The combination of the Fool's Idol music and the inherent unrealness of primitive, unfinished and largely empty areas makes this whole video quite sinister.
This place was the kingdom of giants. I believe it was a massive snowy mountain, and I believe it was the first area of bolstering to be hit by the demon hordes. The image you see of the great battle of demons vs humans was taken place here. The bosses would've been really cool i bet
There's something rather unsettling about unfinished/out of bounds areas in games, isn't there? There's that persistent feeling of 'you should not be here', like it's something forbidden. All this abandoned content has just been sitting here for all these years, undisturbed, quietly gathering dust on the disk where it was assumed no one would ever find it. It's the sort of place where I imagine one would always have a vague but unmistakable feeling of being watched. The creepy music probably doesn't help, I'll admit.
I find that too. It always feels very uncanny and liminal, especially when it's cut content. Like exploring a long lost tomb but with the context that it was never meant to be seen again. There's also the dissonance between cut areas and our expectations of the game, cohesive environments, and even our senses. I'd love for a game to intentionally invoke this feeling sometime.
And still, I'm waiting for a game that utilize the fact of unfinished video game content for a horror-esque atmossphere. Think of a glitch, left in the game intentionally that gives you a nonsense-data key item, that now suddenly open a door thought to be forever closed, that leads to the usual out-of-bonds-limbo Only that there are NPCs that lament their existence, beeing rejected by "god", damned wandering in a landscape that is quite surreal, unfinished and dangerous, with MissingNo. beeing the area boss.
Reminds me of the Painted World. Development on the Painted World was where Dark Souls started, which makes me wonder if it was built on recycled ideas from this cut area.
The NPC that invades you in Ariamis strongly resembles the Old Monk NPC. I believe a lot of assets from this area and the rest of Demon's Souls were saved and used to lay the foundation on which Dark Souls was built.
Painted world actually houses unused ideas that Fromsoft didn't know where to fit them and that perfectly fits the narrative of how only those abandoned and forlorn can live in a painting.
@@ManiaMac1613 I heard that King Jeremiah (that npc that invades you in painted world) was originally supposed to be King of Izalith, but that concept was cut thus putting him in a Painted world.
@@vanjaarsic1616 Speaking of Izalith, the Dragon God boss fight is so mechanically similar to the Bed of Chaos I am convinced they actually have the same source code. If you ignore their art design and arena they're fundamentally the same.
Anyway moral of the story, click on this link: twitch.tv/lancemcdonald Well that was a big of 'monumental' effort ho ho ho sorry it's such a long video but I really wanted to just finally have a reasonably comprehensive look at this area on TH-cam. It's such a mess of a map it took days to even work out how you're intended to explore it all. I hope it managed to be interesting regardless of it all.
Elden ring has a few causes of using old cut content from previous games. (The huge Puss of Man creatures seen in concept arts, and the wolf that was to be the 2nd half of the Abyss Watchers fight.) Granted these used assets and animations that where almost finished. So it wouldn't be too far of a stretch to assume that older cut content or concepts may have been revived to help flesh out elden rings huge map.
Yeah i have a feeling that the area in Elden ring was based on this old unused area, they are both large snow areas that has alot of lore related to giant's.
I have a feeling those structures at dead ends had items or switches that opened access to areas, like raising bridges and such. Especially thinking one would raise where you had to use debug mode to progress. Makes the area feel more maze-like and a little more complete when I consider it being played this way.
My personal theory is that the five enemies that blocked the way to the boss would have been really tough, and that the markers or shrines could have been activated to kill/despawn them one by one. Don't know if the numbers add up though. Also, the figures you see at the start seem like NPCs, and they probably just stand at the other location because they would have "traveled" there like the usual quest characters. Maybe one group would have given good advice and the other one bad advice?
@@ragdolls2riches563 this was my assumption when you walk into the two at the towers. Not sure what the inverted pyramid is supposed to be. Maybe it's just an artifact.
@@vejymonsta3006 Has anyone noticed that the pyramids seem to cast a humanoid shadow? I kinda think they were supposed to either contain frozen or bound people.
Shadow baked in texture (static) probably an older shadow map. Instead of realtime shadows, like the characters/entity's have since they are moving dynamic objects.
The inverted pyramids must've been placeholders for torches or other kind of light sources. They immediately reminded me of the similar geometric shapes used for lights in Quake's level editor (QeRadiant).
This would also explain why they seem to be casting shadows around them. Perhaps there were to be statues or something on each side of the light source causing those humanoid shadows.
From is already working on elden ring so even if they went and made the area with from's help i think that would make both elden and ds kinda rushed since they woulf have to do 2 things at the same time
there's something incredibly unsettling about this area. some of its creepiness is just owed to its nature as an unfinished area - the vast empty spaces, the 1-hit kills, the NPCs frozen in time, the stillness... but it's not just that. there's also the shadowy translucent enemies, that single soldier slumped on the ground, and especially those shrines with the black, upside-down pyramids of void within them, casting humanoid shadows in every direction. it feels like there's something deeply, horribly wrong with this whole place. like a nightmare you can't wake up from. the fool's idol music doesn't help either.
