Dark Souls Series Callbacks in Elden Ring 

Finally this series is COMPLETE 😤 Hope you enjoyed, and hope we get to see plenty of (tasteful) callbacks in Shadows of the Erdtree DLC. As always if I missed any callback, do let me know, I'll give your comment a 💖 if you do! And if you disagree with any, just be respectful about it 👌 Music: 0:00 - Firelink Shrine (Dark Souls OST) 2:50 - Daughters of Chaos (Dark Souls OST) 5:42 - Ornstein & Smough (Dark Souls OST) 8:26 - The Ancient Dragon (Dark Souls OST) 11:26 - Fire Keepers (Dark Souls II OST) 14:04 - Majula (Dark Souls II OST) 16:08 - Iudex Gundyr (Dark Souls III OST) 19:53 - Secret Betrayal (Dark Souls III OST) 22:43 - Halflight, Spear of the Church (Dark Souls III OST) 24:44 - Maiden In Black (Demon's Souls OG OST)

BRO THE DEPTHS!!!! THE SUBTERRANEAN SHUNNING GROUNDS IS THE DEPTHS!! it even has the rats popping out of the boxes!!

another thing from DS2: the stonesword keys are very similar to pharros lockstones and fragrant branches of yore. They're kind of a merging of the two ideas: They are finite and unlock areas like the branches, but unlike the branches they are used exclusively for mechanisms (i.e. they are keys for locks) not unlike the pharros lockstones. Though unlike the lockstones they are always useful.

Oh, and Dark Souls 2 has some fun lore parallels with Elden Ring. There's the obvious one with the war with the giants, but there's some smaller, more interesting ones. Dark Souls 2 describes the sacred land of Lindelt, known for its miracles and distain for sorcery, and known to be home of the Archdrake Cult. Leyndell is the holy city of the gods full of faith (incantations), that fought Caria twice (distain for sorcery) and it's home to the Dragon Cultists. DS2 also mentions Quella, God of Dreams. The description of the Grand Spirit Tree shield states: "Shield of the blue spirit tree that and is said to possess divine powers. Appears in the allegory of Quella, God of Dream, and can deflect spells by parrying. Once there was a boy who was easily frightened, until the talking tree of dreamworld transformed itself into a shield to protect him". Very similar to Miquella, isn't it.

Talking about the "big hat" trend, when I was playing the Closed Network Test, The first moment I encountered Yura, I nick named him Tin Hat Logan

Another thing about the grace sites I've noticed is the grace itself moves and is shaped like the humanity sprites in the Artorias dlc for ds1. Something I thought was a nice touch on fromsoft's part whether intentionally or not.

It could be argued that Elden Ring's version of the chaos blade is the rivers of blood. But Elden Ring is far more user friendly than any of the other games, so the Rivers of blood doesn't take your health each time you hit with it. But the chaos blade is a long recurring theme that's an homage to a ancient japanese legend of a blacksmith who had a demonic presence to him, and it caused all of the weapons he forged to be cursed and dangerous for the wielder to carry. Some say often requiring a self blood sacrifice after every kill or even before sheathing and unsheathing, the wielder would have to cause injury to themselves in order to receive the blade's full evil power. This is why the chaos blade damages your health when you hit. Also rivers of blood is a cursed katana. The blacksmith's name was said to be Muramasa.

I find it funny how you mentionned the ulcerated tree spirit as the unused "snakesouls" boss from DS3 because the red wolf from ER is actually farron as a cut boss who was supposed to help in the abyss watchers fight, AND same thing with rennala and rosaria

for the bloodhound knights, their design was definitely taken from the suspicious shadows of ds2

i feel like another connection that could be made is the similarties between the frenzied flame ending of ER and the lord of hollows ending in DS3: -Both involve the discovery of how a population of people in the world are treated (nomadic merchants and hollows) -a maiden like character is involved (Hyeta & anri if player chose a male character) -player is given help against a late game boss if they are on this path (shabriri helps against godfrey, Yuria and londor pale shade help against soul of cinder) -Player becomes a lord of their respective people (lord of frenzied flame/Lord of hollows) -Players level up character dislikes them (firekeeper refuses to look at you if you wear a londer illusionary ring, Melina abandons you and vows to kill you if you become the lord of frenzied flame)

Asylum Demon being recycled is a tradition as this point.

