They arguably have two since the civil war is pretty central as well. Not really the main quest but it`s on that level. I know what you mean though, I`ve slaughtered Riverwood many a time. Well the innkeeper can`t die but everyone else was killed. Mainly because I was a werewolf with that ring, that makes you transform on random and way. It was self-defense!
Add a few mods to that game and it will totally renew your experience with the game. I just added this museum which allows you to display just about every collectible and unique item in the game. Quite the pleasure trying to fill it up with the countless artifacts you can find around Skyrim. I also got one that totally changed all the skill trees, combat system, and added a ton of creatures as well. The mods for that game go on and on, you can do just about whatever you want now. I haven't done the main story in ages.
You`ve got to watch with the workshop through steam, though, if you don`t have the game patched right the workshop won`t always work to well.
Such a good game. The world layout still beats the other two dark souls games. The lore is so amazing in that game too. It's my favorite part of the original dark souls game. Once you get a grip on it, you realize just how much time has passed, and how broken down the world has really become. Although none of that is obvious even after multiple play's through the game, unless you spend all your time reading item descriptions, carefully considering NPC lines, taking clues from the atmosphere of the locations you visit, and piecing it all together into one timeline. There is so much variation and contention on the actual set of events and what transpired between them, that no two videos that try and tackle the subject, coincide with themselves completely. Although if you want to know a few things about the world you are in, a good brief summary would be.... Spoiler: Lorethrough Breakdown You're following a modern legend that has re-purposed a lot of the world to fit the new role the undead have in linking the fire. A role that is new to the undead who were hunted in the past and jailed for their curse. Long into the age of fire, after the war with the dragons, and after much of the in-game world is built, Gwyn rekindles the first flame with his very soul, as a solution to the fading flame. A temporary solution, but beforehand Gwyn makes a pact with the demons to use the souls of humans to feed the flame after he has linked it. A necessary sacrifice which Gwyn was willing to make to continue the age of fire, as humans are lowly creatures to begin with. They were only tolerated because their very existence helped the first flame persist for longer. But where humans gather in mass, the Abyss starts spreading, the first signs of a dying fire. The Abyss, at its core, is tied with the curse of the undead and a weak flame. Before his passing, Gwyn props up four undead as puppet rulers to fuel the dying flame in New Londo. The demons bring humans to the Four Kings, who use the power of the abyss to steal the souls of the living. The Abyss spreads from New Londo like it did in Oolacile/Dark Root, infecting surrounding areas, like Blighttown, which wasn't always called Blighttown. Humans, fearing this Abyss and the Four Kings, flooded New Londo to stop the massacre and the spread of the Abyss. The flame began to die out again. The idea of gathering these powerful souls and using their power to rekindle the flame and link the fire once more, is a new one, that you have inherited as cursed undead. The demons are somewhat content with the way things played out, and they would rather not have the flame rekindled because it would require their queen's soul, who is the mother of all demons and the source of their power.(Witch of Izalith/Bed of Chaos) When they catch wind of this new plan to rekindle the flame, they organize themselves and make an active effort to hinder you every chance they get. This is why the first boss is a demon in the undead asylum. Okay maybe that wasn't brief, but it is just the tip of the iceberg. There is too much detail to even summarize properly, and I could go on and on, but I'll spare you that hahah. They put way too much detail into this game that most anyone would never notice. I think that is part of the appeal, to try and understand what the creators intentions were when they did one thing or another. It's assumed, when it comes to the first Dark Souls, every pixel has a purpose. But the next games in the series are nothing to scoff at. This is definitely a theme they try and keep up through the series and in my opinion they successfully build upon this lore through the games, including the newest installation, Dark souls III. Although since they build upon it, rather than creating something completely new and original, it won't ever have the exact same appeal the first game did, in that respect. It's too much to not be blown away the first time, but it's still good the second and third time, hahah.
@Megalith Oh yes, I love the lore, the world, just everything about it. Thanks for the breakdown! I actually slightly regret starting with Dark Souls I because it just seems so superb and I'm bound to keep comparing II and III to it. Sure, graphics aren't as nice and crisp and there are glitches here and there (just yesterday my husband glitched the fuck out of the Tomb of the Giants when he fell into a bottomless whiteness, lol), but I have a feeling after I've finished all the games, it's still going to be my favorite and the one I'll keep going back to. Just a hunch.
