Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree Review

Fifteen years feels like a long time to be trapped in this endless cycle of life and death.

Yet that’s how long FromSoftware’s abyss of grueling, rewarding games have been in my life. I’ve been there since Demon’s Souls on PlayStation 3. But it took me awhile to adapt to the emergent genre that has taken to flooding every gaming event like a murderous deluge.

You see, there was a point where upon an enemy shaving off the last fragments of my health bar I would rush to the back of my PS3 and flip the manual power button. Maybe I would clutch onto life before the auto-save snatched it away. How pathetic.

My insanity to delay the inevitable could have resulted in actual damage to my console, or, at the very least, a corrupted save file that would erase any progress I had made. Of course, I understood that death was a part of Demon’s Souls. I followed the game with devotion when Japanese streamers created a buzz and importers paved the way for the rest of us. However, I did beat it eventually, working through my own madness to be okay with the infrequent loss of progress.

By the time Bloodborne came around, there was a sense of acclimation to FromSoftware’s algebra. There was a certain thrill and a distinct agony at playing a FromSoftware game before everyone else during my Bloodborne review period. The secrets would be for me and a scant few others. All boss fights I accomplished solo because I could never find another player to summon into my world. To this day, it’s one of my few badges of honor. And when the time came to do the same for The Old Hunters DLC, I felt true defeat when unable to best Ludwig, worried that I would need to play on a save that wasn’t crawling through NG+, exacerbating already difficult content. But with persistence, I eventually overcame the roadblock.

Fundamentally, Elden Ring is a masterpiece of gaming. FromSoftware’s concoction of exploration, challenge, and discovery was a triumph in the open world setting of the Lands Between. It was there ominous enemies roamed, often testing players’ mettle or representing a challenge that could be overcome when more strength or knowledge was earned. Hidden paths would lead to ominous environments that cracked open the game’s extensive lore or posed deeper questions.

For months I avoided looking up information about Elden Ring, not wishing to soften the harrowing journey. My choice to play as a sorcerer was done as a foil to the typical melee builds I had fostered across the Dark Souls franchise. And it wasn’t easy. FromSoftware had created an ocean for players to swim in and explore, one that splintered with possibilities. I would collect countless swords but rarely could find useful spells, yet was afraid to invest too many levels into strength and dexterity. However, I would also find bosses that were weak to magic, chunks of health falling off when hit with a cast of Great Glintstone Shard. I didn’t have to kill everything and could usually run through mobs and dodge roll past traps.

But life happens. And, after about 70 hours, my time with Elden Ring tapered off. I wanted to start a new build and explore the final parts of the world. Yet I never did. And in the back of my mind I thought, “Well even if I beat the game, I’ll have to do it again when the DLC rolls around.”

Sometimes foresight pays off.

I wouldn’t consider my hesitation to complete one of Elden Ring‘s many endings a kind of precognition. More so, I had begun to grow weary of the loop I had found myself in. The constant distance from enemies due to the time it took to cast a spell forced me to play defensively during most boss encounters. I was easily felled in two or three hits by most bosses. And, stubbornly, I didn’t really want to scour the countless dungeons in the game for items to supplement my build. Additionally, I feel like I had missed so many NPC storylines by getting to the Altus Plateau way earlier than intended–though not an indictment of Elden Ring‘s sense of freedom–and lost a kind of North Star on where to go.

And then there was Mohg, Lord of Blood.

Ironically, I had managed to stumble my character all the way to the optional area that contained a boss whose defeat would unlock access to the Shadow of the Erdtree DLC.

In typical FromSoftware fashion, Elden Ring‘s DLC is not accessible through a menu. While not as obtuse as Artorias of the Abyss, Shadow of the Erdtree requires players to beat two bosses: Starscourge Radahn and Mohg, Lord of Blood. Far back in my Elden Ring journey I had beaten Radahn and his insane battle across a bloodstained battlefield. Being relatively easy to access, the Radahn fight struck me as a requirement to finish Elden Ring, while also opening up one of the coolest secrets of the game. Mohg, however, is an entirely optional fight. He is found at the end of a particularly deadly area and is one of the hardest bosses in the game.

By the time I had met Mohg in my original bout with Elden Ring, I was almost level 100 but had no shot against the lumbering brute. Nearly two years later from playing Elden Ring, I was a bit leery of the rust that would need to be knocked off to accomplish what needed to be done.

Nearly ten hours of prep work into my quest, researching intelligence builds that melt Mohg and what items were feasible to access. Plus I spent a bit of time meandering around the many forgotten wonders of Elden Ring, realizing how bad I wanted to start fresh again. But after several dozen attempts, I had acquired a handful of spells and items that allowed me to use Comet Azur right before Mohg went into his second phase, draining his health before he could initiate his HP recovery gimmick.

Ah that uplifting surge of energy that comes with cresting any kind of seemingly impassible hill in a FromSoftware game… there’s nothing like it.

