This quest would have made finding the fate of the Caravan much more personal. While I hate seeing Santa sad, I kind of wish this was left in the game.
It gives such an amazing explanation on what was happening down there as well. I was super weirded our the first time I went down there and was wondering what was happening. This cleared it up for me.
@@Guildmaster_xero Shabriri not only had a relationship with the three fingers, but also falsely exposed the Great Caravan of tempering with the Flame of Frenzy, making Leyndell bury them alive in blind hatred. Shabriri paid for it, his eyes were gouged out as punishment, but it was all too late. Shabriri would never truly die, as well. Or so, is what I believe happened
“Full many a gem of purest ray serene, The dark unfathom'd caves of ocean bear: Full many a flower is born to blush unseen, And waste its sweetness on the desert air" - Suddenly I am reminded of Arthur's words.
It's sad to see that his questline was cut from the game. It gives Frenzied Flame route much needed empathetic angle, which kind of was there in the game with the whole caravan locked underneath the capital still being the thing in the final game, but it's much more pronounced when we have Kale talking. This questline actually makes you want to do the Frenzied Flame ending.
@@kushjindal2939 Yeah he's a nice guy but in the final game he's just another random merchant that somehow knows Blaidd and...that's it, you don't see nothing more from him. At least this cut questline gives him a lot more personality and makes you want to do the Frenzy Flame ending since you have a better reason to do rather than "I want to see the world burning because a blind woman and an evil spirit said so".
@@Vengeful_Attacker You have a better reasen, but not as if the Frenzide Flame ending is any more appealing with a personal story. Myeb for some but I think a lot of people, me ncluded, are much more looking at the overall Edning not neccesirly the charatcers it is involve.
What the Kale questline shows us is why someone would fall to the depths of even wanting never-ending chaos to grip the world. If the entire world is against you, the only option is to destroy it all, so that the cycle of pain and vengeance can be over with. Hyetta comes across more like a twisted follower of the 'guidance of grace'. Her reasoning of wanting some sense of fulfilment to her purpose is pretty shallow compared to Kale.
Yeah, Shabriri and Hyetta aren't enough substance for that ending, too obscure to point us the the frenzied flame. Even Yura's questline is disjointed from it before he somehow becomes Shabriri. Though personally, I'm a bit tired of all the sorrow and suffering Fromsoft puts into its world building. With how huge the open world is for a Souls game compared to previous one, it would have been nice to have some normal NPCs to fight for, characters who root for you to reach an ending with some measure of hope. They didn't even spare Jarburg. I would have liked if they worked more on the writing for each ending. Actually get a small group of NPCs to support you and survive along each quest. For the Roundtable it's down to Hewg & Roderika. You have the Age of Stars ending, but Ranni yeets off somewhere till the end, Blaidd goes mad Solaire style, Iji gets assassinated, and Seluvis dies from being a cunt. Would have been nice to meet more Champions of Fia, get Rogier to survive somehow. Some Omen NPCs would have been great too for the Fell Curse. They could have even gotten some Leyndell citizens to talk to us ala Bloodborne, behind closed doors, who, after listening to Brother Corhyn's sermons, root for us to perfect the golden order. All in all, I'm just tired of everyone dying on us in these games.
The worst part about this is how Kale's and Hyetta's questlines could easily coexist. The only issue I see would be how awkward it might be to see Kale and Hyetta in the same location, but you could easily just move Kale back until after Hyetta's death. The dialogue doesn't suggest he's near the door until after you inherent the flame.
The dialogue could be two separate paths based off your choices, the way the fingers fade away after you inherit the flame makes me think he wouldn't try the door after he saw your burns. I feel like he would've recognized you as inheriting the frenzied flame and knew you would go on to destroy the golden order. So maybe if the player didn't become the lord of frenzy after an amount of time then that would trigger Kale to go to the door himself and get burned? I also wouldn't be surprised if Kale was supposed to die after that last bit of dialogue, similar to Hyetta
@@jeffschmidt2852 no shabriri is definitely a different person from Kale. Shabriri is the one who falsely accused the merchants of heresy. Watch any video about him and it would be clear to you too
I don't see how they couldn't coexist either. You could have them both meet up, sharing a camp. Even have small dialogue for the one that stays behind: "The blind girl left, i worry for her, but she was adamant." "Oh, the friendly merchant? He left, I miss his music." Even better at the final stage, if it changes Hyettas dialogue a bit in order to persuade you to take on the frenzied flame and viceversa. Hell even better. Kale can finally realize the madness he wants to unleash when he sees Hyetta burn at our touch. Have good old "Oh gods...what have i done..." moment.
It's just ultimately redundant, you end up with two characters that both exist to lead you to the Frenzied Flame. There are a lot of characters related to this quest that could've been chosen, but Hyetta alone did everything necessary. It ultimately worsens a narrative to have redundant characters.
@@DrDizzleFrizzle I guess my main issue is how easy it is to miss Hyetta's quest and how little it seems to do with the merchants. You're pretty much guaranteed to meet Kale, his route generally follows the player's, and his story is much more neatly tied with the flame.
Again, Fromsoft just seems way too happy with cutting content that gives such solid narratives and I don't even see how this would affect anything negatively. Such good voice acting, and such a cool character.
@@derek96720 they will probably do this with some cut content, like Miquella/St. Trina, but cut quests like this are probably never going to see the light of day, outside of videos like this, unfortunately. It's really annoying, knowing what kind of content they chose to cut, when it would have fleshed the world out way more, and not turned every single attempt at understanding lore into a series of contradictions or requiring huge amounts of speculation just to figure out what the fuck the actual plot of the game was, beyond the most basic premises
I like how Kale in the midst of all his rage still lends the player an apology. Even being a Tarnished, he ends things with you not personally but because of your goals.
Wow, this was a fully fleshed out quest! Kale's actor put in excellent performances too, especially once he found the Great Caravan's shocking prison. While Hyetta being made in the likeness of Irina's corpse and eating eyes is unnerving, Kale's quest would have been far more memorable, complete with the tragic revelation that the Three Fingers inflicted curses upon him, determined as he was, and dismissed him as trash. Kale's arc also better explores the personal anguish that Shabriri inflicted on the world back when he was more motivated in his schemes and not phoning it in out of arrogance. The fallout still personally hurts people and is a trap that keeps on ensnaring the victims and those worked into a non-supernatural hysteria also of Shabriri's design. While every merchant, Kale included, already has Frenzied Flame eyes, and some hoarder players who killed the merchants for their bell bearings discovered that the merchants have Frenzied Flame incantations too, this quest would have shown how the traps and traumas slowly turn people to the Frenzied Flame. This quest would have also shown how Shabriri's traps warp people into being pawns, muttering about chaos taking not just the Lands Between, but the entire world. Hyetta doesn't really cover that subject, as she's clearly some kind of demon in the first place that puts in more effort to pretending she's not until right at the Three Finger's doorstep. Man, if Kale's quest stayed in the final game, then perhaps that lone merchant playing the song to keep his sanity may have been meant to be Kale? It would have been chilling to find him turned into a visually indistinct husk like the rest of the merchants, and it could have even perhaps implied that they all tried to see the Three Fingers, only to be used as guinea pigs and made even more miserable than they already were.
@@MattBG67 What I mean is that, when From Software was developing this quest, that tormented merchant might not have existed down there yet, and only spawned in after Kale was fully cursed and his quest was over. If that was the case, then that merchant might have been what was left of Kale. However, when the quest was cut from the game, the merchant may have been made to always be loaded in on that map, effectively repurposing the original asset.
I would have taken this over Henriettas quest any day. This is much more personal and Kale is also one of the first NPCs you meet. Seeing how sad and tragic this quest ends would be so impactful.
would have been more likely to willingly become lord of frenzy from hearing kale's tragic tale, than shabriri's crazed used car salesman act. instead we got blind lady like: ooh, candy! ooh, candy! ooh, candy! uhg shit, this is lead paint... oh well, i already ate half the can, might as well finish it. *fucking dies of lead poisoning*
Honestly, you can leave both in the game with no issues, just let them asknowledge eachother (maybe Kale found that chamber with Hyetta's help or he himself helped her get here).
Hyetta quest is also very important to show us what shabriri can do and her Dialogue in the end is amazing and the voice actress did a great job I think her and kale should be one big quest
@@TK-7193 Absolutely this, it would actually have made using Miquella needle a grand betrayal to Kale's wish for a retribution against the tarnished and the order while keeping Melina from dying. Almost as if it was indeed as a seemless quest transition.
man, Kale is so real he does a big speech, and while his anger is understandable, he gets mad at us because we come from the same populace that tortured the great caravan but immediately afterwards he realizes that blaming us for what happened makes him similar to the people who doomed the great caravan and apologizes he still won't trade with us anymore because of the shock of what he discovered but that's understandable
I can see why some think that If it stayed in Kale's actual voice, I too would gotten chills, but instead it got knocked right out. I felt no Kale there, only a man, not a saddened angry nomad. Could have been Hollywood quality if it was perfected.
you always want to distinguish between things cut for time vs. artistic reasons, but it's really a damn shame we didn't get this one in the final game. I don't think it detracts from the mystique or horror of the shunning grounds by making these aspects of the 3 fingers and great caravan so explicit, and it also adds a certain sympathy to the Frenzied Flame path. I love the potential contrast here between wrathful Kale and a horrified, pleading Melina right outside the door to the 3 fingers. Much more of a compelling choice than a "for the lols" situation.
