Despite the game only be out for a few weeks, fans have managed to get a lot out of Elden Ring in terms of its customization options. Since Elden Ring's announcement at E3 2019, it had been hotly anticipated by fans of developer FromSoftware, the team behind the Souls series and titles like Bloodborne and Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice.
Written in collaboration with Game of Thrones author George R.R. Martin, Elden Ring puts players in the role of the Tarnished, exiled beings brought back to life in order to gather the Great Runes - shattered pieces of the all powerful Elden Ring. Director Hidetaka Miyazaki has talked at length about the team’s excitement to have Martin involved with the project and how he may be shocked at how FromSoftware utilizes the material he brought to the game. However, Martin might also be shocked that someone is controlling a SpongeBob SquarePants character within Elden Ring.
One of the many aspects of Elden Ring that players have gravitated toward with their experiences with the game is the various options they have when it comes to the character creator. Every FromSoft game allows players the opportunity to create their own warrior that can traverse the lands, and many have used the system to create a variety of different characters. In Elden Ring, players have used the robust system already to create characters like Darth Maul, Solid Snake, and even the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Now, the system has been used to create another iconic character.
Posted on Reddit’s r/Eldenring, user Kazhky has shown that their character in Elden Ring has been customized to resemble “Handsome Squidward” from SpongeBob SquarePants. The character first appeared in the Season 5 episode “The Two Faces of Squidward”, and since then its appearance has gone on to become a prominent internet meme alongside other popular scenes from the show.
This is not the first time the “Handsome Squidward” meme has been used in popular video games, as fan art of Sony’s God of War also depicted the version of the character as the Colossus of Rhodes. This use of Handsome Squidward continues to show how funny character creation has become in Elden Ring, and what’s possible with the system.
Thus far, reviews for Elden Ring have been extremely positive, with players commenting on the beautiful art direction and the perfection of FromSoft’s challenging gameplay formula. Thanks to the robust character creation system, fans can have their tarnished look as handsome as they please when they traverse the Land Between.
Elden Ring is now available for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S
