Let’s talk more about Elden Ring (FromSoft) just becaause I can. This is my FromSoft game of the year, and here is yesterday’s post why Nightreign is not the one. It feels weird to not give the award to a FromSoft game that released within the calendar year, but I just could not do it.
I’m doing a dex(ish) run in Elden Ring, and I am in the DLC. As with many FromSoft games, getting to the DLC is not as easy as firing it up. It’s not hard to access, per se, but you have to be pretty far into the game in order to do so. Well, technically, you can get there fairly early, but you have to be really good in order to do that. If you go along the normal path, then you probably won’t do the second thing you need to do until the last fourth of the game.
This was one of the reasons that people were not happy with Shadow of the Erdtree being nominated for Game of the Year last year–the fact that you have to play three quarters of the base game in order to access the DLC. I don’t quite get that as sequels are considered fair game to be game of the year as well.
I mean, I do understand that it’s asking a lot. FromSoft always asks a lot from the player in order to access the DLC. The first game is notorious for how elaborate it was to get into the DLC. You had to kill the hydra in the lake in Darkroot Basin. Then, you had to kill the golden golem in the lake to release Dusk of Ooolacile who was imprisioned within. Then, you had to go to the Duke’s Archives to kill a specific crystal golem to get a necklace. Then, you had to go back to the lake to access a portal at the very end of it.
You can’t even get to the Duke’s Archives until the second half of the game. FromSoft had to tell reviewers how to get the DLC because no one figured it out. Dark Souls III isn’t so bad, and the entrance to the DLC is in the first fourth of the game.
With Shadow of the Erdtree, there are two bosses you have to kill. The first one makes sense, and it fell in line with what people speculated would happen. The second, though, was a complete mystery. There was a lot of speculation why that particular boss needed to be killed in order to access the DLC, but there was no good answer until the DLC was dropped.
I have to say, I really don’t understand the furor over the SotE nom for game of the year last year. In addition to the aforementioned complaint, another gripe I heard was that Elden Ring already got its recognition, so it should sit down and shut up (basically). This also didn’t make any sense to me because as I said, sequels can be nominated for game of the yaer, so why not DLC? Any other company could have called this game a sequel and gotten so much praise for it. It’s very meaty–it took me over seventy hours to finish it. And I fucked up all the NPC questlines, which probably shaved off an hour or two.
In comparison, I put in over 200 hours for my first playthrough of Elden Ring. So the DLC was roughly a third the size and cost under half the price. That’s way more than most companies would do. Miyazaki has jokes for days when it comes to the size of his games. Before the DLC dropped, he said it was about the size of Limgrave (the first area of the base game). Well, yes, if you don’t count how vertical the DLC is. It may be the size of Limgrave horizontally, but boy, did it go deep. I have not heard/seen so many people say/write the word ‘vertical’ over one game.
It’s apt, though. Miyazaki is known for his exquisite level design. Any game in which he is the lead shows how immaculate he is in this area. Well, at least when he has the time to execute it properly. And he went over the top with the DLC for this game.
Even as a long-time fan who has seen him do this thing for over ten years, I was floored by how intricate and dense the level design is in this game. Many people said that about the DLC. It was mind-blowing when it came to the level design.
I spent countless hours just wandering around, marveling at the different environments. One thing that brought me great joy was that all the onebros and ‘git gud’ assholes got their shit pushed in because they raced to do the bosses in the DLC as qucikly as possible without realizing that From had installed a system in the DLC to make it difficult for everyone ,regardless of what level you were in the base game.
There were Scadutree Fragments scattered around the world. Fifty of them, I believe. You needed them to level up your character in the DLC, Sekiro-style. Meaning, you didn’t level up individual stats, but uniformly increased your stats across the board. So if you rushed to the bosses without finding the Scadutree Fragments, you were going to be weak. There were also level up items for Torrent as well (Revered Spirit Ash).
In other words, you were rewarded for exploring the DLC, which I would have done naturally, anyway. I don’t play the games for the hard boss fights–I play them for the incredible worlds. Weirdly, because I spent so much time exploring and got all the Scadutree Fragments, I did not have much trouble with any boss inthe DLC save one. I hated the ghostflame dragons–they were a pain in the butt, but most of the named bosses weren’t too bad.
Until that one. The final boss. I’ve talked many times about how From walks a very thin line between incredibly hard, but fair and flat-out unfair. They like to go big with the final boss of their games, and double big with the final boss of the DLC. They overdid it with the final boss of the DLC, and it was a nightmare. The lightshow this boss put on meant I colud not actually track them across the arena. As I’ve said before, From is not very forward-thinking when it comes to accessibility issues. Usually, I work around it if there is room for customization, but in the case of the final boss of the DLC, well, they were a pain in the ass.
From did nerf the lightshow in a patch, but it’s still a hard as hell fight. Is it fair now? I would say it’s still on the unfair side of the line, but I summon humans now. That gives the boss more health, yes, but it also makes it easier for me to get rot on the boss. Which they are susceptible to. It’s still a grueling fight, though, and I’ll be curious to see how my dex character does in this fight.
That’s it for now. I may write more about it tomorrow, or I may get to my actual game of the year. We’ll see.