darkdestroyerza2381: I already disagree with your opinion on the how "poorly communicated" scadutree scaling is. Its communicated perfectly fine, you level it up and you see your attack power go up and resistance percentages go up
kwekuasamoah3482: When elden ring was released people said that they wanted to fight prime Radahn. Well, be careful what you wish for.
latima123ify: Not gonna lie I have 18 of the 20 scadutree stuff just exploring my normal way so there was never really a problem with that for me. Like i did all of the coast stuff before I even went to the keep
gustavl3107: I agree with the argument that its overly stingy that all 50 scadutree fragments are needed to max out your blessing, but I'm not buying the "poorly communicated" argument at all. There is a pop up when you pick up the first one, increasing your blessing is highlighted when resting at a site of grace, and hell - aren't people curious about new things they pick up???

The only improvment the system could use is to add more fragments/reduce the numbers needed to max out the blessing.
JLHoskins: I love how you left a spoiler warning but the final boss is the thumbnail lmao
albinoreaper2949: I clicked so fast thinking this was the ranking video
CompleteProducer84: The Scadutree fragment system was absolutely perfect for me, but I understand why you and others don't love it. To me here is nothing better than having to explore every little area of the map for such an important upgrade. It made the already-great exploration even better!
renanbezerra5601: I gotta be honest, Messmer is my new favorite from software boss
natediaz1863: I feel like people underestimated the new block physick, which is froms fault. It literally made the game like Sekiro with guard counters and opened up blocking as a BETTER alternative to rolling. The physick lasts 5 minutes too. Its almost like From wanted to add it as an actual mechanic but stepped it back and just made it a physick at the last minute or maybe it was the only way to implement it as a new mechanic. The dlc got a a lot easier after i mastered the blocking.
athanatos4011: Scadutree fragments are probably the most straightforward mechanic From Soft has ever put into a game. It is just a linear progression in power explained via a tutorial prompt, that constantly reminds players that it exists whenever they sit at a grace. It is more intuitive and communicated more clearly than weapon scaling ffs.
darkrootambush3860: I mean, to be fair, you get a giant text wall explaining what scadutree fragments are for as soon as you inevitably find one
thefailbender: I’ve already beaten the DLC and I imagine the majority of players have as well at this point, but it’s a little odd to take time to warn about the final boss for the sake of avoiding spoilers, while at the same time making it the thumbnail.
DarthVader-xh3mo: If they got rid of Radahn’s bullshit cross slash that is borderline unavoidable & toned down the blinding particle effects, he would be the perfect boss. The buildup, the bombastic choir cascading into beautiful vocals, the learnable move set (minus the occasionally janky hitbox & follow up light explosions) and spectacle only rivalled by accursed Bayle. He has the makings of one of the best bosses in the series, but suffers from the obnoxious mechanics (the aforementioned cross slash & epilepsy inducing flashes).
killerkuerbis6845: I'm just glad we got Messmer as polished and fair as he is. Plus Shadow keep is perfect.

Re-using Radahn will never fit for me though
Adonk: Anyone who was able to get to and beat Mohg and Radahn on the base game should be expected to have the basic ability to undertand what the Scadutree fragments do and how important they are.
Arexion5293: What the hell was that point about scadutree fragment effect not being well communicated? The effect shows up during gameplay when you hit an enemy and they hit you, the level shows up in the grace menu and character status screen, and you can see the changed ar and defenses on the same status and equipment screen. But for some reason this isn't good enough and you'd think it'd be better if it showed up in the equipment menu on a weapon's upgrade level? ... Huh?
SereTheDoggoUwU: I disagree about pretty much everything except for Radahn, and the blessing should have been more plentiful, but other than that I thought it was much more balanced than the base game
noahdavidson1343: This DLC has truly shown a decline in gaming criticism from some folks.
davidfigueras9925: The holy light shots from radahn should absolutely not count as their own attack, they are a supplement to a previous attack. If you forward dodge the same way you do in phase 1, they will not hit you. They only exist to prevent back rolling away from him, a habit that should be gone anyway after the last 50 bosses punish that manner of evasion
knuckleheadwestwind3585: I find it entertaining that he won’t stop criticizing how bs the boss moves are, and how difficult the follow ups are, all while dodging backwards in almost every single piece of background footage. Did you learn nothing DMod?

