This Changed My Mind About Elden Ring - Shadow of the Erdtree (Review)

Shadow of the Erdtree is unequivocally more Elden Ring. That's to say, a somber, yet varied world full of secrets to be unearthed, rich and textured lore that will be picked apart for years to come, and brutally challenging boss encounters. Perhaps its crowning achievement however, is that it rather artfully manages to recapture the very essence of when we stepped out into The Lands Between, two years ago.
A write up of this review is available at resetbutton.com.au/
Video Credits:
Drake Platinum, Bandai Namco, Shirrako
Music Used:
Elden Ring, Roundtable Hold, Ruined Forge, St. Trina, Messmer The Impaler, Gravesite Plain, Scadu Altus, The Promised Consort, Shadow Keep
Additional music provided by Epidemic Sounds.
Socials:
Instagram - / resetbuttongaming
Tiktok - / resetbuttongaming
Patreon - / resetbutton275

[@ZGGuesswho]

I abandon here both of my shoulder buttons

[@rileygardner4336]

Really enjoyed this one! As someone who hasn’t played this genre of game your review really kept me engaged and entertained. Can’t wait for the next one

[@Reset-Button]

Thank you!!

[@irisachternaam]

The map being labyrinthine is a good thing, not a bad thing. With so many open world games, wayfaring is reduced to walking in a straight fucking line. This is boring af. Things being missable is also a good thing. Hand-holding is what has turned exploration into following an arrow on your screen, and it won't let you explore or find things on your own, to let you feel accomplished, because you truly found a secret. It's not much of a secret, if you can't miss something.

[@austin0_bandit05]

Its ironic that the more developers try to make a good "open world" the smaller, the narrower and the denser their worlds become. Elden Ring was effectively a stretched out Dark Souls 1 and the DLC doubly so

[@geordiejones5618]

Shadow Keep was a perfect microcosm of the whole Shadow Realm. It connects half the map together and the map itself is layered and vertical and more interconnected than people realize.

[@timk6181]

The dlc is VERY DS1 isn't it? ​@@austin0_bandit05

[@Reset-Button]

@@irisachternaam I definitely agree that the level of accomplishment you feel is much more pronounced when things are obscured. I just wish perhaps there was a happy middle ground but that's probably more of a problem with the way I approached it than the actual design.

[@ironpro7217]

The labrinthine map is fine but the caves should be more visible, you pretty much have to hug every cliff face if you don't want to miss them, and since there's only a couple that aren't clearly visible its mostly a waste of time.

[@ronthorn3]

Ma I’m sorry you didn’t get the feeling I did from playing Elden Ring and it’s DLC. It was the first Fromsoft game I got to play at launch, as I played every one of their games right up to the first trailer for Elden Ring. I was hyped, still hyped, still in love with these games, will always be.

[@Reset-Button]

Glad you got to experience it in that way, definitely took me a while to come around but I think I'm right there with you now 😂

[@alanrowland9786]

Not my normal type of game but your video really made me want to try it out. Great content man keep it up, videos are great for long drives to work.

[@Reset-Button]

Thank you so much :D

[@catsgonyan]

Just clicked the video in my feed, didn't realize you only had just over 100 subs.. earned another one. Very good quality video. I can't wait to see more from you.

[@Reset-Button]

Thanks heaps, means a lot :D

[@MonsterJuiced]

Great video, I have to say though the music level is way too high compared to your narration. It's like the music is double the volume atleast. Anyway nice work I enjoyed listening to you speak about this

[@Reset-Button]

Thanks for the feedback, definitely will be a focus for the next one. Glad you enjoyed it :)

[@Silkust]

wow what a high quality video yay

[@Reset-Button]

Thank you unc 😎

[@ZGGuesswho]

Definitely having a bit of trouble with Bayle and ****** at the end....which is to be expected. Everybody else I found reasonable (though i cheesed the second liondancer with the death blight tbh). Exploring was actually more fun in SOTE than in Elden ring for me. I loved the 2d map and constantly wondering how deep or how high things went. I will say that you should be at least level 150 if not more. If you're not then you need to swallow your pride and go kill some Albis with the relic sword lol.

