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Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree embargo lifted
The embargo on Shadow of the Erdtree lifted yesterday. Codes were sent out last week some reviewers were able to complete the expansion while others spent their time exploring. General consensus is glowing (95% on metacritic).
Below are some reviews I enjoyed. Light spoilers in most, IGN spoiled the most. I skimmed the review where they discussed some things I want to discover on my own.
- (Ars Technica) Shadow of the Erdtree has ground me into dust, which is why I recommend it
- (Kotaku) Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree Review: Massive, Menacing, And Magnificent
- (New York Times) Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree Review: Faith, Meet Futility
- (Rock Paper Shotgun) Elden Ring: Shadow Of The Erdtree review: yeah, it's basically a sequel
- (Eurogamer) Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree review - a visually resplendent living text made less alive
- (IGN POTENTIAL SPOILERS) Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree DLC Review
I've seen a lot of reviews mention that the DLC feels like playing ER for the first time, which makes me irrationally excited, after having explored most of the "main" content in the game.
I have never played ER or any souls game, mainly because I don't generally like boss fights and because the worlds seem to be particularly dark. I tend to like story-rich RPGs with relationship building (including romance) and plenty of levity while the world turns to ruin. So, examples would be games from old Bioware, CDPR, Bethesda, Larian, Capcom (Dragon's Dogma), etc. But I keep hearing how amazing Elden Ring and FromSoft games are. Would anyone still recommend this game to someone like me? Or is it more for hardcore players who like bosses and the challenge of getting good at the gameplay mechanics?
In short and in respect of your time and based on what you said here: not really.
You won't get:
Now, I do think that the difficulty of Elden Ring is a bit overstated. But I'd say From Software games are Type 2 fun. Elden Ring does provide in game methods for decreasing the difficulty: grinding levels, broken builds, and spirit ash summons, and NPC/Multiplayer summons.
What you'll get:
I wouldn't say it is for hardcore players. But it is for players who want a game that reciprocates their commitment and there is a bar to clear before that commitment is rewarded. It scratches an itch not unlike training for a sport for me.
Thanks for the detailed answer. If I had more gaming time, there's no doubt I'd try it some day, but it doesn't sound like my type of game. I do like to try new genres though from time to time. I'm often pleasantly surprised and something made well can always be fun, even if it's not your usual preference.
That's completely reasonable. I have a similar feeling with modern JRPGs. I think I'd like them but the commitment is too high for likely marginal value (I did buy Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance, it's gonna be my stab at JRPG likes this year...).
If you have some bandwidth for a more passive experience, you can go and listen/watch Noah Caldwell-Gervais lengthy critique of the Dark Souls series and others From Software games. While it's not exactly playing the game, you certainly get a good feeling of them.
It's a fantastic game, but it is as far away from the types of things you like as an RPG can be.
I wouldn't say Elden Ring is for hardcore players (it turned out to have surprisingly large mass appeal) but it is very much about the challenge of getting good at the gameplay mechanics. It also has a ton of bosses (most of them are just dungeon bosses) but it's not as focused on the bosses as other Souls games.
There's very little levity and a lot of that takes the form of black humour. The story is rich (the lore is written by George RR Martin) but it's also not told in a straightforward or even complete way. There is no mechanical relationship building with other characters in any of these games (beyond following a questline).
In many ways, it is on the other end of the spectrum to all those other RPG games. These games are very much gameplay-focused first and foremost. I don't even think it's possible to fully glean the story without either a lot of research on wikis and YouTube, or playing through these games multiple times.
Not to detract from your post or point, because it's spot on, but gleaning the story is most of what you do. By reading item descriptions and listening to NPCs you can glean but probably not fully grasp the lore, sometimes aspects just click into place.
It's true but I've always found I needed multiple passes at these games to get most of the whole picture. The broad strokes fill in from the first pass but there are so many subtle but significant implications to be found not just in the item descriptions but the placement of them. It's easy to miss the significance of an item in a particular place within your first couple of hours in one of these games.
