Elden Ring sleuth cracks Shadow of the Erdtree to unmask NPCs, finds a new nod to Berserk manga: "This is From's most Guts-like guy in a long list of Guts-like guys"

When Shadow of the Erdtree first launched, by an early optional boss: the unassuming Blackgaol Knight. And I mean when the DLC launched – this boss is just around the corner from the first Site of Grace checkpoint, which makes for a humbling introduction to the Land of Shadow. It turns out this knight isn't just some guy with a big sword, either, but guy with a big sword.

In more ways than one, the Blackgaol Knight is basically Guts from Berserk. We know this now thanks to reputable sleuth , who recently cracked Shadow of the Erdtree open to peer under the helmets and masks of its many new NPCs, sneaking a peek at the oddly detailed faces we never get to see. One of those characters is the Blackgaol Knight (2:16 in the video), also known as the Knight of the Solitary Gaol, and as Zullie puts it he is "From's most Guts-like guy in a long list of Guts-like guys.

" and to Berserk references, but this character truly is a dead ringer for Guts, the protagonist of the dark fantasy manga by Kentaro Miura – – which codified several ideas and elements now common in much of the dark fantasy genre across mediums. Our knight has short dark hair, a stern expression, and a (much larger) horizontal scar across the nose, which is extra wild when you realize that players would never see this in-game. Zullie had to manually unmask NPCs to find this detail.

FromSoftware put it in either for fun or for the modders and lore hounds who go to these lengths. The knight's heavy armor, massive gr.