Elden Ring may have included a bestiary at one point.
Spend even a small amount of time in the Lands Between, and you'll encounter many different beings; some friendly, some not so friendly. With the huge number of enemies and NPCs roaming around, it would be nice to have a way of cataloguing them. And it appears that FromSoftware felt the same - at one point anyway.
Twitter user JesterPatches unearthed what looks like plans for a bestiary in Elden Ring and has shared their findings. The posts show shadowy icons of what appear to be the game's enemies and NPCs. The user says that there are 128 of these mysterious images in total. Each individual character has two versions, one clear and one greyed out. Presumably, the greyed out version is what would be visible until you come across that particular individual in the game.
#ELDENRINGLooking 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/9b0Tj6ckm3March 27, 2022
According to JesterPatches, "there are 64 unique icons. Ranging from regular soldiers, nobles, to animals, demi-humans, even Godskins and a few I don't even recognize, but I don't see any major bosses in here."
Ultimately Elden Ring's developer decided against putting a bestiary in the game. That's a shame as not only is the artwork beautiful, but being able to delve into the lore of the game's NPCs and enemies would enrich the experience. Sometimes it's nice to put a name to the face of the enemy who's killed you repeatedly.
This isn't the only change that fans have spotted. It turns out Elden Ring's Varre used to be a lot meaner.
If your Tarnished is having a tough time, our Elden Ring guide will help you collect runes, beat bosses and master the Lands Between.
