The early Elden Ring Runes players were shocked when an NPC during the closed network test labeled their character as a "bit player" that should "die in a pit somewhere." The outright and immediate hostility was seen by some as the embodiment of the genre's brutal difficulty, but I'm here to inform you that the way things are going, whether for good or bad his notorious character's rough edges were sanded down a bit in the final release that will go on sale on February 25.
If you wander off from the straight path at the start of Elden Ring's open world, the very the first character you'll encounter is a man known as Varre. He appears to be friendly enough at first, wearing a smiling, white mask and standing near some of Elden Ring's countless checkpoints. In the first preview Bandai Namco hosted last year, Varre was barely able to hide his disdain. Every line, including those intended to inform or provide a background of the game's world, was dripping with contempt.
The predecessors of Elden Ring had an antagonistic NPC one or the other, this seemed different. The first person to speak with you as you traveled through The Lands Between basically telling you to get off the hook set an atmosphere for the whole adventure. It almost seemed like the creators were completely upfront about the kind of game they'd created in order to make you ignore his warnings and soldier on. Souls fans that, more than anything else, are in search of FromSoftware's punishment at an almost sexual scale loved Varre's negging.
Varre in the actual game is quite a bit more calm than how he appeared in the closed-network test. He's not the nicest player around, not at all however, his explanations in the final release feel more patronizing than nasty. Varre makes you feel as a slack-jawed tyrant in desperate need of help, using a the sound of a voice that seems to say, "Oh, you poor tiny dumbass, you're going to die in the world, but it won't be my fault." In fact, I have to say, this is a lot more irritating than when he was just giving you a scolding and it's a far cry from an overall more relaxed and laid-back approach.
In the end I'm not convinced Varre hasn't got a sinister agenda waiting in the wings. Maybe it's due to the doubts that I've been ingrained in me by the previous games from FromSoftware, but that doesn't mean I'm going to be watching my back throughout the best place to buy elden ring items playthrough. Whatever is behind that mask, Varre still seems way too attached to my character dying to fully let my guard down in the area there's a problem. At least, I'm not called an "maidenless runt" any longer.
