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Most NPCs can be recreated so that we can finally see what they look like.
Varre, Elden Ring’s infamous introductory NPC who informs you that you lack a maiden, has a surprisingly punchable face. I know that, because YouTuber Zullie the Witch found Varre’s character creator information buried within Elden Ring’s files and recreated him in their latest video, alongside the rest of the game’s more secretive characters.
Zullie the Witch, who is well known for digging into the guts of FromSoftware’s games and showcasing what they find, published a video showing several secretive Elden Ring characters without their masks or blindfolds. It looks like Zullie was able to extract character creator slider data to recreate exact matches of their in-game faces. Varre, for example, is a smug man with a red tattoo imprinted on his forehead. D, Hunter of the Dead is a ghostly looking fellow with white hair and extremely pale skin—which is funny for someone who hates death. And Sorceress Sellen does actually have a face underneath that unnerving stone helmet.
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Zullie said that characters like Melina, Ranni, and Renalla don’t have face creation data and can’t be copied into the creator, so they can’t be shown off in the same way. You’ll have to zoom in or stand behind them until their faces kiss the screen if you want to see their looks close up.
I’m impressed that such a wide variety of pretty good-looking faces can be birthed out of the game’s character creator. It often feels impossible not to make someone with slightly off proportions in Elden Ring, but FromSoftware seemingly used the same tools to build some of its characters that players use—and took extra care to make sure these NPCs were a cut above the average create-a-character, even though you’ll never actually see their faces.
Zullie has a second video that focuses on enemies that you would have a hard time getting to stand still for a photo shoot.
Many of the mugs in there are invader NPCs that you battle throughout the game, like Recusant Henricus and Anastasia, Tarnished-Eater. Anastasia, alarmingly, has bright yellow eyes and several scars on her face. She should consider eating food that doesn’t fight back, in my opinion.
Tyler has covered games, games culture, and hardware for over a decade before joining PC Gamer as Associate Editor. He’s done in-depth reporting on communities and games as well as criticism for sites like Polygon, Wired, and Waypoint. He’s interested in the weird and the fascinating when it comes to games, spending time probing for stories and talking to the people involved. Tyler loves sinking into games like Final Fantasy 14, Overwatch, and Dark Souls to see what makes them tick and pluck out the parts worth talking about. His goal is to talk about games the way they are: broken, beautiful, and bizarre.
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