Elden Ring - Shadow of the Erdtree Expansion Announced

[Girth Certificate]

Chills

 

[CheekyMonkey]

On 26/02/2023 at 21:24, Twinbee said:

Complete noob to this thread. Having read the marvellous write-ups in the 2022 voting thread, I would like to know if I would get anything out of Elden Ring, given the following:

 

- I’m not very good at video games (I am “average”).

- last game I completed was Ghost of Tsushima, which took around 70 hours over the space of a year. 

- I’ve been playing BOTW since launch, and have finally decided to beat Ganon tonight, so I have a break before Tears of the Kingdom.

- I’ve heard all previous From games are very hard. 
- I don’t really have the mental capacity for lots of crafting and skill trees etc. 

 

…but it sounds like such a remarkable achievement - would I be able to glean any enjoyment from it?

 

It's the easiest FROM game by far (for me anyway) - and I'd echo other sentiments such as:

1) Take your time and concentrate on exploring the enormous map, rather than trying to mainline the story. The game will point you towards Stormveil Castle at the start but it's very, very difficult attempting to go through that section first. I found it was better to just go off and explore - find the map pieces, pick the battles you have a chance of winning, try to circumnavigate the rest and go back later.
2) You will die a LOT - it's genuinely a part of the game, and it doesn't mean you aren't any good. 

3) As others have said, definitely use online guides etc. I used them a lot, because some of the facets of the game, and the questlines can be extremely obscure, and I didnt want to miss things. You would think using the guides might spoil the game, but far from it - and I agree that it's really part of the experience. Plus there are some absolutely fantastic segments of the game hidden away behind the NPC quests.

I'd re-iterate... take your time - it's just not a game you can rush through. 🙂

[Calashnikov]

Good morning.

 

 

[Ste Pickford]

[Darwock]

Fantastic obviously, but ‘currently in development’ doesn’t sound like it’s coming soon. I was wondering if I should halt my NG+ but I guess not.

 

- speaking of which, nothing is going the way I expected from last time with the quests.

 

Spoiler

I didn’t meet Ranni until I went to see her, and despite sending me on the quest she has not spoken about her real body even once. Rogier has already died before having any of the conversations about it, investigating the mark of death and the black knife etc. it feels like I’m missing loads. Hopefully it will all work out in the end but it’s odd how different it has been.

 

[Benny]

[Timmo]

See you in 2025!

[Qazimod]

Now to find out if I have any characters who aren't trapped in NG+...

 

E: My original Strength boi is still safe it seems.  

[Flanders]

We can only hope that in keeping with Elden Ring’s generally much more welcoming design, the expansion is easily accessible with no hoops to jump through.

 

I love From dearly, but what you need to do to access the DLC in both Dark Souls 1 and Bloodborne is the most colossal bullshit for something you’ve paid real money for. 

[Ste Pickford]

It's called humour.

[dug]

Conversely, I hope that you need to have all three mending runes in your inventory, then you need to complete Ranni's questline, then be embraced by the three fingers, then use the gold needle in farum azula to release yourself from the frenzied flame, all just to receive the first item in a 20 item long trading chain where it only gives you the vaguest of clues who the next NPC in the chain is. And half the clues are deliberately misleading. And if any of the NPC's in the chain are dead, you need to start a new playthrough.

[dug]

2 hours ago, Calashnikov said:

Good morning.

 

 

 

Is that Miquella riding Torrent? And a broken haligtree? Which is dripping fire? Or sap? Looks like we're getting the conclusion (or at least a continuation) of Miquella's story. But if that's the haligtree, where's the consecrated snowfield? Or are we looking at it? It's covered in grass now instead of snow? And what's on with the ghostly gravestones and sword marker things?

 

I look forward to the hr+ youtube videos discussing this single image.

[Flanders]

16 minutes ago, Ste Pickford said:

It's called humour.

I could accept making you complete half the game again if you didn’t end up in the DLC underlevelled because you were in NG+. I never got past the bastard hunter with a big hammer on the Bloodborne one, that’s right at the beginning! 

[Minion]

6 minutes ago, Flanders said:

I could accept making you complete half the game again if you didn’t end up in the DLC underlevelled because you were in NG+. I never got past the bastard hunter with a big hammer on the Bloodborne one, that’s right at the beginning! 

