The way to access Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree doesn’t make any sense
To access Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree it is necessary to have defeated a very powerful and very advanced boss, but in reality this makes no sense. Let’s see why.
The Elden Ring expansion , Shadow of the Erdtree , will be available on PC, PlayStation and Xbox on June 21st . As we recently reported to you, a percentage of players between 61% and 77% of players cannot access this additional content.
The reason is linked to the fact that the access point of the DLC is blocked behind an advanced boss, mostly for plot reasons, but also for game balance issues, given that it is obviously an expansion designed for powerful characters.
The question though: is this one of FromSoftware’s biggest mistakes?
Should Shadow of the Erdtree be accessible faster?
Let’s think about it. It’s not at all strange that many gamers don’t finish video games . Everyone knows that only a small percentage reaches the final, both in the shorter and more linear games and in the open world and dispersive ones that require dozens and dozens of hours. Furthermore, many don’t bother to do everything possible and even if they finish the game they don’t want to face additional challenges.
The way to access Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree doesn’t make any sense
Elden Ring – Trailer The Journey So Far
It’s not surprising that the same is happening with Elden Ring. However, if with the base game we can say that the copies have now been sold, with the DLC the situation is exactly the opposite and making access to the additional content so complex does nothing other than alienate a segment of the public , which is the opposite of what Elden Ring tried to do with its entire design (open map, more freedom, possibility of putting aside a difficult challenge to go and do simpler things, more clarity on the direction to take…).
It is therefore surprising that FromSoftware wanted to block content of this type, especially because Shadow of the Erdtree itself is designed to allow even those who do not have such a powerful character to be able to overcome various challenges, precisely by inserting upgrades that reduce the damage suffered and those inflicted increase.
Obviously one possible answer is that the team knows very well that those who didn’t feel like beating the advanced boss necessary to access the DLC probably won’t want to buy Shadow of the Erdtree, because they’re not that interested in the game. However, the data speaks of a value between 61% and 77% of players who do not already have a save ready to use the DLC and this means that this content will sell less than half of the base game. This in itself would be a notable result given the numbers achieved by the game , but nevertheless it seems a waste to lose part of its users in this way.
Let’s consider for example that some players don’t despise Elden Ring, but have simply only played it cooperatively with a more experienced friend without literally doing everything and would love the idea of throwing themselves into the new content with help. Except that Elden Ring requires players to be in the same place to activate the cooperative and it’s not enough to simply purchase the DLC to launch yourself into the other player’s world.
Let’s repeat. Elden Ring is a more accessible game and that’s only to be commended as it hasn’t cast aside difficulty and quality to achieve that. Shadow of the Erdtree itself doesn’t seem to require every player to be the king of warriors in order to be faced. Now the only thing to do is remove this fixation of wanting to put access to DLC in strange, advanced points and more linked to lore than to gameplay.