Summary

• Elden Ring's DLC surprises and exceeds expectations, showcasing FromSoft's mastery of adapting to player experience.
• Shadow of the Erdtree subverts player expectations with innovative gameplay, bosses, and lore.
• Elden Ring's DLC reinvigorates the Soulslike genre, proving it has endless potential for innovation.

In the last days before Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree came out, I was preparing myself for disappointment. I loved the base game. I’d invested over 200 hours in it, perfecting my Shadow of the Erdtree’s map - I knew it'd be smaller and shorter. I knew it'd never live up to the original.

But I'm willing to it that I was wrong. From the moment I started playing Elden Ring’s DLC, I could tell my experience wasn't diminished, or in any way less-than. It didn't feel like a reunion with an old friend - it was a brand-new experience, unlike any game I had played before. I was hooked instantly, and the experience proved to me that, as many Soulslikes as I've played in the interim, the genre still holds infinite potential for innovation.

How Elden Ring Reignited My Love Of Soulslikes

…And Then Made Me Jaded

I like to think of Elden Ring as the title that reintroduced me to FromSoft’s Soulsborne games. I had played Dark Souls 2 around the time it came out, but never actually finished it, and had mostly ignored the genre since then. But Elden Ring’s release was the perfect convergence of factors to rekindle my interest. I had time to kill, and two friends with more experience in the genre who I knew would be interested in co-op. So I figured, why not give it a shot?

What followed was a total obsession with all things Elden Ring. I scoured every inch of the Lands Between. I kept a journal with detailed notes on the characters, quests, and lore. I was the first, and to date, am still the only member of my initial play group to beat the game. From there, I went back and played (almost) every other FromSoft game available on modern consoles: all three Dark Souls, Bloodborne, Sekiro. And from there, I played every Soulslike I could get my hands on: Lies of P, Nioh, Another Crab's Treasure.

By the time I was finished with my Soulslike binge, I began to believe I'd seen everything the genre had to offer. I'd seen its combat mechanics developed with more flexible skill systems. I'd seen Soulslike combat tied to different methods of storytelling. I could identify the places where games in the genre intersected, where they took inspiration from each other, where they blazed new trails. As I ran out of Soulslike games on my backlog, I was a little bit fed up with it all. I was ready to move on.

Even so, I always knew I'd play Elden Ring's DLC, one way or another. I had enjoyed my time with it so thoroughly that to skip its final chapter would feel tantamount to leaving it incomplete. But I was mentally prepared for it to hit all the same beats, replay all the same hits, and ultimately, be no different from its base game and the other Soulsborne games I had played. Boy, was I wrong.

Elden Ring's DLC Flipped Everything I Thought I Knew On Its Head

How Shadow Of The Erdtree Continues To Amaze Me

From its very first moments, Shadow of the Erdtree taught me I still had a lot to learn about Soulsborne games, and FromSoft was here to teach me. I entered the DLC without hesitation, but what I saw left me almost instantly floored. I emerged from that starting valley to a full view of the majestic and terrible Scadutree, and almost fell to my proverbial knees at the scale and beauty of what I saw before me. I was immediately consumed with a desire to delve into all the ruined buildings, challenge all the enemies, find all the items I could see from that elevated perch. The feeling was overwhelming. Even with all my experience, I felt as though I had just taken my first steps into Limgrave.

FromSoft developers seem to be very skilled at putting themselves in the player's shoes, in a way that imitators can never hope to match. There's plenty of that in the base game, but Shadow of the Erdtree has the benefit of two years' worth of direct player behind it. It was as though Elden Ring's DLC knew exactly what I was expecting of it, and kept veering in the opposite direction. I expected the first enemies in the DLC to be pushovers, to ease returning players back into the game: not so. As soon as I started exploring, an enemy descended from a ruined arch, landed where I couldn't even see them, and eviscerated me with a few stunningly fast spins.

Eventually, I came upon what was clearly an optional dungeon, the Ruined Forge Lava Intake, and headed inside. This place was tough: it was packed with stone golems that would only take damage if I hit them in a tiny weak spot, located in the most inconvenient possible place on their backs. All the while, lava slimes kept sniping me from the back. As I explored the forge's corridors, I braced myself for what its boss would be like. Eventually, I made it to the final room, and there was...nothing. No boss was guarding the Anvil Hammer. The dungeon knew I was expecting a terrible boss, and preyed on those expectations to create an oppressive atmosphere, sticking the landing with a huge sigh of relief.

The bosses, too, had plenty of surprises up their sleeves. There were plenty of recurring enemies, sure, but the new ones completely blew my mind. It began with the Divine Beast Dancing Lion, whose first phase lulled me into thinking all I needed was some good old-fashioned ice resistance, but then it switched to lightning damage at the drop of a hat. I thought my hundreds of hours of Soulsborne experience would've prepared me for Rellana, but I was no match for her. She was too fast, her damage output too high, her combos too unpredictable for me to prove a worthy opponent. The same for Messmer after her, and many of the other bosses in the DLC.

Even the lore in Shadow of the Erdtree completely subverted everything I thought I knew about the base game. I won't give too much away, but the twists and turns of Miquella, Marika, and Messmer's story left me stunned. Even the lore that touched on more minor character backgrounds, like Alexander the Iron Fist, was completely shocking.

Ultimately, my experience with Elden Ring's DLC taught me not only that Soulsborne games still have the potential to surprise me - but also that no one else is doing it like FromSoft. Its commitment to understanding player perspectives is unmatched, and it uses that knowledge for good. In Shadow of the Erdtree, it wields the player's expectations against them, creating a dynamic experience for Soulsborne veterans and newcomers alike. As a result, I consider Elden Ring's DLC not only a worthy follow-up to the base game, but one of the best expansions I've ever played.