Elden Ring’s Shadow Of The Erdtree DLC Was Meant To Be In The Base Game

As expected, FromSoftware’s brand-new expansion for Elden Ring, Shadow of the Erdtree, is dividing players because of its difficulty. Soulslike purists are keen to make gameplay as punishing as possible, while casual Tarnished were relieved to have the new Blessing System in their arsenal that made combat a little easier.

The DLC will not only test players’ battle skills, stamina, and strength of character, but it will also fill in many lore gaps. Furthermore, the expansion’s setting, the Land of Shadow, was hidden in plain sight within the base game’s Lands Between map, and that reveal now makes sense considering Shadow of the Erdtree’s narrative was originally meant to be part of the base game.

Shadow Of The Erdtree’s Miquella Arc Didn’t Fit Into Elden Ring’s Base Game

In an interview with CNET, FromSoftware president and Elden Ring director, Hidetaka Miyazaki, was asked about Shadow of the Erdtree’s original experiences that players hadn’t encountered before in Elden Ring. The director stated the expansion completes Elden Ring’s narrative, and confirmed the DLC’s content was originally meant to be in the base game.

Discussing Miquella’s arc, Miyazaki shared that the FromSoftware devs hoped to include this story in the base game, but that never came to fruition. “I would say the story itself was something that we were hoping to originally put in the base game, but it just didn’t work out and didn’t fit.”

It was interesting to discover this narrative could have been part of the main gameplay, however, separating Miquella’s arc provided fitting content for the expansion. Miyazaki continued “As a result, Miquella’s entire story arc, which is part of the original lore, is something that the DLC explores quite thoroughly.”

Regarding Game of Thrones creator George R.R. Martin’s contribution to the Elden Ring story, Miyazaki wanted to confirm the writer had a hand in the DLC story too, saying “Just to make sure there’s no confusion among the audience, I want to reiterate that the story of the DLC, it’s not that George R.R. Martin has comprised anything new or different from what he had contributed in the base game.”

In creating the Elden Ring narrative, Martin and the FromSoft team mapped out the base game and the now DLC content as one story, but later decided to repurpose the latter portion. “If anything, the lore and mythology of the world that you see in Elden Ring, he had even created the lore that covers the DLC — it’s just that we couldn’t put it in the original game. So we’re almost closing the loop in terms of his contribution in the form of the DLC.”

Delving into the narrative and lore awaiting fans in Shadow of the Erdtree, Miyazaki believed the DLC “provides a lot more context and a lot more of the answers to people’s theories, and the fragments of information that people experienced through the main game.”

If you want an Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree appetizer before jumping in headfirst, check out our 20-minute gameplay rundown to see what awaits you, Tarnished.

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The Fastest Way To Start Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree

Oh, and also make sure you get good.