The surprisingly contentious Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree has made waves in the gaming community thanks to its elevated challenge over the base game, which is hard enough as it is. But while the debate about Shadow of the Erdtree's difficulty rages on, it's worth taking a look at how the expansion, and Elden Ring as a whole, actually signifies FromSoftware becoming more accessible.
Nearly everyone who has beaten a FromSoftware game will admit that the studio doesn't hold back when it comes to difficulty. Back in the early days of Dark Souls, this brutal, unforgiving challenge was essentially all that the franchise was known for outside its core playerbase. Indeed, FromSoftware's games, for all their strengths, have never been mass-appeal products, accessible to everyone. This made Elden Ring's outstanding success all the more surprising, as audiences who were previously apprehensive of FromSoftware's games were now jumping into a Souls game head-first. Crucial to Elden Ring's sweeping popularity is its accessibility compared to previous titles, and this is something that Shadow of the Erdtree builds on.
Shadow of the Erdtree introduces several improvements over the base game, and overworld dungeons are among the most significant.
It may...
