🌹🦌

I'm replaying elden ring using the reforged mod--beautiful way to recontextualize base game btw--and I'm really coming to understand that the points of frustration the dlc have always been true of the whole thing. seems like the whole difference between margit and [dlc boss you hate the most] is just context.

it was cool and exciting to best margit because he was representing elden ring asking us to approach this game on its own terms, not as Yet Another Dork Souls. I fully agree with the idea that he was teaching us, adjusting our expectations and sharpening our skills for what was yet to come. meanwhile the dlc is inherently only accessible to people for whom "guy with 5+ chain combos" is old, annoying hat in a game in which it's status quo. I don't think any of the new bosses recaptured that "rethink how you play" idea, and it was always going to be tough to live up to the promise of elden ring dlc without bringing along the baggage. I honestly don't think any of the problems are meaningfully worse in the dlc (mostly), they're just more obvious because we've had time for the shiny new toy feeling to wear off

personally, I really enjoyed the new vistas and additional story and dramatic set pieces within boss encounters (and most of the new bosses are kinda easily trivialized with 60 int, the comet sorcery, and a tanky or fast summon as distraction). I didn't really get a lot of the dlc crit at first, but letting that experience percolate and also re-experiencing base game bosses has me reflecting on how many of my deaths in both happen while I'm saying "stop stop stop stop stop STOP"