Alright, buckle up, tarnished, ’cause I’m about to dive deep into my Elden Ring DLC purchase dilemma: Shadow of the Erdtree, premium edition versus the normal one. Let me tell you, it was a whole thing.
So, I started off super hyped, right? The trailer dropped, I lost my mind like everyone else. Knew I was gonna buy it day one. But then the editions popped up, and bam! Decision paralysis hit me like a Malenia Waterfowl Dance.
First things first, I had to figure out what the heck “premium” even meant. I went straight to the Steam page and saw it came with a digital artbook and soundtrack. Now, I’m a sucker for that stuff. I love peeking behind the curtain, seeing the concept art, and vibing to the music while I work. But was it worth the extra cash?
- I started by checking out the price difference. It was a decent jump. I thought to myself, “Self, that’s almost enough to buy another indie game!”
- Next, I watched some unboxing videos of the Collector’s Edition. Those showed glimpses of the artbook. It looked pretty sweet, but a physical artbook is different from digital.
- Then, I hit up YouTube to see if anyone had ripped the soundtrack from the network test. No luck there, FromSoft’s pretty tight with that kinda stuff.
Okay, so I’m still on the fence. I then thought about my previous FromSoftware purchases. Did I ever actually look at those digital artbooks? Did I listen to the soundtracks outside of the game? Honestly? Not really. They usually just sit there in my Steam library, gathering digital dust.
That’s when I had my epiphany. I realized I was getting caught up in the FOMO. I was worried I’d miss out on something cool, but I wasn’t being honest with myself about how I’d actually use it.
So, I took a deep breath and made the call. I went with the normal edition. Saved myself some dough, and I knew I’d be perfectly happy just diving into the new content.
Turns out, I made the right choice for me. I’ve been playing the DLC non-stop, and I haven’t once regretted not having the artbook and soundtrack. The game itself is incredible, and that’s all that really matters, right?
The lesson here? Don’t let hype and FOMO cloud your judgement. Think about what you actually value and how you’ll actually use the extra content before you drop the extra cash. Happy hunting, tarnished!