Edit: holy crap I watched more, and he literally won’t stop dodging backwards, and he dies almost every time! Seriously dude, I can’t take you seriously if you’re complaining about the game being too hard while showing yourself making the same obvious mistake over 20 time resulting in your death!
1xtcy: Bro made the exact same video 2 years ago re skinned video is crazy
pepeflamingo9626: My opinion is everyone thought they were just going to go in and steamroll the dlc. I'm glad fromsoft didn't just make a squishy boss gauntlet.
CRBlxcky: Suggested video when I got to the end... Miss Mikkaa beating the DLC with a dance mat
ivanchaki372: Firstly, the importance of Scadutree fragments are already prominent. They are found at the miquella crosses which is one of the first major landmarks you reach and it sets a precedent on where to find them. And they are clearly supposed to increase damage and reduce damage taken.

Secondly, the "back and forth" exists despite the long combos. You can hit in between the boss combos quite frequently and don't have to wait so long. You don't need to have a boss to literally stand and do nothing to hit them, you can still have your back and forth. Well for Radahn I can't say much, but Messmer and Midra? You can have more of a back and forth with them than most ds3 bosses that's how many openings they have. Midra you can literally crouch through his combos and get attacks in. Plus you're using two heavy weapons while in all the others you're using light weapons. This part was just disingenuous. You don't need extra stuff because the bosses literally ACCOMMODATE for your weaknesses with attacks which you can use as openings. Every boss has it, even radahn despite less so. As for the radahn comparison you make, putting in those beams is also purely disingenuous cause they are there to force you into one direction and you aren't entirely meant to dodge the attack first and the swing later. They in spirit count as the same attack. They ARE fun if you give them the respect to actually learn them properly instead of treating them just like BB or Ds3 bosses.

And I am a stubborn soloist as well, who doesn't know how to play without a ugs.
Sorry but your first video sucked. You clearly misunderstood a bunch of bosses and just because of the "souls vet" tag you refused to learn and made a terrible video with outright wrong points. This video is even worse.
nor3299: Bro you dont need to go out of your way to find the fragments
Vhoih: I disagree with this take. Learning the bosses have been a fun and fresh experience.
reyrodriguez4280: It really pisses me off how many times you would use a second flask to heal around 50 missing hp just to lose like 500 from a clearly telegraphed attack you could’ve dodged without the second wasted flask.
hollowknight4630: There are only 4 required bosses in the dlc, Messmer, Romina, Leda, and the final boss, I hit a similar road block at Rellana (at 8 levels that I didn’t scrounge for like you implied) and explored the map finding my way around Rellana and easily into level 12 fragments and had literally no issues with leveling and power level until the final boss where I was 18 without ever looking up maps or purposely hunting out fragments. And this was all with a lowkey mid moonlit greatsword build from my first run of the game, never swapped anything out, no armor optimizations nothing. I know everyone experiences things differently but this was game of the year for me far and away
grand_master_of_izalith7186: I really can’t agree with the statement that the fragments are obscurely explained. It was perfectly clear to me, they literally give you several indicators how things work, including a literal hint when you pick up the first one.
It’s not a failure at all, it’s a pretty great system that is explained. If you don’t like it you don’t have to play it, but not liking it doesn’t mean it’s bad.
As for the summoning comment: I reiterate they don’t owe it to players to curate the game to a specific style. You can’t complain that a game is curated to all its tools because you don’t want to use those tools
tehCostHD: 20 scadu tree blessing is not needed to beat the DLC. It is for completionists. Once you hit 15 they barely even affect your strength after that. Your entire point about that solved itself. Where does it say you are required to find every single one to beat the dlc? What a horrible argument
stephanosfischer4585: It seems like we played a totaly different game. I had the best time of my life. Removing my whole inventory and using only DLC items made me search every corner of the map and it was the best experience I ever made in a video game. I studied game design and in my opinion Fromsoftware reached a completely new level in terms of open world design, combat, atmosphere and exploration
awguitarroom8033: I hope Fromsoft does Bloodborne 2 next. It would be huge
nekrazero8331: Scadutree fragments wouldn't be an issue if there weren't exactly enough in the game to hit max level... we have extra golden seeds and sacred tears, why isn't this the same?
MissChambersxo: I think the bosses in this DLC are great. Messmer, Midra, Bayle and Rellana especially are indisputable masterpieces imo. The only ones I take real issue with are Gaius for that charge attack and Radahn for… basically all of Phase 2. Also some of the mini bosses like Senessax and the Furnace Golems are a bit cringe
threemeters1425: >radahn’s lightbeams are always behind you
>keeps rolling backwards
>???
voicesbymic5346: I only struggled with one major boss in the entire DLC. Granted I summoned Leda and Hornsent for Rellana and Messmer respectively, and summoning Igon is a MUST for the Bayle fight. The only boss that took me HUNDREDS of tries was Consort Radahn, who I made it my goal to beat solo. However once my attempts started reaching the multiple hundreds I decided I'm not going to destroy my own mental health for the sake of impressing a community that are KNOWN to be toxic and elitist over how you play. Nobody in my immediate life gives a fuck if I used a mimic tear for Radahn and Miquella, so why should I?
Havoc_279: I agree on Radahn. Every other boss in the dlc feels fair, but Consort Radahn... Man...
Sobaire_Souls: I feel like the biggest issue I see with a lot of these "Bosses are like bloodborne/sekiro while were playing dark souls" arguments like the one present in this video is that the reviewer strictly only looks at those dark souls elements.

