I should probably shout it out more, but I have a Patreon! www.pretzel.cc/patreon The most notable benefit are at the $5 tier where you get access to unscripted (25-50 minute) videos I post every two weeks talking about random topics that interest me and topics suggested by other patrons. I think you'll like those. Probably.
Idk if you can find it but there are images of an early map file that shows a completely different layout for the world. Some really cool things like going from the stairs near the iron boar down into the catacombs and then taking the elevator in the parish up from the catacombs. And there was a cut bridge and tunnel from firelink straight to the Capra demon. That's actually been modded back in btw.
Combined with the Dragon Scale in the chest, it's pretty obvious how deliberate this is. I love details like this. You wouldn't even think of that or notice it during your gameplay, only when you dive into it much further with the use of third party tools to reveal the 3D layouts do you realize just how much thought FS have put into this game
8:21 It's a way to avoid the burning barrel on the stairs above. If you walk through where the railing crumbled, you fall and land at the end of that "pointless" path!
9:50 the reason the clouds are so far below is because the entirety of Lordran is being propped up by massive trees that you can see in ash lake, and the view you meet Solaire at is one of the far edges of Lordran. This is why you can see ash lake from the catacombs, even the deepest darkest pits of Lordran are above ground level
@@j_c_93 So did I, and I've played this game countless times. Yet now that I think about it, it makes sense geographically... Does the entire world below Lordran resemble Ash Lake?
Titanite demons basically spawned from titanite slabs which were basically gifts from the blacksmith god. Others have pointed out there's a rectangular cutout in the wall of the chapel room with the titanite demon in Anor Londo. In other words there basically was a slab mounted on the wall of a chapel built by the blacksmith god, which later turned into a demon for reasons too complicated to easily explain. Just gonna say that the location of each is very closely tied to the blacksmith god and not random at all
Wait I’ve heard this before and it’s really cool but haven’t the titanite demons been around for a while? So, why the hell has nobody gone in there and done something about it?
@@omegawario7479 I'm not entirely sure on the timeline but the gods basically abandoned Anor Londo even before Gwyn left to link the flame, leaving just guards, the smith and Gwyndolin by the time you get there. The game doesn't explicitly say when the blacksmith deity died or why the silver knights for example didn't deal with the one in Anor Londo but I have my own head-canon. All of the other ones are either far from others or close to smiths who might recognize their origin in some way and let them be
Yup, this adds up when you think about the other placements too, Andre just sniffing a slab and saying yeah that's about to go bad and chucking out of his room. All of the ones in the bottom on Sens fortress being used to let you know that yeah, that black goop you're standing in is actually undead adventurer soup and some of the undead there were fancy enough to have some slabs on them when they fell.
@@jonathanmiller4759 At least according to DS3 Smough was alsostill in Anor Londo. Ornstein was a hologram, though. Presumably nobody told Smough they were leaving or where they were going because fuck that guy. Oh, and the Painting Ninjas of course.
@@tootyboots7202 The building Andre is in is referred to as an old unused part of the chapel or something similar (don't remember the exact phrasing). I personally like to directly compare it to the one with the demon in anor Londo (a chapel/room with reverence to the blacksmith deity. The deity also built all of the architecture for the gods which while not including sens fortress, I think they would have respected the craftsmanship of it enough to give Sen a slab unless he had some other tie to it with Gwyndolin later. I consider it easy to figure why a slab would have been left there too because of that. He had strong tied to the witch of izalith as well explaining that one
A thought I've had about Blighttown is that it looks like it's made of scaffolding. Maybe the residents were building the walls around it and got trapped, and they just had to try to survive down there.
They were laying siege to the people in the sewers. They fed the key to the door to the gaping dragon. That way, the only other way out of blighttown is as far away from the Depths as possible.
The landmass at 9:32 isn't Darkroot Garden, it's just an inaccessible landmass for scenery. Darkroot Garden and Basin are further to the left. Their distant view matches up pretty well with where they actually are.
Almost everything lines up really well with its distant view compared to its actual location. The Duke's Archives is the only place that's generally placed higher and closer than it actually is, with a downscaled model to make it seem further away than it really is.
5:42 I will never forget this guy. First time I ever attempted a Dark Souls item randomizer, this item was the Lord Soul Shard from Seath the Scaleless. I'd missed it before, not knowing it was there in the first place. Did everything in the game and couldn't find that last lord soul, so I finally gave in and checked the key. It said the shard was in Firelink and I finally found it when I looked up an all items guide for Firelink.
First off I’ve never seen your videos before but this was one of the greatest videos I’ve ever seen on UA-cam. I love these little spots, rooms that could be removed entirely with no consequence. It makes the world feel lived it and like a world, not a level made for you to explore.
I always thought that the lordran we explore in game is actually just the capital that is located on a very tall mountain, the the ground below us is the rest of lordran.
Some mad lad in the comments here said lordran is almost a tree top kingdom, with ash lake being a sort of pillar dimension that you can't really do much in other than experience existential dread.
I've really come to love the level design of the souls games (especially for DS1 and DS2... Haven't played much of 3 yet). They're not just levels, but stories unto themselves. Even paths that seem to lead to nowhere, or are missing something, often are subtle references to a long forgotten story. A rebellion perhaps? Echoes of conflict after the undead curse struck the Burg. Destroyed statues of a banished god... Abandoned churches... The remains of a two kingdoms swallowed by the Abyss. There are odd points of comfort. Though I always felt uneasy in the main cathedral of Anor Londo. Especially if you use the Slumbering Dragoncrest ring to silence your footsteps-- the emptiness of the halls and bedrooms, even with the silver knights there... It's almost oppressive... The immaculate rooms void of any real life. The Burg honestly feels more comforting. Yes, everything's decayed, but the hollow soldiers feel more lively. Plus there's the undead merchant. Love that crazy bastard.
@@bloodblade5860 The storywriter/animator in me loves those games, and the cycling stories of hope and despair that echo throughout. Dark Souls 2 really expands upon that, with references to countless kingdoms built atop the ruins of the old. Different kingdoms, but still that same human struggle to find happiness in the face of the Dark.
@The Horse-leaf's Cabbage its why I love where dark souls 3 is in the story. You get to actually live the cycles of hope and despair and watch the world crumble down.
