Shadow of a former beauty queen

Look I have been on the FromSoftware fanboy tour since the original Demons' Souls came out on the PS3 all those years ago but Shadow of the Erdtree has given me some cause for concern with the direction they have taken with this DLC (which is more like an entirely new game than an expansion). While a lot of it is a joy to experience (exploration is stunning in this one), combat varies wildly, from manageable to downright unfair and frustrating as it swings like a blood soaked pendulum. Apologies to all the FromSoftware apologists but this is going to get a bit controversial so strap yourself in and hold on tight.

As much as I love this DLC from a level design and art direction standpoint, and the experience of it will forever be etched in my mind (pretty much like the base game), I am starting to see why some people simply got very frustrated and irritated with it.

The new levelling system isn't made very clear to the player from the get go, so those coming in and expecting the traditional level system from the base game, even though that system is still implemented here and very much in place since you will often get valuable runes from many of the games elite enemies and stronger foes, the problem now is that the player can no longer power level past some of this DLC's late game challenges without diving deep into the games meta game and having to rely on trusted old builds even if that is what you never intended your character to be because frustration drove you there.

Past FromSoft titles, you could meet an insurmountable challenge by slowly and gradually overcoming it through levelling up your desired damage output stat (alongside upgrading health and stamina of course) which means you could eventually skimp past a boss (if getting good was simply not in your wheelhouse with those extra little levels to strength/dexterity and vigour/endurance). To an extent this holds true in the base game until you hit end game (which is horrendously unbalanced), Shadow of the Erdtree just end up amplifying a lot of the base end games issues. While you can still get some benefit from vigour and endurance upgrades, unfortunately your damage stat upgrades will make little to no difference so levelling past a boss is becoming an increasingly rare occurrence with the new levelling system they have implemented here, forcing you to abandon your adopted play-style for crutches or you have to actually spend many moons "getting gud" all over again.

Now I wouldn't have a problem with this system if there was an abundance of these new levelling fragments out in the open world but the problem is their isn't (so power levelling isn't an option anymore because you are limited by what you find), and they are often tucked away and hidden from the player. I don't have a problem with this either because I enjoy exploring a games world, looking into the games every nook and cranny but for those players who are simply just trying to get through it, they are going to hit a brick wall. The "get gud" mantra FromSoft have carried across all their titles since Demons' Souls is now being slowly eroded by big bosses with increasingly long and delayed attacks and over powered AOE attacks when their health hits 1/3, to bait you into making mistakes and then severely punishing you for it. These bosses now also employ endless combos that don't give the player anytime to reapply a buff or a heal and are so aggressive that the game slowly devolves into bit of a dodge, roll, jump, occasionally hit, mostly die simulator (because you missed one of the four).

Ashes of war, which the base game introduced to help usher along inexperienced players, are now so difficult to summon upon entering a boss arena because the bosses no longer give you any time to call them in before the boss has knocked you out of the summon animation and taken 2/3's of your health along with it. This is incredibly frustrating for players like myself, who enjoy a challenge, but don't want to spend an entire summer learning a bosses move set. More often than not I am noticing it's now a matter of not actually getting good at the fight, it's because the boss allowed you to defeat it because this time it didn't employ the insta-kill attack combo it normally does when the battle is nearing an end. This feels cheap, and my victories no longer feel hard won but determined by rolls of a dice by RNGJesus.

At least with the previous older titles, while enemies were tough, they were dances to the death that you would eventually learn to overcome. The bosses played by the same rule set you played by giving you ample opportunities to over come them if you invested time in understanding their mechanics. Now these modern bosses input read your actions and will actively destroy you if they see specific combination inputs from you which is making them a chore and no longer fun to fight, despite the fabulous spectacle they offer.

From has created a problem for itself. They are no longer niche, with hordes of more casual and first timers joining the fun with Elden Ring given that the game has sold over 25 million copies. These new and more casual players still need a leg up but I also understand that they feel obliged to cater to the ever-increasingly out of touch hardcore fan who wants increasing difficulty and challenges outside of the realm of a normal player. This Sadacutree fragment system is not it. I can see how players got to Consort Radahn (totally under-levelled with a Sadacutree blessing level of 10 when he requires 18-20) and don't have a hope in hell of defeating him outside of summoning in a player with high skill and reflex checks.

I never though I would ever usher in these words but honestly it is time now FromSoft add in difficulty sliders into their games, especially since the 3rd party seamless co-op mode has taken over as the dominant way to co-op these games without the annoyance of over-powered invaders simply ruining the fun and ganking more inexperienced players which in turn only ends up turning them away from game. Which is a shame. What the seamless co-op mode has proven is that it should not bother other hardcore players at what level I have chosen to play my game at when they have little to no bearing in my game world at all now thanks to the seamless co-op mode. Recommended but with serious caveats.

Beautiful but frustrating

Still suffers from Micro stutters on the PC all these years later. At this point I simply believe that FromSoft can not optimise their games

Sekiro Shadows die Twice, Dark Souls 3, Lies of P

https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=869453510

I "Harkyn" to play Dark Souls instead

Lords Of The Fallen, from Deck 13, is simply put an awful "soulslike". It's a game that hinders the player from the get go by making enemy attacks speeds extremely fast while your character is extremely slow, mostly ineffective at combat and cumbersome to control (and that is just with a light armour set on, heavy armour makes you even slower). The game's central character, the generic Norse warrior-looking Harkyn, wields his weapons as if he is wielding a tree trunk instead, even when it's a simple dagger. This artificial way of making the game "difficult" hobbles the player from the get go and makes playing through this game an absolute irritating slog fest. 

Everything has an extreme timed delay on it, from drinking health potions to casting this game's versions of spells that often leaves you open for an enemy combo attack that can mean the difference between life and death. Level design is poor and often confusing (thanks to the constant reuse of assets) with almost every area you enter looking identical as you move through, making it extremely confusing to navigate through. The game is also terrible at explaining what the player needs to do. Take the Annihilator boss which requires you to defeat the giant Rhogar demon in the centre of the Circle of Lies and pull a missable lever which opens up the bridge to the boss. In fact this boss requires numerous levers to be pulled across the same looking level in order to access. Good luck in understanding that while you play because the game never explains it to you. I am not asking to be handheld here but a little guidance would go a long way.  I ran around in countless circles wasting valuable hours trying to figure out what the game wanted me to do next because I couldn't see how to achieve the current objective. 

Even the artstyle is generic fantasy and comes across as a poor mans Darksiders visually. I could go on an on about everything wrong with this game but I am not going to waste my time or yours. Lords Of The Fallen is made by a team who don't have the foggiest idea about what makes "soulslike" tick. If you are thinking of playing this one before playing the sequel, I can only advise against it.

A game that goes out of its way to do everything to make you not enjoy it

None experienced during my playthrough

Dark Souls, Lies of P, The Surge

https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=869455135