged peak Then went back to the plateau. Did shadow keep and the rest of this history now on my second play through I did a completely different route besides my starting area I then went to the coast, then did the jagged, then finish the plateau then went straight to the ruins then Black to Plateau my route was completely different and I explored the world freely and still had enough fragments to progress. Never forced to go find more fragments.

[@KyngD469]

This DLC made me want to replay DS3 and Bloodborne. I have no desire to learn Rellana the twirling schizo. I'll refight Sister Friede and Maria. Not interested in getting sunglasses to fight Radahn, I'll just refight Gael or Orphan of Kos.

[@HijoDelHongo]

Not having Godwyn or GEQ being heavily involved in SOTE is a mistep for From. Still loved tue DLC. But it really could have been much more.

[@mavrocket7872]

I agree with a lot of what you said, personally I've been feeling the same way lately with Fromsoftware's games. I think From's design team has really refined and polished the boss design, for the most part I liked the bosses in the base game and in this DLC from what I've heard are pretty good. However, the sort of boss design in DS3 and in Elden Ring isn't for me just like you said. It sort of feels monotonous, like a test in a bad way. It feels like I'm just playing along to the tune of the bosses the developers made rather than overcoming them, and finding my own ways to take them down. From's design philosophy has shifted from making tough, but fair games that test your ability to respond to unique situations to creating, hard but, "fair" bosses and some relatively fun and interesting level design in between. These games aren't made for the fans of Demon Souls or Dark Souls 1 anymore, they're made for a more generic vague audience that likes hard games. There's absolutely nothing wrong with that, but I would have preferred if they developed the world building, atmosphere, level design, and challenging aspects of Demon Souls and DS1 & DS2. What I'm worried about is From's ability to evolve from this, as it was seen in ER's base game the developers had to start an arm's race against the player to sustain the game being, "hard." From has lost sight of what made those challenging parts of DS1 challenging, not because of some quantifiable variable, but because they were unique and made you think instead of, B and R1. So, they make bosses that can one shot / two shot you instead because they need to fill out the vast world they've created, which is awful and lazy. I think one thing could have been made more clear in your video though, changing a playstyle in a From game to beat a boss is part of the fun. I think you meant to say, re-specking and changing your entire character to beat one boss isn't fun and shouldn't be necessary. ER had the system that allowed you to do that in place as a crutch, so that people could actually beat the fucking game. Because a lot of people had to re-speck to beat bosses like the Fire Giant or Malenia.

[@IamDavej]

I agree to some extent. The bosses were the best in Demon Souls where you found a week point or special strategy. Now they are mostly bullet (sword) sponges with very little strategy other than jumping or rolling at the right time. But the rest of game is so awesome it does not bother me. Bosses are a small part of the game. Exploration and dungeons are the main game.

[@francoproano2378]

I understand what you're saying and the bosses seem unfair at times with the delayed attacks in weird contorted ways but that is essentially what made Dark souls so infamous. It isn't a game for everyone, the joy "is" to learn the bosses I find myself actually enjoying the game when I'm in the heat of battle and over coming an attack that was once seen as "impossible" to dodge. I do agree with the part where once slaying the boss it doesn't feel rewarding, simply just to move on to the next area. Those twitch streamers you see screaming and jumping for joy when they get done with a boss is all just an act. It is the streamers job to entertain the audience and what more gets people to click on their streams than acting like a fool on camera. I agree that It is tiring seeing the same gameplay design loop for bosses with the spinning around the arena for 20 seconds while just having to run to the side before having to time a dodge. I want to see Miyazaki implement more mind games into the bosses rather than just having to sit down like a good boy and learn the boss's 1,2,3,4,5th attack in their combo as if we're taking a test. There could be bosses that have a sort of miniature game that gets played with the players and you have to decipher it somehow rather than just robot it out.

[@BlackroadYT]

People just got too good at these games so ER might just be the limit of what is possible within this combat system. I mean when a boss is really unfun for you, you can simply grab a greatshield and poke them to death at any time anyway which is pretty much the final stage of "adapting your playstyle". Sekiro was the logical next step from the old system but they went back in time with ER. At least you can get a taste of Sekiro via the new deflect tear item. I mostly liked this DLC but there is SO MUCH empty space. This DLC isn't even half as big as it looks on the map. Which is sitll big, but still. It's a bit of an illusion.