Yeah, Melina's words vs. Kale's words would be way more compelling, especially to anyone who realizes "oh fuck, Hyetta looks just like that dead woman from back in Limgrave, something cursed is going on." At the same time, Kale and the Great Caravan could still both be victims of Shabriri's ancient schemes, making it tragic on multiple levels where Kale and the other merchants are damned all along by the force they turn to in desperation and damned by those led to believe that the merchants planned to always summon the Three Fingers.
it's interesting that Kalé's next destination is the Scenic Isle, same as Patches, and likely around the same stage of the Tarnished's journey. could have been a pretty crowded spot at one point
It would have been interesting to see Patches and Kale together, remarking on their differences in merchant philosophies. The graverobbing scammer and the honest manufacturer, opposed enough to not agree but also respectful of each other to not get in the way of their business styles.
@@joshuakim5240 Cleary, my friend, you have not met Patches. Patches would try to murder Kale and fleece all of his goods. Same as he did to us. Several times. In . Every. Single. Game. God, I hate Patches..-_-
@@Nightwalker170 I mean with us he has reason. Don't know about ER's Patches but DS' Patches punishes the greedy and the player is basically one of these.
I'm gonna guess they used what was originally Kales spot for Patches there. Liurnia is huge, why have two unconnected characters and quests right next to each other?
I really wish this would have been kept in the game. This, alongside Hyetta's questline, would have given the Three Fingers ending so much more impact than whatever Shabrirri was trying to do.
Hell, the new Shabriri centric questline would've been nice too. The guy is supposed to be the apostle of the frenzied flame, yet he's barely in the game and all he does is jumps you with "lol, burn everything" crazy speech out of nowhere.
Yeah, the Shabriri in the Lore sounded a lot better than a guy that just appears in the middle of nowhere saying “may chaos take the world” and nothing more like a Disney villain
Hyetta’s quest I feel doesn’t feel like a good incentive to get the Frenzied Flame ending, while this quest seems like a much stronger incentive, so having both would be nice.
@@ASquared544 While I can mostly agree from a story perspective, from a gameplay perspective I think I like the Hyetta quest better since it encourages exploration in order to find the "Grapes" and interaction with Vike and the frenzy plagued village near him that would otherwise be entirely optional and would render Vike completely optional in every sense thus making it very likely that the lore associated with him and the flame's effect on people would go more easily unseen.
@@amnesicturtles4145 i mean that's way down the line there. He appears in human form at the very beginning of the game, i think quest line is small and then he turns into Shabriri
An interesting thing to follow this up with: A friend of mine recently got access to the 1.0 unpatched game version, which happens to have completely different notes. Rather than simple notes written by merchants, they were once notes BETWEEN the merchants, transported by the crows. One of the earliest we found detailed the location of the wondrous flask, sent to Kale by one “Brother Colletus”, which is apparently the name of the nomad merchant near the saint’s bridge (the bridge with a mad pumpkin head in limgrave)
It’s really crazy the sheer number of differences, both minor and major, between the 1.0 “launch” and 1.02 proper launch. Definitely worth a video on its own hahaha
It's be interesting in that the only way they would be your friend is if you carried the flame as hey do.... Otherwise they, with the exception of Kale would be an adversary for every little secret.... Every thing they've noted.... Waiting around corners to grip you with chaos... It'd be interesting 🤔
"They think we worship the Three Fingers? That WE called the maddening sickness down upon them? Well if that's what they expect from us, then THAT'S WHAT THEY SHALL GET FROM US!" The voice acting starting at 12:08 is so unbelievably good. I can't believe something this high quality was cut! Incredible work restoring this cut content.
And you would finally and more easly connected the shabriri talisman, wich tells you that shabriri was accused of slander, suggesting he was the one telling everybody Kale's group was frenzied.
@@Frank-kq4te If Shabriri had his eyes removed for that particular act though, one would think that Leyndell would at least have a "our mistake, sorry survivors" statement to go with it.
@@JonathanTBE In this case, it would have been done solely because of Shabriri to otherwise neutral people, and saying "our bad" to like 10 remaining homeless people is quite different from ever getting the people stuck underground back to the surface.
I’ve kinda noticed that most of the cut quest and lines tended to be way more emotional and narratively clear, I can understand the idea of trimming the fat of the game but everytime a new cut quest is found the games overall narrative on release just feels more and more truncated to feel like previous souls games rather than an evolution of its genre, I really hope that the dlc has a narrative on the level of these and does away with the cryptic for the sake of cryptic stories that Elden ring is arguably damaged by, the game is great but I feel like the world established in ER is deserving of a way more direct and character based narrative than what we got
i think that for the dlc they should shy away from the empty and voiceless character you play as, and make it more narrative based, specifically make you play as a character from some point in 'history'
@@tsktsktusk5584 Vyke would be the choice since he sought to become lord but ultimately failed. Maybe that could be tied into a dlc somehow. He is the guy on the cover of the game.
But why didn’t they implemented this???? It’s practically finished and it’s really good. It didn’t exclude hyetta questline, both can be down there at the same time. And also now it makes much more sense why when killed Kale says “I’ll never find…” he is referring to the great caravan… man this game could have been amazing with all the content that was cut.
It might have been done to make the endings more comparable in their moral ambiguity (like the translation change to Ranni's script during her ending). Considering how everyone loves Blaidd since he's our bro who goes on our journey together but has no way to be spared, Kale also being a bro who goes on our journey together having an option to take his side would be super enticing to the point where it wouldn't even be a choice for anyone who likes Kale (which is everyone...he's just so nice). The main problem however is that this cut quest is kind of the only source of moral ambiguity regarding the Flame of Frenzy so regardless of the above reasons, so it was still imo a bad move to cut it since Shabriri's mad ramblings aren't nearly as compelling of a reason to ever go through this ending route.
@@joshuakim5240 yeah frenzied flame is very clearly the worst choice you can make, I think maybe if we had kalé to incentivize us while melina said "bruh don't fucking do this" it would make it more ambiguous as to whether you should go with kalé or melina
@@joshuakim5240 This stuff still exists though. it's just not explicit. When I first went into the Shunning Grounds I basically realised all the things Kale was saying. And I even thought that Melina was perhaps in the wrong when it came to it.
@@flayncele I personally think that Blessing of despair is the worst ending because the omen are haunted by nightmares all their lives. Even if everyone in the world is miserable that doesn't make your pain any less. I think its better to not exist than to live in misery but that's just my opinion.
Man if Kale's quest stayed in game, I would have actually found the Leyndell well in my first playthrough lmao. Had no idea what everyone was talking about when they said "fuck the sewers". I thought it was just that small bit in the city.
I'm kind of sad this is never going to see the light of day in the game, the voice actor did a phenomenal job, and this would have been a beautiful questline to really flesh out the Caravan. Finding the buried people is one of those moments that is going to stick with me forever, and it never gets old - I always sit there and just listen for a bit. One of the most powerful moments in ER, if not the most, for me. Part of me is also glad Kale is never going to have to experience this though; Soulsborne is always so bleak for the NPCs and the questlines really always teeter the edge of 'ignorance is bliss' sometimes... Thank you so much for your incredible work restoring this. :)
Not officially but modders always bring these things back, specially now that they have announced The Convergence mod for Elden Ring (previously a DS3 mod that basically changed everything turning it into a different game)
Maybe why it was cut because it is so tragic. Kale is so warm and welcoming that it is so upsetting seeing him like this, but it would have been amazing.
Maybe they just didn't have the time to finish it. But they expanded some incomplete quests with an update (I think 1.03), so I hope they'll continue adding what they wanted to do. It would be a waste to not have this quest.
EDIT: Many of you have wondered about the order of the dialogue at the end of the video, here's an explanation of how the game engine works when playing audio files. "The frenzied flame...burned me..." is TalkParam 80007100, and it keeps going in consecutive numbers up to 80007110 which is the "...", in between at 80007105 you have "Divest yourself of everything, and head to the door.", while "To melt away the curses, suffering, and despair. And the Order, entire." is 80007108 for instance. The game engine plays audio in sequence, the quest system only says: Play "80007100", and then the rest unfolds automatically, so that dialogue is run in the same order as it is in the game. ---------- When the game came out I was so hyped for playing Kale's questline, but sadly it had been cut out from the game! Well here I am, a few months later, and I managed to restore the full questline. Leave your thoughts in the comments, and as usual, don't forget to subscribe!
@@SekiroDubi can you tell me how did you got the code of the game? I'm studying computer engineering and i like videogames a lot. I would really like to have a look at the game's code😢😢😢😢
Remember that the nepheli, kenneth, gostoc and other elden ring npcs quests were unresolved and incomplete before the 1.03/1.04 patches? I have hopes that fromsoftware will do the same thing with kale, restoring his quest with future game patches.
@@yuribrando4987 But this doesn't feel like a lack of "restoring" a quest. This feels like they cut a quest as they wanted to go in a different direction with the 3 Fingers. Since Kales quest creates a very different narrative vibe than Hyetta's and Yura's.
this genuinely broke me. kale’s voice actor put so much heart into this performance, so much so that the ending has my heart in pieces. the guilt and sadness you feel for him and how the world affects these characters is excruciating. i really wish they kept this in the final cut, or at least saw that it was worth keeping.
Honestly, when I first stumbled upon the Shunning Grounds, I cried. Listening to that mournful music, wadding through bodies twisted and driven mad, finally coming to understanding why all the Merchants are hiding in such strange places. I wish this quest was in the game...
TBH I would have preferred this over Hyetta, so much more comprehensive with everything else lore-wise considering it appeared more time was dedicated setting up his storyline through the merchants' dialog, their gear descriptions etc.
We could have both in the game, seeing Kalé and the great caravan horrible fate while at the same time we help Hyetta become our maiden of the three fingers, maybe if we manage to inherit the frenzied flame before Kalé he wouldn't end up scorched by it, and he could help us not only as a merchant but also as a blacksmith.
