Call and Response: Belurat Tower Settlement Roundtable
Added 2024-08-01 21:41:19 +0000 UTCHey folks! It’s time to write in for the first Roundtable Roundtable episode of the new season of Bonfireside Chat. The way to do that is to leave a comment on this post.
We’re looking for your thoughts on the Gravesite Plain region (anything on the near side of the great bridge) and the Belurat, Tower Settlement legacy dungeon. We prefer responses that are specific, and concise (about two paragraphs).
The plan is to record this episode next week, but it might slip into the week after because of guest scheduling. So, write in soon!
Once again, leave a comment on this post with your thoughts (if you submit it elsewhere we won’t use it).
Comments
I wanted to maximize discovery and wonder my first time through the DLC and took a very long time taking in the initial sights and sounds of Gravesite Plains. I stopped at the edge of every cliff and stared off into the distance, just trying to imagine what might be over there. I took the first couple of hours so slowly that I barely encountered any enemies, mostly animals, and the lack of incident was super unnerving in the best way. My favorite example of "It's quiet. Too quiet." That feeling went away once I got into the actual areas, but a very memorable experience.
Jared Mogen
2024-08-11 16:22:20 +0000 UTCI rolled into the DLC with two of my favorite weapons doing Holy damage (Envoy Long Horn and power stanced Miquellan Knight’s Swords). The weapons are so cool I kept them regardless but we know most late game bosses resist them. Finding out Holy damage is actually super powerful in the DLC felt like Holy Redemption. I win at last, Gary!
Jayveethree
2024-08-08 13:46:09 +0000 UTCAhhhh that makes sense… having no internet when I started the DLC meant no wiki for me either 😂 I didn’t even know that was added, I just rushed the teleporter. Thanks!
ZACHARY DIAMOND
2024-08-07 04:34:34 +0000 UTCI wholly agree with Gary when he makes the point that difficulty increasing in From games seems to solely be increasing aggression and decreasing windows of attack. I’m not a huge boss enjoyer as it is, I almost exclusively summon players to help (or at least a summon ash), but the Dancing Lion being the first major-ish boss I encountered made me think “are they all going to be like this?” Despite this, I still thoroughly enjoyed exploring areas solo and crawling through dungeons with meticulous care and patience.
MIKEISTKRIEG
2024-08-07 00:43:03 +0000 UTCThe Gravesite Plain is gorgeously understated, tranquil yet eerie, and is a nice microcosm of how absurdly layered & dense this DLC is. Belurat feels concise; a Legacy Dungeon pared back to essentials, subtlely distinct in aesthetic from what we've seen in the LB but ultimately a bit lacking in character beyond more layering. And it contains my nemesis, the Horned Warrior, whose various flavours of infinite-poise motherfuckery gave me more trouble than any boss. The main thing I liked about Belurat was getting the Poison Spear Hand, which I love but wish was an actual martial arts weapon because Poison Spear Hand sounds like a forbidden technique in an 80s wuxia flick. This DLC has a lot of moments that come off like From revisiting old ideas and trying to refine them, and Belurat has strong Ringed City vibes. Those big buggers with the cleavers strongly recall the Harald Legion Knights, to me. Most else of what I'd have to say at this point through the DLC is mechanical criticism so I'll save it for an episode that might discuss that more directly, and my opinion may change when I go through the current version with another character.
James Lloyd-Jones
2024-08-06 21:51:59 +0000 UTCGlad to be back! Jumping right in, this area includes one of my biggest gripes with the DLC, in that Divine Lion is optional. Won’t get more into it due to spoilers, but not a fan of that decision on FromSoft’s part. On to positives, I adore Belurat/hornsent area design. Very strong echoes of the Golden Order in their heyday, with all of the negative baggage that entails. In general this DLC is gorgeous, but the spiraling designs of the hornsent are something particularly beautiful to me.
