I have now played six to seven hours of Shadow of the Erdtree. I think that’s enough to do an official quick look at the DLC. There will be spoilers abound so consider this your warning. Yesterday, I wrote A Quick (pre) Look about what I expected from the game. I said I expected it to be much harder than the base game, and I was right. This is the FromSoft way, to be honest. Jack up the difficullty so it’s nearly twice as hard as the base game. I have not enjoyed any of the DLCs the first time through because of how grueling they’ve been. I’m not saying whether this is a good thing or a bad thing; it just is, as the kids say, what it is.
Within an hour of jumping into the game (or maybe two because I was wandering a lot), I –wait. I’ll get to that in a second.
Here’s the thing. Even before jumping into the DLC, there’s an NPC at the point of entry who talks about taking the same path as Miquella. Miquella is the twin brother of Malenia, which we are reminded of over and over again in the Malenia fight (or at least that she is the blade of Miquella and has never known defeat). The NPC tells you to go to the Land of the Shadow (or whatever it’s called) and that she’ll follow you.
Once you go through, you’re in a large field in which you can just wander around. Which I did. Soaking in the atmosphere and dispensing with the random enemies along the way. There aren’t that many, and there is one who was weirdly difficult, and it turned out that this enemy is from a later area. No idea why one was in the beginning area, but FromSoft did that often; I didn’t really overthink it.
I missed a hostile NPC who was an homage to Wolverine. I learned about it in the Discord and went back today to find him. Much to my surprise, I was allowed to use Torrent (you’re normally not when you’re fighting a hostile NPC), and I made easy work of him with my trusty Lightning Spear.
I wish I could say the same about the first field boss. There is a thing called evergaols in the base game. It’s where naughty people are put forever. Rory calls them space jails, which is funny, but not far from the truth. In this case, it’s called something different and is in a mausoleum rather than an evergaol, but it’s the DLC version of it. It even has floaty anime worms with ghostly faces instead of strings of stone like the evergaols have.
Anyway. This guy was an utter asshole. Apparently, there’s already a meme about how people go into the DLC thinking, Am I overleveled? And this guy is there to mock you for it. Because it’s true. He is nasty. And as with the evergaols, you can’t use your spirit ashes. I think you can call in a human summon because there is a summoning pool outside, but I did not try that.
I went in with my 38 Vigor and got my ass handed to me over and over and over again. For a full hour, it’s all I did. His ash of war was a slice shot with a follow up that absolutely destroyed me. Yes, he could two-shot me. Because of course. I couldn’t be too bitter about it because you’re supposed to have 60 Vigor before going into the DLC (approximately), but it was not fun at all.
I was getting one or two-shot by some of the harder enemies, and I was done with it. I lopped twenty points off my Intelligence and threw it into my Vigor. I wanted to have a fighting chance with my shitty reflexes. I still had almost no poise and very low stamina. I didn’t mess with any of that tbecause I just wanted to be able to withstand two hits.
I will say that it makes the game easier. Not easy, mind, but easier. I don’t have to worry about being combo-womboed into oblivion. I still have to be less of a scaredy-cat, but it’s not as dire if I try to scamper out of the way and can’t.
I think I am the worst player in the RKG forum. It’s not a fun feeling, but it’s something to keep in mind when I’m asking for help. Any advice I receive, I have to mentally adjust to the fact that I am so bad at avoiding attacks.
I have been reminded what it’s like to be terrified while going into a new area, how cautiously I poke around when I don’t know what’s around the corner, and how much of a relief it is to find a shortcut that takes you back to a site of grace. Bonfire! It’s a bonfire, ok?!
I have found several different ways to go/things to do, and it’s almost overwhelming. I thought I was so thorough in exploring, and I have missed many things. That’s par the course for these games, obviously, and a reason that people play them more than once.
The thing for me is that I just suck at these games. I’m total trash, and it gets frustrating to watch other people traipse through them. I’m not saying it out loud, obviously, as I don’t want to harsh anyone’s high. It’s not their fault just as it was not my fault in college when I got As for doing half the work that my classmates did.
There are times when I wished I hadn’t gotten into FromSoft games. Usually after dying to a boss for the millionth time. Then, I get the high of actually beating that boss, and I’m back in! That’s the addicion of these games–chasing that momentary high. Someone in the RKG Discord who is similar to me in her issues with From games. She gave me several things she had to do to beat the field boss that Imentionehd earlier. I tried her suggestions, plus another person’s advice of being more aggressive, and I got the guy in 4 tries. I upgraded her prawn to the boiled crab (boosts physical damage negation by 20% rather than 15% for the boiled prawn) and added the Golden Vow incantation that buffs yourselfand allies. Her Wondrous Flask had the Faith tear and the boosts fire tear. I had the boosts fire tear and the extra FP flask tear.
I don’t usually min/max like this. It’s not my style, but I could not get this guy. My best was about an inch from beating him, but for the most part, I was not getting past halfway. This got me there in four tries, for which along with the 20 extra Vigor point made me feel like a god.
I’m done for now so I can go play more of the game. I’m sure I will write more about it tomorrow.