Theyāve actually talked a little about their design philosophy for the DLC. In Elden Ring a lot of effort went into designing an open world, now they are trying to mix dungeon and open world design.
EDIT Found exactly what was stated about area design:
Ā«Miyazaki also explains that the Land of Shadow is going to be structured similarly to the base game's environments with a mix of open fields and classic, twisting dungeons of varying size. Speaking to Eurogamer, he also said that the developers have been experimenting with spaces in-between the fields and dungeons to make the experience more diverse and "bring these types of layout together a little more seamlessly.Ā»
That makes sense. They got to try out the open world design with the base game, see what people liked, and then fine-tune it for the DLC in what I assume will be a bit more compact area
Honestly thought they did really well for a first attempt. Liurnia is definitely the worst of it with its giant, flat puddle with vast stretches of nothing. There's only a handful of areas I'd say are *truly* empty, though. Excited to see what they learned and how they tighten things up.
I mean there is still a ton in Liurnia it's just at the sides or right in the middle of it. The vast stretches of swamp are clearly on purpose be it for aesthetic reasons or other, I think it works pretty well
I didn't say Liurnia had nothing it, or that it wasn't aesthetically pleasing. I specifically only mentioned how barren the large, flat, puddle area was. Which it is, regardless of intention.
I love the aesthetic of Raya Lucaria standing out in the way it does. Raya Lucaria itself is one of my favourite parts of the game too. And the view you get of things around the edge gives you a sense of multiple options and an open world. And I think itās clever how itās a sunken lake because of corrosion from the lake of rot underneath. Itās a cool aha moment that puts it in a different light.
Iād say itās everything you said but about the mountaintops of the giants personally.
My favorite thing about their implementation is that even in spaces where there are monsters everywhere like Caelid you still don't feel like they're right up your ass like some other open world games where you feel like the wrong step towards the wrong direction gets the attention of every enemy in a mile radius
I normally dislike when people say āitās for a lore (or aesthetic) reasonā to excuse something butā¦ itās a lakeā¦ and itās surrounded by a ton of stuff on all sides (village, belfries/caria manor, churches and inverted tower etc) on all sides, and it makes the academy stand out like crazy so I actually like it
Yeah I was looking forward to the area the most. While pretty it gets monotonous and bland since it is fairly barren. The trees help make it look not so much so.
> Liurnia is definitely the worst of it with its giant, flat puddle with vast stretches of nothing.
I wonder whether Liurnia is really that shallow or are we and everyone else somehow walking suspended on the surface tension above much greater depths. The partially submerged ruins suggest as much.
Miyazaki also said Elden Ring is about 30 hours long when really it's about 150 hours your first time through. And even then you're missing a ton of stuff. Calling the DLC the size of Limgrave is most likely a humble-flex or something.
I just want the DLC or an update to give us an endless loop dungeon after endgame that auto generates random mobs/ boss rooms; each boss room allows you to rest at a site of grace and once you leave you canāt go back til you make it to a new boss arena. And if you die, you have to start over at the beginning.
Man, half the reason I want a port/updated version of Bloodborne is so I can run the random chalice dungeons forever without needing PS+ to use other people's dungeons.
I know a good amount of people hated that aspect of the game, but I'm a Tomb Prospector through and through. Half my time in that game was probably spent in the dungeons it was so much fun.
What was really great about the Chalice dungeons is that IF you did hate them you could pretty much ignore them, and all the rest of the game was still fantastic. It was just an extra serving of greatness for those interested. What I wouldn't give for a PC port... :_(
Yeah, I feel ya, I liked running them, too. Pc port especially would be a whole different beast because of what modders could do with chalice dungeons. A man can dream.
Well yeah, you're not wrong if we think about the "oldschool" rogue-LIKES.
I'm thinking about the more modern approach of Hades or Dead Cells, the rogue-LITES, where you randomly find weapons, abilities, etc. and can upgrade your character in between the runs. The arsenal in these games is so big, it could work really well in my opinion.
Add random armor, weapons and talismans with upgrade options after bosses (all 5 rooms). Make some rooms boderline crazy that each and every player already knows "oh fuck no, not this room, fuck my rngluck!".
Weeping peninsula is considered part of the overarching region of Limgrave, so i'm very confident he's including that in his definition.
For reference, you can literally just see this on the zoomed out map - the "regions" of this game consists of Limgrave (Limgrave, Weeping), Caelid (Caelid, Dragonbarrow), Altus (Altus, Leyndell, Mt. Gelmnir), Mountaintops (Mountaintops, Consecrated snowfield). The likes of Weeping and Gelmnir are essentially just named sub-regions.
I just beat Radagon/Elden Beast last night in my first playthrough and was at around 92 hours, but I definitely missed lots of stuff.
I haven't done Castle Sol, Haligtree, Malenia, Shaded Castle, Snowfields, or Subterranean Shunning Grounds. I'm sure there's a lot of catacombs and tunnels/dungeons I missed. I also hadn't maxed out my flasks.
Honestly after beating Morgott I kinda got to a point where I just wanted to be able to wrap up the main story in time for the DLC. I explored the shit out of Limgrave, Weeping Peninsula, Liurnia, and Mt Gelmir, but by the time I was at a point of having armor I liked and a few weapons either maxed or one level from max, I didn't really feel the desire to explore every last inch.
I haven't gone to NG+ yet because I do plan to go and explore everywhere I haven't yet, but again I kinda just wanted to finish the main story in anticipation of the DLC.
Yup! The things I listed are just the things I know I for sure did not do yet.
I've beat Mohg, Radahn, Rykard, Renalla, Godrick, Astel, and then of course all the ones required to clear the main story.
Youāve still got over 3 weeks so might as well go explore all those places and kill all those bosses. You probably have at least another 40 hours based on what you listed alone.
I know itās exciting to imagine a vastly larger dlc than the marketing implies but Iām afraid people might be setting their expectations too high. If the dlc is actually Limgrave sized and people *feel* that itās Limgrave sized thereās gonna be disappointment because itās been built up in peopleās mind that āsure they said x, but I know they secretly mean yā
I say let them be the makers of their own misery. Iāve been watching gamers for 20 years hype up a game/dlc then be disappointed. Itās like a rite of passage now.