Elden Ring added 2 new MASSIVE components to the combat formula, those being jumping and crouching. And I cannot overstate how powerful both of these tools are in the DLC. The amount of attacks that you can crouch under or jump over is genuinely insane and is something I wish people would recognize a lot more. While it is true that Fromsoft didnt do a very good job at showing the community that these tools are useful (Which is why so many people dont even know they can be used for combat, especially crouching) The fact that they exist already seperates the combat from dark souls by a mile.

For anyone who is still in the DLC or is doing a new playthrough. I cannot urge you enough to try out crouching and jumping for a lot of bosses attacks. The game goes from being can only attack once in a blue moon, to a genuine fair engagement with a lot of these bosses. (Minus Radhan, that guy can suck my balls)
ddill1816: Outside of Radahn, i just can't fathom how you can have this opinion on overall boss design. Romina, Midra, Messmer and Rellana are nothing but fair. The pace and tools at a players disposal have also never been more broad. Use consumables, craftables, magic, incantations...the deflect tear etc.

Using Sekiro and BB as a stick to beat SOTE's boss design philsophy is objectively a terrible measure. For one they are both much more limiting in build variety than even DS3 nvm ER. Its a lot easier to balance around an extremely limited combat system. On top of that although Sekiro bosses are amazing for the most part, BB has an incredibly lacklustre boss list outside of the old hunters.

Its an unpopular opinion but AC6 bosses and even the NPC fights are FS at their best considering the build variety in AC and how fun they are to fight with the back and forth.
BLP04: I’m gonna be honest, this feels like a very sloppy and downright moan of an argument. Especially in the Scadutree Fragment bit where somehow seeing the stats increase and the blatant tutorial prompt showing up. I don’t mind people disliking it, hell, you could just say it’s not your thing and leave it at that, but some of the reasons are a bit odd
evmooreon: After watching dozens of these videos I’ve come to a discovery that it’s seems the OG Fromsoft fans have the most issues with Elden Ring & SotE.

The game is by no means perfect but as some one who has only played Bloodbourne …I feel like it’s an advantage having never touched a Dark Souls game.

For me everything about ER was so new and fresh…..Once I embraced positions /jump attacks and experimenting with ashes of war Elden Ring opened up so dynamically for me.

I agreed with many flaws stated in the video but most of the bosses I had a blast learning and mastering (and I play minimal armor mostly melee)
Enraric: I'm in full agreement with your video on the base game bosses, but I disagree with this one on several points.

I prefer the way Shadowtree Blessings have been implemented in the DLC, compared to Golden Seeds in the base game. Admittedly, I didn't play the DLC until after the change to the scaling curve for blessings. I do think you criticism of the old scaling curve is fair; even From Software agreed the initial implementation wasn't perfect. But I really like the way it works now, with a "soft cap" of sorts at blessing level 12. With Golden Seeds, you can easily max your flasks by the end of Leyndell, making any seeds you find after that point worthless. "Dung ahead," as the community so often says. It annoys me that there are enough spare seeds in the game to (in theory) get a whole extra flask charge, but you can't do anything with them. With Shadow Blessings, players who don't want to scour the map can get to blessing level 12 and then rest easy; players who DO want to scour the map still get some reward for finding them all.

