The Elden Ring community was already rabid after a surprise Elden Ring DLC image revealing a fresh take on an old enemy wielding what looks like a new weapon type, and now FromSoftware producer Yasuhiro Kitao’s gone and dropped another bit of teaser art that looks exactly like Bloodborne, to the point that I wasn’t even sure if it was Elden Ring for a minute.
We haven’t heard from Kitao on Twitter since February 21, when he thanked the Elden Ring community “for waiting so patiently” for the DLC, presumably shielding his eyes from the ravenous superfans who’d sell a kidney to play the DLC four hours early. Kitao reappeared to share the aforementioned enemy art, and then quickly posted an environmental shot which could pass for a postcard straight from Bloodborne’s Yharnam (which I’ve embedded down below as well).
The giveaway that this is, in fact, Elden Ring would be the spiral of Grace lights in the background, but the style really is uncanny. I’ve long said that Lies of P is the closest thing to Bloodborne since Bloodborne, but nobody does Gothic darkness like FromSoft.
With no caption from Kitao, all we really have to go on is: hey look, a new area from Shadow of the Erdtree. But a lack of information has never stopped FromSoftware fans from speculating before.
This area has certainly got the shadow part down; I brightened the image up manually to look a little more closely. From the architecture, I’m assuming this is one of the grand legacy dungeons in the DLC. From the lit hallways, the central throne, and the general decor and architecture, this looks to be a sizable castle-type dungeon. The main chamber housing the Site of Grace is almost cathedral-like, with impressive spires in the backdrop as well. It’s hard to tell between the thin, dark points, but the elevated windows in the back make it clear that this is a multi-level environment.
My biggest tinfoil hat theory is this: There are small statues that look to be dragons or griffins along the columns on the right, and combined with the numerous hanging cages in this shot – one destroyed in a way that indicates something broke out of it – this makes me wonder if we’ll be dealing with more flying enemies in this area. Just what I wanted: more Elden Ring birds.