Is Shadow of the Erdtree WORTH PLAYING Despite its Flaws?

[@evilfungas]

I don't understand the problems people seem to have with the Scadutree fragments, especially since they patched the scaling. The advantage you get from levelling beyond 12 is basically negligible at this point, so pretty much all the fragments you need can be found along the obvious paths and finding more than half of them is unnecessary. On my second playthrough I deliberately stopped levelling at 8 because it was starting to make it too easy. I think they work as a pretty good form of scaling late game difficulty, and once you know how they work they are really good for regulating exactly how difficult you want it to be. Whatever you need and what the bosses are balanced around you can find on the main path. If you need more, you can get an extra edge from looking around a bit. If you find they are making it too easy you can just hold them in reserve until you find a challenge which seems to warrant levelling. If they had one problem in my experience is that on your first playthrough you don't really know how they scale so you can easily find yourself overlevelling with them (at least pre-patch). On my first playthrough I found there to be an inverted difficulty curve, where it got gradually easier through the DLC (until Radahn), I started killing late-game bosses like Romina and Metyr on my first attempt, and bosses like Messmer and Midra, once I got a feeling for their moveset, felt really undertuned for late-game encounters (although I loved them both). This is why I limited myself to around level 8 on my second playthrough, which I found an ideal level of difficulty for the late game, and basically required almost no exploration beyond the main path. Additionally, I know some people think it would be better if they treated them like golden seeds, having more in the world than what you need to get to max level, but personally I think this would make it even easier to accidentally overlevel encounters.

[@ikejacobovits]

I've had this discussion with a couple of different people and reached the conclusion that From is reaching the limits of what they can do with the traditional DS combat system unless they fundementally overhaul it or just try something new. Armored Core VI and Sekiro showed that the newer FromSoft devs can make other combat systems that are both a complete change of pace as well as being incredibly fun. Personally, I'd love to see them return to something in the vein of Kings Field or just a first person dungeon crawler in general.

[@theluckduck548]

Yes.

[@thelegendofxander]

Correct! Now watch the video haha

[@jupitercmr3688]

I haven’t watched everything yet but I just wanna say greatsword gang

[@thelegendofxander]

GREATSWORD GANG

[@generalock3015]

Is this even a question? This by far the best fromsoft dlc

[@thelegendofxander]

Gonna disagree. It’s great (which once you watch you’ll find out), but it’s not their best. Ringed City and Old Hunters are so SO good.

[@austin0_bandit05]

By far? You're joking

[@KyngD469]

It's worth playing for sure. I am not excited to revisit this world though.

[@gabrielscoccola5960]

Having no option to replay the bosses is a crime against humanity

[@mightaswell]

I don’t get the hate for the messmer attack with the fact the timings on the actual snake heads are spaced apart enough to read and dodge it if you just take a look at the actual attack and you’re also trying to punish him in the middle of the attack, even if their is waiting while you dodge it he literally repositions himself infront of you for a free heavy attack afterwords as well, in the case of radahns meteors that was an attack that was nothing but downtime and detracted from the fight since he ended the attack miles away from you in phase 1(though the main talking about radahn is basically just phase 2)

[@808nzaro]

jump button makes ER easiest souls game

[@austin0_bandit05]

I think the dlc is a solid 7/10. But I think that's gonna piss people off. Its because it has 11/10 moments but then it will have 5/10 moments. So its in a weird place. DS3 and BB dlcs are just more focused and consistent.

[@thelegendofxander]

Absolutely. Ringed City is my favourite dlc. Old Hunters still has its low points but it’s less of a level design thing and just some bosses being kinda bad. Living failures suuuuuck and Lawrence isn’t good either. But the level design is peak and the other bosses are badass.

[@christianbell8347]

I'm gay and even I think Living Failures and Lawrence are good, so it's just you being an idiot.

[@EmeralBookwise]

The heck are you on about with NPCs? Not a single one of them requires being summoned to advance their quest line. At most summoning them get some extra, but entirely optional dialogue. Also, if anything, I found the NPC quest structure in the DLC far more streamlined than in the base game. Pretty sure none of them appear at more than two locations, and it's really only the second location where any critical progression occurs. The first location is generally just for optional dialogue that gives more insight into their background and motives, but isn't otherwise required to complete anything.

[@thelegendofxander]

Igon and Hornsent require you to summon them into the Bayle and Messmer fights, respectively

[@EmeralBookwise]

@@thelegendofxander: nope, both are still entirely optional. You can still get all the same items regardless. The only difference summoning hornsent makes is that instead of joining on Leda's gank fight, he will invade you solo at Rauh. If you want to prevent him from joining Leda though, you can also help her kill him in Shadow Keep prior to fighting Mesmer. You get slightly different rewards for helping Leda, but they are equally unique to the what you could get by helping Hornsent, so both options are an equally valid resolution.

[@evilfungas]

The NPC quests were far more streamlined than the base game. I genuinely don't understand how people still find them obscure. They progress pretty naturally along the main path of the game, far more than the base Elden Ring quests.

[@x_angelkawa1i_x]

Sacdu felt weird, and bosses are WAY overtuned. But, the looks are cool and the new items are baller

[@givesrespect8788]

Nah fuck bayle 21:50

[@ennayanne]

this video is too kind. are you afraid of the fans? I don't see how it's fun exploring a massive empty map looking for fragments, and I don't know how you can call the bosses well designed when they're some of the most abhorrent bosses from has ever designed

[@thelegendofxander]

Those are absolutely things I mention! It’s certainly not perfect, but the good outweighs the bad, at least to me

[@ennayanne]

​@@thelegendofxanderI just don't see it to be honest. You explain a lot of what's wrong with it but then say it's worth it despite the problems because it's still fun and the dungeons are good. I just don't agree with you. It's weak and has all of the problems of the main game but exacerbated. The only point I agree with is that the side dungeons have been improved, but I still don't think they hold a candle to souls dungeons and I don't think souls works well in an open world, so all of the concessions they've made for it are just pointless to me.

[@thelegendofxander]

Totally fair! I like the tighter level design too, which is why shadow keep is my favourite part. The overworld, barring some exceptions is a bit featureless, yes, and some of the bosses are purely frustrating. I think if the scadu blessings were gone then the scaling wouldn’t be anywhere near as insane and it wouldn’t feel as frustrating.

[@ennayanne]

@@thelegendofxander I like tight level design when it means something, but the over abundance of graces meant there was no tension and the lack of enemy variety made most of the legacy dungeons really dull and pretty easy. Then I'd just get killed a billion times by one really overpowered horned knight enemy. If scadu fragments weren't a thing it still wouldn't solve my problems with the design overall

[@generalock3015]

There's a reason er outsold all 3 dark souls games 😂