Games Inbox: Is Shadow Of The Erdtree worth playing?

The Friday letters page is not surprised smartphone owners don’t want to pay full-price for games, as one reader tries to imagine an Elden Ring movie.

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Ring out
I’ve just completed Shadow Of The Erdtree and to be honest I have mixed feelings. There’s definitely a lot to it, so I’d say that value for money is not an issue, but I can’t say I particularly enjoyed it, especially the second half. It feels a lot more haphazard than Elden Ring, where one minute things are surprisingly easy and then the next they’re impossibly difficult, for no obvious reason.

For me, the bosses are also a disappointment. Too many of them act completely unpredictably and while you probably could learn all their moves and tells it would take forever and I just lost the will after the 50th death from one of them suddenly reversing direction in midair (I’m trying to avoid spoilers). So I just called in some cooperators and got them to do it for me.

I’ve also kind of had enough of the endless castle dungeons and especially the catacombs, which just seem to be made up of the same parts of levels as the main game. I’d rather just not have these, if they’re going to be so repetitive. I feel like the game has got too bloated and too unfair with the DLC and I’m not sure I’d even say it’s worth playing for ordinary fans. Better to keep your good memories of the original I’d say.
Symas

Transcending history and the world
Interesting to hear about what happened to Soulcalibur, even if the unexciting answer is office politics. To me, it still feels like the series peaked with the second one and it’s never known what to do with itself since. I’d say its fairly obvious though: make sure the story mode is top notch (weirdly they never seem to prioritise this anymore), make sure it doesn’t play like Tekken, and make sure Link is playable in the Nintendo version.

As a weapons-based fighter Soulcalibur should feel really unique but the last one didn’t. It just felt cheap and half-hearted. They’ve also got to lean into the cheese. The intro for Soul Blade is still the best thing ever and yet they’ve never done anything like it again. I’ve not much faith they ever will either.
Grant

Pure cinema
I could see an Elden Ring movie working in terms of they could get someone to create something with a similar look and feel but as to what it would be about… I can’t see how they could get across the same story. Or rather the problem is there is no story. There’s lots and lots (and lots) of lore but the plot is: Tarnished kills all the demigods. That’s literally it. He never talks to them, and they don’t really talk to him, everything is just action.

I think Elden Ring is too much of a pure video game to work as a movie. Apart from copying the visuals there’s just nothing to adapt that would make sense in a two hour story. You can just make up a story and characters, which is what they would’ve done 20 years or so ago but I don’t really see that happening. Maybe just make an original movie that looks a bit like it?
Loughton

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It gets harder
In reply to the comments about not finding the Elden Ring DLC too punishing after 10 hours gameplay.

Will be interesting to hear your thoughts on difficulty after a few bosses. Out of the eight or so bosses (including optional ones) I’ve fought so far, only one was stupidly easy. One I’ve had to skip completely. I am a big Dark Souls fan and have always been on the ‘git gud’ side of the should it have an easy mode difficulty; but other than Melenia, I’ve never struggled so much before. I am New Game+ (and older), so maybe that’s a contributing factor.
Adam

Summer games drought
How is everybody handling the heat? I know it will have probably cooled a little if and when this gets published (well, at least here in central England) but it’s still damn hot. Given my relentless advance into what can be generously called middle age, it does not take long to drain my mental faculties.

The heat makes that many times worse and haven’t played a console game in four days now. I’ve spent a little time on mobile time wasters, but that is it. No serious play sessions. I just haven’t wanted to do anything in this weather except slowly bake to death, my life saved only by my noisy fan and a very open window.

Is this just me? Are any other readers managing to get a few hours in at a time or is that just a pipe dream until things cool down?
DMR

Too hot to handle
Not surprised in the slightest that not many copies of Resident Evil 4 and Assassin’s Creed Mirage are being sold on mobile. However, I don’t just think it’s the price and need for a high-end phone.

I’ve seriously considered buying Divinity: Original Sin 2 on my iPad, but one of the main complaints in the reviews is not the quality, which appears to be outstanding, but the memory requirements and it turns your iPad into a miniature furnace.

As I understand it, Resident Evil 4 was definitely overheating iPhones, to the point where they couldn’t be touched, and the install size was so large that, on a smaller memory phone of 128GB, it would occupy over half the onboard storage!

You can easily contrast that with the console or PC experience, where such constraints are meaningless and the capability to get the best from the game is easy.

Beyond that, you did correctly identify the price, which, because it’s an in-app purchase, means you can’t install it on more than one device you own at once, as far as I’m aware, and the price very rarely gets reduced, unlike other online stores.

Thanks for the developers’ efforts, and it’s great to see such quality coming to mobile devices though. It bodes well for the future that the devices can reach for the skies.
ZiPPi

Cooking guide
So, Capcom announced they are doing a Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster. Not sure if this guide will be compatible with it but it is compatible with Dead Rising for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One and is a food list with all possible combinations listed by result.

The trailer does look good however the voice actor for Frank is different.
gaz be rotten (gamertag)

Nintendo logic
The Luigi’s Mansion 2 HD review did remind me about how infuriating Nintendo can be, especially when it comes to their back catalogue. Not only with its insane pricing (lest we forget Metroid Prime Remastered was released at only £39.99) of these things but with what it selects to put out.

Luigi’s Mansion is a fun little franchise, sure, and the sequel is a good game in its own right, but who was asking for this when the third game that improves every facet of the experience exists and can be picked up much cheaper? Then, as revealed, in the Nintendo Direct we’ve got another re-release of Donkey Kong Country Returns… again, who ordered that? These feel like training exercises for all those new developers they’ve hired/bought.

As we move into the end game for the Switch, I was sure we’d see the stone cold Nintendo classics from the GameCube onwards being steadily dropped on it, from the big hitters of Mario and Zelda to some of the more cult classics like F-Zero GX. Yet they’re all MIA and now unlikely before the new machine appears. Here’s a free idea for Doug Bowser, if he’s a reader… Super Mario Galaxy 1+2 HD, it’s likely sell a truck load and you’ve already done half the work, it’s sitting on a hard drive somewhere in Kyoto. I’ll happily give you 50 quid for that one.

I wonder if Nintendo are actually warming up a bigger upgrade for these classics for the Switch 2? I can see the logic if they’re working up Zelda: The Wind Waker and Twilight Princess for a beefier 4K remaster job for the next console, a true follow-up to Tears of the Kingdom is likely a long way off, after all. Switch 2 could also be the reason the 3D Mario ports haven’t (re)appeared. If the new machine is going to launch with a new entry then putting out a port of the aforementioned classics on the original Switch months before might be a noisy distraction and invite comparison.
Marc

GC: Actually, Metroid Prime Remastered was £34.99 at launch. By coincidence, it’s currently £24.49 until the end of the month, which is an absolute steal. But you’re right, some of this is baffling. Although we do suspect the Donkey Kong remasters are an attempt to raise his profile before a new game.

Inbox also-rans
Nintendo did not almost call Donkey Kong, Kong Dong. No way. Just no way. That’s like calling the president of Nintendo Bowser. Oh, wait…
Julian

I would love to hear from someone that decided to spend the same amount of money buying Assassin’s Creed Mirage on smartphone as they would’ve paid on consoles. Did you feel it was worth it?
Soapbox bandit

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The small print
New Inbox updates appear every weekday morning, with special Hot Topic Inboxes at the weekend. Readers’ letters are used on merit and may be edited for length and content.

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