For a ds2 one Pursuer & Elemer of the briar, a magical/glowing Greatsword wielding knight with a great shield that emerges from a cloud of smoke to attack the player

2 other references to dark souls 2 are in 2 bosses, The big dual-weilding knight with a beast helm, in Vengarl and Radahn (just design) The Ancestor Spirit has the same moveset of the Ice Stallion of Frigid Outskirts

Thank you so much for your documentation! This is great!

Been waiting for this video topic let’s go!!

This made me realize something, Dev: What do we do about the enemies Miyazaki san. Miyazaki: Copy the moves and make it more annoying to deal with.

Dark Souls 2 had a feature where if you rolled in poison swamp water, you would get covered in it and continuously build up poison, and Elden Ring actually brought it back. Elden Ring brought back a lot of concepts and gameplay mechanics from Dark Souls 2.

babe wake up new berto just dropped

cool video never thought of a lot of these

You didn't mention that though the look is entirely different, the bullgoat's set in Elden Ring is the archetype of armor made of stone or rock that's so incredibly heavy, you need to be inhumanly strong to ever have a chance at wearing it and being able to function at all. It's an homage to Havel's set. Dark Souls 3 introduced the first instance of what Elden Ring calls "Cragblade" with Ledo's Great Hammer. Being that you gather rocks and pavement onto your weapon to make it hit much harder. Though Cragblade you use gravity magic to pull stones from the earth, Ledo's hammer you just scrape up chunks of the ground in a circle and finish with an absolutely earthshaking explosive smash. Cragblade has no smash but both can keep your rocks on your weapon for a buff for a short time. Enchanted shot was actually introduced in Dark Souls 3 and expanded on in the ringed city. Gwyndolin's Dark Moon bow can shoot a pure magic arrow at an extremely far distance and Halflight's bow in the ringed city has the same effect except that because of light bending Oolacile magic, the arrow is invisible but....players can see you ready your shot so that was kind of dumb and useless. Godfrey actually uses a far more expanded version of Ashes of Ariandel's Quakestone Hammer weapon art. He raises his axe over his head but swings it in a circle above his head before slamming it into the ground so hard it becomes embedded into the floor where he then splits the entire throne room floor in half in an earth fissure. Quakestone hammer has the same move, except you just rip the hammer back up in a small shockwave. Flame Grant me Strength is Elden Ring's "Power within" as it has a blood red flame effect on your character but it's far less OP than Power within. Though they both function similar, however FGMS doesn't drain your health. The Powerstance rapier moveset of Elden Ring is taken directly from how the player uses the Crow Quills in Dark Souls 3. Alternating between multiple fast pokes and 1 slash. Things that did not make it into Elden Ring that might be in the DLC. Black Flame combustion pop (Though that might be stupidly fucking broken) Sorcery 4-5 directional cone hail spell. (Dark Hail, Dark Bead) Crossbow that can fire many many bolts in one long burst (we saw that in the trailer) A set of paired katanas like Onikiri and Ubadachi Paired Greatshields. There was only 1 in all of Dark Souls 3 and it was in the final DLC.

The white masks were based off of plaster masks given to post ww2 and ww1 patients with terrible face injuries, as vaare is a surgeon it makes sense.

The maiden Irina and her Morne knight Eygon from Dark Souls III seems to be referenced pretty heavily in Elden Ring with the NPC Irina from castle Morne

0:25 I picked up on this so fast haha. I was wondering why I was having such an easy time fighting the avatar. Then I clicked about half way through that it was all the same moveset (mostly)

Beautifully succinct description of the Greatsword

You forgot to mention the demon scar and the magma blade.😂 great vid btw

I just watched this video and then picked up my playthru of Elden Ring, right at the nomadic merchant graveyard area. At the end of a treacherous sewer section with gigantic versions of real life creatures and (someone else said this) rats in boxes, you descend down a very slippery path of ledges that infuriates the player, there’s a double illusory wall with a chest just before the second wall. After all of that, you find yourself in a deep underground and forgotten relic of the previous era, complete with tree imagery WITH A DRAGON AT THE END OF THE LEVEL

