As noted in last week's Shadow of the Erdtree preview, the new map in this expansion is decidedly different from the Lands Between explored in Elden Ring. It is smaller, to be sure, but it is densely populated with enemies, activity, and places of interest, and movement is not quite so simple. Cliffs, valleys, and bridges get in the way, and there are new areas that you might have thought you could dash through at first.

From Software boss Hidetaka Miyazaki said the team intended this expansion to be massive from the start. Because they wanted players to "re-experience that sense of discovery, that sense of wonder and exploration," and they needed a large map "to support and enhance that."

But how did the more complex design of the new world map come about?" When I spoke with Miyazaki for PC Gamer's Shadow of the Erdtree cover story, I asked him if the DNA of Dark Souls' tightly connected map this time around I asked if there might be a little more here.

"I had that sense as we were making it. 'It's not an open field, it's not a legacy dungeon. We're blending the two together to create a better verticality. There are large open field areas, but ...... We wanted to express not only scale and granularity, but also variety. So we hope that what you experienced was an attempt to add variety to how the open fields are placed and configured in the legacy dungeon.

When I played "The Elden Ring" in 2022, I loved some of the freedom and flexibility that its open world design offered, but I also found myself exhausted by the scope of it all and some of the repeated boss fights. There was a grand sense of accomplishment, but I also felt a strong desire for From Software to return to a game on the scale of "Dark Souls 1" (and the expertise the studio has developed in the decade since). Miyazaki's comments made me wonder if another open-world game from From Software could retain the mass appeal of "Elden Rings" but be a bit slimmed down.

We know it's "easier said than done." Still, we hope that this DLC will point the way to what we can expect from Miyazaki's next project. And once we fully explore the DLC's new "Land of Shadows," we will better understand how well FromSoft blurs the line between open world and complex legacy dungeons. Perhaps, whatever comes next, the two will come to feel virtually one and the same.

Stay tuned for more news on "Shadow of the Eldest Trees."