"Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree" Review

Publisher: Bandai Namco

Developer: From Software

Platforms: Playstation 4, Playstation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, Microsoft Windows (Reviewed for)

Alright, let's address the elephant in the room before we get started here. As you well know unless you've been living under a rock, Elden Ring's Shadow of the Erdtree DLC has made headlines for the same tired old reasons that From Software projects always make headlines. As always, it's a discussion about difficulty. The reviews for the DLC on steam are sitting at an overall mixed score, with many people saying that the DLC is "too difficult," and as can always be expected in this discourse, there's been no shortage of Youtubers and other critics swooping in to ridicule anyone who raises that as a concern. So...where do I stand? Well, like any From Software DLC, Shadow of the Erdtree is 100% more difficult than the base game. That much is always a given, and it's for that very reason that I've never actually played more than a couple minutes of any From Software DLC (other than Ashes of Ariandel from Dark Souls III). In the DLC for Dark Souls, I found myself bored. I never tried out any of the DLC for Dark Souls II because hahahahaha. I played through Ashes of Ariandel in Dark Souls III, but never went in to The Ringed City because the 3-phase boss fight in the first DLC was more than enough for me. I got frustrated with The Old Hunters largely because Bloodborne wasn't too much my cup of tea in the first place. And From Software never put out any DLC for Sekiro, but I definitely would've played that. With that context in mind, Shadow of the Erdtree is the first From Software DLC I've completed...so what are my thoughts?

Simply put, I think it stands shoulder-to-shoulder with The Shivering Isles from Oblivion as one of the greatest DLCs of all time. And in terms of difficulty, it's obviously harder than base Elden Ring, but as an unashamed Mimic Tear user/Co-op enjoyer, it still feels manageable...most of the time. We'll get into more detail later, but for now, that's a high-level view!

You can first access Shadow of the Erdtree after defeating both Radahn and Mogh in base Elden Ring, making this a late-game kind of DLC. I can't say for sure what a good level would be to begin at, but at the very least, you should have your build nailed down and feel comfortable with it. I've heard rumblings that builds that utilize greatshields come in especially handy in this DLC, but for my part I was running a Dexterity + Faith build for my Valkyrie Queen character, Sigrun. For melee damage, I fought with the bloodhound greatsword for about half the time before swapping to one of the spears you get as a reward for defeating a boss in this DLC. And in sequences where I was keeping distance between myself and enemies, I used incantations for ranged damage. This paired with a medium armor loadout plus no shield essentially made my build the glassiest of glass cannons. So, basically the opposite of the build people are recommending. This meant that there were some bosses I had to play especially cautious with, for sure...but I also killed the hidden dragon superboss on my second try (pest-thread spears cast from right below a weak point is nothing to sneeze at...I'd recommend picking up that incantation before it gets nerfed). No build is going to be death-proof, obviously, but what this DLC demands more than anything else is mastery of the build you're going for, and I think my experience plus the fact that the final boss was hell for me proves that point. 

But knowing yourself is only half the battle, as Sun Tzu famously says. In order to succeed, you must also know your enemy, or in this case, your enemies. As time has gone on, enemies in From Software titles have gotten faster and faster and have started using longer and longer attack combos. This DLC is the next logical step in that evolution. This means that one thing you can count on is unchecked aggression from foes once you cross into the realm of shadow (the setting of this DLC). When I first started, I evidently walked in the exact right direction to aggro one of the game's most aggressive enemies, and as I unsuccessfully tried to dodge through something like a half-minute long combo and got totally creamed by this first enemy, I couldn't help but hear Ralph Wiggum's voice emanating from the back of the school bus within my soul. Seriously, I couldn't help but let out a little nervous chuckle. But as is the case with every new bit of envelope-pushing from From Software, the enemy's element of surprise is its most powerful tool, and once that's gone, it's just a matter of time until you can overcome them. There were several iterations of this kind of experience for me across the DLC, but no enemy was ever too much of a threat for too long. It's really just the bosses that put this DLC in the "too difficult" conversation, and if you take one thing away from this article, let it be this: the bosses are maybe 5-10% of the DLC. So, the most difficult parts are a relatively small portion of a hefty meal of content. Furthermore, exploring that remaining 90-95% of content actually has positive repercussions on the boss fights. We'll get into that a little bit more later, but for now, let's delve into the bosses a bit deeper.