FWIW, I naturally found enough fragments to reach blessing level 6 by Rellana, 12 by Messmer, and 18 by Radahn, all of which felt appropriately difficulty at those blessing levels - I don't think finding fragments is as hard or annoying as you make it out to be.

I do think From could have done a better job communicating to the player how they work and how much of a boost they are, but I think that's true of the game's systems broadly. Nothing in the game tells you that Blessings soft cap at 12, but nothing in the game tells you that STR soft caps at 80 either. A player can end up investing a lot of levels into stats that are past their soft cap - levels that give them very little benefit.

As for bosses, the DLC largely addressed the issues I had with the base game bosses. Yes, combos are long, but at least they're consistently long; I noticed very few optional extensions, that exist to punish you for taking what deceptively looked like an opening. Input reading has been toned down, at least a little bit; I felt I was able to heal in neutral in the DLC more often than I could in the base game. And the DLC's bosses seem better tuned for taking on multiple opponents; many bosses have AoEs that can be easily avoided with good positioning or roll timing, but will catch out Spirit Summons because of their braindead AI. The AoEs also mean that bosses are still a threat even when the Summon has aggro. And, other than Rellana, I don't think any bosses in this DLC have combos that are EXCESSIVELY long. I do think certain bosses have individualized problems - like Gaius having wack hitboxes - but the systemic issues that plagued almost all bosses in the base game are largely gone.

As for Promised Consort specifically, I really like him; he feels comparably difficulty to Malenia, but for reasons that are far less bullshit. For reference, it took me about 5 hours worth of attempts to beat Malenia the first time, and 3 to beat Promised Consort the first time. Malenia's difficulty comes down to how hard it is to dodge one bullshit move; Promised Consort's difficulty comes from (IMO) good boss design. In phase 2, the light beams can be avoided by good positioning / rolling the preceeding sword swing in the right direction; in your "attack uptime analysis" you counted them as an attack, but IMO they are BOTH an attack AND an opening.

Your comments about bugs and performance issues are fair. I also noticed performance issues in bosses with lots of effects. And while I didn't run into any major bugs, not all players will run into all bugs by their nature, so I do think it's valid to bring up that you ran into a bunch. Criticisms about boss visibility are also fair; while I do like Promised Consort, and don't think the light beams are an issue MECHANICALLY, I do think they're an issue VISUALLY - they make it very hard to tell what Promised Consort is going to do next.

All in all, while I don't think the boss design of the DLC is perfect, I do think it's a significant step up from the bosses in the base game. From seems to have listened to criticism (at least when it comes to the issues I had with the base game's bosses), and it leaves me feeling optimistic about the boss design in whatever they do next.
ThomasD3595: Sounds like you might've been too quick to close the Scadu explanation screen when you got your first? Seemed pretty clear to me???
DAsrada: I just used a big shield, Spirit Summons, and Backhand Blades with Swift Slash, and Impenetrable Thorns.
Plenty of cheese in my diet.
kizaruthegreat: love how he complains about radahn yet every dodge he does is back and not towards radahn. maybe roll towards him cause the lightbeams are always behind you.
animuse2188: Nah bro this dlc I beat every boss with one hand level one fists only using the donkey king bingo drums while performing open heart surgery
axel9473: Honestly, the only points i can agree on are the technical issues and the visual clutter in some fights, mostly 2nd phase Radahn. On everything else i have to disagree.

Scadutree fragments are incredibly straight forward and explained plainly. They reward every build and playstyle and finding an appropriate amount for whatever boss you are facing is not an issue as long as you explore a bit. You also don't need nearly all of them as anything after like 15 really doesn't make much of a difference due to diminishing returns. Maybe some people simply don't like the concept itself, but i found it really well implemented as an isolated upgrade system for the dlc.