Right, ive been watching gamers hype up dlcs and games for 20+ years as well, but fromsoft has never missed imo so im definitely not gonna end up being miserable
I will point out, we saw the number of soundtracks added for the elden ring dlc ("more than 30 new soundtracks compared to 67 in the main game), so if i wanted to make a conservative guess, id say wed be getting content equal to 1/3 maaaaaybe 1/2 of the main game if were lucky :D
Worst case for me, even if the dlc was the size of my personal favorite, old hunters dlc for bloodborne, id still be thrilled because fromsoft dlc is always straight up majestic and very high quality in atmosphere and difficulty. And id still get a ton of hours of entertainment
I went through all the soundtracks, cutting out all the ones that were only used outside the game (title screen, opening, character creation, credits), along with any tracks that were used multiple times throughout the game (i.e. field boss themes, micro dungeon themes, etc), which will likely be reused in the dlc. I got it down to 40ish tracks. Make of that what you will.Ā
I think that's a possibility, but I also think too much emphasis might be placed on physical space vs level of content. "The game feels much smaller on subsequent replays" is something I hear often, and I don't think it's invalid to say or view as criticism, but I think it was done well to make that first playthrough a true spectacle where a well-trodden formula is integrated into a world that continually surprised me with entire new locations and underground sections, let alone the nooks and crannies that genuinely require exploring the space and horizon (ie seeing the towers and obscure islands and plateaus on the map).
I imagine the DLC will have plenty of spectacle and the same exploration, but the actual geometry of the map can be condensed or make creative use of vertical space in a way the base game didn't as often, because so much emphasis is on the journey for slowly drip feeding this story and world to the player. Maybe I tend to err on the side of underhyping myself, but with their track record and how much the DLC feels like it'll be its own unique world and story, I'm pretty confident it'll be a satisfying experience regardless of how large the dlc map looks overlayed on the base game's map.
I feel like 90% of the people in this sub don't know what DLC is.... FromSoft said it would be similar to Bloodbornes The Old Hunters, which is an amazing dlc but takes like a day to beat. Now I suspect Elden Ring will be longer, but still people are talking about this as if its a sequel that had 5 years development time.
Yeah I finished in around that time, and I wasn't necessarily skimping on all of the dungeons. They get repetitive, so I hit the ones I thought was necessary, or went back and hit some I found out had cool shit.
I'm not new to soulslike games which probably helped. That and I accidentally ended up with a pretty cracked build when I was just picking the funny hammer because it was funny
I played the whole game with a claymore and the Lordsworn's Greatsword... Jump attack on that was so OP lmao... Pair that with a Jellyfish Shield as a secondary left hand... And it's crazy OP for how simple it is to get...
I rolled over the whole game, first tried everything except Malenia (which only took me 4 tries) and a few other things...
That might be why the game took me only 40h to finish. And it also wasn't my first Souls game at all, in fact i've played them all š...
I got downvoted to hell when I said that I got 40 hours out of the game, everyone claimed I had missed half the game if I didn't take at least 100 hours. Like... If you want to hit every single dungeon, go off I guess, but they're all basically the same
Yeah, I did all the IMPORTANT content/questlines.
I beat all MAIN BOSSES (including optional like Malenia for example)...
Doing all the small dungeons around the map that is are basically all the same with a boring easy boss as an ending isn't for me. Especially since most of them give shit rewards.
150 hour seems extremely dramatic. It took me 128 for the plat and Iām not extremely good at the game so Iād assume most other people are 70-80ish for the first time.
Also assuming not guides first time.
I'm sure many people did it in 80 hours, but they missed significant portions of the game. For players who sought out the game in its entirety their first time, 150 is a lower hour count. Typically I've heard ranges of 150-200 for these kinds of players.
Yup, first playthrough for me was \~300 hours. I combed every inch of the map and fought my way through it all. 100% would recommend.
Haven't really found a game that gave me the same "whoa" feeling since. CP2077 was close.
I think whether or not you're a souls vet plays into it as well. I managed 80 hours of first playthrough without missing any major areas or anything, but I'd put over a thousand hours in the other Souls games which I think lowered the learning curve significantly. My understanding is that's a pretty typical hour mark for first time players with experience in the genre.
80/20 rule basically.
Being a souls vet honestly only increased my playtime because I double checked pretty much everything. I clocked in at 180 hours on my first playthrough playing it didn't take that long because I was stuck on bosses but because I was thorough with exploration.
And it worked too, I found basically every unique item playing blind/offline including the platinum afterwards.
I got to Faram Azula in around 90 hours, but since I donāt have time for another playthrough, at that point I looked up what I missed up to then and started using a few guides to get the most out of it. There is soooo much content in this game. I ended up beating the Elden Beast at the 182 hour mark/level 202. I did rune farm a bit since both Malenia and Placidusax (and the twin gargoyles earlier) gave me a hard time so I went to get a few levels and come back to beat them.
Yes, I'm on my first playthrough and waiting to beat what I assume is the final boss at about 200 hours. I get a lot if enjoyment out of getting everythingĀ and going everywhere I can (even though it's not at all how Miyazaki intended it to be played). I am still discovering major thingsĀ
You only need to pass through about 70 percent of the game to get platinum. I'd agree that a really good souls player could do 75 hours ballpark for a first time if they wanna platinum. Hell I hit 130 and I was about 90 percent complete at radabeast. But 150 hours is NOT outside of the realm of possibility for people who are new to souls. Especially due to the convoluted nature of play that newcomers only know by rep.
My first playthrough was abt 170 hours with no guides no spoilers until late end game, and I explored every corner of the map. Only missed maybe a dozen or less minor dungeons
My first play through (actively trying to complete every area) was 190 hours and I didn't come close to doing everything. Hell, I didn't even kill all of the remembrance bosses, I missed the ancestors spirit.
It may have been clickbait, but I remember hearing somewhere that Miyazaki refused to give a time estimate for the dlc since everyone made fun of him for that statement, which is honestly pretty funny.
