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00:00:00 – 00:24:33
This video discusses the new "Shadow of the Erdtree" DLC for "Elden Ring," focusing on its various challenging bosses. The review evaluates bosses by their unique characteristics, battle mechanics, and thematic coherence. Highlights include:
– **Romina**: Comparatively similar to Millennia but without health regeneration, applying Scarlet rot. Rated B.
– **Matia**: Known for unpredictable moves and requiring risky player actions. Symbolizes control through environmental storytelling. Rated A.
– **Commander Gas**: Frustrating due to aggressive mechanics and hindering summon aid. Rated D.
– **Midra**: Represents themes central to From Software games, with transformation reflecting inner pain. Highly praised for battle enjoyment and thematic coherence. Rated S.
– **Bagel and Shadow Tree Avatar**: Their designs enrich game lore, linked to another character Placedo Sax. Shadow Tree Avatar noted for challenging multi-phase battle. Both rated B.
– **Rana**: Used to guide player growth early in the game, deemed unremarkable and rated C.
– **Putrescent Knight and Mesma**: The former difficult due to constant movement, the latter exciting due to significant design shift and complex mechanics. Rated B and A, respectively.
– **Divine Beast**: A dynamic, multi-elemental battle compared to real-life lion dancers, noted for demanding fair difficulty. Rated A.
Final tier rankings highlight Mitra in S tier for exceptional qualities, with Divina Beast, Mesma, and Matia in A tier for their innovative and engaging combat experiences. The video critiques end-game boss Radahn as disappointing, with long combos and lack of varied strategy, suggesting a more dynamic transformation for a satisfying narrative arc.
00:00:00
In this segment, the host discusses the new DLC for Elden Ring titled “Shadow of the Erdtree,” emphasizing its numerous boss fights. The video introduces various bosses with unique characteristics like “boss baby,” “a woman who is literally two bugs,” and more. The host specifically reviews Romina, who is likened to Millennia but does not regain health with attacks and applies Scarlet rot. Romina is described with a Euro dance energy and a design reminiscent of ’90s CGI music videos. The fight is challenging yet fair, with notable attacks and a generally balanced difficulty. The host rates Romina as a B-rank boss. Matia, another boss, is praised for her erratic and unpredictable move set, making her a ‘Troll Boss’ because of her self-damaging behavior. Matia is noted for having less health compared to other bosses.
00:03:00
In this part of the video, the speaker discusses the challenging nature of the DLC bosses, particularly focusing on one named Matia, who prompts players to take risky actions due to her low health. This leads to players often getting caught by her unpredictable and fast attacks, resulting in a loss of control and more health risks. The arena design and environmental storytelling further enhance the difficulty, symbolically linking her control over hollow forms. The speaker continues by critiquing another boss, Commander Gas, describing the frustrating mechanics where his initial charge move and constant aggression make it hard to dodge and impossible to summon aid effectively. This design seemingly forces players to use a summon while simultaneously hindering the summoning process.
00:06:00
In this part of the video, the speaker discusses their constraints due to branding, preventing them from equipping lighter armor. They rank the character ‘Midra,’ who epitomizes the theme of ‘naked guys with really big weapons’ central to From Software games. Midra lives in a desolate environment, and his introduction is marked by a disturbing scene. Upon encountering him in battle, Midra is in visible pain, prompting players to fight him. As the battle progresses, Midra transforms, embracing his true, powerful form. The fight itself is praised for its enjoyable mechanics, graceful animations, and the tension induced by the Madness status effect. The speaker notes the thematic coherence of the fight and reflects on their branding constraints. Despite these, they enjoy the fight, acknowledging that Midra deserves a higher recognition, particularly for his role in the accompanying quest line where a character named Igon encourages the player.
00:09:00
In this part of the video, the narrator delves into the character design and backstory of Bagel, a creature with significant battle scars, including shredded wings and a missing leg, which it compensates for using its tail. Bagel’s design raises intriguing points about Placedo Sax, another character missing two heads, which are found attached to Bagel’s body. This detail builds on the game’s lore, suggesting a complex and dark relationship between the two characters. Additionally, the segment touches on the impressive world-building by the game developers and analyzes another boss, the Shadow Tree Avatar, highlighting its challenging moves and multi-phase battle structure.
00:12:00
In this segment, the video discusses the dark, end-game twist in cozy farming games, likening “Elden Ring” to the ultimate cozy farming game where players harvest and sell plants, meet NPCs, and engage in battles with formidable foes like giant unkillable sunflowers. The presenter talks about a boss character named Rana, who is often perceived as hard but serves a similar purpose to an early-game boss by pushing players to explore and grow stronger. Despite finding her fight enjoyable, the presenter describes Rana as unremarkable and an average character in terms of story and branding, giving her a C rating. Additionally, there’s a mention of the “putrescent night,” which is compared to a 70s progressive rock album, humorously underlining its obscurity and neglected state in the game.
00:15:00
In this part of the video, the focus is on two distinct boss fights in a game. First, you encounter the putrescent Knight in the basement, characterized by its unique design riding a ghostly horse. The Knight is tough due to its constant movement, making it challenging to land hits. Comparisons are made to the Elden Beast from another game, emphasizing the difficulty and need for improved mobility during the fight.
The second boss, Mesma, is highlighted as the most exciting fight in the DLC, living up to its trailer-induced hype. The first phase involves standard attacks with a sharp stick and flames, while the second phase reveals that Mesma contains mysterious snakes. This phase significantly alters Mesma’s appearance and attacks, making the fight more intriguing and difficult. The narrative applauds Mesma’s unique design and critiquing a similar boss, Reichard, for being less interesting and overly complex.
00:18:00
In this segment of the video, the speaker discusses strategies and observations about various boss fights. They mention that summoning Horns Cent for a particular fight is beneficial, along with some unique dialogue related to his summoning. The Divine Beast dancing lion is highlighted next, likened to a stack of dudes in a costume inspired by real-life lion dancers, showcasing a variety of elemental powers—lightning, wind, and ice—that change the atmosphere and intensity of the battle. The creature’s elemental transitions make the fight dynamic, comparable to a multi-phase boss fight. The segment also touches on the difficulty and timing of encountering the Divine Beast, advising that once players are better equipped, the fight becomes fair. The speaker appreciates the design and atmosphere, awarding it an A. Lastly, they briefly criticize the final boss of the DLC as being less intriguing due to a less humorous design choice.
00:21:00
In this segment, the speaker critiques a boss fight in the game, discussing its mechanics and suggesting improvements. They note that adding a small child on the boss’s back in the second phase was ineffective. They appreciate boss fights for introducing new characters with unique designs and backstories, which Radahn’s fight lacks. The speaker argues that fighting Godwin or the Gloam-Eyed Queen wouldn’t have been better alternatives due to narrative reasons. They propose having a third phase where Radahn transforms into a god-like figure for a more satisfying conclusion. The speaker finds Radahn’s long combos tedious and suggests most Elden Ring fights are engaging due to varied strategies like exploiting weaknesses, which isn’t possible in Radahn’s fight. Summoning characters like Fia and Anbu makes the fight more entertaining but ultimately less effective due to increased difficulty. Overall, they rate Radahn’s fight as mediocre and disappointing for the last content before a potential sequel.
00:24:00
In this part of the video, the host reveals their rankings. In the D tier is Commander Gas. The C tier includes Rana and Radan. The B tier comprises Ramina, Bale, Shadow Tree Avatar, and the Putrescent Knight. The A tier features Matia, Mesma, and the Divine Beast, while the S tier is topped by Mitra. The host concludes by encouraging viewers to subscribe to their channel.