From Software Elden Ring - From Software's new game with writing by GRRM

[Lyric Suite]

I'm starting to think the problem people are having with Elden Ring's combat is that they are being forced out of their comfort zone in a way that wasn't present before.

In all my years of playing games, i've encountered essentially two kinds of challenges. The first is something you can essentially react to without having to "extend" yourself, or without having to exert any kind of extra concentration or effort. The second, by contrast, requires an "active" participation that forces you to step out of your standard mode of operation and learn a new modality of play, one that requires continuous effort and concentration.

A good example of the other kind, the one that requires to step "beyond" what you can do instinctively is the kind of macroing and multitasking required to succeed in online play in an RTS. The recent discussion about this genre made me remember the things i had to learn when i moved from single player to multiplayer. The first thing i struggled with was multitasking, the ability to build up an expansion or create a base and an army while at the same time having to manage my current force. Whenever a skirmish happened i always ended up neglecting my base and it required serious effort on my part to actually learn how to jump between the two. It wasn't comfortable, and required an extra degree of exertion that didn't feel entirely natural (kinda like being forced to be aware of what is happening in the periphery of your vision while your eyes are intently fixed on a specific object).

In terms of Souls, a good example of a style that requires this kind of "extra" effort is parrying, and i think it is a universal fact that most people simply neflect this technique precisely because they don't like the extra concentration and training they have to do to acquire this new skill.

My objection to the general feelings reguarding Elden Ring stems from the fact i don't consider this kind of difficutly to be problematic, even less "bad design", which is most definitely is not. I can see why most people feel uncomfortable playing Elden Ring compared even with past Souls, but that's not an argument against the legitimacy of this approach. In my case, i actually enjoyed the ramp up in difficulty a good deal. While i could sort of "wing" it in past Souls games, so i was never compelled to master the combat to any high degree, Elden Ring essentially forced me to sort reach a different level of play, something which then i brought to bear in Sekiro (which makes me wonder what would have happened had i played the latter without my experience of Elden Ring first).

Like i said, for me the only line FromSoft crossed that i didn't appreciate was Malenia's Waterfowl attack, mainly because for the first time since starting the game i was compelled to look up at a guide, and some of the solutions people came up with just don't seem right, like that technique of circling around an hitbox you can't see to dodge her first volley. If the DLC introduced more of those kind of attacks, then perhaps those complaining may have a point. For me i need to be able to figure out an attack on my own. If i have to wait for the "community" to figure out an attack which is too arcane and esoteric to understand during the actual fight, then yes, i agree that approach is fundamentally flawed and inimical to fun, but the Waterfowl attack is the ONLY attack of that kind i found in Elden Ring and a lot of the criticisms of the base game indicates for most people the line is drawn much, much earlier, mainly at the point where they are forced to go from what is comfortable to what is uncofortable or stressful.

 

[Hell Swarm]

Imagine trying to write an essay on the topic of Elden Ring's DLC bosses "crossing a line" when you've self admitted to just starting the DLC. Having not even encountered the dancing Lion and seeing what the DLC bosses have to offer. Mean while everyone else who has finished the DLC and done it at a higher difficulty than you will ever have to is universally agreeing the bosses all have questionable hit boxes on moves that hit far too hard for such punishing attacks. But I guess "Just parry" your screen turning into a light bulb and having to guess when to dodge the delayed explosion.

Take miyazaki's balls out of your mouth faggot.

 

[jaekl]

Carrying a main and a secondary weapon is standard for light weapon users but the game punishes you for carrying multiple weapons if you're a heavy weapon user. So it's menu time while you get killed if you don't have it already equipped.

Yeah so? That's what you do, you go adventuring and die then look through your inventory and think "hmmm what do I have that could help me here?" and in elden ring, you have approximately 90,000 different things that could help you there including different weapons, spells, items, summons, ammunition, armors etc. Picking through your backpack after a defeat to jury rig a solution to get some revenge is half the fun of the game. Probably the only fun of the game by the end because it was starting to get real annoying as I recall, would hate to have only had one weapon and nothing else.

