Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree Podcast with Ratatoskr [Khan’s Kast]

[@theqeffect37]

The Stone Sheath Sword can be picked up from either of three altars: - Fog Rift Catacombs - Ruins of Unte - Rauh Ruins If its picked up from any of the altars, it disappears from the other two altars and the other two altars become altars of Light and Dark respectively. You can go to any altar and keep switching between Light & Darkness (there is no set number of times you can do). So its best to grab the initial sword from the Catacombs and have the other two ruins for switching for ease of access.

[@sleeping_caiju]

@@theqeffect37 I could’ve sworn I grabbed two swords

[@yezzariael965]

Often my reward of exploration are the beautifus vistas the game has - and i also look in every corner in every playthrough.

[@truebacon133]

That is actually a very good comment ratatoskr brought up. Tbh, i kinda felt a bit like that on Radahn. I ended up switching from dex, or maybe i was quality i dunno to strength just so those windows for hits were actually doing decent amounts of damage. I didn't summon and didn't want to use something that to me would've taken the enjoyment out of it like AOW spam, bleed stacking, being a wall with a greatshield etc. Now that doesn't mean anyone that does is playing it wrong or something along those lines that people like to say. This is just the way i enjoy playing these games I do feel like maybe the VFX could be toned down on some bosses, but again, if it doesnt its whatever, unless it's actually a detriment to performance.

[@j-plarouche9959]

Always dig your collab with Ratatoskr can't wait for this one as the DLC as been absolute fire for me.

[@Sentinel_ICBM]

Dark Souls 2 - March 2014 Bloodborne - March 2015 Dark Souls 3 - March 2016

[@biggums5]

I too, found the exploration to be incredibly fun and rewarding.

[@FSVR54]

I did not, and I love exploration

[@xTiddi]

@@biggums5 for the ambience and scenery yeah. But "rewards" nah. It's not rewarding.

[@jimb.598]

100% agree...Was incredibly engaging and fun.

[@enman009]

2:02:00 THANK YOU RURI! As someone that loves challenging games were skill is equally or more important than stats, I find Sekiro and Elden Ring's enemies and bosses satisfying to pure melee. I've consistently fougt solo every boss because I can consistently counter any boss by learning the movesets, and everything has been reasonable to me. Heck, I like Radahn, even if I agree they should lower the light intensity. It's fine if you don't like this level of challenge, but the reality is that some players don't find it as difficult nor unreasonable. A game doesn't have to cather to me if it's too hard or easy, it's on the developers to do what they see fit.

[@picklefathernurgle2719]

The difficulty wasn't the problem with the DLC bosses, it was how they were built. Meaning they were designed to counter so many different builds or playstyles that mid-tier builds and players were squished into min-maxxing for some of them. The design philosophy in the DLC, overall, was a bit less free and open in how players could approach a given difficult encounter. People then misrelayed this information as being a problem with difficulty.

[@enman009]

@@picklefathernurgle2719 I get the brutality of the challenge, but I'm not sure is that statement is accurate. As long as you explore to get scadibity fragments, which is similar to the items you gather in the base game, nothing should wreck you, regardless of build. I did pure melee no summons and no fight could counter an average greatsword or great katana enjoyer. Like the base game: this has nothing to do with builds if you're skilled enough. But yeah, there's always a build that's strong or weak depending on specific builds, but I haven't tried using magic or just incantations.

[@picklefathernurgle2719]

@@enman009 I wasn't talking about the fragments, I'm talking about the aggressiveness of the bosses combined with their bloated status resistances and stun resistance. The bosses as a result put a lot of pressure consistently on the player that results in many builds that center around needing a second or two to get themselves in order, summon spirits, cast spells and so on being made a lot harder to use. Its not the numbers that are the issue, its the overall flow of the experience that results from the overtuning of the movesets and resistances of the boss.

[@enman009]

@@picklefathernurgle2719 That's curious, considering that I have both seen videos and heard comments about how most non melee builds have a far easier with bosses than melee, just like lots of people said during the base game. Like I said, if you're skill enough, any build will work, this ain't a Hack'n'Slash RPG where you're married to one build. And if something doesn't work for you, try another tool or pure melee. I would also recommend seeing people defeating bosses so you can learn quickly.

[@picklefathernurgle2719]

@@enman009 I don't think you're listening to me. Yes, ranged builds always perform well if they can distance themselves from a boss, but in the DLC, the bosses are so aggressive that its hard to get that distance initially. Spellcasters and ranged builds also need allies to take the heat off of them, so unless you summon a player or NPC phantom you'll have a hard time getting enough breathing room to cast or fire, as summoning spirits, again, is difficult when most of the bosses initiate an attack the moment you step through the fog wall.

[@dumbname1961]

This happened to me 8min RIGHT AFTER THE LAUNCH TRAILER was put on youtube. I saw the notification and wanted to watch it. So i searched on youtube, and THE VERY TOP RESULT WAS the last boss on the thumbnail and his full fight and the Last cutscene. That ruined a lot of thing for me.

[@serjofcinder8925]

What channel did that?

[@dumbname1961]

@@serjofcinder8925 i forgot the name as i reported the video and disliked it, then pressed do not recommend channel as i was pissed off xD. But i remember it had like 80% dislike ratio, the guy was level 370+ using Giant crusher with new lions claw + mimic.

[@thecasualfly]

I actually stopped watching the trailer because I realized I was gonna get spoiled

[@RipwolfLeumas]

Yeah that sucks. I got Radagon from base game spoiled to me that way. I was playing since release day and this fucking dude just posted a video of him fighting Radagon titled "ELDEN RING FINAL BOSS! RADAGON!". I wasn't subscribed to him, I wasn't looking for a video like that, and he was obnoxious in the comments saying that he keeps getting views anyway because of it. Really left a bad taste in my mouth.

[@jimb.598]

Interesting I never got spoiled and watched all the prerelease trailers. Sounds like a user error

[@epsilon1275]

The Spoiler issue is 100% a new FromSoftware fan thing. These people dont care about finding or trying things organically and will, day one, search up "All weapon and armor showcase, top 10 broken DLC weapons, all boss cutscenes" they just simply dont care.

