Dark Souls III Cut Content - Unseen Enemies and Early Bosses

[Nimby]

Lance McDonald, known for digging through early versions of Souls games to find unused content, has pieced together some unused enemies and earlier versions of bosses in DSIII.

A lot of what is shown appears in those early leaked screenshots before the game was officially announced. Oceiros and Baby Ocelotte are fully modeled and functioning, Vordt of the Boreal Valley initially had a slight alteration in his design, both bosses featured unused music. He also shows off some never-before-seen enemies, a hostile pilgrim, and a hollow-filled slug that is strangely reminiscent of the cramped coffins in Yahar'gul.

The last big discovery he made a video about was the cut boss "Snake Ball" from Bloodborne.

 

[Ferrs]

Holy shit, he doesnt just slam Ocelotte once, he keeps slamming him while walking, thats brutal lol No wonder it got cut.

 

[EndlessNever]

No wonder the baby was cut.

 

[Xiaomi]

No but seriously this is cool. That skeleton blob was nice, too. Wish it had made the cut.

 

[Jombie]

Those slugs are cool, they probably killed the frame rate.

 

[finalflame]

The Oceiros fight was so much better and more visceral before the changes, but I guess I get why it wouldn't fly.

 

[RestEerie]

The beta name for Boreal Valley, Frigate Valley sounds cooler.

Boreal just reminds me of Bovril.

 

[signal]

Slug looks like that coffin enemy thing from Bloodborne.

 

[The Living Tribunal]

Poor Ocelotte... no wonder they removed the model, that was brutal.

Oh and that last slug is full of nope.

 

[Xenosaga]

yeah I can totally understand why the baby was cut

 

[Cyborg]

I thought the firs boss was from Bloodborne. :)

 

[Dullahan]

Damn Miyazaki was in a baby hating mood. Dead babies everywhere.

 

[MoogleWizard]

The dead baby stuff is too edgy for me, glad it was cut.

 

[dom]

You're pretty good.

 

[Tokyo_Funk]

Dark Souls has always been pretty brutal and morbid, but yeah bashing the player with a baby was a few steps too far.

Then again Dead Space 2 had psycho little babies attacking the player in droves.

 

[Zelda]

Sucks that slug zombie clump thing got cut, really cool looking enemy.

 

[Mifec]

Dark Souls has always been pretty brutal and morbid, but yeah bashing the player with a baby was a few steps too far.

Then again Dead Space 2 had psycho little babies attacking the player in droves.

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There's a whole level of aborted kids in Demon's Souls which are enemies.

 

[Tokyo_Funk]

There's a whole level of aborted kids in Demon's Souls which are enemies.

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Oh wow, you're right, the plaguebabies from the Valley of Defilement. Did not realize they were aborted though.

 

[Red Liquorice]

Those slugs are definately too close to the cramped coffins in BB.

 

[laxu]

Sucks that slug zombie clump thing got cut, really cool looking enemy.

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I think it was more Bloodborne than DS so it got cut. In fact, it seems to be a repurposed Cramped Casket model.

 

[CoyoteSpitfire]

Well I always wondered why Ocelotte was invisible. Didn't expect this to be the answer.

I understand why the slug variant got cut, it looks like the same model used in BB. But I do wish the normal slugs kept those creepy hands.

Looking at those serpents up close makes me wonder if they were originally meant to be a reborn version of the ancient dragons. Maybe signifying that the world was returning to the original foggy form seen in DS1's opening.

 

[Hamster Plugin]

I hope there's a way to mod the server checks from the Nioh alphas as well, there's three versions of it and the earliest is very early in development with whole mechanics (durability) that were cut from the final game.

 

[Hayeya]

The souls games are a goldmine of cut content, i enjoy these discoveries a lot.

Using the baby as a weapon? Miyazaki and his cooworkers are fucked up. And i like it :)

 

[Frozenprince]

The story had to have been rushed the most in development given the naming conventions and overall feel being different

 

[Ferrs]

I wonder what was the point of all those babies stuck in Vordt? it feels so random..

 

[Flame Flamey]

This is all pretty cool, the slug attack and variant would have been super creepy to have. And poor pilgrims, waddling around trying to whack you. The flying serpents are cool too. And yeah, the baby stuff really is something; if it all was in, it'd live up to the Valley of Defilement in terms of being messed up.

The saddest cut content is the Tracers though, would have loved for those to have gotten in.

 

[Muntaner]

If we mashup all the cut content of the soulsbornes, we get AT LEAST one entire new game.

 

[sn00zer]

Can't imagine why that was cut

 

[Deleted member 679]

I wonder what was the point of all those babies stuck in Vordt? it feels so random..

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The first thing that came to my mind was the description for the Irithyllian face preset, which says:

"The features of the old gods, as if from legend. They say children born like this are fated to be taken to the Boreal Valley."

I wonder if this is what those babies represent, the children related to the gods being taken to Anor Londo. Possibly for their research for a true heir to the fire?

