#ds3 spoilers

[palebloodcvrse]

Ok so orbeck said he was exiled when he became undead

But you dont just wake up one day undead right? He died somehow

Question is how? (Btw it is hella fucked up that he basically got expelled postmortem...)

[tatzelwyrm]

Help! I have been conned into ritually murdering a guy I've spoken to like 4 times and somehow this means we're married now.

[princekirijo]

I beat Elden Ring 🧍

[ladymariayuri]

after looking at clips online of later bosses in fromsoft games and seeing their health values be pretty similar to what i was getting mad at in dark souls 2, i would like to issue an apology to everybody in my replies saying me calling the pursuer a meathead tank was crazy. i was babied by the miniscule health pools of dark souls 1 and i apologize for the baby back bitching. i will now proceed to “get good” my friends

[cinna-bunnie]

[this user is too dumb to do the quests in fromsoftware games]

[this user still has a fun time playing but has to watch lore videos]

[this user just upgrades stuff and kills enemies because they get lost all the time and just wander]

[this user missed a bunch of quests because they didn't find people in time or talk to them in the right order]

[fakest-slenderman]

Upon the graves of hundreds of warriors and gods, heroes for the ages, Lords of Cinder, the last stood, ushering in a new age, an age, not of dark, not of flame, not of the deep, not of the gods nor the men. An age of Hollows. And there they stood, the final Unkindled. The Ashen One. The Lord of Hollows.

(Finally finished DS3 so I’m gonna be in a melodramatic sort of mood)

[trivorowo]

As much lore significance the soul of cinder has as the final boss of DS3, I cannot see it as anything else apart from john darksoul. I mean, it's the collective wills of all those who linked the fire. It's literally everyone who played it. Its *the* John darksoul.

[themanwhomadeamonster]

at this point i'm just clutching to the most minute of details but jeez seeing the critical/red health hud and game over screen for dd2......... Dread.

[gorbwashere]

I love the little bits of comedy in the dialogue of AC6. It really is a small bit of levity from the capitalistic hellscape that is Rubicon.

Spoilers ahead for some missions and arena battles:

The entire Destroy The Damn mission is just so fun to listen to. It really feels like cheesy Hollywood "macho military man" talk in the best way possible.

"Cinders" Carla's character as a whole. Especially the message she leaves for you in her arena battle. The way Allmind just sounds at first confused at her taking over the simulation, followed by them taking control back with a sort of offended and annoyed tone breathes so much personality into this AI voice.

Ayre is just your sidekick coming along for an adventure and enjoying the ride. There's small moments in the game that endear her to you and make you laugh. Like that one part near the end of the Destory "Honest" Brute mission. Where's she's just fed up with how much the enemy AC just keeps saying random nonsense.

I haven't felt this attached to Fromsoftware characters ever since Siegward from DS3. Elden Ring has some amazing characters too, but idk... there's something about the AC6 that I really like.

[baeddel]

i've been playing ds1 again (as have, coincidentally, a bunch of my friends) and i've enjoyed noticing the differences between it and the other games; what stayed the same and what was left out.

i'm putting this under a readmore so Jane doesn't read it. gameplay spoilers.

there are undoubtedly a number of things that would be handled better later: the storage system, climbing ladders, etc.

i can confirm what many others say, that the interconnected world of ds1, which they never attempted again, is lovely. however, i can see why they never did it again, too. the richly interconnected part of the world is actually a very small section of ds1. Firelink, the Undead Burg, the Undead Parish, Darkroot, the Valley of Drakes, New Londo Ruins and Blighttown all connect. everything else is not interconnected at all.

the Undead Asylum and the Painted World are completely separate levels. the Catacombs connect to firelink and then proceed straight down to the Tomb of the Giants. the only place you can reach from the Tomb of the Giants is the Catacombs, and the only place you can reach from the Catacombs is Firelink.

from the Parish you can get to Sen's Fortress, which only goes to Anor Londo. from Anor Londo you can go to the Duke's Archives or the Painted World. the only way out of both places is back to Anor Londo, and the only way out of Anor Londo is back through Sen's Fortress, and the only way out of Sen's Fortress is back to the Undead Parish.

Blighttown leads to the Demon Ruins, which leads to Lost Izalith. the only way out of Lost Izalith is to go back to the Demon Ruins, and the only way out of the Demon Ruins is to go back to Blighttown.

the DLC takes place in a completely separate map and contains three areas. you start in Oolacile forest which leads to the Oolacile township which leads to the Oolacile dungeon. the only way back from Oolacile Township is to Oolacile forest. Oolacile dungeon contains a shortcut elevator that goes back to the forest, technically, but it's only to provide access from the bonfire at the beginning of the Township.

that makes seven areas which are richly connected and eleven which are not. so while that part sticks in your memory, most of the game isn't designed that way. i think the reason is kind of obvious: there are only three dimensions, and only four cardinal directions. if you put a connection up, down, and on all four sides of one area, you're done! so the amount of richly connected space is finite. eventually you will be forced to create a second wing which has no substnatial connection to the first.