[@Danil_JRK]

@@epsilon1275 this has nothing to do with new fromsoft fans, its a new fan in general thing. You can see this on everything now.

[@proggz39]

I don’t agree. Everyone plays differently, new and old. Plenty of new players go in blind

[@piotr78]

IGN posted an image of the whole uncovered DLC map two weeks ago in a youtube community post. No blur, no spoiler tags, nothing. What's wrong wirt these people man

[@xTiddi]

I can say I'm a new FromSoftware Fan, started in 2022 when Elden Ring got released, played DS3 + DLC, Sekiro, AC6 -- then also tried other soulslike Lies of P, LotF, CodeVein. I'm waiting for a major sale for DS1 and 2. When I played the base game and the DLC, I went blind. Soooo yeah not all.

[@Xenbjorn]

There are also people out there that simply don’t play FromSoft titles because it’s too difficult but still enjoy the presentation of the game.

[@LokiHades]

Finally caught up and just gotta say I always love your talks with Rata! Thanks for this Ruri, keep being awesome!

[@JasonMondal]

I cant believe how much I enjoyed this podcast, The discourse between you two is pure gold, the open mindedness and how much I resonate with everything you've said, Props to both of you and I hope for much more like this to come, you deserve all the success that awaits your future

[@eluciumacademy3625]

My take is that Radahn is the perfect choice for a consort when gods can sometimes crash into your planet; you'd want someone who could halt and call stars.

[@DrChili1428]

The grab attack in P2 of the fight with Consort Radahn makes me think it could also be a completely one-way “promise” and Radahn could or could not have known about it, agreed to it or not, and it wouldn’t have mattered anyway. When grabbed the first time Miquella promises us “a thousand year voyage guided by compassion”. Obviously we don’t want anything to do with it, but we are marked by him anyway. When grabbed again Miquella fulfills that promise regardless of our desires, stealing our heart and keeping his deal that we never agreed to.

[@AscendantStoic]

He probably used Mohg's body because he could charm Mohg but couldn't charm Radahn, hence why Malenia had to kill him first.

[@YetiCoolBrother]

35:30 I've recently become a proponent of what I call the "Over my dead body" theory. Basically stating that in response to the memory of Miquella we see Radahn said "Over my dead body," and meant it literally as in if you want me to bend the knee to you you must defeat me in combat (also theorizing that Miqy couldnt charm Radahn). Would explain why Malenia fought him & her whisper to him, as well as why he needed to put Radahn's soul in to Mohg's body (he couldnt charm Radahn & clearly could Mohg).

[@sixft_under]

@YetiCoolBrother idk if that's original or where you heard it but that's a dope theory. This is my new cope

[@Spark31Gaming]

I'm really glad Ratatoskr was on this episode to bring up a counterpoint to the difficulty argument. I feel like people who get frustrated by the difficulty of Elden Ring often get misrepresented as old farts who can't get over the fact that new tools have been put into the game to overcome its challenges. In reality I think the enjoyable part about the fights in these games is engaging with the bosses moveset and "dancing" with them. A lot of the time people focus on the "if it's too hard just use spirit summons" argument but that does nothing for the people who are into these games for the back and forth of a fight. Spirit ashes break the flow and immersion of the dance with the boss so they simply stop having fun when using spirit ashes. This has nothing to do with the validity of the tactic, just the intrinsic motivation for people playing the game in the first place. The game's design is increasingly moving in a direction that limits the amount players are doing a "back and forth." I think it's reasonable to be upset that one of your favorite game series of all time is now different in an irrevocable way. I've been increasingly frustrated with this type of criticism being stawmanned into "these players are trying to play a game in a way that no longer exists. Fucking gatekeeping losers can't keep up with the times" and I'm really glad to hear some pushback in the community against that from someone.

[@isaacaderogba1199]

Yeah, I really disliked how Rurikhan didn't seem to appreciate that some players just don't like using summons. He repeats his "just use summons, don't feel ashamed" line in so many of his videos and it's really condescending at this point. I hope how Ratatoskr has described it for him has finally been able to help him see things from our perspective.

[@Justin-sl7ri]

I do think that they have just about reached the height of what the base Souls formula can provide in terms of difficultly without the games becoming actually broken. I hope that all their future titles will start to add in more unique mechanics. Like they did in Sekiro, Bloodbourne, and Armored Core.

[@FSVR54]

I hope for future games it's not Souls, as ER is just open world DS4.

[@zora508]

I'm glad someone talks about the amount of scadu fragments in the dlc. i think there's a lot of empty space they could just add 15 extra to make them less annoying in new playthroughs

[@ShivaX51]

One thing to consider about Smithing Stones is that a lot of enemies also drop them. So finding a Smithing Stone [4] x3 on the ground is kind of crappy. Admittedly, it's still way better than a random flower, but I get why people were crapping on them. As far as Scadutree Fragements, they really need to drop from bosses so you aren't forced to ride around the whole map on every character. They needed to be like Golden Seeds as in that there needed to be extras. It takes 30 Seeds to fully upgrade you Flasks. There are 41 of them in the game. Scadutree Fragments require 50 to fully upgrade. There are 50 of them in the game. It's an obvious (imo) oversight. Adding a Fragment or two to bosses would even it out perfectly. The upside is it would bring back the freedom Rata was talking about. You wouldn't have to search every corner of every map, but if you did, you'd still get a power bump early which will help. Edit: That quote Rata read from the other video is exactly where I think I am on Radahn and Fromsoft's trends. I love the dance. Only I'm not allowed to dance anymore. I have to use Ashes of War and summons, ideally just bypassing the mechanics of the fight entirely. I can do it, sure, but I don't find it fun. I want to dance, to give and take, not watch a Shonen anime for 15-20 seconds and then get a single light attack in and do it all over again.

[@geordiejones5618]

How are Ashes not part of the dance? The only difference between these bosses and the bosses of the early game are that they can do more of what you can do. They still don't have as many resources as you do. If you can't handle it without certain resources that's your skill issue. I've already seen a bunch of players beating these bosses no hit level 1, and they have no problem with the dance.

