Dark Souls 3 Original Plot Allegedly Made You Fight a Lord of Cinder Right Out of the Gate Instead of Iudex Gundyr

It is often witnessed in the gaming industry how a title’s final release does not line up with what was originally planned. And the same seems to be the case with Hidetaka Miyazaki’s Dark Souls 3, which brought an end to one of the most beloved trilogies in the whole Dark Fantasy video game genre.

From the very beginning, the player gets to face an immense level of challenge only ever observed in other Soulsborne games, starting with Iudex Gundyr, the very first boss the player encounters in the title. However, if a speculation made by one of the players online turns out to be true, Gundyr was not intended to be the first foe we get to see in Dark Souls 3.

Out of the many bosses in the title made by Hidetaka Miyazaki, there exists the Lord of Cinder, a title given only to those who were mighty enough to link the flame. Additionally, there are a total of 5 Lord of Cinders in the game, and as alleged by this user on Reddit, it was Yhorm the Giant, one of these bosses, that the player was supposed to fight when the game first began.

The user has managed to back his claim by stating how the theory is supported through content that was cut before the release of the game but was eventually found later by data miners. They claim that the bonfire is not there to begin with, and is instead made by the player himself using coiled swords, obtained by fighting Yhorm earlier.

The bosses in the final release of the Dark Souls franchise remain iconic, so much so that fans have been manifesting a fourth release since the series ended. Luckily, this is something that might come true soon as both, FromSoftware and Miyazaki are about to be left with a lot of free time, allowing them to pursue new projects, or revisit old ones.

There seems to be no officially announced timeline by FromSoftware after the much-awaited launch of Elden Ring’s Shadow of the Erdtree DLC on 21st June. As it has been confirmed by the director himself this will be the first and only DLC the game will be getting, it begs the question of what is he going to pursue next, and why it needs to be Dark Souls 4.

The DS franchise is one of the stepping stones that helped the director make his name in the industry and remains one of the best Dark Fantasy releases to date. Not to mention how the intense difficulty has almost become iconic at this point, with players using it as a standard to compare other games with, and something that many would like to see being featured again in a potential sequel.

Dark Souls 3 is available to purchase on Steam.