Lucas West
2024-08-06 17:10:18 +0000 UTCLove this show. I’m comparatively new to Elden Ring and recently binged your coverage of the base game. The game initially enthralled me in a way that I hadn’t experienced from a game in a long time. I have to say though, the lore component of the DLC left me very frustrated, and some of the baffling decisions made by the writers are pushing me to retroactively alter my very high opinion of the base game. The DLC writing is completely plagued by issues like the second larval tear description you guys brought up. I now think that it’s likely that the promise of the DLC served to conceal some of the very real writing and consistency problems in the base game. A lot of the lore YouTubers laid out a far better and more convincing narrative for the DLC than what we ended up with, which imo feels more like a late season of an anime which has run its course than anything I might imagine GRMM would come up with. It’s looking less likely that Miyazaki and co. laid out a grand mystery for us to solve, and more likely that the writers were just confused and forgot a bunch of stuff. IMO the Elden Ring community has a habit of attributing meaning where there may very well be none at all. There are no lore implications of the new larval tear description - they just fucked up. At least the gameplay and level design slap though lol
dshamz_
2024-08-06 16:35:57 +0000 UTCEntering the Gravesite Plain reminded me of all the reasons I’m obsessed with From games. Obviously the vista is incredible, but nothing beats immediately ignoring the vista to look for cool stuff on the cliff side to only get the piss scared out of me by a random bird sound and quickly die 5 times to a naked wolverine man. Two perfect ways they tell you this isn’t Kansas-in-the-lands-between anymore.
Nick Sayers
2024-08-06 13:01:01 +0000 UTCPerhaps more relevant to the show: I hate the gold mini-boss-ish guys with the two swords and the mask who wander around Belurat and have infinite poise. It makes me feel so impotent, like I'm slapping them languidly even when I'm hitting them as hard as I can. They'll eventually stagger, so they must not have infinite poise. Maybe they just have infinite hyper armor on even their walking and idle animations.
Micah Tillman
2024-08-06 01:12:06 +0000 UTCAfter thoroughly exploring the gravesite plain as much as I could, and feeling well enough skidoo'd, I could hardly contain my exhilaration exploring Belurat tower for the first time. The art design felt so refined and specific, nothing else in the Lands Between felt like this. I was also getting major Demon's Souls vibes, especially when I fought Queelign. I don't have much to say outside of just gushing, so I won't subject you to generic platitudes. Ahhh... Didn't expect beautiful!
Matthew Kalmus
2024-08-05 18:24:52 +0000 UTCI think most people have mentioned what I would cover so I will focus on how much I loved the energy, appearance and engaging fight with Fire Knight Queelign! He has the trailer dialogue, and his huge speech energy is matched by his fighting style which is direct and intense. He is a really interesting figure in the DLC.
Thomas Wheeler
2024-08-05 07:12:19 +0000 UTCGary, I also had the bird jump scare get me. I found a place where a bunch of those spirit worm/eel things were surrounding a turtle. Surely they were guarding a special boy full of treasure, right? 20 minutes of clearing away those tanky, funky worms annnnd... it's just a regular turtle that dropped neck meat. I think the solitude jail knight is supposed to be just an homage to Berserk, so that's why he's so disconnected from the rest of the DLC
Ken Yuen
2024-08-04 23:56:07 +0000 UTCI'm playing the PS4 version of the game on PS5 (thanks to Digital Foundry for that strat!) because the stutter-y frame pacing with the PS5 version of the game is *still* so bad it makes me ill. However, I'm now on my second time through the DLC and they have fixed the frequent freezes that happened during the dancing lion fight. (Not the spiky hoarfrost stomp freezes that destroy me every time. The console freezes.) So, they know where the worst problems are at least.
Micah Tillman
2024-08-04 16:56:25 +0000 UTCI'm playing offline on PS5 (didn't feel like paying for PSN or whatever) and did the NPC invasion they added in Altus to finish Varre's quest and get to Mohg. (But then I ended up running to the Halig Tree anyway to finish Milicent's quest and get the Rotten Winged Sword Insignia talisman so I could gain power from kicking and punching people real fast.)
