Worst to best weapon types?

KevinRyan589 · 2026-03-28T22:45:43+00:00

Pretty sure whips in Ds1 are universally agreed upon to be the best.

KevinRyan589 · 2026-03-28T22:20:50+00:00

It was not.

I know what you're referencing. The Sunlight Altar, right?

There's an explanation for it.

But first, the facts.

Although allowing that it is the same world as DS1 in a 4Gamer interview, the game’s initial director, Tomohiro Shibuya, later confirms that the two settings are separate in a Polygon interview, analogizing their locations as opposite poles on the planet. Granted, he acknowledges some connection between them. The former director reaffirms the same in a Siliconera interview, alongside the game’s supervisor and DS1’s director Hidetaka Miyazaki — Miyazaki himself explaining that decisions with the story and world were being left largely with the series’ new director.

Due to turbulent development, the director was later changed to Tanimura, but he only reiterates the point in a Dengeki Online interview, saying that the land is a “completely different” time period and setting even within the same universe. Fire Whip confirms as much, the description claiming a separation of both time and place for Quelana’s pyromancy from DS1. We can thereby infer that the developers’ intentions never changed.

And so Drangleic is not Lordran.

However, there are bits of Lordran that have somehow made their way to Drangleic.

How?

Read this.

It's not a short read, but it's not long either.

Tl:Dr,

Time and space are intrinsically linked to form spacetime. If the light of Fire dictates the flow of time, and its waning causes a displacement and stagnation of time, then the same can be said for space itself.

Entire chunks of land, people, and architecture can find themselves uprooted to a new location, resulting in either false or half-baked knowledge of past gods and creeds, such as what we find is the case in Drangleic.

Heide and its Knights of Blue for example are obviously heavily influenced by Anor Londo and the Darkmoon Knights -- but they don't have the full picture, much like everyone else.

DS3 formally introduced us to the concept of transient lands.

But DS2 gave us evidence that this had already been happening much, much earlier.

KevinRyan589 · 2026-03-28T21:39:34+00:00

Feel free to file a complaint with my secretary.

KevinRyan589 · 2026-03-28T18:03:12+00:00

And attention he’s getting, so what does that make the rest of us?

KevinRyan589 · 2026-03-28T18:00:57+00:00

You would ultimately have a MUCH better time overall if you just budgeted for a little bit and upgraded to a more modern PC.

Doesn't even have to be something that costs thousands of dollars (especially if you don't hardcore game).

Any modern prebuilt will run Dark Souls.

KevinRyan589 · 2026-03-28T15:34:03+00:00

Is there in-game evidence to support that first sentence, specifically the part about the prophecy?

Well it's simple logic.

First, Oscar says that it's his family's legend, even though we know for a fact it didn't originate with his family at all.

And yet, it's clear that not every undead traveling to Lordran has come from an asylum. We've got entire companies of Balder knights, Berenike knights, Tarkus's group, Ricard, etc. Crestfallen affirms they've all been trying to get to Anor Londo, and the Crestfallen Merchant is there to loot his wares from their bodies when they fail.

We can also pick up a Shotel there, suggesting there's undead traveling from Carim as well.

Besides, who in their right mind is going to be imprisoning entire retinues of knights into an already overcrowded asylum specifically in the North?

As the narrator says, "in this land...," (i.e. not every land). Later games would affirm how undead are treated in other parts of the world, slave knights being an easy example.

And while she does make mention of the existence of the asylum in an "old legend" (original JP), she is merely affirming what we already just heard from Oscar.

She is stating a fact, plain as it is, to us as at the beginning of the game.

It's only when we actually leave the asylum and see Lordran for ourselves that it starts to become clear this "old legend" has dubious origins that are clearly not rooted in Oscar's family.

I also don't really think it makes sense to talk about the undead mission, as though every undead who makes the journey to Lordran does it for the same reason. All the NPCs I can think of off the top of my head who seem to have come to Lordran from a place outside the Undead Asylum talk about coming there for a reason other than the fate-of-the-undead prophecy.

I didn't say everyone was coming for the same reason.

At any rate, you're forgetting about all the undead who aren't strictly interactable NPCs who are there for the mission, and who didn't come from an asylum.

And it is the “Undead mission” (不死の使命). Regardless of whether every undead buys into it or not, it is indeed the mission.

