Is Elden Ring TOO Hard?

[@didymosstyxx8395]

As someone who started with Dark Souls 1 when it first came out, I’m realizing that many people who play souls games nowadays, especially those that are made by From Soft, have forgotten the very first character fans became enamored with. Solaire. His message was simple, become a Sunbro and team up for Jolly Co-operation. No one cares about that anymore. It’s all, “I can solo this boss and getting help is for losers.” People have forgotten Solaire and that makes me disappointed at new fans of the genre but even more so at those that started with him and forgot about him.

[@Alex-K94]

Praise the sun my friend. I was there in DS1. Didn't unverstand the game... hated it. Gave it another chance after a few months and learned how to play it. Fell in love with it... then DS2, Bloodborne DS3 and Elden Ring. I think so many players wont adapt to the game they play. They want it to be the other way around. Back then you would have to respec for the dlc cause your dex build just didn't bring in the Ws anymore. Or cause you had a pyro build and like 99% of the dlc is fire based and resistent. People need to chill.

[@SteveDonev]

My only issue with coop, which is the same issue as sprit summons, is that you don’t really learn anything. The boss ai simply isn’t designed to juggle 2 or more targets so it only fights one at a time, so what happens is the person who has aggro just runs away while the rest get free hits on the boss’ back, then when the boss switches aggro, that person now runs away while the others attack. Doing fights this way means you never get to learn what the boss even does moveset wise.

[@thrashhhhh]

Been sunbroing the DLC bosses. Even got a few people their Radahn clears today. Sunbros are still out there.

[@Trigonxv1]

​@@SteveDonevWell I have learned, I generally use spirit ashes to actually see everything a boss can toss out first and then fight it myself. The faster i recognize what its doing and what it can do the easier it is for me to plan the approach. Im just not dying 50 times too see the majority or even whole move set

[@MitternachtssternXIII]

I never forgot praise the sun

[@sanjin8867]

Hardest thing in ER is when you run out of larval tears and no tears left to farm

[@ffnc258]

I mean why would you need to rebirth 18 times per NG ? just level up.

[@sanjin8867]

@@ffnc258 cos i wanna try out different builds...and in case of SOET - could not beat last boss. Keep in mind i do not play meta builds :)

[@MaxArch]

@@sanjin8867 yup agree, need to buff larval tears drop, trying others build are hella fun. i don't really enjoy meta build, just no brainer playstyle

[@ffnc258]

@@sanjin8867 that's what i'm saying .. If you're level 400 + you can play multiple build without rebirth. just level up man lol. I understand what you're saying cause I was doing the same at level 150 but it's a waste of time.

[@mdcrumpler]

You're limiting your own self and gameplay by going by the "meta" of "stay at lvl 150" and respeccing to try differe things. The game wants you to level, the dlc ESPECIALLY wants you to level with the amount of runes tossed at us. I went into the DLC the same way, a meta char at 150 on ng+1. Now its lvl 210, i still get INSTANT summoned to co-op and invasions, and I have zero problems and my build feels better now. Abandon the 150 meta. The DLC threw it out the window.

[@xangbar]

My friend in his first 4 hours: rushed to boss, died like 5 times. Rage quit Me in first 4 hours: ooo, what is that shiny thing over there! Boss? What boss!?

[@Soul-Burn]

Most players: Rush to Margit "this game is too hard" Me: Investigating all Limgrave, eventually reaching Margit and beating them first try. Had the same story with Morgott. (Malenia and other end game bosses still beat my ass)

[@valentinvas6454]

A surprising amount of players don't really get open worlds. Not just Elden Ring. And I acknowledge that there are some pretty bland and boring open worlds like Rage 2's but ER is not one of them. I don't know if it's related to the shortened attention span of the younger generation or what but it's like they want be done with the game. Also in Facebook groups sometimes you see questions like "Where do I need to go after Godrick?" Seriously?? You beat Godrick and see this immense new area before you and instead of freely explore you just want to go the next main thing?? SMH

[@sharif47]

Pretty sure the same thing (as your friend) happened to everyone else by the time they reached endgame. No amount of exploring will help you get overpowered when the upgrade cost and diminishing returns are too high and the endgame is tuned around being hard to lvl 150.

[@ryderls2729]

I went to the dancing lion in the first hours and beat him (with mimic tho), after encountering the hippo I remembered "hey, I can go explore" and I did, so far I beat Rellana, the hippo and the knight guarding St Trina

[@UchihaLeffjoe]

I actively avoid going to bosses XD if i feel im on the way to one and I haven't explored the area prober, i turn around 😅

[@grizinator1235]

You're right about not having to go against bosses right away, but even after grabbing all scadutree fragments, the final boss was ridiculous.

[@johntrevorcruz2071]

It was but now he got nerfed lol.

[@markalexcross]

I think because of "get good" culture, there is a player base who thinks of the Souls games as a "boss rush" simulator and not as an RPG. Especially in such an open world environment like Elden Ring, which is designed to be explored and uncovered.

[@GiblixStudio]

indeed. if you just play the game and do some exploration. you quickly find yourself demolishing everything. if you don't engage with mechanics, don't explore, don't get new gear/blessings and then complain....your opinion is pointless since that is your choice. and that is your responsibility. Miyazaki always wants his games to be an RPG first and foremost. just because some people treat it as a boss rush simulator is their own fault. thusfar I've been beating most bosses in 2-3 attempts. and most times I died during the fight its because of performance freezing frames/the game and then I'm dead when everything moves again.

[@olsongc8422]

Wait it's not "Boss Rush.exe"?

[@Hauke-ph5ui]

So true. And to make matters even worse - all the "git guud" people tell the rest that they don't play the game right if they use summons, buffs, Ashes of War or play as a mage. That's such a bad attitude.

[@dezopenguin9649]

Absolutely the truth. There's a subculture of Souls players who basically consider the levels as irritants that they have to go through in order to get through to the bosses. (This is probably the least legit reason why DSII gets hated on: people hate to have to interact with the RPG mechanics, and they despise the areas that are set up to punish players who sprint through them, no matter how easy those areas are if you progress slowly and carefully, engaging with each obstacle as it comes.) It's why the gimmick bosses are the most despised

[@__-gf3zn]

​@@Hauke-ph5ui Which to make matters worse, a lot of these same people have bleed builds and jump attack strength spam. It's laughably stupid, it'll make your head spin

[@NathanielLucero-rq6vq]

This game is just ridiculously hard. I work 12 to 13 hours and have a baby maybe i should get good but if im being honest, i dont have time to be on youtube to look at builds for hours and then multiple hours just trying to defeat the first boss. I enjoy watching people play this game i love the graphics and story and everything about the fight mechanics i just suck lol

[@TheMakAbideth]

No. You are correct. The mechanics of the game does suck. I have 300 hours in the game and I refused to play broken builds, look at guides and look at maps. People say its meant to be played like an RPG, but compare this to any other RPG and the element of exploration is there, but also brutal. Coh can't wrap his head around this game being hard for some but at 3:42 he almost gets one shot by an enemy you find in the wild. The damage balancing is disgusting and it always was even in the base game.

[@modobo]

Plus there is NO shame in summoning a friend. That's how the Soulsborne series was designed. The community aspect was always meant to be a huge part of it. You hit a roadblock. You feel trapped. You keep trying but die over and over and over and it feels hopeless. Some random person puts down a summon sign to carry you through because they've been there before and are offering a hand to lift you up telling you not to give up and we'll all work together.

[@CC-of5xl]

I would say this game more than any of theirs is designed that way. That's why ashes exist. I've never used summons in any of their other games but had to in the base Elden Ring. The bosses are just too aggressive and sometimes you just need agro pulled

[@Hauke-ph5ui]

@modobo It's also perfectly ok to use spirit summons which can help a great deal - doesn't have to be another player. And if people find it uncomfortable to Mimic stomp enemies they can always use a weaker summon that will still help but not make it easy. Summoning cooperators is a bit of a mixed bag. Sometimes you get people who are not really a help but more of a hindrance, sometimes you get someone who deletes the boss in seconds doing all of the work without the player even having to engage the boss (there's a video here on KZbin of a player who wasn't able to beat Mohg Lord of Blood so he decided to summon and got a mage - who Comet Azured Mohg out of existance before the host even reached the boss. That's not really fun).

[@WarpSpastic]

Jolly Cooperation!

[@FiXzu621]

@@WarpSpastic damn, its been a while i haven't heard or saw someone mention these wholesome words. this really take me back to DS era 😭

[@vxIKAMIKAZEIxv]

Me and my friend group all agreed the bosses were easier to fight alone any time we failed a boss 4-5 times together we’d do it alone and beat it within 2 tries. Bosses seem to have way too much hp in co-op

[@Confused_Slime]

"You either die a gamer, or live long enough to see yourself become a journalist" best quote for 2024

[@moonrabbit2334]

Perfectly encapsulates Asmon in this dlc😂

[@joshuaroberts4604]

The hilarious part is that journalists beat the game just fine, with way less time than normal gamers have.

[@samuel.jpg.1080p]

the irony is that most journalists now don't complain about the difficulty while fans like Asmon do complain

[@UnkemptDan]

@@joshuaroberts4604 The hilarious part is that you missed the part in the video when the journalist said they refuse to continue playing because it was too hard. this seems to be the sentiment most journalists hold if you read the reviews they post. 5:42

[@joshuaroberts4604]

@@UnkemptDan The hilarious part is I'm reporting your reply because my dad said you're lying.

