Before I give an actual review of the DLC, Shadow of the Erdtree (FromSoft), I want to talk about what I found frustrating in the game. In some ways, it’s just an extension of my exasperation with the FromSoft games in general. Also, it’s funny that I started a post yestreday, intent on doing an actual review, and then as is my way, I meandered all over the place. Today, I don’t want to do the review yet because–well, I just don’t. I have included a review by someone who agrees that Shadow of the Erdtree is more Elden Ring, for better and for worse (Infomercial). I don’t agree with every point he makes, but he makes some valid criticisms.
I want to talk about what frustrated me in the DLC, which will probably inform my review. The video I have included below is Ratatoskr with his criticisms of the game. (It only has two points and neither are my big gripes–the latter isn’t my issue, exactly,, but it’s still interesting.) In the RKG Discord, we’re talking about NPC questline and how complicated they are in the DLC. That’s how it is in most of the prior games. In the base game of Elden Ring, they were much more generous with the steps you could miss and when you had to do them, but that’s probably because the game itself is so massive.
With any first playthrough, I try my best not to look things up. I want to experience the game as organically as possible. Which is great for immersion, but terrible for NPC questlines. Here’s the thing. I thought that the same generosity from the base game would extend to the DLC. Iwas so very wrong. I messed up all the questlines in my first playthrough, which really made me sad. Well, almost all. Plus, there are a few that you have to do things different ways to get different results (and different rewards), which means you can’t see everything on one playthrough. This is not unusual for these games, and it’s not a big gripe. Except.
I put 70+ hours into the DLC. I was heartbroken that I fucked up most of the NPC questlines. I’m in my second playthrough and paying very close attention to what I need to do when. But I still had a moment of panic when I read something in the RKG Discord that made me wonder if I’d fucked something up. I had misread the comment posted, and much to my relief, I was fine. For that NPC questline, anyway.
Here’s another weird thing as I’m traipsing through my second playthrough. I don’t want to fight the bosses. I just don’t. I have fought…*counts on fingers* Oh, and
*SPOILER WARNING*
Rellana Twin Moon Knight, Divine Beast Dancing Lion, Putrescent Knight, Golden Hippopotamus, and I think that’s it. I’ve beaten a few cave/tomb/catacomb bosses, too. It’s wild to me that I have done so much in such a relatively short amount of time. I did not reach the Putrescent Knight in my first playthrough until much later, though to be fair, it’s beacuse of my weird meandering along rather than an actual plan.
I missed Thiollier, the NPC who is related to this boss. Or rather, tied in to this boss. In my first playthrough, I mean. That was totally on me because when I got to the Three-Path Cross, I inexplicably forgot about one of the three paths. Well, not inexplicably. My memory is shit now, and I should have marked the paths I didn’t choose at first.
One of those paths led to Thiollier. I knew he was in the game, but I hadn’t run across him. When I finally looked up his NPC questline, I found out that I had missed his starting point. By that point, when I went to talk to him, I had locked off his whole questline.
Another issue is the Scadutree Fragments that are scattered around the world. There has been a heated debate about whether it’s a good system or not. I have heard the arguments on both sides, and I could see merit in both of them. Briefly, there are 50 fragments scattered about the world. You use them to get stronger, and you’ll need increasing amounts to strengthen yourself once as you go. It’s similar to the flasks in the main game, and I was fine with it because I do a lot of exploring all the time, but…. Ratatoskr made a point that synthesized my feelings about it. In the base game, there are 41 golden seeds. You need 30 to get as many flask sips as you can (14).
In the DLC , there are only 50 of the Scadutree Fragments. You need all of them to get to level 20. Ratatoskr said there should be like 20 extra, and he is so right. Yes, exploring is its own reward. However, it was dispiriting with my first character to be one or two fragments short of full. Plus, probably one short for my boy, Torrent, and Mini-Me to get to full. And, yes, I can follow the guide to get all of that, but as I already have the vast majority of them, how tedious to have to go to all the locations just to get the one or two I missed. And to be honest, a few of them were in some bullshit locations. I’m not talking about having to beat one of the worst bosses of the game so you can get five behind him, either. I’m talking about hiding them away in ridiculous places that will not be found by people like me with terrible depth perception. I probably will go find the rest with my first character just for completionist sake, but I really do not want to.
Another thing I want to talk about is the verticality. I will fully acknowledge that this is me and not the game, but it’s still a frustration. I love how dense the game is. It remind me of the first Dark Souls in how intricate it was. The shortcuts were amazing, and there was no feeling like finding a new bonfire. While I appreciate the abundance of Sites of Grace in the base game of Elden Ring (and I know why they did it that way), the first time I found a shortcut in the DLC, I nearly cried. My eyes actually welled up as I opened the shortcut. It’s been quite some time since I felt that much relief at finding a bonfire.
I love the density and the intricateness of the design on a global level/scale, but personally, it made it so difficult for me. I missed so many things just because I literally could not see them. I swear I scrutinized everything around me as carefully as I could. But I still missed so much shit. And because I did not want to look shit up, that means I missed so much.
Another issue that I have talked about more than once is that a few of the bosses were just way over the top. I’m referring specifically to the last boss. I no longer play these games for the difficult bosses (if I ever did), and I just could not with the last boss. Which has been the case for some time now. The last boss of The Ringed City (Dark Souls III) was not enjoyable to me at all. At the time, I was trying to do every boss solo, but I had to give up on that one. And I really did not enjoy the last boss of Sekiro. Not one bit. If I went back to that boss, I would lose every time. And the final boss of Elden Ring? I cheesed the fuck out of it in my playthrough. Well, not the actual final boss, but the first half (first boss) of the final boss.
One of my problems with the base game carried on into the DLC. Actually, it’s been a problem since the first DLC of Dark Souls III if not before. The multiple health bar boss bullshit. Sister Friede in the third game had three and then Isshin, the Sword Saint in Sekiro had four. Granted, one of the health bars was for Genichiro, which was the first phase of that fight. You want to know how I won that fight? With pure cheese. After dismissing Genichiro fairly easily (and, by the way, I let him kill me if I had to use a gourd), I baited out one move from Isshin for the whole entire fight and only punished that one move. People talk about how it can take five seconds to beat him–well, not when you’re waiting for one move. It took me ten minutes every time to fight him.
More later.