8:18 If I remember correctly, if you look at the stairs where the fire barrel gets pushed down, there's a way to fall off of them to the left when you're climbing into a platform below, and from there you can jump to the opening you see here 8:25
I love the story behind gwynevere's bodonhongaroos, and I think honestly if there was a place for massive bongle bo dongles, right after one of the hardest bosses in the game is a pretty good place for it
At 8:23, the purpose of this spot is as a means of surviving the fall and getting back up if you roll off the stairs to avoid the fire barrel that a Hollow Soldier rolls at you, at least besides the idea proposed in the video for it.
The titanite demon probably got in that room in Anor Londo because it was likely used to worship the Nameless Blacksmith Deity that was said to have created the weapons of the gods, and there was likely a titanite slab in there already. Titanite demons were all born from titanite slabs after the death of the aforementioned deity, so that demon likely formed in that room and just got stuck untill the chosen undead barges in to kill it. The structure of the room greatly resembles a chapel of some kind.
The game has ways of giving you a strong sense of being only barely allowed somewhere, by precarious physics or pure obscurity. When there's an item waiting for you there, it's comforting to have the company, in a way, of the devs. When there isn't, all you have is yourelf in the moment.
elden ring was the first soulslike game since dark souls that really gave me that feeling. dark souls 2 and 3 are great but both feel video-gamey in their own ways and bloodborne is magnificent but a different beast entirely. elden ring let me look off at foggy lands that felt far too distant for me to ever reach, but as the scale of the game just kept growing as I got to more areas of the map I was continually blown way. even though the content in the latter part of the game is a bit lacking, the fact that I finally got on top of those enormous mountains that were always looming over me felt pretty incredible
Wow I thought I was the only person who felt like that. Some video games just have that unintentional eerie feeling of loneliness in them. I got it a lot with monster hunter games I played when I was little where I’d find really obscure places in the map and just sit there. It made me feel safe but also extremely vulnerable if that makes any sense.
Love the cozy atmosphere of this video, reminds me of Curious Archive's video on the biology of Subnautica. Well edited, well paced, good script writing! It just all comes together to create a homely lil documentary. I feel like most videos that try to explore the secrets of Dark Souls videos go for thise BIG grandeous reveals but this is the opposite, it's just about those weird lil things that you might never have noticed.
At 8:25 that’s actually a drop down point from above. I think it’s “intended” that when you see the fire barrel coming towards you, you roll off through the little broken section of the railing and land down there. You’re then supposed to see the black knight.
Fantastic video! What the big, impossibly open vista at 9:30 expressed to me was a feeling that I was in The Most Important Place - there weren't other big settlements to be seen nearby, Lordran or bust. There's no question that this is the capital city. I also remember feeling absolute terror checking out the Dragon Scale pit in Blighttown for the first time, because it's so obviously some kind of trap or boss.
I absolutely loved this video for how different it was from everything I've seen on UA-cam. those momentary pauses where you sit in silence watching the environment is like its own little weird spot
I really like videos like this, where someone who's good at cinematics just takes a look at very odd places in games we've probably passed by but never stopped long enough to question why. Great vid man deserves a sub and a like 😊💜
I tought I was the only one obsessed with this kinds of spots in videogames, to me are almost magical, and tell a story of themselves, keep making this masterpieces you are doing an EXCELLENTE WORK BROTHER!!! New Sub! (btw I absolutely love how you take your time exploring the surroundings I feel identified af)
Good video, I think I can speak for others when I say this is a REALLY good format, I personally would love if you did these for other from soft games or other games in general. That’s just a suggestion tho you do you
I appreciate the little green status bar/timers. It really prompted me to take a moment to actively appreciate the view and setting! A thoughtful touch. Cheers!
amazing and relaxing video in these trying times, every time the green bar came up i took the time for one big breath for half and one big exhale for the second half.
God damn it, I was planning on making a video exactly the same as this lmao. Excellent video, we have the very same way of thinking about this magical game
as a viewer and watcher of content, I love these types of videos! the more the merrier! each person has something they like to focus on, a strange and interesting area that for some reason we really like, I have examples of that from Halo:Combat Evolved and the multiplayer maps, some areas in Persona 5, and even Majora Mask have spaces I like going to just to chill out even in game (cause I feel like our adventurers would want a break from all the chaos occasionally)
Super great video! I really like your calm and well spoken commentary and appreciation of areas I don't give enough attention too. Your humor is so subtle that it doesn't ruin the vibe of the video but still made me laugh. Also love the green bars when there's silent shots of scenery. Great stuff :)
Only a lil way in and I absolutely bloody love that moment of pause you actually gave the viewer to wonder about what you said. The progress bar was a really good touch too. I've never seen anyone do that before and it's such a cool thing to do given most videos absolutely blitz you with information to hold your attention forever. Granted it was so good I had to pause and comment but .. nonetheless... Good job
This reminds me of "hanging out" with the Merchant in his lake cave in Resident Evil 4. Can't remember if it was any of his other locations, but I remember that when you visit him in the cave location, it's just a little instanced area but it's this furnished, detailed shack. You could see his wares, of course, but also (as memory serves) a living area, and general household goods. It was such a cozy little spot.
this is absolutely one of the best videos i have ever seen. i love looking into these little areas and piecing together my own story from it, it’s such a niche little thing but it makes me so happy to see someone else doing the same :) keep up the great work
I see a lot of people talking about the barrel-dodge area around 8:20, but a fun fact about the vista at 10:20 where you meet Solaire is that the sun is only sometimes visible when you look into the sky where it's shining down from. This is owed to the fact that it's an illusion being cast by the gods, which is backed up by the existence of Dark Anor Londo when you 'kill' Gwynevere
@@davecorry7723 To show how much longer the panning shots would last before he started talking again. Some people skip ahead if there's no obvious sign when the talky starts again.
One thing that always amazed me and gave me hope for Dark Souls world is that on the bridge that goes from undead parish to Andre's tower you can hear birds singing, and it's a really strange fact, that the humans are all gone but animals and nature still persist in not twisted ways like in Darkroot.
12:30 This room lines up perfectly with the pit the Gaping Dragon crawls out of. Consider that with the dragon scale you find and it'll make more sense.
