Elden Ringis one of the biggest, most substantial games released over the past couple of years, and it’s not particularly odd to hear that some of the content that was made during development may have gotten cut in the end. Torrent, for one, the game’s exclusive magical mount, may have had a few more tricks up its hooves at some point in time.
According to Zullie the Witch, aDark SoulsandElden Ringdata-miner and hacker, the curious horse and goat hybrid seems to have had a more active role in combat pre-release. Zullie uncovered a variety of unique animations that are exclusive to Torrent, yet completely unused in the released version of the game, and one of them is a powerful backward kick that could launch enemies into the air.
RELATED:Elden Ring Player Points Out Incredible Detail in Raya Lucaria Academy
As good as Torrent might be at getting players around and dealing with specific situations, as well as proving downright instrumental forbeating the Night’s Cavalry inElden Ring, the horse-like creature behaves more like an extension of the player than an entity of its own. It only exists when it spawns in, and disappears as soon as the player dismounts. Zullie has discovered that Torrent does, however, have exclusive unused animations for attacking, sitting down, and even freely roaming around.
Zullie says that Torrent’s removed kick attack is fun in its own right, as it allows players to launch enemies into the air. It is also, however, difficult to get it right, and it has virtually no effect on any larger enemy. As there are manylesser-known mechanics and features inElden Ring, FromSoftware may have decided at some point that there was no real point in making Torrent more complex than it needed to be.
It’s no secret thatFromSoftware struggles teaching players to playElden Ring, and it’s entirely possible that the apparent streamlining of Torrent’s behavior may also have had something to do with that. By immediately de-spawning Torrent as soon as he’s no longer being ridden, players don’t have to worry about losing access to their mount or if it got killed or wounded by roaming enemies, of which there are many.
Still,Elden Ringplayers got Torrent into forbidden areasalready, so the horse-like creature isn’t lacking in utility by any stretch of the imagination. Zullie has previously been a terrific source of information about FromSoftware games' cut and unused content, so it’s extremely likely that there’s moreElden Ringcontent coming from her in the future. Odds are good that Torrent might be featured in some of them, too.
Elden Ringis out now for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
MORE:Why Some Elden Ring Players Think Noble’s Slender Sword is Best Weapon in the Game
