The Dark Souls series has hosted no shortage of damp, dank, poisonous places. According to modder and YouTuber Doneda, we only saw the tip of the iceberg. In a new video, we’re given a tour of what was originally imagined for Dark Souls 2’s “The Gutter.”
Dark Souls 2’s development was infamously rocky. With Hidetaka Miyazaki busy on Bloodborne, Dark Souls II was treated to a carousel of directors as the studio kept finding itself unsatisfied. Not only did this give us what’s often considered the runt of the series, but troves of cut content. Even if it didn’t make it to the final game, uncovering this abandoned material only takes a bit of digging. Before long, you’re deep underground.
“If you know very little about the subject of Souls modding, every Dark Souls game has something called Map Studio Binary,” says Doneda in a new video. “The map studio binary is what actually tells the game what to load and what not to load in that map… When they cut content from the game, especially when it’s about map, geometry, collision, and so on, they don’t actually delete these assets. They just remove them from the map studio binary. So, the engine of the game does not know that they should be loaded in there.”
Not just discovered, but restored, appears to be the original vision for the Gutter. Reminiscent of Blighttown, the Gutter was cavernous and ramshackle. Impaired vision and perilous drops making it one of the more contentious Dark Souls locations. It appears that at one point the Gutter was far more ambitious. Instead of mere twig scaffolding, there was once an entire civilization. Even devoid of enemies and items, the vast pillars of megastructures and ornate passages showcase what could have been.
In the nearly hour-long tour of this area, Doneda comes across notes in kanji, boss arenas and even a tavern. The allure of what’s available makes Doneda feel as if the developers hoped someone would one day come across this space.