[@ShivaX51]

Weapon Arts usually trivialize the dance. It's like a boxing match where I show up with an MP-5. We're not boxing at that point.

[@damienjohnson3450]

You mean the bosses you need the fragments to be strong enough to beat?

[@ShivaX51]

@@damienjohnson3450 You don't need 18 Blessings worth of Fragments to beat most bosses though. If actually fighting them gave Fragments you could progress more naturally. Beat Dancing Camera Boss, get a Fragment or two and that's easily a level if you beat him at Blessing 2 or 3 (which most people did on release). Edit: Almost every boss seems tuned to a certain number of Blessings, but odds are someone will reach them with some other number, either too low or too high (usually the former if they play it like ER/DS), which just throws the progression curve off completely.

[@PregnantAdamSandler]

I feel like the thing with Rellana is that her dungeon is comparatively so much easier than her that it's shocking. Belurat had some parts that were hard if you weren't prepared/didn't just run past, but Castle Ensis really didn't have many spots that were notably hard so fighting against Rellana ends up being a shock of cold water to most people. I think it's reasonable to assume that you're not even going to fight a remembrance boss with how that dungeon is structured.

[@ctg4818]

Day 1 spoilers is exactly why the industry needs to stop giving early access to rich streamers

[@rurikhan]

You think popular streamers are the ones spoiling ?

[@fastenedcarrot9570]

IGN showed the full map, The Gamer talked about the final boss (although they didn't specify that it was that) and the launch trailer spoiled a whole load of stuff. I'm sure some stuff came out because of early access but there are other problems imo

[@feircy]

The spoilers will spoil regardless of what they do. Just gotta go hermit mode and swipe away every god damn notification you get 😂. Don't even look at thumbnails, its not worth.

[@proggz39]

I’ve never seen a spoiler from a big streamer. It’s always been leakers or randoms

[@ZugzugZugzugson]

@@rurikhan 100% dude. the first thing Vaati (and the others) did after being invited to the pre-launch event (where he and others were allowed to play 3 hours of the DLC) was make a video spoiling everything he could about the starting zone. like what do you mean?

[@Dillon_J]

it is weird that there were no extra scadutree fragments since the base game had extra seeds and stuff for flasks.

[@joaoluizkfsantos8392]

If you mean the sacred tears that increase potency, then no, there's only 12 of them, capping at +12 Golden seeds are the only one with more than the required amount

[@buckyhurdle4776]

@@joaoluizkfsantos8392 To his point though, the seeds are more analogous. The seeds can be anywhere and increase in the amount needed to upgrade, the sacred tears are all inside churches that can be seen on the map

[@smokey0111]

But here's the thing - if there were say an extra 20 fragments, would you want the max blessing level to be 20 or 25? And if it's the latter, where do you draw a line?

[@leadfaun]

@@smokey0111 keep it at 20.

[@feircy]

My favoritr part of the dlc was wandering around and seeing stuff in the distance, just going everywhere but where I was supposed to 😂. It reminded me of ds1 and breath of the wild a bit honestly in the regard.

[@troybarrow8810]

I think one of the things that helps point to the shadow realm being separated later on in the time line is that rellana is part of messmers invasion force. If it wasnt after caria and the golden order were at war then i dont see how how a carian royal and her soldiers would be allowed there. And why the messmer soldiers outside and inside the castle wouldnt be attacking the carians if they were enemies. Also i think radahn was always miquella's chosen primarily because when you enter the arena he initially says "my loyal blade, and champion of the festival. Forever your deeds will be praised in song" To me implies that both his loyal blade (malenia) and the champion of the festival (the tarnished) helped him to see his goal through by killing radahn so he could resurrect him. Malenia rotted him and we finished him off. I also feel like that kind of implies radahn didnt really want to be his consort.

[@Dracobyte]

Rise up Ironbreakers ganng, get ready for another great collaboration!

[@bunklypeppz]

I totally get Ratatoskr's annoyance with a person coming into the chat at the start of the DLC and saying there was no new lore on a particular character. That's one of the most annoying kinds of spoilers imo and it often seems like people don't consider that kind of thing to be a spoiler. They think that just because they only mention things that weren't included, that they didn't spoil anything, but telling me that something I am hoping to possibly see isn't gonna be there just makes me disappointed from the start and detracts from any anticipation I might feel about it going forward, which is part of the enjoyment of experiencing lore/story regardless of what it actually ends up being.

[@skelly8500]

Honestly fully agree with Ruri's take on difficulty. Please let souls players have their' one game series, if people are SL1 level running it, it's not too hard, its just too hard for YOU. That's when you summon someone to help you, not say that the thing is bad. Obviously if there's hitbox issues that's it's own issue that needs to be fixed. But a good, beatable challenge in the way that souls does it is a special thing that should not be fucked with, ISHIN is one of the greatest fights ever and honestly was much harder than radahn as there were no summons or build options.

[@AWr00tBearII]

1:58:00 I think the Radahn fight is too hard. I play as a Spell Sword character. I basically have a staff in my left hand and sword on my right hand. I don’t like blocking. I like learning how to dodge everything. I’ve beaten every Fromsoft hard boss including Radahn. But I could not beat him my way. I had to repec into Bleed Sorcery. Which might get nerfed later. He gives so little openings to throw out any spell. I have zero hyper armor on any of my spells. I would like to see a pure caster build beat Radahn because how are you supposed to beat him.

[@PaulRoche-iv4oh]

One thing about the shadow tree fragments that I don’t think many people know (and for good reason there’s no way you could unless you checked) but once youve reached scadutree level 12, you have between 85-90% of the total buff the scadutree fragments give, from levels 1-12 you gain substantial buffs each level, but starting at level 13 and up you gain less than half a percent attack and defense, based on that I feel like fromsoft expected people to miss some of them but what they didn’t convey is that you don’t HAVE to have all of them, the difference between say level 12 and level 18 is less than a 5% difference in attack rating and defenses

[@maxrusty3596]

Ya people miss this very obvious point. They just assume your supposed to find them all and From are idiots which is ironic.