[@ZGGuesswho]

Also shoutout to Messmer one of my favorite bossfights in all FS

[@Reset-Button]

The NPC dialogue for Bayle is sooo funny, absolutely loved that fight but definitely really hard.

[@corazzellim]

i've been playing the game solo and the narrative is actually quite hard to follow compared to the base game. Seems like much of what's going on relies on me summoning allies into battle. As much as people complained about the quests in the base game, when i was 70 hours into the my first playthrough of it, i was able to still finish almost every single questline. Great DLC but i found the npcs a bit of a weak point as far as solo play is concerned

[@Reset-Button]

@@corazzellim I thought the quests from the base game were pretty good as well. For me the summons gave the NPCs a little more presence but I get what you mean especially if you're trying to get through without them.

[@RealMonkeyDKirby]

Base game bosses are much easier...sooooo you jsut got better. Every boss gives openings. When you dont have experience with them it jsut feels like they dont. People sre too inpstient to learn

[@NecroVPro]

I’m currently playing both Dark Souls 3 and Elden Ring. Elden Ring feels more forgiving, possibly because of the improved arsenal available. For instance, in Elden Ring, if you only explore the lower side of the Godfrick boss areas without going beyond, you can find unique weapons, smithing stones, and ash of wars (like frost or bleed). This makes the boss fight much easier. In contrast, Dark Souls 3 requires considerable playtime to reach Irithyll Valley and obtain the coal needed for good infusions. The status effect buildup now scale with both attribute scaling (magic, not luck this time) and smithing stones.Also, stamina has been buffed this time around allowing for more swings and dodges at low endurance levels. I think the difficulty overall depends on how you play the game. The DLC is hardest if any other souls game no doubt still

[@RealMonkeyDKirby]

@NecroVPro no matter how you play ds3 is much much easier. Sure you can make broken shit in er but most people actually don't do that. Ds1 also had progression breaking broken shit you could do literally right at the start. Shit even getting bk halberd just cheesed the game...not to mention pyro....Noone cared or cried about it. What really shows difficulty are sl1 runs. Dark souls 1 and 3 has easy sl1. Er rl1 is actually really hard. End game is like ds3 dlc in terms of difficulty. And er dlc is on another level

[@dZ0647]

Lmao, the cope is real. They don’t: they don’t, period. If you wanna be a fckin perfect pro gamer git gud bro sure, majority isn’t, and your lil reee ppl refuse to learn strawman is lame and pathetic. The combat is going in a bad direction and it doesn’t matter if you guys like it or not, you’ll be back in the underground maybe where yall wanna be a niche small part of gaming again bc this combat ain’t it and it will fail.

[@Fusion237]

@@NecroVProwell because blasphemous blade op asf

[@brentontariocanada7935]

Elden ring is amazing! No game is perfect. Sekiro and lies of p is my favorite combat in a video game. But I just love elden ring. It was my first from software game/ experience.

[@redsungaming]

Elden was my first souls aswell and it was fun asfuck but ng+ doesn't seem fun to me, i been wanting to try another souls game, should I go with lies of p or sekiro ?

[@DiscoFinalBoss]

@@redsungamingyou could go with sekiro first but honestly, play both.

[@Reset-Button]

@@brentontariocanada7935 I really love Sekiro as well. It's cool to see people discover From's catalogue from something like Elden Ring for sure

[@redsungaming]

@@DiscoFinalBoss bet bet will do il be back to rage at you when I'm hardstuck in a boss and remember I'm crying cux this random dude on KZbin comment made me play the game 🤣🤣🤣 curse you bro but love you ahaha

[@DiscoFinalBoss]

@@redsungaming lol you got this. You only lose if you give up. You can come rage and we’ll provide any help needed.

[@dZ0647]

All they had to do was decrease bleed damage each hemorrhage but nope, we just got the 9 million health sponges instead

[@Reset-Button]

@@dZ0647 The last boss was brutal in that regard

[@czsgenesis]

your comparison is funny cause bleed is % damage, the more HP bosses have the better it is

[@nikkospops]

Nope, yall cry. It isn't hard at all.

