Elden Ring Player Brings The Blue and Gold Dress Debate To The Lands Between

An Elden Ring player has pointed out an amusing quirk of the game’s graphics that brings to mind the famous “Blue Dress or Gold Dress” debate. The debate, which garnered global attention on the internet, has been referenced in pop culture for years, but its Elden Ring appearance may be unintentional.

Also known simply as “The Dress,” the Blue Dress or Gold Dress debate first appeared in 2015, after an online discussion about the color of a dress purchased for a wedding went viral. The dress, which was actually colored blue and black, appeared to be white and gold to many who viewed the photo that sparked the discussion. This was due to individual differences in peoples’ color perception and aspects of the photo, such as the lighting and digital artifacting, causing people’s brains to see the stimuli as ambiguous. The otherwise trivial phenomenon became so widespread that it was covered by mainstream media, and The Dress was even referenced in a Just Cause 3 Easter egg.

Now, an Elden Ring player has showcased an inadvertent occurrence of a similar blue-or-gold ambiguity in the game itself. They shared a video clip on the Elden Ring subreddit that featured their character wearing an Elden Ring armor set that demonstrated the unusual visual phenomenon.

Elden Ring Armor Set Unintentionally Recreates The Dress Viral Meme

The clip shows their character wearing the High Page Clothes while standing in the nighttime rain. Thanks to the added sheen from the game’s rain effect and the orange-yellow glow of the character’s lamp, the color of the High Page Clothes appears to shift subtly from gold to blue and back again, based on the angle of the camera and the presence of the light. In April this year, an Animal Crossing player used a similar lighting trick to inspire a dress debate using customized clothes.

In reality, the High Page Clothes armor piece is a cream-colored doublet with white puffed sleeves. It’s worn by the High Pages that stalk the Lands Between. Found in only two locations, the High Page is one of the rarest enemies in the game. Fellow Elden Ring players were amused by the post, with reactions ranging from comical anger to faux participation in the original dress debate. A clever player suggested that the original poster rename the character “Laurel Yanny,” while another suggested having them wield the Scorpion’s Stinger weapon and Founding Rain of Stars spell as a “Green Needle and Brainstorm” battle strategy. That way, their character would be a walking testament to multiple viral internet memes based around the ambiguity of human sensory perception.

Elden Ring

Elden Ring is a fantasy action-RPG adventure set in a world co-created by Hidetaka Miyazaki, the creator of the influential Dark Souls video game series, and George R.R. Martin, the author of the best-selling fantasy series A Song of Ice and Fire. This collaboration between two renowned creators has resulted in FromSoftware’s largest game to date, filled with danger and discovery at every turn. Hidetaka Miyazaki, president and game director of FromSoftware, has a history of directing highly acclaimed games in franchises such as Armored Core and Dark Souls.

Released

February 25, 2022

ESRB

M for Mature: Blood and Gore, Language, Suggestive Themes, Violence

Platforms That Support Crossplay

PS4 & PS5 and Xbox One & Xbox Series X|S

Expand