The path at 8:30 that had a broken bridge has a lore implication of the sealing of Havel(or a knight of his), only by breaking the only way out, there is a few vids in depth on it
8:24 there's a theory this path led to a bridge which granted access to Havel's tower. Some speculate the bridge was destroyed after Havel got into the tower in order to trap him there
8:17 Yes, early in development there was meant to be a room there, you can still see the door that leads to said cut room, according to map data that's still in the game, there was meant to be an item. in fact, while you can't interact with it without hacking, the door is actually able to be open.
8:57 if you follow the pathway it lines up with a filled in doorway across the gap. Some speculate that's how Havel was trapped in the lower section of the tower since he can't fit through the door :)
The design of Dark Souls encourages running from enemies, who usually chase you in a big angry horde. The dead ends or empty areas mean you might go the wrong way and get trapped by enemies, especially if you’re running at top speed just to stay alive (like I usually do).
One of my fav quirks of Dsrk Souls Is how the Firelink Shrine music sounds slightly echo-y when you enter the room with the elevator to New Londo. I always like to linger in that room for a while every time I play 😌
Fun fact! That little passageway in Undead Burg that's hidden behind a wall did used to lead somewhere! IllusoryWall can explain it better than I can but pretty much in the map files there's a whole room behind there that doesn't have any textures (or collision I think) that even has a body lying on the ground that they use for items pickups.
As someone who has a few thousand hours in this game, I've grown to love every one of the small, strange, hidden corners it has. Thanks for making this video as a bite sized example of some of them! :)
It's there for when you panic dive away from the flaming barrel, and land on that odd rock outcropping just above and beside it. That plus the Havel trapping theory makes that one hallway surprisingly significant.
The calm and educational vibes on this video are impeccable. I am cozed and primed to *learn* I hope you continue bringing us around the souls games like this, because it can be really hard to appreciate the smaller details when I'm getting jumped by 18 skeletons. Subscribed.
i had a very similar line of though while playing dark souls as your commentary, the spots, the environmental design, wondering what story was behind that corpse, the mountains and all that... i take it all in, thats why I love DS, it gives me this curiosity, the wondering... and its nice that not only you do the same but SO MANY PEOPLE here, enjoying your content, your success is well deserved! thank you for this video my friend, i really love that i'm not alone, just dumb enough to think i was!
I haven't done it yet, but I'm gonna HAVE to return to a game I did on a previous tour at some point. There were a few areas I didn't talk about in this video to where I feel like I could make another episode on it.
8:15 As others have said, this may be to give you a safety net if falling off of the stairs. My interpretation is that it forces someone off a cliff if they fight the black knight without observing the surroundings first. Maybe it's both.
Oh man, i loved this video. So nice and chill and also pretty funny. Ate breakfast at the break of dawn to it, pretty relaxing. You deserve more views.
I love the idea of discovering secret passages or weird (possibly design-related) spots in games. Thanks for making this. Can't wait to watch your GTA videos. Cheers from Iran.
I'm about a minute into your video first time watching. I dig how you lay it out man, great content about a game people such as myself enjoy retrospective videos like this
The path by the black knight lines up with all the scaffolding from early promo material. That whole area was interconnected with elsewhere and was cut late in development, with the openable door being boarded over to be sure. Same with Bloodborne’s Cleric Beast door being a finished shortcut that was cut before release since other shortcuts existed nearby to make it redundant since there’s nothing else nearby to warrant taking that path
9:00 this area actually does have lore, the bridge thats broken leads to havel, blocking his escape, and on the other side is a black knight with the blue tearstone ring, a ring given to loved ones. Also add in that the door that lets havel leave is locked. He was intentionally trapped in the tower
I was always under the assumption that they were working on the 3D spaces while they were working out how those spaces would connect to one another. Wherever they had made a potential for a path they no longer needed, they could just slap on a barred gate and some darkness, or cover it up with some scenery. No clue if that's actually what they did, but it certainly fits.
About the little pointless archway at 9:00. You can jump down on to it from the top of the stairs where the guy throws a flaming barrel at you. It's a pointless jump as it skips nothing and doesnt allow you to avoid any enemies, but its a cool trick that can sometimes throw people off in invasions.
The broken path leads to Havel's tower where he was trapped by destroying the bridge. The clouds have to do with Lordran existing really high up, so it has its own levels of clouds inside while the real cloudscape is outside Lordran.
I know this video is over a year old now but for your discussion of how high above the ground the Undead burg/Lordran in general is because it is built on top of trees like The Great Hollow. When you travel down to Ash Lake you are well under everything and at the assumed ground level of Dark Souls. I do also believe that Lost Izalith is around this same height. So it's not so unrealistic knowing that.
8:25 that little pathway is actually part of the intended way of dodging the barrel. You can fall from the hole in the stairs and then jump from that platform to that pathway.
8:11 I thought that hallway's purpose was what it did to me: First playthrough, poked that knight, realized immediately it was a mistake, ran away to what seemed like more level and was met with a dead end and a very quick death
This game has so many memory’s of mine. This is one of the best games made I would say, the soundtrack and the locations, the boss fights or the suspense of trying to make it to the next bonfire. Thank you pretzel short but wonderfully happy memory’s, that this game has given me, I have been short of good memory’s as of late and this has been a refresher to me that even though it’s been a little tough making it day to day, that there will be better fond full days too arrive. Thank you
And I believe you will be a big content creator over the year. Hope you keep making great videos, for people to smile at as much as I did with this one
The opening cinematic shot of Lordran is from when it was first built, or close to it, as it's the beginning of the age of fire. The reason why the Lordran we see in the game is so different is because it is probably many thousands of years later, and based on lore we got in DS3, the land literally moves and converges towards the first flame as it burns out. We saw it happening quickly in the dreg heap, but we can also see it here in DS1 as it's why Lordran is so high up and above the clouds, the land beneath it is pushing it upwards. The process is likely slow enough (until it exponentially gets quicker near the end) that they could build around it without worrying too much about it breaking things. Assuming Gwyn and his buddies even care about such trivial matters like structural integrity in the first place.
In Darkroot Garden you can look up from the bonfire to see the Moonlight Butterfly chilling on the tower wall, I only noticed that on my latest playthrough.
8:14 man I really expected you to point out the bricks and go on a tangent. That is the most memorable part of the Plague of Gripes playthroughs where he goes through and tries to explain or reason why things just are.
