Dark Souls Dissected #10 - Out of Bounds Exploration

Another Dark Souls Dissected, my longest video yet! This one is intended as a follow-up to my Lordran's Layout video, but focusing this time on out of bounds content.
Special thanks to TKGP, JesterPatches, Meowmaritus, Kahmul, Lokey, and everyone who helped provide more examples or information that I wasn't previously familiar with! And also HotPocketRemix for the multiplayer summons!
Tools used: Dark Souls debug, Dark Souls Map Studio, Dark Souls Map Explorer, and the noclip website.
0:00 - Intro
0:48 - The Duke's Archives Floating Door
6:00 - Undead Burg Hidden Doorway
7:28 - Doomed Basilisks of the Great Hollow
11:03 - Cutscene Content
19:22 - Enemy Perspectives
24:31 - Odds and Ends
32:48 - How Out of Bounds Content Hints at Earlier Designs
46:55 - Lordran's Layout Revisited
52:17 - Nito's Third Coffin & Pinwheel Lore
56:04 - Closing Comments

[@illusorywall]

Hello there! If you enjoy these videos please consider supporting me on Patreon! Any amount of support would mean the world to me! www.patreon.com/illusorywall

[@sharpfang]

Regarding the misplaced door, check the orientation (rotation) of it. This kind of misplacing content can happen easily in 3D editing software, when you move the asset by some stupid value and place it, say, 3000 units away instead of 3.000 units - and then for the life of you, just can't find where you put it. But the position change is usually translation, without rotation so there should be a wall the door fits without rotating. (and it may contain another door, if the 3D artist decided to spawn a new one to replace of the "lost" one, so doesn't need to be any of these 3 rooms.)

[@Blockhead7905]

@@sharpfang hmmwhg l

[@xRickAstleyx]

if you mention other videos youve done in a video, put a link in the thingy love u

[@moriarty2666]

Any other game: slowly gets forgotten Dark souls: let's analyze this door.

[@Odinsday]

The doors in Dark Souls have more character than most video game characters.

[@dr.simonius609]

I like that both of your profile pics match up

[@ArchangelExile]

I don't like how yours doesn't.

[@emoducky]

@@ArchangelExile and im absolutely livid that yours doesn't match either.

[@hardlineamerican8495]

@@emoducky How dare you have a profile pic that doesn't match.

[@courier6448]

Gwyn: "How do we defeat these everlasting dragons?" Seath:" *railguns* "

[@joethestrat]

In all fairness, he's not wrong...

[@danielnolan8848]

@@joethestrat lightning railguns sort of like from game of thrones

[@MrDalisclock]

Railguns are good for lots of things

[@joshmay2944]

The sniper crossbow looks like a heavy bow gun from Monster Hunter lol

[@AbsolXGuardian]

That was actually what I thought of. If the dragons were to attack anor londo, the rail guns could have been loaded with lighting enchanted projectiles

[@kerfuritogonzales]

underpaid intern: -misplaces an asset Souls community: -there is lore somewhere here I can feel it

[@KrankuSama]

These videos satisfy some weird urge in me, I snort up ds1 trivia like crack

[@lincolnenniscomposer]

Im glad im not the only one with this weird craving lol

[@salahad-din9168]

this shit basically is crack with the dopamine rush i get from finding possible new lore about the game

[@DarkLightGaming117]

@Greig91 If this game had of come out before the internet kids would have been spinning so many myths about what was and was not possible in this game lol. I kinda feel sad we can dissect something so thoroughly but also appreciate it a ton as well.

[@marving.8868]

Try smoking it it gives an even better rush! 😳

[@ICECREAMan2991]

Kranku you can’t snort crack btw. It isn’t water soluble. 🙂

[@ENCHANTMEN_]

"Hey Miyazaki, we're running out of time and we need to populate lost izalith. I was thinking various demons along with respawning black knights for lore reasons" "No. FIFTY DRAGON ASSES."

[@BioTheHuman]

I know that your comment is a joke, but the Dragon asses have a totally coherent lore explanation since the Witch of Izalith and her daughters destroyed dragon's homes (archtrees) and I guess they've built their new home there. Sure, I wonder why you build your home next to a zombie dragon ass 😶

[@mastermarkus5307]

@@BioTheHuman My question is why all the back sides though? What happened to the front halves of the dragons?

[@BioTheHuman]

@@mastermarkus5307 Maybe the Witch of Izalith has a fetish for dragon asses. She destroyed the front parts and kept the remaining 😅

[@duncanmc797]

​@@BioTheHuman just cause it has lore doesn't mean it isn't terrible

[@santana7827]

​@@BioTheHuman i always thought the butts were people who were mutated on the explosion like queelag or ceaseless discharge

[@thearkbuilder1268]

The cannons in anor londo were probably ballista a to kill dragons

[@corncobjohnsonreal]

Maybe a gauss cannon to take down covenant corvettes idk just spitballin

[@ttakenokon]

Wow that's very demon's souls

[@Zayindjejfj]

Definitely prototype BFG 10000s so that they would be ready to hand them over to Doom Guy.

[@rswindol]

Nah man, medieval rail guns.

[@Tacticaviator7]

@@corncobjohnsonreal be some chance, do you mean the MAC ?

[@Truncation1]

I'm suprised you didn't bring up the likelihood that the prison stairs were at one point intended to rotate around the room, that way all books would be accessable and the giant device with cogs would serve a purpose. There is also a slight gap between the stairs and walls too.

[@SaintPainkillerLinda]

Yes, that's what I was thinking as well. The rotation device is still in the middle, just dismantaled

[@illusorywall]

This makes a lot of sense, I think I hadn't considered that that might've been intended to be functional at some point in development. It's still interesting then that these two rooms have collision when there's a couple more unreachable ones that don't, but maybe there were always going to be some you couldn't reach.