[@mallas5679]

so many people think YOU MUST PLAY THIS WAY or git gud. play the way you want. if you want to use summons do it. magic, do it. If you want to try to over gear everything, do it. If you want the challenge of lvl 1 no armor no upgrades do that. Its hard but its rewarding when you beat stuff. you adapt and overcome. if you dont want to do that... welp

[@Daanootje36]

"Git gud" is still a good advice. Sure I can see why some people see this as an insult with how some people use that word on the interweb. There is basically no secret item to make you a better player, what really matters is your skills as a player. Dance with your enemy to learn their pattern and learn from your deaths.

[@SteveDonev]

@@Daanootje36you don’t really need to git gud tho. Im playing through the dlc right now on my lvl 150 str/fai build and at just 9 scadutree blessings im already over 80% damage mitigation after I buff. I don’t even bother rolling anymore as the bosses barely tickle. By the time i get max blessing I’ll probably be well into the 90s% of mit, effectively not taking any damage at all. People say souls is about skill, when in reality it’s really all about your build. Have a good build and you can probably play blindfolded

[@darkmatter9643]

@@SteveDonevblasphemous blade, ash of war to win is a funny combo

[@SteveDonev]

@@darkmatter9643 yup, the only time it doesn’t work well is on a boss that is resistant to fire like Mohg or Messmer . Other than that it absolutely shreds

[@zevm83]

But Cohh was saying, if you just play 1 way, you will have a hard time. So your FORCED to play in ways you dont want to play.

[@user-md8wt4qz5g]

I mean you are not wrong, but I also do not have a job playing a video game and do not have the time to spend hundreds of hours trying different builds and different things to just be able to beat one boss.

[@sunderland69]

It's 2024, we have internet. There are billions of already created builds for you out there, it's a question of couple of hours to make the one you like. But people today would rather spend 3-4 hrs a day scrolling tik toks and shorts.

[@sarez6767]

Great then just play something else or watch a youtube guide. Even hidetaka myazaki said guides are valid so don't feel Bad about using those !

[@Cosmicoverdose]

You don't need to try hundreds or different builds to beat one boss, you can quite literally beat any boss with any combination of gear. If it's too hard for you, then summon other players.

[@blablablablibliblibloubloublou]

No, he is indeed wrong. As he said, a review is so much more than just an opinion. There is also a lot of problems in the exploration rewards. Also this game is trying too hard to look hard. A lot of people playing this DLC after getting obliterated 10 times by the DLC's bosses, just used their summon on the next try and easily beat the boss. This isn't a question of difficulty but design. The real question is why those people did give up after only 10 times, it's some of those people spent hundreds of tries on Malenia. The problem isn't the overall difficulty but the lack of variety in difficulty during the boss fight. Nearly every boss moves is filled to the brim with trap cues, fake and delay. Alterning between all those trap and, worst of all, right from the start of the fight. This pushed player to call bullshit. Personally i think that you can have even more difficult bosses than in this DLC but you need to carefully think those bosses. The process to learn and master the boss need to be enjoyable, not just spam death in less than 10 sec of fighting while trying every rolls in every directions for every moves until you figure it out and memorize all those (or watch youtube video like nearly everybody does). This is where lies the flaw imo. The boss need to switch between hard and easy moves for the process to be enjoyable. More than the people succeded or failing the boss we should ask ourself why did they give up so fast, and again it's the same people that spent hundred of tries on Malenia. It's just that they don't find the process to overcome this fun. People really try hard to defend this design choice but how many of them enjoyed Rhadan consort ? The purpose was to find the fun in overcoming something difficult, and to enjoy the process of slowly mastering it. This DLC partially fail to do that for a whole lot of its player base.

[@rod99ttett90]

35% of the negative reviews on steam are Chinese complaining about the anti-cheat and the rest of the majority is about the pc performance issues. "Game is hard" is surprisingly a small portion of the negative reviews, just a loud minority.

[@lmd7369]

Are the Japanese also complaining about anti-cheat? They also have more than half negative reviews.

[@borgestheborg]

Exactly, this whole 'too hard' thing is blown way out of proportion...

[@mstirlz]

Shows you how immature some of these videos are. They immediately go with the attitude "mad cus bad" when the reality is the dlc has many issues, and it's full of recycled content and some areas are plain empty

[@RigbyMadewell]

That guy that said "i found it more fun when i treated it like an rpg" Like... it's an rpg? I don't even understand how so people are approaching these games

[@MrLowandpro]

The kind of people that blindfold themselves and then tie one hand behind their back

[@papichulo1084]

Basically people want to suffer like they did in previous souls games because it gave them a feeling of pride and accomplishment. Now that there's so many mechanics to make the game easier they miss the old suffering.

[@eugenlovin6788]

​@@papichulo1084but then why do they complain

[@enman009]

​@@eugenlovin6788Because it's easier to blame something else and throw the towel rather than learn and master. But apparently using your tools is a hit to their pride and ego.

[@BlueNorth313]

A lot of peopple are playing this because it's popular, and they just want to complete it for the sake of saying they've done it. It's sadly quite common.

[@Daanootje36]

It was wise to include the Shroud clip. People seem to forget how much fun a (RPG) game can be when you don't take the most efficient path to get the "best" gear for your character, making the rest of the game a breeze and removing the satisfaction of defeating a difficult boss. Good video!

[@VioIetteMolotov]

Uhm.. no it was not? Why does ANYONE even consider his opinion? He LITERALLY said bosses are the worst part about souls-likes games. What even are you saying dude?

[@Daanootje36]

​@@VioIetteMolotov My comment was about Cohh's statement that you don't have to throw yourself at bosses while there are a lot of things you can do outside just bee-lining your Elden Ring adventure. As for what Shroud said in the clip regarding the bosses: "Running at bosses was probably the most miserable experience I had. It was terrible." Am I missing something obvious? Because I don't really see what I missed, according to you.

[@QuestionQuestionMark]

@@VioIetteMolotov Did someone leave a negative review on SOTED?

[@zaetayo]

One thing I think they should do is make larval tears farmable, so it's easier for the casual playerbase to try different builds without having to go ng+ etc to respec more often.

[@wojciech-kulik]

it should be free once you kill Renalla, there is no point to make it expensive and limit respecs. It was OK in games like DS3 where it takes 15-20h to finish the whole playthrough, but it's not OK in ER where you spend 100h+ to unlock everything and nobody wants to start over again. Also, going to NG+ could be fun, but then you lose all your sites of grace.

[@borgestheborg]

​@@wojciech-kulikHonestly, I wouldn't even mind it if there was a cost associated with it that gradually increased over time. But being hard-limited per play-through is just dumb.

[@oponomo]

if i was Miyazaki i would give only 1 respec per NG. this gives the players a good reason to make more than 1 character to try different builds, which is a lot more fun than having a mage in a moment and a warrior the next. Afterall, it's an RPG, the role play aspect adds a lot to the experience.

[@wojciech-kulik]

@@oponomo Yeap, but it's not a normal RPG. Here without respecs most players wouldn't be able to beat the game. Especially the DLC which made many builds unusable.

[@oponomo]

@@wojciech-kulik any build works. I beat the last dlc boss with a terrible strategy. Took me many tries but I know better than to get frustrated with a game. 60 vigor is the only stat "needed".

[@rehf27]

Mona Lisa to Cohh: My eyes are up here.

[@sourpatchkilla]

Caster = easy?? Me as a caster dodging the dread dragon for 3 min straight before i can get one spell off before rolling for 3 more minutes...😅😢

[@lanrik4582]

Agree, without using summons to hold aggro caster isn't any easier than something like a strength build and worse in some cases like Rellana. At least not for DLC bosses

[@sourpatchkilla]

@lanrik4582 I use magic because it seemed more of a challenge with this dlc, when I was melee it was to easy just bonking everything, and if you ever use a shield it's like God mode for me, with magic caster gotta keep distance, know every attack, etc or it's a long day because they're so aggressive, the npc bosses spam more then the major ones for me as well...

[@SeanTKO]

Thank you for saying what I was thinking. I've been a Mage since day one. Current level 233 on the DLC with NG+2. I don't think people understand you get locked in place when casting magic. Leaves you totally open for attacks. I'm also wearing full veteran armor which is strong heavy armor and I die in 2-3 hits and my vigor is lvl 55. I've seen strength builds with certain max weapons wipe out a boss in 10 hits or less, when my maxed out staff and highest damage speel takes 40 hits lol

[@spacewalrus909]

@@sourpatchkilla >and if you ever use a shield it's like God mode for me So use a shield then what's the problem with it? Mages can use shields too lol. Grab thick armor grab shield and cast your spells. Why on Earth do you even need to roll playing as a mage when you are usually about 10 miles away from the boss

[@bongwaterbojack]

​@spacewalrus909 because the dlc bosses close the gap in less time than it takes to cast most spells, and the stat allocation you're asking for is much wider. For a Str build, you need Vigor, Endurance, and Strength. For a caster with effective shields, you need vigor, mind, endurance, str, and int, and you'll be carrying more FP flasks, so you're allowed fewer mistakes. Spellcasting is slower than heavy weapons. It's doable, but definitely on the harder side of playstyles in the dlc. Which is funny, because it was really damn powerful in the base game.

