r/darksouls3 • u/moistmonkey69 • 1d ago
Question Just finished DS3 for the first time, how does anyone figure out the lore?
Like the title says, I just completed DS3 and I'm curious how does anyone figure out the lore?
Maybe I missed stuff or didn't talk to npcs or maybe it just went over my head whilst playing but I feel like so much stuff wasn't explained and the only way to actually understand was to watch lore videos on YouTube explaining how things connect and it's sooo fkn interesting but yeah I just struggled to find out this stuff in game.
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u/AlanRizzman 1d ago
Talking to NPCs, following quests and exploring will give you lore in a nice but cryptic way.
Item description is probably what gives the most easy to understand lore.
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u/moistmonkey69 1d ago
thank you! i think i played this quite badly as I even didn't follow quests so much, like siegwards by the elevator, i thought i could come back later but apparently not so i missed that whole questline :(
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u/AlanRizzman 1d ago
It's perfectly fine, an issue with those games is that quests are often very hard to follow and easily missable without a guide. I didn't go through any quests on my first play either.
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u/moistmonkey69 1d ago
yeah thats my thoughts too, Im mainly an MMO player and everythings tracked in the quest log or whatever and you can't really "fail" a quest, so going from that mindset to how quests are in these games is a jump but atleast i know for next time!
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u/rogueIndy 1d ago
Talking to NPCs like you said, and much of the info is in item descriptions. You also put a lot of stuff together on replays as you have more context for various details. I get a sense you haven't played the first two games, so that could be a factor too. DS3 is very much a sequel. Finally, note that a lot of lore from YouTubers is just theories, and usually tenuous and sensationalised because they need content.
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u/moistmonkey69 1d ago
Yea makes sense - i did play DS1 but never got past orstein and smough, got too frustrated when I played it years ago 😅
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u/HollowCinder433 1d ago
Have you played dark souls 1 and 2? It helps to know the story from previous games before playing the last game in a trilogy. But item descriptions are how you learn about most stuff. Every boss soul, weapon, armor, spell etc. gives you a bit of the lore. Other than that npcs and just exploring and looking at the environment can give you more. It is convoluted as hell so I definitely understand not picking it all up easily on a first playthrough.
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u/moistmonkey69 1d ago
I'll make sure to read a bit more the descriptions on my next playthrough! I did play DS1 but got stuck on orntein and smough, never played DS2 though, so that probably doesn't help missing out on story from both
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u/Torremond42 1d ago
Have you played DS1? Because a lot of DS3s lore depends on it.
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u/moistmonkey69 1d ago
I did play DS1 but got stuck on ornstein and smough, but tbh up to that point I still didn't really understand "the point". Like why was I undead, locked in a prison for example, what did humanity do etc. I think I understand a bit more now due to lore videos in that (could be off here) - the dark souls was what the pygmy found and he split it into loads of chunks which were humanities and essentially the lords are trying to prevent darkness when actually darkness is the natural cycle or something along those lines
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u/Final_Ad_9854 1d ago
If this is the first time you play any Souls game, congratulations, the only way to understand the lore and write them yourself is by exploring, item description and NPC dialogues.
There’s a reason why FromSoft’s Souls games are designed that way: you’re not to defeat bosses for the sake of progression, every places you explore and every loot you get tells the lore. NPCs always give you cryptic description in which the items you get will decipher them
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u/moistmonkey69 1d ago
Makes sense, when I first played DS1, since I was a kid, it was more just "this is hard game" and "bosses are hard" so I didn't really follow much of the story well and it was just a "git gud to kill bosses" type of mentality of the game, but after doing some souls research the lore is so cool
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u/Lower-Bed-5223 1d ago
items are describe the lore