[@Reliken]

@@illusorywall Sounds like a great topic for a supplemental/appendix video :)

[@soulreaverable]

Seems like the idea carried over to Bloodborne with the Research Hall rotating staircase.

[@Daedalus4]

They got rid of the rotating stairs after a couple of students got mauled by a three headed dog in the third floor.

[@TJDierks]

The unused rooms with collision in the dukes prison might also be a remnant of the original ida of the staircase. Originally it was intended that the spiral staircase was rotatable. Thats why there is machinery and stuff in the bottom center of the prison as a leftover from the unfinished concept. As in the lore it was used to reach all the books and then maybe you could reach those rooms as well.

[@Crypticexpert]

Ancient lore tomes tell me that it has known extensive use as a gladiator pit of the highest order.

[@jacthing1]

that would have been really cool to see

[@undeadwarrior3867]

I always thought no steps were needed because channelers can float.

[@tomhaswell6283]

I thought of that aswell.

[@fio_lume]

maybe they just wanted to put an unreachable channeler into one of the rooms you had to fight from a distance but decided that would be too mean.

[@kayinnasaki]

I love how you manage to find a use for literally every map viewer

[@illusorywall]

Thanks so much! I can not thank you enough for the one you released all those years back, and it's still the best tool for comparing the DLC to Darkroot.

[@DarkLightGaming117]

@@illusorywall can't wait to see what you do for Dark Souls 2 and 3 in the same vein you did Dark Souls 1! And Kayin thank you for those map viewers! They help so much showing the world and making it feel less confusing when your playing for those of us who are obsessed with trying to figure out how what is connected with where.

[@LightStorm.]

illusory wall yeah do dark souls 3 plz!

[@pierrealba]

I don't really see the point in doing ds2 and 3 in the perspective he's doing ds1. Ds3 has interesting level design but has little to no world design; and let's just pretend ds2 was a game where you picked a level from the menu cause the world design on this one was hilarious at best.

[@Zxnt97]

pierrealba I agree but I would argue for ds3, it have some good/great world design, but it’s linearity makes it fall short, Lee Moriya have great videos to showcase a little of it

[@LarDosGames]

Could you please consider making a video in the future comparing Dark Souls 3 Anor Londo to DS1? Expanding upon how Lothric was build on top with Irithyll/Dungeon/Profaned Capital/Smouldering Lake. I don't know how familiar you are with DS3 (with debug and stuff like that) but that would be awesome!

[@esteniogarcia7790]

Olha só quem tá aqui! kkk O amante da Lady Friede kkkk

[@murilloorlando]

Opa!

[@wanderlansambucneto3233]

Olha só!!!! O melhor canal do Youtubr Br tá aqui!!!!

[@OtakuUnitedStudio]

I'm curious of whether or not Lothric was originally built over Irithyll and the Profaned Capital or if that had to do with the whole "the kingdoms across the ages are collapsing into each other" thing. There's also a question of whether or not it's even part of Lothric, or if it's a neighboring kingdom and you have to cross the border through the Catacombs. Unless Farron Keep is actually part of Lordran, and the Crucifixion Woods are the actual border. Of course that's all speculation, since time and space are always convoluted in this series.

[@CJ-kb4gv]

@@OtakuUnitedStudio IIRC, Farron Keep is Oolacile/Darkroot Garden from DS1. The Demon Ruins in DS3 have a couple of big-ass burning trees, so probably the Ruins and the Ash Lake from DS1 got merged. Anor Londo made a come back as well; Irythill of the Boreal Valley seems to be the lower half of the city we could never explore back in DS1 (but changed ofc, because much time had passed since then). So yeah, I think Lothric was built upon a part of Lordran (the lower half of the kingdom I suppose). But it also left me thinking; the Profaned Capital was an underground city and there was a huge hole on the ceiling, plus, we could see Gilligan’s body petrified, so, is Drangleic also merged with Lordran and Lothric?

[@GuardianOwl]

In order to build New Londo you would need a large entryway to bring in materials, construction equipment, and workers. You can't get all that in from the tiny back entrance of New Londo into the Valley of the Drakes or the elevator from Firelink Shrine. So you have this large entryway leftover from the construction of the city, and thus need a heavy door installed to prevent invaders entering in mass / drakes from flying in to New Londo and running amuck. Sentry towers are constructed outside the gate to signal when it is safe to open the gate / to drive away Drakes to MAKE it safe to open the gate. Unfortunately for the residents they made these gates watertight (or they covered the cracks in the exterior of the gate with something like pitch or tar to make it watertight) enabling them to flood New Londo. Though now that I say that about the back entrance, I've just had a bit of an epiphany. What if Blighttown was originally a shantytown to mine raw materials to construct New Londo? The scaffolding, the constantly running elevator with large platforms, the tunnel that leads to the Valley of the Drakes and both the back and (eventually) the front gate entrance of New Londo, the barbarians with pickaxes, etc. The barbarians mine and roll the material over to the elevator where it is loaded and taken up as high as it can. Then it is either loaded onto a second elevator (that broke off and is no longer there) or perhaps the material was split into smaller bundles and hauled up the ladders by other workers. The city is completed, the workers' income stops, and they have nowhere else to go, so they just stay in the shantytown. Or perhaps this area was a mine even earlier than that and was used to build the structures above ground like the Undead Burg and the Parish previously. Eventually the tunnel used to get down to the mine was converted into the Depths, a sewer system to service the Undead Burg, and all that shit flowed downward turning the mine into Blighttown. At some point in its history, they built a tunnel to the mine from the Valley of the Drakes to complete New Londo.

[@illusorywall]

I love the idea of trying to figure out a purpose for Blighttown, and mining for materials for other areas (New Londo being closest and most-likely) seems like a great choice.

[@Fedethedangerous95]

wonderful theory!

