Kinda Funny Gamescast: Video Game Podcast - Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree Review - Kinda Funny Gamescast

Episode Date: June 18, 2024

Andy, Blessing, and Barrett give their reviews of the Elden Ring DLC. Run of Show - - Start - Housekeeping - Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree Review - SuperChats - Ads - New Weapons, Armor, & Builds - SuperChats - Marathon Stream this Friday! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What's up and welcome back to the kind of funny games cast live for Tuesday, June 18th, 2024. Of course, I am your host, Tim Geddes, and I am joined today by a beautifully designed set to celebrate the launch of Eldon Ring, Shadow of the Erd Tree, designed by Andy Cortez. I downloaded a lot of, like, I was getting that ultra- widescreen footage. A lot of footage. It took way longer than I wanted it to. But it looks awesome. Are you kidding me? I'm happy with it.

Great job, Andy. How do you feel about it? Blessing out of Yoia Jr. I feel very good about it. I've been like trying to guess the locations as they go. The first one, I don't think it caught on the recording,

but there was like an image of the Haley tree? Was it the Haley tree? Because I saw the guys with the trumpets and shit. Oh, no, that was Lane Dell. Oh. Yeah, cool. I'm going to be better. I'm going to do better.

Zero for one. There you go. That's the sound they play on the trumpets. Yeah. Interesting. It's like a high E. It sounds like an E sharp. You're right on that.

Limgrave, yeah. It's the first step. One for two. One for two, everybody. Are we going to be giving this game a one or a two on the kind of funny scale? We'll have to wait and find out in just a second. Oh, my God. Stay tuned to everybody. Tony Atkinson already super chatted in saying, please no boss or lore, spoilers.

I beg you, Andy Son, spare me. Absolutely not. He wouldn't do that to you. Plus, would you do that to him? I mean, if you're watching the video, he's literally looking at Melbourne Palace, which is already a spoiler, you know what I mean? Get out of here before it's too late. No, we're not going to spoil anything.

No spoilers for Shadow of the Urd Tree. Obviously, this is a kind of funny review. Especially because we've also been directed to not spoil a lot of different things. But outside of even those directives, we'll just be talking about experiences and difficulties and things like that. Yes, because this is the kind of funny games.

Castor reaching every day. We get together to review games, preview games, talk about games in every way, shape, and form. and you can watch it live on Twitch or YouTube. You could listen later on podcast services, or you could even go above and beyond and get the kind of funny membership,

which gets you the shows ad-free. You could watch live as we record them, and you get a daily exclusive Greg Way where Greg talks to you about the questions that you write in over on Patreon. Thank you all for supporting us and hanging out. After this, we're going to be doing a fun thing where Nick plays a mullet game on stream.

Mullet Mad Jack. Mullet Mad Jack. It's a very, highly anticipated like indie game. Okay. Yeah, I know the demo came out. A lot of people were really enjoying it. It's a rogue light, but you're kind of like on a reality show, and there's always people talking about you on whatever that sort of social media is. It reminds you of like a demolition man or like an old sort of like 80s kind of.

Okay. But it's a first person shooter. Sounds like a Nick thing. A lot of Nick isms that you just named there. For people asking, hey, a Nintendo Direct happened today. Are you guys going to react to it? Of course, we already did. You can watch that video on YouTube.

You can also watch our Kind of Funing Games Daily breakdown where we talk about every single thing that we saw there. Did we like it? Yes, yes, we did. So you can go check that out. A great reaction, a lot of fun jokes, a lot of fun times, good overall. But enough of all of that. We're here.

I don't want to make you guys wait any longer. The people out there are wondering, what are we giving? Shadow of the Erd Tree. Andy Cortez, I would like to start with you As the biggest Eldon Ring fan I know And I don't, that might be a controversial statement Do you think that that's acceptable?

I mean, as Andy, no, I'm not facing off against Andy. Does he be in this shit? I know Tam's in this shit too. I'll put myself second in this office maybe. Maybe? Yeah, I'll put myself second in this office Unless Bear wants to fight me. No, I take third.

I think Bear wants to, I think you should just fight anyway. So Barrett also played, all three of you have played this. Have all three of you beat this? Here's the thing. Okay, let's wait. Let's wait then. Let's wait until we get to you. Let's wait until we get to you. But Andy Cortez, you have beat this, correct? Yes.

Then let's start with you. What are you giving this on the kind of funny scale? I give Eldon Ring, Shadow of the Erd Tree, a 9.5 out of 10. Just one of the best experiences you'll have this year. One of the best experience if you're a Soulslike fan. I think that from software just continues to knock it out of the park, man. Like, they just, here's this expansion for one of the largest experiences you will ever have in your gaming life. And yes, it's a DLC, and it is so much larger than you can imagine it being.

They kind of release some news here and there. Like, it'll be about the size of Limgrave. But what a lot of people weren't really realizing was just, or remembering, rather, was how much from Software loves playing with their verticality in their level design. especially in this newer sort of we're doing open world stuff now so not only are you used to winding paths in these big palaces

and dungeons but we're going to have you go three miles deep and five miles up in the sky like it is so mind-blowing the amount of work that has gone into this expansion. I loved it. I had a there's two bosses I have not

faced yet and I'm very excited to do that when we do our Friday marathon stream. Me, Snowback Mike, we'll be playing Elder Ring for the very, very first time. Well, he'll be playing Shot of the Earth tree for the very first time. We're doing a marathon stream. We're going to try to push it past 12 hours. We'll see how long we can go. But there's two bosses I have not fought and a whole bunch that I have.