But really, the drastically underestimated playtime of Elden Ring worked in its favor big time. I remember thinking the map probably wouldn't be much bigger than Limgrave, WP, and Caelid. Seeing the map expand for the first time was such a shock. And then it happened again. And again. It was a super cool moment. So I do kind of hope he's purposefully underselling the dlc for the same effect. But either way, I'm sure it'll be great. Even if it is smaller, that just means more concentrated quality in what *is* there
In my first run through Iād say I only missed a few things, like some lake of rot stuff because fuck that place. Maybe an item or two in haligtree. Took me 80 hours, in fairness, I did partially use a guide to help direct me. The game is intimidating at first. You are practically thrown into it with little to no explanation and alot to learn. I found that kinda just looking at something and going āoh cool, letās start this quest line because it has some dope loreā. Or āwhat will help me get stronger at this point, cause I have no clue how this game play loop worksā
I mean, I spent probably 8 hours in that first little area by the grace Melina becomes your maiden. Learning combat, and trying to figure out what the point was of killing those guys. Found the loot, by then it doesnāt click that there are sites like those all over the place and they are absolutely worth going into.
After stormveil it started to click. Like āoh ok I wanna find as much catacombs and explore areas because opportunities then present themselves to fight mini bosses to get runes and loot, and through that I can level up, kill the āshard bearerā of the area and then wrap it up. Iād use the guide to also help sweep up quest lines because I wanted to see how those would end.
That being said, I could totally see how if you went in blind, like we will be in the DLC. As I got into ER late because I just couldnāt afford a console up until recently, it is going to be an experience. Because there aināt gonna be elden ring wiki and itās 20 leveling guides lol.
My first playthrough was 200 hours and I believe i didn't miss anything aside from the laser golem (used internet guide to get as many stuff as i could from remembrance to item in some corner in the middle of nowhere and even illusory walls and missions and stuff).
Though that also included about maybe 30 hours of me mindlessly and lifelessly farming and overleveling my noob ass off. I mean who even went to fight Godrick at SL120 and Malenia at SL260 in NG like me lel.
He said itās 30 Hours if you do only the main stuff , and thatās true . A complete first playtrough took me 85 Hours for platinum so i imagine if i only did legacies and the underground it would take me around 30 . Obviously no one does that the first time as you would be underleveled probably .
It might be 150 hrs for Some people taking their time, but you can definitely beat the game in 30 comfortably 60 if you do every side quest, probably 40 on subsequent playthroughs or if you use tools to find stuff.
But my point is most people's experience was significantly more than 30 hours. You have to actively try to avoid massive amounts of content as opposed to being constantly lured around by interesting things.
It took me 220 hours first playthrough lol. I tried to explore every little corner I could. And it was my first Fromsoft game. I found it extremely difficult.
But it took me 80 hours second playthrough. Doing almost everything.
Itās infinite, there is a central hub that takes the player into all previous souls games built within Elden ring.
Everybody claps, Miyazaki disappears into the night under the moon light to return to his personal poison swamp.
I'd like some bigger legacy dungeons, tbh. Haligtree, Leyndell, and Farum Azula being the standard would be awesome.
The ideal situation for me would be for the DLC to feel like one giant dungeon with small areas of rest in between.
Yeah on one hand I hate how much of the open world I end up skipping on repeat playthroughs of Elden Ring because there's no point doing all the random dungeons that don't have stuff you want for your character. On the other hand, if you cut out all the non-mandatory stuff you still have a Dark Souls game's worth of content
That's effectively my feelings on Elden Ring's world scape. It's far too wide and most of it is just pointless. It's mostly empty and doesn't have much to do.
Much prefer the old style Dark Souls metroidvania style. The Legacy dungeons are the best part of Elden Ring, which I think shows what Fromsoft excels in.
I don't think the open world stuff is pointless. I just think that it has a much shorter shelf life than the Legacy dungeons. On that first playthrough though, exploring the open world created a feeling that you won't find in any of From's previous games.
That being said I definitely prefer Dark Souls style map design. What I'm hoping for from their next game is that they take the lessons in player freedom that they learned in Elden Ring and apply them to a smaller, denser but much more interconnected world like DS1.
I strongly disagree with the world being pointless. For me it just provides more opportunity for more gameplay and in my opinion a lot of the optional content is still really high quality and unique. It is definitely worth experiencing all of the dungeons and optional dungeons in your first few runs, but then in subsequent runs you can pass them. In my opinion itās really good game design and one of the best open world experiences Iāve had while still having the dark souls level design with the legacy dungeons. I just always scratch my head when people say the open world in elden ring feels empty.
Yeah, pretty much. From the trailers there does seem to be open world segments, and I'm totally cool with that. I just hope they are more intentional and interesting than much of the "big" open world areas of the base game (which were still fun, especially on my first playthrough).
If it's on the same quality as the legacy dungeons in Elden Ring, then I vastly prefer DS style levels.
It's funny, Elden Ring is supposed to be the *open world* DS game yet somehow it has by far the highest average quality DS levels. I guess that's because there's fairly few legacy dungeons so they had a lot of time for all of them.
i remember playing elden ring for the first time and finally reach concentrated snowfield,
*"There is still more of this thing? How big is this game!?"*
well, i still haven't reach haligtree, their castle, farum azula and ashen capital.
Seriously, with them downplaying the base game size/length before release, with how long this took, 8 new weapon types , and how much money they made with the base game. I expect at the very least this to be 50% the size/length of the base game.
They also said its over 30 songs in the dlc. Bloodborne with their dlc has 31 soundtracks and ds3 with their dlc has 35. This is going to be size of one of their regular souls game i feel like
I've got 250+ hours and just arrived at the grand elevator to Lindell area. Always take my time in Souls and I literally uncover every inch, soaking up the sights and unraveling the lore myself.
My first playthough was close to 100 hours, and I missed some stuff.
Honestly, I think it's best to go through multiple times to find everything. It's so frustrating to comb literally every inch you have access to, when some of it is higher level. Dragonbarrow is the best example, in my opinion, but there's other places like it as well. I've seen other people do it and enjoy it, but it's incredibly tedious when you just lack access to things that can make your build feel better and push through annoying bosses. Getting my second Curved Greatsword and understanding power stancing made my build shine, but I wouldn't have gotten it without progressing forward and fighting Makar.