@@hasturthekinginyellow5003 late but uh everyone burns, except the gods I think as it is theorized that Melina is the goddess of death and of which can only kill herself? Im not sure because i got the non Melina version of this ending where you sacrificed her instead of temporarily yourself. But yea EVERYONE and EVERYTHING burns into one because three fingers mad.
He is for sure. Usually I would say Lance is the best but for some reason he takes ages to release just one video. Our boy Sekiro Dubi here is lightning fast and still has high quality videos.
@@Micolashcage1 Yeah Zullie is also great but her content is mostly about some interesting facts buried in the game files. She doesnt do the quest related stuff which is the most interesting part about cut content.
I think they all cover different niches very nicely and we’re lucky to have any of them. That being said, Dubi just knocks it out of the park with his consistency - props to him!
I'm assuming this was cut because it clashes a bit with our wrinkly eyeball loving finger maiden. Both would be down there at the same time at the door to the Three Fingers. I really like this series of events for Kale though. He starts off so nice, welcoming. Like a kid still blinded to the reality of the world that's right in front of him. Even comes to hate us for our connection to Grace. That part tugged at my heartstrings a bit. We had been good company thus far. I would have really hurt to see that happen in my game, perhaps that's another reason why it was cut. I don't know about anyone else but he kinda became my safety npc when I was playing. When I'd want to be safe, I'd go to that church and hang out with Kale. Part of me is glad Kale doesn't have to go through this in the final version. The guy doing his voicework is top tier. Especially when he gets angry.
Hyetta story is so nonsensical, I would have preferred Kale to be there far more. Hyetta, who's blind, somehow reached the depth of lyndell abysses, still blind, and manages to reach under the floor wich is yet to be destroyed, before we even get there. I am speechless for the amount of quest this game fucked up.
@@Frank-kq4te Since Hyetta doesn't even appear until after Irina is murdered, and is 1:1 in Irina's likeness, Hyetta was likely a demon all along that was perhaps more motivated to pretend otherwise. In contrast, Shabriri has been around for ages and thus might be "checked out", as it were. That can explain how Hyetta even gets to places she logically wouldn't be able to reach.
@@Frank-kq4te She's being guided by the Three Fingers and Shabriri it seems. She's possibly the resurrected corpse of Irina. I think it's supposed to be weird.
Characters in FromSoft games are almost always so somber and depressed sounding. Everything is said in a whisper. Hearing one of them get properly angry and yell was genuinely shocking, and I wish it had been in the OG game.
I know it’s a shame this all got cut but I’m at least glad I got to hear this. Fantastic writing for an underutilized character. Nabil Elouahabi did an awesome job.
It's these types of videos that makes me love the series so much more. Wish Fromsoft could add a hug mechanic, so I could hug everything, especially the npcs.
The music those frenzied merchants play in the underground is one of the best scores from Elden Ring. It's so sad yet sweet and I personally really wish Fromsoft add something deeper than what we currently have of the Three Fingers.
This shit almost made cry. I can't believe this couldn't make it in, this gives so much purpose to the flame frenzy. This lore is still in the game, but it isn't the same without Kalé's reaction and justification for nihilism.
The Frenzied Flame's perspective seems more similar to a radical version of antinatalism than nihilism to me, as least in the way that Hyetta, and sort of to an extent, Shabriri present it (it's entirely possible that they're disguising the FF's true motives, though). Hyetta especially frames destroying the world and melting it into one entity as a *good* thing. But nihilism isn't concerned with good or bad, it asserts that such notions are pointless, it rejects the very idea of morality. Antinatalism, on the other hand, is the belief that suffering is the purest form of evil ("evil" in this sense meaning "injustice"), and that since the creation of new life is the catalyst for all suffering, it is therefore morally wrong to create new life. A world with no suffering in it is the purest form of good by this reasoning, even if "a world with no suffering in it" necessarily means "a world with no people in it." Most people who consider themselves antinatalists do not think that murder/genocide is acceptable, because their whole deal is being fervidly against causing suffering, but I could see how a radical version of that belief could twist into literally thinking that nuking the planet is the most righteous decision any being could possibly make. That kind of reasoning is more in line with the Frenzied Flame's rationale, at least insofar as it's presented to us, imo. Maybe a possible reason why Kale's quest was cut was because it kind of turns the Frenzied Flame ending into a form of revenge, and makes the player's motivation for choosing it explicitly spiteful. But if you're doing something out of revenge and spite, then you know it's wrong, you just don't care. That seems to conflict with what they were going for, which imo seems to be more along the lines of wanting players to only pick the FF ending if they genuinely believed it was the right decision (barring the inevitable edgelords who pick it as a meme). Hyetta and Shabriri try to use your sense of compassion to manipulate you, but Kale's questline would have you acting out of anger and a desire for retribution, not compassion.
@@Alice9914I agree Kales story doesn't make me want to do the Frenzy Flame ending. It makes me want to fight against them. Shabiri and Hyetta at least are slightly convincing enough to make you consider joining the Frenzy Flame.
This dialogue genuinely almost made me cry. The raw anguish in Kale’s voice was so moving. It’s insane that such a beautiful performance was cut from the game. Had this quest been in the game, I feel like the Frenzied Flame ending would be a lot more loved.
Yeah I always wondered why he of all of the merchants had a name; at first I figured it was either because he was connected to Blaidd, or it was simply because he was the first merchant we met, and introduced us to the whole merchant system. But that never really quite fit for me, even if he was the first there was no real reason to give him and only him a name. Thanks for all the work you put in.
Idk what's sadder, we didn't get to see this in-game or how Kale ends up. Love that you could retrieve the dialogue too, the voice actor was outstanding in his performance. Thank you so much for showing us!
Kale would have been my FAVORITE NPC if this questline was still here. Very great voice acting and dialogue, the character development from neutral to rage. Ugh fromsoft, why?
10:35 poor guy sounded so hopeful and optimistic... just to soon afterwards meet his people completely dehumanized, forgotten and left to rot in a place that is, essentially, the dark fantasy version of a WWII concentration camp. This quest had the potential to make Bloodborne look like a happy game.
Is it possible that his attempt to access the three fingers and him consulting you, happen before you are embraced by the flame of frenzy? It seems a bit weird on how he accepts you as lord of frenzy and then tries it for himself.
That was my only hang up. I could see it as either way. He sounds very in pain at the end after being burned, since our model got crispy I wonder if they planned on doing something to Kale? Nearly every npc we deal with dies, I imagine as he begs for us to tell the lord of flame to end it all he dies. There's even a little pained sigh at the end. Maybe all the other merchants down there buried eventually went as MAD as him and went to see the flame. Maybe that state we see his people in is rejects as hosts from the chaos outer god?
This would probably happen if we did not acess the Three Fingers and inherited the flame, causing him to try it, and show us how by telling us to remove our equipment
It feels like they recorded a couple options. Possibly for one or the other to play depending on actions you made, possibly because they had not decided which to use.
This video has officially made you my favorite Souls-bourne-seki-ring youtuber. Move aside Vaati and Zullie. The nomads have been my favorite point of interest since launch and this video has confirmed most of my speculations about them. Keep the good content coming.
my problem with a lot of the endings in this game is how divorced they are from our tarnished character. You're not emotionally driven to bring about any age save the age of stars, given how much you sacrifice for Ranni, and the age of fracture (the default ending). But if this content had been kept, I would have been more compelled to bring forth an age of chaos.
Oh man, that was so sad to see ... and Sekiro Dubi even finished the video with the little melancholic "frenzied flame" song to give that extra tragedy vibe 😢
@@Nerazmus But that is how it should be. Think of the original Dark Souls, for example. The game gives you reasons to link the fire, and reasons to let the age of dark begin. Or the choices regarding Gehrman in Bloodborne.
@@generaliv8658 There are already plenty of reason to side with the Frenzied Flame. And you can still see what happened to the merchant clan. You just don't get Kale's emotion filled reaction to it.
@@Nerazmus yeah it makes you think more about it rather then it being blatant in your face. Makes you come to your own conclusion. I myself became like the Ball Bearing Hunter.
I was literally going through the voice files and found this yesterday and thought this would be cool if sekiro dubi covers this. And here we are. Also malenia has some unused dialogue. She complaments you. Could have been the original death message. Instead of... well you know.
Did you find the voice files for the cut dialogue where she acts like she knows you? The one that starts with "Sweet Tarnished, dearest companion"? It sounds like an alternate boss fight intro.
@@mensarius6432 no I have to go through over 10000 disorganized files only named by a number. So finding things takes time. If you want to do this yourself someone posted the extracted voice files on reddit. The file is 5.5 gb but there's a lot of cool things in there. I won't give a link because of the youtube antilink filter but you can find it on your own.
@@mensarius6432 It's implied that Millicent was originally going to be Malenia herself, but amnesiac due to her Scarlet Rot nuke damaging her just as much as it damaged Radahn. And the more we help her reach the Haligtree, the more of her memory she would recover to the point where it's even possible that we would have to be the one to instigate the boss fight (no idea what the context for doing so would be) rather than Malenia just being hostile right off the bat.
I feel as if they cut this quest out because it made it way too easy to get to the frenzied flame, and basically had that quest line locked in from the start of the game. Hyetta is later in the game and not as handed to you as much as Kale is
this is really cool i love quests like this i wish they kept it in. thanks for letting me live vicariously through your journey though. you are a gentleman and a scholar!
I wouldn't be surprised if majority of intended content was ultimately cut from the game and we are playing about 20-30% of what they wanted to make. ER feels too much like Dark Souls stretched over a big map and very often you stumble upon something that clearly feels like it was supposed to be deeper or more explored but just ends abruptly.
Makes me kinda never want to see another open world Fromsoft game though it's probably their thing now after ER's success. I'd rather have all these great well developed quests in a more linear game than the copypaste fiesta that Elden Ring is at its worst.
