Elden Ring

  • Want to keep track of this thread?
    Accounts can bookmark posts, watch threads for updates, and jump back to where you stopped reading.
    Create account
Tenshi Eating A Corn Dog! said:
I was personally expecting him not to be. The poster boy of the DLC not being the final boss already happened with Artorias and Lady Maria. I just wasn't expecting Redone as the final fight.

Edit: well, until I gave Ansbach the secret ritual scroll and he basically spelled out who the final fight was.
Click to expand...
Elden Ring's own trailer misled, it made it look like Godrick and Morgott were contenders for the final boss. Granted, Messmer was given more "cinematic" presentation in the SOTE trailer, but nonetheless I've learned to trust nothing in From ads.
 
Spud said:
Nah, it's only an issue when launching the game. After that it just works. Wait, I've just remember that I had somrthing similar to you in Crumbling Azura. I charged at the dragon that casts red lightning and as I got closer he used his breath attack which caused the game to freeze the same way you described. I chalked it up to the amount of particle effects there were on screen at the time cause I reloaded and had no issue afterwards. Might just be how the game loads in and around the player being buggy.
Click to expand...
You might be onto something! The place where the game froze to me was the area before the bonfire/site of grace called Cerulean Coast. Just before you get to this bonfire, at least from the direction I came from, there's this huge Wickerman-thing. When you approach it, there's this certain attack it does where it launches a great number of fireballs at you simultaneously, and that's not even mentioning all the thunderstorms and thunder-sheeps in the area. It might be that the amount of particle effects were just too much, like you speculate!
Rich Evans Ayypologist said:
If you have raytracing off and it starts happening again ad-infinitum, a last-case resort can be to force the game to launch in DX11. It means you can't use any online features, but I literally have to do it because the fucking elder dragon particle effects have, since day 1, not played well with certain GPUs because DX12 is a worthless piece of shit. Lies of P would literally brick my computer on the load screen - but voila, launched in DX11, it ran flawlessly.
Click to expand...
Building upon the previous speculation, you might also be on to something here. I did have raytracing set to maximum, haha. I've tried turning it off entirely, and man, does the game become noticably smoother. It's a shame to miss out on the raytracing effect though, so I've set it to low, and while there's still noticable lag being introduced even on this lowest level, I hope it might be enough to not make the game crash, if indeed the raytracing is the problem.

There's these particle effects which do seem to be garbage from the get-go in Elden Ring. There's this walking mausoleum in the base game, in the area called Consecrated Snowfield, that spews forth an insane amount of some sort of magic projectile. No matter how low I set the graphics settings, whenever I approach this walking mausoleum and it starts attacking, the fps drops to like 20 or lower. It's insane. Everything else is smooth, but this one attack, along with certain dragon breath attacks, just tanks the fps.

I haven't played Lies of Pi, even though it is tempting. I might be in the future, but I'll check out your proposed solution of DX11! :-)
 
Coldgrip said:
Same with St. Trina. She really should of had a bigger role in this.

I think the DLC would have been over all better if everything with Miquella was dropped and From focused solely on fleshing out Messmer, leaving Miquella and his schemes for another DLC.
Click to expand...
I feel like the DLC would’ve been better if the Shadow realm was basically just Escape from New York with the losers of Marika’s age trying to kill Mesmer and Miquella for their Great Runes while they have their own shit going on.

The fact that Mesmer did not have his own Great Rune, Ranni’s discarded one isn’t in the Shadow Realms, and Miquella’s just allows you to say “No way fag” are a major disappointment.
 
My opinion as a professional Gamer who played and completed the initial release patch of Dark Souls on an Xbox 360, and every Fromsoft game since:

It's alright. First impressions were really good, but for me it was only because the main game was so shitty. Liurnia is way too long, mountaintop of the giants is way too long. The ending was just an absolute meme of 4 boss rush. The first few areas in the DLC feel like large areas scrunched up to a third of the size with a lot of verticality that makes exploration interesting and fun as opposed to staring at a horse's ass for 30 minutes. But then after a few hours, you get to areas like the Hinterlands, Finger Ruins, and Abyssal Woods where there is literally fucking nothing, and it's a complete waste of time, just like the main game where you ride around and then find some garbage in a cave. Speaking of caves, I found the sub dungeons to be much improved since they're not scattered around everywhere with negligible upgrades, and the layouts are more complex, even if the assets are reused. Big jar Gaols are the highlight.

