LogFAQs > #981471799

SomeUsername529 posted...

That's almost literally everything in every Souls game. Obviously there's a range but even without being one of those people that deliberately skips all story content it is very easy to play these games and not get much of an idea of what is actually going on with a lot of stuff. I don't think 3 is particularly bad in that respect.

No I mean like the big main characters. Like the really important ones. Aldrich is actually really important to DS3's story but you can completely miss that because the game does such a poor job of conveying anything. I'm willing to bet that a not insignificant # of players don't even know about the "Age of Deep" and learned about it through the internet, if they learned about it at all, and therefore had no idea what was going on exactly with Anri and Horace being part of Yuria's group.

Like, DS1 tells you about the 4 lords in more than sufficient detail in lines you won't miss unless you're deliberately skipping through them. DS2 gives you a LOT of stuff on Vendrick, Aldia, Nashandra, and the war against the giants and the experiments that Aldia performed, and you don't just have to rely on items/spells for any of it; it's also in main dialogue. Aldrich's story is one that a huge part of the main plot actually revolves around, but you can completely miss it simply because it's never, ever pointed out at any point in major dialogue even by people who would have a vested interest in informing you. There's no indication otherwise that he's any more important than any of the other lords; in fact, one would be forgiven in assuming that the brothers were more important and a greater threat.

Sulyvahn gets about as much mainline story coverage as the freaking Demon of Song from DS2. That's ridiculous considering how important he is. Sirris is of the Darkmoon and she doesn't even talk about him. There's a bizarre disconnect between a few of the NPCs and their interests at times. From what I understand they were toying with the idea of making Sulyvahn the big bad of the game, so it's odd that there's basically nothing in the main story content about him at all. It's all buried under items and other enemy placement.

I feel like you can mostly get the stories of most creatures in DS1 and DS2 by playing the games and just paying a bit of attention to what characters say and boss names and what the bosses are doing. Sulyvahn? You can't do that with him. Aldrich? He eats people, and he's goop and people hate him or follow him, and that's all the dialogue you get basically. Because of that you have no understanding remotely of motivations. Whereas in DS1 and DS2, if nothing else, motivations can be understood even without having to dig through item descriptions and spell descriptions. Those things flesh everything out, but they aren't containing points that NPCs really should have wanted to have told you to begin with. It's very strange.

Like... can anyone think of a reason why Yuria, Yoel, or Anri would NOT talk about the threat of the Age of Deep? Why NO ONE would? Because it kind of seems like a big deal. But no one talks about it. It's weird. Everyone's freaking out about the fire fading, and they act like they have persuaded you to do what they want, but unlike the primordial serpents, they make no persuasive arguments. They don't plead their case. They don't tell you why you should do what they want. Like even Lautrec tells you, "hey, gimme souls and I'll give you a tip. Here's the tip. There's a cleric in a hole. Why am I telling you this? Clerics have lots of humanity. Get my drift?" Right? He's giving you motivations to do something. A "why" to do something.

"Whys" should not be in item and spell descriptions, they're too important for that. Players should not be spending the entire Lord of Hollows route being confused as to why they're doing anything Yuria says, why they're being given a spouse, why they're STABBING the spouse without being told to?! why why why.. and of course it all makes sense after you read a bunch of stuff after it's all over. But that's not exactly motivating is it? That's post-hoc motivation. And that's fine for like minor stuff, like manipulating events so that NPCs don't die or for minor bosses, but for major antagonists and endings? Eh.

TL:DR Item Descriptions should flesh out/provide additional context, rather than be THE story. At minimum, the main story needs to have the motivations for the major players of the story included. Have factions actually try to persuade the PC instead of "Hey, hello. We've never met before, but I'm glad you made the choice to side with us, chosen lord dude. Ur so cool."