Elden Ring Loves Moms

There’s that word again, “mother.” I’m playing Shadow of the Erdtree, the new Elden Ring expansion, and it feels like every cutscene, every conversation, every metaphor I dig into points, like a compass, back to motherhood. When the eccentric priest Count Ymir starts effusing about children to me, a total stranger, it finally sinks in: Shadow of the Erdtree reveres mothers. When was the last time we had a game about the glory of motherhood? Cooking Mama in 2006?

There...