Divine Beast and Rellana gave me some problems but after some exploring and blessings I just started shitstomping everything without issue. Unfortunately I was using an Int build, and there are only 14 sorceries in the DLC, compared to 28 incantations. And most of the sorceries fucking suck. I ended up just using Comet most of the time anyway. Seriously considered respecing to some kind of faith build but I figured it was way too late for that, too much hassle. That's the problem with replaying this game. Since I didn't have my original save file where I dumpstered everything with a quality bloodhound fang build, I just rushed through it in 25 hours with the wiki. Rushed through, and it still took 25 hours. Jesus fucking Christ.

I would say it's worth the money if you're a diehard souls fan, but probably not otherwise. As others have said, the scaling is completely retarded and the blessing system doesn't fix this. It has always been an issue of open world design, and one of the biggest reasons why I did not care for Elden Ring very much on release. Because of its open nature, developers cannot account for the general power level players will be at when tackling a certain dungeon. Limgrave is fairly straightforward but it's clear you're supposed to do a bit of exploring before facing Margit and Stormveil. So if you're like me, you'll kill Margit after a few attempts and then go exploring. Then you might fight a completely broken somber weapon and a bunch of stones to upgrade it to +6 or +7, the equivalent of like +14/17 for a normal weapon, and then just destroy the rest of the game with it.

But then the developers might account for this, and design bosses with more and more health and higher and higher damage. By the time you reach Mountaintops, every boss/enemy does ridiculous damage that one/two shots you unless you're keeping up leveling vig to 60 (mandatory) and using heavy armor. So this so called "open" design, ironically leads to more restrictive character building, also known as role playing. You will be playing the role of a someone who leveled vigor to 60, or you will die in one or two hits. Enjoy.

As I mentioned, I'm a professional Gamer of fromsoft titles, and to prove this to myself, I completed each of their games at level 1. Sekiro without Kuro's Charm and with the Bell Demon active. I cannot imagine attempting Elden Ring at level 1. My skin crawls when I think of fighting Malenia at level 1. And now Radahn? No thank you. When the low level replay challenge gets too ridiculous even for a nolifer like me, you know there is something seriously wrong. I think the sweet spot for difficulty was somewhere between Bloodborne and DS3. Orphan at BL4 filtered me quite a bit, but it still felt like a fair challenge, similar to Gael. You can actually survive a few hits from these lategame bosses in previous games at minimum level.

If anything, this DLC has confirmed my suspicions that open world and traditional dark souls design are incompatible concepts. Many have mentioned how too few or too many blessings will make the difficulty skew too far in one direction, but for myself I cannot get over the absolute chasm that exists between regular exploration gameplay and boss fights. Every legacy dungeon is incredibly easy and every boss fight attempts to be the hardest thing ever, since it has to try and one up the previous boss. This culminates in the most broken final boss in fromsoft history. But what of the final dungeon? Enir-Ilim is a joke, you can literally just walk through it. So what is the point of this massive world if it is so divorced from the content that gets the most focus from developers and players alike? I yearn for the olden days where a tightly designed level compliments a tough but fair boss fight with unique mechanics that don't power up when they reach half health, unless they're one of the last bosses you face.


TL;DR pirate it if you're on the fence, fuck faithniggers, use hefty rot pots+scarlet rot/bleed weapons on the final boss, hope they stop with the open world meme now

P.S., I don't fucking care about the homosexual wars for dominance over the Lands Between or the Lands of Shadow or whatever. I just want to know what's up with the Greater Will because the space jews are controlling everything anyway, and their lore is ten times more interesting than some homosexual incel or a screeching rot bitch
 
Finally beat Prom Queen Radahn last night and I think the only big guy I have left is Bayle who has probably dumpstered me over 50 times collectively by now, making the prospect of cheesing him once I'm in the mood to play again fairly tantalizing. I'm a little curious as to whether or not Fromsoft were especially eager to come back to a Souls style game after Armored Core 6, because everything about the DLC feels phoned in. Difficulty aside, almost all of the main bosses were designed to be very iterative of existing bosses within the base game, and I mean that in both a gameplay and presentation sense.