I loved it. I had an amazing time. I didn't give it a 10 for like the smallest nitpick things. And a lot of it is kind of like that God of War, Tears of the Kingdom experience where I had this experience and I was so blown away and wowed by it the first time that it's so hard to reach that high again. You ever like you give a make a baby drink lemonade and they just they're like what the fuck? What is this taste? I've been drinking milk and water my whole life.

And then like maybe that second time taste that lemonade isn't quite as mind blowing but it's still absolutely amazing. And just one of the best pieces of content I've experienced. I have sneezed coming and I thought it was going to come in. Tim's face looked like he was both about to cry and throw up at the same time and I was like, what's happening? Why is Tim so emotional by him? I didn't want to start. I was getting you would sneeze in the middle of it. Excuse me.

Resetting here. Blessing at Ayoia Jr. Tim. What would you give Shadow of the Earth Tree? So to preface, I have not beaten Shadow of the Earth Tree because I have been stuck on the final boss. for so many fucking hours. I thought I would have had this thing done by, what's today, Tuesday?

I thought I would have had this thing done by Friday or Saturday. I have just been struggling. But, like, that said, right, I have experienced enough of the game to feel like I can confidently give it a score and I would give it a 10 out of 10. I think this thing is a masterpiece.

It might be the best DLC I've ever played. And, like, a lot of it is echoing what Andy's talking about as far as, like, you know, it is, the map design is so good. And it's so good to the point where I'm like, I don't understand how you're able to, in my opinion, I think they've found ways to like design a map that even levels up on what they did in the base, in base Eldon Ring, where you will go down a path thinking that, oh, yeah, it's just going to be a small building

or this is going to be like this random thing. And then it keeps going and going and going. And all of a sudden you are in an entirely different part of the map that has an entirely different environment. I am so impressed by, you look at the Eldon Ring base game and how the variety of environments and the variety of like, oh man, I'm in a Limgrave. I'm in the Leonea area and it's like different. Oh, I'm here.

Like, you know, I'm in Lane Dell and it's entirely different. There's a variety to the Eldon Ring map, right? Shadow of the Earth Tree's map is almost just, has just as much as variety, but like it's smaller. So it is, you are at one point, you're in like a grassland and you take two steps to the right and it is

entirely different. Take a few steps to the left and it is fucking different. And it feels feels like you're getting that same feeling that we talked about when we played at Eldon Ring for the first time that was you know you finish like the Godrick boss fight you step out and you have like this fallout three moment of stepping out the vault you're getting those constantly here too like it is so incredible how many of those where it is where the fuck am I what side story did I just step into you like I can't believe I'm in this I'm doing this new area doing this different thing you have that so often during this DLC and I am just so

impressed by how immaculately the map is designed. And yeah, the verticality adds so much to it. Because you really will be in one location and be like, all right, like, there's a cliff here, but I'm looking down and it seems like there's a place I can get to. And then you figure out how to get to it. And all of a sudden it is just different. It is like a, you know, different types of things to do, different, what's the word we use, biome? Like, yeah, the, it is so well constructed. There's that. And then there's the thing that I've been talking about, I feel like recently on content as far as like how games specifically open worlds approach secrets and approach like creating bespoke content that don't feel like they're just checklist. I'm checking the thing

off or I am, you know, repeating the same thing over and over again. I love how unique a lot of the like caves or dungeons or catacombs or like, you know, you find a thing and is okay cool. I'm going to in base Alden Ring, you find a catacomb and you know exactly what a catacomb is and you're finding like 20 different catacombs and you know what to expect in the dLC they flip every single concept on its head of oh okay i thought this was going to be this but this thing is actually this and i am now in a new area like i am surprised constantly while playing this thing it is so difficult too like the difficulty is definitely ramped up for the dLC and i think that has has reduced my experience in the elder ring in some ways where i'm like oh fuck i'm back to getting my ass kicked

and it's been satisfying i think the boss fights have been fantastic i think the enemy variety is really cool and I've been loving the story of the DLC which is new for me because I had to recently watch all the lore videos for Elton Ring bass game and I don't know if it's just that I'm more invested now or if they've gotten a little bit easier on the storytelling but I found it way easier to follow what's going on in the DLC and I'm captivated by it. I love what's going on

yeah I think it's a fantastic fantastic DLC one of the best I've ever played I'd say I think the reason why it felt so much more different this time around is because it felt more like we were experiencing as straightforward as a narrative as Elden Ring and as From Software can give you. Because it usually is uncovering artifacts, reading item descriptions,

understanding how things are connecting. The story isn't happening to us. We are kind of uncovering this world as we go from Tarnish to Eldon Lord or whatever your path is that you take. And this time around, it really felt like, because, you know, a bit of a different team was kind of working on this one, I believe the lead from Dark Souls 3. And I'm blinking on his name. I need to Google it right now because he's also the man who's like famous for saving Dark Souls 2 and like getting that out of a really, really rough state.

That he was kind of like one of the main leads on this project. and the story this time around felt so much more, like, directed and as that can be, right? Still expect us to be a From Software experience. I'm not saying that, like, you're going to be running into cutscenes all over the time of character running alongside. You're like, wow, what a wild moment that was. That's not happening here. But this felt as straightforward as you could get in a From Software-style game in this Eldon Ring world where, NPCs are dealing with you a lot more often

and things feel a lot more cohesive and connected and I think the reason why I give the 9.5 instead of the 10 is because I just don't know if I if the route that I took in this game helped me experience that story as best as they wanted it to and I think it's really hard to get that feeling because it isn't a linear sort of like

straightforward narrative you are branching off and spending 20 hours in this zone and 12 in this zone. And then once you kind of get back around to the story, and once I hit the climax on one of the sort of side stories, or once I hit sort of like this is like the end of this sort of saga, I was like, oh, that's over. Oh, shit. Okay, gotcha.

