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** The player, to an extent.
** And to a greater extent, the player phantoms that occasionally show others dying in other games.
** And to a greater extent, the player phantoms that occasionally show others dying in other games.
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* MakeMyMonsterGrow: Ornstein if you kill Smough first.
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* FamousLastWords: Given the nature of the game, and AnyOneCanDie nature of the game, this shows up a lot.
** "Heheh, not too shabby…I think you've done me a favour…" [[spoiler:The Crestfallen Warrior]]
** "What the… what did I do wrong…" [[spoiler: Petrus of Thorolund]]
** "Thou shalt regret this...Fear thine indelible wrongdoings...[[spoiler: Oswald of Carim]]
** "Heheh, not too shabby…I think you've done me a favour…" [[spoiler:The Crestfallen Warrior]]
** "What the… what did I do wrong…" [[spoiler: Petrus of Thorolund]]
** "Thou shalt regret this...Fear thine indelible wrongdoings...[[spoiler: Oswald of Carim]]
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* CrystalDragonJesus: The nation of [[TheTheocracy Thorolund]] including the Way of the White. The religion surrounding Velka might be this as well, given that they mention bishops by name.
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* KnightInShiningArmor: Oscar and Solair. Siegmeyer ''wants'' to be this, but it a bit too bumbling.
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* LetsGetDangerous: Siegmeyer in Lost Izalith.
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** Ornstein and his Lion motif might be a reference of the famous American composer [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leo_Ornstein Leo Ornstein]].
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* AerithAndBob: Laurentius of the Swamp, The Witch of Izalith, Oswald, Oscar.
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* ActionSurvivor: The player character is this compared to other action games. You aren't all that powerful compared to enemies, and you always need to be careful and on the defensive. Most of the other NPCs are this as well.
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* ActionPrologue: The game's prologue, which involves Nito, the Witch of Izalith and Gwyn taking on the dragons.
* ActionSurvivor: The player character is this compared to other action games. You aren't all that powerful compared to enemies, and you always need to be careful and on the defensive. Most of the otherNPCs {{NPC}}s are this as well.
* ActionSurvivor: The player character is this compared to other action games. You aren't all that powerful compared to enemies, and you always need to be careful and on the defensive. Most of the other
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** AbsurdlySharpBlade: Ornstein's Dragonslayer Spear, [[InformedAbility apparently.]] His Leo Ring states that it is rumored to have cleaved a boulder in two.
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* ActionSurvivor: The player character is this compared to other action games. You aren't all that powerful compared to enemies, and you always need to be careful and on the defensive. Most of the other NPCs are this as well.
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* BlackDragon: The Black Dragon, one of the new bosses in the PC version.
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Revamped the berserk part of Shout Out, it was disorganized. Added some entries there. Deleted the one that said the game was a shout out of Planescape Torment (the only thing in common is that the protagonists suffer from Resurrective Immortality
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*** Rickert of Vinheim is a reference to the character from ''{{Berserk}}'', as is his profession as a blacksmith.
*** The [[http://imgur.com/1ZUfB cover of the PC version]] shows the Dark Knight Artorias in [[http://imgur.com/9p3bq Guts' typical pose from the manga.]]
*** The [[http://imgur.com/1ZUfB cover of the PC version]] shows the Dark Knight Artorias in [[http://imgur.com/9p3bq Guts' typical pose from the manga.]]
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*** Rickert of Vinheim is probably a reference to the namesake character from ''{{Berserk}}'', as is his profession as a blacksmith.
*** The[[http://imgur.com/1ZUfB [[http://i.imgur.com/1ZUfB.jpg cover of the PC version]] shows the Dark Knight Artorias in [[http://imgur.com/9p3bq [[http://i.imgur.com/9p3bq.jpg Guts' typical pose from the manga.]]
*** The
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* ShoutOut: The plot setup is that a mysterious brand curses the protagonist making him fight demons and other monsters. [[{{Berserk}} Where have I heard that one before...]]
** The Darkwraith Covenant's icon looks like a Behelit.
** A cursed warrior who can never die? [[PlanescapeTorment Perhaps..?]]
** The Darkwraith Covenant's icon looks like a Behelit.
** A cursed warrior who can never die? [[PlanescapeTorment Perhaps..?]]
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* ShoutOut: ShoutOut:
**The game probably found some inspiration in the manga {{Berserk}}:
*** The plot setup is that a mysterious brand curses the protagonist making him fight demons and othermonsters. [[{{Berserk}} Where have I heard that one before...monsters.
*** The Darkwraith Covenant's icon looks like a Behelit.
*** Rickert of Vinheim is a reference to the character from ''{{Berserk}}'', as is his profession as a blacksmith.
*** The [[http://imgur.com/1ZUfB cover of the PC version]] shows the Dark Knight Artorias in [[http://imgur.com/9p3bq Guts' typical pose from the manga.]]
** *** The Darkwraith Covenant's icon looks like a Behelit.
** A cursed warrior who can never die? [[PlanescapeTorment Perhaps..?]][[DemonicSpider Wheel Skeletons]] are probably based on [[http://i.imgur.com/BbMf9.jpg these monsters.]]
**The game probably found some inspiration in the manga {{Berserk}}:
*** The plot setup is that a mysterious brand curses the protagonist making him fight demons and other
*** The Darkwraith Covenant's icon looks like a Behelit.
*** Rickert of Vinheim is a reference to the character from ''{{Berserk}}'', as is his profession as a blacksmith.
*** The [[http://imgur.com/1ZUfB cover of the PC version]] shows the Dark Knight Artorias in [[http://imgur.com/9p3bq Guts' typical pose from the manga.]]
** A cursed warrior who can never die? [[PlanescapeTorment Perhaps..?]]
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** Rickert of Vinheim is an obvious reference to ''{{Berserk}}'', as is his profession as a blacksmith.
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* AfterTheEnd: If it isn't after the end, it's very close to it.
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Changed Ciarin\'s pronoun under Animal Motifs to female; put an Inverted Trope tag on the She\'s A Man In Japan entry
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** Lord's Blade Ciaran is associated with Hornets, with his(her) Hornet Ring and deadly affinity for with the dagger.
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** Lord's Blade Ciaran Ciarin is associated with Hornets, with his(her) her Hornet Ring and deadly affinity for with the dagger.
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** It may just be cut down to [[spoiler:the Pygmy and Ciaran]] since [[spoiler:both Gough and Artorias are set to appear in the UpdatedRerelease.]]
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** It may just be cut down to [[spoiler:the Pygmy and Ciaran]] Ciarin]] since [[spoiler:both Gough and Artorias are set to appear in the UpdatedRerelease.]]
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* ShesAManInJapan: Lord Blade Ciarin is female in the Japanese version.
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* ShesAManInJapan: {{Inverted}}. Lord Blade Ciarin is referred to as female (''kanojo'', meaning ''she'' or ''her'') in the Japanese version. However, the English translation completely forewent using pronouns and just uses her name while referring to her, leaving her gender up to the player's own assumptions.
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Artorias\'s official armor
◊ doesn\'t appear to be wolf themed.
◊ doesn\'t appear to be wolf themed.Changed line(s) 30 (click to see context) from:
** Abysswalker Astorias is associated with Wolves, with his Wolf Ring, Wolf motif armor, and Great Grey Wolf Sif guarding his grave.
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** Abysswalker Astorias is associated with Wolves, with his Wolf Ring, Wolf motif armor, Ring and Great Grey Wolf Sif guarding his grave.
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* BlackDragon: The Black Dragon, one of the new bosses in the PC version.
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* HybridMonster: The Chimera of the Tomb.
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Fixed a wrong name
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** It may just be cut down to [[spoiler:the Pygmy]] since [[spoiler:there is a Hollowed who may or may not be Lord's Blade Pharis is encountered in the Darkroot Garden, and both Ghough and Artorias are set to appear in the UpdatedRerelease.]]
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** It may just be cut down to [[spoiler:the Pygmy]] Pygmy and Ciaran]] since [[spoiler:there is a Hollowed who may or may not be Lord's Blade Pharis is encountered in the Darkroot Garden, and both Ghough [[spoiler:both Gough and Artorias are set to appear in the UpdatedRerelease.]]
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** Abysswalker Astorias is associated with Wolves, with his Wolf Ring and Great Grey Wolf Sif guarding his grave.
** Dragon Slayer Ornstein is associated with Lions, with his Leo Ring and Lion shaped armor.
** Dragon Slayer Ornstein is associated with Lions, with his Leo Ring and Lion shaped armor.
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** Abysswalker Astorias is associated with Wolves, with his Wolf Ring Ring, Wolf motif armor, and Great Grey Wolf Sif guarding his grave.
** Dragon Slayer Ornstein is associated with Lions, with his Leo Ring and Lionshaped motif armor.
** Dragon Slayer Ornstein is associated with Lions, with his Leo Ring and Lion
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* DiscOneNuke: There are several powerful weapons available early on in the game if you know the special conditions required for obtaining them, the Drake Sword is arguably the most famous because of its [[RazorWind special power,]] Though the special power depletes the weapon's durability at a colossal rate, and the weapon loses effectiveness compared to weapons with stat scaling as the game progresses.
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* DiscOneNuke: There are several powerful weapons available early on in the game if you know the special conditions required for obtaining them, the Drake Sword is arguably the most famous because of its [[RazorWind special power,]] power]]. Though the special power depletes the weapon's durability at a colossal rate, and the weapon loses effectiveness compared to weapons with stat scaling as the game progresses.
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* GainaxEnding: Given how out of the way and obtuse the lore in this game is,the [[spoiler:Link the Fire]] ending was this to many people.
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* GainaxEnding: Given how out of the way and obtuse the lore in this game is,the is, the [[spoiler:Link the Fire]] ending was this to many people.
** It may just be cut down to [[spoiler:the Pygmy]] since [[spoiler:there is a Hollowed who may or may not be Lord's Blade Pharis is encountered in the Darkroot Garden, and both Ghough and Artorias are set to appear in the UpdatedRerelease.]]
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* [[spoiler: GreyAndGreyMorality: While it may seem that the sides are cut-and-dry, discovering Kaathe shows that Gwyn is not quite as pure as he seems and that Frampt hasn't exactly been truthful with the player - although, [[LeaveNoSurvivors considering]] the [[VampiricDraining perks]] [[YouHaveFailedMe of his]] Covenant and the fact that Lordran was once a much better place to live than it [[CrapSackWorld is now]], it is unlikely that Kaathe is really as unfairly prosecuted as he claims. The true 'moral' decision seems to be between embracing or fighting the darkness rather than behaving a certain way.]]
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* [[spoiler: GreyAndGreyMorality: [[spoiler:GreyAndGreyMorality: While it may seem that the sides are cut-and-dry, discovering Kaathe shows that Gwyn is not quite as pure as he seems and that Frampt hasn't exactly been truthful with the player - although, [[LeaveNoSurvivors considering]] the [[VampiricDraining perks]] [[YouHaveFailedMe of his]] Covenant and the fact that Lordran was once a much better place to live than it [[CrapSackWorld is now]], it is unlikely that Kaathe is really as unfairly prosecuted as he claims. The true 'moral' decision seems to be between embracing or fighting the darkness rather than behaving a certain way.]]
