Ok, this is the last post in my series of posts of reviewing Shadow of the Erdtree, the DLC for Elden Ring (FromSoft). For now, anyway. I have to say that I get so frustrated with reviews in general beacuse they tend to be THIS GAME IS THE BEST THING EVER NO NOTES or THIS GAME IS THE WORST THING EVER AND HOW DID IT GET MADE???? There is very little in-between, and I get why. Nuance doesn’t sell. You need all the clickbait you can get as a content creator. There has to be an audience for it, too (hyperbole), otherwise content creators wouldn’t do it so much.
And the discourse is frustratingly shallow much of the time. I know that’s because many people don’t think in layers the way I do, but still. I have to really seek out thoughtful dissections that aren’t just superficial. I’m tired of the difficulty debate because it’s so narrow and not fruitful. Also, From is going to do what From is going to do. From an accessibility standpoint, they will never have a coventional easy mode. I’m not sure I would want one, to be honest, or what that would actually entail. I’ve had this discussion with rational people before, and it’s hard to say what that would actually mean.
I mean, they could give the bosses simplified moves. Have a Nice Death (Magic Design Studios) did that with their easy mode, along with fewer enemies and everyone having less health/doing less damage. I had to knock it down to easy fairly early on and that’s how I played the whole game. I still couldn’t do the true end boss, in part because of the horrible platforming in the last area (having to jump through spiky crevices and then falling back if you can’t do it. Which I couldn’t). Also in part because you have to do the whole area and the boss without filling up on health. Oh, and it’s not just one boss, it’s two plus a mini-boss. And an increase in difficulty (because that’s part of how you reach the secret end boss).
Am I sad that I can’t do the true last boss? Yes. Will I go back and try it again? I don’t know. I put so much into that game, only to fall short time and time again. I can’t even beat the fake last boss that often–or get there. I think I’ve beaten him…three times? Maybe?
I don’t know if that would be possible in a From game. I mean, it would be, but I highly doubt they would ever do it. In the last post, I rambled about many things, really. I was tired, upset, and didn’t have myself gathered.
*SPOILER WARNING*
I played a bit of Shadow of the Erdtree last night, and I was just wandering around. I had no goal in mind, really, but I stayed away from the Shadow Keep because I knew approaching it broke Miquella’s charm. What I didn’t know, though, was approaching it from the back (there’s a side entrance) ALSO broke the charm. I found that out last night. And I was not happy about it. I wasn’t ready for it! Fortunately, I had already talked to Thiollier so I think his questline will continue.
The fist time playing a From game is so special. I have been engulfed in everything Shadow of the Erdtree-related since I finished it the first time. This is how I do with From games. I play it through the first time as unspoiled as possible. I don’t watch any reviews or any discussion vids at the time. I do all that after I finish the first playthrough as I’m doing my second, third, fourth, and beyond.
The video I’ve included above is from Simone at Polygon explaining how she’d absorbed the toxic messages in the From community without ever meaning to. Somehow, in playing Elden Ring, she believed that the following things were not allowable for a true gamer: using consumable runes to level up; leveling up Vigor (though, amusingly, her ‘low’ vigor was 39, which was more than I had by the end of my first playthrough); that shields were for pussies; and that she didn’t need to/shouldn’t upgrade her weapons. She also wasn’t using Mimic Tear because that was also cheesing, obviously.
She quotes Miyazaki who said as he was working on the DLC, he went back to play the base game. He said he wasn’t very good at the games so he used every tool available to him in the game in order to play it. He has been very open about why he put summoning into his games (his car broke down and a car of strangers came to help him fix it), and Bandai Namco encouraged people to find the Scadutree Fragments when they were complaining about the DLC being so hard.
It will probably not surprise you to learn that it’s a lot less difficult on the third playthrough. In general. But part of the exquisiteness of a first playthrough is the sheer terror at what is around the next corner. I don’t get scared in typical horror games–either playing them or watching them. Admittedly, I don’t play many horror games, but I have never found any to be scary.
FromSoft games, on the other hand, have plenty of scares for me. Not in the typical way, but in a ‘what the hell is around the corner?’ kind of way. I don’t get that in any other game. When I finish a From game for the first time, there’s a sense of sadness that I’ll never get to play it again for the first time.
By the way, the mix of reviews I’ve watched/read about the DLC is befuddling to me. But it really shouldn’t be. Elden Ring was a splitter in ‘the community’ because it was specifically targeted at a broader audience. Many of the harcore fans did not like that the bosses were tuned around spirit summons, which meant that it was really hard to solo the bosses. Which is the bragging rights of many hardcore From fans.
I feel like we’re at the place where From can’t win with that section of their fandom. It’s clear that From is going to continue doing what they want to do regardless of if it’s what the ‘true fans’ actually want. The weird thing is that I can see almost all the points of view–ranging from the most negative to the most positive. I think it’s OK to say that From swung big–hitting and missing at the same time with this DLC.
I don’t think the DLC is perfect by any measure. I don’t think it’s close, actually. I still love it more than I don’t, but I can’t in good conscience say that it’s flawless. It’s messy, yes, but in some ways, it’s better that way. Oh, and I don’t think it could have fulfilled the expectations of the uber-fans because they are not able to be met. They never have, but it’s just becoming more and more obvious. At some point, the uber-fans just have to accept that FromSoft is evolving and changing.
It’s funny how there are always complaints with each new From game about how it’s not like Dark Souls. I don’t think any of the follow-ups have escaped the criticism except maybe Bloodborne. Would I say this is the best DLC of the lot? I don’t know. I’m not the best to judge on that because I haven’t liked the DLCs as much as the base games of any of the From games in the past. I would say the same with this DLC, by a hair. But I like it better in general than I did the past DLCS at the time I first played them. Make of that what you will.