Fittingly, Bandai Namco invited Wccftech and a number of other global journalists out to experience an exclusive hands-on with the upcoming DLC expansion for 2022’s Game of the Year, Elden Ring. The venue of choice was a cemetery in sunny Southern California and after a brief bus ride through Hollywood and passing by rows of elaborate tombstones and a live peacock enclosure, we were greeted by a choir quartet and a life-sized statue of Miquella’s Egg taken straight from Mohgwyn Palace. It’s here that Bandai Namco graciously lets us sit down for the first two hours of the upcoming Shadow of the Erdtree DLC and explore at our leisure, all running on an army of Razer laptops.
After a brief onboarding to discuss the setting and ways to access Elden Ring’s Shadow of the Erdtree DLC, we were given free rein to hit the ground running as one of several level 150 champions, all adequately geared up for the adventure with +25 weapons. Not one for a spellcaster in From Software’s masocore adventures, I stuck with a more traditional DEX-focused swordsman who could wield most of the weapon types available with relative ease. While I started leaning toward the simpler swords (including the new Odachi type), it wasn’t until wielding the throwing daggers in both hands that the combat began to shine. There were indications of a perfume bottle-class weapon available for players to use in the DLC that wasn’t present in the base game. Still, sadly, I didn’t have the foresight to dig that deeply and experiment with the zanier weapon types in the interest of time.
To access the Shadow of the Erdtree DLC, From Software and Bandai Namco opted to provide a proper explanation on how to play the content that players paid for, a stark change from the Artorias of the Abyss, where players were expected to blindly explore Lordran and track down a broken necklace and about a dozen other steps. This time, players must first take down two key shardbearers to reach Miquella: Starscourge Radahn and Mohg, Lord of Blood (not to be confused with Mohg, the Omen). There are theories abound as to why it’s these two specific bosses that need to be bested in mortal combat to venture into the Shadowlands, primarily focused on the giant egg that Miquella was attempting to breach from and some lore-appropriate theories as to having to release the stars from Radahn’s imprisonment to venture forth.
Throwing daggers are largely what they sound like on the cover: a limitless supply of throwing knives that only consume one’s stamina and are otherwise infinite. Wielding one pair is fine, but the weapon properly showcases its ability when dual-wielded and the nameless Tarnished becomes the modern equivalent of a Touhou boss. Dozens after dozens of daggers can be launched with two main drawbacks: enemies can block and mitigate their damage quite easily and the range on what can hit an enemy is shorter than the actual throwing animation, if by a short margin. The latter can be alleviated by locking onto an enemy and approaching until damage numbers are visible. At the same time, the other might need some skills to back it up, such as a charged throw that can deal heavy poise damage and stagger those hiding behind shields.
Some of the other melee weapons in Elden Ring’s Shadow of the Erdtree that I found to provide significantly varied combat from the base game were in the forms of a dueling shield and the inclusion of proper hand-to-hand melee skills. The dueling shield offers protection in line with medium shield classes while also used like a pile bunker to thrust and damage enemies just out of range of your fists. The new melee archetype lets players string together punches and kicks, and position themselves both to the side and even dashing behind enemies with some of the unique skills for the weapons. However, I wish I could say more positive things about the new weapon types (save for the throwing daggers). Still, getting a proper readout on optimally performing damage was difficult when the two main bosses of the DLC had health bars that easily exceeded 10-thousand hit points apiece.
To offset entering the DLC shadowlands well above the intended power curve, Shadow of the Erdtree features a pair of open-world collectibles that passively imbue the Tarnished with more power. One makes the player more generally more effective at dishing out damage/taking less, while the other increases the effectiveness of summoned spirits. Both of these are upgraded by collecting key items and returning them to a bonfire of protection before upgrading them in the same fashion one would upgrade their flasks of crimson tears. I could foresee this as From Software’s way of balancing the DLC by preventing characters well above the normal power curve from approaching the DLC content with a modest degree of difficulty. How players already deep into their third or seventh New Game Plus run would be able to get into Shadow of the Erdtree without being steamrolled by their first boss was something that Bandai Namco didn’t yet have the full answer for when I spoke with a couple of the representatives leading the marketing push. Sadly, no From Software developers were on-site to address these questions during the preview event.
Two hours was only enough time to get a brief taste of the smörgåsbord of new content Miyazaki and his team had been cooking up. However, it was just enough to get a proper feel for the trials and tribulations against a variety of bosses, explore a new legacy dungeon, and walk away with more questions than answers about Miquella’s true role in the upcoming Shadow of the Erdtree DLC. Besting a giant floating Chinese lion dance that constantly shifted its elemental affinity around rewarded me with a pretty sweet lion helm to wear around the Shadowlands, so that was a nice bonus.
Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree will launch on June 21st, 2024, and will be available as a boxed physical edition for $79.99 on PlayStation 5 or Xbox Series S|X, as well as deluxe and collectors editions at $99.99 and $249.99 respectively. Players that already own the base game can purchase just the Shadow of the Erdtree DLC expansion for $39.99
