Reviewing Monsters: Elden Ring - Shadow of the Erdtree, Part 2

As I continue my little sojourn through the Lands of Shadow, it's a nice feeling to be back like when I was first exploring the original Lands Between. A lot of castles, a lot of soldier camps, and trying to piece together the context of what's going on. In this case, we know -- at least we assume we know -- that the land was torn in a horrible, purging war between the forces of one of Marika's demigod children, Messmer the Impaler, against the local people called the Hornsent. But the forces of Messmer seem to be just as trapped as the people they were sent down to hunt. 

And there's the matter of Miquella the Kind, allegedly the kindest demigod in all of the Lands Between, who has been traveling through the Lands of Shadow and 'leaving pieces of his flesh' in various locations. 

Not much is really told, just built up, as I explore a lot of the earlier areas, clear out a couple of castles and tombs, and avoid giant furnace golems. Next up in the dungeons is Castle Ensis, which felt a bit shorter than the other legacy dungeons, although it was a bit surprising to see a lot of Raya Lucarian enemies here, scaled up to DLC scaling. 

I do have a little quibble about the way Shadow of the Erdtree's sidequest systems are designed versus the base game, though. One of the most major events that happen, the breaking of a Great Rune, happens when I... get too close to a big, imposing and very visually 'get here, it's cool' castle. There is no NPC or any lines of dialogue warning me that this was going to change anything. In the base game, as convoluted as it can be, a lot of the major changes and 'NPC acceleration' checkpoints happen when you kill certain bosses -- Radahn, Morgott, or activating the Forge of the Giants. Actions that have a significant amount of buildup by context or by the sheer fact that you're taking out a major demigod. Walking up a castle? Really? I don't think I've locked myself out of too many side-quests, looking at the guide, but that also made me, y'know, look at a guide and see just how terribly someone would really screw this up without even meaning to.

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Spirit Eel

Look at these guys.  Look at these guys! These things are adorable little tube-like entities that sprout out of the ground, rendered in transparency the same way that ghosts or Spirit Jellyfishes are. They've got adorable little dot-faces and dot-mouths that people have compared to the Kodamas of Princess Mononoke fame. What are they? The internal files call them 'Rei Chinanago', or spirit eel, which brings to mind very specifically garden eels. I've seen many of these garden eels while diving, and indeed, these tiny eels hide with half of their bodies buried underground, and their head just hanging up and bobbing around. It is that scene, scaled up to several dozen times the scale, and given adorable human faces and tiny, almost negligible human arms. 

The Spirit Eels, by the way, are completely harmless, similar to the Jellyfishes. They don't drop anything and they don't guard anything, so there's not even a reason to attack them. But if you do, their heads turn red similar to the Spirit Jellyfishes. At that point, they can inflate their angry red heads and slam them down on you like a club... or the more interesting one that I captured here in a screenshot, vomiting out strange tendrils of thread that much of the fandom has collectively identified as being similar to a sea cucumber's defense mechanism of vomiting out its own digestive tracts to distract an enemy -- a factor that was somewhat recently adapted into the Pokemon called Pyukumuku.

One of the absolutely most distinctive creatures to come from the DLC, it's no wonder that they show up in all of the loadscreens and promotional artwork. It is also honestly quite surprising and refreshing that they're just there to make the world a bit weirder and creepier. I feel the best video game worlds do that -- you don't need to devote half your bestiary to non-hostile creatures, but having one or two that isn't just a sheep or a dog does help to sell the impression of a world that's not obviously meant to have every single creature there have stat blocks for a player to kill.  

Black Knight

More humanoid enemies, the Black Knights seem to be Messmer's Army's equivalent to enemies in the base game like the Crucible or Banished Knights -- far better-armoured knights with unique tricks and weapons. In the Black Knight's case, they wield a big, fuck-off giant hammer and a very distinctive gold-rimmed shield. They can also cast certain Crucible spells, which makes me wonder if these are the 'modernized' or 'militiarized' version of the Crucible Knights -- which were always noted to be relics of a more bygone age. Or more likely, these were former Crucible Knight that were press-ganged and forced to serve under this 'away' army, because a lot of hints and dialogue we can find note that Messmer's Army is made up of the undesirables of the Lands Between that were sent away, out of sight, to fight a most heinous war, and was eventually also discarded when Queen Marika cast the spell that cut off the Land of Shadow from the Lands Between. 

Bloodfiend 

These big, burly ogre-like guys are another non-human enemy, but they're not that much terribly interesting than the knights. I do like their little squished-up rat faces, but they're otherwise just an enemy themed around the 'Bloodboon' rituals that were previously only associated with Mohg's Cult of Blood. Item descriptions tell us that the Bloodfiends had been a tribe that also found a 'twisted deity', presumably the same Formless Mother that Mohg worships, and in turn was twisted into these hulking rat-people that casts blood spells. 