[@devasprime6700]

As for Radhan, I think killing him to bring on an eclipse to ressurect and horrid zombie version of Godwyn would've been crazy. Like Miquella just couldn't let him go as his consort and plan for a new godly rule

[@randomnobody9229]

This is the biggest issue with the story of the DLC. Everyone, like yourself, had two years to write fan fiction. There was zero chance it would live up to expectations because it will not match the stories that people have already written during the wait. Edit: I personally like the ending. Miquella being a malevolent terrifying force was hinted at many times during the base game. The ultimate betrayal and coopting an unstoppable force is a nice wrap up and totally in line with his character.

[@night_tiime]

@@randomnobody9229 Miquella being morally grey was hinted at during the base game- so no one is upset about that. But Radahn being the consort is undoubtably an asspull. No hint of it in the basegame and the reasoning behind it being “oh he’s a powerful and nice guy” is lacking. The whole idea of reviving him after we gave him an honorable death at the festival is a twist- but not a good one

[@cyberninjazero5659]

49:50 Problem with that theory is that Godwynn was still alive when the theory was made, so Radahn had to have been the first choice 1:02:30 In Norse Myth, Thor's weapon was supposed to be two handed but Loki sabotaged its forging

[@FrigidOven]

I think something that gets ignored in the difficulty discussion is how varried attempts can be. Most bosses have some easier and harder to deal with combo strings, but because of how much damage any of these strings can do and how fast they come out, it will also take much longer to learn them. But, since bosses have some level of randomness to them, fights all too often end before complete mastery is acheived because you are more likely to get and win a lucky attempt with more familiar attacks before you can reach full mastery of the harder ones. In my own experience, both times I've beaten Messmer, he did a minimal amount of snake attacks in phase 2. When I beat Radahn, he got staggered out of his meteor crash and generally stuck to his phase 1 attacks, not doing any of the gravity ones. When I beat Malenia, she only did her waterfowl dance once. Rata mentions that his first Messmer win he basically killed him as soon as the second phase started. This sort of win to me does not feel satisfying. It feels like a dice roll wether I will win on the next attempt or not and so it feels less like a test of skill. I still found Sekiro and even Lies Of P harder than Elden Ring but I can come back to any of the bosses in that game and have no trouble. For Elden Ring and especially SOTE, I cannot say the same.

[@fastenedcarrot9570]

Frejya is like of they made Nepheli Loux actually interesting, even if she is quite annoying in the Specimen Storeroom when she won't shut up even after you've spoken to her.

[@devasprime6700]

I really wanted more on Godwyn. I think the stealing of and desire for Mogh's body needed a little more clarification

[@AscendantStoic]

Godwyn's story ended with Fia's storyline.

[@devasprime6700]

@AscendantStoic if they can zombie soul snatched Radahn via Mogh's corpse, then Godwyn's story was easily up for grabs, but I get your point. I was just disappointed to see Radahn because I thought the festival meant to grant him an honorable death for a true champion was a nice wrap up for him

[@AscendantStoic]

@devasprime6700 Sure, but remember that the scene of Malenia whispered something in Radhan's ear was never revealed until the very end of the DLC, so Radhan was planned from the start...remember we also never understood why he and Malenia were fighting.

[@devasprime6700]

@AscendantStoic still disappointing imo planned or not. I wanted a new god to slay, not a "prime" version of one I already beat, especially when it kinda kills the mystique around "how good was Redahn really?" when I just whooped his ass

[@tlungu962]

godwyn would not work. His soul is completely destroyed so it couldn’t be taken in Mougs body & his body we see what happened. Fías questline wraps it up I don’t like it’s radahn either but u Godwyn fanboys need to understand it wouldn’t work. Miquella already failed giving Godwyn a true death w/the eclipse. Miquella can’t finish shit

[@effive7817]

I can't represent every persons opinion, but at least for me. The "empty world" complaint I share isn't a case of "the other open-world game does it better", its more of "this is problem with open-world games". I, at the very least, am not comparing open world games, I'm comparing other adventure/rpgs and previous FromSoftware games.

[@xTiddi]

1:07:45 @Rurikhan you can duplicate remembrances even after you use em. My only issue with ash summons is they make the fight very very very trivial. I really don't believe that the bosses are balanced/designed with summons in mind, let me explain. Let's say if you don't summon the difficulty is like 10, but if you summon it sits between 1-3, so yeah I don't believe it is balanced, and ashen summons are OP. But I'm not saying this to invalidate people's wins. A win is still a win.

[@DrkTide7]

Just some input on smithscript weapons after the nerf. I found a winner for me. Beat the final boss for the first time with this build as well. Fire Smithscript Cirque with Blind Spot. Fat B strength scaling for this infusion is relatively rare and has great dmg. Definitely underrated IMHO. Lvl 150 - 54 strength, 14 Dex, 25 Faith (for Golden Vow and other weapon requirements), 60 Vigor, 18 Mind (mainly for buffs etc.), 11 Int. Full Rakshasa armor set. Which is “essentially” free dmg. It does NOT give reduced resistances like scorpion charms. Talismans were Dragoncrest Greatshield, Shard of Alexander, Smithing Talisman and Rotten Wing Sword Insignia. Fire dmg tear and Crimson Bubbletear in flask. Boiled Crab and Well-Pickled Turtle Neck for consumables. All stack with Golden Vow and I’m a big fan of how it feels.

[@ALaz502]

You DONT have to 100% explore and get all 50. Level 12-13 is plenty. 13 to 20 is barely a boost with how the blessings scale. 13 to 20 is like a 6% boost. 0 to 1 and 1 to 2 are 8% boosts alone.

[@enman009]

For anyone that wants more clarification on the final boss, I highly recommend Paspaya's video on Mogh Matters. It shows you plenty of discoveries and foreshadowing of Promised Consort and Miquella being disrespectful. Ash Lake also has a great video on Radahn being a slave rather than a willing consort.

