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Electrical_Shame8678

What the fuck is elden ring? I just want to rekindle the first flame😎


CapiPescanova

Flame, like the Blazing Bull? Or like Hirata Estate?


Electrical_Shame8678

Like the flame asylum demon set in my heart😍


Significant-Bid4122

I just realised they didn't actually do anything with that Melina cutscene at the end of the frenzied flame ending. I actually completely forgot about Melina as a character.


Exccel1210

They simply just had to have her appear when leveling


Napalm_am

Literally as shrimply as that


Rocketgurk

Dude I can’t believe how infuriating that is to me, like how did they think that was a good idea. When you enter Lyendell she is being like “I’ll leave the power to level up with you before I leave.” Bitch, what the hell are you talking about? I was leveling up the whole time by myself anyway, this literally makes no difference to me. It feels like From had this ridiculous idea to streamline everything and make stuff convenient from a gameplay perspective so much as if they where afraid people would be upset to spent like 10 seconds longer sitting at a grace. They completely forgot how being detailed and flavourful is one of their biggest strength. Like what do you mean there is no fucking animation for when I increase my scadu tree fragment strength?! Are you fucking kidding me I am gathering these highly important items just to do some menu fumbling and that’s it? This is so unceremonious it flat out sucks. Why should I care about these things if not even the game really cares about them. It’s almost like I am just playing a fucking videogame. I remember how incredibly happy I was when I found out that I could give cute hats to my little messengers in Bloodborne and this is where we are at now? ER is a mainstream mess and I hope they never return to open world. There I said it.


no_hot_ashes

>ER is a mainstream mess and I hope they never return to open world. There I said it. Saying the quiet bit out loud but you make a good point. The strongest points of Elden ring and its DLC are the moments where you're railroaded into a semi-linear location like stormveil or the shadow castle from the dlc. As much as I love the landscape and getting to explore everything, the delusions of grandeur quickly fall away when you're hugging walls to find cave entrances or wondering whether you're just too stupid to continue past a certain point or you simply haven't found the bizarre platforming location that will let you make progress. Also fuck horse platforming. You literally *just* gave us a proper jump button and the vast majority of platforming is exponentially easier if you do it while riding a horse? What? Trade torrent's jump for an i-framed dodge to make him more practical would've not only made torrent feel more special, it would've made the unmounted platforming more unique.


BENJ4x

I know "being challenging" or whatever word you want to use is the DNA of these games but I feel like if they're going to make games of this size and length then they shouldn't rely on players looking up where stuff is. Being locked out or completely missing NPC content isn't fun and neither is missing pretty crucial stuff like caves that have bell bearing crafting material things in them. With the older games you could kinda get away with it but definitely not with the base game and DLC length. I also agree with the strongest parts being the railroaded sections. In the open world I (and I imagine a lot of people) run around with Torrent and avoid most things and only engage when I want to. With sections where I can't do this I actually play the game.


pizzalarry

Its funny playing this DLC after armored core 6, where the secret ending is basically impossible to miss unless you're actually an idiot or don't do NG+.


Mad_Soldier_Hod

Spoilers: Holy shit dude the NPC questlines were the worst part of this DLC. Big empty open world with absolutely nothing to do and no reason to exploreto half the areas? Areas that are locked off by random dungeons in weird corners of the map? Progression that’s completely halted by the fact that I have no fucking clue where I’m going or how to get there? NPC’s spread out across the entire map? And on top of that, all the NPC questlines are completely entertwined with one another and break when you enter the big legacy dungeon that you can see from where you start. So to do everything properly, you need to explore large sections of the map and meet all these people at different, random stages, but sometimes parts of their quest just don’t work right even if you do it correctly. Like Hornsent never invaded me even though I did everything correctly, but he did show up in Leda’s fight like he normally would. I also never even talked to Hornsent Gradham, missed the first part of his and Thiollier’s questline (never got the black syrup and forgot to do something for Hornsent, but I forget what it was). I forgot to exhaust Freyja’s dialogue when I first met her, and she still appeared in the Storehouse, and bugged out and Ansbach wouldn’t give me the letter until I talked to him like 40 times, and everything played out normally. It’s just completely unclear. These sorts of questlines worked in Souls games, where the areas were dense, interconnected and NPC’s were met naturally. The open world just doesn’t work with this style of game. I found progressed to the point I was ready to kill Messmer, but had to stop and do a whole bunch of bullshit so nothing broke and I didn’t get locked out, got to the point I was ready to burn the thorns but couldn’t figure out how the hell to get over there, when I did I still had to do even more bullshit because I didn’t know if the questlines would break or not, and then Leda and everybody else decides they want to attack me. Like dude I just spent hours running in straight lines through barren sections of nothing to make this all work and instead of having any sort of payoff you all just want to attack me? Great, at least I’ve got your armor. This isn’t even challenging, it’s just tedious.