It's so cool to see someone else that's curious about these places. I've been Exploring Demon's Souls and Dark Souls maps in DSMapStudio for a little bit and found a lot of places like these. It's interesting to think about what could have been there or what changes were made to reach the result we got in the final release. Keep up the great work!
You know what I consider to be a weird little spot? the well in firelink shrine. With a well timed and well positioned jump from a certain spot, you can get yourself on top of the well, and fall inside......... and keep falling and eventually die. But you know, the developers could have just made the well's hole solid so you can't fall through. But they didn't. They removed the collision of the ground in the hole as well so that you could fall through it, which makes sense tbh. I like it. It's those little things that make the game *that* much better.
The room with Havel’s armor is cool. Since he was a powerful human plotting against the gods, he became such a threat that they locked him in a tower, and threw his extra set of armor, weapon, and shield in that secret room so no one would try to be like Havel again. The mimic in there is probably for any greedy person that come by. Even if they get the armor, they’ll probably open the mimic and die
8:29 there used to have a bridge right there but they used it to trap havel inside and then break it in order to trap him, if you look closely it's the same tower where havel is in the darkroot bassin 9:50 the city is most likely to be build on top of the tree mentioned in the first cinematic, so there's a chance that it's really high above "real ground"
the passage in undead burg with the blocked arch always felt like it was meant to be a trap to me, so if you get in a fight with the black knight and then back away and miss the stairs you get cornered.
I really enjoy small spots in games, especially older games. Dark Forces series for example, they have many unused spots that just help with making the map seem less linear.
There is an old and unused model for a low poly firelink shrine which had a bridge that led to the lower undead burg. It’s very much possible that the hidden hallway would connect the two
12:50 I always felt like this room was to make genre-savvy players suspect that the chest was a mimic, only for it to be completely benign. This allows the actual first mimic chest in Sen's Fortress to hit that much harder on a first playthrough.
Love the video!, was playing this game last week just to appreciate the aesthetics of it, please make a part 2 talking about ash lake!, it’s so beautiful and my favorite location in all of dark souls
The point of the passage behind the Black Knight in the Bourg is to fall there in case the barrel in the stairs above throws you to the side without killing you. And the Titanite Demon probably spawned in the Anor Londo room from a slab presumably placed on the altar.
I don't think those "clouds" below the Undead burg are actually clouds, I think they're mist, if you see above you in the cliff balcony, you can see there are actual clouds in the sky
For me, I think Seath's first boss room after his death, the pit leading down to Blighttown you open with the key from the Gaping Dragon, and the top of the tower with the Ember you access after you defeat the Moonlight Butterfly all have a similar vibe to each other. Also, that random bonfire in the Darkroot Basin on the route speedrunner's take has always been weird to me. It makes you feel like... like there's more of the game to go.
For that titanite demon in anor londo I always assumed that it formed in that room and had stayed there ever since. iirc titanite demons used to be titanite slabs and over a very long time they turn into the demon that is then trapped in that room. It's why their "head" has that writing on it. It's the writing that is on a titanite slab and it appears that the body of the demon grows out from the slab from there.
Ya know, I'm not really sure if the city seen in the opening cinematic is actually supposed to be Lordran or Anor Londo. When I first watched it, I just assumed it was a city out in the 'larger' world enjoying the fruits of the age of fire, like in Carim or Astora.
The path at 8:18 , if you are being followed by the shield hollows or even the black knight and you’re headed up the stairs with the hollow the kicks the flaming barrel, there’s a spot to the left where the waist high wall is broken and you can drop down onto a little ledge that seems like a death trap with no way to escape; but, from that ledge you can actually hop to another that is the spot included at the time stamp. Just a little way of juking out the enemies if they’re giving you trouble.
I should probably shout it out more, but I have a Patreon! www.pretzel.cc/patreon
The most notable benefit are at the $5 tier where you get access to unscripted (25-50 minute) videos I post every two weeks talking about random topics that interest me and topics suggested by other patrons. I think you'll like those. Probably.
fyi there are scrapped shortcuts still in the game files...... zullie the witch did videos on it
Danm bro your channel really blew up
Idk if you can find it but there are images of an early map file that shows a completely different layout for the world.
Some really cool things like going from the stairs near the iron boar down into the catacombs and then taking the elevator in the parish up from the catacombs.
And there was a cut bridge and tunnel from firelink straight to the Capra demon.
That's actually been modded back in btw.
Also the building near the sunbro covenant statue used to lead down into the depths.
The pit in blighttown with the dragon scale almost perfectly lines up with the sewer where the gaping dragon comes up.
wb the door to the left of that bigger opening? It's just gated off and looks sussy as hell too.
Oooooooooh
Always loved that nice detail
Combined with the Dragon Scale in the chest, it's pretty obvious how deliberate this is. I love details like this. You wouldn't even think of that or notice it during your gameplay, only when you dive into it much further with the use of third party tools to reveal the 3D layouts do you realize just how much thought FS have put into this game
That explains the Dragon Scale.
I am genuinely amazed you talked about Gwynevere's room and didn't talk about the chest in it.
Amazing chest ahead, But Head!
@@themanwithaplan1391 the huge amazing chest
I’m grateful gets really old
You’re at 69 likes. All is balanced.
@@AlphaCarinae 😭
8:21 It's a way to avoid the burning barrel on the stairs above. If you walk through where the railing crumbled, you fall and land at the end of that "pointless" path!
I think you were correct because I do remember that. I also think that there was a lore reason for the path, but I can't remember the details.
@@trisle2764 yeah, I looked at it ingame the next day and it is the same path
it'd just been a while, so I got confused
@@trisle2764 I’m pretty sure they knocked down that bridge to ensure Havel stayed locked in the tower
@@trisle2764 You're thinking of Hawkshaw's amazing "Ash Lake, Havel, and the Plot against the Gods" theory video I believe
I did do that once, I think?
9:50 the reason the clouds are so far below is because the entirety of Lordran is being propped up by massive trees that you can see in ash lake, and the view you meet Solaire at is one of the far edges of Lordran. This is why you can see ash lake from the catacombs, even the deepest darkest pits of Lordran are above ground level
I never thought of it this way. I always thought Ash Lake was deep within the ground and its trees held up the entire world, like Yggdrasil.
