Reflecting on Dark Souls

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This post will just be me talking about the story of Dark Souls so it will be full of spoilers! Will also be talking about Demon Souls and a bit of Dark Souls 2 as well. Click "read more" to proceed with the post.


As mentioned in my review of Dark Souls, I wasn't able to grasp the story of this game from watching people playing it. The most of what I got was choosing to light the fires or not. The story didn't affect me as much as the npcs did.

First Solaire, he is the most likeable npc in this game. He is an important character since as you progress in the story you do meet him more easily than the other npcs. You meet him fairly early in the game, and again by the bonfire in Anor Londo. Even though I knew something happens to him in the second to last area of the game I went through the effort to save him. Nothing even hinted that something bad would happen to him so it was pretty shocking to run into him and see that he's gone mad. Even if you save him from the chaos bugs he is still depressed that he wasn't able to find his sun.

The second npc that got to me is Siegmeyer of Catarina. He's an adventurer and most of the encounters with him he has a predicament which you help him with. The final encounter with him is just as depressing as Solaire. He wants repay all the times you've helped him so he helps you by jumping on a group of enemies. There are 3 outcomes to this and I didn't read ahead about his storyline so unfortunately I wasn't able to save him. He kills himself when he realized I saved him again. Apparently if you do save him from the monsters and himself, you continue with his and his daughter's story. You save his daughter from a crystal golem and she's in search for Siegmeyer. When you save him she will be in Firelink to tell you that she finally found him. The last time you see her is in Ash Lake sobbing over her fallen father. I was rather shocked to hear her say that she will have to kill him again. Again!? That's messed up!

Then there's Big Hat Logan who you save in Sen's Fortress. He moves from Firelink to Duke's Archives when that area is unlocked. He has been searching for that area so it makes sense for him to be there. You have to save him again and afterwards he will be in a room reading the books. The lore of the archives is that it drove the previous researcher mad. Logan unfortunately slowly goes mad after you purchased everything from him. He will start attacking you when you find him in the crystal covered room. He will be in nothing but his big hat and underwear. Sadly you can't save him.

There are 2 other npcs that you also save when you first encounter them: Griggs and Laurentius. Like Logan Griss is also a sorcerer. He was searching for Logan, but he stays in Firelink to sell you sorcery. After you purchase everything you can find him Hollow in Sen's Fortress probably to look for Logan. Since I found Griggs rather late it didn't trigger that he was going to search for Logan since the two haven't met. Laurentius is a pyromancer and all her talks about is pyromancy which is fine by me since I quite like him. Though if you obtain a pyromancy from the daughters of Izalith he will ask you about them. Luckily I said no and was able to keep him alive for a little longer, but he does still ask about it. I eventually said yes and he will go search for the daughters since he himself has told us that the Witch of Izalith is the godmother of pyromancy. Later I did find him not far from one of the daughter's lairs, but as a hollow so he will attack you. It was pretty sad to see that he turned hollow when he's so close to his destination.

Now to something less depressing, Anor Londo. Its my favorite place and although it's tempting to break the illusion, the illusion is just too gorgeous for me to break it. The fact that you can break it and the city is really in darkness seems to be a slap in the face by reality. The reality that the time of these Fire gods is over. I like the lore of this area the best. Duke's Archives is also gorgeous but the lore behind the place is kind of lame. Going mad from researching and stealing maidens to experiment on doesn't make much sense. The hidden area of the Great Hollow and Ash Lake is quite neat, but also a pain in the butt. These areas strangely feel very fantasy like compare to the rest of the game. Great Hollow is a giant tree trunk you find in Blighttown that you go inside and follow down it. As if you thought it couldn't go any lower! The path down takes quite a bit and you reach Ash Lake. A huge water area with little land which is just white sand. In the distance are lots of giant trees like the Great Hollow and in one of them is the Everlasting Dragon. Above Ash Lake you see its cloudy, and you can deduce that this is probably the ground level of the world. Lordran is a land high above on a giant plateau. Lost Izalith is not the most fun place to be in, but I find the lore to be interesting. I have no idea where people find out that Ceaseless Discharge is the only son of the Witch of Izalith. In order to continue the Age of Fire The Witch of Izalith tried to recreate the First Flame, but things went wrong. They made chaos and fire that had the city filled with lava, and turned the witch's daughters and son into demons. There are a few daughters who managed to escape and one of them is a boss you fight. The Witch of Izalith is a boss as well but as Bed of Chaos which is a gimmicky boss. This boss is kind of similar to the final boss in Demon Souls. In Demon Souls you face the Old One which is really a ginormous demonic tumbleweed worm thing that you enter. In it you fight a mutated bug like form of the King. Bed of Chaos is similar in the sense that its a big ball of intertwined roots and you enter it by rolling through the branches and you find this pathetic squirmy bug. Not sure if its The Witch, or not but I like to think it is.