@@luminomancer5992 Yes they had but they weren't ever as clearly developed or integral to the game experience. All of the other Souls games feel complete, which Elden Ring will never be.
@@knavenformed9436 No, I honestly disagree with that, 1 feels most complete to me despite the well known balance failings of the latter part of it, 3 feels incomplete to me in certain areas like your ability to interact with the forgotten king, or some other small parts of it, but specially when we look at DS2 that one was definitley very obviously an incomplete experience. way more than Elden ring ever feels like.
@@luminomancer5992 I didn't play the original Dark Souls 2 during launch, but SOFTS is my favourite and most played Souls, I can see how it's extremely broken compared to 1 and 3, *but* Elden Ring is broken in many of the exact same ways, even many different than it is. A lot of it can be thought as a side-effect of making their first open world game, but at the same time this is from the team (Sure they have A and B "teams" but the same company and interchanged staff and moreso the same main director) that made DS3, Bloodborne and Sekiro after DS2 and yet stumbled back to the same or even worse in quality.
It's a bittersweet feeling to find so much good content in every FromSoft game that won't see an official release u.u some of the unused soundtracks for DS3 an incredible too! Thanks for your work
I dont understand, why? Why cut a complete quest like this? Kalé Is the only nomadic merchant with a name an unique personality, It was very obvious that kalé should had a questline.
Oh, wow, thanks so much for excavating this and sharing it with all of us! I have been perplexed from the beginning as to why there wasn't more to Kalé, given how much the player discovers about the fate of his people. This was more or less what I imagined to be one of the possibilities for his quest (another was that he already understood what had happened to his people and along with the other merchants was subtly guiding you to discover it), but I love the totally unguessable touches like the burial crows, which are just amazing. Thank you again!
I love your videos, you do an amazing job of piecing things together!! This was absolutely fascinating and answered questions I didn't know I had. Looking forward to more from you!!
So heartbreaking that this was cut. This is so much more impactful than feeding a girl eyeballs... Really gives that "two sides to every story" arc to the Frenzied Flame ending.
It always bugged me how Kale just gets completely forgotten in the first part of the game despite being a named character. It's good to know they at least had plans for more of him.
God, I love this man so much. Thank you for recreating his questline, it was so heartbreaking for me to also know that his content was cut. He and the other merchants deserve justice T_T and love. Poor nomads...poor souls...
Damn. You hate to see mostly finished questlines cut out. Reminds me of the Shiva of the East questline from DS1. So much voice work ending up on the cutting room floor. Thanks for putting it all together!
I really like Kale and the Nomadic Merchants as a whole. I love their designs and their lore is one of my favorite parts of Elden Rings Lore as a whole. Would have loved to play out this quest.
I've always figured that there was more to Kale. He gives you great advice, introduces you to Blaidd, and always seems cheery and ready to chat you up. And then nothing. No explanation as to why he's hosting a disguised demigod on his front doorstep after you pick up Torrent, no followup questions when Blaidd suddenly shows up in an evergaol, not even a passing remark when you show up wearing the gear of his people that you pick up when you explore the passage to the Frenzied Flame. It doesn't help that, for a so-called "wanderer," he never leaves his spot at the Church of Elleh. While you can tell the other merchants you run into are different NPCs based on the color of their gear, the fact that many borrow the same voice lines from others gives a slight impression that they might be at least related or copies of others you've encountered before. But Kale never moves. There's no "second Kale" NPC that behaves like him borrowing his voicelines elsewhere in the world. For a nomadic merchant, he's highly sedentary. It's nice to see that there's cut content for him that explains his lack of mobility, I just kind of wish I knew why it got cut.
i feel like they could have tied this into Hyetta's quest line, you find her, give her the grapes, she starts banging on about the three fingers, you see Kale, speak to him, he alludes to it as well, it's an alternative method to get the same ending without sacrificing Hyetta... but having it at the very start, makes it almost given that you do the Frenzied flame ending. stats on steam are
FromSoftware really just created one of the most emotional charges for a "secret endings" of the game that have the single most excellent voice performance from one of the most beloved character and decided to scrap it
I didn't want the Flame of Frenzy ending, but this questline makes me want it. Thanks for the great video and insight, got a like and a subscription from me~
I've always felt like the Three Fingers questline has been missing something. It's really curious that such an important creature has barely any coverage in the game. You find it here in the Lyndell sewers by chance basically (honestly, the letter found in the village with mad people doesn't really count) and the way to them is never clearly explained or introduced. It feels like it was dropped there without any other reason than adding a new ending to the game. No introduction, no staging, no guide, nothing. Even Hyetta seems anecdotic. Gosh, it really pains me that so many contents were cut from the game. It would have been so much more amazing than it already is. Kalé discovering his people buried alive and mad would have been such an emotional shock.
Before fully diving in the lore of Elden Ring I was killing npc to check rewards, now that I have understood Kale's pain and what happened to his kind I'll never, NEVER harm any other merchant and always buy at least an item or two.
This quest would have made finding the fate of the Caravan much more personal. While I hate seeing Santa sad, I kind of wish this was left in the game.
This quest would have been an epic circle jerk of feels and emotions....sad it was taken out.
It gives such an amazing explanation on what was happening down there as well. I was super weirded our the first time I went down there and was wondering what was happening. This cleared it up for me.
@@EldritchInc that was an interesting analogy
@@kushjindal2939 my sentiments exactly
@@Guildmaster_xero Shabriri not only had a relationship with the three fingers, but also falsely exposed the Great Caravan of tempering with the Flame of Frenzy, making Leyndell bury them alive in blind hatred.
Shabriri paid for it, his eyes were gouged out as punishment, but it was all too late.
Shabriri would never truly die, as well.
Or so, is what I believe happened
the fact that this wasn't in the final game is actually pretty nuts, it would've been the perfect incentive for the frenzied flame ending tbh
Well, other than a shiny trophy
Kalè and the other merchants are characters I vowed never to kill, so yeah I would definitely do this quest if I could
Yeah Kale is my favorite NPC in Elden Ring and I would embrace the Flame of Frenzy for him 🥺
@@declicitous1763 imagine vowing over a bunch of pixels
@@Wierie_ imagine having fun in a video game and feeling sad when bad things happen to the characters you like
Couldn’t be you
Imagine pouring your heart and soul into the voice acting for a character, trying to breathe life into it, only for 90% of that work to go unused...
Honestly I would feel pretty cheated
Still got paid tho
“Full many a gem of purest ray serene, The dark unfathom'd caves of ocean bear: Full many a flower is born to blush unseen, And waste its sweetness on the desert air" - Suddenly I am reminded of Arthur's words.
@@MK-vi2cm well I mean, the actor gave his effort so seeing his work will do an honor to his work.
@@eetfuk3571 I completely agree but hey it is what it is 🤷🏾♂️
The voice acting for “Well if that’s what they expect from us, then that’s what they shall get from us!” was just... heart wrenching.
Hearing Kale yelling was horrible D:
I thought I hear this voice in Valorant, I don't play that game much but I definitely hear this voice almost exactly the same.
@@user-zp8kj2cl9g agreed
Its really a shame that was cut from the final game.
Btw everything that have business with frenzie flame is so deep and interesting
@@eetfuk3571 Cypher
"Miyazaki-san, we have created two beautiful questlines for Kale and Asimi, what should we do now?"
"Delete them"
😎
🗿
Miyazaki does cock and ball torture to players through poison swamps, and to developers through cutting hours of perfectly good quests
Too true
closed the document without saving 💀
It's sad to see that his questline was cut from the game. It gives Frenzied Flame route much needed empathetic angle, which kind of was there in the game with the whole caravan locked underneath the capital still being the thing in the final game, but it's much more pronounced when we have Kale talking. This questline actually makes you want to do the Frenzied Flame ending.
@@kushjindal2939 Yeah he's a nice guy but in the final game he's just another random merchant that somehow knows Blaidd and...that's it, you don't see nothing more from him.
At least this cut questline gives him a lot more personality and makes you want to do the Frenzy Flame ending since you have a better reason to do rather than "I want to see the world burning because a blind woman and an evil spirit said so".
@@Vengeful_Attacker yea because let's ignore the thousands left to die under the capital or the other Messed up stuff the golden order has done
@@Vengeful_Attacker You have a better reasen, but not as if the Frenzide Flame ending is any more appealing with a personal story. Myeb for some but I think a lot of people, me ncluded, are much more looking at the overall Edning not neccesirly the charatcers it is involve.
What the Kale questline shows us is why someone would fall to the depths of even wanting never-ending chaos to grip the world. If the entire world is against you, the only option is to destroy it all, so that the cycle of pain and vengeance can be over with. Hyetta comes across more like a twisted follower of the 'guidance of grace'. Her reasoning of wanting some sense of fulfilment to her purpose is pretty shallow compared to Kale.
Yeah, Shabriri and Hyetta aren't enough substance for that ending, too obscure to point us the the frenzied flame. Even Yura's questline is disjointed from it before he somehow becomes Shabriri.
Though personally, I'm a bit tired of all the sorrow and suffering Fromsoft puts into its world building. With how huge the open world is for a Souls game compared to previous one, it would have been nice to have some normal NPCs to fight for, characters who root for you to reach an ending with some measure of hope. They didn't even spare Jarburg.
I would have liked if they worked more on the writing for each ending. Actually get a small group of NPCs to support you and survive along each quest. For the Roundtable it's down to Hewg & Roderika. You have the Age of Stars ending, but Ranni yeets off somewhere till the end, Blaidd goes mad Solaire style, Iji gets assassinated, and Seluvis dies from being a cunt. Would have been nice to meet more Champions of Fia, get Rogier to survive somehow. Some Omen NPCs would have been great too for the Fell Curse. They could have even gotten some Leyndell citizens to talk to us ala Bloodborne, behind closed doors, who, after listening to Brother Corhyn's sermons, root for us to perfect the golden order.
