Today we embark on our last adventure in the Lands Between. Join me as I lament all that was left undone and opine on the task ahead with hope for the future.
from the little i saw, the dlc looks like all of my favorite parts of the base game smushed together, so even though they probably aren't going to change some things i didn't like, i'm certain it's still going to be a magnificent experience
The consumable refund for colosseum play was the best feature in the patch for me. This was fromsoft directly addressing the hardcore pvp community. It shows that they are listening and they do care. Its shame we didnt get more changes like this and im afraid any future changes will be too little too late
It's a nice quality of life improvement for a mode I unfortunately almost never play. But, with the DLC, I'm sure lots of people (myself included) are gonna give it another go. Would have been nice for them to add another arena or make some bigger changes but I lost hope on that a while ago.
They made no changes to invasions or multiplayer. No covenants, player limit expansion, 3v2 invasions, taunters tongue rework etc. Seems like invasions are gonna go the way of the horse in future games if they keep gutting them like they did in ER.
@@emotionaljonxvx Jon! You got your requested ash of war blanket nerf in the new patch!! Christmas is real, Santa does exist!!!! Maybe there are more presents on the way!
I can sympathize with your feelings about Elden Ring not being quite what you hoped for, but for me this was a good thing. I was historically too scared to get into FromSoftware's games, having heard about their infamous difficulty and punishing nature (perhaps overstated :P), so Elden Ring being an accessible title let it become my gateway into what is now a fervent love of their entire modern catalogue. It's special to me for this reason. My one hope is that the DLC brings back that special feeling for me. ...Okay, my other hope is getting to bang Miquella. But that's beside the point.
Yeah, I definitely don't want to disparage the game or anyone playing it on the premise that it's accessible. I think accessibility is generally a good thing. I mostly just miss that I want the game to cage me in a lot more and make me make hard decisions. The two aren't necessarily mutually exclusive but I certainly think they prioritized the "player freedom" aspect along with a general ease of play and decided to avoid the more trapped design of earlier titles. And yeah, it really does seem Miquella can get it.
I think the new patch is one of the best ones they’ve added. Given it took a year. But honestly I think it was worth the wait. Now this doesn’t discourage me from thinking there will be other broken weapons and AOW in the dlc and then it’ll take fromsoft another year to not patch. Overall I’m excited and present for the DLC. Really hope you find some joy in this DLC Jon!
It was a nice surprise to see them make some wider adjustments with the patch (obviously I recorded the video beforehand) and I'm very hopeful for future patches to maybe add some more substantial changes. In any case, I'm very excited for this DLC and I'm sure I'm gonna get lots of emotions out of it.
On the other hand, Miyazaki recently stated he wants to refine BB/Sekiro combat flow, or otherwise push it further. That's like the best news in two years. He just told everyone something faster/more fluid than those games is in the works. I'm not gonna cry about ER forever, I do want to move on after the DLC. And if we move on to something like a reworked RPG Sekiro with PvP? I'm never thinking about ER PvP again. The last half a year has been bizarre to me. I'm now more excited for ER PvE than I could possibly ever be for PvP. Maybe that's partially my fault. But I think most people can agree on this: PvP has never been more irrelevant than it is right now. Even though I have PvP rotbrain and am taking "invasion" characters into it with restrictions that make no sense outside of it. Oh well. With the rating it has, and the odd-sounding accolade of "highest rated DLC", yeah - ER really is a phenomenon that people are still gaining more by participating in it with caveats than logging off because of them. See you in the land of shadows.
Apparently, it's a smaller version of Elden Ring, which I'm all about. Cuz, like you, I was exhausted by the end. I thought the Capitol should have been the end. Or, it should be the same size with less repeat co tent. But 60 hours is good for me. Maybe 50
"I'm a certified hater with a PhD in dyslogy". MY BROTHER! ER is fun, has some pretty moments, and is too big. That's as far as I'll go. I don't expect a masterpiece with the DLC, but just more of the same, as you say. I'll enjoy turning off the internet for the weekend and exploring it blind. Then I'll say goodbye to FromSoft for a while until they prove to me that they can still dedicate themselves to what I loved about them. Good luck skeleton, and don't you dare go hollow.
