I feel like it's pretty easy to rag on Raging Loop, and don't get me wrong there is A LOT to rag on here, in particular the plot is kinda messy, and it has really poor depictions of a lot of subjects, ESPECIALLY when it comes to its main villain. But honestly, I think it also gets a lot of things right that ARE really great, there's a lot of really intriguing mystery, the art style is cool and unique, the music is very memorable, and in particular, most of the cast are really well written! I practically think Haruaki is a really damn good protag.

So yeah I can for sure see why so many hate this one, it doesn't particularly make the best lasting impression, but if you're willing to overlook a lot of the ilk, I think there's still a lot of worthwhile stuff to be had here

(minimal spoilers until a certain point that will be labeled)

having finished the dlc a few hours ago, i’m reminded that, in my review for the base game of elden ring, i likened it to a walking corpse. i still stand by that, but i bring it up because, while playing shadow of the erdtree, i was reminded that this was not always the case. there were times in this expansion where i was just in awe at the construction of this world - how they created something even more laden with secrets, somehow with even more beautiful visuals, with a level of verticality and interconnectedness that is overwhelming to even conceptualize - and there were times were i was in awe, not out of respect, but out of sheer bewilderment. how could the same people who brought me such joy create encounters this terrible, this frustrating, this… boring? the shadow realm is an exacerbation of all the best and worst qualities present in the lands between, resulting in an experience that is, somehow, even more bipolar than the base game.

to begin discussing why that is, we have to first broach the topic of difficulty. it’s been the brand of developer fromsoftware since the very first dark souls, with the “prepare to die” edition to the death counter in majula, to the streamer reactions of orphan of kos and slave knight gael - the reputation of fromsoftware as “the developer that makes hard games” is one that they’ve fully embraced. phrases like “git gud” and “skill issue” have become emblematic of the design trend of these games, especially as they progressively get harder and harder.

the problem with this kind of brand image is that the fixation of difficulty as a ways to entice and engage the player has slowly given way to a very rapid, nearly exponential increase in difficulty. can you imagine showing a demon's souls player blackflame friede? or a dark souls player maliketh

demon's souls, dark souls and dark souls 2 respectively handle difficulty all pretty similarly - they all feel like an extrapolation of the same design ethos, though interpreted in different ways. dark souls 3 (and from what i’ve played of it, probably bloodborne) is where the trouble starts to crop up, especially 3. because it’s the end of a trilogy, and because it’s coming off the heels of bloodborne, the boss design is still in the same vein as what came before - but it results in a feeling of overcompensation all the more. you can’t make something easier than what came before, so what else to do but make it harder?

this kind of approach to difficulty continues into sekiro (although that game is much easier to stomach due to it having a much different combat system) and flows into elden ring with a ferocity that made that game’s combat pretty unfun for me. it was a mixture of a lot of things - hyper delayed moves with attacks that came out incredibly quickly, resulting in the only way of learning a fight by dying over and over; combo extender and mixups, where a boss could sometimes launch into a move sometimes in the middle of a combo where sometimes they wouldn’t; and especially in the back half of the game, bosses with extremely long and punishing combos where it was only possible to get one or two hits in before they launched into yet another extremely long and punishing combos, just to name a few. because of this, it’s a markedly different style of difficulty than seen in demon souls or dark souls 1, and it’s why the discussion surrounding the difficulty in these games are so boring and trite. there’s no nuance, no discussion of the level of difficulty, it’s simply regarded as a binary and not a spectrum. this treatment of game design has lead to the boss design in erdtree. it’s a natural progression, and as much as i loathe it, it is understandable.

what i don’t understand is why fromsoft seemingly insists on devaluing their creations so much. before fighting a hidden superboss, i had fought no less than five dragons in this dlc, more if we’re counting non-boss ones. there are still the same catacombs, shrines and caves as in the base game - filled with the same reused enemies and bosses (no, i don’t count unique npcs as unique bosses). the fact a few connect to new areas, like the sewers catacombs to the frenzied flame in the base game, is a welcome addition - but it still makes the ones that don’t stick out like a sore thumb. and if you want new bosses that aren’t a part of the story, then you’re out of luck. have fun fighting three runebears with a boss name for some reason! or a deathrite bird, for some reason! they even have the dancing dragon - a boss with an intro cutscene, for gods sake - in some random fucking temple, except this time he spits deathblight and summons those annoying frog guys that also spit deathblight. like what??

what is easily and glaringly the worst part of the dlc, though, is the fact that’s been impossible to ignore - these boss fights no longer have summons as an option, but are designed around them. i don’t have a problem with summons in these games, not at all. i think they allow more people to experience these games and that is undoubtedly a good thing. the issue is that, in the ever increasing difficulty of these games, it becomes increasingly not manageable to use summons. for the record, i’ve beaten all the dark souls games (and sekiro, obviously) without ever using summons. i’ve also done the same with elden ring - and would’ve been able to say the same about the dlc, if it wasn’t for the final fight.

if i’m being honest, most of my animosity for this expansion comes from this fight. not from a lore perspective, no, that’s not my thing. the design of this boss, is so incredibly, unbelievably, viciously abhorrent that there’s only two ways this was allowed to actually be in the final release of the game - that miyazaki has his head so far up his own ass he actually thinks this is fun, or he’s a giant troll and wanted to see just how bullshit he can make a fight before people stop blindingly praising the ensuing product. make no mistake - this fight is dogshit. it is monumentally so, it towers above and blinds the rest of the experience to such a comical degree. it reminded me, again, why i thought elden ring was a walking corpse - there’s only so much you can do with a combat system that only has a dodge roll and its central pillar. if malenia strained that framework, this fight shatters it - in my eyes, beyond all repair.

misc stuff that i couldnt fit in, with spoilers:

-the roster of fights in this expansion is very much on the malenia / maliketh side, much to my disappointment. it makes me sad, because much like those fights, there’s a lot to love, but it’s just executed so poorly that it results in a supremely diminished experience. the divine dragon isn’t as much a fight with a creature as much as it is a flailing, writhing mess of bone and flesh - and the camera, of course. rellana is an exercise in excessively long combos and over-the-top spectacle more than anything else. messmer would be a great fight if it wasn’t for a few minor things - the flurry attack as part of his longest combo, annoying mixups that require a level of reflexes that i found unfair, and a second phase that just felt ridiculously excessive in nearly every way. the other bosses i do actually mostly enjoy, even if i have some minor problems - scadutree avatar was a really cool, unique fight, commander gaius was rather simple and had an annoying charge move, but was simple enough, putrescent knight had a great flow when you got the hang of it, and bayle is probably their best dragon fight to date, even if it still suffers from a feeling of the devs trying to up themselves yet again – i think placidusax was more than enough, personally.

-it’s cool that so many areas of this dlc are so secret and difficult to find, but i do wish there were more ways to get to these areas. i had to resort to using a guide to find the last one, and that’s never really a fun feeling for me. i know the intent is to create a world where people collaborate to find a solution, but who’s asking their friend if they know something and not just looking at a wiki? it’s a design that worked when the internet wasn’t so omnipresent, but it doesn’t hold up now imo.

-as much as i love the open world, there’s a bizarre amount of empty space? there’s not really a ton of stuff to do in a lot of these areas - areas like abyssal woods, scaduview, and jagged peak, while gorgeous, just don’t have a lot of interesting stuff in them.

-new weapon types are really cool!!

-the last thing isn’t related to the game, but i do wonder how those who sneer at people complaining about the difficulty will regard the final boss. these games have been worshiped for so long, it makes me wonder: can they do anything that will break the spell they have on people?