izigame.me

Calling Shadow of the Erdtree a "DLC" I believe is an understatement considering its size and overall quality of the content. I think "expansion" stands more appropriate, one that could have easily been a game on its own. With two years in between the base game and its DLC, while Elden Ring was a conclusive project on its own, more is always welcomed and with SotE, just like with the main game, my expectations were surpassed by a landslide.
Where can I even begin reviewing one of gaming's best DLCs that stands tall above all others with only a few by its side?

a previously inaccessible area has been unlocked

For the first time in From Software's games, this DLC's story unfolds alongside ours and is set in the present, allowing us to experience it live, instead of learning of it post facto. To start the expansion two specific major bosses, Mohg and Radahn, must be killed, and both are quite advanced in the game. Following that, we are able to access the Land of Shadow and follow Miquella's steps.
In the base game, we already learn of Miquella's many endeavors. From trying to become a God, to removing Outer God's influences and creating its own order to name a few: his importance to the lore is not to be undermined. Nevertheless, during the game's events, we see Miquella mainly as part of Mogh's story, who interrupted his latest plan to become a God, painting Miquella more like a background figure than a participant. In the DLC instead, Miquella is the focus and we follow their steps to see their finalized plan come to fruition.

The Size of Limgrave

With a map originally compared to the size of Limgrave, the starting region of the base game, by the director Hidetaka Miyazaki, the DLC sounded quite promising on paper since that's at least 20+h of gameplay. That said, I learned my lesson from the time when it was claimed that on a first run, the main story of Elden Ring could be beaten in 30h, gross understatement, and was quite skeptical about this latest statement too, raising those expectations higher for the DLC.
Despite that, it somehow surpassed them, having me genuinely amazed at not just the quantity but the quality of the content.
SotE is bigger than many whole games, being almost the size of a third of the base game, let alone Limgrave. The map design is some of the best From Software has ever done, with a focus on verticality, sometimes even double stacking areas on top of each other, offering more to explore than one would think at first glance.
Compared to the base game, rather than many but shorter dungeons, fewer but longer are present, followed by new activities like Ancient Forges rewarding unique weapons with skills that make them throwable a la Thor's Hammer, or Mausoleums with unique NPCs in it as minor bosses rewarding their equipment.
A lot of discourse has been made in regards to the map being empty, but I disregard such comments as nonsense because so did the base game, and any open world to ever exist. Comparatively, a tremendous title like The Witcher 3 - which I love - pales with its points of interest, the "?" around the map, being frequently groups of humanoids or drowners, especially when compared to both Elden Ring and SotE who both offer a lot of varied activities to make exploration worthwhile and not as repetitive.
Plenty is the map to explore and dense are the amount of activities to do and ways to keep busy in the DLC. None felt like filler.
Lastly, one alleged "empty area" of this DLC is one of the most impactful I've ever found in a game, surpassing both the impact of DkS1's Anor Londo and what the community calls *plin plin plon*, imho.

+8

Just like in any previous DLCs, the amount of equipment added with the DLC is incredible and easily matches, if not surpasses, in scale the previous work of From. With around:
30~ new Armor Sets
80~ new Weapons and Shields
40~ new Talisman and spells respectively
20~ new Spirit Ashes and Ashes of War respectively
new Consumables & Craftables
there are new options for anyone's taste and playstyle. Additionally, all categories have new options available to the player, and of those weapons, some belong to completely new weapon types: 8 of them!
From Great Katanas with a clean heavy moveset close to the Longsword of Monster Hunter, to Beast Claws like the ones in Bloodborne, to brand new Martial Arts, Light Greatsword, and Thrusting Shields, these additions are not only welcomed, but excellent.

Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger

Like for any release by From Software, the topic of difficulty never fails to come up when new players enter the fray.
To keep the DLC challenging and interesting, especially when placed in the final third of a massive open-world game, a new level-up system was added alongside the DLC, that works only within the DLC. Items scattered across the Lands of Shadow will allow us to strengthen our character and Spirit Ashes further, increasing our damage and defenses. Failing to meet these undisclosed requirements by ignoring most of the exploration will lead to a harder time during the DLC, especially during boss fights.
Bosses in the DLC, almost entirely new additions even for the minor ones, are a definite step up to the base game. Movesets are faster, dodge windows tighter, and HP pools are larger. In many From titles, bleeding has always been a bit of a crutch for experienced players, annihilating most build variety with its efficacy.
I still remember when with the final expansion of DkS3, the nerfs to bleed and rebalancing of weapons scaling hit some of my characters so hard I had to delete them and start from scratch.
Elden Ring - not that I ever agreed with - has had the infamy of being too easy since lunch compared to the other titles. With the arrival of the DLC, I was expecting again some kind of general rebalancing, so I was quite surprised when instead of that, the ante of each boss has simply been raised.
Overall, I stand my ground and will die on the hill that: it does not completely fall into the trial and error game design. Dying is part of the process and of the learning curve, but not required to succeed.
The bosses have been the highlight of the DLC for me, with one in particular finally dethroning my favorite boss of all time and taking that title home. That boss will now be an excuse for me to always hop in the game with a friend just so I can fight it.
I should change my name to "Let me solo Bayle".

Beyond Yuka Kitamura

When the news broke that composer Yuka Kitamura was leaving From Software after 12 years and working on all their recent titles, I started wondering what the new tracks of SotE and future games would be like.
These games heavily rely on their soundtrack to complete the painted picture alongside their visual design. I have brought some of these tracks with me for almost a decade!
Yet again, like for many things of this DLC, I was pleasantly surprised by amazing tracks for each fight, with even some of the minor bosses standing out, and a new set of tracks entering my playlist.

Conclusion

With even CD Project Red handing out the baton for best DLC rating ever there are not enough characters left available here for me to express in detail how much this expansion is worth not just their asking price but the time it takes to complete. I can't keep constantly going back to add more, rework sections, or rewrite this review. Everything has to end, and I can say I could not be happier about what we got for Elden Ring's ending...for now.
10/10