Elden Ring DLC Analysis

[@Bob-jh6xt]

My problem with the Scadutree fragments was really their placement. I like some being scattered around, but I think they should've been side rewards, like you kill a side boss, and it drops a weapon AND 1 or 2 Scadutree fragments.

[@best_mate456]

Think they should add more of them but cap at a certain level

[@JoseViktor4099]

Btw, may I ask if the Scadutree Blessings actually carries on NG+?

[@todd2.08]

@@best_mate456Yeah people compare them to Golden Seeds but it just isn’t comparable when there is an over abundance of the golden seeds scattered everywhere so a player can find different ways to max out their flask uses. Not so with the Scadu fragments

[@Ostrava6572]

@@JoseViktor4099yes they carry over

[@100StepProgram]

My problem is how they work, I love how they make me do more damage but when you go back to base game you see that you do less damage which makes me sad 😂

[@aayushdasgupta9754]

Funnily enough, the Shaman village is one of my most memorable areas in the DLC. It has almost nothing in it, but lore. I am not sure how much you got into Elden Ring lore, but if I were to put it in terms of Dark Souls lore, imagine if there was a gesture hidden area in the Ringed City Swamp that led to Gwyn's old village, guarded by a couple of silver knights and an illusion of ornstein. Gameplaywise its just a buch of reuse. But in terms of lore, the place hits like a truck. It changed how I giewed Marika completely. I had to just sit down and think of how this single area recontextualizes everything I thought about the base game lore. For a lore enthusiast likr myself, it was a delight to discover the area, to the point that I forgot all the reuse and just immersed myself there.

[@ILUVBHS]

I have to strongly agree with this. It was a little disappointing hearing him just gloss over the village and the purpose of the sentinels being there like it was reuse for the sake of reuse and a whole lot of nothing. Reading the item description of the tree that marika left behind there felt like I was walking on sacred ground, like this was the beginning of the story of marika. Looking back it’s one of my favorite discoveries hands down. Also dogging on the tree sentinels after having my shit pushed in by gias for the better half of 2 hours felt reaaaally good XD

[@mingQWERTY]

Meeting the Tree Sentinels in the area is like meeting two old friends. Everything in the DLC has been alien for the most part and running into them, hearing their music and their movesets being instantly downloaded in your brain just feels so good for some reason. Re-using assets done extremely well

[@jackreacher7495]

@@ILUVBHS Thanks for warning me. This isn't worth my time to watch, then - it's fine to dislike asset reuse, but anyone who makes such a half-assed attempt to criticize it without even understanding the in-universe "why" of it doesn't deserve my time. He probably bitches about "empty areas," too.

[@yourmother9747]

@@jackreacher7495he sure does

[@Slaughter_Hill]

@@ILUVBHSthe item description are the devs trying to hide their lazy reuse

[@thehotwindblowing]

I personally found the reuse of Tree Sentinels really satisfying. After many hours of trekking through unfamiliar and dreary territory, getting humbled by new bosses and enemies, you stumble upon what are basically the equivalent of walking punching bags in comparison to all the scary shit in the DLC. By the time you get to the Hinterlands you're probably quite juiced up on Scad frags and got some cool new DLC build rolling, or at least augmented your build with some shiny new DLC tools. They feel placed as the perfect test dummies to remind you how far you've come and to unleash your wrath and absolutely blast them to bits with your epic new stuff. You even mention how the Tree Sentinel has that "come back later" purpose in the original game - I have many fond memories of coming back to the Tree Sentinel and clapping him with a highly upgraded weapon (second playthrough onward, first playthrough I was stubborn and killed him at base level ofc). That's just me though and I think it's totally valid to not like Tree Sentinel reuse, lore justifications aside.

[@Grizz0705]

I view the Cerulean Coast as the Weeping Peninsula of the DLC. If you can't beat Dancing Lion or Rellana then you go to the Cerulean Coast to get some more upgrades then comeback.

[@melephs_cap]

If you can find it, that is

[@KulveTarothsNightGown]

shadow keep has the type of level design i want to see in a resident evil game

[@anders6326]

Heck yes. Also, open your other eye, brother of MElina ;)

[@KulveTarothsNightGown]

​@@anders6326 hmmm, i guess the gloam eyed queen could also be marika's daughter ;)

[@Megidolaon999]

⁠@@KulveTarothsNightGown Bro messmer is Melina’s brother, not Malenias. Both are the eldest of Marika’s children.

[@joaoluizkfsantos8392]

​@@Megidolaon999 that... Would also make him a brother to Malenia... Since she's also a child of Marika

[@KulveTarothsNightGown]

@@Megidolaon999 marika has more than 3 children

[@shiroamakusa8075]

I don't find the Scadutree Avatar to resemble Midir at all, it's actually way closer to Ebrietas from Bloodborne. Wide swings with long, spindly appendages, headbutts and -grabs if you come too close, a devastating bull charge with very little rev-up and homing missile attacks. I really wonder why no one can see the clear reference.

[@chirin9073]

I think Castle Ensis is supposed to be on the tier of the medium dungeons in the base game, like Castle Morne or Castle Sol

[@smoothyodaproductions4373]

Yeah the real legacy dungeons id say are Shadow Keep, Enir Ilim, and Belurat. Castle Ensis as you said felt like just a normal castle dungeon, and Midras Manse feels a little small to be a legacy dungeon.

[@lordofcinder8884]

But it has a rememberance boss, imagine caria manor had a rememberance boss, that's just unacceptable quality for a legacy dungeon

[@joaoluizkfsantos8392]

​@@lordofcinder8884more unacceptable than having a repeated Ancestor Spirit as a remembrance boss? I see no issue with Rellana at all, since she's also an amazing and unique fight to justify her remembrance status

[@Nope-wf6gn]

⁠​⁠@@lordofcinder8884How is that unacceptable? Fortissax, Astel, Fire Giant, and Regal Ancestor are all rememberance bosses, yet they aren’t tied to dungeons at all. Not to mention, Radahn is tied to Redmane Castle which is a minor legacy dungeon just like Castle Ensis.