Micah Tillman
2024-08-04 16:45:22 +0000 UTCI noticed that when you spawn into the DLC, the canyon looks a lot like the spawn point for the Cemetery of Ash at the start of DS3. Even down to one of the trees hanging over the edge. This feels like a small call back and is the best way to honor their previous work without having another sequel.
Quin Tutor
2024-08-04 02:23:28 +0000 UTCThis surprising since a previous update of the game added in NPC invasions so Varre’s quest could be don’t offline. My comment about the portal being in the middle of nowhere is that there are red flowers subtlety guiding you from the Liturgical town to the portal. Definitely easy to miss but a really nice detail for the kidnap (mindnap?) route!
Quin Tutor
2024-08-04 02:21:57 +0000 UTCThe first time I played through the base game of Elden Ring, I beelined straight to Stormveil and spent the first three or four hours of my playthrough getting beaten into the ground by Margit until I finally beat him. So, I figured, why not start the DLC off the same way! As soon as I arrived in the Gravesite Plain, I headed straight for the nearest place of interest, which happened to be the Western Nameless Mausoleum, home of the Blackgaol Knight. This went about as well as my fights with Margit, but when I finally managed to beat him after two hours of learning parry timings, there was only one thing in my mind: it's good to be back. Did either of you have a similar feeling about a moment early on in the DLC - if so, what was it?
Lena Harty
2024-08-03 23:03:42 +0000 UTCHi there! One note on the two ways to access Mohgwyn Palace, which you discussed in one of the earlier DLC episodes. While I fully agree that completing Varré’s quest and using the medallion to access the palace is much more fulfilling and interesting narratively, to my knowledge it does require online play. I’ll spare you the details, but due to travel this summer I played the entire DLC and my accompanying base-game playthrough offline (Steam Deck for the win), and using the teleport gate in the Consecrated Snowfield was the only way to access Mohg and, thus, the DLC. It may just be a gameplay consideration for offline players.
ZACHARY DIAMOND
2024-08-03 21:05:00 +0000 UTCMy first time coming to Belurat I fully explored it got confused by locked doors and beat that dancing lion. Then came back in mid game found my keys and Grammy made me delicious stew (love u gram gram). And yet it felt like I was still missing so much but couldn’t figure out how to get there. Come to find out hours upon hours later I was and found it to be great surprise I love this level and the exploration here has a great payoff the aesthetics feel like I’m walking through an ancient Mesopotamian city and that is a peak feeling.
Hurin
2024-08-03 17:44:02 +0000 UTCHi there! Long time caller, first time listener. Oh no! I messed it up! ...Anyway. I really liked Belurat for how much of a unique palette it brings to the game - the kind of "opulent desert palace" vibe feels pretty new for Elden Ring and Souls in general. If anything, it reminds me of a really neat Vaati project where he collaborated with a few different fanartists to come up with pitches for a Bloodborne 2. One of the most memorable ideas was a "The Mummy"-flavoured setting with its own scorpion monsters and various incense burners to act as the obligatory FromSoft heaps of ornate scenery (you know, the local astrolabe equivalent). Belurat ends up feeling like a mashup of that setting with a lot of really striking South Asian visual motifs. It's something I wish the DLC did a little more, actually - some later areas do feel quite unique in terms of their setting and aesthetics, but this felt like a very clever way to do a "castle level" without it feeling too familiar. It leads into the callback to the Monumentals really nicely as well, since they feel right at home next to the intricate statuary and architecture!
aegirocassis
2024-08-03 11:41:46 +0000 UTCSomething I wanted to call out is that so far with my experience playing the dlc I have found that exploring the areas multiple times has been a very rewarding experience, more so than in the base game in my perspective. The areas are dense with tasty treats in a way that extends further than I have found in previous entries in the series. The “maybe I can mess with that thing to get something” question comes up with yes as an answer more often than ever, and I think this is a great strength of the dlc. Playing through the base game again to get back to the dlc for a second run through feels like it will not have lost its lustre as much as I have felt it does in previous games, and I am happy for it. Its DENSE.
