Please note that this article contains spoilers on bosses and locations in Elden Ring – only read on if you’re tens of hours deep into FromSoftware’s latest, or you don’t mind learning a trick or two ahead of time.
No, really, Elden Ring is a genuinely comedic game. It might seem strange to say so, as from the outside its developers FromSoftware have a reputation for producing bleak, punishing and miserable adventures. But fans of what’s come before Elden Ring will know that an undercurrent of dark humour runs through all their Souls games, from Demon’s Souls to their latest (bigger-than-ever) hit.
This has manifested in myriad ways, from preposterous enemy designs (remember the Bone Wheels from Dark Souls?) to the absurd gestures that players can use to communicate. These humorous elements have always been there, but there have been few outright jokes as well. Elden Ring, however, is a little different. With such a vast world to fill – the Lands Between is a truly massive expanse, overground and beneath – FromSoftware have littered it with amusing easter eggs and encounters to put a smile on the face of every player worn down by a dozen failed boss runs.
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Check out some more Elden Ring funnies in the video below
Many online have been having a laugh about players whose paranoia and caution prevented them from following an NPC in the starting area's instructions towards the game's tutorial area. Whoops. Yet maybe players have reason to be suspicious of following instructions thanks to one returning joker – namely the FromSoftware staple, Patches.
This cruel prankster can be found in Murkwater Cave in Limgrave and waits until you instinctively open the location's treasure chest before ambushing you with a surprise boss fight. Except, once you get him down, he stops fighting back and begins pleading for his life. Spare him and you'll have a new-found friend. Of course you can trust him! Whatever would you doubt him for? Oh, that chest he asks you not to loot? That he won't tell you what's inside?
Well, should your curiosity (and manners!) get the better of you, you'll be sent across the map by the chest's magical trap to a precarious spot. You can't help but laugh at yourself. What else did you possibly expect? These games excel at crushing players with unexpected ambushes and traps – but occasionally they reach such an absurd degree of punishment that you can't help laughing at the incredibly cruelty of it.
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Not all the laughs are at the player’s expense, of course. Early on in Elden Ring, during your journey through Stormveil Castle, you'll get the Mimic Veil, an item which like others in the series before it will let you disguise yourself as an environmental object. While its most obvious purpose is to trick other players, it works on NPC enemies too. Next thing you know, you're sneaking past the elite guards of a body horror mansion as a shrub. It's ludicrous, and Elden Ring doesn't so much as wink at the camera while letting you do this, making it all the funnier.
Still, players are always trying to use the game’s tools to trick each other. Anyone who's dived into Elden Ring has found every single room of it plagued by “hidden path” messages, trying to waste your time searching for illusory walls that simply aren't there. Well. FromSoftware knows its players, and anticipated this very thing, leading to maybe one of the game's best gags.
In Liurnia of the Lakes, on the western coast, is a dungeon called Road's End Catacombs. It starts off unassuming enough, a familiar sight at this point for most players. Until you begin to realise that numerous walls are illusory. In fact, hidden paths lead to hidden paths. One wall after the other vanishes when struck, until you're several illusions deep. It's a send up of their own community’s tendency to whack an axe into anything solid just in case it’s all a trick; but FromSoftware isn't quite done yet.
At the end awaits a tough-as-all-hell boss encounter... Only, striking the imposing figure inflicts no damage whatsoever. What gives? And why does the boss have “Snail” in its name? Hunt around and you'll find an invisible snail which easily dies, taking the tough-as-heck knight with it. A tough fight turning out to be a laughably easy one? It's the simplest gag these games can do, but it works like a charm after dozens of hours of extremely testing battles. Elden Ring has more than a few fake-outs too, happily playing with player expectations to keep them on their toes.
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One of my other favourite gags is a bit further in, at the Volcano Cave in Mount Gelmir. After defeating a mildly troublesome boss you get a surprise weapon: Jar Cannon. Only, it doesn't seem to... do anything? Read the item description and you'll find mention of the prototype weapon being abandoned because nobody could figure out how it worked. Sitting in this dank cave trying to figure out how to fire this weapon had me laughing at myself. Does it do anything? You'll need to find it for yourself to be sure.
Some of what I see as jokes in Elden Ring are things where I'm not sure if they are actually supposed to be funny – but how could anyone take them seriously? One that had me squealing with delight was at the Church of Vows where you, out of absolutely nowhere, bump into what I have only ever described as Pope Tortoise. It's pretty much what it sounds like. There's a host of strange foes to elicit a laugh. Hot air balloons that drop skeletons? Birds with knives tied to their legs? This stuff is silly in the best possible way, and part of FromSoftware's allure. These games are never one-note affairs – there's always room for levity and letting players get a laugh in. Mind you, getting killed by a giant lobster is probably still going to piss you off.
This is only a modest selection of Elden Ring's little secret gags, but it’s enough of a showcase for its sensibilities to come across. It twists the knife one minute, and a dummy knife the next. It’s a game all about delivering the unexpected. Sometimes, that's through a magic portal to face a horrible monstrosity at the ends of the world; at others, it's having to fight a sentient boulder. You'll never know what's around the corner and that's a huge part of what draws players to these games. It's also why, when they choose to, they can be so damn hilarious.
Featured Image Credit: Memes / Bandai Namco Entertainment EuropeTopics: Elden Ring, Fromsoftware, Opinion