Unremarkable and Odd Places in Dark Souls
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- Опубликовано: 27 апр 2024
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As soon as the scripted part was done I felt the video came together better. I think as I explore this format more I’m gonna try incorporating less movement in the footage, more ambient shots, keeping the camera still, etc etc. just an idea for you, but I definitely think there’s room to expand the format and the best way to do that is for more people to participate in it. Solid addition to the canon.
Edit- I’m also going back and forth on the title. I appreciate that it might be part of why it performed reasonably well, but it could just confuse people for both of us in the long term! Food for thought. Good video.
I was wondering if you were going to end up seeing this, I'm glad to know it eventually reached your eyes. Initially I wanted to do something a lot more similar to your videos, with a bit of a twist talking about the art creation process and how it relates to my thoughts on art, tying it more into things I've made in the past, but the more I worked on it the more I strayed from that vision. If I do end up doing something like this again, I'll probably use a different title, but in the meantime I'm glad to have your blessing!
yeah i don’t really like how the title is blatantly ripping off your titles i thought this was one of your videos at first
Bro... Shut up...
The title is fine
Fine Bros moment
I liked finding places in Dark Souls 1 where I'd say "Yeah I could sit here for a hundred years being an undead merchant."
tbh it doesn't sound too bad, chillin in the wind as the eternal castle stands for centuries, and there you are. just hangin
@@bloomsux69 to me thats the biggest part of the allure for the atmosphere of dark souls. all the npcs just sort of hang around existing in this uncanny state of peace when the world around is crumbling.
@@sebakisniesebakisnie6109 Then one day everything goes pitch black. "Guess that chosen fella decided to not link the flame...damn, there goes my sales."
I think, being undead, you wouldn't really know how much time had passed
Such a vibe tbh
Dark Souls has so many random out of bounds spots with no purpose that are only reachable through strange jumps and in my opinion they all have the same kind of feeling
@ 9:30
So those chest are actually really cool and clever. The DLC has 4 Dark Sorceries. One, Pursuers, is traded for the soul of Manus. The other 3 where unearthed or crafted by the people of Oolacile and used to be stored in that room. However, two of them were stolen/removed from that room. You get there and there's 2 dark sorcerers at once in that room, something that is a first and three chests. One of them contains Dark Orb, a dark sorcery. The other two have been looted already, hinting at two more spells you can find later on, the thieves having been hunted down by the dark sorcerers, one with Dark Fog in the big hall, who's been hanged from a chain, presumably as punishment, and the other with Dark Bead way down in the Chasm Of the Abyss, again with their assailants/pursuers still around their body
makes perfect sense! i always wondered if this room with empty chests (uncommon in the game) had any lore implication, thanks.
I will never get tired of Dark Souls 1. It really is the forever game. Thanks for putting out so much great stuff recently.
Holy shit its Brian M from streets
It really is. My first and favorite. Got a couple friends that played 3 and Elden Ring but never bothered with 1 because it was too “slow & clunky”. To me, the atmosphere and feeling I get traversing Lordran is essentially unmatched by any other game
Best map of any game@@proggz39
It’s kinda transcended a video game for me with all the lore, breakdowns, commentaries, and random Dark Souls trivia I consume. It’s like taking solace in a work of art that is interactive and can be traversed in a 3D space. It’s honestly my favorite piece of media of all time.
@@proggz39 unfortunately I can see the issue from going back to DS1 from games like ER, DS3, and BB especially. It's like starting people at Resident Evil 4 and have them play RE1 remake as their next game, they would hate it. It's all context, that's why if I ever get into new series' I always start from game 1, even if it isn't the chronologically first in the story, like the Devil May Cry games.
If you visit actual old castles, they have these same types of odd, impractical or useless spaces. DS1 nails that beautifully.
This was a really fun watch! I love thinking about the weird little corners and nooks that don't have much purpose. I relate 1000% to the "strange feeling" these spaces can evoke when you stop to think about them. Occasionally, rarer mechanics will make use of these spaces, which is really cool. It shows the developers thinking about putting *something* there when they can. For example, the empty dead end behind the Balder Knight shown at 2:20 is actually the potential spawn location of an Evil Vagrant. At 6:20, a group of Gravelord Black Phantoms can spawn there as well, and in my video on Gravelording, I commented on how it was interesting to me that they put some extra enemies there specifically because of how it felt like they just wanted to make use of that space. Those enemies are far enough off to the side of the entrance to Artorias that it's unlikely they'll even see or aggro on you. Most extra enemies are there to make the game harder, but those are particularly easily avoidable, so to me it really felt like just "rounding out the map", if that makes any sense.
And getting a Red Good Vagrant was awesome! At around 9:38 you can hear its insect-like sound effect and I immediately said "no way!" (I've spent too much time messing with them to not be extremely on-guard for that sort of thing). It's cool you caught a glimpse of it; The most cryptid-ass thing in a video game to exist, lol. I think it probably heard you and approached your location, they can be curious and want to investigate the source of the sound like other enemies. However, once it properly "sees" and "aggros" is when it'll actually run off and disappear. I believe the investigating the sound source can explain why sometimes they wander a little bit from their spawn locations, I've found one not at its spawn location in New Londo Ruins and the Undead Burg before as well.
Sorry for the incoming dump of comments but I've also spent so much time wondering about these locations and have thoughts on some of them!
At 16:56, I've always suspected this extra Darkwraith was here to overlook Beatrice's summon sign. Her sign is by the ledge and not back in that corner, but you do have to pass by this enemy's line of sight to reach it and forces you to engage it. Or maybe it's not intentional, but it's still a good interaction between two kind of oddly-placed things.
22:50, this platform is an unused alternate entrance to The Depths! There's a video called "Secrets of the Sunlight Altar" by Diamond that goes into a lot of detail there. In the final game, there's still a set of breakable boards (a completely unique asset/object) in the ceiling above that platform in the Depths, leftover/ scrapped content on how you would've fallen in through the roof.
