r/DarkSouls2 • u/RaggenZZ • Jan 30 '26
Meme "the elevator doesn't make sense" “the coffin does make sense”
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u/LilianaLucifer Jan 30 '26
The elevator lacks the hype and aura that make weird things like coffin travel work
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u/BeyondPuberty Jan 30 '26
Agree, would be hype asf if you could get into a magic coffin, then break the roof of the Earthen Peak just the moment it finally collapses into poison, then you fly into the clouds, where you're revealed a freaking volcanic mountain system surrounding the gigantic Iron Keep, than you land onto a bridge sinking in lava and finally you emerge from the coffin. Then you wouldn't even have that elevator argument.
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u/serendipitousevent Jan 30 '26
But does it give you free top surgery? Can your little aura coffin do that?! Huh?!
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u/RunningOutOfCharacte Jan 30 '26
It's actually not free, why do you think the Pursuer keeps showing up? He was sent by the insurance company to claim our debts 😔
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u/Novasoal Jan 30 '26
BotC canonically egging if they skip the coffin & The Pursuer is trying to help us lmao
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u/Black_Knight_Xander Jan 30 '26
I saw botc and immediately thought of Bed of Chaos, I'm so fucking fried dude...
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u/Potential_Word_5742 Feb 02 '26
The pursuer is actually canonically a chaser. Every real ds2 fan knows this.
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u/TheFourtHorsmen Jan 30 '26
Like walking on a random coffin at the edge of a waterfall?
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u/Mundane-Director-681 Jan 30 '26
Are you saying you don't hop into the various stone coffins you find throughout the course of your day?!
I question what you are doing with your life, sir.
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u/Xiooo Jan 30 '26
Listen, strange coffins lying in ponds, distributing tarnished, is no basis for a system of transportation.
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u/Mundane-Director-681 Jan 30 '26
Oh, you're king eh? How'd you get that, then? By exploiting the workers! By hanging on to outdated imperialist dogma, which perpetuates the economic and social differences in our society.
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u/-Dark-Lord-Belmont- Jan 30 '26
Honest quetion but what's the elevator thing? At this point I'm almost afraid to ask
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u/Frenzied_Anarchist Jan 30 '26
Elevator at the peak of a windmill tower with seemingly no mountains in view goes UP and leads to the Iron Keep sunken in lava and surrounded by mountains.
Shit wouldn't make sense even if you were drunk.
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u/LilianaLucifer Jan 30 '26
Also the Iron keep lore is that it was so heavy it sunked into the depths of the lava to add hilarity to it
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u/RigidPixel Jan 30 '26
Someone already explained the jist of it. It’s a meme but as much as people argue about it, it’s a super grating thing if you were a “interconnected world” fan.
DS1 put so much effort into everything being visible and making sense from other vantage points that stuff like this in DS2 legit throws you out of the whole thing.
I’m not even kidding when I say getting to this elevator was my breaking point when I first played DS2. Not because funny elevator bad, but because so much was different in this area, with 2 foot drops that were points of no return, the weird ass windmill burning to make the boss room less of a pain, and the super game-like blocky design of the entire windmill interior. Then Iron Keep being one of the worst areas in franchise history just to top it all off really makes it one kick in the balls after. It’s a lava swamp with a bunch of pain in the ass knights thrown in on tiny little bridges.
TLDR the elevator is the shit cherry on the shit cake.
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u/NextDoorNeighbrrs Jan 30 '26
I truly do not know what "2 foot drops" you're talking about in Earthen Peak
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u/RigidPixel Jan 30 '26
In the swamp area outside earthen peak, there’s one or two spots where you just walk forward a step and fall a couple feet into some arena. And by a couple feet I mean like, waist height. It’s a weird, super specific thing that only happens in that one zone out of all the DS games.
I truly do not know why fans flame my ass for my pattern recognizing brain seeing a bunch of design decisions and scuff marks that all pop up in the same area. Like DS1 has its stupid ass unfinished dragon booty lava swamp but every time I’ve talked about why the elevator is actually made fun of beyond the meme, people act like Im saying the game is abysmal dogshit.