I just played the first 6 hours or so and I'm loving it. it's unabashedly more Elden Ring, I'd say so far though I've been blown away with how diverse and interconnected some areas are and my jaw has dropped more than a few times. I think most of your issues will likely not be solved but I'm happy to say the things you love will be in the forefront with arguably more polish than some of the base game. don't you dare go hollow.
I'm writing this an hour before the DLC drops for console, but I think there will be a tighter experience in the DLC due to the reduction in open world sections and closer play between the legacy dungeons and catacombs. Also, I disagree with saying that Elden Ring made you "do chores"; I couldn't really think of any examples where I felt I had to do something tedious. Unlike a game like RuneScape for example, lol. The quests and progression are as simple and non- "time wasty" as they've even been; still convoluted, but nothing really takes a long time that isn't spread throughout the whole game.
Looking forward to your rants after some DLC time. They have all been clear and concise. I think you sum up what every Dark Souls Vet and Newbie wants in the game very clearly
Jon, even when I disagree with you, you articulate yourself with such intelligence and nuance that I can't help but be impressed. You've earned a sub. What I'm most excited for is fighting all the new Remebrance bosses. Not to get too spoilery, but the leaks suggest that the DLC has increased the rembrance boss count has been increased by over two thirds. Also, you should check out the new patch. I think they literally took all the balance changes out of the video Jeenine sent them.
I really appreciate that. I'm always trying to be reasonable, especially because I have pretty tilted takes and I'm polarizing at best. I know lots of people aren't going to agree with me and that's something I try to embrace as much as possible. Everyone has to find what's right about the game for them. And I have been looking through the patch and it's pretty cool. I'm still in the camp of wanting much larger changes but it's full of nice adjustments. Excited to get in and see how it plays!
I wish I could join you guys so fuckin much man. But I can't wait to watch all of you guys get up to any shenanigans and stuff! I hope you guys all have fun.
My recommendation for how to enjoy the DLC on the first day, play multiplayer Either invade or slap down that summon sign to co-op and you'll be having more fun, even if the base game wasn't completely designed around multiplayer the DLCs are always harder which encourages co-op which enables invasions
i heard that coop'ing has gotten a slight upgrade in the dlc, allowing for a more seamless coop experience. i imagine players will be able to coop after beating a boss or something of the sort, which would allow for more invasion windows? dunno but excited regardless. kinda bummed about only getting 14 new sorceries compared to 28 new incants, but maybe they're worthwhile. can't believe this day has finally come
i'm looking forwards to physically checking things off of my bingo card. never been an active enough player to get to do that for a fromsoft release before
i have to try the cracked version and judge it. i have base game but don't want to spend another 60$. yeah the DLC is 60 in my country same price as base game. if i found out that most of the Caves and Dungeons are just copy paste i let you know through a video of mine in my channel.
Just played the DLC it's equally as needlessly big empty and boring with equally boring rewards (seriously lvl 2-3 upgrade mats in and endgame area who cares) sure there are cool bosses and some nice legacy dungeons some cool weapons and spells etc but it doesn't justify all the needless bloat and lazy reskins of older enemies (including one of the main fucking bosses) etc. Also instead of fixing the already tedious crafting system they made it infinitely worse. I think I'm done with fromsoft games for a while.
13:00 Oh youre looking for a negative review ? I recommend Alyssa's Mercante review of SotE; It goes in depth into the mechanics and new features :D Definitely the best game review i've ever read
I've gotta just see for myself. I expect it to be phenomenal in a lot of ways, maybe even most, but it's all the little things they'll do weird or off that might get to me. I'm excited regardless
@@tomas60952 No thoughtfully designed interconnected world, no more gravelording, no more solo invasions, bonfires appear every 5 meters, the open world is half empty, reuse of bosses constantly, no covenants. Half the things people liked about Dark Souls/Demon's Souls no longer exist.