[@Trinature01]

The other incredibly annoying thing is that there are a bunch of people telling you to play the game in a certain way.... (Think of summoning, magic etc)

[@marcuskane1040]

Oh there are indeed. Saw a knew one from that part of the community today - using strength weapons that can stagger enemies is now also a "cheese strat"...😩

[@nathanhendrickson790]

@@marcuskane1040 but that’s the whole allure of strength weapons in the first place 😂 you get a big butt whoop stick you smack things around till they stagger then hit them with a charged heavy to send them flying across the map 😂

[@VioIetteMolotov]

So.. basically what Cohh said?

[@dharmdevil]

like cohh. he literally said to change your build if you're build is making it too hard.

[@EverydayLifeWithNancy]

I am a 59 year old grandma and this was my first real experience with a true video game. My brother suggested I play it (never played except occasionally when my kids were growing up) any way, I died over and over and solo killed every single boss, until the Elden Beast. I just couldn’t beat it so I laid it down for a whole year. Yesterday I decided to get back to it and I just finished killing the Elden Beast, God Slain! Don’t give up, I explored every inch of the map, got OP, then went on to the bosses one by one and I couldn’t be more proud of myself! 🎉🎉🎉

[@Narnach]

Realizing that I was not to fight and win vs the golden horse guy and Margit when I first encountered them, but just goof around in the massive surrounding area and level up a bit... that is what made the game fun. There's a lot to explore, and many challenges to find. If you don't feel like you're making a dent, then switch strategies or just park the encounter for later.

[@Lamren]

That's how I play as well, but I will say that there are at least 2 bosses that I think are "too hard" mainly because of the visual clutter that's unfolding before your eyes. I've killed every one of them at this point, but there are 2 where even now I'm not entirely sure wtf is happening in their 2nd phase. I will do it again in NG+ to see how knowledge will impact those fights, but I stand by the fact that it is frustrating to get deleted by shit teleporting and exploding everywhere when your main defensive tool is a well timed roll ! I hope in future souls games, we get more dynamic defensive options like parries (similar to Lies of P and Lords of the fallen which both have rolls with invulnerabiltiy frames AND parry, so that you're not forced to only use one or the other)

[@HanabiraKage]

Tree Sentinel and Margit are great because they teach you two very important lessons: 1. If you stick to it and beat them you learn that with enough practice you can beat anything that comes your way or 2. You don't have to fight everything you see and bash your head against a brick wall - you can always come back later.

[@MerryBlind]

What I really enjoy from the difficulty of the DLC is that it forces me to use all the tools at my disposal. Such as all the consumables that boost your defence or offense, or armours with particularly high stats useful for particular bosses, etc.

[@Axis0504]

OMG that is exactly how i do it. find out all the boss resistances, change my weapon according to it, change my armor based on the damage the boss deals, use buffs, debuffs, consumables etc. This is probably the most enjoyable way to play for me personally.

[@featjie]

I love the difficulty in this DLC and every bosses .I collected every scadutree but the final boss really just says F YOU. Hated that boss so much. It was my first time using a mimic tear and after hours I finally beat it and didn’t find any joy on that boss whatsoever. My frame rate dipped even with the lowest settings. That’s my only two issues I have with this game. The performances and the final boss fight

[@dabnotic]

A solo clear with the guts greatsword, no magic, was the most satisfying boss I've killed in any souls game. Brutally hard, absolutely amazing.

[@turboiler]

⁠@@dabnoticGood for you, too bad not many people felt the same way as you. Even people who played souls games like Cr1tikal felt that boss was ridiculous. Maybe people felt satisfied that this was the last boss to complete and they don’t have to fight it again then I agree, it is satisfying to finally be done with this DLC.

[@dabnotic]

@turboiler after charlie beat him he was stoked saying how happy he felt to beat him only fists and how his 66 runs wasn't that bad. He even said it was a "fun hard" boss. His main complaint was miquallas hair blocking too much and all the particle effects. he said "That's why I play souls games, to overcome that"

[@dabnotic]

@turboiler I also posted my run using the guts greatsword, it's 100% possible with anyone's favorite build. The pinnacle of elden ring bosses should be a massive challenge, which means it isn't for everyone. And it shouldn't be.

[@pagatryx5451]

@@turboiler Many people do feel the same way. I've seen many people put it in their top 5 bosses of the DLC. Personally, I'd put it in 3rd after Putrescent and Messmer. It's a boss that forces you to use everything available. The only people who are crying about it stick to their one build they used for the rest of the game. Usually some kind of dex bleed build... It's essentially another Malenia. Completely optional. You do not need to kill him for anything other than his remembrance, a gold crown, and a cinematic. It's intended to be the pinnacle of bosses difficulty wise and it felt like it. Using my wondrous physick, eating crab for the damage negation, casting fortification magic and damage buffs, etc. All to struggle to get a victory.

[@kmwood11]

A good portion of the "Mixed Reviews" do have to do with the performance issues which include severe stuttering/fps drops which can be incredibly frustrating in a game where timing is so important.

[@IceColdCash22]

I love this new YT team. The content is very engaging and fun to watch. Thanks!

[@AzyAzora]

yeah this new youtube team is doing a fantastic job!

[@rshackleton]

Couldn't agree more

[@GalacticToadGames24]

Clearly trying to emulate some of the more larger channels such as Cr1TiKaL and Asmongold. Nothing wrong with that it's obviously an engaging and winning formula.

[@R1ckyZer0]

Agreed

[@someguythatdoesstuff7658]

Also ALSO, Elden Ring isn't just "Dodge the Game 4: Electric Boogaloo". There's jumping, low-profiling, spacing, straffing, poise tanking, blocking, and most recently spontaneous guarding to avoid damage and allow for much more immediate counter attack against enemies. Elden Ring gives a lot of options for casual, cheesy, and skill-based playstyles, so use 'em!

[@retnuHDJ]

My main (and pretty much only) issue with this game is the amount of bosses that are so big you can't tell what they are doing when you're close enough to hit them. That's with or without the camera lock on. In some cases, the camera being locked on makes things even worse. also not hugely keen on the huge amounts of empty space in the open world either but that's a minor thing. Otherwise, the DLC has been great

[@SirStuckey]

I agree with the camera issues. Especially since the bosses are so aggressive that most will get right in your face. If the arena is smaller and your back is against the wall you have no idea what's going on.

[@dallashancock735]

Souls camera has been a problem since Demon Souls. It's just how the camera is. Once you learn it's issues and disadvantages, you will get used to it. It's just a game mechanic to work around.

[@toospooky5929]

My issue is using the big shield build is just better than nearly everything with little effort. Sure you could go with some super buff stacking spell build and kill things in 1 second, but big shield doesn't need any buffs at all to work.

[@JasonMiller-rg8md1]

When you are stuck on Messmer for 3 days and nothing you do helps because you dont have the skill required. It does seem too hard. Then, you get him all the way down to 1 shot before he kills you and you realize there is hope. so now Im off farming a little more and upgrading a little more and soon Im gonna win. I hate this game for making me love it so hard.

[@MerryBlind]

Getting a seemingly impossible boss to super low HP a few times and eventually managing to beat it is an exhilarating feeling.

[@HaohmaruHL]

Generally with these games, if you can dodge an enemy's attack once then you can dodge it a hundred times in a row. You just need to git gud to be able to do that consistently. Leveling up won't help you because of the miniscule changes. Aim for beating him no damage for at least the first half. Then you'll see your skill grow. That's why I love lv1 runs - they actually teach you to play.

[@rocingersol1875]

I was the same way. I found Messmer rather early, still had a 3 maps to uncover in the DLC. He destroyed me. Many Scadutree fragments and ashes later, when it was time to progress the story, he fell quickly.

[@nirmithra1]

I explored way too much and beat Messmer on the first attempt. I have mixed feelings. On one hand, it's awesome that I beat him so fast, on the other hand I was looking forward to learning his moveset so I'm kinda sad he was the most forgetful part of the DLC for me.

[@CC-iy3ko]

Yeah Messmer was really hard but balanced, Romina on the other hand just sucks ass, it feels like a really Janky fight

[@turboiler]

It’s not about the difficulty, for these reviews. some people are looking at this in a tunnel vision and just thinks everyone who gave a negative review finds it too hard. There’s also performance issue. It also affects the frame rate in the base game. Bosses have too many visual overdose that makes you have 20fps. There’s also several bugs that you can lose and can’t progress through an NPC questline. I was stuck with 19 scadutree blessings and not fully 20 because of a bug. Also don’t get me started on the last boss.

[@Lithenius]

So you didnt watch this video? Just say you think it's too hard and move on.

[@turboiler]

@@Lithenius I did. You can put your trolling elsewhere. Game is difficulty is fine and I liked the difficulty. Fromsoftware isn’t your god to worship. Developers aren’t perfect

[@fenuxbon370]

@@Litheniusanother annoying souls fan spotted. good job

[@bodyshotjake7475]

@@Litheniusit is too hard. Period full stop. If you don’t game 4-12 hours a day it’s too hard. It’s beautiful, but who gives a shit if your still getting one shotted after grinding for 5 hours? It would be so much fun if you could actually enjoy the engagement with all the amazing creatures you find instead of just running away from them.

[@proxy2149]

People have too much ego to admit they have to change their playstyle or use summons. It's easier for them to blame the game.

[@l0rdfr3nchy7]

+2

[@IHMyself]

I don't think I'm good for beating bosses solo, so it has nothing to do with my ego, I just want to play solo (because it's more fun for me) and use the build I like using, instead of using stuff that gets the job done better ffs.

