7 Possible Berserk References In Elden Ring
FromSoftware the president of FromSoftware Hidetaka Miyazaki's affection for Kentaro Mura's late manga as well as the animated series Berserk is the biggest kept secret within the gaming industry. While he isn't willing to openly discuss the connection between his games and Berserk, it's clear that every Miyazaki-helmed project since 2009's Demon's Souls has been influenced in some way or another by the epic fantasy of the dark Miura wrote over the course of 30 years up to his death in 2021.
This tendency to refer to Berserk is evident in Elden Ring Runes, the Souls successor that was released last month. Even before the game launched the game, players scoured each piece of promotional material to explain how the armor resembled something from Berserk or how the design of the enemy appeared to be drawn from Miura's work. As I've spent close to 100 hours playing the game over the last few weeks, I couldn't help but observe these similarities, too.
Spoilers are in place on each of Elden Ring and Berserk, but really is there anything you're doing here if you're trying to avoid them?
Elden Ring's sword fields against. Berserk's Hill of Swords
Let's get the most obvious Berserk homage over with first.Elden Ring's vast universe includes various areas I've named "sword fields." I'll admitthat the title isn't exactly innovative: They're simply small fields adorned with swords, all of which are stabbed first into the ground to allow them to stand upright. The middle of each one is a huge sword, with an inscription that typically provides a vague bit of information regarding the game's history.
The first time I came across one of these fields, it instantly brought back me of Berserk's famous Hill of Swords. In the manga and the anime, this Hill of Swords is meant as a tribute to the dead soldiers of the Band of the Hawk, a mercenary force that serves as the show's main characters for much of its initial run. Rickert is one of the remaining soldiers of the band, forges the countless blades of the Hill of Swords as tribute to his former fellow soldiers.
My personal opinion is that the sword fields of Elden Ring serve the same function. I believe they're meant to commemorate Miura, whose passing greatly affected the people who knew about his work. It's unclear if they were added Elden Ring before or after his passing, we'll not find out, but it's definitely a fitting tribute to the person who was a major influencer on the games' predecessors.
Elden Ring's Blaidd the Half-Wolf vs. Berserk's Berserker Armor
In addition to Starscourge Radahn is another one of my favorite characters in Elden Ring is a beautiful fellow by the name of Blaidd the Half-Wolf. According to his name, Blaidd is a hybrid of a person and a beast which is why his look has attracted an enormous amount of attention from Berserk fans since the game's reveal in June 2021. The brief glimpse of Blaidd screaming on the top of the Mistwood Ruins was immediately compared to Miura's work.
In Berserk the protagonist of the show Guts is ultimately entrusted with The Berserker Armor, a terrifying weapon that draws on the user's negative emotions to give them unimaginable power. While for the most part it appears to be a normal--if slightly pointy--suit of armor, it can transform into the appearance of a wolf whenever Guts allows it to take advantage of his anger in combat.
Much like Guts is gifted the Berserker Armor, you're eventually given Blaidd's armor in Elden Ring, allowing you to live out your dreams of a FromSoftware-developed Berserk game. I won't get into specifics regarding how the armor of Blaidd comes to you If you've any knowledge about previous Souls games, you'll most likely guess. It's not a good topic.
Elden Ring's Ranni the Witch in opposition to. Berserk's Schierke
If Blaidd has the appearance of Guts wearing his Berserker Armor If so, I'd guess this would make Elden Ring fan favorite Ranni the Witch akin to Berserk's Schierke? Though it's a stretchconsidering Ranni is among the most powerful people in the Lands Between and Schierke is a young witch-in-training. I would say it's plausible if you factor in their separate interactions with wolf-like males.
Although I'm not a Vaati, it's apparent that Ranni and Blaidd share an intimate connection. Blaidd, from what I can tell was created with the intention to help guide Ranni toward her goal of becoming an aspiring god-like being by an unidentified supernatural force, referred to as The Greater Will. But as Ranni abandons the path she was on, Blaidd grows increasingly feral until he loses his humanity entirely in the course of her storyline.
