"Will you walk with us?" (Proceeds to obliterate him with an L2 of his Blasphemous Blade +10. Collects his armor set and weapon. Repeat in sequence for the other six NPCs. Refuses to elaborate and leaves).
term gets confusing nowadays. I always thought that dlcs were like smaller and free slices like quests, itema and cosmetics while expansions were like a larger paid pack that i includes new zones with new mechanics and a lot of new content in a single drop.
all expansions are DLCs, but not all DLCs are expansions. DLC stands for downloadable content, the size doesn't matter, expansion is a DLC that expands on the game as a whole, and adds lots of new content
I've never been this hyped for a game before, let alone DLC. I've blacked out my calendar that weekend to play through the whole DLC, slightly under-leveled. ER is my favorite game of all time and these tidbits they've been feeding us are just off the hook. From sits several notches above all others.
I haven't been this hyped for a game since, well, Elden Ring lmao The initial release prevented me from sleeping until I played. That same hype is here again for a fucking DLC. God I love this game and From!
Other devs look like beginners compared to From Softwares ability in terms of art direction, world design/enemy design/character design. That alone always gets me so hyped. The tone, setting etc. Just looking at their promo images on twitter is enough to make me feel hyped more than anything else created by other devs. I felt similar pre Dark Souls 3 release too but Elden Ring reached an even higher hype level I thought impossible to reach.
@@OnMyLunchBreak07 It's crazy and the part that puts it over the top is you genuinely feel this is all about creating an amazing player experience, as the only motivation. Not making money like most of the big devs.
If this is going to be half the size of elden ring, it's going to be bigger than 90% of modern games. Hopefully the DLC is considered for game of the year.
@anonfinally1692 does sort of depend on what "limgrave" is considered. Some people consider weeping as part of limgrave. Which means you have at least that entire size + legacy & if there's any underground/ above ground by chance. It could also just mean limgrave east & not west. Could mean none of weeping size included.
Maybe Miquella leaving behind his "blinding strength" could mean him leaving behind Malenia. I mean, she did call herself Blade of Miquella, and was blind on top of it. Edit: As pointed out in the replies, the Japanese subtitles don't mention any "blinding" so it's unlikely to be Malenia.
That theory about Miquella abandoning his strength and us using it to power up is really nice, but I also think they could still just be the new graces. The one grace we see in that loading screen is so tiny it could just be an oversight from an earlier stage of development when they were still using graces.
We know that there will be a new way to level up some stat, every single kind of rune in the entire game helps buff your character in some way, and the trailer says something about Miquella's strength while showing those things. Also all Dark Souls games had the same bonfires even in time travel DLCs and basic game design says it's a good idea to keep things consistent. I would be shocked if sites of grace were replaced.
@@SaHaRaSquad A big reason I think they might have been replaced is that previously it always made sense within the setting. But the graces are supposed to be the Greater Will guiding us on the path to either collect the shards of the Elden Ring, or otherwise do something we need to do to become Elden Lord. If Miquella abandoned his power and Messmer has been sealed away the whole time, neither of them would have a shard, and we don't need to be there on the path to becoming a lord, so there wouldn't be anything for the graces to guide us towards.
@@HammerspaceCreature Then why can you still use sites of Grace when siding with the Frenzy Flame or Ranni? The Greater Will isn't a micromanager, the sites of Grace we see in the game weren't hand-placed by a god but they just vaguely represent that guidance in the form of a game mechanic. It just means the player character can see Grace at that spot and there's no reason why this can't happen somewhere else. Also it goes against all good practice to make a game mechanic inconsistent. Sites of Grace will still exist and work the same in the DLC.
@@SaHaRaSquadone thing that also makes sense is if you look at it, the graces are also little sprouts like they’re connected to the erdtree, so it’s possibly they just appear anywhere connecting to the erdtree and the whole thing about the land having no grace means its ppl and not the area itself
@@SaHaRaSquad Because the grace is guiding all tarnished, and not us specifically. It still wouldn't be guiding tarnished into the Land of Shadow for no reason. I'm only saying that both are still a possibility. This is the only time we've seen a grace any promotional material, when promotional material for the original game intentionally framed a large portion of the screenshots around them, as they are doing now with the Miquella runes. And it's not as if its some huge design sin to have a different but similar visual design for something that has the same function but is in a different area. It'll confuse even the most clueless player for all of 10 seconds then they'll sit at it and go 'oh it's a grace'. Frankly, I even think they have a better visual design as a checkpoint, because they stick out vertically whereas graces were small enough to be obscured by the smallest bumps in the landscape.