That's unfortunately not how these games work. It goes more like

"Hmm, what upgrade material do I have to make another +8 weapon? Fucking none. Well I guess I'm stuck with this one or a +3 weapon" so you're doing better damage with your ineffective weapon than you are your alt one.

Yeah it is, I did it myself when I played Elden ring. One example I recall is that I kept a blunt weapon for the Chrystal guys. I think I had 4 or 5 weapons at either max or 1 level below max by the end. Plus I had every hand slot filled with weapons, bows and talismans, an inventory full of bombs, poisons, different ammunition types, consumables, spells, summons, armors etc.

Did we play the same game??

 

[jaekl]

The mimic was useless to me because of all my weapons and gadgets though so I suffered in that regard.

 

[Hell Swarm]

Carrying a main and a secondary weapon is standard for light weapon users but the game punishes you for carrying multiple weapons if you're a heavy weapon user. So it's menu time while you get killed if you don't have it already equipped.

Yeah so? That's what you do, you go adventuring and die then look through your inventory and think "hmmm what do I have that could help me here?" and in elden ring, you have approximately 90,000 different things that could help you there including different weapons, spells, items, summons, ammunition, armors etc. Picking through your backpack after a defeat to jury rig a solution to get some revenge is half the fun of the game. Probably the only fun of the game by the end because it was starting to get real annoying as I recall, would hate to have only had one weapon and nothing else.

That's unfortunately not how these games work. It goes more like

"Hmm, what upgrade material do I have to make another +8 weapon? Fucking none. Well I guess I'm stuck with this one or a +3 weapon" so you're doing better damage with your ineffective weapon than you are your alt one.

Yeah it is, I did it myself when I played Elden ring. One example I recall is that I kept a blunt weapon for the Chrystal guys. I think I had 4 or 5 weapons at either max or 1 level below max by the end. Plus I had every hand slot filled with weapons, bows and talismans, an inventory full of bombs, poisons, different ammunition types, consumables, spells, summons, armors etc.

Did we play the same game??

"by the end" yes. But until you get the later merchant balls you're stuck with only what you can find and it's quite limited. If you're not using a somber weapon then it's 12 material per upgrade tier. And that's a lot of shit to find. You could argue use 1 somber and 1 normal but you're still better off using just 2 sombers and needing 10 less material per step. And then you get the problem with early weapons falling off later in the game and it all becomes a cluster fuck.

 

[jaekl]

Carrying a main and a secondary weapon is standard for light weapon users but the game punishes you for carrying multiple weapons if you're a heavy weapon user. So it's menu time while you get killed if you don't have it already equipped.

Yeah so? That's what you do, you go adventuring and die then look through your inventory and think "hmmm what do I have that could help me here?" and in elden ring, you have approximately 90,000 different things that could help you there including different weapons, spells, items, summons, ammunition, armors etc. Picking through your backpack after a defeat to jury rig a solution to get some revenge is half the fun of the game. Probably the only fun of the game by the end because it was starting to get real annoying as I recall, would hate to have only had one weapon and nothing else.

That's unfortunately not how these games work. It goes more like

"Hmm, what upgrade material do I have to make another +8 weapon? Fucking none. Well I guess I'm stuck with this one or a +3 weapon" so you're doing better damage with your ineffective weapon than you are your alt one.

Yeah it is, I did it myself when I played Elden ring. One example I recall is that I kept a blunt weapon for the Chrystal guys. I think I had 4 or 5 weapons at either max or 1 level below max by the end. Plus I had every hand slot filled with weapons, bows and talismans, an inventory full of bombs, poisons, different ammunition types, consumables, spells, summons, armors etc.

Did we play the same game??