The moonlight greatsword had a projectile slash all the way back in its first appearance in kingsfield. Granted it doesn't start as the moonlight greatsword when you fist encounter it, but rather is transformed/upgraded during the events of the games plotline

Rivers of blood is the chaos blade and they have the same sheathe

I played elden ring before any others souls games and after I couldn’t unsee all the re-used assets in elden ring 😭

great vid

I think Ash Lake and the Elden Beast boss arena are more similar. Otherwise great video c:

0:51 DS2 is the first entry in which you collect itens to increase the quantity and potency of the flask, not DS3 - traveling inside caskets came from DS2. - Golden Vow is a callback to Sacred Oath miracle from DS2 - Crimson Bubbletear has a similar effect of Denial miracle from DS2 - the Telescope is Elden Ring's version of the Binoculars from DS2 firstly introduced as a tool equipped in a weapon slot then later transferred to consumable slots in DS3. - Fire Giant being the "last living giant" is not far from the concept of The Last Giant boss from DS2. - Respec your build through a special item is a mechanic introduced in DS2. - the Beast Repellent torch causes an similar reaction as from the DS2 torch when used against the spiders from that game. - Regaining Flask charges upon defeating a certain amount of enemies is a refined idea introduced in DS3. - taking more lighting damage and less fire damage when lying on bodies of water or in raining weather is a very simplified version mechanic derived from the DS2 version.

The red wolf is from dark souls 3 farron keep. Dead wolf next to bonfire (It was just reused and given an anim set)

regarding ash lake: theres a region on the edge of the map in nokron/nokstella which looks exactly like it, along with the elden beast arena

For Ash Lake, I think the better comparison would be both the tree trunks in the distance by Nokron, and Elden Beast's arena

20:00 aside from the weapon arts being similar, there's also the fact that the twin princes' sword's weapon art is called sacred light and flame, and both scale with int and faith and deal fire damage

The spirit calling snails remind of the lantern things from bloodborne that spawn the red enemies.

4:30 This is sort of correct, Red Wolf of Radagon is suspected to be the finished and enhanced version of the supposed cut boss “Old Wolf of Farron” from DS3 (the same one as the covenant leader). He would apparently use the move set only with the “wolf curved sword” permanently in his mouth, you can even see that it’s a curved great sword that the red wolf summons as well.

Some stuff I noticed missing from DS3 to Elden Ring: -Lothric Knight=Banished Knight -DS3 Zombies=Putrid Corpses -Gael phase 1=Misbegotten Warrior

Great video! Though im pretty sure the moonlight greatsword has shot beams in most its incarnations. It even did so in the first kingsfield.

nice video

7:31 The Sacred Blade ash of war resembles DS1 Moonlight Greatsword beam more closely.

"callbacks" - asset reuse

Don't know if anyone else pointed it out. Sulyvahn's boss room and Godskin noble's boss room, both also have an elevator just on different sides.

Talking about hollows and wandering enemies... Does anyone knows why these ER enemies, same as the knights, looks more like Hollows than actual humans? Because I couldn't find any Lore reason on why is the case. Is weird, because Fromsoft has actual human models for enemies, so It must be a deliberated choice.

Hey yo! Xanthous Crown additional fact, it could also arguably be linked to the big dumb headdresses the Oracle Envoys wear, the trumpet tooters from leyndell and haligtree

Thank you for making a video that points out the blatantly obvious of which was realized over two years ago.

Another 'callback' if you will would be the Avelyn and Pulley Crossbow. Both serve as crossbows that fire in bursts of 3 as opposed to single shots.

20:30 One small correction, the Nameless King’s Spear is called the Dragonslayer Swordspear not the Godslayer Swordspear.

I actually think Maliketh was more of a callback to Ludwig from Bloodborne. Think about it, both of their first phases are them in a beast like form, being more aggressive and having faster attacks. But in they're second phase, they both pull an awesome giant sword out of their body, and they both hop around their arena shooting lasers out of their swords and such.