[@truthbetold7765]

Parrying all the time while fightng is just tedious

[@BlackroadYT]

@@truthbetold7765 I'd say it's a bit easier than parrying in Souls, also you can stay in the action and attack whenever you aren't deflecting, no more rolling around and walking away while the boss does the same cutscene combo for the 500th time that doesn't let you act

[@ChromaticFramerø]

"Learning, applying knowledge to overcome the challenge" is sort of the literal definition of learning a skill. So saying it doesn't require any skill, but learning is a oxymoron. So I don't really understand what type of challenge you're looking for. If it's something you want to be completely reactable, and doable on the "first try" I guess I can see that. And sure Ds1 had elements of that. But also had several aspects that would catch you off guard for the first time. Both in its enemy placements and bosses. Forcing you to "learn them" I think Elden Ring and Sekiro are much better in this regard. Because the animations are smoother, and therefore easier to distinguish the different attacks enemies and bosses are about to perform. With 60 vigor and steady increase of Scadutree blessings there were no bosses that would one shot me, except for certain "big attacks" like Relannas moon slåm. Which can feel a bit bullshit sometimes, but I'm okay with giving one more attempt at a boss, when I've almost figured it out enough, to just deal with that final desperation move they have. It makes the fights feel like the evolve and the boss is standing on their last legs. But I could still eat a full Combo from Renala or Midra and still be standing. So I don't find them too punishing. I actually think Radhan is less punishing than Maleina for instance and that the bosses are more Finley tuned than in the base game. But they are fast. And require quick reactions and finding punish windows within combo strings. And if you don't enjoy the process if learning these things, studying an enemy and adapting. I can understand that you dont enjoy Soulsborne anymore. But I've always found that this is what the game was about. In addition to methodical exploration and figuring out about a broken world gradually.

[@JakeDavidRoberts]

After finishing it the only boss fight I have a real problem with is the last one. No of the fights particularly fun besides Messmer but the last one is just hard just trash. Its just broken. Its completely unfun. Fromsoft are a victim of their own success in that they just need to keep making things harder and harder to keep up with their reputation. I hope this is the peak and in their next title they concentre on making bosses that are fun and satisfying to fight like Messmer was.

[@derekbateman7378]

I feel the same way but hey, at least on the bright side, we will always have Dark Souls to enjoy and nothing can take that away from us. :)

[@patriciopannucio2844]

I kinda agree. I've played souls games since Demons' souls. The best part of souls games for me has always been the exploration, the cool weapons, the lore. I've struggled with a few bosses from time to time (Artorias, Manus, Sir Alonne, Pontiff Sullyvahn, Nameless King, Midir, etc) but nothing came close to this dlc bosses. I liked some of them but the final boss...well, that's a different story. It took me 3 weeks and I had to change my entire strategy and focus on parrying and waiting for him to stop his unending attacks. Yeah learning is cool, but not so much when he can kill you in two strikes and then you have to re-do the entire battle for the 3000th time. Second phase was almost impossible mostly due to the amount of things happening on screen. I sometimes wondered if I was actually having fun or just rolling with it.

[@wyattml1641]

Sorry you had a bad time with this game, I get some of your points. Like the bosses killing you in two hits which can be annoying. But that’s where it pretty much ends. I’m still gonna enjoy all these games and hopefully anything else that fromsoft has come out. I’m going to beat share of the year tree and probably play Elden ring all over again. It was fascinating to hear your take. hope you have a good day.

[@BotBoy-un3pz]