There may be some double meanings at play here along with the alchemical allegory of the game in general. Messmer and his flame/purge seems to reflect the concept of refining the alchemical "Gold" by burning away what is called the dross in smelting, the impure elements that rise to the top. That's exactly what we see in the DLC trailer. The burnt remains all rise into the Shadow Tree. Marika and Messmer are sealing away the impurities in the Gold, which are Omen and Crucible touched peoples and elements. Messmer will make the Erdtree grow properly in this alchemical process by burning away the dross so the pure Gold can be left. Immense sacrifices seem to be required for this as well, so in a way, Messmer's task is to create "fertilizer" in maybe multiple ways, so that Marika can ascend with the new Erdtree. The Forge of the Giants could literally be called a Crucible, a smelting forge where metals are made molten and this would be a physical representation of the alchemical process of refining Gold from Red-Gold to Pure Gold. I believe Miquella's Unalloyed Gold is different in that the Gold of Marika was given unto her somehow fused with a cosmic or Elden Beast element that in a way enslaved her to its designs. In ultimate power, she found ultimate bondage. The Unalloyed Gold is such because it lacks this binding cosmic element that tied Marika to the Elden Beast parasite-God. That's why his Needle will purge the influence of Outer Gods or from another perspective, other elements within the Gold. The Gloam Eyed Queen is likely a twin sister of Marika or another aspect of herself she betrayed and sealed away as well. The kneeling figure seen during Messmer's purge is most likely Melina or perhaps the G.E.Q. herself. I still wonder if maybe the G.E.Q. is not just another name Marika went by because she does end up referring to her children as potential sacrifices and she does end up wanting to kill the Elden Beast and herself/her entire order later on.
I've been searching for another comment like this. The fire giants curse upon marika(which could and likely will be the red hair on radagon), which is a way to prevent her from reaching her goal. The symbolism is solid.
It really could be that these Miquella runes in the Land of Shadow are what Miyazaki means with the "getting stronger" mechanic. Maybe if you interact with those you are able to strenghten your character like Prayer Beads in Sekiro.
I swear when I got to that one rise with the blue flowers I wished there was an entire area that looks like that, and we somehow are getting that? That's bananas. 😮
"When we end up getting [that sword]"!? WHAT!? How on earth would we get such a sword from such a nice NPC!? Surely nothing BAD would happen to them! Not in a Fromsoft game!
I’d also like to point out that is some cases, for NPCs that have happy endings, their armour can be found in the world (I.e- Nepheli gets a happy ending so her armour is not dropped from her body, but found at a caelid merchant)
Those who call themselves "game journalists" will definitely try to shit on Elden Ring again, because From Software adding so much content to the DLC will make other studios look bad lol.
I think they’re showing off the perfect amount of content. It’s all super sick and unique, but you just know they still got so many more surprises for us. This first playthrough is going to be pure cuisine
I'm convinced St. Trina will be an Octopus boss fight. If you look at the Torch of St. Trina the has 8 parts to the hair just like an Octopus with it's 8 legs. The eye is actually a beak. The reason the adult form of Trina is "somewhat unnervingly" is because deep down you can tell that it's an octopus camouflaging itself to "look human" when in actuality she is a terrifying octopus who will put you to sleep and command grab you and eat your mind! Also octopus are said to be able to have dreams
There's another thing I noticed about the new knight character's sword. The criss-cross pattern on the guard and base of the blade reminds me of Radagon's trellis motif.
The size is insane. Takes me back to Tribunal and Bloodmoon days - complete experiences nearly the size of the base game, all new stuff. It’s exciting! I hope these NPCs will act mechanically like the Round Table ones in that will be available for summoning. I have been matching up architect to the new stuff - you can see part of one of the buildings under the shadow tree from the back of Mohg’s place. Guessing we will get to see what the Eternal City looked like before it was sealed under the veil!
This expansion (seems like it) already has a much more emphasis on storytelling and narrative and than prior DLCs. Like, I’m honestly quite dumbfounded at the fact that we more-or-less have 7 (likely) NPC quest lines confirmed with the Fellowship of Miquella, not to mention the other NPCs already inhabiting the Shadow Lands (e.g. - Carian Statue character in the Raya Lucaria offshoot). I’m only used to my DLCs only having 1 or 2 quest lines, my tiny little brain won’t be able to handle all that content come June 21st lmao. I can already imagine missing 90% of the content 😭😭
I feel like when he said "size of lime grave" he might be technically right. Map looks like there's lots of verticality. I imagine it will be similar to breath of the wild. Map size was not close to how big game was due to the different levels of land.