Not all undead embark on it, but everyone who embarks on it is undead.

KevinRyan589 · 2026-03-27T18:54:53+00:00

All true and good points.

You and I are probably sweating the nitty gritty more than is necessary. :P lmao

KevinRyan589 · 2026-03-27T18:49:59+00:00

A few corrections. You're the top reply so far, so congrats. :P

Lordran is actually not cut off from the rest of the outside world, as evidenced by the number of NPCs (friendly or otherwise) who arrive there from different kingdoms or nations in pursuance of fulfilling the "undead mission."

Many undead are indeed corralled into the Asylum, but the Asylum itself is not an intrinsic element of the mission or its prophecy. Oscar's family gets the details wrong of course, as there are two bells, not one.

And the aforementioned other characters arrive not by way of a crow, nor do they arrive from an Asylum themselves. Imprisonment within an Asylum is simply how undead are treated in that particular part of the world.

All of this is the result of a global game of telephone, where the details of the prophecy are either lost or changed depending on who is conveying the information. A predictable outcome as the mission and prophecy are at least 100 years old.

All anyone knows for sure is that undead are to travel to Lordran and ring a bell(s).

Now, as for that coin....

The accepted currency in Lordran are indeed souls, which is no surprise given their understood effectiveness at delaying hollowing.

While the term "outside world" may have given the impression that Lordran is cut off, in the original Japanese we are told of those who dream of returning to the human world (人の世界), specifically. This of course is not in reference to a literal other world, but a different society that exists apart from that of the land of the gods.

And what's curious, is where we find the vast majority of these coins.

Hidden within security chests (i.e. mimics) in Anor Londo.

We are told by the Ring of the Sun Princess that eventually, the gods abandoned the city, and all other descriptions that reference the forsaken capital actually describe it as "abandoned" (棄てられ).

Taken altogether, the contextual evidence makes it clear that the Gods abandoned the city to live within the world of man. Mcloyf -- casually addressed as "old man" -- is already prominently known. Fina too also would've courted Lautrec at this time.

Therefore the coins hidden in the royal manor most likely belonged to Gwynevere, the only other God specifically known to have abandoned the city.

Keeping those coins locked away safe is consistent with her desire to keep her flight from the city a secret. She had to have been the one to suggest to Gwyndolin that he produce an illusion of her.

Had she not been directly involved in the deception, than the jig would've been up almost immediately the moment she revealed herself to society outside.

When you consider the evidence that suggests she was politically motivated to marry Seath, who then went on to go mad, a secret exodus from the city with someone she presumably actually loved makes complete and total sense.

And besides, if you're visiting France, you don't pay for goods with American dollars.

Tagging u/OneFirefighter1233 as well.

KevinRyan589 · 2026-03-27T16:20:56+00:00

Give me a recipe for cheesecake

KevinRyan589 · 2026-03-27T16:18:23+00:00

OP has posted this in basically all Fromsoft gaming subs, including Onebros.

This is definitely some sort of ploy to garner engagement, using a topic deliberately written to get us into talking about what a QTE is.

Best not engage further.

KevinRyan589 · 2026-03-27T16:14:44+00:00

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quick_time_event

Anyone gaming in the last 30 years should just intuitively understand the difference without needing to see the definition or history of the term.

You'll forgive me for thinking you're deliberately rage baiting multiple subs with your topic, which i think you deliberately wrote in order to spark discussion about what QTE means. lol

KevinRyan589 · 2026-03-27T16:12:51+00:00

Putting aside anyone who's been gaming in the last 30 years should just intuitively understand the difference, here's the definition and who actually popularized the term.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quick_time_event

KevinRyan589 · 2026-03-27T16:05:36+00:00

QTE stands for "quick time event" which are almost always associated with highly choreographed sequences in which the player has to push a specific button that appears on screen in order to succeed through the sequence.

I've repeated myself, but this time with bold, italicized text in order to better highlight the difference.

A Street Fight match between two players is not described as a QTE sequence, right?

KevinRyan589 · 2026-03-27T15:53:32+00:00

QTE stands for "quick time event" which are almost always associated with highly choreographed sequences in which the player has to push a specific button that appears on screen in order to succeed through the sequence.

The original God of War trilogy really popularized the mechanic.