[@Vengeance_I_m]

@@IHMyself But Elden Ring is a SoulsBorne game after all, meaning it is very hard but doable by everyone. If you feel like you can't beat a boss solo, you have to accept that's limitation on your part, since hundreds/thousands of people have no problem beating a boss solo and they have fun doing so. Imo there's only 2 options: you humbly accept that your skill is not enough so you learn to get better at the game or you revert to using things that make the game much easier, namely spirits summons or looking up guides for overpowered most broken builds(max bleed, comet azur, blasphemous blade,etc). There's no in-between. Well, unless you want to become one of those insufferable reddit complainers, which is truly pathetic, worst of the outcomes unfortunately

[@HaohmaruHL]

@@IHMyself the dodge button is the same for everyone. Builds don't matter - they are simply a crutch or training wheels, to allow the less potent players make more mistakes before their HP reduces to 0 and they die. You can punch everything to death while being naked at level 1 and never get hit once.

[@JunJunisKing]

​@@HaohmaruHLyou've got a special kind of brainrot don't you

[@0x0404]

The whole fragment upgrade thing is there for a reason but it's also pretty clear that a lot of bosses have become more Revenant like, and everyone hates revenants. It's a ratio of how much control you have over the situation. When it starts going into the 20% and less range you start hating it.

[@cryff48]

after beating dlc (~19h) lvl 120 no summons/shield/ranged attacks, scadtree 18, Hookclaws build, i dont think dlc too hard. Final boss might need some tweaks, but im talking no "deals less damage" but more like "reduce flashbang whole screen bs" or maybe some agression reduction. Also, my fps dips from pretty stable 60 to 13 during one of his attacks so thats kinda sucks, but other than that difficulty seems okay

[@bruhzillabot]

This is the only criticism I have overall with the DLC. I do not find it too hard. I find it just right on difficulty but I will admit the amount of visual clutter blocking your view can get a little infuriating

[@Malfeasance1]

Yeah this is pretty much exactly my take too, and same scadutree level when I finished. I feel like I'm on crazy pills when I read about how people are taking multiple days on just one boss, unless they're playing

[@MeinCouch123]

It's not hard, it's annoying, to the point that the enjoyment of the game is hampered. Some of these enemies are flat out over-tuned. When I think back on runs that went well, it's not because I played any different, it's because the boss would either stop running away so much, accidentally loop itself into a punishable attack, or not use any of the attacks that would get me. I'm sure a lot can agree with this if they think back. The "git gud" moniker made sense back in the DS1 days, but I don't really think it applies as well today.

[@mikejenkins6071]

There's two different difficulty complaints... One is people complaining the whole thing is too hard. I'm not in that camp. The other is that the final boss is WAY too hard. I'm in that camp. It has nothing to do with exploration, scadutree blessings, etc. There's no amount of leveling that makes that boss fun, you have to look up to use a shield, sit behind a shield, not use the summons that would make the fight interesting for lore reasons, it's trash that tarnishes what is otherwise possibly the best expansion to any video game ever.

[@BlackCloud2469]

My only problem is I only have a NG+8 character, going ng+8 into the DLC is absolute bonkers hard and rerolling a new character takes too much time

[@justalex4214]

I'm not saying it's too hard, but what I'm saying is that it's no longer fun for me to play. The base game was hard, but ultimately it always felt fair to me, but this feeling is gone for me in the dlc. I can defeat the bosses and I did, but winning felt no longer rewarding, I just felt exhausted and burned out after the later boss fights. It feels like the dlc is forcing certain playstyles on me that I personally don't like. Those scadutree fragments for example are a terrible band aid solution for a problem they created because "getting stronger" the regular way is no longer possible at some point. On top of that there's super janky hitboxes especially on the larger enemies and at least on pc the performance is abysmal. Frame drops to 18 fps when Messmer spawns a couple snakes is inexcusable for a game that doesn't push any graphical boundaries. Maybe I'll try it again in 6 months or so once all the performance and balance patches are in but for now it just doesn't feel good to play it.

[@villadavid164]

😂you literally reiterated what he said about players not adapting 😂

[@justalex4214]

@@villadavid164 and why would I want to adapt? It is a game, I'm playing it to have fun and if I no longer have fun, I stop playing it, simple as that. The idea of "having to adapt" is incredibly idiotic for an entertainment product. You simply drop it and move on if it doesn't fulfill the task it is supposed to do.

[@justalex4214]

@@villadavid164 and why would I want to adapt? It is a game, I'm playing it to have fun and if I no longer have fun, I stop playing it, simple as that. The idea of "having to adapt" is incredibly idiotic for an entertainment product. You simply drop it and move on if it doesn't fulfill the task it is supposed to do.

[@spub1031]

Performance, sure, i get it. Everything else you listed was you decided that you needed to bash your head against a wall and wonder why the wall is only dented instead of demolished. The point of the scadutree fragment isn't a "band aid" they're a way to feel progression in a late game area and reward exploration. I see you even said, "Why should I have to adapt?" Because you're complaining about the game not being fun when (as the video said ) you have a whole TWO worlds worth of builds and tactics, but refuse to do so because it's an "entertainment" product? Like every other game doesn't make you learn the way it plays.

[@justalex4214]

@@spub1031 the scadutree fragments ARE a band aid. They aren't doing anything about the bosses stupid short openings. The entire attack/defence cycle of the boss fights is skewed. In the base game you had a good chunk of time to get a nice combo in, now most bosses only allow for one or two pokes inbetween their stupid long multi stage combo attacks, THAT'S what I don't like about the dlc. It's only rolling like an idiot for like 30+ seconds straight and then get 5 seconds to land a hit. It feels extremely unsatisfying to play and no amount of tree fragments will ever change that.

[@cv-10hs49]

My experience in the DLC was that I came there at lvl 127 after the main game. I had 4-5 +25 weapons, my faith was pumped up enough to give myself the necessary buffs, mimic +10. I spent the first 4-6 hours in the DLС collecting fragments and reverse ash. But most importantly, I had a ready-made build that I loved and cherished throughout the main campaign. And the result of all this is that I didn’t die even once in the first bosses. I died more than 15 times on Mesmer alone. I defeated Radan on the 39th attempt with the help of a mimic and a heavy set + amulets and buffs. In short, I was ready and understood what was going on. What I mean by this is not that the DLC is not difficult, but that you have all the tools to defeat the bosses. Good luck friends

[@lowbearful]

the complaints are totally fair about the spike from this dlc to the base game. shroud pretty much nailed it how elden ring itself felt more like a normal rpg in terms of difficulty. it was much easier to outscale challenges without going too far off the beaten track and boss attack patterns were for the most part way less punishing than erdtree and gave you more breathing room between combos. i don't think it helps either that scadutree fragments are not put in consistently visible or themed areas unlike gold seeds/crystal tears etc. having collectibles tied to raw power isn't a fun design imo. in elden ring you could just farm for more runes, it was a more intuitive system which is why the game had such widescale success compared to it's predecessors

[@Chess_ki]

Most souls players want fair challenge. Using summons is basicly selecting easy mode and not challenge at all because you crush everything withot breaking a sweat. All the content of DLC is not hard, except for 2 phase final boss that is really unfair hard with some really stupid moves and blinding lights, that is the only problem with the game i have, everything else is 10/10.

[@unrighteous8745]

I think the big issue with the DLC is that there's nothing to gauge whether or not you should be fighting whatever you're fighting. In the base game, you're taught that the Grafted Scion is too tough for you because it's a scripted death. So when you bump into the similarly difficult Tree Sentinel, you know they want you to skip over it for now. In the DLC, you can start by going either left, right, or forward. Every direction leads to an enemy that kills you in one or two hits (the gaol knight on the left, the spinny dude on the way to the map, or the beast claw guy on the right). Everything in the DLC kills you in two hits until you up your blessing count. So why not just get blessings? That's what you're supposed to do, but I don't think that's communicated very well to the player through gameplay. You do just have to struggle past extremely lethal enemies for a bit until your blessing is high enough to take down a boss. I think it would have been much clearer if certain enemies didn't one shot you, so you have a gauge to understand how unprepared you are for a particular boss, but the regular enemies and bosses both one shot you wherever you go, so why would you think you need to come back later? I think it would also help if every dungeon you come across rewarded you with a blessing, but you can explore for hours without receiving a single one. The progression is inconsistent and unclear. That's why it feels so difficult. There's also no excuse when it comes to the final boss. You can have max blessings and the fight still might be impossible for you.

[@MrKrabbs2009]

I was exploring every nook and cranny, when I had a feeling (stake + summon) there was gonna be a boss fight and didn't feel like it I just marked the spot and went to explore some more/try to progress questlines/do a PoI I had saved for later. This way I never felt stuck(except for when I ran out of zones to explore and struggled to find a way into the ones I had left) and thus had a great time.

[@ryanschweinsburg296]

something that would help with the difficulty is, remove larval tears, the simple fact they exist make you not want to try new builds

[@RemingtonSteel]

Yup

[@wojciech-kulik]

the same with smithing stones that are consumable. Once you upgrade one weapon to +10, all weapons should be +10. Otherwise, the game prevents players from experimenting.

