Elden Ring: Shadow Realm

Introduction

When Elden Ring released in 2022, it redefined what open-world games could be, blending FromSoftware's signature challenging combat and cryptic storytelling with an unprecedented sense of discovery and freedom. Three years later, the studio has returned to the Lands Between with Elden Ring: Shadow Realm, a massive expansion that doesn't just add more content but meaningfully expands on the themes, story, and gameplay of the original.

The question facing any expansion to a masterpiece is whether it can maintain the quality of the original while offering something new. After spending over 40 hours exploring the Shadow Realm's twisted landscapes and facing its nightmarish denizens, I can confidently say that FromSoftware has once again delivered an experience that, despite a few missteps, stands as one of gaming's finest achievements.

New Setting & Story

Shadow Realm introduces players to the Umbral Lands, a twisted mirror dimension of the Lands Between accessed through a newly appeared chasm in Limgrave. This shadowy realm exists as a reflection of the main world, corrupted by an ancient entity known as the Void Serpent that has begun to threaten both realities.

The narrative picks up after the events of the main game, with your Tarnished being called back to action by Miquella, who has awakened from his cocoon with dire warnings about the encroaching darkness. The story delves deeper into the cosmic aspects of the Elden Ring universe, exploring the nature of the Greater Will and introducing opposing outer gods that have their own designs for the world.

As with all FromSoftware games, the storytelling remains largely environmental and implicit, requiring players to piece together the narrative through item descriptions, NPC dialogue, and visual cues. What makes Shadow Realm's approach particularly effective is how it recontextualizes much of the base game's lore, adding new layers of meaning to previously established characters and events. Revelations about Marika's true intentions, the origins of the Erdtree, and the nature of the Tarnished themselves provide satisfying answers to questions players have been debating since the original release.

The expansion introduces several new NPCs with their own questlines, including the enigmatic Veiled Prophet who serves as both guide and adversary throughout your journey. These characters are among FromSoftware's most compelling creations, with complex motivations and tragic arcs that unfold as you progress through the Umbral Lands.

Gameplay & Combat

Shadow Realm builds upon Elden Ring's combat foundation with new mechanics that add fresh dimensions to encounters. The most significant addition is the Umbral Arts system, which allows players to harness the power of shadow to enhance their abilities. By collecting Void Fragments throughout the expansion, you can unlock and upgrade these arts, which range from creating shadow clones that mimic your attacks to temporarily phasing through enemy strikes.

These new abilities integrate seamlessly with existing builds, allowing for creative combinations with the base game's weapons, spells, and Ashes of War. A particularly inspired design choice is how certain Umbral Arts synergize with specific weapon types or playstyles, encouraging experimentation even from players who have settled into comfortable builds.

The expansion introduces over 20 new weapons, each with unique movesets and special abilities that often incorporate the shadow mechanics. Standouts include the Void Serpent's Fang, a curved sword that leaves trails of damaging void energy with each swing, and the Umbral Greatbow, which can fire arrows that phase through obstacles to hit enemies behind cover.

New enemy types present fresh challenges that force veterans to adapt their strategies. Particularly noteworthy are the Shadow Mimics, which copy your equipped weapons and fighting style, effectively turning your own strengths against you. The expansion also introduces environmental hazards unique to the Umbral Lands, such as pools of void liquid that drain health while providing temporary buffs to attack power, creating interesting risk-reward scenarios during exploration and combat.

World Design & Exploration

The Umbral Lands represent some of FromSoftware's most inspired environmental design to date. While smaller than the base game's open world (roughly the size of Liurnia and Caelid combined), the area is densely packed with secrets, challenges, and breathtaking vistas. The region is divided into five distinct sub-areas, each with its own visual identity and themes.

The Mirrored Plains serve as your introduction to the Shadow Realm, featuring twisted versions of Limgrave's rolling hills and forests, now bathed in perpetual twilight with an enormous eclipse hanging in the sky. The Abyssal City presents a labyrinthine urban environment reminiscent of Bloodborne's Yharnam but with Elden Ring's vertical exploration. The Void Marshes offer a poisonous swampland (a FromSoftware tradition) with unique traversal challenges involving shadow platforms that appear and disappear with the phases of the eclipse.

