After 100 Hours, Shadow Of The Erdtree’s World Feels A Little Too Exaggerated For Its Own Good

Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree is huge and is pretty much a full game in the name of a DLC. But its open world is not that great in terms of quality and actually ends up being needlessly large. After multiple playthroughs I realized something; there are these vast regions and gigantic areas that you can explore but these end up being empty with just a few field bosses and a small dungeon present for you to engage with.

The Emptiness Of The Shadow Realm

Don’t get me wrong here, the level design is staggering and the verticality of the map in the DLC just sets a new bar for open-world connectivity. The way different areas are connected in the Shadow Realm almost reminds me of the Firelink Shrine from the original Dark Souls and Yharnam from Bloodborne. Even after such amazing interconnectivity of the open world, there are some areas that don’t reward you for exploration.

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byu/mavericksfan2011 from discussion
inEldenring

This problem didn’t plague the base game as every single new region that I entered had at least one big Legacy Dungeon waiting for me to explore. Some of these Legacy Dungeons were filled with two different boss fights additionally. However, in the DLC, there are some areas like Charo’s Hidden Grave and Rauh Base that just don’t offer anything besides a small dungeon and a couple of field bosses.

The Finger Ruins are just straight-up empty and it feels so disappointing because they cover huge portions of the map. All you have to do at these ruins is ring a bell and that is it. There is no unique boss fight at two of Finger Ruins and there isn’t even a small dungeon let alone a legacy dungeon for you to explore.

Mediocre Rewards Held Back Exploration

Another thing that holds back the exploration aside from the emptiness of the open world is the basic rewards system in Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree. Almost everywhere I go, I find a smithing stone. Now I know that the developers want you to try out the new weapons in the DLC so they’re providing you with upgrade materials. But these smithing stones can be easily bought or found in the base game.

Shadow of the Erdtree? More like Shadow of the Smithing Stones!
byu/ernz3 inEldenring

After risking my runes multiple times and clearing a tough dungeon with an extremely difficult boss, all I’m rewarded with at the end are just smithing stones. This not only feels disappointing but also holds me back from exploring the next mini-dungeon. Some rewards are great and feel fulfilling to collect like the Scadutree Fraagments, new talismans, and weapons but these are just overpowered by useless smithing stones.

A Compact World Would’ve Benefitted The DLC

The open world in Shadow of the Erdtree really feels soulless and things could’ve been better if FromSoftware had kept the scale of the map much smaller. Reducing the filler and connecting the legacy dungeons through a direct route would’ve resulted in a more rewarding world to explore. The quality of exploration wouldn’t drop if there was a little bit more linearity like The Old Hunters or The Ringed City DLCs.

Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree is boring
byu/Pandawan12 inEldenring

Fighting all of these reused field bosses over and over again and then getting rewarded with the same basic items gets boring really quickly. Making large empty fields that look visually stunning but lack engagement is not the right approach. Going with a smaller scale and removing those empty fields can lead to better results.

This is why I also believe that FromSoftware should return to making more linear games because the open world genre can get boring really quickly and lacks good replayability. In Bloodborne or Dark Souls 3, the quality of areas does not drop and each area feels fulfilling to explore. Due to its open world genre, FromSoftware had no other choice than to add filler to increase the size of the world in Elden Ring.