Take what I said about enemy aggression earlier, double it, and you have the average boss in Shadow of the Erdtree. Bosses hit hard, fast, and often, leaving you with less time to act than you might be used to. What's more, they can typically cover quite a bit of ground in an instant. All of this feeds into what I believe is the piece de resistance in the difficulty cocktail: you are pretty decisively not in the driver's seat of these battles. Even in the most aggressive fights from From Software games past, there's at least a little sense of control for the player. A player might, for example, buy themselves a couple seconds to heal and cast two spells by putting some distance between them and the boss after the boss uses a certain time-consuming attack. The best way I can think to describe the difficulty in Erdtree is that what I've just described is turned on its head. Rather than making breathing room yourself, you have to act exclusively within the breathing room the boss grants you. With that in mind, success depends upon you memorizing the boss's moves as usual, but you need a plan for what you have time to do following the move in addition to the timing you need to avoid damage in the first place. I simply wouldn't have been able to beat the final boss without adjusting to this mindset. It got to the point that my beginning strategy would be decided within a millisecond of the fight starting. If the boss started using move x right at the start, I would need to dodge after about half a second, and after that I could either summon my mimic tear or get two hits in, but nothing more. And if I chose to summon, I'd need to keep watch for an opportunity to use a healing flask. In contrast, if the boss didn't start move x, I could go ahead and summon, but I'd get punished 99% of the time if I tried to heal directly afterwards, as it would typically launch move x with just enough time to avoid damage if I dodged the literal frame the summoning ended. The final boss is much more punishing than the rest, but that's how these boss fights tend to go. With that in mind, I would like to reassure you that if that sounds ridiculously hard to you, well...it's not exactly as hard as it sounds. I think you'd be surprised how well you can likely manage some of these fights, but it will be a skill check you likely aren't used to. So, don't be discouraged. Even if you're struggling, the DLC has ways of giving you a bit of an edge if you want it.

But before we get into that, let's talk about this DLC's strongest feature: its world. In interviews prior to launch, director Hidetaka Miyazaki claimed that the DLC's map was roughly the size of Limgrave from the base game. Limgrave is one of the larger areas of the base game, so expectations were already high for the amount of content to be found in Erdtree, but it turns out Miyazaki was underselling the map. In reality, Erdtree is pretty much the size of a standalone RPG. If memory serves, I've spent around 30 hours in this DLC, and I'd be shocked if I experienced absolutely everything it has to offer. And just like in the base game, this extra map features plenty of stuff to do. You'll unsurprisingly find field bosses such as dragons out and about, for example. Beyond this, you'll also find several dungeon types.

Firstly, there are mausoleums, which are essentially just small boss arenas where you'll face a unique humanoid boss that rewards you with all of their equipment if you beat them. Then there are catacombs and caves just like those you find in the base game, but with slightly different enemies. Finally, there are forge ruins, which are exclusive to this DLC. These forge ruins, unlike the other dungeon types, don't feature any bosses. Rather, the point of tackling these areas is to find unique new weapons. 

As you may have been able to pick up from those descriptions, Erdtree features several new bits of equipment for you to try out. There's new armor, talismans, spells, incantations, ashes of war, sprit summons, weapons, and weapon types. That's right: weapon types. In this DLC, you'll come across weapons the likes of which you never saw in the base game. There are swords that curve backwards, "perfume" bottles, throwable weapons that aren't just little knives, etc. For example, halfway through the DLC I picked up a spear that could be thrown and regenerated in my hand. But you may be wondering about how viable these options really are, given that you've likely spent a whole bunch of upgrade materials on your existing weapon at this point in the game. Same goes for the spirit summon upgrades, I'd imagine. Thankfully, you'll find upgrade materials absolutely everywhere in this new map, so that isn't something you need to worry about. I fully upgraded 3 pieces of equipment and got a couple of upgrades in to other weapons I didn't end up committing to. That's how plentiful the materials are. So you can come in to this DLC with your favorite weapon but still be able to give some new weapons a shot.

