Elden Ring has completely taken the gaming community by storm, with hundreds of thousands of players tuning into the open-world Souls-like to try their hand at the rewarding exploration and brutal combat. Besides some performance issues, Elden Ring has lived up to the hype in many players’ eyes, and sales and player numbers support the hype.
One important reason that Elden Ring may have captured the hearts of so many gamers is that its open-world aspect has made it a less punishing and more accessible game overall. The difficult bosses still exist, such as the absolutely brutal Elden Ring boss Margit, but the sheer breadth of exploration players can do allows for plenty of leveling up to face tough encounters.
Because of this new level of accessibility, players from all backgrounds have come to try their hand at FromSoftware’s latest creation. These players have come from many backgrounds, with perhaps some who are typically not gamers like the person who created Friends’ Ross Geller in Elden Ring. Recently, one Witcher 3 fan decided to jump into the game, and the first thing they did was create Shani, a character from Witcher 3.
For those unaware of the Witcher franchise and Shani, the franchise follows the adventures of Geralt. Geralt and the other Witchers are feared by society due to their perceived strangeness and use of magic, but in reality they are tireless monster hunters who seek to keep society safe from the dangers of their world’s enemies. Shani is a character from this universe, and in short is a medic who helps Geralt whenever she’s around. Much like the fan who created art of Witcher’s Shani, Reddit user doomraiderZ decided to recreate her in Elden Ring’s character editor.
DoomraiderZ was the first to admit that with the options available an exact copy of Shani was most likely impossible, but regardless the results were quite identifiable as the character. Also, other Reddit users thought the character was a perfect cross between a few characters that included Shani, such as Vi from Arcane. Another user thought the character looked a lot like Casca from the Berserk series, and considering the fact that Berserk inspired Dark Souls and Elden Ring, a Casca character would be perfect for a playthrough.
The jump for players of the Witcher series to Elden Ring is certainly not a far one, as both feature difficult combat and extensive exploration. However, like the player who left a Metal Gear Solid reference in Elden Ring, it once again shows the myriad communities who were sucked into the new FromSoftware world due to its enticing exploration and accessibility.
Elden Ring is now available for PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Series X|S.
