Cut content gives fans a unique insight into the development process of some of their favorite games. Nearly every title has cut content that is hidden somewhere in the game or its files. Dark Souls is no exception.
Out of every Dark Souls title, the original has the smallest amount of known cut content when compared to Dark Souls 2 and Dark Souls 3. That said, the first game still made some radical changes during development that changed the game for better or worse. From overpowered rings to progression changes, here are ten crazy pieces of cut content in the original Dark Souls.
10 Invading Shiva Of The East
Shiva of the East is a member of the Forest Hunters in the original Dark Souls that is nothing more than a merchant. NPCs refer to him as an evil character, yet nothing Shiva does reveals such dark intentions.
Cut content suggests that this wasn't always the case. Shiva of the East was originally obsessed with obtaining the Chaos Blade for himself. An item named the Black Eye Orb has a description that states players could use it to invade Shiva and his posse. Fans have speculated that Shiva would kill the player if they had the Chaos Blade and retreat to safety. Players would then use the orb to kill him and obtain the Chaos Blade once again.
9 Cut Armor And Boss Weapons
There's a surprising amount of cut weapons and armor sets in the original Dark Souls. Players have been able to uncover Undead King Jar-Eel's armor set, the Elite Cleric set, the mage Smith set, and a set of bear armor.
As for weapons, Dark Souls has an unused whip, witch collar polearm, a black Zweihander likely meant for prototype Chester, a strange talisman, and the Four Kings Sword. Most of these items appear unfinished with no stats or descriptions available. While most of these items don't have a clear explanation for being cut, the Four Kings Sword was likely cut since the boss drops the Bequeathed Lord Soul instead of a unique boss soul.
8 Cut Enemy Types
Weapons and armor weren't the only things that were cut. Certain enemy types and prototype NPCs were removed from the game for various reasons. Some enemies include hollows morphing into cragspiders, similar to the parasitized undead seen in Dark Souls 2. Other enemies include a prototype of the Demon Ruin's Burrowing Rockworms, prototype chained prisoners, and what appears to be a larger variant of Blighttown's infested barbarians.
NPCs also saw a few changes. Chester has a working model and moveset in the base game that differs from his appearance in the Artorias of the Abyss DLC. There is also a younger version of Beatrice and a prototype of Kalameet.
7 Gravelord Nito Boss Fight Changes
Certain bosses in Dark Souls have pseudo entities attached to their model that have a separate health bar. These are typically reserved for the tails of certain bosses that grant tail weapons when cut. Strangely, Gravelord Nito has a pseudo entity attached to him and tons of unused scripts.
When these scripts are activated, Gravelord Nito will have a few skeletons spawn near him. Some have theorized that players were originally meant to chip away chunks of Nito's skeleton that would spawn a cluster of smaller skeletons throughout the fight. This was likely cut since certain builds have a hard time dealing with multiple enemies at once.
6 Unused Rings And Velka Covenant
Arguably the most interesting gameplay-oriented items that got cut were three unique rings. The first cut ring was the Ring of Displacement, which would take damage in place of its wearer but had a fixed chance of breaking. The Ring of Bind Ghosts would make players invisible to cursed ghosts that wander the New Londo Ruins.
Finally, the Ring of Condemnation would deal counterattacks to any enemy that substantially damaged the player. What's notable about the Ring of Condemnation is that it references a covenant with Velka, the Goddess of Sin. It seems she would have been a leader of the invasion-oriented covenant in the first game before Darkstalker Kaathe took that honor.
5 Prototype Bed Of Chaos
The Bed of Chaos is frequently regarded as the worst boss in the Souls series and with good reason. Her boss fight focuses on platforming in a game that doesn't have a dedicated jump button or fluid movement.
However, this wasn't always the case. There is a prototype version of the Bed of Chaos in the game's files that reveals the witch of Izalith as a mobile opponent that would crush the player with her massive hands. It seems to be a boss fight that has no gimmick besides her massive size. To make the fight more interesting, From Software overhauled it to the boss players are well acquainted with.
4 Progression Changes
By viewing distant LODs at certain locations in Dark Souls, fans have noticed that some map layouts don't match up with the final game. The most notable example of this is a bridge that leads from Firelink Shrine into the lower wall of Undead Parish.
If earlier Dark Souls trailers are accurate, it seems players would have pathed from lower Undead Parish to the top section players typically start from. A drake would have overlooked the original aqueduct that leads to the upper level of Undead Burg that players would need to get rid of somehow.
Some bosses saw some placement changes as well. Originally, the Centipede Demon was going to sit atop the first Bell of Awakening instead of the Gargoyles.
3 Undead King Jar-Eel
It seems the Four Kings were originally just a single king the player would fight. Named Undead King Jar-Eel in the game's files, this massive boss has the same horned armor that the Four Kings wear. This boss has a working moveset similar to Old King Allant's from Demon's Souls and has a fully-modeled player armor set based on Jar-Eel's appearance. He seems to have been replaced by the Four Kings early in development, as the Four Kings are referred to as undead kings in the game's files.
2 Oscar Was The Player's Rival
Oscar is the NPC that is responsible for nearly every event in the original Dark Souls. In the final game, Oscar helps the player escape Undead Asylum but meets an untimely end. He tells the player to ring both Bells of Awakening, starting the main quest of the game.
As it turns out, Oscar was going to be a persistent character throughout the entire game. Cut dialogue suggests that Oscar was to side with whichever primordial serpent the player did not side with. Siding with Frampt would make Oscar take Darkstalker Kaathe's side while siding with Kaathe would make Oscar despise the player's attempt of ending the Age of Fire. Regardless, the quest would culminate in a fight against him near the end of a player's journey. This idea was likely the inspiration for Anri of Astora's questline in Dark Souls 3.
1 Andre's Original Purpose
Blacksmith Andre was originally planned to be a descendant of Gwyn in Dark Souls. Concept art reveals plans for Andre to be a guardian of a hidden passage in Firelink Shrine. By modifying the game files, players have found the cutscene this concept art depicts.
Andre would have originally opened a shortcut directly to the Kiln of the First Flame. Data related to this shortcut is still present in the game but goes unused. It seems From Software favored the idea of awakening Frampt later in development and made Andre a standard blacksmith instead. This also explains why petrified Andres can be found clutching onto upgrade Embers and why he is the only NPC in the game with lip-synced dialogue.