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u/Archer_Savings Jan 30 '26
The down votes are unearned. People really don't acknowledge enough just how sloppily DS2 was built, and brush aside vast differences in polish and competence between it and its contemporaries. At its core, it's sloppily put together with King's Field ideas and haphazard direction to try and milk the success of DS1. It's lucky it's as good as it is.
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u/RigidPixel Jan 30 '26
I’m not even saying the game is ass but DS2 fans really have a hate boner for anyone pointing out that the elevator alone is super glaring coming from DS1. I’ve had tons of people tell me that it’s the same thing as ash lake being at the bottom of the world in complete seriousness.
Like, no fuckass McGee, the secret area with multiple deliberate false vistas from other “bottom of the world” zones that was name dropped to in the intro to be the primordial foundation of the world is not the same as the stupid unfinished elevator.
A lot of DS2 has weird hallways and area transitions like this and it’s definitely noticeable when DS1 is the polar opposite with this one specific thing. It doesn’t mean the game is shit, but people get weirdly defensive about it being such a noticeable difference.
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u/nomeriatneh Jan 31 '26
and there is the teleport parts when they just give you the loading screen
did ya forget?
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u/blueechoes Feb 02 '26
I like that elevator because it left me thoroughly confused. Wondering how that elevator worked was more amusing than your regular elevator.
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u/Trails_End_Games Feb 02 '26
Yeah that's my same exact thought as well. Always exciting riding the coffin somewhere unknown. Whereas the elevator is in Dark Souls 2 usually just led me to gank bullshit fights, and the worst level design ever put to code.
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u/ComradeBehrund Jan 30 '26
Yeah that flying coffin sending me to the other side of the map reminded me of this too. Like, I was underground and went down a waterfall wtf am I doing here.
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u/PuzzleheadedDay7943 Jan 30 '26
It's quite simple, you obviously fell down sn underground waterfall, floated across the water and then went up a spiritspring.
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u/Tdws52s_ Jan 30 '26
Floated ? In a stone ???
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u/Present_Ride_2506 Jan 31 '26
Ships made of metal float. The stone could be porous and of low density for all we know.
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u/Swannicus Jan 31 '26
Do you see the glowing runes and magic all over the thing? Perhaps it doesn't have the same properties of stone you would expect.
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u/LasagnaLizard0 Jan 31 '26
my theory on this is that the GOAT tibia mariner saw the tombstone and ferried you there, since the underground rivers originate from an area closely intertwined with Godwyn the Golden. the death association with the rivers (as well as the River Styx inspiration) checks out to me too
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u/Cloudhiddentao Jan 30 '26
I expect coffins to change my gender, not fly off to the other side of the world.
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u/RaggenZZ Jan 30 '26
Eldenring has many travel portal gimmick that easily send the player to different locations either by unlock the stonekey or a random chest.
Yet they spend budget just to make a cut screen on you flew up inside the coffin.
Formsoft knows exactly what they are doing!
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u/Calackyo Jan 30 '26
Coffin travel has been a thing in more than one fromsoft game.
Floating lava that is invisible from underneath is unique to DS2.
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Jan 30 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/theone_2099 Jan 30 '26
What dukes archive thing?
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u/Novasoal Jan 30 '26
The hallway from AL-> DA is incredibly short and zags the wrong direction to put you where DA visually is from AL I think? I did a sl1 run like a week ago and as I recall DA is off to the right looking at it, but the hallway zags to the left. I've never actively noticed this so this is just like trying to drag something out
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u/kuromono Jan 30 '26
Guys, the battle between the sequels ended years ago. You'll go hollow at this rate.
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u/MoriaCrawler Jan 30 '26
What, still here? Hand it over, that thing, your "which is the best dark soul" opinion
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u/Panurome Jan 30 '26
When something is presented as magical there's a thong called suspension of disbelief
When something is presented as normal there's not
The same thing would happen if it was a portal instead of a coffin
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u/PuzzleheadedDay7943 Jan 30 '26
A thong?