Jakob
2024-08-03 08:49:22 +0000 UTCThat opening vista when you come out from the dank cave and look across the desaturated field of ghostly gravestones, catching your first glimpse of the Scadutree, is a moment from this game that I will never forget. Elden Ring consistently manages to peak my desire to explore and investigate new areas within that first second with a carefully curated shot of the landscape which helps locate you within the world right away. Listening to BSC I know you guys love a good FROMSOFT vista so I wanted to see how the DLCs opening establishing shot of the area holds up for you guys when compared to the likes of coming out of the tutorial cave or even climbing that first ladder in Bloodborne? Side question: is there a favourite fucked up little dude/guy for the area?
•i s a a c•
2024-08-02 23:28:30 +0000 UTCagreed! 🙏
Goldie
2024-08-02 22:30:39 +0000 UTCI love Furnace Golems!! Coming up the hill and seeing the first one lumbering in the distance, framed by the arch of the Scorched Ruins and the dusky tendrils of the Scadutree, was a very intense "OH SHIT" moment for me. I really like Elden Ring's horseback combat (huzzah for finally getting that Elden Beast patch!!), and this was one of my favourite enemies in the DLC to gallop against - once you get under their feet, the Golems are limited to mostly just stomping, which is slow and telegraphed clearly, and I find this so refreshing when everything else is such a blistering attack on the senses. They have an obscene health pool, but with Adula's Moonblade and Torrent's double jump, they are they perfect enemy to engage for a chunky boxing match while listening to an episode of Unfilmable!
Tom Young
2024-08-02 20:19:37 +0000 UTCLets talk about the spectral gravestones and swaying grass. At first I loved the atmosphere…but it soon became an annoyance, making me think I saw an item or landmark in the periphery every few seconds (nope just another translucent crucifix, just another mushroom of the exact same color). Did anyone else have a harder time surveying things in the distance in this section, or is my eyesight just worse since the base game came out? Also, didn’t kill a furnace golem, never will. Gave it two tries, refuse to do a third.
CarlStarl
2024-08-02 15:30:39 +0000 UTCSomething that blew my mind was meeting the Hornsent Grandham in Bellurat Tower Settlement. Nothing seemed particularly interesting at the time, that is until I opened the map. The map marker indicating where she is refers to her as the Empyrean Grandham! It was fascinating to see that title applied to someone other than Marika's Demi-God children. Secondly, something off topic but something I wanted to ask nonetheless. What do you think From will do next to take a spin on the Souls formula? Personally, I would love to see From's take on a party system. Especially after SOTE and getting to meet our f'd up gang of goons. Thanks guys! Edit: Just found out my big mind-blowing discovery was likely a mistake as the word Empyrean has been removed from the Hornsent Grandam and Watchful Spirits item description. Oh god! I just got SCHOLARED! Keep up the good work gentlemen.
Taylor Osbourne
2024-08-02 14:49:36 +0000 UTCWhat instantly struck me about the Gravesite Plain was atmosphere. Elden Ring’s varied and beautiful locales tend more toward the high fantasy and colorful side than the older Souls games, with some exceptions. This was like emerging into an open world version of a Demon’s Souls level - unrelentingly bleak, as if you could explore the Latrian countryside. All dirt roads, despondent villages and afflicted smallfolk with the tower looming grimly above. Still starkly beautiful in its own way but well and thoroughly downcast, like coming home to an old school Souls atmosphere. I’m glad the DLC still had its share of colorful, pretty areas later on (and what areas they are), but Gravesite Plain and Scadu Altus were such a good complement to the base game’s biomes. Their inclusion made Elden Ring even more complete and well-rounded than it already was.
Joacim Tornéus
2024-08-02 12:55:26 +0000 UTCEarly on in the Elden Ring season, Gary went off on people for leaving the message 'Why is it always weak foe?' by angrily saying "No, it's not ALWAYS weak foe!" This phrase stuck itself in my mind, so that EVERY TIME I read a message using that template I would hear Gary going "No, It's not ALWAYS gorgeous view!" "It's not ALWAYS sadness!" and so on throughout the ENTIRE game. I am happy to report that this is still happening in the DLC.