@@j_c_93 So did I, and I've played this game countless times. Yet now that I think about it, it makes sense geographically... Does the entire world below Lordran resemble Ash Lake?
The "removed passageway" in Undead Burg is something you can jump onto if you get knocked off by the barrel!
Titanite demons basically spawned from titanite slabs which were basically gifts from the blacksmith god. Others have pointed out there's a rectangular cutout in the wall of the chapel room with the titanite demon in Anor Londo. In other words there basically was a slab mounted on the wall of a chapel built by the blacksmith god, which later turned into a demon for reasons too complicated to easily explain. Just gonna say that the location of each is very closely tied to the blacksmith god and not random at all
Wait I’ve heard this before and it’s really cool but haven’t the titanite demons been around for a while? So, why the hell has nobody gone in there and done something about it?
@@omegawario7479 I'm not entirely sure on the timeline but the gods basically abandoned Anor Londo even before Gwyn left to link the flame, leaving just guards, the smith and Gwyndolin by the time you get there. The game doesn't explicitly say when the blacksmith deity died or why the silver knights for example didn't deal with the one in Anor Londo but I have my own head-canon. All of the other ones are either far from others or close to smiths who might recognize their origin in some way and let them be
Yup, this adds up when you think about the other placements too, Andre just sniffing a slab and saying yeah that's about to go bad and chucking out of his room. All of the ones in the bottom on Sens fortress being used to let you know that yeah, that black goop you're standing in is actually undead adventurer soup and some of the undead there were fancy enough to have some slabs on them when they fell.
@@jonathanmiller4759 At least according to DS3 Smough was alsostill in Anor Londo. Ornstein was a hologram, though.
Presumably nobody told Smough they were leaving or where they were going because fuck that guy.
Oh, and the Painting Ninjas of course.
@@tootyboots7202 The building Andre is in is referred to as an old unused part of the chapel or something similar (don't remember the exact phrasing). I personally like to directly compare it to the one with the demon in anor Londo (a chapel/room with reverence to the blacksmith deity. The deity also built all of the architecture for the gods which while not including sens fortress, I think they would have respected the craftsmanship of it enough to give Sen a slab unless he had some other tie to it with Gwyndolin later. I consider it easy to figure why a slab would have been left there too because of that. He had strong tied to the witch of izalith as well explaining that one
A thought I've had about Blighttown is that it looks like it's made of scaffolding. Maybe the residents were building the walls around it and got trapped, and they just had to try to survive down there.
They were laying siege to the people in the sewers. They fed the key to the door to the gaping dragon. That way, the only other way out of blighttown is as far away from the Depths as possible.
Once the swamp became poisonous, the residents had to build upwards.
The landmass at 9:32 isn't Darkroot Garden, it's just an inaccessible landmass for scenery. Darkroot Garden and Basin are further to the left. Their distant view matches up pretty well with where they actually are.
Almost everything lines up really well with its distant view compared to its actual location. The Duke's Archives is the only place that's generally placed higher and closer than it actually is, with a downscaled model to make it seem further away than it really is.
5:42 I will never forget this guy. First time I ever attempted a Dark Souls item randomizer, this item was the Lord Soul Shard from Seath the Scaleless. I'd missed it before, not knowing it was there in the first place. Did everything in the game and couldn't find that last lord soul, so I finally gave in and checked the key. It said the shard was in Firelink and I finally found it when I looked up an all items guide for Firelink.
First off I’ve never seen your videos before but this was one of the greatest videos I’ve ever seen on UA-cam.
I love these little spots, rooms that could be removed entirely with no consequence. It makes the world feel lived it and like a world, not a level made for you to explore.
You'd like the youtuber Any Austin probably
Those little breaks without commentary where you let the environments soak in are so nice
its just annoying. skipping 10 seconds doesnt even skip it all
I always thought that the lordran we explore in game is actually just the capital that is located on a very tall mountain, the the ground below us is the rest of lordran.
Some mad lad in the comments here said lordran is almost a tree top kingdom, with ash lake being a sort of pillar dimension that you can't really do much in other than experience existential dread.
I thought that what you described was the kingdom of lordran, but everything at the base of the mountains and below was the 'real world'.
Really like this laidback format. Subbed.
Would like to see more of this for Dark Souls and other Souls games. 👍
I'm not a BIG Dark Souls guy, but I feel like I HAVE to cover Elden Ring someday.
@@PretzelYT what are you gonna do in elden ring? show the decor and a bunch of useless stuff like in this video?
@@ramrodbldm9876i think this may just not be your type of content and that’s okay
@@ramrodbldm9876 this video was great, if you are looking for combat and action just click off clown
I've really come to love the level design of the souls games (especially for DS1 and DS2... Haven't played much of 3 yet). They're not just levels, but stories unto themselves. Even paths that seem to lead to nowhere, or are missing something, often are subtle references to a long forgotten story. A rebellion perhaps? Echoes of conflict after the undead curse struck the Burg. Destroyed statues of a banished god... Abandoned churches... The remains of a two kingdoms swallowed by the Abyss.
There are odd points of comfort. Though I always felt uneasy in the main cathedral of Anor Londo. Especially if you use the Slumbering Dragoncrest ring to silence your footsteps-- the emptiness of the halls and bedrooms, even with the silver knights there... It's almost oppressive... The immaculate rooms void of any real life. The Burg honestly feels more comforting. Yes, everything's decayed, but the hollow soldiers feel more lively. Plus there's the undead merchant. Love that crazy bastard.
Wow! Beautifully put, friend. Captured one of the big reasons I love those games.
@@bloodblade5860 The storywriter/animator in me loves those games, and the cycling stories of hope and despair that echo throughout.
Dark Souls 2 really expands upon that, with references to countless kingdoms built atop the ruins of the old. Different kingdoms, but still that same human struggle to find happiness in the face of the Dark.
@The Horse-leaf's Cabbage its why I love where dark souls 3 is in the story. You get to actually live the cycles of hope and despair and watch the world crumble down.