I still think the withered arm is messmer. Its got that same long lengthy skinny style messmers arms have in the trailers. Which means either mohg made a huge mistake, or Miquella played 4d chess
I think the withered arm Miquella since it salsa is in the story trailer and interviews that when Miquella entered the shadow realm he abandoned his empyrean flesh, his lineage and fate, and all that was golden. So I think that withered arm is what remains of Miquella’s empyrean body that he abandoned when he entered the shadow realm. Edit: correction “said”
@@Doommarine-sr8y that's what I was thinking also. But than I started to look at messmer more closely. The arm looks to similar. I also don't think Miyazaki would let us make any connection so easily. Partially why I'm starting to think it's Messmer.
@@musicarain4702 it’s said in lore that Miquella imbedded himself within the Haligtres in the form of a cocoon so he could reach adulthood and possibly become the new god of his own age, which could explain why his body is like that, and it’s stated that Mohg kidnapped Miquella himself from the Haligtree, also Mesmer’s history doesn’t exist because he (most likely) never set foot in the lands between.
I think the Land of Shadows IS the crucible. A crucible (one of its definitions) is a container to bring the materials, whatever their contents are, and melt them. Maybe Messmer's Flame is that heat and the Land of Shadows is the Crucible. Melting away the "impurities" and giving rise to gold and subsequently the Golden Order. Thus why these two worlds were once together and now separate.
@@jibbily27 Nah it's pretty close, though we never get a direct look at it, the Crucible is specifically a melting pot for life, living beings, or just aspects of living things. That's why someone affected by the Crucible grows random horns, feathers, knots, teeth , scales, etc. all functionally redundant because they're just random, chaotic aspects of the Crucible. Actual wildlife like sheep and birds are like a refinement, a mould into which the Crucible is poured so it can take a restricted and particular shape. Though for this reason I also don't think the Land of Shadows is the Crucible. It's more likely the Crucible is more of a conceptual thing, like the outer gods or Ranni's dark moon, although if it was a physical place then all evidence points to it being among the Erdtree/Greattree roots, or most likely at its base, from where the tree grew in the first place. Otherwise, why would Godwyn's corpse - down in the roots directly below the Erdtree - be so wildly affected by the Crucible? You can see it in his form. Various aspects of sea life in particular - which figures, as the Crucible is/was seen as "devolution"; what came before land-dwellers? Sea-dwellers. Edit: To add to this, it seems Radagon had some ability to dip into and control the Crucible. The Misbegotten enemies are called "Children of Radagon" in the Japanese game files, and in English v1.0, they were "Radagon Chimera". The Misbegotten Warriors also have red hair like him, and multiple are entrusted with legendary weapons, most notably one in a cave in the Consecrated Snowfield that drops the Golden Order Greatsword, and even has a set of unique attacks suggesting it was "taught" how to use the sword properly. So what I'm saying is this all makes me see the Crucible as a catalogue, or a buffet, of aspects of living things. Radagon with some control managed to pick and choose parts and bind them together into what we see as the Misbegotten. Perhaps an attempt to control the Crucible, when Omen babies became more frequent and more of a concern? Idk.
there's a potential that fromsoft reused the character creator preset for the character on the recent promotional artwork. The female Enchanted Knight starting class in the Elden Ring network test has a face similar to the person on the artwork at 1:07
Since we know that the golden rune shaped post things aren't a new grace, I have an idea as to what they actually might be. From the Helphen's Steeple item description: "Greatsword patterned after the black steeple of the Helphen, the lampwood which guides the dead of the spirit world. The lamplight is similar to grace in appearance, only it is said that it can only be seen by those who met their death in battle." We know that the Tarnished died in battle alongside Godfrey so it only makes sense that we should be able to see them, they are similar to grace in appearance, and I believe that the "Lampwood" in the item description is the name of the shadow tree given by the culture of the shadow lands before Marika's arrival. the golden "sap" dripping from the boughs appears to generate light and could be the source of these lamplights. All this only works if you believe the Shadowlands are the spirit realm mentioned in the item description however so this is a bit of a stretch. I also have an idea that somehow the "bodies" on the Blasphemous blade are somehow connected to the imagery shown at the beginning of the trailer with Marika holding the golden strands up, they look incredibly similar so I think they could have been created in similar ways.
