Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree Review

thesixthaxis.com:

I absolutely love Elden Ring, and I love FromSoftware games in general – I quite literally have an Artorias tattoo on my shin. Elden Ring is, in my opinion, sort of the pinnacle of the design philosophies so far, and while I appreciate it’s not completely perfect, I do think it’s very close. With all of this in mind, I’m very split on Shadow of the Erdtree, and it’s causing me no end of pain.

Shadow of the Erdtree opens up with another stunning reveal. You chat to a mysterious NPC, and then get warped to the new time and/or place with a new world about to open up before you once more. This time, instead of Limgrave’s almost hopeful horizon, you’re in a strange field filled with spectral tombstones and the sight of some seriously gnarly trees in one direction and a big flaming Wickerman boss in another. It’s a truly excellent beginning, and I have a great deal of love for this specific moment.

From there, as is the case with the main game, you can go anywhere and try to fight anything you encounter. You can absolutely wander up to some bosses in the overworld or head to one of the new big dungeons and throw the gauntlet down, but you really shouldn’t. That’s because of something called Scadutree Fragments and Revered Spirit Ash. Revered Spirit Ash basically powers up your spirit summons, and Scadutree Fragments boost your offensive and defensive powers. These only work in the DLC, and they’re clearly introduced as a way to try and add a progression system into this new area so you still get that difficulty that many of us love from FromSoftware games.

I think it’s a good concept, but I also don’t think it’s especially well-implemented, and nor do I believe it fits with the rest of the game’s design. Don’t get me wrong, I’m looking forward to watching DLC speedruns that don’t use a single one of these items because they play these games as a full-time job, but good gravy is that not viable for the rest of us. The result is that, until you gather these upgrade, you get