Everything You Need To Know About The Lands Between: How To Unravel ELDEN RING’s Mystical Mid-Game

Few games in the high-fantasy RPG genre have inspired the fervour of gamers the way FromSoftware’s Elden Ring has. The intricate world-building, brutal (and rewarding) gameplay, and the endless exploration of the Lands Between has turned Elden Ring into a benchmark for the genre. With the much-anticipated first expansion, Shadow of the Erdtree, scheduled to launch on 21 June 2024, both newcomers and veterans find themselves dusting off their stories and remembering their characters as they gear up to dive back into the Lands Between. Here’s how it ends.

A Refresher Course: The ELDEN RING Journey

Worth taking a moment to catch our breath, however, before we dive into this chapter. FromSoftware and Bandai Namco dropped a ‘The Journey So Far’ trailer that recaps the big events of Elden Ring up until and following the Shattering. From’s penchant for storytelling through environment and cryptic dialogues where the story is told slowly through incomplete pieces of information, is one of the most discussed elements of FromSoftware games.

The Storytelling Craft of FromSoftware

The developer’s storytelling is lauded and lamented at the same time for being subtle. Even with Elden Ring, the task of understanding the world and what led to this mess is still reliant on visual hints, NPC conversations, and the occasional bit of lore buried in an item description. It’s storytelling as a puzzle to piece together – and that’s not a bad thing, necessarily. It’s just that it ends up making some players feel as lost in its world as the game does.

The Prelude to Shadow

It’s hard to imagine a more perfect way to close out the Elden Ring experience. And with Shadow of the Erdtree due for release any day now, the speculation and anticipation could scarcely be any greater. We’ll soon learn much more about the wider adventures of Miquella and Messmer the Impaler. We will explore their mysterious Land of Shadow, and learn what part it plays in the fate of the Lands Between. We’ve definitely left ourselves with a cliffhanger, but it’s one of the most exciting endings I’ve ever had the pleasure of experiencing – and it’s also one that leaves you with a deep desire to find out more.

Why ELDEN RING Resonates

What makes Elden Ring great is multifaceted. The open world that invites exploration, combined with the signature extremely difficult gameplay of From Software, makes for something at once daunting and deeply rewarding. Killing the freaking huge bosses, finding shrines, and other secrets of the world, makes you feel good simply when you succeed. The hype surrounding the title is well-earned as it gathered a multitude of awards and accolades, including 2022’s Game of the Year.

The Road to Becoming Elden Lord

But as you make your way through the game’s sprawling lands and into dark dungeons, the objective is to become the Elden Lord: not by controlling land, for there are no stories of conquest, but by making decisions and seeing how they unfold, influencing the world in ways that produce a variety of endings and replay value.

Embarking on the Shadow of the Erdtree

As the release date draws near, the fans are ready for Shadow of the Erdtree to explore the secrets behind the Elden Ring and the new monsters that will appear. Since the release date was announced, you’ve been able to preorder this DLC, but as it is shrouded in darkness, no one really knows what lurks out there except they know it will be challenging.

Discovering the ELDEN RING

To outsiders, Elden Ring isn’t simply a video game: it’s a literary expedition into the stylised mythos of conflict, mystery, and legend with near-profound intent. For months on end, the world of Elden Ring, with the mythical Elden Ring as its overseer, captured many players through its visual prose, twisted sense of imagination, and hopeless brutality. Now, with a final instalment titled Shadow of the Erdtree on its horizon, the mythical call of the Elden Ring will come again – and you’re invited.

Elden Ring is, in this way, a game in which one’s attention grows focused as one’s treatment within the game’s system grows perfected, something we would have to say is advancing the limits of the games-as-art paradigm with every instant it approaches another outpath. More From the Same Author: Additional Reading.