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* ImprobableWeaponUser: Havel the Rock wields a huge ''tooth'' taken from one of the ancient dragons.
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* ImprobableWeaponUser: Havel the Rock wields a huge ''tooth'' taken from one of the ancient dragons.dragons '''as a club'''.
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* LaserGuidedKarma: The Darkmoon Covenant is all about this, You may kill a person or two that you find expendable, abandon a covenant to join a better one, invade and kill another player for humanity or [[spoiler: Kill Gwynevere]] and think nothing of it after that. However, The Darkmoons are here to remind you that no bad deed goes unpunished. At anypoint as Human if you've sinned you are branded for a Darkmoon invasion by another player, and unlike a regular invasion, It will continue to happen even after you've killed the area boss. However it's avoidable if you absolve yourself by talking to Oswald at the top of the Undead Church and paying an amount of souls depending on your soul level and the amount of sins you committed before getting absolved. Unless of course you [[spoiler: Kill Gwynevere.]] [[MoralEventHorizon Then you are permanently branded as a sinner until New Game+]].
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* LaserGuidedKarma: The Darkmoon Covenant is all about this, this. You may kill a person or two that you find expendable, abandon a covenant to join a better one, invade and kill another player for humanity or [[spoiler: Kill [[spoiler:kill Gwynevere]] and think nothing of it after that. However, The the Darkmoons are here to remind you that no bad deed goes unpunished. At anypoint as a Human if you've sinned you are branded for a Darkmoon invasion by another player, and unlike a regular invasion, It it will continue to happen even after you've killed the area boss. However it's avoidable if you absolve yourself by talking to Oswald at the top of the Undead Church and paying an amount of souls depending on your soul level and the amount of sins you committed before getting absolved. Unless of course you [[spoiler: Kill [[spoiler:kill Gwynevere.]] [[MoralEventHorizon Then you are permanently branded as a sinner until New Game+]].
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* LifeDrain: The unique curved sword Server restores a small amount of your health with every hit. As does the Ring Of The Evil Eye with every kill. Inverted with the Chaos Blade that does damage to you for every successful strike.
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* LifeDrain: The unique curved sword greatsword Server restores a small amount of your health with every hit. As does the Ring Of The Evil Eye with every kill. Inverted with the Chaos Blade that does damage to you for every successful strike.
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* MultiPlatform: Published on both PS3 and Xbox 360 by Namco-Bandai in North America and Europe. (Self-published in Japan for PS3 only.)
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* MultiPlatform: Published on both PS3 and Xbox 360 by Namco-Bandai in North America and Europe.Europe, with a [[UpdatedRerelease PC version in the works]]. (Self-published in Japan for PS3 only.)
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** In Demon's Souls you could quit right before you died (By turning off the console) and you could reload the game without punishment, In Dark Souls, From Software made the game instantly autosave when you died.
** Many of the DiscOneNuke weapons, such as the Drake Sword, do not scale in effectiveness with your stats as they grow (or they scale rather poorly in comparison to other weapons you have). This means that they're strong when you first get them, but won't last you the entire game. You're going to have to work for those other cool weapons the ''hard'' way.
** Many of the DiscOneNuke weapons, such as the Drake Sword, do not scale in effectiveness with your stats as they grow (or they scale rather poorly in comparison to other weapons you have). This means that they're strong when you first get them, but won't last you the entire game. You're going to have to work for those other cool weapons the ''hard'' way.
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** In Demon's Souls you could quit right before you died (By turning off the console) and you could reload the game without punishment, punishment. In Dark Souls, From Software made the game instantly autosave when you died.
** Many of the DiscOneNuke weapons, such as the Drake Sword, do not scale in effectiveness with your stats as theygrow (or they scale rather poorly in comparison to other weapons you have).grow. This means that they're strong when you first get them, but won't last you the entire game. You're going to have to work for those other cool weapons the ''hard'' way.
** Many of the DiscOneNuke weapons, such as the Drake Sword, do not scale in effectiveness with your stats as they
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* OurDemonsAreDifferent: They're powerful, monstrous, AlwaysChaoticEvil creatures born from the Bed of Chaos, [[spoiler: The Witch of Izalith's failed attempt at recreating the First Flame.]]
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* OurDemonsAreDifferent: They're powerful, monstrous, AlwaysChaoticEvil creatures born from the Bed of Chaos, [[spoiler: The [[spoiler:the Witch of Izalith's failed attempt at recreating the First Flame.]]
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** Also, spamming attacks in this game is ill-advised as each attack/roll you make will deplete your stamina meter. Failing to take this into account will make things difficult for the player.
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** Also, spamming attacks in this game is ill-advised as each attack/roll you make will deplete your stamina meter. Failing to take this into account will make things difficult for the player. But at least the stamina regenerates rather quickly.
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* ResurrectiveImmortality: Undead, at least until they hollow.
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* ResurrectiveImmortality: Undead, at least until they hollow.Hollow.
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** You can also [[VideoGameCrueltyPotential kill him]], though this could be seen as a MercyKill--he outright tells you he will go hollow once he dies, [[spoiler:and indeed will attack you if you return to the Undead Asylum later]].
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** You can also [[VideoGameCrueltyPotential kill him]], though this could be seen as a MercyKill--he outright tells you he will go hollow Hollow once he dies, [[spoiler:and indeed will attack you if you return to the Undead Asylum later]].
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** The [[http://darksoulswiki.wikispaces.com/message/view/home/47027544?o=20#47050088 "Guts Run"]]
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** The [[http://darksoulswiki.wikispaces.com/message/view/home/47027544?o=20#47050088 "Guts Run"]]Run"]].
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** InfinityMinusOneSword: All the DiscOneNuke equipment seem like InfinityPlusOneSword material, but the often limited upgrade options compared to the generic equipment make them qualify for this. Certain magic spells have a high number of uses, but actually end up using most of them during one casting.
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** InfinityMinusOneSword: All the DiscOneNuke equipment and some of the Ascended weapons seem like InfinityPlusOneSword material, but the often limited upgrade options compared to the generic equipment make them qualify for this. Certain magic spells have a high number of uses, but actually end up using most of them during one casting.
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** ShockAndAwe: There are a variety of enemies that use lightning as an ability such as the Titanite Demons and Dragon Slayer Ornstein. The player can forge lightning weapons which have additional lightning damage and are some of the best weapons in the game and can also obtain miracles that lets him throw lightning bolts Zeus style.
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** ShockAndAwe: There are a variety of enemies that use lightning as an ability such as the Titanite Demons and Dragon Slayer Ornstein. The player can forge lightning weapons which have additional lightning damage and are some of the best weapons in the game and can also obtain three miracles that lets him throw lightning bolts Zeus style.
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** EvilTowerOfOminousness: Sen's Fortress. The area is also incredibly malicious, filled with countless [[BoobyTrap Booby Traps]]
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** EvilTowerOfOminousness: Sen's Fortress. The area is also incredibly malicious, filled with countless [[BoobyTrap Booby Traps]]Traps]].
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* WasOnceAMan: Quite a few enemies. Hollows, The Pisaca in the Duke's Archives, Quelaag and her sister, Ceaselessness Discharge is likely to have been one.
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* WasOnceAMan: Quite a few enemies. Hollows, The the Pisaca in the Duke's Archives, Quelaag and her sister, Ceaselessness Discharge is likely to have been one.Ceaseless Discharge.
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* WhatCouldHaveBeen: Data mining the game files reveals some dummied-out character lines and "quests" from earlier builds, possibly including the original concept of what the Pendant was to be used for.
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* WhatCouldHaveBeen: Data mining the game files reveals some dummied-out character lines and "quests" from earlier builds, possibly including the original concept of what the Pendant was to be used for. There's a greater list on the game's trivia page.
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** The UpdatedRerelease for the PC is the '''Prepare To Die Edition'''.
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** The UpdatedRerelease for the PC is the '''Prepare ''Prepare To Die Edition'''.Edition''.
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** The UpdatedRerelease for the PC is the '''Prepare To Die Edition'''.
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DarkSouls was released on September 22, 2011 to rave reviews and high sales in Japan, significantly higher than its predecessor DemonsSouls. It was then released in North America and Europe on the 4th and 7th of October 2011 respectively for the PS3 and [[XBoxThreeSixty Xbox360]] It will be coming to PC as [[UpdatedRerelease Dark Souls: Prepare To Die Edition]] on August 24th 2012.
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DarkSouls was released on September 22, 2011 to rave reviews and high sales in Japan, significantly higher than its predecessor DemonsSouls. It was then released in North America and Europe on the 4th and 7th of October 2011 respectively for the PS3 and [[XBoxThreeSixty Xbox360]] Xbox 360]]. It will be coming to PC as [[UpdatedRerelease Dark Souls: Prepare To Die Edition]] on August 24th 2012.
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DarkSouls was released on September 22, 2011 to rave reviews and high sales in Japan, significantly higher than its predecessor DemonsSouls. It was then released in North America and Europe on the 4th and 7th of October 2011 respectively for the PS3 and [[XBoxThreeSixty Xbox360]].
to:
DarkSouls was released on September 22, 2011 to rave reviews and high sales in Japan, significantly higher than its predecessor DemonsSouls. It was then released in North America and Europe on the 4th and 7th of October 2011 respectively for the PS3 and [[XBoxThreeSixty Xbox360]].Xbox360]] It will be coming to PC as [[UpdatedRerelease Dark Souls: Prepare To Die Edition]] on August 24th 2012.
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* PeekABangs: One of the male hairstyles.
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* GirlishPigtails: One of the female hairstyles. Apparently a female designer insisted that they be included.
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* GirlishPigtails: One of the female hairstyles. Apparently According to Miyazaki, a female designer graphic artist insisted that they be included.included when she had to leave development due to illness.
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* TragicMonster: Just about ''everything'' in the game.
** The Hollows are all undead humans, just like the PlayerCharacter, whose minds cracked as a result of their condition. Some of the few lucid people you encounter will inevitably share the same fate.
** The Witch of Izalith and her children[[spoiler: became demons with various deformities as a result of their failed attempt to relight the First Flame.]]
** The Pishacha in the Duke's Archives [[spoiler:[[WasOnceAMan were all humans]] who had been subjected to Seath's experiments after his Channelers abducted them.]]
** At the end of the game, you'll find that [[spoiler:Gwyn himself is one, having gone mad from burning alive for the past 1000 years.]]
** The Hollows are all undead humans, just like the PlayerCharacter, whose minds cracked as a result of their condition. Some of the few lucid people you encounter will inevitably share the same fate.
** The Witch of Izalith and her children[[spoiler: became demons with various deformities as a result of their failed attempt to relight the First Flame.]]
