It’s been a tough weekend for many Shadow of the Erdtree players, as the DLC’s extreme and deliberate difficulty has sparked debate over developer FromSoftware’s approach to the Elden Ring expansion. But that debate has spilled over into Steam user reviews, where the game now sits at a “mixed” rating, after a flood of complaints about difficult bosses and PC performance issues.
Ahead of Shadow of the Erdtree’s release, director Hidetaka Miyazaki hinted that the DLC would heavily test players’ abilities: “New challenges for players will be boss encounters and the various threats that the world poses to people,” Miyazaki said. CNETHe added that some of these bosses are aimed at players who have largely completed the base Elden Ring, and that From Software has “pretty much pushed the limits of what we think players can tolerate.”
And it proved to be so. Over the weekend, players began complaining about the extreme difficulty of bosses and performance issues. “As a huge fan of the Souls games, I really wanted to love this DLC, but the enemy damage is completely over-tuned, especially when it comes to some of the bosses,” one negative review read. “Some of the bosses have completely erratic movements, making it an overall pain and no fun at all.”
“Good DLC, but performance has slowed since the latest update,” reads another negative review that focuses on PC performance issues. “Constant micro stutters, frame drops, freezes, and long load times make the game difficult to enjoy and play. One of the early boss fights takes place around a puddle, which causes some pretty significant frame drops. I’d wait for performance to improve before buying.”
Perhaps mindful of the growing amount of negative feedback regarding difficulty, publisher Bandai Namco tweeted advice for struggling Shadow of the Erdtree players: “Here’s a suggestion for leveling up your Scadutree Blessing.” This is in line with advice offered by IGN themselves, who in fact consider Shadow of the Erdtree’s Scadutree Blessings to be the answer to the difficulty of the Elden Ring DLC (Scadutree Blessings enhance the recipient’s ability to deal or negate damage). Track down all the pieces of the Skada Tree.
Here are some suggestions for leveling up the blessings of the Skada tree
— Bandai Namco US (@BandaiNamcoUS) June 22, 2024
Meanwhile, while the review bombing of Shadow of the Erdtree continues, it’s worth pointing out that as of the time of publishing, 65% of the DLC’s 32,722 user reviews on Valve’s platforms are positive.
The difficulty of FromSoftware’s games has been a topic of discussion for years, with titles like Dark Souls, Sekiro and Bloodborne being deemed too difficult by some. However, extreme difficulty has not hindered sales – in fact, Elden Ring has sold an astounding 25 million copies, making it by far FromSoftware’s biggest game.
talk ParentsMiyazaki explained why FromSoftware is trying to continually push players, rather than offering an easier difficulty level that would theoretically open up the game to a wider audience.
“If you really want people all over the world to play your game, you could just make the difficulty lower and lower, but that’s not the right approach,” Miyazaki said. “If we had taken that approach, I don’t think the game would have turned out the way it did, because the sense of accomplishment that players get from overcoming these hurdles is a very fundamental part of the gaming experience. If you lower the difficulty, you take away that joy, and I think that ruins the game itself.”
An amusing outcome of the debate over Shadow of the Erdtree’s difficulty is a newfound nostalgia for the base game and its bosses, which in retrospect were allegedly relatively easy.
Shadow of the Erdtree received rave reviews from critics, overtaking The Witcher 3 DLC Blood and Wine to become the highest-rated video game expansion of all time on Metacritic. IGN’s review of Shadow of the Erdtree gave it a 10/10 rating, and we said: “Just as the base game has always done, Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree raises the bar for single-player DLC expansions, condensing everything that made the base game a groundbreaking RPG into a relatively compact 20-25 hour campaign, while providing fantastic new challenges for dedicated fans to enjoy.”
Wesley is IGN’s UK News Editor. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can contact Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or wyp100@proton.me.