[@lordofcinder8884]

@@joaoluizkfsantos8392 I think I used the wrong words, I didn't mean the boss I meant the Dungeon itself feels like a worse caria manor so imagine caria manor had a rememberance boss

[@tonystarrk4859]

Your take on Rauh Ruin's aesthetics is similar to how I felt when someone said they disliked Fountainhead Palace's aesthetics, I just don't get it. Besides that, Rauh Ruin's is the closest we've gotten to a legacy dungeon for Torrent (even the elevators finally work with him). It has the design, traps, and secrets of a dungeon, just expanded for the horse.

[@TifffanyTaylor]

I was noting these things myself. I'm glad someone else had the same thoughts & wrote it out

[@Nobreza0804]

Honestly, Shaman VIllage is perfect and your approach to it was a little misleading, that was the place that MARIKA of all people was born, the tragedy with the hornsent and the shaman people, the smaller erdtree incantation and her braid at the Grandmother tree, the Erdtree Sentinels are there for a reason, they're enforcers of her Golden Order and they're safeguarding that place that's sacred.

[@WarOfWolves]

Quality over quality? Did we play the same dlc? It has both.

[@bombthing]

Same Quality as their other great dlcs, but triple the quantity at the same time. Perfect balance, big W

[@EndersupremE]

Nah, the forges not having some copy paste boss and just being a cool place to get some weapons is a big example of this quality over quantity

[@lonradb]

⁠​⁠​⁠@@EndersupremE fr, baffles me that people are complaining about them not having a boss at the end. what happened to having a fun dungeon for the sake of having a fun dungeon? also ancient dragon smithing stones are always 100% worth your time

[@EndersupremE]

​​​@@lonradb I wouldnt say 100%, but I'll take it every day over Arteria Leafs, rune arcs, butterflies... Even a copy pasted poorly made boss

[@SH19922x]

If you cut out the optional areas it's a fairly smallish medium size dlc so it's a W either way, only problem is the story never gets told to it's end

[@JoseViktor4099]

One think that imo took the approach of "Quality over quantity" undeniably are the minor Dungeons. Almost all bosses I've seen there has a somewhat diferent approach between each others, the lenght feels more like an actual Soul level, and overall feels better to explore due to the amount of secrets and interesting sections as very often they go around a gimmick. Seriously, if they did this take on the base game, ER level design would had been extremely impressive

[@calmack6637]

midras manse was the best 10 minutes of content i have ever experienced

[@flamingmanure]

ERs base game level design factoring in its open world and legacy dungeons completely destroys the older games, even ds1 doesnt stand a chance. there are 2 to 3 ways to get into almost every open world area, there are 2 ways to get into every legacy dungeons, some of them have more than 2, and im still not counting the mirrors and coffins, frankly its kinda laughable to think ds1 is even in the same league as ER in level design, that undead burg shortcut, the best shortcut in souls, is cute next to ER to be quite frank. ffs you see nokron studded into the ceiling of siofra river cave, then 30 to 50 hours later you kill radahn, go down a meteor crater, and end up in that very same upside down castle you saw 50 hours ago XD and you can use the ruin spires with torrent to climb back down to siofra, older souls games level design is barely indie game level compared to this. i played ds1 right after ER, and even its best shortcut just had me going "thats pretty neat' nothing in it dropped my jaw really. hell not a single area in any of the older games and their dlcs are even half as good as a single legacy dungeon in level design and quality to begin with, factor in the open world and underground level design, and its no just no contest. no matter how much nostalgia bias there is towards older souls games level design, it took objectively laughably far more effort and talent in level design skills to make ERs level design than any other fromsoft game, its one thing to prefer the older souls games level design, its ok to prefer it, but objectively speaking, elden ring is above them.

[@JoseViktor4099]

@@flamingmanure I completely Agreed that ER is much better than DS1 on the surprise factor. Its also much better verticality wise. Although, I consider that DS1 is better on trap and enemy placement. DS1 very often liked to put you on Some tricky situations like very thin corridors you could slip, alongside enemies which propuse is to make you fall, like Anor-Londo archers, a more prominent use of enemy companions that makes you think about which enemies want you to tackle first, like the boar and the archers situation, which is ironically a hint of how to deal against the Boss of that zone. The zones are also overall very unique and very often differs on arquitecture and gimmicks a lot, making It feel every zone extremely unique apart of its art style. I think that both ER and DS1 has different reasons on why they are so phenomenal. But those are my takes, personally.

[@ItsJustCartier]

@@JoseViktor4099So the reskinned Death Knight “boss” is quality not quantity?😂

[@JoseViktor4099]

@@ItsJustCartierYes, that boss fight is very well made with a sh!t ton of moves and is very fun to fight with, having the variation another weapon with different moves that settles it apart. A shame that you have to (ironically) copypaste Feeble´s opinion in order for you to complain about a genuine great boss.

[@Halfgnomen]

The bosses dont demand excellence, you can brute force every boss in this game.

[@lenabeanzx]

Don’t agree with every single point you made but man this was a stellar video. I was shocked when I saw how many subs you have, you deserve way more.

[@CosmicEye597]

Thank you for the kind words.

[@KaueBR89]

commander gaius clips at 43:40 explained: the difference in damage is because of the counter hit system. In the first example you were drinking the flask and got hit, because you were in the middle of an action, you got more damage than the second clip

[@its_saber1525]

It's like bloodbornes counter damage

[@sneaky5141]

​@@its_saber1525its like literally every game in this genre since demons souls lol still an awful mechanic

[@Shinigami00Azael]

​@@sneaky5141 I almost liked your response, until I saw the last line xd But it's weird how late this comment is.

[@_BBAGG_]

​@@sneaky5141How is it an awful mechanic? It punishes you for being reckless, if you wanna play like some braindead creature mashing the heal button with a boss close by you deserve to get hit harder.

[@KhangNguyen-ij4xh]

@@sneaky5141it’s not. It’s there to punish greedy plays and iirc you only lose thrust def.

[@EmirBanan]

I’ve watched 30 min at this video now and it becomes apparent this guy doesn’t realize that it is a DLC and not a full scale game

[@berkebus]

I fought Scadutree Avatar much earlier in the playthrough than most, I was playing with a Milady and trying to engage with the boss on somewhat fair terms and I think here Scadutree Avatar shines incredibly. Many bosses in the DLC will ask of you to find something that is truly powerful that will help you defeat the uptick of difficulty. I am actually very pleased that Scadutree Avatar is not only a very unique design in the catalogue of Fromsoft, but it also keeps its fairness, has great cadence, and a few moves that though hard to interpret at first are incredibly dodgable while also punishing repeated mistakes with bleed build-up. After defeating Rellana, a lightning-fast boss with endless combo's (that I still agree is a better boss than Scadutree Avatar), Scadutree Avatar was a breath of fresh air and great fun. Sometimes I do think that the community puts too much emphasis on a boss having to challenge them or be hard in a way which is unfair. I think Scadutar is an incredible well designed boss. It may not be as difficult as some of the other bosses, but for me it was one of the most FUN bosses to fight in this DLC.