SindrElf
2024-08-02 09:26:27 +0000 UTCMy only question about the plain is what the hell is up with those screeching owls?
Gary Pryor
2024-08-02 09:24:53 +0000 UTCThis area has one of my favourite things in Souls games: enemies getting their revenge on you. I was convinced that the shadow hollows became stronger every time the player killed one of their helpless brethren in Gravesite Plain and would therefore punish you somewhere down the line. It’s a shame this doesn’t seem to be literally true but the fellas smiting you from above certainly felt like it.
Duncan Geddes
2024-08-02 08:25:42 +0000 UTCI really have to give credit to the music in these first areas. I feel like they really stepped up from the base game here. Gravesite plains sounds great, and the dancing lion is a real treat. What I really wanna talk about is Belurat, which to me, has the best ambient music in the game. It really has a tragic and haunted feel, while also strangely optimistic. Goes so well along with the sight of the shadow undead walking down the streets. I’m no expert and it’s hard to describe the feeling I get walking into the settlement, but it is powerful.
Eirik Paulsen
2024-08-02 07:02:57 +0000 UTCLove the part when it transitions into its second phase
BAAAAAARNES
2024-08-02 04:52:55 +0000 UTCBelurat is the tower we’ve all been thinking of ever since Quelaag brought up the Tower of Babel theory. My biggest question about this place is did they have Misbegotten? The Omen-embraced culture stands as a stark contrast to Leyndell and its sewers. Also this places feels older while still just as magnificent. Now my only other question is; did the tower or the settlement come first??
Mateus Silva
2024-08-02 03:09:20 +0000 UTCJohnson Darksoul has done it again.
Soulful Bison
2024-08-02 02:06:02 +0000 UTCThe boss I fought in the Land of Shadow was the Black Gaol Knight. I bounced off him for quite some time. I was glad to go through because he taught me one of the gimmicks a lot of npc fights have in the DLC. Weapon skills typically have follow-up attacks that you need to anticipate. The next big revelation for me was how quickly they turned the living jar lore into a worse horror story than it initially seemed. The way this ties into later reveals was truly incredible to me. But at this point I was weaving this head-canon that there was a perversion of the living jars we saw in the base game. Like instead of using the corpses of warriors to make animate warrior jars they were forcing living people into a concoction that came out wrong. It definitely added some great atmosphere to the dungeons they appeared in.
Chris Blanchette
2024-08-02 00:10:50 +0000 UTCI went into the DLC with my character who had been waiting, untouched, since I finished the game back in 2022. I was doing fine, slicing up regular enemies no bother. Then I found the Gaol Knight. I bumped my head against him for a day or two, and by the end I had remembered how to play Elden Ring! From that point on, I pretty comfortably fought my way through the game, with the only other significant wall being the final boss.
Luke Summerhayes, visionary host of the excellent Game Game Show podcast
2024-08-01 23:37:56 +0000 UTCOne thing I noticed right away about the Gravesite Plain was that all of the animals in the tall grass make target locking to look for enemies almost impossible. I missed when the curseblade jumped down from the arch, for me; he jumped me from behind out of the grass. From then on, I was terrified of what I might be locking on to, hiding in the grass.
Nathan Huisman
2024-08-01 23:06:35 +0000 UTCBelurat, Tower Settlement struck me as a much improved iteration of The Ringed City, this time around with a lot more verticality and exploration baked into the level design, whereas The Ring City was disappointingly linear. When I stepped out to that first vista looking down on the Ringed City, I was sure I'd be in for some roof hopping (The Paris Olympics opening ceremony did a better job), but not only did Belurat expand on the traversal suggest by these dense cities, it also called back to some of the visuals from TRC. The swamp full of Man-Flies where you encounter the Lesser Ulcerated Tree Spirit almost seemed to explicitly call back to the swamp/locust area in TRC, and even the traversal is mirrored. This time, instead of descending down a massive ringed wall into a dense city sinking into an abyss, you start in a swampy city scape and climb your way up to the ringed wall of Enir-Ilim. Curious if you got similar vibes and if you can think of other areas in the series that seemed like explicit iterations on areas from past games. Love the show!
