Elden Ring is full of memorable characters, such as “guy covered in shit” and “woman who has sex with dead people,” but few have raised as many questions Goldmask, a decrepit husk of a man who is introduced in the starting cutscene for the open-world game. He’s an important character, to be sure, with an entire ending dedicated to his outlook. Notably, Goldmask never says a damn thing. Or so we thought!
As you play along, whenever you interact with Goldmask the only thing he does is go “…”. You can eventually get another character to interpret Goldmask’s meaning, but for the most part, Goldmask just kinda stands there and gestures toward the Erdtree. The implication is that Goldmask is extremely enlightened, so really, what need does he have for words when he has faith? The whole thing became a huge meme within the community.
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— Daily Goldmask Updates (@GoldmaskDaily) August 22, 2022
Goldmask does however have a voice actor who is listed in the credits. This was something that baffled some people: what, exactly, did Goldmask’s voice actor do? Well, months after release, it seems we finally have an answer. Known Elden Ring dataminer Sekiro Dubi uploaded a video today which reveals that, hidden deep in Miyazaki’s latest and greatest is, in fact, a Goldmask voice line that ended up being cut out. It occurs during a crucial quest when (spoilers) you end up telling Goldmask the true identity of Radagon/Marika.
Read More: Elden Ring’s Most Misleading Item Just Became One Of Its Best In The Huge Update
Goldmask…sounds like a frog? I guess he’s pretty surprised to hear one of the game’s biggest reveals, and with a body like that it’s possible he’s not really capable of much more than a hoarse gasp. Still, though, this is the funniest possible answer to the bigger mystery surrounding Goldmask. I clicked on the video with bated breath, only to hear a whole lot of nothing. I’m sharing because it’s amusing, but also because Sekiro Dubi shared some behind-the-scenes info on why it is that we know this is Goldmask we’re hearing in the video above.
What you’re looking at here is the code for the aforementioned quest, which is where Sekiro Dubi found the voice line. “That [highlighted] line is what tells the game what audio to play, and what subtitle to display,” he said in a message. He further elaborated that the larger numbers could be parsed into smaller bits of information, where “112″ refers to Goldmask and “1100″ is the map id that refers to Leyndell, a fact that is supported by the documentation over at the Souls modding Wiki.
If you’re wondering why FromSoftware would go through the trouble of hiring an entire person just to make some weird sound, well, that’s not quite what happened. The person behind Goldmask is none other than a FromSoftware voice director, Ryan Morris, who has a track record for this exact kind of troll.
Ryan Morris is often voice director for english voice acting in fromsoftware games, he’s also the voice actor for some of the most eloquent characters in dark souls, bloodborne and elden ring, here’s the characters (not a joke): pic.twitter.com/Bfo5hBeJNV
— Rehvion (@rehvion) May 1, 2022
Plus, it’s pretty funny to see everyone’s reaction to this whole thing. “999999 insights needed to acquire this knowledge,” YouTube commenter Gilgamesh wrote, in reference to Bloodborne mechanics that allow you to see hidden horrors. Most are speculating on what Goldmask is actually saying here, if indeed these are even words. While Sekiro Dubi vouches for “It…why not?” everyone seems to have a different interpretation. My favourite? “uuhhh…wat?”
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