** The Pishacha in the Duke's Archives [[spoiler:[[WasOnceAMan were all humans]] who had been subjected to Seath's experiments after his Channelers abducted them.]]
** At the end of the game, you'll find that [[spoiler:Gwyn himself is one, having gone mad from burning alive for the past 1000 years.]]
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* CliffHanger: The [[spoiler: Dark Lord]] ending is something of one.
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* GainaxEnding: Given how out of the way and obtuse the lore in this game is,the [[spoiler:Link the Fire]] ending was this to many people.
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** InterchangeableAntimatterKeys: Averted, all of the keys in the game are permanent.
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** InterchangeableAntimatterKeys: Averted, all of the keys in the game are permanent.permanent and besides the [[Skeleton Master Key]] only open specific doors.
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* SummonMagic: A recent patch gave the pyromancer the ability to summon a gravelord into a random player's realm. The gravelord will chase them down relentlessly and attack them without asking questions until it is destroyed by the invaded player. This gives no benefit at all to the summoner other than [[ForTheEvulz the satisfaction of giving another player a hard time just because]]. You hear it right, guys, Dark Souls has a freaking '''griefing mechanic'''!
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* SummonMagic: A recent patch gave the pyromancer particular covenant gives you the ability to summon a gravelord black phantoms into a three random player's realm. players' realms. The gravelord phantoms will chase them down relentlessly and attack them without asking questions until it is they are destroyed by the invaded player. This gives no benefit at all to the summoner other than [[ForTheEvulz via giving him half the souls of the slain player each time they are killed, as well as [[ItAmusedMe the satisfaction of giving another player a hard time just because]]. You hear it right, guys, Dark Souls has a freaking '''griefing mechanic'''!mechanic'''! It can backfire if the invaded players find the sign you used to summon the phantoms, though.
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[[quoteright:350:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Dark_Souls_Knight_4440.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350: [[TagLine Prepare to Die.]]]]
->''"I remember the first time I died. Facing down my foe was to be expected. Even inevitable. Resurrected, my soul awoke and my battles were fought harder. Death became my friend. I remember the first time I died. But dying gets easier; it's how you die that leaves your mark. Prepare to die..." ''
-> ''[[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bciLdZnU1Ag Dark Souls Hardcore Trailer]]''
Dark Souls is the SpiritualSuccessor to ''[[DemonsSouls Demon's Souls]]''. The game is developed by FROMSoftware and is published by Namco-Bandai.
In ages long past, the world was unformed and colorless, and ruled by powerful stone dragons. Then came the fire that birthed life, and gave the world disparity: heat and cold, life and death, and light and dark. From the dark came the four lords; Nito, the First of the Dead, the Witch of Izalith and her daughters of chaos, Gwyn, the Lord of Sunlight, and his faithful knights, and the easily forgotten Furtive Pygmy. They challenged and brought an end to the dragons, and ushered in a golden age called the Age of Fire. But now the flames are fading. The world suffers through endless nights, and mysterious brands called the Dark Sign are cursing humans. These brands turn the victim into an immortal undead, but dooms them to eventual madness as they lose their humanity. The undead are captured and locked away in an asylum in the north to await the eventual end of the world.
Players take the role of one of these undead as they break out of the Undead Asylum, and begin a quest to ring the twin Bells of Awakening, which are prophesized to reveal the fate and purpose of the undead.
DarkSouls is very similar to its predecessor, DemonsSouls, both mechanically and thematically. However, there are some significant changes that drastically change the pace and rhythm of the game. Gone is the hub world and level select, instead replaced with a huge nonlinear world, with branching paths and hidden passages. There are also factions to join. Players can enter covenants with each of the four lords mentioned above, as well as several other factions. These factions have an extremely varied amount of benefits, and can affect the story, what bosses you fight, and how you interact with other players online.
It is also hard. [[NintendoHard Oh so very]] and [[MemeticMutation infamously]] hard. DarkSouls is quite possibly the most difficult and absolutely unforgiving game to ever come out in 2011. As the TagLine says, PrepareToDie. '''''A lot.'''''
DarkSouls was released on September 22, 2011 to rave reviews and high sales in Japan, significantly higher than its predecessor DemonsSouls. It was then released in North America and Europe on the 4th and 7th of October 2011 respectively for the PS3 and [[XBoxThreeSixty Xbox360]].
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!!The game provides examples of:
* AbsurdlyHighLevelCap: It is extremely difficult to get to max level through normal play, and unnecessary as well. To put things in perspective, your starting level is between 1 and 6 depending on your chosen class, you gain a level each time you increase a stat by one point, and if you grind every stat to 99, your max level will be between 709 and 713. It's perfectly possible to finish the game without even reaching 100.
* AffablyEvil: [[spoiler:Patches.]]
* TheAgeless: The Everlasting Dragons. The Gods. Undead who have a steady supply of humanity.
* AlwaysChaoticEvil: Demons, naturally.
* AlwaysNight: [[spoiler:The fate of Anor Londo should the player attack Gwynevere. Oddly enough, it actually becomes relatively ''safer'' after doing this.]]
* AncientConspiracy: The game's plot has you walking into one.
* AndIMustScream: The eventual and inevitable fate of all those cursed with the Darksign and [[spoiler:whoever links the Fire.]]
* AnimalMotifs: The Four Knights of Gwyn each had their own unique animal motif.
** Abysswalker Astorias is associated with Wolves, with his Wolf Ring and Great Grey Wolf Sif guarding his grave.
** Dragon Slayer Ornstein is associated with Lions, with his Leo Ring and Lion shaped armor.
** Hawkeye Ghough is associated with Hawks, with his Hawk Ring, title, and affinity for sniping and marksmanship.
** Lord's Blade Ciaran is associated with Hornets, with his(her) Hornet Ring and deadly affinity for with the dagger.
* AnimatedArmor: The deadly Black Knights. [[spoiler:Their bodies were burned to ash when Gwyn tried to link the fire.]] Possibly the Iron Golem as well.
* AnyoneCanDie: Just about any NPC could die, either at one another's hands or due to you killing them. This even applies to some merchants/trainers, so watch out! Most named merchants wander off and become hollow after purchasing everything they have
* ArmorIsUseless: Averted; unlike in DemonsSouls, heavy armor now has the advantage of Poise, meaning your actions (including healing) aren't as easily interrupted by damage.
* ArtificialStupidity: This shows up from time to time, especially in areas with precarious footing like Blighttown. You'll be travelling along when you'll randomly gain souls from some enemy that accidentally fell off a ledge to it's death.
* AtopAMountainOfCorpses: Seath the Scaleless on a pile of dead dragons in the prologue.
** Nito ''is'' a living mountain of corpses.
* AttackOfThe50FootWhatever: An absurd amount of 50 foot creatures want you dead. These include: wolves, dragons, piles of corpses, gargoyles, giant armored boars, and BUTTERFLIES!
* AwesomeButImpractical: The Stone armor set can be gained relatively early and provides excellent defense, but its sheer weight makes it very difficult to travel around in. [[spoiler: Also Gwyn's sword can be this, considering it's only available in NG+ yet has relatively bad stats]]
* AxCrazy: Undead that have Hollowed. Lautrec. The Darkwraiths.
* BackFromTheDead: Those afflicted with the Darksign, repeatedly.
* {{Badass}}: Both the main character ''and'' the player by the end of the game.
* BadassBoast: Several [=NPC=]s have some type of BadassBoast should the player make them hostile.
* BadassLongcoat: The Wanderer's Coat and the Black Cleric Robe.
* BadassNormal: Solaire of Astora. All of his items drops point out that none of his abilities came from magical equipment, but from pure training.
* BaldOfEvil: [[spoiler:Patches is as bald and cowardly as ever.]]
* BeautyToBeast: Quelaag and her sister, sometimes called Quelaan.
* BecauseYouWereNiceToMe: Lady of the Darkling is fervently loyal to Gwyndolin because he accepted her as a follower despite her hideous appearance, providing her purpose in life. Eingyi is similarly devoted to Quelaag's sister because she sucked the deadly Blightpuss from his body, saving his life but becoming deathly sick in the process. Also, it's possible for Maiden Rhea to become friendly towards the player should the player [[spoiler:save her from the Tomb of the Giants after her escorts all either hollowed or abandoned her.]]
* BeefGate: Several areas that are accessible early in the game such as New Londo Ruins, Tomb of the Giants and Demon Ruins are populated by powerful enemies or guarded by a tough boss, [[DiscOneNuke but a skilled low-level player can reap substantial rewards]] should they overcome the challenge.
* BeneathTheEarth: A large part of the game is spent underground exploring in some way or another. Whether it is exploring the ruins of New Londo and Lost Izalith, the horrors of the Tomb of the Giants, discovering the Great Hollow and the Ash Lake.
* BigBadassWolf: [[http://i123.photobucket.com/albums/o312/oracrest/Dark%20Souls/14-noscale.jpg Great Grey Wolf Sif somehow manages to be]] just as intimidating as the more gruesome monsters. He can even ''[[CutlassBetweenTheTeeth wield swords!]]''
* BittersweetEnding: The [[spoiler:''To Link the Fire'']] ending. Sure, you've [[spoiler:pushed back the darkness, but the protagonist's ultimate reward for everything is to burn in the kiln until the cycle eventually repeats itself.]]
** [[spoiler:It is however not clear whether this ending can really be considered the "good ending." There are several hints that this outcome is one big XanatosGambit orchestrated by Gwyndolin and maybe Gwyn and Frampt, serving to retain their power by artificially prolonging the Age of Fire, but not helping humanity in general. It's the option that transitions more smoothly into the NewGamePlus (and NG++ and beyond), however...]]
** [[spoiler:The Dark Lord ending isn't completely positive despite how awesome the whole concept is. Most of the important characters (both divine and human) sacrificed a great deal to drive back the darkness and keep it at bay. It comes back if the player chooses to become the Dark Lord and the game doesn't offer any hint that ''humans'' will get used to it, though Undead certainly can.]]
* BlackKnight: A few of these are scattered throughout the game, even in the early areas. These guys are ''tough,'' often very swift and strong; they don't respawn, so the game basically uses them as minibosses. They're usually off the main path, so encountering them is optional, but there's a chance of them dropping something powerful and awesome if you do manage to destroy them.
** A summonable phantom Black Iron Tarkus and a black phantom Kirk of Thorns also count. Tarkus is so powerful that he can practically solo the boss you can summon him against, while Kirk is the only black phantom who attacks you more than once in the game. As far as mooks go, the Darkwraith Knights in New Londo Ruins are a MagicKnight version of this.
** Interestingly enough, Solaire of Astora could also count. He isn't gruff, dishonorable. In fact, he is one of the most friendly characters in the game. That said, his real identity and nature are some of the most hotly debated topics in the fandom.
* BladderOfSteel: There is no pausing, so you'll need to park your character in a (relatively) safe location if you want to take a break without quitting entirely.
