[STEAM] Beautiful unused Elden Ring cutscene discovered four years after release: ‘Two-hour lore videos on YouTube based on this one scene are going to be incredible’

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Elden Ring is a treasure trove when it comes to lore, as are most of FromSoftware's newer games. For years now, especially with the addition of the Shadow of the Erdtree DLC, players have crafted incredible theories, some of which require extensive video essays to fully explore.

Now, four years after the game came out, a new, unused cutscene has been discovered that shows Miquella, Malenia's brother, planting the massive Haligtree where the Tarnished fights the latter. It was dug out of the game's files by Lance McDonald, a YouTuber specializing in data mining, who presented the cutscene to us in full for the very first time.

The cutscene was supposed to play after you gained a particular item from Gideon the All-Knowing, though there are missing files that prevent you from seeing it even if you do manage to break into this part of the game's cut content. However, McDonald somehow managed to reverse-engineer the thing and make it play the cutscene, which shows Miquella speaking in a mesmerizing, poetic language, commenting on the Haligtree and what is to become of it as he plants the seedling and feeds it his own blood.

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The cutscene has eluded players for nearly four years. It gives us a different look at the relationship between Miquella and his twin sister and shows us, firsthand, how deeply he cared about her despite his apparent megalomaniacal and manipulative nature that we see in Shadow of the Erdtree. It's also a nice bit of lore, even if it isn't official, on how the Haligtree came into being, as well as why Malenia's arena is where it is, since it corresponds to the exact place where Miquella placed the seedling.

A part of the unused cutscene did later make it into the official game, though only as a single shot. Still, there is a lot to unpack in what Miquella is saying, and players are already predicting that we're going to see hours-long video essays explaining the lore and the context of this melancholic scene. Honestly, I'm willing to dive in and listen to one of such essays, as this piece of cut content reminded me of just how good the lore and story for Elden Ring are, even if I'm not the base game's biggest fan (adore SotE, though).

"The two-hour lore videos on

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based on this one scene are going to be incredible," one player said

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. "I for one am hyped," another replied, and I personally agree.

Some others lament that this cutscene was never used, even though it doesn't provide too much information about Miquella as a character. "It's more unfortunate for the fact that we really didn't get much else about him in the DLC, just the one cutscene after the final boss," explains one player, adding that it would've been great to learn more of this intriguing character, rather than just rely on hearsay and interpretations, though that's par for the course.

At any rate, it's amazing to get more lore dumps, pieces, and snippets to theorize about. I love Elden Ring's story and wholeheartedly would play another game set in its universe, even though I'm fairly certain that will not happen in the foreseeable future. FromSoftware is working on a new, Switch 2-exclusive game, The Duskbloods, and also broached the idea of never doing a game of ER's size again.

So, this will have to do, and knowing how FromSoftware-loving YouTubers function, it might be quite enough for a very, very long time indeed.

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