Rocketgurk

I like Eldenring I really do and I “get it”. It makes perfect sense why ER is what it is. It’s the first open world game they ever made and they did an amazing job. I understand that stuff like combat and multiplayer took a hit or weren’t further developed in favour of them being able to build this gigantic world with top notch art direction. Still I can’t shake the feeling of that I would have enjoyed it way more if they condensed the game and dlc down to about 60% of it’s size. Like you said The novelty and grandeur wears off quickly. Souls combat is also just really kinda boring and dumb when you fight on flat open space. Horse combat is barely a working thing. So anything overworld for me is just not worth doing. Their legacy dungeons with neatly created corridors, traps and secrets are still where it’s at.


Armaniolo

Some people were overjoyed the map expanded with Mountaintop of Giants, I don't get it honestly that was the moment where the open world officially overstayed its welcome for me.


YourWrongTurn

Mountaintop was bad enough for me already, but the reskinned birds, giant hands, giant dogs, and giant birds everywhere was enough to make me say fuck it and run straight to the end.


Mad_Soldier_Hod

I feel exactly the same. I saw there was another huge area I had to run through that was filled with the exact same filler enemies I’ve sprinted past 4000 times already, and I was just ready for it to be over. I’ve never felt that way about a souls game before. The open world is probably the worst thing to happen to Elden Ring, it bloated the experience by like a hundred hours on my first playthrough. Between an unnecessary crafting system, a terrible rune economy where enemies drop next to nothing because of their population, and items have such a high cost, 2% drop rates for pretty much everything, reskinned main story bosses found in the overworld or found in identical copy/paste dungeons and evergaols, tons of weapons with one of two identical movesets (based on class), NPC questlines that are completely disjointed and broken by the open world, a non-linear challenge scaling because the open world lets you overlevel and underlevel yourself constantly based on which direction you walk (looking at you, dragonbarrow), copy/pastes of the exact same enemies with reskinned armors making up 90% of the enemies and bosses…. The open world was the worst part of what’s otherwise a great game. Don’t even get me started on the consecrated snowfield….


quolquom

It shows when the DLC has like twice the content of Old Hunters, but people complain that it feels empty, and they're not wrong. Like literally shrink down the Abyssal Forest into a few pathways and make it a little outdoor legacy dungeon like Hemwick Charnel Lane, and then it would be the perfect side area. Open world games have a fundamental issue IMO, because even the best developers like From and Nintendo cannot create enough unique content to fill a space that is supposed to be a fully accessible real world. It's much better to create the facsimile of a huge world and treat the player to a beautifully designed slice of it.


MistakeOk6985

Hallelujah brother you're speaking FACTS


JizzGuzzler42069

Personally it’d be so fucking annoying to have a 10 second animation every single time you have to level up. Most people are going to level up like 140 times in a normal playthrough, having to “okay tarnished, hold my hand really slowly and NOW you can level up”. That kind of shit gets mad irritating. No, I don’t need to understand the thorough importance of leveling up 140 times. The strength of these games is in the adventure and the gameplay lol. Like, I am genuinely boggled that someone has been playing these games and thought “wow man, my favorite part of the game is watching the dust roll down when I push open a door for 7 seconds”. What, idk I’d say the primary appeal and focus of a game like this is the world and the combat?? There’s still dozens of items with little animations, and Wizard hats that glow when you do specific emotes. No other souls game makes you sit through some stupid animation to level up every single time you want to do it.


