It turns out there are huge underground areas in Elden Ring that we missed out on. According to dataminer Sekiro Dubi, the game’s original underground was much bigger.
According to data within the game’s code, Fromsoft cut a large amount of content before they settled on the finished product, and the underground areas would have “altered” due to “cataclysms”
Elden Ring is set to get even bigger with the DLC, Shadow of the Erdtree
Sekiro Dubi has mapped out the cut sections and placed them alongside what we got in the final cut of the game. In their YouTube video they start with an alternate version of Deeproot Depths and show a rough draft of how it would have fitted with the world map.
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This removed area had a “long chasm stretching to the northeast” and could have been the original way to have accessed the Snowfield, which cut dialogue hints at heavily.
In an older video, the same dataminer explained that Fromsoft originally had “cataclysm” events that would alter the map, much like the meteor strike that occurs after defeating Radahn.
These events would have evolved the map as we played, but the idea was scrapped. Had the concept stayed these events would have opened up new parts of the map.
A second removed area is a large bowl that sat underneath Starscourge Radahn and across the chasm from Siofra River. It appears to be a crater, which would match the cataclysm events.
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Sekiro Dubi posits that this area could have been an alternate way to reach Moghwyn, or Astel, a boss you fight elsewhere but does have a removed cutscene of them falling into a similar crater.
The underground areas of Elden Ring are some of the most appealing given their beauty and variety of enemies. While it would have been nice to see these areas in the final game, it’s not an area that feels robbed of things to do.
Featured Image Credit: Bandai NamcoTopics: Elden Ring, Fromsoftware, Bandai Namco