The enduring popularity ofElden Ringmeans that the hype around its upcoming DLC, Shadow of the Erdtree, is sky-high. The open-world action-RPG, which borrows numerous themes and mechanics from its sister series,Dark Souls,has captured the imagination of gamers worldwide, and fans are eager to see what Japanese developer FromSoftware has cooked up for the expansion. TheSoulsseries has a history of saving its absolute best content for expansions, andElden Ringshould be no different. While at the very least, new areas and enemies will be expected, Shadows of the Erdtree’s biggest enemy is likely to be one that nobody expects: the heavy burden of expectation.
For long-standing fans of FromSoftware, Elden Ring’s success will have come as no real shock. Hidetaka Miyazaki and his team’s incredible trajectory since the 2009 release of cult classicDemon’s Soulshas been almost meteoric. Newer titles such asBloodborne,Dark Souls 3,andSekiro: Shadows Die Twicehave proven to be the developer’s most successful, showing that just players of the games themselves, the more experience it garners, the better it gets. All of this previous success was dwarfed byElden Ringthough, which reached heights never previously attained by FromSoftware in terms of global sales and popularity.
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Elden Ring’s DLC Will Carry The Heavy Burden of Fan Expectation
FromSoftware’s new-found success is a double-edged sword, as this means that evenmore will now be expected fromElden Ring’s DLC, in terms of lore as well as new areas and bosses. Each previous iteration of the Soulsborne collection, aside fromSekiro, has had a minimum of one paid expansion. While each of these expansions has varied in terms of what sort of content they offer, they all share one key attribute: each of them has added sufficiently healthy levels of challenge and lore to their respective games.
Some of the best characters and boss fights in any FromSoftware title are born from DLC. For example,Dark Souls 2, a title that many consider to be the weakest of the series, was made considerably stronger by its DLC offerings. In particular, The Crown of the Old Iron King DLC stands out, mainly thanks to the intelligently crafted Brume Tower map, and its boss, the imposing Fume Knight found in the tower’s bowels.Bloodborne’s DLC, The Old Hunters, is held in equally high reverence by fans and critics alike, with some calling it one of the greatest paid expansions ever released. This puts Shadow of the Erdtree in a rather compromising position.
Elden Ring’s boss difficulty varies greatly, and many of its toughest challenges can be made substantially easier thanks to a couple of mechanics designed specifically to make the game more accessible. That being said, the game is still punishingly tough at times, and the expansion will likely be no different. Many will be expecting FromSoftware to build on an already-rich tapestry of lore, answering many questions that the base game fails to address. One character players will be hoping for more information on is the mysteriously absent Miquella, the twin brother of the base game’s toughest boss, Malenia.
While It’s fairly likely thatShadow of the Erdtree could focus on Miquella, players will also want answers on other vague topics and characters that have only been touched on or alluded to in the game so far, such as the elusive gloam-eyed queen, or the treacherous Badlands area. It certainly seems a big ask to answer all of these questions in a satisfying and conclusive way. Following in the footsteps of a groundbreaking game likeElden Ringwas never going to be an easy task, but FromSoftware’s past expansions have shown that fans are totally justified to expect great things from Shadow of the Erdtree.
Elden Ringis available now on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