And it kind of came out of nowhere where I feel like maybe it would have been better served it. There was more leaning into that sort of narrative, straightforward style, which I definitely don't want out of a Chrome software game. It was kind of a weird imbalance thing for me, but you definitely got to do like a spoiler test and like get tam- 100%. Because there's so much that we can't talk about and that we wouldn't

want to talk about as far as things that go down and like the side stories and stuff that are so cool. But I also feel what you're talking about. I think for me I felt it was some of those moments were just concise, right? Where it is we don't have to belabor this fucking cool thing that we're doing. We're just going to like take you through it. and I think it did help simplify things a bit. Like one of the ones I'm thinking of, and I'll give like a comparative example

as opposed to the direct example, right? Of like, you're going down a path and you see a dude and the dude is upset. And you're like, oh damn, that dude's upset. And he's like saying a name and you're like, oh man, all right, he's upset about this thing. And then you follow it and then like you get to the thing. And like I was surprised by how quick that side quest,

which feels like a major side quest, but it was maybe a couple hours, if even that of me like getting to the final thing. of that thing and then fighting the thing and being like oh shit I'll come back to this late like but like that experience was so like I'm going to remember that experience like that two hour journey that I took in that thing

and for me that those things worked but I do I do feel what you're talking about as far as like I think there's more juice that they could have gotten out of some of those quests as well it's at least obtuse their storytelling has ever been because it if you had any inkling

of what was happening in the main Eldon Ring game you you will absolutely understand what's happening here. Do you think that that's by design of them knowing, like this being an expansion of the game, then just kind of crystallizing the, hey, if you're here, you're in, you know, let's kind of like reward you with more of like

what you're looking for from it? I think so. I'm super surprised by how kind of direct it was in a lot of ways. That's not something I would have expected at all. I thought I'd be, you know, I thought the whole DLC was me going to be fighting enemies that like, I'm going to have to, you know, continue to learn more and more about, but there was just like

a lot of cool connected things as well. I was very, very shocked by it, but still extremely satisfied by this experience. And I have some nitpicks here and there, and we'll get into those later. But Barrett, what did you think of Eldon Ring, Shadow of the Earth Tree? Yeah, I've played like 50 hours. I've beaten the main quest, and I believe I've defeated all. 10 major bosses that Miyazaki was saying like there's 10 bosses in this in this DLC I would give this a 9

I think this is amazing and I'm kind of similar with you Andy where I understand how people felt about tears of the kingdom now like after Breath of the Wild where it's hard to like get that first feeling a second time and so I think it was a little bit of that

there was a little bit we talked about this but like the a lot of like new weapons are being introduced and all that stuff that they talked about before, and none of it felt like, none of the new kind of, like, like, combat systems felt, like, really enticing. I felt like I was still sticking to a lot of the things that I was using in the main game,

which I found, like, a little bit disappointing, personally. And then I fully agree with the kind of, like, interesting, like, push and pull of, like, hey, we've got, like, a kind of direction that we can kind of take you in. But then also, here's the most obscure way to get to. all of these different places that may be optional, may not be optional, that I felt like there wasn't a good balance of that. But I would still say I had an amazing time. It was great to be back in Eldon Ring and to play like a new part of Eldon Ring in

my new game plus playthrough and have it be difficult, you know, and, you know, spend nine hours on the boss that Blessing is struggling with right now and stuff. And yeah, I thought it was an amazing time. I think it's a testament to the experience where Barrett in our Slack says 35 hours total, nine hours on the final boss. Love my experience. I don't think I ever want to like see that game again. And I walked by his room and he was playing it like a day later. Well, because there was, you know, I had an inkling that I hadn't seen every like big thing yet.

So at that point, yeah, like I think I roughly finished like the, you know, the main thing that the, you know, the main thing that the, the DLC is pushing you towards in 35 hours, and I think I've seen every big boss after 50. And you played on New Game Plus? I did play on New Game Plus. So did I. I also played on New Game Plus. And like with that conversation just really quick, I would not be scared to play this DLC on New Game Plus for those out there who are familiar with Eldon Ring or confident

in their skills. I know there's been a lot of like conversation of it being even scarier on New Game Plus. I did not feel that for the majority of this DLC. I feel like there were two specific bosses that I had a lot of struggle with, but I think the kind of leveling system specific for the DLC that we talked about in your preview, Andy, I think kind of that is kind of what dictates

the difficulty of this DLC rather than being on New Game Plus. I will say you probably should be like level 150 or whatever they had you at your preview event. In New Game Plus, I was level... 190 or something like that when I was starting out, maybe 200 or something. And largely felt like I could have been level 500, and it would have been negated by the game's difficulty. Because when you're in this DLC, they are making you use their newer leveling system that is only relegated to that shadow realm. So when you are in the shadow realm, you are finding these fragments that help make you stronger and do more damage.

and there's another fragment that helps make torrent your mount stronger and be able to take more damage. And it also makes your spirit ash summons more powerful. And those powers are only applied when you're in the shadow realm. As soon as you leave the shadow realm to go back to the overroll the Belden Ring and go maybe you want to play another boss in the other big open world, those powers are then taken away. So again, I feel like I could have been level 500 and still struggle. down there until you start finding these new fragments that level you up only in that DLC area. Yeah. So you guys, sorry, go for...

Well, I was going to say to talk about the new leveling system. I do like it a lot. Like, I think especially for DLC. It's a Sekiro system, pretty much. Yeah, and it works to make you explore a bit more, right? Like, I don't have the... Like, I'm at this final boss fight. My...