** Not to mention that your world can be invaded by other players so long as you have online connectivity, so leaving your character idle means risking being invaded while you're not there to defend yourself. The only in-game situation where you're 100% safe is when resting at a bonfire.
* BlatantLies: Sure, [[spoiler:Patches]], you just get these ''urges'' to [[spoiler:kick people down to pits and loot their bodies afterwards]], [[SarcasmMode it's not your fault.]]
* BlindIdiotTranslation: The game suffers from numerous translation and grammatical errors, mostly in the item descriptions. There are two worst offenders: the Tiny Being's Ring and the Pendant. Both are initial gifts you can choose. In the gift menu, the Ring claims to regenerate health (a massive boon to any character) when in reality it simply increases your character's maximum Hit Points by a small amount. The Pendant has the right description in the gift menu, but someone copied the Sunlight Medal description to the Pendant, leading both items to share the description of the Sunlight Medal.
** It was published by Namco-Bandai, meaning they handled the English text translation. It doesn't help that they are known to out-source for independent translators from time to time either.
*** The notes for the 1.04/1.05 patch state that there was translation fixes for the English subtitles. All it fixed was the Engrish text that shows up when you light a bonfire, defeat a boss, become human, touch your blood-smear, et cetera.
*** And, ironically enough, the 1.04/1.05 brought with it ''more'' translation errors, though thankfully minor ones. Some of the loading screen's descriptions have become mixed up e.g. the "Homeward" miracle displays the description of the "force" miracle.
* BlownAcrossTheRoom: Certain enemy attacks and several special attacks of various weapons, most notably the Dark Knight weapons.
* BodyHorror: [[http://darksoulswiki.wikispaces.com/file/view/Pods.jpg/206775172/Pods.jpg The Egg-Burdened.]] The Darksign itself could count as an example. Also Chaos Witch Quelaag and her sister.
* BoobyTrap: Sometimes, there are big nasty boulders thrown down staircases, or pressure plates that trigger arrow storms.
** Somewhat played with, as a savvy player can trick their enemies into a booby trap.
** Sen's Fortress is like a convention center for these. Every hall has either giant swinging axes, arrow slits linked to pressure plates, or giant boulders snaking throughout maze-like corridors. There is even an elevator shaft with spikes at the top should you neglect to get off at your stop.
* BoringButPractical: The combination of a spear and a shield is neither the fanciest or the most destructive of styles, but the long reach and the ability to block even when attacking is about as safe as you can get in this game.
* BossBattle: DarkSouls is host to a variety of bosses just itching to stick their foot up your ass.
** FlunkyBoss: The Capra Demon and his two dogs. Also, Nito, First of the Dead.
** DegradedBoss: The Taurus Demon, the Capra Demon, the Bell Gargoyles, Pinwheel and the Moonlight Butterfly can all be encountered as normal enemies later in the game.
** DualBoss: Belfry gargoyles. Smough and Ornstein. The latter duo also manage to be ThatOneBoss in the game designed to kill you [[spoiler:because they are also SequentialBoss]].
** DuelBoss: [[spoiler:Gwyn, Lord of Cinder. Although you can summon Solaire of Astora to fight Gwyn alongside you if you meet him throughout the game and prevent him from going insane in his search of his "own sun" by killing the Chaos Bugs outside of Lost Izalith.]]
** GetBackHereBoss: Gwyndolin.
** HopelessBossFight: The first battle against Seath the Scaleless.
** MiniBoss: Plenty show up as unique, nonrespawning enemies at various points in the game.
** MirrorBoss: While not true bosses, the Black Phantom minibosses basically operate like preset, AI controlled Player Characters.
** BossInMookClothing: Black Knights when you first encounter them. Inverted with the Taurus Demon and Gargoyle Demon later in the game.
** PuzzleBoss: [[spoiler:Bed of Chaos.]]
** RecurringBoss: [[spoiler:The Asylum Demon.]]
*** The Black Phantom Kirk of Thorns will show up to harass you if you're human three times in the game.
** SkippableBoss: Eight of the twenty-two bosses are completely optional. With SequenceBreaking that number goes up even higher.
** TeleportSpam: Gwyndolin and Pinwheel.
** WakeUpCallBoss: The Capra Demon.
** WolfPackBoss: The Four Kings
* BottomlessPits: All over the place, and one of the most common reasons of death in the game.
* BreakableWeapons: All equipment is subject to wear and tear, though it's easy enough to repair everything. Crystal equipment is especially bad since it can't be repaired and has very low durability in the first place. The only exception is the Dragon Tooth, a legendary hammer that used to be the tooth of one of the everlasting dragons. A few enemies use attacks with the nasty side effect of breaking your equipment.
* BreathWeapon: Several enemies, such as the Gargoyles and Seath the Scaleless. And if you join the Path of the Dragon, you can have one too.
* BritishAccents: The English voiceovers of the game has a variety of them.
* CallBack: The game may have a different continuity from ''DemonsSouls'', but it is littered with call backs to both ''DemonsSouls'' and the KingsField series.
** The "Armored Zombie" enemies's move set is almost identical to the dredgelings from ''DemonsSouls''
** The Black Knights are basically the red and blue eyed knights from ''DemonsSouls'', [[BeyondTheImpossible except nastier.]]
** The Sword of Moonlight, a regular InfinityPlusOneSword from KingsField and a veteran from DemonsSouls returns here.
** The Asylum Demon is basically Vanguard from DemonsSouls.
** You encounter a huge red dragon guarding a bridge with a tendency for roasting everything on it if you dare to cross, just like in DemonsSouls.
** The Belfry Gargoyles are very similar to the Maneaters even down to the DuelBoss aspect and the arena surrounded by [[BottomlessPit Bottomless Pits]].
** Blight Town is basically the Valley of Defilement. Right down to the blood spitting mosquitoes.
** The viscous and fast moving dogs return from DemonsSouls as well.
** The Skeletons basically have the same move set as the skeletons from ''DemonsSouls''
** The snake men look very similar to the snake men in King's Field 4.
** The Batwing Demons are a call back to the Gargoyles from the Tower of Latria, right down to them capturing you and carrying you through the air to a new location.
** The Phalanx are a call back to the Hoplites that fought with Phalanx from DemonsSouls.
** The yellow robes worn by Xanthous King Jeremiah, especially the headdress/crown, is one to the yellow robes of the Old Monk and the Monk's Head Collar from ''DemonsSouls''. The descriptions of the robes also claim he was a "legendary exile", just as the Monk had been.
* CameBackStrong: Those branded with the Darksign spontaneously return to life, effectively making them immortal. However, they grow closer and closer to becoming a mindless zombie called a Hollow every time. The protagonist uses a magical essence often called "humanity" to reverse this process, making it more of a case of being ''CursedWithAwesome''...
* CameBackWrong: ...though it is still only delaying the inevitable.
** [[spoiler:Of course, there's a ''reason'' it seems to take you so long to simply become a mindless hollow, and Kaathe clues you in to it later in the game.]]
* CameraLockOn: Returns from ''DemonsSouls'', finicky as ever, though the recent patch has helped somewhat.
* CanonWelding: The scaleless dragon Seath makes an appearance, who was also one of two major deities in the ''[[KingsField King's Field]]'' series. [[spoiler:Patches from ''DemonsSouls'']] also puts in an appearance.
* CardboardPrison: Northern Asylum lets inmates keep their starting gear...for some reason. Though you do begin the game with just your clothing, the gift you picked, and a broken sword.
** [[FridgeBrilliance Makes sense if you think about it.]] The undead are more than likely just transported and thrown in as-is, their possessions just left alone. Once there, they either rot in their cells or fight off both each other or the Hollowed until they become Hollowed themselves. It explains the armed enemies found within the Asylum.
*** And the Asylum Demons certainly don't make it easy to get out. Even after getting better equipment than a broken sword they are a tough fight[[hottip:*:Successfully using the ledge just above it for a DynamicEntry makes it a bit easier]], and you even find one knight who apparently got trashed by the boss on the way.
* CatsAreMean: The Great Felines.
* ChainmailBikini: Like DemonsSouls, this is mostly averted, as all of the armor is now unisex. You're only going to see boob-curves if your character is wearing something flexible and form-fitting like leather armor (even then, it's still sensible).
** The major exception to this is the "Hollow Warrior" armor set, which really doesn't cover that much at all. The pants/shoe component is just one shoe (and no pants!) and the chest armor covers just the shoulders and upper chest. It doesn't look that skimpy on a zombie, but on a healthy human female it's ''hilarious''. Granted, it's [[VendorTrash supposed to look like crap]].
* CharacterCustomization: You're given a choice of ten classes, eight "gifts" that can be added to your starting equipment, and have access to a powerful appearance editor with more options than you can shake a stick at (even though you're hollow most of the time, and even then, you're probably wearing a face obscuring headpiece)
* CherryTapping: It is possible, although tedious, to defeat the tutorial area's Asylum Demon using only the sword hilt or your bare hands instead of running away as intended, though one can speed up the process by choosing the Black Firebomb as an initial gift. [[spoiler:The game even rewards you with a weapon should you manage.]]
* TheChessmaster: Gwyndolin. [[spoiler:Completely outdone by the Pygmy, however, who set this entire chain of events into motion ''ages'' ago.]]
* ChromeChampion: The efftct of the Iron Flesh pyromancy.
* ChronicBackstabbingDisorder: [[spoiler:Patches' betrayal spree continues from [[DemonsSouls the previous game.]]]] Some dialogue implies that Shiva of the East was also [[WhatCouldHaveBeen originally to have this trait]] (and cut content confirms it), [[AbortedArc but it never goes anywhere]].
* ColorCodedForYourConvenience: Instead of just having Black and Blue Phantoms, the color will change depending on which covenant you are in during Online Play.
* CompanionCube: The Male Undead Merchant has a wooden basket named Yulia, which he constantly pets and talks to.
* CompetitiveBalance: Each character class is given the chance to thrive in the world of DarkSouls.[[hottip: *: This is just in the beginning; during the game you can build your character to whatever playstyle you like best.]]
** GlassCannon: The Bandit, The Hunter
** FragileSpeedster: The Thief, The Wanderer
** MagicKnight: The Pyromancer, The Cleric
** JackOfAllStats: The Deprived
** MightyGlacier: The Warrior
** SquishyWizard: The Sorcerer
** StoneWall: The Knight
* TheComputerIsACheatingBastard: If your attacks hit a wall, they'll bounce right off. If your enemies' attacks hit a wall...they'll clip right through.
* ConvectionSchmonvection: You won't get burned even when standing next to a glowing lava river... unless you try to jump over it [[SchmuckBait because there's a shiny piece of loot on the other side.]]
* CounterAttack: Parrying returns from DemonsSouls, but has been made a bit easier to execute. Certain enemies can also do this to ''you'' if you're not careful.
