10/10
Shadow of the Erdtree is easily the most ambitious dlc that they have ever released, and thankfully in my opinion, probably their best dlc yet (never played bloodborne however). The best parts of elden ring return in this expansion, with not only more unique areas to explore, but also probably the hardest bosses fromsoftware has done, with of course, some of their best they have ever made.

Story
As of writing this review there hasn't REALLY been a full breakdown of the lore of the dlc, but I have done all of the character questlines, read most of the item descriptions, and fought all the bosses so I have a general idea of the story. Without going into spoilers, most of the character arcs were really good, diving into the groups slowly losing trust of each other over their own goals, either teaming up, or going against each other. The main storyline is also SUPER detailed like how I would expect from elden ring lore. While it didn't answer all of my questions I had, specifically with Melina, it answered who tf Miquella was, and his motivations that led to everyone else's story to go the way they went. Again, won't spoil cause I know game is new, but it is easily worth diving into the story of this game, as it has the intrigue, helped Mohg beat the allegations, and of course, made me ask more questions than answers which depends on how you view that.

Characters
For the main bosses, Messmer was easily the one I had the most questions for, and with confirmations that we FINALLY got with him, he was easily the most interesting of the bosses. He also just had a really cool character story that connected with other side characters in the game like Hornsent and such, with themes of revenge and betrayal of their own mother to a lowly tarnished such as yourself. Other bosses like Bayle were also such a joy to dive into their lore, but the final boss in particular was not only a surprise, but also a changer for how their story is, completing their arc alongside Miquella over what their motivations were and how they affected the game as a whole. For the NPC questlines, they were all interconnected apart from a few, which made their stories a ton of fun to dive into as they struggle to live without the blessing they thought to highly of. Of course some still try to believe, but others start going to their old ways, even falling victim to the thing they tried to prevent, like how the drive to revenge caused them to never be satisfied till all are gone. I loved diving into the lore, and while yeah it is a bit weird the direction they took for the finale storypoint, I still think it was an amazing story with a conclusion to those characters... even if it also created new questions and left some plots unanswered, specifically with again, Melina (even though we can fill in some gaps about who she was with Midra).

Gameplay
Of course, Elden ring gameplay was something I already loved, but now they took the difficulty and cranked it up to an 11. For starters, one aspect I think they improved a TON was exploration, as a ton of areas connect to other areas that are not only jaw dropping, but also had the world design that I think was even done better than base game. The game scales with the idea that you are bringing your endgame character, so of course they introduced the blessing system to not only scale your character back to how you were lvl 1, but to also incentivise exploring, since you already have all the upgrade stones you need, you probably already have your build set, and you don't find cookbooks or other smaller finds that interesting anymore. They still nailed the reward system for an open world setting, as I found a ton of new spells and weapons I utilized not only for their usefulness, but also how damn cool they were. I also really enjoyed the blessing system, as it allowed the bosses for this dlc to easily be the hardest they ever have been, but still allowing the exploration side of elden ring to be utilized, meaning you can just go out, find blessings and come back even stonger for the bosses. Talking about the bosses, they were really damn exciting in this dlc, and had some of the best bosses fromsoftware has ever made. The final boss, Messmer and bayle to be specific were so peak, and other bosses like the divine beast were also so damn good it was insane. Of course there were some bleh bosses like the commander, who was the only time I felt like the boss just needed a rework to actually be fun for the way fromsoftware obviously intended, and fighting him normally meant dodging a move that literally has a 2 frame window to dodge or else risk getting hit. Even with some of the ok bosses, this dlc still had some of the best, and of course with how difficult they were, made beating them oh that much more satisfying. One thing that I think is underappreciated is how they tackled the biggest complaint of base game of how catacombs were all the same. In this dlc, not only is the catacomb only really repeated like 2 times this dlc, but had really unique mechanics this time. The other caves had new designs of ice and fire, which added a ton, but also gave you an idea of what to expect in the cave without looking up the loot list.

Music
Really good. The best songs were with The final boss, Messmer, Rellana and the divine beast. Of course as a fromsoftware game, the best songs were the boss themes. Even the ambient songs were pretty good at setting the tone of the area like the forest. Also the Avatar's theme transitions were just chefs kiss.

Last Positives/Nitpicks
-Performance was poor, most areas were fine, but some areas did dip to 50 fps at most, and for the final boss one attacked dropped to almost 25 fps which was insane (luckily was very easy to dodge).
-Do wish they explained the blessing systems better, I can tell some players didn't understand it and complained about how crap their max lvl character was doing.
- Would had liked a new ending atleast.
- Would had liked more sorcery spells that weren't ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥.

Conclusion
Shadow of the Erdtree for me paid off as easily the best dlc, if you can even call it that and not an expansion, fromsoftware has made. For those complaining about the difficulty, especially early on, just explore and find blessings. If you are saying the final boss is hard then well... ok you got a point. For $40 you are basically getting a sequel to elden ring, and this is EASILY the golden standard for what an expansion to a singleplayer game should be like alongside cyperpunk 2077 and witcher 3's expansions.
10/10