What the hell does an Elden Ring DLC even look like?
Earlier this week, FromSoftware finally confirmed it's working on an expansion to its 2022 bestseller Elden Ring
Games Features Elden Ring
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Earlier this week—and to the mildly frothing annoyance of the game’s millions of fans, who’d been hoping to hear something on the anniversary of its release, and not a couple of days after—the creators of Elden Ring formally announced that last year’s A.V. Club Game Of The Year was getting an expansion. This was actually already something of an open secret, of course, since Elden Ring was a massive bestseller, and creator From Software is well-known for its extensive efforts to extend out the lives of its games with these kinds of large-scale content packs. (Unless you’re poor, neglected Sekiro. R.I.P. Sekiro.)
The interesting part of the announcement, then, wasn’t the mere existence of DLC, but the tiny trail of breadcrumbs that accompanied it, which came in two parts: A title (Shadow Of The Erdtree) and a single wallpaper-sized image, showing a blond-haired figure riding the game’s signature horse-goat-steed thing, Torrent, toward a tree that seemed to be overflowing with the same energy that imbues the game’s titular Elden Ring with its vast cosmic power. Internet detectives have already gone over this image with a fine-toothed greatsword, noticing things like distinctive braiding in the rider’s hair, ghost soldiers lurking in the tall grass, and even picking out that some of the architecture on the horizon seems to resemble that found in ruins buried deep under the game’s world.
What this kind of sleuthing can’t answer, of course, is what Shadow Of The Erdtree will actually be—or even what fans of the game will want it to be. It’s hard to imagine a piece of downloadable content carrying more expectations than this, whenever it ends up arriving; Elden Ring pushed the boundaries of the Dark Souls form (and, sometimes, the patience of its players, as explorations of its vast world ticked up past the 100-hours mark), and Shadow will have to live up to it, like it or not. So, what are those expectations? What do we actually want from Shadow Of The Erdtree?
More map
Mapping is an integral part of Elden Ring’s design; one of the primary functions of the game’s sweeping open world is to make the players feel deliberately, bewilderingly lost, pushing them to explore, find in-game maps, and slowly build a mastery of their environment. Although it’d certainly be easier for From to just structure Shadow Of The Erdtree as a series of the game’s (very good) dungeons—which is how past Souls games have typically handled their DLCs—we’d be very surprised if the expansion didn’t come with a new chunk of world for players to run and leap around. As to where it might go… Well, it’s hard to imagine the game’s designers screwing with its incredible vistas by dumping a whole other land mass on the horizon; more likely we’ll be teleported elsewhere—maybe even into some kind of dream realm, which is both a) a popular Souls solution to this kind of question and b) linked tightly to some of the characters suspected to show up in the DLC—to begin our new adventures.
More diverse multiplayer content
Although From has continued to refine and expand the multiplayer side of Elden Ring’s content over the last year—most notably with the Colosseum update, which opened up multiplayer arenas for Tarnished to duke it out, in December of 2022—it’s kept the actual things you can do in multiplayer pretty basic. (That is, you’re either invading another player’s world as a villain to kill them, or joining them for a little jolly cooperation.) That’s a little disappointing, in so far as past Souls games have made consistent efforts to make interactions between players a little more elaborate, nuanced, or just simply weird. We’d love Shadow Of The Erdtree to re-embrace this sort of thing, whether it’s another stab at the “summon another player to act as a boss” mechanic that’s cropped up throughout the series, or some kind of trap-strewn labyrinth that players have to defend from each other. Souls multiplayer has always been a weird place, and it’d be great to see Elden Ring embrace that more oddball part of the series’ legacy.
Closure—but not too much closure
Let’s be clear: There is no way Shadow Of The Erdtree will answer every lingering question kicking around in Elden Ring’s narrative, a massive trove of open queries that’s been steadily building up since long before the game released. Not only would that be borderline impossible—because how could any piece of content answer all of our questions about what it looks and smells like inside those ambulatory, talking jars—but it’d also be counter to the game’s goal, which is wrapped up in fostering a persistent sense of mystery. We will certainly get some answers from Shadow, which, from that opening image, certainly seems like it’ll address the question of Miquella, the only one of the game’s demigods that the player never directly confronts during its original story. (As noted above, lots of observers have pointed out how the Torrent-riding figure resembles the few glimpses of Miquella we get throughout the game.) But it’s also nigh-certain that we’ll get more questions than answers, in the end—because as much fun as Elden Ring is to play, From knows that it’s just as fun to drive ourselves nuts asking questions about mysterious figures like The Three Fingers, The Loathsome Dung Eater, and The Gloam-Eyed Queen. (Note to non-Elden Ring players: We’re making exactly zero percent of that shit up. Thanks, George R.R. Martin!)
Chasing a feeling
Most importantly, though, we’re just excited at the idea of there being more Elden Ring. There were few things in the last year of gaming more exciting than cresting a hill in the Lands Between, for little more reason than to see what was lurking out across that next horizon. The original game was a remarkable achievement in creating a world of horror and wonder; there’s no reason to think Shadow Of The Erdtree won’t be a worthy follow-up—whenever it actually ends up coming out.
18 Comments
Three things I want:1. A new map, or significantly large new area. Initially the DLC rumor was for the Badlands (where Godfrey died), which I would have preferred, but just gimme a new map.2. Miquella backstory – could tie the whole thing together3. Giant underground skeleton backstory, because DAMN IT I NEED REASONS
3 is pretty easy. All those dead giants probably left a lot of giant skeletons to reanimate. Why they shoot death-beams out of their mouth is beyond me, though.
“Giant underground skeleton” probably refers to the skeleton sitting on the throne in one of the Eternal Cities. It doesn’t seem to be the same kind of entity as the Fire Giant, and is in wrong part of the map, anyhow. I’ve generally assumed that it had something to do with the Nox’s experiments in creating their own Lord.