23:50, I believe this is the remnants of an unused path, something I haven't covered/ shown yet in any of my videos. It's impossible to make sense of by just going out of bounds though, there's no collision back there, and from down here, the thing that helps indicate that it might be a cut path isn't rendered. I believe this path might've originally lead to a tall ladder that went up. There's no evidence of the ladder itself, but following the out of bounds curved path lines up to an unused path a lot higher above it.
35:00, Lautrec's summon sign is placed here! It's so out of the way and easy to miss and I think a lot of players don't even realize that you can also summon him for the Gargoyles. On top of being in an obscure location, you'd have to free him and then meet him and talk to him in Firelink Shrine first anyways.
43:20 On top of this beam is an invasion spawn location. I've wondered if those paths to be able to get back down there were somewhat intended in that if an invader could wind up there, that you should be able to get to that same location on foot as the host maybe?
1:00:50 This weird side area is one of the spots where I'll drop items that can spawn Good Vagrants. I'm always on the lookout for weird nooks to drop Drift Items as to hide them from the players who receive them, and I feel like this is the place to do it in the Painted World!
1:05:50
I knew about most of the red phantom and vagrant spawns thanks entirely to your videos, actually! It's crazy to wake up to one of my favorite RUclipsrs commenting on my video. I had no idea vagrants even made noises until I saw that one in Oolacile, and definitely had no idea they wandered, that's crazy. I've seen people mention Beatrice's and Lautrec's summon sign, but it feels more like they were placed after the fact. Not that they were, but that these spaces that happened to be here were good places already, even if they were created with that express purpose. Honestly, same goes with the vagrant, red phantom, and invader spawn points, the places do still feel very odd to me. I'm glad you enjoyed, and thank you so much for watching!
hey if you like the vibe of these videos Any Austin came up with the title and has made a bunch of videos like this for different games
The legend himself, Illusory Wall 🥹
Fromsoft: look at these huge architectures and impressive level designs.
This guy: this little nook in the wall gave me many emotions!
My favorite spot in the entire game has to be the short forest path you take from Anor Londo to the Duke's Archives. No enemies, no items, just this strangely real feeling little forest path that you are just supposed to walk through without thinking about it. They didn't have to have it there, they could've just have the tunnel somehow connect directly to both levels, but no there's just this little patch of summer forest that doesn't feel like it's part of either level
That is my favourite place too, Im surprised somebody else likes it as much as I do
You know I never really thought about it much, but as soon as I read your comment I knew exactly where you were referring to so it must have stuck with me for a reason. Idk if it's necessarily relevant to the video though, because that is an intended path, and clearly something that the developers assumed the players would see and be drawn to. It's intentionally placed rather than just kind of spontaneous appearing as a result of other level geometry, which is the real topic of this video. I only bring this up because then it begs the question, what was the developers intention? I mean sure it draws the players attention, and makes it clear that this might be the start of a new area, but as a souls borne fan we must dig deeper and overanalyze everything!!
@DivineBanana I think it fits simply because you're not intended to linger there. You're supposed to pass through, it's a hallway, not a room on its own. Lingering there makes you see it outside of its normal context, and the space itself does feel pretty odd
@@solarpellets I see, thanks for the context. I definitely spoke out of line there because honestly, I just started watching and I'm still not even 10 mins in. If it's something you put in the video then my comment doesn't make sense, because obviously that location is relevant to the video lol. And with your reply, I see how it still fits within my own (probably poorly) summarized definition of your video.
Long story short, awesome video so far and I'll keep my mouth shut until I watch the whole video before I leave another comment that would likely get answered if I just watched the whole thing. Much to the dismay of others, I just get excited and like to hop into the discussion even if I don't know what's going on lol. Keep up the good work!
@@DivineBanana I don't think you spoke out of line at all, I love this sort of discussion! I just hope you enjoy the video :3
This video makes me so happy and validated because my approach to Ds1 has always been to take things slowly, and observe and linger in random places. My friends have never understood the appeal of me standing still above the waterfall in darkroot basin for 15 minutes and just contemplating. It doesn't have to be all about productive and optimal gameplay -- it almost feels like Ds1 with its liminal ambience and lack of soundtrack outside of boss rooms is specifically asking you to vibe.
Hard agreeeeeeee
rare take massive w
The frog in that area is one of my favorite sounds in the entire series
This is legit a relaxed rambling dark souls yap sesh and I’m not ashamed to say it felt like I was at a friends house listening to them talk about a game they enjoy and I fell asleep to it
This is a certified Knight Laurec of Carim banger
keheheheheheheheheheh
The armor is from the fire keeper in anor londo
@@Black0utcs no it's Lautrec
@@pinkydemongames5969 isnt the helm is from the firekeeper man
@@pinkydemongames5969 he is using the brass set, not the favor set. Just google it. Just the color match, but they're definitely different. Idk why people mistake the 2 set. They're completely different... u can check this on wiki souls for DS1
“It’s Nostalgia for something you never knew” -Terence McKenna
Every Dark Souls playthrough for me always inevitably turns up the fantasy of "where is a mostly safe location my character could reasonably set-up camp in?" so this video concept is 200% up my alley.
The idea of good level design, especially towns and buildings is not just to build whats required for the player to do his journey but spaces with perception of past time. Rooms and walkways which once hat a purpose but lost it. Buildings who got extended, doorways shut, abandoned. Collapsed bridges which lost its purpose and kept broken. Statues stuffed away in a building for no one needs them anymore. This is why DS1 feels so much more "real" than DS2 with barren square rooms to home a bonfire and nothing else.
There are no barren square rooms that do nothing but house a bonfire in DS2. The closest thing I can think of is the bastille, but that's literally a cell, so it's diagetic. Most bonfires in DS2 are outside, on cliffsides, ruins, or in storage rooms. There are a couple in empty square rooms, but those are the primal bonfires, those rooms were built around the bonfire in the world, not by the devs. DS2's level design is on par with DS1, if not better at times. There are some exceptions, but generally DS2 is very good and feels very diagetic.
