FromSoftware has never been lacking in original designs for the bosses and monsters found exploring the game world. The company is so synonymous with these visually imaginative and often grisly monsters that a “Dark Soulsboss” is now internet shorthand for describing any creature design from any medium that is distinctly horrifying.Elden Ringis no exception to this,with its numerous and difficult bosses, and so it’s no surprise that artists will find inspiration while playing the game.
What is impressive aboutElden Ring’s art direction is that every style of enemy fits in the area of the map that it is found in, and often will have some connection to the lore of that area, with enemy designs getting stranger and more unnatural the further the player goes into unexplored territory.
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One of the earliest examples inElden Ringof boss and enemy designs intersecting with the lore of the areais found in the suprisingly skippable Stormveil Castle, the first linear area of the game. The castle’s grafted enemies have multiple limbs attached to their bodies, alluding to the final boss of this area, Godrick the Grafted. Godrick, as the first Shardbearer boss most players will come across, is a huge dynamic boss design that was used heavily in the game’s promotional material. This design, like so many FromSoftware bosses before it, has now inspired some stunning artwork by fans online.
Reddit user u/stevendraw has created a tarot card style piece of artfeaturingElden Ring’s disdained Godrick the Grafted. The vintage line art of the piece suits the medieval eraElden Ringtakes place in and even calls to mind the styling of the in-game map screen. The white border and Godrick’s name printed on the bottom are clearly inspired by tarot cards, and makes the piece feel like it should be part of a set containing all the game’s bosses done in this style.
The comments under both posts are full of fans saying they would be willing to purchase a set ofElden Ringtarot cards. This could actually make for valuable piece of merchandise for the game. FromSoftware games aren’t just famed for original and visceral boss designs, but also for the wide variety of these designs found in each game. A set of cards would do well at showing the variety of these designs while also showcasing the design of each boss individually.
Tarot cards are a common format for fan art, especially for medieval or fantasy properties. But they have also been done to suit many other genres and styles of games such asMass Effectfan made tarot cards.
Elden Ringis available for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
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