I’m back with more to say about the Shadow of the Erdtree DLC (FromSoft) for Elden Ring. I started on my first character’s NG+ playthrough of the DLC, and I noticed something that bothered me. It’s the same thing that bothered me with the main game and with most of the From games in general. the second Dark Souls is the exception.
One of the issues with NG+ and beyond is that the important items you gather in NG don’t have the same meaning in another playthrough if you retain them from NG to NG+.
*SPOILER WARNING*
One example in the base game are the rises. They are towers that often have puzzles to unlock them (finding and killing three ghost turtles; using a gesture to get a ladder to drop; jumping up a spirit spring to land on a balcony. These are all real examples of how to solve different rises), and the reward was often a Memory Stone. Each of these gives you a new spell slot, so it’s easy to see why I wanted every one I could get. You start with 2 slots, and you get 8 more throughout the game. There’s also a talisman that can give you an extra two. Ten is usually plenty, though, and I rock with ten the vast majority of the time.
On NG+, however, you get nothing. You lose! Good day, sir! Which, I gotta say, is quite the letdown. In the DLC, it’s the same with key items such as various cookbooks. You keep them from NG to NG+, which is a good thing, but it’s a bit disappointing to not get anything in its place. In the video I included below, Noah talks about one thing that was a letdown in the DLC was how there was so many shit items to be found. He put it more eloquently, but that’s essentially what he meant.
I agree. I understand why there were so many smithing stones. It’s for the people who have not played the game for two years and don’t have all the bell bearings turned in. I can buy any smithing stone I need, regular and somber, up to the final one (there is no bell bearing for those). It really is a disappointment to get a bunch of smithing stones whenever I went exploring. Yesterday, I talked at the end of the post about what I loved in the DLC. Today, I guess I’m starting with what frustrates me.
I will say I’m happy that the Scadooooo level and Revered Spirit Ash level carries over. I only needed one ScadFrag and two Revered Spirit Ashes to get to the top. Now, however, I have no use for the rest that I find. That means that I don’t really have much need to explore. I still will as that is my wvay, but my joy in doing so is admittedly a little bit muted.
Part of the joy of exploration is finding cool shit. I was already unhappy about all the crafting material and smithing stones that were supposed to be my rewards for exploring. Now, on NG+, there is nothing. To be fair, that’s not unusual. I mean, it’s the same game, but just harder. Remember I mentioned that Dark Souls II was different in this aspect? That’s because it added different things to the gameplay. For example, one of the big four bosses, Duke’s Dear Freja, will be chilling outside an earlier door, and you can take a good chunk of her health off before meeting her in her arena.
In a few of the boss fights, there are added aspects as well. In the Lost Sinner boss fight, there are two pyromancers added. In the Flexile Sentry boss fight, there are two manikins. The boss souls you get for the four big bosses are different as well, echoing the four big boss souls from the first game.
I will say that I’m doing the DLC with my first character again mainly to get the few big incantations I did not get the first time. Both of them are NPC-related, which means by the time I realized that they existed, I could not get them on my first playthrough. Which is one of the things that is both a frustration and a reality of playing without any guidance. It’s always the tentsion of playing one of these games unspoiled. You are goign to miss thing. You just are. You could be the most thorough person in the world, and I would almost guarantee that you won’t see everything.
It took me 200+ hours to finish my first playthrough. I thought I saw everything. And then I found out there were a few things I missed, inculding one field boss. And I think one small dungeon/cave. When people say they finished it in less than a hundred hours, well, I know they missed something.
This has been one of the biggest arguments about the DLC–whether the leveling systems are good or not. Some people are mad that they are made to explore in order to get the materials needed to level up. What?! You expect me to explore? I am baffled by this because to me, the games are all about the exploration. I do the bosses because I have to and because they are there. But it’s not my main reason for playing the games, and I no longer have the stomach to bash my head against a boss for hours upon hours. I did it for the final boss (five hours), but I did not like what it did to me.
Noah mentioned in his video that he finds Elden Ring cozy. I don’t think I would say that, but I would definitely say it’s my comfort gaming. He has no qualms about using every tool available to him, which makes some of the hardcore fans mad at him or accusing him of not having actually played the games. He’s not playing them right, you see, because he’s actually having fun doing it–and maknig things easier for himself. He summons gasp humans and makes no bones about it.
He also uses two of the same weapons I use with my first character, so we are like two peas in a pod. At the beginning of the video, he said he hadn’t been going to do the video because he got so much hate for his last one. Because he was playing it the wrong way, you see, and he should be very ashamed of himself.
I don’t summon humans for the most part, but I am not above it. I did it for a half dozen bosses in my second playthrough because I just could not be bothered.
I’m done for today. More tomorrow.