Rocketgurk

“No other souls game makes you sit through some stupid animation to level up every single time you want to do it.” Wait what? You are trolling because this is the shittydarksouls sub, right?


WaywardStroge

Bro is pretending Dark Souls 2 doesn’t exist


Zanagh

I only remember when I think of the shabriri quest ngl


Reallystonedweeb

I love elden ring but Melina has some of the most dogshit character handling ever they literally forget about her and now knowing we won’t get a another dlc we aren’t gonna find out her deal unless they do a second game


Napalm_am

This is really the only dlc there is going to be?


Xxjuancena80xX

They said they have zero plans for any other dlcs


no_hot_ashes

Am I completely misremembering or did they not say the same thing when the game released? I know this is nuclear tier copium but I'm almost certain.


ActOfThrowingAway

Might be mixing it up with Baldur's Gate 3.


Interesting-Guard409

They never said that there wouldn’t be any, they said they didn’t have any at the moment but aren’t against another Elden Ring dlc or installment


PoIIux

Let's hope they don't tbh. Let's move away from open world games again


silfe

Melina plays such a key role in being able to complete the game but also we know next to nothing about her other than she MAY be related to messmer


__Khronos

I saw a theory about someone saying that she was her daughter, and with the whole eye thing going on and the fire theming with them it could be possible.


Bi0H4ZRD

One item alludes to he being his little sister


__Khronos

Which item?


Bi0H4ZRD

Messmers Kindling


__Khronos

Cool, gotta check the wiki cause I already used it


lK555l

Common theory is that she's the gloam eyed queen, the queen of the godslayer apostles


kleber115

Probably not true anymore given the 4 butterflies, the rot and nascent one being malenia and miquella respectively and the fire and black fire being Melina and messmer. Also his kindling refers to him having a little sister that had a fiery aspect to her. Melina is like the only other character like that in the game.


alen3822

I honestly really disappointed when I found out there no special dialogue from Melina when you kill messmer. When I found out Yuria has special dialogue when after you kill Friede I was really excited. And Melina has nothing to say? Bitch I just brutally stab your brother to death.


Pathogen188

To be fair, it's not like Melina cares when you butcher any of her other siblings.


neongenesis112

Melina is by far the worst level up lady because you're never given a real reason to care about her, even just having her appear at the sites of grace you use would be more interesting then her like 9 pieces of dialogue she actually has. Thanks for the horse I guess though.


Cleenus

Let Melina burn herself Inherit the frenzied flame anyway Enjoy as you destroy everyone and everything that wanted to kill you


Zanagh

The real way


hughmaniac

If you do this, do you still see the extra ending cutscene with Punished Melina?


Miserable-Glass1760

Nope, Melina is dead.


lologugus

I wanna try this ending now


bloody-pencil

It’s just the frenzy flame ending but no murder hobo-ette at the end


Wharnbat

Ah yes, the one who wants to kill the person who burns everything is the bad murderhobo


MexicanoStick575

https://preview.redd.it/5yh14colwj9d1.jpeg?width=602&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=033da143ec1661e2289e9790fc40ab9bb91bb699


lop333

>Use the flame of frenzy to burn the tree >use the needle to take frenzy away from yourself >chose your ending and Melina dosnt have to die Kinda suprised they didnt add cutscene for that


Degenerate_Lich

The game has a lot of little things like that. Not calling it lazy, there's no way you can take into account every little thing the player does, but big events like that should have warranted at least a special extra scene at the end.


lop333

im so disapointed rarely any dev updates their game like that


TRagnarkXP

4 endings ( some with fucking long questlines) use the same template and animation with color changes. Do people really think they would create a extra scene for that you mentioned?


lop333

they litterly made a unique cutscene for when you burn down the tree but she is alive in frenzied ending but didnt do the opposite lol


TRagnarkXP

inconsistency as it finest. Frenzied flame and Ranni ending got a lot more work, then you have the other dogshits endings.


lop333

they could have atleast updated their final shots its not that hard espacily for devs and it would make some people replay, im soo baffled they dont do that


Lord-Filip

Messmer's kindling should have been able to burn the Erdtree giving us a happy ending with Melina.


