A place for our siblings in jolly cooperation and hardship alike to talk about the Dark Souls trilogy! Feel free to share your theories and thoughts on any person place or thing found within the expansive world lovingly crafted by Michael Zaki.
Praise the sun!
Praise the sun!
I suppose I shall start! (Also, this will contain spoilers for Dark Souls I & III)
I just *love* the music in these games! Hearing the Gwyn's theme for the first time when I had reached the end of the first game really made me think. This isn't some grandiose final battle, it doesn't even have a cutscene; Gwyn can be parried for God's (Gwyn's) sake! If anything, it's us finally putting down a god who should have died long ago. And then--and then! Over in Dark Souls III, draining Soul of Cinder's health bar, only to see another one appear? I was certainly intrigued. AND THEN? Plin plin plon. My holy sunlight, I really then and there that the Souls trilogy was my favorite set of games in all of media. That grab, those slashes with that flaming sword. He was back, as a shell of his former self. Whether this was purely fanservice or amazing storytelling, I am not sure. What I am sure about is that I absolutely loved that moment and it's one of my favorite moments in gaming as a whole. We're not done just yet, though! The Nameless King, long debated and long theorized about. We finally meet Gwyn's disowned son face to face. Specifically though, I want to talk about the music in phase two, you can hear--you guessed it--plin plin plon once again! It is quite subtle but there nonetheless.
Gwyn's leitmotif was the main thing I wanted to gush about here, but there's stuff like this littered all throughout the game's OSTs! That's about all I have to say. I posted this in part to encourage other people to engage with this thread, thank you in advance assuming *somebody* does, but I do genuinely love the music of these games, it was all I listened to for a while. Anyways, Solaire signing off! Praise the sun!
Praise the sun!
Heyy Solaire!
Crazy I was just thinking about Rosaria Mother of Rebirth
Dark Souls is SUCH a good series I absolutely adore the music, the characters, the storylines
They're all wonderful
I've played 1 and 3 but I've been meaning to buy and play 2
"We Dirk splinters can be pretty Machiavellian but we do actually have some fuckin' standards."
Been obsessed with these games for ages. Burnt out after a few years as a DS3 and Elden Ring PVP sicko, took a break, replaying DS3 with that fun mod that makes the particle effects green, having a blast all over again. And before you judge this invader, let me tell you that I was a proud Warrior of Sunlight in my time too.
This post was a Magic Mirror production. Problem Soothe, now playing in a theater near you: https://magic-mirror.neocities.org/problemsoothe/ps0000
i love, love, love these games. fantastic metaphysics, really incredible world. there's not much that hasn't already been said about them but i'll float this now and then maybe get more into it when i have more time but i did see it mentioned that someone's played 1 and 3, so i'll get it out of my system now:
dark souls 2 is a FANTASTIC game. it's the """""worst""""" as a Game, but still very fun, has an incredible DLC, and critically it is the game in the series that most explores what it means to be human in a world where you're at the mercy of reality-warping and often hostile cosmic forces. my real hot take is that i don't think you can actually claim to fully understand the series thematically until you've given dark souls 2 a fair shake. it has what i'd consider to be the best narrative in the series, even if it's the least exciting to people, the weirdest, the black sheep of the family. you really, actually owe it to yourself to go into dark souls 2 and think on what it has to say if you're gonna claim to love the series.
there has been A LOT of dark souls 2 hate over the years, almost all of it predicated on gameplay complaints, and i really think it's colored peoples' opinions of the overall game unfairly. they are all liars and scoundrels. please give it a chance!
... as the ancient hawaiians used to say.
Dark Souls 2 is so unbelievably good. Visually stunning and distinctive-looking, the story is amazing -especially- in SOTFS, characters like Vendrick and Nashandra and Lucatiel, Pate and Creighton leave this unmistakable impression. Really, I think that once you understand how 'adaptability' works and don't have such a narrow dodge window, the game even plays amazingly, with an unprecedented variety of weapons, builds, and styles.
I do feel like I see more positive talk about Dark Souls 2 nowadays though! Hopefully the tide of opinion of shifting!
This post was a Magic Mirror production. Problem Soothe, now playing in a theater near you: https://magic-mirror.neocities.org/problemsoothe/ps0000
I'm huge on all three of these games too! The Soulsborneverse in general is one of the few obsessions I have that rival Homestuck. I could ramble about them forever--I agree with y'all that Dks2 is great in its own special ways, I think HBomberguy's video on it did a good amount for its public opinion--but for now I'll focus on the fact that I've always seen an eerie parallel between Frampt and Kaathe in Dks1 and Caliborn and Calliope respectively.
Two twin serpents, one associated with the Sun/Lordship and one associated with the Dark/Abyss/Black Holes, each pulling humanity in their own ideological directions. It makes me think of Abraxas as Jung writes about it in the 7 Sermons of the Dead. Also Patches is a Ragebound i love that he's inexplicably eternal and just there forever.
My favorite Dark Souls character is actually Laurentius, the starter pyromancer teacher, literally just because I find his gruff caring weirdly charming and also he gives you a piece of his pyromancy flame and asks you not to go hollow explicitly. From Soft you should do a dating sim about him. Actually a Friendsim/PQuest style visual novel adventure where you befriend like, Laurentius and Solaire and Gwyndolin and Queelag feeds your humanity to her sister and Patches throws you off a cliff would go hard. Ok I'm done for now.
'"I thought this was a love story," you say.
Your Lola's insistence has remained with you since the beginning, and you say these words in a quiet manner, with a shrug, as if to let these performers know it is fine, it does not matter that much, this thought—that maybe the definition of what a love story is could be stretched to include all that has up till now taken place. You say it like an apology. Like it is a thing to be apologized for.
A runaway child, charging through the porcelain shelves:
I thought this was a love story. I had hoped this was a love story.
You say it with shame, embarrassed at having said it, wishing you could take it back.
You say it, worried that you have betrayed some secret part of yourself that does not wish to be exposed—
an old gremlin in you, sick and yearning. You say it with hope.
Timid, and without conviction.
The hope of someone who knows they are about to wake from a dream to a reality they do not understand. The pub awaits, as does your empty bed.
I thought this was a love story.
You regret having said it; as if you know it will lessen the quality of the tale. Rob it of its smoke and shadow. But still, you say it.
And this moonlit body smiles. And from the wings the patting of the drums slowly builds, and the curtains behind the dancers rise. Because you are right, this moonlit body tells you;
This is indeed a love story. Down to the blade-dented bone.'
-You, in the Inverted Theater - The Spear Cuts Through Water
"I don't care if the best I can hope for is half of what I want. I'm not here for a realistic outcome. I'm just going to fight! Forever! With perfect greed! Until I get everything!"
-Saturn, Heaven will be Mine