[@goldengryphon3103]

@@wojciech-kulik i dont know about that since you can unlock a way to buy all stones to +9

[@ryanschweinsburg296]

@goldengryphon3103 or at least let me buy +10 stones, it just contradicts that you have so many options to try out but these two things are limiting

[@whitneyellison]

I’ve hadn’t played a Souls game before Elden Ring and I went into it playing as an RPG. I currently have over 150 hours into my first playthrough and I’m about 3/4 of the way through the main storyline. I hope I have another 50+ hours before I complete my first go because it is so much fun to find the all the side stuff. I don’t understand the people who grind bosses and put hours into beating one. That sounds awful. I try 10-20 times then come back later when I’ve leveled up.

[@tokirabbit]

The bosses are great especially the first 3 boss fights if FS actually optimised their game and not make me fight the frame rate. There’s also one bosses with terrible camera and the final boss straight up just made me had 10 fps and that you can’t see even with full Scadutree blessings. It’s okay to say Fromsoftware isn’t perfect. Even Elden Ring at base launch was laggy

[@dshearwf]

I still don't get those performance complains? Is it bad on console? Because even on my 2nd potato pc with a rtx2060 (which is worse than a 1080 lol) it ran on pretty high settings very very smoothly with only VERY slight problems at the final boss, but that is a problem on my highend machine as well

[@fenuxbon370]

@@dshearwfI have a 4080 and it has micro stutters not to mention many people had issues with their high end PC as well. Apparently it’s their CPUs which even lowering the resolution still makes you lag

[@gv2212]

​@@dshearwfIt is pretty bad on console. I am playing the ps4 version on ps5 and the lion boss for example drops the framerate to what feels like 20 fps whenever he smashes his head on the ground

[@emilylopo6417]

@@dshearwfps4 and ps5 is getting lag like crazy. it’s even crazier when the main game (without dlc) is also lagging more than usual which sucks

[@HollowdTV]

idk what you're talking about bro. im hard capped at 60 fps with a 5800x3D and a 4070ti, there are 0 performance issues. If you're "fighting the frame rate" thats not fromSoft's fault, its your hardware you're expecting to run a massive highly detailed game.

[@koolgool]

The DLC was the first time throughout my various playthroughs that I equipped more than one weapon (aside from dual wielding) to swap between, just 'cause I quickly began to realize how various builds were much easier against some threats, while other viable builds were harshly shut down by other threats. It meant I had to wear lighter armor to compensate for the weight, but overall I had a much easier time with the game when I started doing that.

[@SharkyShocker]

On many points I absolutely agree. The game almost felt like a callback to Margit in a lot of ways. a) Roll into attacks, and more importantly b) YOU CAN COME BACK LATER I have explored the entire map, I've gotten every Scadutree Fragment, and overall exploring has been absolutely amazing... but yes, there is a "However" There's a difference between "Difficult" and "Poor Boss Design". -Rellana? A difficult but beautiful fight! It's a dance that goes back and forth. An aggressive partner giving me little room to breathe, yet completely fair in all that she did. -Senessax? (The ancient dragon in the pond). Stand in front, roll caught by lighting. Stand under, can't see the attacks. Try to use torrent, and you get hit mid-air behind the dragon by an attack made to the front. It's a reused boss, in an environment it wasn't meant for. -Messmer? Aggressive, but incredibly fun moveset. You feel suffocated, yet getting those strikes in during those sweet interludes feels amazing. -Consort Radahn? A decently easy first phase leads into a shower of holy bullshit that feels horrific to play against. A lot of this can boil down to a phrase the player says after getting killed in the boss fight. "Dammit, I fucked up there" versus "This is bullshit, god dammit" Both are the result of a boss you're struggling to beat, but the difference is good vs bad design. I'm no veteran. I played Elden Ring as my first Souls like and played it fully 3 times. Then I played Sekiro and played through that. Then Dark Souls III and its DLC. Both of these were amazing games btw. But for the first time, after exploring all of the DLC and getting all the possible upgrades I could... I'm throwing in the towel. Even defeating Consort Radahn wouldn't give me satisfaction. I let my story end with Bayle on top of the Jagged Peak, and I think I'd rather let it end on a fulfilling and happy conclusion than one with my last words in the DLC being "Thank god that's over"

[@thundageon5962]

When i struggled against Dancing Lion so many times, i went "I'LL BE BACK" (terminator style) and went exploring more until i found my baby, the great katana from Nioh

[@StabbyMcCutBleed]

I haven't played the DLC, but having beaten the game once with a couple hundred hours in, I do feel like the game is too hard. The issue I had, however, was with the enemy attacks. I was a big fan of the Dark Souls Trilogy and always liked overcoming the challenge of learning a new boss's attack patterns and safety zones and how to fight them with different builds. Hell, my favourite way to approach a game is to play on the highest available difficulty, force myself to master the mechanics, then use subsequent playthroughs to have as much fun with the mechanics as possible. But in Elden Ring, there's so much programmed in to "get" you, with random animation lengths, the crazy tracking on some attacks, and some bosses even programmed to instantly punish you for healing. Like...I know everyone will probably just say "git gud" as the community likes to do, but there's just a wall there with me. Not being able to reliably use game mechanics like dodging and healing sucks, and it can feel like I'm only allowed to beat a boss because I got lucky; because the game allowed me to win that time. It reminds me of all the survival games that are pure RNG with run-ending rolls of the dice. It will never matter how good you are at the skill/logic based parts of those games, you're only allowed to beat them on pure dumb luck. For me, that's not at all fun. I'd rather get stuck because I just don't understand a mechanic and finally have that breakthrough, than just be stuck because I can't guess a random amount of frames to wait before dodging

[@detectivecotton6824]

I’m onto the final boss now, the rest of the dlc wasn’t nearly as hard as a lot of people made it out to be. Of course I struggled on some bosses, there were some bosses I beat first try, but by the reviews I was expecting to go in and get 2 shot by everything which was just not the case, some of these bosses take some learning but overall you’ve got a site of grace right outside of the boss door (so no crazy boss runs) and you have some difficult bosses you need to learn the patterns of, which isn’t really anything different from the more difficult bosses of other games

[@offsidev6059]

Radahn is literally the only hard part in the whole DLC. If you're having trouble with anything else you either didn't level your scadutree blessings or you're one of the tryhards that refuses to summon spirit ashes. Either way, the difficulty of the DLC is entirely on the player.

[@AliDixon95]

Not using summons isn't tryhard lol

[@offsidev6059]

@@AliDixon95 Okay, but it's silly that the people who are refusing to use the basic mechanics are crying about the game being too hard.

[@IanMonteiro-td9kw]

@@AliDixon95 yes, it is. the game literally suggest you should use those from the time you first encounter ranni. if you are not using summons, you're doing a challenge run.

[@AliDixon95]

@@IanMonteiro-td9kw They simply aren't 😄 sorry that you're just shit at the game and need to use summons x

[@AliDixon95]

@@IanMonteiro-td9kw It's there to make things easier for people who aren't good enough, huff that copium mate x

[@nickymo]

I've hit a wall for a few days with Bayle and the final boss. Been banging my head against the wall with Bayle all night, unwilling to change much with my unga bunga build w a few incantation buffs, I'm at lvl 18 scadutree and don't want to hunt for more. However, I'm slowly starting to see progress. I got him down to 30% health. That's that window that gets me to stay up all night like "I know I can do this👿😺" It genuinely felt impossible the other day but I know now I will get there if I persevere. That's what I love about these games.

[@MjollTheLioness-o4y]

The first time I played, after I got Torrent I just rode around for hours looking at the world and listening to the music while meeting NPCs and gathering shinies. It was so relaxing. When I went back to Santa I was shocked at how many golden runes and smithing stones I had.

[@Leonhart_93]

Sorry but that's too extreme, it sounds like you were unfocused as hell 😂. I could never force myself to be that easygoing about it.

[@WFFLDealer]

Meanwhile I tried adjusting my build at scadutree lvl 19 at the last boss with summons and still got stuck for multiple hours. Whoever disagrees with calling it "too hard" has one thing in common I feel and that is that they haven't fought the last boss yet even with the whole map explored.

[@Jen-fq2tn]

I just started playing Elden Ring, and it is difficult, but I enjoy being creative with my approach. I’m playing a spellcaster and mixing it with stealth. I’m patient and like to explore. I haven’t gotten far, but I’m enjoying filling out the map, and doing some grinding. I’m not touching a boss until I’m more confident in my stats. I grew up on old school grindy rpgs, so it feels natural for me to approach it this way. A lot of younger gamers haven’t had that experience of having to spend hours leveling up before defeating a boss. Games today hold your hand in ways old ones didn’t, so they don’t really understand working toward it. An open world game isn’t meant to be sped through. It’s an experience. Granted, I’m probably going to get my butt kicked, anyway, but I’m enjoying myself, regardless.

[@JQ86]

Confused about this take. Isn't the whole point of an RPG to create a build for your character and then play that build?

[@nick3790]

To make a build, but not to stop improving it and refuse to engage with the mechanics of the game or refuse to change it up here and there.

[@themelancholia]

@@nick3790 There are no "engage with the mechanics" this isnt Darkest Dungeon. Once you level up your stats and weapons, you are pressured to keep it that way. You can respec a bit, but you'd have to obtain and upgrade entirely different weapons.

