Miyazaki has gone too far this time.
Elden Ring's Shadow of The Erdtree DLC finally has a release date, as we'll all be heading back to The Lands Between later this year. On top of the release date, FromSoftware released an exciting new gameplay trailer showcasing the new land we'll be exploring, which will no doubt be filled with horrible creatures, challenging encounters, and a handful of Malenia-tier boss fights that will make us want to throw our controllers out of the window.
We also know that it wouldn't be a classic soulslike experience with one of Miyazaki's patented poison swamps, so you'll be delighted to know that the man in question has delivered once again. Yes, in an interview with Eurogamer, Elden Ring director Hidetaka Miyazaki has confirmed that Shadow of the Erdtree will include yet another poison swamp for us all to trudge around and lose ourselves in.
Towards the end of Eurogamer's interview, Miyazaki says that there is indeed a poison swamp, but its addition was a little different this time around. He explains that while he was creating the swamp, he had some kind of sudden realization that he does include poison swamps in his games quite a lot, and now considers the area "a little place of introspection and reflection". He also hopes we'll look at that area in the same way too, though I'll more than likely be cursing Miyazaki's name as I succumb to poison for the thirtieth time that day.
It was only after creating it that I realized I really like to create poisoned swamps. And this was a little place of introspection and reflection for me. So maybe, when players reach the poisoned swamp in the DLC, they will feel a little bit of this retrospection. — Hidetaka Miyazaki
In fact, some fans believe that they'd already spotted the swamp Miyazaki is talking about, and if they have, then he's definitely gone too far this time. Exactly at the one-minute mark in the trailer, we can see a player riding through a dark area towards some kind of structure, the ground covered in a glowing substance that definitely doesn't look like regular swamp water.
Rather, the ground looks an awful lot like Deathblight, the status condition that instantly kills players when it builds up too much. We already have regular poison and Scarlet Rot swamps in the base game, so it makes sense that a Deathblight swamp was next on the cards, even though the sheer sight of it makes me never want to play Elden Ring ever again. You are a sick, twisted man, Miyazaki, but we all love you for that.