Hidetaka Miyazaki has taken the gaming industry by storm in the past decade, especially with the release of his latest title Elden Ring in 2022. The popular game, which is now set to expand with the upcoming Shadow of the Erdtree DLC on June 21st, holds many secrets within itself that fans believe will be answered in the said addition of content.
However, what would surprise many is the fact that the coming content many have been dying to experience ever since its announcement was initially planned to be included in the base game itself. In an interview, the director revealed that it was only decided after Elden Ring was half-done that certain parts would be kept out and will be made into a DLC in the future.
Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree DLC – An Expansion We Were Never Supposed To Recieve
There are many reasons as to why such a major decision was taken, including how the game would have been too extensive to explore if the contents of the coming DLC would have been kept in. There remains no doubt that some elements since then would have faced exaggeration and have been more refined, but keeping 3 separate realms to visit in one single game during launch would have been a nightmare for the studio and gamers alike.
As noted by Wes Fenlon from PC Gamer, who had the chance to visit FromSoftware’s headquarters in Tokyo, Hidetaka Miyazaki mentioned how the DLC was actually supposed to be a part of the game at first.
He [the director] says that Erdtree’s story was actually planned as a part of Elden Ring, but “around halfway through development” they realized it wasn’t going to fit. And so the makings of an expansion following Miquella, the brother of infamously deadly hidden boss Malenia, began to take shape.
This also happens to be a topic that has been touched on by the director in the past as well. As stated before, if included in the base game, Elden Ring would have been too big for the player to explore and could have easily overwhelmed anybody who dared to begin with it. This prompted the studio to keep aside the storyline of Miquella and the undiscovered Land of Shadow for the future, which we will now soon explore in the Shadow of the Erdtree DLC.
Shadow of the Erdtree DLC – The First And Last Expansion For Elden Ring According To Hidetaka Miyazaki
Despite there being enormous hype around the coming Elden Ring DLC, it has been revealed by the director in another interview how it is going to be the first and only expansion that the game is going to get, leaving fans to wonder what comes next in the future.
Bearing in mind how it is the best-selling IP of FromSoftware to date, it would be foolish on the studio’s part to abandon it after just a single expansion. This brings us to our next prevailing theory, speculating how the franchise can end up being a trilogy like the previously released Dark Souls series, proving to be a big hit once again.
Elden Ring is available to purchase on Steam.