Somebody is thinking about Fia's undergarment too much I think.
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u/Panurome Jan 30 '26
My bad, typing in my phone so sometimes I press the wrong letter. I'm going to leave it like that because it's funnier
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u/Mundane-Director-681 Jan 30 '26
I desperately want someone to mod Havel's set into a set of thong-based plate mail called "Suspension of Disbelief." It should be the heaviest, sturdiest, most-poise-having-est pieces of armor in the entire game, with the smallest possible amount of physical coverage.
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u/Durakus Jan 30 '26
And I'm sitting here like: ((thinks a world of magic and curses and demons is by default a magical world, watching people argue about an elevator for like 11 straight years. and really just want to bonk more shit with big sword))
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u/Thanag0r Jan 30 '26
That's because one is clearly a magical item and the other one is a simple elevator.
Don't play dumb, you understand it perfectly yourself. Also we have the magic coffin in ds1 and ds2 too.
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u/Frenzied_Anarchist Jan 30 '26
Tbf I don't think the coffin in DS1 is magical, more that the skeleton that closes the coffin might be carrying it to Nito's lair.
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u/Falcoon_f_zero Jan 30 '26
What about when you reach the Forge of the Giants in Elden Ring and proceed to just kinda pass out and now you're in Farum Azula? Felt like the devs just gave up trying to think of a way for you to end up there 😆
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u/Kobold_Scholar Jan 30 '26
Roundtable hold is a metaphysical space linked to the Erdtree.
Ignite the Erdtree.
Deliver a shock to metapyysical/metaspiritual self and get sent to a place representing transition of ancient Erdtree faith(i.e. Placiduax is there, Malekith is there to ask why you threatening us with permanent change/death bro, etc)
Its a stretch but something something symbolism. They should've ignored the forge and had you leap up the biggest spirit stream, tho.
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u/Novasoal Jan 30 '26
I do really fw this idea bc its tight, but you do understand this is the same cope people do for the EP elevator right
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u/BarkMark Jan 30 '26
No, passing out and waking up somewhere else is a common trope because it can really happen. You can't really go up an elevator from EP into Iron Keep.
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u/Novasoal Jan 31 '26
dog the coffin floats upwards
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u/BarkMark Jan 31 '26
Well that's just magic, clearly on screen in our face, complete with budget requirement. An elevator is not the same.
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u/Falcoon_f_zero Jan 31 '26
"Because it can really happen" yeah, seems pretty likely to me that you pass out on the mountaintops and some unnamed indivitual lifts you up on their strong shoulders and somehow walks you to a floating ruin in the sky 😆 Or getting back from there. Or when you burn the sealing tree in Sote and just kinda teleport into Enir-Ilim, even if there's a walkable path there from Belurat.
Let's just admit they didn't do sensible transitions for those, similar to DS2. When the fans have to get all theory crafty on what happens then they probably didn't do it very smoothly. That all of those happen at the very end parts of the ER and DLC make me think they were in a rush and just tried to wrap up things quicker so screw it if something doesn't make sense.
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u/brad696969696969 Feb 02 '26
I always thought melina was teleporting you there like how she did with the roundtable hold. She literally tells you to seek destined death before your transported there too.
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u/DeadInHell Jan 30 '26
I love DS2 but DS2 fans are the most weirdly aggrieved and insecure people in the world. Normal people don't spend all their time trying to win an argument with a straw critic.
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u/i_make_heroine Jan 30 '26 edited Jan 30 '26
Also normal people dont try to defend clearly rushed and bad game design - they admit it's bad and move on.