In regular Eldon Ring, I would have, like, the inkling to... I'm just going to go grind and take out some fucking giants or whatever and, like, get them, get them stats up. Here, I am like, all right, I'm... I can't grind. Well, I could grind if I want to level my health or, like, level up my stamina or, like, see if I can do just the most minuscule upgrade to my strength or dexterity or whatever. But really, if I want to stand more of a chance in some of these boss fights, it is,

all right, explore more. And, like, see if I can find more of, like, the scatter tree fragments or elements or whatever they're called in, like, level up that way. And so, like, there is an encouragement to want to maybe clear out the entire map. And it's worked for me that way, right? Where I just keep, I keep struggling. I'm like, all right, cool. Let's explore some more. And I'm probably, what, 70% of, I've cleared maybe 70% of the map, 80% somewhere around that.

I'm about the same, man. Yeah. And so, yeah, I just want to say I really like the leveling system. I was just going to ask, because Barrett was saying 35 hours for him to beat it, 50 hours to seem to do everything. Do you guys want to talk about how many hours it's taking you? I'm about 35-ish hours. I was very, very scared about the final boss. I played all of the game without Spirit Ash summons. And then I got to the final boss. And Barrett told me how long it took him. Blessing told me how he was struggling with it.

And after like, I was under two hours on the boss. And I was like, I was here at work and I walked by Blessing thing. I was like, you know what? I'm going to use my, I'm going to bust out that mimic tier summon Ash or, you know, Spirit Ash tonight. And get your tank in there, you know. Yeah, exactly. I need my dude. You know, you summon your mimic.

Mictier, he's just, he's your dude, Tim, with your exact weapon and your items or whatever, and it's just a duplicate version of you. And got him in there and took me like 30 minutes or something like that, extra to beat him. And that's what kind of bums me out about certain boss fights in Eldon Ring where I was so against the spirit ashes at first because I felt like they were really trivializing the fights where it would go from a somewhat challenging fight that might take you 10 to 20 tries and then it kind of went to like a 1 to 2 trier

with the Spirit Ash and as soon as I summoned this mimic tier it all just sort of clicked immediately especially with the loadout that I had and cleared it really fast and I was like oh man that was like almost a little too easy but these boss fights man that final boss fight is so challenging and it's so tough and it reminds me of a lot of other souls

boss fights that I've struggled with where you go into it and you know that you want to execute every move as perfectly as possible whether it's like I need to parry all those three things and when this dude does that move I need to be able to make sure to dodge these and I really really hope that this enemy doesn't R&G and do this attack at that moment because these attacks these enemies are so diverse with their movesets and there's sometimes where it's like if I have the perfect R&G run where everything goes perfectly for me and this person doesn't bust out that move,

I'll be golden. And it just so happened in that fight where like my mimic tier or whatever had the agro for one of those big attacks. I was like, fuck yeah, dude. Now I can hopefully go in and do this. It's really, really tough. It's a very,

very hard boss fight. I would say, I would argue harder than Melania. Yes, I think it's the new hardest boss fight in the game. B. Blanco also in the YouTube chat says Mitchell from IGN said some bosses are on the border of being unfair. Do you guys feel that way too? I would say there are two specific bosses that I think the way that you're talking about, Andy, of just like how they're designed and like how it feels like you kind of need to call in ashes that I think are border on the line of unfair and need to feel like the RNG needs to work

perfectly in your favor to be able to get through them. Yeah, I'll say the boss that I'm stuck on unfair, but also I think that it should be because it is a from software, DLC boss. Like it brings me back to when I was suffering, fighting orphan of cause. And I wanted to like, fucking throw my TV out the window. Like this boss, I would even a controller, not the console, the whole damn TV. I'm going to carry this thing. All right, I'm playing on a monitor. But like, you know, it is the, I think for me, I'll put this boss as maybe just the

most difficult from software boss I've faced. Part of that might just be that I'm underleveled and I need to go grind a lot more. but it is pretty, to the point of Andy talking about the RNG thing. One, I can't imagine how I would take on this boss without like a mimic ash or like some kind of like spirit ash. But then also, there are some combos that I'm getting hit with where I'm like, how? Yeah. How? I am going to be so fascinated in the same way that I was, I couldn't even concept when fighting Melania.

How are people going to dodge the waterfowl dance move? Yeah. And with this boss, I'm like, how the hell are people going to no hit this boss? And they're going to do it because they're straight up gamers. But I just want to see it happen because I don't believe it can happen. You know, like I can't fathom a no hit run happening. We get the like, let me solo them. Yeah.

Guy who goes in and is doing crazy. Yeah, I'm super stoked for that. I do think that, yeah, there is a large element of blessing being underleveled and needing to go find more of these fragments that help you make yourself stronger and you can take some more damage in this world. And when I first got to that boss fight, and for context, you find a fragment,

and it takes you to level two of your fragment level. You find another one, it takes you to level three. And then you find you need two more to get to level four, and you need two more to get to five, and then you'll need three more to get to like 11 or whatever. I forget how it's sort of... facts up there. I think eventually once you want to level up to 12

or like 14 you need four. Yeah. So I had got to the boss at level 11 and tried it for 15 minutes and was like nope, this is not happening anytime soon. Let me go explore more because there was still, I'd say about

40% of my map that was uncovered. And I knew that there were some more zones that probably had other boss fights with more of those fragments that I could find. and they did. And I got my level up to 14 and it was still hard as shit. And then I used the summon and was like, okay, this is, this is somewhat manageable with my build. This thing is, you know, I'm so stubborn.