[@tonystarrk4859]

Furnace Golems don't drop anything interesting? Someone hasn't beat any bosses with the Deflect Tear yet.

[@justbored9295]

more like quality and quantity though, this thing took me like 50 hours to fully complete

[@geordiejones5618]

Well over 100 for me and I haven't even seen the last legacy dungeon. Between exploring every nook and cranny, only using a handful of scadutree fragments for the most challenge, and of course farming, this will be 125 hours easy. I've done a fair amount of dicking around but it's because it's such a well designed expansion.

[@smoothyodaproductions4373]

@@geordiejones5618it took me less than 100 to beat the game lol thats crazy

[@EndersupremE]

It is very full of content, but clearly there was a shift to quality over quantity. No copy paste catacombs, the ones that are like base game catacombs are unique. The forges being just cool dungeons to get new weapons and no boss was a cool thing. I'm pretty sure if they did put a boss it would be a generic copy paste. It's definitely quality over quantity even tho it has a lot in quantity

[@flamingmanure]

base game also had a shit ton of quality to go with its quantity, laughably more than the older games if you ask me, lol even the basic heavy enemies and mini bosses were better than half the main bosses from bb and ds3 XD but souls veteran clowns usually just point to the mini dungeons and screech "quantity over quality" forgetting that factoring in bloodbornes chalice dungeons would make it objectively the lowest quality souls game XD besides, this whole "quality" argument is a silly subjective notion that souls youtuber clowns use to seem more objective in their "critique" lol. for example, i think sekiro is a mediocre quality game, with mediocre uninteresting bosses, mediocre enemy/boss art design, mediocre to forgettable music, combat thats great for about half a playthrough before it feels stale and laughably repetitive (devil may cry and ninja gaiden are dozens of times tighter and more complex than any fromsoft game combat anyway, so my standards are really high), and by god was sekiros level design the most forgettable mediocre ass ive ever seen in fromsoft. overall i view sekiro as a mediocre quality game in fromsofts standards, its only impressive aspect is its combat, thats about it, and even that is one note and repetitive.

[@PessiIsPinished]

​@@flamingmanureI think I've lost about 10 brain cells reading this. Care to explain how a pile of trash like elden ring is better than sekiro.

[@All-bz9xr]

watching until the end, i can see why you feel a certain way about some of the area and the thing with the forge golem being spread around all over the map. it's just that the one thing i didn't hear you mention once ( i think ) is that lore and story telling through enemies / NPC placement has a big role in designing this and the base game. the only area i didn't think did enough is Rauh. but this is just my opinion

[@geordiejones5618]

This what I say when people complain about asset reuse. A lot of it is for the sole purpose of making you associate certain enemies with certain factions/characters and when you really dig into every enemy type, for the most part it's consistent to story and lore choices.

[@blackironslayer7228]

I think Scadutree fragments still works, because unless you're a die hard completionist, you realistically dont need all of them.

[@TotalTimoTime]

Even if you are: I got all of them just from exploring thoroughly. I was missing one by the end of the game looked up a guide and it turned out I had already defeated the pot guy that drops it just forgot to pick it up.

[@kinggamereon653]

The Gaius charge is pretty bad with how inconsistent it is but if you dodged it, that would probably help. When I played this before the patch the first dash was practically undodgeable but maybe the patch with his changed starting position fix this. For the later charges dodge into him with good timing. He's honestly one of the most fun bosses in the dlc for me while the rest of the world seems to hate him.

[@Detriax]

I wanna add about the Ghostflame dragons is that they feel very different from the normal dragons since they have a lot of new moves

[@keskorian5820]

amazing job on this one!

[@alloytitanium5972]

Armored Core 6 is their newest quality focus game my guy. And it's peak.

[@Cayden.1]

the gaius attacks doing more damage arent glitches. If yoh get attacked while you are in the middle of some stamina consuming animations like jumping or attacking, yoh take more damage. that's always been in the game.

[@CosmicEye597]

Thank you for pointing that out.

[@Magos_Tungdil]

There is a duo boss another KZbinr said „ the hippo and the camera“.

[@flamingmanure]

ppl that complain about the hippo camera are souls veteran idiots that constantly dodge backwards and then wonder why they got cornered between the hippy and a wall on their back. the hippo bosses cam is completely fine, just stop dodging backwards towards walls and stop running to the hippo when he runs into a wall, let him come to u.

[@luanpachecocabral8732]

What a high quality video man, you should and will be recognized for your work in the future

[@calmack6637]

shadow keep is its own fucking game

[@aussiegamingandreviews3427]

Right? Its huge and filled with new shit

[@Gugu-Gaitan]

At this point, the camera issue has to fall into one of these cases: 1-It's completely intentional 2-It's inherit to the game's engine and/or design (Pardon my lack of proper vocabulary)

[@firelord508]

Twig guy?! That’s zanzabart, lord of the quimbled flame.

[@natttt7377]

forgive me..

[@alexplummer6397]

Force to explore? I’m assuming you forgot what makes souls appealing for alot of people

[@Niklas0369]

You aren't actually forced to explore, because most Scadutree fragments are lying on the main paths. If you really try to collect every single one of them, you will make the DLC much easier then the main game's endgame.

[@daquandavis5498]

I think they did adapt to the base game open world well. N I’d be willing to bet the next game they make will have a large world with a layout kin to the way the DLC is. I really like what they did with catacombs and dungeons. They felt a lot more important.