Executioners greataxe is basically the dragonslayer’s greataxe but without the weapon art. Unless you put a lightning AOW on it for the reference

I noticed the missbigotten has a lot of similar moveset to gael in phase one

Slave knight gale animation

the red wolf is actually a reuse of a cut enemy in one of the souls games

Ds2 also had the idea of poisons sticking to you when you moved through them, which Elden Ring mercifully toned down to just if you roll in the drink.

If you played DS3: Archthrones mod, you can see that they do fully restore the old model of tree spirit as well.

I also noticed that White Mask and Surgeon Set bears a lot of resemblance to Londor Pale Shade set. Even the description seems kind of similar.

Let’s not forget the Malformed Star and Angels both have that humanoid insect appearance going on.

4:37 apparently red wolf was a scrapped ds3 boss, along with the ulcerated tree spirit, or so I’ve heard.

damn i miss the ds3 katana parry, i hope they bring it back on the dlc, and the freyed blade's 2nd weapon art.

19:24 DAMN that armor got some ass fr

Tiny correction. Land squirts and brumers aren't mollusks. First one is a non vertebrate chordate and the second one is a type of arthropod most likely insect.

I think trolls have more in common wirh DS2 giants than they have with DS1 giants. The trolls almost have the same moveset as the last giants in DS2

I am glad that in my version of the game this long katana is not called washing pole. I understand why it's called that but it's a weird name. In my version this weapon is called No-dachi.

Another callback is the Spectral Lance AoW in ER which is 1 on 1 with the Follower Javelin spear WA

btw, beautiful video

In conclusion: Elden Ring is Dark Souls 2 if it was directed by Miyazaki.

The urumi is just a real weapon lol

don't know why no one pointed out the grace at the sites of grace is a humanity scaled down and retextured and maybe a different model

Rivers of Blood is kind of like Chaos blade, look wise, except it doesn't take HP.. It should tho its so OP..

You forgot to tell that the elden ring graces have the humanity sprites, but golden instead of black

Also, the Blood person in the sewers is a reference to Titchy Gren from DS2 :)

Well it is from the same game studio, reused concepts were inevitable especially considering how much bigger elden ring is.

Ancient Dragon in DS2 isn't even a dragon. It's some giant mutant lol

IIRC Red wolf of Radagon is actually a cut Bloodborne boss

In the haligtree there's a putrid avatar that you can get above and do a plug attack. Is that a callback to ds1?

What about power within and flame grant me strength?

To me, Crucible Knights are like Havel. Black Knights are more like the Knights with the great shields and great swords like the Godrick Knights or Redmane Knights or the Leyndell Knights.

We are the Four Kings!!! But you are 5?!?! We are the FOUR Kings!!!

I think black knifes based on carthus rogues/swordsmans from ds3 catacombs

Pretty sure the MLGS from demons souls, hits twice... it has a ghost slice after you slice

For a dark souls and elden ring comparison your bring up demon souls a lot

i think white mask varre was actually inspired by edward nortons Baldwin the IV portrayal

I wish we got the hunters axe moveset in Elden Ring

patches need to be in all of the games obligatory lol

Jesus I knew Elden Ring was derivative but damn

We need a mod to swap the two games. Bonfires in Elden Ring, and Scarabs in Dark Souls.

Elden ring is just a asset flip of itself

What about the elden ring main theme melody basically being the demon’s souls theme in a different scale🤫

Seigmeyer was in Demon's. It's Biorr.

I've heard you aren't actually goin to the archdragon peak in DS3

some of this is just stuff thats in every from software game. I wouldnt call them callbacks just features of their games

You should have a few more 0s on your sub total

Fia and Sister Frieda same person

Wait how didn't I realise that alex is a sieg

i think smough is a call back tot he enemy is elden ring

See some elden ring weapon ashes be given more concrete names for their DS3 versions makes me kinda sad, Ashes feel so generic simply because you can swap them around. I honestly don't think it was a good idea and I currently play Elden Ring without swapping ashes, though some are granted like Braggarts, Phalanx, and Piercing Fang being kept on the weapons they came on and the Flamberge getting Flaming Strike since it's what Jerren uses on it.

From Software? More like, Recycled From My Last Software!

Wasnt asylum demon just a vanguard resking from demon souls?

song at 23:00