People who keep saying "learning the boss is part of the experience" either never played any souls game beside elden ring or don't undestand how fromsoft used to design their bosses. In past games, bosses had intuitive movesets that followed real-life logic of how one would wield a weapon/move around. You could beat a lot of bosses first-try by being reactive rather than memorizing their movesets. Even the hard bosses followed the rule of being intuitive to fight - their movesets were just more complex, making you more likely to die several times. Every single boss in the DLC has delayed attacks, fake combo finishes that bait you into attacking, rollcatches and ridiculous tracking to the point where poitioning is meaningless. There is a difference between a boss that's hard but doesn't have an annoying moveset, making him a fun and memorable fight, and a boss that's hard because he has 20 different cheap "gotcha" moves designed to punish you for playing intuitively, that you can only learn after you get hit by them. A perfect example is rellana's moon attack: there is no way of figuring out you're supposed to jump to avoid it the first time you see her fly into the air and become a moon. If anything, having fought renalla before her, you expect it to be a projectile you dodge. Once the attack comes out, it's already too late to recognise you should jump, and getting hit by the first hit guarantees you die. You'll respawn having likely figured out you should jump to avoid it next time, but there was no way of figuring that out before you got hit by it. It's cheap trial and error nonsense that you find in those shitty patformer rage games youtubers used to play, and has no place in a souls game.

[@duckchen2676]

I am someone who believes that first thing and I think my perspective comes from always being bad at these games. Pontiff, Gael, Manus etc probably took me just as many tries if not more than Rellana on the first go. I've never felt like I could know these movesets intuitively. So I'm used to that and I enjoy it. I play these games because I want to understand the bosses as if they were each a whole game. But I can see the shellshock coming from someone who was good at the games before.

[@Con3811]

i don't know. The dlc didn't feel that bad. i liked the introduction of new weapon types. the only thing that i dislike is heal from afar when they spam in the colosseum

[@drex1239]

Look. I get your points. For lore they dropped the ball a little in the dlc. But the boss difficulty is also a very important aspect of from soft games. The truth is that from soft games are not for everybody. You can't please everybody when it comes to a game. Personally I love the challenge of the fight just as much as the lore and world building. I don't think from soft should lower the difficulty of their fights. Miyazaki clearly makes these games with a focus on the main souls fans that love the challenge. Right now, ,the dlc is considered hard but I'm sure that after some period everyone will start talking about how great the bosses are. This is what always happens. It happened for dark souls 3, sekiro, and even eldenring base game

[@caiqueportolira]

Elden Ring is easy, just use summons, it's part of the toolkit after all, right? How can anyone say that Miyazaki cares about difficulty after the summons, consumables, buffs, broken AoW, etc...

[@deazee2288]

I understand you but I feel like people play elden ring as if it was dark souls 4, the game introduced guard counters, an accessible jumping button and crouching to the character's movement options The bosses are designed around the probability of the player using said defensive manouvers, my only complaint is that the world is too vast for its own good and hinders the replayability

[@kanseidorifto2430]

Gotta start first off, I thought when I clicked the video it was about level design of the content in modern FromSoftware material. I'm gladly now enlightened after watching it, that my eyes were indeed just fooling me and the title was indeed what the video was about 😅 Now, in terms of the dlc content and Elden Ring, although I extremely disagree with you on some points and hold entirely different thoughts on angles of another, I find that you're moderately decent with not just saying that they suck and it's just utter trash. You just give it as you understand it and can respect the honestly without you getting too down into it. For me this was my most excitement in a while, as I now had stuff to further extend my craving for difficulty and having something worthy of being overcome. The older stuff gets boring if there's no fun to it, which is why I love the difficulty so much. Perhaps not raw stat increases or the idea of having to explore everything to have a universal weapon/equipment upgrade material permanently for all stuff to be used, though that's a debate for another thing altogether imo based on complaints I've heard from others before on the base game and former FromSoftware games. So, I agree to disagree, but you have my respect. Hope whatever you wanna get in terms of FromSoftware though, you'll one day be able to get back again.

[@AndresP09]

Before Elden Ring the only souls like game i had played was LoTF (the original) and i enjoyed the story but hated the gameplay because I'm simply shit at souls games. But i decided, against better judgment because of my previous experience, to buy Elden Ring, not because i wanted the challenge or because i was looking forward to sweating it, but because of the story, the lore, the ambient of the world and everything around it. The gameplay was the thing that i cared for the LEAST (even though i was concerned because i expected to get my ass kicked, and i did get it kicked but it went better than i expected). What im trying to say is that as an outsider that didn't play des, ds, ds2, ds3, bd or sekiro; ive always associated the souls genre with having a rough time, and i had it but i enjoyed the story so much that i didn't mind how much i struggled with Maleinia (actually she was the only one i looked foward to the challenge due to the fame she had), how much i HATED damned Romina, Gaius was annoying, and CRadhan was frustrating but well i beat him prepatch and yeah it was shit, infuriating and almost unfair at times but i expected nothing less, and enjoyed the oversll experience. Those are the only bosses I actually remember for how long it took me and how helpless i felt. Yeah Placidusax, Malekith, Mogh, Bael, etc were tough and took me multiple tries but i felt like i was falling shot by just a little and really enjoyed those fights. Some i did beat first try or with just a couple. Idk, as someone new to FromSoft i loved this game along with its tough moments. Took me A LOT of hours, probably more beacuse of my lack of skill with this sort of games. But it was definitely worth the money, the time and sweat it took at times.