[@t333riyaki3]

60th !!!! ILY RESET BUTTON

[@Reset-Button]

60th from the GOAT himself 😎

[@daythanvonschwerin7783]

Really wish I spent more time on Elden ring - I always fell off of it after 10-20 hours because I felt there wasn’t enough to keep me that narratively hooked. Your discussion of the dlc having more of a focused story actually made me want to buy it (step 1 is beating the game though, lol)

[@Reset-Button]

Yeah I think a game like this is always gonna do that to a few people, I remember talking to one of my friends about Tears of the Kingdom and the same thing happened to him. Still, if you have the time to delve into I think you'll likely find something worthwile, even if it is a little obscure.

[@Slaughter_Hill]

Don’t trust him on more “narrative focused”. Just like the base game, it borderline has no story besides lore and npc dialogue that you can miss. You won’t know why you’re fighting any boss or doing anything you have to do.

[@user-bn3fu6xu4r]

No you’re right, there is very little feeling of being engaged because of the lack of PRESENT narrative (the lore is all background). This is coming from someone who’s finished all the souls games

[@targetdemographic1257]

It is trying to be a game first, not a tv show.

[@MikeRavia-xp5ig]

It's a souls game. If you can for the story then you have never played one before. If you want more of a story and similar gameplay then play lies of p.

[@StrifeZack343]

You have great editing skills for a new KZbinr but the music you insert is too loud. Goodluck on your KZbin journey

[@Reset-Button]

Thanks for the feedback mate, appreciate it

[@RD22x]

My waaaaif!

[@RD22x]

Subbed btw great vid 👍

[@Reset-Button]

Thanks so much!!

[@nathanmanoel6708]

amazing review

[@Reset-Button]

@@nathanmanoel6708 Thank you 😁😁

[@nikkospops]

MY 6YO SON HAS BEATEN EVERYTHING EXCEPT FOR PRIME RADAHN IN THIS GAME. IT ISNT HARD

[@Reset-Button]

@@nikkospops Your son is an absolute beast

[@huddy1954]

4th

[@gaming-camelion9445]

Day 1 asking for a League of Legennds Review

[@joshuamerron5137]

Scadu is actually Old English, which is like German. Gaelic is like Irish or Scottish. Well presented even though I disagree 👍

[@Reset-Button]

Appreciate the correction, thanks for the kind words as well 😁 Curious to hear your thoughts, did you like the DLC? Reception seems to be all over the place.

[@joshuamerron5137]

@@Reset-Button I loved it, not all it was hyped up to be, but definitely worth it's cost.

[@Reset-Button]

@@joshuamerron5137 Right, glad you got some value out of it

[@liam6083]

first

[@Kng-be9po]

They were very innovative with new gear, talismans and weapons, but lazy with others. While there are like 3 new fire based armor sets, and an armor set that boosts dragon cult incants, builds like ghostflame and blackflame got severely neglected. The grave bird armor set (helmet) only boosts ONE ghostflame spell instead of ghostflame sorceries as a whole. Instead of new ashes of war they gave us a subpar version of Death's Poker aow from killing one of the few deathrite birds in the dlc (we obtain deaths poker from killing a deathrite bird in the base game) . The expansion feels rushed, empty and uninspired in terms of content in the world. The only areas that weren't severely neglected I feel are the Gravesite plains and Scadu Plateau. Places like Ruah and the Cerulean fields are visually stunning but virtually empty. Bosses like Romina and Rellana feel like they have no reason to be there other than as shameless homages to past Fromsoft fights. Exploring feels worthless as you're only bount to find crafting materials that most players already grinded in preparation for the dlc. Its a soft nudge by From to get us to experiment with new content, but the difficulty of the late game bosses railroads most players instead to a shield and poke tank build, killing class diversity. The balance wasnt struck.

[@brandonman1315]

Given how many weapons, cookbooks, armor sets, and spells found everywhere, no the map isn’t empty. That’s dumb

[@mangasinatanaelpanjaitan3048]

You already have the Prince of Death staff to boost Ghostflame spells. You still want more considering how strong it is already?

[@Crazyblondified]

First

[@MrJaxon620]

The dungeons were amazing, the open world was mehh

[@Reset-Button]

Yeah the legacy dungeons were super well designed, I wish a few of the open areas had a bit more to do in them for sure.