Noah Hermansen
2024-08-01 22:52:50 +0000 UTCFurnace golems can lick my entire bridge. Seeing the inside of a living jar crawl out and approach me had me grinning from ear to ear. I’ve been joking with my buddy about wanting to know what was inside of them for so long, and it turns out that maybe I didn’t really want to know. It felt so great to get kick my ass kicked by a boss again (looking at you, Blackgaol Knight). Difficulty is integral to my love of these games. Mostly, it just feels so good to be back in the world of Elden Ring!
Bradley James Ward
2024-08-01 22:46:51 +0000 UTCSo, don't know if you guys saw, but there's a guy in the woods in Gravesite Plain that sort of looks like Wolverine, and basically is Wolverine. I think his name is 'Logur the Beast Claw', which is funny, because isn't Wolverine's real name Logan? Those names are almost the same! What a coinkidink.
Matthew Bennett
2024-08-01 22:23:36 +0000 UTCAn incredible introduction to legacy dungeons for the DLC. The atmosphere takes me back to the devastated locales of the undead settlements in the original Souls trilogy. Before they wear -out their welcome, the shadow folk are a chilling echo of Mesmer's brutal crusade. I felt pity as I cut them down while treading over their ruined lives and loved ones. I really wish From had stopped using them elsewhere as they don't make sense that these victims of Marika's wrath would be hanging around their murderers in later areas. However, the Dancing Lion makes up for that shortcoming. I was absolutely giddy during the opening cutscene as this ruined relic came back to life to give us one last performance.
Mike G
2024-08-01 22:16:54 +0000 UTCAgreed - Gary and Kole, y’all gotta cut it in to the ep when you get to that section of the discussion!
Aaron
2024-08-01 22:11:36 +0000 UTCFinding the Blackgaol Knight and thinking this would be another simple “2 EZ” miniboss for my OP endgame character and ending up fighting him 15+ times before eventually summoning some strangers for help, which still took another 3 attempts was such a humbling and welcome experience after cruising through the end of the base game. I’m a little baby scrub again and I LOVE it.
Brian Levy
2024-08-01 22:06:51 +0000 UTCThis applies to any part of the game: I know you guys aren’t PVP guys, but I enjoy the Souls Games with a dedicated co op crew, and now that I’ve beaten the DLC twice, enjoy invading. There’s a sub called r/badredman for invaders and they are going nuts about how unfair they feel invading is for the invaders in this game. As folks who don’t enjoy this aspect of the community, do you think there’s *any* validity or any line that shouldn’t favor the host up to a point? Would you (heart of hearts) like to see a Souls with no invasion mechanic?
Scott Pomykalski
2024-08-01 22:03:00 +0000 UTCI just want to say that the dancing lion boss theme goes hard as fuck.
Matt DiTomaso
2024-08-01 21:57:10 +0000 UTCBelurat ranks up there with some of my favorite From areas and, in particular, reminds me of Central Yarnham. The gravesite plain was fine, but was fairly empty and devoid of incident. Reaching Belurat brought me into a creepy city full of verticality, diverticula, and danger that immediately confirmed that this DLC was going to be solid and interesting. But the masterstroke for me was discovering the way that the area was interconnected to another far later in the game really brought home why From is the best at design. For me this was a perfect encapsulation of what they do, from the unnerving boss cut scene, to bringing in a key NPC summon, to weird kitchen lady. This was a fantastic way to kick off the DLC.
Doug Lief
2024-08-01 21:51:10 +0000 UTCI loved the Balurat dungeon as a whole. As the first “major” location in the DLC, the Settlement does a great job of presenting its own flavor to the world that we hadn’t really seen in the base game. I wanted to specifically call out the boss design. When the DLC came out last month, a lot of folks online really hated the Divine Beast Dancing Lion fight. Personally, I loved the design; specifically, the Chinese festival influences that come through in both its visual design and soundtrack (I’ve listened to the soundtrack on YouTube so much - it’s so good!).
Aaron
2024-08-01 21:49:59 +0000 UTC