Schierke Schierke, on the other hand, becomes one of Guts friends following the decimation of the Band of the Hawk. She soon emerges as the only person to help him manage his instinctual urges under the influence of the Berserker Armor. So, Schierke and Guts are able to be inseparable in combat and the young witch frequently astral-projecting her spirit into his consciousness to calm his mind and stop him from succumbing to the armor in totality.
Elden Ring's Caelid vs. Berserk's Eclipse
Elden Ring introduces an area around its mid-game known as Caelid. In contrast to previous regions, Caelid is a filthy, disgusting place, the product of Malenia The Severed harnessing its force of The harmful Scarlet Rot to curse her half-brother Starscrouge Radahn during the all-encompassing war that followed the shattering of the Elden Ring. You're welcome to ignore the fact that none of this is clear to you because I'm barely capable of understanding the Elden Ring's lore after an entire month of playing.
The important thing is how Caelid appears to be a representation of to the landscape of the Eclipse, a phenomenon that happens in Berserk on the rare introduction the new member to the God Hand, a group of god-like demons. Guts together with Band of the Hawk are invited to the ceremony by their supposed leader and friend Griffith who wants to join the God Hand to fulfill a lifelong dream of becoming the ruler of his own world-spanning kingdom.
What the Eclipse performs is basically make a way to access an alternate dimension of existence in which the God Hand receives the inductee's sacrifices (in Griffith's instance and his Band of the Hawk soldiers) and transforms them into a demonic entity. Those unfortunate enough to be transported to the other world receive a huge, bloody area populated by hellish creatures that is what I'd call the Elden Ring players in Caelid.
Elden Ring Helmets vs. Berserk Helmets
I'm going to combine two things in this article as I'm not able to justify creating separate entries to cover both.Before the Eclipse is welcomed into the realm of God Hand the man formerly known as Griffith endures a continuous year of torture for sleeping with the princess of a prominent kingdom. His tongue is severed and his skin is flayed and all the while the man is required to wear an iron mask. After being rescued by Guts and fellow members from the Band of the Hawk, Griffith is slowly recovering, however, the mask is left to hide the scars left by his brutal ordeal.
Elden Ring players have drawn comparisons between Griffith's iron mask and that of Prisoner class players who can choose from the start of the game. This isn't a 1:1 comparison obviously, but the eye-cover of the prisoner's mask is in line with the fact that Berserk rarely portrays a forward-facing Griffith wearing his mask, mostly preferring to depict the tortured mercenary with the one eye obscured with the shadow of his mask.
Furthermore, the Winged Helm worn by Elden Ring boss Malenia and eventually obtainable by players can easily be seen as an homage to a similar piece of armor Berserk antagonist-turned-ally Farnese wears during her time commanding the Holy Iron Chain Knights. It's possible to be waved away since both were inspired by the medieval portrayals of Valkyries However, I prefer to see them as being directly linked because this is more entertaining.
Elden Ring's Greatsword vs. Berserk's Dragon Slayer
And finally, my favorite Berserk reference is in Elden Ring apart from the sword fields. Elden Ring, like previous Souls games, hides the world's building in item descriptions. It's often the best method to discover the reason why someone has done something significant or who's connected to whom It stands to the reason that tributes to Berserk might be hiding away in the text for the flavor too.
It's a lot like the comments made about Guts' Dragon Slayer in Berserk that is in the first Chapter of the Manga is referred to as an "raw heap of iron" that is "much too massive to be referred to as a sword." Characters are frequently stunned at the buy Elden Ring Items idea that Guts can carry this weapon due to its size. However, thanks to his inhuman strength, he's able to use it to slice through almost anything that is in his path. The two weapons even look similar, though that could just be because they're both gigantic swords.
