Episode 170 - Gaius, the Lion, the Witch or the Wardrobe - Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree

I'm weak as a kitten and thick as two planks. I've always been this way. I'm proficient in podcasts. Sorry. Welcome back to the podcast! As our second episode in our run of DLCs, we’re talking about The Shadow of the Erdtree DLC for Elden Ring. And yeah, this is the release that inspired the theme in the first place. Shadow of the Erdtree released over two years after the original game, and the scope of this DLC alone is evidence of that. Advertised as being “about the size of Limgrave,” the map is a sprawling multilayered world with numerous different areas, some of which are pretty well hidden. Being big isn’t necessarily an indication of quality, of course, but it is a good thing to keep in mind when considering this as an expansion to Elden Ring. Being another open world to explore, the challenge in development is making the area interesting to be in and worth exploring. The world looks amazing. Potentially unbound by the setting of the DLC being in a kind of afterlife, each area has such a distinct visual presentation and runs the gamut from somber to chaotic to awe inspiring. The other half of the equation was maybe less successful, with mechanical rewards, like new items, weapons and spells, are spread more thin than in the base game, which makes exploring slightly less rewarding than you might expect. That being said, the novelty of the new items and weapons makes finding them exciting, and they can come in handy engaging in the DLC's many new combat encounters. Designed to be taken on very late game, the fights in Shadow of the Erdtree are difficult, and to combat this, they have introduced a new upgrade system to generally increase damage and defense, and on your first playthrough you’re going to want to search these out for sure. I hesitate to say more, obviously there’s a lot to discuss, and the length of this episode is testament to that. We’re going to be talking about our experiences with most of the major bosses, the design of the world and its visuals, and we give you a great deal on a robe that may or may not contain untold eldritch horrors within. Thank you for listening this week, and an extra special thanks if you actually listened to the whole thing. This was a DLC that we, and a lot of people, were looking forward to and we wanted to put it on the list as soon as possible after release. Did you have a good time with this one? Did you find the difficulty to be off-putting? Let’s talk about it in the comments or over in our Discord. Next time, we’re going to be talking about Xenoblade Chronicles 3’s expansion Future Redeemed, so hopefully you’ll stop by for that one.