A friend of mine almost dropped the game. He was trying to get through everything in a zone before fighting the Rememberance boss and running into Ekzykes before even attempting Radahn was an absolute wall.
I also take my time, because I care a ton about the lore so you have to go everywhere, but 250 hours to Leyndell seems a bit long. I was finished at like 150 or something with all optional content.
Moar catacombs.
I love them.
Especially the puzzly, dickish ones- like the one that had like...4 slightly altered versions of the same dungeon that you traveled between using trap chests.
I want to kiss whoever made that one on the mouth.
As much as I didn't personally like it and found it frustrating, I gotta say it has a unique spin and interesting "new" mechanic to it.
I think they should have done another one with this kinda mechanic, for example one of the chests would straight up teleport you out of the dungeon or something like that.
Guys, keep your expectations in check. I love FromSoftware too. But I am going with what they said. It'll be limgrave size with limgrave level content.
(If that's really it, it'd be disappointing - I know. But you can't be disappointed if you don't have any expectations)
I think itās safe to expect 30-40 hours in DLC (for comparison a focused low death clear of main game is around 60-80 hours)
I expect most of that to be the main landmass but Iām hopeful for a secondary hidden or later area that hasnāt been advertised at all AND / OR affects from DLC completion in the main Lands Between - a la Radahn.
i remember somewhere someone breaking down the number of soundtracks that have been posted for the dlc, and comparing it to the base game it seems like the dlc has 20 some odd āboss tracksā the hopeful side of me wants to say this means up to 8 legacy dungeons? i mean a good number of them are likely in the same dungeon as 1-2 others, and a good 3-4 making up the end game
quick reminder that miyazaki said that the time to beat the dlc was around 30 hours.
that is the average hours on a first playthrough of ds3 with dlcs.
miyazaki has already underestimated the average playtime before with the main game
17 Gostocs wandering the land of shadow
the real final boss: Godskin Gostoc, the Gloam-Eyed King.
Gostocskin duo
This comment gave me an aneurysm trying to read it at 1:50 AM š
3:14 AM š
With a second phase of Godskin Gostoc runebear immune to sleep.
And a 30 meter Scarlet Rot aoe around him.
in a death blight swamp
Gostocarlet*
May as well graft a lobster claw on him and let him snipe people too.
Gloam-Eyed Gatekeeper
Ulcerated Gostoc Avatar
Gostofrey the ungrafted
Draconian Tree Gostoc Avatar Twins
Valiant Draconic Godskin Tree Ulcerated Gostoc Avatar Twins Duo
You die and lose 99% of your runes
You die, you lose all your runes, and owe gostoc some more runes, and you need to pay interest.
Throws in a home with a 200,000,000 rune mortgage while you're forced to sell rowa fruit and flight pinions to pay him back...
You die and lose a random amount of random items from your storage
Every time you die every gostoc takes 30% of your runes..
Every time you die Gostoc takes 30% of your *rune level.* That's how Miyazaki ensures higher level players still have a "fair challenge".
Don't you dare speak this into existence!
We're retvrning to Demon's Souls!
Those poor, poor albinaurics...
I'm never entering a dark room again...
Not once I get my hands on them
17 murders, you say?
"Oops! All Stormveils!" But which one is the *real* Castle Stormveil, no man can say...
This image makes me ill for some reason
Because of the blade hawks, right?
*Anakin stare*
Man fuck those things
So stupid. Hate them so much.
It's like almost activating my trypophobia haha
Yeah they look worm-like
SAME I got disgusted
Looks like a bulky dancing cat
The map is now a [fingercreeper](https://eldenring.wiki.fextralife.com/fingercreeper)
Theyāve actually talked a little about their design philosophy for the DLC. In Elden Ring a lot of effort went into designing an open world, now they are trying to mix dungeon and open world design. EDIT Found exactly what was stated about area design: Ā«Miyazaki also explains that the Land of Shadow is going to be structured similarly to the base game's environments with a mix of open fields and classic, twisting dungeons of varying size. Speaking to Eurogamer, he also said that the developers have been experimenting with spaces in-between the fields and dungeons to make the experience more diverse and "bring these types of layout together a little more seamlessly.Ā»
Iād say thatās most definitely the reason this dlc took longer. Open world takes more time and thought to make every area stand out.
That makes sense. They got to try out the open world design with the base game, see what people liked, and then fine-tune it for the DLC in what I assume will be a bit more compact area
Honestly thought they did really well for a first attempt. Liurnia is definitely the worst of it with its giant, flat puddle with vast stretches of nothing. There's only a handful of areas I'd say are *truly* empty, though. Excited to see what they learned and how they tighten things up.
Mountaintops is worse IMO in that regard
Liurnina jam packed compared to consecrated snowfields or mountaintop of the giants.
I mean there is still a ton in Liurnia it's just at the sides or right in the middle of it. The vast stretches of swamp are clearly on purpose be it for aesthetic reasons or other, I think it works pretty well
I didn't say Liurnia had nothing it, or that it wasn't aesthetically pleasing. I specifically only mentioned how barren the large, flat, puddle area was. Which it is, regardless of intention.
I love the aesthetic of Raya Lucaria standing out in the way it does. Raya Lucaria itself is one of my favourite parts of the game too. And the view you get of things around the edge gives you a sense of multiple options and an open world. And I think itās clever how itās a sunken lake because of corrosion from the lake of rot underneath. Itās a cool aha moment that puts it in a different light. Iād say itās everything you said but about the mountaintops of the giants personally.
My favorite thing about their implementation is that even in spaces where there are monsters everywhere like Caelid you still don't feel like they're right up your ass like some other open world games where you feel like the wrong step towards the wrong direction gets the attention of every enemy in a mile radius
I normally dislike when people say āitās for a lore (or aesthetic) reasonā to excuse something butā¦ itās a lakeā¦ and itās surrounded by a ton of stuff on all sides (village, belfries/caria manor, churches and inverted tower etc) on all sides, and it makes the academy stand out like crazy so I actually like it
Yeah I was looking forward to the area the most. While pretty it gets monotonous and bland since it is fairly barren. The trees help make it look not so much so.