And I've talked about this for, like, any hard game that I play where I'm like, no, I'm beating this here now. And like, I've sent, I've sent both you and Barrett the clip of like one of the attempts where I got, I got their health down, oh, so low. And then they hit me with like the combo that I'm talking about where I'm like, how? Like, how the fuck? Am I supposed to dodge the shit? Yeah. And like, you know, I... Barrett was watching me fine at one of them.

I was like, yeah, see, I don't even know what's going on. Like, I don't know what the... And we were sort of like, oh, it would be cool if, like, they did the no rest for the wicked kind of, like, angle where you could actually see, like, what the hell is going on in the entire arena. And here. And here's the thing, right? And this is like, I know the problem is me here. Yes, because I was the same. Like, where I was at and, like, talking to other people who were playing it, like, I knew I was going in underleveled.

and then you were even lower level than. Yeah. And I did go and I've level a bit since then, but here's all, here's the other thing. Because I was talking to Barrett early on and Barrett was like, found some of them hand guys.

And I was like, and I was like, Barrett, tell me where the hand people are. So I can avoid them at all costs. Those are the only areas I've not explored. I mean, there's like maybe a couple other ones I still need a fine. But like those are the main areas

where it's like, I know how to get to those areas. I just don't want to go there because I don't want to deal with these fucking like hand motherfuckers. You have to. I can't. It's a phobia. I love how much you hate the hands.

It makes my body. It makes my skin crawl, literally. Yeah, it was so incredible having, again, the other day we were talking about elderly me saying like, oh, yeah, that one boss pops up a night and blessing going, oh, I don't go out of night. Like, as if it was like, like, no, you don't want to go into that part of town of night. Here's thing. Solipsis says, just get over it.

I don't think you understand how a phobia works. I see these things in my body feels different. I start sweating. I know what you mean. God, that is stuff. Plus, did you say how long you took? I'm probably what 30 hours like somewhere around there and I've probably fought this boss for about eight hours And so like I've been I've been able to like be pretty quick with exploration I feel like right because like I feel like it took me yeah

I'm in the early 20s for getting to the boss And then like I guess periodically I go and I explore a bit more and then I come back But yeah around 30 hours is where I'm at right now Shout out to Jack Septa guy who said he beat it in 14 I don't I can't I don't even know that's possible Yeah Tim was saying like oh yeah you can beat this in 50 and I want to respond to a suite like, how? gamers, you gotta lock in. But like,

but I don't know, because I just wonder, are you exploring the world so quickly that you're able to get all of these fragments and then be high level enough? What is your build? What, like, Skidotree level, fragment level, were you or whatever when you took on that final boss? That seems completely wild to me.

You can also get really lucky with some of these past. The other thing is that, again, I'm, I find out of, this is a positive. I can see people being frustrated, though, with how hidden some of the areas are for, like, main open world areas needs to get to you. I got to certain areas where I'm like, dude, I got so fucking lucky with how I found this path. It, like, kind of like drove me crazy a little bit because, you know, when you're playing new game plus Tim, you have like the, I think the full map, like already uncovered. So like, I was already, like, feeling comfortable with like, oh, I have this entire map. But then once you get to the DLC, it goes back to, you know, like, how you would start a new game, right? Like, you can kind of. see the little stone where you can pick up a map piece. And the amount of hours I spent just trying to find pieces that, like, Bless eventually, like, stumbled upon an area of the map that I had been trying to figure out how to get to for hours. Yeah. And even when I got to that area, I was like, how in the world did Prom Software expect anybody to get here? But then I was like, well, I got here. I was, I was asking Baird about a piece last night. I was like, I don't know

how the fuck to get down there. Because I've been on this cliff looking at this spot. It's like, dude, that's so far down there. I don't know how to get there. And then I ended up like, just walk in there from like at eye levels like oh i didn't even like walk through this one zone because it is so massive but like there's never been a game that more sort of like exemplifies the todd howard you could walk on that mountain where like there's so many times you are on massive cliffs and going like surely that's just death down there but like no there's there's that's walkable down like a mile down it feels like you can be down there.

I had a clip I wanted to show Tim and I need to make sure to like get that clip for him because like the amount of get on your little torrent guy, your little horse mount, and go up this little like the spirit thing that like shoots you up to like launch you to higher heights or whatever. But this one felt like it. This was like almost the equivalent of going down the thing all the way to the Schiefer well, the Sheeper River, going up that lift, I was like, dude, I'm still flying. Like this is so high up here. It was mind-blowing.

And like purposely turning my camera around and just see everything behind me. How does this world exist? It's, you know what's a 10 out of 10 masterpiece? Dude, I mean, it's so funny. I was watching Barrett play a couple days ago. And it was the first time I saw the mount that I assume you're talking about. And I'm like, this is one of the coolest mounts I've ever seen. He's awesome.

Period, man. I just love like the, it just coming, like how quick it all happens. Double jump and everything. So freaking cool. I want to get to a couple superchats with people that have been asking some questions. Remember, over on YouTube, you can super chat in with questions you have for Shadow of the Earth Tree. Please try to be spoiler-free. We are not going to spoil anything.

Send Nuggies writes in and says, loving this. Thank you for your work. Any setback with leveling up on any of the new weapons. Is it tough to find smithing stones? Smithing stones. No, I'll tell you this. It has never been easier to find smithing stones. And that's really, really neat.

And I'm glad that they noticed that and understood that. that because you're hopping into this game, whether you are on new game plus or you are just finishing up your save. And there's probably a lot of new weapons that you're excited to level up. Maybe you want to completely change your build for the DLC. But you're low on smithing stones because you already leveled up a shitload of stuff in your arsenal. I feel like every dude you kill Jopsyke of smithing stone or two.