A longer break down. Spoiler: A longer breakdown of lore. In the beginning, there was The Grey. No disparity existed here, though humanoid figures inhabited the below, while the immortal dragons and their kin lived above, atop the arch trees. Then came the first flame, and with it life and death, light and dark, heat and cold, and souls. Nito found the soul of death, becoming first of the dead. The Witch of Izalith found the soul of life. Gwyn, found the light soul, and became lord of sunlight. Finally, the furtive pygmy found the dark soul, though he kept it secret. Society developed for some time. Gwyn's rule was enforced by knights, The Witch developing flame sorceries while Nito waited, allowing his powers to grow as more died. The came Seethe the Scaleless, a dragon who lacked the immortality of his kin, and was mistreated by them because it. He told Gwyn of their weakness. Lightning. And the war began. Gwyn and his knights would use the dragons new-found weakness to peel away their scales. Nito would bring disease to them, while The Witch would burn the archtrees with the aid of her daughters. Four knights would distinguish themselves. Hawkeye Gough, Dragonslayer Ornstein, Lordsblade Kieran, and Artorias, who would later earn the title The Abysswalker. The dragons lost, with humans taking The Above and their enemies being forced to hide in below. Gwyn would found the city of Anor Londo, the Witch created Lost Izalith, while Nito went to sleep once again. Seethe was given his own dukedom, a piece of Gwyn's soul, and free reign to do whatever research he desired. The Furtive Pygmy however, had been busy. He would share his soul freely, creating humans. They took part in the previous war, acting as foot soldiers, despite Gwyn's fear of them, for his power was in complete opposition of theirs. To shepherd them, The Way of White was founded, and Gwyn and those with powerful souls would become gods. Some time during this period The Pygmy died, his grave being at the base of Anor Londo. New Londo would also be founded beneath Anor Londo, to serve as extension. It would have four human kings, one for each culture, and they were given a piece of Gwyn's soul to solidify their rule Then, the fire began to fade, dark began to claim the world, and the undead curse likely appeared around this time. The Witch of Izalith would use her soul to attempt to replicate the first flame, creating the flame of chaos. This held for some time, and pyromancy supplanted flame sorceries till the point the later would disappear, though it did not hold for ever. The Witch lost control, and demons were created. Gwynn would attempt to fight with the help of his knights, but he failed, and demons would protect their land, and their mother. With the fire fading, Gwyn decided to extend it by any means possible, and so sacrificed himself to it. This caused an explosion that would blacken the knights that escorted him. And with this, a serpent name Kaathe would begin to act. He started in Oolacile, a town built unknowingly built atop The Pygmy's corpse, and with a dark secret. The people of Oolacile would torture people to discover new sorceries, and when the Pygm's resurrect form was given to them, they would do the same. Over time, the Pygmy's solace would be a silver pendant, before that was rent from him, and his humanity was driven rampant. The first abyss was formed. Artorias was sent to the land to prevent it spreading, accompanied by his companion, the wolf Sif. They would fail. They would cut their way through the township, before finding that he could not pass through it. He made a deal with Kaathe that would allow him to continue, though he would fail anyway. His arm would break, forcing him to leave his shield to protect his companion. Artorias was corrupted, though the abyss was stopped by another. Kaathe then moved on, New Londo being his next target. It's human kings had been afflicted by the curse of the undead, and Kaathe offered a way for them to take other's humanity. They accepted, and another Abyss began to form beneath the city, before it was flooded. Now though, it's you job to travel the world, slay the gods and heroes of old, before finally linking the fire to fix the world. Or, that's what a serpent would have you do. Whew, that was long. I missed out a few side stories, but I hope that's useful to anyone wondering what the hell was going on.
