Gaming Elden Ring - Fromsoftware

Finished the base game now (and did some cleanup for the platinum - save scummed for the endings of course), took me 170 hours all in all. Phenomenal game but I'm a bit annoyed by those last few story bosses, they didn't feel particularly great. Although Godfrey's first phase was pretty good, and Radagon as a standalone fight wasn't bad either, it just gets ruined by having to repeat it for each go at Elden Beast. I guess it's sort of fitting that the final boss fight perfectly highlights From Soft's greatest flaw: oversized bosses with a terrible camera. Anyway, on to the DLC.


Two things made it very manageable: reducing equip load to light and an emergency medium shield with 100% physical block. The light load does wonders for outpacing/outrolling Waterfowl Dance's first flurry from medium range, while the emergency shield can take the entire first flurry if she does it from close range. Sure, that heals her a bit, but it's better than starting over. Learning perfect reactions to all her patterns certainly wasn't easy, but once learned it feels pretty repeatable. I definitely trust myself to repeat her fight over something like Hoarah Loux and his endless spamming of grabs with space-time continuum bending hitboxes.
Elden Beast used to be easy. You'd kill it first attempt without using a heal. It was a bit anti climactic but better than the current version.
DLC Bosses are terrible to be honest. I'd say the base game bosses are getting silly and broken by the end but just about hold up. DLC bosses are just an annoying mess really. Bayle wasn't bad I guess but the rest suck. Very much something to get through rather than something to enjoy unfortunately.
 
Elden Beast used to be easy. You'd kill it first attempt without using a heal. It was a bit anti climactic but better than the current version.
DLC Bosses are terrible to be honest. I'd say the base game bosses are getting silly and broken by the end but just about hold up. DLC bosses are just an annoying mess really. Bayle wasn't bad I guess but the rest suck. Very much something to get through rather than something to enjoy unfortunately.
You didn't like the Dancing Lion? I thought it was a genius concept
 
Elden Beast used to be easy. You'd kill it first attempt without using a heal. It was a bit anti climactic but better than the current version.
DLC Bosses are terrible to be honest. I'd say the base game bosses are getting silly and broken by the end but just about hold up. DLC bosses are just an annoying mess really. Bayle wasn't bad I guess but the rest suck. Very much something to get through rather than something to enjoy unfortunately.
Elden Beast was still relatively easy at that stage of the game, just not fun to fight. For me personally the game peaked with bosses like Maliketh, Mohg and Malenia, that last gauntlet felt a bit meh in comparison.

That stuff about the DLC bosses doesn't sound very encouraging. I've always found their DLC bosses to eclipse the base game in terms of quality (and difficulty). Artorias in DS1, Fume Knight in DS2, Gael in DS3 and Ludwig and Maria in Bloodborne. Was hoping that trend would continue here, but I'll find out soon enough.
 
Elden Beast was still relatively easy at that stage of the game, just not fun to fight. For me personally the game peaked with bosses like Maliketh, Mohg and Malenia, that last gauntlet felt a bit meh in comparison.

That stuff about the DLC bosses doesn't sound very encouraging. I've always found their DLC bosses to eclipse the base game in terms of quality (and difficulty). Artorias in DS1, Fume Knight in DS2, Gael in DS3 and Ludwig and Maria in Bloodborne. Was hoping that trend would continue here, but I'll find out soon enough.

I really liked the DLC bosses for the most part. As challenging or slightly more so than all the base game bosses (except Malenia) with some really cool movesets and designs. Based on your posts I think you'll have a pretty good time. The only knock on a couple I'd have re: quality is that From really start to overdo the visual distraction elements by the end.
 
Great idea, but the frame rate and camera ruined it.
I'm on this now, and definitely agree about the camera. I know I've complained about the camera before, but this fight is on another level. Half the time the camera is stuck on the ground because it can't tilt further upwards, the other half it seems be stuck inside the boss' model. I'm convinced they gave up after a couple of minutes and playtesting and said "You know what, screw it, the players will figure something out and tell each other to git gud, we can't fix this anyway".

It is no coincidence that almost all of my favourite From Soft bosses are humanoid enemies.
 
I'm on this now, and definitely agree about the camera. I know I've complained about the camera before, but this fight is on another level. Half the time the camera is stuck on the ground because it can't tilt further upwards, the other half it seems be stuck inside the boss' model. I'm convinced they gave up after a couple of minutes and playtesting and said "You know what, screw it, the players will figure something out and tell each other to git gud, we can't fix this anyway".

It is no coincidence that almost all of my favourite From Soft bosses are humanoid enemies.
Don't lock on, couple more bosses like it
 
I've never liked unlocking the camera in these games. You can't dodge and control the camera at the same time unless you do something weird like claw gripping, which I'm not comfortable with. And I find clicking the joystick too slow to be viable in tense situations.

