The enduring interest in Elden Ring Runes implies that the hype around its upcoming DLC, Shadow from the Erdtree, is sky-high. The open-world action RPG, which borrows numerous themes and mechanics from the sister series, Dark Souls, has captured the imagination of gamers worldwide, and fans are wanting to see what Japanese developer FromSoftware has cooked up for that expansion. The Souls series includes a history of saving its very best content for expansions, and Elden Ring should not be different. While at the minimum, new areas and enemies are going to be expected, Shadows from the Erdtree's biggest enemy will probably be one that nobody expects: the heavy burden of expectation.

For long-standing fans of FromSoftware, Elden Ring's success may have come as no real shock. Hidetaka Miyazaki and the team's incredible trajectory because of the 2009 discharge of cult classic Demon's Souls continues to be almost meteoric. Newer titles for example Bloodborne, Dark Souls 3, and Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice have proven to be the developer's most successful, showing that simply players from the games themselves, the greater experience it garners, the greater it gets. All of this previous success was dwarfed by Elden Ring though, which reached heights never previously attained by FromSoftware when it comes to global sales and popularity.

Elden Ring's DLC Will Carry The Heavy Burden of Fan Expectation

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The Biggest Enemy of Elden Ring's Shadow from the Erdtree DLC Won't Be a Boss

Story by Daniel Amoroso • 7h ago

The Biggest Enemy of Elden Ring's Shadow from the Erdtree DLC Won't Be a Boss

The Biggest Enemy of Elden Ring's Shadow from the Erdtree DLC Won't Be a Boss

The enduring interest in Elden Ring implies that the hype around its upcoming DLC, Shadow from the Erdtree, is sky-high. The open-world action RPG, which borrows numerous themes and mechanics from the sister series, Dark Souls, has captured the imagination of gamers worldwide, and fans are wanting to see what Japanese developer FromSoftware has cooked up for that expansion. The Souls series includes a history of saving its very best content for expansions, and Elden Ring should not be different. While at the minimum, new areas and enemies are going to be expected, Shadows from the Erdtree's biggest enemy will probably be one that nobody expects: the heavy burden of expectation.

For long-standing fans of FromSoftware, Elden Ring's success may have come as no real shock. Hidetaka Miyazaki and the team's incredible trajectory because of the 2009 discharge of cult classic Demon's Souls continues to be almost meteoric. Newer titles for example Bloodborne, Dark Souls 3, and Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice have proven to be the developer's most successful, showing that simply players from the games themselves, the greater experience it garners, the greater it gets. All of this previous success was dwarfed by Elden Ring though, which reached heights never previously attained by FromSoftware when it comes to global sales and popularity.

RELATED: Elden Ring's Shadow from the Erdtree DLC Should Take Inspiration From This Location

Elden Ring's DLC Will Carry The Heavy Burden of Fan Expectation

Related video: 7 Things You Didn't Know About Elden Ring’s Lore

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7 Things You Didn't Know About Elden Ring’s Lore

FromSoftware's new-found success is really a double-edged sword, as this implies that even more will be expected from Elden Ring's DLC when it comes to lore in addition to new areas and bosses. Each previous iteration from the Soulsborne collection, apart from Sekiro, has already established a minimum of one paid expansion. While all these expansions have varied when it comes to what sort of content they provide, all of them share one key attribute: all of them have added sufficiently healthy amounts of challenge and lore for their respective games.

Some of the best characters and boss fights in a FromSoftware title are born from DLC. For example, Dark Souls 2, a title that lots of consider to be the weakest from the series is made considerably stronger by its DLC offerings. In particular, The Crown from the Old Iron King DLC sticks out, mainly because of the intelligently crafted Brume Tower map, and it is boss, the imposing Fume Knight based in the tower's bowels. Bloodborne's DLC, The Old Hunters, is locked in equally high reverence by fans and critics alike, with a few calling it one of the greatest paid expansions ever released. This puts Shadow from the Erdtree inside a rather compromising position.

Elden Ring's boss difficulty varies, and several of its toughest challenges can be created substantially easier because of a couple of mechanics designed specifically to create the game more accessible. That being said, the sport is still punishingly tough sometimes, and also the expansion will probably be no different. Many are going to be expecting FromSoftware to construct an already-rich tapestry of lore, answering many questions the base game does not address. One character player is going to be hoping for more information on may be the mysteriously absent Miquella, the twin brother of the base game's toughest boss, Malenia.

While It's fairly likely that Shadow from the Erdtree could concentrate on Miquella, players will even want answers on other vague topics and characters which have only been discussed or alluded to in the sport so far, for example, the elusive gloam-eyed queen, or even the treacherous Badlands area. It certainly seems a large ask to reply to all of these questions in a satisfying and conclusive way. Following in the footsteps of groundbreaking games like cheap elden ring items never was going to be always easy, but FromSoftware's past expansions show that fans are totally justified to anticipate great things from Shadow from the Erdtree.

Elden Ring can be obtained now on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.