“(and, sometimes, the patience of its players, as explorations of its vast world ticked up past the 100-hours mark)“Just 100? I think I spent 100 hours alone watching that bird run off a cliff just so I could tank up enough to beat Malenia. Playing Like A Dragon Ishin this weekend. It’s super fun & a perfect transition from Elden Ring. That game left me in a dark place.
Haha totally this. I got Elden Ring a month after it was released and I just beat the game for the first time a couple weeks ago. My total playing time was 244 hours.
I just can’t quite totally get into Elden Ring, even though I like it more than any other souls game. There are a few reasons1. It’s still hard! And I still can’t quite get good enough.2. It’s a little creepier than I like.3. So gross! What a gross game!
2. It’s a little creepier than I like.3. So gross! What a gross game!I would advise you stay far away from Bloodborne.
I think while your #1 issues has already been reported and talked over and beaten to death, not many people talk about the second two points you made. Elden is indeed weird and disgusting and frightening a lot of the time (hello, hand-monsters), seemingly without trying to be. Yeah you’re a bit on-edge while playing since you know a dragon could pop down and kill you in one hit whenever you’re playing, but it’s also terrifying to be faced down by 20 rats in a cave without much light and with no room or space for a flask, or to think you’re safe from an enemy only for it to soundlessly thrash you with a broadsword the minute you tried to take a healing potion.
Getting stunlocked by a group of rats after sliding down a ladder — never change Fromsoftware!
I didn’t have the patience to fight bosses over and over but I was able to find a ‘cheese’ strategy or level up the best spirit summons (usually a combination of both). I took out the fire giant on my third try with swarm of flies. Things get buffed and nerfed all the time so another playthrough would mean refiguring that all out but that’s half the fun
How can I play the DLC part when I can’t get past the second boss and out of that endless castle?
My backlog is like 90% huuuuuuuuge game at this point. If I’m picking something up at this point, it’s something bite-sized to break up the RPGs and open world games. If I do play Elden Ring, it’ll be years from now, but watching other people play it has convinced me that I probably would have a ton of fun losing myself in the world, even if I said that I’d played enough Dark Souls for a lifetime after 2 1/2 playthroughs of DS1.I’ve been dinkin’ along in Final Fantasy 3 Pixel Remaster. I’ve got a ship, but do not yet have full access to the open seas of the first world map, so I’ve gotta turn myself into a frog and go through a tower first. Just RPG things. The combination of autobattle and the rebalancing of money and experience makes the game much more streamlined than the original FamiCom game, and I appreciate that. This certainly isn’t one of the huge RPGs that’s weighing down my backlog like Persona 4 Golden or Xenoblade Chronicles 1. I’ll be done in a week or two, depending on how much I’m on Tabletop Simulator.Between my previously local board game buddy moving away, not having any new escape rooms to play with my Wednesday night escape room buddy, and TTS being the perfect birthday gift for my nephew, I’ve had a lot of Tabletop Simulator sessions over the past several weeks. Just on Wednesday I had back-to-back sessions teaching one person Lords of Waterdeep and another Spirit Island. And it’s always fun getting people familiar not just with the mechanics of a game, but also with how to leverage those mechanics to be a worthy opponent, whether it’s PvP or PvE. And my now exclusively solo board game table has gone through Gloomhaven: Jaws of the Lion, Spirit Island, and The Lost Ruins of Arnak this week. I need to slow down on JotL to let my nephew catch up, so I’ve gone back to trying to get at least one game of Spirit Island with each spirit under my belt so I can make some more informed choices on how to put together an utterly broken team.And then Arnak just arrived yesterday, so I’ve only had a single solo play with my nose buried in the instruction manual the entire time. The last several turns, the flow of the game finally clicked, and I was able to make some last-minute choices that helped me use all the resources I’d been hoarding to actually get victory points, but I lost to the AI by one point. I appreciate how limited the number of turns is in the game, because I need more games to suggest at the end of the night, when nobody has the time or energy for fucking Mysterium because ImpliedKappa always takes an eternity to decide what cards to hand out, and nobody else likes being ghost. I still haven’t fully wrapped my head around the game’s strategy, but it feels good so far. And if I eventually decide I hate it, I can always just hang the board on my wall, because the art is gorgeous.
Boy howdy can I relate to this. If anyone wants to pay me to pay WRPGs full-time for five years, that’d be awesome.
Am I the only Souls player who usually doesn’t get the DLC expansions? I loved Dark Souls III, for example, but I just had no urge to get the season pass. I also loved Elden Ring, but I just don’t see myself getting these. I think it has a lot to do with how much time passes between the release of the game, where I am fully immersed in and invested in the world, and the release of the DLC, where I’ve moved on to other things.
I don’t know why this seems to only apply to the Souls games (and Ghost of Tsushima, where I got the DLC, but only played it for about an hour, probably because I couldn’t remember the controls anymore), since I often buy DLC expansions for other games, but it is how it is with me.
Ideally what I’d like is a reason to re-explore the map. That’s what I always hoped for some Breath of the Wild DLC; the existing map is perfect so why not work with what they’ve got and add some new stuff to it?
What the hell does an Elden Ring DLC even look like?I’m going to assume it looks like the base game, unless they radically change the art direction.
Well, won’t you be surprised when they release the chibi expansion!
Been doing a lot of Final Fantasy XIV, and got pulled into finishing the Eden raids which are pretty consistently strong and introduce Ryne’s goth gf Gaia, those two are super cute so it’s worth doing just for that. Also did the latest holiday quest which manages to be pretty sweet. Plus Stormblood crafting.In The Movies I’m into the 1960s, still trudging along. Gonna have to look into what mods are still out there.