All in all, I'm just tired of everyone dying on us in these games.
The worst part about this is how Kale's and Hyetta's questlines could easily coexist. The only issue I see would be how awkward it might be to see Kale and Hyetta in the same location, but you could easily just move Kale back until after Hyetta's death. The dialogue doesn't suggest he's near the door until after you inherent the flame.
The dialogue could be two separate paths based off your choices, the way the fingers fade away after you inherit the flame makes me think he wouldn't try the door after he saw your burns. I feel like he would've recognized you as inheriting the frenzied flame and knew you would go on to destroy the golden order. So maybe if the player didn't become the lord of frenzy after an amount of time then that would trigger Kale to go to the door himself and get burned? I also wouldn't be surprised if Kale was supposed to die after that last bit of dialogue, similar to Hyetta
@@jeffschmidt2852 no shabriri is definitely a different person from Kale. Shabriri is the one who falsely accused the merchants of heresy. Watch any video about him and it would be clear to you too
I don't see how they couldn't coexist either. You could have them both meet up, sharing a camp. Even have small dialogue for the one that stays behind:
"The blind girl left, i worry for her, but she was adamant."
"Oh, the friendly merchant? He left, I miss his music."
Even better at the final stage, if it changes Hyettas dialogue a bit in order to persuade you to take on the frenzied flame and viceversa.
Hell even better. Kale can finally realize the madness he wants to unleash when he sees Hyetta burn at our touch. Have good old "Oh gods...what have i done..." moment.
It's just ultimately redundant, you end up with two characters that both exist to lead you to the Frenzied Flame. There are a lot of characters related to this quest that could've been chosen, but Hyetta alone did everything necessary. It ultimately worsens a narrative to have redundant characters.
@@DrDizzleFrizzle I guess my main issue is how easy it is to miss Hyetta's quest and how little it seems to do with the merchants. You're pretty much guaranteed to meet Kale, his route generally follows the player's, and his story is much more neatly tied with the flame.
Again, Fromsoft just seems way too happy with cutting content that gives such solid narratives and I don't even see how this would affect anything negatively. Such good voice acting, and such a cool character.
Yeah, the game feels unfinished. If they didn’t cut and completed amazing content like this the final game would have been a lot better
Maybe in a future dlc they can just restore it. Seems like most of the work is already done ffs.
Unfinished game
@@derek96720 they will probably do this with some cut content, like Miquella/St. Trina, but cut quests like this are probably never going to see the light of day, outside of videos like this, unfortunately. It's really annoying, knowing what kind of content they chose to cut, when it would have fleshed the world out way more, and not turned every single attempt at understanding lore into a series of contradictions or requiring huge amounts of speculation just to figure out what the fuck the actual plot of the game was, beyond the most basic premises
@@hitosyura Lol. Every game has cut content. Calling Elden Ring unfinished is kind of absurd with how much they managed to deliver
I like how Kale in the midst of all his rage still lends the player an apology. Even being a Tarnished, he ends things with you not personally but because of your goals.
Just shows how much of a kind person he is (':
Wow, this was a fully fleshed out quest! Kale's actor put in excellent performances too, especially once he found the Great Caravan's shocking prison. While Hyetta being made in the likeness of Irina's corpse and eating eyes is unnerving, Kale's quest would have been far more memorable, complete with the tragic revelation that the Three Fingers inflicted curses upon him, determined as he was, and dismissed him as trash.
Kale's arc also better explores the personal anguish that Shabriri inflicted on the world back when he was more motivated in his schemes and not phoning it in out of arrogance. The fallout still personally hurts people and is a trap that keeps on ensnaring the victims and those worked into a non-supernatural hysteria also of Shabriri's design. While every merchant, Kale included, already has Frenzied Flame eyes, and some hoarder players who killed the merchants for their bell bearings discovered that the merchants have Frenzied Flame incantations too, this quest would have shown how the traps and traumas slowly turn people to the Frenzied Flame. This quest would have also shown how Shabriri's traps warp people into being pawns, muttering about chaos taking not just the Lands Between, but the entire world. Hyetta doesn't really cover that subject, as she's clearly some kind of demon in the first place that puts in more effort to pretending she's not until right at the Three Finger's doorstep.
Man, if Kale's quest stayed in the final game, then perhaps that lone merchant playing the song to keep his sanity may have been meant to be Kale? It would have been chilling to find him turned into a visually indistinct husk like the rest of the merchants, and it could have even perhaps implied that they all tried to see the Three Fingers, only to be used as guinea pigs and made even more miserable than they already were.
I really hope though a content patch they add the quest back in
The VA for Kale is the same as Cypher from a hit game Valorant just so you know
@@rafiad5726 yh i play valorant and first time i heard kales voice i was like i know that 😂😂
No, the lone merchant playing the song is there regardless and isn't Kale, it's just one of the many people buried alive
@@MattBG67 What I mean is that, when From Software was developing this quest, that tormented merchant might not have existed down there yet, and only spawned in after Kale was fully cursed and his quest was over. If that was the case, then that merchant might have been what was left of Kale. However, when the quest was cut from the game, the merchant may have been made to always be loaded in on that map, effectively repurposing the original asset.
I would have taken this over Henriettas quest any day. This is much more personal and Kale is also one of the first NPCs you meet. Seeing how sad and tragic this quest ends would be so impactful.
would have been more likely to willingly become lord of frenzy from hearing kale's tragic tale, than shabriri's crazed used car salesman act. instead we got blind lady like: ooh, candy! ooh, candy! ooh, candy! uhg shit, this is lead paint... oh well, i already ate half the can, might as well finish it. *fucking dies of lead poisoning*
Honestly, you can leave both in the game with no issues, just let them asknowledge eachother (maybe Kale found that chamber with Hyetta's help or he himself helped her get here).
Hyetta quest is also very important to show us what shabriri can do and her Dialogue in the end is amazing and the voice actress did a great job
I think her and kale should be one big quest
I think its neat, but it doesn't really fit the whole "finally getting a maiden thing" they did with henrietta
@@TK-7193 Absolutely this, it would actually have made using Miquella needle a grand betrayal to Kale's wish for a retribution against the tarnished and the order while keeping Melina from dying. Almost as if it was indeed as a seemless quest transition.
man, Kale is so real
he does a big speech, and while his anger is understandable, he gets mad at us because we come from the same populace that tortured the great caravan but immediately afterwards he realizes that blaming us for what happened makes him similar to the people who doomed the great caravan and apologizes
he still won't trade with us anymore because of the shock of what he discovered but that's understandable
No, that doesn't make him "similar" to the people who genocided his entire race.
@@aviniciussouza100 yeah it doesnt, that guy is being wack. but it still would make him a bad person. it's a lot simpler
“THEN THATS WHAT THEY SHALL GET FROM US” that Fr gave me chills, AMAZING voice acting!! Shame it got cut ugh!
Too real, probably why it was cut
I felt the soul poured into this bit of voice acting
I can see why some think that If it stayed in Kale's actual voice, I too would gotten chills, but instead it got knocked right out. I felt no Kale there, only a man, not a saddened angry nomad. Could have been Hollywood quality if it was perfected.
Cypher from Valorant
Fr fr no cap?
you always want to distinguish between things cut for time vs. artistic reasons, but it's really a damn shame we didn't get this one in the final game. I don't think it detracts from the mystique or horror of the shunning grounds by making these aspects of the 3 fingers and great caravan so explicit, and it also adds a certain sympathy to the Frenzied Flame path. I love the potential contrast here between wrathful Kale and a horrified, pleading Melina right outside the door to the 3 fingers. Much more of a compelling choice than a "for the lols" situation.
Fr nobody in the lands between gives even a slightly compelling argument for the Frenzy flame.
Yeah, Melina's words vs. Kale's words would be way more compelling, especially to anyone who realizes "oh fuck, Hyetta looks just like that dead woman from back in Limgrave, something cursed is going on." At the same time, Kale and the Great Caravan could still both be victims of Shabriri's ancient schemes, making it tragic on multiple levels where Kale and the other merchants are damned all along by the force they turn to in desperation and damned by those led to believe that the merchants planned to always summon the Three Fingers.
this was cut because it's anti-semetic! what were the developers thinking??? it's 2022 not 1942
@@lonelykitchen bad bait
@@hatefulgaming1800 hateful is the right title for you.
it's interesting that Kalé's next destination is the Scenic Isle, same as Patches, and likely around the same stage of the Tarnished's journey. could have been a pretty crowded spot at one point
It would have been interesting to see Patches and Kale together, remarking on their differences in merchant philosophies. The graverobbing scammer and the honest manufacturer, opposed enough to not agree but also respectful of each other to not get in the way of their business styles.
@@joshuakim5240 patches would try to play kalé dirty.
@@joshuakim5240 Cleary, my friend, you have not met Patches. Patches would try to murder Kale and fleece all of his goods. Same as he did to us. Several times. In . Every. Single. Game. God, I hate Patches..-_-
@@Nightwalker170 I mean with us he has reason. Don't know about ER's Patches but DS' Patches punishes the greedy and the player is basically one of these.
I'm gonna guess they used what was originally Kales spot for Patches there. Liurnia is huge, why have two unconnected characters and quests right next to each other?
I really wish this would have been kept in the game. This, alongside Hyetta's questline, would have given the Three Fingers ending so much more impact than whatever Shabrirri was trying to do.
Hell, the new Shabriri centric questline would've been nice too. The guy is supposed to be the apostle of the frenzied flame, yet he's barely in the game and all he does is jumps you with "lol, burn everything" crazy speech out of nowhere.