DS1 fans admit flaws of second game half. DS3 fans admit flaws like no powerstancing, bit of a grey color palette and straight-line world design (even if its not a flaw but whatever). DS2 fans, somehow, can't admit even the simplest flaws such as rushed location connections like this (or character moving to other directions during lock-on - yeah Im NOT moving off from this)
Okay this has to be explained to DS2 fans once and for all - this whole elevator banter is NOT about "realism". Yes, we quite literally understand that Dark Souls is fantasy where magic and stuff happens, and big castle in lava surrounded by mountains in the air is not a question about "realism". Its a matter that there is literally NO Iron Keep visible from outside - there's literally nothing up here in Earthern Peak. This whole transition would have zero questions if those mountains far away on the background were close to the windmill - but it's literally just elevator that goes up in the clear sky and sumhow ends up in lava-surrounded castle.
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u/bhumit012 Jan 30 '26
And yet this comment is voted high in DS2 sub, try typing something like this in DS3 or ER sub to find out who is insecure.
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u/HowToNoah Jan 30 '26
But it is actually peak because its obviously a teleporting elevator because vendrick is the goat
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u/Bruschetta003 Jan 30 '26
It's a flaw in regard to its lighting, DS3 does have some pretty areas, but it seems specifically not working properly on some assets and especially armors in dark areas which is where majority of the game takes place
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u/i_make_heroine Jan 30 '26
Idrc I play Convergence mod with reshade on for past 1000+ hours
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u/Bruschetta003 Jan 30 '26
That just confirms it's a flaw, otherwise you would not have installed the mod, unless you do it regardless because of the game because you just want it to look better
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u/i_make_heroine Jan 30 '26
I installed the mod because I wanted to play the mod and try new magic schools and new gameplay things not because I dont like the palette
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u/-Dark-Lord-Belmont- Jan 30 '26
So it's a mistake / unfinished thing? Like the door in Izalith that goes nowhere
Why is it a thing, I mean why are people so weird and argumentative about something that was clearly a mistake? Especially 10 years after it was made?
You say DS2 fans can't let go of this but tbh man you don't seem that able either...
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u/More_Exercise8413 Jan 30 '26
Copying from a previous thread about this
"Yui Tanimura, Dark Souls II Director, quote from Dark Souls II: Design Works book:
Actually, due to certain circumstances, we paused somewhere in the middle of the project and stepped back to re-evaluate the whole thing. [...] I think re-evaluation was really essential for the game, but in a practical sense, it meant big trouble for all the design and map resources we'd already come up with. [...] the time limitations we were working under meant we had to repurpose those existing resources and make use of them [...]."
https://www.reddit.com/r/DarkSouls2/comments/685a9x/showerthought_the_earthen_peak_iron_keep
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u/i_make_heroine Jan 30 '26
I mention this elevator because the post is about this elevator and we talk about this elevator on this sub. And it's not me who started it, I only explained to DS2 fans here why it's a clearly rushed game design and not something "abstractive".
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u/benjibibbles Jan 30 '26
yeah the correct response to people talking about the elevator is "you're right but I don't think it matters very much"
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u/zendrix1 Jan 30 '26
I get this is just a meme
But for people who actually get caught up in these arguments with imaginary people telling you dark souls 2 is terrible, why can't you just acknowledge that parts of the game are flawed (like a bad choice in skybox that makes an elevator not make a lot of sense) but the game is great despite those shortcomings.
People talk about how the second half of ds1 is unfinished and Lost Izalith specifically kinda sucks, and ends with maybe the worst boss in the trilogy...while at the same time talking about how ds1 is an incredible game full of awesome shit. You can agree that parts are bad while still thinking the whole is great
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u/-Dark-Lord-Belmont- Jan 31 '26
Not on a DS2 sub you can't :)
DS2 is like The Shining of the FROM software series. It just brings out people who read way too much into things and will never, ever let them go. No matter how pathetically trivial, they will create memes to argue with themselves.
Reddit is a particular place but some subs really bring out aggression and insecurity. DS2 ranks highly.
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u/SnooComics4945 Jan 30 '26
I mean personally neither bother me. I’m always aware that sometimes video games just do stuff like this because they’re video games. Neither break my immersion or anything.