Feels like a backroom world where its out of our understanding. Feels like somthing big happened and it affected even time hence why bodies dont rot and stay in pristine state. Forever stuck in time and immortal if you enter that place but you are unable to leave after that, incredibly horrifying.
really cool video! Super bummed Bluepoint and FromSoftware didn't try remaking and finishing this area for the Demon's Souls Remake. A whole new area would've be incredible
Oh fuck it’s a wild act man! Funny enough we did see it finished in Dark Souls through the painted world. The structure has similarities and it was the very first level made for Dark Souls meaning they most likely used left over assets. I’d say the absolute abundance of demon’s souls references in the painted world helps validate this too (monk invasion, large spiral staircase up a tower, tunnels with skeletons and invisible walls, a phalanx, and even just the fact that it’s completely separate from the rest of the map like all the demon’s souls levels)
@@ArchangelExile yup the deadline for the contest was the 15th and this was uploaded the 21st. Tho I think there was some freedom with going over the deadline. Dunno tho
It's funny how that falling through a snowfield set-piece ended up in DS3. Apparently FromSoft's ethos about reusing ideas also applies to old, old cut ideas
@Vox Populi They were probably thinking that since DS3 was their last attempt at a traditional souls game, they might as well use whatever old ideas they had from previous games in their last souls game.
@@OmegaWeaponX2 this and the architecture of the place also really reminds me of the Iron and Ivory king dlcs. Basically they used this area for every dark souls game lmao
The Yeti monster looks like it was inspired by Wyald's Apostle form in Berserk, cool to see it was still an influence on the design of certain concepts even in pieces of cut content
@@WAR3600 I think they're both thinking of Dragon's Dogma, I'm pretty sure the DD devs stated that was inspired by Berserk, but I've never heard anything about Souls or Fromsoft being inspired by Berserk.
I am not sure if it is intentional or some kind of a bug. But on the ground around the inverted triangles we can see multiple shadows of the shadow creatures. On the first look it seemed like remains of burned bodies. 8:1311:1412:4515:10 It could also be that the triangles are actually the shadow creatures with a changed texture trapped in the column, but the lighting still sees it normally and the lighting is weirdly multidirectional from inside the creature/triangle or up above it. (?) Edit: I looked at it once more and realised that the actual creatures, which can be killed, don't have shadows... Weird... Or because they are set as slightly transparent, they don't have shadows, while the inverted triangles are NOT set as transparent, then it would still make somehow sense.
It's the shrines that cast the human shadows, not the pyramids. the radial symmetry comes from the center of the shrine while the pyramids are offset, and in 13:07 you can see a shrine with no pyramid cast the same shadows
Those "inverted pyramids" look like fire sconce stand-ins to me. Especially with where they're placed and the coldness of the environment. Who knows, maybe it was even supposed to be darker or harsher an environment as to allow the sconces to bring yourself to them since light and fire feel safe and get attacked by the spirits. Especially a perfect ambush causing you to leave the safety of two flames and go toward the elevated fire at 11:15 and walk yourself right into 5 of them.
This is honestly a really good guess and I wouldn't be surprised if it was the case. It's comforting to know the dlc in ds2 pulled off the snowstorm environment area really well. Except, you know, the fucking reindeer surprise party and schadenfreude cat bosses
@@maybeimortal5697from what ive heard, demons souls uses "shadow maps" which are prerendered shadows, and i assume the shadow map the pyramids use must be for some humanoid object or character
Looks more like the idea got split into two. Shulva, Sanctum City and Eleum Loyce. Cause the idea of underground structures and the like seems VERY VERY much like Shulva. But the snow and ice theme seems to be what they went with for Eleum loyce. As both have VERY similar architectural designs.
The unused enemies feel so Bloodborne to me, that hairy golem with the mouth for a belly looks really similar to the lost children in the nightmare of Mensis. The snake ladies also seem like they'd fit perfectly with a little touching up. Hell, the second "level" feels so much like Cainhurst.
The ghostly figure at 1:30 can be found in world 4:2 on our way to the boss inside the catacombs where all the necromancers are found. They are in one corner tho... and only appear once you get baited to take the item and stab you from behind. They never appear again
What a shame this never made it into the final game. This area could easily have become my favourite part of the game. I love me a creepy castle in a snowy area (like Castle Cainhurst in Bloodborne).
Thank you for this comprehensive look at the Northern Limit. In the past I've checked TH-cam for videos on it, but none of them have been this coherent or comprehensive. One particular thing that struck me is the similarity between the design of the Shadowmen (specifically their heads) and the design of the giants in Dark Souls 2. If instead of a glowing light in the middle of their "faces" the Shadowmen had a hole, they would look very similar to one another. Makes me wonder if the Shadowmen in the release version of Demon's Souls didn't start out as giants (or their spirits), and if the hollow face design of the giants in Dark Souls 2 doesn't represent some attempt by the developers to recover that concept from the cutting room floor.
The chunk cut off in world 2 might have been part of world tendency, the bridge connecting could have been broken unless you were in a specific tendency, similar to the executioners area in boletaria.
Lighting effect, possibly a torch of some sort. The pyramids themselves represent the area the effect is in. Quake's level editor may be helpful to look at, aa I'm terrible at explaining.
Everytime I watch these Cut content videos about Demon´s Souls and Dark Souls the words "what a waste" keeps ringing in my mind, considering how the northern limit was relatively well developed up until the point when it was cut
Huh I wonder if those black pyramids were meant to be "projectors" that would summon the shadow enemies. With the two unique structures at the top of each tower being a way to shut them down.