[@nick3790]

@@themelancholia @themelancholia wdym?? You're saying that there aren't any significant mechanics to engage with outside of leveling your stats?.... you could use talismans, understand your soft caps and Stat distribution a little better, play with enemy/boss weaknesses, use summons, crystal tears, armor bonuses, status effects, in the dlc you have scadutree fragments and revered ashes, you can buff your player with spells, greases or consumables, you can use specific movesets for specific enemies based on their vulnerability to piercing, slashing or blunt attacks. There's also a lot of room for respec-ing, you can fully respec 26 times, you can wear specific armor or talismans that give you levels in stats you don't have, you can grind to level into things, etc. If you're hitting your head against the wall and not engaging with any of the mechanics i listed above and you're not exploring just going from point a to point b, and you're somehow wasting 26 full respec and still aren't satisfied or leveling into things that are giving you any success... maybe the games not for you? From games excel at giving you all the tools needed to make an awesome build. That's like 50% of the game, theyre made for you to experiment. I dont know if there's some disconnect somewhere, bit you have a lot of options, you just have to be willing to use them is all.

[@QrozOne]

What I enjoy about these games is replaying them with different builds that I started from scratch. I have many characters in every From game exactly because of that. I will never have my pure sorcery build change into a shield and poke to clear some boss. Which is why sometimes I die a lot, and some stuff feels unfair, and that's ok, because that's how I chose to play. I played through the DLC once with my first character, a quality build. I explored a lot, I actually got to Rellana before I did Dancing Lion because his dungeon looked more story-related and I really didn't expect her to be at that fortress and to be that strong. It took me a good 2h to beat her while I 2nd tried Dancing Lion later on. Exploring and getting lost, and trying out the new stuff was actually the most fun part of this DLC.

[@marvinn6044]

I think the bigger issue is that the bosses dont feel that fair. Yes you can "overgear" the bosses, but they are still ultra agressive with only small exploitable windows. You can just tank through attacks to get damage in, but that just doesn't feel as good as dodging the attacks and being rewarded by getting in 2-3 attacks of your own.

[@Savileaurus]

Kept running into a wall against DLC Radahn with my martial arts build. Changed my entire build to the broken Bloodfiend's Arm, 223 blood loss build up was hilarious

[@soarin1]

The reality is that you can be mad or think people or stupid or bad but in the end theyre just people like all the millions playing the dlc. If there is a significant amount of people playing your game that are having a similarly negative experience, then the fault is of the game, not the people. I believe this is just a fact, you can make arguments why they should do this or should know that or shouldnt have done this, and it could all be true. It does not change the fact that a significant amount of people did not come to those realizations, all while playing the same game you did. The developer can then figure out whether making the changes to make these players experiences better are possible without making less the experience of the others.

[@blastmedia3218]

The thing is the developers already have done so much to make it easier. There’s mechanics in the game that people struggling often just choose to ignore

[@BeastmasterRanger]

Play the DLC currently. I am playing it with a buddy and we are beating all the bosses together. I was practicing against the Divine Beast Dancing Lion and it was rough. I understand why people have a hard time with him. I thought it would be interesting to test how using summons would be in this fight. It was shocking how it changed it from a difficult fight to a very easy fight for me (still died on purpose to play it with my buddy). It all depends on what limits you set on yourself. The game is not too hard as long as you use the resources around you. Elden Ring really does give you the tools to make your life easier. Just some people refuse to use them.

[@tobiasfischer1879]

While I agree that the majority of people complaining are the kind of people you go over in the video, I have been seeing an undercurrent within this discussion that I have felt (even in the base game!) where it's more about the KIND of difficulty rather than the difficulty itself (the DLC being "harder" just exacerbates the fundamental issues I have). The way bosses can have these super long attack patterns where I can be killed from 3 hits in his 8 attack combo (with 2k HP and super heavy armor) and then I have barely any time to even heal (if I can at all) before getting slammed with another 6 attack long combo. I just wanna breathe a bit. I basically never died to running out of flasks, even when playing conservatively, it was always these super aggro and long chains that I never felt as much in the older titles (or maybe I'm just looking back with rose-tinted glasses?). I remember fighting ornstein and smough where it took me 4 hours to beat, but I kept running back in, eager to try again, because it felt fair and readable, and it was immediately clear how I needed to adapt (even if I end up just making the same mistake again). With Elden Ring it feels like the majority of "beating a boss" is to collect enough gear to stat check the boss. I know this is an open world game and this is kinda a fundamental part of the design, but I personally felt it leaned too much into being a loot-based-game rather than a skill-based-game, where trying to beat some of the later bosses without a summon just felt like not just a tall order that would take a lot of time but also something that was really frustrating. Most of the time I beat bosses it all felt a little cheapened because it did not feel as much of ME doing the work but rather I collected enough stats/gear and a summon to cheese the boss enough to not interact with what feels like BS mechanics. I still love Elden Ring and consider it one of the best games ever made, I just did not like the direction that much of the combat design went into when compared to DS1 and DS3 (or atleast how I remember them).

[@ChocPretzel8]

Stick to non-rpg games, they clearly aren't for you. Using core game mechanics the game is designed around shouldn't cheapen anything. You aren't good enough to beat the bosses in your self imposed difficulty, just accept that.

[@SgtWilko1979]

I went into the DLC with a +25 uchigatana and a bleed build, I struggled with some things but I got the Milady, maxed it out and added the Wing Stance ashes and freeze, suddenly I was bullying that Blackgaol Knight and his 3 mates like they weren't there, just "L2+R1" stunlocking them to the point where I almost (almost) felt cheap. That was MY journey, I like hearing other peoples different ones.

[@evonzir]

I explored and I liked every bosses except the last boss in phase 2. WTF is that? had to cheese it. Didn’t feel satisfied. Probably the worst last boss they ever made

[@sourpatchkilla]

That dread dragon and final boss kicked my ass but i eventually got through it, now taking a lil break from the game..😅

[@turboiler]

@@sourpatchkilladread dragon was way better in my opinion because it’s not a visual clutter like the final boss. Yes anyone can finish that boss given time but it is definitely not fun. I will replay the DLC again if they nerf that boss and I never asked for a nerf in any souls games in my life.

[@destroyermaker]

Embrace the cheese. It's been a requirement since at least DS1, and Miyazaki encourages it

[@brydonbullock]

When I fought Messmer I was using a flame art Fire Knights Greatsword. Wouldn’t yuh know it, he’s resistant to fire!! So I left, grabbed a few scadutree fragments, switched to moonveil for magic and bleed damage and next time I fought him it took me 30 minutes or less and now he’s my favorite fight of all time. So you can literally have sooooo many ways to play this game it’s actually insane.

[@GreyTactic]

Good video. Substance wise it could go on the main channel and hold its own. As for the DLC, it's the first time in my many playthroughs of ER that I had to acknowledge that forcing one weapon/build setup down a boss' throat is not the way to go. I run Death's Poker which is too slow for the likes of the Blackgaol Knight, so I adapt. I pickup a Cold MIlady with piercing fang to poise break and shield pierce. Sometimes, Moonveil Katana works better with the tempo of the fight. I'll even pick up a Bolt of Gransax for those annoying Flameknights, or Dragonslayer Katana for, well, dragons. Changing up your weapon/spell/incantation loadouts and playstyle to suit the specific boss/enemy you're fighting getes you a lot further in the DLC than it did in the base game.

[@YamiShirokami]

Amen to that. Elden Ring gives you the systems to adapt to situations. With Respecs and tons of weapons/spells to use, the ability to adapt to your current situation should not be ignored. I've changed out which weapons I've been using to see what works and has lead me to success whereas sticking to just one thing has not.

[@anywhere_but_here]

well said, so far i have 8 different weapons i regularly switch between depending on the situation. ive watched multiple playthroughs where theyll literally go through the entire game with one weapon, while hoarding an insane amount of smithing stones and never experimenting with different weapon movesets, affinities, damage types etc and its so frustrating. or theyll complain that none of the loot is relevant or useful for their build, while having like a dozen larval tears lol.

[@noheadlights]

In this game if you die to a boss a 50 times and not change your appraoch, it is kind of your problem. The DLC throws new weapons, summons, buffs, medallions at you in many diferent ways. There are enough larval tears in the DLC to respec for every main boss if you want. Changing you approach is required in the DLC to succeed. Many people seem to think running around with a level 400 character has to trivialise the DLC - well it doesnt. And this is on purpose to make the DLC playable for a level 150 to a 500 character. To get the 5% attack buff every scadutree level gives, you would probably have to level up your character 30 to 50 levels with diminishing returns the higher you go. I died to Midra a couple of times yesterday and all it took was to try a few weapons to see to which ailment Midra was weak to and use defensive medallions and the fight got trivially easy.

[@KenjiHato]

Some the bosses are just out right annoying and broken because they attack you as soon as you pass through the fog wall and no build period is "good" against that

[@potatolauncher4892]

It's not that the game is too hard, it's just frustrating to the point it's no longer fun to play. I hate the fact that there is no quest log. I don't want the map to be littered with quest markers. I'd just like to be able to read what the previous NPC said about the quest chain so I can remember where I left off. I've taken countless deaths because I missed a jump or a drop somewhere and then lost all my runes because I couldn't retrieve them without dying again. Had I known this game was going to be an exercise in dying over and over, I wouldn't have wasted my money buying it. I've spent over 270 hours playing and I'm done with it.

[@viktorthevictor6240]

Every build should have 60 Vigor Every build should have 60 Vigor Every build should have 60 Vigor Every build should have 60 Vigor Every build should have 60 Vigor I don't care what weapons or spells you're using. The endgame and the dlc is set up for most players to be able to survive at least one hit of the boss's strongest attack from full hp. 60 Vigor is the standard. There is no vigor build. You might get away with 45 if you're 100% ranged, or you might just be good enough to complete the game with much less. That's great. But you are an outlier. You cannot expect the average experience to be based around getting one-shot. 60 is not a specialized vigor build. It's standard issue. It's meant to be the average experience.

