Elden Ring will, like other titles from FromSoftware, offer an extensive character editor. A video leak now shows what options you have when creating your character. Of course, you can also create silly characters, as seen in Bloodborne or Dark Souls.
What kind of leak is this? The video was released on YouTube by user ER-SA. It shows the creation of a character with the new editor from Elden Ring. Although the version is unfinished and partially still buggy.
Nevertheless, it already gives a good impression of what will be possible with the editor. Besides typical things like gender and body measurements, you can extensively adjust facial details and colors.
Additionally, there is a small glimpse into the standard characters, and you can even see some of the classes you can choose from. For example, there will be a Soldier and a Champion class.
Here you can check it out:
However, keep in mind: This is an unfinished version of the editor. Many texts are still missing, and we do not know to what extent the possible editing options will function in the final version.
We will have to wait and see if any changes will be made by the release, aside from the missing texts and the remaining bugs.
In the video, the user directly follows an old tradition of FromSoftware games: creating absurd-looking characters.
Better models, but enough room for absurd creations
What is this tradition? Elden Ring offers, like Dark Souls and Bloodborne, multiplayer in the form of co-op and PvP. Accordingly, it is common to push the character editor to the max and create as ridiculous characters as possible for this purpose.
Online, you encounter numerous strange to grotesque figures, making you wonder from which dimension these monstrosities might have come.
Here you can check out some examples from Dark Souls 3, published by Reddit user Vethalos (via reddit). One of the characters has also been used for our title image:
However, the cheat engine was used to manipulate the individual sliders in the editor and more drastically change facial features.
In the leak, such drastic changes are possible without tools. If these sliders in the Elden Ring editor are the same in the final game, then no cheat engine should be necessary.
We will have to wait and see what else will happen before the release. However, many commentators are already excited about the character creation.
Players are excited about more options and better models
What fans say about the leak: The feedback on the video is overwhelmingly positive. The better models of the character are especially praised. While it was common in earlier games for standard figures to look strange and rarely resemble “real” humans, this is different here.
At least user ARTEMISIA writes on YouTube: “This can’t be real? The standard characters actually look human!”
Many praise the significant progress compared to Dark Souls 3, especially regarding the details and portrayal of hair. Overall, there are significant improvements.
Some even find that the character editor of Elden Ring is superior to that from the Demon’s Souls remake for PS5: “I want to be honest: This looks just as good or even better than the ‘Demon’s Souls’ remake visually in character creation.”
Whether that is really the case is likely just a matter of taste. Here is a video with the character editor from the remake for comparison:
What is meant by this? The remake is the spiritual predecessor of Dark Souls, released in 2007 and re-released in 2020 for PS5 as a visually elaborate remake.
This remake is graphically clearly superior to other FromSoftware titles and looks better in direct comparison, at least in terms of details and overall quality, than Elden Ring.
Overall, it can be concluded that the editor of Elden Ring is likely a significant improvement over its spiritual predecessors. But mentally prepare yourself to encounter many obscure figures online again.
When will Elden Ring be released? The action RPG will be released on February 25, 2022, for PC, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PS5, and PS4.
If you are inexperienced with games from FromSoftware, you can read the preview report by MeinMMO author Max Handwerk.
He was allowed to extensively play the network test of Elden Ring as a Soulsborne newcomer and reports his experiences: I played Elden Ring as a Souls newcomer – Here’s how it went for me
