If you’ve played the whole Dark Souls series, you know what I’m talking about. If you haven’t played Dark Souls 3 yet, there are huge spoilers ahead.
Again, I’m about to spoil a huge reveal in Dark Souls 3. Reader beware!
Pontiff Sulyvahn proved to be one of the toughest fights for me in all of Dark Souls 3. Though it was undeniably satisfying to learn his moveset and learn to crush him, it took me a while to figure things out. (I wasn’t lucky enough to realise how you could kill him with one hit!) Upon leaving his area, I was ready for Dark Souls 3 to give me a break; I needed a breather.
As is usually the case with Dark Souls, that wasn’t the case. I tried to make it last as long as possible by slowly pelting giants with arrows.
Soon, my eyes gazed towards the sky…
At the time, I was only admiring the beautiful, haunting architecture, a staple for the series. I should have been paying attention to that structure on the left. I should have been wondering if there was something familiar.
But nothing clicked, and I moved forward. Step by step, enemy by enemy.
Even when I began waltzing up a set of stairs, dodging huge arrows…
Still, nothing. Every fibre of my being was focused on survival.
Things got weirder when I found this hidden passage:
Is that…? Naw. Dark Souls doesn’t do stuff like this. I’m seeing things! As I approached the item waiting in front of me, though, my eyebrow raised.
Hmm. That… looks… like…! Skipping the descriptions, as I tend to do, I pushed these thoughts to the back of my mind and kept on trucking.
Then, I found a lever. THE LEVER. What’s so important about a lever? It’s because of what that lever does, what these particular levers do in Dark Souls.
My heart started beating faster now. None of this made any sense! “You can’t be doing what I think you’re doing, Dark Souls 3,” I thought. Yes, the games have referenced one another in item descriptions, but it’s always a lore thing. They have never done what I thought they were doing right then.
And then, it really does it. It really f’ing does it.
Holy shit. Anor Londo, the most infamous location in all of Dark Souls, the home of Dragon Slayer Ornstein and Executioner Smough, the game’s dastardly boss duo. Dark Souls 3 was really taking you back to that place.
You can actually see my mouth widen in excitement when it happens.
I’m not one to pay close attention to Dark Souls lore, and it’s not much different in Dark Souls 3. I’m sure there are important reasons Anor Londo is being revisited in Dark Souls 3, but that’s not what made it so powerful for me. Returning to Anor Londo represented a full-circle appreciation of having played this series the past few years, and how far I’ve come as a player. When I reached Anor Londo in the original Dark Souls, I was struggling to understand how to play the game. Now, we’re on equal terms. As I said in my review of Dark Souls 3, we’re sparring partners.
It was bittersweet, one of Dark Souls 3‘s late highlights, and helped give closure to the hundreds of hours I’ve poured into these games.
I’ll leave you with this wonderful tribute to Anor Londo by Justin McElroy.
Comments
6 responses to “The Nostalgic Moment In Dark Souls 3 That Made Me Go ‘Oh, Shit’”
I played Dark Souls III after just 100% completing Dark Souls. As soon as I’d plopped the banner in the ground after Vordt I was curious to how reminiscent the structure to the left was. Then when I first lay eyes on Irithyll I was again just looking at the huge structure on the left obscured by fog thinking it looked amazingly familiar…
Then I walk that corner after the Pontiff fight and nostalgia took hold. For a solitary moment I was so happy to revisit this place, but then I remembered that this is a Souls game and this would not end happily.
Then you stumble across a large old friend and the oddest time to have the feels happens.
Oh man so many unexpected feels at that point…
How come nobody is questioning how it’s there in Dark Souls 3?
The environment the last boss takes place in is a major hint.
Total shivers.
Walking up the ramparts I was like “REALLY DARK SOULS WE’RE DOING GREAT ARROWS ON THE RAMPARTS AGAIN ARE WE?” and then the circular room… the illusory wall… the lever… oh wow that was an incredible moment.
In other news though… That giant wasn’t there for me…? Only just finished the game yesterday and was doing a no guide so not sure what i’ve missed, but there was definitely no giant there for me.