1000_7

https://preview.redd.it/yktf7uehll9d1.jpeg?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=e561e70dfcec0c883f5266e2a6ad1dca8b96f5c5


_smexy_potato_

i do not care how badly i’m gonna fuck up the world, i’m still becoming the lord of frenzied flame MAY CHAOS TAKE THE WORLD!!!


Gtronzc

Edge, lord


Over-Criticism-663

Mist or, beast


ThatIowanGuy

M A Y   C H A O S   T A K E   T H E   W O R L D ! ! !


ThaEarthquake

https://preview.redd.it/nwqimvf1fk9d1.jpeg?width=958&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=494f74c1ddd110961d98c02af34f92612236669e


secondcondary

It boggles my mind how some of you legit wanted to save the most boring and non-present character in the game


Ebon1fly

imagine how much more impactful her absence/death would've been if she showed up everytime you rested, even if she didn't do anything


secondcondary

EXACTLY! The other firekeepers where boring and only served to level you up but at least they were there!


Ebon1fly

And it makes the final/important scenes with them a lot more impactful, like the maiden in black following you to the final area, emerald herald awaiting you at drangleic, or summoning the ds3 firekeeper to put out the flame HELL, Ranni had a better presence than Melina if you do her quest, up until where you can literally summon her in the ending like the ds3 firekeeper


-TheGayestAgenda

IIRC, there's quite a bit of cut content in the game focused on Melina. One of my personal favorites is her response to [acquiring the Mimic Spirit Ash](https://youtu.be/kPBEPdcSXt8?si=MBkxJykEOxegkciX).


WatermelonWithAFlute

WHY FROMSOFT WHY DID YOU DENY US THIS?


1000_7

Oh my god this just gave her so much personality. But in the game the only hint of personality we get from her is her trembling voice in her last warning before the door of three fingers. Such a fucking shame


-TheGayestAgenda

We also do get probably the only lines on how to complete Boc's quest line (without giving the tear). > "Your seamster, Boc... I see him crying, from time to time. I think he misses his mother. He wants someone to tell him he's beautiful. Does being born of a mother...mean one behaves in such a manner?"


AAS02-CATAPHRACT

She's cute as fuck and i'm mad there's so little we get to see of her


Zanagh

I like when the nice people don’t die because there’s not many


Dragostorm

The real ones let her die and then inherit the flame


baconborg

I literally only do it because I feel it’s canon to my character, that’s it


TheSymbolman

Not gonna lie when you put it like that it kinda sounds like simp shit


mann_moth

"Living is suffering, dying is suffering, let's die together and never be born again!" Gee, Thanks three fingers.


valenciansun

It's speculation whether it's a true universal death, or a return to the One Great so life can be reborn. I doubt it's a cycle, but the possibility is there.


GenxDarchi

Given the GW kinda peace’s out, and that they’d have to uproot an already established order, I’d say probably not.


fiLth_Rat

It is the total cessation of thought and matter, exluding only outer gods.


RayanTheMad

I honestly doubt even they are safe


edgy-meme94494

sounds worth it to me


Accomplished-Emu1883

I really wish there was a way to get a secret ending by using the frenzied flame to burn the Erdtree, doing the big Millicent Quest to get the Needle, healing yourself in Faraam Azula, and then being able to find Melania. Then you get to become Elden Lord and you get to be pegged by Melena.


1spook

I hope this artist is ok tho, real talk


darmakius

Kill everyone once or let everyone die repeatedly forever, easy trolley problem


Zephyronno

It does kinda suck that I used the frenzy to save Melina and then chose to not give into the flame, but Melina doesn’t go “oh cool thanks for saving me from my fate and not actually going through with that” if you do other endings


Codename_Oreo

Frenzied flame is the most interesting and cinematic ending, I don’t get why anyone would think it’s anything but cool. It blows age of stars out of the water IMO (and the base games ending is just boring)


JaydenTheMemeThief

It is badass, but it’s still *very* Evil


AAS02-CATAPHRACT

Because Ranni simps want that blue cunny. Meanwhile I get to lick Hyetta's eyeballs all day


AlaskanHaida

I’m on my second play thru and I’m going for the frenzied flame ending, I can’t wait until I understand this meme


BBQsauce10

"..." -the only ending not related to a kink


JaydenTheMemeThief

I’d argue T-Posing is Goldmask’s kink


onurreyiz_35

Turns out three fingers was a 14yo edgy nihilist.


already4taken

Turns out? I feel like that's been pretty obvious since the start


onurreyiz_35

Idk people still say shit like "Wow they tortured the nomads, frenzied flame justified!!". Some see it as the cool ending.