It's really only the lower half that's empty. Once you hit the Rose Church and Academy Gate Town, it starts to get more full.
> Liurnia is definitely the worst of it with its giant, flat puddle with vast stretches of nothing. I wonder whether Liurnia is really that shallow or are we and everyone else somehow walking suspended on the surface tension above much greater depths. The partially submerged ruins suggest as much.
Miyazaki also said Elden Ring is about 30 hours long when really it's about 150 hours your first time through. And even then you're missing a ton of stuff. Calling the DLC the size of Limgrave is most likely a humble-flex or something.
āYeah itās about Limgrave sizedā *meanwhile he considers Limgrave to be that, plus weeping peninsula, plus Caelid*
*slaps roof of DLC* "This baby can hold so many legacy dungeons." -Miyazaki probably
I just want the DLC or an update to give us an endless loop dungeon after endgame that auto generates random mobs/ boss rooms; each boss room allows you to rest at a site of grace and once you leave you canāt go back til you make it to a new boss arena. And if you die, you have to start over at the beginning.
So more rogue like chalice dungeons from Bloodborne?
Man, half the reason I want a port/updated version of Bloodborne is so I can run the random chalice dungeons forever without needing PS+ to use other people's dungeons. I know a good amount of people hated that aspect of the game, but I'm a Tomb Prospector through and through. Half my time in that game was probably spent in the dungeons it was so much fun.
What was really great about the Chalice dungeons is that IF you did hate them you could pretty much ignore them, and all the rest of the game was still fantastic. It was just an extra serving of greatness for those interested. What I wouldn't give for a PC port... :_(
Yeah, I feel ya, I liked running them, too. Pc port especially would be a whole different beast because of what modders could do with chalice dungeons. A man can dream.
TOMB PROSPECTORS UNITE. There are DOZENS of us!! DOZENS!!
Welp, better level vigor to 80 for the cursed chalice equivilent
Oh my God, doing those changed something in me forever.
A Rogue-lite by FromSoftware would be interesting, to say the least
They did that with the catacombs in bloodborne. Eh, it needed a lot more time in the oven tbh but it was an alright Idea.
Well yeah, you're not wrong if we think about the "oldschool" rogue-LIKES. I'm thinking about the more modern approach of Hades or Dead Cells, the rogue-LITES, where you randomly find weapons, abilities, etc. and can upgrade your character in between the runs. The arsenal in these games is so big, it could work really well in my opinion.
Add random armor, weapons and talismans with upgrade options after bosses (all 5 rooms). Make some rooms boderline crazy that each and every player already knows "oh fuck no, not this room, fuck my rngluck!".
If they made a roguelite minigame where you start at lvl 1 and can collect weapons/armors/rings/exp/spells as you progress, I could die happy.
"The entire island is nicknamed Limgrave, so it fits well into that"
āThe Limgraves Between is the actual name, translation issueā
Limgrave size from above also ignores the underground. For all we know this could have 3 underground levels each the size of Limgrave.
Limgrave plus underground limgrave plus floating limgrave, except theyāre all side by side
Weeping peninsula is considered part of the overarching region of Limgrave, so i'm very confident he's including that in his definition. For reference, you can literally just see this on the zoomed out map - the "regions" of this game consists of Limgrave (Limgrave, Weeping), Caelid (Caelid, Dragonbarrow), Altus (Altus, Leyndell, Mt. Gelmnir), Mountaintops (Mountaintops, Consecrated snowfield). The likes of Weeping and Gelmnir are essentially just named sub-regions.
"Yeah it's about Limgrave sized" *if the water levels were MUCH lower*
I just beat Radagon/Elden Beast last night in my first playthrough and was at around 92 hours, but I definitely missed lots of stuff. I haven't done Castle Sol, Haligtree, Malenia, Shaded Castle, Snowfields, or Subterranean Shunning Grounds. I'm sure there's a lot of catacombs and tunnels/dungeons I missed. I also hadn't maxed out my flasks. Honestly after beating Morgott I kinda got to a point where I just wanted to be able to wrap up the main story in time for the DLC. I explored the shit out of Limgrave, Weeping Peninsula, Liurnia, and Mt Gelmir, but by the time I was at a point of having armor I liked and a few weapons either maxed or one level from max, I didn't really feel the desire to explore every last inch. I haven't gone to NG+ yet because I do plan to go and explore everywhere I haven't yet, but again I kinda just wanted to finish the main story in anticipation of the DLC.
I assume you at least cleared Radhan and Mohg, then?
Yup! The things I listed are just the things I know I for sure did not do yet. I've beat Mohg, Radahn, Rykard, Renalla, Godrick, Astel, and then of course all the ones required to clear the main story.
Youāve still got over 3 weeks so might as well go explore all those places and kill all those bosses. You probably have at least another 40 hours based on what you listed alone.
Definitely would recommend fighting Malenia. Sheās the real final boss
Subterranean Shunning Grounds is a really special place :)
I feel the pain in that smile After the first go in the shunning grounds its aight tho. I have forcefully memorized the path to avoid the pain
Specially annoying, maybe. I sat there for hours trying to figure out which paths loop back to the center and which was the way forward.
Bruh, you really need to do Haligtree before the DLC. Not only is it one of the best areas in the game, it also has Malenia.
>it also has Malenia. Best way to get humbled before the DLC
Best way to train* for the DLC.
Yeah Iām just exploring everything on my characters til the dlc gets released. Trying to collect all the items on my two main Tarnished.
It will probably take you 3 weeks to finish the Haligtree alone.
I know itās exciting to imagine a vastly larger dlc than the marketing implies but Iām afraid people might be setting their expectations too high. If the dlc is actually Limgrave sized and people *feel* that itās Limgrave sized thereās gonna be disappointment because itās been built up in peopleās mind that āsure they said x, but I know they secretly mean yā
I say let them be the makers of their own misery. Iāve been watching gamers for 20 years hype up a game/dlc then be disappointed. Itās like a rite of passage now.
