As I work my way through Shadow of the Erdtree<\/em><\/a>, the new DLC for Elden Ring<\/em>, I can\u2019t help but think that game director Hidetaka Miyazaki<\/a> is trolling the shit outta me.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Speaking with him <\/em>at Summer Game Fest two weeks ago,<\/em> Miyazaki said that Erdtree<\/em> is \u201cby far the biggest in scale in volume\u201d than any other FromSoftware DLC before it. But he also said Erdtree <\/em>is \u201cabout the same volume as the Limgrave part of the base game,\u201d the starting area of Elden Ring<\/em>, containing \u201cslightly more content.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n I don\u2019t buy it. While it\u2019s impossible to accurately compare scale in game, I\u2019ve played the game for 30 hours and have already found the new areas in the DLC to be more expansive than Limgrave. Not only is the map itself large, it\u2019s layered, with huge areas propped up on plateaus above, in deep valleys below, and on islands that take some creative platforming to reach.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n I\u2019d say it\u2019s far, far<\/em> larger than Limgrave, with plenty more to do as well. Shadow of the Erdtree<\/em> honestly feels like it\u2019s big enough to be its own game with its own story \u2014 one that was originally intended for Elden Ring<\/em> but wound up being cut for time before being added back as DLC content.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Erdtree<\/em> follows the story arc of Miquella, brother of uber boss Malenia<\/a> and one of the demigods important to Elden Ring <\/em>lore. To focus on Miquella was, Miyazaki told me, born of the desire to honor George R. R. Martin\u2019s contributions to the game. \u201c[He] gave us all this great mythology to work with,\u201d Miyazaki said. Packaging Miquella\u2019s story as a standalone DLC was essentially \u201cclosing the loop\u201d on Martin\u2019s involvement in the game. \u201cIt\u2019s really about completing Elden Ring<\/em>\u2019s circle,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n But understating the size of Shadow of the Erdtree<\/em> is just one of the ways it feels like Miyazaki is misleading me. I know he\u2019s trolling me when it comes to difficulty.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n I cannot beat Rellana, Twin Moon Knight<\/a>, the boss ensconced in Castle Enis that players can face five or 50 hours in depending on their exploration choices. (I met her after about 15.) None of my strategies nor any of the game\u2019s built in assistance features \u2014 using Mimic Tear Ashes, summoning help from an NPC, changing my weapons or spells, inflicting damaging status effects \u2014 seem to work. My best attempt got her down to half of her health and I cannot seem to progress further. And she\u2019s only major boss number two.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n According to Miyazaki, this is by design. He said that Erdtree<\/em> contains \u201c10 plus boss encounters\u201d \u2014 honestly, another hilariously absurd understatement, I\u2019ve seen estimates of 55 bosses<\/a> and up to 80<\/a>. Thankfully only a small handful of those bosses are necessary to progress the story, while the rest are optional.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cAnd the ones that [are optional] are especially difficult,\u201d Miyazaki said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Whenever a new FromSoftware game releases, there\u2019s nearly always a discussion of difficulty. With the DLC, other reviewers have suggested that its difficulty is too extreme. \u201cIt\u2019s true that this distinct type of FromSoft-engineered frustration is an indispensable part of the Souls<\/em> experience,\u201d wrote Alexis Ong in Eurogamer<\/em><\/a>.<\/em> \u201cThis, however, feels like difficulty for difficulty\u2019s sake, turned up to eleven.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n I agree. But while I think Shadow of the Erdtree<\/em> could better straddle the line between pleasantly challenging and frustratingly impossible, the game was tuned to Miyazaki\u2019s intentions, representing the lessons the development team learned from the original game\u2019s feedback.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cTraditionally we\u2019ve always liked the higher difficulty curve type of games and experiences, but I think that nature in and of itself alienates a good portion of the game playing audience,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n A contradictory thing to say considering his comments in a recent interview with The Guardian<\/em><\/a>: \u201cIf we really wanted the whole world to play the game, we could just crank the difficulty down more and more, but that wasn\u2019t the right approach. Turning down difficulty would strip the game of that joy, which, in my eyes, would break the game itself.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n He\u2019s not wrong. Elden Ring<\/em> ceases to be the game of the year it was if it lacks the kind of difficulty FromSoftware is known for. So Erdtree<\/em> must be hard, but not so hard that it\u2019ll turn players off. But it also can\u2019t be too easy because that will break the game. What to do? The answer, according to Miyazaki, is freedom.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cThe amount of freedom that we give players helps offset that difficulty curve and makes the game more accessible and engaging,\u201d he told me.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n I think that worked for Elden Ring<\/em>, less so for this DLC. In the base game, difficulty could be circumvented with leveling up \u2014 the player freedom, as it were. But with the addition of the new DLC-exclusive consumables that increase your attack and defense, becoming more powerful is now dependent on your ability to find those scarce items. As a result, I\u2019ve often found myself fearful of the simplest enemies as encountering more than one at a time will kill me outright.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cI try to imagine different ways I would want to die as a player or be killed.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n In addition to ensuring that players die a lot, <\/em>Miyazaki also said that how<\/em> players die is just as important.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cI try to imagine different ways I would want to die as a player or be killed,\u201d he said, explaining that those thoughts manifested in Elden Ring<\/em> and in other FromSoftware games as his signature poison swamps<\/a>. But for Erdtree<\/em>, he confessed to cutting back on that indulgence \u2014 \u201cIn the original Elden Ring<\/em>, I went a little too far.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n There are still poison swamps in Erdtree<\/em>, \u201cbut in other parts of gameplay, there are still many ways to die.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Too many it seems. I\u2019ve been bludgeoned, exsanguinated, frostbitten, and burned. I\u2019ve fallen off cliffs, had cliffs fall on me \u2014 beware the fiery rocks the Furnace Golems spew \u2014 and I\u2019ve even accidentally killed myself eating an item that refilled my HP while also inflicting poison.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Despite my tribulations, Miyazaki, like a benevolent god, has faith in me and his players, only giving us trials he believes we can bear.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve really pushed the envelope in terms of what we think can be withstood by the player,\u201d Miyazaki said.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n He clarified that one of the biggest lessons brought forward from Elden Ring<\/em> into Erdtree<\/em> was what the audience found fun over what was stressful. \u201c We tried to make that the foundation of the boss encounters of the DLC, so hopefully players will find it much more engaging and fun,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n