@@solarpelletsSoldier's Rest in FOFG, below Belfry Sol in Iron Keep, King's Gate in the castle and the one behind the hidden wall if that counts, not to mention the ones behind the hidden walls in Aldia's Keep and Earthen Peak and the one Dragon Shrine, and the second one in the Undead Crypt.
That's just off the top of my head and not counting the DLCs nor vanilla, which would probably be worse here.
I prefer DS2 over DS1 for my own reasons and have played it more than most if not all other games, but I think there is zero chance that DS2 is anywhere close to being as diagetic or "feeling real" as DS1. It always felt the most artificial to me by a strong margin.
@@solarpellets I have to agree with derpi on this one. The other side of the issue is with DS2s lack of attention to detail in many areas. In Dark Souls 1, you can often break the diagetic presentation of the world if you know where to look by finding big texture seams, poorly modelled distant landmarks that dont make sense, etc.
But in DS2, you don't need to know where to look. So many areas just 'feel' like videogame levels, to the point where even going through them normally I find myself thinking of them as a collection of boxes floating in a void, rather then part of an actual consistent world. Some of the worst offenders are the Shaded Woods with the ridiculous and ugly trench-paths, Earthen peak with its awful ceilings (seriously, don't look up when you go through that area if you value your immersion), and Old Iron Keep with the huge boxey and abjectly purposeless areas.
It's a really weird game, for that reason. I've always felt like DS2 kinda feels like a dream: the combination of the more traditionally told main story with that weird vagueness of that games deeper lore, and the nonsense world design make Drangleic feel so different to any other area in a Fromsoft game. Except Kings Field. Seriously, I don't know if you've played Kings Field IV or any of the older ones, but Dark Souls 2 has the visual atmosphere and vibe of a Kings Field game almost exactly. It's uncanny.
Anyways, it'd be a great game for this sort of video. It has a LOT of weird small areas.
I'm so happy to hear someone else also gets that weird feeling in certain places in DS1! I think it's because the game does such a great job at making you feel like it's a real place, your subliminal mind feels like there MUST be stories and history attached to places that seem otherwise empty. For the places like the street beside Capra's arena, the world feels so fleshed out that it tricks you into being certain there's more to it, and that in turn causes that feeling of longing to go and explore more of the world. Even though we know there's nothing there really.
It's almost a feeling of frustration - a desperation to know more about the world while simultaneously knowing deep down there is no more. Great video that excellently showcases this, in any case
I think this, combined with how interconnected the world is, is why DS1 is so many people's favourite of the series from a level design perspective. It constantly finds ways to suck you in by mixing in places you Can't go with places you can (which may also be why DS2 is the least liked, as you can't see much of either). You can't ever be Certain that you can't go somewhere, so your desire to see if you can keeps you mapping out the world. And every little secret, every little hint of life and lore deepens that desire.
It's also a large part of why Izalith and especially Tomb feel so rushed and unfinished, there's nothing you can see but can't go to, and all the history and lore is basically just surface level, despite their predecessors both being excellent levels for that sense of mystery.
DS3 made some good use of this as well, but I think that the noisy, high resolution, gray-washed graphics took something away from the effect in places, though the view from Vordt is still great for getting you to Want to explore the next few areas (though the lack of areas you can't reach or aren't intended to reach does detract from it a little).
The Dark Souls of Any Austin videos
The random ass vagrant was just the cherry on top lmao, great video.
In Dark Souls 3, between the Crystal Sage bonfire and the Cleansing Chapel bonfire, you can find the Cathedral of the Deep bonfire (with the Paladin's Ashes nearby). Look up towards the stairs and turn a bit to the left, towards the tree line. There is a small clearing up on a hill in that direction that is incredibly liminal. I've played DS3 on and off for some 6 years and only recently did I discover this place. But it wasn't forgotten by the devs, that place actually has a Titanite Shard!
I have been playing DS3 since release and have 400 hours in the game. Thought I had found everything. Then I read your comment and I just had to check out that spot you mentioned. Re-installed the game this evening, and was floored to find that indeed there is a wonderful little clearing that I have never found in my many playthroughs. It has now become one of my favorite spots in the game, just because it's so liminal and cozy. So thank you!
17:10 that's where the witch's summon sign is if you're human and you used her in the butterfly fight.
i get the same feeling with cod zombies barricades, i always wanted to go behind them so bad even though i knew nothing was there and it's out of bounds, hard to explain 😂
I haven't played much cod, but I had the same experience the couple times I watched friends play or whatever. There's no reason for me to go out there, I just kinda want to lol
For me, Demon's Souls through Dark Souls II in particular hit me really hard in this regard a lot. The graphics, especially lighting, are such that a lot of stuff feels like it takes place in some far away dream place, where the weather is overcast and it just finished raining not too long ago (which I associate a lot with my childhood home town). Not to say the later games don't have this at all, but something about the first three games hits harder in this regard. The sheer amount of weird little crevasses everywhere make it seem like you could keep exploring and always find one more illusory wall that takes you somewhere noone has ever been to before. There's a certain tranquil stillness that seems very intentional and it really adds to the feeling that you could drop off a ledge in Undead Burg, get lost in an old forgotten part of the world for eternity, and when you finally make your way back after forever has passed, it'll all still be as you left it.
Also, if you do one of these for Dark Souls II, I recommend checking out the upper cliff area in No Man's Warf where you can see the obvious two dimensional buildings behind all the rocks, just out of reach for your character to get over and see the area below.
I'm already working on DS2, I'll add that spot to my list!
I'm also planning on doing Demon's Souls at some point, but I don't know that one very well lol
@@solarpellets I think there's a lot of spots in the shaded woods that do this for me, too. Lots of the little paths and dead ends forking off and connecting the more major landmarks fit this idea well, I think. That always made it one of my favorite areas in that game.