Managed to beat him anyway, it just wasn't as fun as it could've been. If only the camera zoomed out a little more against larger enemies, I think that would fix most of my complaints. Otherwise, it was a pretty cool boss. Great location, I liked the design and even the moveset, it just doesn't play nice with the camera.
 
I've never liked unlocking the camera in these games. You can't dodge and control the camera at the same time unless you do something weird like claw gripping, which I'm not comfortable with. And I find clicking the joystick too slow to be viable in tense situations.

Managed to beat him anyway, it just wasn't as fun as it could've been. If only the camera zoomed out a little more against larger enemies, I think that would fix most of my complaints. Otherwise, it was a pretty cool boss. Great location, I liked the design and even the moveset, it just doesn't play nice with the camera.
Every 2nd boss in the dlc has some complete bullshit, camera fecking attack. Or multiple.
The amount of attacks that flip the camera 180 degrees mid swing is obnoxious. Dancing lion was one of the better bosses when all's said and done.
Next boss is fairly standard humanoid, doesn't stop the camera constantly doing silly shit.
 
Every 2nd boss in the dlc has some complete bullshit, camera fecking attack. Or multiple.
The amount of attacks that flip the camera 180 degrees mid swing is obnoxious. Dancing lion was one of the better bosses when all's said and done.
Next boss is fairly standard humanoid, doesn't stop the camera constantly doing silly shit.
I disagree, I think dancing lion is easily the worst camera in the game. Beyond that it’s mainly just the same camera limitations that From have struggled with forever.
 
I disagree, I think dancing lion is easily the worst camera in the game. Beyond that it’s mainly just the same camera limitations that From have struggled with forever.
How odd, I'd never even considered the camera or ever had a problem with it. I guess it depends how you play.
 
Came a cross a dungeon boss in the DLC called "Ancient Dragon Man". Are From Soft running out of boss names? Still better than Ceaseless Discharge though.
 
Managed to beat Rellana, jesus that was hard. The only boss other than Malenia where I had to switch to light rolling. Felt like I was only doing chip damage the whole fight, took ages to get her down.

I'm a little concerned about where From Soft might be going next with difficulty, some of these attack strings are just endless and bosses can seemingly mix it up midway through, with a bunch of variations in terms of timing as well. It's taking longer and longer to learn their movesets and many of them demand perfect execution throughout pretty lengthy fights. Satisfying as hell when you finally beat them but, man, I'm going to feel so burned out after this 200+ hour marathon. :lol:
 
My fights with Rellana were just stupid. Her animations are wonky or something because she kept just whiffing attacks and winding up behind me. Then she'd do a backstep at a bizarre angle and i'd miss her. Probably had more whiffed attacks from that one fight than i had from all other FROM bosses put together.
I think shes the worst for endless attack strings and is one of the harder one's to read so ... one of the weaker bosses. Mesmmer up next and thats bordering being a good fight on the bright side.
 
How odd, I'd never even considered the camera or ever had a problem with it. I guess it depends how you play.
You’re probably one of about five people on the planet not to have an issue with the camera.
 
My fights with Rellana were just stupid. Her animations are wonky or something because she kept just whiffing attacks and winding up behind me. Then she'd do a backstep at a bizarre angle and i'd miss her. Probably had more whiffed attacks from that one fight than i had from all other FROM bosses put together.
I think shes the worst for endless attack strings and is one of the harder one's to read so ... one of the weaker bosses. Mesmmer up next and thats bordering being a good fight on the bright side.
I get the impression you really didn't like the DLC bosses. :lol:

I thought she was pretty cool, I just couldn't read every single attack even after 25+ attempts. It led to some wild panic rolling, not my most elegant fight. My problem was more with her massive health pool. A full fight was 5+ minutes, which is a long time to not make a single major mistake.

Looked it up and she has 29000 HP at NG, while my best viable attack against her was my heavy with the Uchigatana, which did about 800 damage. That's a whopping 36 hits when you barely have time for a single hit between her massive combos. I mean... that's just insane. Scadutree level issue maybe, but I was on +5 which seems about right for that part of the DLC.
 
I get the impression you really didn't like the DLC bosses. :lol:

I thought she was pretty cool, I just couldn't read every single attack even after 25+ attempts. It led to some wild panic rolling, not my most elegant fight. My problem was more with her massive health pool. A full fight was 5+ minutes, which is a long time to not make a single major mistake.

