Dark Souls diary: passing the midterms in Anor Londo

Arriving in Anor Londo is one of Dark Souls’ show-stopping moments. After beating the Iron Golem, I’m hoisted aloft by a trio of gangly, winged demons, who deposit me on a parapet with a spectacular sunset view of the city. Stretching out before me is a glittering hillside city, spires and flying buttresses of carved marble and gold piercing the skyline. After the squalor and grubbiness of the places I’ve travelled through – Undead Burg, the Depths, Blighttown, and Sen’s Fortress – it feels like I’ve turned up at a distinguished dinner party, woefully underdressed, covered in dirt, and wheezing.

After finding my way to the area’s first bonfire, I step back out onto the high wall to get my bearings. It takes a little while to get over the sheer grandeur of the view, but as I venture forward, I notice something: Anor Londo isn’t designed for humans, at least not primarily. This place is built on a much larger scale: a chapel housing a gigantic painting soars to dizzying heights, while the main stairway up to the imposing central structure has steps that any normal-sized person would struggle to climb. It’s a city for giants.

My ultimate goal in Anor Londo is dead ahead of me, in a straight-line path up to the doors of the ornate cathedral in the distance. I’m going the long way around, though, because someone forgot to reset the rotating pillar that holds the bridge up.