Elh: The Luigi's Mansion Mystery Left Unsolved for 20 Years

Elh is a ghostly figure found within Luigi's Mansion... But it is never seen within the game. Dataminers and modders uncovered it many, many years ago but the mystery surrounding it has stumped players ever since.


What was Elh supposed to be besides now cut content? Where was it supposed to be in the game? It can't be found anywhere out of bounds or within the mansion, so what was its purpose?

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Credits and sources:

Written, filmed, and edited by SwankyBox.
Research by LMFinish, AbsoluteG and Laser Crusader.

Music credits:
Songs from various Luigi's Mansion OST's

"Twisted Suites" - Luigi's Mansion 3
"Mansion Exterior" - Luigi's Mansion

[SwankyBox]

Thanks for watching this video everyone. Sorry it took so long to get out!

[poody_blue]

ngl the whole time i had in the back of my head "what if elh was a recurring chaser enemy that you couldn't beat up like the water wraith from pikmin 2", which would make sense as to why the character was scrapped because a chaser enemy might not mesh well with a game 85% comprised of narrow halls, unless luigi could hide somewhere via something like the crouching mode

also not to mention, the way elh enters the set could be used anywhere, so hypothetically luigi could be exploring somewhere in the mansion and elh would surprise him by rising out of the ground, prompting luigi to have to run and hide

it's a fun theory imo and would have made for a sick obstacle

[paladingeorge]

"A ghost that exists, never to be seen" - until someone comes out with a leaked beta version of Weegi's House that was stolen from that data breach a while back. Wouldn't doubt it. But who knows?

[SuperWiiBros]

with the many beta nintendo stuff that has leaked in the past I really hope Luigi's Mansion's Beta and many mysteries can be discovered someday, specially that animated FMV cutscene

[heroofthevoir]

I was thinking. maybe Elh could have been something similar to Nemesis and Mr. X from the Resident evil games. a very powerful enemy that would roam around the mansion and you had to try and avoid him to try and figure out a way to weaken him enough to suck him up.

[FunvoltGunvolt]

Imagine Elh was planned to be the Nemesis of Luigi's Mansion, a monster that hunts you down and ambushes you when you least expect it, for all we know Elh stands for "Evil Luigi Hunter"

[dorkie]

I wish we could see a fully done model. “L” has such a unique figure compared to the other bosses/Ghosts.

[Kosmicd]

Now I want elh playable in the next mario side game

[willowwispers]

Do you think an item was supposed to be inside the cage part of his abdomen? Like a key?

[SueZQue]

I feel old knowing that’s we can now say this game is 20 years old

[aedaniammx]

Elh’s sidestep makes me think it could’ve been some kind of bodyblocking enemy. Maybe an early check for if Luigi had a certain element, where it would have an elemental core connecting its body parts that would have to be destroyed so Luigi could move on, and the reason it has multiple elemental effects is because it would have had three variants, one to be taken down by each element Luigi got as he unlocked the rest of the mansion, either that or it was an ice-only enemy and it had an effect for burning away.
Probably got replaced because it was so big and clunky for the game’s tight rooms and halls, and they changed the concept to elementally charged doors, and gave the core shields to regular enemy variants later in development instead.

[basara]

They always ask “what is Elh?” but they never ask “how is Elh?” :(

[mariomythes]

Kind of sucks that they didn’t even decide to revive and finish him in the 3ds port of Luigi’s Mansion as such a tough late game enemy or even a secret boss of sorts maybe, it would have been really cool to finally see it finished and fully functional

[benthecat]

You know how early an enemy has been scrapped when there isn't even a texture made for it

[sparkty]

The crawl was shown off once at the beta it was used by Luigi when he was scared from behind

[ricardocantoral]

I truly believe that the atmosphere.of Luigi's Mansion was planned to be far darker than the final product. In addition to this creepy Elh character, one of the unused bits of audio sounds down right demonic !

[luigihorror]

Elh is much larger than any other ghosts we've encountered
Boolossus: seriously?

[andrew.]

Based on the aggressive behavior from Elh’s animations, the fact that he doesn’t get sucked up, and he can rise through the floor, I can see him as being a pursuer-type enemy. With his access to different elements, he could be fought at different points in the game until his driven off and comes back later in the game.

[coachroach]

I feel that’s the whole point of his name even. ELement, “Elh”. Maybe he was just a test or placeholder to see how the elements in the game were handled

Edit: I completely agree that he was indeed more then just a placeholder for elements my bad I worded that poorly. What I was meaning was possibly his name “Elh” was a placeholder that’s a direct hint towards his function and characteristics. I think he was a scrapped boss with elemental abilities that you had to use certain elements to combat him with(depending on what he was using). Either way, his model is really cool and it’s a bummer we’ll never get to see him fully realized. Sorry for the confusion everyone!

[ChristopherMoom]

2:37 I can't believe Nintendo was able to get away with adding the feature of sacrificial acts without getting into any controversy

Also, don't you "Elh-der gods"