The rememberance bosses are almost all amazing, too imo. Aside from a few specific hiccups (some of Dancing lion aoes and camera, Bayle camera, Gaius charge attack and Radahn's visual clutter as well as near undodgable combo), all bosses are well designed in almost every regard imo.
Messmer, Bayle and Midra are probably 3 of my favorites in the entire game now. Intricate movesets, incredible visuals, good lore, i honestly don't know what's not to love.

With all that being said, considering that you already had your issues with the bosses of the main game, i am not surprised to see the criticism now, but i think it is quite obvious that Elden Ring wants you to play differently than DS3. The game gives us so many tools and mechanics to overcome the bosses (and i'm not even talking about spirit ashes). Exploration and experimentation rewards you more than ever before. Respeccing is easier than ever before as well.
Sticking to one play style (judging from your footage only using the dual maces), playing the game like it's DS3 and then complaining about the game being unfair is quite frankly unfair towards the game imo. If you are unwilling to use any of the countless options provided by the game then you are literally doing a challenge run and you can't blame the game for things not going as you want them too. And once again, i am not talking about spirit ashes, i don't use them either.

I am also not saying that there are no issues at all with the game. There are plenty of flaws, and the dlc is so exception. But i can't help but feel that this specific criticism is misguided.
ChrisLT: I dunno, the dlc felt like an improvement in every way to me. From boss design and balance, to tighter level design, and the incentive to explore to grab those fragments. I liked it a lot more than the base game.
IlMagicoRed: Why do people hate exploring so much? You're playing an open world game, guess what you're supposed to do. Imagine buying a game and not wanting to play it.
jameslough6329: I respect Demod’s opinion and understand where he is coming from, but I personally disagree with a lot of the points made in this video. I will go through each point in detail.

The argument that the Scadutree fragments are too spread out to be intuitive to find would be a fair criticism if you needed to find an obscene amount of them to make boss encounters doable. This was just not the case for me. I first fought the Dancing Lion at Scadutree level 1 and got my ass kicked. However, when I found two more Scadutree fragments and did the fight again, beating it suddenly became much more feasible. The HP bar did not seem nearly as bloated and I was getting to the second phase a lot more consistently. The same thing happened with Messmer too. I first fought him at Scadutree level 9 and got destroyed. However, I then upgraded a mere two levels to Scadutree level 11 and suddenly the fight became much more doable. I again, got to phase 2 a lot quicker and the margin for error became a lot larger. Therefore I firmly believe that the Scadutree system is fairly designed since advancing only 1 to 2 levels can often times make a noticeable difference in your performance against boss encounters which means you do not have to spend anywhere near the amount of time aimlessly looking for them that this video suggests.

I also refute the idea that the game does not give you enough tools to deal with the increased aggression and damage output of the bosses. From my experience, you will only find boss punish windows to be too small if you only try to R1 spam instead of making use of your weapon’s entire moveset. The majority of the bosses have punish windows that are large enough to consistently pull off charged R2s, jumping R2s, and quick ashes of war such as Savage Lions Claw or Bloody Slash. If you make use of these mechanics, bosses become much easier to posture break and their health bars will not seem anywhere near as bloated as they appear at first glance. It is also important to mention that none of the above mentioned methods of dealing damage (except for charged R2s) were available in DS3. So saying that the toolkit of the player is “mostly the same” as DS3 is objectively untrue from my experience.

With regards to the high damage output of the bosses, this can be significantly lowered using elemental resistance talismans and damage negation buffs. This is what I believe the Dancing Lion fight was trying to teach players through its constant elemental shifts during its second phase. I found the damage output of bosses like Messmer and Rellana to be much more manageable when using elemental resistances specific to each fight. 

I believe it is fair for FromSoft to expect players to be well versed in the use of all of these combat mechanics considering this DLC is supposed to be endgame content for players who have spent a long time with the game. Therefore, I believe the game gives you plenty of tools to deal with the increased scaling of the bosses as long as you don’t play them the exact same way you would a boss from DS3.

Demod’s criticism of the exaggerated particle effects of many of the bosses is a critique I have an easier time getting behind (since I definitely had a hard time reading the movements of bosses like the Hippo, Dancing Lion, and Radahn at times due to their particle effects). However, I still think the way it is portrayed in this video is exaggerated. Many of the particle effects and after effect hitboxes on boss attacks are designed to encourage aggression through rolling forward into their attacks instead of away from them. This was the case with both Messmer and second phase Radahn. When I tried rolling away from their attacks, the flame and light ray after effects would always rollcatch me. But as soon as I learned to roll into their attacks, I would not get hit by the after effects nearly as often and their movements became a lot easier to read.

