Elden Ring’s invasion mechanic is a returning feature from FromSoftware’s previous series of dark fantasy games, Dark Souls. This mechanic allows invaders to enter the games of other players and is meant to allow for PvP. Often this can be to the dismay of players looking simply to play the game in co-op, but it is surprising how many players have been using invasions in Elden Ring purely for comedy reasons.
There are hundreds of different weapons and armor types available in Elden Ring, which let players endlessly customize their character and play style. Many kinds of specific characters have been created.
Players have designed Elden Ring characters around singular gimmicks or have taken inspiration straight from pop-culture. But one thing that always divides players of FromSoftware games and many other RPGs is the idea of fashion versus stats. Armor in Elden Ring comes with a long numeric list of the defense values of each piece. However, creating a character build based around having the highest defense numbers can often lead to players using mismatching and clashing armor sets. Now one Elden Ring player has taken it upon themselves to be the judge of these crimes against fashion, one invasion at a time.
Reddit user Omnimoonpapa shared a clip of when they came face to face with a player calling themselves “Fashion Police.” The invader lived up to their name by inspecting the Reddit user’s choice of outfit using the in-game telescope item. Apparently satisfied with the armor combination on display, the Fashion Police invader then used the Prattling Pate item to say “wonderful,” before leaving the player’s world peacefully. Presumably if a host player’s outfit is not deemed to be up to scratch, a PvP battle will then ensue.
The difficult question over fashion versus stats has been worrying players ever since the first video game that offered players a higher level armor piece that just didn't look as nice as the one they already had on. FromSoftware’s notoriously difficult games also mean that many players want to take every slight advantage they can get, regardless of how it looks. "Fashion Souls" became a popular term among players of the Dark Souls series who wanted the best outfit and were willing to sacrifice their defensive edge for the sake of looking good.
This fashion-focused philosophy is apparently still alive and well in FromSoftware's latest title, along with players using the game’s invasion mechanics to set up joke characters in Elden Ring to delight and confuse other players.
Elden Ring is available on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.