[@its_saber1525]

I actually want them to go back to a mote linear world, just have the levels themselves be more open (like ds3 but the levels themselves like lothric would have the open ness of legacy dungeons)

[@Apophes]

Well lets hope next game would be linear with these dungeons, or something like sekiro because if they cant make good open world, and in dlc they make this, then dont even try. And since so many people are brained, I bet FS would think that dlc have good open world

[@meowmeowie1925]

If you use a non heavy weapon, the fire knights from shadowkeep will indeed be one of the hardest common enemy in a legacy dungeon of this game because you will not interrupt their attacks with every swing. When it comes to ER, YMMV based on build. Torrent in Elden Beast makes it feel too easy. It's hard for me to say "they didn't play-test this", "how can torrent not be usable here", when Elden Beast has attacks such as concept order that only make sense if you do not have Torrent's speed. Torrent breaks too many of Elden Beast moves.

[@marcschwartz5676]

Seriously. "Fire knights aren't that hard!" Proceeds to chain stagger them with r1 spam with a sunflower the size of a building.

[@boshwa20]

Good. I dont care if EB is easy now. Torrent needs to be with you for the finale This obsession with difficulty is going to be the downfall of these games

[@bryonwithay]

I been listening to this video for like 35 min and thought it was almost over haha got another hour and a half to go enjoy your takes so far tho :)

[@Ariho_Elmer]

I like videos like this that break down this DLC and other content from other games, but I can’t help but feel like fans(mostly Americans) love to complain a lot no matter how good something is. I thought the biggest disappointment you would have would maybe be reused bosses, only to hear you say your biggest disappointment was that it didn’t have a duo boss fight, instead of just accepting the improved quality of the bosses in this DLC which was obviously their focus. I personally go into these games and DLCs expecting nothing. I look at what the developers did, and judge it based on how well they did it. I do not look at what they DIDNT do. Maybe it’s just me, idk. I like this video, but I do feel like we the fans love to complain about nothing when it comes to these games

[@NoChylDyl]

Gamers will spend $40, get 30+ hours of entertainment and say “wtf this was an unfinished mess😡” The standard for video games is brutal rn

[@Ariho_Elmer]

@@NoChylDyl I think so too

[@ItsJustCartier]

@@Ariho_Elmer Gotta love the dumb American lady of this take as if a majority of the people that complain about League are only somewhere in Asia😂

[@duckchen2676]

Why did you characterize them as American for no reason lol

[@nyquilfilthy7557]

Thought the same thing. Your biggest disappointment is that you didn’t get your specific personal wish?

[@itmekobb8075]

I agree with almost everything said in this review, my first 5 hours in the dlc were a bit lacluster but once i got past castle ensis it was all uphill for me

[@CosmicEye597]

I am glad my words resonated with you.

[@lumeronswift]

Rellana isn't like Lady Maria... she's a take on Pontiff Sulyvahn from DS3. Same dual swords, and even VERY similar music (same violin).

[@henryko4994]

Ensis is NOT trying to be Raya Lucaria, it is more a second version of Caria Manor which is around the same size/verticality. Don't know why people keep comparing apples to oranges but it's annoying at this point. The only Raya level dungeon is the Shadow Keep which is one of the best dungeons in the whole game, base game included. Ensis is what it is supposed to be, a Carian Manoresque home away from home for the sister that fell in love with Mesmer and got locked away in the land of shadow as a result. It's like people just ignored Caria Manor as the actual home of the Magical Royal Family/or that it exists to the North of Liurnia and IS NOT the University City.

[@ikedogman1]

The pot enemies with fragments don’t throw them. They will run away from you if you approach them.

[@perplexedon9834]

I missed the main path to Cerulean coast and actually ended up going to Charo' Hidden Grave first, then climbing down the collosal dragon's wings and making my way to the coast, and ultimately to the Fissure. I also platformed UP from Cerulean coast into that ravine with the Erdtree Spirit. Both of those were some of the coolest experiences I've ever had in a game. I knew there was going to be something cool down the bottom of the world, and making my way down the beach and along the coast, even though it didnt take too long, was such an adventure. I felt less like I was playing a game and more like I was just an adventurer camping under the stars, talking to my horse, and seeing what lay beyond the horizon. I'm glad that experience wasn't interrupted, in fact I think the ghost flame dragon was even too much. I got to the fissure before breaking miquellas rune, so seeing the path to Trina sealed off filled me with excitement about coming back later. The drop down to the Putresence Knight had my heart in my throat, and I don't think I would have enjoyed that nearly as much as I did without feeling like I took a peaceful journey to the edge of the worls.

[@Kind_Dark]

Love this vid, great work!

[@elizaveta_kataya]

Romina is such a cool fight aesthetically. I died to her intentionally a couple of times so that I could marvel at her beauty one more time😂

[@oliorogue]

As far as the camera, you need to get comfortable turning the lock-on off and on while managing everything else.

[@victorprati7908]

>still remains completely unaware of being able to swing weapons to his left by pressing L1/L2 while on horseback >ditches off the meaningful moveset and thematically visual updates for dragons as just recycled enemies >dumb comparison with troll fights from GoW (2018) as in that game you just have that enemy as major threat where in Elden Ring there's much more variety alongside the recycled ones. >completely misses the incantation reward from the NPC in Belurat as it being just a lore dump. lol >15:27 sudden change in tone making him sound like Moistcritikal lol >talks about "dancing" around Rellana's attacks while showing clips of him trading like an ape and accidentally low profiling blows due to jumping attack spam playstyle. >shows completely ignorance to damage types when talks about being nearly one-shoet by Rellana's twin moons attack while wearing the highest physical defense armor not realizing that's a magic attack >considers Stone Coffin Fissure a dungeon.

[@clearlyblotted]

Calm

[@lesocialistepessimiste8337]

my guy can you please redirect this anger against actual haters please ?

[@bluemilk2398]

Glad you didn’t make something garbage and click baity like “Worst Fromsoft DLC yet!!”