Dark Souls 3 also has 30 Songs, DS1 has 29, DS2 has 48 (because of boss filler), Demon's Souls has 24, Bloodborne 31, Sekiro has 50 and their most recent game AC6 has 47. So we could be expecting it to be the size of a whole normal game.
@@ghastlyanarchy1720 I’ve read that the DLC will have its own powerscaling system. Similar to Sekiro after defeating a boss, so since these bosses won’t drop “RUNES” maybe these are revealed after a boss battle.
One thing I noticed in the photo of the new NPC is that her cloak is almost identical to the cloaks worn by the Nox. Both are draped in white and they both have the same golden swirl patterns that run along the edges of the cloak.
ngl i do wish they would get some better audio mixing for these trailers. both this one and the Old Hunters trailers have narration that is completely drowned out by the background music
I saw that also. So the mark of an Empyrean is the closed left eye with a sigil over it. At first I thought it was Miquella but that doesn't make sense. FROM is going out of their way to hide this person's right eye. Why??
If Miquella's traces aren't replacements for graces, then I think they might be the upgrade material for the new leveling system that Miyazaki mentioned
Have enyone else noticed that Melina does use the same clothes as Millicent, and her sisters? Not only that but she also look alike Malenia, and have similar names, and in this game, Lineage takes names very seriously, for example: Godfrey, Godwyn, Godrick. I think you guys get the point, and if you compare, the closest name we have in game to Melina, is indeed Malenia, not only that, the place where you find Melina’s travelling clothes, is in front of an Scarlet Aeonia Flower wich are said to be the source of Malenia’s buds (daughters) and not only that, if you translate bud, one word that appears as suggestion is eye, and if we take a closer look we can almost certainly describe Malenia as eyeless, her eyes have been gone from the scars of the scarlet rot, wich kinda make me belive that her daughters travel the world to see for her, almost as if they were her eyes outside, may she see trough her daughters while she is asleep? I dunno but its a hell of a theory, even more when we remember that Melina has a shut eye, what make me think that both Malenia and her buds were black knifes at some point, that last part could be exagerated but since Malenia is Marika’s descendant, that make her Numen does it not? What if the black knifes that killed Godwyn were Malenia and her daughters back when the haligtree were the erdtree in the land of shadows wich is the past of the lands between? Also Melina said she born in the foot of the Erdtree, and you find her clothes in the Scarlet Aeonia at the foot of the haligtree!
Does anybody think it's possible that radagon is not messmer's father, but that it's the other way around. It would explain why radagon does not like his hair, and it's not crazy to have incest in GGRM lore.
The "rebis" stuff is GRRM. The "Berserk/Griffith" stuff is Miyazaki. Messmer is someone's bastard child of a demon. He may or may not be Marika's. It's possible whomever was sitting in the middle of that burning city is his mother.
i think the amount of promo we’ve gotten is quite generous. they gave us a Game trailer, as well as a CGI trailer, some photos and are being pretty active on social media. DLC drops in three weeks so i wouldn’t be surprised if they went M.I.A for the remainder of that time. all in all, We are so back and ready to feast
What I find interesting about the new Knight(ess) NPC concept art, is that it has two distinct halves, separated by her sword. The right one is llight, while the left one if noticeable dark. Which kinda hints at her having the darker side, imo.
My wife hates Elden Ring and hates most video games…I pretty much only think about theology and concepts like quantum physics metaphysics, etc.(complex subjects). So I think about the concepts of the souls games. I literally am constantly trying to piece together the Elden ring….and I literally have no one to talk to about it…I manage at a hot chicken joint and have pretty much no friends because I work all the f-ckin time….this type of content is my jam. Love your work man!!!!
there is a good chance those runes are still the new sites of grace, before you active them they could look like the base game sites of grace, but ones you active them they show the rune. and a lore reason might be that Miquella is the reason these sites of grace can work in a land without grace. cos like, Miquella already grew their own giant holy tree, who is to say they rnt already creating sites of grace too.
I was 100% into those markers being sites of Miqs rune fragments as soon as I saw them. No reason for Grace to not be in TSLs, it's a part of TLB, just hidden. With the new area images with so much flowing water and erosion it make me think the area might have been more underwater at some time. That or the ships may have been moved inland, nothing looks like a ship port but that's only if they moved over water and not by another mechanism or power.
