UPDATE: DARK SOULS 2 NO FAST TRAVEL IS LIVEE!!!!!!! https://youtu.be/ItDKQhzJm68

RE: Kaathe - A few people have mentioned Kaathe, and I was gonna bring it up in the video but ended up cutting it, perhaps I should've left it in. The problem with Kaathe is that he doesn't bring you out of the Abyss, he takes you from Abyss -> Firelink Altar -> back to Abyss, so you'd be stuck there nonetheless. Additionally, until you place the Lordvessel, Seath, Bed of Chaos and Nito are blocked off by the yellow fog gate, so you'd need to do Four Kings first, and then you'd just be stuck down there, only having killed 1/4 lord soul bosses, which is less than the 2/4 you can do in a traditional Frampt route, even if you do just have to end the run in the second one. I do appreciate the thoughts of course, I did consider that route before doing the run though don't worry 😁

off the top of my head I'm gonna say no, because Bed of Chaos

I think it's a deliberate choice to force the player to warp out of the lord soul bosses to sort of communicate that 'you're done down this path'. The forced break in continuity is almost like a pallet cleanser after a long stretch of fully imersed gameplay going through each endgame area, and it prevents any players wasting their time trying to claw their way out through an area that can technically be backtracked through but weren't designed for it.

The DLC does the same thing with Manus, his arena being a dead end that needs to be warped out of makes it clear that you just beat the DLC, as opposed to something like Kalameet where you can backtrack because that was just a detour (hmmm, the game design treating Manus the same as the lordsoul bosses, just like how he also spawns a bonfire when he dies just like the lords and no one else, almost like the gameplay itself is hinting that he's actually a certain oft forgotten lord without stating it directly).

"This tomb marks my grave, but you can warp out of it, if you like."

Fun fact: if you do Four Kings before getting lordvessel you can fast travel from the Abyss to Firelink.

1:38, as a person who got stuck in Tomb of the giants on my first playthrough, and had to get out of there on foot, nothing will surprise me when it comes to backtracking .

there's also the fact that DS1 is itself a (spiritual) sequel to demons souls, a game that had this sort of structure of straight line paths through different zoned that terminate with major story bosses and aren't designed/intended to be walked back through in reverse, a design pattern repeated after ds1 in ds2 and somewhat present in ds3 as well.  with that being the consistent pattern, ds1's interconnected map designed for getting lost and extensive backtracking is the anomoly.  The question isn't 'why does the second half fail to keep this up', the second half is just following standard fromsoft souls series design.  The question is 'why/how did the first half of ds1 come to be designed that way, when nothing else in the series is like that'.

If you don't count dying as fast travel, the game is technically possible warpless. For any area where you cannot get out without bonfire warps or darksigning/homeward boning, you can die to respawn at your last bonfire. For Bed of Chaos, jump off the arena and die. For Nito, get debuffed with toxic just before killing him, so you can die (Or just use Symbol of Avarice if you don't have the toxic debuff). For Seath, run out the arena and drop off the ledge back at the main cave. For Four Kings, use Symbol of Avarice to die. To get out of Anor Londo, the demon imps can take you back to Sen's.

If you want to kill Stray Demon quickly, you can use the Morningstar from Firelink Shrine to bleed him out. Stray Demon's bleed resistance is extremely low. Three hits from the Morningstar are enough to trigger a bleed proc. I always use this method to kill Stray Demon while getting the Rusted Iron Ring for Blighttown.

Out of the 4 lords, you can only walk back from Seath's arena, and maybe the 4 kings, if you do Kaathe's quest. Nito and BoC has hard drop-offs.

17:50 I might be reading too much into it, but they may have required warping after beating the final bosses because of Gwyn.

(Spoilers)

The intention of the story is for you to Link the Fire, which involves kindling the last bonfire after defeating Gwyn. But there is also a theme that the whole thing is a manipulation to trick you into sacrificing yourself. I was plenty used to kindling bonfires by the end of the game. And after defeating the previous four bosses, I was used to using the bonfires to warp back to safety. I know that in my case I actually Linked the Fire without realizing that it was different from a normal bonfire because I did it reflexively. That may be a good or bad thing in terms of design, but I think it embodies the fact I was going along with the scheme unknowingly. So they may have required warping from bonfires in those prior instances to establish a pattern beforehand.

The fact that you left her alive is enough thank you ❤😭🙏 13:17 and you also kept Gwyndolin alive a million thanks 🙏

Great video!
I actually find it kind of nice whenever these challenge videos end up being impossible-
I think it helps subvert the sense that “This wouldn’t be a video if the answer was No.”,
and thus adds suspense to other challenges (for me, personally).

It also makes for an educational experience about the game’s design and mechanics. I really appreciate that.

I look forward to your Bloodborne run in the future!

A hidden ladder like in pinwheels would be a good solution to nito.
Having kaathe or frampt there to take you home would be a good solution to the Abyss.
Frankly i think the long ramp before bed of chaos is kind silly. 10 seconds of a static animation? I like the idea of a long staircase, maybe with lots of touches on each side. Maybe even put the fog wall at the bottom so you walk in and immediately have the bed taking up the whole screen.

@1:13 You actually can get a warp menu that has all previously rested at bonfires that you can normally warp to before acquiring the Lord Vessel. If you defeat the Four Kings early, the bonfire there will have the warp option without ever having set foot in Anor Londo.

9:45 thats how my first run of dark souls went. i got to the poison lake and the giants scared me away from Quelaag's arena.

Thanks to the online messages, I discovered the hidden wall and just kept going lower and lower.
Since the 2nd bell was supposed to be below, I assumed this was the right way. You can imagine my confusion and dissapointment when there was no bell or boss  at the bottom, just the ancient dragon.

I ended up taking a few months break, but when I returned, I looked up a guide and realized I had to head back up the way I came.

Felt like an idiot, but it was quite an adventure!

19:20 bro just decided to start spitting truths

When a rushed game still has the best world design in any videogame ever 💯

Firelink elevator is obviously pretty cool to encounter, but I wouldn't really call it unexpected; Crestfallen outright tells you that the bell is in the Church right above Firelink and that there is a lift when you listen to all his dialogue at the start.
Granted, a decent chunk of people will never talk to him multiple times before leaving for Undead Burg, and plenty will forget.

Also, depending on the definition of fast travel, leaving The Abyss is possible by doing Four Kings before getting the Lordvessel. :)

Personally I think a neat way to connect Nito's arena could have been through another series of drops going down a broken and disconnected tree that eventually reaches Ash lake. It could have been the very one where we find Great Magic Barrier.