Yeah, the Shabriri in the Lore sounded a lot better than a guy that just appears in the middle of nowhere saying “may chaos take the world” and nothing more like a Disney villain
Hyetta’s quest I feel doesn’t feel like a good incentive to get the Frenzied Flame ending, while this quest seems like a much stronger incentive, so having both would be nice.
@@ASquared544 While I can mostly agree from a story perspective, from a gameplay perspective I think I like the Hyetta quest better since it encourages exploration in order to find the "Grapes" and interaction with Vike and the frenzy plagued village near him that would otherwise be entirely optional and would render Vike completely optional in every sense thus making it very likely that the lore associated with him and the flame's effect on people would go more easily unseen.
@@amnesicturtles4145 i mean that's way down the line there. He appears in human form at the very beginning of the game, i think quest line is small and then he turns into Shabriri
An interesting thing to follow this up with:
A friend of mine recently got access to the 1.0 unpatched game version, which happens to have completely different notes. Rather than simple notes written by merchants, they were once notes BETWEEN the merchants, transported by the crows. One of the earliest we found detailed the location of the wondrous flask, sent to Kale by one “Brother Colletus”, which is apparently the name of the nomad merchant near the saint’s bridge (the bridge with a mad pumpkin head in limgrave)
Yup, I wasn't sure if should have included that in the video. I plan to cover that version on a different video.
It’s really crazy the sheer number of differences, both minor and major, between the 1.0 “launch” and 1.02 proper launch. Definitely worth a video on its own hahaha
It's be interesting in that the only way they would be your friend is if you carried the flame as hey do.... Otherwise they, with the exception of Kale would be an adversary for every little secret.... Every thing they've noted.... Waiting around corners to grip you with chaos... It'd be interesting 🤔
I wonder what happened between them that required so much stuff to be rewritten?
@@zergray6851 Rykard is also bisexual in that version. There's the flayed face of his male lover you use as a charm.
I'm really sad to see this gone, Kalé's weak, sad "may chaos... take the world" is such a perfect contrast piece to Shabriri's own empassioned take
"They think we worship the Three Fingers? That WE called the maddening sickness down upon them? Well if that's what they expect from us, then THAT'S WHAT THEY SHALL GET FROM US!"
The voice acting starting at 12:08 is so unbelievably good. I can't believe something this high quality was cut!
Incredible work restoring this cut content.
And you would finally and more easly connected the shabriri talisman, wich tells you that shabriri was accused of slander, suggesting he was the one telling everybody Kale's group was frenzied.
@@Frank-kq4te If Shabriri had his eyes removed for that particular act though, one would think that Leyndell would at least have a "our mistake, sorry survivors" statement to go with it.
@@JonathanTBE In this case, it would have been done solely because of Shabriri to otherwise neutral people, and saying "our bad" to like 10 remaining homeless people is quite different from ever getting the people stuck underground back to the surface.
That may be my favourite ER related line. I'm glad I could get a taste, even after It was cut.
May Chaos take the world, may Chaos take the world!
I’ve kinda noticed that most of the cut quest and lines tended to be way more emotional and narratively clear, I can understand the idea of trimming the fat of the game but everytime a new cut quest is found the games overall narrative on release just feels more and more truncated to feel like previous souls games rather than an evolution of its genre, I really hope that the dlc has a narrative on the level of these and does away with the cryptic for the sake of cryptic stories that Elden ring is arguably damaged by, the game is great but I feel like the world established in ER is deserving of a way more direct and character based narrative than what we got
Exactly.
i think that for the dlc they should shy away from the empty and voiceless character you play as, and make it more narrative based, specifically make you play as a character from some point in 'history'
@@tsktsktusk5584 Vyke would be the choice since he sought to become lord but ultimately failed. Maybe that could be tied into a dlc somehow. He is the guy on the cover of the game.
@@tsktsktusk5584 so you want to play sekiro
DLC better have the cut rhico quest line and Miquella dialogue.
But why didn’t they implemented this???? It’s practically finished and it’s really good. It didn’t exclude hyetta questline, both can be down there at the same time. And also now it makes much more sense why when killed Kale says “I’ll never find…” he is referring to the great caravan… man this game could have been amazing with all the content that was cut.
It might have been done to make the endings more comparable in their moral ambiguity (like the translation change to Ranni's script during her ending). Considering how everyone loves Blaidd since he's our bro who goes on our journey together but has no way to be spared, Kale also being a bro who goes on our journey together having an option to take his side would be super enticing to the point where it wouldn't even be a choice for anyone who likes Kale (which is everyone...he's just so nice). The main problem however is that this cut quest is kind of the only source of moral ambiguity regarding the Flame of Frenzy so regardless of the above reasons, so it was still imo a bad move to cut it since Shabriri's mad ramblings aren't nearly as compelling of a reason to ever go through this ending route.
@@joshuakim5240 yeah frenzied flame is very clearly the worst choice you can make, I think maybe if we had kalé to incentivize us while melina said "bruh don't fucking do this" it would make it more ambiguous as to whether you should go with kalé or melina
@@joshuakim5240 This stuff still exists though. it's just not explicit. When I first went into the Shunning Grounds I basically realised all the things Kale was saying. And I even thought that Melina was perhaps in the wrong when it came to it.
@@flayncele Idk... Despair ending is pretty fucked up
@@flayncele I personally think that Blessing of despair is the worst ending because the omen are haunted by nightmares all their lives. Even if everyone in the world is miserable that doesn't make your pain any less. I think its better to not exist than to live in misery but that's just my opinion.
Man if Kale's quest stayed in game, I would have actually found the Leyndell well in my first playthrough lmao. Had no idea what everyone was talking about when they said "fuck the sewers". I thought it was just that small bit in the city.
How do you kill Morgott without unlocking lyendell?
@@raymondhill7837you probably found this out, but anyways, he unlocked leyndall, just never accessed the well in leyndall, the entrance to the sewers.
The voice acting starting at 12:06 ... superb.
Kale quest >>>> Hyetta
Another NPC life we ruined trying to help.
I'm kind of sad this is never going to see the light of day in the game, the voice actor did a phenomenal job, and this would have been a beautiful questline to really flesh out the Caravan. Finding the buried people is one of those moments that is going to stick with me forever, and it never gets old - I always sit there and just listen for a bit. One of the most powerful moments in ER, if not the most, for me.
Part of me is also glad Kale is never going to have to experience this though; Soulsborne is always so bleak for the NPCs and the questlines really always teeter the edge of 'ignorance is bliss' sometimes...
Thank you so much for your incredible work restoring this. :)
How do you know it wont be added back?
Diallos and jar bairn quests got added so i dont see a reason for they to not add this one
@@crabot That was update 1.02 though and we’re long past that since 1.05 didn't bring a single quest update, best hope is the sure to come to DLC.
@@crabot There's always the possibility, true, but it's been a few patches since we've seen a new quest so I'm not really hopeful, honestly
Not officially but modders always bring these things back, specially now that they have announced The Convergence mod for Elden Ring (previously a DS3 mod that basically changed everything turning it into a different game)
Maybe why it was cut because it is so tragic. Kale is so warm and welcoming that it is so upsetting seeing him like this, but it would have been amazing.
I have no idea why they cut this. Instead we get an eyeball eating blind woman who can inexplicably navigate a jumping puzzle lol.
Maybe they just didn't have the time to finish it. But they expanded some incomplete quests with an update (I think 1.03), so I hope they'll continue adding what they wanted to do. It would be a waste to not have this quest.
Jokes on you, she just did it for the vine down the hole
To be fair, she could've just fallen down there. She already died once and was resurrected by shabriri.
Im guessing since she was being guided by the three fingers she was led down there a different way
Kale’s voice actor nailed all those lines, shame they got cut
I think the burning of Kale would take place before the tarnished is burned since Kale tells you what to do in order to open the door.
EDIT: Many of you have wondered about the order of the dialogue at the end of the video, here's an explanation of how the game engine works when playing audio files.
"The frenzied flame...burned me..." is TalkParam 80007100, and it keeps going in consecutive numbers up to 80007110 which is the "...", in between at 80007105 you have "Divest yourself of everything, and head to the door.", while "To melt away the curses, suffering, and despair. And the Order, entire." is 80007108 for instance.
The game engine plays audio in sequence, the quest system only says: Play "80007100", and then the rest unfolds automatically, so that dialogue is run in the same order as it is in the game.
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When the game came out I was so hyped for playing Kale's questline, but sadly it had been cut out from the game! Well here I am, a few months later, and I managed to restore the full questline. Leave your thoughts in the comments, and as usual, don't forget to subscribe!
Sekiro Dubi: Feeling excited about potential questlines
FS: *Cuts them from the launch game"
Sekiro Dubi: Fine, I'll do it myself
@@thomasbitmail7937 sometimes you gotta take matters in your own hands
@@SekiroDubi can you tell me how did you got the code of the game?
I'm studying computer engineering and i like videogames a lot. I would really like to have a look at the game's code😢😢😢😢
Remember that the nepheli, kenneth, gostoc and other elden ring npcs quests were unresolved and incomplete before the 1.03/1.04 patches? I have hopes that fromsoftware will do the same thing with kale, restoring his quest with future game patches.
@@yuribrando4987 But this doesn't feel like a lack of "restoring" a quest. This feels like they cut a quest as they wanted to go in a different direction with the 3 Fingers. Since Kales quest creates a very different narrative vibe than Hyetta's and Yura's.
this genuinely broke me. kale’s voice actor put so much heart into this performance, so much so that the ending has my heart in pieces. the guilt and sadness you feel for him and how the world affects these characters is excruciating. i really wish they kept this in the final cut, or at least saw that it was worth keeping.
That's absolutely fucking brutal, I always knew there was more to kale, thank you for sharing.