@@daboos6353 no other game have feel so alive, we have the best boss encounters... the best areas... best art direction... best dungeon design.... best open areas i dont know what game did you play or all of the brilliance went over your head....
it's funny that people who saw your take and my take. they see it as trash take when it's actually a gold take because we have good reason to point out the annoying bit of the open world that from soft represent. and how the pvp invasion is nerfed into boring slob of gank squads. but i think we need to point out the boss designs of the late game or mid game too! how the feel of dance and back and forth is dead, how bosses just doing endless combos with no windows of opportunity to strike making boss fight tedious and not fun like previous games. most souls vets are either look for challenging boss fight or the pvp. and clearly ELDEN RING isn't about boss fights it's about become an OP Tarnished and steamroll the game without learning the bosses movesets. but so far elden ring bosses are not challenging but more like bullshit fight where the fight is on the favor of the bosses and not you. in souls games you fought dragons, monsters, demons, huge knights but with a touch of back and forth dance like! but in ELDEN RING you just had to watch bosses doing endless combos where you don't have a turn to strike and do your own combo dance. you just had to resort to cheese tactics to just keep up with the damn endless combos.
I just beat the DLC like an hour ago and all I can say is it's very much more Elden Ring as-is. Similarly open world (though a better pacing to locations assuming you don't roam around too much) and lots of bosses that attack indefinitely with blinding combos that have vague punish windows (assuming they don't go immediately into another chain of combos). That said, I enjoyed myself similarly to how I enjoyed Elden Ring the first time. A few moments of sighing and exhaustion but quickly remedied by just going to another objective instead of exploring. And, while I can't be sure, I think once you know everything that needs done you could get through the main sections of the DLC in less than 10 hours. It took me probably 25 hours so far and I haven't done all the extra stuff yet, though I've done a decent bit and definitely spent hours roaming around a bit aimlessly. Going in with an open mind was the right call (at least for me) and I had a good, if not occasionally frustrating, time. Hopefully when you can pick it up you get something positive out of it, because there's plenty to critique.
I think I would play this game if it wasn't a Dark Souls reskin, but honestly just the fact that bonfires are called graces is enough for me to completely write it off
they plastered the graces a bit too much when most people are riding off past everything. bonfire of dark souls represent rest after tough fights, but so far in elden ring there's no tough fight between graces just long ride with torrent. the only actual graces where you can rest after tough fights is in the legacy dungeons areas. i started to think that the overworld open world doesn't need a lot of these graces.
I’ve got no idea how anyone who’s made the effort to actually play ER can turn round and say it’s not good, yeh it’s not perfect but man the scope of this title is just incredible. It’s frustrating and seems like when it comes to putting the same effort into the story and clarity of objectives From Software just couldn’t be bothered…apart from that.. the games God Tier good.
from the little i saw, the dlc looks like all of my favorite parts of the base game smushed together, so even though they probably aren't going to change some things i didn't like, i'm certain it's still going to be a magnificent experience
@ 7:30 not the cave slave and master cosplay 💀
I tried to liberate the worker but his spirit was broken.
@@emotionaljonxvx How could you, he yearns for the mines
The consumable refund for colosseum play was the best feature in the patch for me. This was fromsoft directly addressing the hardcore pvp community. It shows that they are listening and they do care.
Its shame we didnt get more changes like this and im afraid any future changes will be too little too late
It's a nice quality of life improvement for a mode I unfortunately almost never play. But, with the DLC, I'm sure lots of people (myself included) are gonna give it another go. Would have been nice for them to add another arena or make some bigger changes but I lost hope on that a while ago.
Do you know how it works? Does it just give you the consumables you used back? Or does it just craft more automatically for you?
They made no changes to invasions or multiplayer. No covenants, player limit expansion, 3v2 invasions, taunters tongue rework etc. Seems like invasions are gonna go the way of the horse in future games if they keep gutting them like they did in ER.
I’m most excited for Jon to secretly enjoy the DLC
Oh, I'm gonna love it. I just also might hate it. I can do both.
