Dark Souls 3’s closing boss may – and may – have been Pontiff Sulyvahn

Once upon a time, Pontiff Sulyvahn was Dark Souls III’s closing boss, not the Soul of Cinder. 

Dark Souls Three initially ended within the Untended Graves, nevertheless it wasn’t the night-time model, there was third model. The final boss you initially fought there was later renamed to “Pontiff Sullivahn” and moved to a special map, however Sullivahn was completely the final boss.

— Lance McDonald (@manfightdragon) April 18, 2018

Players would battle him within the Untended Graves space, which within the completed sport was discovered behind a hidden wall after defeating Oceiros. Players who discovered it is going to understand it as a chilly and unnervingly darkish place with a pitch black skybox, however in accordance with McDonald’s findings, it wasn’t at all times so.

There were three states for the Untended Graves, with McDonald naming them as “‘default’, ‘eroded’, and ‘last boss’.” He implies that the one we see within the sport is “the night-time version”, so maybe one among these different states is the Cemetery of Ash – the sport’s beginning space, which is a daytime, correctly lit copy of Untended Graves. That nonetheless leaves a 3rd state that was “totally cut”, together with a system that may change the time of day on the fly. 

Each state of the map would even have a totally completely different boss, with file names referring to “Champion Gundyr / OldOldHeroGunda”, “Evil Spirits / SnakeSoul”, and “Pontiff Sulyvahn / BlackOldKing”. Sulyvahn was moved to a special map (Irithyll of the Boreal Valley), whereas Champion Gundyr remained because the boss of the darkish map – and, in weaker kind, the daytime map. That leaves SnakeSoul, which McDonald says was completely deleted, together with its character file. 

Numerous this tallies with a supposed leak that emerged nearer to the sport’s launch, of which McDonald says he “can verify huge chunks”. Between that and McDonald’s personal digging, Dark Souls III may have been massively structurally completely different – and personally, I feel I desire the alternate model. 

So a lot of it makes a lot sense, like transitioning on to Irithyll after the Abyss Watchers, to the Catacombs after the Greatwood, or having Aldrich spill out of his tomb within the Cathedral (like he does within the trailer). Other adjustments are merely interesting: having two paths into Irithyll hearkens again to the intricacy of the unique sport’s peerless world design. Even having an enormous skeleton – Wolnir – as chief of the Mound Makers simply feels higher than Holy Knight Hodrick, and a lot of Dark Souls is about really feel.

But one of the best little bit of the unique story is having Sulyvahn as the ultimate boss. He’s the closest the bottom sport has to a transparent villain: he betrays and overthrows the gods of Anor Londo, imprisoning Yorshka and feeding Gwyndolin to Saint Aldrich (together with many 1000’s of unsuspecting undead, included orphaned kids). He sends his knights out on missions, giving them rings that, unbeknownst to them, will rework them into unthinking beasts. He’s an admirer of the Profaned Flame – which is antithetical to the First Flame – and an adherent of the Church of the Deep, which seeks to succeed the Age of Fire. It makes good sense to confront him on the sport’s climax – somewhat than the midway level when his crimes aren’t absolutely understood – and go away the nameless, nebulous Soul of Cinder as a secret boss.

Of course, the gods of Anor Londo and the Age of Fire aren’t unambiguously good both, and therein lies the one actual argument I can see for relegating Sulyvahn. What if the participant chooses to establish together with his trigger? Setting up the champion of the Deep as the ultimate boss is arguably an announcement in itself, and maybe director Hidetaka Miyazaki wished to protect somewhat of the video games’ well-known ambiguity. 

But then, Dark Souls III is the tip of the collection – no less than as we all know it. Maybe Miyazaki was contemplating this ending exactly as a result of it does really feel somewhat extra closing. In my opinion, the Age of Fire is preferable to the uncertainty and corruption of the Dark and the Deep. So a lot of those video games is topic to interpretation – which is why they’re so compelling – however “better the Devil you know” is unquestionably one of many many messages that they could possibly be stated to convey.

Is it ironic if that message may have been higher conveyed by this different model of the sport? As it have been, the Devil we do not know? How very meta.