That's pretty good @halisme Spoiler: Demon Souls? The only big contention I would make is the placement of the creation of the bed of chaos. It's likely she tried to recreate the first flame shortly after the dragon war, long before the curse of the undead appears. The Firesage is considered the first demon, and was born before the Witch of Izalith lost control. So her losing control of the Chaos Flame isn't what created the demons or the Chaos Flame. From what I understand The Witch of Izalith and her Daughter's of Chaos are all a part of the same flame, the Chaos Flame. Also Pyromancies didn't come about until after she lost control and was engulfed. The difference between the normal pyromancies that Quelana knows and the advanced pyromancies the other sisters know, we can easily imagine that Izalith was still thriving even after the engulfment. That probably took place after Quelana fled Izalith. A lot of people tie Ceaseless Discharge to the creation of the bed of chaos, but it's possible he is a demon formed even earlier than the Fire Sage. Miyizaki said, "all demons are born from the fire of chaos but he was the first, born so long ago, that the fire wasn't yet stable. He possesses it but he can't control it and it burns him constantly." This implies that there was a time after the Chaos Flame's creation where it was unstable, that was long before engulfment ever took place. Miyizaki's statement could refer to either the creation of the Chaos Flame itself or the creation of the Bed of Chaos. I believe it's the former, as the latter 'destroyed' some of the sister's who all knew Ceaseless Discharge growing up. I also want to add one more thing about demons. It's very possible that they all chose to become demons and that they were not un-willfully mutated. Some of the daughters in the game retain their human form, implying they made a decision to stay in Izalith while not becoming demons. They even protect the Bed of Chaos as they make this decision. That could be the real difference between Firesage as the first demon and Ceaseless Discharge as the first demon. Firesage made the choice to become a demon, like all demons, while Ceaseless Discharge became a demon in an unfortunate accident of timing. I can go into a bunch of details why I think this is the case, but if you are really interested in this specific topic on demons, I have a really good video. One other thing is that is widely believed is that Gwyn's linking of the fire, the re-kindling of the flame, is the first sin which caused the undead curse. This is affirmed by Alduin in DLC in Dark Souls II. And honestly I think they started developing their culture, cities, and architecture we see in the game, even before the war on the dragons. I think that's part of the beauty though, that we can see the story line so differently even looking at the same game. Lol, maybe we should take this to a different thread.
It's really hard to work out the dark souls timeline, and I agree with yours more, but I tried to keep it simple. We could have a ton of discussion on Velka and the Occult Rebellion as well, and Gwyn's children and wife.
Definitely. I think it would be easy to fill up a book with all the specifics about the first dark souls alone. It's so rich with detail that the biggest problem is piecing it all together. Often times this leads people to think that there are a lot of inconsistencies in the game but I tend to find reasons for the inconsistencies rather than assume it is a plot hole. People often use the white sign soapstone's item description to reconcile what they believe are timeline inconsistencies but I find that the lore is fairly consistent throughout and that the White Sign Soapstone is specifically referring to the multiplayer features of Dark Souls.
To me the gaps in the lore adds to the sense of decay. The world's been falling apart for so long people know so little about their past.
Well, I have Dark Souls 2. I recently bought the Heart of Thorns expansion for GW2 and have been playing that.
It looks like the pieces are meant to be colored yourself, I always liked that actually. I would seriously get this game for the figurines alone.
I feel like a crotchety old man. All I play anymore are my old ps2 games. Especially Thrillville as of late.
I broke down and bought an Xbox One today... I was going to buy Overwatch but I have a daily limit on my debit card... so I'll spend a few days playing Gears of War Ultimate Edition and Halo 5.
Ladies and gentlemen, with E3 coming up, I want to see peoples predictions on what we'll see, or whether we still care about it at this point.
I am contemplating getting a console. Leaning toward PS4 just because I want to play The Last of Us. Is that a good enough reason?
Nope, because XBox One actually has all the top 10 games on its console. Plus you can get XBox Live Gold and you get 4 free game downloads per month. When I bought my system I got the $60 card for the year membership for only $40. I'm going to probably go buy Overwatch Tomorrow night.
They probably don't mention that PS4 also has them I have never had a console, so its a bit of a dilemma which one to get. But I REALLY want to play THE LAST OF US.
I thought so. Its PlayStation-exclusive developer, Naughty Dog, is one of the reasons I bought a PS4. There will probably be a sequel as well coming out in 2ish years.
