Poll: Are You Playing Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree?

It looks incredible but I’m alternating between SMT V and a The Witcher 3 replay. I’ll play this eventually because I bet it’s amazing

I'll pick it up later when I'm less busy. I wasn't really craving any more Elden Ring, but what else am I going to do for the rest of the month?

This is one of those moments I wished I have the patience and tenacity to play souls-like game.

I did play Elden ring for about 20 hours before quitting, but no won’t be playing this.

Got platinum in ER, got all the lore and stories. No point in trophy less DLC.

Where's the 'Nah, I suck hard at these games, so I will likely never get to see the dlc' option. That's me xD

Started last night, proper From dlc in that you’re immediately thrown into an even less forgiving world. Very difficult, but loving it. Music too is evocative as in the original title, aura permeates a kind of quiet, troubled world. Too early to say much, but so far it’s exactly what I wanted and I’ve the whole weekend to fully enjoy it.

I’m no stranger to playing long games, but I don't enjoy playing games for a long time because I keep dying and repeating the same areas. So not gonna play this one, I’ll be lucky to beat the 5th pantheon in hollow knight.

Been playing all day and its so good. Done the first main dungeon, wasn't too hard but there's one BS knight enemy with a big sword who hits like a speeding train haha. Been exploring after that and catching the beautiful sights and finding secrets and hidden things.

All downloaded, will dive in once the kids and wife are asleep tonight. Can't wait!

Won't be getting this yet, I think you need to be in the right frame of mind to play FromSoftware games and right now I'm not. Maybe in the future though.

Just started and damn it is walloping me. Maybe shouldn’t have started using a ng+2 character but I’m not about to go through the process of getting there with a new character

I need the trophies in order to put myself through the pain

Already started!
I have over 300h in Elden Ring without actually beating it. I basically did everything in the game, then got frustrated on the last boss and moved on to the next game. So the DLC is perfect for me, not even Breath of the Wild can beat the sheer variety and scale of Elden Ring.

No trophies = no play. Besides I’m busy with other games at the moment and have a bit of a backlog right now, but maybe one day when I don’t have anything else to play I’ll give this a go. FromSoftware games are some of my favorites.

Nope, i never played ER and i don't plan to buy it or this DLC. I'm still burnout from Souls series & its clones and my burnout got worst every time i see IGN or anyone used "It's like Dark Souls" or "another Soulslike game" for their preview / review.

I think there is a pretty large group of people (including myself) who would love to play this game and the new dlc, but then with a lower difficulty, it simply is too hard and frustrating now for many people

@Oxy At least Breath of the Wild has proper NPC settlements. I dont know how you make an open world RPG without any towns but somehow Elden Ring managed. Great "variety"

@LucantoVerdi it's not as hard as its made out to be. Sure it's a tough game but it's only as hard as you make it for yourself. It's the only fromsoft game I've platinumed so if I can do it I'm sure you can. I myself plan to play this as soon as I can but I'm completely and utterly addicted to EA sports wrc and my steering wheel setup..I just can't tear myself away 😆

Yup altho still right at the very start. And it looks gorgeous. But I also was playing through bloodbornes dlc and have been extremely addicted to it. So idk how I'm gonna be alternating between the 2 dlcs lol

I might download it later on. My new character is so much better than my other two and is around level 80ish. Can't decide whether to invest more time into this character first, or to give it a whirl with an old build

In the second poll why is there no option for: “Yes, I’ve played it but not finished it.” ?

As much as I would like to play it I'm still stuck in Santorini for vacation for a few days and then I have to play through it for a fourth time. :[

@Tchunga There are at least four towns and a city in Elden Ring.

@Nepp67 i would much rather be “stuck” in Santorini for vacation than playing new game content 😂 have fun out there! The Greek islands are immaculate.

@Mythologue A city that has nothing but enemies isn't an NPC settlement. That's just a dungeon

I still need to play Elden Ring lol. I've been thinking about starting either Sekiro or Elden Ring for a while now.

@Enriesto I was in Athens for a few days as well and took a good amount of photos there and especially Zeus' temple! Gotta say though, so damn hot and so much walking 😂

Elden Ring is a game you pause backlogs and attend to. Shadow of the Erdtree all the way.

About to start it with a NG+3 build lol. I expect severe punishment for such arrogance 🤣

I absolutely will be buying it but I will wait till I have completed Rebirth first. Excited for it though I love Elden Ring

While I enjoyed ER, I didn't fall in love with it, it's on par with DkS3 as my least favourite souls game. I may get dlc one day, but definitely not for the full price.