[@balleet210]

I love your interpretation but I'm confused about the barbarians. As far as I can tell I haven't seen one with a pickaxe, only clubs and boulders.

[@Fedethedangerous95]

@@balleet210 you can't see any wielding a pickaxe but those with boulders can drop them

[@balleet210]

@@Fedethedangerous95 darksouls.fandom.com/wiki/Pickaxe Damn you're right! Okay I'm totally sold on the theory. Shame the description doesn't hint much to it.

[@Vasiliy9hells]

There is some god-tier perception this gentleman has. And probably a lot of patience. Very interesting video!

[@ronniewhitedx]

As good as we're going to get because none of the developers are ever going to speak out on any of this

[@lettuceprime4922]

@@ronniewhitedx and even if they did they all speak japanese so

[@Cewrin]

34:43 Lautrec sitting under the bridge looks so right. Does he just happen to line up perfectly?

[@sir.spliffalot_mobile4968]

Looks like his usual spot to me. I should have played enough dark souls (I) to be correct and i think if you face him he sits between the 2nd and 3rd to the left of the staircase that takes you to new londo. Also the floortexture he's sitting on just seems familiar

[@dawn1279]

that could be the reason you can now cheese-kick him into his death without any reaction. with a wall to his back the developers probably didnt consider this easy killstrat and forgot to update this later on. oh man things are starting to make sense now :O great video!

[@SilverAegis39]

@@dawn1279 wow this makes so much sense. Sittin in the middle of the place there always seemed off to me. Now i know why.

[@blackdragonxtra]

@@SilverAegis39 Where he is now is just asking for trouble. Why, some jeck might just come by and kick him off...

[@mad3ude]

Maybe he always sat there from the beginning of development, as if he was sitting in the shade of the bridge

[@Gigas0101]

Illusory Wall: "This door is a misplaced asset as seen in this demonstration here..." Me: "Seath put the door up there with magic 'cuz he's a silly dragon." VaatiVidya: "Prepare to cry, door edition." Hawkshaw: "Using the available information as a jumping off point, this door is actually Havel." IronPineapple: "Arcane Door PVP montage"

[@CloudyMason]

Lmfao how this didn't get more likes is baffling 👏

[@MatthewTheUntitled]

The best is, Hawk would actually prove that the door is havel

[@graaaaaaaaaaaaaaace]

@@MatthewTheUntitled Actually, it's Velka's door

[@Turai12]

Silly dragon ❤

[@Robocopnik]

Pinwheel could be doing something like "mantling" from the Elder Scrolls series, emulating a mythic/historical figure as a means of gaining their power, "walk like them 'til they walk like you".

[@Bluecho4]

The Rule of Similarity in action.

[@soarel325]

Hell yeah, first thing I thought of too!

[@SlurSlander]

isn't mantling more about merging souls and forming one body? like how the two headed king and Talos came to be?

[@soarel325]

Darin Sun Not necessarily. Talos is a case of three people all mantling one deity

[@Garviel-Loken]

My theory is that pinwheel after stealing nito's power has been cursed by it. Just as Nito is a giant skeleton with other skeletons, pinwheel was fused to his family once he used nito's power. Like Nito and the rotten (who has Nito's soul) are made up of multiple bodies just the portion of power pinwheel took was not enough to cause the same level fusion as the other two. I also believe (sorry tangent) if there was a plot against the god/lords pinwheel act of stealing power from a lord come before the plot and is what made the plotters realise that they could take the power and that the gods/Lords are not without weakness or flaw. I also think pinwheel thought to leave the tomb of the giants but came to the dead end he is now trapped in. The only thing I can't work out is why he fights everyone that comes his way although he may have been a member of the way of white as he doesn't appear to prevent them entering the tomb.

[@timecage]

Your speculation on Nito is nothing short of brilliant and shows how a non-lore guy can have a better, clearer look at things. It's simple really when you include your suggestions - we meet a whole bunch of Nito cultists protecting his lair because why wouldn't they, Nito is a godly figure and is clearly being actively worshipped, there's even a bunch of prostrating skeletons there. The three coffins and three masks suggest the same thing - the object of worship is actually the family of Nito, like a trinity. Worshippers huggle together (concept art shows three people, not a man, woman and child), don the masks to symbolize the object of their worship and cover up with black cloak which is also reminiscent of the object of their worship. Out of all these Pinwheel seems to be a heretic of sorts, wanting power for himself and thus stealing art of kindling, collaborating with occult rebels and taking control of the catacombs. Too bad there is so little on Nito in the game, seems like there were some neat ideas there.

[@illusorywall]

Thanks so much, I'm happy I was able to contribute to something that's normally outside my focus. :)

[@davinsosa1438]

Great comment, bruther

[@ImDemonAlchemist]

I know what you mean, but you did just imply that "a man, a woman and a child" wouldn't be three people.

[@lordfangar5671]

​@@ImDemonAlchemistI believe they meant more like: its just 3 random people not specifically a man, woman, and child.

[@ImDemonAlchemist]

@@lordfangar5671 Yeye, the wording just implies that they are two entirely distinct categories.

[@55fivefive]

The mounted guns on the wall in Anor Londo look like ballistae without the curved bit, which is apparently called a limb

[@illusorywall]

Ah, and it makes sense that a part like that could go missing in a low-quality LOD.

[@Thyrus017]

In the DLC, Hawkeye Gough mentions that Anor Londo didn't want to provoke Kalameet. Maybe the ballistae were used for defending the city against the dragons.

[@safetytheflamewolf]

@@Thyrus017 I see I was 4 days too late for that idea lmao

[@balleet210]

@@illusorywall I'm with you on the original idea that it's a medieval railgun. Makes super sense.

[@StephanuSneed]

@@Thyrus017 He probably says that because Anor Londo had already been deserted.

