I’m back to talk more about Shadow of the Erdtree. As you can see, I have dropped the “A Quick Look” because it’s not very quick any longer–if it ever was. *Obligatory spoiler warning* Before I start, I want to say that FromSoft is getting reviewbombed, as I may have mentioned before. Some of it is performance issues, but it’s also in a large part because many people find the DLC too hard. Difficulty for the sake of difficulty, as I have mentioned before. In a way, I’m surprised by the furor because that’s how I’ve felt about the DLCs in general. It’s always a chance for FromSoft to turn it up to a hundo and to be patted on the head for it from the hardcore fans.
I dropped in SkillUp talking about it below (video). He specifically mentions the Eurogamer review, which people got really mad about (before the game dropped). The reviewer gave it 3/5, which was definitely an outlier. Here’s the pull quote:
…This, however, feels like difficulty for difficulty’s sake, turned up to eleven, for difficulty’s sake, turned up to eleven, perhaps because with the added expectations of a DLC having something extra-absurd to conquer even though it technically doesn’t require finishing the core game. I go through dozens of deaths over a period of several days, and despite taking breaks to go off and do other things and explore other areas, I realise that I just don’t want to do this anymore.
Even before playing the game, I would have agreed with this. This has always been my issue with the DLCs–how much a jump up they are. SkillUp has an interesting point to make in his video. It’s hard to make a DLc that will be doable for people of all different builds (and skills. I don’t think he said skills, but I’m adding it). It’s hard enough in a self-contained game, but in one that is open world and enormous, it must be nigh impossible.
There was a system implemented in the DLC as a way to bolster leveling. Well, actually there were two new leveling systems implemented. I understood one of them, but not the other. I just knew that both were good. One was based on the Scadutree Fragments and the other involved the Revered Spirit Ashes. Both of them are collectibles you find around the world and it’s very clear where you can find them. The Scadutree Fragments are in churches, I think, and the Revered Spirit Ashes are on coffins/pedestals with a stone statue guarding them. This is how I remember it in my head, and I make no claims that it’s actually true.
The former are used to boost your damage output and damage negation. You can use them at any site of grace, and it’ll take more fragments with successive levelings. In other words, you can use one to boost your strength the first time, maybe two on the fourth or fifth, etc. It’s the same with the Revered Spirit Ashes, but they are used to boost your spirit ash summons and your steed. This is only for the DLC, by the way. The numbers shown are in gold, and when I go back to the main game, the numbers go back to normal.
I don’t like this system, I’ll be honest. People have said it’s like the system in Sekiro, with which I agree. Instead of being able to level up specific stats, you have to take a general leveling up instead. Also, you have to go all around the map to find the fragments/ashes, which–I mean, I get it. They want to be able to help out the players without doing it too easily. But it feels kind of grindy to have to laboriously find them around the map. I mean, I have not been actively looking for them as I just collect them as I go. But I feel keenly that I am actively hampering myself by not seeking them out.
I have read that FromSoft just tweaked it so that the scaling gives more boost to the first half of the scadutree fragments found and then tails off for the latter half. Some people are complaining about this, but I think it’s fair. More to the point, I approve because I don’t want to be dying to a boss a million times. I have lost the will or the desire to do that. I will admit that adding 20 points to Vigor buffered the first quarter of the DLC. I did not have much problems with the bosses. It really helps when you can take three or four hits instead of one or at best two. Then I went into the dungeons and came up against a boss so nasty (I mentioned him in a prior post), I was seriously considering quitting the game.
Here’s the thing. It’s a delicate balance between ‘difficult, but satisfying’ and ‘fucking brutal, no fucking way’. What makes it even harder is that it can flip on a dime in a fight, as evidenced by me retooling my entire build to do the boss who was pushing my shit in and doing him almost effortlessly.
However. I’m realizing that I don’t want to do this. It has never been my favorite part of the game, but I used to be at least more willing to deal with it. Now, if I can’t beat a boss in five times, I’m done. Last night, after I beat the NPC I mentioned, I really wanted to get into the eastern part of the map I could not access. I tried everything I could think of before asking a carefully worded question in the Discord. After I got some great advice, I was able to find my way into that bit of map. The person who was guiding me in the Discord said it was very unintuitive, and he was not wrong. You have to gesture in order to get a sliding door to open.
I knew that gesture would be important at some point, but I wasn’t even thinking of that gesture by the time I got to the door. I don’t mind that it’s in the game, but I’m also not going to beat myself up for Googling (with guidance from the Discord). That’s a tension I find I often have to fight in this game–I don’t want to spoil myself, but I know that there are things I am not going to figure out myself.
In trying to find this door, I ran into a boss who completely pushed my shit in. It did not feel fair at all how aggressive he was–and he would not let me breathe at all. Plus, he is very similar to two other bosses in the main game, except he’s on an armored boar and does gravity magic. And can two-shot me. And has very janky hitboxes. And his boar can outrun Torrent. And my Mimic Tear refuses to attack him if I run away. My Mimic Tear runs after me, which is so fucking annoying.
I actually managed to cheese the boss to half-health on my first try by hiding in a corner where he couldn’t hurt me and Rotten Breathing him as my Mimic Tear attacked him. I was close enough to my Mimic Tear so mini-Me kept engaged while I was blowing away. Then, in the second half, he changes up his moves, my Mimic Tear died, and I had to try to get him in a non-cheesy way. Or re-cheese. It did not work, and my four or five tries following were abject failures. I immediately looked up how to cheese him (and my first way was one of the cheeses) because I just did not want to fight him.
I reluctantly looked up the legit way to battle him as well, and I learned what I had suspected–that it’s better to fight him on foot than on Torrent. I was not having any joy fighting him, so I quickly gave up and went into the green bit to the east. I will fight him again at some point, but I don’t expect to enjoy it.