ds1 is actually a very short game, and its areas are very small. ds2, Bloodborne and especially ds3 are a lot bigger, and Elden Ring is of course enormous. i think it was obviously necessary to rethink the design for those games. while i think several richly connected wings would be fun it would probably be a nightmare to design and it also helps the player of a large game to teach them something consistent, like the hub and spoke system of ds3.

the other alternative is to give up on making the connections geometrically plausible and instead use a system of teleports. Elden Ring actually does this, although you'll never use one more than once since you can warp between bonfires. the game that does this the best in my opinion is Runescape. you have to find and unlock new teleport systems, then learn how to use them, and navigating the map quickly becomes a skill on its own; a good player can get anywhere very quickly, while a noob will wander around asking for directions.

the other thing that i noticed is that there's very little redundancy between the spell schools. this was something that ds2 would immediately change. all the games after that would follow ds2 in making all the schools of magic redundant.

what do i mean by that? in ds1 there are three resins: gold pine resin, charcoal pine resin, and rotten pine reason. these add lightning damage, fire damage, and poison build-up respectively to your right hand weapon. no consumable can add magic damage to a weapon.

the Sorcery school has three spells that add magic damage to your right hand weapon: Magic Weapon, Greater Magic Weapon and Crystal Magic Weapon. it also has the only two spells that buff shields, Magic Shield and Greater Magic Shield (which are garbage). these spells range from low level to mid-high level spells.

the Miracles school has one spell that adds magic damage: Darkmoon Blade. it requires 30 Faith and you have to be in the Darkmoon covenant to use it. the Miracles school also has the only spell that adds lightning damage to a weapon, Sunlight Blade, which also requires 30 faith.

the Pyromancies school has no way to add any kind of damage to a weapon.

why does that matter? well, it means that if you're playing a Sorcerer you will be buffing your weapon with magic damage from very early in the game and you will keep getting better ones until late in the game. if you're playing a Faith character however you won't get access to this until very late in the game. and if you're playing a Pyromancer you'll never be able to do it. this means your actual playstyle is very different depending on which school you picked, but it also changes what kind of weapon you'll look for: a Sorcerer really wants a buffable weapon, so they'd much rather head into Blighttown with a +5 Longsword, while a Pyromancer or Cleric might be clinging to their Drakesword. things like that.

then in Dark Souls 2 they introduced a Pyromancy called Flame Weapon which is just the Pyromancer's version of Magic Weapon. they added the Dark school which they gave Dark Weapon. Miracles didn't gain any weapon buffs until Dark Souls 3 when they added Lightning Blade and Blessed Weapon, a spell which adds physical damage (a damage type which could not be added with a buff in the past), and they made Dark Blade a Miracle. for Pyromancies, Flame Weapon became Carthus Flame Arc.

there are other examples but you get my point. the restrictions placed on you by your chosen spell school are much more promiscuous in the later games. in ds1 you can think of it a bit like MTG's 'colour identity', where Green has mana ramp, Blue has card draw, etc. i am not sure why they decided to abandon this kind of design in later games. i particularly like that ds1 incentivizes you to dip into the other spell schools; there are catalysts that scale with Faith and talismans that scale with Intelligence, which means a high-intelligence character can put some points in Faith to access their lightning spells and heals for example (as i am doing right now), but the most powerful Miracles require a huge amount of investment in the Faith stat, which gives you a reason to play a Miracle-focused character someday.

[princekirijo]

Yeah I'm so normal right now haha <- just beat Nameless King and the Twin Princes in Dark Souls 3

[skilltissue]

Immortality and Ascension in Soulsborne

SPOILERS FOR ALL 3 DARK SOULS, BLOODBORNE, SEKIRO AND ELDEN RING

I've always found the themes of eternity and cycles and immortality and attempting to ascend interesting in FromSoft's works.

In DS1, Gwyn attempts to artificially lengthen the lifespan of his kingdom, and succeeds, but at the cost of a great curse, turning his kingdom from one full of life to a shrivelled up, undead version of itself.

In DS2, well actually I haven't payed that much attention to DS2's plot that much so I'll pass.

In DS3, we see that Gwyn's kingdom has far surpassed its shrivelled husk and has mutated into something far, far worse, corrupted by the Abyss in perpetual torment and misery, virtually praying for someone to end its abnormally long life, AND Archdragon Peak has dozens of dragon... thing corpses laying around in meditation, having resorted to strange means in a desperate attempt to achieve immortality.

In Bloodborne, the whole debacle occurs from people trying to ascend to the plane of the Great Ones, and using cursed blood to heal (a.k.a, artificially lengthen the lifespan of) many.

In Sekiro, well, the whole fucking game is about how immortality has taken over Ashina, and how being immortal actually kind of sucks ass. FFS, you rescue an immortal child whose blood wants to be stolen.

In Elden Ring exist the Dragonkin, mutated humans(??), well mutated somethings, that tried to become dragons, but failed and are stuck in flightless bodies with presumably broken minds, all because they wished to achieve immortality.

