One of Elden Ring's boss fights may have originally been created for Dark Souls 3
There's a striking similarity between Rennala and Rosaria
Another one of Elden Ring's boss fights may have originally been created for Dark Souls 3.
Elden Ring's bosses have all got their own unique style and devastating move sets, but, according to the latest discovery of Dark Souls sleuth ZullieTheWitch – who previously found compelling evidence that a recurring Elden Ring boss went unused in Dark Souls 3 – one of these epic battles might have been cooked up by From Software long before they created the Lands Between.
Make it to the end of the Academy of Raya Lucaria, and you'll be faced with a boss fight against Rennala, Queen of the Full Moon. As Zullie's video (thanks, PC Gamer) points out, Rennala possesses the power of rebirth, something she has in common with Rosaria, an NPC from Dark Souls 3. In the first phase of the battle against Rennala, her daughters spawn from cribs suspended from the ceiling. If you look around Rosaria's room, you'll see similar cribs, which could have served the same function for Rosaria's man-grubs.
There's some pretty substantial evidence of an unused boss fight against Rosaria. Zullie goes on to explain that modder Katalash found an event trigger whose label translates to 'Boss Battle BGM Rosaria'. "This event suggests her room was her arena, and corresponds to an unused audio track, which would have been her music," says Zullie.
It's highly likely that a battle against Rosaria never evolved past the conceptual stage, but it's nonetheless fascinating to see how unused concepts from FromSoftware's older titles could be resurrected years later and introduced into Elden Ring.
If you've conquered the Lands Between and need a new challenge, take a look at these games like Elden Ring.
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Originally from Ireland, I moved to the UK in 2014 to pursue a Games Journalism and PR degree at Staffordshire University. Following that, I've freelanced for GamesMaster, Games TM, Official PlayStation Magazine and, more recently, Play and GamesRadar+. My love of gaming sprang from successfully defeating that first Goomba in Super Mario Bros on the NES. These days, PlayStation is my jam. When not gaming or writing, I can usually be found scouring the internet for anything Tomb Raider related to add to my out of control memorabilia collection.