There's Something Wrong With Shadow of the Erdtree

In anticipation of Elden Ring's release, the narrator and a friend were skeptical about the game's potential, expecting it to fail due to concerns about design shifts and gameplay mechanics. However, upon playing, they were quickly drawn in, appreciating the game's vastness, art direction, and narrative depth, eventually deeming it a masterpiece and the greatest game they've played, citing its accessibility and challenging gameplay balance.

Excitement about a potential Elden Ring DLC focused on expectations for refinement and difficulty enhancement, referencing improvements seen in other FromSoftware DLCs, especially Bloodborne. The narrator reflects on anticipated refined mechanics like jumpable moves, stealth, and exploration elements, hoping for a DLC that raises the skill ceiling and offers tougher bosses while maintaining well-designed interactions.

The narrator highlights expectations for Elden Ring's DLC to reinvigorate exploration and offer a synergy between new and existing content. However, they note concerns about potential barriers to entry, like having to defeat certain bosses, possibly making the DLC less accessible and replayable. They also hope for engaging new lore to enrich the existing storyline, keeping faith in FromSoftware's capability to deliver quality content.

The narrator expresses disappointment with the Elden Ring DLC, citing an increase in difficulty at the expense of thoughtful design. They describe frustrating experiences with boss fights that felt lazily designed, emphasizing issues with undodgeable attacks and poor telegraphing. This leads to the conclusion that the DLC diverged from Elden Ring's strengths, favoring unbalanced difficulty over engaging exploration.

Continuing to critique the Elden Ring DLC, the narrator discusses the final boss's poor design, characterized by artificial difficulty and lack of player engagement due to undodgeable attack phases. There's mention of similar issues across various bosses, transitioning from describing design flaws to a broader analysis of the DLC's approach to difficulty and game balance issues.

The narrator continues examining the DLC's boss designs, addressing overall problems with mechanics and engagement. There's specific mention of a fight with Radon, highlighting broken mechanics and unfair design, and a general critique of camera issues throughout the DLC. This establishes a sentiment that the content feels rushed and not up to the quality expected from FromSoftware.

Analysis continues as the narrator explores the broader issues within the DLC, suggesting that many bosses would have been better suited as mini-bosses rather than overhyped fights. They express frustration over perceived wasted potential in boss design and the overall arrangement of the DLC, indicating a disconnect between its content and the high expectations from Elden Ring's base game.

The narrator laments the exploration aspect of the DLC, finding it lacking due to reused bosses and uninspired new bosses. The idea that exploration has been reduced to collecting items rather than overcoming challenges is criticized, as is the scattering of fragments for progression. The narrator voices a severe dissatisfaction with the exploration mechanics and their impact on the DLC's replayability.

Further, the narrator assesses the replayability and content distribution within the DLC, concluding its large world offers little value beyond initial exploration. They express feelings of emptiness in returning to the content and point out placement issues of the DLC within the game's timeline, suggesting alternative structuring could have improved the experience.

The sentiment that the DLC would have been better as a standalone sequel is emphasized, with the assertion that the content's ambition would be more suited to a full game rather than an add-on. There's a critique of how the DLC's innovations overshadow its need for refinement, proposing the DLC fails to build on Elden Ring's established mechanics effectively.

Examining potential reasons for the DLC's perceived failure, the narrator suggests mismanagement or development team issues might be to blame. They theorize a B-Team might have been involved, or financial pressures led to compromised design choices. Ultimately, the narrator sees the DLC as a misstep, failing to leverage Elden Ring's rich base game adequately.

Reflecting on Elden Ring's DLC and its future implications, the narrator discusses potential changes in FromSoftware's development focus, proposing scalability and smaller content drops could be more viable. They express a hope for future projects to build on the lessons learned from this DLC, encouraging FromSoftware to continue producing large-scale, impactful worlds.