Elden Ring is so detailed, its NPCs accurately play their instruments

By Hope Bellingham
published

We're amazed at how much work went into animating this one character

Elden Ring
(Image credit: From Software)

An Elden Ring fan has brought attention to a highly detailed NPC who accurately moves according to the song it's playing. 

As pointed out by Sekiro Dubi on YouTube (and shared by @manfightdragon on Twitter) Elden Ring is so detailed that one of the Nomadic Merchants playing an instrument in the game accurately moves their hand according to the song they’re playing. You can see this breathtaking detail in action below. 

See more

This small but mighty animation is a perfect example of how reusing assets during game development - as pointed out by various other developers upon Elden Ring’s release - doesn't always mean the final product will be lower quality. As pointed out in @manfightdragon’s tweet, FromSoftware appears to have gone above and beyond to give its characters life with tiny details that will most probably be missed by most players. 

Since Elden Ring’s release back in February, there’s been an abundance of fan discoveries made in the game, with new things being found every day. Some of our recent favorites include the fan who realized that Elden Ring spell damage changes with the weather, another who uncovered that Rainbow Stones can help you avoid fall damage, and, potentially our most favourite, one who theorized that George R.R. Martin’s childhood pets may have inspired the Tortoise Priest.

In other Elden Ring news, it was recently revealed that FromSoftware plans to take the action-rpg outside of the world of gaming. Publisher Bandai Namco’s CEO Yasuo Miyakawa said in a press release that Elden Ring was just the start of a franchise that will extend "beyond the game itself." So look forward to some more Elden Ring content as time goes on. 

Elden Ring tips | Elden Ring secrets | Elden Ring Classes | Elden Ring Keepsakes | Elden Ring PS4 and PS5 comparison | How to get the Elden Ring horse | Elden Ring Rune farming locations | Elden Ring Summons | Elden Ring stats explained | Elden Ring Great Runes and Rune Arc farming | How to level up in Elden Ring | Elden Ring map fragments | Elden Ring respec and Larval Tears | Elden Ring merchants | Elden Ring Golden Seeds | Elden Ring Bell Bearing locations | Elden Ring Deathroot locations | How long is Elden Ring? | Elden Ring cheats  | Elden Ring coop and multiplayer 

Hope Bellingham
Hope Bellingham
News Writer

After studying Film Studies and Creative Writing at university, I was lucky enough to land a job as an intern at Player Two PR where I helped to release a number of indie titles. I then got even luckier when I became a Trainee News Writer at GamesRadar+ before being promoted to a fully-fledged News Writer after a year and a half of training.  My expertise lies in Animal Crossing: New Horizons, cozy indies, and The Last of Us, but especially in the Kingdom Hearts series. I'm also known to write about the odd Korean drama for the Entertainment team every now and then.