[@24get]

This is the bottleneck of fromsoft rpgs

[@Madchimpz]

It's the simple easier mode build of every souls game. Just enough to use your weapon, then add all HP. Most of your damage comes from weapon upgrades, if you're not good enough you have to business adding more to your damage stat. Then comes endurance, so you can use better armor sets, and more stamina for blocking if you're doing a blocking build. And of course being able to attack more before you run out of stamina, so it's a good all purpose stat.

[@MerryBlind]

Levelling up Vigor is always the number one advice I give everyone when they start their first Souls games. Helps tremendously at the beginning, and maxing it out by the end is necessary for both PVE and PVP. “Tank builds” come from gear, not stats.

[@kiknchiknstudios8901]

Me: sitting over here at 30 vigor laughing nervously.

[@slickback_was_taken]

50 is my jam, used to be 35

[@ZeusKnocksYouOut]

Firstly, good take. I switched my build up so many times to beat bosses in different ways, from the new martial arts weapons, to that special colossal sword you can get from the flame knight in the shadow keep, to using Milady for half the game because light greatswords have an incredibly satisfying moveset. People will most definitely pick 1 build and not learn that adaptation is part of the game. Bosses have resistances to all kinds of damage for a reason. 4:15 when your "NOOOOOOOOO...!" melded with your character's "AAAAAAAAAAAHHH!" XD

[@MrJabbothehut]

It's tedious rather than hard. Enemies are supper aggro with long combo lengths and very small punish windows which drags fights out far longer than they should be.

[@StFido]

Yup I hate how any criticism is boiled down to “it’s to hard” it’s just a shitty way to write of any criticism.

[@ChrisNathanBAntic]

so you want the bosses and enemies to be like dark souls 1, slow as hell with very big punish windows?

[@MrJabbothehut]

@@ChrisNathanBAntic no. The enemy design is a symptom of the fundamental mechanics that the game is built on compared to previous titles. Having the ability to build broken overpowered classes by stackong a silly amount of buffs and status effects requires bosses to be insane otherwise the game would be trivial.

[@pagatryx5451]

@@MrJabbothehut No. The enemy design of previous titles is just bad. Some serious rose tinted glasses here. Replay Dark Souls 1 and 2 and you'll find most of the bosses are not great at all and are quite easy to beat. You'll die more from the game's roughness and enemies in the world than bosses themselves. Artorias and O&S were the only fun bosses and neither were particularly difficult. And, it's not like it's a choice between 'stacking every buff in the game with the most OP/meta builds to delete bosses easily' and 'just hitting things with a big stick'. If you find something, think that will be useful, and then use it in a boss. That's called playing the game as intended. Personally, I enjoy a game that actually rewards the player for utilizing its items and mechanics. Rather than allowing the player to kill the hardest boss in the game with the same build they used against Margit at the very start of it... Should it be possible? Sure. And it is. But the fact people play games notorious for being difficult and then show zero adaptability is the problem here.

[@poiumty]

@@ChrisNathanBAntic Unironically yes. I don't know who these jaded assholes in the other replies are but I had a lot of fun with Dark Souls bosses and it's what cemented my love for this series 13 years ago. I replayed it a dozen times and I'd do it again today. The fact that the game could be beat with knowledge rather than skill if you chose to play that way was one of the best things about it. Bosses have just gotten mechanically harder and harder since then, and at some point something's got to give. I hope the next game in the series abandons the spirit ash mechanic. I enjoy fighting solo, and having no downside to summons has been a terrible idea.

[@PenguinApple]

IDK if it's actually "harder" rather than more frustrating than the base game and I don't really think it's due to playstyle or needing to go out and about to level up, it's the boss designs themselves. Most of the major bosses are large so have the whole camera issue where it becomes frustratingly difficult to be able to simultaneously see the boss move and also control where your character moves. Then add on top of that exceedingly long boss move sets, both in terms of animation time and the attacks range, there is almost no time given to get out of range or even simply drink a pot. In base game boss fights the difficulty was usually understandable. Malenia is the perfect example, everyone agrees she's difficult, but even in my probably 100 deaths my first run it never felt like the fight was simply broken. Every time I died it was because I messed up a dodge or got greedy and importantly it was NOT because I just couldn't see what she was doing. So then you're almost forced to use summons in the DLC which is fine but this then turns the fights from difficult to almost trivial because now all these dificult to see / long reaching attacks are suddenly not coming at you so the fight just becomes you beating up a puppet.

[@rosskaske6357]

I mostly agreed with the comment up until Malenia. That's a BS gimmick fight that's only difficult because of one move, Waterfowl Dance. Honestly one of the worst bosses they've ever made.

[@Deiwulf]

I think people confuse being hard with simply being flawed. And ER is very flawed. The multilayered noisy shitspam direction From (and so many other devs) is taking is the issue here. And it just so happens that the final boss of the DLC is the cranked to the max example of it. Hyperarmor, hyperagression, those are the lazy, bare minimum techniques in combat design. Let's not settle for the lowest.

[@joel5956]

So I tried Rellana the first time with the assumption that I would die but that I'd get a feel for her attacks and be on my way to mastering the fight. I ended up getting wrecked (I might have gotten 3 hits in on her). Her combos were really long so my early attempts to dodge were not stamina-efficient and I never got a sense for where the healing windows were. The second time, I figured I'd summon Mimic so I could see more of the fight and fast track the learning curve. Well...I won on accident and Mimic nearly solo'd her. I feel like the remembrance bosses in the DLC are harder than even most most of the later bosses in the main game, but the tools you have are MUCH more powerful.

[@Draffut2003]

If the game is built around respeccing to counter specific fights, then the respec item should be farmable or buyable in unlimited amounts.

[@roveldo3436]

It's not, people just finding ways to excuse bosses with bad desing or lacking proper pacing. Souls games were never meant to counter specific fights, the upgrade system did not allow it until you are nearing the end of the game. So I dont know where people get this idea of countering bosses with different builds.

[@alexsun2545]

@@roveldo3436 thats a lie, Sullyvan is a hard boss if you focus on dodge every attack, but using a great shield become easier now Nameless King deal a good amount of damage even with Great shield, whe alwayns have bosses who punish specific types of builds but "don´t punish" others

[@NerdHerdForLife]

The respec item IS farmable but it's just super rare drop from, I think, the balls? Also, the game ISN'T built around respeccing, it just allows it if you think doing so will give you an easier time, which... it might but is NEVER necessary.

[@Draffut2003]

@@NerdHerdForLife The balls are 100% drop first time you kill them, but never drop after that.

[@hachikuji_mayoi]

You don't really have to respec though. The game has a variety of weapons for any stat investment and it has equipment giving you enough stats to use other weapons too, and to cast basic incants and spells.

[@tserrofz9]

i think there is also a big difference in approach - Base Game felt like you could turbo your damage and steam roll everything (except arguably malenia) but you would fairly passively get enough defenses from levels and 60 vigor and you'd feel immortal. The DLC needs you, demands you, to pay attention to defenses as well and I think this is the first Souls game that requires that. Even Fume Knight and Nameless king were almost untankable but very dodgeable. Dodging is a tool but it shouldnt be the ONLY tool defensively and people havent accepted that change yet.

[@yepievelux5295]

So we not gonna talk about everything else like fps, glitches in questlines and scadutree seeds being missing? I think some of these reviewers giving it mixed with the exception of it being too difficult is fine.

[@dantedeon658]

Its mainly pc and that in itself is its own issue people we talkin bout is the "omg why is the dlc that everybody waited 2 years for so hard" also the "bro im stuck on a boss because i refuse to summon or explore or farm and i refuse to learn the boss movments"

[@prismpuppy8624]

The reason I struggle to like this isn't so much the difficulty, but the emptiness of some of the areas and the repetitive use of enemies. Doesn't have the sense of wonder and surprise like the main game has.

[@MySimDied]

For me it was. The normal game was challenging but fine, but this was borderline impossible even with the summons and the seeds. I don't mind, I know people like it, but it's not fun for me so I just quit. Shame because I like the world and story a lot. I just wish they'd made it clearer before i spent money on it, not everyone reads developer interviews and nothing in the marketing suggested it would be such a jump.

[@kosmo_2k]

You’re so right. I’ve never played a Souls game before. Did the first beginning bit of the game and then came across the big boss at castle. I died for literally 3 hours straight and then turned it off. Then I saw a video of someone just running around and exploring and I said I can do that and that’s been the best choice I’ve ever made. I’ve gotten stranger, got better gear, learned the mechanics more, and now I’m killing bosses left and right.

[@lolollilik9435]

You can spot a souls fan when they only talk about the difficulty and not mention the other things and what’s wrong with it. (Frame rate, Scadutree blessing being missing) Just from this video and a few comments.

[@dw6nvf]

Its totally fine to have a difficult game or a difficult DLC, but you should set clear expectations with your audience so not to let them down before they purchase it

[@KintzSince93]

We shit on every Bethesda game because their difficulty tuning is "deal less damage, take more damage." Elden Ring shouldn't get a pass that their difficulty tuning is essentially the same thing and if people think the system is underwhelming or even bad then it's understandable.