I didn't think I had anything unique to say when the post came out, but nost of these spaces resonated with me in that way, just I had half-forgotten them, having noted that there was no reason to visit them, and that made them feel weird, then never visiting them.
the place I feel a feeling like this for most, though it's not the same feeling, is the sunlight altar area. it's my favourite bonfire, I like how private it feels sometimes, like, a lot of people won't find a way to get over there their first time, and even after opening the gate, there's little reason for anyone to come back through that gate. it's shady inside, but lovely outside. it's grassy, and that little nook with the bench is my favourite spot in the game. I don't really pay attention to the flat grass, maybe because I play in glorious 720p, but it's a really pleasant, sunny, and enclosed little nook with a bench, and I so wish I could sit there. it reminds me of a place at my old school behind the red brick music house, with a wooden bench, and viney seperating wall, making it really nice feeling to sit in that corner, like how you feel about the corner in the demon ruins I guess. there was also a corner in the outside courts, where there was just an apparently useless wall making a pretty large, but also pretty narrow relative to length, space with three wall. I never sat there, and it probably would have been cold to sit since there was no bench, just concrete, but it was usually sunny there and it did look nice. and the cricket cages which were similar, and probably would have been amazing for reading in if you got there at the right time of a sunny day, but for the fact that they were always closed. probably coulda gotten in alyway though . . . also the unused office which was open to access, and had a bunch of seats in it, and, for a glorious, sunny year, was largely uninhabited but for me and the biggest book in the school library . . . those places are why I love the nook with the bench at the sunlight altar
bittersweet memories
35:00 i totally get how you get that feeling here. But that spot does in fact have a purpose: after freeing lautrec and talking with him at firelink, you can summon him here to fight gargoyles.
A lot of the places that you say "have no purpose" are places that you can jump down to from above, essentially they are platforms that help you traverse the area.
Many others are NPC questline locations e.g. Lost Izalith pit and Ash Lake are both required for Seigmeyer's story.
@@grief_hammer Yeah I was thinking to myself : "dang, SolarPellets really never did Onion Bro's quest", lol. Kinda nuts for someone who loves this game so much.
I've done the quest several times, you need to do it at least once for a couple achievements. I don't know that I've gotten siegland, but I've seen people do the quest. Those places that you go for the quest were all recommended by other people and I never said they were purposeless like the areas I knew of beforehand.
I personally encounter bottomless pits pretty often in real life
I have no idea why i watched this 1.5 hour video even though its so odd and unremarkable
People also seem to forget that the area in Lost Izalith with the Chaos Eaters is one of the final locations of Siegmeyer's quest, where he jumps down to fight them and you have to help him before they kill him. I will agree that it is an offputting area that fits well in this video though.
There's a lot of spots in Dark Souls that you have to go out of your way to get to and contain random items, usually souls. I find new stuff all the time, even after many playthroughs. They all remind me of this
I would love to see you do something like this for the zelda series
Any Austin has already done that for OoT, MM, TP, and BotW, maybe others
The forest you showcased at 1:21:50 is the exact place I thought about when I saw this video. As you mentioned, you're usually just supposed to run down the ladder and head straight for the crystal caves, so it is often overlooked. It's a cozy little place between the behemoth that is the archives and the alluring crystal caves, and it gives me that weird nostalgic feeling you pointed out earlier in the video.
30:05 I've heard people say that the lore of this spot is that there was a bridge there, someone tricked Havel into going across, then they destroyed the bridge trapping Havel in the tower.
the Duke's Archives forest section gave me the feeling i was looking at a like, mid-tier japanese game on the ps2, mixed with Quest 64. The repeating floor textures, the artifically natural tree placement, the fog off in the distance, the desolation and ability to just kind of walk through, and the haphazard enemy placement mostly along the edges combine to produce a very off location. there's no animals, no music, no noise... its my favorite spot in the video for evoking the 'liminal' feeling so strongly.
I think the reason the spot at 20:30 is so compelling is because it uses every bit of the language of videogames and particularly games like dark souls that tells you that is a "place" you can be. It is mostly surrounded by walls textured like the rest of the place, is directly connected to the actual walkable level and has a fully flat surface that looks in a weird way "solid". Most of the game isn't spent on such flat surfaces, but instead you start to get a sense of when a surface is too slanted or too busy to be a part of the level instead of just scenery. A fully flat surface like that just seems so... sure, like you'd be certain you can be there. It's like a hidden calculation your brain has grown accustomed to doing and in this case reaches the wrong conclusion.
Edit: I guess this could be applied to most of the video too
30:26 this honestly looks like a GODTIER reading spot.
This video has helped me conceptualize what exactly about dark souls 1 is so enchanting. The other 2 games have things I can specifically point to for why I like them so much, but for a while dark souls 1 has just kinda been the one I still hold in high regard without being sure why. Taking a look at the less traveled parts of this game reminds me what made it great in the first place.
Yeah I feel the same. There's a comfortable liminal spacey feeling to DS1
The metroidvania style progression system necessitated a lot of strange in-between spaces, I think that's why none of the other Fromsoft games give off the exact same vibe. The world had to make logical sense so that people knew where to go.
Wow im os glad this was recommended to me! Just an hour and a half of talking about niche dark souls things with your soothing voice narrating it all.
I think the point of the bridge in Sen's is to show you the part of the game that is upcoming, the giant loading the ball (so you understand you can kill it to stop the ball). Not every room has to serve a material purpose.
Wow, that's actually a cool topic to discuss. I never consciously thought about this feeling, but it feels familiar.
Also, your voice is so sweet and soothing. It's just nice listening to you.
2:26 one thing to consider for the souls games is that the world has a PVE and PVP function.
Regarding PVP: There are many areas that are built for people to evade, hide, or trap other players.
Regarding PVE: That bridge may be empty in now, but there are things that change areas in the game. Either an NPC quest, for people to go back here and check back, or in a later NG+ there might be an item there.
