Elden Ring used to have a "dreambrew" that made NPCs spill their guts

A pre-release build of Elden Ring has a quest that lets you craft a "dreambrew" that makes NPCs chatty and sleepy; essentially, it gets them drunk.

Prolific modder Lance McDonald recently released a video where they explore an earlier Elden Ring build that included content which was ultimately cut from the game. It's rare to be able to actually see cut content as it would've appeared in the game, but in this case McDonald was able to uncover a whole questline, NPC, and items, none of which made it into the final build.

The quest involves a fully animated and voiced NPC named Jiko, who's looking for ingredients to make his dreambrew, which he explicitly says is a type of alcohol. Jiko says the dreambrew will convince other NPCs to tell you their deepest, darkest secrets. If you agree to help him, Jiko gives you an item called St. Trina's Crystal Ball, which you use to collect 'Dense Fog of Sleep' from napping creatures. Bring the filled vial back to Jiko and he uses it to make his brew, which you can offer to NPCs to open up additional lines of dialogue and potentially some hidden lore.

McDonald brings the dreambrew to Merchant Kalé at his shop inside the Church of Elleh in Limgrave. After Kalé drinks the brew, he falls asleep and has a nightmare about eyes being burned by a frenzied flame. Jiko then asks for two more vials of dream mist to make more dreambrew, and it's then that McDonald discovers additional sleeping creatures, suggesting that this questline was pretty well formed before it was cut.

Sure makes you wonder what other stuff was snipped from the launch version, and if any of it is as fun-sounding as getting NPCs drunk.