Remember in the 1st game how in the DLC, Oolacile was in the distant past, yet took place in the same area that Lordran occupied? At that point, the land still had some of the same topology, especially at the forest/Darkroot Garden area. In the new game, the only parallel that I can find layout wise, (and it's someone else who pointed this out), is that in the first game, Blighttown lies under and slightly off to the side of Firelink. In the new game, the gutter sits almost directly below Majula. It is conceivably the same horrible area.