FromSoftware’s games have inspired a host of dataminers eager to piece together their secrets and cut content. YouTuber crest (opens in a new tab) has been dissecting games for years, exploring the game in every possible way ever since the developer version of Dark Souls leaked in 2014. Notably, Crest is breaking boundaries to bring in new insights (opens in a new tab) on game worlds, as well as close-up views of evocative FromSoft background elements.
Most recently, Crest took a tour of the Boletarian town (opens in a new tab) in Demon’s Souls, a distant fortified city that you can observe from the heights of World 1, the Boletarian Palace. Crest and fellow modder Then (opens in a new tab) created an enlarged version of the distant city with added collision detection, allowing you to walk around and examine it up close through the use of their mod (opens in a new tab).
FromSoft’s haunting cityscapes have always captured my imagination, and the town of Boletarian Castle in particular looks like something out of Berserk. (opens in a new tab) or Drakengard (opens in a new tab). Its layout also seems to have been the subject of much thought: the town is organized around a Romanesque church, a small fort and their adjoining squares, and it has wider thoroughfares running through denser residential areas.
You may have come across Crest’s work in the past with the modder’s exploration of the streets of Anor Londo (opens in a new tab)and they recently made an effort to improve the textures (opens in a new tab) in this prohibited area for further examination.
The streets of Anor Londo have always fascinated me because you get that striking and iconic first look at this city of the gods, while your explorations are limited to just two cathedrals and their immediate surroundings floating above the city. Crest’s Anor Londo Out of Bounds demos satisfy that nagging curiosity I’ve always had, and it’s interesting to see this set dress up knowing it would (in theory) become Irythill of the Boreal Valley in Dark Souls 3.
In March, Crest showed off an upgraded version of the unnamed village visible from Firelink Shrine (opens in a new tab) in Dark Souls, an area that doesn’t quite match any location you can explore in the game. It’s so detailed it almost looks like a low LoD version of a playable area, but this is definitely not the Undead Burg or New Londo. It remains one of those unsolved mysteries in gaming, but at least now you can give it some serious thought.
“I really like how detailed these ‘hidden parts’ are,” the modder told us. “It’s always exciting to explore these places for the first time – they’re often just normal, everyday places people used to live in, like the lower part of Anor Londo. It brings a lot of life to the place. universe and that’s something we don’t do. I can’t see while playing normally.”
Crest has a Patreon (opens in a new tab) and Kofi (opens in a new tab) for those who wish to support their work, and you can follow the modder on Twitter (opens in a new tab) and YouTube (opens in a new tab).