I wrote a post yesterday (now day before yesterday. Changing the time has been kicking my ass) about what I wanted from the Shadow of the Erdtree DLC, but I veered into a rant about an area I really do not like in the game. So I want to touch on more things I want from the DLC. I’m going to start with the pie-in-the-sky wants that will never happen.
I want the emphasis to be on exploration and not hard-as-nails bosses. I don’t want to cry while playing the DLC. I’m not exaggeraitng here. I have cried while playing the DLCs of previous FromSoft games beacuse they are so hard. I know the thing to do is to take breaks, but I can’t do it.Once I start playing, I keep on playing. I become obsessed with the game and can’t think of anything but. Thats’ not uncommon with games in general and From games in particular, by the way.
There’s even a meme about it–just one more try. It’s often said about rogue-lite-likes in which one run can be as short as a minute or as long as an hour. Also, the better you get at the game, the longer you have to play, obviously. Because you don’t die as quickly, I mean.
With From games, it’s a bit different. There is no run, per se because it’s just one big open game. It’s not do the same floors over and over again, slowly getting better with each iteration. It’s go throughout the whole game and slowly get better, but you have to fight different bosses and enemies the whole time. But, when youi’re doing a boss run, it’s similar in that you’re doing the same thing over and over again.
One of the quality of life (QOL) tweaks that From made for Elden Ring (probably as part of the bid to make it more mainstream) was making most of the boss runs almost negligible. You can warp to any Site of Grace (except when you’re in caves, catacombs, or mines) from the start of the game–which is such a nice touch. In the first Dark Souls game, you had to walk everywhere. I know why they did it, but it was really frustrating. And a lot of people saw it as not being respectful of their time. After you killed Ornstein and Smough, you got the Lord Vessel–which allowed you to fast travel. Not to every bonfire, though Only to certain very limited ones. Again, I understand why they did it that way (thematically), but it suuuuuucked to actually experience.
In the second game, you got to fast travel from the start. Same with the third game. To and from any bonfire that you found. The purists decried the addition, but I welcomed it. In fact, one of the reasons I don’t play the original as much as the other two in the series is for this reason.
There is an item called the homeward bone. In the first game, it took you back to the last bonfire you sat at. I think it does the same thing in the second game. I just checked. It does. In the third game, you could go to Firelink Shrine (the hub world) or the last bonfire you sat at, which was a nice change becaau;se you had to go back Flink Shrine to level up with the Fire Keeper. Which, ugh. You could level up at any bonfire in the first game, which was nice. And then you had to go back to the hub world (Majula) to level up in the second game with the Emerald Herald.
In Demon’s Souls, you had to return to the Nexus to level up with the Maiden in Black. That was the first game. And they did not have bonfires–they had Archstones that took you back to the Nexus if you touched them. It’s interesting to see the evolution of the games, and the tweaks they made at different stages.
Anyway, to me, the ability to warp to any Site of Grace in Elden Ring barring a few contrated incidents, is a definite improvement in the quality of life. You don’t even need to be at a Site of Grace to warp, which is great. There is no homeward bone, though, and I guess I understand it?
Anyway.
In my very ideal world, this is what I would get in the DLC. A lush, amazing world that is intricate, dazzling, and interconnected. I fully expect this to happen. FromSoft is known for their level design. People have tried to copy it and no one has even come close. This is the reason I play the games. I know I sound like a chump when I say that I don’t play the games for the difficluty, but I don’t. I did buy into the ‘git gud’ mentality a bit when I played the Souls games. I felt some shame that I could not beat all the bosses solo. I have since gone back and beaten every boss by myself*. I have also beaten all the bosses solo in Bloodborne except for three of the DLC bosses. And, of course, I’ve beaten every boss solo in Sekiro because you can’t summon. I have not done the Shura ending, though.
In Elden Ring, though, I used the spirit summons liberally and felt absolutely no guilt for it. The bosses are tuned for it, and in the last half of the game, I would have been miserable without them. In fact, I doubt I would have finished the game if I did not have my beloved Mimic Tear. That does not make me any less of a gamer or any less of a hardcore fan. I have mentioned this before, but I really like Ian from Eurogamer. He hated the games until he somehow clicked with Dark Souls II. Even then, he hated it by the end. I empathize with that so much.
He quit Sekiro at the Guardian Ape and just never went back. The video of him on his personal channel fighting the Guardian Ape pretty much mimicked my feelings about it–even though I knew the twist going in. It’s still a mindfuck when it actually happens. I included the video above. Oh, and he talks a lot about monkey buttholes, which I did not do.
His reaction is pure gold, though. I timestamped it for easier viewing. He actually did really well with the first phase. I think he got to the second phase on his second try? He kept playing for two more streams, but he did not enjoy it. He could not kill the Guardian Ape (who is mandatory) in those streams, and he just gave up. His (then) colleague, Aoife, said that it was like a rhythm game and once you got it, it was easy. He shrugged and said he never got it. More to the point, he was fine with it.
Then, while they were co-oping through the Land Between, Ian cheerfully admitted that he had no qualms summoning (humans**) for bosses. Aoife tried to say that he should go for it solo (she includes spirit summons in soloing, which is interesting), asying he would feel better if he had a few goes at it by himself. She said it would feel satisfying to beat the boss solo. Ian said he was plenty satisified beating the bosses with summons and moving on. Aoife sounded defeated when she said to each their own. It was clear that she thought he was wrong.
But you know what? He’s right. The main purpose of playing video games is to have fun. People have fun in different ways. His way of having fun is to stomp on everything any way he can. Why is that any less valid than soloing every boss? It’s not. And I’m tired of the community being such assholes about it. That’s one reason people don’t want to play the games–which is a shame.
*With the exception of the bullshit ganksquad bosses in the second game’s DLCs. They are all repeat bosses at the end of really bulllshit runs. I am a completionist, but it’s one thing I skip every time I play the DLCS now.
**As opposed to NPCs.