@@emotionaljonxvx Jon! You got your requested ash of war blanket nerf in the new patch!! Christmas is real, Santa does exist!!!! Maybe there are more presents on the way!
I can sympathize with your feelings about Elden Ring not being quite what you hoped for, but for me this was a good thing. I was historically too scared to get into FromSoftware's games, having heard about their infamous difficulty and punishing nature (perhaps overstated :P), so Elden Ring being an accessible title let it become my gateway into what is now a fervent love of their entire modern catalogue. It's special to me for this reason. My one hope is that the DLC brings back that special feeling for me.
...Okay, my other hope is getting to bang Miquella. But that's beside the point.
Yeah, I definitely don't want to disparage the game or anyone playing it on the premise that it's accessible. I think accessibility is generally a good thing. I mostly just miss that I want the game to cage me in a lot more and make me make hard decisions. The two aren't necessarily mutually exclusive but I certainly think they prioritized the "player freedom" aspect along with a general ease of play and decided to avoid the more trapped design of earlier titles.
And yeah, it really does seem Miquella can get it.
I think the new patch is one of the best ones they’ve added. Given it took a year. But honestly I think it was worth the wait. Now this doesn’t discourage me from thinking there will be other broken weapons and AOW in the dlc and then it’ll take fromsoft another year to not patch. Overall I’m excited and present for the DLC. Really hope you find some joy in this DLC Jon!
It was a nice surprise to see them make some wider adjustments with the patch (obviously I recorded the video beforehand) and I'm very hopeful for future patches to maybe add some more substantial changes. In any case, I'm very excited for this DLC and I'm sure I'm gonna get lots of emotions out of it.
On the other hand, Miyazaki recently stated he wants to refine BB/Sekiro combat flow, or otherwise push it further. That's like the best news in two years. He just told everyone something faster/more fluid than those games is in the works. I'm not gonna cry about ER forever, I do want to move on after the DLC. And if we move on to something like a reworked RPG Sekiro with PvP? I'm never thinking about ER PvP again.
The last half a year has been bizarre to me. I'm now more excited for ER PvE than I could possibly ever be for PvP. Maybe that's partially my fault. But I think most people can agree on this: PvP has never been more irrelevant than it is right now. Even though I have PvP rotbrain and am taking "invasion" characters into it with restrictions that make no sense outside of it. Oh well.
With the rating it has, and the odd-sounding accolade of "highest rated DLC", yeah - ER really is a phenomenon that people are still gaining more by participating in it with caveats than logging off because of them.
See you in the land of shadows.
Apparently, it's a smaller version of Elden Ring, which I'm all about. Cuz, like you, I was exhausted by the end. I thought the Capitol should have been the end. Or, it should be the same size with less repeat co tent. But 60 hours is good for me. Maybe 50
despite all the disappointments re: pvp, a silver lining is the new weapon types may liven up duelling and invasions.
Go cry harder you can't spam your BS meta nonsense😂
"I'm a certified hater with a PhD in dyslogy". MY BROTHER!
ER is fun, has some pretty moments, and is too big. That's as far as I'll go. I don't expect a masterpiece with the DLC, but just more of the same, as you say. I'll enjoy turning off the internet for the weekend and exploring it blind. Then I'll say goodbye to FromSoft for a while until they prove to me that they can still dedicate themselves to what I loved about them.
Good luck skeleton, and don't you dare go hollow.
I just played the first 6 hours or so and I'm loving it. it's unabashedly more Elden Ring, I'd say so far though I've been blown away with how diverse and interconnected some areas are and my jaw has dropped more than a few times. I think most of your issues will likely not be solved but I'm happy to say the things you love will be in the forefront with arguably more polish than some of the base game. don't you dare go hollow.
I would prefer if Elden Ring had a dark souls 1 type world with covenants and stuff, I don't care for the open world.
I'm writing this an hour before the DLC drops for console, but I think there will be a tighter experience in the DLC due to the reduction in open world sections and closer play between the legacy dungeons and catacombs. Also, I disagree with saying that Elden Ring made you "do chores"; I couldn't really think of any examples where I felt I had to do something tedious. Unlike a game like RuneScape for example, lol. The quests and progression are as simple and non- "time wasty" as they've even been; still convoluted, but nothing really takes a long time that isn't spread throughout the whole game.