[@Anhko67]

I don't share the same view at all, but this video was interesting to listen to as you presented your thoughts very naturally. Especially in Demon's Souls, Dark Souls 1 and 2, the difficulty was mainly in the levels themselves with lots of traps/enemies to catch you, but the bosses were generally easy (some exceptions of course: O&S, DLC bosses for example). For Elden Ring, they designed a huge world with a stress-free traversal system and lots of grace points to make it a more welcoming experience for newcomers. The Legacy dungeons were also not that difficult compared to the levels in previous games. The difficulty of ER was then achieved by giving very complex and advanced movesets to bosses, with our character having a speed not quite comparable to the protagonist in Bloodborne or Sekiro. It was still very fun for me to "crack" boss movesets and defeat them (even in SOTE), but I can see your point. Maybe you would be more comfortable with a comeback in the previous style, where the difficulty is more balanced between levels and bosses, not just bosses. For their next game, it would be amazing to start from the foundation of Bloodborne's or Sekiro's gameplay/speed if they want to continue in that vein.

[@McDudes]

I think the level and the world design of Shadow of the Erdtree is much better then the main game. IHaven't had this much fun exploring since the first time since Dark Souls 1. Not to find fragments, items or weapons but simply just exploring to see what I can find. And how I can get to that mountain or that part of the map. The weapons and new talismans are also really fun and opens up to new builds and completely new ways to play the game. The lore was fine too in my opinion. Sure getting more info on the Gloomed eyed Queen and Godwyn would have been great but Dark Souls 1 never got a DLC about Velka and neither did Velka appear in any of the sequels either (even though a statue was in Dark Souls 3). So it's pretty much the same thing now just that back then not many people knew about Velka. The bosses though is something I'm conflicted on. I think a lot of them are really good and then theres some that are too much or requires the player to change up the playstyle specifically for that one boss. Or you can just make a overpowered build and skip most annoying part of a boss and brute force it instead. Meaning the balancing of the game is pretty off and thats my biggest problem with the DLC and the game as whole.

[@Jabbaro123]

Dark Souls 3 will always be my favorite but Elden Ring in my opinion is the successor.

[@Rattlehead415]

The camera is the only real complaint I have about this game. You're spot on about targeting... Jesus H., it's a pile of trash lol.

[@Witheredfuntimefreddy]

honestly, i don't think ds3 is that punishing in terms of boss design. The bosses don't do way too much damage and have generally lesser health. There are only a few attacks that do one-shot a 50 vigor player. And yes, there is trial and error involved with these bosses but I never really find it egregious mainly cus the bosses, from my POV, aren't that punishing. But I do agree that shadow of the erdtree has bosses that deal way too much damage, especially when many of the remembrance bosses require countless hours of trial and error. Ofc, trial and error is a pivotal aspect of learning a boss. But i feel, SoTE bosses can stretch it out for way too long at times. Why? Cus, some of the bosses just one or two shot you which gives you less room to improve your skills. Then again, I won't take high damage into consideration when ranking the quality of a specific boss and i'd rather blame it on general game design instead. And, i kinda want another compact yet intricately layered map design like dark souls: small yet maze-like and easy to get lost (in a good way). I wish there's a modern fromsoftware game that also focuses on that aspect as well as insane bosses. Best for both worlds.