** A well-timed normal hit after blocking an enemy attack may also cause additional damage.
* CrapSackWorld: The world of Dark Souls is a pretty bleak place to live. For starters, the First Flame is on the cusp of dying. When this happens all fire will die and there is absolutely no telling what will happen to the world other than the gods losing their power and possibly going hollow. In addition to that, a curse called the Dark Sign has absolutely ravaged the humans of the world. This curse makes its victim undead, allowing them to return to life after death. However, as they die they lose some of their humanity, eventually becoming [[AxCrazy mindless, violent hollows.]] Many nations have [[ZombieApocalypse collapsed]] because of this curse, including Lordran, the setting of the game. Undead that still have their senses are [[FantasticRacism brutally mistreated]], hunted and sacrificed to maintain the First Flame. Most of the [[TheGodsMustBeLazy gods are MIA]], although it doesn’t seem like [[JerkassGods they would]] or could do anything even if they weren’t. It really seems as though the world is on the brink of ending. And that is just the start of it. This doesn’t cover the vast amount of [[OurMonstersAreDifferent deadly]] [[CompleteMonster monsters]], [[OurDemonsAreDifferent demons]], [[CruelAndUnusualDeath terrible ways to die]], [[BodyHorror the]] [[AndIMustScream torturous]] [[FateWorseThanDeath fates]] of [[TearJerker many]] characters, and [[AncientConspiracy the multi-millennia long conspiracy]] and battle to control the fate of the world.
* CriticalEncumbranceFailure: Averted. There is no weight limit on your inventory like in DemonsSouls, and the weight of your equipment allows for several degrees to mobility that fall between the extremes of "like a ninja" and "like a limply thrown brick."
* CruelAndUnusualDeath: Oh, yes. Most enemies have special attacks that will end your life in the most brutal of ways.
* CursedWithAwesome: Bearing the Darksign means your character ''is incapable of staying dead'', through there are drawbacks. See CameBackStrong and CameBackWrong above for details.
** The actual "Cursed" status effect is pretty horrible (halving hp every time you die while cursed), but cursed beings and weapons are the only things that can hurt the otherwise invincible ghosts in the New Londo Ruins. There is no downside at all to using Transient Curses (which inflict a temporary and totally harmless curse on you) or "Cursed" weapons.
* CuteMonsterGirl: Quelaag and her sister, leaning very heavily towards the "monster" side of things. Priscilla counts as well.
* CuteWitch: Witch Beatrice has an outfit that makes her ''exactly'' this; it even shows off a bit of female curves when most armors in the game don't. [[spoiler:This makes [[PlayerPunch discovering her fate]] all the more painful.]]
* DeadpanSnarker: The Crestfallen Warrior.
* DeathIsASlapOnTheWrist: Completely averted. You lose all your souls and humanity, and if you die while trying to get back to it you lose all the souls from your first death. As well as this when you die you go back to the last bonfire you rested at, all enemies respawn and you revert back to hollow form if you died as a human which may result in the need to waste more humanity.
* DeadToBeginWith: The player character starts off as an undead.
* DecoyLeader: [[spoiler:Gwynevere]]
* DefectorFromDecadence: [[spoiler:One of Gwyn's greatest knights, Sir Artorias, abandoned the gods and formed a covenant with Kaathe and the Darkwraiths.]]
* {{Determinator}}: The undead hero, and by extension the player controlling him or her.
* DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu: By the end of the game [[spoiler: you've killed almost every established {{Badass}} in the universe, including a couple who are pretty much gods.]]
* DieChairDie: Occasionally, the player may come across some breakable items that are just in the way. It's a lot easier to just smash the things to bits than go around them.
* DifficultButAwesome: Par for the course being a FROM Software creation.
---> ''[[http://ps3.ign.com/articles/119/1196184p1.html Truth is, Dark Souls isn't fun 95% of the time.]] It's the other 5% that you play for. Things are so incredibly difficult that even the tiniest victories bring you close to tears of joy and relief.''
* DifficultySpike: Aside from the danger of getting cursed in the Depths, Blighttown is noticeably more dangerous than the areas before it.
* DiminishingReturnsForBalance: The higher the attribute, the less you benefit from increasing it further. Going above 40 or so in a single attribute is generally a waste unless you have a specific plan in mind.
* DirtyCoward: [[spoiler:"Trusty" Patches, of course.]]
* DiscOneNuke: There are several powerful weapons available early on in the game if you know the special conditions required for obtaining them, the Drake Sword is arguably the most famous because of its [[RazorWind special power,]] Though the special power depletes the weapon's durability at a colossal rate, and the weapon loses effectiveness compared to weapons with stat scaling as the game progresses.
** If a player starts with the Master Key and spends their souls to level up appropriately they can start Undead Burg with the Astora's Straight Sword, a weapon that does about 180 damage when using it at the lowest level possible (compared to the 80ish damage from the usual starting weapons) and the Dragon Crest Shield, which is really good against fire damage. That is, if they don't mind doing a suicide run to steal treasure from an [[{{Dracolich}} undead dragon]] that can [[OneHitKill one shot]] them. This is probably the better alternative to the Drake Sword because the damage from Astora's Straight Sword scales with your stats, and you're prepared to go into the Catacombs if need be.
* DoorToBefore: Quite a lot of them; even the initial area, the Undead Burg, is surprisingly intricate.
* DoppelgangerAttack: Pinwheel.
* DoNotDropYourWeapon: Get gnawed on by the Gaping Dragon? Get your throat slit by an undead thief? Get stomped on by a giant? You aren't dropping your sword and shield.
* DownerEnding: ''Both'' of the endings can be considered this, since [[spoiler:if you choose to link the fire, you're falling for Frampt and Gywn's XanatosGambit and you're only going to delay the inevitable while Gwyndolin gets to rule Lordran however he sees fit. If you choose to start the Age of Dark, humanity as a whole is most likely ''screwed''. So really, it's just a matter of choosing whether to let the remaining humans live in slavery to the gods or leave them hanging in the dark.]]
* DroppedABridgetOnHim: [[spoiler:Gwyndolin is a man who was raised as woman because his powers are related to the moon instead of the sun.]]
* DuelingGames: Despite being a month apart, ''Dark Souls'' has a rival in ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim]]'', with both being the top [=RPGs=] coming out in 2011's fourth quarter. Fans of both series groaned at news outlets trying to play up this conflict in spite of the games' numerous differences.
* TheDungAges: Again, the setting is very similar to DemonsSouls. TheDungAges aspect is most evident in the Sewer and Swamp level.
* DungeonBypass: There are a variety of ways to skip massive amounts of the game through the Master key gift and sequence breaking.
* DysfunctionJunction: The cast by and large is more messed up than they appear, even if they are nice people overall.
* EarnYourHappyEnding: Like its predecessor, Dark Souls is going to make you work your ass off to make it to the end. One of the game trailers puts it best.
-->''PREPARE TO DIE. FIGHT. STRUGGLE. ENDURE. SUFFER. LIVE''
** Although what the players count as "happy" is up to debate, since both of the games endings have a nice helping of FridgeHorror to go with their silver linings. That being said, slogging through the storyline is needed to unlock the various NewGamePlus levels which are a whole new level of fun- as with ''DemonsSouls'', the main story effectively just backstory.
* EasyExp: The Dragonhead Stone glitch. Using the fire breath technique, turning around and quickly using a consumable allows you to infinitely use the consumable, even after you've exhausted your supply of it. This includes items that grant souls. This was fixed in patch 1.04.
* TheEeyore: The Crestfallen Warrior is about as cheery as his counterpart in the previous game, even sharing the same joyless laugh. Eventually, he shakes off his melancholy after seeing what you've been able to accomplish, takes up his sword again, [[spoiler:and promptly Hollows on the outskirts of New Londo.]] The Crestfallen Merchant is no cheerier.
* EldritchAbomination: Several stand between you and the Bells of Awakening.
* EmoteAnimation: Aside from writing messages on the ground, the small list of gestures such as waving or bowing is by design the only way players can directly communicate with each other in-game.
* EncounterBait: There is a thrown item that lures certain types of enemies wherever it lands. Very useful around environmental hazards like ledges and open flames!
* EndlessCorridor: [[spoiler: Gwyndolin]] fights you in one.
* EnergyEconomy: This is pretty much how souls work. You can use them up (energy) or sell them to other people, who also probably use them as energy for themselves.
* EscapeRope: The Homeward miracle and the [[StealthPun Homeward Bone]] items allow you to instantly warp to the last bonfire rested with all your belongings intact.
* EverythingFades: Averted, areas stay littered with broken bits of scenery and enemies' ragdoll corpses. Only bosses and elites disintegrate.
* EverythingsBetterWithPrincesses: Princess Gwynevere and Dusk of Oolacile.
* EverythingsCoolerWithLava: The Demon Ruins and Lost Izalith. Chaos pyromancies leave lava on the ground.
* EvilEye: The Red Eye Orb allows players to invade and kill others, while the Eyes of Death let players curse others' worlds and generate stronger versions of typical enemies. The Ring of the Evil Eye is also said to contain a demon of the name. It lets you heal by killing people.
* EvilOnlyHasToWinOnce: Actually, it's much more morally ambiguous, but [[spoiler:even if you link the Fire, Kaathe only needs to wait for it to wither away again in order to usher in the Age of Dark.]]
* EvilSorcerer: Seath the Scaleless is a dragon credited with inventing sorcery. He's an insane wreck in the present after vainly trying to solve the mystery of the scales of immortality that every dragon ''but'' him possessed.
* ExclusiveEnemyEquipment: Numerous weapons and some pieces of armor can only be found as [[RandomlyDrops random drops]] from the enemies that use them.
* ExperiencePoints: You acquire souls by killing enemies or consuming certain items, which can either be spent to level up or used as currency.
* FactionCalculus: There are about nine covenants the player can swear themselves to the game. [[http://darksoulswiki.wikispaces.com/Covenants Here's a list.]]
* FallenHero: [[spoiler:The renowned knight, Sir Artorias, formed a covenant with the creatures of the abyss.]]
* FanDisservice: Try stripping off your clothes/armour whilst Hollow. Go on. I won't judge you.
* {{Fanservice}}: Try stripping off your clothes/armour while not in Hollow form. Or wearing Hollow armour.
** Quelaag provides both {{Fanservice}} ''and'' FanDisservice, considering she's half-naked human woman, half-hideous giant spider.
* FantasticRacism: Although it isn't emphasised much in-game, in the backstory there is such a fear and hatred of Undead that they are hunted down and imprisoned. In some cases, this is presumably to stop them from harming people should they turn Hollow - however, Petrus (when initially spoken to) doesn't seem too keen on the player for being Undead and requests that the player keep their distance, and some of the game's cut content outright states that the Way of White admonishes the Undead.
* FatAndSkinny: Smough and Ornstein.
* FatBastard: Smough doesn't show much respect for his fallen comrade should you choose to defeat Ornstein first. Course, he wasn't that much better in the past (see ImAHumanitarian below). Even Frampt knows that Smough is a bastard, going so far as to offer ''one soul'' if you try to feed him Smough's Soul.