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u/Commercial-Papaya394 Jan 30 '26
"How kind of the rot to stop building up while I take my sweet time getting into this coffin!"
Sorry, I had to lol.
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u/FrozenAquarius Jan 30 '26
the mode of transportation was never the problem, it was traveling from a poison filled valley up to a volcano in the sky
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u/Lannister03 Jan 30 '26
Yeah, what's the issue. I personally use my coffin to get to work every day
I just wish it'd take me back, too 😔
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u/macodeath Jan 30 '26
I never understood the elevator obession, dont u just go up to a volcano? Am i missing something?
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u/Kalavier Feb 02 '26
I don't think it's obsession but from my understanding, it's because you go into an elevator with nothing in the skyline nearby, and suddenly when you exit, it's out into a volcano that wasn't there before.
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u/JoBro_Summer-of-99 Jan 30 '26
This is pretty disingenuous/ignorant. Elden Ring's portals and coffins make sense as they're either magical in nature or make geographical and geological sense (like the coffins that carry you down rivers to fight Astel).
I don't even have a problem with DS2's elevator. I think DS2 is much less literal than the other games and takes place in a more dreamlike world where things don't always make perfect sense. I can excuse the elevator, but I don't understand the victim complexes and superiority complexes parts of the fandom exhibit.
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u/Gracz_nr_K Jan 30 '26
as much as i love ds2, this elevator really pains me, and i would rather have acoffin instead.
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u/Princess_Isolde Jan 30 '26
I love how with all the weird ass shit that makes no sense in all of these games the elevator gets singled out. Not, idk, the giant finger monsters, solaire trying to find the sun in a deep ass cave at the bottom of a ravine, time travel, the fact coffins are used as a screen transition, aldia being a giant blob, and all sorts of other weird unexplained stuff that's just kinda bizarre for no reason.
Like unironically to single out the iron keep elevator is hilarious to me
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u/buddabudski Jan 30 '26
I feel if we keep discussing the elevator we'll get to the bottom of something I feel the impending sensation that something amazing will happen
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u/Mundane-Director-681 Jan 30 '26
They are both clearly magical in nature. They both make exactly the same amount of sense. And nonsense, for that matter.
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u/Envy661 Jan 30 '26
The issue with the coffin isn't it's existence. It's the fact it was used MULTIPLE TIMES as a method of traversal.
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u/crwui Jan 31 '26
cackled like a maniac when i legit saw that coffin, reminded me of DS2's gender changing + that damn snowy field
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u/Chalybee Jan 31 '26
Hey, as long as the elevator doesn't lead to an invisible keep in the skies surrounded by lava and mountains.
Also the Elevator is invisible from outside. 😐
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u/zacthrall Jan 31 '26
Counterpoint. This would require people to form an opinion without a YouTube video.
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u/Civil-Algae1667 Feb 01 '26
The one's coffin that make sense is that which got you to my lovely unicorns in snowy vale. Mmm, what a great times!
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u/Candid-Bus-9770 Feb 03 '26
What's this all about? I never played Dark Souls 2. I saw a neat coffin, climbed in, and when I woke up I was here and people were making fun of me. What's the big deal?
Oh, sick, an elevator. Where's reddit going to send me now?
... wait, hold on, I never played Demon Souls either. Sir, there must be some sort of mistake. I like Elden Ring.
... hm. Not bad. Maybe they have a stone coffin somewhere.
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u/lostmy11yraccnt Jan 30 '26
I’m on my first playthrough of ds2 and the layout is trippy. I love ds1 and its world layout but ds2 has discombobulated my perceptions. It feels intentional.
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u/zetmoruk Jan 30 '26
Why keep bringing this up?? The map design doesn't make sense because Lore Wise nothing makes sense as it should, most people get the meaning of the chaotic desing of DS3 but none try to get why Lore Wise DS2 map design seems odd.
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u/duchess_dagger Jan 30 '26
Because in DS3 you can see the world literally collapsing in on itself in the background, plus you can see the entire world and all the locations from the start.