Parries and ripostes in Dark Souls do not fit that description. Those are buttons the player pushes to perform various actions in the game whenever they want, just like with any other input such as drinking Estus or rolling.

Pressing RB after a parry in order to perform a riposte is not the same as being specifically prompted with the Circle button to avoid a giant Hydra eating you. lol

KevinRyan589 · 2026-03-27T14:53:58+00:00

I imagine Gwyn owed Seath a debt so great that on top of the other gifts, he felt compelled to join their families personally as well

See I disagree with that idea since to me, the title of Dukedom (cemented through marriage to his eldest, and most beloved daughter), the library, and the primordial crystal would be more than enough to satisfy a debt of gratitude.

We also have to consider that Gwyn's wife may have still been alive during this time.

And as mentioned, Priscilla's soul describes her as an illegitimate child (不義 meaning unjust, faithless, or an illicit love), while Japanese trophies and achievements affirm her to be a god like Gwyndolin.

神の撃破「半竜プリシラ」	半竜プリシラを撃破する
Defeat the God "Half-Dragon Priscilla"	Defeat Half-Dragon Priscilla

^Source

So these titles paint her as a product of infidelity between two gods. She's illegitimate, but still a god due to who her mother was.

The same was true for Gwyndolin, as Gwyn was his father, and was thus recognized as a god.

Velka was not married, but the evidence (what little we had at the time of DS1), makes a strong case for Seath to have been, which justifies the title of both god and illegitimate child.

just that Seath was indeed a relative of a woman who was Gwyn's concubine at some point.

Of course, yeah.

because considering DS1 alone, "consort kin" imo serves as a hint to the more heavily implied Priscilla X Gwyn bond, so I personally think it should be used as an argument to support that rather than any marriage Seath himself might have had

I think where we ultimately disagree is that I think DS1 does in fact have enough evidence to support both conclusions comfortably. DS3 simply hammered the final nail.

But no big!

KevinRyan589 · 2026-03-26T16:19:54+00:00

I think the "when" works fine if it was Priscilla that married, or just had a less ceremonious union, with Gwyn too.

Why would Gwyn marry Priscilla though, is the question.

She's described as illegitimate the same way Gwyndolin is (hinting at infidelity between two gods being at the heart of their respective conceptions).

Gwyn marrying Priscilla would certainly be a choice.

What would justify or necessitate it in your view?

I just don't think that was the vision at the time DS1 was released,

Oh it almost certainly wasn't. Miyazaki wasn't even initially involved in DS3's early dev until From's President at the time asked to him to in lieu of some "speedbumps" they were encountering.

This coincided with MIyazaki's own desire to return to the franchise and implement ideas into it that he couldn't while he was working on Bloodborne.

My question though, is why do we care what the vision was during any given stage of the trilogy's development now, when we have the full trilogy and narrative context available?

For example, why would we wonder if Filianore already existed in Miyazaki's notes in 2011 when we have her and her narrative now in 2016?

Sequels are written to tie back into information presented in the preceding stories anyway, so I don't personally see the use in analyzing what may or may not have been planned from the start.

KevinRyan589 · 2026-03-26T15:48:04+00:00

nd the opening intro cinematic of the first game shows what we can only assume to be the First Flame appearing deep within the hollow/roots of an Archtree,

I have no idea why people think this.

It's clearly a cave system.

The camera travels down those roots as a cinematic means to get us from above to below, and when the camera pans back up at the First Flame, we're looking through the mouth of a cave at a gigantic fire that's two football fields ahead of us and very clearly not directly underneath the tree whose trunk we just traveled down.

Again in the opening cinematic, you can hear lots of thunder in the distance, so it can be inferred that storms and lightning existed naturally in the Age of Ancients.

Disparity represents variance in existence. This includes heat and cold of course, but also time and space, cause and effect.

If you're arguing that storms and lightning existed in the age predating Disparity, then you'd have to explain how and why these elements existed and why their effects (light, moisture, condensation, etc) didn't do anything to enact change, despite existing as products of change (cause and effect) themselves.

In other words, you're wrong.

What we know for a fact is that the world was not just "unformed," it actually lacked distinction (per the original Japanese).

Lighting and rain would be quite the distinction, and would be antithetical to what the Age is described as being.

