After months of anticipation, Elden Ring’s DLC has finally arrived, promising new bosses, expanded lore, and a continuation of the epic journey through the Lands Between. Players entered the Shadow of the Erdtree with high expectations, eager to uncover hidden truths and challenge themselves with some of the hardest content FromSoftware has to offer. However, for many, the final moments of the DLC left a bitter aftertaste. Despite the journey being rich with lore and unforgettable encounters, the DLC ending has sparked disappointment across the community. Whether due to its ambiguity, lack of closure, or sudden shift in tone, many fans feel the ending failed to deliver on the buildup set by the rest of the content.
Expectations Set by the Base Game
The original Elden Ring endings offered a wide variety of choices and philosophical interpretations, with six different conclusions that each reflected the player’s path through the world. These ranged from the restoration of the Golden Order to more sinister or ambiguous fates, like the Frenzied Flame or Age of Stars. This variety established an expectation: that major story arcs would be given weighty, meaningful conclusions. Players hoped that the DLC would continue this pattern especially with how much narrative groundwork had been laid in the base game and promotional material.
The marketing for the DLC leaned heavily into mystery and lore-rich environments, focusing on characters like Miquella and the hidden realm of the Shadowlands. Many believed the DLC would provide long-awaited answers to questions about Miquella’s plans, Marika’s legacy, and the deeper layers of the Erdtree’s origins. Instead, what they got felt vague and incomplete.
The Journey Through the Shadowlands
High-Quality Gameplay and Design
To be fair, the journey through the Shadowlands is packed with the high-quality design fans expect from FromSoftware. The DLC includes sprawling new areas, brutally difficult enemies, and creative boss designs. Exploration is rewarding, and the sense of discovery is intact. The visual and audio design remains exceptional, drawing players into the haunting, decaying world that seems to mirror the fate of the Golden Order itself.
Along the way, you encounter factions and remnants of old powers, hints of betrayal, and fragments of Miquella’s influence. These pieces tease the buildup to a climactic resolution one that seems to suggest a turning point in the fate of the Lands Between. The pacing, enemy scaling, and environmental storytelling all signal that you’re approaching something monumental.
The Final Boss and Its Role
Much of the criticism around the DLC ending revolves around the final boss. Without spoiling specific names for those who haven’t reached it, the encounter is visually stunning and mechanically intense. But narratively, it raises more questions than it answers. Players are left confused about the final boss’s true motivations, their connection to Miquella, and what defeating them really means for the world. Was this figure a protector? A usurper? A reflection of Miquella’s darker intentions?
In typical FromSoftware fashion, the lore is cryptic and buried in item descriptions and environmental clues. But unlike the base game, which at least provided multiple interpretive paths, the DLC offers very little closure no new ending cinematic, no alternate credits, not even a proper narrative wrap-up for Miquella’s fate.
Why the Ending Feels Disappointing
Lack of Narrative Payoff
One of the most common complaints is that the DLC fails to provide narrative resolution. Miquella, a character teased heavily throughout Elden Ring, remains elusive and unexplored. Even after reaching the conclusion, players still don’t fully understand his role in the greater cosmology of the game. His goals remain vague, his personality underdeveloped, and his importance ambiguous. After hours of battling through his realm, it’s unclear what has been accomplished beyond defeating yet another powerful foe.
No New Endings or Choices
Another letdown is the lack of new ending options. Many fans expected the DLC to add a fresh conclusion to the base game, possibly linked to Miquella’s philosophy or a new vision for the world. Instead, finishing the DLC simply returns you to the main world with no changes to the game’s ending paths. This absence of choice undermines the weight of the DLC’s story and makes it feel disconnected from the larger narrative arc.
Overreliance on Ambiguity
While FromSoftware is known for its cryptic storytelling, ambiguity only works when balanced with thematic clarity. In this case, the balance is off. The story threads feel incomplete rather than open to interpretation. Players are left wondering whether they missed something critical or if the developers intentionally avoided providing answers. The result is not intrigue it’s confusion.
Community Reactions and Feedback
The community response has been mixed. While many praise the gameplay mechanics and aesthetics, forums and social media are filled with disappointed reactions about the ending. Some players compare it to Dark Souls III’s Ringed City DLC, which had a similar tone but ultimately offered a more satisfying resolution to its story. Others feel the DLC missed an opportunity to deepen the world’s mythology in a meaningful way.
Several content creators and lore analysts have voiced frustration over the lack of closure. Discussions focus on how little is revealed about Miquella, and how the DLC ending feels disconnected from the stakes the game spent hours building up. While a few fans defend the artistic choice to remain cryptic, the majority express a shared desire for more substantial narrative payoff.
Missed Opportunities in Lore Expansion
Miquella’s Role
Miquella’s story is central to the DLC, yet he remains mostly offscreen and inactive. There are hints of his manipulation or suffering, but these threads never fully come together. Was he a savior or a tyrant in disguise? Did his dream of a new order die with the final boss or did it live on in some unseen form? The game refuses to answer, leaving what could have been a rich character arc unresolved.
Shadowlands’ Significance
The Shadowlands feel mythologically important, yet the ending doesn’t establish their role in the broader world. Were they a test, a punishment, or a remnant of a forgotten age? The player’s actions seem to have no tangible consequences on the Lands Between, which lessens the emotional and narrative impact of completing the DLC.
What Could Have Been Improved
- Include a new ending cinematic or world-state changeafter finishing the DLC to show its significance.
- Develop Miquella’s story arc furtherthrough more cutscenes, dialogue, or meaningful lore discoveries.
- Add choices or alternate pathswithin the DLC, reflecting different philosophies or allegiances.
- Provide more clarity in the final boss fightabout what the player is truly confronting and why it matters.
While Elden Ring’s DLC offers excellent gameplay and world design, the ending feels like a missed opportunity. Instead of providing closure or expanding on the rich lore surrounding Miquella and the Erdtree, it leaves players with unanswered questions and an underwhelming conclusion. For a game that built its reputation on layered storytelling and powerful themes, this lack of resolution is hard to ignore. Fans deserved more than ambiguity they deserved a meaningful end to a journey that promised depth and discovery. As it stands, the Elden Ring DLC ending is more frustrating than fulfilling, and it may remain a point of debate in the community for years to come.