Around 20 hours into Elden Ring, I stumble across a crumbling old church near a lake. Inside, a giant tortoise wearing a papal mitre greets me and teaches me some powerful new sorceries. Just a short ride from the church I see a gigantic lobster. It seems friendly enough, but it's facing away from me, so I get off my horse and approach it on foot. Just as I expect the 'talk' prompt to flash up, it spins around, snatches me up with one pincer, and then repeatedly snips at my face with the other before casting my lifeless body into the murky swamp waters. As everything fades to black and 'You Died' appears on-screen, I let out a chortle that lasts for nearly a minute.
Elden Ring is really, really funny. Sure, the player messages - like signs that point to a tortoise and simply read 'dog' - are good for a titter, but the Lands Between is FromSoft's most overtly funny world to date. It's packed with humorous easter eggs, internal jokes that run for far too long, and comical little embellishments in its monster design.
There are some small spoilers ahead, so if you don't want to hear about any NPCs or enemies then click away, preferably to our Elden Ring review.
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