Dark Souls' director reveals the pendant's true purpose
"I actually had a little bit of an intention to play a prank.”
Upon beginning a new game in Dark Souls you're offered the chance to pick a starting "gift" to help you on your travels. These range from very useful, like a master key that can unlock any door, to forgettable, like 10 fire bombs. The most mysterious item was the pendant as its in-game description read, "Trinket. No effect, but fond memories comfort travelers."
Upon Dark Souls' release, game director Hidetaka Miyazaki said in a Famitsu interview that he'd pick the pendant or nothing.
For the last 13 months fans have clamoured to find out what hidden purpose it had. The Dark Souls Wiki devoted 1600 words to speculating as to its true effect. Only now has Miyazaki addressed this most mysterious of items.
“When it comes to the pendant, I actually had a little bit of an intention to play a prank,” Miyazaki said in an interview with IGN.
That's right. When it said it had "no effect," what it meant was, "no seriously, it has no effect."
Given how insanely obscure Dark Souls' dense systems are, Miyazaki knew fans would go crazy figuring it out, so the whole thing was just a giant red herring to keep people guessing. Well played, Miyazaki-san. Well played.