There’s no polite way of putting this: I want the upcoming Elden Ring DLC to absolutely ruin me. I’m talking no-holds-barred, brutal stuff. I want to see clips of folks slamming controllers for years to come. This should happen, not just because of my own sick masochistic desire to get dommed by a digital diety with a fresh orchestral boss track, but because Elden Ring has always had a difficulty problem. And Shadow Of The Erdtree may be the solution.
What do I mean when I say Elden Ring has a difficulty problem? Well, the game is easy! Not when compared to other video games in other genres – it is still a FromSoftware game, after all. But when you line Elden Ring up to its other fantasy action-RPGs siblings, you’ll find it’s quite tame in comparison.
For many longtime Souls, Bloodborne, and Sekiro fans, this was a slight problem when the game came out. Now, it’s had a lot of its holes patched since 2022, and many of the more absurdly powerful tools for Tarnished – like the Mimic Tear – have been rightly nerfed, but the lack of difficulty still persists. This is because it doesn’t stem from individual enemy power, it stems from a lack of linearity. As you can freely venture across the vast open world Lands Between freely, the game cannot predict what busted spells and weapons you have on you, nor what level you will be for its smorgasbord of encounters. As such, those who seek to drink deeply from Elden Ring’s well of caves and tombs will find themselves beefier than a porterhouse steak.
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