[@Zelisius]

Love the aspect of crucible wings. My strength character is role playing as a valkerie, so that ash with a twinblade is perfect! I do use bloodflame blade with it though to increase damage

[@TRUEMIXEDBLOOD]

Not sure if you guys discussed it but I wanted write this before I forgot 😂 The way Miquella "asks" Radahn to be his consort is extremely similar to the prayer that is referenced in the Golden Epitaph sword description, even down to how he refers to his brother. I've been kicking around the idea of Radahn being a second choice for a few days and it's good to hear I'm not the only one (first time I hear it mentioned on the Internet).

[@BasketCase-rr7tx]

I can’t imagine that From Software would ever make a coop only souls game. A large part of their fan base only plays these games solo and probably wouldn’t enjoy trying to do that in a game designed for coop. I really can’t see them wanting to disappoint half their fan base in that way.

[@imfamouswarrior2976]

Love hearing Remnant 2 mentioned. Those games are so slept on.

[@Zelisius]

@@imfamouswarrior2976 remnant 2 was my goty when it came out. And I believe they recently made a mention of the 3rd dlc! I'm hyped

[@imfamouswarrior2976]

@@Zelisius i agree! And yes dlc 3 soon 🙏🏽🙏🏽

[@dogej5979]

2:00:10 Ruri, you just described Consort Radahn

[@dogej5979]

2:01:15 twice

[@rurikhan]

Not even close. I’ve literally traded blows with Radahn without a shield.

[@Tyanus2]

@@dogej5979 I agree with you it's funny how people can be blinded lol

[@Grubkiller35]

Ruri, love you guys. Sometimes even a bit to cheesy lol but one of the reasons ill forever be a die hard fan, is that this is a SPOILER cast. And you guys STILL respect us enough to not name every little thing an use work around words as to not spoil certain things. Its just awesome

[@UkazutoX]

40:00 ish, you can swap between them whenever, no need to go through ng+ just to get another, the upgrade level stays as well, so no need to worry about that either

[@mscalg15]

I personally found myself getting burnt out exploring for scadutree fragments. I explored a lot and eventually got to level 17, but when I was exploring I did so with the fear in the back of my mind of missing a fragment. It made me comb through areas a lot more thoroughly than I preferred to and was more stress-inducing than I think was intended.

[@moonrabbit2334]

Do you know how to avoid that? Use map marker and mark all the fragments you found. So later when you feel underleveled, you can look up all the fragments and you know exactly which ones you missed. Don't force yourself to do things like grinding in games it will ruin the game for you. That's why I have stopped playing all these gacha games, they have make the materials so rare you have to grind for hours if you don't wanna pay for it. It sucks in hindsight and I will never ever play games like that ever again no matter how fun they look

[@minerman60101]

They patched it to have level 12 be the soft cap, and there be diminishing returns afterwards. I got all but four of fifty fragments exploring naturally, and did everything but the final boss at level 8 (I upgraded to 12 for that final boss but still haven't beaten it yet)

[@Shinigami00Azael]

49:01 we were telling you all for a long time that Rune of Death was removed while establishing Golden Order, so when Radagon got together with Marika. I think it was then that Marika was supposed to be supplanted by her daughter Melina as a God, but she fought her off, killed her and removed Rune of Death for her rule to never end.

[@bunklypeppz]

I agree with Ratatoskr on the subject of "difficulty" in souls games being related to the "dance" between the player and the boss, for many people. A lot of people claim that souls bosses are not "hard" because there are so many ways you can cheese them and avoid mechanics, but people who value these games for the challenge they present are not interested in fighting the boss that way-- bosses have specific mechanics and move sets that are intended to be possible to directly engage with and overcome through practice, and doing so can be quite difficult but very rewarding; that is primarily what most of the aforementioned players are interested in. My goal when fighting a boss is to get to the point where I can confidently dodge and attack the boss with proper timing roughly 80% of the time or more (for their trickiest combos/abilities), and if I beat a boss before getting to that point, it is usually because my character was at least a little overpowered and I wasn't forced to fully learn the fight, which is not very satisfying to me. I don't have anything against players who want to beat the bosses by any means necessary, but that isn't what I typically play these kind of games to do. To me, it's not even a matter of being "good" at the game; it's about the willingness to be persistent and to embrace the process of learning each new fight-- that is what I appreciate so much about a good soulslike game.

[@maxrusty3596]

And people will call you elitist for realising there is a "proper" way to learn these bosses. Have fun play how u want but your right...learning the mechanics is the most rewarding way to play but everyone wants the easy way out AND to feel like they beat a tough boss. But no dude you didnt.

[@effive7817]

2:00:21 Scadutree Fragments are a difficulty slider typical of almost every other game, though atypically outside of the options menu; change my mind

[@Affiiance]

Let’s gooooo!!!!

[@reverb2516]

I love this podcast, you guys are both awesome, thank you for putting this together. I resonate so much with that comment you read out close to the end of the cast regarding difficulty, it beautifully puts in to words something that can be hard to get across. Personally i loved the DLC, i did find a lot of the bosses really challenging. the main thing i really wished they added though was a way to respawn the bosses, without having to go through the playthrough again. I so often try to search for that sweet spot in boss fights between too hard and cheese, that beautiful sweet spot where things feel reasonably fair and it can (hopefully) play out a bit like a dance. But that can be hard to find and sometimes after a bunch of losses i get frustrated and sometimes I just blow the boss away with something that leaves me feeling unsatisfied afterwards. Sometimes after a bunch of losses i just need to know that i CAN win. After that i want to go back in and effectively play with the settings a bit by adjusting my gear/talismans/ash of war etc. Especially while i am still in the head space of that bosses moveset etc. It's not something i see people talk about so i wonder if anyone else feels the same way. Thanks again for the amazing content :)

[@attacpowdergaming7098]

Achieving the dance is max hard level. At that point, managing your own frustration and patience is part of the game. Gotta level that up just like you would strength to use your desired greatsword or something. I’ve raged at times myself, enough to question game design just like everyone else but I’m getting so much better in that regard since I realized rage management is part of the game. I still have things I would like for them to stop doing, such as multiple boss boss fights, but whatever

[@positivecontacts]

Hello- I never went out of my way to find shadow tree fragments and beat the dlc at 165lvl. I never felt compelled to seek more fragments to make things easier. Those on the beaten path seemed more than enough. It seemed evident which bosses were gatekeepers of progress, mainly Rellana, Hippo, Messmer and Radahn. Everything around this was just amazing adventuring!

