It’s been two years since the release of Elden Ring. It’s about time someone finished the game with amnesia… Although it’s a joke, it’s true that after hastily completing the first round, I haven’t set foot in the borderland again, and only have vague memories of the plot.
In order to prepare for the upcoming DLC ”Golden Tree Shadow”, I had to recover in all aspects for several hours. After I defeated the “Blood King” Monger again, the media review version also arrived. As a double giant warrior who used pure force style to beat all enemies, I stepped into the shadow land with confidence.
Shadowlands
Following Michaela’s guidance, I arrived at the first area of the Shadow Land, the “Graveyard Plains”. I rode out of the valley on a spirit horse, and the view was suddenly clear. The plains were full of tombstones, but these tombstones were all untouchable spirits, showing the theme of the shadows.
The ruins in front of him first attracted his attention, and looking back, he saw the fortress that merged with the mountains, and the Shadow City behind it, which was twice as tall as it. On top of the tower in Shadow City that was barely visible in the mist, the golden tree that reached the sky was even more shocking, and the light that spread around seemed to envelop the entire Shadow Land.
“Shadow of the Golden Tree” guides the footsteps of the Faded Ones in a way that is most familiar to everyone. What you see is what you get, and countless secrets are waiting to be explored.
At first I thought that the DLC map was similar in size to the main game Nimgofu, as it was shown – this made sense, after all, it was just a DLC to experience additional content. But after I finished the first major BOSS, the cemetery plain on the map expanded to three areas in the north, east and south that required map fragments. The same sense of surprise that I had when I first defeated “Limb Reattachment” Grek in the main game and the map suddenly expanded several times came back.
The Shadowlands may not look that big, but because the various exploration and hidden elements have become more intensive, its size is comparable to the three large areas of the Borderlands. Not only that, a three-dimensional map design different from the original game is also made here. The highlands, plains and underground are not divided into three areas, but are intertwined in a way that the terrain is interconnected.
The majestic Spiky Mountains, the roar of red thunder and the roar of giant dragons resound through the sky; in the dark and strange forest at the bottom of the valley, you need to listen to the breathing under the gray fog and pass by monsters; more than a dozen scenes of different styles are not simply spliced together, or valleys, or cliffs, they are superimposed with countless routes, which makes the freedom of exploration extremely high, and there are things that can attract you at every moment.
But on the other hand, this also reflects a shortcoming of this game that has not been shown in the main body, that is, it is difficult to judge the information on the map. The location I marked on the map may be anywhere in the depth of the scene, but the map only shows the surface, which can easily lead to misjudgment and waste time.
The routes to each area are not as intuitive as those in the original game. To reach the valley bottom area in the north, I may need to start from the valleys in the east and go around half of the map. To reach the island route in the northeast, I have to pick up an inconspicuous item from an inconspicuous cliff in another area to open it.
The route hints provided by the game are not sufficient, and I even feel that the designer assumes that all players will lick every corner of the vertical position of the map. When I circled around the scene like a headless fly and did useless work for several hours, that feeling was not good.
Of course, with the release of DLC and various guides, these problems can be solved by searching online. However, if I want to play the game seriously and immersively, this frequent problem will greatly affect the game experience. Because all the elements are hidden too deep and the scene design is too complicated, when you see your destination is under the cliff, but you can’t find the past position anyway, and even the map screen is useless, it is quite uncomfortable.
A more dangerous enemy
In fact, not only the map has enough content, the DLC also works hard on enemy design. In addition to old friends such as the Death Bird, the Tree Guardian, the Demi-Human Queen, and the Fallen Star Beast, there are also new powerful enemies such as the Divine Beast Guardian and the Flame Knight, as well as many humanoid enemies with new types of weapons.
As for the bosses, there are 9 bosses with memories this time, which is almost half of the size of the original game. In particular, the boss battles this time have been greatly enhanced in terms of both cutscenes and performances during battles.
Take the lion dance at the beginning for example, it not only has the power and beauty of “lion dance”, but also can switch back and forth between the three attributes of ice, thunder and fire, and each switch will cause extremely oppressive changes in the surroundings. In order not to spoil the plot, I won’t say too much about the other main bosses, but they all have a deep connection with Michaela, and naturally they are all extremely beautifully designed, with excellent viewing experience.
Perhaps because of the common fighting style of the faded ones in the border area, the BOSS logic has been strengthened this time. First of all, there is no time to summon ashes at the beginning. Even elite enemies with long health bars will launch a surprise attack on the faded ones as soon as they enter the scene, and several main BOSSes will use dazzling combat skills to launch a lightning strike at the beginning.
In addition, their various values and toughness have been greatly improved to deal with the faded ones who use wheelchair weapons. The main bosses all have a strong desire to attack, and most of their moves have all-round attack judgments, and stiffness is not so easy to hit.
I tried the Blasphemy Sword, although it has the function of sucking blood and damaging at a medium distance, this time the BOSS will not be attracted too much by the ashes and NPCs. As long as I use the plundering fire, even if the BOSS is in the middle of a combo, it will suddenly turn around and attack me with the second half of the combo. The current wheelchair style generally has a large weakness of stiffness, and this main BOSS is designed to restrain this.
Although for some casual players, not being able to fight in a wheelchair may be a huge pressure, but I think that observing the boss’s actions and thinking about countermeasures is the fun of soul games. The so-called “each fighting their own” experience is a design that puts the cart before the horse in terms of skill mechanism, so I think this time the boss logic is a reasonable change.
However, even though I said that, as a dual giant warrior, I still have to complain about Xiao Gao’s lack of attention to the physical school. It can even be said that he didn’t consider that someone would use a two-handed giant sword to cut the boss. In addition to the body attack judgment just mentioned, most bosses have the mechanism of self-destruction, ADHD, and range spells, and sometimes even release continuous attack body range magic.
