It’s been two years since I traversed The Lands Between. Two years since I became Elden Lord. Two years since I beat a game that I now consider one of my top 10 favorite games of all time. And now, with Shadow of the Erdtree, I’m once again reminded why Elden Ring is a masterpiece, despite some accessibility flaws.
For this Access Designed, I’m going to talk about how Shadow of the Erdtree is nothing short of incredible – it’s more of the same game that left me in awe of its combat, open world, and inclusive design. Yet, despite following the same formula of vast landscapes dotted with optional, difficult content, nothing substantial is brought forth to increase FromSoftware’s latest title’s accessibility.
Shadow of the Erdtree’s introduction immediately transports players to the Land of Shadow, an area that rivals Limgrave in its size. It’s an understatement to say that it’s massive and occasionally overwhelming with direction and choice. As is common with the Eden Ring base game, players are given no guidance on where to go. A glowing white castle that leads to a giant divine lion puppet, a castle that mirrors the Raya Lucaria Academy, and empty fields filled with huge dead birds and a giant flaming golem are immediately present, and it’s up to you to decide what you want to tackle first.
Naturally, I ignored all of these and traveled into a pleasant forest where a naked man named Logur, the Beast Claw killed me 10 times over. Rather than give up and move to a different section, I stubbornly fought Logur until I defeated him, claiming his Beast Claw weapon as my prize. This was my first foray into Shadow of the Erdtree.
Do I recommend this path? Absolutely not, unless you want to try the new Beast Claw weapon type. However, my questionable decision demonstrates one of the best inclusive design practices of Elden Ring – optional content. Much like the base game, players are not required to fight many of the bosses. For physically disabled players that struggle with fatigue, it’s entirely possible to save a troublesome boss for later or even skip it altogether. While classic Elden Ring accessibility mechanics like summoning spirits and other players are available, many of the enemy encounters are brutal, especially when players refuse to explore and rush to progress the game.
Shadow of the Erdtree is immensely tough at first, so much so that the award-winning game received mixed reviews on Steam because of the drastic spike in difficulty above that experienced in the base game. And, in true FromSoftware fashion, the game doesn’t explicitly tell you how to mitigate this jump in challenge – you need to explore to learn how. I praise Elden Ring’s exploration as a crucial accessible tool, and the DLC is no different. Yet while the design practice can ultimately be viewed as optional in the base game, it’s a mandatory requirement for the expansion. You need to explore. You need to discover items that boost you over the game’s difficulty spike.
Dotted around the massive map are Scadutree Fragments and Revered Spirit Ashes, two key items that act as Shadow of the Erdtree's new leveling system, called the Shadow Realm Blessing. While you are within the Land of Shadow, your traditional rune level does little, if anything, to provide buffs for combat. Instead, you must use Scadutree Fragments to boost your stats, and Revered Spirit Ashes to bolster the offenses and defenses of your spirit summons. While it’s entirely possible to beat the expansion without ever using these, nobody should ever follow this method unless they're a masochist.
Prior to discovering any Fragments or Ashes, I attempted to fight the Divine Beast Dancing Lion using my magic build that could obliterate most base game bosses in under 10 seconds. After around 15 tries, the closest I came to defeating this optional boss was by bringing its health bar down to one third. My spells did pitiful damage, and my summons did nothing more than boost the Lion’s already-inflated health bar. So I left. I explored until I discovered a significant number of Fragments and Ashes, and only returned after significantly increasing by Shadow Realm Blessing levels. And while the Blessing's enhancements didn't allow my magic build to melt the Lion like it had done bosses prior, the boost to my damage, defenses, and my summon’s stats was incredibly noticeable. It allowed me to survive long enough to finally defeat the beast. The overall boss mechanics may have still mirrored the base game – I sat at the back and fired off spells while my summons distracted the boss – but I needed to explore and find specific items before succeeding.
Despite being a new expansion to a two-year-old game, Shadow of the Erdtree does little to increase Elden Ring’s overall accessibility. While there are new weapons, armors, spells, and talismans that you can discover that lead to new accessible playstyles, no new accessibility-focused options were added. Blind and low vision players still have nothing to assist with combat or exploration, Deaf and hard of hearing players have no new environmental subtitles or visual cues, and cognitively disabled players still need to heavily rely on extensive memorization and pattern recognition. For me, a physically disabled player, Elden Ring and its expansion are near flawless for my needs. Yet, as I continuously say, the disabled experience is incredibly vast and individualistic, meaning the inclusive designs and options like customizable controls that I regularly praise may not be enough for others.
It’s difficult to review Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree from an accessibility perspective. My thoughts remain the same from two years ago: it was my game of the year in 2022, and this expansion reignites those same feelings. However, it’s admittedly disappointing to see FromSoftware continue to fail to implement accessible tools beyond inclusive designs. Is this DLC accessible? If it wasn’t accessible for you two years ago, I can confidently say this expansion will leave you feeling disappointed. If you found the game to perfectly suit your accessible needs before, then I encourage you to once again lead your Tarnished into unexplored territories. Just be sure to search for Scadutree Fragments and Revered Spirit Ashes.
Grant Stoner is a disabled journalist covering accessibility and the disabled perspective in video games. When not writing, he is usually screaming about Pokémon or his cat, Goomba on Twitter.