[@Ashers-skull-ink]

Hope they talk about npc. All of them in the dlc are fire and are honestly very fluid and easy to complete blind.

[@geordiejones5618]

The only bosses that truly pissed me off trying a no shield, no spirit summons, no scadutree fragments run were that Tongue Knight (mostly the arena and the endless agro of the soldiers around him) and Shadow Keep Golden Hippo. With the latter it was instadeath if I was eaten or if he did the second phase jump, so I summoned Freya and Hornsent and just spammed Ancient Lightning Strike with every buff possible. Gaius was also tough with the broken hitboxes but Torrent and ranged options made it manageable and not nearly as rage-inducing as Golden Hippo. I died more to the other major bosses, but I felt a sense of growth that I could actually do it, unlike Golden Hippo where I couldn't stay behind him and do/avoid enough damage. Radahn I had to just swallow my pride and upgrade myself because I couldn't get anywhere in his second phase after hours.

[@gagegrogan4352]

I absolutely love Rurikhan but after listening to many of his podcasts I’ve come to realize he’s the person that says, “guess what?” And actually waits for u to guess 😅 great podcast and so glad u have Rata back on here 👏

[@gagegrogan4352]

I just want to clarify I’m not talking crap lol I love it and you’re just a genuine dude and it makes me love your content even more 👏

[@Zaney_]

I'll be honest, Annihilation has nothing on the final boss's lightshow. Annihilation is a lot of red but you can learn to ignore most of it and just look at its sword. The final boss's lightshow is always on screen and it destroys my framerate.

[@Zelisius]

That boss also had solid audio cues to help with its attacks

[@dasninjastix]

1:55:50 - with respect to this observation by the commenter, they (From) has already made those games. They're already made mostly choreographed boss fights around the constraints of the game in terms of what stats, what weapons, what items, and what assistance the player might have. Then in Sekiro (which I do not consider a souls game) they narrowed the scope of combat forcing you into a specific play style with a specific mechanic in mind. They went from that extreme to the extreme of Elden Ring which provides the player the most amount of freedom to craft a build since Dark Souls 2, but gives more tools than ever provided before. And it seems like overall that this has been their most popular gameplay model in terms of sales. I fall into the a camp that definitely prefers the boss battles of Dark Souls 3 and Bloodborne to the ones in Elden Ring and the DLC from a straight up action/combat perspective, but from an RPG perspective I prefer Elden Ring's freedom for me to solve the problems more so with tactics and strategies rather than outright skill. Though the game still allows you to play with outright skill, it just doesn't demand you perfect dodge everything, it doesn't demand you block, block, dodge, counter, repeat, it's way more open in the way you approach things meaning players can have wildly different experiences based upon what play style they favor and while that will leave some disappointed that freedom to me sets Elden Ring apart from everything else they've done in the best way possible. While I love Bloodborne's combat and adore trick weapons, I prefer the various combinations of weapons and items along with the overall flexibility of Elden Ring way more. I'm glad they went in this direction, I much rather the player base be the ones to determine how much they want to dig into the tool bag to solve a problem. You get to have a challenge-run game and you get easy modes all at the same time. There seems to be a notion that player experience has to have some sort of parity but that seem counter to what From has built with these games. That Elden Ring was so successful hopefully means they don't regress, but instead build in new mechanics to allow each segment of player to manage the fights in a way that is fun to them. I love Dark Souls 3 but there's too many segments of the game that aren't fun for me. The Chalices of Bloodborne are aggressively unfun to me. Backtracking in DS1 gets heavily romanticized but can more often than not be extremely unfun. The progress of Elden Ring seems to be mitigating some those slogs and lulls in the game by having an abundance of diversity. I'm not a fan of the sentiment that something was lost going in this direction. They did their own formula to death and then some. I only hope that they take the next game even further.

[@Killing_Edge]

The seamless coop mod has me believing they can make the coop way better

[@cdeo4l668]

miyazaki already commented on this and said he likes the mod and will probably implement it in later games but the objective of mp rn is to summon help to beat a boss and that was it

[@cdeo4l668]

kinda like ingame summons

[@Shinigami00Azael]

1:48:35 I do not know if that is guaranteed because I run dual wielded great lances, so there was a lot of stamina damage there, but if I would hit him in the abdomen when he was going up with jump attack during the large AOE, he always lost the balance and was open for reposte, the way that the main attack was happening during the i-frames of reposte. And I mean always, because once I just riposted him and he made the attack right after and I broke his stance regardless.

[@gagegrogan4352]

I thought the exploration was amazing and the verticality was awesome how it bends and weaves over itself. But I do wish there was at least one cave in every area, for example the cerulean coast and the finger ruins. Such incredible areas and it looks like there would be some insane lore to find there and there was practically nothing. Still awesome areas but when I do the quest do be able to blow the finger horn thing I was totally expecting some boss to spawn or something insane would happen lol Regardless the dlc was incredible and I think shadow keep is one of my favorite areas in the whole game but I just wish there was a tiny bit more in certain areas.

[@michaelliu1361]

Dude, i was in the exact same boat as Rata's friend. I loved demon of hatred since i just finished a ds3 playthrough and glock saint isshin hard walled me for the longest time.

[@darkknight57691]

The Chair even haunts Rata here! That's so hilarious

[@darkreaver01]

I had a pretty crazy experience fighting the fume knight from dark souls 2 dlc first time i fought him. I took down most of the bubbles around the arena, and i found him around 6 at night. Played until 11 or so that night and failed to kill him. I go at it the next day. Play from noon to 6 at night, and my gf bless her heart has been watching me fail over and over, and she turns on "eye of the tiger" to cheer me up. And for some reason, his swings almost perfectly matched the music (or it felt that way), and i beat him that try... it was glorious and exhausting.