It's all quite interesting to me, how forceful FromSoft is with its themes of immortality and the realm of greater beings being beyond the reach of both mortal reach and mortal comprehension, and that the pursuit of immortality is a dangerous one, and even though immortality may be achievable, it comes at a great cost.

And, I think it's important to apply this lesson to life as a whole. I think a lot of us are often caught up with trying to create a legacy, to try and immortalize ourselves in the annals of history, but immortality can be a dangerous thing, and it can overtake your life.

It's important to remember we only have one life, and it's best used in making the most of it, not in a misguided attempt at immortalizing yourself.

[matt-imagines-popcorn]

Hi there, I'm SUPER happy that you write for Darkstalkers! Could I request some headcanons with Jedah and Jon Talbain with a female-born human s/o who looks super confident and intimidating in public (ie, covered in tattoos and on the more muscular side, could absolutely kick someone's ass without question), but in private is actually self-conscious about their appearance and could use a little reassurance from their boys? Thank you so much! <3

Hell yeah, still struggle writing Jedah tho so his bit might be a part OOC

Warnings; Does get a bit suggestive on Jedah’s bit (again - I could not help myself), spoilers for Jon's ending in DS3

Jedah Dohma and Jon Talbain with an intimidating but self-conscious girlfriend [fem! reader]

Jedah Dohma

Jedah isn’t peculiarly drawn toward humans, viewing them as a source of energy. But I'm sure, based on appearances and attitude alone you catch Jedah’s eye. Most upon seeing him coward in fear, begging for mercy, and yet you stood tall, fist balled, and promptly told him to “fuck himself,”. While, in the heat of the moment, did make his blood boil, he thought about the encounter afterward and debated if she were brave to stand up against him or simply too much of a fool to see the danger.

But, from the first moments he met her, he could see right through her intimidating front and right into her insecure core. It doesn’t surprise him, despite how gorgeous he thought she looked. Your strength alone was enough to gather his full attention on you, wasn’t that enough? Of course, the more sensible part of him understands that a few simple words aren’t going to magically make you feel all better.

While dating, he tries to reassure you in subtle ways, before you feel a need to ask. Tracing tattoos (if possible) and asking about the meanings behind them, massaging muscles as he listens. Bedroom activities now have a chance of being a bit more on the tamer side, with Jedah taking a more submissive role. Him worshiping your muscles and tattoos that beautifully mark your body, and praise flows out of his mouth as naturally as breathing.

Jon Talbain

Jon also isn’t too terribly fond of humans. The adults drove him out of society when his dark side started to show and even after a few years his curse was cured. He naturally holds a grudge against them. Your intimidating appearance is what drew him in, but your strength and kindness toward him are what allowed you to stick around. Your strength brings both relief and annoyance. On one hand, he has less to worry about, knowing you're able to care for yourself. On the other hand, however, he finds himself rather attracted to you, and your strength only adds to the fire.

When he first hears word of his girlfriend’s insecurities, he’s not surprised. Humans are cruel, especially to their own kind. It’s not a surprise they pushed you out just because of your appearance as well - despite how much it saddens him. Jon isn’t well with words, but he tries to verbally express his admiration towards you. How she has him bewitched whenever she wears short sleeves, or how he can't help but look away when she shows off her strength, feeling himself get flabbergasted at the sight. If words fail, he’ll opt to curl himself around you, snuggling close.

Thankfully, Fred and Marco (The orphans Jon is currently looking after) have no problems talking about how cool you look. When you visit they often come running up and hang off of you, giggling as you swing them around and roughen them up a bit. When the two are asleep Jon admits to you that they want to be like you one day. It warms his heart seeing you smile at that.

[huggingtentacles]

Sorceress Sellen's questline sucks so much ass, fuck it, I hate it.

Spoilers ahead therefore scroll.

I do not fucking get it. We are not in a dying world anymore, we are also not in fucking nightmare England trying to kill god. There is no need to kill a character to ask me a question "iS thIS wOrLd WoRtH sAvING??"

Why would they fucking do that, why would they make a fulfilling, satisfying ending to a cool questline and then give a character a fate worse than fucking death. This is bullshit, I hate it, it contributes nothing to the idea, it's just sadness and misery for no fucking reason. I live in Ukraine for fucks sake I have enough of that, if I wanted to feel miserable I would go play DS3 invasions for another 1000 hours.

I would understand if it was a meaningful sacrifice or if she turned evil or mad or something but no, I just come back to her to say that I just fucking killed god and gonna save the world only to see that fucking thing. They had NO REASON to make it this way. They just killed off my favourite fucking character because apparently misery and sadness is what makes the questline great.

PS: I love this game, I genuinely do, it's amazing, but because of this questline's ending I'm not sure if they know what they're doing anymore. I can beat Malenia hitless but I won't play this questline ever again.

[balabeon-reblog-pit]

I should put my silly edits here (spoilers for ds3)