Final Fantasy 16 and Warframe: 1999 actor Ben Starr has been caught up in the Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree hype, and it sounds like he's having a rather traditional experience with FromSoftware's action RPG, because he has "no idea" where he is.
12DOVE recently had the chance to catch up with Starr, who voices Final Fantasy 16's protagonist Clive Rosfield, as well as Arthur in the upcoming Warframe: 1999 expansion, which is set to release later this year. Before our interview, though, he'd spent three hours adventuring through the Realm of Shadow, which I have nothing but respect for.
"I have no idea where I am in Shadow of the Erdtree because I don't play games normally," he begins, later clarifying that while he plays a lot of games, he just doesn't play them in what he'd call a 'normal' way.
"It's why I don't stream games, I'd be the most infuriating person to stream games," he continues. "I can see where I need to go, and I refuse to go there. I found myself going down, down, down – I'm down a waterfall somewhere, I jumped in a coffin. I landed in the area, and a load of those little furnace boys were burnt out – it was like a furnace boy graveyard that I was just running around."
It sounds an awful lot like Starr has made his way to the Castle Watering Hole, which is a rather difficult area to get to since it's tucked behind an easy-to-miss ladder in the Shadow Keep, as well as an illusory wall that you've got to break through before you can even find the coffin that'll transport you there. Clearly, he's being super thorough, which adds up to the fact that he's a self-described Platinum trophy hunter. "I think I've got, like, 80," he tells us.
Starr still has "a lot more to go" of Shadow of the Erdtree, though – he thinks he's "seen like one cutscene boss" so far, which was almost certainly the first main DLC boss, the Divine Beast Dancing Lion. His Tarnished sounds pretty strong for that point in the expansion, though – he's been playing with an Intelligence-focused build and was level 197 when we spoke to him, with a level eight Scadutree blessing. I'm sure he'll send Messmer packing in no time.
Be sure to check out our guide to all Shadow of the Erdtree areas and locations if you need any help filling out your map of the Realm of Shadow.