And of every level imaginable. Yeah. Like what we were talking about like in the base game, it was kind of like, a good way to tell, like, how tough an area was going to be with, like, the level of smithing stone, whereas I feel like in the, the DLC, it's not that clear. At all. It's kind of more random of, like, oh, like, you can pick up a smithingstone, too, and then, like, walk five feet away and kill an enemy and get a smithingstone seven.

And I feel like they did that on purpose of, like, knowing you're going to be picking up a lot of weapons and then wanting to go back and leveling them up, which I thought was, like, a pretty good choice. There's also like the people that sell them in like the, what they call it, the table area. Yeah. If you have the bell bearings or whatever. Yeah. And so I guess for me, I had all the bell bearings for all like the smithing stones and the

somber smithing stones. And so I never had that problem because there's also the thing where, you know, I'm leveled up at like 150 going in and like I'm probably 160 now. And I'm getting enough runes where it's like, okay, well, I don't have enough ruins to level up. but I have like 150,000 runes. Like, before I go out and explore any risky area, now I just go back to the table

and I just, like, buy a bunch of bit smithing stones. After you've been collecting so much, it is so nice to go back to the roundtable to go level something, level up a weapon that you found and see that, oh, should, I got 43 of these? Nice. Like, I guess exploring for the last six hours has gotten me six of this version of Spitting Stone,

and I got 12 more of the next level or whatever. I will say, another disappointment, I had was just the the excitement I had for new weapons I thought like I was going to be trying anything and everything and there's just nothing that was quite pulling me in and I also think it's because maybe

I was meaning like the blasphemous swords that Rikard drops you, the big snake dude because I beat him again for New Game Plus so I was able to power stance and dual wield two of them. Two great swords? Yeah yeah. Oh that's awesome. And that just felt so much more effective, obviously.

It's a very powerful weapon that I, like, leveled up both of them. And so, like, I just, I wasn't finding anything that I thought was going to be the new main. And it kind of reminds you of, like, you know, I play in a new Pokemon game. And there's always, like, they keep all the old Pokemon in there. You're like, I love the old Pokemon, but get rid of them because I want to, I want to, like, find a new love. You know what I mean? And there are a couple of different ones that I think will work for other people. they just weren't super working for my play style.

For me, that's how it was with the, like, equipment where the, or like the wearable stuff where, you know, going into this, I'm just, I'm doing a Redon cosplay. Like, I'm just wearing all of Redon's armor. And I'm still wearing, my base thing is still Redon's thing. I have a couple of new things that I'm wearing. But, yeah, I found that not much of my gear was, like, leveled higher than the Redon stuff. Yeah, I never wanted to let go of the, the Redon armor set. like you and I play very similarly in that sense.

You got just fashion solace it, man. Like, I'm willing to take you of stats. I'm willing to take six more health on a hit if I look sick as fuck that, man. It's so much cooler, man. Here's the thing. Radon's not ever said, still pretty like cool looking. That's overplayed. It's everywhere, though.

That's the thing. I got bad. I think I saw Kaysana. Kaysana was rocking the Rudan armor. I'm like, fuck, man. All right, cool. I'm just enormy, man. I'm going to go listen to some Imagine Dragons.

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Get started with a $13 trial set for just $3 at harries.com slash kind of funny. That's harries.com slash kind of funny for a $3 trial set. This episode is brought to you by A Better Paradise. From the writers of the Red Dead Redemption and Grand Theft Auto series comes the new immersive audio fiction podcast,

A Better Paradise, Volume 1, and Aftermath. Set in the near future, A Better Paradise, tells the story of the ill, faded development of an ambitious but addictive digital game world project led by inventor and psychologist Dr. Mark Tyburn. As the advanced software they developed began to deliver unexpected and disturbing results, the team fell apart under strange circumstances and the project was abandoned. The game world and the superintelligence within were discarded, left dormant and undiscovered. Until now. I listened to episode one on my way to work today and the thing that stood out,

of course, are the performances, but then as an audio drama fan, it was the use. of monologues. There's a whole bunch of talking here as it sets up the world that is not that far from us in the timeline and also not that far from us in the technology, which is disturbing, but I'm quite interested to see where it goes. A Better Paradise is out now and available everywhere you get your podcasts. Go listen to date and don't forget to follow a better paradise on your platform of choice to make sure you never miss an episode. And we're back everybody. I did want to mention because we were talking about the weapons. I did find a great Caton that I liked using a lot.

But that was by the only, that and then a new weapon I found, but I don't think it was one of the new classes. I think it was just a great sword, if I remember correctly. Those are really the only two weapons that I found out I really fucked with

for the rest of the, or for the entire DLC run. I wasn't finding, like, I didn't find one perfume bottle. I found, like... I found one singular perfume bottle. Yeah, and I found like one singular, like, you know, the melee build weapon.

Yes, that as well. And like... The Beast Clause? No, not even the Beast Clause. Oh, I found the Beast Clause. Yeah, I didn't find any Beast Clause. Well, aren't there claws in the main game? Or I guess Beast Clause are the new thing.

Yeah, Beast Clause are kind of like the melee sort of like... They're a new weapon, but they're not a new class by any means. Gotcha. But yeah, I was surprised by how many things I didn't find. There is a really nice thing that they do as well. You find a lot of the item that you need to re-spec in case you really want to experiment and just respec into all sorts of different builds. They're called Larval Tiers, and they're, I don't know, I found probably about six in the DLC, which is neat.