[@Voodoo_Occasions]

I like Elden Ring and Bloodborne the most asthetically. I like the models of Dark souls 3 but the color is too bland. However, the original Dark souls made bosses that were execution based in the first half. If you can do a certain thing or dodge when the boss attacks, dodge puddles of lava on the floor, find openings, understand the gimic, or manage two enemies with complementary move sets you can execute the boss easily on your first try. However, it takes skill to execute these descisive victories. Elden ring is heavily build based, Tree fragment based, and memorization based. These are all skills however some are skills in crafting builds while some are skills in memory. However, not eberyone has the time or patience to memorize every move the boss does after dying multiple times to it. Tell me what tells does the waterfall dance give showing how to dodge it? There are so many unjumpable AOE or AOE that looks like ot shouldne be Jumpable but is. My last issue is the input reading and the felayed attacks. I like delayed attacks when done right, like with the Nameless King and Orphan of Kos they hold their weapons, however, their attacks come down at a speed where you can react to the swing itself. Many elden ring bosses hold their weapons up then after some time it instantly hits the floor. Reaction rolls are reacting to the swing in Dark Souls and Bloodborne. Elden ring has attacks which you dodge based on your memory of getting pummeled by that attack. Sometimes physics are broken to delay an attack like Godfrey's Jumpimg grab. The only boss that has a delayed jumping attack in dark souls would be Artorious if you Consider his flip a delay (even though his jump doesnt distort physics or gravity) and Gael's jumping crossbow attack which is a ranged attack and him floating for a bit doesnt affect when the attack lands. Overall, I enjoy Elden ring on first playthrough and once you memorize all of the boss's attacks, however, the kearning process isnt very fun in. It is the best when you are a newb or when you are a pro. There is no in between.

[@elka2389]

I respectfully disagree with your video.

[@brandonthomsen8929]

I admit the dlc fealt very empty at times less enemies i found in the open field

[@Aldotiti]

I feel the same about the hard boss design of souls as well, but whats funny is I absolutely hated DS3 and I love Elden Ring and its DLC. DS3 felt like just about every boss had some long ass pattern of attacks to dodge which I absolutely hated and then the levels would sprinkle a ton of tanky enemys with long combo strings too. Its probably the Souls game where I avoided the enemies the most and just ran through because of how much a chore it was to fight them. ER has its obnoxious bosses too but I didnt feel like it had that same level of annoying design as DS3. I actually enjoy the difficulty of souls games but the way I see it is that its about managing offense and defense and the worst bosses are the ones where you are on defense for 90% of the fight. I was cool with most bosses in the DLC (I especially love the Mesmer fight) because it felt like I found a ton of openings in their attacks but that Final Boss was absolutely fucking horrible because it felt like I had to spend 90% of the fight rolling before landing 1 or 2 hits that delt chip damage and going back to rolling. I tried a bunch of different strategies and then I found out that summoning allies just made the fight harder. So I completed it Solo, no summons or spirits (mostly because they just fucking died before they did anything so it was a waste of time) and it was not fun for me at all.

[@silentobserver888]

For me i love the exploration. I think for me thats where the magic is and the dungeons. The combat and weapons and armor and visual design!

[@Twistofkain24]

I don't enjoy learning bosses, it takes time and frustrations, I have no prefrontal cortex, instead I make cheesy enjoyable build and use fun summons. Beat most bosses in one or two tries switching from greatshield poke boy build to thonk boy build depending on how much running and stuff. Cheesing is more a part of the design now too than early souls, same with build switching, get a dozen or so of those larval tears.

[@deliriushunter]

He Wo longed for more.. but the real wo was the friends we longed along.. 😔

[@Muradwalis92]

I didn’t like that game

[@jakeniclaz5393]

Huh I really like the bosses, especially Messmer, he´s my second favourite boss ever. A shame you don´t like them man

[@joelh90]

Elden ring relies heavily on delayed attack and aoe’s. Its not a direction i particularly like but the game is still very good. The boss fights are so beautiful just their attacks are a bit boring and cheap. A great example of a really hard but fun and creative boss fight was the orphan of cos.

[@Sephirothkingdom782]

I think messmer and bayle and even midra were the best in this dlc mainly because they didnt rely on delayed attacks with 10 years of startup.

[@joelh90]

I agree especially mesmer he was a very cool boss and the fight felt awesome. Some of them are just shit fights tbh. Same with the main game. Delay hit floor spam aoe repeat.