Since I mentioned Demon's Souls I'd like to talk a bit about it since I recently finished watching a playthrough of it. I wasn't as into the story or npcs as I did with Dark Souls. I mean most of the important npcs you have to save! There were quite some similarities such as the first area being a stone city area with a dragon or two who like breathing fire down bridges. Also both have a giant spider as a boss and have fire attacks. Both also have nasty swamp areas and rickety wooden scaffolding city area full of poison and plague. The Tower of Latrina is like Duke's Archives with its number of floors with lots of prison cells and sorcerer enemies. Story to Demon's Souls is about a King who practically doomed the world by his greed power, the power which is fueled by souls. You have to defeat the archdemons of each area of the kingdom. You wake up in the Nexus revived from the dead by the Black Maiden. The Nexus is your hub area kind of like Firelink. Though Firelink is kind of pointless. All the npcs will end up in the Nexus so its no problem finding them after you save them. The npcs in Dark Souls don't stay in Firelink for long. The ending to Demon's Souls is interesting though since there are two endings like Dark Souls, but it has a good and bad ending. Dark Souls' ending is quite up for interpretations since neither endings have a proper "happy" ending.

In fact since I've already seen both endings of Dark Souls I never finished my game since I'd still like to explore without having to replay everything. The endings to these games aren't the best and not at all that satisfying since they are awfully short. Though it is surprising to see that Dark Souls 2 doesn't have alternate endings, but its ending is not very conclusive since it did suggest making a choice but you don't actually do. I do look forward to playing it though since I've heard from some people they like it better than Dark Souls. I have yet to see why so far from what I've seen. Like Demon's Souls you have a main hub and there is a maiden that will level you up and a bonfire that will warp you anywhere. The maiden is similar to the one in Demon's Souls since she is very important to the story. The thing I dislike about Dark Souls is that it takes awhile before you can warp to other areas. Its not that fun to run around and backtrack so much.

The bonus area where you go back in time to learn about Knight Artorias is interesting as well. It has an interesting link to the Darkwraiths covenant that supposedly follows the plan of one of the four gods, the Furtive Pygmy. It is part of the story to visit Artorias' grave in Darkroot Garden to acquire a ring that allows you to enter the Abyss. The Abyss is where one of the bosses you need to kill. In the bonus you have to kill a crystal golem in Darkroot basin, and you will rescue Duck a sorcerer princess. Again with the captured maidens in crystal golems. She will tell you about her home of Oolacile. You must obtain an item from yet another crystal golem in Duke's Archives. Doing so will open a portal where you saved Dusk, and you are transported back in time. You will end up in a place that looks a lot like Darkroot Garden, and you will see the city of Oolacile. You fight the corrupted Artorias and you help finish his job by saving Dusk from Manus from the depths of Oolacile. Going through Oolacile was kind of nerve wrecking because of the screaming little girl that repeats every now and then. The enemies there are all demonized citizens caused by the town awakening Manus by the urging of the Darkwraiths. Similarly the Darkwraiths have offered something to the Four Kings, a boss, who have also gone dark like Artorias. We learn that Artorias, one of Gwyn's knights, have been battling the powers from the Abyss both in Oolacile and New Londo. Artorias is very valiant but it makes you wonder if his efforts are worth it to maintain Gwyn's rule and the Age of Fire. You learn from the rep of the rep of the Darkwraiths, Kaathe, that the Age of Fire is long gone and that Gwyn is unnaturally keeping it alive. We do learn that both primordial serpents have been telling us half truths so its up to the player to decide which side to choose. I really like that aspect of the game.

The game is great and the lore is so interesting to me. I just hope Dark Souls 2 will be just as enjoyable.