* FateWorseThanDeath: Getting hit with a "curse" attack by a basilisk or other petrifying enemy. It turns your body to stone, killing you instantly, and where-ever you revive, you're stuck at half health until you get cured. Also, becoming hollow and [[spoiler:linking the fire.]]
* FieldOfBlades: The gravesite of Knight Artorias is a large, grassy field, the center of which is marked by his [[{{BFS}} greatsword]] and a large number of gravestones and regular-sized swords sticking up from the ground. It's not explained who else is buried there, though it is probably the resting places of the Forest Hunter covenant members whose spirits guard the site.
** The Gravelord Sword Dance and Gravelord Greatsword Dance miracles obtained from Gravelord Nito should you join the Gravelord Servant covenant can count as a combination of this and StormOfBlades.
* FilkSong: By ''TheEscapist'''s Gavin Dunne, [[http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/miracle-of-sound/5396-You-Died-Dark-Souls "You Died"]].
* FlavorText: Most weapons, keys, and other equipment have a lot of flavor text on them. Unique souls from bosses will often explain parts of the backstory you wouldn't understand otherwise. Hell, the only way to even attempt to piece the backstory together is to try and gather every piece of equipment, find a safe spot to park it, and start writing.
* FishingForMooks: At times an essential tactic.
* ForestRanger: The Forest Hunters, particularly Pharis.
* ForMassiveDamage: Parrying and backstabs return from DemonsSouls.
* GangUpOnTheHuman: The Hollows somehow know not to attack each other, just ''you'' and any other Undead that still has his or her mind. (They sense the humanity?)
* GentleGiant: The giant blacksmith of Anor Londo is better at smithing than talking, but he's happy about the company and perhaps the nicest NPC in the game.
* TheGhost: [[spoiler:The Furtive Pygmy and Gwyn's Four Great Knights, excluding Ornstein.]]
* GirlishPigtails: One of the female hairstyles. Apparently a female designer insisted that they be included.
* GlasgowGrin[=/=]CheshireCatGrin: Alvina and the other Great Felines.
* GodEmperor: Gwyn, Lord of Sunlight.
* GodivaHair: Chaos Witch Quelaag, and her sister, the Daughter of Chaos. ([[BarbieDollAnatomy Not that they have any nipples to cover up...]])
* GodzillaThreshold: The Darkwraiths were considered to be such an enormous threat to Gwyn that [[spoiler:in order to keep them from spreading out of New Londo, he had a flood unleashed upon the entire city, killing everyone in it, and sealing them away.]]
* {{Golem}}: The Iron Golem, animated by the bone of an everlasting dragon.
* GradualRegeneration: While a health regeneration ring is no longer available, one can still accomplish temporary regeneration through a Miracle.
** Leeroy's Shield has this power.
* GraveClouds: Pretty much the entire world is like this.
* [[spoiler: GreyAndGreyMorality: While it may seem that the sides are cut-and-dry, discovering Kaathe shows that Gwyn is not quite as pure as he seems and that Frampt hasn't exactly been truthful with the player - although, [[LeaveNoSurvivors considering]] the [[VampiricDraining perks]] [[YouHaveFailedMe of his]] Covenant and the fact that Lordran was once a much better place to live than it [[CrapSackWorld is now]], it is unlikely that Kaathe is really as unfairly prosecuted as he claims. The true 'moral' decision seems to be between embracing or fighting the darkness rather than behaving a certain way.]]
* GrievousHarmWithABody: The inhabitants of Blightown aren't choosy with their weapons; some of them will happily smack you with a decaying corpse.
* GrimReaper: Nito is effectively this. If you use the Gold-Hemmed Black Set and/or the Dark set and a scythe, you can rock the reaper look.
* GuideDangIt: While the Covenant system is less vague than the Tendency system of DemonsSouls, the game leaves a great deal unexplained. Not all covenants give any immediately obvious benefits, some of them are very well hidden and [[LostForever one can even be permanently missed,]] requiring you to defeat a semi-hidden boss before a certain plot point which locks you out of it until [[NewGamePlus New Game+.]]
* HalfHumanHybrids: [[spoiler:Priscilla the half-dragon.]]
** [[spoiler:The Chaos Witch Quelaag and her sister the Daughter of Chaos are both half-hideous-lava-spider, half-gorgeous-naked-women. Not that they were born that way.]]
** The Player can become a half-dragon hybrid should they rank up the Path of the Dragon covenant.
* HammerSpace: Any weapons you equip or switch to appear out of thin air, no matter how massive they are.
* HandWave: The game explains the ability to assist other players clear areas and bosses you've already beaten in your own game as time distortion and leaves it at that.
* HealingCheckpoint: The bonfires.
* HealthDamageAsymmetry: Averted, most normal enemies go down in just a few hits, but so does the player.
* HeroOfAnotherStory: Most of the [=NPC=]s are this to a degree, though Solaire and Siegmeyer are the most notable. They're largely going on their own personal adventures in Lordran at the same time as the PlayerCharacter, who bumps into them from time to time.
* HighlyVisibleNinja: Averted with Shiva's bodyguard who is semi-invisible at least. Played straight with the painting guards.
* HintSystem: The Orange Guidance Soapstone allows you to leave messages for other players. Averted in that players can leave purposefully misleading or outright false messages, like writing "Jump down here!" in front of a ''BottomlessPit''.
** Keys, once you find them, often have a description that gives you a hint on where they are meant to be used and what may lie beyond. One for the Undead Burg, for example, warns you of the dogs of the Capra Demon.
* HitAndRunTactics: Essential for most powerful enemies and bosses.
* HitboxDissonance: Thoroughly abused in Anor Londo where most players that remember enemy placement behind walls use long weapons to damage them from behind walls. Naturally, [[OhCrap the enemy can do the same]]. Also the case with Havel The Rock if you try to kill him from behind the Darkroot Basin door. Beware one-hit kills.
* HopeSpot: The "Bartholomew" trailer has one close to the end. During the final part of the song snippet used in the trailer, the [[PrepareToDie tagline]] pops up word by word. It then shows the PC getting roasted by a dragon while five other words quickly flash on the screen. ''Fight. Struggle. Endure. Suffer. '''''LIVE.'''''''
* HotSkittyOnWailordAction: [[spoiler:The only possible reason as to why Crossbreed Priscilla[[hottip: *: half-dragon, half-giant/human/god/whatever]] could possibly exist.]]
* {{Hulkspeak}}: The giant blacksmith in Anor Londo isn't very good at talking, but he does appear to be at least somewhat intelligent.
* HyperspaceArsenal: There's no limit on how much junk you carry around other than your patience for scrolling through long menus of worthless Hollow armor. (Your weight limit is for the stuff equipped on your body). If that gets tedious but you don't want to throw anything away permanently, you can also get a "bottomless box" to throw stuff into.
* IAmWho: Massive spoilers. [[spoiler:There are two possible interpretations. In the course of the game, ringing the Twin Bells of Awakening will make Kingseeker Frampt appear, telling the player that he is looking for the successor of Gwyn, who would only appear if both bells have been rung. However, if you pledge allegiance to the Darkwraith Covenant, the Primordial Serpent Kaathe reveals that your ancestor was in fact the Furtive Pygmy and that you are the rightful successor to the Pygmy. The former is a lie. Gwyndolin is continuing his father's wishes to prevent the rise of the Dark Lord, but wants to use the Chosen Undead to replace Gwyn and rekindle the First Flame so he can rule the Third Age of Fire how he wants to. The latter is the truth, as one of Pygmy's descendants is foretold to become the Dark Lord and start the Age of Dark.]]
* IDontLikeTheSoundOfThatPlace: Undead Burg, Blighttown, Demon Ruins, Lost Izalith, The Abyss, Tomb of Giants, etc...
** Basically, almost all of Lordran.
* ImAHumanitarian: Executioner Smough used the ground bones of his victims as spice for his food, appalling the Four Knights (including his buddy Ornstein). The Butcher enemies are also mentioned in flavour text to be cannibals.
* ImDyingPleaseTakeMyMacGuffin: Oscar, Knight of Astora, who gives you the estus flask, the key to refight the Asylum Demon and his quest to ring the Bell of Awakening, though he was unaware there are two.
* ImprobableWeaponUser: Havel the Rock wields a huge ''tooth'' taken from one of the ancient dragons.
* IndyEscape: The giant cannonballs in Sen's Fortress.
* InsurmountableWaistHighFence: You can't climb ''anything''. This is part of what makes the city so maze-like.
* IronicNickname: [[spoiler:"Trusty" Patches]]
* ItemCrafting: Weapons and armor can be created and upgraded with the right materials and some help from a blacksmith NPC or a toolkit usable at bonfires.
* {{Jerkass}}: Lautrec, [[spoiler:Patches]], and while it isn't immediately evident, [[spoiler:Petrus]].
** This is pretty much the entire point of the Darkwraith, Gravelord Servant, and Forest Hunter covenants, which are all about killing players.
* JerkassGods
* JumpingOffTheSlipperySlope: [[spoiler:Petrus. If you don't buy all of Rhea's miracles after rescuing her from the Tomb of the Giants, then Petrus will assassinate her.]]
* KillItWithFire: What pyromancy is all about.
* TheLavaCavesOfNewYork: The Demon Ruins and Lost Izalith. They aren't ''that'' deep underground.
* LaserGuidedKarma: The Darkmoon Covenant is all about this, You may kill a person or two that you find expendable, abandon a covenant to join a better one, invade and kill another player for humanity or [[spoiler: Kill Gwynevere]] and think nothing of it after that. However, The Darkmoons are here to remind you that no bad deed goes unpunished. At anypoint as Human if you've sinned you are branded for a Darkmoon invasion by another player, and unlike a regular invasion, It will continue to happen even after you've killed the area boss. However it's avoidable if you absolve yourself by talking to Oswald at the top of the Undead Church and paying an amount of souls depending on your soul level and the amount of sins you committed before getting absolved. Unless of course you [[spoiler: Kill Gwynevere.]] [[MoralEventHorizon Then you are permanently branded as a sinner until New Game+]].
* LeapOfFaith: Some hidden pieces of loot require this to reach them. One can buy items (Prism Stones) specifically meant to check how far down the bottom of a pit is.
** This is also how your character escapes from The Painted World of Ariamis.
** You enter the Abyss via one of these as well. Unless you don't have the Covenant of Artorias ring equipped, in which case you enter your death.
* LifeDrain: The unique curved sword Server restores a small amount of your health with every hit. As does the Ring Of The Evil Eye with every kill. Inverted with the Chaos Blade that does damage to you for every successful strike.
* LockedDoor: Lots and lots of them. Many give way to convenient shortcuts as the player progresses.
* LuckBasedMission: If you don't kill Ceaseless Discharge the cheap way it can become this; sometimes it spams relatively easily avoidable attacks with massive openings to do damage, and other times it uses extremely dangerous screen-nuking attacks with a short recovery over and over (although turning yourself into a tank can get around this).