"by the end" yes. But until you get the later merchant balls you're stuck with only what you can find and it's quite limited. If you're not using a somber weapon then it's 12 material per upgrade tier. And that's a lot of shit to find. You could argue use 1 somber and 1 normal but you're still better off using just 2 sombers and needing 10 less material per step. And then you get the problem with early weapons falling off later in the game and it all becomes a cluster fuck.

Yes retard, you're limited at the very start of the game when it's easy and upgrades don't matter much then you're not limited at the middle and end of the game and can keep your secondary and tertiary weapons within 1-2 levels of your primaries and even upgrade a brand new weapon you find instantly by buying materials from the shop. Surely a top 1% gamer such as yourself can manage your resources better than me, a mere mortal.

 

[Silva]

The mimic was useless to me because of all my weapons and gadgets though so I suffered in that regard.

Mimic was nerfed a long time ago. If there's something I liked in base game was the different spirits playing different roles effectivelly. Tycha for melee, Blackflame monk for tanking, Aubinaric bitch for sniping, etc, etc. There are a bunch of useful spirits.

 

[Hell Swarm]

Carrying a main and a secondary weapon is standard for light weapon users but the game punishes you for carrying multiple weapons if you're a heavy weapon user. So it's menu time while you get killed if you don't have it already equipped.

Yeah so? That's what you do, you go adventuring and die then look through your inventory and think "hmmm what do I have that could help me here?" and in elden ring, you have approximately 90,000 different things that could help you there including different weapons, spells, items, summons, ammunition, armors etc. Picking through your backpack after a defeat to jury rig a solution to get some revenge is half the fun of the game. Probably the only fun of the game by the end because it was starting to get real annoying as I recall, would hate to have only had one weapon and nothing else.

That's unfortunately not how these games work. It goes more like

"Hmm, what upgrade material do I have to make another +8 weapon? Fucking none. Well I guess I'm stuck with this one or a +3 weapon" so you're doing better damage with your ineffective weapon than you are your alt one.

Yeah it is, I did it myself when I played Elden ring. One example I recall is that I kept a blunt weapon for the Chrystal guys. I think I had 4 or 5 weapons at either max or 1 level below max by the end. Plus I had every hand slot filled with weapons, bows and talismans, an inventory full of bombs, poisons, different ammunition types, consumables, spells, summons, armors etc.

Did we play the same game??

"by the end" yes. But until you get the later merchant balls you're stuck with only what you can find and it's quite limited. If you're not using a somber weapon then it's 12 material per upgrade tier. And that's a lot of shit to find. You could argue use 1 somber and 1 normal but you're still better off using just 2 sombers and needing 10 less material per step. And then you get the problem with early weapons falling off later in the game and it all becomes a cluster fuck.

Yes retard, you're limited at the very start of the game when it's easy and upgrades don't matter much then you're not limited at the middle and end of the game and can keep your secondary and tertiary weapons within 1-2 levels of your primaries and even upgrade a brand new weapon you find instantly by buying materials from the shop. Surely a top 1% gamer such as yourself can manage your resources better than me, a mere mortal.

Please read the post again because you completely missed where it says "At end game there isn't a problem" but mid game there is a huge problem. 6 upgrade material for a non-somber is a lot of item finding and spending some of them on another weapon gimps you severely mid game.

 

[jaekl]

I wasn't gimped in the middle, that's when the game was easiest actually. Does that mean I'm an 0.05% gamer now?

 

[Hell Swarm]

I wasn't gimped in the middle, that's when the game was easiest actually. Does that mean I'm an 0.05% gamer now?

Mid game upgrade material is when it's most difficult to find. The map opens up in so many directions and it's all spread out. People go to Volcano manor just for 1 single upgrade because it's the only place to find one early-mid game. Which is obviously a limited resource if that's what people do.