However, I do agree that they could decorate the end of that bridge to communicate more clearly "hey you've fully explored this for now"
When I was playing Dark Souls 3, this feeling I almost didn't feel it. There's a lot of rooms that or corridors that doesn't make sense. Onfe of these is the palace where the White Wyvern is in the Lothric Castle, there's no normal way to reach that place if you're not falling, there's no door that connect that room or corridors (even if they're decoration only). It's like the architechts that make that castle make it only possible to reach that room by falling (+15 mts)
The stuff you said in the beginning of the video about how the weird liminal/nostalgic feelings that Dark Souls’ weird spots is evokes in you is different than the lore-related sentiments evoked from that one comment you read makes complete sense to me and it’s why I love From Software’s games so much in the first place - you can appreciate the game-ness of the little details of the world design, weapons, bosses etc while also appreciating the attention to detail From Software puts in their world design and shit to build up the game world and lore.
If fact, I'd say they help feed into each other, the very fact that there IS so much detail and lore makes the small cracks that show the development blind spots all the more fascinating. The fact that there are blind spots makes you think about what the lore to explain those cracks could be. Why was that little hallway in Firelink built? Was it just a game contrivance, or was did it serve some purpose before it fell to ruins? Both hold their own intrigues.
@@theapexsurvivor9538 I’m glad you understand
10:37 those open chests indicate the 2 dark spells that were taken from them. Dark Bead and Dark Fog.
Pleasant uncannyness is the best term I can think of to describe the common yet distinct feelings the many different things you talk about in this vid
6:00 there are 3 black phantoms there in ng+ if youve been gravelorded
40:36 you actually can go there, you can drop down from the iron golem arena with fall control
Whenever I find these spots I always feel so cozy standing there for some reason
10:49 you can drop down from above to kill the sorceress easier. I couldn't manage to do it from the stairs. Glad I noticed it in my playthrough 😅
You missed some of the best spots - that one balcony that you can reach from the new londo elevator is a personal favourite, also there are a lot of cool distant little corners with nothing in them in places like blighttown, demon ruins, lost izalith, darkroot etc.
The big walkways in the kiln of the first flame also give me this feeling
Also dark souls 2 is a goldmine for these places lol
In dark souls 3, i especially this for smouldering lake, it just feels so out of the way and not that significant
I’d also love to see you do one of these for bloodborne and elden ring
Some observations and comments I want to list...
10:48 I'm not sure if you noticed, but the ledge is supposed to be the remains of a bridge. You can see across where it was intended to connect. It didn't always go nowhere.
12:56 I don't think it's meant to be a "room", but more a space between two separate buildings. Why there are windows looking out into absolutely nothing is a little weird. I do know sometimes architects do put windows looking out into unremarkable areas, such as a small alleyway, sometimes just to add some symmetry, but this isn't the case here. No window is on the opposite side of the building. That window was placed solely for the player to traverse.
25:20 The most bizarre thing about these rooms is the dissonance between the interior and exterior. They are all just cubes on the inside, but the building when viewed from the outside has a more complex shape that would suggest a different internal layout. You can see on some of these buildings that there are window frames on the exterior, sometimes parallel to the rooms, but windows are completely absent on the inside. They also evidently have multiple floors, but there is no sign of a staircase or ladder leading up to these floors. It's very weird that they didn't at least add like an inaccessible door or a hallway blocked by rubble to at least imply they are meant to be more expansive without having to actually expand the map.
30:25 I think what makes the grass look out of place, is the fact that we are technically in a gatehouse atop a city wall. This is a tall stone brick structure, high above the ground. Why is there grass up here? Somebody must have intentionally planted all this here, like a terrace garden or something.
35:00 There is a summon sign that can appear here, but yeah, not a whole lot to it architecturally speaking. I also wonder what is with the raised ceiling.
42:08 I figure the intent here is that this is meant to look like a room under construction that was never finished. What looks like a "cage floor" is probably meant to be a frame to hold up the floor boards.
54:18 You don't really mention it, but the building containing the Painted World looks so off from this viewing position, as the rear side of it is just devoid of any detail. There are no windows, no columns, no ledges, nothing to break up the monotony. Just a solid white wall. And there really should be windows, as there is actually a window on that wall when viewed from the inside of that building. It feels like the devs never originally intended for the player to see it from this angle.
1:18:05 It probably feels so unnatural, because of the lack of undergrowth. A forest that is left to develop naturally will not only have a ton of trees, but it will also be blanketed in shrubs, bushes, ferns, and tall grass. You're not gonna be able to traverse it very easily. In Darkroot, the ground looks unusually clear. However, that probably isn't all that strange, as we know in the DLC, that this forest was indeed managed by those ent-like creatures, so it is indeed to some extant artificial.
The platform around 7:00 is so common in Bloodborne. Yharnam has so many bits where it looks like you should be able to drop down, but once you step off the ledge the camera changes and you die haha. Lothric's High Wall and Castle have this, too
It's kind of the same problem as 2d platformers that don't distinguish background and foreground objects from actual platforms, but in an immersive 3d environment
I don't ever comment on videos, but I wanted to say that I thoroughly enjoyed this! I definitely understand that nostalgia you described. This was a very soothing and contemplative experience to revisit these areas. Thank you so much for making this!
Another place that gives me that strange feeling of oddness is the well in Firelink shrine. The fact that you can jump into it is so strange to me, and it only got stranger when I saw that edit of somebody going directly into Nito's boss room from the well.
I have not watched the full video yet but I must commend the quality of the introduction; great flow and connections to the video while maintaining the topic of game design.
The feelings you describe a bit further in I experienced with Halo. Countless hours were spent walking around multiplayer maps in hopes of being the first to uncover a hidden secret. The serene vistas complimented with expertly crafted background ambience, uncovered in the absence of player gunfire, evoke the warmth of nostalgia.
10:26 YES, the feeling I get from looking at those already opened chests is the same one I get looking at a picture of the backrooms or some of the other early liminal photos, just like some of those pictures made no sense architecturally, this room makes no sense from a design stand point, like, who constructed it that way, and why?
This video explains some of the feelings I find when the chaotic and dangerous world is devoid of enemies. It is odd just strolling around, as if I could just walk into the frame. I really like this idea, I hope you do more observational videos like this.
Squidward talks about Dark Souls for over an hour.mp4
Bro your description of the rock wall by the cliff face....i feel the exact same way. Cant quite explain it properly. Good video and interesting observations.