Also, as a small aside before I rap up this comment, I would like to mention that Demod did not fight Bayle the way I believe FromSoft intended you to fight him. The fight is very much designed around the player targeting his head and he leaves very consistent openings to punish his head after almost all of his combos (alla Midir). The camera only becomes a problem if you fight him the way Demod does in this video (i.e. only attacking his legs and tail, not going for the head).

In conclusion, while there are definitely points in this video that I agree with to an extent (such as the spirit summon system still being completely unbalanced and the frame drops on PC during boss fights being absolutely egregious) I think overall there are a lot of things Demod got wrong about this DLC.
patrickcunningham1146: I agreed (and still do to an extent), about the main game bosses having some unfair attacks to them - but I really don't think any of the dlc bosses do other than Gaius's charge (haven't played with the nerf yet). I think they are hard bosses, but all of them have clear tells and dodge/punish opportunities. None of them are anywhere near as unfair as waterfowl
mariochapa1756: What sucks now is that any valid criticism for these games will now get thrown out with “you just suck” or “git gud”
lastofman2876: Just wait a year and there’ll be no one complaining about the difficulty it’s like this most of the time, once players learn the moves or information about how to make the fights easier become more widespread, the big meltdown about difficulty will be over.
jboese3354: Eh, only part I agree with is that summons trivialize the game. But playing the game solo spending hours on a boss learning the moveset when to punish and get final satisfaction when you beat them is what made it so fun for me. Making the game too easy makes it go faster which I wouldn't want. Personally I thought radahn is one the best bosses I've ever fought
SlippySouls: I honestly can't understand why people dislike scadutree fragment system. When you are going to dlc you will probably be at rl 150-200, and hit the softcaps in vigor and your damage stat, rl 200 and 713 are not very different in terms of damage or protection, you can just use more things in RL 713. But fragments actually boost your damage and protection also it is a free reward for exploration and you don't even need to find all of them to get strong enough to finish the game. At blessing 12 (you need 26 which you can get it without fighting any boss and would take only about 1 hour) you hit the blessing softcap and 1.85x damage and 0.540 damage received. Those remaining levels only increase a very little amount so remaining 24 are just extra rewards for exploration. And if you want all 50 but couldn't find it, just use boiled crab and put golden vow ash of war on a dagger, it is the same thing.
CrazeeAdam: I think fromsoft expects people to actually use ALL of the mechanics the game has to offer in this DLC. Including, what many people shun, spirit ashes. Still, Radahn is incredibly difficult, with whatever ashes you use
clanlorrd3025: Critiques like this feel like people who mastered DS3 combat just simply can't adjust to a more complex boss design.. There are many openings you can punish, after learning the patterns. Also the amount of tools the game give you is enormous. Parry, gourd counter, jump attacks, consumables, spirit ashes, incantations spells, op weapons etc... If you don't wanna invest time to learn the boss moveset, just use the tools the game provides.. Funny how the table turned, and 99% of journalists/reviewers praise the DLC of how good it is, and the "soul vets" are whining of how bad the boss design is.
vincenzo4314: So my opinion on this is very odd and conflicted. On my very first playthrough, I 100% agree with this video, there were many frustrating moments that felt straight unfair rather than FromSoft’s hard but fair difficulty. I started the DLC on NG 5 however and I felt like various enemies, even in the same areas, were unbalanced either being too strong or too weak, and boss moves felt odd to dodge traditionally.

Flash forward two more playthroughs, leading into NG 7, and I really love the DLC for the new bosses, including the crazy final boss. I was able to read and learn the attack patterns punish bosses properly, and do everything without spirit summons or regular summons (nothing wrong with using them, I used them in my first run). I still have gripes about them reusing base game bosses like the ancient dragon, death rite bird, ghost flame dragons, etc and just making them “harder” by adding AOE attacks after their normal attacks. But now in my opinion I believe all the new remembrance bosses are quite stellar, I just wish there was more cutscenes for some that didn’t get any.
GrimmsHorrorShow: I don’t see the issue here. If you’re saying that you had trouble understanding the importance of scadu blessings and the system, I get that. But that’s an issue that was addressed with a tutorial and the item description, as well as the clear stat buffs provided by the upgrade. Yes, it’s shocking to get one or two shotted by Rellana, but it also forces you to look at the new system and understand its importance. If people wanna ignore it, skip reading descriptions, and then complain when they get stomped by enemies that can be overcome when approached properly? Then, they’re playing the wrong game. To paraphrase From, they aren’t interested in making a games for everyone, just games they want to make.

