Summary
Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree, despite receiving near-unanimous praise from critics ahead of its release, has found itself embroiled in an impassioned debate regarding the merits of its difficulty. The expansion is certainly a step up in challenge compared to the base game, withmajor bosses like Messmer the Impalercausing trouble for players even after FromSoftware’s latest calibration patch, which significantly improves power scaling in The Land of Shadow.
The specific complaints aboutShadow of the Erdtree’s difficulty are myriad, but among the most commonly raised points is the matter of player progression and ability: many Tarnished are heading into The Land of Shadow with late-game builds, often well over level 200, and still getting annihilated by several enemy NPCs. In response to this, defenders of the expansion have cited FromSoftware’s own statements, which touch on a desire to make Shadow of the Erdtreea significant challenge, even for veteran players. This is why the DLC map has its own progression system via Shadow Blessings. Setting aside the value of this new progression system, there’s one problem with this revamped difficulty curve that is worth addressing.
Shadow of the Erdtree’s Difficulty Introduces Some Lore and Immersion Problems
The Land of Shadow’s Difficulty Makes Sense at Many Points
AmongShadow of the Erdtree’s most controversial elementsis its boss design, as many players feel that certain boss fights, especially the ultimate one, are hard in an unfair way. This isn’t a ridiculous argument, but one may be able to view this elevated difficulty from a narrative standpoint: Demigods, renowned knights, and mythical, ancient creatures all ought to be difficult foes to topple. It’s fair that these boss fights should be overwhelmingly challenging, as the player is tasked with taking down the world’s most powerful forces.
Certain overworld enemies, likeShadow of the Erdtree’s Furnace Golems, also pose a reasonable challenge, based on their place inElden Ring’s lore.
Shadow of the Erdtree’s Difficulty May Be Too Universal
Lore issues start to arise when viewing Shadow of the Erdtree’s difficulty as a whole. It’s not just the uber-powerful bosses that can take down players in one or two hits: bears, overgrown bats, and everyday foot soldiers that roam the overworld can also brutalize the player-character with relative ease.
By this point in the game, players will have, at the very least, taken down Starscourge Radahn and Mohg, Lord of Blood, and many will have already beaten the game at least once. These players have essentiallyslain the gods ofElden Ring’s world, so regular animals and warriors, vicious as they may be, should pose no threat from a lore perspective.
Granted, this is a tricky problem to remedy. With the expansion having such a massive map, it must be populated with some sort of fodder enemies, and making them all pushovers wouldn’t make for a very interesting open world, mechanically speaking.
At the same time, some sort of narrative justification for the player’s massive decrease in relative power could have gone a long way toward immersion and plausibility. Something likeBloodborne’sThe Old HuntersDLCdoes this well, as it pits the player against blood-drunk Hunters and hulking beasts that juxtapose the fodder enemies of the base game.
Of course,Elden Ringposes a significantly bigger balancing issue due to its build variety, not to mention its swollen scope in comparison toBloodborne’s—not everyminor enemy in The Land of Shadowcan be a narratively justified, earth-shaking threat. At the same time, it can be hard to take the expansion’s early hours seriously, as players may be fresh off the heels of Elden Beast’s defeat, only to be swiftly cut down by a lone bear or archer.
Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree
WHERE TO PLAY
Shadow of the Erdtree is the first and only DLC expansion for FromSoftware’s groundbreaking Elden Ring. It takes players to a whole new region, the Land of Shadow, where a new story awaits the Tarnished.