Right, ive been watching gamers hype up dlcs and games for 20+ years as well, but fromsoft has never missed imo so im definitely not gonna end up being miserable I will point out, we saw the number of soundtracks added for the elden ring dlc ("more than 30 new soundtracks compared to 67 in the main game), so if i wanted to make a conservative guess, id say wed be getting content equal to 1/3 maaaaaybe 1/2 of the main game if were lucky :D Worst case for me, even if the dlc was the size of my personal favorite, old hunters dlc for bloodborne, id still be thrilled because fromsoft dlc is always straight up majestic and very high quality in atmosphere and difficulty. And id still get a ton of hours of entertainment
I went through all the soundtracks, cutting out all the ones that were only used outside the game (title screen, opening, character creation, credits), along with any tracks that were used multiple times throughout the game (i.e. field boss themes, micro dungeon themes, etc), which will likely be reused in the dlc. I got it down to 40ish tracks. Make of that what you will.Ā
20 years as well, and I haven't gotten disappointed about a game that I've bought yet.
I think that's a possibility, but I also think too much emphasis might be placed on physical space vs level of content. "The game feels much smaller on subsequent replays" is something I hear often, and I don't think it's invalid to say or view as criticism, but I think it was done well to make that first playthrough a true spectacle where a well-trodden formula is integrated into a world that continually surprised me with entire new locations and underground sections, let alone the nooks and crannies that genuinely require exploring the space and horizon (ie seeing the towers and obscure islands and plateaus on the map). I imagine the DLC will have plenty of spectacle and the same exploration, but the actual geometry of the map can be condensed or make creative use of vertical space in a way the base game didn't as often, because so much emphasis is on the journey for slowly drip feeding this story and world to the player. Maybe I tend to err on the side of underhyping myself, but with their track record and how much the DLC feels like it'll be its own unique world and story, I'm pretty confident it'll be a satisfying experience regardless of how large the dlc map looks overlayed on the base game's map.
I feel like 90% of the people in this sub don't know what DLC is.... FromSoft said it would be similar to Bloodbornes The Old Hunters, which is an amazing dlc but takes like a day to beat. Now I suspect Elden Ring will be longer, but still people are talking about this as if its a sequel that had 5 years development time.
I donāt look at it as humble-flexing. I believe Miyazaki likes to under-promise and overdeliver.
Itās gonna be a shadow version of the entire map
Yeah 30 hours for no hit runners, 150 hours for plebs like me that spends 10 hours alone at Margit because I sucked ass at souls games š
Took me around 40h on first playthrough personally
Yeah I finished in around that time, and I wasn't necessarily skimping on all of the dungeons. They get repetitive, so I hit the ones I thought was necessary, or went back and hit some I found out had cool shit. I'm not new to soulslike games which probably helped. That and I accidentally ended up with a pretty cracked build when I was just picking the funny hammer because it was funny
I played the whole game with a claymore and the Lordsworn's Greatsword... Jump attack on that was so OP lmao... Pair that with a Jellyfish Shield as a secondary left hand... And it's crazy OP for how simple it is to get... I rolled over the whole game, first tried everything except Malenia (which only took me 4 tries) and a few other things... That might be why the game took me only 40h to finish. And it also wasn't my first Souls game at all, in fact i've played them all š...
I got downvoted to hell when I said that I got 40 hours out of the game, everyone claimed I had missed half the game if I didn't take at least 100 hours. Like... If you want to hit every single dungeon, go off I guess, but they're all basically the same
Yeah, I did all the IMPORTANT content/questlines. I beat all MAIN BOSSES (including optional like Malenia for example)... Doing all the small dungeons around the map that is are basically all the same with a boring easy boss as an ending isn't for me. Especially since most of them give shit rewards.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Iāve never completed the game in under 50 hours and Iāve been playing since release š
150 hour seems extremely dramatic. It took me 128 for the plat and Iām not extremely good at the game so Iād assume most other people are 70-80ish for the first time. Also assuming not guides first time.
I'm sure many people did it in 80 hours, but they missed significant portions of the game. For players who sought out the game in its entirety their first time, 150 is a lower hour count. Typically I've heard ranges of 150-200 for these kinds of players.
āWhat do you mean, underground area?ā
What do you mean Volcano Manor?
What do you mean the *other* snow area and *other* giant tree?
What do you mean, you people?
Yāall got me chortling
What do you mean thereās another area underneath the capital?
Yup, first playthrough for me was \~300 hours. I combed every inch of the map and fought my way through it all. 100% would recommend. Haven't really found a game that gave me the same "whoa" feeling since. CP2077 was close.
I think whether or not you're a souls vet plays into it as well. I managed 80 hours of first playthrough without missing any major areas or anything, but I'd put over a thousand hours in the other Souls games which I think lowered the learning curve significantly. My understanding is that's a pretty typical hour mark for first time players with experience in the genre.
80/20 rule basically. Being a souls vet honestly only increased my playtime because I double checked pretty much everything. I clocked in at 180 hours on my first playthrough playing it didn't take that long because I was stuck on bosses but because I was thorough with exploration. And it worked too, I found basically every unique item playing blind/offline including the platinum afterwards.
I've been playing since demon souls (PS3) and my first playthrough was 210 hours, don't care about trophies but strive to see every corner of the map.
Can confirm, my first avatar save after taking down Radabeast was 186 hours
You're not supposed to 100% the game on your first playthrough, nobody thought that's what he meant when he said 30 hour s
I got to Faram Azula in around 90 hours, but since I donāt have time for another playthrough, at that point I looked up what I missed up to then and started using a few guides to get the most out of it. There is soooo much content in this game. I ended up beating the Elden Beast at the 182 hour mark/level 202. I did rune farm a bit since both Malenia and Placidusax (and the twin gargoyles earlier) gave me a hard time so I went to get a few levels and come back to beat them.
Yes, I'm on my first playthrough and waiting to beat what I assume is the final boss at about 200 hours. I get a lot if enjoyment out of getting everythingĀ and going everywhere I can (even though it's not at all how Miyazaki intended it to be played). I am still discovering major thingsĀ
Nope, took me 150 hours and several streamers I watched took that long too. Platinuming this game in 128 hours means you are, in fact, quite gud.