** Likewise for the Hellkite Dragon. If you choose to fight it directly in battle and not shooting it with a bow, your victory depends almost entirely on the how much the dragon wants to nuke the bridge with fire and in many cases cause instant death.
* MagicAndPowers
** BlackMagic: Sorcery spells
** PlayingWithFire: Pyromancy spells
** WhiteMagic: Miracle spells
** MagicWand: All three types of spells require the appropriate catalyst/talisman to cast.
** RitualMagic: In the sense that it's "Magic anyone can use", Pyromancy's effectiveness is unaffected by Intelligence or Faith scores. In the setting, most pyromancers come from a place called "the great Swamp" and it's seen as "uncivilized" magic.
** VancianMagic: All your spells have a set number of uses before you need to recharge them at a bonfire, replacing the mana bar from DemonsSouls.
* MagicKnight: Due to the classes being nothing more than starting status, hybrid builds are quite common. Some weapon upgrade paths even allow you to base weapon damage off intelligence or faith instead of strength and dexterity.
* MagikarpPower: If you fully upgrade a useless hilt of a broken sword, it can be combined with a certain boss' soul to create a unique weapon.
** In a subversion, you can upgrade any regular sword with that boss' soul and get a statistically worse version of the sword, but many players opt to do so because the degraded version of the sword has lower stat requirements and is one of the few weapons that will hit a ghost without you first being cursed.
** Several weapons have relatively low base damage but gain signficant bonuses from player stats making them more useful at higher levels.
* MedievalEuropeanFantasy: Returns from DemonsSouls.
* MegaNeko- Alvina and the Great Felines.
* MeaningfulName: Firelink Shrine.
* MemeticOutfit: The [[http://www.imgbase.info/images/safe-wallpapers/video_games/dark_souls/19912_dark_souls.jpg Elite Knight Set]]. It was featured heavily in advertisements, trailers, and official art for the game. In FanWorks it's effectively the official character design for the protagonist, perhaps because of the TheEveryman look to the armor.
* {{Metroidvania}}: While not a true example, the game's world structure is very similar to 3D {{Metroidvania}} titles like the original [[LegacyOfKain Soul Reaver.]] The game is a huge nonlinear map packed with also sorts of hidden areas and branching paths, and it is completely seamless and devoid of load screens (excluding death). As stated, it is not a true example because of the lack of permanent upgrades that open up new areas, instead replaced with finding keys to unlock new areas.
* MixAndMatchCritters: A variety of enemies are like this, most notably the Great Felines (they look like an unholy combination of a cat, a bear, and an alligator).
* MoreTeethThanTheOsmondFamily: '''[[http://i123.photobucket.com/albums/o312/oracrest/Dark%20Souls/05-noscale.jpg Jesus.]]''' To make it worse? '''It's a fucking dragon and the gaping maw is it's fucking ribcage!'''
* MultipleEndings
** [[spoiler:ShootTheShaggyDog: The ''Link The Fire'' ending, wherein the player is [[SenselessSacrifice sacrificed to the fire]] after the culmination of his trials until the whole damn thing eventually comes full circle again. Although this ending is like the good ending in ''DemonsSouls'', in which it gives an excuse for the constant NewGamePlus cycle.]]
** [[spoiler:StartOfDarkness: Literally and figuratively. The ''Dark Lord'' ending, wherein the player can decide not to light the final bonfire, engulfing the world in darkness once again. Although there is some debate over if this ending is truly evil.]]
* MultiPlatform: Published on both PS3 and Xbox 360 by Namco-Bandai in North America and Europe. (Self-published in Japan for PS3 only.)
* MythologyGag: Trailers show [[DemonsSouls a person in fluted armor facing evils from the depths of God knows where]].
** ''"[[DemonsSouls I died]] [[NintendoHard 3 times]] [[http://twitter.com/Filthierich/statuses/59005228665675776 just TRYING to post this ...]]"''
** [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eqaysjKcw-g This]] trailer, announcing the game's October release date is quite interesting. While most game trailers show the player doing cool, impossible things and kicking ass, this one shows no less than [[NintendoHard 7 on screen player deaths.]]
** The end of the E3 demo has the player fight one lone gargoyle as a boss fight. In the middle of the fight, [[ThisIsGonnaSuck it then promptly summons another of it's brethren to join the fray.]]
** The first boss you battle [[SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute looks like Vanguard.]]
** [[spoiler:Patches, of all people, makes a reappearance, [[SchmuckBait doing what he does best.]]]]
** [[spoiler:[[KingsField Seath]] makes an appearance.]]
* NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast: Great Grey Wolf Sif, Gravelord Nito, Dragon Slayer Ornstein, and Executioner Smough.
* NewGamePlus: Dark Souls is designed for these; the developers have implemented secrets that they don't expect players to find until their second or third time playing through the game!
* NintendoHard: Did we mention that it's hard? It's harder than ''DemonsSouls''! (But also more fair to the player.)
* NoFairCheating: In order to dissuade players from breaking the street sell date and playing the game early, Black Phantoms with [[OhCrap levels maxed in every stat]] have been released into the game and will kill premature buyers on sight.
** In Demon's Souls you could quit right before you died (By turning off the console) and you could reload the game without punishment, In Dark Souls, From Software made the game instantly autosave when you died.
** Many of the DiscOneNuke weapons, such as the Drake Sword, do not scale in effectiveness with your stats as they grow (or they scale rather poorly in comparison to other weapons you have). This means that they're strong when you first get them, but won't last you the entire game. You're going to have to work for those other cool weapons the ''hard'' way.
* NonMaliciousMonster: Priscilla. [[spoiler:Being forced to kill her (well, assuming you've already invaded her optional world and hit her for no reason) is quite a PlayerPunch.]]
* NoticeThis: Fallen bodies (either of your enemies, or other unfortunates who have passed on) with items to loot have a huge glowing soul-like aura above them. Treasure chests, by comparison, are practically camouflaged.
* NotSoDifferent: The Crestfallen Merchant believes the player and himself to be the same as the vile denizens of Sen's Fortress.
* OminousFog: As in ''DemonsSouls'', it serves as a gateway into boss battles and new areas.
* OneStatToRuleThemAll: Endurance is arguably the most useful attribute since it both increases Stamina which is useful regardless of playstyle and allows you to carry heavier armor and weapons by increasing your maximum equipment carry weight.
* OurDemonsAreDifferent: They're powerful, monstrous, AlwaysChaoticEvil creatures born from the Bed of Chaos, [[spoiler: The Witch of Izalith's failed attempt at recreating the First Flame.]]
* OurDragonsAreDifferent: Western-style dragons, but with stone scales instead of reptilian hide and two pairs of wings instead of the one. Then there's Seath, Wyverns, the Hellkite Dragon, the Gaping Dragon, et cetera.
* OurZombiesAreDifferent: The Undead are unmistakeably zombie-like, but are so unusual that they fall solidly under Type O.
* PhysicalGod: Gwyn, Nito, the Witch of Izalith mentioned in the intro. Those who ascended into Lordship at the behest of Gwyn. The other gods mentioned in lore. Possibly the Pygmy.
* PlayerVersusPlayer: There are a variety of ways to go toe to toe with other players, whether invading and killing them to steal their humanity, or hunting down aggressive players in the name of justice. It doesn't help that the [=PvP=] is relatively unbalanced and griefers have found equipment/spell glitches with which to use to annoy other online players. The 1.04 patch fixed/nerfed a majority of this, but ended up breaking the matchmaking and miracle resonance.
* PointOfNoReturn: Completely and awesomely averted. All areas of the game can be revisited as many times as the player desires.
* PowerCrystal: The Primordial Crystal grants Seath the Scaleless true immortality, and the most powerful sorceries are crystalline.
* PoweredByAForsakenChild: The Purging Stones which remove curses. With a bit of deduction you can figure out the terrible process in which they are made. [[hottip:*: see the [[http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Fridge/DarkSouls Fridge]] page for details.]] The process behind creating the "bite" rings is also similarly terrible.
* PrepareToDie: Not only is the whole game based on the premise of dying repeatedly, this very trope is also used as a tagline for the game. Hell, even the [[http://preparetodie.com official site]] has its URL named accordingly!
** The tagline for the official strategy guide is, of course, "Prepare To Die ''Less.''"
* PressurePlate: Show up as a way to activate elevators, and to trigger deadly booby traps that will kill you.
* ProperlyParanoid: Players will want to attack every chest they see...[[ChestMonster with good reason.]]
* PurelyAestheticGender: Unlike DemonsSouls, in which about half of the gear was either male or female only, all armor can be worn by either gender, making gender purely aesthetic.
* RagdollPhysics: Fully in effect and as wonky as ever; even large stone giants turn completely weightless after they die, sending them sliding around from the smallest touch. You'll also every so often see enemy corpses getting stuck on your character and wobbling around for a while as you move before falling off.
* RageQuit: Not a game for anyone with a short temper!
* RainbowPimpGear: The game attempts to avoid this by providing most armours as a full-set, but the upgradable armour and greater variety of choices (compared to Demon's Souls), combined with the equipment weight limit that tempts players to avoid wearing too much heavy armour at once means it can be quite easy to end up looking like this.
* RavensAndCrows: You are initially brought from the Undead Asylum to greater Lordran by a gigantic crow.
* RedShirt: [[spoiler:Vince and Nico of Thorolund.]]
* ReligionOfEvil: The Gravelord Servants. While the actual lore behind the Darkwraith Covenant presents their goals as ambiguous, the Gravelord Servants revolve around sending monsters to attack random people. Though to be fair, they are serving what amounts to ''Death'' in Lordran.
* ReptilesAreAbhorrent: The Man-Serpents who patrol Sen's Fortress and who act as prison guards in the Duke's Archives. Then there's Gwyndolin, who has a writhing mass of snakes in place of legs.
* ResetButton: Visiting a bonfire (or dying and returning to one) heals you to full and fills up your Estus Flask, but also makes all the enemies (except bosses, minibosses and a few assorted EliteMooks) reappear.
* ResourcesManagementGameplay: You're going to have a very tough time in Dark Souls if you don't learn to how ration your spells and healing items between bonfires.
** Also, spamming attacks in this game is ill-advised as each attack/roll you make will deplete your stamina meter. Failing to take this into account will make things difficult for the player.
* RespawningEnemies: The immediate area is repopulated with baddies whenever you use a bonfire.
* RespawnPoint: The bonfires serve as these in addition to granting you healing items and also allowing you to level up and use storage.
* ResurrectiveImmortality: Undead, at least until they hollow.
* SacrificialLamb: Oscar of Astora, the friendly NPC who rescues you from your cell and provides you with the Estus Flask.
** You can also [[VideoGameCrueltyPotential kill him]], though this could be seen as a MercyKill--he outright tells you he will go hollow once he dies, [[spoiler:and indeed will attack you if you return to the Undead Asylum later]].