But it is important to understand that Shadow of the Erdtree is not just any DLC, it is endgame content. The internet suggests that Mohg should be tackled at minimum around level 100 but recommends even higher. Despite the fact that this content only requires the defeat of Radahn and Mohg, only the most expert of players are likely going to be playing Shadow of the Erdtree without making significant progress in the Lands Between.

This isn’t to say that FromSoftware has created one of their most prohibitive pieces of DLC yet. But I think even high level players will realize that not only is the point of entry quite high, the ability to progress through Shadow of the Erdtree relies on expert skill or a fundamentally strong understanding of one’s build.

And those, my friends, are not qualities I possess.

Struggling through Shadow of the Erdtree won’t be unique to just myself, it is built into the DNA of Elden Ring. In the base game, most players likely died to the opening boss that is literally meant to kill new players. Most of us probably took a few swipes at the Tree Sentinel in the very beginning of Limgrave just to say we could.

What Elden Ring works to teach players from the very beginning is that exploration and discovery are tantamount to both progression and enjoyment. That same logic applies to Shadow of the Erdtree.

Upon accessing the new content, players step into the Shadow Realm, into a dark cave that opens upon a massive field covered in spectral gravestones. Off in the distance is an ominous tower. Nearby, the inky black visage of some spectral structure hovers in the sky, particles crumbling down to the ground. Just outside the cave’s entrance to the right waits a cliffside revealing a glowing coastline far out of reach.

I hesitated to think that Shadow of the Erdtree could replicate that wonderful awe Elden Ring initially did but doubting FromSoftware so frequently feels like a fool’s errand. Inherently, there is a sense of repetition in the developer’s love for dark fantasy. Gargantuan cathedrals and castles were in the Dark Souls games and they are here as well. Desolate villages, poison swamps, ghostly catacombs, angelic moments of peace. Those frameworks have been recycled a number of times but FromSoftware always manages to make them astoundingly unique.

Often, Shadow of the Erdtree contains many banal areas where the player can spend a good amount of time riding their steed Torrent through plains and forests. Basic fodder enemies roam around to instill a sense of life, not because they pose any sort of challenge. One could argue that these connective tissues are merely “filler” to get to the next interesting thing but I would disagree. Where previous FromSoftware games were designed as tight, interconnected worlds, the structure of Elden Ring allows for a more believable world as a whole. Not every singular inch of land is going to be meaningful and may just be empty to allow the player breathing room to escape from a hairy situation and give themselves space.

Shadow of the Erdtree‘s narrative significance revolves around the quest to understand more about Miquella, an Empyrean and brother to infamous Elden Ring boss Malenia. I do not purport to understand the vast lore tucked away in all the corners of Elden Ring, nor have I done investigative deep dives on YouTube. Often I wish to digest as much as I can by myself, inferring from environmental cues and the scant texts in equipment before one day watching a Vaatividya explanation.

There are several NPCs that players can encounter with little effort in Shadow of the Erdtree, many who deem themselves followers of “Kind Miquella” and walk the path of golden crosses set as markers of the being’s journey. Several explicit pieces of fundamental background and significant occur during Shadow of the Erdtree and I suspect that players who have already uncovered most of what the Lands Between offers will have their knowledge base expanded by what the DLC explains.

In the context of Elden Ring as a whole, Shadow of the Erdtree is not part of the main journey per se. Releasing two years after the main game, there’s an expectation any new information revealed supplements and enhances the end point of Elden Ring‘s narrative. And while I can’t speak to how it wraps anything up with finality, numerous times I stumbled upon a location or heard a term or name and understood why I should have reverence for it. Those frustrations will exist for players who wish to see and do everything in one go, as storylines gave me the impression there were requirements to fully see them through.

Even those who have only a passing engagement with Elden Ring‘s complete story will be unable to ignore the surprising replication of the game’s enchantment at discovering new things. Shadow of the Erdtree relies similarly on players stumbling upon a vista and soaking in all the possibilities. FromSoftware makes a point to hint at or highlight points of interest without the player being comfortable in discerning how they will be accessed.

Where Elden Ring was most often an open field of possibility, branching out into dungeons and and volcanoes, Shadow of the Erdtree happily layers its map through elevation. A simple look over a cliff’s edge shows shocking depth that is initially meant to strike the player as inaccessible. The entry point of the DLC, much like Limgrave, has key branching moments that capitalize on the player’s curiosity, leading to focal points that further offer new avenues of combat and exploration.

The scope and density of this DLC is one that is unfathomably impressive. At multiple points I wondered if I had seen everything, only to find a cavern or a door that led to an entirely new area. Shadow of the Erdtree feels as massive as the first Dark Souls. And while that may be hard to quantify, this new map may provide around a third or half of the content one might find in Elden Ring. It’s an astounding accomplishment because the Shadow Realm is no slouch in terms of Legacy Dungeons and minor locations.