[@ericschuster2680]

46:15 lmao they wanted to put a FOURTH Asylum Demon in the game^^

[@scoob470]

Given that the raven picks you up in a similar way to when you escape the asylum and the demon is the first boss, my guess is that the painted world might have been the original starting point of the game.

[@fabf77]

At some point, at From Sofware offices someone: Hide ... miyazaki: what? I like it, look how adorable his tail is. someone: Hidetaka, stop! miyazaki: Ok, ok, I'll put some stupid dragon waifu here or whatever ...

[@metzen0]

@@scoob470 Considering theres snow outside the asylum its possible the bridge originally connected the 2 places.

[@knightornstein5902]

There's also the fact that the peculiar doll is found in the undead asylum, of all places. And that both areas are meant to keep things out of Lordran.

[@FreekinEkin2]

It's like finding a third Vanguard in the deleted Giants area of DeS

[@dartadeqso]

45:42 That place looks very similar to Shared Grave area in The Ringed City DLC.

[@IngeniousNinja]

Oh holy shit yeah it 100% does

[@VoidplayLP]

Youre right, though i doubt that is intentional, maybe just some reused collision or an accident.

[@Shaddytheguy]

@@VoidplayLP It totally could be on purpose. The Twin Princes boss fight in the DLC takes place on the ruins of Firelink Shrine. Pieces of DS1 are scattered all over DS3, your biggest hurdle would be that the painted world shouldn't exist outside its painting.

[@InfernoPlus]

The thing I find interesting about that floating door is that some dev made the decision to just yeet it out into the sky instead of just deleting it. Maybe it's like the same mentality I have when I comment out huge blocks of code because I don't want to delete them yet. Then they just get left there.

[@illusorywall]

That's probably it, then failing to realize/ remember that it wasn't fully out of view.

[@kenjen9861]

I assumed it was an oopsie in setting its' X Y Z coirdibates, if thats even how it works for world pieces :P

[@kenjen9861]

coordinates*

[@AbsolXGuardian]

@@kenjen9861 actually I wonder if swaping around the xyz cords could restore the door to it's original place. There are only nine combinations (3^3), so it wouldn't be hard to test using the software that moves objects around

[@thessop9439]

@@kenjen9861 YEETS*

[@Amphivian]

this video is really fascinating. the undead burg/firelink shrine connections were mind blowing, and i really enjoyed your lore speculation at the end. dark souls really is the game that keeps giving

[@frostbite3820]

Every time you think you have dank souls figured out you find something new!

[@Mercah_koondial]

I always thought lautrec was sitting in a weird spot, not against anything over a thin set of stairs over looking a cliff into lower Lordran. The mod showcasing the idea for the lower burg entrance really helped make sense of it by putting a wall behind him as support for the bridge. I think that alone really helps with the idea of a that being a old idea, after all no one sits the casually over a cliff.

[@JeremyComans]

I certainly enjoyed the extra tangents, and ideas about what objects could have meant for the design of the game. Why something exists is more interesting than just knowing that it does.

[@ShMokou]

Your speculations are less speculative than most dark souls lore speculations, cause have some basic evidence behind.

[@sir.spliffalot_mobile4968]

True, not even vaati has so much evidence i believe at least not for such obsurce stuff like the moving statue infront of the scrapped kiln entry

[@schizzler]

Sir. Spliffalot -Vaati works alot more with lore than the physical game itself, though. I realize they can be pretty close but he worries more about context.

[@sir.spliffalot_mobile4968]

@@schizzler Yeah who knew? Definetly only you could have told me, and i dont know how i'd have found out. On KZbin.

[@davidepastore5600]

@@sir.spliffalot_mobile4968 Not to devalue Illusory's work, but the scrapped Kiln entry is relatively common knowledge. The design works interviews are where everyone goes to look for cut content and ideas that didn't quite make it into the final game. Illusory brought a lot of interesting details to the table in the form of what the path would have looked like, how it would have connected to the Kiln and so forth, but it's not new information.

[@sir.spliffalot_mobile4968]

@@davidepastore5600 Ok, didn't know that. Sadly I only got to know Dark Souls in 2015 or smth so i dont know any of the trailers, pre-release details and interviews.

[@xBINARYGODx]

I absolutely adore the idea that we would enter the 'two bells' locations at the halfway point and then choose to go up or down to either bell. Yes, you can already do them 'out of order', but by the time you have the basement key, you might as well just kill the gargoyles and the only reason not to (assuming you're not going into the Garden area first) is really just to see how the game responds (or if you're doing specific runs where that just order just happens for other reasons). There are two places to go from the beginning right now and they trust that you will see you are not ready for one of them, so I see no problem with that actually being three with a sort first through third place in terms of hardest to easiest (or vise-versa).

[@genesisosuna]

The best order for me is get the master key always, pick up the zweihander, go from firelink to new Londo to valley all the way until the elevator which leads to the grass Crest shield and potentially the bkh, and up through the garden you can access andre immediately, upgrade or whatever, get the shortcut from the church to firelink and grab the soul, upgrade estus and then go to the burg from the garden where havel is, the same tower that links to taurus, kill him, and the hellfire dragon will not be present in the bridge, making it extremely easy to access lower undead burg without any risks, and if the gate gets shut, remember that you just came from andre's/firelink shortcut so that really isnt an issue since you'll be behind the gate, grab the key, kill capra, get the key to depths, get the large ember, and leave. Then just upgrade your weapons and kill gargoyles first so lautrec appears and doesn't immediately kill the firekeeper (for some odd reason if you kill quelaag first he doesn't spawn in firelink but after you killed the gargoyles the events proceed the same as if you'd leave him alive. I know, a bit complicated but when you play through it, it doesn't feel complicated at all. For me it just became muscle memory to go through this path

[@jojoversus1100]

@@genesisosuna I also muscle memory this EXACT path every single time, mixed with a few suicide runs for fun. Seriously. Reading this was jarring lol.