Finding the right time to attack is not easy in itself, and the moment you attack, you are likely to be hit by a counterattack from the boss. And because of the slow retraction of the super-large weapon, when you find that the boss is about to self-destruct or use area magic, it is likely that you will not have time to escape.
In addition, I encountered another hyperactive BOSS in the middle stage. It would jump back and forth in a field as big as the Star Wars in this chapter. I couldn’t catch up with it with my two-handed giant sword. If I caught up with it and cut it with a sword, the BOSS would fly to the other side. The most annoying thing is that this BOSS actually has three health bars!
The whole battle wasn’t very difficult, but it was extremely frustrating, and there was no sense of accomplishment after completing it, as if I had just gone through a monkey show – and I was the one being fooled.
Full of malice
The double giant warriors are not only defeated by the BOSS, but also have some unfriendly designs in some levels.
Let me first talk about the good part. Compared with the indoor levels in the Junction, this level has more ways to play. It is no longer a repetition of the underground prison and the skull cave. New levels such as the Great Pot Maze, the Hulk Jumping Fun, the Flooded Ruins City, etc. are rich in types, and new enemies will also bring new challenges and traps. These are all fun. Although they are elements that have appeared in the previous game, they still give people a refreshing experience in “Elden Ring”.
However, the enemy configuration in some levels is really a headache. In a certain jumping music section, several stone monsters kept launching magic sniper attacks on me across the cliff. While I was sprinting, there were a bunch of stone monsters that would self-destruct under my feet, and behind me were small birds of death, which were as malicious as the holy tree.
In a certain section of the ruins level, there are magical snake monsters that can snipe every other section of the road. Their magic will not cause damage, but it will directly cause a time stop effect. After the time stop, the venomous snake monsters hundreds of meters away will teleport and directly perform blood sucking throwing skills. If you don’t have time to dodge after the throwing skills are over, you will face the next round of time stop throwing skills. It’s useless to approach the magical snake monsters with precise operations. The magical snake monsters on the next section of the road will continue to snipe you. If you are unlucky, you may even trigger the hatred of the magical snake monsters behind you…
Xiao Gao really likes the experience of the double bows in the royal city, so much so that he doubled up on these purely malicious designs this time. What he gives players is not the challenge of thinking about passing strategies, but a challenge to their luck and extreme operations. If they are lucky, they can pass the level if the basilisk misses a few times. It is really not a good experience.
Toys and wheelchairs
In addition, I would like to complain about the new weapons and new skills provided by the DLC. There have been a lot of leaks in the past few days, and there have been trial reports released by various companies before. I will not introduce the specific types here.
The most impressive weapon I tried was the Piercer Spear, which has a very gorgeous combat skill and a fire attribute. The last hit of the combo can form countless spears around the body for piercing attacks. When using a heavy attack, the Piercer Spear can also be thrown as a long-range weapon.
There is also the combat skill Brave Lion Slash, which can derive a second Lion Slash based on the Lion Slash in this chapter, and there is also a damage judgment at the moment of spinning and jumping. Since I am a warrior, I also tried the new prayer “Messermo’s Fireball”, which is not only powerful, but also a throwing skill that can directly suppress the opponent.
These weapon skills sound very powerful, but in fact they always have to be designed conservatively in terms of values and modules to avoid the emergence of new wheelchairs.
Each attack of the Fierce Lion Slash is only 60% to 70% of its original power, but its movement is twice as powerful. The fireball of Messermo is quite powerful, but its long charging and grabbing mechanism dooms it to be unable to deal with large bosses and agile enemies. The total damage of the Piercer’s Spear is very high, but the lengthy movement and the stiffness of the last attack always cause it to lose blood when dealing with bosses.
Although the new toys are all very cool and interesting, they are not very useful when facing the enemies with maxed-out stats in the DLC. Either you have to bully the soldiers at the border in the next round, or you have to form a new style in PVP. Everything is hidden so deep that you can’t use it immediately after getting it. In the end, the best ones are still the Lion Slash, Broom Star, etc. in this article.
After defeating the final BOSS of the DLC, you can exchange it for a wheelchair-compatible weapon through Recollection, but what can you use to test the weapon after getting it?
Summarize
As a double giant warrior who used pure force style to defeat all enemies, I stepped into the Shadow Land with full confidence, but was beaten to a pulp. I had to give up my insistence on “romance” and switch to using magic style to pass the level in time and write this review. It was not a very satisfying experience.
“Elden Circle: Shadows of the Golden Tree” is absolutely sincere in terms of its size, with content comparable to half of the main story, better art, more exciting performances, more eye-catching actions, and more intensive exploration, all of which make this DLC fully playable.
On the other hand, the game is full of malice in its design of various mechanisms. It has a three-dimensional open world scene, but does not provide players with sufficient map information. The toys are hidden too deep, but the strength is not matched. The levels are rich in variety, but there are always some disgusting enemy configurations.
As for the purely physical genre, the game doesn’t give much consideration, resulting in a very negative experience whether it’s a boss battle or a battle with miscellaneous soldiers.
The DLC obviously has a lot of fun stuff, but it always tries every possible way to torture the players. Maybe this is also FromSoftware’s traditional art…
Rating: 8.0
advantage:
-Explore a three-dimensional open world with more elements
-Half the content of the original game
-More exciting BOSS battle performances
– More indoor level types
– New toys are cool and fun
shortcoming:
-Map information cannot support three-dimensional scene design
-Some monster materials from this game are reused
– Too many malicious “Royal City Double Bow” enemy configurations
-New toys are hard to use in DLC
-Too many ADHD bosses are not friendly to the physical school