I only found one. Yeah, I was like really late in. I was like, damn, this is the first one that I found. Yeah, I found a buttload, so that encouraged me to go back to Rinala and just kind of respec into something else. In case a boss wasn't working for me, or in case I found a new weapon that I really wanted to give a shot. I saw some people in the chat. I don't know if it was a super chat or not, but asking about, um, like intelligence builds.

I didn't mess with any spell casting or warlock type stuff. Can't help there. Andrew Shores in the chat saying this is their first time hanging out in chat. Welcome. Hello. We're live every day. You're on Twitch and YouTube doing multiple shows a day. Thank you for hanging out. And thank you for being a part of the community here.

We also have some super chats that I want to get to here. Mara is asking, Hey, Mara. If this is spoilers, then ignore me. But are you able to tell us if beating Melania before doing the deal? changes anything. Also, how's Berserk going, Andy? I haven't watched... I haven't followed up and continued to watch Berserk. I haven't watched anything. There's so many new things out there that I need to watch

that I just have... I've been gaming. I've been gaming, man. I would say we don't answer this either way. Cool. Sure. I'm done. Then Bobby Joe says, Andy, is there anything else players should or shouldn't do before getting into the DLC? You should... I mean, it's, it is kind of tough to say because you do feel like you are kind of starting fresh. I think what I would say is make sure you look up like what are the most useful talismans for your build to have for the fights you're going into because I have about four or five different characters, all with varying different talismans that I may or may not have found.

So like when I, my plan was initially, I'm going to start a new play through, get it to a point where I'll be ready for the. DLC, then we'll get these codes, and I can rock. And my plan didn't go great because I never fully caught up on my stream playthrough. So I was like, what I'm going to have to do for the DLC, I'm going to play on my first character ever on New Game Plus. I didn't want to

do New Game Plus. I was worried about it. Ended up. Why are you worried about it, by the way? Difficulty, yeah, just we are hearing things about just how much tougher it might be, difficulty-wise, which I didn't find overwhelming at all on New Game Plus. So I think if you've worried about New Game Plus at all. Barrett first told me that and I was okay, good,

because I took a couple days to get to it because we were at SGF in L.A. And eventually when I got to it, I was like, you know what? This is completely manageable New Game Plus. Now, who could say New Game Plus 7 or 8? Who knows? Yeah, a lot of people, when we were talking about it on like our podcast with Tam a couple weeks ago, a lot of people were saying

like it doesn't get really hard until like New Game Plus 7 or 8 or whatever. But again, like I was saying earlier, I think the Skyd Tree fragments and that leveling systems specific for the DLC helps kind of negate any new game plus like, oh, this is way too difficult now on new game plus

or something like that. Yeah, completely. I would also say there's a lot of really good talismans you will be finding in this game that are not only just upgrades to older ones, newer versions where they are more powerful, but you're finding talismans that are just super cool and unique and add different perks for certain situations.

Like one of them that I loved was like, When I was playing at the preview, one of them was like, your attack power builds if your summon dies. And I think like little creative kind of almost rogue light perks like that are really neat. Or there's some where it's like, you know, your health builds if this or your attack power builds upon every critical strike. So after every critical strike, if you're the type like me who's always parrying and trying to go in for the critical strike, your attack power will build each subsequent time you do that, which is like really, really neat. They are thinking of added ways to kind of help benefit you in combat. And definitely like you were saying, Andy, like before getting into the DLC, and I would say even during the DLC, play around with talismans, especially if you're in an area or at a boss that you're like kind of struggling with, but you can kind of see the vision of getting through them. I was doing that a lot for some bosses

was like just kind of mixing and matching and see what talismans work best. Yeah, what's the best combo? One thing I want to mention is I feel like they went for it in this DLC in a way that like kind of makes it run like slightly worse than the base game. I don't know if either you guys experienced this,

but like there is... Just real quick, a super chat here. Jennifer was writing and saying, how's the performance on console PC and Steam Deck? So yeah, let's start talking about a little that performance. I play on PS5. And like, it's one of those things where Elgin reminds me of, like, the way we talk about Tears of the Kingdom, where it's like, man, I can't believe how good this game runs for how big and open it is and like how much is going on in this thing. And Elden Ring, I remember having like one glitch while playing Eldon Ring in the hundred hours that I played it.

In here, like, I'm not had any glitches where I'm like fucking going through walls or whatever, but I have had it where whenever I like fast travel to a new place or I spawn in, it'll take like, I'll have like a second of popping of like, you know, I spawn in and then like everything else populates real quick. I was honestly noticing that though before we got the DLC and I was playing it again on New Game Plus. Okay. So maybe this is just a thing I forgot about or like I didn't notice the first time where I'm like, oh yeah, this happens a lot. I think it's just fun being fun. Yeah. I didn't notice anything at least from my perspective, anything that was like significantly different, better or worse. One more one more thing too is like I found that there are certain enemies where I'm like there is so much going on with some of these movesets that like I can kind of feel my game struggling. There's one enemy in particular where they're a big enemy and they will like essentially throw projectiles at you. And it is like so like it it's so either loud or big or like just a lot, it takes a lot of processing that like the sound just cuts out. Right.

It's like an explosive kind of thing that's being thrown at me and my like my sound is cut out. And I couldn't hear any more of the explosions. I'm like, oh, that's not good. But I started noticing that stuff a bit like here and there with the DLC where I didn't have, I don't feel like I had that with the base game at all. Not so much that it's a problem. I think it only stands out because I'm not used to any sort of technical thing in these games.