If we mashup all the cut content of the soulsbornes, we get AT LEAST one entire new game.

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...

You know what? I'd buy it.

It would have to cost like $40, it would most likely be a linear set of completely disconnected levels and have no story of its own at all, just the cut dialogue from the respective games, but I'd still want it.

 

[Ferrs]

The first thing that came to my mind was the description for the Irithyllian face preset, which says:

"The features of the old gods, as if from legend. They say children born like this are fated to be taken to the Boreal Valley."

I wonder if this is what those babies represent, the children related to the gods being taken to Anor Londo. Possibly for their research for a true heir to the fire?

Click to shrink...

Hmmm... you may be onto something here... it's possible babies was a more in-depth concept with DS3 lore before the cut, like seemingly the serpents were too.

Wonder if Dancer NPC was somehow involved (IIRC Lance said the cut NPC is located in the Boreal Valley, before Gwyn's Tomb, and not Lohtric like those leaked pics).

 

[Deleted member 679]

Hmmm... you may be onto something here... it's possible babies was a more in-depth concept with DS3 lore before the cut, like seemingly the serpents were too.

Wonder if Dancer NPC was somehow involved (IIRC Lance said the cut NPC is located in the Boreal Valley, before Gwyn's Tomb, and not Lohtric like those leaked pics).

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Wow, I didn't know that. That's very interesting.

You know, when I see new cut content for Bloodborne, my reactions go from "yeah, they never even tried to finish this" to "I'm glad they cut it, it's better in the final game". For Dark Souls 1 there's more content that I wish made it into the game, but at that point the games were still much lower budget, so it's understandable.

Dark Souls III, though, the alpha version just looks weirder, which would be great for a game that is often criticized for being bland and safe. I wish they went with the original vision.

I can totally see Namco telling them to remove all the babies from the game because of Ocelotte, so Vordt's children had to go as well, even if they're not nearly as grotesque.

 

[Ferrs]

Wow, I didn't know that. That's very interesting.

You know, when I see new cut content for Bloodborne, my reactions go from "yeah, they never even tried to finish this" to "I'm glad they cut it, it's better in the final game". For Dark Souls 1 there's more content that I wish made it into the game, but at that point the games were still much lower budget, so it's understandable.

Dark Souls III, though, the alpha version just looks weirder, which would be great for a game that is often criticized for being bland and safe. I wish they went with the original vision.

I can totally see Namco telling them to remove all the babies from the game because of Ocelotte, so Vordt's children had to go as well, even if they're not nearly as grotesque.

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I agree, although It feels to me From couldn't find a good balance, in the sense of when they went less safe compared to Dark Souls it made III probably look more close to Bloodborne (babies, the big sun/eclipse events being kinda like the red moon, church involvement although its still present, more horror vibes..).

I would still have liked that, and it would have been a more fresh take for Xbox and PC players, but I dunno, it feels like they didn't fully get a concensur on how to approach new mechanics like time of day or sacrifices.

Btw, about the babies, Its clear stomping a baby and having it still stickied on the monster feet and kept crushing her while walking would have skyrocket some rating boards. I think once Ocellotte was out whatever baby-related theme in the lore they wanted to introduce wasn't possible anymore, so scrapped everything.

 

[Wiibomb]

this is so interesting.

I can imagine this being the original version of ocelotte, so this is really what happens to him, what is in the game is just a censored version of what they had in mind. To know that all dialog and the cutscene was already done makes me think they had to do a rush job to censor it.

I mean, I completely understand why it had to be changed, but to me this is the real version, what the developers intended.

now what I keep thinking is, did miyazaki wrote this? that's fascinating.

 

[Canas Renvall]

this is so interesting.

I can imagine this being the original version of ocelotte, so this is really what happens to him, what is in the game is just a censored version of what they had in mind. To know that all dialog and the cutscene was already done makes me think they had to do a rush job to censor it.

I mean, I completely understand why it had to be changed, but to me this is the real version, what the developers intended.

now what I keep thinking is, did miyazaki wrote this? that's fascinating.

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The "censored" version is what the developers intended. It's editing, censorship is if someone makes a creator do it. If they do it of their own volition, especially before the game even comes out, it's an edit.

 

[Einherjer]

The beta name for Boreal Valley, Frigate Valley sounds cooler.

Boreal just reminds me of Bovril.

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Ugh yeah that looks like something only Brits can come up with.

 

[Wiibomb]

The "censored" version is what the developers intended. It's editing, censorship is if someone makes a creator do it. If they do it of their own volition, especially before the game even comes out, it's an edit.

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And to me, because of how finished this was on the alpha, this tells me it had to do with namco. So, censorship. In any case, this part of the discussion is pointless because neither of us can get a confirmation of what was intended, what was edited and what namco wanted to be removed. That is what I chose to believe, but of course the official version is what's included in the final game and that is what matters in the end.