 

[jaekl]

Duhhhh, the mid game at the start is the hardest it will ever be because it's all spread out and then it gets easier and easier because you grow in power in relation to everything else. You have minimum 2 fully upgraded weapons at all times buddy and that's at all times because every time you go to a new map location you're gonna look for a little mine icon to find smithing stones. Then you'll find shop bells to keep other weapons at a minimum upgrade level of 1 smithing stone behind your best weapons and put your extra stones that you don't use on your main weapons onto tertiary weapons. That's what I did, but I'm a 0.0012% gamer so I'm a pretty advanced user.

 

[Silva]

Next week i get paid i have half a mind of actually buying this just so i can see this shit for myself.

Its From Software's best game. Codexers will shit on anything then have nostalgia for it 10 years later. Don't let that make you miss out. SOTE is fucking amazing

Overall, after add on, it can be considered best FS game, but I think Bloodborne still hold the candle. The fact Shadow of Eldtree got Bloodborne vibes in a lot of places makes is strong candidate. What makes it different from the rest is that exploration is on another level, vertically of it still blows my mind. It's more like Armored Core 6 in this regard.

 

[Raghar]

Imagine trying to write an essay on the topic of Elden Ring's DLC bosses "crossing a line" when you've self admitted to just starting the DLC. Having not even encountered the dancing Lion and seeing what the DLC bosses have to offer. Mean while everyone else who has finished the DLC and done it at a higher difficulty than you will ever have to is universally agreeing the bosses all have questionable hit boxes on moves that hit far too hard for such punishing attacks. But I guess "Just parry" your screen turning into a light bulb and having to guess when to dodge the delayed explosion.

Take miyazaki's balls out of your mouth faggot.

Why not bite instead?

 

[Stoned Ape]

Take miyazaki's balls out of your mouth faggot.

Why not bite instead?

Miyazaki would probably enjoy that too much

 

[Mauman]

The mimic was useless to me because of all my weapons and gadgets though so I suffered in that regard.

Mimic was nerfed a long time ago. If there's something I liked in base game was the different spirits playing different roles effectivelly. Tycha for melee, Blackflame monk for tanking, Aubinaric bitch for sniping, etc, etc. There are a bunch of useful spirits.

Mimic can be quite good depending on your build, but yeah I'd pick something else if you're like a spellcaster or something.

Personally, for tanking I'd go

Spoiler

Dung Eater

Though I think the new king of the hill summon for both tanking AND damage is probably the secret

Spoiler

sisters

summon that can be acquired in the dlc.

 

[Dobkeratops]

My dual great stars arc grugg pancaked everything in the DLC within a handful of tries, meanwhile my int-capped wizard wielding DMGS has to run away from fire knights whenever I get a slightly unfavorable engagement. I wonder how much DLC friction has to do with build issues.

 

[Raghar]

The mimic was useless to me because of all my weapons and gadgets though so I suffered in that regard.

Mimic was nerfed a long time ago. If there's something I liked in base game was the different spirits playing different roles effectivelly. Tycha for melee, Blackflame monk for tanking, Aubinaric bitch for sniping, etc, etc. There are a bunch of useful spirits.

Mimic can be quite good depending on your build, but yeah I'd pick something else if you're like a spellcaster or something.

Personally, for tanking I'd go

Spoiler

Dung Eater

Though I think the new king of the hill summon for both tanking AND damage is probably the secret

Spoiler

sisters

summon that can be acquired in the dlc.

Why not Yoda?

 

[Reinhardt]

nun has levels in magic stats and i don't care about magic so started hobo after all. so far beginning is pretty smooth. because of spending hundreds of hours in monster hunter world over past two months at least i still remeber how to roll.
killed some doggo boss in wolf cave, died to both horsemen. brought dark one to half hp and dismounted him. i was hoping for some yuge bonus damage, like with regular horsies but nigga just summoned another mount. took me by surprise.
dungeon with stone bleed gobbos was annoying. worst part was that i clearly see an ambush and being hobo i have nothing to shoot them with.

will just kill more soldiers and barbarians for now to see what they drop.

 

[Lyric Suite]

Imagine trying to write an essay on the topic of Elden Ring's DLC bosses "crossing a line" when you've self admitted to just starting the DLC.