Most impressive is the Inverted Spire, a massive structure that you navigate from top to bottom, with gravity shifting as you descend deeper into its impossible architecture. The level design here showcases FromSoftware at their most creative, with paths that loop back on themselves in mind-bending ways and perspectives that constantly challenge your spatial awareness.

The expansion maintains Elden Ring's emphasis on discovery and player-driven exploration. There are no quest markers or explicit directions—just a vast, interconnected world filled with secrets waiting to be uncovered. Legacy Dungeons return with the massive Void Palace serving as the expansion's centerpiece, a sprawling complex that rivals Leyndell in size and complexity.

What makes exploration particularly rewarding is how the Shadow Realm connects back to the main game world in surprising ways. Certain actions in the Umbral Lands can affect corresponding locations in the Lands Between, opening new paths or revealing hidden secrets in areas players thought they had fully explored years ago.

Bosses & Challenges

Shadow Realm features 12 major boss encounters, with an additional 15 optional mini-bosses scattered throughout the world. These fights represent some of FromSoftware's most challenging and mechanically complex designs, often requiring mastery of the new Umbral Arts system to overcome.

The standout encounter is undoubtedly Miquella the Unborn, who has been transformed by his time in the cocoon into something both beautiful and terrifying. The multi-phase battle showcases FromSoftware's ability to create fights that feel like desperate struggles against overwhelming odds while remaining fair and readable. Miquella's attacks blend graceful, dance-like movements with devastating arcane magic, creating a visual spectacle that rivals any boss in the studio's history.

The final boss, the Void Serpent in its true form, presents perhaps the most mechanically complex fight FromSoftware has ever designed. The encounter shifts between different combat styles and perspectives, requiring players to adapt on the fly while remembering complex attack patterns and positioning requirements. While immensely satisfying to overcome, this fight may prove too demanding for some players, pushing difficulty to the very edge of fairness.

Indeed, the expansion's greatest weakness may be its occasional overreliance on extreme difficulty. Several bosses, particularly Umbral Knight Vyke and the Nameless Void, feature attack combinations and damage output that can feel punishing even to veteran players. While these encounters are technically fair—every attack can be avoided with proper timing—they leave little room for error and may frustrate even dedicated fans.

That said, FromSoftware has included more accessibility options than in the base game. The expansion introduces Umbral Echoes, spectral NPCs that can be summoned for particularly challenging encounters if you've completed their questlines. These allies are more effective than standard Spirit Ashes while not trivializing the fights, providing a welcome middle ground for players who need assistance.

Visuals & Sound

Shadow Realm pushes the technical boundaries of the base game with enhanced visual effects and lighting. The constant eclipse casts the world in an eerie glow, with shadows that seem to move independently of their sources. Volumetric fog rolls through the Void Marshes, obscuring enemies until they're nearly upon you. The particle effects for the new spells and abilities are particularly impressive, with void magic creating distortions in the fabric of reality itself.

The art direction deserves special praise for creating environments that feel alien yet cohesive with the established aesthetic. The Umbral Lands manage to be distinct from the main game while clearly existing within the same universe. The design of the new armor sets and weapons shows incredible attention to detail, with intricate engravings and subtle animations that hint at their otherworldly origins.

Composer Yuka Kitamura returns with new musical pieces that build upon the themes of the original while introducing haunting new motifs. The boss music for Miquella the Unborn stands as one of the most memorable tracks in FromSoftware's catalog, beginning with sorrowful strings that gradually build to a frantic, choral climax as the fight intensifies. Environmental audio has been enhanced as well, with the Umbral Lands featuring subtle whispers and distant cries that contribute to the oppressive atmosphere.

Technical Performance

Shadow Realm runs impressively well considering the visual complexity of the new areas. On PS5 and Xbox Series X, the game maintains a steady 60fps in Performance mode with only occasional dips during the most particle-heavy boss encounters. PC performance has been improved from the base game, with better optimization and fewer stuttering issues, though high-end hardware is still recommended for maximum settings.

The expansion includes several quality-of-life improvements that address complaints about the original game. Map markers now have more variety and can be labeled, making it easier to track points of interest. A new journal feature records key information from NPC conversations, helping players keep track of cryptic questlines. The UI for sorting inventory has been refined, making equipment management less cumbersome.

During my playthrough, I encountered only a few minor bugs—occasional clipping issues with the new armor sets and rare instances where certain environmental effects would flicker. Nothing game-breaking was observed, and a day-one patch has already been announced to address these minor issues.