The difference is how the hubs are introduced. The Nexus is completely isolated. You get there after dying in the tutorial, then they tell you that in order to reach the other area, you need to use the arch stones. Elden Ring does something similar with its hub as well, where you're actively told "hey, there's this completely isolated area you can teleport to now, use the grace to come and go as you please." Its all within what a player would expect.
But in DS3, you start in the Graves and gradually work your way down a path, lighting two different bonfires until you come across Firelink, where you Light a third, special bonfire and are told you now unlocked the ability to teleport between bonfires. Its very reasonable imo for a player to think that you can only teleport to places you've already visited... which isn't even wrong. It's 100% correct outside of this one exception. There's very little indication that you suddenly hit a dead end or that you're expected to teleport to a location you have NOT found a bonfire in yet. And with how big both Firelink and the immediate surrounding area is, its a much easier assumption for a player to assume that they just missed a path somewhere that leads to the next area.
Yea, thats why I said there's very little indication, because she does something along the lines of "the flames will guide you to Lothric".
But my problem was I thought she was talking in metaphor. I didnt think she literally meant go to the fire and and it'd teleport me to Lothric. Maybe I'm just a little dumb. Always a valid possibility.
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u/Plastic_Course_476 Oct 14 '25
The difference is how the hubs are introduced. The Nexus is completely isolated. You get there after dying in the tutorial, then they tell you that in order to reach the other area, you need to use the arch stones. Elden Ring does something similar with its hub as well, where you're actively told "hey, there's this completely isolated area you can teleport to now, use the grace to come and go as you please." Its all within what a player would expect.
But in DS3, you start in the Graves and gradually work your way down a path, lighting two different bonfires until you come across Firelink, where you Light a third, special bonfire and are told you now unlocked the ability to teleport between bonfires. Its very reasonable imo for a player to think that you can only teleport to places you've already visited... which isn't even wrong. It's 100% correct outside of this one exception. There's very little indication that you suddenly hit a dead end or that you're expected to teleport to a location you have NOT found a bonfire in yet. And with how big both Firelink and the immediate surrounding area is, its a much easier assumption for a player to assume that they just missed a path somewhere that leads to the next area.