Fully agreed :D
You’re gonna LOVE 3
8:18 If I remember correctly, if you look at the stairs where the fire barrel gets pushed down, there's a way to fall off of them to the left when you're climbing into a platform below, and from there you can jump to the opening you see here 8:25
I love the story behind gwynevere's bodonhongaroos, and I think honestly if there was a place for massive bongle bo dongles, right after one of the hardest bosses in the game is a pretty good place for it
Boss that made me the hardest.
At 8:23, the purpose of this spot is as a means of surviving the fall and getting back up if you roll off the stairs to avoid the fire barrel that a Hollow Soldier rolls at you, at least besides the idea proposed in the video for it.
The titanite demon probably got in that room in Anor Londo because it was likely used to worship the Nameless Blacksmith Deity that was said to have created the weapons of the gods, and there was likely a titanite slab in there already. Titanite demons were all born from titanite slabs after the death of the aforementioned deity, so that demon likely formed in that room and just got stuck untill the chosen undead barges in to kill it. The structure of the room greatly resembles a chapel of some kind.
The game has ways of giving you a strong sense of being only barely allowed somewhere, by precarious physics or pure obscurity. When there's an item waiting for you there, it's comforting to have the company, in a way, of the devs. When there isn't, all you have is yourelf in the moment.
elden ring was the first soulslike game since dark souls that really gave me that feeling. dark souls 2 and 3 are great but both feel video-gamey in their own ways and bloodborne is magnificent but a different beast entirely. elden ring let me look off at foggy lands that felt far too distant for me to ever reach, but as the scale of the game just kept growing as I got to more areas of the map I was continually blown way. even though the content in the latter part of the game is a bit lacking, the fact that I finally got on top of those enormous mountains that were always looming over me felt pretty incredible
Wow I thought I was the only person who felt like that. Some video games just have that unintentional eerie feeling of loneliness in them. I got it a lot with monster hunter games I played when I was little where I’d find really obscure places in the map and just sit there. It made me feel safe but also extremely vulnerable if that makes any sense.
Love the cozy atmosphere of this video, reminds me of Curious Archive's video on the biology of Subnautica. Well edited, well paced, good script writing! It just all comes together to create a homely lil documentary. I feel like most videos that try to explore the secrets of Dark Souls videos go for thise BIG grandeous reveals but this is the opposite, it's just about those weird lil things that you might never have noticed.
8:26 If you fall down near the flaming Barrel, you might Land on a little platform. From there you can jump back down here.
At 8:25 that’s actually a drop down point from above. I think it’s “intended” that when you see the fire barrel coming towards you, you roll off through the little broken section of the railing and land down there. You’re then supposed to see the black knight.
Fantastic video!
What the big, impossibly open vista at 9:30 expressed to me was a feeling that I was in The Most Important Place - there weren't other big settlements to be seen nearby, Lordran or bust. There's no question that this is the capital city.
I also remember feeling absolute terror checking out the Dragon Scale pit in Blighttown for the first time, because it's so obviously some kind of trap or boss.
God, it's so fun to just.. Watch, and listen to the video on a second screen while doing other things. Amazing content as always.
I absolutely loved this video for how different it was from everything I've seen on UA-cam. those momentary pauses where you sit in silence watching the environment is like its own little weird spot
i just want to say that every one of your videos in this video game world tour series has been truly amazing and i love every single one of them
I really like videos like this, where someone who's good at cinematics just takes a look at very odd places in games we've probably passed by but never stopped long enough to question why. Great vid man deserves a sub and a like 😊💜
I just binged all of your videos, they're soooo good.
Thanks for the CC subtitles, keep it up.
I tought I was the only one obsessed with this kinds of spots in videogames, to me are almost magical, and tell a story of themselves, keep making this masterpieces you are doing an EXCELLENTE WORK BROTHER!!! New Sub! (btw I absolutely love how you take your time exploring the surroundings I feel identified af)
Good video, I think I can speak for others when I say this is a REALLY good format, I personally would love if you did these for other from soft games or other games in general. That’s just a suggestion tho you do you
This is such a wonderful video. The appreciation for the craft here and there, the little details, the big picture... it's so cozy.
I appreciate the little green status bar/timers. It really prompted me to take a moment to actively appreciate the view and setting! A thoughtful touch. Cheers!
amazing and relaxing video in these trying times, every time the green bar came up i took the time for one big breath for half and one big exhale for the second half.
God damn it, I was planning on making a video exactly the same as this lmao. Excellent video, we have the very same way of thinking about this magical game
I'd say go for it, another perspective is always welcome.
as a viewer and watcher of content, I love these types of videos! the more the merrier! each person has something they like to focus on, a strange and interesting area that for some reason we really like, I have examples of that from Halo:Combat Evolved and the multiplayer maps, some areas in Persona 5, and even Majora Mask have spaces I like going to just to chill out even in game (cause I feel like our adventurers would want a break from all the chaos occasionally)
Super great video! I really like your calm and well spoken commentary and appreciation of areas I don't give enough attention too. Your humor is so subtle that it doesn't ruin the vibe of the video but still made me laugh. Also love the green bars when there's silent shots of scenery. Great stuff :)
Only a lil way in and I absolutely bloody love that moment of pause you actually gave the viewer to wonder about what you said. The progress bar was a really good touch too. I've never seen anyone do that before and it's such a cool thing to do given most videos absolutely blitz you with information to hold your attention forever. Granted it was so good I had to pause and comment but .. nonetheless... Good job
This is such a well put-together and narrated video, you did an incredible job with it and it made it a joy to watch!
I love looking at the little things that the developers added. It could just be a random thought to add it, but it still means something.
This reminds me of "hanging out" with the Merchant in his lake cave in Resident Evil 4. Can't remember if it was any of his other locations, but I remember that when you visit him in the cave location, it's just a little instanced area but it's this furnished, detailed shack. You could see his wares, of course, but also (as memory serves) a living area, and general household goods. It was such a cozy little spot.
The Serenity track helps the coziness ten fold too
this is absolutely one of the best videos i have ever seen. i love looking into these little areas and piecing together my own story from it, it’s such a niche little thing but it makes me so happy to see someone else doing the same :) keep up the great work
Seeing these weird little details is the closest we have to experience an old game for the first time again. I hope you keep doing it!