"the hallway that has no reason to be there". Does anyone remember playing NES Metroid and finding the dead end of Kraid's Hideout? Or the dead end in the poison forest in Simon's Quest? The memory of how I felt then is very important to me today. I used to wish I could live in those places somehow. There was a little nook in the north mountains of BotW, looking south, that fit your descriptions of these places in DS. I would stand in that little nook and just sort of bliss out. I wonder if there is a word that fits this personal phenomenon.
I think the Anor Londo entry area feels especially "remote" because when you think about it, it's more like at the edge of the city. This is not a real "entrance", it's more like an area built just for housing the statues and a high-ground watch tower. Plus the pathway to the Duke's that feels like it probably wasn't regularly visited, where the recluse lord resides. It definitely feels like that kind of an unused space, and it looks the part too.
You just gave life to all my thoughts that I have every time I play DS1, and only DS1 can give me this type of experience. And sometimes I start to create a background story or tale for certain places, even admiring the horizon next to Solaire sometimes, wondering what other cities, dungeons and places could have been discovered.
You *can* reach the lower Oolacile platform by jumping onto the railing (you may notice player messages appear on it regularly) and rolling off. It has no collision though, you fall through and then subsequently die.
8 minutes in, and when you talked about that weird oval area below Oolacile, it's like I knew exactly that feeling you were talking about, deep nostalgia and the desire to "be there".
It's this old, nostalgic vibe that DS1 really captured in a bottle. Despite being my first, I always felt like it was special in a way no other FS game was. This feeling of nostalgia in an old and strange world, both naratively and graphically, wasn't present when I played DS3. It's just so fascinating.
Alternative title: ledges I like to stand on in Dark Souls
A small number of games give me a weird feeling, something of a forgotten dream. Have I been in this place before?
you have a nice voice. this video feels like taking a soothing, relaxed tour through lordran with a friend. it's lovely
1:32:18 The timing of the B-roll perfectly punctuates my point. Before someone made a video on AC6's architecture, I could not place a name to what I felt. It's quite literally an intentional feature of Anor Londo's architecture while the natural expanse of Ash Lake makes it incomprehensibly more terrifying.
*Side tangent (don't worry, it's relevant)*
I played a mod for Thief Gold recently. An early mission was to steal from what amounts to a crazy, aristocratic druid's manor. Typically manor heists are simple affairs, but this was different from the base game. The deeper down I ventured, the more the ambient soundscape and bizarre architecture unsettled and nauseated me. Now this isn't to say that the feeling was the same as Ash Lake, far from it in fact. It speaks volumes that natural locations are far more suited toward disorienting and terrifying players in ways that purposefully built spaces (like Anor Londo) can't.
Yeah, the Hydra jumping over me there was perfect and entirely unplanned lol. Great timing on the game's part
"Fake" architecture in games is so interesting to explore, it's genuinely one of my favorite things to do. I love seeing what is and isn't traversable with the abilities the developer gave you.
@@solarpellets58:54 Remember those images of places absent of people back during the pandemic? Anor Londo exudes the same feeling, which is apparently called kenopsia.
As for breaking past a game's boundaries, there's usually a tinge of discomfort and/or fear whenever you do that. Although, there are examples of developers placing little acknowledgements of players getting past the theater props.
I understand this feeling. I remember as a child playing Pokemon Red, I was still able to fully, completely immerse my self in the worlds of games. I did not consider that games were "just" programming. I thought there were actual places, towns, points of interest, etc. beyond the boundaries of the game (those bollards/stones alongside paths or like the trees). I wanted to go beyond those boundaries so bad.
i remember reaching the borders of skyrim and running into an invisible wall as a kid and just feeling absolutely defeated
What I enjoy are the distant, unreachable landscapes, which is something this game does well. Be it the vast mountains surrounding Undead Asylum, the dark city streets below Anor Londo, or the distant forests in the Painted World. In reality, up close it's all just flat textures with no collision, but from an in-world perspective, I enjoy imagining mysterious and unseen locations, characters, treasures, and even bosses. I don't particularly care for the term 'FOMO' but this way of thinking definitely gives me feelings of missing out on endless exploration in the games I love.
Finally someone was able to capture this weird feeling I got from some particular “useless” areas. I would also get it, or a feeling similar to it, when I saw some of the geography of DS1 in particular, the way that a lot of buildings just sort of continued down into an endless void…like they’re not supposed to be as big as they are, but they are. I also got it from the out of bounds areas to an extent, I’d always think about what it was like when people still lived and walked in the areas that we can’t reach, and thinking about exploring them for myself.
A couple other examples for me specifically were Heide’s Tower of Flame in DS2 and one very specific part of the Ringed City in DS3. With Heide, I’d always see the broken up pillars supporting small pieces of walkway and think about jumping on and exploring them, even though they were just very tiny fragments of paths that you fully take in in about 2 seconds. With the Ringed City, there’s a very specific spot, the staircase between Halflight and Filianore, where there are these spires that are next to the stairs, and it looks like you could just barely reach out and touch them, or maybe slip and fall to your doom. That instance is a little different I guess, but souls games are really good at invoking these very “uncanny” sort of feelings with their area designs and architecture.
this video has held my complete and undivided attention for the past hour and a half, absolutely loved it
The spot you said might be contested is the one of the few spots I do remember coming across as odd in my play throughs
The prison tower in Ds3 where you find the chime is weird. You go invisible bridge and drop down to see it’s the church bonfire then you instantly forget about it after killing yorshka because it does nothing
One of my all time favorite experiences was running this game on an item randomizer. It led me to SOOOO many places shown in this video because I just wasn't ever sure where items would be. I knew where the important stuff was, but when it's randomized I ended up wandering into the most random corners hoping something was there. I do this more now when I play a game for the first time, but no game feels like ds1 does in these odd areas
I‘m not sure, but could it be the case that you want to climb up the cliff at 4:30 even more because the kalameet arena is the past version of the hydra-area in the base game? If I‘m not mistaken that‘s the corner in which you find the long ladder leading up to the rolling cats and Sif, right?