I finished it but no I'm not getting the dlc. I didn't enjoy the base game enough.

I really didn't like the switch to full open world. Id rather play Demon's, Dark Souls trilogy or BB tbh.

So, hey.. I'm one of those people who hasn't even finished the base game. But, yes.. "I plan on playing it, but not at launch". ^^

I am buying the DLC in the morning. I'll be finishing (Platinuming) the game I am already playing then moving on the ER.

Maybe in 3 years once they're done tuning it. Adding the horse to Elden Beast 2.5 years later makes me feel like they played blind darts with the boss design for ER

I platted Elden Ring, which is uncommon for me when it comes to Souls-like titles... but I'm just not in the headspace for it. Maybe I'll get to it one day. It's just not on my radar at the moment.

I work weekends so waiting until Monday afternoon as I have Tues/Weds off and can really get into it then.

Gives me a little time to finish up Yakuza 4, too, so SotE can have my full attention.

Played a few hours of this, good so far, I seem around the correct level (179) to play through it fairly comfortably at the moment but I'm sure there will be some challenges ahead.

Can't stand Soulsborne games, so 0 interest from me

Oh yes, will dig into it in about 30min.
Won't have but 1h today, and it's certainly gonna take a few weeks until I see the credits due to my limited gaming time.
But I loved very much the exploration feeling the base Elden Ring gave, how it fed my curiosity and rewarded me for it with something worthwhile (most of the times).
So I think I'm gonna enjoy delving into the DLC too!

@Bunchesopuppies “No point in trophy less DLC.”

Genuinely feels sorry for people that have become so dependent on trophies that they’re willing to skip a fantastic experience just because of an absent trophy list. Especially in the case of someone that did multiple playthroughs, beat all optional bosses and cleared a ton of side-quests from the main game.

I can understand having had your fill of a game not having any further desire to play additional content released several years latter. But to not play something purely based on trophy support seems insane to me.

I’ve seen comments from people saying they’ve absolutely hated grinding out a platinum for a particular game too. Why are these people playing a game that they’re not enjoying just to gain an extra number and icon for their psn profile?

I’m so glad that I can just play the games I want, for as long as I want without worrying about trophies and achievements.

@Tchunga NPCs in Elden Ring actually give you tricky quests unlike BotW where 90% of NPCs just repeat inane dialogue and the other 10% give you simple fetch quests…
Yes, this is an exaggeration. I mean, you can actually “build” a town in BotW but in general NPC questlines are better in Elden Ring.
I have no idea why you got all defensive over my first post. I love both games dearly. It’s not a competition, they are both masterclasses in open world design. For me personally, Elden Ring takes the crown but the margins are razor thin. Obviously you like BotW more which I totally understand. You do you.

Can't play everything, and this one was sidelined early doors for many many others.

Nope. Adulting is torturous enough for me.

I feel so bad for all the people who haven't played it. Also jealous.

Souls and souls-likes mostly bore more anymore.

Sekiro> EVERY SOULS VERSION

Grinding numbers and cheap 1 hit deaths aren’t for me.

Nah, I got a solid 20 hours out of the base game and I feel like I got my fill.

The combination of length and high challenge isn't really my ideal of a good time.

And the lack of music in these games is always gonna bother me.

N.i.c.e.elden ring is one of the best video games ever made.and elden ring shadow of erdtree is just as good.word up son

@OmegaStriver I loved sekiro. Though in true souls fashion I still left it at a boss; the last one so it didn’t leave a sour taste

@Neither_scene played through the story with various builds. Even managed to kite that corruption chick into Acid Cloud. Finished that one guys quest with the cursed armor, and the platinum popped. At that point I’ve fully explored and saw everything the game had to offer. So I moved on. I have 2 platinum, maybe 3, don’t care about it, just saw and did everything in the game according to the trophies.

Personally thought the base game was fine and nothing more but my brother loved watching me play it and has been dropping not so subtle hints lol. I have no other games to play right now either so I got it. I jumped in for an hour in the base game to get the muscle memory back and the game feels surprisingly clunky.

Just starting it and am very excited to be doing so.

I never finished Elden Ring, but I intended on it. It just got a bit too big for me. I was doing everything I found and just burned out. I intended in resuming but never did.

I think about reinstalling it, but I don't have the HD space.

I'm not quite ready for a big complicated game right now. I'm starting Rise of the Ronin and continuing with various Switch games. Work has been difficult, so I'm just trying to escape reality with something I can pop in and out of without feeling like I need to start a new save if you catch my drift.

Last I played I had just started a NG+ to get a weapon I missed for the platinum and I’m not 100% sure I am feeling the grind to beat Mohg again just to access the new content. I’m on the fence about it.

