Sam Winkler
@ThatSamWinkler Follow Dark Souls revolutionized games, in the sense that instead of a story now you can just have some guy with a big SWord named Myrmidon of Loss who gasps "Zanzibart... forgive me" when he dies and then twenty YouTubers will make an hour long video about how deep your lore is
Nuanced, moral choice rpg: Would you like to kill 3 giant crabs for 10 gold to save a racist child or kill 3 giant crabs for 15 gold and set an orphanage on fire?
The DLC has some jar lore (I fucking love reading descriptions for craftable items and ingredients), but I am still non-plussed about the jars. It's a fun game to play in the company of a friend who doesn't game, because their bafflement really highlights how much absurdity we just get used to.
My boi dedicated his life to killing insane invaders who kill randomly because his ex girl became one after they broke up. After he tried to kill her and she slayed his ass he's like "Nah, you know what, imma just give my earthly flesh to an all consuming outer god who'll end all existence man"
Do you think it's Bloody-Finger Hunter Yura, or Bloody Finger-Hunter Yura? I think the straightforward answer is the first one, but do we know for sure? In this space of uncertainty is where the seeds of video essays germinate.
I think it’s like piecing together a mystery, which can be interesting as you find clues and tidbits. Most of the lore is hidden in the item descriptions and explains the details of your environment. I didn’t really pay attention to it much at first, most things I just reacted to like “that’s fucked up”, but it was kind of neat when I started to realize how some of these enemies had a history within the world. Then I started rereading some of those descriptions, and what was a jumbled mess started making more sense. It was like having a jigsaw puzzle come together.
That said, there’s still a lot I don’t get and I still go WTF… ok time for unga bunga
It's 100% this and I absolutely love the story-telling method of FromSoft's soulsborne games, makes you work for it instead of just handing it to you.
If you want to dive into the lore, its there, in the item descriptions, and that NPC that's absolutely no-where near the area you are currently in that you'd have to backtrack to in order to hear the the new snippet of conversation before they disappear.
I like their method of storytelling because it's fairly unique in the gaming landscape (at least, the landscape of the last 20+ years). 95% of stories in other games use the very traditional, straight-forward format with a ton of exposition and cinematic cutscenes and can be easily understood by anyone at an elementary reading level. I don't say that with disdain and there is nothing at all wrong with that method, as long as it is interesting and well-written, but it's refreshing to see them doing something different. I also like it because it's sort of the best of both worlds; you can either completely disregard the story if you're not interested (which is easy to do because Souls games don't have much in the way of forced exposition) and it won't really hinder your enjoyment of the game (if you're primarily interested in the action elements), or you can dive in deep with all of the discussion and theorizing in the community and the abundance of lore videos. It sort of reminds me of gaming in the early days. For example, when the original Legend of Zelda came out, one of my favorite aspects of that and similar games was the hours of discussion and speculation me and my friends would have as the game was exceedingly sparse on details. I think FromSoft does this intentionally as a nod to early game design and the fact that it is inherently more engaging (again, for those that are interested) as obviated by the wealth of discourse you find in any Souls game forum. Go look at God of War or Last of Us forums, for example. There is some, but not nearly as much story or lore discussion in those communities because everything is provided to the gamer and it is all clearly laid out (though I do still enjoy those respective stories for what they are, also).
It's really just a matter of preference and play style. My SO loves their games and enjoys watching tons of lore deep dive videos on YouTube, whereas I just run around killin and dyin.
Reminds me of a recent Souls meme where I've seen a look-alike of the Iron Will sword from Nier series only to remind myself that creators of both franschises love Berserk, and that Froms did their tribute to it too.