Elden Ring expansion Shadow of the Erdtree may be fast approaching, but that hasn't stopped one dataminer discovering a secret about the very beginning of the base game. YouTuber Sekiro Dubi published a video showcasing their discovery of an entirely different opening to Elden Ring, which was present in an old version of the game and came with a new cutscene featuring Melina and Torrent.
Elden Ring has players begin in an area called the Chapel of Anticipation which, in true FromSoftware fashion, is basically built to kill them. Upon dying and waking up again the game begins properly. But Sekiro Dubi found that instead of starting the main game at The Stranded Graveyard and working through the Cave of Knowledge, FromSoftware originally had players begin on a beach in West Limgrave.
This would imply that, as players were killed by the Grafted Scion at the Chapel of Anticipation or fell from its heights to their death, they landed in the seas below and washed up on the beach. Instead of being met by Melina and Torrent in the Cave of Knowledge, the two would instead walk through the shallow tide on the beach to meet the player. This location was also listed as a port on the old Elden Ring map available in the pre-launch Network Test, again suggesting this was the player's arrival point in The Lands Between.
Sekiro Dubi found these files and reconstructed the cutscene, showing it off with voice lines and all. It plays out more or less the same as the official meeting in The Stranded Graveyard, though has slightly different voice lines.
Once the cutscene plays out, the player begins their journey and is veered towards a cave which then drops down into The Stranded Graveyard. This alternative beginning therefore adds a tad of gameplay between the initial intentional death and the Cave of Knowledge (which essentially works as a tutorial). Given the open world nature of Elden Ring, FromSoftware was perhaps concerned players would miss this initial tutorial area altogether so placed them in there immediately.
The fact new secrets are still being discovered in FromSoftware's latest speaks to how much it captured the attention of fans upon its launch in 2022. Elden Ring proved somewhat of a cultural phenomenon, with players finding a ton of different ways to interact with the game. Fans played it using a Fisher Price toy, the Nintendo Switch Ring Fit controller, and someone even made a working VR version of the game, for example.
Many are therefore waiting with bated breath for the June 21 release of Shadow of the Erdtree, which is sure to add hundreds, if not thousands, of new secrets and story threads to be discovered. In fact, even its release date announcement drew hoards of players back to the Elden Ring.
In our 10/10 review, IGN said: "Elden Ring is a massive iteration on what FromSoftware began with the Souls series, bringing its relentlessly challenging combat to an incredible open world that gives us the freedom to choose our own path."
Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelance reporter. He'll talk about The Witcher all day.
