15 Hidden Details in the Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree Trailer

Legions of Elden Ring fans have been scouring The Lands Between in recent weeks ever since director Hidetaka Miyazaki let slip that something (secret, reference, or otherwise) remained to be unearthed. A newly discovered link between a shield in the base game and enemies in the upcoming Shadow of the Erdtree expansion has been found and may indeed be that missing link.

Elden Ring’s upcoming expansion, Shadow of the Erdtree, is out this Summer and adds a new world, the Land of Shadow, complete with new enemies, over ten bosses and much more. It doesn’t affect the outcome of the base game (and vice versa), but you need to play a fairly significant amount to even access the expansion.

A new combat system in ’s DLC will likely change how players approach difficult challenges with bosses and mini-bosses in the additional content for the game. The long-awaited expansion was announced back in February 2023, a year after the base game’s original release. At the time, little information was provided other than the title itself and artwork featuring a blonde character mounted on a Spirit Steed, with an alternative version of the Erdtree far in the distance. Now, more information has been uncovered with the DLC’s gameplay reveal trailer.

Think you know everything there is to know about Elden Ring? Think again, Tarnished – according to director Hidetaka Miyazaki, there's still «a small element» yet to be discovered.

Renowned Elden Ring director Hidetaka Miyazaki recently spoke about the future of the Dark Souls franchise, suggesting he is open to «delegating» the directorial position to others. Since the debut of Demon's Souls in 2009, the Souls franchise has grown into one of the most recognizable brands within gaming, defining a genre that became known as "Souls-like" games. The franchise has made developer FromSoftware into a household name, recently winning Game of the Year in 2022 for the highly-anticipated Elden Ring. Now, Miyazaki could be looking to take a step back from the franchise.

Elden Ring's Shadow of The Erdtree DLC finally has a release date, as we'll all be heading back to The Lands Between later this year. On top of the release date, FromSoftware released an exciting new gameplay trailer showcasing the new land we'll be exploring, which will no doubt be filled with horrible creatures, challenging encounters, and a handful of Malenia-tier boss fights that will make us want to throw our controllers out of the window.

Elden Ring launched almost two years ago, and since then, players have scoured The Lands Between for every single item or piece of lore they can get their hands on. After so much time, you'd have assumed that everything worth finding in Elden Ring had already been found, but director Hidetaka Miyazaki may have reignited the hunt after comments he made following the release of Shadow of the Erdtree's first trailer.

From Software president Hidetaka Miyazaki has acknowledged that members of the Dark Souls studio had misgivings about Elden Ring's shift to a full-blown open world format, while qualifying that Elden Ring's vision for an open world was never "traditional". Rather, Elden Ring is an "open world" game in the same way that Dark Souls is a "hard" game, Miyazaki feels. Confused? Well, this is the godfather of the notoriously unforthcoming Souls series we're talking about. I've never interviewed the guy, but I suspect he composes his responses using the game's soapstone messaging system.

FromSoftware is changing its approach to level design with Elden Ring's Shadow of the Erdtree DLC.

The Souls games, or whatever umbrella you want to put all of FromSoftware's action RPGs under, collectively redefined an entire genre and literally defined a new one in the form of Soulslikes. So it is immensely amusing to hear creative director and studio boss Hidetaka Miyazaki describe this success, in an interview with Eurogamer, as: "Players seem to enjoy our games."

Two years after Elden Ring was released, we finally got our first look at the Shadow of the Erdtree DLC. From cryptic teases to ghastly enemies, it had it all, and it sounds like there will still be some challenges in store for those seeking more of them.

2022's Game of the Year, Elden Ring, has surpassed yet another impressive milestone of 23 million copies sold. This comes just one day after the full reveal trailer of Elden Ring's hotly anticipated Shadow of the Erdtree DLC, which already sits at over six million views on Bandai Namco's YouTube channel. The thrilling trailer showcases parts of the new Land of Shadow area, as well as some of the fearsome new bosses players will face off against, causing a swell of excitement and hype among fans online.