[@OldManInternet]

I was fine with the smithing stones, but I think adding more consumables as drops would have been fun. Maybe more rune arcs, starlight fragments, or other similar things. And possibly create new consumables and make them more available, such as the golden vow item.

[@saulgoneman]

I think a big problem with the open world exploration is the lack of enemy variety, and especially the lack of NEW enemies. You meet almost all the new basic open world enemies in the first region - shadow people, Gravebirds, Hornsent Inquisitors, Messmer soldiers and Bloodfiends - and then they're just repeated throughout the whole map. Part of the reason I adored base game Elden Ring's exploration is the constant barrage of new enemies and new bosses. There aren't actually any new bosses out in the field in the DLC iirc (the dragons have some changes to them, but they're still dragons). I don't think the DLC could've ever lived up to the first playthrough of the base game for me, because the game and its formula are too familiar to me now, but I also don't think its rose tinted glasses to say the open world just isn't as good. The cool exploration moments are finding new regions and seeing how the map connects, but exploring those regions isn't as fun as I hoped. Its not just down to enemy variety, I have other complaints, but I think thats the biggest one. I wish they'd cut some of the remembrance bosses (though they're awesome) and put that work into creating new enemies instead.

[@jakshay8871]

i think we can always ignore litty bitty criticisms. the conclusion is so far i love the dlc

[@Shinigami00Azael]

1:53:55 You can 100% dodge it all and certainly enough to kill him. I run Dual Great Spears and I just was dodging most of the things. Yeah, I had a lot of health and a lot of defence, but I was able to dodge enough to kill him.

[@PregnantAdamSandler]

I feel like Ratatoskr's idea of mimic Radahn would have been a better way to handle tha callback. Or at least have it be either more imperfect in some way that makes it more distinct than "The Radahn you did fight, but stronger"

[@wavydavy6255]

Messmer voice actor is really good in the trailer too I thought

[@alephnole7009]

Part of the reason areas like the coast felt so empty to me was that not only was there not really a lot of items in that location but there where no NPCs, no real structures, and 90% of the enemies where just spirit worms, shadow people and birds. There was one little patch of skeletons and one little patch of demi humans and that was the only real variety to the whole area. Compare that to Limgrave or Liurnia for example and the variety of things there and the amount of structures and unique little camps or encounters all over. You spend 5 minutes in the coast and you've seen everything it has to offer basically. Same goes for the finger areas. There where lots of lamprey aliens and that was it. No fragments, no unique items or interesting encounters protecting something. The dlc had no Night encounters. Enemies weren't effected by the night like demi humans. The rest of the locations where much better but even then, they all just had the same enemies as all the other areas for the most part. 90% of all areas enemies are just Shadow people & birds.

[@FSVR54]

it should've been pure level design like Ds1/Ds2/Ds3/BB/Sekiro, no Torrent available, no open world. Not sure why a DLC has to be MORE OF THE SAME. There's plenty of DLCs that switch things up, I mean that's the whole point of DLC...something different

[@Ghorda9]

you also had demi humans and shades, and two other locations at the corners

[@mangasinatanaelpanjaitan3048]

To me people who think areas like the Cerulean Coast or Finger Ruins are empty or meaningless, probably don’t appreciate the good tools or consumables you can get out of those areas. Just to name a few, eternal sleep pot, lulling branch, the finger nostrum for magic/faith twink builds, and the +1 seed talismans

[@maxrusty3596]

@@mangasinatanaelpanjaitan3048 Thats no the point. Its a bunch of wasted space when Miyazaki said it would be MORE dense not less than the base game. And so many times i was left disappointed and like thats it?

[@essentialx17]

I’m under the impression that Miquella tried to revive Godwyn for two reasons. First and most boringly he simply cared about his brother’s death. He’s all about compassion right so not outside his ball park. But what I think is a more convincing theory is that Godwyn was the initial vessel for Radahns soul when he perished and Mohg’s corpse was his back up. I don’t know though, 2 years later I still don’t know what the eclipse means or the duskborn ending implications but these were my first impressions on Miq’s intentions with Godwyn.

[@johntomaro7202]

Would’ve been cool if the mausoleum bosses gave scad frags.

[@joaoluizkfsantos8392]

Makes it simpler to skip the mini dungeons you dislike on repeat playthroughs at least

[@LonelyGamr]

Staggering enemies with strength really makes it easier for sure

[@truebacon133]

The only area I felt truly empty and like I wasted my time was the abyssal woods. Because aside from the main path, exploring around tended to just end with nothing and obviously since there was no torrent that exploring took longer.

[@FSVR54]

I feel like all of them wasted my time. DLC should've been no torrent, no open world

[@avatarnang5803]

​@@FSVR54i feel like i wasted my time reading your objectively bad opinion

[@nolanwinterburn194]

The NPC gank fight drove me insane. I decided to not use npcs because i killed anschbach with leda and tollier died somehow, so I fought it alone id kill freyja then as dryleaf dane and moore chased me i slowly dwindled there healths down by running away constantly till there split. took me over 45 per attempts. I hate moore cause he heavy rolls but is the most agressive and fastest running speed for some unknown awful reason.

[@fratut]

I believe Rhadan is just a vesel for Godwyn's spirit, because Miquella calls him "lord brother", and also says during the second phase "At long last you have returned", I dont think he would refer to Rhadan like that, also if you do one of the NPC's quest lines, cant remember his name, guy that knows allot, and find a sealed scroll, he does talk about using him as a vesel.

[@fastenedcarrot9570]

You can actually swap between the Light and Dark swords, you just can't go back to sheathed (I think each shrine that transformed it gets locked into transforming it the original way it did and the one you got it from is uninteractable). That sword was driving me nuts when I got it, I thought it was going to have crazy lore significance or something and I was trying all sorts of weird stuff to find an interaction to break it or something. Also spent ages trying to get to the shrine in Rauh not realising what it was and thinking I had to jump from the spirit spring.

