All images courtesy of Bandai Namco
Elden Ring’s DLC, Shadow of the Erdtree, was recently released to critical acclaim. Now that fans have had some time to experience the Shadowlands and all of the new content, I want to take a step back and look at what it does great and how I think it could be even better.
After rumors started spreading that Shadow of the Erdtree was the combination of two DLCs that FromSoftware had in the works for Elden Ring, gamers began expecting a massive scope and a lot of content; for the most part, it delivered. Shadow of the Erdtree was released to ten out of tens from most major gaming outlets.
The DLC, for myself and many others, was able to recapture the special experience of exploring an unknown world and uncovering its secrets that so many players loved about the base game. The different zones of the Shadowlands bring striking visuals and a rich atmosphere, and each was capped off with a boss that is thematically tied to their respective area.
Although the map is huge in and of itself, it is still dwarfed by the base game’s map. Because of this, items are tightly packed into each area, and you will often find new weapons, armor sets and other trinkets. This makes exploring feel satisfying as you are amply rewarded for your curiosity.
There are also many more opportunities for players to directly experience the lore and stories of the characters you meet in the Shadowlands through their dialogue. If you have ever watched a VaatiVidya video on YouTube, you would know how good, yet convoluted, and hard to uncover the lore of FromSoftware’s games is. The characters, for the most part, speak less cryptically than in projects past.
Speaking of those NPCs, all of the new characters introduced in Shadow of the Erdtree have a lot of depth, and many have direct ties to the base game, too. Seeing some of the unfinished storylines from the base game get a satisfying ending was very fulfilling.
The newly introduced Scadutree fragments, which provide a secondary method of strengthening your character in addition to leveling up, were fun to find. Fragments provide a noticeable increase in damage and survivability but only affect DLC content.
After completing the DLC twice and spending roughly 60 hours with it, I can say that Shadow of the Erdtree builds greatly on the concepts explored in the base game, but there are still things I think it can improve on. While many of the individual stories have complete endings, the overall experience left me feeling kind of empty.
After finishing the DLC for the first time, I rushed through the base game on that save in hopes of a new ending option, only to be disappointed. On top of that, after defeating what I and many others consider the hardest boss FromSoftware has ever created and the final boss of the DLC, players were simply awarded with a 30-second cutscene that provides little to no obvious story implications or new information.
Additionally, while the areas of the Shadowlands are impressive, the enemies occupying those areas were often disappointing. Many familiar faces (and fingers) from the base game reappear in the DLC, removing some of the unexpectedness that makes exploring so exciting. However, the newly introduced enemies are great and thematically linked to the areas you find them in.
I believe that missable quest lines damage a player’s experience, especially on a blind playthrough. While that aspect of NPC quests remains in Shadow of the Erdtree, I naturally ran into characters I had previously met while advancing throughout the game. This made it easier to tell I was on the right track, but I still needed to consult a guide to progress some storylines.
Finally, let’s talk about the bosses. The spectacle and challenge players are used to are there and sometimes exceeds the base game. Furthermore, many of the main, or remembrance, bosses build on the lore and other characters of the base game. The side bosses in the newly introduced mausoleums and gaols felt underwhelming at times, but made up for it in the rewards they gave.
The boss AI also feels more punishing, and attacks, especially at the start, hit very hard. You will have to master each boss’s move set before you can take them down. Even on my high-level character with all of the Scadutree fragments found, I struggled on a second playthrough.
Shadow of the Erdtree expands on the base game’s story, supplying new insights and capping off unfinished stories while posing just as many questions. The DLC provides players with the same sense of exploration and curiosity that the base game did so well while offering new and exciting bosses that earn the DLC a $40 price tag.
Despite these triumphs, some aspects of Shadow of the Erdtree, such as the lack of a satisfying conclusion and the reuse of some base game enemies make it hard for me to give it a perfect score.