[@xBINARYGODx]

@@genesisosuna I do that two on most runs too - my post was more about not having that key (etc.) and blah blah blah

[@DarkHypernova]

To add to the "Nito had a family theory" and the statues. It's worth noting that the Rotten in DS2, who is an reincarnation of Nito's Soul, also makes statues that seem to depict a lost loved one.

[@RobinBaggett]

Illusory Wall: Here we have the abyss Oh my god that's terrifying.

[@scrubaatividya]

while you were talking about the old Statue animation, I realized that oviously this was the original way into the Kiln and ofc Andre was supposed to be a child of Gwyn but as I was thinking about that I realized that the cylindrical stone object that the statue connects to may actually have been meant to be interpereted AS a Kiln itself, you literally go inside a Kiln to get to the Kiln of the First Flame and then the logic behind the white corridor is to give off that effect of you walking into the true form of the Kiln sort of thing

[@JFTC709]

That would have been really cool. Would have worked really well thematically

[@lukewebb604]

They probably wanted Andre to still be the helpful character, the one that upgraded weapons and give advice (a more helpful crestfallen warrior). He makes divine weapons as he forges them out of the first flame. But they went heavier and heavier onto the blacksmith front and probably realised having access to the blacksmith straight away hampered progression a little. So they moved him further out and then replaced him with the crestfallen merchant

[@GamerRoman]

Big Man Illusory Wall delivering BIG TIME. THIS TIME.

[@darkwraith9548]

There is also a floating statuette at Old Yharnam,when you look up.

[@illusorywall]

Yes! When I wrote the line about the Duke's Archives door's notoriety, I was considering for a moment how popular it is compared to that floating statue. That would be the other big one for sure.

[@dickheadrecs]

i hope elden ring has a whole city of floating objects just to fuck with everyone

[@MasterSorez]

@@illusorywall Clearly, the floating door above Duke's is the door that leads us finally to open the shortcut to Cleric Beast

[@joaoandrade3038]

Yeah I saw takeh video too

[@twistedgwazi5727]

@@dickheadrecs dude predicted farum azula perfectly

[@JC-oq5ex]

I love how prism stones and bloodstains are now like the sextant and compass of exploring the greater world.

[@algi1]

6:30 I love how instead of removing a door they boarded it over, like it's real life and not a video game. 16:00 You fall closer to the ground? I thought the skybox is at constant distance. 46:00 So, I guess, this was supposed to be level 1 with the Asylum Demon dropping down and the crow taking you away.

[@scantyer]

At 16:00 he just disabled gravity. You can notice it in the (hard to read) debug menu on the top left.

[@scantyer]

Also I don't think the painted world was supposed to be the first level. Just because it was created it first doesn't mean it was Level 1 and the level is much more complex than the asylum. You gotta remember that in DeS the worlds are not connected, and the painted world in fact plays exactly like a X-1 level in DeS. They were just experimenting and trying to figure out what to do. Also Priscilla was supposed to be your companion (like every other soul game, they have a maiden to level you up) so she wasn't the boss either. The Stray Demon was supposed to be the boss of the painted world but they decided for the player to revisit the asylum and fight the stray demon and have Priscilla as a boss for the painted world instead.

[@Quaranyr]

@@scantyerWasn't it the Demon Firesage who was supposed to be the boss of the painted world? His data name is "SnowDemon" after all.

[@scantyer]

@@Quaranyr they're both reskins so it's the same thing really

[@FlameHidden]

Yes, the Painted World was almost a beta test of dark souls. They werent even going to include it in the final game until the final development cycles.

[@cryog3nic_759]

When you said on Twitter this video was going to be long... boy, you were serious. Great work, man. Keep up.

[@nerobiblios4086]

I like to imagine that Pinwheel is just a crazy fanboy of Nito *Pinwheel:* Oh, Nito-senpai, OwO. *Nito:* Ugh, just kill me now. Oh, wait.....

[@-Shinoray-]

UwU nito-senpai teach me your ways.

[@finhz]

Nito-Senpai can i be one of your body pweeaassseeee ^w^

[@Angenano]

Hey! Just wanted to say, i've "adopted" your understanding of Nito and Pinwheel, and wanted to share what i've "come up with" regarding them. I was trying to wrap my head around what Pinwheel wanted, did he want the Death Soul, or something like that? Well, before pinwheel, way of white members sent to the catacombs would end up in the tomb of giants, the skeletons praying in front of Nito's door. But imagine you're a cleric, sent to the catacombs to gain the rite of kindling and see Nito, and instead you meet pinwheel. I think that's what Pinwheel was doing, posing as Nito to the way of white, hence why you said he's like a bad cosplay. Now, is him becoming Nito his end-goal, or perhaps just a method of gaining control of the church? Patches the Hyena fittingly scavenges treasures from the corpses of clerics and then sells them to you... Except Patches also sells pinwheels masks.

[@metzen0]

More likely true than not.

[@Wveth]

The whole "Life Soul, Death Soul" thing is not remotely supported in canon, so there's that.

[@BioTheHuman]

Interesting Theory, but I think that The Way of White knew how Nito was. Also, the clerics going into the catacombs wasn't a thing until Pinwheel himself didn't stole the rite of kindling. It is said that the rite of kindling is passed down by clerics (so that you can use your humanity to kindle bonfires) so the options are: 1) Pinwheel was a cleric who stole the rite and participated into the plot against the gods and it seemed that he succeeded. 2) Pinwheel was already a necromancer and took place in the plot and maybe stole the rite directly from Nito or maybe from some Cleric who tried to defend Nito like, now that I think of, Leeroy himself. Maybe he mission was exactly that to stop or if discovered the plot later, to punish Pinwheel. I don't like the "canon" idea of the father trying to resurrect the family given by the community (it's quite odd in the dark souls lore, especially if we're talking about some strange necromancer) but it's also true that what other explanation could you give when he's experimenting with a skeleton on a table and a lot of books around it? But, now that I think of it, sure, i think it's 99% certain that Pinwheel was doing something with resurrection, but rahter than summoning its old family, maybe he was trying to break the Dark Sign and cure the undead curse? After all, why go against the Gods if not to help the rise of the Age of Men? Maybe he wanted to be the "Nito" (the first of the Dead) of the Age of Darkness 🤷 Or maybe he was just crazy and wanted illimted power ahahah About Patches and him selling the masks, I mean, I don't think they're such an unique item, but rather used by multiple necromancer and such.