Am I playing Elden Ring dlc? Is the sky blue?

@Tchunga There's entire kingdoms in ER so who needs "towns"? Also it would make zero sense to have towns giving the state of the world.

Pretty soul like game outted at this point. There will need to be something to freshin the genre up at this point for me to be interested.

Too fkn hard, so no I won’t…

I didn´t plan to play this day1 but then realized that I don´t want to play anything else right now played for 2-3 hours yesterday and still only exploring first area

Playing it.

It’s tough as nails.

I platted Elden ring through sheer willpower, but the last doZen of hours were so so bad. As in i stopped gaming for a couple of weeks because i was burned out bad.
I do not and never will understand the hype for this game. Ofcourse it is all opinion.

I’ve loaded it up and saved at the first bonfire with my NG+ character. Fully expecting to get destroyed. Can’t wait.

@commentlife it doesn’t actually take long to do the bits you need to do to get to the DLC.
I took my fresh NG+ character there in a couple of hours using a guide to get to the required areas quickly.

@Bunchesopuppies I also got the plat for Elden Ring and I'm loving this DLC. As a trophy hunter myself ( but only for games I love ) why in the world would you not want to play a game simply because it has no trophies!? I'm assuming you are very young as there was a time when achievements and trophies didn't exist and people just played the games for that reason only.

@DETfaninATL No trophies no play!? What a ridiculous philosophy. Your loss.

@Neither_scene Completely agree. I enjoy trophy hunting on my favourite games and I would have loved this DLC to have some trophies but I would never in a million years not play a game because it has no trophies!? Pathetic really.

@Bunchesopuppies really? you never played games before trophies were a thing and only play them for trophies? wow never knew there were folks that keen on trophies.
I play them for the game itself, perhaps weird i know.

We said 'completed' games when I was younger. I always thought 'beaten' was an Americanism that got adopted by the gaming community elsewhere. It sounds like too much of an achievement when we're talking about video games but I suppose some are deserving of the term (Ghouls n Ghosts back in the day, Souls games today).

@Daleaf Yeah, he was a real drag. I gave it 5-10 tries but the fact that you have to beat that easy pre-boss dude every single time and then the Beast itself being so boring, I threw in the towel before trying summoning another human.
Basically, for me, Elden Ring is definitely more about the journey than the destination. I could rest easy without watching that final cutscene knowing that I did 95% of the content previously.

I havent played a game like it for over a decade, but I took a look at Anno 1800 a few days back and Ive have late nights since!
Ive also got the latest WRC game (codemasters/EA) cheap in a sale, and Im really enjoying it - so much content!

Whatever you are playing, have a great weekend...

Not even for free.

Definitely playing it a lot, but I can’t say it’s all that fun presently. Part of that is burnout, even after two years I dread having to go back to round table hold to upgrade, reacquiring bell bearings etc. I feel the sentiment toward the dlc being so mixed is the time lapse combined with the brutally poor tuning. There’s a point where it may have just been better to make a standalone game.

@Ashkorsair I agree with this. I love the game, love the dlc, but do get very tired of much of the player base failing to be objective. When you enjoy something you should be willing to critique it because you know it can be better, not blindly defend it. Poor design choices are poor design choices, bad performance is bad performance. It doesn’t mean the game is bad, it means there is room for improvement.

I wish I was interested to be honest.

I liked playing the main game but I'm not ever going to finish it so there is no chance I will ever get to the dlc.

I have decided that souls games will just never be for me and I'm OK with it.

@commentlife
"I am feeling the grind to beat Mohg again just to access the new content. I’m on the fence about it."

I am part of a team that is going to be outside of Mohg's Boss fight to be summoned and help folks beat him in order to get in the DLC.
Character name "Drusenia" bring me in and I'll help you stomp him.
I will be camped out there from 2PM to 7PM EST.
Other brothers are going to be there at other times.
We are looking to help you all beat him.
We are planning on doing this for the next 3 to 4 weeks to get as many people as we can into the DLC.
Look me up.

I loved Elden RIng at launch but this DLC is a microcosm of everything I hated about it. Overly aggressive bosses that fight your screen as much as you that're meant to be cheesed more than fought properly. Every boss is trying to be the next Melenia or launch patch (1.0) Radahn and it just sucks.

@Geminisundone To each their own. It’s not like Elden Ring is the ONLY fun game out there right now. I just prefer to play something that actually has trophies in it, since I’m a trophy hunter. Maybe one day when I don’t have a backlog or anything I’m actively wanting to play I’ll give it a go. It’s not that I absolutely refuse to play something with no trophies but if the devs can’t be bothered to put a few trophies in a game, I’m not gonna be bothered with putting it at the top of my ‘want to play’ stack.