I've pointed out many times that the screeching around the DLC is similar to the screeching around the base game. I'm operating under the assumption the DLC is basically just more of the same.

 

[Dobkeratops]

Every Souls game has gotten a significant amount of screeching, which is the entire basis of the git gud meme. The series has to perpetually keep up with the playerbase who continues to git gud at an alarming rate (i'm actually amazed how popular ER is with normalfags despite From doubling down on a lot of the series' bullshit)
Maybe they're going about it wrong, certainly I think delayed attacks are bad, feel bad and look bad, but it does have the result of making the game harder and making me die to cheesy shit that I then must overcome (and I can, it just takes attention, preparation, practice, etc.)
Just like Souls PVP was never designed with the intention of making perfectly balanced 1v1 honor duels, I don't think Souls PVE was ever meant to be fair. Just challenging yet surmountable. Which it still is. And that's not even counting how basically everyone complaining is working under self-imposed restrictions to deliberately make the game harder. Yes the restrictions are justified and I do it too, but still.
I am a bit worried about the final boss though, both mechanically and at a lore level its not something I ever want to see again. Just go back to making the final boss some ludokino helpless slug thing From.

 

[lametta]

DLC has issues and isnt as good as the main game. Main game 9/10, DLC 8/10 at best maybe 7.5.

Dark Souls 1 was/is great. For a first time player you'd live through the buttstomping/slamdunking asylum demon(you'd eventually find out that hes weak to fire pots) just to meet the taurus demon that you had to fight on the narrow ramparts(youd eventually find out that you could either make him drop off or jump hit him) and then after you ve conquered and thought you d seen the worst of it you would face havel(and find out you could backstab him). Each of these encounters were surrounding wise/mechanically differnet. The surroundings would matter as well. It was a real adventure.
The DLC you say?
Fight 3 nightmare dragons go to the peak fight another one and 2 mins later fight 2 of them or wait for 5 mins for them to duke it out and kill the one that is left then go up and kill the ancient one until you arrive at the top with you know who.
Oh great another furnace i have to waste 5-10 mins on, oh look there another one....and so on. At some point i just started to ignore the furnaces and go about my way.
Humanoid enemies are usually very simiar to each other aswell. Even locations aren't very inventive if you compare them to ds 1.
Oh a peak just like in the main game and a castle and library etc etc(In contrast Abysall woods was refreshing)

The issue with the DLC isn't only that certain bosses especially the last one combo you to infinity if you aren't using a meta/meme build but the repetition and tedium.
Dodgeing movespam from a boss just to get 2 hits in isnt fun. Get gud crowd is retarded they'd rather have mechanically spammy bosses that raises the tedium then critisizing it and getting something changed.
Malenia was hard but no one complained about her like people did about the dlcs last boss.



Imo if another souls like happens i hope they either overhaul the combat system (which they are admittedly good at. e.g. sekiro/bloodborne)and/or they go the non open world route again.
Remember Assasin's Creed 1. People loved it so much even though it had shit combat that ubi made the next 4-5 installments the same (boring af) Another game/dlc like elden ring that only but only has attack spammy bosses would be a franchise killer imo.

TL;DR: Recycle of bosses is tedious.
Infinite combo bosses are shit design.
DS was/is so beloved because every build was viable.

 

[Silverfish]

Carrying a main and a secondary weapon is standard for light weapon users but the game punishes you for carrying multiple weapons if you're a heavy weapon user. So it's menu time while you get killed if you don't have it already equipped.

Unequip the greataxe?

 

[Hell Swarm]

My dual great stars arc grugg pancaked everything in the DLC within a handful of tries, meanwhile my int-capped wizard wielding DMGS has to run away from fire knights whenever I get a slightly unfavorable engagement. I wonder how much DLC friction has to do with build issues.

