Elden Ring’s Greatsword vs. Berserk’s Dragon Slayer
And finally, my favorite Berserk reference in Elden Ring apart from the sword fields.
Elden Ring, like previous Souls games, hides a lot of its world-building in item descriptions. It’s often the best way to learn why so-and-so did something important or who is related to who, so it stands to reason homages to Berserk might be hiding away in that flavor text as well.
Take the way Elden Ring describes its generic greatsword, for instance:
A coarse iron lump of an ultra greatsword.
Mows down foes by utilizing its incredible weight.
Though handling it likely requires the wielder to have surpassed the realm of the merely human, it is precisely for this reason the weapon is used to slaughter even inhuman foes.
This closely echoes comments about Guts’ Dragon Slayer in Berserk, which in the very first chapter of the manga is referred to as a “raw heap of iron” that’s “much too big to be called a sword.” Characters are often blown away that Guts can wield such a weapon due to its massive size, but thanks to his inhuman strength, he’s able to use it to slice through just about anything that stands in his way.
The two weapons even look similar, though that could just be because they’re both humongous freaking swords.