Dark Souls, Bloodborne, Sekiro, Elden Ring - masters of trolling you to death.
Category
📺
TVTranscript
00:00 Okay, we seriously need to get a handle on what we're calling the burgeoning Souls genre.
00:04 Souls games, Souls-born games, Souls-born Kero I heard at one point, Souls-likes?
00:09 The success of this video going with Souls games will tell you whether I got it right or not.
00:13 Anyway, FromSoftware's acclaimed selection of titles ranging from the Demons and Dark Souls
00:18 games, Bloodborne, Sekiro, and now Elden Ring are ludicrously popular. However, if these games are
00:23 recognised for anything, it's brutal difficulty. Straight up being dicked on is just something you
00:28 have to put up with in these games. I'm Scott from WhatCulture.com and these are 10 times Souls
00:33 games brutally tricked you. When legendary Dickbag Patches made his triumphant return in Elden Ring,
00:43 having screwed us over across the Souls series and Bloodborne beforehand, he'd only got more
00:48 inventive. In the Mount Gelmia region, players can spot a friendly note from Patches informing
00:52 them that there's some treasure at the end of a trail of brightly lit coloured stones.
00:57 Unsurprisingly, this was another trap. When players reach the end of the trail, which stops
01:02 at the edge of a cliff, Patches will appear, goad you for your greed, and then kick you straight
01:06 off the edge. What makes this trap extra cruel is players will land in the middle of a group of
01:11 basilisks, every Souls player's worst nightmare, as you're then promptly killed by a supremely
01:16 gruesome curse. Thanks, Miyazaki. Located across a bridge near friendly
01:25 blacksmith Andre in the Undead Parish and accessible only after ringing two bells,
01:30 Sen's Fortress is a supremely unfun funhouse comprised exclusively of traps. There are
01:35 pendulums swinging over narrow walkways, pressure plates that shoot arrows, a boulder rolling down
01:40 the main staircase, and plenty of pitfalls. Even your first encounter with a mimic isn't as
01:45 deviously cruel as a lift found next to it. In Dark Souls, the discovery of a lift means
01:50 finding a path forward or a vital shortcut. However, this lift is splattered in blood,
01:54 warning you there's some foul play about to go on. While this lift will take players to the floor
01:59 above, loitering for a second too long triggers another mechanism that flings you into an
02:04 unavoidable spike trap. Cheers, hit attacker. When it comes to terrifying Dark Souls areas,
02:14 it doesn't get much more oppressive than this particularly dank dungeon, namely thanks to the
02:18 horrifying jailers who have a nasty ability of shrinking your health bar. Still, From Software
02:23 have more tricks in store for you beforehand. On entering the initial part of this area,
02:28 players have the brief chance to explore some empty cells. In one of these cells is a glowing
02:32 item lying by a corpse just begging to be collected. Now, at this point you'll be well
02:37 versed in detecting signs of an ambush, and there are indeed no enemies. However, picking up the
02:42 item when all seems safe triggers one of the only scripted jumpscares in the entire series,
02:46 a bloodcurdling scream catching you off guard and setting the tone for the rest of the section.
02:52 *Scream*
02:56 Again, thanks Miyazaki. I mean, look, I'm just gonna say that future thanks go without saying,
03:01 because I'll end up doing this every single time.
03:03 Number 7, Meeting the Pursuer. Dark Souls 2. Coming up against brutal boss battles,
03:09 it is all part of a Soulsborne, Kiro-like experience, though these games are typically
03:14 kind enough to warn you that one is coming, with either a wall of fog leading to the boss area,
03:18 or having a large open area clearly made for a suitably large creature to fill.
03:22 Clearly then, the Pursuer in Dark Souls 2 didn't get the memo. A hulking knight with a sword as
03:28 massive as the damage it deals, this boss just drops in without any warning after you've climbed
03:32 a ladder near the beginning of the game. One of the many indicators that Souls games couldn't
03:37 care less about the rules they attempt to live by otherwise, you'll promptly be beaten to a pulp.
03:41 Number 6, The Sewer Centipedes. Dark Souls 3.
03:46 Hands down the enemy that freaked me out so much I actually had to spin my character around and
03:51 just keep running away. Enemy ambushes are common in Souls games, but full on nightmarish spider
03:57 limb things leaping at you from nowhere, that was just a big ol' nope. Located in the waters
04:02 surrounding Irithyll, when setting foot in this area, you'll notice what looks to be the corpses
04:06 of women floating in the shallow water. Bleak imagery like this is nothing new for Dark Souls,
04:11 so naturally you get a little closer. Turns out this fake body look was precisely to lure you in,
04:16 and now there's a huge centipede leaping straight at your face. Often found in groups, these creepy
04:22 crawlies can easily overwhelm the unexpected, chomping your head off with razor sharp teeth
04:26 where their chest is supposed to be. Number 5, The Doors of Faros. Dark Souls 2.