There is build friction as always but it's more than that. No matter the build you have the last boss can do an AOE that lights your screen up and then puts down a bunch of lightning spots. Those spots can't be seen until you've already dodged the explosion so you can end up dodging right into damage you couldn't predict. Then the boss has recovered from his animation and he's free to combo you again. The DLC has what seems like unavoidable damage where your only option is to burst the boss down before it can pull them off (which is what we see in the no hits run).

Imagine trying to write an essay on the topic of Elden Ring's DLC bosses "crossing a line" when you've self admitted to just starting the DLC.

I've pointed out many times that the screeching around the DLC is similar to the screeching around the base game. I'm operating under the assumption the DLC is basically just more of the same.

And I've pointed out many times you're a fucking retard who doesn't understand From games but wants to defend them any way. You want attention for saying stupid stuff about games you haven't played.

Oh a peak just like in the main game and a castle and library etc etc(In contrast Abysall woods was refreshing)

I find that interesting because I found the woods to be extremely boring.

Can't see me

The stealth stuff was painful until I realized I could just outrun them. The areas huge and all looks the same with no fast way to travel around it. And the enemies are all generic boring things or the absolute worst enemy From ever invented but now you can't hurt them.

 

[Anonona]

Finished the DLC, regulation 1.21.1, offline. If you like ER's open world and boss design, then you will love it. For me it was extremely disappointing the direction From's is taking the Souls series, as well as the limitation of the combat system.

Long read and mostly issues I had with the DLC, feel free to skip it if you are not interested. I'll avoid any spoilers

About Legacy Dungeons and Open World

While the open world is a moderate improvement over that of the base game, it has come at the cost of very lackluster legacy dungeons. They are extremely short and very simplistic. The Shadow Keep may be the best and most complex Legacy dugeon in the DLC, and it doesn't hold a candle to Stormveil Castle or Leyndell. I would consider it at the level of the Raya Lucaria at most. In contrast there are some interesting and novel (by ER's standars) open world sections, but also many sections that are just full of boring open space with enemies roaming around. Ironically, the secondaries dungeons (catacombs which return, smithy which play a similar role to mines, and Gaols, which are a new type) are an improvement over the base game, being longer, more inticrate and actually having a design that callbacks to older Souls titles, in particular Demon's Souls with having just a single Grace at the entrance and no fast travel.

Artistically is spectacular though. From really nail it. Looks even better than base ER, which was already gorgoreous.

Enemies and bosses

There is a strong reuse of enemies from the base game, which is disappointing. The new regular enemies are fun, but there aren't that many. Also what is up with From reusing so many things from Bloodborne so blatantly, even reusing names. It feels weird.

The bosses aren't really as hard as people are making it out to be, yet the criticism rings true. There is a point where the fights just get old and samey. You either do the dance and wait to get 1-2 hits in and the do it again, or use shield or parries and pretty much ignore everything.

Boss design in the DLC is competently done but uninspired for the most part with a couple of exceptions. You will have flashbacks to other past fights due to how similar they play out. I think From has just reached the limit on the combat system and boss design and at this point are just doing variations of the same types of fights over and over. It was almost a relief when I found an optional boss that played different even if the fight was nothing to write home about.

The are still issues with overly strong tracking, input reading and the like. To give an example on how bad it gets. After beating the final boss, I decided to watch some no-hit videos to see how they deal with certain attacks. One, of course, was Ongbank. And I was very amused when I saw one thing: in the second phase, when the boss has his back turned around and is recovering from one of its attack animations, Ongbank either did a single attack, or no attack at all despite having more than enough stamina and the boss was still recovering. The reason for this is that, if he did, the boss would have cancel its animation, start attacking and suddenly do a 180º turn, and if RNG decided to fuck you over and the attack he chose was a fast one, specially one that is pretty much impossible to dodge without a certain talisman, you are almost guaranteed to get hit. It is very poignant compared to Ongbanks other videos where he dances around the bosses attacks in creative ways, keeping always at the offensive, here he is forced to do the dance, hit, dance, hit add nauseum. This makes fights feel quite repetitive, specially when almost all bosses fights play similarly.