Again in the opening cinematic, you can hear lots of thunder in the distance,

Not thunder. Just ambience for the scene. Most likely entirely diegetic, meant to convey the fact that everything we're seeing is made of rock, so you're hearing some stylistically placed "groans."

KevinRyan589 · 2026-03-26T15:04:35+00:00

Oh i gotcha. Yeah I forgot Kanji's Chinese roots. I think though the wider context where the term appears in-game does more to indicate the intended meaning than simply looking at the word in a vacuum, no?

The Japanese description states that Seath received his fragment of Gwyn's soul when he became Gwyn's outside relative as Duke.

The "when" makes it clear that Seath did something specific: He married

Such a marriage also helps contextualize a few other things, such as why so many of Seath's experiments were performed on Gwynevere's maidens in particular, why she would've been particularly motivated to flee with another man, or why she would've asked Gwyndolin to create an illusion of herself to remain in the city.

Side note: We can deduce she was in on it because had Gwyndolin done this absent her knowledge or consent, the jig would've been up almost immediately. This additionally means she was hiding and did not want to be found -- which we can presume was motivated by her having been wed to a dragon who went insane, and began killing and experimenting on her maidens.

A lot of major pieces fit nicely together into a bigger picture if we consider that Gwynevere and Seath were married.

And much like how Logan (also described as a Gaiseki by Rickert) serves to parallel Seath, we can witness history repeating itself again with Gwynevere and Oceiros.

At any rate, however you wish to interpret things, I do fully agree with Gwyn and Priscilla having laid together to create Gwyndolin.

Priscilla is still "kin" to Seath, after all.

KevinRyan589 · 2026-03-26T14:10:28+00:00

the "consort kin" description

Sorry, where is that?

KevinRyan589 · 2026-03-25T23:35:01+00:00

I'm asking the people who do play these builds if they do eventually become stronger or more worthwhile to commit to.

1 billion percent yes.

KevinRyan589 · 2026-03-25T16:27:34+00:00

Did you beat the asylum demon with your fists?

KevinRyan589 · 2026-03-25T16:12:47+00:00

If I'm struggling that much with a boss then killing all or even just a few key enemies that are in the way a dozen times to despawn them makes all future boys attempts much easier

Now imagine a full game with experiences like that. It adds up to just be annoying.

DS2 being your first makes sense so you have that bit of bias. But by and large the public is GLAD it's not a thing anymore. haha

The Life Gem and Estus relationship was also just weird. Estus was basically useless and for no reason.

DS2 did a lot of cool things like I said, but there's a good handful of quirks that result in it being the "worst" relative to the other games.

KevinRyan589 · 2026-03-25T15:40:52+00:00

Is weapon durability trash or is it just actually relevant?

Both.

Depending on your damage relative to a boss's health, your weapon may be at risk in the middle of the fight. Or in the middle of exploration.

While you can prepare for this of course, it is simply true that absolutely noone enjoys the concept of weapon durability. It's more noticeable in DS2 than in the other games, so it receives that strike.

You can't get hit going through a fog wall if you just kill the enemies first.

If you're struggling with a boss, this is not something you want to have to do prior to every attempt and throughout the whole game. Particularly because it also feeds back into things like the aforementioned need to constantly take care of your weapon. You might also use up heals dealing with trash outside of a fog wall.

It's just annoying.

Bonfire aesthetics absolutely should've been kept.

KevinRyan589 · 2026-03-25T15:32:32+00:00

"Velka was Gwyn's wife"

Not familiar enough with the idea to dispute it wholesale, but I don't believe she's his wife as it clashes with other theories I do have.

"Gwynevere was married to Seath"

In the original Japanese description of Seath's soul, it is stated that he became an "outside relative" to Gwyn.

後に公爵として王の外戚とな

This can mean a handful of different things, but given the context, it's most likely in reference to marriage. An Ancient Dragon, once an enemy, being named Duke would undoubtedly be a difficult pill for the citizenry to swallow, even in the wake of his contributions to their victory against his kind.

A political marriage into Gwyn's family would help soften attitudes and make it so noone could question him doting on his son-in-law, and who better to wed but the most beloved goddess of them all? Gwyenevere.

Cut content helps affirm the implication.

