Elden Ring’s unused underground maps turn it into Tears of the Kingdom

With the sheer size of Elden Ring, it's hard to imagine that anything was left on the cutting room floor. Although FromSoftware's open-world masterpiece might be in the rear-view mirror by now, the game has earned its iconography as one of the best Soulslike games on the planet.

As Elden Ring sprawls in innumerable directions, there are still players getting lost in every corner of The Lands Between. As it turns out, it was almost much bigger, with a playable area that was going to shift and contort to the player's actions.

Elden Ring dataminer reveals huge hidden underworld

One YouTuber has revealed maps that may prove the theory that Elden Ring had once planned to change the entire playable map with its story - a supposed "cataclysm system." The video reveals a number of areas that are entirely made up of featureless, bright blue models.

The video implies that these new areas would be freshly altered versions of the existing game map that would be accessible following the defeat of Starscourge Radahn. Along with these versions of existing areas, there is a small hole at the bottom of a crater that would lead to an underground subsection of the map.

This is much like the multi-tiered design of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, suggesting that Elden Ring could've been even bigger. Perish the thought. Map designs like this aren't uncommon, with a notable example being how the Marvel's Spider-Man games change so drastically before and after their final encounters.

Elden Ring was already too big

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Image via FromSoftware

It's unclear why Elden Ring didn't get its cataclysm system, but the presumption is pretty clear - Elden Ring is already huge, so it doesn't really need it.

The cataclysm system would've been interesting, but when considering how massive the game itself is, especially when compared to the company's other games, there had to be a certain point where FromSoftware cut its losses and dedicated itself to the game we got.

We can't complain when considering what we got in Elden Ring's final cut, especially as we have the Shadow of the Erdtree expansion to look forward to. Who knows, maybe a return to The Lands Between in a potential sequel could bring these plans to life.