[@Fishbones111]

Feeble King enjoys being a miserable contarian clickbaiter. though sad thing is, it often works

[@Slaughter_Hill]

@@Fishbones111don’t ask questions. Just consume product and get excited for next product

[@Fishbones111]

@@Slaughter_Hill not saying there aren't flaws in the DLC, but calling it the worst DLC fromsoft has made is downright laughable

[@ItsJustCartier]

@@Fishbones111This dlc next to the ds2 dlc of being the worst…not an opinion it’s a fact simple

[@briang7794]

Its not clickbait. I didnt enjoy it either. There were some great moments like Bayle, Messmer, Shaman Village, and etc, but It was not fun dodging a 7 hit combo and only getting 1 hit in. It was not a enjoyable experience. They also pretty much removed player choice when it came to Miquella cause I didnt really really want to kill. I just didnt like the direction they took with the story and bosses. I dont think the bosses are bad, it just our character can only do so much when it comes to dodging. Also, whats the point of theses cool looking ashes of war if I cant even use them on a boss? They force you to play the same playstyle in dodging then get a few hits in. Thats why I probably prefer DS1, Bloodborne, Sekiro, and DS3 because the player model was able to keep up with the bosses( Maybe not DS3 cause its kind of similar to ER but I prefer that games bosses over ER except maybe Base game, which I think is better than most DLC bosses with a few exceptions like Bayle, Messmer, and Romina kind of, and maybe Radahn.)

[@3000deaths1]

2nd comment lol. Thinking about what could be done with Charo's hidden grave, I came up with something interesting. Maybe a reward for those who have done all the npc quests. Shadow of the Erdtree is already the best when you do the npc quests, why not do something special. Have it where Ansbach holds a meeting here behind a minor boss (perhaps the Deathrite Bird that spawns here?) and when you arrive, all of the npcs you have met along the way are here. Ansbach gives this whole speech about what is about to happen and what all they need to do. It would be an excellent lead up for the fight pre-Radahn with Leda. This would also be a point where you can get everyone's final thoughts alongside an air that's sort of "calm before the storm" I can just picture talking to Thollier after Ansbach's speech and he's intimidated, depressed, afraid of what's to come, but ultimately driven. It'll also strengthen what Ansbach says about Thollier later after the fight hit much harder. I haven't done all the quests, I'll admit, but maybe we can have Moore there as well, expressing a want to not fight and stay out of it. I straight up don't know what happens to Freya, L. But I think this would be an interesting opportunity to witness npcs have dialogue with each other too. Maybe prompted by the player so it doesn't feel forced. Lmk what y'all think of something like this (Edit, my not doing the npc quests is showing. Moore is apparently against you in the royale L. I also had an idea. If you give the dragon priestess Thollier's she'll join you as a spirit ash long story short. Maybe if you have her on your belt at this point. She'll make a comment on the situation. Maybe the same for Queelign and Latenna as well. There's a criminal lack of base game dlc overlap in Shadow of the Erdtree)

[@seanysalami]

Awesome video man. Subscribed

[@CosmicEye597]

I'm glad you enjoyed. Thank you for the kind words

[@anders6326]

46:16 / 1:36:11 It may be nice to talk about non gameplay and design aspects when you do these because boy you must be missing a LOAD of characterization, thematic, and narrative details, here. I mean, Shaman Village and its fate is literally the cause of the DLC and the founding of the Golden Order? xD

[@evilfungas]

How can you not like Rauh's aesthetics? It's easily one of the most beautiful areas they have ever designed.

[@freemygrandma956]

49:47 another thing I found odd was the lack off boss cutscenes and voice lines

[@skeley6776]

Rellana def deserved a cutscene

[@ultra824]

As someone who likes to use spirit summons, I only found out that the godskin duo were infamous after my first playthrough was complete and it puzzled me because I beat them after only a couple of attempts, and had a lot more trouble with the likes of Godfrey and Placidusax. ER's multi-boss fights just expect the player to be using summons. I don't feel like it's really reasonable to complain that something is unbalanced if that imbalance comes from refusing to engage with a fairly centralized mechanic like spirit ashes

[@samiamtheman7379]

A big issue with the dlc bosses is how unfriendly they are to people who use summons and spirit ashes. Bosses tend to attack immediately, leaving you little to no time to use your summoning bell or the in-arena summon signs, and there are times where you jump down to a bossfight and the summoned player has to go through the fog wall and then run over and jump down to you to join the fight, and oftentimes you're dead before your summon can get to you.

[@Belks1453]

1:31:49 After fighting Radahn I have come to a conclusion regarding him, I can sorta understand why Miyazaki brought him back. Radahn is the strongest, bar none, the game states that clearly beforehand, he's meant to, in effect be this world's version of someone like Gojo, i can remember as far back as the games release people wishing we could have fought prime radahn. I think it's cool it's here as a send off to elden ring, but it should not have been the final boss, it should have been a super boss like Bayle (result from Freyja's questline) and have Godwyn be the consort.

[@vryyyx]

not at all, hes mentioned as mightiest by some nobles and a few npcs, but thats more about his identity as a general of the battlefield. Also hes only compared to other demigods, no one knows mohg and morgott exist, and the most powerful characters arent even demigods; godfrey, maliketh and placi. Its more about the vow and the game outright states that.

[@KulveTarothsNightGown]

been saying this since it's release. it is the new skyrim. it is what bethesda and all those RPG companies *wish* they could make

[@DonutSwordsman]

Lol clown claim. Souls only gameplay is combat. Skyrim you can sim in tons of ways besides combat. Farm, fish, marry, collect etc cmon

[@KulveTarothsNightGown]

​@@DonutSwordsman true but the level of quality in elden ring is nearly unmatched. skyrim has the same 10 voices, the same 20 enemies, the same 200 fetch quests. it has a ton of redeeming qualities obviously but it has lost the ability to carry the torch of best RPG. it's between elden ring and BG3 for the rpg to end all rpgs. both are just too different to compare as one goes all combat and one goes (basically) all story

[@ItsJustCartier]

@@KulveTarothsNightGown. Quality? More like quantity..this dlc is riddled with reskins and half baked bosses😂

[@Detriax]

@@ItsJustCartierokay. Like what. Name the reskins.

[@ItsJustCartier]

@@Detriax If you need this to explained you are part of the problem🤣.That dumb holy worm that carried golden seeds is in this dlc as a reskinned mini boss. We have “black knights”that are the same reskinned knights of the other areas. Do I really need to name every bs reskin enemy this dlc throws out as if your a child that can’t look it up?