I do find it neatly gruesome that some Bloodfields actually hold the dismembered arms of their kin -- and you, too, can loot the Bloodfiend's Arm as a weapon! Not the most exciting enemy, but a nice little visual and thematic difference from the Omens and Albinaurics we've been seeing a lot in the base game. Wonder if they'll actually have a bigger role or sub-area later on? 

Logur the Beast Claw

Logur, the Beast Claw, is just... some naked human with one of the new weapon types, the 'Beast Claw' weapon type. It's kind of cute, I suppose, that most of the new weapon types gets a named NPC to kind of introduce them to you. Logur is a rather surprising reference to Wolverine/Logan of Marvel comics fame, with the hair, the claw weapons, and his iconic half-naked escape from the Weapon X facility. There's not much else to note about Logur other than the really jump-scaring bird screech he makes when we wander into his territory. Unlike Logan, Logur's bark is definitely much worse than his bite. 

Knight of the Solitary Gaol

We've got more gaols in the Lands of Shadow, and one of them is guarded by the Knight of the Solitary Gaol, an asshole who wields a repeat-fire, infinite-ammo crossbow that makes the boss fight against him particularly annoying due to the small, square room it happens in. What little information we can find about him note that the mausoleums in the Lands of Shadow -- again, a land patterned and themed upon death -- have mausoleums specifically for great warriors "who lost their names, or their hearts". Which is apparently literal, because the Knights of the Solitary Gaol were an order who, through a secret rite, 'relinquished their hearts for heightened battle prowess'. The idea that this order might be connected to the Mausoleum Knights from the base game (who sacrificed their heads to become wandering security guards devoted to the mausoleums they guard) is intriguing, but on the other hand the Mausoleum Knights become teleporting ghost guards. This guy just has a minigun crossbow, that kind of ruins the whole vibe of a warrior who sacrificed his life for power. 

Dryleaf Dane

Technically an NPC who has a questline, I do fight Dryleaf Dane. He just sits in a corner of the world, not saying anything, unless you manage to find some instructions from a different NPC to to do a certain kung-fu-fight pose in front of him because 'no words are needed'. That's... that's kind of cute despite the ridiculous way you get around this. Defeating Dryleaf Dane earns you the respect of this kung fu master, and gives you a weapon that allows you to punch-and-kick enemies to the death instead of just utilizing weapons attached to your arms. For that alone, I find it funny. 

Moonrithyll, Carian Knight

While the exterior parts of Castle Ensis is filled with your regular gaggle of Messmer Soldiers and Black Knights, going a bit deeper shows some surprising returning enemies -- the stone-slab-headed mages of Raya Lucaria! Or the Carian Royal Family! We've got other Caria-related enemies like Troll Knights and Noble Sorcerers as well. Guarding the pathway to the boss chamber is Moonrithyll, Carian Knight, who's basically a similar-looking enemy to Moongrum, Carian Knight, who had guarded Queen Rennala. And that's because the boss is...

Rellana, Twin Moon Knight

RELLANA, Twin Moon Knight, twin sister of Queen Rennala! If the very similar-sounding names and the convoluted Game of Thrones-y royal family tree confuses you, this lady seems to be a cheeky joke by the developers. Yes, just like how some of the connections in the game are a bit ambiguous, turns out that Queen Rennala had a twin sister all along!

That's not to say that I didn't enjoy her boss fight. She had zero dialogue, which I thought was doing her dirty -- if the nameless lion dancers got a whole cutscene to build them up, surely Rennala could have had a badass line or two, right? She has one of the most kickass sounding boss OST's in the game with a really cool violin solo, though, and I found her hectic fight so fun. During her first phase, she just fights with her twin swords coupled with souped-up versions of Carian Magics. Her sword extending to a gigantic size to slash across the entire battlefield, summoning magical flying swords around her... 

But on phase two, she ignites her twin swords into fire and ice. Such a simple thing, such a simple visual, but it looks cool, isn't it? She starts casting all sorts of fancy fire and ice spells, and near the end of her health she flies up, summons twin moons, and chucks them down onto the ground. And a third, unexpected explosion when Rellana herself slams down and makes a groundpound. I love the fact that the 'Twin Moon' isn't just a wink-wink nod at Rellana being a 'twin' with a character very associated with the moons, but part of her ultimate attack as well. 

Very cool boss fight, even if I really wished we had learned more about her as a character. Item descriptions from stuff we got after beating her tells us that she is disavowed her birthright (which is probably why she's 'scrubbed from history' or something) and chose to stand at Messmer's side, and it's implied that she did it out of unrequited love. Okay!