Elden Ring players stunned by hidden alternate opening level

Elden Ring is without question one of the best video games of all time and not just from the ever-impressive library of developer FromSoftware.

Released in February 2022, Elden Ring was met with high critical acclaim from reviewers and fans alike garnering a score of 96 on the aggregate website Metacritic earning the “Must-Play” accolade. This is why fans are hyped for the release of the Shadow of the Erdtree expansion in just a couple of months.

Check out the Shadow of the Erdtree trailer below!

In our review of Elden Ring, GAMINGbible’s Ewan Moore said: “I cannot stop thinking about it. As I sit here, writing these words, my mind keeps drifting back to the locked doors I’ve yet to open, the unmarked portions of the map I’ve not explored, and the bosses that are still waiting to be conquered.”

One of the joys of Elden Ring is discovering new secrets whether that comes in the form of new boss encounters, locations, gear, weapons, lore and more. I wouldn't be surprised if gamers are still discovering new secrets a year from now. However, a recent discovery has left fans feeling stunned because it not only reveals cut content but also explains a potential plot hole during the opening moments of Elden Ring.

During the first moments of Elden Ring players are spawned in the Chapel of Anticipation before being thrown into a challenging battle against Grafted Shion. Regardless of whether you win or most likely lose that battle, you are then spawned into the Cave of Knowledge. Then we see a brief snippet of Torrent and Melina in the cave despite there being no logical access. Though to be fair, Torrent and Melina are magical spirits of sorts and likely have abilities that we might not know about.

Regardless, this snippet of the duo seems a little out of place and YouTuber Sekiro Dubi has seemingly worked out why. In a video uploaded to their channel titled “Elden Ring - New Melina and Torrent Cutscene Restored”, it’s explained that hidden files have been discovered which reveals cut content that was originally intended for release until developer FromSoftware decided not to use it.

Now, Sekiro Dubi has pieced together this cut content with the opening moments of Elden Ring and it all makes a little more sense. It also seems that after the Grafted Shion encounter players were originally intended to spawn on the beach west of the Stranded Graveyard.

The comments section of the video was full of pleasantly surprised viewers such as fleshtheknight389 who said: “This place makes way more sense than the actual spawn point,” and arthwad6081 replied: “I’m so glad you exist Sekiro, thank you for this amazing discovery.”

However, alluding to the point that I made earlier about how Torrent and Melina may have entered the cave, diesal_one explained: “There's a cave entrance that leads from the beach into the starting cave. And you can see something has dragged you and other bodies into it. Also, Torrent and Melina are both spirits. They can appear anywhere.”

Either way, no matter how the opening moments of Elden Ring may be explained it’s always cool to see cut content restored. Elden Ring is out now on PC, PlayStation and Xbox. As for Shadow of the Erdtree that releases on 21 June 2024.