It’s been 2 years since Elden Ring released, and it’s DLC “Shadow of the Erdtree” is finally in sight. Today, a 3-minute gameplay for Elden Ring’s upcoming DLC “Shadow of the Erdtree” premiered on Bandai Namco Europe’s YouTube channel. The trailer, which is filled with shots of new locations, bosses, enemies, and items, could not be more rousing.
Amongst all the gameplay reveals, we were also finally given a release date for the DLC: Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree will release on all platforms on June 21, 2024 for $49.99. Naturally, we totally unrelated From Software fans are already expecting to spend the next 4 months stewing over every detail in the trailer while we wait. Speaking of the trailer… Well, this should be no surprise, but it’s good:
As for what this gameplay trailer actually showed, it is jam-packed with exciting new details that have us at the ready for the Erdtree’s grace. Not only did we get our first glimpse at some of the areas that will feature in the DLC, including an old castle filled with lava, a glowing-blue field that reminds us of Sekiro, and — of course — a village in what looks like a swamp, but we also got a look at some bosses and enemies.
Naturally, we can’t wait to get killed by some of them, with some of the most intriguing being the mysterious swordmaster in the blue fields and that masked, flaming, snake-adorned boss at the end (who seems to be called “Messmer the Impaler”). To say nothing of the divine hippo and… whatever this is:
But the most exciting part of the trailer (apart from that it finally dropped) is the voiceover which describes Miquella as “pure and radiant, he wield love to shrive clean the hearts of men.” The implications of this “terrifying” revelation on what the story and gameplay will be like in Shadow of the Erdtree are gigantic.
And we could not be more thrilled, given the usually outstanding quality of From Software’s DLC roster. Especially given the time FromSoft has had to work on Shadow of the Erdtree, our expectations are high. I mean… just look at some of these screenshots from the trailer, all begging a thousand of their own questions:
The trailer debuted to an astounding 680,000 concurrent viewers, and is quickly on its way to becoming one of the highest viewed trailers ever. At the same time, the amount of people visiting EldenRing.com, advertized at the end of the trailer as a place to pre-order the DLC, caused the Elden Ring section of Bandai-Namco’s website to crash.
That might be because of interest in the Collector’s Edition, which is sure to sell out even at it’s $249.99 price tag. The edition, which will come with an artbook, a statue of “Messmer the Impaler”, and official soundtrack, along with the DLC itself of course. And it all looks great; no wonder there is enough interest to crash a site.
This should be no surprise, since this much-hyped trailer is the first look at the DLC since a teaser image was posted nearly a year ago on February 28th, 2023. Since then, fans have been (not so) patiently waiting for more news since. It’s even been said that some fans engaged in a spot of hopeful speculation (notus, ofcourse) in the interim. But, now that we finally have a trailer, with a date, the waiting is near its end…
And as though all that wasn’t enough, Miyazaki himself gave us even more reasons to be excited in an interview with Eurogamer. In the interview, released at the same time as the trailer itself, Miyazaki explained that the DLC was the largest that FromSoft had ever made, and that the area is takes place in is larger in terms of “pure surface area” that all of Limgrave in the base game. He also discussed poison swamps, some of the new additions that will come in Shadow of the Erdtree, and — excitingly — the possibility of aBloodborne remake, among other things.
Now, let’s wrap this huge news up with something fun: in case you forgot, we made a bingo card yesterday in advance of the trailer. Let’s see how our very scientifically created card did:
Well, only 2 Bingos, but that’s more on placement than missing entries. That’s a whooping 19 out of 25 possible predictions right. Yeah, safe to say: we know our FromSoft.
Regardless of that, however, we couldn’t be more excited to finally be getting some news about Shadow of the Erdtree, and this trailer has only bolstered our excitement.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got to plan my next build so I can play through the game just one more time before Shadow of the Erdtree releases.
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Graves
Graves is an avid writer, web designer, and gamer, with more ideas than he could hope to achieve in a lifetime. But, armed with a mug of coffee and an overactive imagination, he'll try. When he isn't working on a creative project, he is painting miniatures, reading cheesy sci-fi novels, or making music.