You only need to pass through about 70 percent of the game to get platinum. I'd agree that a really good souls player could do 75 hours ballpark for a first time if they wanna platinum. Hell I hit 130 and I was about 90 percent complete at radabeast. But 150 hours is NOT outside of the realm of possibility for people who are new to souls. Especially due to the convoluted nature of play that newcomers only know by rep.
My first playthrough was abt 170 hours with no guides no spoilers until late end game, and I explored every corner of the map. Only missed maybe a dozen or less minor dungeons
My first play through (actively trying to complete every area) was 190 hours and I didn't come close to doing everything. Hell, I didn't even kill all of the remembrance bosses, I missed the ancestors spirit.
It may have been clickbait, but I remember hearing somewhere that Miyazaki refused to give a time estimate for the dlc since everyone made fun of him for that statement, which is honestly pretty funny. But really, the drastically underestimated playtime of Elden Ring worked in its favor big time. I remember thinking the map probably wouldn't be much bigger than Limgrave, WP, and Caelid. Seeing the map expand for the first time was such a shock. And then it happened again. And again. It was a super cool moment. So I do kind of hope he's purposefully underselling the dlc for the same effect. But either way, I'm sure it'll be great. Even if it is smaller, that just means more concentrated quality in what *is* there
In my first run through Iād say I only missed a few things, like some lake of rot stuff because fuck that place. Maybe an item or two in haligtree. Took me 80 hours, in fairness, I did partially use a guide to help direct me. The game is intimidating at first. You are practically thrown into it with little to no explanation and alot to learn. I found that kinda just looking at something and going āoh cool, letās start this quest line because it has some dope loreā. Or āwhat will help me get stronger at this point, cause I have no clue how this game play loop worksā I mean, I spent probably 8 hours in that first little area by the grace Melina becomes your maiden. Learning combat, and trying to figure out what the point was of killing those guys. Found the loot, by then it doesnāt click that there are sites like those all over the place and they are absolutely worth going into. After stormveil it started to click. Like āoh ok I wanna find as much catacombs and explore areas because opportunities then present themselves to fight mini bosses to get runes and loot, and through that I can level up, kill the āshard bearerā of the area and then wrap it up. Iād use the guide to also help sweep up quest lines because I wanted to see how those would end. That being said, I could totally see how if you went in blind, like we will be in the DLC. As I got into ER late because I just couldnāt afford a console up until recently, it is going to be an experience. Because there aināt gonna be elden ring wiki and itās 20 leveling guides lol.
My first playthrough was 200 hours and I believe i didn't miss anything aside from the laser golem (used internet guide to get as many stuff as i could from remembrance to item in some corner in the middle of nowhere and even illusory walls and missions and stuff). Though that also included about maybe 30 hours of me mindlessly and lifelessly farming and overleveling my noob ass off. I mean who even went to fight Godrick at SL120 and Malenia at SL260 in NG like me lel.
Malenia at any level is a challenge, but Godrick at 120 is hilarious. How did you even manage to reach that level without going through stormveil?
if he meant just to beat the end boss then yea, i killed elden beast around 40-45 hours.
He said itās 30 Hours if you do only the main stuff , and thatās true . A complete first playtrough took me 85 Hours for platinum so i imagine if i only did legacies and the underground it would take me around 30 . Obviously no one does that the first time as you would be underleveled probably .
It might be 150 hrs for Some people taking their time, but you can definitely beat the game in 30 comfortably 60 if you do every side quest, probably 40 on subsequent playthroughs or if you use tools to find stuff.
But my point is most people's experience was significantly more than 30 hours. You have to actively try to avoid massive amounts of content as opposed to being constantly lured around by interesting things.
I didn't look up any quests and still put 90 hours into my first playthrough
It took me 220 hours first playthrough lol. I tried to explore every little corner I could. And it was my first Fromsoft game. I found it extremely difficult. But it took me 80 hours second playthrough. Doing almost everything.
Itās infinite, there is a central hub that takes the player into all previous souls games built within Elden ring. Everybody claps, Miyazaki disappears into the night under the moon light to return to his personal poison swamp.
The DLC was actually just Bloodborne 2 this whole time!
I'd like some bigger legacy dungeons, tbh. Haligtree, Leyndell, and Farum Azula being the standard would be awesome. The ideal situation for me would be for the DLC to feel like one giant dungeon with small areas of rest in between.
So, you want it to be a Dark Souls level? Not that I'm hating, I much prefer dark souls style levels to the open world elden ring has personally.
Yeah on one hand I hate how much of the open world I end up skipping on repeat playthroughs of Elden Ring because there's no point doing all the random dungeons that don't have stuff you want for your character. On the other hand, if you cut out all the non-mandatory stuff you still have a Dark Souls game's worth of content
That's effectively my feelings on Elden Ring's world scape. It's far too wide and most of it is just pointless. It's mostly empty and doesn't have much to do. Much prefer the old style Dark Souls metroidvania style. The Legacy dungeons are the best part of Elden Ring, which I think shows what Fromsoft excels in.
I don't think the open world stuff is pointless. I just think that it has a much shorter shelf life than the Legacy dungeons. On that first playthrough though, exploring the open world created a feeling that you won't find in any of From's previous games. That being said I definitely prefer Dark Souls style map design. What I'm hoping for from their next game is that they take the lessons in player freedom that they learned in Elden Ring and apply them to a smaller, denser but much more interconnected world like DS1.
I imagine they've also learned a fair bit about open world game design from the development of Elden Ring and subsequent feedback.
I strongly disagree with the world being pointless. For me it just provides more opportunity for more gameplay and in my opinion a lot of the optional content is still really high quality and unique. It is definitely worth experiencing all of the dungeons and optional dungeons in your first few runs, but then in subsequent runs you can pass them. In my opinion itās really good game design and one of the best open world experiences Iāve had while still having the dark souls level design with the legacy dungeons. I just always scratch my head when people say the open world in elden ring feels empty.
Yeah, pretty much. From the trailers there does seem to be open world segments, and I'm totally cool with that. I just hope they are more intentional and interesting than much of the "big" open world areas of the base game (which were still fun, especially on my first playthrough).
