One of Elden Ring's boss fights was originally dreamed-up for Dark Souls 3

One of the real treats of contemporary gaming is the disparate global army of tech-heads and coders who like to tinker with games, and find out how the magical sausage is made. As a longtime Souls-lover I've learned an enormous amount over the years from one ZullieTheWitch, a Dark Souls hacker who digs through the game's files and shares their most interesting findings.

What's great about Zullie's work is their clear love and respect for the games, which leads to an interest in teasing out the subterranean connections between them. This in turn shows some of FromSoftware's development process: How the studio conceptualises ideas and changes them, or puts them to one side and later returns.

Zullie's latest discovery is a perfect example of this, focusing on the Elden Ring boss Rennala, bearer of a Great Rune, and what it implies about a major Dark Souls 3 NPC, Rosaria. The video above walks you through it.

The gist is that Rennala and Rosaria have some striking thematic similarities. Both are associated with rebirth as a literal concept, bringing characters back to life: But the rebirthing process never quite works. Rennala's boss fight sees you fighting to her through her daughters, who crawl around the arena casting spells and respawn from cribs that hang from the ceiling. 

Look around Rosaria's room in Dark Souls 3, and you'll notice cribs hanging from the ceiling. In addition, Zullie points out that the character id for the character is from the same 'group' as Dark Souls 3's boss characters: "out of every NPC in the 5000 range in Dark Souls III, only two aren't bosses, the Fire Witch and Rosaria." Funnily enough, the dataminer has made a previous video on how the Fire Witch fight was likely replaced with that of Pontiff Sulyvahn.

As a bit of a Fromsoft nut, these bits of hidden connective tissue between its disparate worlds are things I love finding out about. It's especially interesting, and you see this across every Souls game since Demon's, how Miyazaki and his team rarely completely abandon an idea: the Rosaria and Rennala link is far from the first time it's happened, and this feels like a studio content to sit on an idea until it works out how to do it justice.

I mean OK, there's Bed of Chaos, but even Homer nods.

Elden Ring guide:Elden Ring bosses:Elden Ring map fragments:Elden Ring weapons:Elden Ring armor:

Elden Ring guide: Conquer the Lands Between
Elden Ring bosses: How to beat them
Elden Ring map fragments: Reveal the world
Elden Ring weapons: Arm yourself
Elden Ring armor: The best sets

TOPICS
Rich Stanton
Senior Editor

Rich is a games journalist with 15 years' experience, beginning his career on Edge magazine before working for a wide range of outlets, including Ars Technica, Eurogamer, GamesRadar+, Gamespot, the Guardian, IGN, the New Statesman, Polygon, and Vice. He was the editor of Kotaku UK, the UK arm of Kotaku, for three years before joining PC Gamer. He is the author of a Brief History of Video Games, a full history of the medium, which the Midwest Book Review described as "[a] must-read for serious minded game historians and curious video game connoisseurs alike."

Read more
Junya Ishizaki next to an image from Elden Ring: Nightreign
Elden Ring Nightreign director didn't want to 'encroach too much' on the lore fans hold sacred by including Dark Souls bosses, but admits 'I thought it'd be kind of fun'
Elden Ring Nightreign screenshot
Elden Ring Nightreign's Steam page lets slip it'll have DLC bosses and player characters
The creator of the Elden Ring Seamless co-op mod is now infusing unlimited multiplayer into Dark Souls 3
The Dark Queen of Mortholme screenshots
I finally understand why all those Soulslike bosses hated me so much, thanks to The Dark Queen of Mortholme, which pits you up against some plucky upstart who just keeps coming back
Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree trailer screencap of a red haired character holding fire in their hand
An Elden Ring player has promised to fight Messmer every day with a new weapon until FromSoftware releases Elden Ring: Nightreign
Ten planks of wood from Dark Souls, responsible for my nightmares in Blighttown.
The co-creator of Dark Souls' most ambitious mod resurfaces to inform me that Blighttown, source of my nightmares, was cobbled together with '10 bits of wood'
Latest in RPG
Junah beginning a battle in Metaphor: ReFantazio.
Today's RPG fans are 'very sensitive to feeling like they wasted time' when they die, says Metaphor: ReFantazio battle planner—but Atlus still made combat hard anyway
Image of Cersei Lanniser from Game of Thrones: Kingsroad Steam early access trailer
A new Game of Thrones RPG is coming to Steam today with a cast of 'familiar faces,' which is good because it's really the only way to tell it's a GoT game at all
A Viera looking confused in Final Fantasy 14.
Old armor continues to fall victim to Final Fantasy 14's bizarre two-channel dye system, unless you're super into changing the colour of teeny-tiny eyelets: 'Why even bother at this point?'
Starfield: Shattered Space
By the time Bethesda was on Starfield, you'd 'basically get in trouble' for breaking schedule, says former dev: 'A lot of the great stuff within Skyrim came from having the freedom to do what you want'
Sphene applauds in Final Fantasy 14's patch 7.2 story.
I'm not yelling 'we're so back!' yet, but Final Fantasy 14's patch 7.2 story could be the first sign the MMO is returning to what made it so critically-acclaimed
A close-up of a scared young girl's face as she stumbles through the woods, a crown of twigs and flowers upon her head.
CD Projekt says it's not using generative AI on The Witcher 4 because it's 'quite tricky when it comes to legal IP ownership'
Latest in News
Junah beginning a battle in Metaphor: ReFantazio.
Today's RPG fans are 'very sensitive to feeling like they wasted time' when they die, says Metaphor: ReFantazio battle planner—but Atlus still made combat hard anyway
Image of Cersei Lanniser from Game of Thrones: Kingsroad Steam early access trailer
A new Game of Thrones RPG is coming to Steam today with a cast of 'familiar faces,' which is good because it's really the only way to tell it's a GoT game at all
The new Prime Asset featured in the upcoming update for the Outlast Trials.
The Outlast Trials puts its already paranoid players under surveillance for a time-limited story event
A Viera looking confused in Final Fantasy 14.
Old armor continues to fall victim to Final Fantasy 14's bizarre two-channel dye system, unless you're super into changing the colour of teeny-tiny eyelets: 'Why even bother at this point?'
Starfield: Shattered Space
By the time Bethesda was on Starfield, you'd 'basically get in trouble' for breaking schedule, says former dev: 'A lot of the great stuff within Skyrim came from having the freedom to do what you want'
Otter AI Meeting Agent
As if your work meetings weren't already fun enough, now Otter has a new all-hearing AI agent that remembers everything anyone has said and can join in the discussion