I'm just burned out on this genre.

not into these kind of games and don’t like medieval settings at all

I'have worked all day to defeat Mohg and now I'm in this new, exciting, beautiful world. What a feeling! I haven't played ER since 2022 but it's so easy to go back into!

Souls games are just too slow for me. Played ER it was cool at first but the longer you go the more burnt out you get and realize just how slow the game is. The controls are clunky, just flipping around on the ground just to avoid attacks doesn't feel realistic.

@DennisReynolds The word "Town" is just something used to describe a settlement with NPCs in it, typically used in RPGS. I think you're taking the word a little too literally.

And I'm sorry but I just don't buy that there can't be any NPC towns because of the state of the world lol. If you had played BOTW then you'd know that the world in that game is also in a state of a calamity and they still somehow managed to have some surviving settlements. That's not a good excuse

@Oxy And you probably used a guide to complete most (if not all) of the quests in Elden Ring. At least BOTW gives the player an actual way of tracking their progress and which NPCs are associated with which quests. Elden Ring is a complete mess in that regard. Just yet another example of why the souls formula doesn't work in an open world.

I'm being defensive for Zelda and yet you're doing the exact same thing and getting defensive over Elden Ring. This is a public comment section, people are going to respond to eachother. Let's not call the kettle black

@Tchunga I mean there can't be people existing living their lives in ER, it would not make sense for the lore and story told. BotW Hyrule is a not dead world, its actually very alive and has been for around 100 years and its only when Link is awoken that the calamity enters full swing. In Elden Ring like in Dark Souls you're in the epilogue of a much larger story tying up loose ends, the big battles, big heroic and evil moments and world shaping events have already happened and you're basically just finishing the story off. Again like in Dark Souls the world is kinda in limbo awaiting for you to decide what its true fate is

@Tchunga Dude, I said I adored BotW and called it a masterclass in open world design while criticizing it for simplistic quest design (something every Zelda game is guilty of). All you have done is heap scorn over Elden Ring, mostly about silly things. Sure, Elden Ring could’ve used some kind of Ubisoft quest tracker. I personally think that would have removed some of the Fromsoft charm, just like implementing soulslike quests in Zelda would be weird.
Did I use a guide? Sure, for maybe 3-4 quests. The rest I used my phones Notes app or they “solved themselves” while progressing.
Your thing about settlements is just weird. Like there is some kind of open world rule about this stuff. Like @Mythologue said, there are a bunch of settlements in Elden Ring. And they are just like settlements in every single Fromsoft soulslike. Obviously, you seem to hate it, I have zero issues with it.
The souls formula doesn’t work in an open world? Critics, and the internet, seem to disagree.

@DennisReynolds I mean, the lore and the story can be literally whatever Fromsoftware wants it to be. If you don't believe me then listen to the big M himself. In an IGN interview with Miyazaki, he stated the following when asked about the existence of NPC towns in Elden Ring:

“Creating a more open game is a big challenge for us. If we were to add towns on top of that, it would become a bit too much, so we decided to create an open-world-style game focused on what we are best at.”

https://www.ign.com/articles/2019/06/21/elden-ring-is-an-evolution-of-dark-souls-says-creator-a-e3-2019

So I think from this quote it's pretty clear that its not a lore reason that there aren't people in the world of Elden Ring, It's a development issue. Had Miyazaki and his team been up to the task, you can bet there would have been both lore and story reasons for the existence of towns. And I provided a link to said article if you care to read it for yourself, which I encourage you do.

@Oxy Alright so let me get this straight, when you complain about the quest design in BOTW, that's valid criticism. But when I complain about the quest design in Elden Ring well then it's just "silly things". Lol. Well you know what I didn't see your point before but since you've pointed this out I think I'm starting to come around now.

But in all seriousness though I couldn't care less what the critics or the internet thinks, they can think whatever they want but at the end of the day I'm going to come to my own conclusions about the media I consume and I think more people should probably do the same. I've been playing Fromsoftware and Souls games ever since Demon's Souls and I say the souls formula doesn't work in an open world. Here's why:

Difficulty and level scaling: In their previous titles, Fromsoftware used to very carefully and meticulously balance the difficulty of each zone based on what they thought the players skill and level would be. This was much easier to achieve because of the linearity of their older games. But going open world and opening up so many options to the player had a detrimental effect on the balancing of the game. As a result you can wind up in some areas too early and get absolutely steamrolled, or conversely, you can steamroll the competition yourself which obviously isn't any fun either. This is a problem that didn't exist in the other Souls games and its due to their more tighter, and more linear structure.