Despite the size, Shadow of the Erdtree isn’t entirely immune from some of the minor flaws Elden Ring had. The DLC isn’t entirely fresh as minor enemies and map concepts do repeat. Players will delve into grey, stoned dungeons that end in a boss. A few furnaces and forges here repeat motifs. Players may go to a crypt and only fight a spectral warrior. And while this content isn’t fundamentally new, an argument can be made for the quality of its challenge and the fact that while a player can do everything in Elden Ring and Shadow of the Erdtree, they don’t necessarily have to.

I suspect that players are going to be shocked at the discoveries they make in the game. Like I mentioned, FromSoftware’s reliance on dark fantasy does result in a few tropes being replicated throughout its body of work. But I can’t help but get that mouth-agape “wow” moment when gazing upon a darkened castle or imposing mountain. Being a fan of these games for so long, it’s impossible to ignore the blatant callbacks to other games. One can’t help but imagine that the Lands Between shares connective tissue with Anor Londo or Boletaria or even Yharnam. One might observe the charred tree looming in the distance and its grey tendrils as just another dead FromSoftware world that has been renewed too many times to be a husk of its former self.

Exploration and discovery is one of the pillars of Elden Ring and FromSoftware’s ethos. The other is obviously the ruthless, intense combat that acts as a crucible for player’ mettle.

Shadow of the Erdtree is no slouch in the difficulty department, as should be indicated by its high bar of entry. Don’t let the moniker of it being a DLC fool you. By being gatekept by such a difficult boss, many of the major foes of this content are relentless.

Reliance on perfecting a build should be tantamount in Shadow of the Erdtree because there is no guarantee a new weapon, talisman, or skill is going to drastically improve chances of survival. Most bosses in the DLC have multiple stages that require preparation, memorization, and sheer luck to conquer. For my sorcery build, one of the new bosses was resistant to magic, causing me an ocean of grief and making me question if I needed to respec my build.

Unquestionably the main bosses of Shadow of the Erdtree were absolute spectacles. A few were contained in their own mausoleums of pain but many had grand arenas meant to impress and overwhelm. I don’t want to spoil any of these important challenges but merely know they may absolutely test patience and resolve, as they did with me. Attack combinations and patterns absolutely seek to overwhelm the impatient player. And being downed in two hits is never not frustrating. But the design of Elden Ring was always made to be fair. Patience and memorization, even for a fragile sorcerer like me, would often result in victory. And sometimes I would simply scour the Shadow Realm for another boost that provided with just enough ammunition to tip the scales in my favor.

And again, I have to emphasize the importance of properly leveling before thinking you can complete most of these enemies. In Shadow of the Erdtree, players will discover Scadutree Fragments and Revered Spirit Ashes tucked around the world. Scadutree Fragments increase player damage and resistance in the DLC alone, while Revered Spirit Ashes boost the capabilities of players’ spirit helpers they can summon in the DLC.

Despite uncovering many of these items, I did not intrinsically feel their benefit. Again, this is likely a measure of my lower level. Thankfully, even the most basic enemies in Shadow of the Erdtree reward a good amount of runes, making avenues of leveling up–even when looking down the barrel of 100,000 runes or more to do so–slightly more palatable. While I don’t think there is an elegant solution that would work with how FromSoftware designs its challenges the bar for entry could perhaps have been lowered ever so slightly.

Though I will never argue for a true “easy mode” in these games, I can imagine an option where players don’t lose all their runes or souls or currency upon death. And initially, sites of grace seemed a bit stretched out or shortcuts a bit lacking in key spot where I truly could have used them. But these are all issues that stem from me focusing more on exploration more than combat, trying to discover everything before tackling the massive barriers that bosses present.

What excites me more is the prospect of Shadow of the Erdtree creating a variety of new builds for Elden Ring players who savor the freedom of NG+ runs. A healthy number of spells, Ashes of War, weapons, and equipment provide new status ailments and methods of dispatch that are going to thrill anyone wanting a new challenge run to partake in. Yes it’s a shame that most of these new rewards are only reached at such a high level but if you are this far into Elden Ring, it’s likely that you don’t mind a deeper rabbit hole.

I’m sure that in the weeks to come, FromSoftware will likely tune certain things based on balance. Hopefully they work out the areas where I experienced some choppy framerates on PlayStation 5. But other than that, I can’t imagine much more of a complete package than this, especially from a game that already had so much to offer.

Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree is absolutely worth the cost of its significantly difficult entry point. When exploring the vast reaches of the Shadow Realm, it is impossible to deny how FromSoftware managed to capitalize on Elden Ring‘s immense thrill of discovery and challenge. Shadow of the Erdtree is a full expansion of the masterful vision that represents the culmination of the developer’s work, one that raises the standard even higher, one that feels unimaginable to best. But if there’s studio that can do it, it’s the one who made Elden Ring.