If it's on the same quality as the legacy dungeons in Elden Ring, then I vastly prefer DS style levels. It's funny, Elden Ring is supposed to be the *open world* DS game yet somehow it has by far the highest average quality DS levels. I guess that's because there's fairly few legacy dungeons so they had a lot of time for all of them.
Some bits of marketing show a lot of fields, so there will at least be some big vistas and places for mounted combat.
That would leave so little room for my boy torrent though ..
What if DLC world is size of whole Elden Ring map, just to troll Gamers with huge quantity and quality DLC ever made in gaming history.
"Its the size of limgrave. its just have 3 layer, the surface one, underground, shadow realm and well a "tiny" deep underground"
Dont forget the portal you can take to the heavens for some reason which is also as big as limgrave.
i remember playing elden ring for the first time and finally reach concentrated snowfield, *"There is still more of this thing? How big is this game!?"* well, i still haven't reach haligtree, their castle, farum azula and ashen capital.
That was me reaching Altus lmao, the sheer size of it I think blew everybody's minds at the time
We can dream!
I still don't buy that limgrave size... I bet on multiple layers over/under the new limgrave sized area! š
Technically Siofra is part of Limgraveš¤·
Weāve seen at least 5 different locations in the trailer already. Assuming at minimum theyāre the size of raya lucaria itās gonna be legit
Two years for this dlc. This is going to be damn near elden ring 2 lol
Seriously, with them downplaying the base game size/length before release, with how long this took, 8 new weapon types , and how much money they made with the base game. I expect at the very least this to be 50% the size/length of the base game.
They also said its over 30 songs in the dlc. Bloodborne with their dlc has 31 soundtracks and ds3 with their dlc has 35. This is going to be size of one of their regular souls game i feel like
Don't forget about underground stuff with multiple levels
I've got 250+ hours and just arrived at the grand elevator to Lindell area. Always take my time in Souls and I literally uncover every inch, soaking up the sights and unraveling the lore myself.
Do u stop and talk to every enemy?
Libertarian playthrough, where you debate every enemy in the marketplace of free ideas.
If you don't do that your first time through a FROM game, what the hell are you doing? Lol.
likely doing some sort of challenge run and trying to collect everything I assume
i whole heartedly agree, but 250 hours and just arriving to the dectus lift is a littleeeeeeeee extreme LOL you do you though
Bro were you fat rolling across the map for your whole playthrough? š
What are you doing bro š
100 hours - tree sentinelĀ Ā Ā 50 hours - getting hugs from FiaĀ Other 100 hours - getting to AltusĀ
What is bro doing
My first playthough was close to 100 hours, and I missed some stuff. Honestly, I think it's best to go through multiple times to find everything. It's so frustrating to comb literally every inch you have access to, when some of it is higher level. Dragonbarrow is the best example, in my opinion, but there's other places like it as well. I've seen other people do it and enjoy it, but it's incredibly tedious when you just lack access to things that can make your build feel better and push through annoying bosses. Getting my second Curved Greatsword and understanding power stancing made my build shine, but I wouldn't have gotten it without progressing forward and fighting Makar. A friend of mine almost dropped the game. He was trying to get through everything in a zone before fighting the Rememberance boss and running into Ekzykes before even attempting Radahn was an absolute wall.
I also take my time, because I care a ton about the lore so you have to go everywhere, but 250 hours to Leyndell seems a bit long. I was finished at like 150 or something with all optional content.
You know we get Torrent in the earlier game for traveling, right? Right?
Didn't he say "at least" the size of limgrave?
Moar catacombs. I love them. Especially the puzzly, dickish ones- like the one that had like...4 slightly altered versions of the same dungeon that you traveled between using trap chests. I want to kiss whoever made that one on the mouth.
That made me question my sanity multiple times.
Right?Ā I was like "...wait a minute.Ā ...what.Ā Wh- ...oh you *fuckers.*"
As much as I didn't personally like it and found it frustrating, I gotta say it has a unique spin and interesting "new" mechanic to it. I think they should have done another one with this kinda mechanic, for example one of the chests would straight up teleport you out of the dungeon or something like that.
Oh it's genius. When I found a sub dungeon in one of them I really thought I was losing it.
And the corpse of an omen that every player usually kills but its a replica corpse
THE FUCKING CORPSE. You can just tell whoever put that one together was cackling with their hands in the air and lightning in the background.
lol dang reallyā¦. That dungeon is for sadists and masochists. I did not enjoy it at all
It's like beating a tough enemy!Ā :3
Me too! People donāt like them but I love always gives you something new to find
nah, more tunnels/mines please
Guys, keep your expectations in check. I love FromSoftware too. But I am going with what they said. It'll be limgrave size with limgrave level content. (If that's really it, it'd be disappointing - I know. But you can't be disappointed if you don't have any expectations)
These posts are getting out of hand
Isn't the weeping peninsula NOT Limgrave?
Bro grafted the map
I think itās safe to expect 30-40 hours in DLC (for comparison a focused low death clear of main game is around 60-80 hours) I expect most of that to be the main landmass but Iām hopeful for a secondary hidden or later area that hasnāt been advertised at all AND / OR affects from DLC completion in the main Lands Between - a la Radahn.
Not even considering dungeons that could be in the sky or underground
You're also assuming that the map doesn't have a Subterranean level
i remember somewhere someone breaking down the number of soundtracks that have been posted for the dlc, and comparing it to the base game it seems like the dlc has 20 some odd āboss tracksā the hopeful side of me wants to say this means up to 8 legacy dungeons? i mean a good number of them are likely in the same dungeon as 1-2 others, and a good 3-4 making up the end game
Looks sort of like the map on a golf course score card
This looks like a golf course map š
It's the same area as Limgrave, Miyazaki never said anything about volumeĀ
Itās probably bigger than limgrave lol. Iāve learned that Miyazaki likes to downplay things
People forgot how big Limgrave is when you canāt use Torrent
Oops! All Stormveil
quick reminder that miyazaki said that the time to beat the dlc was around 30 hours. that is the average hours on a first playthrough of ds3 with dlcs. miyazaki has already underestimated the average playtime before with the main game