Need some clarification here! If gold mask didn’t come from the lands between wth did he come from?? Like I’m confused he saw flaw in the golden order but does he know of a better one or ran better at least? And if so where and why??
Also like say Malenia become the new Elden lord, wouldn’t she have to kill Radagon and Marika? And if so wouldn’t Marika have to do the same? But I think gloam eyed queen was her sister and the one who ruled over death so Marika killed her to be “immortal” so what happened to her mom. Unless gloam eyed is her mom who she killed to rise how the other children would idk
@Ziostorm I just had an idea and noticed something. I think the new promo image of a blond knight could be the blind teacher of malenia. I had a closer look and I think that she has her eyes closed in the image and they look a little strange. I think that they could be loyal to malenia and in search of miquella to try to save malenia from the rot, which is why she will follow us to where miquella is but then asks if we’ll join her. Similarly, I also think that the flame that the giants once used and where killed for has some kind of link to messmer. I think that was why the flame was sealed away and why we need it to ‘burn the impenetrable thorns’. One more idea that I had was that maybe messmer is linked to melina and the godskin mother. I think that like radagon and marika messmer has 2 forms. I think that his flam is quite similar to the destine death on Maliketh’s sword. Furthermore, it would explain why she never appears in physical form, wants to burn the erdtree, knows a lot about marika and radagon but is never mentioned and is the one who instructs us to burn the godtree.
i think these runes will serve the same purpose as the sword graveyards in the base game, possibly even summoning an echo of Miquella to talk to, to find out more about what happened. Perhaps in the same way Melina sometimes talks to us by a site of grace.
Since Miquella is Kenneth Haights brother, it makes sense the shadow world is just a reskin of Limgrave in another dimension. Thanks for the analysis! 😊
When Myazaki Say’s around the size of Limgrave, I am assuming he was including Weeping Peninsula and Sioafra River along with Limgrave given how much dlc content needs to cover
The sword that the promo art character is holding also has a cross hatch pattern similiar to the thorns that guard the entrance to the Erdtree, might be a connection to Radagon.
I have a feeling they are similar to the mini trees that when you internet act with foot prints appear along with a guy who comes in and out of being seen. And you follow their footsteps to go fin dungeons or places of interest. So it would make sense that we will be following the actual footsteps of Miquella. Just a thought.
From Pirat_nation tweet SotE leak info : - 4 Legacy Dungeons - previews will be released on June 7 - Map is around the size of Caelid, Liurnia, Mountain top of the giants - To complete DLC in 100% you will need around 70 hours Cheers
I think we will interact with Miquella’s runes coming out of the ground and it will show us a spirit form of him walking in the direction he went. Just like the candles in the main game that lead us to caves.
I am not sure how true this is, but Screen Rant says From Software has confirmed the size of the DLC is 60GB! The base game was 50GB! This ain't no Limgrave...
well, we alrady have those types of pol like runes in the game already it's just not rune-shaped but candle-shaped, and low-level mobs guide you to chests. so I think those runes will either appear before something big or after and it will guide us to an item or it will guide us in the right direction to go with footprints
I'll be "working" from home on Friday 21st + on Monday 24/06 is a national holiday, I've already told my wife to consider me not available for anything 😂
I wonder if by "the size of Limgrave" he was just talking about the area as in how big it looks on the map, we already know SotE will be more dense but depending on the level design what we see on the map could be very misleading if we take verticality, underground areas and other things that aren't visible on the map into account it could make for a way bigger DLC than we expected.
I don't think people realize just how big limgrave actually is. Western limgrave, the stormhills, stormveil castle, eastern limgrave, and the weeping peninsula are all considered to be a part of limgrave as far as the game's code is concerned. And god forbid if Miyazaki is including underground stuff like the parts of nokron and siofra river that are underneath limgrave.
Maybe the leader of the followers could be a summon for mohg fight? I wouldn't mind at all if they gave us an option for "easy mode" on mohg, it would make the process of getting to the DLC from a new build much less tedious
They went went dark and cooked for 2 years on this DLC. Other studios who have done it with their games included ID and Doom Eternal, and Sucker Punch and Ghost of Tsushima. For all we know the DLC could actually be enough to be considered a whole new game, but Miyazaki wanted it to connect to the lands between for story telling purposes, so now we're going to get another 180 hour 1:1 scale world of the lands between, just in the dark realm