A new problem that is added to some of the bosses is a visual effect overload. The final boss is very guilty of this. It makes learning the fights an absolute pain in the ass and getting hit just because you were unlucky and a light effect blinded you for a second and made you misread an enemy attack really sucks. I swear, the Final boss second phase looked at times like a Data Fight from fucking Kingdom Hearts, I shit you not. Some bosses also have camera issues, I felt often times that the camera was way too close, specially for big enemies or those that love to jump. You expect after so many games that they would had fixed it or at least design the fights to take the camera into account, but they still don't. You can break the lock on, but certain weapons and Ashes of War really depend of you being locked on to work right (as it was the case with the one I was using).

Finally, as always, many of the fights are extremely built around rote memorization, much more than many other action games. Because of the nature of the character moveset, the only way you will find out the bosses' openings and how long you can exploit them, or what is a safe distance to outpace the enemy attack, is by being hit. Enemies will cancel their animations, slide around or read your inputs. Almost all enemies attack have delays or fake outs that you must learn either by getting hit or playing extremely passively, because even if you are able to react to them, the animation lock of your character will make sure you get hit if you try to attack. You cannot even play it smart and try to bait the feints by using a fast attack, because even with a small weapon your recovering is so long you will get hit. I wish the game had a feint system like For Honor, or even let you cancel an attack before the damage frames become active like God of War, wich allowed to feint the enemies. It feels like something that would be apropiate for Souls games

The thing with feints and delayed attacks reaches a point of parody in one instance. One of the bosses wiil jump up high in the air, hold its spear at ready, emit purple magic particles, stay in the air building expectation, and as you get ready to dodge as soon as he launches... he gets back to the ground and charges normally. First time it happened to me I actually chuckled because it felt like a self aware joke by From. Got hit the first time he used that attack, never again after that because ironically the overly long animations makes it easier to dodge. It was quite silly.

Funny enough, once you get acustomed to this issues, most of the boss pattern's are actually quite simplistic in nature, and the fights themselves are nothing to write home about, but the visibility issues does make some fights a chore to learn, as it takes even longer to decipher exactly what happened. Most second phases are just the first one but with an extra effect added to the enemy attacks, plus some new attacks. Once you realize this you only need to learn the new attacks and hope you do not get unlucky and the spectacles of lights throw you off mid fight.

Overall, if you liked the fights of the base game, you probably will like these, Mesmer in particular I think was actually fun. But I found myself a bit tired by the end.

Thoughts about the combat system

The combat system is in dire need of some rework. Two new addition for the DLC reinforced my opinion on this; a new tear and a new talisman. The tear gives you Sekiro's parry for a short duration, while the talisman gives your backstep i-frames, similar to DS2, making it a kind of quick-dodge. These two, by themselves make combat feel much better, and together they are great. There are still issues with how slow your attacks are, but these two defensive maneuvers should have been part of your core moveset since ER was released. They are satisfiying and open up much more options in combat.

The stamina system is starting to be more of an annoying hindrance than a meaningful mechanic. It is balanced in a way that, if you play normally, stamina isn't even a factor, but if you optimize fights it just becomes limiting now that the pace of fights is so fast. Compare to the older games, where its slow and methodical combat made stamina management one of the central pillars of combat. In ER often times if you use a combination of ashes of war and quick attacks to match the boss aggression while avoiding damage, and fights start to have a modicum of fun, you would run out of stamina and had to just stop to recover. It starts feeling like an artificial pause to the fight instead of something naturally weaved into combat.

Compared to other games like Nioh or even From's own Sekiro, with each one having experimented with the stamina system (the ki and posture system respectively), it feels like ER is stuck with a system that just doesn't work with the kind of game they want to make, where aggression is encourage to break the enemy posture. It works against it and instead rewards just using attacks like jump attacks and others with strong posture damage and that are safe and cost efficient.

