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Modern FromSoft has a huge problem where it has, frankly, run out of ideas. There is so much reused content in Elden Ring and even Shadow of the Erdtree that are ideas recycled from as far back as Demon’s Souls. If I were being extra cynical, I’d accuse FromSoft of not being bothered to come up with new names for their NPCs any more.
If that’s not bad enough, the combat design for Elden Ring and Shadow of the Erdtree has become so stale that the only way FromSoft decided to change things is to amp up the difficulty. This wouldn’t be a problem for me, but only if the games are difficult in an interesting and fun way. How do they make it difficult? Apparently by never giving your character a ‘turn’ to attack.
This doesn’t make the game difficult, it makes it annoying. Some fights in the DLC, especially Radahn and Bayle, I felt are legitimately down to RNG. I got lucky fighting Bayle because his AI decided to use a ranged attack while I was up close.
Bayle, by the way, will unashamedly input-read your movements for one of his attacks and so much of his moveset is designed to catch you for rolling too soon. Haters, we already hear you typing out ‘git gud’, but if you take a moment, just know that I’ve beaten the DLC and penned guides for every major boss in the expansion, . This isn’t a whiny piece about how Elden Ring is to.