[@FoopahDestroyer]

Did you find the velvet st trina sword in the fissure? 👀

[@3000deaths1]

I might disagree on your Scadu Tree Avatar and Commander Gaius take but i simply haven't fought these 2 twice or in the way you mentioned. Gaius was rough but he wasn't bad because i had a shield and great sword with 60 vigor and i was just shield countering him into oblivion. I personally really, REALLY like the Scadu Avatar fight. I also had the sword of night and flame. He did his thing, I struck his head with the fire art on opennings. It got much harder during phase 2. It was really fun for me. Then phase 3 rolled around. After that massive aoe, I realized the guy was slow, methodical. He was broken, just like the demon king in ds3. It struck a chord with me in a special way. Not only was the fight fun for me, it was emotional. And when I got Miquella's discarded great rune at the end of it, my jaw dropped. Maybe you're right that the boss is less impressive on a second playthrough, but I haven't done that yet. Cannot confirm

[@xeaper9325]

when i first read the title, i thought you made a mistake - this dlc seemed “quantity over quality” featuring many large areas with very little in them, seeming to be there just to expand the map and sometimes adding a reskinned or reused boss. Most of the bosses felt incredibly rushed and the non-remembrance (and some of the remembrance) bosses were terrible. Many remembrance bosses had lazy arenas and no or poor cutscenes. The final boss was designed with misleading hitboxes, attacks fast than their animations and many performance issues. The DLC does shine in many areas. There are many amazing quests in the game, such as Pureblood Knights Ansbach. There are also many amazing bosses, such as Messmer and Bayle. The DLC is not a 10/10 and im tired of people reviewing it this way because it is a FromSoftware project.

[@Niklas0369]

mimimimi

[@Niklas0369]

Imagine the open world is optional and you can skip those "empty" spaces

[@jimmyparadox8333]

While the dlc was very enjoyable overall, it's hardly "Quality over Quantity" when you have places like the abyssal woods or cerulean coast and a lot of other wide opens zones that entice exploration, with close to no reward, because they feel underdone and there's barely anything there. I wish they overdesigned Shadow keep a little less and put a little more of that effort into other places that feel very hollow.

[@skeley6776]

Like base Elden Ring the DLC would have been better if it wasnt a open world game...

[@alexmiller9053]

I hate to sound like a hater but bro is definitely gassing his skill level , he said he beat rellana in 30 mins and the dancing lion in 12 like bro come on

[@yugioh395]

Yeah I agree lol. Especially given his gameplay here. He's face tanking nearly everything and chugging after lol. And this footage is his SECOND DLC playthrough, meaning the first playthrough would have been a much bigger shit show

[@shreder75]

We'll agree to disagree. This is most definitely not their best dlc. Scadu fragments drop from random pot head enemies at times for starters. Furnace golem are flat out a chore. The bosses are AOE dodge roll catching messes (mostly). And the exploration sucks. The ancient Ruah ruins? A confusing nightmare of big brown room opens into big brown room that looks exactly the same. Never been as lost in finding where I needed to go on the basegame as much as the dlc. It's got some good points, but it reeks of rushed incompleteness with a sprinkle of "crank up the aoe back off spells because we're out of ideas for difficulty! "

[@Niklas0369]

Sounds like a "you" issue. Go play other games and let us have fun. Bye bye👋

[@shreder75]

@@Niklas0369 no. It's an issue issue. Look it up. Kind of a thing. It's okay to critique From games, you know. Look into it. It's also a thing.

[@skoop4477]

Good video and I agree with a majority of it

[@CosmicEye597]

Thank you for the kind comment

[@tiburonpereze]

the fire golem at the start is 100%meant to be fought when first encountered, you must fight those enemies with torrent, i dont get why people don realize that...........

[@duckchen2676]

With the gigantic health pool I assumed that Fromsoft expected me to come back later after I learned some secret on how to defeat them. Just hitting them 100 times until they fall over wasn't as intuitive as with the other golems with broken ankles.

[@skeley6776]

I personally dont recommend fighting on Torrent just jump his single stomps and run jump against the duo stomp.

[@reiswoodard6630]

“Fighting rellana feels like a dance” *jump attack* *jump attack* *jump attack*

[@paytonestrada7746]

The DLC is quantity over quality.

[@Niklas0369]

cope

[@spacesloth9529]

To be fair, the ghostflame dragons do have some new attacks which threw me for a loop

[@straelboraaaa]

WTF dude? That big fire dude would be extremely easy if you know how to jump. It is easier than that first dancing madatrucker you encounter first in the DLC shadow realm.

[@ShadeAnris]

You know I gotta say I adored Radahn but he’s an 8 or 9 out of 10 for me but I think a third phase would have helped him a ton and would have probably made him a 10/10 for me

[@PhajEsTeeb]

My biggest gripe with this game is with the NPCs. You got do everything in the correct order or else you will lose on certain quest lines ...

[@hesmycat]

I also entered the dlc with the starscourge greatswords

[@skeley6776]

So weird not showing his first playthrough.

[@Hugo_Tate]

1:00:00 lmfao what a pompous remark

[@Gunholy1]

Any fight where you can consistently stun enemies is as hard as you make it.

[@Pulsar9788]

Amazing Review, I enjoy listen to your voice

[@CosmicEye597]

Thank you for the kind comment :)

[@dougdynamo9398]

I'd rather fight Gaius 100x than fight the final boss once.

[@hays0939]

Makes us wonder the next game from Miyazaki as he stated he has one more left in him..either a sequel to Dark Souls his trophy series or a whole new game or even a elden ring 2 but most of the demi gods are dead but the aftermath of killing most of them and leaving the outer gods to rule could come back as 4 big bosses but I feel as he'll incorporate all games success's into his last game. But this is truely a masterpiece series that we are able to play and witness and it will really sad once we know its over

[@undeadpizza8016]

great video and i agree with a lot of what u said and also obviously disagree with a lot of what u said. however im a bit baffled at how u thought enir illim is one of the peaks in level design of the game. i was so disappointed cus its just a straight line to the boss, with one branch off to get the euphoria weapon. besides that what else is there to explore? did i miss a lot

[@ZugzugZugzugson]

gravesite plain is my least favorite area of the whole dlc because of 1 thing: the phantom gravestones... they're white... that is a problem because now i can't see loot on the ground and/or i keep thinking i see loot somewhere, and then sike its just a gravestone clipping into terrain or something. if they had at least made them a different color i wouldn't have minded at all, but they chose to use the same color as the one they use on lootables. was so happy to get out of there.

[@lumeronswift]

From what I've heard, there will be no sequel, which may be why some people have complained that elements of the DLC could have been in a new game.

[@otisvale9445]

Well made video!

