'Elden Ring' Is Not The Same Game In Brazil, And That's A Problem

Elden Ring is a smash hit, and dare I say it, a definite contender for Game of the Year. Grisly yet gruellingly satisfying combat, an open world offering endless excitement and a community of warrior who love aggravating each other as much as assisting each other in this punishingly tough title. It's such a shame, then, that the Brazilian version of the game is so different.

Ewan, as well as a handful of others on our team, is besotted with Elden Ring. Whenever we see an Elden Ring meme, it's sent straight to Ewan lickety-split for that coveted laughing emoji reaction we hang our self-worth onto. "Maybe the best thing I can say about this magnificent game is that even after nearly 45 hours spent in The Lands Between, I cannot stop thinking about it," he said in his review. "As I sit here, writing these words, my mind keeps drifting back to the locked doors I’ve yet to open, the unmarked portions of the map I’ve not explored, and the bosses that are still waiting to be conquered."

Elden Ring is brimming with secrets, to be sure, so here's the scoop on how to become Darth Maul in this epic fantasy RPG!

Of course, in order for you to be invested in these journeys across the Lands Between, you've got to believe in the world FromSoftware has built. You've got to sink your teeth into the scraps and snippets of history to discover the truth. How strange it is then to see that the Brazilian version of Elden Ring is missing enormous amounts of text that tells the player about the story, characters, and environments they're dodge-rolling over.

"Elden Ring has a BIG localization issue in the Brazillian version [sic]. And surprisingly it is not about mistranslation," said Reddit user PicossauroRex. They realised that a reference to the movie Frozen isn't there in the description for Blaidd's Armor in the Brazilian version but guessed that it might be because Frozen isn't that popular in the country. Looking closer, there's actually a part telling the player that the cape protects from the cold. Here's the post showing off all of the omissions they've found:

"The missing information wouldn't be a huge deal so long it only happened in joke descriptions, like Blaidd's Frozen reference. But in most cases, specially with spells, huge pieces of lore information are missing," they surmised. "Since 80% of the game story can only be learned through items descriptions this is a big oversight from FromSoft localization team." The rest of the subreddit is sympathetic and there is a small hope that the post gains enough attention to alert Bandai Namco of these issues.

If you don't get why this is so disheartening, imagine if I gave you a copy of The Fellowship of the Ring with every other page torn out. It would hardly be the same experience of reading about the intricate world and epic story that Tolkien had written. "All I’m seeing is it’s now confirmed that English is an easy mode and Portuguese is the REAL way to play the game," joked one.