[@BM24DK]

If you actually played the DLC you will know how hard the final boss is. I thought “this DLC is not too hard”. However last boss changes my mind. You need to be a hardcore gamer to beat that boss without summons

[@andrer4508]

I SPENT 80 HOURS! I AM USING MAGIC! I AM USING SUMMONS! max level in mimic, i have the meteor cheat magic and the dragon ball beem and the astra meteors and more. i am dealing 2000 in damage in one single hit on an enemy. . i am level 180 and i have 11 and 7 fragments. THE GAME IS WAY TO HARD. THE BOSSES IS TO AGGRESIVE AND I CAND HEAL BEACAUSE THERE IS NOOO BREATHING ROOM. i have explored the entire map and have 2-3 bosses left. and i think it is insanely hard, i cant play as a magic user, the only way to defend my self is that i have to be a DEFENDER only..

[@mattdamon9326]

You could wear the hate medallion from the frenzied flame village while casting the mimic. Unequivocal it and the mimic has constant hate.

[@jamesbee3087]

This is my first FromSoft/souls game. My first play through (I mostly play rpg, action rpg/platform, hack-n-slash, fps, and some other miscellaneous games) I quit after 10 hours because I could make any progress. I couldn't find bosses, I was constantly dying (because I hacked and slashed) and wasn't learning from my mistakes. Recently I rewatched Viva LA Dirty League Get Good video and I felt challenged to do just that, I watched 10's of hours of tips, combat, and lore videos, I practiced in game, and I was commited to death being a feature not a bug. I recently beat the gold shade of Godfrey and Radahn. Currently fighting the twin gargoyles. I'm captivated by this game, I'm challenged, and it feels good. The Draconic Tree Sentienl took me 3ish hours and when I was done I was flexing like Hulk Hogan. I like the challenge and I makes me feel like my best days of gaming are ahead of me as opposed to behind me.

[@Sparkyy-1]

Great job, editors. These kind of videos are fantastic

[@desertegle40cal]

Yeah the last minute of your video was spot on. What you said about how you progress through the game is probably one of the best and most enjoyable ways to do it. If I can’t beat a boss I try to prepare more the next time, use a different tactic or sometimes you can even get clues in the world about how to beat a boss. Like last night I was battling an armored foot furnace golem that I had no idea had armored feet so im whacking away and doing nothing. Keep getting killed trying to fight it the same way i did the one near the entrance to the shadow realm. So I leave and start doing other stuff but then I find a furnace tenders note that says furnace golems are weak to hefty furnace pots (they’re weak to fire, i couldn’t believe it!) so make a bunch of hefty furnace pots and I lead a golem over to a mountain ledge and I start throwing the furnace pots in side its head basket and it was taking off HUGE chunks of his life. I hit him with 5 pots and he was down. No whacking required. THAT is how the game is supposed to be played. You find a clue to beat a boss, you use the info in that clue and you are able to beat them. People are just too impatient and don’t realize theres many ways to skin a cat in this game! 👍👍👍

[@Akiraspin]

If you are struggling, if you are having a hard time, just summon help. Solo runs are for the hardcore players who *want to handicap themselves.* I have beaten the final boss of the DLC, who took me 53 attempts to solo, who was a brutal monster of a fight 1v1. I have been summoned to help others for that fight, and have seen that same boss that took me almost 5 hours to beat, lose half his health in 10 seconds to a felllow summoned cooperator. You can absolutely *trivialize this game* if you want to.

[@theghostoftom9916]

The first major boss that I fought against was rella. After repeated attempts at trying to beat her with my strength build, I realize that I can't beat her with what I have. So I reverted back to my old Faith build. And then I was still getting my butt kicked. So then I thought to myself "okay what am I doing wrong?" The Scadutree fragments make a big difference, summons make a big difference, buffs help a lot as well. Learning the enemies resistances and weaknesses is important as well. In other words this DLC made me think about strategy and how I was going to fight my opponent. I got comfortable with the idea of changing my buildup to fight a different component.

[@mellar5864]

It's not too hard, the bosses just aren't fun to fight. There are plenty of op builds and tools that can take care of most if not all bosses fairly easily, yet i don't know a single playstyle that would make me enjoy these bosses more than bosses in dark souls 3, bloodborne or sekiro. Everything else is 10/10, but i already thought the base game bosse were a downgrade of previous titles and the dlc is worse.

[@rocingersol1875]

I initially thought the DLC was too hard, I must have died 20 times to the Black Gaol Knight in that first Mausoleum. I did what I always do in Elden Ring; come back later when I am tougher. With a a bunch more durability and power, I came back, and found him much easier. In fact, all the Mausoleum fights after that were simple because I had learned the mechanics of those types of fights. Same with all the dragons, furnace golems, etc. It truly is a wonderful game and a wonderful DLC.

[@countryc0unt]

Also pictured here: Cohh, a player not having seen any hard boss yet, telling people that have beaten the DLC who say it is hard and the last boss is simply too hard, that they are wrong and just doing it wrong.

[@VioIetteMolotov]

And he immediately summoned his mimic for Radahn.. lmao Classic Cohh can't even make a neutral opinion anymore

[@costelcosmincazan2321]

It is not hard. But just like the base game it has some bs moments that should not be ignored and should not make it to the next game. One of it is that some bosses like Bayle, Gaius, Hippo aggro the moment you enter the fog door. Just reduce their aggro zone. In Bayle case if you wanna summon Igon which summon sign is inside the arena you cannot do it without taking hits or without dodging the boss attacks hoping you find 5 seconds window to summon him. Gaius opening charge attack is agreed by everyone that is 99% imposible to dodge perfectly. You get pushed into the wall, camera freaks out and you don’t even know which attack killed you. Gaius would be one of my favorite bosses alongside with Rellana or Romina if it was not for that charge attack that he does the instant you enter the fog gate. Another thing is Mytir aoe she does in second phase. I ended up looking guides to learn to dodge that aoe attack without getting hit once. Did not find any. Something that is not related to dificulty is how some areas are empty. The area after Gaius has only one enemy to fight, a albinauric woman archer riding a wolf. The hinterlands are also empty with only those finger enemies that can snipe you from across the map, stunlock you, another one teleports straight to you and grabs you. There is nothing to be there for except the Ymir quest. One more thing. Actually its a question: Is anyone exploring the open world, killing enemies, revisiting caves and dungeons in NG+ or just like me run straight to the legacy dungeons. Sometimes I do it in NG. I just run past enemies stoping to kill them if only they guard some ruins or I see some item which ends up being a crafting material. I do not want the next fromsoft game to be open world. Elden Ring open world is empty while being filled with many things to do.

[@xamdcrownwell5499]

No, its just some really annoying bosses and some less annoying bosses.

[@jonboy2950]

Was tough in the beginning, but after a bit of adjustment to how the enemies behave its been a blast.

[@keiichi8191]

I think Stellar Blade broke me. I loved Elden Ring when it came out and beat the entire game four times, with 800 hours of playtime across four characters. But I played Stellar Blade just a month ago and that game is SO forgiving with its dodge and parry windows, and boss attacks are SO intuitively telegraphed, that I go back to Elden Ring for the DLC now and I'm just struggling with EVERYTHING. So many times I die to attacks that gave me all of 0.4 seconds of notice before they hit, or the dodge window is milliseconds long. It's hard going back to Elden Ring's spastic noodle bosses that flail around in 10-second-long attack chains where you're not even sure what's an attack and what's just movement. I'm still pushing through with the DLC, but man am I not having anywhere near as much fun as I thought I would be. I also hate the idea of constantly having to respec my builds in order to progress. I created a mage, and I want to beat the game as a mage. I created a greatsword-wielding knight, and I want to beat the game as a greatsword-wielding knight. I don't want to have to take my knight and respec him into a mage just to get passed a particularly difficult boss fight that hard counters heavy weapons, or vice versa.

[@williamgriswold2593]

I have not played the DLC, but I am playing the regular game. Up until just recently I was playing it without the mimic tear and I was not using any help from anyone online. I had absolutely no idea what I was doing and I still managed to get to the fire giant. Worst yet I had gone to the round table hold and was getting hugs from that creepy lady and that was also making the game more difficult but I had no idea. I wasn’t a friend at work told me that it was harder and there was an easy solution to fix it.if I can do anyone else can do it.

[@draconyster]

The difference here is that in original Elden Ring getting more levels and upgrading gear made a lot of difference. You could grind and return to the boss. In the DLC levels do not matter and the blessings amount is fixed so you cannot grind. Exploration will do nothing because you find upgrade materials that don't really matter anymore. The only thing you can do is find ways to skip bosses to get blessings from areas that you were not really supposed to be in yet. But that doesn't help with the last few bosses since after you find all the blessings there is nowhere else to go.

[@thebeatts]

ER was my first FromSoft game because I don't normally enjoy super tough linear-level games. But with Elden Ring it was like, ok, this is like Skyrim with tough but fair combat. The ability to just walk away from any challenge and go do something else to get stronger is the most crucial factor allowing me to enjoy a game like this, and I'm so confident in that system from the 200 hours I spent in the base game that I'm not intimidated by the DLC at all. One of the first things I learned about it is that there will be a separate leveling system. Ok, so obviously I will just be able to go earn those levels and then out-level whatever boss I'm fighting, if I have to. Just like I did with runes in the base game. No issue. It's like the people complaining didn't even play the same game.

[@seifer6700]

I found that I became more successful in playing elden ring when I embraced the idea of changing my build, trying different approaches, and fucking around for a few hours elsewhere before coming back and trying again. It seems to me like that's the point. Be adaptable