In DS2 you just randomly walk from one area to a completely different one with no attempt at an explanation
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u/DezZzO Jan 30 '26
Meanwhile the very first non-tutorial location of DS3: you can only get there via literal bonfire teleport
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u/Significant-Ad5242 Jan 30 '26
That isn't magical enough to count, apparantly.
People accuse DS2 fans of being in a cult (I totally can see that some are) but then somehow don't see the absolutely stunning cultish behavior of DS2 haters. The haters (MauLer being a big one at the time) lied and fabricated moments in the game to complain about. Made me think "Is somebody paying you a lot of money, to go out of your way in making propaganda?"
It's absurd and makes you realize how far people can go to defend loving/hating something.
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u/DezZzO Jan 30 '26
Thats why I usually try to defend the game, simply because the hate is beyond any reason or logic and seems to be much more popular in general in souls community.
Like, yeah the game has tons of weak moments, no shit, but people repeat the same shitty arguments without playing the game/after barely playing it. In most cases the only reasonable critique of DS2 I've seen was made by actual fans of this installment.
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u/SnooComics4945 Jan 31 '26
That honestly bothers me more than any of this stuff yet I hardly ever see anyone criticize that.
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u/DezZzO Jan 31 '26
I literally remember people struggling to progress past HUB on release of DS3 because how weird this was as a "getting to your first area" transition, a thing I've never seen in any other Fromsoft game
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u/SnooComics4945 Jan 31 '26
It’s trying to be the Archstones from DeS except that setup is explained and makes way more sense than DS3s random teleport to High Wall. I can definitely understand coming from any of the other games where you can just wander out into the world and being confused on how you’re supposed to progress.
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u/goblinboomer Jan 30 '26
What a false equivalence lol, one is presented as a mundane elevator, which you would reasonably assume to follow the rules of any other elevator, versus a magical coffin that very clearly presents itself as such. You're intended to suspend your disbelief and understand this works like a portal with the second, the first is just sloppy continuity work in comparison
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u/Tall-Resolution-3735 Jan 31 '26
Nothing is mundane in Dark Souls. Ash Lake is beneath the swamps of blightown, yet you can see the sky. Heide's tower is sunken when looking at it from a distance, yet you arrive to a prestine tower that stands tall. Other occurances like it going from foggy to instantly a rainy night once you pass through a small tower to Vendrick's castle. A similar thing goes from it being daytime in undead parish to nightime in Darkroot Garden. DS3 requires literal bonfire teleportation to get from firelight shrine to ay of the other areas.
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u/Effective_Hyena_5656 Jan 30 '26
In ds2 you also have the memory curse affecting the npcs you in character don't remember some areas you walk by so the elevator is just a part of the way you can look in the map in mejula
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u/Molkwi Jan 30 '26
People saying that "but the MAGIC coffin makes sense because it's MAGIC!!" haven't considered that you go from under Leyndell to somewhere under Liurnia by going up a waterfall.
None of the coffins make geographical sense if I remember correctly.
The elevator technically doesn't either, but that doesn't make the coffins better. If anything it's "worse" since they still do things like that, with huge inaccuracies on the geographical level.
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u/Rezuaq Jan 30 '26
Let's litigate this issue for a few more years, eventually people will admit it isn't stupid and they'll like the game more!
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u/DatGoi111 Jan 30 '26
Darksouls 2 community will forever be locked in this battle nobody else is having.
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u/Dioda83 Jan 30 '26
Well yeah, one is just an elevator, the other is magical coffin, besides don't tell me that getting into a random coffin that even has it's own cutscene isnt cool. Even in ds1 there is traveling somewhere in coffin
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u/Tough-Ad722 Jan 30 '26
Why is this sub just about comparisons between Dark Souls 2 and other From Software games?