I am 19 minutes in. I feel like some of the areas you've mentioned of places you shouldn't be are, moreso, the deterioration of architecture. There's not only a game design perspective to be taken into account. You could argue that, just being in the game world, you're not somewhere you are intended to be; out of virtue that whoever built the castles and townships didn't intend their designs with the world gradually ending. A lot is now made unremarkable and odd with the decay of time. Like my shopping mall, for instance.
This was very interesting, I've never thought of it this way. I find these spaces in games to be extremely frustrating for a few reasons. I think I may need to revisit them with a new perspective
thank you for making this video. Dark Souls is my favorite game right now and this video captures exactly what i love about it
Pssst, X marks the spot...
Oolacilean Bloatheads cross their arms in an X (8:52) , Logan (X-Men) sits cross-legged, Darkmoon Knightess crosses her arms *and* legs, hinting at Velka's double-crossing and XX: Judgment (Tarot), consider also Quelaag's *Domain* (X = Eggs) and Kalameet's Eye (see: Kalimat (Arabic for Words, c.f. Logos)), or how the Female Undead Merchant says "Burn in [heck]! You cross-eyed hollow!", when hostile.
Consider especially the painted world; "X"anthous King, "Cross"breed Priscilla, "Annex" Key, cross-shaped crank to spin the statue, Crow Demons cross their wings to telegraph their grab attack.
And then in DS3, " Stray from the withered flame and curiousity could be your *cross* " and Crucifix of the Mad King.
*FROM* in Latin is *EX*
10 (X) Rings of Sacrifice sold by Oswald [+3 lootables make 13; Firelink Aqueduct, Painted World, Snuggly].
Fire Keepers' Bonfires grant 10 (X) Estus (the normal limit of kindling) (note: Ash Lake Stone Dragon is hinted to be a former Fire Keeper).
Velka's Set is covered in crosses (thighs, gloves etc.)
Gwynevere wears similar cross-design armlets.
Gwyndolin and Oswald T-pose beautifully.
35:20 Fun Fact: there are exactly 10 (X) hollows in that room
I'm very saddened by the fact that "The Kiln of The First Flame" was not included in this video. It's my favourite spot in ds1 and arguably the most underrated location. From its entry point to the bleak atmosphere all the way leading up to the final boss. When you know the lore it hits harder. Even the architecture leading up to the kiln was amazing and overlooked imo. Just the idea of being there in the sand in that atmosphere while trying to keep the dying flame alive...ahh what a sensation.
i immediately thought of patrick's dream when you were talking about the abyss it's so cool you thought of that too!!
This is an incredible video, it captures feelings I couldn’t put into words perfectly :)
I think I know the kind of feeling you're describing or at least something similar. In my case I've kind of been able to trace it down to nostalgia for relentlessly trying to get to places I wasn't supposed to be able to access as a kid. I have vivid memories of trying to brute force myself over the closed bridge at the start of gta 3 and getting beyond invisible walls into trailers in the Cars video game as a kid
I knew the inspiration as soon as I saw the title, excellent stuff!
i'd never noticed how many areas and just random corners you could actually get to in this game but i definitely agree that they feel strange and oddly unnerving at times. Also this video is strangely peaceful, despite being dark souls related and i love your voice
Every time i've played Dark Souls 1, There is no other place that has made me feel more strange than Lost Izalith. It's just so minimal in a weird way, And the area at 1:13:33 perfectly describes how i feel about it. Since when you kill the Chaos Eaters below they just despawn entirely, Making it feel really desolate. And the fact that Lost Izalith is the most unfinished and rushed area in the game kinda makes the weird feeling much more stronger. The same with how i feel about Darkroot. Dark Souls 1 in general was a really strange and special game in a way if you think about it.
It was at 2:30 that I knew I was going to have a good time with this video. I've played this game a fair amount and too am kinda fascinated with some of the empty spaces in this game, this was certainly one that always caught my attention, especially as the Balder Knight "guarding" it doesn't aggro if you don't go towards it. And the whole topside of Sen's is just kind of a weirdly fascinating place in its own practical and plain way, when contrasted to the insides.... Time to get a coffee and get cozy
Really happy to see more people take up this format, though I feel like it might’ve been nice to give Any Austin a shoutout (unless it came from someone else originally, I just did a cursory search to check.)
I did mention him right at the beginning of the video! I'll throw a link to his channel in the description, though, I didn't even think of that
Ahh somehow missed that mention in the intro 😅
@@solarpelletsi'm watching the start of the video right now and you're talking about walls and corners, the shoutout could have come before your own pre-amble
39:22 That giant is the one we see in the cutscene after ringing both bells of awakening. The chain must be a clue, so there is some reason for that place.
Nice video, mate.
The open chests in Oolacile give me nostalgia for a very specific reason. When I was very young, like 4 years old in 1999, during a Christmas family gathering I was given my teenage cousin's used copy of Ocarina of Time (a gold cartridge). I didn't previously play Ocarina of Time, though I already loved video games and played games like Banjo-Kazooie and watched my dad play Rogue Squadron.
I couldn't get very far into the game on my own, so I loaded into my cousin's completed save file and explored the world, finding my way into most of the dungeons. I uncovered things in a very non-linear freeform order, removed from their original context in the story, and with all mini bosses and bosses already defeated, the arenas for them eerily empty and mysterious of what they may have originally housed. And, of course, a common sight were treasure chests my cousin had opened as I followed in his footsteps.
Also, I don't find the Great Hollow especially weird, but its arguably unfitting lighting may contribute to that, as it is far brighter than it would logically be (though I guess that is done to make platforming easier).
def my fav DS youtuber
34:40 I’m pretty sure that spot is where you can summon Lautrec. It seems to be incredibly uncommon for people to know this even exists, considering he’s either imprisoned or slain by the player for the Ring of Favor and Protection. But I definitely got that feeling you’re talking about and remember a sudden Aha! when I saw his sign for the first time. Either way, it’s still an odd place for his sign to be, almost like he’s reluctant to even help so he hid his sign from you in a corner that just slows your arduous trek to boss arena down even further.
