I don't typically leave reviews but felt compelled to in this case.

This is the best content Fromsoft has ever made, I am shocked at the extreme reaction to its difficulty and would like to give my take on it after finishing it in around 50 hours- without using any summons, spirit ashes, or magic. When people say it is far harder than anything in the base game (excluding Malenia), that isn't wrong. The dlc is brutal, especially when it starts and even more so when it ends. However, like all Fromsoft games to some extent, allows you to curate your own struggle through it. There are many mechanics, strategies, and builds that will provide a substantially more manageable experience. Elden Ring base game is extremely open and allowed you to come back to whatever you struggled with later with a higher power level and stomp through it, the DLC works the exact same but with a slight twist. Collecting the Scadutree Fragments is extremely crucial to your success, as it flat out reduces how much damage you will be taking and increases how much you will be dealing. I was told how awful some of these bosses are, only to fight them with significantly more fragments than my friends did and have a great experience. I will also say that the argument of boss accessibility and their "lack of openings or counterplay" is extremely misguided. Many, and I mean many of these bosses can be extremely trivialized by getting towards their back and spamming R1, or jumping heavy attacks. Some bosses do indeed have some longer combos, but often present you ways you can dodge through them so that the later attacks completely miss you as you counter or heal. I don't really want to give this discourse any more of my time however, because it is extremely tiring and has existed long before Elden Ring ever did. I'm not going to tell people who don't like it to get good, because it would be stupid to assume they are all just terrible, my actual guess would be they just aren't willing to engage with the mechanics of the game and it is ruining their experience- or had expectations that their endgame characters would be able to swashbuckle their way through with only minor bumps of difficulty.

With that out of the way, everyone has talked about how incredible the levels are, how it feels like Elden Ring 1.5 instead of a DLC, the atmosphere, the lore, the music. It's all fantastic. I want to briefly and without any spoilers talk about Shadow of the Erdtree's final encounter, as I believe it is without exaggeration the best fight Fromsoftware has ever created. I am going to spoiler tag this part of the review out of courtesy, but nothing specific is discussed about the boss other than the fact it attacks you. The premise of it is so insane I could not help but start laughing as the cutscene played. This fight is beyond brutal at first, my attempts lasted seconds if even and stayed like that for a while. I was trying to use an ash of war on my weapon, but I had my shield out by accident and parried instead. By the grace of god, this parried the boss. What was first a seemingly brutal and insurmountable fight now had completely been flipped on its head. This is a boss that in order to joy to the utmost, in my opinion, forces you to engage with every single aspect of your character's kit. The rhythm of the fight feels as close to perfect as something like Isshin, creating a loop of almost equal parts attacking, dodging and parrying. Parrying the boss three times opens him up to a critical attack as well, so it is invaluable. The second phase is even crazier, but what is genius is it turns the first phase into something of a testing ground. Basically every single parry timing and optimal dodge direction is the same in this phase, just with added stakes due to some lingering effects on the boss's attacks- effects that are completely cancelled out if you parry them as well. When you get into a state of flow in this encounter it feels unbelievable, and unlike any other encounter they've ever made. There's an instant kill grab attack that it has, but I'd even argue this is completely fair game design as the first time it grabs you every attempt it does zero damage- so there's no "How was I supposed to know" moment either! Finally defeating it had me feeling physically like I had just run a world record sprint time, and was the highest amount of payoff I've ever experienced in a video game. You can also increase the amount of active frames on your parry by putting an easy to obtain and FPless ash of war on your shield, and wearing a certain talisman found in the Shaman Village as well as drinking a damage negating physick can further save you in the second phase.

I adored every second I spent with this expansion. It feels like what Elden Ring was always meant to be, even as someone who loved the base game. I can't wait to go back in with other characters and uncover even more of it. I hope people don't get too caught up in the difficulty narrative. These games have a reputation, but it is always overblown. They are hard, but they are for everyone. There's quadriplegic people playing and beating these bosses and having a blast, it's a truly caustic narrative and I hope people continue to play and find ways of enjoying the game. I promise every weapon type has plenty of fun to be had with these bosses. I encourage everyone to find those Scadutree Fragments, if not for the difficulty scaling reasons than for the fact the exploration is the best it has ever been, and truly engage with everything this game has to offer. If you read this far, thanks and sorry because I have a habit of being verbose.

Also, feel free to add if you want help on a boss or just like these games and want to talk about them.