I see a lot of people talking about the barrel-dodge area around 8:20, but a fun fact about the vista at 10:20 where you meet Solaire is that the sun is only sometimes visible when you look into the sky where it's shining down from. This is owed to the fact that it's an illusion being cast by the gods, which is backed up by the existence of Dark Anor Londo when you 'kill' Gwynevere
what I like about DS1 is how small it makes you feel in the grand scheme of things
I appreciate that you resisted the temptation when panning the camera in Gwynevere's room
I like how you added an adhd timer on the panning camera with that green bar at the bottom. Very nice touch.
I didn't understand the collapsing green bar at the bottom. What was it for?
@@davecorry7723 To show how much longer the panning shots would last before he started talking again. Some people skip ahead if there's no obvious sign when the talky starts again.
@@lordcommissarspartan Ahhh, thank you!
One thing that always amazed me and gave me hope for Dark Souls world is that on the bridge that goes from undead parish to Andre's tower you can hear birds singing, and it's a really strange fact, that the humans are all gone but animals and nature still persist in not twisted ways like in Darkroot.
12:30 This room lines up perfectly with the pit the Gaping Dragon crawls out of. Consider that with the dragon scale you find and it'll make more sense.
The path at 8:30 that had a broken bridge has a lore implication of the sealing of Havel(or a knight of his), only by breaking the only way out, there is a few vids in depth on it
8:24 there's a theory this path led to a bridge which granted access to Havel's tower. Some speculate the bridge was destroyed after Havel got into the tower in order to trap him there
I was just about to comment this!
I don’t know why but I share a fascination with cozy small spaces in video games.
Thanks for making a video about this niche little experience.
8:17 Yes, early in development there was meant to be a room there, you can still see the door that leads to said cut room, according to map data that's still in the game, there was meant to be an item. in fact, while you can't interact with it without hacking, the door is actually able to be open.
8:57 if you follow the pathway it lines up with a filled in doorway across the gap. Some speculate that's how Havel was trapped in the lower section of the tower since he can't fit through the door :)
The design of Dark Souls encourages running from enemies, who usually chase you in a big angry horde. The dead ends or empty areas mean you might go the wrong way and get trapped by enemies, especially if you’re running at top speed just to stay alive (like I usually do).
One of my fav quirks of Dsrk Souls Is how the Firelink Shrine music sounds slightly echo-y when you enter the room with the elevator to New Londo.
I always like to linger in that room for a while every time I play 😌
Fun fact! That little passageway in Undead Burg that's hidden behind a wall did used to lead somewhere! IllusoryWall can explain it better than I can but pretty much in the map files there's a whole room behind there that doesn't have any textures (or collision I think) that even has a body lying on the ground that they use for items pickups.
As someone who has a few thousand hours in this game, I've grown to love every one of the small, strange, hidden corners it has. Thanks for making this video as a bite sized example of some of them! :)
8:18 You can actually land on that little edge from above. Don't remember why tho.
It's there for when you panic dive away from the flaming barrel, and land on that odd rock outcropping just above and beside it. That plus the Havel trapping theory makes that one hallway surprisingly significant.
This is such an interesting and chill video! Really hope the algorithm picks this up and boosts it 👍🏻
The calm and educational vibes on this video are impeccable. I am cozed and primed to *learn*
I hope you continue bringing us around the souls games like this, because it can be really hard to appreciate the smaller details when I'm getting jumped by 18 skeletons. Subscribed.
i had a very similar line of though while playing dark souls as your commentary, the spots, the environmental design, wondering what story was behind that corpse, the mountains and all that... i take it all in, thats why I love DS, it gives me this curiosity, the wondering... and its nice that not only you do the same but SO MANY PEOPLE here, enjoying your content, your success is well deserved! thank you for this video my friend, i really love that i'm not alone, just dumb enough to think i was!
This is mesmerising. I'd love you to pick this concept up again on the rest of the locations.
I haven't done it yet, but I'm gonna HAVE to return to a game I did on a previous tour at some point. There were a few areas I didn't talk about in this video to where I feel like I could make another episode on it.
@@PretzelYT defo, there's some great locations left (even if not great to play 😅).
Painted world, ash lake, catacombs...
Just wanted to say I love your videos and you should continue making them! also, THOSE CHESTS IN FIRELINK DAMN, i never knew about them!!
I still feel like there's some tiny spot or item hidden away I still haven't discovered. Dark Souls just pulls out that feeling in me.
8:15 As others have said, this may be to give you a safety net if falling off of the stairs. My interpretation is that it forces someone off a cliff if they fight the black knight without observing the surroundings first. Maybe it's both.
Really like people pointing out these little places and weird spots. Me and the homies used to mess around finding these places just being silly
Oh man, i loved this video. So nice and chill and also pretty funny. Ate breakfast at the break of dawn to it, pretty relaxing. You deserve more views.
I love the idea of discovering secret passages or weird (possibly design-related) spots in games. Thanks for making this. Can't wait to watch your GTA videos. Cheers from Iran.
I'm about a minute into your video first time watching. I dig how you lay it out man, great content about a game people such as myself enjoy retrospective videos like this
This is by far the most cosiest video I’ve seen in a while. I love the editing and the relaxed slow pace of the video!
The path by the black knight lines up with all the scaffolding from early promo material. That whole area was interconnected with elsewhere and was cut late in development, with the openable door being boarded over to be sure. Same with Bloodborne’s Cleric Beast door being a finished shortcut that was cut before release since other shortcuts existed nearby to make it redundant since there’s nothing else nearby to warrant taking that path
9:00 this area actually does have lore, the bridge thats broken leads to havel, blocking his escape, and on the other side is a black knight with the blue tearstone ring, a ring given to loved ones. Also add in that the door that lets havel leave is locked. He was intentionally trapped in the tower
I was always under the assumption that they were working on the 3D spaces while they were working out how those spaces would connect to one another.
Wherever they had made a potential for a path they no longer needed, they could just slap on a barred gate and some darkness, or cover it up with some scenery.
No clue if that's actually what they did, but it certainly fits.
About the little pointless archway at 9:00. You can jump down on to it from the top of the stairs where the guy throws a flaming barrel at you. It's a pointless jump as it skips nothing and doesnt allow you to avoid any enemies, but its a cool trick that can sometimes throw people off in invasions.
The broken path leads to Havel's tower where he was trapped by destroying the bridge. The clouds have to do with Lordran existing really high up, so it has its own levels of clouds inside while the real cloudscape is outside Lordran.