As for boss difficulty, yes there’s much less margin for error and breaks to back off and heal outside of learning which animations have a long cool down, but it’s always been that way. Trial and error has been a huge part of gameplay since demon’s souls, and I firmly believe the only reason this even became a thing recently, is because Elden Ring is enjoyed by a much wider and player base than previous titles. Hence, the decision for it to be designed around summons/spirit ashes. It’s been emphasized since day one, choosing not to use it because you prefer to solo is fine, but just like not wanting to learn gun parries in BB or the deflect system in Sekiro in favor of trying to dodging (like I know you remember soooo many did when those games released) and calling a clear cut design decision out for you purposely making the game harder on yourself is foolish.

As for Radahn, yeah, he’s pretty damn rough. Especially when it seems like it’s impossible to dodge his follow up holy effects after a swing. But there are several things to consider when approaching him. The item that grants a massive holy defense buff, dodging past or around instead of panic rolling backwards (which I see you doing a lot in this footage), and learning when to run instead of dodging, are just a few ways to mitigate the challenge. I don’t hear any real valid complaints here outside of performance issues and some wonky hit boxes (Gaius’ stupid charge, anyone), which are certainly a thing, but nothing we haven’t all dealt with in From games before. Mostly, I see someone relating their time with SOTE and it not being what they wanted, which again is fine, but this comes off as if you’re trying to portray the game being cheap or too hard as objective fact instead of criticism based on personal experience and inviting discussion. Illustrated perfectly by your claim that bosses meet you with aggression meant for multiple targets, yet you also said that using ashes or summons make it too easy. Which is it? Either it’s too hard and you must use summons to tackle overly punishing boss design, or summons trivialize it so much that using them is “ letting the game play itself “. If you’re saying it’s both dependent on where, who, and what you are fighting, then that’s called balance for a system they included and emphasized the import of, just like the scadu tree blessings. So then there’s no point to this video.
jucktnicht2129: Radahns after effects just encourage better positioning.
To prevent the player from dodging away instead of into him, something which is already optimal for most enemies in the game.
I really liked the difficulty spike on end boss, it took me 14 hours, but felt inkreasingly rewarding onwards.
Actually I think many elden ring endgame & dlc bosses are more difficult than the sword saint, considering the usage of a moderate build (like strength but not kfc bleed) without summons, at least when replaying the games. For me personally, after 2 playthroughs of sekiro, I got gud at parrying and first-tryd Isshin.
lukasdfields: The shit about Radahn’s attacks needing to count twice is honestly bullshit and disappointing from this channel. The holy attacks the vast majority of the time are designed to give you a correct direction to dodge, dodging in that direction once dodges both the initial attack and the holy one. These should not be counted as separate attacks to artificially overstate a problem that you’re having because you’re dodging the incorrect direction.

I understand that we are allowed to have opposing views on it, and while I disagree with almost everything said in this video, I am fine with those positions. This one is just dishonest. They are singular attacks that must be dodged in a particular direction.
AntonisVaik: How is bosses having infinite combos and no openings still a take 2 years later. Every single boss has openings long enough for you to get in full charged attacks with a colossal weapon.