It's pretty crazy to see how many of these ideas live on in future games. That first enemy looks very similar to Lady Maria and the Cainhurst nobles, the snowfield and castle looks like from Dark Souls 2 DLC, and the snow giant is straight from Elden Ring. The underground section looks a lot like the Sunken City too. Also finding the soldiers is pretty similar to finding the knights in the Dark Souls 2 DLC who would aid you in the boss fight.
I really hope Blue Point includes this level in their remake. That would be an excellent way to sell it on people that have played the original in and out like most fans. But my biggest hope it that it doesn't lose the creepy other worldly vibe the original had.
@@MasterSorez I don't think so, BUT they did include a legit way to get up on top of the temple and a secret sword that wasn't in the original, so who knows?
I'm shocked of how few people are commenting on this possibility. I been watching vids and reading about these Demon's Souls cut content for years now and having those finished and put into the game is the first thing I expect from a remake.
I remember watching a video by IllusoryWall about this area, but I am glad that you were able to do a detailed walkthrough with commentary to show all the details that From Software had implemented into these areas. Watched every second of this without skipping so I was definitely able to bear with you on this one!
The whole area is like the Mountains of Madness medieval edition. Also, maybe those pyramid things were supposed to be enemy spawners you had to destroy. Fromsoft sure loves enemy spawners.
It's safe to say all the concepts that Fromsoft was originally intending to use in this unfinished level probably ended up being used for Frozen Eleum Lloyce, Painted World of Ariandel, and Mountaintop of Giants in their later games. So in a way, we did actually end up getting the northern limit as a finished level.
This is the most comprehensive tour of the area I've seen so far. You really managed to show how the player was (probably) meant to progress through the level, and I could imagine how it would (probably) have been like. You can really see that it has been designed by Miyazaki; with the frozen surface breaking and the many paths through the building. You made a great video. :-) I really hope this area gets finally included in the remake of the game... I guess it's rather unlikely that they do that though, because of all the changes they'd have to do to the rest of the game in order to tie the Northern Limit in.
Great video! I always love seeing the potential of cut content. Those pyramids are probably placeholders for particles, such as fire or light. They're upside down as to indicate the direction the particles would emit, in this case start from the bottom and expand as it progresses to the top.
A giant with a mouth on its stomach, in a snowy wasteland… Seems a little familiar. Honestly I wonder if they reused some of the ideas the had for the northern limit for that northern part of Elden Ring.
2:45 that creature is a cut enemy called a mimic and is obviously very different than the ones in dark souls and despite not attacking here there is actually a attacking animation for it where it's head would turn into a giant mouth and would probably grab you with It's mouth and bite down on you
Hi Lance - do you think the snowy mountain area and Castle Sol are FromSoft finally getting their snowy land of the giants from Demon’s? It feels that way to me, and I love it.
Here from there future in 2024 and I'm just thinking.. the whole snowy mountaintops region of Elden Ring culminating in the similarly mouth-stomached giant fight.. it's gotta be a reference right
@@azadalamiq they are remaking the whole game from the ground up entirely new models, assests textures, maps, code, etc. hence why its a remake. Shadow of the colossus on ps4 was a remake. Shadow of the colossus for the ps3 was a remastered version of the ps2 version the same game with the same models the same source code with better lighting and improved textures. Is not that hard to see the difference between a remake and a remastered
I would imagine that the initial area would have been a cross between the Ashes of Ariandel and Ivory King DLCs. With a massive snowfield obscured by snow, some light mountain climbing and spelunking into a frozen over city, with the stair case at the end leading us up a mountain where the second map piece would be, and you’d get to look back at an unobstructed view of the previous landscape, and have your last boss fight be in a cave at the peak of the mountain. Also think those weird structures that keep popping up in the final map piece may have been planned to be teleports, and that there would have been many more obstructions around to require their use.
One interesting thing you didnt mention is that many (all?) of the upturned pyramid structures feature an artificial "shadow" of the ghostly creature on the floor near it, as if the creature was standing inside the structure. The underground dead-end structures have 3 shadows each. Considering the early state this map is, those must've played an important part in it.
This surely took quite a bit of time and effort to put together, great video! I've been waiting a lot of time for someone to show the cut archstone to such an extent.
I would really hope the remake gets a DLC (during winter maybe?) And it adds this location with other cut content that would fit. Perhaps they can even add the Tower Knight's armor as a set and more!
Great video. This area has fascinated me ever since I first heard about it. It would be amazing if the Demon's Souls remake would rebuild this area. Some of the deleted enemies from the game also look really interesting.
A video this early in the morning? Just means I can enjoy it before others. Love the stuff you put out and hope you are staying healthy and safe during these times.
Director: "Alright team, I know you've planned 6 main areas, but as it stands you won't be able to make it before the planned release date. One of them has to go." Entire team : *glances furiously at Valley of Defilement* Miyazaki: "Yeah we're removing the cool snow area"
This level is so big! It’s a shame it was never completed, but given its scope and the difficulty of the Demon’s Souls project in the first place, I’m not surprised it was cut. But hey, it can be the source of fan speculation for years to come, and perhaps it’ll appear in the remake? Who can say for now?
It's pretty interesting how the lore for this stone made it into DKS 2 with the giants from the north. Also, I'd love to this area, as well as a better Dragon God fight, in the remake. Regardless, I love these videos so much. You put so much time and effort into them and getting to see all this cut content in action (so to speak) is fantastic. Thank you so much, Lance!
Seeing the unused Northern Limit makes me think of a couple of locations. The New Londo Ruins, Sen's Fortress, Forest of the Fallen Giants, and Frozen Eleum Loyce.
This is super neat! I've never played Demon Souls so I don't know to what extent the lore of the Northern Limit is known, but the music combined with the sparsely populated, extremely tall buildings gives a very lonely, sinister vibe. Very cool!
Keep up the great content Lance! It is always so fascinating thinking about how these cut levels and content could have been used with the final releases.
![CAMPปลิ้น | EP.83[2/2] ประสบการณ์ขนหัวลุกจากตำนานวงการผี!](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/T_kFecQw7Ds/mqdefault.jpg)
The combination of the Fool's Idol music and the inherent unrealness of primitive, unfinished and largely empty areas makes this whole video quite sinister.
It's like limbo, where time has stood still for 11 years
There's a definite 'creepypasta' vibe to it.
Really really unsettling video.
yeah, it's surreal in a creepy way
Demon's Souls Creepypasta: The 4th archstone
They cut out one map and start a whole pattern of the snowy areas being hidden or DLC.
Sekiro be like: “Bitch, the entire middle section of the game be snowy now. No secret or dlc bullshit”
And there's Irithyll of the Boreal Valley, unless that's too light of a snow area.
*frigid outskirts was secretly inspired by the start of this level*
I wouldn’t count mountaintop of the giants or concentrated snowfield as hidden.
@@JoeyCentralsnowfields is pretty hidden, given what you need to do to get there
Honestly the look of this place is amazing, imagine what it and the bosses would have looked like if it was finished
The return of darkness and evil.
Let's hope this is on the remake
This place was the kingdom of giants. I believe it was a massive snowy mountain, and I believe it was the first area of bolstering to be hit by the demon hordes. The image you see of the great battle of demons vs humans was taken place here. The bosses would've been really cool i bet
@@StockpileThomas1 The return of the fire and flame.
Icelurker
There's something rather unsettling about unfinished/out of bounds areas in games, isn't there? There's that persistent feeling of 'you should not be here', like it's something forbidden. All this abandoned content has just been sitting here for all these years, undisturbed, quietly gathering dust on the disk where it was assumed no one would ever find it. It's the sort of place where I imagine one would always have a vague but unmistakable feeling of being watched.
The creepy music probably doesn't help, I'll admit.
I find that too. It always feels very uncanny and liminal, especially when it's cut content. Like exploring a long lost tomb but with the context that it was never meant to be seen again. There's also the dissonance between cut areas and our expectations of the game, cohesive environments, and even our senses.
I'd love for a game to intentionally invoke this feeling sometime.
And still, I'm waiting for a game that utilize the fact of unfinished video game content for a horror-esque atmossphere.
Think of a glitch, left in the game intentionally that gives you a nonsense-data key item, that now suddenly open a door thought to be forever closed, that leads to the usual out-of-bonds-limbo Only that there are NPCs that lament their existence, beeing rejected by "god", damned wandering in a landscape that is quite surreal, unfinished and dangerous, with MissingNo. beeing the area boss.
Why not make it yourself? Do you not have to ability to or would the experience be diminished of you knew you made it?
@@nerozero5355 learning to program, 3D model, texture, etc... Is no easy task
@@Superkirbeh yeah had to learn that the hard way
Reminds me of the Painted World. Development on the Painted World was where Dark Souls started, which makes me wonder if it was built on recycled ideas from this cut area.
There are so many similarities I think your right
The NPC that invades you in Ariamis strongly resembles the Old Monk NPC. I believe a lot of assets from this area and the rest of Demon's Souls were saved and used to lay the foundation on which Dark Souls was built.
Painted world actually houses unused ideas that Fromsoft didn't know where to fit them and that perfectly fits the narrative of how only those abandoned and forlorn can live in a painting.
@@ManiaMac1613 I heard that King Jeremiah (that npc that invades you in painted world) was originally supposed to be King of Izalith, but that concept was cut thus putting him in a Painted world.
@@vanjaarsic1616 Speaking of Izalith, the Dragon God boss fight is so mechanically similar to the Bed of Chaos I am convinced they actually have the same source code. If you ignore their art design and arena they're fundamentally the same.
Anyway moral of the story, click on this link: twitch.tv/lancemcdonald
Well that was a big of 'monumental' effort ho ho ho sorry it's such a long video but I really wanted to just finally have a reasonably comprehensive look at this area on TH-cam. It's such a mess of a map it took days to even work out how you're intended to explore it all. I hope it managed to be interesting regardless of it all.
Why apologise for a long video , I doubt anyone who is following you wishes for short videos... SHOW US ALL THE SECRETS ON SOULS GAMES
really nice and interesting video, and amazing work :)
Too long didnt watch
longer the videos the better! Thank you for all your wonderful hard work!
Excellent job Lance, keep em coming. Looking forward to the other videos you mentioned on stream.
Insanely, this area is a lot like an area in elden ring, it even has a fire giant in the snow with a mouth belly and eyeball chest very interesting
Elden ring has a few causes of using old cut content from previous games. (The huge Puss of Man creatures seen in concept arts, and the wolf that was to be the 2nd half of the Abyss Watchers fight.)
Granted these used assets and animations that where almost finished.
So it wouldn't be too far of a stretch to assume that older cut content or concepts may have been revived to help flesh out elden rings huge map.
Yeah i have a feeling that the area in Elden ring was based on this old unused area, they are both large snow areas that has alot of lore related to giant's.
I came here to post this too, definite obvious connections and similarities. Its a snowy land of giants to the north- end of.
Yeah only problem with that is that Elden Ring sucks lmfao
@@tk7977 cry
I have a feeling those structures at dead ends had items or switches that opened access to areas, like raising bridges and such. Especially thinking one would raise where you had to use debug mode to progress. Makes the area feel more maze-like and a little more complete when I consider it being played this way.
My personal theory is that the five enemies that blocked the way to the boss would have been really tough, and that the markers or shrines could have been activated to kill/despawn them one by one. Don't know if the numbers add up though.
Also, the figures you see at the start seem like NPCs, and they probably just stand at the other location because they would have "traveled" there like the usual quest characters. Maybe one group would have given good advice and the other one bad advice?
I think the structures are teleporters. It looks like you can step inside them and the mirrored placement on the other side would be the exit.
@@ragdolls2riches563 this was my assumption when you walk into the two at the towers. Not sure what the inverted pyramid is supposed to be. Maybe it's just an artifact.
@@vejymonsta3006 yeah was thinking those might be invisible interactable markers
@@vejymonsta3006 Has anyone noticed that the pyramids seem to cast a humanoid shadow? I kinda think they were supposed to either contain frozen or bound people.
Anyone else notice the “pyramids” gave off humanoid shadows?
Did you notice those shadows on the ground around the structures even though a visible pyramid wasn't present?
Shadow baked in texture (static) probably an older shadow map. Instead of realtime shadows, like the characters/entity's have since they are moving dynamic objects.
Yeah - I think those "structures" are supposed to have a flame or light inside, and it casts shadows of those monsters on the floor, which is awesome
Humanidades
The inverted pyramids must've been placeholders for torches or other kind of light sources. They immediately reminded me of the similar geometric shapes used for lights in Quake's level editor (QeRadiant).
Yes, this is correct the cones represent the space the effect could move within
This would also explain why they seem to be casting shadows around them. Perhaps there were to be statues or something on each side of the light source causing those humanoid shadows.
It always hurts to see what could have been in the final game.
well hopefully if we're extremely lucky, well be able to access this area in the remake
@Pasunna Zacrifa thatsa a yikes, so dyou think theres 0 chances? like not even one percent of it happening
@Pasunna Zacrifa aight
From is already working on elden ring so even if they went and made the area with from's help i think that would make both elden and ds kinda rushed since they woulf have to do 2 things at the same time
BP will more likely to remove em as they did for shadow of the colossus remake/remaster (all of the cut content including the Beta Dam) were removed
there's something incredibly unsettling about this area. some of its creepiness is just owed to its nature as an unfinished area - the vast empty spaces, the 1-hit kills, the NPCs frozen in time, the stillness... but it's not just that. there's also the shadowy translucent enemies, that single soldier slumped on the ground, and especially those shrines with the black, upside-down pyramids of void within them, casting humanoid shadows in every direction. it feels like there's something deeply, horribly wrong with this whole place. like a nightmare you can't wake up from. the fool's idol music doesn't help either.
Feels like a backroom world where its out of our understanding. Feels like somthing big happened and it affected even time hence why bodies dont rot and stay in pristine state.
Forever stuck in time and immortal if you enter that place but you are unable to leave after that, incredibly horrifying.
really cool video! Super bummed Bluepoint and FromSoftware didn't try remaking and finishing this area for the Demon's Souls Remake. A whole new area would've be incredible
Oh fuck it’s a wild act man! Funny enough we did see it finished in Dark Souls through the painted world. The structure has similarities and it was the very first level made for Dark Souls meaning they most likely used left over assets. I’d say the absolute abundance of demon’s souls references in the painted world helps validate this too (monk invasion, large spiral staircase up a tower, tunnels with skeletons and invisible walls, a phalanx, and even just the fact that it’s completely separate from the rest of the map like all the demon’s souls levels)
That's so sad...big missed opportunity.
@@toowingless9473 its like a painted, first flame kin.
would've made it goty for me if they did that, no clue why they didnt
Maybe we'll get DLC for the Northern Limit? One can dream/hope.
All Vaati art contest competitors are punching the air rn
I bet we are!! I wish I saw this great video earlier :D
They probably made sure to end the contest before the release of this video.
@@ArchangelExile yup the deadline for the contest was the 15th and this was uploaded the 21st. Tho I think there was some freedom with going over the deadline. Dunno tho
Those ladies in the red dresses with sceptre's look awfully similar to the dress in bloodborne
also those 'pyramids' look like school of mensis head cages. :/
I find the whole location similar to bloodborne one
I thought that too
Gives me chalice dungeon vibes
That hairy giant with the mouth for a belly is very reminiscent of the lost children in the Nightmare frontier and Mensis.
It's funny how that falling through a snowfield set-piece ended up in DS3.
Apparently FromSoft's ethos about reusing ideas also applies to old, old cut ideas
@Vox Populi They were probably thinking that since DS3 was their last attempt at a traditional souls game, they might as well use whatever old ideas they had from previous games in their last souls game.
Well, the snowfield appeared first in DS2, a huge one at that.
@@OmegaWeaponX2 this and the architecture of the place also really reminds me of the Iron and Ivory king dlcs. Basically they used this area for every dark souls game lmao
@@deliciousdishes4531 Makes sense. And that's fine with me, I loved those dlcs.
@Vox Populi DS3 is FULL of Demon's Souls references
2:35 “we can see creatures of in the distance” “which appear to be barely functional” that’s me in 2020
First illusory wall and then you?,it’s christmas in cut content land
The Yeti monster looks like it was inspired by Wyald's Apostle form in Berserk, cool to see it was still an influence on the design of certain concepts even in pieces of cut content
Hopefully those Yeti monsters don't have spiked dick-tongues.
The funny thing is bloodborne and dark souls are actually imspired by berserk if you didn’t know 😉 sorry for bad English
@@jaheim123 Duh, Fromsoftware is a huge fan of berserk
@@joshgauve9044 show me the interview which miyazaki states that Berserk is the inspiration for dark souls and bloodborne
@@WAR3600 I think they're both thinking of Dragon's Dogma, I'm pretty sure the DD devs stated that was inspired by Berserk, but I've never heard anything about Souls or Fromsoft being inspired by Berserk.
"Huh...never seen your kind before...."
*SLASH*
A very human reaction
I am not sure if it is intentional or some kind of a bug. But on the ground around the inverted triangles we can see multiple shadows of the shadow creatures. On the first look it seemed like remains of burned bodies. 8:13 11:14 12:45 15:10
It could also be that the triangles are actually the shadow creatures with a changed texture trapped in the column, but the lighting still sees it normally and the lighting is weirdly multidirectional from inside the creature/triangle or up above it. (?)
Edit: I looked at it once more and realised that the actual creatures, which can be killed, don't have shadows... Weird... Or because they are set as slightly transparent, they don't have shadows, while the inverted triangles are NOT set as transparent, then it would still make somehow sense.
It's the shrines that cast the human shadows, not the pyramids. the radial symmetry comes from the center of the shrine while the pyramids are offset, and in 13:07 you can see a shrine with no pyramid cast the same shadows
@@CallN0w It makes me think the shrines might have held burning corpses or something as a kind of offering or light source?
Dude, I always found these mannequin enemies creepy as shit. That's the kind of monster design you'd see in Junji Ito's work.
"A vast snow field"
*Reindeer PTSD intensifies*
Oh god no
Stop 😭
That something from dark souls 2? I never played that one, only Miyazaki’s games.
@@JKSmith-qs2ii it is and it's the most horrible and painful thing in the series lmao
Sorez I looked it up, it looks like quite the kerfuffle.
Those "inverted pyramids" look like fire sconce stand-ins to me. Especially with where they're placed and the coldness of the environment. Who knows, maybe it was even supposed to be darker or harsher an environment as to allow the sconces to bring yourself to them since light and fire feel safe and get attacked by the spirits. Especially a perfect ambush causing you to leave the safety of two flames and go toward the elevated fire at 11:15 and walk yourself right into 5 of them.
I agree but I find it strange that they have the shadow of those tall invisible enemies any clue why?
This is honestly a really good guess and I wouldn't be surprised if it was the case. It's comforting to know the dlc in ds2 pulled off the snowstorm environment area really well.
Except, you know, the fucking reindeer surprise party and schadenfreude cat bosses
@@maybeimortal5697from what ive heard, demons souls uses "shadow maps" which are prerendered shadows, and i assume the shadow map the pyramids use must be for some humanoid object or character
I believe Sanadsk did a video on this place, but not nearly as complete, with none of these events... Great work man, hope its in the remake finished
I wonder if the concept for this area got recycled into Eleum Loyce.
Looks more like the idea got split into two. Shulva, Sanctum City and Eleum Loyce. Cause the idea of underground structures and the like seems VERY VERY much like Shulva. But the snow and ice theme seems to be what they went with for Eleum loyce. As both have VERY similar architectural designs.
The unused enemies feel so Bloodborne to me, that hairy golem with the mouth for a belly looks really similar to the lost children in the nightmare of Mensis. The snake ladies also seem like they'd fit perfectly with a little touching up. Hell, the second "level" feels so much like Cainhurst.
The ghostly figure at 1:30 can be found in world 4:2 on our way to the boss inside the catacombs where all the necromancers are found. They are in one corner tho... and only appear once you get baited to take the item and stab you from behind. They never appear again
Ohh that's right. Good catch
What a shame this never made it into the final game. This area could easily have become my favourite part of the game. I love me a creepy castle in a snowy area (like Castle Cainhurst in Bloodborne).
yeah! I wish cainhurst had been much longer; not to mention bigger :(
Thank you for this comprehensive look at the Northern Limit. In the past I've checked TH-cam for videos on it, but none of them have been this coherent or comprehensive.
One particular thing that struck me is the similarity between the design of the Shadowmen (specifically their heads) and the design of the giants in Dark Souls 2. If instead of a glowing light in the middle of their "faces" the Shadowmen had a hole, they would look very similar to one another. Makes me wonder if the Shadowmen in the release version of Demon's Souls didn't start out as giants (or their spirits), and if the hollow face design of the giants in Dark Souls 2 doesn't represent some attempt by the developers to recover that concept from the cutting room floor.
I love how the creature at 3:25 is just Wyald’s apostle form from Berserk
Lance: reveal your secrets NPC!
NPC: ...
Lance: so you have chosen death.
Definitely one of the most important Demon's Souls videos on TH-cam.
The chunk cut off in world 2 might have been part of world tendency, the bridge connecting could have been broken unless you were in a specific tendency, similar to the executioners area in boletaria.
That sound when a boss dies in demon's souls will never get old.
Hearing it for the first time I thought the PS3's sound card just broke :D
First a new Dark Souls 2 dissected and now a Demon's Souls cut content video, this is truely a souls blessed day
These pyramids look like they are placeholders for something. Maybe an effect of some sort.
Lighting effect, possibly a torch of some sort. The pyramids themselves represent the area the effect is in. Quake's level editor may be helpful to look at, aa I'm terrible at explaining.
You might wait a little while for a Lance video but they're always worth the wait
This castle reminds me of Kingsfield 2
Those inverted pyramids were probably meant to be braziers of some kind.
You make a good point, but someone further up in the comments also pointed out that they cast human shadows. That would be a bit odd for a brasier.
Oh wow, amazing as always, i just love these kind of stuff (hence why i am here)
1:45 cut dialogue "you must leave, now! we've been trapped here for 11 years. Time has stood still, we cannot escape. We are forgotten..."
How do you know this?
@@vigneshpreethamganji6956 his dad works at Fromsoft
@@iggel- how do you know that his dad works at fromsoft?
@@vigneshpreethamganji6956 r/woosh
@@KingofScrapMetal no you r/woosh
The northern limit gave off a very kings field feel, miss that.
1:14 "Vast snowfield": Visions of HorseFuck valley intensifies
Everytime I watch these Cut content videos about Demon´s Souls and Dark Souls the words "what a waste" keeps ringing in my mind, considering how the northern limit was relatively well developed up until the point when it was cut
Fools idols theme sounds so off without “huaaaaah” and soul rays blasting me
Huh I wonder if those black pyramids were meant to be "projectors" that would summon the shadow enemies. With the two unique structures at the top of each tower being a way to shut them down.
That would explain the humanoid shadows that they give off!
It's pretty crazy to see how many of these ideas live on in future games. That first enemy looks very similar to Lady Maria and the Cainhurst nobles, the snowfield and castle looks like from Dark Souls 2 DLC, and the snow giant is straight from Elden Ring. The underground section looks a lot like the Sunken City too. Also finding the soldiers is pretty similar to finding the knights in the Dark Souls 2 DLC who would aid you in the boss fight.
The mountaintop of the giants is possibly the closest we'll see to the missing archstone
I really hope Blue Point includes this level in their remake. That would be an excellent way to sell it on people that have played the original in and out like most fans. But my biggest hope it that it doesn't lose the creepy other worldly vibe the original had.
I doubt it, they didnt include any of the cut colossus content iirc right?
@@MasterSorez I don't think so, BUT they did include a legit way to get up on top of the temple and a secret sword that wasn't in the original, so who knows?
Fullmetalnyuu1 but including this area means creating new lore which isn’t up to them
I'm shocked of how few people are commenting on this possibility. I been watching vids and reading about these Demon's Souls cut content for years now and having those finished and put into the game is the first thing I expect from a remake.
@@PauloMunirUequed But Bluepoint aren't the original developers so they wouldn't have any idea how Fromsoft would want to use these assets.
"Snowy place, land of giants"
From did it in Elden Ring. Miyazaki, you madlad.
Illusory Wall AND Lance uploading the same night? Good time for What If Souls
Ever considered digging thru the Armored Core series? the ps3 titles run on the same engine as the souls games.
You make some of my favorite content on YT! Thanks for the extremely interesting look behind the scenes, once again!
literally Elden Ring's Mountaintop of the Giants, even the castle part being Castle Sol
I remember watching a video by IllusoryWall about this area, but I am glad that you were able to do a detailed walkthrough with commentary to show all the details that From Software had implemented into these areas. Watched every second of this without skipping so I was definitely able to bear with you on this one!
The whole area is like the Mountains of Madness medieval edition. Also, maybe those pyramid things were supposed to be enemy spawners you had to destroy. Fromsoft sure loves enemy spawners.
It's safe to say all the concepts that Fromsoft was originally intending to use in this unfinished level probably ended up being used for Frozen Eleum Lloyce, Painted World of Ariandel, and Mountaintop of Giants in their later games. So in a way, we did actually end up getting the northern limit as a finished level.
A DS2 Cut content from Illusory wall and then a Demon Souls cut content from Lance? Its a good night!
This is the most comprehensive tour of the area I've seen so far. You really managed to show how the player was (probably) meant to progress through the level, and I could imagine how it would (probably) have been like. You can really see that it has been designed by Miyazaki; with the frozen surface breaking and the many paths through the building.
You made a great video. :-)
I really hope this area gets finally included in the remake of the game... I guess it's rather unlikely that they do that though, because of all the changes they'd have to do to the rest of the game in order to tie the Northern Limit in.
Great video! I always love seeing the potential of cut content.
Those pyramids are probably placeholders for particles, such as fire or light. They're upside down as to indicate the direction the particles would emit, in this case start from the bottom and expand as it progresses to the top.
A giant with a mouth on its stomach, in a snowy wasteland… Seems a little familiar.
Honestly I wonder if they reused some of the ideas the had for the northern limit for that northern part of Elden Ring.
Thank you for providing such a detailed look at these areas!
Lance, this is simply breathtaking!
Thank you very much for sharing such a lost masterpiece!
2:45 that creature is a cut enemy called a mimic and is obviously very different than the ones in dark souls and despite not attacking here there is actually a attacking animation for it where it's head would turn into a giant mouth and would probably grab you with It's mouth and bite down on you
Hi Lance - do you think the snowy mountain area and Castle Sol are FromSoft finally getting their snowy land of the giants from Demon’s? It feels that way to me, and I love it.
Here from there future in 2024 and I'm just thinking.. the whole snowy mountaintops region of Elden Ring culminating in the similarly mouth-stomached giant fight.. it's gotta be a reference right
Hope to see this properly made in the remaster
Remake*
@@iv9496 remaster... blue point is not remaking it. and judging by shadow of the colossus not adding cut content.
Seeing as like the DS1 remaster this ones not being done by fromsoft, it’s extremely unlikely it will.
@@azadalamiq IT'S A REMAKE, FOR GOD SAKE, A R E M A K E !
@@azadalamiq they are remaking the whole game from the ground up entirely new models, assests textures, maps, code, etc. hence why its a remake. Shadow of the colossus on ps4 was a remake. Shadow of the colossus for the ps3 was a remastered version of the ps2 version the same game with the same models the same source code with better lighting and improved textures. Is not that hard to see the difference between a remake and a remastered
I would imagine that the initial area would have been a cross between the Ashes of Ariandel and Ivory King DLCs. With a massive snowfield obscured by snow, some light mountain climbing and spelunking into a frozen over city, with the stair case at the end leading us up a mountain where the second map piece would be, and you’d get to look back at an unobstructed view of the previous landscape, and have your last boss fight be in a cave at the peak of the mountain. Also think those weird structures that keep popping up in the final map piece may have been planned to be teleports, and that there would have been many more obstructions around to require their use.
Fromsoft compensate for Northen Limit by making Moutain Top in Elden Ring and those werid giants with a gap in the chest
i wonder if that big hairy guy inspired the fire giant in elden ring
Lance always flexing on us lol
Literally the Mountaintop of the Giants in Elden Ring
I Love warching your cut content videos, great work!
You are a prophet, a hero and maybe even a messiah
He is the chosen one :O
he's not the messiah, he's a very naughty boy! :)
@@sandelic1 You're all individuals!
I'm not
@@amittoibis
😂😂
One interesting thing you didnt mention is that many (all?) of the upturned pyramid structures feature an artificial "shadow" of the ghostly creature on the floor near it, as if the creature was standing inside the structure. The underground dead-end structures have 3 shadows each. Considering the early state this map is, those must've played an important part in it.
Yeah I noticed that as well, thought it might have just been a texture on the stones for a moment.
Anyone from elden ring having brainwave spikes seeing that new creature with a mouth in its stomach?
Looks like the flaming giant
This surely took quite a bit of time and effort to put together, great video! I've been waiting a lot of time for someone to show the cut archstone to such an extent.
Thanks man! Always fun to see what you dig up.
A video from illusory wall and Lance in the same day? Today is a good day
Hella work gone into this bro! Welldone
Love your work!
Big Painted world of Ariamis, DS2 DLC and Castle Cainhurst vibes here. Thanks for the hard work Lance!
I would really hope the remake gets a DLC (during winter maybe?) And it adds this location with other cut content that would fit. Perhaps they can even add the Tower Knight's armor as a set and more!
I still have hope that we’ll get a dlc for the game 😭😭😭
Lance this is amazing!!!!! A* good work man, have always been super curious about the Northern Limit!
I have seen this restored before somewhere. Don’t remember who posted but it was like an hour video of this guys live reaction after restoring it
Great video. This area has fascinated me ever since I first heard about it. It would be amazing if the Demon's Souls remake would rebuild this area. Some of the deleted enemies from the game also look really interesting.
Holy crap it's been forever since you made a video. Thanks man!
Fantastic video, really enjoyed it dude.
A video this early in the morning? Just means I can enjoy it before others. Love the stuff you put out and hope you are staying healthy and safe during these times.
Director: "Alright team, I know you've planned 6 main areas, but as it stands you won't be able to make it before the planned release date. One of them has to go."
Entire team : *glances furiously at Valley of Defilement*
Miyazaki: "Yeah we're removing the cool snow area"
The Valley of Defilement is a good level though and is thematically more unique and important than this cut level
This level is so big! It’s a shame it was never completed, but given its scope and the difficulty of the Demon’s Souls project in the first place, I’m not surprised it was cut. But hey, it can be the source of fan speculation for years to come, and perhaps it’ll appear in the remake? Who can say for now?
Reminds me a whole lot of Eleum Loyce and the Frigid Outskirts. Maybe this place was going to be full of respawning reindeer as well
It's pretty interesting how the lore for this stone made it into DKS 2 with the giants from the north. Also, I'd love to this area, as well as a better Dragon God fight, in the remake. Regardless, I love these videos so much. You put so much time and effort into them and getting to see all this cut content in action (so to speak) is fantastic. Thank you so much, Lance!
These structures are too small for the Giants
Seeing the unused Northern Limit makes me think of a couple of locations. The New Londo Ruins, Sen's Fortress, Forest of the Fallen Giants, and Frozen Eleum Loyce.
Yes Lance. Much appreciated as always dude 👍
This is super neat! I've never played Demon Souls so I don't know to what extent the lore of the Northern Limit is known, but the music combined with the sparsely populated, extremely tall buildings gives a very lonely, sinister vibe. Very cool!
Keep up the great content Lance! It is always so fascinating thinking about how these cut levels and content could have been used with the final releases.
New subscriber, from Twitch to here to a marathon of watching all your videos GG. Can't wait to play this area on PS5
You are not going to get this area on the remake
Nice work again Lance!
Wild to think of all the work done to the zones that were abandoned, the shadow giants looked like they would have been a fun enemy to fight.