PC Gamer reports that dataminer Doneda loaded remnants of an early Dark Souls II map into Elden Ring Nightreign, revealing a huge coliseum-centered prototype that appears to have been abandoned early in development. The map never appeared in the 2014 release, and PC Gamer describes its coliseum as larger than the ones in Elden Ring.
The recovered files also point to mines, a crypt section and a strange underground tower. Some pieces may have belonged to an interconnected region, while others could be different iterations of the same idea rather than one finished layout.
PC Gamer suggests the prototype may be connected to what became the Undead Crypt, but its intended place in Dark Souls II remains unknown. With no official explanation from FromSoftware, the map offers a glimpse of an earlier version of the game rather than a definitive account of what the studio planned.