[@HadoukenX]

I want fromsoft to make a dank, dark blade runner/cyberpunk atmosphere game. Rainy, dirty, techno priests, and Eldritch horrors of the future.

[@zmills342]

@@HadoukenX duuudee I need this now lol

[@jellydamgood]

Damn, PK was 2nd best after Midra for me. He's just so different with really chill and nice music, like a nice slow dance.

[@stevemichael652]

The problem with the scadutree fragment system is that you never truly knew if you were intended to fight any boss you came across. You didn’t know if you were underleveled or if that was indeed the intended difficulty. And it just added an extra layer of complications to a boss that was already going to be nightmarish to solve.

[@FSVR54]

scadutree system is trash, don't care what argument anyone uses. I hated it

[@stevemichael652]

@@FSVR54 it wasn’t good

[@areuisgirl3504]

@@FSVR54 For real. The cope from Elden Ring consoomers is insane. The balance was never an issue for any other Souls DLC and the Elden Ring fans will gaslight and say “Souls DLCs were always the hardest part of the games, this is no different.” Super annoying

[@SubiKinubi]

@@areuisgirl3504I agree, the twins in ds3 still mess me up even after all this time

[@balmain2496]

I’m disappointed you guys didn’t mention a single time Abyssal Woods and Midra. Epic creepy moment.

[@GB-yx9xd]

It's now canon that metyr is pronounced as mater, the truck from Cars

[@shoopah92]

rurikhan's face when ratatoskr says strength builds are easier is gold

[@Shinigami00Azael]

53:03 is the reason I left the like on this video xD F**king hilarious and true at the same time xD

[@fratut]

Speaking of fragments, somehow I was missing just 1 when I got to the final boss to be at lvl 20, and it was in the spoopy forest, cant blame me for that xD

[@VonBoche]

Given the scadutree patch that changed the linear progression to a much more generous curve early on that slows down past level 12, I think the scadutree blessings are numbered well enough. You get most of the benefits without finding them all and in general you never needed them all to begin with. You were never expected to find them all, so I don't think hitting max-level stems from anything but a completionist mindset. People who don't want to explore will still find a fair few in the straight lines between bosses and I would assume those kinds of players are interested in the challenge so not being as levelled as they could possibly be shouldn't matter too much. Personally I much prefer the number being the exact amount rather than the leeway of the golden seeds because it's disappointing to find those in the base game when you've already maxed out your flasks. On the other hand, any scadutree fragments you find will always be wortwhile.

[@effive7817]

12:30 The reason the other games have a pass is because the games literally has less. Less space, less filler. In the others games, you would be hardpressed to go hours only grabbing crafting materiels. While in Elden Ring, its common.

[@MeneltirFalmaro]

Rata-senpai noticed me yay Love both your channels o7

[@AscendantStoic]

Elden Ring: Shadow of Ratatoskr's Chair .... if you know you know 😅

[@johnhuddleston1986]

My hope is that the next souls like from FromSoft is not open world. I'm tired of running around on Torrent. I'm ready for more of the tight level design of the older titles.

[@WrenchMonkey91]

They need to add some more support sorceries, all the buffs and healing are faith incantations. I'd love something that buffs my frost or something using sorcery instead for magic or moonlight builds.

[@ShadeAnris]

Honestly part of the problem with the final boss spoilers is that it’s reached outside of the elden ring player base. I’ve seen so many people who don’t play the game/don’t like the game shit on the dlc under the impression that it’s a straight up boss reuse and go out of their way to spoil it

[@kristofferkjeldsen6268]

Messmer's voice better in the game than in the trailer? Not a chance

[@madgoonproductions8406]

I hope that Miyazaki takes the message that the community sent with the review bomb and takes it to heart and uses it to inform his future game design decisions. But by that I don’t mean that he should never make a game harder than the ER DLC. He should absolutely do that if that’s what he wants to do. But at least he knows that if he does that he will be exceeding a skill gap that many of his players aren’t comfortable with contending with and that will, of course have certain consequences.

[@mikeshivak]

I agree with the frustrations Rat. Whats the point if making a mage with diverse spells when that glintstone dagger AoW does more dmg and for less FP than every spell.

[@OldManInternet]

I had a blast exploring the game. The only major thing I couldn't figure out was the Hinterlands. I put the connection between the emote and the statue together because of my interaction with the NPC there, but I 100% forgot there was a 2nd statue. I wasted hours interacting with the wrong spot, and eventually gave up and had a friend who looked it up tell me. Needless to say, I was quite frustrated with myself for being so close, but so far lol

[@fernandofaria2872]

Você já leu "Intermitências da Morte", Rurikhan? Elden Ring me lembra muito esse livro do Saramago, principalmente a temática da morte; e como interrompê-la seria absolutamente catastrófico (como aconteceu quando Marika removeu a runa da morte do anel). Eu sempre entendi a "Lands Between" como uma espécie de purgatório, um "lugar" entre a vida e a morte, e acho que o livro talvez tenha inspirado um pouco GRRM/Miyazaki. Abraços do Brasil (devolve nosso ouro) 😁

[@Ghorda9]

with dex weapons you need to use the ash of war to stagger

[@nemesisundead83]

My thoughts exactly maybe Marika was destined to be in a jar or was in a jar when she was chosen to be a god and my guess the "carnage" didn't happen til she went home (Shaman Village) put down that golden tree (the Grace of gold, without order still confusing but ok) and ordered her son to cleanse the land of shadow and after he went in put up the veil to cover up everything

[@nemesisundead83]

"They were unsound from the start." This line really has me questioning the Greater Will, hear me out now, the mother of fingers was the first sent to this planet, ok so what about this, The Greater Will died or was in the process of dying and sent out his children (I guess) to continue his legacy but he died soon after the mother of fingers landed, "unsound from the start" my guess, kinda like the Great Tree that sent out its seeds when it was dying kinda it's children, the Greater Will is dead has been for a really long time the the messages our two fingers is getting is from their mother the one who RUNS THE LANDS BETWEEN, she told Marika what to do, she's the only one who's communicating with the fingers it was her All along