Fromsoft may have patched out your turn a bit, but they never patched out attack windows. Its been said a lot at this point but stuff like positioning and jumping is very important. But people play this game like it's ds3, just rolling and waiting for the boss to stand still so they can press r1.
ZheH4ribo: Not to Sound rude, but you bitched on Elden Rings release about the Bosses. For me you did lose credibility. Like for example Messmer is so telegraphed. You have valid boints with technical issues and so on, but having issues with well telegraphed Attacks idk
Entro9: Fighting Bayle solo so many times that you learn his patterns then complaining that you can beat him easily with summons (now that you know his patterns) is a very strange argument to make
ImrdIstt.SH.: i absolutely do not want to sound like a "git gud" type but looking at your gameplay i feel like it's pretty clear why you had such a bad experience. it looks like you want to play the game on your terms and not on the game's terms. almost every time you get hit, you immediately roll back and try to heal regardless of what the boss is doing. with these bosses you have to carefully dodge and wait for some downtime to heal. you also seem to panic jump which is even worse than panic rolling. i'd be interested to see how your opinion on the bosses may change if you broke those habits
jtlaughton5408: Eh the only thing I agree with is maybe reworking scadu to require less so you dont have to check every tiny corner of the map and radahn and gaius having major problems. Other than that I think many of the bosses were very fun and the exploration and level design in the dlc is significantly better than the main game. Also, even when considering the problems with radahn its not super fair to count all the beams as part of his uptime. Some for sure but not all since if you play up close you largely dodge all of it just by rolling the same way as phase 1. So while I hope the next game they make isn't all promised consort radahn type bosses I don't think they've really lost the plot.
jackofdiamonds7303: For me, I greatly enjoyed my time with the DLC, though I’m pretty sure it’s because I’m the type of player that likes to do every single thing. Only three bosses in the entire DLC gave me trouble, those being the Divine Lion, Rellana, and Radhan. Every other boss I had some difficulty with, but not for long as I usually had a lot of Scadutree fragments. But there were two points in my playthrough that really made me reflect on DLC as an experience, the fights against Messmer and Radhan.

In fact, when I got to Messmer, I had around 6 Scadutree blessings, but I left him after only one attempt as I believed him to be the final boss, and I didn’t want it to end. When I came back to Messmer, I had near maxed out Scadutree blessings and beat him in less than 10 tries. I felt disappointed by Messmer and I wished I had fought him when I first got to him or when I had less Scadutree fragments.

As for Radhan, I fought him with max Scadutree blessings and 64 int and dex each, along with 55 vigor. He took me 82 tries to beat, and when I won, I felt like I had only done it thanks to luck. The thing is, I got to phase 2 in less than 10 attempts, and over half my attempts I was able to beat phase one while only using one flask. But phase two felt impossible. Despite Malenia taking me much longer to beat, I would consider Radhan easily the hardest boss Fromsoft has ever made due to how unfair it felt. Against bosses like Ishin or Malenia, I at least felt like I was learning with each attempt. My only issue with Malenia was the damn waterfowl dance, but with Radhan it feels like every move he makes in phase two is that same level of unfair as waterfowl. Every time I dodged, I almost always would be hit by a random beam of light and then instantly wombo-comboed to death. The only moves in phase two that I could consistently deal with were his grab and his gravity corkscrew. I only managed to win the fight by spamming my Ice Spear ash of war on my twinblade.
raer5373: The second phase of Consort Radahn is absolute bullshit. I have no guilt over using mimic tear even tho I really wanted to beat every boss by myself.
nikolaosboukouvalas449: I agree with you that Fromsoft is facing a challenge with it's desgn approach and that we experience an arms race when it comes to difficulty between the developers and their audience. But I wish people stopped seeing spirit ashes as just a crutch: there is so much variety in Spirit Ashes and therefor a lot of ways to approach a boss fight with them. But most people won't bother with them because "it's just noob support".
mladen5140: I have my issues with both ER in general and this dlc but half the video is like really bad while the other half has a correct point that it communicates somewhat poorly
bryanramnauth4390: I'll never understand level capping yourself at 150. Its so restricting to pick between certain weapons when you can just have everything at max rune level
ZzirDeadlyx: To be honest I didnt mind the bosses too much, some were definitely a lot more challenging than others. Radahn was definitely the hardest though. Not sure if i necessarily agree it was a decline but they did feel more difficult than the main game bosses which to be fair is expected as thats the norm for most FromSoftware DLC bosses
starfthegreat: I was having trouble with Rellana, so I figured out I needed to break her stance more frequently. So I used the crystal tear that increases your likelihood to break enemy stances coupled with bleed grease on my weapon. I beat her after with a couple of tries with this method. My point is that Elden Ring gives you a bunch of tools to defeat those tough bosses and the game expects us to use them.

Jul 26 2024

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