FromSoftware’s Elden Ring has enjoued universal acclaim for its open world evolution of the Soulslike genre, and the developer has been releasing regular updates to tackle any lingering issues in the experience. Since its launch, however, fresh new details on the massive action RPG have still been coming to light. For instance, it seems like dataminers have uncovered evidence of an in-game bestiary that never made it into the final product.
Over on Twitter, @JesterPatches recently shared a series of images showing enemies and creatures that players can discover throughout the game can be found inside the game files, leading many to believe that maybe a bestiary was planned for the game at some point.
The images are in two different forms, one darker and the other clear and bright, which may represent when a creature has or hasn’t been discovered. The dataminer mentions that none of the major bosses are in the files, suggesting that this was planned for regular enemies throughout the game.
Regardless, it certainly could’ve been a neat feature to have in the game. Why FromSoftware decided to cut it out and whether or not they will ever revisit the idea again – perhaps even in a future project – is anyone’s best guess.
Looking through the game files I came across a few icons making me believe that a bestiary was planned at some point.
There are 128 icons showing different NPCs. Each NPC shown has 2 icons, one greyed out and another one filled in, so it could be not found and found. pic.twitter.com/9b0Tj6ckm3
— JesterPatches (@JesterPatches) March 27, 2022
Honorable mentions for "Crab" and "Rennala's Student". pic.twitter.com/O4HmE4bfBQ
— JesterPatches (@JesterPatches) March 27, 2022