I'm so excited for the many new vistas and scenic overlooks. I intend to stop and sit at each and enjoy
Items being refunded in the arena is kinda dope, won’t have to farm string anymore
Looking forward to your rants after some DLC time. They have all been clear and concise. I think you sum up what every Dark Souls Vet and Newbie wants in the game very clearly
Jon, even when I disagree with you, you articulate yourself with such intelligence and nuance that I can't help but be impressed. You've earned a sub.
What I'm most excited for is fighting all the new Remebrance bosses. Not to get too spoilery, but the leaks suggest that the DLC has increased the rembrance boss count has been increased by over two thirds.
Also, you should check out the new patch. I think they literally took all the balance changes out of the video Jeenine sent them.
I really appreciate that. I'm always trying to be reasonable, especially because I have pretty tilted takes and I'm polarizing at best. I know lots of people aren't going to agree with me and that's something I try to embrace as much as possible. Everyone has to find what's right about the game for them.
And I have been looking through the patch and it's pretty cool. I'm still in the camp of wanting much larger changes but it's full of nice adjustments. Excited to get in and see how it plays!
Excellent and respectable perspective I commend you.
im too excited for that senpou kicks weapon. i spent 30 hours making a character specifically just so i could use that for most of the dlc
I hope the dlc is mt. gelmir of elden ring and not mountaintops of the giants
i'm looking forward to your future content on the DLC and after ER. Keep up the good work!
Great takes tbf
My Kaiden raider got buffs for the Zamor CGS and Icerind Hatchet. I’m happy.
“Either die a hero or finish the pizza” lmao
We'll have to duel it out to see how much the balance has changed
I wish I could join you guys so fuckin much man.
But I can't wait to watch all of you guys get up to any shenanigans and stuff!
I hope you guys all have fun.
My recommendation for how to enjoy the DLC on the first day, play multiplayer
Either invade or slap down that summon sign to co-op and you'll be having more fun, even if the base game wasn't completely designed around multiplayer the DLCs are always harder which encourages co-op which enables invasions
i heard that coop'ing has gotten a slight upgrade in the dlc, allowing for a more seamless coop experience. i imagine players will be able to coop after beating a boss or something of the sort, which would allow for more invasion windows? dunno but excited regardless. kinda bummed about only getting 14 new sorceries compared to 28 new incants, but maybe they're worthwhile. can't believe this day has finally come
I love pvp and I feel the same. I am disappointed coliseum isn't fixed. But summoning signs stay through ng+. That's good ig
To be honest, I haven't really touched NG+ so I didn't even realized it wasn't already a thing. Glad they fixed it, tho.
i'm looking forwards to physically checking things off of my bingo card. never been an active enough player to get to do that for a fromsoft release before
Even the dlc has a lot of unnecessary filler with the open world
Unfortunately true.
Let FromSoft see this!
i have to try the cracked version and judge it. i have base game but don't want to spend another 60$. yeah the DLC is 60 in my country same price as base game.
if i found out that most of the Caves and Dungeons are just copy paste i let you know through a video of mine in my channel.
Ah, currency localizations are rough. Hopefully the crack works right and hopefully the DLC is top-tier
@@emotionaljonxvx hopefully it does. it would be more challenging. no player messages or summoning. i prolly going to die a lot.
why attack the guys that plays the master and slave
I wanted to free him.
i'm really excited to see all the 4k bare feet we gonna get
Just played the DLC it's equally as needlessly big empty and boring with equally boring rewards (seriously lvl 2-3 upgrade mats in and endgame area who cares) sure there are cool bosses and some nice legacy dungeons some cool weapons and spells etc but it doesn't justify all the needless bloat and lazy reskins of older enemies (including one of the main fucking bosses) etc.
Also instead of fixing the already tedious crafting system they made it infinitely worse. I think I'm done with fromsoft games for a while.