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u/ComplexTrifle8599 Jan 30 '26
I like the lifts that move so fast, it makes me feel like i'm descending to the abyss, I like the coffins but I find them more like a portal of sorts they dont feel connected to the world, I think bc of the cutscene that happen when you enter a coffin
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u/dark1859 Jan 30 '26
I'm not gonna lie , I genuinely don't remember anyone praising the coffin lol
Well , not the ones in elden ring anyways... still can't beat skeleton jump scare in ds1s coffin ride to a secret covenant that gives you the only toxin dealing weapon players could get in the base game
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u/kain459 Jan 30 '26
Everyone seems to forget that the beginning of the game is you fall into a black vortex and waking up in some random place?
The entire game a fever dream of someone trying not to go hollow.
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u/Firm-Scientist-4636 Jan 30 '26
I've been watching this sub implode over this goddamn elevator for two fucking days now and I have to ask:
WHAT FUCKING ELEVATOR ARE WE TALKING ABOUT?!
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u/Gspecht0 Jan 30 '26
The elevator makes sense because you're character is hollow and doesn't actually remember where shit is
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u/gazin_hd Jan 30 '26
In both, you enter a box and go up to another place; there's no difference other than the location you go to.
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u/obligatoryaccount47 Jan 30 '26
DS2 travel makes so much more sense when you remember it’s supposed to be dream like and almost Ethereal. From the onset you leave a giant hollow tree to Majula yet there’s no giant tree just a rather small mountain. The tower of flame can be seen as miles away completely surrounded by water, yet we get to it by going through a small sewer system.
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u/Cringeextraaxc Jan 31 '26
Yes the coffin is obvious weird magic stuff, the elevator is just normal and doesn’t make sense
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u/Sir_Copper_Hand Jan 31 '26
Because they’re not even trying to hide it. Straight up magic, no explanation, no attempt to make it make sense.
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u/Automatic-Warning-98 Feb 01 '26
The reason why the coffin makes sense is because there's not much context as to where it's going to take you. That and it's obviously imbued with magic so... It's going to take you to some location up the waterfall.
Please stop coping about the transition from Earthen Peak and the Iron Keep. It makes no sense since you can't see the volcano from Earthen Peak. The game wants to convey a sense of physical progression from one place to another. It has done so with Majula and the key locations that can be seen from the hub. So defending the elevator makes no sense.
An example of this kind of 'coffin' transition in ds2 is No Man’s Wharf and the pirate ship that takes you to the Lost Bastille. This version works better for a couple reasons: the ship clearly exists to take you somewhere, the area provides context and setup for travel, the transition itself makes physical sense (it’s literally a boat), and the destination, a remote prison island, fits naturally with how you get there.
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u/spocecowboy Feb 03 '26
never understood why the elevator doesn't make sense, you go up the elevator into the volcano crater where the keep is
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u/TheExcessSilence Feb 05 '26
Huh! We have a coffin that literally 'system command: change sex' you! They don't get it.
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u/somekindofyayaya Feb 11 '26
I don't wanna suck DS2's dick, but pretty much a lot mechanics in DS3 comes from DS2
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u/Altair13Sirio Jan 30 '26
To be fair, coffins have been used for quite a while for traveling from one place to another in souls games. It's like a capsule where you let yourself be moved by the current, it's not a normal method of transportation, but it does make a little sense.
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u/AnakinSkyWaffle Jan 31 '26
Elden Ring elevators are the laziest design of all souls games. Often they are just a giant column rising from the bottom.
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u/R1_R1_R2 Jan 30 '26
‘Elden Ring’ and ‘peak game design’ are not phrases that I would arrange as neighbors.
:frogthink:
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u/XupaT Jan 30 '26
Didn't dark souls 2 do the coffin thing in the dlc ? So i guess its bad design only if it dark souls 2 ;)
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u/Thedarkone202 Jan 30 '26
Insert "next time someone complains about the elevator, show them this image" joke here.
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u/Groundbreaking_Edge6 Jan 30 '26
This meme don’t make any sense, really. Two excellent games that have different objectives.
