Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree Review (Teresa🌸)
General info
Considering the DLC — 6.5/10 (worth it with 25-50% discount)
Base game — 8.5/10
IMPORTANT INFORMATION
This review is not about the game difficulty — I have no problems with it.
The game can still be enjoyable — the rating does not fully describe the experience some of you might have with it — only the general state of things with the franchise.
I want people to understand the game issues from the developer's standpoint. Please, if you gonna read — read carefully. The important thing is to grasp the importance of the 1st playthrough experience — many things mentioned here will circle around this statement.
Game's ratings of "10/10" make harm to further improvement of the product, with nothing new to enjoy. With helpful feedback it's easier to prioritize things for dev's, as well as understanding player's needs.
FromSoftware products
— playing since 2012
— played — DS1, DS2, DS3, ER
— fully seen — Sekiro, Bloodborne, Demon Souls
— finished DLC 3 times
1st — main-bosses only
2nd — main and side bosses + quests
3rd — NG+7 main bosses only)
About "6.5/10" rating
There are still problems, that existed in Elden Ring and even DS3. The engagement with certain aspects of the DLC is either in stagnation or decreased. Since Elden Ring was a new game and the release wasn't without problems — it got a higher score.
I'll also provide the feedback, otherwise it's an empty criticism.
1st playthrough experience and conclusions
This one is rather important — because most players will finish the DLC 2-3 times at most.
Build choices
Due to a transition from "leveling" to "upgrading", players are less likely to experiment with various builds. Some of weapon choices usually require getting: talismans, incantations, ashes of war. That needs knowledge and testing, and because of it, player's choice is usually the obvious one.
What I want to see in a future — is developer pushing the player to experiment more, while providing appropriate help. Specifically, pushing for more engagement with builds. Having "bleed" dealing 15% of enemy's MAX HP since DS3 is too much, or rather too tempting for any player to pass by. It shines more than ever, due to bosses smaller attack windows and bigger damage.
Sleep builds weren't as quite effective, as bleed. Same went for fire, lightning, poison and scarlet rot. For any experienced player these things can be easily utilized, but when it comes to player's 1st experience — I think the choice is obvious...
Looking for guides every time you want to switch weapons, because you lack in speed or damage — for now that what most of the players do.
Bosses
Visual design of models is on point as always.
But mine engagement with fights is still the same, since DS3.
In short (what changed in the DLC):
— more damage + faster attacks
— smaller attack windows + longer boss-chained attacks
— same scripted attacks (programmed dashes when healing, continuation of attack chain is reproducible when close, animation cancelling after being hit)
— target lock camera is horrible (on bosses with big models)
— bosses model drags you (hate this one, hope the could've changed the hitbox of this thing)
— meele running (sometiems AI hating on the player - by using "fly away" tactic repetitevly)
What could've been done?
Focus more on "moveset variety" and "read complexity". There's a limit of what you can achieve for "damage and speed" — it becomes rather boring now. Some of you can already predict certain attacks with a thought like "i remember something like this".
I think bosses need more "outside of the box" thinking. Increase player's engagement with the fight (not just roll, attack), but also — crouching, jumping, stealth, weapon effects, strategies, boss arena design. Almost every arena in the DLC, for example, is either a square or a circle.
Exploration
Still on the level of "random item placement".
Landscapes are great and colorful, but other than that, I couldn't find anything else to be engaging. You have some NPC's here and there, but dialogues and conversations are not a strong part of the Souls games (it's the lore with it's references). In addition, many of the mobs still have re-used assets (movesets, models, ideas), that were inspired by previous games (DS1 - DS3, Bloodborne, ER).
Exploration is rather hard for dev's, since ER is their first attempt of making open world souls game. I don't really like this style and my only hope is that they'll make it more engaging in the future.
More obvious, but deeper character relationships. Quest bosses, quest rewards, more characters to talk with, searching quests, dialogue rewards and cutscenes. It's hard to ask more of them, but it's hard to enjoy something as open world, when it basically screams — I'm DS, but bigger.
I'm using comparison to the other "open world" products (Witcher for example), but in the end — they might just look for something of their own. At the end it's all about one's liking.
Your DLC exploration rewards are: upgrades (for character damage and summons from base game), crafting materials, rarely (armor, weapons, amulets, magic). Even looking for NPCs for their armor is pointless, since almost every one of them will die on the main quest, giving you the desired reward. Of course you don't know it, but it doesn't change the fact of the world being even less engaging.
Lore and quests
Quests felt like "just an introduction to a character" — too pale, short and not catchy. Engaging characters are those you find interesting — I didn't have that. The base game had it, but not DLC. The only interesting part is how important are they in the DLC.
From lore I expected way more connections to the base game. Expected the reveal of Melina's story, outer lands, Malenia and Miquella relationship, details on Messmer's background. Somehow nothing had place, except for certain details, mostly regarding Radahn and Miquella connection, not even their relationship...
Felt like dev's couldn't make it in time. So, for me, it was rather "disappointing". I don't doubt that the community will make the most out of it, but it would be great if dev's would start doing it themselves.
For years game can't provide the player with proper lore and character stories, instead, people watch videos on YT (at least those, who care). Very sad, that when you asked someone about Souls-like game story — they usually don't even know it, or just a brief part of it. So much wasted potential...
Conclusion
The review was written in order for people to understand and see, how certain game aspect's could be improved, in order to grant a player better 1st time experience with the product.
All things described, from my perspective, should allow everyone to have more engagement with the game aspects (bosses, open world, lore, fighting).
I hope the review made sense to you, but if it didn't — I'm glad you read it through.
Considering the DLC — 6.5/10 (worth it with 25-50% discount)
Base game — 8.5/10