From Software is going to from software and they've never been particularly great with optimization and even on a massively powerful PC like mine, you're still going to dip into like 55 frames every once in a while down from 60. But there are...

What a different world. Watch the Nintendo Direct. Oh, you're going to dip to 55, man. saw that Funkofusia. It happens. I mean, like, in the base game,

you couldn't run on the way to go fight Marget. You couldn't run in that windy, sort of, uh, storm veil,

cliffs or whatever. You couldn't run there without your, your shit kind of chugging down on like 40 frames or 38 or whatever. Um, there was only one instance

where I really noticed an issue and it was on one of these moments where you were on one of the, a very, very, very tall peak. Maybe not even it's a top. Maybe the peak that you're on isn't tall.

It's just the depths you're going to are real deep. And you're going down those gravestones that are in the walls. And when I was doing that, for whatever reason, that's the only time where I was like, whoa, I'm getting like 33 frames right now down from 60. This is really, really, really bad. And it was very inconsistent. And that was the only spot that I noticed that in. Aside from that, it's been your pretty standard affair from software game where my massive PC can, you know, get, you know, get 200 frames in whatever games and from software games,

you know, you'll be lucky if you get like, you know, 111 when you, I download the mod to help you like, numbers are anymore. Once we get past 60, I'm like, I don't know.

Once you, well, I download the model that lets you unlock the frame rate. And I'm like, man, how am I able to get like so many more frames in other games that are graphically doing more? Um,

but, you know, I've always just, I think from software would be like the most perfect developer ever. if they were like, hey, Nvidia, hey, hardware engineers, come help us get this shit like running, give us DLSS, give us all that, like, that's still not present here. And it is kind of a bummer.

The best thing, though, this game added, the recent items. Oh, yeah. The recent items tab and the exclamation point that helps you, help signify the recent thing that you just found. Yeah, you were not looked at this thing in. I was trying to find that in the menus, and I have no idea what you're talking about.

It's in like this, you have to turn it on in like your system. Yeah, it's off by default. Yeah. It's off by default. It was on by default. Part of the Lord Barrett. It was on by default at the preview event, which I was kind of surprised that it was off by default here.

What the fuck? But there's like, I have, I have really bad ADHD. And when I'm streaming, I'm even less aware of what's happening because I'm so concentrated on just like the bit or whatever talking to chat and so i notice even less of what's going on while um because all that ram is going elsewhere right um but when when i'm streaming there's been so many times i kill dude get the item and people pop off and chat yo you got that thing i'm like what what i get well that was called the blade of something okay let me go look in the weapons 15 minutes all right the blade of this and that man i'm not seeing it dude and i'm scrolling through all

my weapons are like oh it's a talisman every time it's called the blade of something what the but like that just won't happen here because you can either have the recent items have or if you turn that off and you go to your weapons you'll see the exclamation mark on it it is so awesome and it's one of those like wndd type nintendo things where like hey we're going to turn bluetooth on the switch four years after we put it out it's like such a obvious yes you should have done this a long time ago decision but we forgive you because you're so goaded at everything you all do yeah man it's incredible yeah i was i can't I can't wait to see the other stuff I haven't seen yet.

I will say the lack of it being there for years has fucked up my brain to where now there'll be times where I just want to use a run to like level up my or what do they call them? The room pops? I forget what I'm gonna. Great runes, yeah. Great runes, thank you. To like level up my runes, right? And like, I click in to the inventory and I'm scrolling down. I'm like,

oh, why is everything out of order? And I'm like, oh, golden run, sorry, is what I call. Thank you. I'm like, oh, I'm in the recent tab. Happens every single time. I'm just so not used to it being there that it fucks me up. Well, here we are. Fantastic experience. The end of our review. I'm sure we will be doing a spoiler cast in the coming weeks whenever you guys are ready for that.

We're doing the 24, not 24 hour, excuse me, marathon stream on Friday. What is that going to be, Andy? So we will not be doing the seamless co-op, like you all have been watching on a lot of our streams, where the seamless co-op mod allows us all to just kind of play at the same time and go wherever the heck we feel like it. And sometimes, you know, it doesn't work

because it's a mod made by people. Me and Mike will be playing co-op going into the DLC, on our Xbox characters that we started our playthrough way back when the game launched. We never got back to it. I just checked and for people that know the only bosses we have left on that playthrough as of right now before the DLC, I guess,

would be Placuda Saksa Dragon, which I call Placica Beres. And we have Radagon and the Eldon Beast. And those are the only bosses we have left. But we're going to save that until we actually do this DLC and we're super stoked about it. We start Friday,

and we're going to go hopefully as long as people go, but it will not be like a 24-hour thing because we just don't, you know, we don't got the power for that right now. SGF kind of, and this review in particular kind of like took it out a lot of us. But look forward to that. We will see you for a very, very, very long stream,

and I hope you all decide to come and kick it with us and play the game alongside us. It's my favorite thing where people are like, I got you all off to the side. I'm doing this thing. Let's do this. Hell yeah, man. So join us this Friday for that.

Marcus Daniels gets one last super chat in here. First time, super chatting. I found bless on what's good. Stayed because of Greg. Love you guys. Thanks. What about me? Stay because of me.

What the fuck? Hey, fuck you, dude. I'm sure they mean this in a complimentary way. I can't take a W this week. Oh, my. Let us know in the comments below. You look like a fairy tale, babe. Leave me alone.

Oh, my God. That is very funny. Anyway, stay tuned. Nick's about to play the game. Man, Matt Jack. I'm never remember that name. Yeah, there's Marcus,

and you're great pleasure. Thank you. Yeah, there we go. There we go. But until next time, I love you all. Goodbye.