In FromSoftware’s game, this hard-to-explain character didn’t end up playing such a role, but there are hints that it might have been different.

Zullie the Witch, a well-known data miner at FromSoftware, has posted a new video on YouTube (embedded below) that explores one of the studio’s most memorable odd non sequiturs. In Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, there was a giant rope guy who took you from the kingdom of Ashina to the heavenly Fountainhead Palace. This character may have been given a much larger role in the early stages of development than we eventually experienced.

In Dark Souls, it’s a giant crow that takes our character to Lordran. And in Dark Souls 1 and 3, it was the gargoyles that transported him. In comparison, the giant rope man is a bit crazy. Fortunately, absurdity works well in FromSoft’s surreal, disjointed style. From the video, we learn that the Rope Man is probably based on real Japanese Wara Ningyō dolls, only on a larger scale.

In Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, Zullie discovered unused AI scripts while searching the files associated with the creature. This suggests that it may have previously had an active gameplay menu, rather than appearing in the Japanese studio’s game for a single scene. This begs the question: how would such a powerful character have worked? According to Zullie’s measurements, the character is 191 meters tall.

You’d need more than two Statues of Liberty to reach that height. According to Zullie, it wouldn’t have been a matter of fighting the Rope Man directly, but of having normal-sized opponents while climbing the rope. This is supported by the concept art of the Rope Man in Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, which shows various enemies climbing onto him. But there were problems with this. The bouncy, free-moving style of gameplay would not have fit in such a limited space, especially if it moved as the AI scripts suggested.

We shudder to think what they were actually planning.

Source: PCGamer