There’s a long history of content creators beating FromSoftware games under absurd conditions, and Twitch streamer Larxa recently added to that lineage by beating Elden Ring with just her voice. Already an established speedrunner, Larxa took things to the next level by finishing the game without technically pressing a single button – a marvel for the many who struggle to contend with 2022 Game of the Year winner Elden Ring's in-depth combat and legendarily daunting bosses.
Larxa describes herself as a “speedrunner, variety streamer, and horror enthusiast” and is also known for her work as an emote artist under the name Ellen. Having earned fame in the Elden Ring community for a sub-thirty-minute speedrun that was accomplished fairly quickly after the game’s release, Larxa catalogs her many gaming feats on both Twitch and YouTube. In fact, clips of the tensest bits of her recent Elden Ring playthrough can be found on her channel.
Accomplished using a program called VoiceAttack, Larxa was able to define a series of vocal commands and map them to specific in-game actions. Though versatile, the software isn’t without faults, and there seems to have been a non-negligible amount of lag between a command being given and the action being performed. Most Elden Ring players find that even the slightest inconsistencies can throw them off of their game, and Larxa deserves some serious props for overcoming the tremendous learning curve of this input method and seeing a forty-four-hour playthrough through to its end.
Larxa’s Elden Ring playthrough pushed the VoiceAttack software to its limits, but it's otherwise a very useful and well-received voice macro that can come in particularly handy for gamers with disabilities. There’s a huge push in the modern gaming era for developers to implement more in-depth accessibility options, and, though there’s still quite a way to go to that end, tools such as VoiceAttack go a long way toward filling in the gaps and making accessible experiences from which some gamers may have once been barred.
Having run games like Demon’s Souls and Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice in the past, Larxa doesn’t seem to be one to shy away from a challenge. Perhaps she’ll embark on another voice-controlled playthrough of Elden Ring once the supposedly-massive DLC finally releases. Of course, with no official word from FromSoftware regarding any Elden Ring expansions, Larxa and the rest of the Elden Ring community have no recourse but to pass the time by coming up with increasingly difficult playthrough conditions.
Elden Ring is available now for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
Source: Dexerto
