It is no secret that I am a Soulsborne enjoyer. I have played and platinumed all of the From Software action RPG series, on multiple platforms, and I imagine I will play and platinum whatever they come out with next with excitement. When Elden Ring came out, I had a great time with its open-world take on the series formula and I enjoyed it enough to play it through twice, on PS5 and then again on PS4 for that beautiful double platinum. I was admittedly, a little disappointed when the DLC I had been looking forward to, Shadow of the Erdtree, was revealed to have no additional trophies. Still, I wasn’t going to not play it just because of that, so here we are, with the first of my Not-Platinum Reviews, so let’s jump straight back into the Lands Between, and see how I enjoyed Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree.
It has been a long 27 months, since I last played Elden Ring, but it did not take long to get back into the groove of things as I entered the Land of Shadow and began to explore the massive area From Software created for the DLC. My first discovery was a small mausoleum, not far from the starting point and my first boss experience of the DLC.
I am not the world’s best Souls player, not by a long shot but I consider myself an adequate player but I got absolutely wrecked by this guy. At first, I thought it was just me being rusty, but as I died again and again and again to this guy, I realised I must be missing something, or this was a trap boss meant to kick you in the arse, similar to the Tree Sentinel that waits for you outside the starting cavern in the base game. It was shortly after this I learned of the additional levelling system the DLC introduces. There are collectable items, that you can find and use to upgrade your abilities while in the DLC’s Land of Shadow. As you find and use these at sites of grace, your damage output and defences go up. Without these you will find yourself almost as if you were starting from scratch, a poor low-level maidenless tarnished, at the mercy of the world around you.
This is an interesting mechanic and I do appreciate how it discourages people from overlevelling in the base game to trivialise the challenges of the DLC. I do however have some gripes with the manner in which you obtain these items. Shadow of the Erdtree is a surprisingly expansive map. It may not look like much when compared to the map of the base game, but its size is deceptive, hidden under layers, with entire swathes of the map being covered by other areas that tower above you. With a map so large the game needs reasons to get you to explore and the main reason are these upgrades.
Weapons, Spells, Summons and Ashes of War are mostly the rewards given for dungeons and bosses but these fragments are just there, lying about the place. The majority of them are just scattered around Sites of Grace that are near large golden crosses. There are 55 of these that upgrade your Damage and Defense and a further 25 Spirit Ashes that upgrade your Summons. These upgrades are so integral to your progress through the DLC that a lot of the time I would be running around just looking for sites of grace, or shadowy men holding pots to see if they had any I had missed. It was strange but forcing me to explore the game this way, actually made me disconnect with the fun I had exploring the Lands Between.
In the base game, searching areas was exciting because you didn’t know what to find. Maybe you would find a cave with a weapon inside, maybe you would find a bunch of enemies crowded around a glowing item that would turn out to be a Summon or new Weapon ability. But in the Shadow Lands, I found myself pretty much ignoring everything that didn’t have a purple glow to it. It was great when I found a hidden dungeon or a strange out-of-the-way path to a place I had been trying to get to for ages, but the act of exploring the overworld itself felt rote and repetitive. I knew I had to search for these items so that I could progress but all that meant was I was sprinting around on my horse, ignoring enemies. I think I would have preferred it if there had been less of these upgrade materials, but they were locked behind bosses in the overworld. There are tons of dragons in the DLC and even a few demihuman queens you can find while roaming around outside. Why did these or the giant walking lanterns not drop the upgrade materials, to make them more interesting than just going somewhere to pick something up?
The Shadow Lands are great visually though, with some incredibly cool-looking areas to find, so at least you do have something to look at while you are running around. The main overworld areas you can travel through are varied and interesting locales, and although the secrets you find may not always feel worth it, there are tonnes of hidden things to find or ledges to fall off of.
I realised as I was playing Shadow of the Erdtree, that as much as I enjoyed Elden Rings’s open world, I think overall it detracts from my enjoyment of the games. I much prefer the more linear experiences with more contained but still explorable areas of Bloodborne or Sekiro, and I think this explains why the times I was having the most fun in the DLC were in its main dungeon areas. Labyrinthine castles that loop back on themselves, secret entrances and shortcuts, are the things I love about these games, and Shadow of the Edtrees dungeons are no exception. Although there are only 3 of these “Legacy Dungeons” they are all incredibly different and exciting to explore. Although some of the regular dungeons did repeat themselves a bit in their design choices, they still felt interesting and challenging to progress through.
At the end of all of these dungeons though, are the main reason I love these games, the Boss Fights. Much like the base game, Shadow of the Erdtree is a bit of a mixed bag when it comes to this, and I imagine a lot of this comes from personal taste in boss fights and mechanics. There are a couple of bosses who I think could be all-time greats for the series, and there are others who push the line between challenging but fair, and too far towards not being fun. There is a rush that comes from learning a boss’s moveset, and finally putting them down after dying a handful of times, it is the main draw of the series as far as I am concerned. When you die to Father Gascoigne in Bloodborne, or the Sword Saint in Sekiro, you can sit back, and see what mistakes you made, try and learn from them. Far too often in Shadow of the Erdtree did I get clipped or grabbed by something I had dodged behind, as the boss twisted itself mid-air to catch me. Maybe I’m just getting older, maybe I’ve reached my limit for difficulty but some bosses felt decisively un-fun for me. And it’s a real shame when compared the some of the other bosses being absolutely incredible.
Overall, it’s difficult to say how I feel about the Shadow of the Erdtree DLC. When it’s good, it’s really good but in between those moments, aimlessly exploring hoping to find a glowing shard, or getting hit by something you couldn’t even see because there is so much white light going off around you that you didn’t even realise an attack was coming, it left me feeling a bit unsure. Overall I think the DLC is good, and I would still recommend it if you enjoyed the base game, it’s just for me, I would like From Software to return to its more linear experiences.
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