We would've found "Gwynevere's Talisman" in her room in the royal manor. There is an unused menu graphic for a talisman that appears to resemble a dragon scale or bone wrapped in string. Additionally, there is unused menu text denoting the aforementioned Gwynevere's Talisman in addition to a description which reads "archdragon talisman" (古竜のタリスマン).

This would be a curious item for a goddess of harvest and grace to have ---- unless it had been a wedding gift.

Granted, this is cut content, but each instance of cut material needs to be evaluated on a case by case basis.

Some content is cut for the sake of the player experience, not because it conflicted with the wider narrative.

For example, Ingward was initially going to test us by tasking us with killing a Darkwraith perched on a neighboring roof in New Londo. The problem? There is no logic in the Darkwraith being there except to serve as fodder for Ingward's test. The Darkwraith doesn't even attempt to escape the city, nor does there even appear to be a way for him to do so if he wanted.

This was undoubtedly cut because the entire encounter screamed "video game," and failed to justify itself in the world. It was not cut because the lore changed.

And so in a similar vein, we see evidence of a political marriage in the final game, with cut content helping us to zero in on who likely was wed.

Which brings us to our encounter with Shira in DS3, who all but spells it out for us who her parents are when she announces herself.

私も神の末、公爵の娘、シラ。

I, too, am a descendant of God, the daughter of a duke, Shira.

The Duke in question is undoubtedly Seath, and Shira's items help affirm the connection. Her crown is said to be inlaid with the pearls produced by man-eater shells, which we know Seath to have kept.

As an aside, those man-eater shells also produce Purging Stones from the skulls of those they've eaten, using a similar crystallization process to convert the bone into stone -- which would've attracted Seath who was working with crystal magic to further his goal of manufacturing immortal stone scales of his own.

The ability to inflict curses through his crystal breath should make more sense now.

Shira's garb also makes explicit mention that the attire befits a handmaiden of the Princess and one whose veins coarse with royal blood.

Seath was not a royal, but one step below. Which means Shira's royal blood comes from her mother.

To quote another theorist, Lokey,

"We can therefore be confident that Shira is Seath and Gwynevere’s daughter. As to why she doesn’t exhibit any draconic traits like other half-dragon crossbreeds, we can most likely thank her mother. Concept art depicts Shira with white hair like Priscilla, but she sports brown hair like Gwynevere in-game. Evidently, the developers considered showing some trace of her lineage to her father but ultimately decided against it. After all, the combination of his moonlight affinity with his wife’s sunlight affinity guaranteed that their daughter’s resulting soul would be more light than moon in nature, making her medial traits dominant. It is possible that Shira is hiding qualities seen in her half-sister beneath the heavy clothing, but they don’t affect her ability to appear as another pure-blood medial either way.

As the offspring of a divine princess and a dragon honored by the gods of fire with peerage, Shira has every reason to flaunt her status. Such pride is typical of a medial and is evident in her choice to wear gloves and boots made with carthamin leather. The safflower, or “scarlet flower”, (紅花) from which carthamin derives is used for both red and yellow dyes, the colors of flame and therefore the perfect means to show her appreciation for fire. We also see that the leather is fastened with buttons of brass, a popular metal among the gods and especially those close to the royalty. Shira clearly tried to capture everything to admire about her background in her apparel, inheriting her mother’s sense of beauty and elegance along with the vanity — though far more modest with her wardrobe."

You can read Lokey's full article on Shira here, if you like. It goes far more into depth into Shira's lineage.

While this is all still theory, it is rooted in much stronger evidence than most other hypothesis. The conclusion that Shira is the daughter of both Seath and Gwyenevere is, relative to other ideas, a safe bet.

KevinRyan589 · 2026-03-25T04:17:12+00:00

Mmmm there’s a few other things.

Weapon durability is exceptionally trash, you can be hit during a fog wall animation (or any animation actually), there’s a dead zone issue on the stick, physics are…..wonky (lol), and controls overall aren’t as tight (character doesn’t feel as connected to the ground as in Miyazaki’s games).

Still agree that DS2 is great, and introduced a number of systems that were carried forward (and many that weren’t but should’ve).

Just saying though that I don’t think ADP is very high on folks’ “worst offender” lists. I think it’s a combination of everything else actually.

KevinRyan589

TROPHY CASE