[@duvetboa]

​@@Sephirothkingdom782Messmer has many delayed attacks so this comment really confuses me.

[@brentontariocanada7935]

Sekiro and lies of p are both my favorite combat in a video game. My favorite Game is elden ring. Overall I liked the DLC, I agree that the lore / story of the DLC needed more, they left some stuff alone, they should of did more with the story of the DLC. I personally though there was some solid bosses in thus DLC. I think second phase of final boss was insane, hard to see, they just have unlimited stamina. I think adjustments and adjusting to a boss makes boss battles fun.

[@Unhinged_cult]

I understand the hate on Elden rings bosses but the dlc had good bosses but why hate on ds3 that game was good asf😭😭🙏🙏🙏

[@frankorellana3406]

I perosally loved EVERY boss in the dlc, except for Midra and Radahn. What kills me is the ridiculous hitboxes and AoE attacks that hit you no matter what. Radahn honestly made me lose interest in playing so much that I decided to move on to ng+ until they nerf him a little. I think er is a masterpiece, but some bosses are so cheesy they were just unpleasant. Radahn made me almlst quit on the entire franchise, and thats never happened before.

[@nickspringer6596]

My man, you’re burnt out on this genre. Take a breather.

[@AlmaBuru]

I hope From Software would never release Elden Ring 2, at least not with the team that made the DLC

[@viroxa_AT]

Although I get most of the points made, I don't understand the necessity of the video. If Elden Ring and it's dlc aren't your cup of tea, just stick to the old games. I've played DS1 and Bloodborne several dozen times each. I love Demons Souls, and Sekiro is probably my favorite Fromsoftware game. Ds2 I've only played to platin and my ds3 platin run I've paused for several months now, because i just can't get myself to like the game. And Elden Ring? I have not played it to this day, because it's too big, I don't like the open world, and I miss the genius level design of Dark Souls 1. My point is: It's ok to not like a game, but it's not always necessary to rant about it.

[@korakatk318]

Ignore the trolls, great video bro 🙌

[@nathanrenga4599]

10:23 Exactly.. dodge time hit one time, not really fun to play

[@Zeroantagonist88]

Maybe keep your expectations low, and not overly play the game to the point of burnout. And also, its ok to take an hiatus from these games, i suggest 5yrs off till the next fromsoft ip.

[@lankeysob]

I’m going to be honest. It just sounds like From Soft games are not meant for you. They’ve always been this way since day one. They are just better at making bosses that match current players skill levels. Aside from the exploration these games have always been about learning how to tackle the next boss.

[@eggmiths3642]

Most bosses on the old games required A) Upgrade materials for the weapon B) Mashing buttons. *The game is NOTHING like the series used to be, basically a Metroidvania with a few knowledge checks, instead of full tryhard action.

[@TykonBlue]

Aww snap I heard dragons crown in there

[@GIoominary]

peak Vanillaware ;)

[@Messmer-The-Impaler-n8i]

You did not really miss anything the focus on fromsoft changed. You are kidding yourself if u think the early games are not difficult. In thise games, the difficulty was from exploration. Dying for the umpteenth time in Blighttown, or central yharnam. Facing a boss was mich less about the boss but more about the path to the boss itself. If u have reached a boss, you will get it in usually less than 10 tries, but when u die u need to traverse a full area again (literally in case of Demons). That is where the frustration of the older games came in. You say that in the older games, bosses could be beat in a single sttempt feasibly, but to what extent can that be said about the areas. If someone says I traversed the depths on my first attempt, never got cursed, or never got lost, I would 100% give them the same side eye I give when people say they beat say Radahn first try. The difficulty focus has changed. People who enjoy the boss fight itself, will thrive in a game like ER, but ER is not a dungeon crawler. Its an open world action RPG, increasingly the focus is moving towards the action aspect. If you enjoy the bosses if they end quickly, you have options. I see spirit summons in ER, like shields in DS. Is it possible to beat the game without them? Yes. Do they make the game unquestionably easier wirh little to no downsides? Yes. Do thy have choices, where some of them are insanely broken, while some are boderline useless? Yes. If u do not summon then I would like to ask why? And if u summon and still dont enjoy the game then I am sorry, I understand u, but cannot sympathise.