Upgrades and progression: This one's kind of tied to the balancing but it's also kind of its own can of worms as well. In the Souls games as I'm sure you are aware there is a very linear upgrade system. Where, for example, you can have a Longsword +1 and need X amount of titanite shards (or smithing stones) to upgrade it. But then if you have a Longsword +4 you'll need X amount of LARGE Titanite Shards. You need a very specific upgrade material to upgrade your weapon. This was a fine and good system that worked in Demon's Souls, Dark Souls, and Bloodborne because those games were fairly linear games, and they could guide you to where those upgrade materials were. But in Elden Ring (again with it being open world) the game can't guide you to where the materials you need are. So you can end up wandering around for 10 or 20 hours with a +6 weapon because you didn't happen to wander into an area that drops the materials you need to get the blasted thing to +7.

NPCs and quest design: I've already touched on this one briefly but I'll elaborate more on why it's bad and doesn't work. The way that NPCs and quests work in Elden Ring is very similar to how they worked Demon's Souls or Dark Souls. Where you'd talk to them in one spot and they'd pop up somewhere else down the line. But there's the thing though, it was always DOWN THE LINE. As in they would literally show up in a spot you hadn't been to yet and that you'd have to eventually pass through anyway. This is not at all the case in Elden Ring. You can talk to an NPC in one area and then they can teleport back to an area you were 30 hours ago. Its incredibly unintuitive and expects way too much from the player. Especially when the rewards for your efforts often aren't even all that worth it. Having NPCs that warp around a map works just fine in a smaller and more linear game but in a vast open world its like mixing together oil and water. It just doesn't work.

@Tchunga Well, now we’re cooking! These are opinions I can respect, well reasoned and obviously coming from a place of love for the genre. Now, obviously, I don’t agree 100% but you do make some valid points. Before I try to counter let me just state why most of these points applies less to me personally. You see, I’m pretty OCD when it comes to my gaming. Basically I play my open world games pretty “linearly”. In Elden Ring I started by doing every single thing in the first area, then followed the “yellow arrows” pretty slavishly throughout the campaign. The first thing my friend did was make a beeline for Caelid. He got slaughtered but he got a real shiny weapon for his troubles. And while I didn’t move on to the next area until clearing every single dungeon, beating every boss and finding every item (well…) my friend happily moved along after doing maybe half.
What I’m trying to say is, while you bring up important points, some of them applies less to me than they do to my friend, for example.
Also, it was not my meaning to call your criticism of the quest system “silly”. What I did find a bit silly was your “settlement rule”. So that’s on me, sorry.
Anyways, on to your criticisms:
1. Well, first off, isn’t this a universal dilemma for open world games? Sure, it might be more noticeable when the previous 4-6 games have been linear affairs. Some RPGs solve this by scaling enemies to your level, something I detest. And isn’t the fact that you can set off in any direction, nab a weapon, see some sights and then get absolutely slaughtered one of the charms of Elden Ring in particular and open world RPGs in general? I mean, even BotW, was lauded for the fact you could go anywhere and both enemies and the climate could put you in an early grave. So, yes, you can end up steamrolled by deviating from the path in Elden Ring but I think it’s something that comes with all open world games.
The other problem you mention, players steamrolling the opposition, is this really a thing? It’s just not something I’ve heard many complaints about.
2. Point conceded. This could be a hassle, at least initially. And not because I really NEEDED a +7 instead of my +6. It was more of an itch to scratch. So off I went to Reddit. It should be noted though, mid to late game this wasn’t a big problem, mostly because you could buy missing Smithing Stones at the round table. And at the end of the game I was bathing in stones
3. Was it always down the line though? I seem to recall having to visit places you already been to multiple times. Anyway, I see your point, it can get unwieldy in an open world. Look, I’m ancient. I grew up with the gold box D&D games, Might & Magic, Wizardry 6 and a host of other RPGs where the only way to map out an area or solve quests was by having pen and paper nearby. Add to that years of obscure Fromsoft quests and I actually managed Elden Rings quests pretty OK. Still had to consult the net for a handful but I needed some help in the previous soulsborne games as well.

In closing, you seem to have enjoyed the previous soulsbornes and felt like Elden Ring took the series off the rails. It simply doesn’t work for you. For me, Elden Ring was just MORE of the same drug I’ve been mainlining for years. Sure, it has some balancing issues and maybe every system isn’t pure perfection but it is one of my all time favorites.

And we both really like BotW!