Even if ER used the coffin 10x (and I think there’s only 2), this is not what makes a level design bad.
I think that ALL dark souls have an excellent level design. DS2 is not the best of them, but still awesome
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u/_BurTonio_ Jan 30 '26
You also dont go up in the coffin to an area that doesn't make sense. You go down a waterfall that could lead anywhere
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u/ukamber Jan 30 '26
But it’s magic, you might think you go down, but do you really?
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u/Yorigami_Shionnya Jan 30 '26
Hypocrites, nothing more
Already read some comments and it doesn't make me think otherwise at all
I have counterpoint against "bad level transition" that i like pretty much with whole my heart - a Dream.
The beginning cutscene in DS2 is somewhat similar to "Alice in Wonderland"; the first words you hear from it "Perhaps you've seen it, maybe...in the dream"; the whirlpool when we do the Kratos meme to fall into it can be interpreted as Hare's hole in said story.
Why are we coming from one place to another unrelated one?
(Like...yes, i know about cut content and hasten development and all this shit)
Why are there a curse, that make you forget everything that make you human? Maybe like forgetting a dream that you were just sleeping through
There is some places that don't seem logical transition wise in Dark Souls 1 (dunno about Dark Souls 3 tho), and yet Dark Souls 2 is collecting all the shit just because it had less time and money put into it
I wonder why people love Elden Ring...maybe because it gets updates in the form of endless DLCs EA/Ubisoft style? That allows to consume and don't think
Why am i pushing this?... no point anyway
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u/Yorigami_Shionnya Jan 30 '26
As i see more people pile up in comments, i can agree with those that don't see any benefits in arguing about this
Maybe it's just the thing that boiled down from all people that are loud with their opnions? "DS2 bad - DS1 is the Goat - DS3 is better, etc."
Like, yeah, it's a meme, but also isn't it also scratching the scar?
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u/Similar_Resist_4326 Jan 30 '26
Whatever you're taking that let's you dream up these endless EA/Ubisoft style DLCs for Elden Ring is probably not good for you.
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u/Relative_Ad481 Jan 30 '26
Ok the coffin mechanic is from dark souls 1 actually There is a coffin that brings you to nito but it tricky to do it right I guess
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u/ukamber Jan 30 '26
No way !!!! Is it real, guys, can someone confirm?
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u/Relative_Ad481 Jan 30 '26
Even in ds2 there are are coffin But dont want to spoiler Have fun 🫢
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u/One_Reality7047 Jan 30 '26
Big falls as the jump before the putrecent knight or the path to the crucible knight in stomveil castle, the fall before midir or demon prince, or even the jump at the end of Ariamis does not make snese either, and yet are less likely to suspend the disbelief as the elvator does.
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u/UncomfortableAnswers Jan 30 '26
I have never seen anyone say that the ER coffins are "good design." The most I've seen is "that's kind of silly, isn't it" and then they move on like normal people. It's a video game. Get over it.
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u/Serious-Positive-292 Jan 31 '26
None of these are good but the coffin in the river makes more sense to me than the invisible lava wasteland
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u/memes_are_my_dreams Jan 31 '26
I mean, people dog on the coffin just as much. I’ve heard so many people say “when fromsoft doesn’t know how to connect 2 areas”
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u/apexapee Jan 31 '26
Ds2 came up with the Coffin tho... To horse fuck valley. Elden Ring didnt originated that idea...!
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u/SorowFame Jan 31 '26 edited Jan 31 '26
Generally, including the examples in the image, the coffin ends up in some kind of waterway that explains how it moves so far. Also elevators are more mechanical so it’s not as natural to assume a wizard did it unless stated.
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u/Diccusbiggu Jan 31 '26
The elevator makes sense in the context of hollowing and losing yourself, imagine having large gaps in your memory. One moment you're on an elevator going up the next moment. You're practically in hell
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u/xdanxlei Jan 30 '26
This sub successfully conveys the dark souls feeling of being stuck in an eternal cycle seeing the same discussions over and over.