Looked it up and she has 29000 HP at NG, while my best viable attack against her was my heavy with the Uchigatana, which did about 800 damage. That's a whopping 36 hits when you barely have time for a single hit between her massive combos. I mean... that's just insane. Scadutree level issue maybe, but I was on +5 which seems about right for that part of the DLC.
Yeah, i really didn't. They made me quite grumpy.
It was a while ago so my memory is off but i thought she didn't have that much health, but your scudatree level sounds high if anything so ... Maybe its a NG issue, think i was still on first playthrough.
 
My fights with Rellana were just stupid. Her animations are wonky or something because she kept just whiffing attacks and winding up behind me. Then she'd do a backstep at a bizarre angle and i'd miss her. Probably had more whiffed attacks from that one fight than i had from all other FROM bosses put together.
I think shes the worst for endless attack strings and is one of the harder one's to read so ... one of the weaker bosses. Mesmmer up next and thats bordering being a good fight on the bright side.
If you’re into parrying at all, this is an amazing fight.
 
This is it, 225 hours of Elden Ring and Shadow of the Erdtree have brought me to the final fight. I thought I had done everything but I'm missing a single scadutree fragment ffs! Not going to bother looking for it, these last few levels seem like miniscule upgrades anyway.

I only had a single go at it but that first phase doesn't seem unreasonable. I'm expecting it to go full bullshit for whatever comes after that though, based on the internet's reaction to the fight.
 
This is it, 225 hours of Elden Ring and Shadow of the Erdtree have brought me to the final fight. I thought I had done everything but I'm missing a single scadutree fragment ffs! Not going to bother looking for it, these last few levels seem like miniscule upgrades anyway.

I only had a single go at it but that first phase doesn't seem unreasonable. I'm expecting it to go full bullshit for whatever comes after that though, based on the internet's reaction to the fight.
I absolutely hated that fight, not sure if they've nerfed it since.
 
This is it, 225 hours of Elden Ring and Shadow of the Erdtree have brought me to the final fight. I thought I had done everything but I'm missing a single scadutree fragment ffs! Not going to bother looking for it, these last few levels seem like miniscule upgrades anyway.

I only had a single go at it but that first phase doesn't seem unreasonable. I'm expecting it to go full bullshit for whatever comes after that though, based on the internet's reaction to the fight.
Good luck dude. I beat him without the last fragment so I'm sure you'll be fine.
 
I absolutely hated that fight, not sure if they've nerfed it since.
I really enjoy the first phase, there's a rhythm to his attacks that I haven't found in some of the other DLC bosses. He still obliterates me in the blink of an eye sometimes though. Second phase is going to be problematic, I feel like the hair obscures his movement too much, and then there's all the other visual clutter going on.
 
That took 118 deaths, overtaking Malenia as the hardest boss in From Soft history for me, but it is done. I honestly don't know how I feel about that second phase. Instinctively it feels like this is the point where From Soft have abandoned all pretense of creating "challenging but fair" games and have fully embraced difficulty for the sake of difficulty. If this is the direction they're going in, I'm not sure if I'm looking forward to their next full game.

On the other hand, it did feel extremely rewarding finally beating him with just my trusty Uchigatana. I'm just not sure I ever want to go through the process of learning such an insane phase ever again.

Bosses aside, the DLC did have some incredibly dungeon design, with Shadow Keep being among their strongest work yet. Enir Ilim was not as interesting in terms of path design, but still a really cool place in combination with Belurat down below. The entire map felt more intricate than the base game, with added layers of verticality. Just a shame that exploration felt less rewarding. You can only find so many cook books and gloveworts before you stop caring.
 
That took 118 deaths, overtaking Malenia as the hardest boss in From Soft history for me, but it is done. I honestly don't know how I feel about that second phase. Instinctively it feels like this is the point where From Soft have abandoned all pretense of creating "challenging but fair" games and have fully embraced difficulty for the sake of difficulty. If this is the direction they're going in, I'm not sure if I'm looking forward to their next full game.

On the other hand, it did feel extremely rewarding finally beating him with just my trusty Uchigatana. I'm just not sure I ever want to go through the process of learning such an insane phase ever again.

Bosses aside, the DLC did have some incredibly dungeon design, with Shadow Keep being among their strongest work yet. Enir Ilim was not as interesting in terms of path design, but still a really cool place in combination with Belurat down below. The entire map felt more intricate than the base game, with added layers of verticality. Just a shame that exploration felt less rewarding. You can only find so many cook books and gloveworts before you stop caring.
It felt more like the balance of the game breaking than being fundamentally bad design to me. Like how do you threaten the player character at that point in the game? Having to add a lot of gimmicks to challenge you and give them some defence from getting one shotted immediately.
I thought it was a low point for boss design but i think there was enough pay off in terms of exploration and variety from the base game primarily for it to be a fair trade off. I'm pretty sure i'd rather a tightly balanced, focused sekiro than a repeat next time out though.