Is Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdree Too Difficult?

ign.com:

FromSoftware has once again delivered a critical darling in Shadow of the Erdtree, its gargantuan DLC expansion for Elden Ring. But while it has received glowing adoration from professional critics, a not-insignificant slice of players have rallied against Shadow of the Erdtree’s difficulty. Perceiving its enemies and bosses to be so challenging that they make the game unfair, some fans have review bombed the DLC on Steam and even crafted mods for the PC version that make the experience easier.

And so comes the inevitable question – is Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree too difficult? Has FromSoftware finally gone too far? The answer, at least according to the various journalists and Souls content creators I’ve spoken to, is no. However, the answer to Erdtree’s steep challenge lies in much more than that age-old, condescending advice of ‘git gud’.

“I was surprised to see people passing judgement on the difficulty so quickly,” says VaatiVidya, the YouTuber known for his meticulously researched FromSoft lore videos, about the review bombing. “If you're up against something difficult, you need time to explore different areas or come up with a different strategy, and I think many critics were overlooking that.”

It’s easy to characterise some of that backlash as naivety. It is entirely unsurprising that Shadow of the Erdtree is difficult. Elden Ring is difficult, and so this DLC – locked behind two of the base game’s most challenging bosses – was bound to be a hurdle designed for the most dedicated fans. FromSoftware’s approach to DLC has always been to cater to those hardened players. In a list of the studio’s most punishing bosses, fearsome DLC foes such as Sister Friede, The Orphan of Kos, Ludwig The Holy Blade, and Darkeater Midir will all inevitably rise to the top. But it’s not just the bosses. Pushing forward through Dark Souls 3’s Ringed City and Bloodborne’s Fishing Hamlet is an uphill struggle thanks to tricky enemy placement and ‘mid-tier’ monstrosities that are