13:00
Oh youre looking for a negative review ? I recommend Alyssa's Mercante review of SotE; It goes in depth into the mechanics and new features :D Definitely the best game review i've ever read
I've gotta just see for myself. I expect it to be phenomenal in a lot of ways, maybe even most, but it's all the little things they'll do weird or off that might get to me. I'm excited regardless
Elden ring its the best game made to date.
Its not even in the top 5 Fromsoft games.
@@daboos6353 you blind
@@tomas60952 No thoughtfully designed interconnected world, no more gravelording, no more solo invasions, bonfires appear every 5 meters, the open world is half empty, reuse of bosses constantly, no covenants. Half the things people liked about Dark Souls/Demon's Souls no longer exist.
@@daboos6353 no other game have feel so alive, we have the best boss encounters... the best areas... best art direction... best dungeon design.... best open areas i dont know what game did you play or all of the brilliance went over your head....
@@tomas60952 Hey you're welcome to like it, I just thought it was mostly mid.
The DLC is just as shit.
Noob
This aged well......
All subjective opinions are equally valid but boi you trippin.
no he's not. ELDEN RING has downgraded so many aspect and trade it with open world theme they've got now.
it's funny that people who saw your take and my take. they see it as trash take when it's actually a gold take because we have good reason to point out the annoying bit of the open world that from soft represent. and how the pvp invasion is nerfed into boring slob of gank squads. but i think we need to point out the boss designs of the late game or mid game too! how the feel of dance and back and forth is dead, how bosses just doing endless combos with no windows of opportunity to strike making boss fight tedious and not fun like previous games. most souls vets are either look for challenging boss fight or the pvp. and clearly ELDEN RING isn't about boss fights it's about become an OP Tarnished and steamroll the game without learning the bosses movesets.
but so far elden ring bosses are not challenging but more like bullshit fight where the fight is on the favor of the bosses and not you. in souls games you fought dragons, monsters, demons, huge knights but with a touch of back and forth dance like! but in ELDEN RING you just had to watch bosses doing endless combos where you don't have a turn to strike and do your own combo dance. you just had to resort to cheese tactics to just keep up with the damn endless combos.
I just beat the DLC like an hour ago and all I can say is it's very much more Elden Ring as-is. Similarly open world (though a better pacing to locations assuming you don't roam around too much) and lots of bosses that attack indefinitely with blinding combos that have vague punish windows (assuming they don't go immediately into another chain of combos).
That said, I enjoyed myself similarly to how I enjoyed Elden Ring the first time. A few moments of sighing and exhaustion but quickly remedied by just going to another objective instead of exploring. And, while I can't be sure, I think once you know everything that needs done you could get through the main sections of the DLC in less than 10 hours. It took me probably 25 hours so far and I haven't done all the extra stuff yet, though I've done a decent bit and definitely spent hours roaming around a bit aimlessly.
Going in with an open mind was the right call (at least for me) and I had a good, if not occasionally frustrating, time. Hopefully when you can pick it up you get something positive out of it, because there's plenty to critique.
@@emotionaljonxvx i just getting started
I think I would play this game if it wasn't a Dark Souls reskin, but honestly just the fact that bonfires are called graces is enough for me to completely write it off
That's completely fair. That said, you should just play it anyway.
What a stupid reason to not play a game LMAO. What else would you do for checkpoints?
Did you not care about Bloodborne because the bonfires were called lamps?
they plastered the graces a bit too much when most people are riding off past everything. bonfire of dark souls represent rest after tough fights, but so far in elden ring there's no tough fight between graces just long ride with torrent. the only actual graces where you can rest after tough fights is in the legacy dungeons areas. i started to think that the overworld open world doesn't need a lot of these graces.
I’ve got no idea how anyone who’s made the effort to actually play ER can turn round and say it’s not good, yeh it’s not perfect but man the scope of this title is just incredible. It’s frustrating and seems like when it comes to putting the same effort into the story and clarity of objectives From Software just couldn’t be bothered…apart from that.. the games God Tier good.