The environmental storytelling is second to none at this point but the downside of that is that it requires a player to be more familiar with what is happening than they would on their first playthrough, where the concerns are more about figuring out the game and wondering what is around the next corner.
My favorites are RPGs of the same vein and I'd say that no, FromSoftware games don't appeal to that taste. However, if you do want to try something different, I found Elden Ring to be the most accessible of their games.
Each FromSoftware game I've tried, it tends to take a couple tries to dive in simply bc my engagement falls off. I have beat Dark Souls though and the only reason I fell off Elden Ring was I'd taken a long trip and had no idea how to play when I got back.
I tend to "cheat" my way through them. I create a save point by exiting to the menu and copying the save file, then going back to the menu and pasting it back to reload to that point. I'm too old to put time into a game and get negative progress bc of arbitrarily punishing systems.
Oh I'm very much like you! I do not really enjoy spending my time getting my butt kicked, nor do I gain pleasure out of grinding until I 'git gud'. However, with Elden ring, i found that you can actually really enjoy doing some quests around the 'main' quest, and that allowed me to level up a little bit above the 'recommended' level for dealing with the next boss I was supposed to kill. That gave me a slight edge that still allowed me to feel challenged, but didn't force me to spend 10 hours learning each bosses freaking moveset. On average, I killed each boss within 5 or so tries. If I found myself annoyed / one shot after 2 tries or so, I'd simply just run off into the world on another quest and would try again once I leveled a bit more. This made it so that I actually enjoyed the accomplishment of killing a boss, without the annoying git gud grind!
Except for Melania. Fuck Melania. She took me 15+ tries even when I comet azured her ass to the floor (used the press-button-to-die-overpowered-spell).
Other than that b&tch, i really enjoyed the game and i can safely recommend it for others like me! :) the world isn't necessarily a happy place, but it's generally very cool and very beautiful. Also there are actually sweet NPC progressions, though I do warn that ER sometimes rug pulls you for no reason, in which case I like to just retcon what happened to 'and they lived happily ever after, because we're not all George RR Martin cynics"
Thanks. It doesn't really sound like it would be the type of game I'd love, but I've been wrong many times before with this kind of thing. I didn't think I liked turn-based games until I tried X-Com, and I didn't think I liked FPS games until I tried Half Life back in the day. My time for gaming is severely limited though these days, so I tend to be more choosy. Maybe it's the type of game I'll try if it is ever given away free or drops to $5 in a sale.
I totally understand! If you do end up giving it a shot, I hope you end up enjoying yourself :)!
To me, the experience of Elden Ring and Dark Souls is mostly about learning their combat systems and exploring interesting dangerous places. I'm not super into boss fights and haven't actually beaten either game, but that didn't stop them from being games I've really liked.
I was thinking of starting a fresh character for the DLC but it sounds like it has it's own progression system, so I guess I might just stumble in with my old character and die a lot while I relearn how to play instead.
Since I hadn't even downed the first boss (I really struggled at release despite wanting to love the game) I started a new character a couple months ago. It took by ~50 hours to get Mohg and Radahn down. I was at level 90 and people seem to be recommending 120 if you're really good, 150 for normies like me (I'll be going in at 130 and farming some Albinaurics if I need a few more levels). But it sounds like the fragments you collect really are the key progression system. Also hearing that NG+ isn't significantly more difficult. No idea about higher NG+ levels. But that's pretty inline with the base game where NG+ isn't harder than your first run.
Fortunately on the Kinda Funny Podcast they mention that smithing stones are plentiful incase you don't have all the bell bearings, and I'm hearing there are at least a handful of Larval Tears if you used all 15 in your base game.
I'm a huge FromSoftware fan and I beat this game twice with two different characters and also got 100% achievements within the first month of release. I haven't touched it since, and I'm not sure this DLC is enough to bring me back. I've beat all 3 dark souls games more times than I can count and I'd still rather replay any of them than reinstall Elden Ring. The truth is Elden Ring just isn't nearly as good, and the open world tedium really tanks the replayability.