It's been a little over a month since Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree was released, and modder Andmonika has already backported some of its bosses to FromSoftware's 2019 ninja action game Sekiro: Shadows Die backported to Twice; the project's Nexus Mods page, dubbed "Sekiro the Lord of Erdtree," doesn't give any details, but screenshots show Midra, Messmer, Radahn, and the base game bosses Maliketh and Malenia are shown hanging out in the Asina Kingdom.

Soulsborne YouTuber Ongbal uploaded a video of the Sekiro version of the "Midra: Lord of the Frenzied Flame" battle, where the challenge runner no-hits the Promised Consort Radahn and so on, making everything look easy, but it shows that even Erdtree's aggressive bosses can't keep up with the fast pace of play of Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice. Also see how Ongbal punked Malenia when it was added to Sekiro as part of The Land of Reeds mod.

Like The Land of Reeds, Lord of Erdtree also seems to be a complicated install, which has been a problem for several people in the Nexus comments section. Between this difficult hurdle and the ROM-hack-like content of the mod, I am not confident in recommending it as anything but a novelty, but it is still an appealing proof of concept. It also reminds us that From Software's signature combat system still has room for experimentation and change: even the Sekiro-style counters sneakily added to Erdtree don't match Sekiro's rhythm-oriented gameplay.

It is also an example of the continuity common to all From Software games, thanks in part to the in-house engine used since "Armored Core 4" in 2006. This common technology can be seen in the prototype levels left over from "Bloodborne" in "Dark Souls," the mechs in "Armored Core" that dwarf the land itself in "Lands Between," the huge map in "AC6" with the lowly "Tarnished" flying around in turn, and the "Tarnished" in "Titanic. The game lends itself to surreal cross-game discoveries and demonstrations.