If they are still going to focus on combat moving forward, I think is time From rethinks the combat system. Changes to the stamina system, a Sekiro like parry system, faster attacks, quick-dodges and the option to chose when to roll or when to quick dodge, dodge offset so we can use the full combos of weapon on bosses, feints, being able to equip multiple "ashes of war" like skills at the same time, attacks that change your stance (one-handing/two-handing) or your weapon mid combo. Some of these elements are actually in other From's games and it will help to expand the combat and allow them to make more varied and fun boss design.

Final thoughts about the Souls series

But perhaps the biggest complaint I have about the DLC is how far it has abandoned the core of what Souls used to be. When Demon's Souls came out, it wasn't about hard bosses or spectacular fights. Instead it was masterful level design, a very grounded world that expected you to be cautious, search for ambushes, manage your resources and play it smart. Many time the bosses were actually easy, it was the whole level in its entirety that was challenging. There was just a single bonfire, shortcuts were baked into the environment, and the level presented challenges beyond simply hard enemies. Many bosses were gimmicks and puzzles that surprised the player and your decisions felt much more important. Many of the things that have become and staple now, like Patches, and NPC that murders the rest of the cast, etc started there, but it was fresh and new. It really was unique and immersive.

But I think it was since Dark Souls 1's DLC, specifically Artorias and Manus fights. There has been a slow change to the saga focusing on combat over all other aspects that has really made the Souls game lose what made them unique. People bought into Dark Souls being for "hardcore gamers" and the "Prepare to Die" bullshit, while complaining about gimmick fights as if every single one of those were Bed of Chaos or something. I think it was said in the thread that Souls games are not for everybody, but ER feels if anything a game that has compromised much of its design to appeal to the biggest crowd and the "memes" of redditors. Bosses have to be bigger and more spectacular and have lots of them. You have to have all the classics, your Patches, the NPC that kills the others and invade you, the friendly but clumsy NPC everybody loves (Alexander being the Sieigmeyer of ER), etc. And it reaches a point where it starts to feel old and boring, specially because often times they are not executed nearly as well as they were originally.

And the DLC really feels like the culmination of this. Every boss has a checkpoint at the entrance, because From know they are so hard they just cannot make the player run through the level each time they die. Many dungeons have multiple checkpoints, not even bothering with shortcuts anymore. Dungeon design is stale, they are short and devoid of challenge for the most part. Almost every situations is resolved the same way; combat. There are few interesting or unique challenges anymore. The sense of danger and wonder is mostly gone, I think only one place of the DLC actually gave me those feelings, and it was where From actually dared to try to make something new. Boss design as I said is very repetitive. The music has become extremely forgeteable, and now we don't even have the contrast between silence and song that past games had due to the open world nature of the game necessitating music to warn players that they are in combat. At a point the worst started to happen: I started to felt bore, and wanted to DLC to end.

The DLC is still very well done, and better than most other games in the genre. But I think the cracks in the seams are starting to show, and From has lost something very unique and precious they once had.

Overall, it is a quality product with a lot of content. If you like ER, you will love SotE almost guaranteed. For my part, while I did enjoy it somewhat, I ended disappointed with it, as I though it focused in my least favourite parts of the base game while feeling very samey on others, and not really liking the direction From is seemingly taking the Souls games.

 

[Hell Swarm]

When Demon's Souls came out, it wasn't about hard bosses or spectacular fights. Instead it was masterful level design, a very grounded world that expected you to be cautious, search for ambushes, manage your resources and play it smart.

They have actually been doing new styles of ambushes for the DLC. In the very first castle there is a dog waiting to ambush you in a bush. In older games you would have seen a hint of it or tried to lock on and spotted it. But that's not what this game does. They placed the dog so you can't lock onto it until you already pass into it's attack range and it dives at you. Which says something very important about From : They know their systems suck and need fixing, but instead of fixing it they're exploiting it to punish the player instead.