Shadow of the ErdTree Review, Nothing Overshadows It

Shadow of the ErdTree, the expansion of the 2022 Goty, Elden Ring, achieves a continuous, but at the same time unique, experience.

The shadow of the Erd tree It was released a few days ago, on June 21 precisely, and during these 10 days we have been able to dedicate many hours to it and kill all the main bosses. Now we bring you the impressions of a title that, although it is called Downloadable Contentit is, in each rule, a expansion.

And that is that the Downloadable Content They often add small amounts of content to round out a game, introducing new characters, levels, items, or features. But The Shadow of ErdTree Not only does it add that, but also, due to its size (giant new area), the number of hours needed to complete it, around 35 hours without getting too involved and the new plot thread it introduces, we can call it “Elden Ring’s big expansion“.

Having clarified this, The shadow of the Erd tree He proposes the same recipe to which Miyazaki we are used to it. A wonderful story, told in its own way, one that some hate and others love. It leaves, as always, doors open to interpretation, but we will mainly focus on the relationship between MiquellaMogh and Radahn.

History.

And that’s it The shadow of the Erd tree develops in the Land of Shadowa place darkened by the long shadow of the Golden Tree of the Lands Between. This land, full of graves and coffins of unknown origin, symbolizes the death, destruction and pain of this place since the beginning of its creation.

Marika the EternalAfter becoming Queen of Middle-earth, she led a crusade into the Shadowlands, leading her army, the Dark Knights and the Fire Knights, to destroy the people of the land. Now Marika’s daughter, Miquella el Cortes She remains trapped in a chrysalis that Mogh helped her enter to reach the shadow realm. Their goal, find a way to revive Radahn and ascend to divinity.

New mechanics.

Thus begins an adventure which, as it could not be otherwise, drinks the waters of Ring of Fire on all four sides, but it has its own personality. While it is true that this expansion inherits all the mechanics of the original game, there is one that is new. And while they can continue to increase levels, they have a minor or meager impact.

The real way to enhance our character is to collect fragments of dark tree and exchange them for blessings to strengthen our hero. Likewise, collecting Ashes of a revered spirit Summons can also be “blessed” and made more powerful to fight the final bosses.

The best thing about all of this is that these blessings only work in the T.Shadowlandsif we leave them, all that firepower acquired, has no effect. This is ideal, as the base game experience is not spoiled at any point.

Leaving aside the mechanics, where there are no new features, one of the things that Shadow of the ErdTree has improved the most compared to Elden Ring is the exploration. It is much more complete, dizzying, exciting, difficult and bizarre than we have ever seen in a title.

Exploration with capital letters.

He map It sounds flat, but Shadowlands’ construction is an amalgamation of layered levels, caves, canyons, passages, ledges, and other geographical features that will make you love and hate exploration in equal measure. It becomes a completely vertical exploration at certain stages of the game.

We can say that we are faced with the exploration of soulswhere the flat and obvious map blocked by cluttered elevators gives way to a true and free exploration of all environments by trial and error. If Miyazaki already makes us die a lot in his final bosses, prepare yourself for the same thing to happen while exploring and for the passage from one area to another to be done under your nose and you will not be able to see it.

Dungeons, the big improvement.

At this point, the dungeons

to have had a “update“pretty cool. Now they’re longer, with more areas, more enemies, more hidden mechanics and sometimes as a necessary step to access another part of the map. The experience of the dungeons On the other hand, it has become simpler, now we will have up to 3 resurrection effigies scattered throughout the dungeon so as not to lose any progression. Something that is appreciated because such is its size Addressing them from the beginning can be quite a challenge.

If we talk about what The shadow of the Erd tree baby of Ring of Firethat’s something true, but also that they have very different personalities. The Shadow Realm doesn’t copy anything in terms of concept art from the base game, except for some enemies. The rest are completely new scenarios, environments and enemies, created by and for this very particular Shadow Realm.

Very difficult?

This makes the immersion and the feeling of darkness is much more intense than in the original game, giving it an even darker atmosphere. Without a doubt, there is a lot of work behind this. Another of the most critical elements is the high difficulty. In my case, we can say that the game is very similar to Elden Ring in difficulty. Except the chief end which is torture, the rest is quite manageable. It is true that at the moment the final bosses are less numerous »null“, meaning they move more, have more attack patterns and make more feints.

But all this is easy identifiable and after a few tries, they internalize well. I think that the many criticisms made about the difficulty are based on the fact that very often, we explore higher level areas, leaving behind lower level areas… but as Miyazaki does not explain anything… we are left to our own devices. However, following a precise order of exploration, the difficulty curve is quite linear and accessible, except as they say, the final boss who is and continues to be a torment for many players.

Finally, let us note that the graphics engine of Elden Ring, and The shadow of the Erd tree starts to have problems with such large and detailed worlds. Bandai He has to renew it and do a good job if he wants to continue to succeed in the years to come. There are parts of the game where the descent of frames It’s such that playing in quality mode is impossible. And although it looks good and has many details, Shadow of the Erdtree is not even a reference in terms of graphics and technical aspects.

CONCLUSION

We could talk for hours The shadow of the Erd treeits difficulty, its lore, everything it adds to the world of Elden Ring and we would never finish. Many voices are raised to demand Goty for this expansion. In my opinion, The shadow of the Erd tree This is perhaps one of the best expansions ever made for a game. It could easily be called Elden Ring 2, being a shorter game than the first one but it will easily take you 60 hours to complete it 100%.

Even so, being an expansion removes any surprises. Few things will surprise us like Elden Ring did back in the day, and no matter how hard you try to do it, expansion o DLC needs to be continuous. This takes away a bit of relevance from a title that, for now, Gotys aside, is one of the best of its kind. 2024The void he leaves after finishing it is comparable to what he left us. Ring of Fire when we are done with the circle lord.