Kalé’s line about Merchants being unforgiving made me think attacking one will make all of them aggro on you
Yeah me too. I was always so careful not to accidentally hurt any of them, expecting it to make them all instantly hostile.
@@thochaos13 I accidentally jumped on one head from a rock doing 2 damage so it’s untrue
Attack them all collect the bells
@@benjaminlad That's how I found out it didn't happen the way I thought. I genocided them.
@@benjaminlad never
he was extremely chatty compared to all the other Merchants, of course he needed to have a quest! hope it gets restored in a future patch
Honestly, when I first stumbled upon the Shunning Grounds, I cried. Listening to that mournful music, wadding through bodies twisted and driven mad, finally coming to understanding why all the Merchants are hiding in such strange places.
I wish this quest was in the game...
I sat with one of the merchants playing the instrument for an hour. Poor guys
TBH I would have preferred this over Hyetta, so much more comprehensive with everything else lore-wise considering it appeared more time was dedicated setting up his storyline through the merchants' dialog, their gear descriptions etc.
We could have both in the game, seeing Kalé and the great caravan horrible fate while at the same time we help Hyetta become our maiden of the three fingers, maybe if we manage to inherit the frenzied flame before Kalé he wouldn't end up scorched by it, and he could help us not only as a merchant but also as a blacksmith.
@@hasturthekinginyellow5003 late but uh everyone burns, except the gods I think as it is theorized that Melina is the goddess of death and of which can only kill herself? Im not sure because i got the non Melina version of this ending where you sacrificed her instead of temporarily yourself. But yea EVERYONE and EVERYTHING burns into one because three fingers mad.
man. youre probably the best souls cut-content creator out there
He is for sure. Usually I would say Lance is the best but for some reason he takes ages to release just one video. Our boy Sekiro Dubi here is lightning fast and still has high quality videos.
@@EldenLord. He takes way too long to release content, and Zullie's content can be underwhelming at times. Sekiro Dubi always delivers.
@@Micolashcage1 Yeah Zullie is also great but her content is mostly about some interesting facts buried in the game files. She doesnt do the quest related stuff which is the most interesting part about cut content.
I think they all cover different niches very nicely and we’re lucky to have any of them. That being said, Dubi just knocks it out of the park with his consistency - props to him!
Sekiro Dubi is also one of the OG leakers/dataminers wayyy back before release. a legend
I'm assuming this was cut because it clashes a bit with our wrinkly eyeball loving finger maiden. Both would be down there at the same time at the door to the Three Fingers. I really like this series of events for Kale though. He starts off so nice, welcoming. Like a kid still blinded to the reality of the world that's right in front of him. Even comes to hate us for our connection to Grace. That part tugged at my heartstrings a bit. We had been good company thus far. I would have really hurt to see that happen in my game, perhaps that's another reason why it was cut. I don't know about anyone else but he kinda became my safety npc when I was playing. When I'd want to be safe, I'd go to that church and hang out with Kale. Part of me is glad Kale doesn't have to go through this in the final version. The guy doing his voicework is top tier. Especially when he gets angry.
Hyetta story is so nonsensical, I would have preferred Kale to be there far more. Hyetta, who's blind, somehow reached the depth of lyndell abysses, still blind, and manages to reach under the floor wich is yet to be destroyed, before we even get there. I am speechless for the amount of quest this game fucked up.
@@Frank-kq4te Completly agree with you.
@@Frank-kq4te And the worst part is her quest just ends with her dying and giving you the worst incantation seal.
@@Frank-kq4te Since Hyetta doesn't even appear until after Irina is murdered, and is 1:1 in Irina's likeness, Hyetta was likely a demon all along that was perhaps more motivated to pretend otherwise. In contrast, Shabriri has been around for ages and thus might be "checked out", as it were. That can explain how Hyetta even gets to places she logically wouldn't be able to reach.
@@Frank-kq4te She's being guided by the Three Fingers and Shabriri it seems. She's possibly the resurrected corpse of Irina. I think it's supposed to be weird.
I always thought Kale's VA did a really good job but hearing this cheeky merchant become mad with rage really comes to life through his dialogue.
Such a shame, this questline is such a wonderfull story. And goddamn that voice act is so damn good. Pain
Characters in FromSoft games are almost always so somber and depressed sounding. Everything is said in a whisper. Hearing one of them get properly angry and yell was genuinely shocking, and I wish it had been in the OG game.
I know it’s a shame this all got cut but I’m at least glad I got to hear this. Fantastic writing for an underutilized character.
Nabil Elouahabi did an awesome job.
“But sir why we have to cut this quest?”
“Because no one approves my poison swamp with human feet all over the place”
This makes the frenzied flame ending seem more like vengeance than a bad ending.
It's these types of videos that makes me love the series so much more. Wish Fromsoft could add a hug mechanic, so I could hug everything, especially the npcs.
12:35
Kalé went Hard against the grace-touched.
I can see why it's called "madness" now. Home boy really lost himself there
The music those frenzied merchants play in the underground is one of the best scores from Elden Ring. It's so sad yet sweet and I personally really wish Fromsoft add something deeper than what we currently have of the Three Fingers.
This shit almost made cry. I can't believe this couldn't make it in, this gives so much purpose to the flame frenzy. This lore is still in the game, but it isn't the same without Kalé's reaction and justification for nihilism.
The Frenzied Flame's perspective seems more similar to a radical version of antinatalism than nihilism to me, as least in the way that Hyetta, and sort of to an extent, Shabriri present it (it's entirely possible that they're disguising the FF's true motives, though). Hyetta especially frames destroying the world and melting it into one entity as a *good* thing. But nihilism isn't concerned with good or bad, it asserts that such notions are pointless, it rejects the very idea of morality. Antinatalism, on the other hand, is the belief that suffering is the purest form of evil ("evil" in this sense meaning "injustice"), and that since the creation of new life is the catalyst for all suffering, it is therefore morally wrong to create new life. A world with no suffering in it is the purest form of good by this reasoning, even if "a world with no suffering in it" necessarily means "a world with no people in it." Most people who consider themselves antinatalists do not think that murder/genocide is acceptable, because their whole deal is being fervidly against causing suffering, but I could see how a radical version of that belief could twist into literally thinking that nuking the planet is the most righteous decision any being could possibly make. That kind of reasoning is more in line with the Frenzied Flame's rationale, at least insofar as it's presented to us, imo.
Maybe a possible reason why Kale's quest was cut was because it kind of turns the Frenzied Flame ending into a form of revenge, and makes the player's motivation for choosing it explicitly spiteful. But if you're doing something out of revenge and spite, then you know it's wrong, you just don't care. That seems to conflict with what they were going for, which imo seems to be more along the lines of wanting players to only pick the FF ending if they genuinely believed it was the right decision (barring the inevitable edgelords who pick it as a meme). Hyetta and Shabriri try to use your sense of compassion to manipulate you, but Kale's questline would have you acting out of anger and a desire for retribution, not compassion.
@@Alice9914I agree Kales story doesn't make me want to do the Frenzy Flame ending.
It makes me want to fight against them.
Shabiri and Hyetta at least are slightly convincing enough to make you consider joining the Frenzy Flame.
This dialogue genuinely almost made me cry. The raw anguish in Kale’s voice was so moving. It’s insane that such a beautiful performance was cut from the game. Had this quest been in the game, I feel like the Frenzied Flame ending would be a lot more loved.
Thank you so much for bringing this questline to life. Kales voice actor KILLED IT with his emotion.
Yeah I always wondered why he of all of the merchants had a name; at first I figured it was either because he was connected to Blaidd, or it was simply because he was the first merchant we met, and introduced us to the whole merchant system. But that never really quite fit for me, even if he was the first there was no real reason to give him and only him a name. Thanks for all the work you put in.
I always knew there was more to him than just to introduce you to Blaidd
The voice acting is superb. Hopefully there's a patch that restores all the cut quests
Idk what's sadder, we didn't get to see this in-game or how Kale ends up.
Love that you could retrieve the dialogue too, the voice actor was outstanding in his performance.
Thank you so much for showing us!
When he shouts: "Then thats what they shall get from us!" ... the chills man
Kale would have been my FAVORITE NPC if this questline was still here. Very great voice acting and dialogue, the character development from neutral to rage. Ugh fromsoft, why?
The amount of time and effort this must have taken is insane. Incredible work and such a shame it was cut from the main game.
10:35 poor guy sounded so hopeful and optimistic... just to soon afterwards meet his people completely dehumanized, forgotten and left to rot in a place that is, essentially, the dark fantasy version of a WWII concentration camp. This quest had the potential to make Bloodborne look like a happy game.
Is it possible that his attempt to access the three fingers and him consulting you, happen before you are embraced by the flame of frenzy? It seems a bit weird on how he accepts you as lord of frenzy and then tries it for himself.
That was my only hang up. I could see it as either way. He sounds very in pain at the end after being burned, since our model got crispy I wonder if they planned on doing something to Kale? Nearly every npc we deal with dies, I imagine as he begs for us to tell the lord of flame to end it all he dies. There's even a little pained sigh at the end. Maybe all the other merchants down there buried eventually went as MAD as him and went to see the flame. Maybe that state we see his people in is rejects as hosts from the chaos outer god?
The dialogue after he embraces the three fingers clearly implies that us tarnished haven't gone to commune with the three fingers yet
This would probably happen if we did not acess the Three Fingers and inherited the flame, causing him to try it, and show us how by telling us to remove our equipment
It feels like they recorded a couple options. Possibly for one or the other to play depending on actions you made, possibly because they had not decided which to use.
Maybe this only happens after Melina burns herself? There would therefor be no reason for non chaos-aligned players to see the three fingers.