Everything was overly familiar and "design by committee" - right down to the final boss being the exact thing that Redditoid superfans have been champing at the bit to experience since 2022, and I'm not just talking about the gay incest. It's as if they saw the modest success of AC6 (relative to Elden Ring that is, I know AC6 outsold 5 and VD by a considerable margin) and figured that if they were going to be able to get the luxury to develop any more passion projects like it in the future they'll need to do everything right by pandering to fans when milking their main cash cow. So they hastily retailored whatever the DLC might have originally been about to be more marketable and inoffensive to their new audience. That's why all the boss mechanics are so repetitive and elements of the world seem like they were slashed and burned to meet a deadline despite there being a 2 year gap. I mean shit, we didn't even get a player controlled boss. Even base Dark Souls 2 kinda had that what with the Looking Glass Knight being able to summon invaders.

Level design within the dungeons was also kinda mind numbing even though the visuals were amazing. A lot of dungeons did that thing where you see an enemy or an item in the distance through the limited view of a doorway while his boyfriend sits out of sight, waiting to swing at you the instant you step inside. They do it all the time too. Shadow Keep was really bad about it even though it was definitely my favorite part of the DLC.

Imo Messmer is the best boss in every regard except maybe OST and it's not even close, which has me convinced that he was conceptualized before Miyazaki or whoever came to the conclusion that it was necessary to shamelessly rehash as much shit as possible from the main game without really adding much in the way of depth to the world. Everything else seemed like a victim of spectacle creep (Radahn) or a last minute addition that they couldn't fully iron the kinks out for (Lion and the Frenzy Guy) in time for release. In terms of quantity and time invested, I guess I got my money's worth. I don't think its quality warrants the 40 dollar price tag, though. It was... okay.
 
crowabunga said:
Elden Ring's own trailer misled, it made it look like Godrick and Morgott were contenders for the final boss. Granted, Messmer was given more "cinematic" presentation in the SOTE trailer, but nonetheless I've learned to trust nothing in From ads.
Click to expand...
I don't really get why they do that. Like what's the problem with being upfront about who the villain if your DLC is? Other Japanese companies aren't this pointlessly cryptic
 
crowabunga said:
Elden Ring's own trailer misled, it made it look like Godrick and Morgott were contenders for the final boss.
Click to expand...
I never got that impression, they just seemed like photogenic bosses put in the trailer because of how cool they looked, like the Gaping Dragon.
Gondolindrim said:
I don't really get why they do that. Like what's the problem with being upfront about who the villain if your DLC is? Other Japanese companies aren't this pointlessly cryptic
Click to expand...
I don't mind them concealing a hidden villain behind the big edgy poster boy, but if you're going to make him a big edgy poster boy at least make him feel relevant. While Artorias and Maria didn't get a whole lot of screentime, they were at least pivotal and integral to the DLC's storyline. Messmer's just an unrelated problem that you have to punch through to help Miquella do his homoerotic godhood thing.

I really like his design, edginess and animu aside. He gave me serious Paradise Lost Lucifer vibes, and I guess like Lucifer he's just kind of wallowing in exile while quietly grumbling about his bitch whore of a mom. I would've liked him to be more proactive, maybe thinking he could use Miquella's quest for godhood to get himself out of the shadow realm.
 
Last edited:
Tablet County said:
I really like his design, edginess and animu aside.
Click to expand...
Honestly it's the edgekino that does it for me. It's really juvenile now that I think back on it but when he took his own eye out I had like a fucking MK Ultra response and said "oh shit" out loud. Cutscene was so cool it turned me into an NPC for a second.

Then I died in like 10 seconds after it ended.
 
Coldgrip said:
Same with St. Trina. She really should of had a bigger role in this.