PS. This video is surprisingly great. I was going to put it on to sleep to but found it scratching an itch I forgot I had, this reminds me of spending hours walking all around call of duty multiplayer maps with my cousin alone, splitscreen just looking for unique places where the devs might have hid a teddy bear holding a gun in a window out of bounds where the player can’t usually get to or something. We used to do this because we were bored 8 year olds. Now I do this in zombies maps because I feel like I can find some missing link to the esoteric lore hidden in cod zombies. I could watch many more vids like this for other games. Entertaining stuff, man! 🖤 keep it up
I think that "odd and unremarkable places" exist at the cross-road of two overlapping phenomena in game design.
Architectural spaces, by virtue of being constructed, implicitly presuppose a historical context, even if it's mysterious or obscured. They were built _by_ _someone_ for _some_ _purpose_ : they have implicit context. Liminal areas stick out because their very nature as constructed spaces assert the existence of a purpose and history that we know to be absent. This tension calls us to investigate; to uncover something that makes sense of them. Being out of bounds only adds to the intrigue. When level design is working "as intended", a space's purpose is obvious. We effortlessly recognize and go along with the intention of the developer.
Of course there are plenty of spaces in games that don't actually make real-world sense when you look closely at them (in fact _most_ video game spaces are like this). This isn't something that bothers us most of the time because while these spaces lack implicit context, we understand that they exist for the sake of the mechanics of the game. We sense the invisible will of the developer, guiding and shaping our experience through these spaces. They have authorial intent.
I think what makes these liminal spaces so remarkably unremarkable is that they lack both implicit context and authorial intent. They feel overlooked, forgotten; as though we could hide there from the guiding eye of the developer. Their nature as man-made spaces implies a purpose we know isn't there, and their status as environments in a game implies a mechanical purpose that seems equally absent. Case in point: the little balcony in Undead Burg. It immediately seems less liminal once you realize that it was probably intended to give a hint to the player about accessing the other side of that locked door.
I think a big reason these things might give you a sense of nostalgia is that in older games, every single point of interest wasn't marked with a "?" or was part of the "bag of activities". You could actually stumble upon things.
The best example for me is Assassin's Creed Origins: Did you know like 1/4 of the map is just empty desert? About 4 regions in the map have practically nothing in them: No quests take you there, there's no camps, no treasure chests, no fast travel points.
But... They aren't just sand. In fact, these regions are all unique to the game. One of these regions is the ONLY place in the entire game you see these cool white rock formations. Completely unique models that most players have never seen...
Because you HAVE TO run/ride there. There are no fast travel points. It will take a good 2 minutes going straight to get into the middle of a region. That feels like an eon. It's not easy to get to these places due to the distance and thus... They are the greatest depiction of the endless vastness of actual deserts.
Nothing has ever come close to making me feel that than the real desert.
Another example: Kingdom Come Deliverance when I was exploring the endless "empty" forests at the edge of the map. And I found an old abandoned building. It was so detailed and well designed, I immediately began to snoop around and try to figure out the meaning of it.
Turns out, that's used in the Hans Capon DLC. Which I didn't have...
But still, that feeling of exploration was so strong and made me feel like a kid again playing GTA San Andreas and just stumbling onto interesting places and finding a random cool weapon or car somewhere.
Also, a shoutout to Bleak Faith: Forsaken. The gameplay might be ass, but the world is just... Oh my god, if you like this type of stuff then Bleak Faith is going to give you a boner lmao. It has so much massive things that are completely useless. I am talking entire apartment buildings you can explore every empty floor. For nothing. For absolutely no reason. It's wild.
Modern games have a horrible case of fearing you'll miss content and thus have an addiction to marking everything.
This video honestly sums up some of the things I love about the souls games in a way I would struggle to put into words. But I love finding spots like these and looking at the environment from unusual angles and thinking about how it all fits together both in terms of the lore and in the level design. Souls games have this weird feeling that these environments existed even without the player inhabiting them, which is a feeling i dont really get from most other games. Tl;dr this video feels like it was made for me specifically lol
Honestly the entirety of dark souls 1 gives me the vibe you're describing with a lot of these places. The game just has a super weird, nostalgic, slightly creepy vibe. It's super hard to pinpoint.
think about the great hollow this way, where on a tree are the branches and the roots? yeah their on the outside... but with the great hollow it has its branches on the... inside? it absolutely bizarre, the mushrooms you could explain with like it being old and rotting, but the branches on the inside? that just doesnt make sense in anyway
I've seen quite a few hollow trees in real life, some of them with openings at the bottom that I could look up into, and there are often "branches" going through the middle. I don't know, I guess it's just something I kind of expect in hollow trees
I remember that spot on that bridge. I think these places are important to my overall experience of Dark Souls and its vibe.
This video’s such a good philosophical delve into the emotions involved with spatial atmosphere! I think the main thing that emanates the odd feeling about these spaces is their absence of purpose. They’re so useless and that makes them become stripped of authority. They serve no purpose on their own and they only exist as a byproduct of other bigger purposes. But the interesting thing is that they also point out the errors and inefficiencies of those bigger purposes. If the huge maps of dark souls were made perfectly, with all its components serving a purpose, these small odd unremarkable spaces wouldn’t exist. Yet they do, as some sort of ‘excess’ to the game.
As a sculpting major I’m interested in the way spaces are made and how bodies inhabit them, and these spaces remind me of the works of Korean sculptor Chung Seoyeong. She basically modifies little bits of everyday objects in a way that makes them feel odd. There’s one called ‘Lookout’ which is a small wooden lookout post, except it’s very short, and too small to fit a person, yet too big to be a scale model. Its odd proportions give a sense of otherworldliness. Very similar feeling to the spaces in this video.
Great video, and hope you cover dark souls 3 in the future if you haven’t already!
P.S. your voice is very soothing, has some asmr qualities… love it!
Your voice and the way you talk about things is so relaxing