[@TifffanyTaylor]

I was helping people beat the scadutree avatar & i couldn't believe how many people i saw die to a charging sunflower. Its honestly hilarious cause the flower looks like its driving a go-cart when it does its charge. 🚗

[@Eabalo2]

I thought i was imagining Gaius inconsistent damage. Glad (i think?) to see it is actually true.

[@someguythatdoesstuff7658]

My problem with (SPOILER) Consort Radahn is that he's basically just a really tough DS3 boss put into Elden Ring. I have tested it out, and there seems to be no jumpable, straffable, or duckable attacks. Apart from his duplicate-teleport attacks which force sprinting to avoid damage, all the solutions to his attacks are just rolling which I am starting to get really sick of. There's nothing creative a player can do to avoid his attacks, except for maybe situational uses of specific skills. It's just all about rolling which is kind of disappointing for the final boss of Elden Ring's DLC.

[@BoxySonic]

Miyazaki showed when he said that Elden Ring isnt his ideal RPG but its close, that he isnt trying to make a genre or series, hes trying to perfect a single game I dont think what we need is for them to spend the next 2 years on something thats way too ambitious, what we need is for them to get the time they really need to perfect everything Elden Ring failed at They dont need a smaller project, they need more freedom and time, they need to be able to focus more on content, quality, art, and design than deadlines, rewriting lore around last minute changes 50 catacombs is fine as long as they do it right, personally the thing i love the most about elden ring is that theres no way anyone is going to 100% it their first time, there is so much content and so many hidden little things that its just not possible without ruining your first playthrough by draging yourself through guides and searching so intensly that it becomes tedious Elden ring is dauntingly large but it doesn't expect you to see everything the first time, it doesnt even want you to know how much there is left to see, i was honestly surprised when i saw people saying that elden ring is so big that its intimidating and made them not want to get into it They dont need to scale their projects down, they just need to put more individual thought into the content theyre making, Elden ring's bosses, while not terrible, are almost all some of the worst in the series, and this game was my first soulsborne, i had no preconceptions They didnt give the boss movesets the time they needed to really get good and what that means is that i never want to fight any of the main bosses, but i will die on purpose to a crucible knight just so i can fight it again cause their moveset is nearly perfect, the DLC bosses suffer the most from this lack of play testing and time They gave some youtubers a chance to play the game early and that should have been a playtesting cycle but they couldnt explore the entire DLC, it wasnt an event to learn what should change and what was bad, it happened solely to generate hype which is a bit of a disappointing discovery because theyve always prioritized quality and making the game with the image Miyazaki had of it over how much hype they can generate before release If outside playtesters were given full access to the game, i doubt there would be so many issues with later bosses like Radahn, Gaius, Romina, the divine beast reuse, and the golden hippo They didnt need to scale the project down, they needed to take the time to perfect it

[@bryonwithay]

One thing about commander Gias if you have to much poise his mount hitbox is so long he can double hit you with the charge. I was getting oneshot by it cause i was doing a full poise build xD

[@Omega77232]

53:43 blud intentionally ignored the deflect tear

[@rileyspeck4918]

Scadu is old English for shadow, so it’s pronounced Shadowtree. Shadow Fragment.

[@smoh-key-prawg]

The dancing Lion repeat is such a non issue that I’m so annoyed so many people are bogged down by it existing. In the cinematic trailer, in the lore, and in the context, there are SEVERAL dancing Lions. I’m surprise there weren’t more, honestly! Please, I beg. Stop being so pissy about the repeat lion, it’s supposed to be there, it’s never stated that there is ‘one and only one’ there are several, and they are a tradition set piece and worship idol. This is not similar to Godefroy at all, and the fact so may people are so salty about it grind my gears to dust; because I super enjoyed the repeat, even if the death light was jarring.

[@glisteninggames2981]

the repeat makes the actual fight feel less special. its cool if they do stuff like this with minibosses, but recycling high effort remembrance fights is lazy. though i would have been fine with it if all elements were replaced so the fight is completely different. imagine it having poison, deathblight and fire. or something like that

[@Niklas0369]

@@glisteninggames2981 okay your opinion. I think it's totally fine, because its optional.

[@PuffnStuff117]

Look up definition of Wyvern. It’s a dragon

[@troybarrow8810]

I didn't mind the scadutree fragments. I personally did find a good amount the first playthrough, i think i was at level 4 or 5 before fighting rellana which was the 1st boss i ran into. Although i was trying to be thorough. However, i know not everyone plays like me and i think it can hurt some people that dont want to look for them. I've been summoned so many times and the hosts fragment level is like 2 or 3 while we are fighting messmer or bayle and i just know we are going to get 1 or 2 shot. Or itll be the putressent knight and they die before i can even reach them. I don't think the fragments are extremely hard to find, but they can be a bit out of the way if you arent combing over everything sometimes.

[@samiamtheman7379]

My issues with the system are mainly that it's not only very hard to tell how much extra damage you're doing as it still seems to go down a millimeter, even after leveling up a few times, and it effectively means that any work you did on your build is effectively pointless because you need to scour the Shadow Lands for fragments to have a chance at doing any meaningful damage.

[@MikeRavia-xp5ig]

Yeah. Been running around getting tree fragments for 40 hours and haven't beat one boss. It has quantity.

[@yugioh395]

Lol. I was going to give a retort, but its probably not worth my time. Nice one man lol

[@geordiejones5618]

I suggest you try doing Shadow Keep without fragment upgrades like I did. It makes Haligtree and Farum feel pretty tame. The Fire Knights by themselves are just very tough with their fast and far reaching dagger attacks and their ranged spells. When they're with the Vulgar Militia you literally have to just run away and separate them all. Ancient Death Rancor really fucks with the Fire Knights but otherwise they shrug off anything except very high stagger weapons/ashes. I can do enough damage just fine but they do a really good job of keeping you off balance unless you are relentless with perfect dodge timing.

[@brycecoston826]

Wow, i watched this whole video, and i know you took a lot of time to make this video, and of course your opinions are valid for yourself as they should be. But personally i feel like lore answers about half of your problems. A lot of places are empty because of lore unfortunately. But the lore is so good it really does just make you appreciate the area.