[@lincolnenniscomposer]

Seeing an hour long DSD episode just made my day

[@SuperTinyhead]

I'd love to see one of these for DS2! I was the QA Assistant Lead at Namco for that game, so I've got a pretty good idea of what used to be hiding in the walls, but to be honest I've never poked around the finished game to see how much is still there. (there's still all kinds of weirdness going on with the boat to Lost Bastille, I bet)

[@Fedethedangerous95]

you WHAT? wow, that's so cool!

[@cynicalgold9992]

Im not saying youre lying, but this means we should see your name in the game's credits, right? That's cool as hell

[@l.pietrobon3925]

Just checked the credits and you're not lying! Nice.

[@l.pietrobon3925]

@@cynicalgold9992 I checked the credits and he's there

[@philliphelmut1077]

TELL US EVERYTHING YOU KNOW, SHARE YOU WISDOM WE BEG YOU

[@anonymousartist2176]

illusory wall: “Perhaps the most notorious misplaced item in the entirety of the soulsborne franchise is the floating door in the Dukes Archives” Me: The what?!

[@AH-vm8yo]

Maybe it wasn't misplaced maybe it was our character slowly losing their mind and going hollow facing their enevatable insanity they invent a story in their mind to try and cope with that fact and the door is a reminder that their still trapped in their cell slowly losing their mind awaiting the enevatable end of the world.

[@OtakuUnitedStudio]

@@AH-vm8yo You basically described Insight in Bloodborne.

[@brent8407]

about 6 playthroughs for me and I had no idea either...

[@genesisosuna]

I find the bloodborne floating statue more iconic

[@shazzakip2]

One potential explanation for the door: When designing the map, it's not uncommon to place something like a chair or door in the area to get a sense of scale. So this door may possibly just be a leftover item from when the map was first being made, to see how big it was relative to the character model

[@dannguyen7800]

just wanna let you know that your works are amazing and highly appreciated. much love

[@illusorywall]

Thank you! :)

[@gizgizelias6197]

U are hella underrated, keep up the good work my guy

[@BrvtusVG]

Great Pinwheel theory, I think it's also worth noting that there are multiple Pinwheels outside Nito's tomb. When I remembered this I started to see Pinwheel (boss) as less of an individual character and more of a member of a Nito cult, maybe even the in-game representation of the Gravelord Servants or offshoot thereof.

[@Chimera-man-man]

I think your cultist theory holds true given that Pinwheel isn’t the only Pinwheel we find in the game and how the others are just hanging out near the entrance to Nito’s boss room where a lot of skeletons appear to be praying to Nito Idk if this is speculation that goes too far either but it might be possible that the skeletons in the room wanted to assimilate into Nito (since he’s a ball of skeletons) and like you said the Pinwheels are trying to emulate that assimilation

[@theblackknight101]

Maybe they are trying to steal some of the skeleton to stick to themselves as they are scrambling to make their way to nito? Kinda dark tbh..

[@Darkhearts]

Because of my love for this series I'm deeply grateful for this content. Thank you and be safe

[@hypertrashsociety]

Man I wish we could have more details about the behind the scenes design decisions from the devs

[@illusorywall]

I want to know who thought of Vagrants and their underlying system. It's so unnessecary but also so cool. I don't think the devs have ever said anything about them.

[@petrstepan1714]

@@illusorywall I always wondered, why Filianore was holding a Vagrant...

[@CarrotConsumer]

I want to know why Big Hat Logan has a big hat.

[@GuardianOwl]

Also, random aside, the skeleton that Pinwheel is revering in the cutscene has 3 circular impressions on his skull in a similar pattern to the layout of Pinwheel's 3 masks, a Y-shape.

[@ozanozkirmizi47]

Friend... Do you have any idea how much we love you? I hope you really (at least a bit) do... Some questions, which were killing me since around 2013 finally (firmly) clarified & answered... Your work appreciated at the utmost level... Thank you so much...

[@straymerodach4713]

17:07 god dammit i jumped out of my seat at that Pinwheel jumpscare... now i feel like that cutscene should`ve been in the game

[@seantheimp]

This series is like crack... In particular I LOVE the discovery about the third coffin(I never even paid much attention to the second). The fact that the "exposed" coffin is empty makes it seem as if it may have been raided at some point, while the closed one has been walled off and protected. Perhaps Pinwheel made off with the remains of whoever was in the open coffin?

[@vaultt309]

Waoh, an hour long Dark Souls Dissected video. This is such an awesome thing to wake up to on my birthday. Thanks bro!!

[@thesuntitan]

Your production value really skyrocketed during this series, keep up the good work!

[@draxthedarkreaper]

I wish that someone would remake this map as a more complete version than in the game itself, more connected and with more possible out branching possibilities for paths to other places in would be lordran. Minecraft would be perfect for this but the full build would be insane to accomplish.

[@ImperialGuardsman2]

It wouldn't really be that hard with a bit of modding. As shown by how someone did some work to re-instate the removed shortcut.

[@diegonei]

Old Man reference! Limit, where is my Part two of the Pontiff's Rings/World Sword useless data??

