(note: I didn't come up with this, I just think it's cool and wanted to share)
NEWGAME+ mode = time looping
The Player's death in the Journey to the Nexus allows the Monumental to bind the player's soul to the Nexus. This binding returns the soul of the player to the Nexus whenever they die, preventing permanent death. The player's death in the tutorial is what the Monumental needed to make them his slave, so that he can bind the player's soul to the Nexus. Like the Maiden in Black, the player will not be freed until they do the Monumental's bidding, defeating the Old One. Despite the Monumental's promise to release the player when the Old One is defeated, no matter what the player does, good or evil, they cannot escape the Nexus as the player begins a new game+ after the credits. The player is doomed to repeat their quest for all eternity. This is likely what the Crestfallen Warrior came to realize before giving up and eventually fading away.
The cruelty of it all is the Crestfallen Warrior would not be able to remember that he figured it out. He is an example that even giving up won't save the player from the Nexial Binding. If he is another "player" trapped in this time loop, when he becomes soul-deprived he starts to lose his memory just before fading away. In a new game+, he reappears maintaining all his knowledge up to the point when he began to give up and stop feeding on souls (just before he met the player) with no knowledge that time is still looping.
If the player continues to struggle on their quest will begin again, each time more difficult than the last, and they maintain their memories of looping. If the player gives up, they too will fade away until another warrior succeeds in defeating the Old One and begins the loop again. From that point on, the player will join the Crestfallen Warrior in forever wallowing in despair without the knowledge that time continues to loop. Even the loss of one's soul will not free them from the Nexus.
the story of the game is pretty interesting but it seems like there's a lot of it you wouldn't get just from playing the game. recently I just finished another playthrough of the game so I've been checking out story faqs and such.
Yeah, you really have to dig deep into some things in order to just get the gist of the story. I never really cared about its story(same with Dark Souls), because the gameplay is super engaging, but reading stuff on wiki's and faqs, fan theories and w.e are really fun reads.
I feel the same way. there's absolutely no way I would have done all of the research in order to figure out say the story behind maiden astraea and garl vinland, or the true identities of the bosses in the Boletarian Palace. heck, I've beaten the game three times and I still haven't even found all of the NPCs in the game.
still though, reading about it is super interesting.
Yeah, it's one thing I really appreciate about Souls. They can tell a story, without telling a story. Dark told a bit more than what Demon's did, but I think that's just because Dark was a bigger game.
Reading the item descriptions, the lore, what characters say, connecting all the dots. Great stuff. Plus, because of all that, you rarely have any breaks in the action, unless you stop to talk to someone. Breaks in gameplay kinda piss me off, especially if it's really good gameplay(Skyward Sword comes to mind...)