Shadow of the Erdtree

Back in 2022, I spent over 100 hours playing Elden Ring. I really loved it, but it was too daunting a task to replay the game. I ended up leaving my finished character, a lady knight dual-wielding Moonveil katanas, in the burning Roundtable Hold, with the “New Game +” option lingering there. Ultimately this was the best option, as it allowed me to just go straight into the DLC when it released.

I had initially planned to replay all the Souls games before this DLC came out, but ended up playing only the Demon’s Souls Remaster and starting a run of Dark Souls. I also wanted to make a new character for this DLC but that was, again, pure folly.

This DLC, Shadow of the Erdtree, is so freaking large. It is enormous. It stands as a sizeable chunk of Elden Ring itself, and that alone makes it larger than some entire previous Souls game. Taking Demon’s Souls, for example; that game is completely dwarfed by this DLC. This is much, much more massive and densely packed with things to find or do. I went through it at a fairly brisk pace but it still ended up taking me probably 40 to 50 hours overall.

There’s a lot of devious and deadly enemies but the new scaling mechanic introduced by the DLC makes it tolerable. There’s a lot of really neat and interesting weapons and spells to find, and some truly incredible vistas to see. I have little complaints; it truly felt like a smaller Elden Ring sequel in a way. More of what we loved. A lot more of what we loved. It evoked the same feelings playing Elden Ring did back then.

There’s a good sense of mystery as to what the Lands of Shadow even are or what is going on, but in an engaging way. The various NPCs all feel fairly substantial, but are much deeper than that still. A few moments in this DLC end up being my favourite out of all Souls games, but the biggest one relates to the various NPCs you meet. Long story short, they’re all initially here to serve Miquella in his revival as a god, but as Miquella sheds his entire previous self to attain godhood, his magical charm eventually subsides, letting these NPCs think for themselves again. Some of them turn their back on Miquella and some don’t. Some go off into their own tangents. This all leads to multiple tiny questlines that culminates into a truly incredible moment: the team deathmatch.

At the tail end of the DLC, there is an encounter with Leda, the main NPC of this group. She sides with Miquella and challenges you, because clearly, you don’t. This initially looks like it’s going to be a simple NPC invader fight, but becomes much, much more. You are given the chance to include NPCs you have followed through on their questlines as long as they are opposed to Miquella, and Leda does the opposite, bringing in NPCs who are in support of Miquella. This leads to, potentially, a 3v4 or 3v5 or 4v5 fight, whatever the actual counts I may have gotten wrong. All the while, all these NPCs chatter, either to you or amongst themselves during the fight. They’re all acquainted with each other, and they either lament or welcome the fact they can kill each other. It was a truly amazing moment and no other Souls game had done something of the kind before.

There were other interesting moments. Messmer, initially pegged as the main antagonist of this DLC, really isn’t one of them. An impressive boss fight for sure but otherwise kinda moot in the grand scheme of things.

What stood out amongst the rest were the general exploration, everything relating to St. Trina and the fingers.

But three segments need their own explanations.

You have the woods, which are filled with Aging Untouchables I think they are called, even though the game also calls them Winter Lanterns. If you remember Bloodborne this might be familiar; they were the enemies with the doll’s body but with big brain heads that caused Frenzy by looking at you and had a nasty grab attack. I was excited for their return, but Elden Ring made them a bit more gimmicky. The woods are built as a “forced” stealth section, since if they spot you, not only do they give you lots of Madness, but they also have a teleport grab attack and are immune to damage unless you can parry their attack. This makes them more of a truly unstoppable force than a really scary enemy, and it changed their dynamic a lot. It was still a very strange and interesting time.

You also have everything around Bayle, the terrible mega wyvern. There’s some interesting lore and a really great boss fight here, but it wouldn’t be as good without the, I will say, epic ascent up the mountain and the one and only screaming NPC, Igon. If you haven’t heard him yet, Igon is sort of a new Elden Ring meme; he’s a NPC who fought against Bayle and failed and ended up completely maimed, but his unbridled rage remains and everytime you see him, he’s yelling some truly incredible things at Bayle in defiance. Incredible performance from the VA here.

The last thing to mention is, of course, Promised Consort Radahn. To me this came as an unexpected twist; I truly did not think Radahn would return as the DLC’s final boss. The lore surrounding his (re)appearance is interesting, but what everyone remembers is just how truly difficult the fight is. A lot of blood, sweat and tears went into this fight. I tried it many times, changed builds a few times, tried it with the NPC summons and even tried with multiple player summons. Nothing worked for a long time. I ended up going back to what was now my main build for the DLC and trying a few more times to no avail. Until I watched the latest ymfah video, how to beat Elden Ring while tanking every single hit. While I wasn’t looking to copy that approach, it highlighted a strategy suited to my build that was stronger than what I had going on, and with a good deal of effort it ended up being my ticket to victory. A victory I achieved by myself in the end, with no summons. This was also pre-patch! Radahn was supposedly nerfed.

Anyway I’m trailing off a bit here, but this DLC was truly incredible and so very incredibly massive. Much larger than some full games. I still find it hard to believe.