It's incredibly easy to tell how much effort went into making this video so good, well done!
I know this video is over a year old now but for your discussion of how high above the ground the Undead burg/Lordran in general is because it is built on top of trees like The Great Hollow. When you travel down to Ash Lake you are well under everything and at the assumed ground level of Dark Souls. I do also believe that Lost Izalith is around this same height. So it's not so unrealistic knowing that.
8:25 that little pathway is actually part of the intended way of dodging the barrel. You can fall from the hole in the stairs and then jump from that platform to that pathway.
8:11 I thought that hallway's purpose was what it did to me: First playthrough, poked that knight, realized immediately it was a mistake, ran away to what seemed like more level and was met with a dead end and a very quick death
This game has so many memory’s of mine. This is one of the best games made I would say, the soundtrack and the locations, the boss fights or the suspense of trying to make it to the next bonfire. Thank you pretzel short but wonderfully happy memory’s, that this game has given me, I have been short of good memory’s as of late and this has been a refresher to me that even though it’s been a little tough making it day to day, that there will be better fond full days too arrive. Thank you
And I believe you will be a big content creator over the year. Hope you keep making great videos, for people to smile at as much as I did with this one
Ps you should do a halo map
I was more into Call of Duty back in the day, but I feel like I HAVE to cover a Halo game someday.
I have been playing DS1 for well over 1500 hours and the game still refuses to stop educating me. This game is special!
The opening cinematic shot of Lordran is from when it was first built, or close to it, as it's the beginning of the age of fire. The reason why the Lordran we see in the game is so different is because it is probably many thousands of years later, and based on lore we got in DS3, the land literally moves and converges towards the first flame as it burns out. We saw it happening quickly in the dreg heap, but we can also see it here in DS1 as it's why Lordran is so high up and above the clouds, the land beneath it is pushing it upwards. The process is likely slow enough (until it exponentially gets quicker near the end) that they could build around it without worrying too much about it breaking things. Assuming Gwyn and his buddies even care about such trivial matters like structural integrity in the first place.
In Darkroot Garden you can look up from the bonfire to see the Moonlight Butterfly chilling on the tower wall, I only noticed that on my latest playthrough.
8:14 man I really expected you to point out the bricks and go on a tangent. That is the most memorable part of the Plague of Gripes playthroughs where he goes through and tries to explain or reason why things just are.
It's so cool to see someone else that's curious about these places. I've been Exploring Demon's Souls and Dark Souls maps in DSMapStudio for a little bit and found a lot of places like these. It's interesting to think about what could have been there or what changes were made to reach the result we got in the final release. Keep up the great work!
You know what I consider to be a weird little spot? the well in firelink shrine. With a well timed and well positioned jump from a certain spot, you can get yourself on top of the well, and fall inside......... and keep falling and eventually die. But you know, the developers could have just made the well's hole solid so you can't fall through. But they didn't. They removed the collision of the ground in the hole as well so that you could fall through it, which makes sense tbh. I like it. It's those little things that make the game *that* much better.
The room with Havel’s armor is cool. Since he was a powerful human plotting against the gods, he became such a threat that they locked him in a tower, and threw his extra set of armor, weapon, and shield in that secret room so no one would try to be like Havel again. The mimic in there is probably for any greedy person that come by. Even if they get the armor, they’ll probably open the mimic and die
8:29 there used to have a bridge right there but they used it to trap havel inside and then break it in order to trap him, if you look closely it's the same tower where havel is in the darkroot bassin
9:50 the city is most likely to be build on top of the tree mentioned in the first cinematic, so there's a chance that it's really high above "real ground"
the passage in undead burg with the blocked arch always felt like it was meant to be a trap to me, so if you get in a fight with the black knight and then back away and miss the stairs you get cornered.
I really enjoy small spots in games, especially older games. Dark Forces series for example, they have many unused spots that just help with making the map seem less linear.
There is an old and unused model for a low poly firelink shrine which had a bridge that led to the lower undead burg. It’s very much possible that the hidden hallway would connect the two
12:50 I always felt like this room was to make genre-savvy players suspect that the chest was a mimic, only for it to be completely benign. This allows the actual first mimic chest in Sen's Fortress to hit that much harder on a first playthrough.
Love the video!, was playing this game last week just to appreciate the aesthetics of it, please make a part 2 talking about ash lake!, it’s so beautiful and my favorite location in all of dark souls
The point of the passage behind the Black Knight in the Bourg is to fall there in case the barrel in the stairs above throws you to the side without killing you.
And the Titanite Demon probably spawned in the Anor Londo room from a slab presumably placed on the altar.
I don't think those "clouds" below the Undead burg are actually clouds, I think they're mist, if you see above you in the cliff balcony, you can see there are actual clouds in the sky
That would make a bit more sense, but they still kinda look like clouds to me... 🤔
I never noticed that you can see Havel's secret room through a window, that's some ingenious level design.
For me, I think Seath's first boss room after his death, the pit leading down to Blighttown you open with the key from the Gaping Dragon, and the top of the tower with the Ember you access after you defeat the Moonlight Butterfly all have a similar vibe to each other.
Also, that random bonfire in the Darkroot Basin on the route speedrunner's take has always been weird to me. It makes you feel like... like there's more of the game to go.
For that titanite demon in anor londo I always assumed that it formed in that room and had stayed there ever since. iirc titanite demons used to be titanite slabs and over a very long time they turn into the demon that is then trapped in that room. It's why their "head" has that writing on it. It's the writing that is on a titanite slab and it appears that the body of the demon grows out from the slab from there.
Ya know, I'm not really sure if the city seen in the opening cinematic is actually supposed to be Lordran or Anor Londo. When I first watched it, I just assumed it was a city out in the 'larger' world enjoying the fruits of the age of fire, like in Carim or Astora.
The path at 8:18 , if you are being followed by the shield hollows or even the black knight and you’re headed up the stairs with the hollow the kicks the flaming barrel, there’s a spot to the left where the waist high wall is broken and you can drop down onto a little ledge that seems like a death trap with no way to escape; but, from that ledge you can actually hop to another that is the spot included at the time stamp. Just a little way of juking out the enemies if they’re giving you trouble.
I wish I could wipe my memory and play this game for the first time again