04:32 One of the new additions introduced in Dark Souls 2 were Faros Lockstones. These limited
04:37 items are small stones which, as their description informs, were created by a traveller named Faros
04:42 the Vagabond, and they're used to unlock his contraptions. These locks are scattered throughout
04:46 Dark Souls 2, and provide players with some useful benefits such as revealing secret passages,
04:51 illuminating dark areas, or regenerating health with a rejuvenating pool of water.
04:55 When you eventually reach an area called the Doors of Faros, you'll be wondering what secrets can be
05:00 found, especially as some huge doors require three stones to open. Turns out though that Faros was
05:05 also a bit of a dick. Many of the locks either spring a trap or release enemies into the vicinity.
05:10 Opening those doors even frees the formidable hulking Mastodon guard, which will then become
05:15 your newest nightmare. Number 4, The Flying Nightjar.
05:19 Sekiro Shadows Die Twice. The memes and reactions to this thing were legendary. Nothing less than
05:25 Miyazaki thinking "Hey, why don't we have a yelling NPC fly out the sky and just kill the
05:31 player?" It produced one of FromSoft's best and funniest trolls ever. Located near the roof of
05:36 the heavily guarded Ashina Castle, you're already sneaking around a group of Nightjar ninjas,
05:41 all lying in wait. Even if you've evaded everyone while emerging on top, an excited cheer is heard
05:46 in the distance, as one remaining Nightjar swoops down through the air to wipe you out.
05:51 Brilliantly, once you know this is coming, you can actually look out for the enemy hanging on
05:55 a kite in mid-air, waiting for their time to strike. Number 3, The Log Trap.
06:00 Bloodborne. Like with the Nightjar ninja, in Souls games, once you know what or where a trap
06:05 is, you'll be more equipped to deal with it next time round. Well, Bloodborne's forbidden
06:09 woods decided to F with that assumption too. Whilst exploring this creepy forest,
06:14 players will come across a pathway which harbours a nasty surprise in the form of a spiked log that
06:18 swings down, flattening you in the process. Knowing it's coming next time, you'll instinctively roll
06:23 back to avoid. Brilliantly though, once you're out the way, that same log breaks off and just
06:28 comes for you anyway regardless of where you're standing, flattening you all over again.
06:32 Number 2, Almost Everything in Undead Burg - Dark Souls.
06:37 Back in 2011, hit attacker Miyazaki wrote his intentions large in the original Dark Souls,
06:42 not caring one jot that players could end up wandering into the much harder Catacombs area,
06:47 before realising the path to the lower-levelled Undead Burg was behind them the entire time.
06:52 Still, Undead Burg is a crash course in what to expect from the rest of the game.
06:56 With surprise ambushes, tough enemies meant to be tackled later, and a massive fire-breathing
07:00 dragon blocking a bridge, but not before toasting you from above in a way you just could never see
07:05 coming. One additionally devilish trick that pushed a lot of Ridgequitters to the edge
07:10 comes from a small horde of enemies gathered near a set of stairs leading up. Going up yourself,
07:14 assuming those enemies must be the challenge at the bottom and you're now safe,
07:18 only sees another hollow push a flaming barrel towards you, wiping you out anyway.
07:23 Yep, this entire genre is like being in the most high-budget Mario Maker level ever.
07:27 Transporter Chest - Elden Ring Even with mention of Elden Ring being
07:33 the most approachable Souls game yet, dedicated players know to literally never trust a single
07:38 treasure chest ever. One of the first you'll stumble across is found in the Dragon Burj
07:42 Ruins, located in the centre of Aguille Lake to the east of the starting area. Players can
07:47 actually find two chests, and after giving them a good whack to see if they'll come to life,
07:51 you're probably just relieved to see no mimics. However, one of these chests hides something far
07:56 more unpredictable. When opened, a cloud of mist is released that envelops the player and transports
08:01 them deep within the Celia Crystal Tunnel, a much tougher area found in the heart of the
08:06 hellish Kaleid that's meant to be tackled much later. Even after dying, you're stuck respawning
08:11 in these tunnels. To escape, you need to find the nearest site of Grace Fast Travel, but that means
08:16 fighting a group of strong enemies that at this point, anyone other than long-time fans will be
08:20 too unprepared or underleveled to face. Even for From Software, this was a cruel trick to play.
08:26 One last time though, thank you Miyazaki, and cheers to the entire bigger-than-ever Souls fandom.
08:31 And those are our picks for 10 times the Souls series brutally tricked you. Let me know your
08:37 favourites down in the comments below and please subscribe to the WhatCulture Gaming Podcast.
08:41 For now, I've been Scott from WhatCulture.com, and I'll catch you soon.
08:46 [BLANK_AUDIO]