[@jonvalev6054]

why not ask straight to the point.. *WHERE'S THE MIRACLE BUILD OLD MAN???!?*

[@diegonei]

@@jonvalev6054 You made my day, man!

[@Marin22427]

The Nito part makes sense but... 1. The presence of the coffins themselves implies the mother and the son are also dead. 2. The coffins are empty. That implies that they are like Nito; dead, yet "alive" in a way. So... WHO ARE THEY? WHERE ARE THEY? Dude, you just brought up so many more questions!

[@ztarhaven7658]

Maybe pinwheel stole the corpses and are in his costume?

[@gashokelliot9467]

Its possible that the "nito family" was conjoined, it would sorta fit with the pinwheel copycat theory.

[@ShMokou]

They all three can be a single Nito.

[@Thyrus017]

They're both probably skeletons within Nito.

[@Marin22427]

@LeadFaun I just saw Hawkshaw's video, and it seems plausible, with many in the comments adding that Priscilla could be his long lost love. Mythology and religion also brings to mind the holy trinity, as in the father, the son, and the holy spirit (the mother). How that may be tied to Nito, I'm uncertain, but the number three does appear in other parts of the game, possibly inspired by other philosophies. The other "three" that roughly makes sense is Gwyn's offspring. Ignoring the obvious sun and moon duality, and its relation to the masculine and the feminine, one can make an argument for taoism. Thus, Gwyn's Firstborn (The Nameless King) is the yang (masculine), Gwynevere is the yin (feminine), while Gwyndolin, a man raised as a woman, is the wuji (neither one or the other). That would introduce a whole host of other possibilities, as what at first seemed like a duality (light-dark, heat-cold, life-death) is actually a trinity. I'd have to read more of the lore to find the relations. To everyone else in the comments, it's been shown, according to Nito's Fandom wiki page, that his character model under the mess of skeletons is actually a single, huge skeleton. I know it could have been done to simply save time in creating an accurate character model, but FromSoftware is notorious for the level of attention to detail in their games, including things that can't even be seen without breaking the game (with the possible exception of DS2).

[@saedt]

The Pineheel theory is now my headcanon. I love how creepy it makes him hahah.

[@methyl5682]

Thank you for making my day better with your absolutely amazing content

[@hoboguitar148]

That drop down to the first butcher could also recontextualise the second butcher dropping down on you, it wouldve been a developer joke of sorts, reversing the encounter with the first one

[@Tom80099]

I can only imagen how much work and dedication has gone into this Video, or in your Videos in general. Me, as someone how only on the Surface or barely scratching the surface has tried to debug Dark Souls 1, can through this perspective only dream und still under estimate the work that you spend understanding the Souls-Series. Without further rambling, I want to thank you for sharing your great insights into this awesome Series. Thanks !!!

[@daniel-tv4hx]

So many years, so many videos and still so many things unknown in dark souls it really is crazy. I always watch these thinking it'll just be all the same stuff shown before and then there's like ten new things, it's like they planned out an mmo with how much this game has going on.

[@Chom-Chom]

I think I've watched all of dark souls dissected vids, but I keep coming back because these are actually really cool

[@LoreHunter]

This video was amazingly informative. Thanks so much for all of the work you must have put in to bring this. This video is really a testament to how cool this game is and how passionate the community around it is.

[@midnight-fox7456]

16:35 this cutscene would make Pinwheel low-key scary imo. You just entered a boss room (supposedly chased by a bunch of wheel skeletons) And now you're face to face with what seems like a crazy necromancer, one responsible for all the skeletons. He just turns around, and starts walking, before disappearing and re-appearing right in your face.

[@Justforvisit]

Hm, seems like they had to decide if they want him low-key scary or low-key difficult. Well, we all know the end to this story :P

[@midnight-fox7456]

@@Justforvisit Neither

[@julianxamo7835]

Great video, I love this, especially the lore speculation and how the game might have looked in earlier builds

[@j_c_93]

Hour long video? Let's go!

[@absoutezeo2126]

Love your content, and I can't believe I didn't find it earlier. I've been around since Demon's Souls, and have been really passionate about FromSoft's games ever since.

[@Rhetorical346]

56 minutes! I'll still watch every minute of content you release.

[@PiPi_AE86]

There's another curiosity on burg of the undead that i was hoping you were going to talk about: remember the ladder where a hollow throws you a burning barrel?under that ladder there's an entrance blocked by a few bricks, even there was supposed to be a bridge that connects that entrance to your side, also the ladder is broken in the border so you can try to jump from the ladder to that entrance but i never made it

[@andrewbowen2837]

Hawkshaw made a video speculating about that doorway, they think it's related to Havel and was the original entrance inside, but it was collapsed to lock Havel in

[@Reliken]

@@andrewbowen2837 If this lines up it would be so cool!

[@torrnoutlaw]

41:29 This might have been brought up before but the large stone structure behind the statue in Firelink Shrine looks like an ancient charcoal kiln to me.

[@jacthing1]

which would be quite fitting if it was originally going to be how you go to the firelink chamber

[@lqu]

I know literally nothing about Dark Souls, but I've been watching this for 30 minutes.

[@BotMechanic]

This hurts how bad i want more content from You. Ive binged your entire channel within the past couple days

[@carlcorder2775]

This. is. awesome! Thanks for all your hard work putting this together.

[@Tenchi212]

After looking at that bridge from Firelink, i looked around the walls around Firelink and the walls around the Kapra fight, what i found high on the walls behind and to the left of Kapras room was an out cropping underneath the ramparts. So i had thought that you would go over the bridge, ascend the wall the bridge leads to and would eventually wrap back around to the Kapras room from behind, explaining why there is a fair bit of unused room behind the arena with building textures. A "Lost" part of the Lower Undead Burg, with the Kapra Demon at the centre of both this lost area and the portion we see, effectively keeping the two areas separate until it's defeat.