 

 

oh go on then

 

 

Git Gud!

 

 

...sorry

[Kevvy Metal]

2 hours ago, Calashnikov said:

Good morning.

 

 

 

[BitterToad]

Can you start NG+ on this and keep your finished save file? That's kind of stopped me going back to it because I don't want to lose my over levelled boy for the DLC. 

[Hawklord]

It's happening! 

[DeciderVT]

2 hours ago, Calashnikov said:

Good morning.

 

 

 

Enjoying the tone of that post being somewhat undermined by the first reply being from someone named Chad. 

[Uzi]

In one single image, TOTK became irrelevant 

 

[smithstock]

1 hour ago, Qazimod said:

Now to find out if I have any characters who aren't trapped in NG+...

I made a manual back up save of my original character for exactly this. Always planned to do another run through, though I never got round to it after achieving platinum.

[jonny_rat]

Release day:

2 hours ago, dug said:

You need to have all three mending runes in your inventory, then you need to complete Ranni's questline, then be embraced by the three fingers, then use the gold needle in farum azula to release yourself from the frenzied flame, all just to receive the first item in a 20 item long trading chain where it only gives you the vaguest of clues who the next NPC in the chain is. And half the clues are deliberately misleading. And if any of the NPC's in the chain are dead, you need to start a new playthrough.

 

Patch notes, day 4:

Quote

Added an 'access DLC' option to the main menu

 

[Timmo]

Still makes me laugh how stupidly arbitrary the requirements to get into the Dark Souls 1 DLC are. 

[Kromeo]

16 minutes ago, Timmo said:

stupidly arbitrary

 

Was it, though?

The Souls games are built on the notion that they're played within a community and that discoveries and information get passed around, both on a micro level, by leaving messages on the ground for other players to interact with, and on a macro level (wikis, etc.). It also kind of forced players to engage with the narrative, as the seemingly arbitrary bits actually tied into the lore of the game and were laid out in the item descriptions. It was a big puzzle, but one that was easy to solve with the help of other players.

 

I know it's frustrating not immediately being able to get to play what you paid for, but: finding how to access it is part of the game.

[Timmo]

5 minutes ago, Kromeo said:

 

Was it, though?

The Souls games are built on the notion that they're played within a community and that discoveries and information get passed around, both on a micro level, by leaving messages on the ground for other players to interact with, and on a macro level (wikis, etc.). It also kind of forced players to engage with the narrative, as the seemingly arbitrary bits actually tied into the lore of the game and were laid out in the item descriptions. It was a big puzzle, but one that was easy to solve with the help of other players.

 

I know it's frustrating not immediately being able to get to play what you paid for, but: finding how to access it is part of the game.

 

Of course it is. You can play Elden Ring start to finish without a guide. I would argue that someone playing Dark Souls 1 could spend 20 hours looking for the DLC and not finding it. I get that the idea is that you use the internet and the community, but that doesn't mean that they couldn't have made it at least somewhat logical for someone hoping to find it themselves.

[Kromeo]

Nah. I'm right.

[Steven]

I think I still have about a quarter of the game to finish yet.

[MardiganX]

As much as I loved my time with Elden Ring and it being the first From game (apart from Sekiro) that I've finished, I have no appetite to put myself back into the mode of gaming required to progress in this world. Even more so if it comes with some minimum entry level requirements suggested by the posts above. Fuck that!

 

I done my time, (kinda) saved the world and now retire to wander the lands I set free handing out autographs and picking up tributes from all the normal people I delivered from oblivion.

[Qazimod]

On 25/02/2023 at 11:34, Anne Summers said:

Having said that ... What I really came back to this thread, to say (again) is ...

 

There isn't going to be any storyline DLC is there? 

 

It's been over a year with no hint that it's ever coming - has that ever happened before and then we've been surprised? How long was the wait between Dark Souls 1 and Artorias? All of the others I remember turning up pretty promptly following the original game release. 

 

Quick, everyone quote it before he comes back to the thread!

[Benny]

I can't imagine trying to "force" yourself through Elden Ring. I enjoyed every second and I want more and more.

[Benny]

On 25/02/2023 at 11:48, Benny said:

There will almost certainly be DLC. They won't leave that money on the table after their biggest success ever.

 

*cough*