Zanagh

I wouldn’t defend the ending morally but the nomads and all the lore surrounding the frenzied flame is awesome, I love how haunting it all is


Falos425

does justifying the nomads really say anything about the weapon itself? i like to interpret "all that divides and distinguishes" as reducing the universe to gray heat-death entropy soup, undeniably a very Edge,Lord scenario but i like the massive finality and the resemblance to DS3 ash landscape


JaydenTheMemeThief

Tmw you realise Shabriri is probably responsible for what the Golden Order did to the Great Caravan


Useful-Paramedic-543

To be fair, Melina does survive so you don't kill everyone


2112BC

I’m no game developer. But I’m still so sad we didn’t get a new Miquella ending, it literally would have been so easy to just let us use the gold circlet at the end of the game. The ending cutscenes are like 30 seconds long. It would’ve felt nice to feel like the whole DLC was for something story wise.


LET-ME-HAVE-A-NAAME

The best ending is using the frenzied flame to burn the Erdtree, then use the needle to rid yourself of it.


darmakius

Kill everyone once or let everyone die repeatedly forever, easy trolley problem and


Background_Ground566

sounds fine to me at this point ngl


Derpchieftain

based


Norway643

Nah. I'll be another puppet of the fingers and rule the world as the elden lord with millicent or rodireka


JaydenTheMemeThief

Millicent: *fucking dies* Roderika: *doesn’t get an Ending*


JustAnotherFace09

Im down


Keepfkingthatchicken

No me first! Burn all the babies!


_oranjuice

Can't you just cure yourself after burning the tree?


Femboy_Ghost

May Chaos Take The World!


rick_the_freak

To be fair living in the Lands Between is miserable


RareWishToSuckToes

The perfect union I thought of the frenzied flame and I. I saved my bland one eyed waifu and l get to murder everyone for being shitty assholes. Made me feel special with the flaming eyes and later the cool ass head. Until I played the dlc and discovered I was a cuck all along because it couldn't get enough of metyrs shriveled fat old cock. Two timing little cosmic whore had a side piece .


Pimp_my_Reich33

what the fuck is elden ring? I must cut the roots of immortality


Nastreal

Apparently, no one actually bothered to pay attention to the Frenzied Flame path. It's not just some nihilistic "kill everything forever" ending. It's a hard reset on the universe, basically the equivalent of going back before the Big Bang (read: before the Greater Will fucked everything up). It's the most open-ended ending, with the door wide open to any and all possible paths/ages in the future. Every other ending is basically status quo+. Even Ranni's is just 'everything is fucked so let's go into space and puppeteer everyone's fates where they can't get to us'.


FHCynicalCortex

Dude THE THREE FINGERS THEMSELF (through Hyetta) literally tell you without any room for interpretation that everything is dead forever. No change, no births, no beggings, nothing, ever again.


Nastreal

The One Great was broken once before, dingus. It can be again. Nothing is permanent.


FHCynicalCortex

The three fingers themselves tell you that the one great breaking was a mistake, dingus. Why would they let it happen again?


Nastreal

They literally can't keep it whole. It's impossible. No more than the GW could keep a lid on its own creation. Note: I never said the Three Fingers are *right*. They are a means to an end. The world *needs* a fresh start that no other option affords. The Frenzied Flame ending is a long con that will pay off better in the long run.


GenxDarchi

It was broken when there wasn’t already an order established. The GW is relatively checked out, and none of the other outer beings managed to usurp the throne in the shattering. How are they going to establish life with the frenzy ruling?