I think the DLC would of been over all better if everything with Miquella was dropped and From focused solely on fleshing out Messmer, leaving Miquella and his schemes for another DLC.
Click to expand...
Yeah, being summoned by Saint Trina outside of Miquella's plans for his servants and sort-of infiltrating their group would've been a better intro, I know Fromsoft was going for Miquella following in his mother's footsteps and so we also see her past but somethig more devoted to the Hornsent vs Messmer or Saint Trina vs Miquella conflict would've been better.
 
Last edited:
I have finally had enough time to beat Messmer. It was most fun boss I have fought in this dlc so far. It feels like real duel and not bs where your enemy has all of the cool stuff. There is one problem that grab attack is one shot . I have Vigor 65 , Scadu +10 and max lvl fire res talisman.
And I still just die to that grab.
As for rest of story bosses I beat so far.
Dancing lion is ulcerated tree spirit 2.0 enough said.
Rellana is meh not great not terrible
 
Wow holy shit is Faggot King Radahn a terrible fight or what? Shitdragon Bayle was already bad enough but this endless stream of particle attacks and waiting for combo chains to finish is everything wrong with modern from in a nutshell. I fucking hate how every other boss is the same shit with watching a gay dance recital for five minutes so you can get a single hit in and then there's the obligatory phase two which is the same but with more aoe attacks and blinding particle effects. This shit got old with ds3 and that was already a terrible game.
 
I finally started the DLC for myself. In a major upset, I've decided to main my magic build because I really want Rellana's swords. Plus, you know, easy mode.
 
One of the Souls youtubers I follow did a DLC start from level 1 with no items and he eventually managed it with a bleed build, I don't get what's even the point of anything else when bosses have so much health that percentage based damage is better for damaging than actual attacks. Isn't the whole idea in build is being hyper aggressive and using a very short range daggers to offset its potency?
Left Ass Cheek said:
Imo Messmer is the best boss in every regard except maybe OST and it's not even close, which has me convinced that he was conceptualized before Miyazaki or whoever came to the conclusion that it was necessary to shamelessly rehash as much shit as possible from the main game without really adding much in the way of depth to the world. Everything else seemed like a victim of spectacle creep (Radahn) or a last minute addition that they couldn't fully iron the kinks out for (Lion and the Frenzy Guy) in time for release. In terms of quantity and time invested, I guess I got my money's worth. I don't think its quality warrants the 40 dollar price tag, though. It was... okay.
Click to expand...
If the DLC would have ended with Messmer then I would have been somewhat satisfied with it overall. But as far as he goes you hear some invaders mention him and then beat him in a short fight that at least has an interesting second phase that isn't just more particle effects and AOE (though I dislike him turning into a snake and fucking off to the other side of the arena). A phase 3 would have been good enough considering how low HP he has.
Wodanaz said:
If anything, this DLC has confirmed my suspicions that open world and traditional dark souls design are incompatible concepts. Many have mentioned how too few or too many blessings will make the difficulty skew too far in one direction, but for myself I cannot get over the absolute chasm that exists between regular exploration gameplay and boss fights. Every legacy dungeon is incredibly easy and every boss fight attempts to be the hardest thing ever, since it has to try and one up the previous boss. This culminates in the most broken final boss in fromsoft history. But what of the final dungeon? Enir-Ilim is a joke, you can literally just walk through it. So what is the point of this massive world if it is so divorced from the content that gets the most focus from developers and players alike? I yearn for the olden days where a tightly designed level compliments a tough but fair boss fight with unique mechanics that don't power up when they reach half health, unless they're one of the last bosses you face.
Click to expand...
People like to joke on dumbed down Ubisoft open world design with levels over enemies heads but at least those actually have the user experience in mind. The DLC is like the first God of Soy leveled enemies mechanic, only with trusting you to figure you don't enough scat level out for yourself
 
I remember when the base game came out 2 years ago and everybody said From "saved" open-world games. Lmao, those shills couldn't be more wrong.

With this DLC I would argue they made open-world games even worse. While I admit the base game is ok because it has a shitton of dungeons and random bosses scattered throughout the map that makes it above UbiSoft slop. This DLC is the bottom of the barrel in the genre.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom