Dark Souls 3 Dissected #1 - The World Layout of Lothric Explained 

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ah the pain of "episode 1" being the only episode in the playlist

Ngl the end of the Ringed City is probably the scariest post apocalyptic landscape I've ever seen. It's just... Empty. Forever. A few ruins poke up but it's just cold emptiness forever.

i think the magic word to explain these "inconsistencies" is "framing". most of these are clearly moved around to be framed in a way that the player would spot naturally, including the cathedral. moving things closer or further away to make sure they're easily in sight for key landscape shots was definitely more important for the environment artists than geographic consistency, so long as it was somewhat in the same general direction and distance.

The low poly renders of distant zones are so consistently slightly higher than the actual level map, that it makes me think they were deliberately trying to hide player clutter, like prism stones, summon signs, and blood stains, in distant views.

The High Wall being the cliff face itself never clicked with me until now, that makes so much sense.

I have a lot more appreciation for Dark Souls 3’s map now.

Huh, I never realized that area you fall into in the Ringed City was meant to be the Grand Archives. The numerous enemies in there kind of forced me to move quickly.

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="776">12:56</a> Yep that's me, you're probably wondering how I ended up here

I think Lothric is my favorite starting point. You can see the 2nd to last boss of the game (princes) and the entire path needed to get there without knowing about it.

It's an hour long. Oh my. And it's fully edited too! Not just cheap flying around the map in real time. You are phenomenal!

Fromsoft be like: aight,let's make the world of elden ring accurate as much as we can to impress this guy more

You have to remember that you are technically "time travelling" from light firelink so the landscape of the montains might be accurate from a lore perspective as the lands convulge and from mountains and no lush green areas remain therefore.

This channel is definitely underrated. The quality of these videos is amazing. Can’t wait for the next one.

Actually, when helping a friend of mine, while doing Farron Keep, we climbed to the broken bridge to see which ones we didn't lit and where they are located. That makes it so easy

Illusory wall, Lance McDonald and Zullie the Witch are the Holy Trinity of Dark Souls content. Vaati is like an apostle or something, still trying to work him in somewhere

While there are inconsistencies in Dark Souls III's world design, the relationship between Irithyll dungeon/profaned capital and the undead settlement makes some sense . The undead settlement is supposed to be just above Irithyll dungeon/profaned capital. In the dungeon, there is a room with a giant (you know the one with rats and sewage at the bottom). Above him there is light shining down from the undead settlement, and even cages from the settlement hanging down. Going back up to the undead settlement, you notice the ground is all broken up with many crags and ravines. So that's why there is a giant hole leading from the undead settlement to Irithyll dungeon. Super cool, the world, while not as interconnected as dark souls I, is more interconnected than most people think. I personally think its really cool that you can see the great bridge leading to the twin princes (the last area you traverse in the main map) from the very start of the high wall of Lothric (the first area you traverse in the main map). The fact that you open the first door in the high wall and dead ahead is this great bridge that signals the end of your journey (basically the end) I think is real neat and probably intentional. And that speaks to dark souls III's cool journey path. That is different from the other games. In Dark Souls 1 and 2, you start in some lowly area, and it takes you about half the game to reach the main castle (Anor Londo or Drangleic castle). This is representative of a typical journey. In dark souls III; however, you actually start in the main castle area, and purposely leave the castle to venture into the rest of the world. It feels, this time, like more of a hero's journey, leaving comfort to venture into the unknown, do your task, get stronger, and return in the end to place where you started (like the odyssey). Even Firelink shrine - your hub - is right behind Lothric castle, furthering this idea that Lothric castle is not a destination, but a starting point. I find it cool that they took this different approach. Just some stuff I wanted to say about Dark Souls III's world design

Can’t wait for the day when illusory is uploading videos on Elden ring

You can see the final area of the game as soon as you open the door to the first area of the game, this is amazing.

You put so much work and time into these videos. I'm already enthralled ten minutes in. Seriously amazing content.

I always thought it was cool that you can see lothric castle from almost every outdoor area in the game.

I was going to point out that I theorized that the Catacombs are a huge, literal game changer because of how they make you feel like you're so low down. The entire map is built perfectly to trick people with its environment, and being so closed off it lets things be super close and transition without being visible.

I wish the broken bridge would have continued just enough to be seen from Firelink. It would have added such an amazing degree of connectivity.

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="1005">16:45</a> I had a rather distinctly unusual experience with seeing items in an unloaded area in Bloodborne. While going through NG+ with a fairly strong build, I managed to complete Cathedral Ward, Hemwick Charnel Lane, and most of the Forbidden Woods without warping. I had full storage of bullets doing all of this, so some enemy drops stayed on the ground in Hemwick. When going through Forbidden Woods, I noticed an unusual constellation in the sky that I'd never noticed before, and as I progressed through the area I realized the constellation was changing. When I died late in the level, the constellation vanished, and I realized that I had been seeing the enemy drops from below. Clearly not a situation with proper area alignment, but interesting all the same.

You pointed out that from the main game areas there is a lot of green terrain visible but from firelink shrine the same areas are just grey/white mountains. I believe this is because firelink shrine is actually in the future compared to the rest of the game world. This is shown by a strange interaction with the merchant, if you never speak to her in firelink shrine, then speak to her for the first time in the untended graves, then come back to firelink shrine and speak to her again there is an extra line of dialog where she hints at remembering meeting you in the untended graves, suggesting that each time we warp out of firelink shrine to anywhere else in the game we are actually traveling back in time. Perhaps by the time the unkindled were awakened all of that greenery we see elsewhere had simply died and the landscape become more barren. This idea that bonfires can send you not only through time but also through space is shown pretty clearly with the dreg heap and ringed city DLC.

I loved Irithyll, it was so visually different from the normal Lothric areas. Like you had just been transported to another realm.

Hello Illusory Wall. I've seen that after this video you haven't made any other videos on dark souls 3. You make nice content so its a request for another episode of Dark Souls 3

Always guaranteed to deliver quality content. You're a real master of the craft

what kinda blew my mind was that the arena in which you fight vordt isn't even a room like dancer, it's a courtyard. when you fight him, it's always so dark and foggy in there that it's insane to look up and see the sun shining right in.

I actually watched the video about Firelinks location because I was stupid and thought the Undead Settlement/Cathedral was the Firelink Shrine from Anor Londo

Me: time to go to sleep **hour long illusory wall video posted** Me: Welp

Wow, this really makes me appreciate the world layout of DS3 way more

"do the sequels even demand as much analysis...?" wow, yes, Thank you so much for sharing this, absolutely stunning!

cool thing about Archdragon peak is looking at the sky and the sun, it's calming instead of the flashing sun from DS1, no wonder Solaire was captivated by it

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="736">12:16</a> I think for the location backdrops they (partially) merged the actual level geometry into a single mesh (using e.g. simplygon), which automatically places it in the correct location relative to the current map, and then adjusted it for presentational purposes so they're more obvious to players. This is a common technique in UE4 and other engines as well

I remember thinking that maybe we'd visit that undead settlement copy off in the mountains in the DLC before any was released, as it was a weirdly green area in an otherwise brown/grey mountain range. It always just looked so... intentional, like I was *supposed* to notice something was there and go visit it

This came out in the middle of the night in Europe but I aint sleeping until I watched it all!

Great video! About the lake-irithyill dungeon situation I've once heard from JSF(Richard Pilbeam) that in an alpha version you could enter Irithyill from two paths and one of the paths was from lake->dungeon, so the "not lining up" might have something to do with those mid development changes, I don't exactly remember what degree of access him or Lance have to this alpha version, nothing in a playable state sadly, but it was an interesting podcast.

I think that the inconsistency where the land is mostly green from Lothric's perspective versus Firelink Shrine might be to show that Firelink is set further in the future, when the mountains have converged towards Lothric as well.

I love these neat tricks to make the player think things are closer or further. It makes me appreciate how games are just sort of cobbled together using smart techniques.

Everyone who calls this sloppy forgot that you had to phase through parts of the Tomb of the Giants to enter the Four Kings' Abyss.

Hmm, the fact that the bridge is portrayed incorrectly in the Road of Sacrificed isn't the only world-accuracy mishap in that area. When the sun becomes a Darksign, it's still normal in the Road of Sacrifices. I guess they just overlooked that area.

This is dope!! An examination like this for Yharnam would be incredible!

From a game design standpoint I think Dark Souls 3's world is very well designed. It manages to compact the world and not make it take up more hardware than it needs too, but it manages to convey scale very well. You don't think about how much you actually traveled because it feels like it was a journey, and making it feel the way they want it too sells the distance, imo

Why no more DS3 dissected?

The feeling of intense sadness when an hour long video feels too short. I love this channel

The best recommendation RU-vid has ever made.

When I saw that Lothric's layout was going to be the next topic, I wondered if you might stumble across my old videos haha. Been a big fan since before I made them. Some of your old blog posts from years ago are part of the reason I started poking around out of bounds myself so I'm more than a little honored by the shoutout! Oh, and fantastic video! I learned a bunch of new stuff!

I beat DS3 very recently and I am so happy you're making this because I loved every minute of DS3.

i always found it amazing that once you completed the first run through and take a second to look at the scenery, you realize that you can see almost every place you’ll visit just from one spot

It may be also worth mentioning that behind the Altar of Sunlight in DS1 there should be Archdragon Peak from DS3 in the distance both in relation to Anor Londo

Yeeeeeeeeees I spent so much time playing pvp in DS3 and waiting for invasions I looked at the map so much. There's a ton of great little details but watching your videos on these topics is always unrivalled!

I fell in love with the dark souls series for its masterful visual storytelling, and this just adds to show how much effort they put into it

Turned the CC on, didn't get disappointed: Urethral dungeon You died.

I adore all of this, especially how connected everything fairly is-but my favorite part of these in-depth location analysis vids will always be seeing low-poly models up close, especially ones that are terribly off from the normal versions. It’s a bit eerie.

Oh boy, an hour of facts and a new MIDI cover to go with it.

This is incredible and deserves so much more views. I'll be sharing this with every salty hater who claims DS3 has no depth or effort put in it. Instant sub!

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="3233">53:53</a> I think someone found an unused elevator that connected the two areas

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="3370">56:10</a> i really like how in the dreg heap, the grand archives has been made much "taller". it seems like the whole are has been warped and stretched. its crazy how all of the worlds are merging, crashing and melting into each other. The undead settlement and other areas in the distance also look warped. I've only recently felt like i understand what they're trying to convey and it took me a long time hahahah. it seems like the ringed city DLC is just a gigantic spiral into the abyss. the whole map is a spiral with buildings sinking into the black swamp below. Similar to the pathway leading down to the 4 kings. theres 2 ways to enter the abyss, spiral down the staircase, or shoot straight down. I'd really like to see the placement of Midir's Boss room in relation to the map. Another thing i realized is after you are dropped off at undead settlement by the "escort", you then literally just walk to anor londo. (obviously you have to beat the Deacons first). Where they place you feels like the same place you are dropped off at in DS1, especially when you are under the orange sky. its like FromSoft pushed Anor Londo away from that spot or the lands converged and sort of intercepted Anor Londo or pushed it away? Dark Souls 3 ideas definitely melt my brain a bit. and if these are the ideas Miyazaki is trying to tell, it's genius but also very frightening to me. I've never seen a game make it look like the land around me is moving and shifting. it looks like Lothic Castle is literally ascending upwards from the ground. so by the time we reach Irithyll, it does sort of make sense to me that Lothric is much higher up. it almost looks like time has passed and Lothric is already ascending past us while we are left in the cold.

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="1073">17:53</a> The statues literally look like they're all dodging that line of bricks as if they're doing a massive game of Limbo lmao

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="3290">54:50</a> And today I realize those are supposed to be Archtrees. If you didn't mention it I could've gone through my life without noticing it. Great video as usual!

One hour of DS3 level dissection/free cam... This is what it must feel like to be a junkie getting a fix after weeks of being without crack Btw, what do you use to unlock the cam like this?

Dark Souls documentaries like these keep my attention for the longest. I just hyper focus on these videos. Thanks so much IW

The Lothric Castle section is really awesome. I love that post Vordt is right at the start, thats so cool.

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="1896">31:36</a> I found this out myself because I died at Lothric castle, then warped to Archdragon Peak for some reason, and saw my bloodstain floating above the level.

Can't believe how much work you spent on this video. I truly like it, after 8 years I comeback now and then to Dark Souls 3, and this video proves why I like it a lot.

Absolutely amazing video, thanks so much for making it! I had played the series in order and often felt like I was just “going through the motions” by the time I got to DS3, so I rarely stopped to look around and take everything in. This has motivated me more than enough to give it another playthrough this holiday, so thanks a lot for that as well!

I am so excited for a Dark Souls 2 analysis! It's my favorite game in the series and I love the environments in it. Sure, there are a lot of obvious consistencies, but even coming from someone who loves and obsesses over DS1's world design, I dont think it detracts from the game. It adds to the game's slightly dreamy vibe.

I love the way enemies react throughout the video. Like, "Oh, hey bud, just looking around? Go on ahead."

Its dope that people still make videos about this game. Instant sub.

Thank you for breaking down the geography of dark souls 3! I was always curious as well about the layouts and relationships. From Software really puts thought and care in their level designs

Great video! I think out of all the games, I love how DS3 shows you what lies ahead right after Vordt boss fight.

I love the way you showcased all the illusions of distance and scale. It's amazing how a combination of little things can make the game seem so much larger than it is. And DS3 isn't small by any means as it is. This was well worth the watch, thank you for your time and effort in making this!

The world layout: it moves.. ;) Glad this vid came out!

Oh ho ho hoooo boy I have been waiting for this one for a while

Untended Graves is not merely Firelink at night, it's Firelink during an encroaching age of dark, a place forgotten by the age of fire. Whether it's before or after Firelink-Firelink is up for speculation.

The effort put in to make these areas match up, even with the inconsistencies is fucking incredible. But, even more than that, in terms of the in-universe effort it must have taken: Look at how fucking massive Lothric Castle is. The whole thing, every tower, every archway, every bridge. And then it stretches down into massive bridges, the Undead Settlement, and on and on to the Cathedral of the Deep, also incredibly impressive. Anor Londo, Irithyll, the Profaned Capital. Just the amount of fucking stone that the people in this world had to move around to create these massive dedications to faiths, the Firelinking cycle itself, etc. It's insane. Really makes it feel like your presence in this dying world is you cutting through the weeds of a world that, at its peak, was too grandiose to even sneer at your existence.

I'm kind of... in love with this video, I think. DS3 was always my favorite for it's themes and how they relate to DS1, it's bosses, the general vibe, and it's meta-level position as a definitive end to the IP, and how Fromsoft felt about and handled that situation. While I like the maze-like intricacy of DS1 and do think that was really special, that was never enough to push it above 3, for me. Specially since the intricacy in design was always kept, just shifted to focus more on individual levels, instead of the connections between them. All in all, the map layout was never a huge priority for me. So to see all this effort put into a world layout that serves _no_ practical purpose other than to awe you whenever it can, is kind of insane. They didn't have to have that much care to create that sense of spectacle, and could've gotten away with so, so much more nonsensical geography without me and most players ever noticing. I could never have known it was this precise, and all the gross imprecisions are hidden for the sake of keeping the smoke and mirrors going. The only reason I can think of to go through that much trouble is because you care about the thing you're making. God damn. I know taste is a deeply personal thing, and I can't fault anyone for disagreeing with me, but people who think 3 is the worst game in the series? That it's somehow the most forgettable, the least interesting? I don't understand those people, and I never really will.

This is everything I love about DS3's world! While yes, it's true the world isn't physically connected and traversable like from DS1, but every landmark is still a part of the world. If there's a castle or a structure in the distance, you will likely go there. Not just because it's the game designers foreshadowing the map, but because IT IS THE WORLD!!!!!! As sad as it is that we'll never traverse the place as seamlessly as we did Lordran, there is something (to me at least) that feels almost more satisfying about how EVERYTHING is placed intentionally. The world feels so big, structured, and yet everything you see is a place to explore. I just don't know how else to describe it, but it's just SO INSANELY IMMERSIVE to me.

hoping this series makes a comeback sometime

I always go through the worlds trying to see what other areas I can spot from certain viewpoints so videos like this and the DS1 layout vid are absolutely perfect. Fantastic concept and execution, thank you sir

We need more DS3 Dissected, come on illusory you got this

World design of Sekiro would be a really fun watch! It reminded me a lot of DS1’s interconnectivity, but with DS3’s habit of showing off other areas of the game from far away. It’s really impressive.

this video was a piece of art.

I come back to this video every year or so, it's so well put together and I love seeing all the ways that Dark Souls 3's map was put together. Your channel is a true gem.

RE: the Castlevania anecdote at the end: The Twin Princes' tower even has a little side tower that looks a whole lot like Dracula's tower! I've been playing Symphony of the Night recently and there have been so many moments when I've felt that there has to be a lot of Castlevania inspiration in the Souls games, especially with all the shortcuts and elevators, and the many different layers of the castle, like how you can descend a tower and go from high in the sky, through courtyards and villages below to underground caves at the bottom, all stacked directly on top of each other.

Even though it was not perfect as you showed, it was enough to fool me into thinking that everything was exactly placed. If that was what they tried to do, it worked for me at least.

DS3 is my first souls game, and while I obviously saw the map connection after being carried by the demons after defeating the first boss, it really blew my mind later on when I took the elevator up to the bridge in the swamps, thought I recognised the bridge from earlier in the game...and then realised exactly where I was in relation to the previous map areas after I took a good look around me. I think it impressed me because I didn't expect it from a more linear game. They didn't need to do that, but there's something really satisfying about being able to see that "big picture" and have it align with my internal mental map

the way fromsoft tries to make logical sense of the worlds in their games (with the exception of DS2) is always amazing to me. realizing that the fishing hamlet in the Old Hunters DLC was above the nightmare version of the cathedral ward and that even further up were the nightmare frontier and the nightmare of mensis was such an amazing feeling, and also how the game utilized the fact that those were nightmares to enable you to look back at those lower areas but not really allowing you to look further to the higher parts of the overall nightmare was just stunning to me. Ok i might just be easily impressed but it was still really cool to realize that

Thank you for this, I always enjoy just wandering around the world and looking at the landscapes. I appreciate your efforts.

Dear brother...you have no idea how happy i am with the return and the size of the video, gonna roll me a fat one and enjoy this one, thanks again for your contributions to the Souls community.

This video helped me understand how crucial the giant crabs are to the identity of dark souls 3 and what elevate it above games both new and old. Thank you.

SOS PLEASE MAKE MORE DS3 DISECTED CONTENT

Nice work! I had my own small moment of glory regarding the world layout when I realized that the small tower you start in at the Lothric castele (the one with the Lordvessel) was located above Vordt's arena and is visible from the bonfire on the top of the bridge from the Undead settlement.

Haven finally finished Dark Souls 3, I can now come and watch this. Good times!

I would really enjoy more exploration of Dark Souls 3, specifically what you mention towards the end of the video about the DLC's placement of Lordran & Lothric

The free cam with white noise is so chill..... Thanks for that

This is an absolutely astounding amount of effort. Thank you so much.

Just watched this whole thing, unbelievably fascinating and well edited. Can't wait for part 2!

Happy to have discovered this channel, these uploads are a real treat!