The final boss of Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree might be a disappointment, if leaks are to be believed

It seems that leaks are inevitable when it comes to highly anticipated video game releases like Elden Ring's upcoming Shadow of the Erdtree DLC. While the expansion is still a good few days away from its scheduled launch date, leaks regarding not only the DLC's story but also all the boss fights have already made their way to the internet, courtesy of Reddit.

Shadow of the Erdtree, despite being a DLC, is easily one of 2024's most anticipated releases, which is understandable considering the hype surrounding the expansion, and most importantly, the success of Elden Ring itself. Moreover, much like any other game with a lot of buzz around it, leaks were bound to arrive close to its release.

Although it's not the first souls-like expansion by FromSoftware, Shadow of the Erdtree is surely the most ambitious. However, if the now-deleted leaks are to be believed, the final boss of Elden Ring's Shadow of the Erdtree DLC might feel a tad disappointing to some fans.

Disclaimer: This article is entirely an opinion piece based on a now-deleted leak. There are also potential spoilers for Elden Ring's DLC, so a "spoiler warning" is in effect past this point.

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The final boss of Elden Ring's Shadow of the Erdtree DLC is reportedly a familiar face from the base game

Shadow of the Erdtree is technically not a direct continuation of Elden Ring's story; instead, it's essentially a side story, akin to the questline involving Malenia. Much like Malenia or her demi-god half-brother, Mohg, Shadow of the Erdtree's questline takes players to an entirely new region of the Lands Between, complete with its own set of perils and rewards.

The Shadow Realm, the region that players will be exploring in Shadow of the Erdtree is cut off from the Lands Between, akin to Miquella's Haligtree. However, it still harbors many inhabitants that might've once been a part of the Golden Order and its embrace, but have since abandoned its grace.

As such, many fans might've expected to see some returning NPCs and perhaps even enemy types from the base game in the DLC. FromSoftware, despite making their DLCs unique compared to the game, did feature the reuse of enemy types, which isn't inherently bad, especially since those appearances are usually lore accurate.

That said, FromSoftware has very rarely reused boss models or even the same boss in their DLCs. The only instance of boss reuse in the past has been in the case of Bloodborne's The Old Hunters DLC, where the optional boss, Laurence was a reskinned Cleric Beast.

Now if the leaks are to be believed, the final boss in one of the endings for Shadow of the Erdtree is none other than General Radahn, the demi-god child of Radagon and Carian Queen Rennala, and the lord of Caelid. The DLC version of Radahn seems to have the same moveset as the base game counterpart, albeit with a much higher degree of aggression.

Given the leaks were very low quality, we were not able to make out the name of the boss, but the character model is exactly similar to that of Radahn, down to the armor and also the weapons. Many fans are speculating that this version of Radahn is in his prime, and unaffected by Malenia's Scarlet Bloom.

Radahn's presence in the DLC also makes sense why FromSoftware and Hidetaka Miyazaki himself stated that defeating Starscourge Radahn is one of the prerequisites, apart from Mohg, Lord of Blood, to get access to the Shadow Realm. However, making Radahn one of the final bosses of Shadow of the Erdtree feels a bit underwhelming.

Had it been an optional encounter akin to Laurence, it would've made sense, but tying Radahn to one of the main endings isn't something many fans might've expected from Elden Ring's upcoming DLC. Thankfully, the other two bosses that are tied to the game's endings are new and unique to Shadow of the Erdtree.

I personally had no issues with FromSoftware reusing bosses. But I would admit, it does cheapen the DLC's experience a bit. I never had anything against Laurence, but given his significance in the Bloodborne's lore, I would've liked him to have a more distinct appearance than a Cleric Beast reskin, but with fire.

The same goes for the reuse of Dragonslayer Armor in Dark Souls 3's The Ringed City DLC. I don't really have an issue with these bosses reappearing in DLCs, since they were really fun to fight, but their reuse does make it feel a bit, well, lazy. That's what I'm currently feeling about FromSoftware reusing Radahn as the final boss of Elden Ring's DLC.

On the bright side, it is very much possible that the leaks are fake and are nothing more than a modded boss from either the Convergence mod or other base game overhaul mods for Elden Ring.