Now, I opened up this segment on the heels of saying that the DLC gives you ways to improve yourself to handle challenging bosses. Obviously what I've been talking about so far implies that there's plenty of bosses to get runes off of to level yourself up as well as potentially better weapons or armor, but there's one last thing that makes much more of a difference. See, Erdtree comes with its own self-contained leveling system. In addition to your own levels you gain with runes, you and your spirit summons also have a "blessing" level. In the world, you'll find "skadutree fragments" that increase your attack and defense as well as a similar item that raises the attack and defense of whatever spirits you summon in boss fights. So if you do lots of exploring, you'll enter into these boss fights able to deal and survive more damage. On that note, there are obviously lots of people who feel some sort of moral quandry about utilizing the summons that the game allows you to use. In From Software titles, rejecting help becomes something of a bizarre badge of pride...and despite me calling it bizarre right there, I can understand the appeal. However, I feel that a lot of the complaints about difficulty come from those types of people. It's not ALL from those people, but they're undoubtably a big part of it. That being said, if I can stress one thing for you, dear reader, let it be this: you're supposed to use spirit summons in this DLC. Spirit upgrades aren't an off-hand thought on this map, they're given just as much importance as upgrades for the player. So, while I can understand the appeal of beating the DLC without them, I'm of the opinion that the difficulty here was curated with summons in mind. So, do with that what you will.

Thus far I've been pretty positive about things, and I think it's pretty clear that I don't necessarily believe the difficulty is too much provided you're playing how From Software seems to have intended. But does that mean it's perfect?

Unfortunately not. Because now it's time to talk about the technical state. Base Elden Ring was already flawed in this regard, with framerate troubles throughout its open world and the occasional crash or network error. And sadly, Shadow of the Erdtree is worse. Let's start off with the positives before I get into that, though.

One thing that From Software deserves some applause for is the network stability this time around. I was playing on day 1 and I never once got disconnected or had a network connection fail in co-op throughout my entire playthrough. Seriously impressive work went into anticipating network volumes this time around, it seems! Furthermore, the visuals are even better than in the base game, with a lot more color variation. 

And now on to the negatives. Framerate issues are still plentiful, and I experienced at least one crash in my time. In addition to this, I found that the camera misbehaved more often than usual. In every soulslike there's usually a little bit of camera wonkiness in certain arenas, but it was far more frequent in this DLC in my estimation. And then there's the final boss. Many folks have rightfully called the final boss of Erdtree the new hardest boss in the From Software catalogue...but part of the reason for that is the technical flaws with this fight. In phase 2, there's simply too much visual clutter on the screen, and it reduces the already unstable framerate down to slideshow levels at times. And even if you manage to not be distracted by the framerate, the substance that makes up the visual clutter is likely to trip you up. It's a whole bunch of hair and blinding white light, so you won't be able to see much to base your dodge timings off of. Make no mistake, this fight would be really challenging in better technical circumstances, it's just that the technical circumstances make the experience actually unfair.

Folks, I can totally understand if you've been hesitant about picking up this DLC given the recent review-bombings and allegations of excessive difficulty. Hell, the cost of entry is $40, which is more than most DLC costs, so that only further helps me understand hesitance. But I'm here right now to tell you that you don't need to be one of those maniacs that takes on bosses at level 1 with only fists to make it through the whole thing, and you certainly don't have to be one of those types to enjoy yourself. If you can handle the usual level of challenge in the base game, then I'd say you'll have a good time with Shadow of the Erdtree. After all, that final boss may be far beyond what you're used to...but the final boss is just that...the final thing to do. So really, the part of this DLC that is giving people trouble is basically the last 5% of the experience. That still leaves 95% of an expansion the size of a full game, which can easily last you as many as 30 or more hours. The bang for your buck factor is phenomenal here, and I believe it would be a shame to miss out on so much excellent stuff because of concerns about difficulty. 

Let us review:

Technical problems - 1.0

Final boss flaws - 0.5

The final score for Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree is...

8.5/10 - Near Fantastic

Excellent as always, From Software, excellent as always!