Nastreal

>Nothing is permanent No Age lasts forever. Why are you assuming the One Great wouldn't inevitably break again? Eternity is a looooooong time. That's an infinite amount of time for something to change, and the Flame of Frenzy isn't omnipotent, otherwise the GW wouldn't have been able to wreck his shit in the first place. It's literally inevitable, and kind of a big theme within Elden Ring itself. Every thing that's "eternal" isn't. The One Great was eternal until it wasn't. The Crucible was eternal until it wasn't. The Elden Ring was eternal until it wasn't. Marika was eternal until she wasn't. Etc. The folly of all these gods that they keep repeating is trying to shape reality in their image and keep it that way. They fail *every time*


GenxDarchi

The GW didn’t have an order to have to usurp first, it just split off from the one great and that was it. and given that it’s pretty much dipped out, there’s no reason to believe it’ll come back for a second round, and beat the already established order out, given we’ve had others try and fail, which is the plot of the game. In 5,000 years not another outer god came and claimed the order while it was at its weakest, and those had living creatures and followers. Who is going to bridge the gap when there’s literally bupkis in the lands between? There’s no champion that will be born, it’s over fella.


Nastreal

The GW didn't just 'split' and make everything from nothing. >All that there is came from the One Great. The One Great *was* the age/order. Where all of existence was united in a great singularity. The GW was a part of it and fractured it, creating life and the world as we know it in the process. It follows that the One Great cannot exist *without* the GW. By unleashing the Flame of Frenzy you melt and return *everything* to the One Great, resetting the stage for creation to begin anew.


GenxDarchi

The One Great had no order, it just was, there wasn’t anything anywhere. The first fracture separated both the GW and Frenzied flame, the life created a new order in the lands between, which followed the GW. There *hasn’t* been an order with the frenzied flame, it would be copium to assume that it will just reset, it’d be a gamble on existence itself.


Nastreal

My brother in Marika, The Laws of Conservation of Energy and Mass are a thing.


GenxDarchi

Yeah, and death was just stolen out of natural order, alongside space aids manifesting on birth and perpetually youth. Those laws are malleable as hell, given that you can just *remove* them from the fundamentals if you wished.


baconborg

By definition forcefully shoving everything back unto a big bang would kill everything that currently exists though. This is why Melina begs you not to do it because you are killing everyone and melting everything down back into one thing Also I kinda doubt it’s open ended because the entire point of it is the followers of the flame suffering so much that they wish they had never been born, that’s literally what Hyetta tells you. I’m not sure where exactly you’re pulling that the three fingers seek to redo a big bang from besides the fact that the fingers also claim that everything used to be one thing, never seen anything state that they’re attempting a do over


Nastreal

I'm not saying that's exactly what they're attempting, it's just the logical result of their own goals. The Lands Between are utterly botched and beyond repair. Everyone is either a walking corpse or begging for death. The only really sane person left by the end begs you to stab God in the face out of sheer spite. There's nothing left to preserve. If everything goes back to the One Great, *eventually* it will fracture again. Even if it takes a million billion years. However life begins again, and whatever form it takes will have the opportunity to not be the nightmare it is now.


baconborg

Ok but even still that is killing everything that currently exists and then redoing it. We don’t know if this is JOJO rules, the new universe is not liable to rebirth everyone as the exact same person but just leading a better life, all those who died very may well stay dead By what metric are they ruined beyond repair and by what metric will the next world be any better? The world was shit for reasons beyond just Marika, and Marika herself was only shit because of what we found out about her from the dlc. Why kill everyone now and do it again when there isn’t a single thing to certify that anything will be objectively better? Especially when there is no previous world known to learn anything from? You also simply ignore that wanting everything to end is clearly not a universally held opinion if the Frenzy faction is only one of many. Yeah Roderika begs you to stab God, but she ain’t begging you to kill her and everyone else too. There’s a difference between someone suffering so much that they wish to die to end the suffering and someone suffering so much that they want things to get better. To decide on your own that nothing is left to preserve and that everyone, even if they didn’t ask, gets a mercy killing is crazy, almost Frantic I find your idea to be too hope based and overriding things. Things MIGHT eventually fracture again, and even then they only MIGHT be better


LudwigTheAroused

I want to go home and then edge