This video has officially made you my favorite Souls-bourne-seki-ring youtuber. Move aside Vaati and Zullie. The nomads have been my favorite point of interest since launch and this video has confirmed most of my speculations about them. Keep the good content coming.
my problem with a lot of the endings in this game is how divorced they are from our tarnished character. You're not emotionally driven to bring about any age save the age of stars, given how much you sacrifice for Ranni, and the age of fracture (the default ending). But if this content had been kept, I would have been more compelled to bring forth an age of chaos.
Oh man, that was so sad to see ... and Sekiro Dubi even finished the video with the little melancholic "frenzied flame" song to give that extra tragedy vibe 😢
Man the way that the VA subtly changes his interactions with you as you continue his quest gets me
"It's not from my usual stock, but something rather more special.." *gives a common glowstone*
Of course, they cut the best and least complicated quest out of the game. Amazing.
I mean, hunting the crows would probably be a pain.
Also, maybe they felt this made the Frenzied Flame too sympathetic.
@@Nerazmus But that is how it should be. Think of the original Dark Souls, for example. The game gives you reasons to link the fire, and reasons to let the age of dark begin. Or the choices regarding Gehrman in Bloodborne.
@@generaliv8658 There are already plenty of reason to side with the Frenzied Flame. And you can still see what happened to the merchant clan. You just don't get Kale's emotion filled reaction to it.
@@Nerazmus I agree, but... idk, I feel like Kalé's reaction works better than Hyetta's questline or Shabriri's words.
@@Nerazmus
yeah it makes you think more about it rather then it being blatant in your face.
Makes you come to your own conclusion.
I myself became like the Ball Bearing Hunter.
I was literally going through the voice files and found this yesterday and thought this would be cool if sekiro dubi covers this. And here we are.
Also malenia has some unused dialogue. She complaments you. Could have been the original death message. Instead of... well you know.
Doesn't she complement you in the base game?
@@johngamer453 this is a different voiceline i think she says go fighting sir/madam. Need to check it again to verify.
Did you find the voice files for the cut dialogue where she acts like she knows you? The one that starts with "Sweet Tarnished, dearest companion"? It sounds like an alternate boss fight intro.
@@mensarius6432 no I have to go through over 10000 disorganized files only named by a number. So finding things takes time.
If you want to do this yourself someone posted the extracted voice files on reddit. The file is 5.5 gb but there's a lot of cool things in there.
I won't give a link because of the youtube antilink filter but you can find it on your own.
@@mensarius6432
It's implied that Millicent was originally going to be Malenia herself, but amnesiac due to her Scarlet Rot nuke damaging her just as much as it damaged Radahn. And the more we help her reach the Haligtree, the more of her memory she would recover to the point where it's even possible that we would have to be the one to instigate the boss fight (no idea what the context for doing so would be) rather than Malenia just being hostile right off the bat.
the emotion in his voice is insane when hes outside the three fingies
I feel as if they cut this quest out because it made it way too easy to get to the frenzied flame, and basically had that quest line locked in from the start of the game. Hyetta is later in the game and not as handed to you as much as Kale is
this is really cool i love quests like this i wish they kept it in. thanks for letting me live vicariously through your journey though. you are a gentleman and a scholar!
Damn it why did they cut it. It was so good
I wouldn't be surprised if majority of intended content was ultimately cut from the game and we are playing about 20-30% of what they wanted to make. ER feels too much like Dark Souls stretched over a big map and very often you stumble upon something that clearly feels like it was supposed to be deeper or more explored but just ends abruptly.
Makes me kinda never want to see another open world Fromsoft game though it's probably their thing now after ER's success.
I'd rather have all these great well developed quests in a more linear game than the copypaste fiesta that Elden Ring is at its worst.
@@knavenformed9436 to be fair All of the dark souls also had tons of cut content.
@@luminomancer5992
Yes they had but they weren't ever as clearly developed or integral to the game experience.
All of the other Souls games feel complete, which Elden Ring will never be.
@@knavenformed9436 No, I honestly disagree with that, 1 feels most complete to me despite the well known balance failings of the latter part of it, 3 feels incomplete to me in certain areas like your ability to interact with the forgotten king, or some other small parts of it, but specially when we look at DS2 that one was definitley very obviously an incomplete experience. way more than Elden ring ever feels like.
@@luminomancer5992 I didn't play the original Dark Souls 2 during launch, but SOFTS is my favourite and most played Souls, I can see how it's extremely broken compared to 1 and 3, *but* Elden Ring is broken in many of the exact same ways, even many different than it is.
A lot of it can be thought as a side-effect of making their first open world game, but at the same time this is from the team (Sure they have A and B "teams" but the same company and interchanged staff and moreso the same main director) that made DS3, Bloodborne and Sekiro after DS2 and yet stumbled back to the same or even worse in quality.
I've been so curious about this and can't find anything. Thank you so much for this
It's a bittersweet feeling to find so much good content in every FromSoft game that won't see an official release u.u some of the unused soundtracks for DS3 an incredible too! Thanks for your work
I dont understand, why? Why cut a complete quest like this? Kalé Is the only nomadic merchant with a name an unique personality, It was very obvious that kalé should had a questline.
Cause of glitches or lore , etc. Several reasons can result in cutting a quest. Besides it may be added later
@@normanbestboi9117 this doesn’t clash with the lore and bugs can be fixed
i keep going back to talk to him and expecting some new dialogue, but nope, all he does is tells you about blaidd and nothing else
Oh, wow, thanks so much for excavating this and sharing it with all of us! I have been perplexed from the beginning as to why there wasn't more to Kalé, given how much the player discovers about the fate of his people. This was more or less what I imagined to be one of the possibilities for his quest (another was that he already understood what had happened to his people and along with the other merchants was subtly guiding you to discover it), but I love the totally unguessable touches like the burial crows, which are just amazing. Thank you again!
that's some amazing work here thanks man
i wish they didn't cut half of the quests in this game seriously a lot of cool stuff
Poor poor Kale... id have loved his festively cheerful armour set though 😁
To be fair, it's better off just sitting at Church of Elleh for Kale
why did they remove such an awesome quest? this questline is enough to make me go the frenzied flame ending everytime
can't thank you enough for the work you put in to this. so glad i was able to see it but it's still super sad :(
This was a fantastic video. well done
I love your videos, you do an amazing job of piecing things together!! This was absolutely fascinating and answered questions I didn't know I had. Looking forward to more from you!!
So heartbreaking that this was cut. This is so much more impactful than feeding a girl eyeballs... Really gives that "two sides to every story" arc to the Frenzied Flame ending.
God, this genuinely hurt my soul. Poor Kale.
Simply breathtaking.
This is the content I will subscribe for!
Thank you so much for restoring his questline.
It always bugged me how Kale just gets completely forgotten in the first part of the game despite being a named character. It's good to know they at least had plans for more of him.
God, I love this man so much. Thank you for recreating his questline, it was so heartbreaking for me to also know that his content was cut. He and the other merchants deserve justice T_T and love.
Poor nomads...poor souls...
Damn. You hate to see mostly finished questlines cut out. Reminds me of the Shiva of the East questline from DS1. So much voice work ending up on the cutting room floor.
Thanks for putting it all together!
I really like Kale and the Nomadic Merchants as a whole. I love their designs and their lore is one of my favorite parts of Elden Rings Lore as a whole. Would have loved to play out this quest.
I just stumbled upon your channel. This is amazing. How have I never seen your videos before...
I've always figured that there was more to Kale. He gives you great advice, introduces you to Blaidd, and always seems cheery and ready to chat you up. And then nothing. No explanation as to why he's hosting a disguised demigod on his front doorstep after you pick up Torrent, no followup questions when Blaidd suddenly shows up in an evergaol, not even a passing remark when you show up wearing the gear of his people that you pick up when you explore the passage to the Frenzied Flame.
It doesn't help that, for a so-called "wanderer," he never leaves his spot at the Church of Elleh. While you can tell the other merchants you run into are different NPCs based on the color of their gear, the fact that many borrow the same voice lines from others gives a slight impression that they might be at least related or copies of others you've encountered before. But Kale never moves. There's no "second Kale" NPC that behaves like him borrowing his voicelines elsewhere in the world. For a nomadic merchant, he's highly sedentary.
It's nice to see that there's cut content for him that explains his lack of mobility, I just kind of wish I knew why it got cut.
I never realised how detaied the merchant violin animations where until that last shot
i feel like they could have tied this into Hyetta's quest line, you find her, give her the grapes, she starts banging on about the three fingers, you see Kale, speak to him, he alludes to it as well, it's an alternative method to get the same ending without sacrificing Hyetta... but having it at the very start, makes it almost given that you do the Frenzied flame ending.
stats on steam are
FromSoftware really just created one of the most emotional charges for a "secret endings" of the game that have the single most excellent voice performance from one of the most beloved character and decided to scrap it
Holy crap this is a lot more interesting then I thought it would be
I didn't want the Flame of Frenzy ending, but this questline makes me want it.
Thanks for the great video and insight, got a like and a subscription from me~
I've always felt like the Three Fingers questline has been missing something.
It's really curious that such an important creature has barely any coverage in the game.
You find it here in the Lyndell sewers by chance basically (honestly, the letter found in the village with mad people doesn't really count) and the way to them is never clearly explained or introduced. It feels like it was dropped there without any other reason than adding a new ending to the game. No introduction, no staging, no guide, nothing. Even Hyetta seems anecdotic.
Gosh, it really pains me that so many contents were cut from the game. It would have been so much more amazing than it already is.
Kalé discovering his people buried alive and mad would have been such an emotional shock.
Before fully diving in the lore of Elden Ring I was killing npc to check rewards, now that I have understood Kale's pain and what happened to his kind I'll never, NEVER harm any other merchant and always buy at least an item or two.
This was incredible to watch, always thought Kale seemed like there was more to him. So sad