[@KitsuneShapeShifter]

Came with all my characters at level 80, had a blast. I didn't like fighting Furnace Golems mainly. 10/10 DLC though holy crap. I'm just 6 minutes into the vid but I'm probably going to watch the whole thing :D

[@bobafeet1234]

Excellent video, man! Great points. One thing that annoyed me about Erdtree... FromSoft encourages you to explore and challenge the bosses in any order... but you're locked out of several NPC quest lines if you do them in the "wrong" order. So there IS an order to defeat the bosses in... that's very contradictory.

[@shiroamakusa8075]

Actually no. There are three breaking points for the NPC questlines. Getting to Shadow Keep (or sufficiently close to it), beating Messmer and burning the Sealing Tree. The only questline you can end prematurly is reaching the first break point and then telling Moore to kill himself which will lock you out of one of the cookbooks. And even then just don't give him a definitive answer to his question and his questline will be suspended until you do or until you beat Leda. You can then go and defeat basically all other bosses in the DLC without breaking any NPC quests before you return for Messmer. Technically you can also miss out on one of the hornsent's rewards if you break Miquella's charm too early, but that's just three Furnace Visages, so whatever.

[@Ariho_Elmer]

The enemy I never wanted to see was the tree spirit things. I think that’s what they’re called. The base game has like 12 of them and the DLC just added at least 3 more

[@tomas60952]

they are great enemies and make sense lorewise.

[@Ariho_Elmer]

@@tomas60952 I guess so. But maybe they could have included one more instead of 3/4 in the dlc. And maybe they could show dead ones if they had to be there rather than us having to fight them again. I guess I just got so tired of seeing them in the base game because a month before the dlc came out I replayed the game on new game and decided to fight every boss in the base game so I was tired of seeing them by that point

[@duckchen2676]

@@tomas60952 They are not only too big to get a good view of but half the time you're going to be fighting them in a really small arena for some reason, and their design is completely static throughout their entire body. It's just random tree bark and blood, so it's a guessing game to tell what part of their body you're looking at or what move they're going to do next. I'm the biggest ER glazer but I'll say I very much do not like that enemy.

[@bennycaustic5102]

btw since you mentioned the blazing bull boss fight being BS from sekiro, there's actually a really easy way to fight him just run away from the bull, and it will always do the same the easily deflectable and punishable charging attack. Keep baiting the charge and it'll be dead in 30 seconds.

[@Gunholy1]

Enemies can do counter damage, you're showing us it doing counter damage to you. You're mid swing when it did double damage and healing and rolling when it did regular damage.

[@jeremiahmgallagher3508]

The fire baskets drop the coolest and most unique crystal tears for your flask of physic in the game which makes them well worth killing, they are basically the replacement for the erdtree avatars in the base game. You are doing yourself a serious disservice by ignoring them.

[@mannytprimeministerofthemanate]

3 main complaints/ let downs from the dlc. 1: not enough scadu tree fragments. There should be more than the amount required to max out the blessing, similar to how there are more golden seeds then u need to get 14 flask in the base game. 1.5: there should be flask upgrades (like golden seeds and sacred tears) available in the dlc. 2: no remembrance rematch system or a way to refight bosses like there is in sekiro (why fromsoft why) 3: Godgwyn should have been the final boss. They could come up with a way to turn his hair red in phase 2 (red hair is important for the red king and silver queen union present in alchemy which Elden ring is based on, and for the marika radagon parallel). Those are my complaints, if they sound like nitpicks it because they are. This dlc is amazing and should count for game of the year ( and win it too)

[@victorprati7908]

1: nothing implies you should max out the blessing, missing out some is expected. I'm on my first playthrough and I know for sure I'll be missing some but that's by design. 1.5: lol no wth 2: that would be very cool! 3: Godwyn already had his lore, and questline, and ENDING very well explored in the base game as it would conflict with his rebirth as the Mending Rune of the Death-Prince. It's being clearly stated that he is dead in soul.

[@mannytprimeministerofthemanate]

@@victorprati7908 1: you are right, nothing implies you should max it out but making it easier by adding more wouldn’t hurt. And with how difficult this dlc is it doesn’t hurt to facilitate becoming more powerful for those who want it. 1.5: I don’t want them to increase the max amount of flasks or their potency, just keep the current cap while adding more upgrade materials. Sort of like if you go into ng+ without a fully maxed flask there will be more golden seeds available to help complete it. This would be great for ppl that rushed the base game to the dlc. 3: this one is really up to preference, but the way the base game was hinted at a connection between Miquella and Godgwyn just to pull a switcheroo and Radhan be Miquellas choice for a consort feels like a retcom. Also doesn’t help that we got so little from Godgwyn in the dlc apart from an armor set and a couple weapons.

[@SlippySouls]

Godwyn’s return makes no sense, agree with the other 2

[@JoseViktor4099]

The first I agree with, I feel that we have enough Golden Seeds and Scared Tears, although yes it would be handy to complete it. The third I completely agree and is completely painful not seeing a rematch. And Godwin... I feel that a boss making a reference to him would had been nice, or making that the final god uses part of Godwin body, idk, they could had still done more for it, the "death in Soul" doesn´t have to deny anything about seeing a rematch and there are multiple ways of going around that ""problem"".

[@PessiIsPinished]

DLC's don't win GOTY because IT'S NOT A GAME, and even if DLC'S do get GOTY it won't be Shadow of the Erdtree because it's not even a good DLC.

[@skrotosd]

44:00 i think you get extra damage while you are recovering from an attack or during a jump.

[@freemygrandma956]

28:40 have to agree I was actually surprised there wasn’t one

[@bbldrizzzzzy]

dude all you need is 22 of the 50 fragments essentially. the last 8 levels are inconsequential when you look at the scaling. they just add so many so that people can grab them wherever and not stress about it

[@RedShogun13]

As someone who took daily ass beatings from Radahn for like a week straight. I will say no. Collecting all the Scadutree Fragments and Revered Spirit ashes for my mimic tear made the fight winnable for me. Still batshit crazy but it made a difference for me.

[@bbldrizzzzzy]

@@RedShogun13 if you look at the actual scaling the last 8 levels are negligible for scadutree fragments

[@duckchen2676]

​@@RedShogun13 lvl 12 is 1.85x DMG, lvl 20 is 2.05x DMG. You're dealing about 10% more damage for 28 fragments. This data is post-patch though so maybe you had low scad lvl before that. There the dmg buff scaled linearly up to lvl 20. (lvl 12 was 1.6x DMG)