[@Greendayfan666GD]

This series is so awesome

[@GamingIsmahNAME]

14:56 interesting that there's a platform for the Abyss despite there not being a golden fog gate down there. My speculation: maybe they hadn't figured out the trigger for Kaathe appearing there yet, so that lord soul shard was originally gated like the others were? 18:02 this is another interesting example of how the world design and some assets might have come before the lore, because the removal of the ability to open the flood gates from the outside obviously ties into the whole "sealing off the abyss" idea

[@illusorywall]

Ah, so for the Abyss showing from there, it's a little bit different than some of the other pieces you see and I perhaps should've clarified that. It may relate to the cutscene for transitioning to/from the Abyss via Kaathe, however, it's not a re-creation like the other pieces, it's the actual Abyss! The entire, actual map of New Londo Ruins is "pre-loaded" from the entrance of the Kiln, to make for a smooth transition there possible, but stepping on that particular invisible platform just makes the Abyss part display. I didn't show it in the video, but if I walked over the Abyss and turned gravity back on, I would've landed in New Londo Ruins somewhere and the map would've popped into view! Around 14:54 you can see a white object that's above and off to the side of the Abyss, that's the fog gate to the 4 kings. And for the latter, those are my thoughts exactly. It's like enemies having fall animations who will never wind up in that situation-- While you're rigging animations it's probably a good idea to go through a checklist of generic animations that are potentially needed and just do them all. I could see something similar happening for this setpiece.

[@GamingIsmahNAME]

wall that's so interesting, thanks for the clarification!

[@TheGemsbok]

Your explanations for the barbarian's boulders and pickaxes, the pair of giant gates in the Valley of the Drakes, and the function of the stone column behind Firelink Shrine, are all now canon as far as I'm concerned.

[@jdubluffy1959]

Love your videos!

[@TheGemsbok]

@@jdubluffy1959 Thank you!

[@spaceanimai5046]

Amazing to find a reference to RTCW in this video lol. I had the video on in the background and immediately recognized the cutscene just by hearing it. That was one of my favourite games!

[@revi1968]

I wish this video was an hour longer. Amazing content!

[@therappingrooster8]

Another great video as usual, its crazy how almost 10 years after the release its still being talked about and analysed Keep up the good work!

[@zyvan3179]

6 minutes to justify a single door way off in the distance I somehow never noticed. I love this community and all of your videos.

[@klackodonk]

Just watched the 10 videos that are out currently and I have to say this is a fantastic series.

[@mashedpotatoes_12]

I would love to see a Dark Souls 2 Dissected. Interesting video man, keep up the good work!

[@faili924]

Sick video man! loved your speculation and tangents!

[@radiocage]

This is one of the best Dark Souls videos ever. I love imagining the ways Dark Souls might have been different.

[@shady6281]

The map knows where it is because it knows where it isn’t, it subtracts where it was from where it isn’t so that’s how it knows where it is.

[@No-sr5fb]

Simple geometry

[@OldManMcLoyf]

Love your work, really helps opening a mind to new ideas of what was intended.

[@whitedude877]

Fascinating, informative, and no real fluff. Just saw #9, as well. Not to talk mess, but this sort of analysis is what I wanted out of Boundary Break, but never really got. I kind of moved on from Dark Souls 1 in the last few years and came upon this randomly. What a treat, as your own passion as a fan adds a lot and reminds me of the good times I spent with DaS.

[@scantyer]

Boundary break is do shallow.

[@MonteKowalsky]

I feel like Pinwheel’s masks and the statues might be more a reference to Gwyn, the mother statue in Firelink/Sunlight Altar, and Gwyn’s Firstborn that didn’t get explored or used, but object assets stuck around in the final game. Maybe Pinwheel is trying to bring back the world’s gods, control them through effigies, or perhaps it’s an abandoned hook for a story about Gwyn’s Firstborn. Fun to think about for sure

[@nbr6116]

Praise the Sun! A new Video!

[@numuhukumakiakiaialunamor5174]

Honestly, now I wanna play the older version of the game, with this cut content in place. It looks really interesting. Nice vid, as always!

[@Lee.Moriya]

Phenomenally in-depth video, awesome work. Every time I thought "I wonder if he'll talk about x", you did, and mentioned tons of stuff I never knew. Very likely the best compilation of OOB content we've seen.

[@MrNasexD]

I don't know what it is but your videos make me feel like i'm back in 2012/2013 and I love it. Thanks for your work man!

[@Waylander893]

Loved your video, keep up the good work! The tangents were fun and interesting too!!

[@scantyer]

Holy shit that unused depths entrance is mindblowing! Another thing that points in favor of that: The depths is marked as one of the first maps in the game (m10-0) so maybe it was supposed to be a much earlier area during development!

[@MegaCygnusX1]

I think your speculation on Pinwheel/Nito is bang on, frankly. The scythe like addition to the corpse's hand on Pinwheel's table clinches it. Fantastic video, I hope you'll be deconstructing Elden Ring as thoroughly.

[@quentinr5286]

God I love this game

[@Radriar___9946]

This must have taken over 100 hours to make. As a hardcore DS fanboy i love seeing this type of stuff and it seems like you really enjoy the content you make. I hope we will be talking about Elden Ring a decade later just like with DS. Keep up the great work man!

[@shotmytv975]

not being able to shoot the tiny rats in the depths reminded me that in the painted world, up the staircase where you get the red soapstone, you can shoot the crow people (if they're still perched on their ledges) with an arrow and it'll just go through them. also I'm surprised you showed it but didn't talk about how you can (kinda) walk back to anor londo from the painted world if you go out of bounds above priscillas boss room, unless i missed it in another video.

[@zomeraktiven]

How have I not found your videos until now? Time to binge-watch all you got. Subbed!

[@bxusan2886]

Awesome vid dude as always.