FromSoftware President Hidetaka Miyazaki's devotion to the late Kentaro Miura's manga series and animated show Berserk is the worst kept secret within Elden Ring Runes game industry. While he avoids explicitly discussing the relationship between his games as well as Berserk and Miura's work, it's apparent that every Miyazaki project released from 2009.'s Demon's Souls has been influenced in some way or another by the epic fantasy of the dark Miura created over 30 years up to his death in 2021.

This tendency to refer to Berserk obviously extends into Elden Ring, the Souls successor to the game that came out this month. Prior to the game's launch fans scoured every piece of promotional material to explain the way that this armor resembled something from Berserk or how the design of the enemy appeared to be drawn from Miura's work. As I've spent close to 100 hours playing the game over the last couple of weeks I couldn't not be struck by these similarities too.

Spoilers are available on each of Elden Ring and Berserk But, really what are you doing here if you're trying to stay clear of them?

Elden Ring's sword fields vs. Berserk's Hill of Swords

Let's get the obvious Berserk tribute over with first.Elden Ring's massive world includes numerous areas that I've called "sword fields." I'll admit, the name itself isn't very innovative: They're simply small fields adorned with swords. They all are stabbed first into the ground, allowing them to stand upright. In the middle of each one is a larger sword with an inscribed inscription that typically provides a vague bit of information on the game's history.

The first time I came across one of these fields, it immediately brought to mind me of Berserk's iconic Hill of Swords. In both the anime and manga, there is a Hill of Swords is meant as a memorial to the wounded soldiers of Band of the Hawk, an mercenary group that served as the show's main characters for a large portion of its initial run. Rickert who is among the last remaining soldiers, forges the countless blades of the Hill of Swords as tribute to buy Elden Ring Items his former compatriots.