Nothing is hidden from you. It's just awful ramifications in an open air amphitheatre. And you can only cringe at the idea. The horror of Elden Ring perverts these common expectations. Life has never looked more dire than Dark And Darker Gold when it's this colourful and bright. It's as clear as day.

Elden Ring's open structure grants the studio lots of real estate to express the corruption of the Lands Between, and the relationship between its many zones. In Caelid, you can smell the earth and bodies rotting beneath you as you ride across the land. 

NPC Rodericka's story starts with the young woman sat in a dilapidated shack, admonishing herself for not having the courage to die in the most horrible of ways. She talks in almost delight at the idea of being grafted. Of being ripped limb from limb and being attached to a writhing pile of parts. She calls it a lark. 

And perhaps against expectation, some of Elden Ring's darkest areas, like the underground, are way less scary. Take the Siofra River. Coming down the well lift for the first time is very different from arriving in Castle Morne. Instead of disgust, you're filled with wonder and surprise as you descend. 

Down here, in what should be the darkest, dimmest area you've Dark And Darker Gold Coins come across so far, you find beauty exceeding even perhaps the Erdtree. Conventions would lead you to believe that down is closer to hell, just like in Dark Souls' Demon Ruins and Lost Izalith.