* SacrificialLion: A good number of friendly, likable [=NPC=]s will suffer tragic deaths, usually by going Hollow, depending on the circumstance.
* SavePoint: Averted, as Dark Souls auto-saves very frequently. The campfire serves more as a checkpoint; when you die you respawn there. [[PrepareToDie And you will die.]] [[ThisIsGonnaSuck Often.]]
* SceneryGorn: Blighttown is a decrepit pit of decay and death; the upper part of it is a shantytown mostly made of poles and lashings, like a crazed treehouse project. The lower area is a nasty, poisonous swamp-cesspit in the bowels of the city. If you take the time to look around, though, you can even see the city high above the chasm you're in.
** Don't forget New Londo Ruins [[spoiler:after you've drained it]], wet and slick everywhere with mountains of bodies just lying there.
* SceneryPorn: Like DemonsSouls, the game features [[http://i.imgur.com/7js3Q.png beautifully]] [[http://i.imgur.com/ZiafA.png rendered]] dark fantasy areas with atmosphere to die for. [[NintendoHard Which is cool, because you'll be doing a lot of that]].
** There are many locations in the game that simply look gorgeous, such as the city of Anor Londo bathing in the evening sun or the massive underground Ash Lake, stretching as far as the eye can see.
** The best part? Most of what you see ''isn't for show.'' Upon entering the Undead Burg, you may not realize that, yes, you can climb up that tower and make it to the top of that huge arching bridge and the ruins it connects to on either side. You can even see the arching bridge as far down as the Valley of Drakes, and conversely, you can see the bridge in the Valley of Drakes from the Darkroot Basin.
* SchmuckBait: The Great Hollow is home to ''many'' Crystal Lizards. However, they have the tendency to run off the designated platforms they spawn in and die by themselves. Knowing they are the Crystal Lizards with good loot inside them, players are usually tempted to jump down to grab the loot. Unfortunately, this is The Great Hollow, where any false step means death.
** However it is also double-edged effect if you don't kill them before they kill themselves as the game has a set limit for how many times they will respawn if they kill themselves, if they pass that limit they will never spawn in that area again until the next playthrough, so make sure you can use a spell or have a ranged weapon.
* SealedEvilInACan: The Darkwraiths sealed within [[spoiler:the flooded areas of the New Londo Ruins and the Four Kings sealed within the Abyss.]]
* SecretPolice: The Blade of the Darkmoon covenant.
* SelfImposedChallenge: Because some people don't think the game is hard enough. Aside from the standard ones listed on the page, Whip only runs (which the game admits flat out on the weapons description is a JokeWeapon almost useless against anything with armor) are common.
** The [[http://darksoulswiki.wikispaces.com/message/view/home/47027544?o=20#47050088 "Guts Run"]]
* SequelDifficultySpike: The areas in ''DarkSouls'' are even more hazardous than in its [[DemonsSouls predecessor]], mostly due to the large amount of [[BottomlessPit bottomless pits]] and the fact that normal enemies have gotten even more dangerous. On the other hand, area bosses are generally more manageable, [[ThatOneBoss with some exceptions]].
* SequenceBreaking: Possible through a variety of ways, such as the bug that allows players to fall from any height and live.
* SetAMookToKillAMook: The most efficient way to defeat the [[spoiler:Bounding Demons]] in Lost Izalith.
* ShapeShifterShowdown: In player vs. player battles, you can use the "Chameleon" spell to disguise yourself as random clutter objects like jars and chests, but you also have to worry about your opponents using the same ability to sneak up on you.
* ShesAManInJapan: Lord Blade Ciarin is female in the Japanese version.
* ShiningCity: Anor Londo was once this. Now it is the lost city.
* ShoutOut: The plot setup is that a mysterious brand curses the protagonist making him fight demons and other monsters. [[{{Berserk}} Where have I heard that one before...]]
** The Darkwraith Covenant's icon looks like a Behelit.
** A cursed warrior who can never die? [[PlanescapeTorment Perhaps..?]]
** There's an armor set out there which can make you look like [[ForgottenRealms Elminster.]]
** One of the scripted black phantom invaders you'll encounter in the game is called [[WorldOfWarcraft Paladin]] [[LeeroyJenkins Leeroy.]]
** One of the recurring [=NPCs=] that can be summoned is named [[VisualNovel/UminekoNoNakuKoroNi Witch Beatrice.]]
** The onion-shaped armor from Catarina can be seen as one to the Onion Knight class from ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyIII'', although this one may be a bit of a stretch.
** The Silver Knights in Anor Londo use their bows to fire javelins, reminiscent of the swords fired by [[FateStayNight Archer]].
** Oswald may be a reference to the corrupt Pardoner from ''Literature/TheCanterburyTales'', who, like Oswald, pardons people of their sins for a high price.
** Rickert of Vinheim is an obvious reference to ''{{Berserk}}'', as is his profession as a blacksmith.
** The [[StockShoutOut Cheshire]] [[Literature/AliceInWonderland Cat]] seems quite comfy around some rowdy hunters, no?
** [[{{Bishounen}} A small, frail leader]] like Gwyndolin hiding behind [[spoiler:an illusion of the giantess Princess Gwynevere?]] [[TheWizardOfOz Where have I heard that one before...?]]
** Upon dying, a person is at risk of completely losing their humanity and turning into a horrific creature called a [[{{Bleach}} Hollow]].
** After escaping the Undead Asylum, a [[GiantFlyer large]] [[RavensAndCrows Raven]] [[StealthPun takes you under its wing to the]] [[VideoGame/ArmoredCore Raven's Nest.]]
* SiblingYinYang: [[spoiler:Queen of Sunlight Gwynevere and the Darkmoon God Gwyndolin.]]
* SinisterMinister: Oswald of Carim qualifies, in spite of being more morally ambiguous than anything else, although he does have an ominous air about him. Then there's [[spoiler:Petrus]], who turns out to be a murderous liar.
* SinisterScythe: There are two scythes available as weapons, as is a Reaper armor set if you dig that sort of thing. Crossbreed Priscilla uses one as her weapon [[spoiler:and her soul can be used to make a third one.]]
* SleepyHead: Kingseeker Frampt occasionally lapses into a very deep sleep, which can be a bit irritating if you want to feed him items. Give him a good smack [[LostForever (but only one!)]] and he'll wake up.
** Then there's Siegmeyer, who is often found asleep, sometimes standing up, and, on one occasion, ''while standing in the middle of a poison swamp''.
* SpikesOfDoom: One of the more sadistic traps in Sen's Fortress involves an elevator that you ride up. If you stay on it too long, it continues going up right into a spiked ceiling. If you look closely, the elevator is caked with blood.
* SpikesOfVillainy: Knight Kirk, a notorious Darkwraith who can invade and attack you up to three times, wears the Armor of Thorns, which is appropriately covered in spikes. It has the effect of damaging whatever enemies the wearer rolls into.
* SpiritualSuccessor: Done by the original developers of ''Demon's Souls'', similar setting, even a very similar title. The game likely would be ''Demon's Souls 2'' if Sony didn't own the IP.
** NonLinearSequel: ''Dark Souls'' can be considered this in addition to being a SpiritualSuccessor. The presence of Seath might mean that ''Dark Souls'' is somehow connected to the ''[[KingsField King's Field]]'' series.
* StealthPun: Catarina's distinctive armor would make its wearer a [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyIII Onion Knight]].
* StatusBuff: Nearly every single ring provides you with a bonus, from the obvious (increasing elemental resistance), to the awesome (changes rolling to cartwheels), to the tricky (deals extra damage with a pierce weapon when the enemy is in mid-attack animation/stagger from attacking your shield). Other status buffs include attack power increase granted by the Dragon Torso Stone's ability to roar and the Channeler's Trident dance.
* SummonMagic: A recent patch gave the pyromancer the ability to summon a gravelord into a random player's realm. The gravelord will chase them down relentlessly and attack them without asking questions until it is destroyed by the invaded player. This gives no benefit at all to the summoner other than [[ForTheEvulz the satisfaction of giving another player a hard time just because]]. You hear it right, guys, Dark Souls has a freaking '''griefing mechanic'''!
* SuperDrowningSkills: Sufficiently deep water is instant death. Yeah you can [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hk-wilWUSQM cartwheel]] on [[EverythingsCoolerWithLava lava]], but deep enough water is instant death.
* TakenForGranite: In the sewers and during both encounters with [[spoiler:Seath]], you're likely to find a bunch of statues that used to be people, courtesy of the nearby frog-like basilisks breathing gray gas. Given the fact that the number of statues changes frequently, it is highly likely that these statues are actually ''other players'' who got cursed.
* TheManBehindTheMan: [[spoiler:Gwyndolin.]]
* ThematicThemeTune: ''Bartholomew'' and ''All Saints' Day'' by The Silent Comedy in various trailers. In the latter, the only sung lyrics increase in desperation as the trailer goes on.
---> ''"One day, will this be over?"''
* ThemeNaming: Gwyn, Gwynevere, Gwyndolin; the Daughters of Chaos whose names are known start with "Quel".
* TheTheocracy: The nation of Thorolund.
* TheVoiceless: Anastacia of Astora, the Fire Keeper of Firelink Shrine cannot speak because she had her tongue voluntarily removed. [[spoiler:she gets better if revived after Lautrec kills her, though she considers her restored ability to speak sinful.]]
* TheWorldIsJustAwesome: Despite being a CrapsackWorld, this pops up from time to time. Standing atop the Undead Parish, having just rung the first Bell of Awakening provides players with an absolutely breath taking view of the world around them, where they can see all of where they've traveled, and some of what is to come. The cut scene that plays when players first arrive at Anor Londo also counts.
* ThingsManWasNotMeantToKnow: If you free Big Hat Logan he gets access to [[LibraryOfBabel The Duke's Archives]], the library of the MadScientist and grandfather of sorcery dragon Seath the Scaleless. Logan will develop and sell powerful crystal versions of sorceries, and after the player has bought them all and killed Seath the Scaleless [[spoiler: he gets completely lost in the knowledge and doesn't even recognize the player. After this, he'll disappear from his usual spot and show up nearly naked and completely insane in the room Seath is first fought in. Upon killing him, it's revealed he went so far as to try (and partially failed, [[GameBreaker thankfully]]) to replicate Seath's curse-inducing crystal breath.]]
* ThisIsGonnaSuck: When [[spoiler:Ornstein or Smough absorb the other's soul (and powers) after they are slain by you.]]
** In the fight against Gwyn you learn pretty fast that he's not going to give you time to heal.
* ThrowingDownTheGauntlet: A spell called "Grave Lord" lets you challenge a random player to a battle by leaving a symbol in their world that spawns powerful, rampaging enemies. If they find it, they can invade your world and return the favor.
** To be more specific, when using the Grave Lord's spell you place a marker that show up in three random people's worlds. While the sign persists phantoms much stronger than normal spawn and you steal half of the victim player's soul amount when they die. But if ANY or maybe even ALL of them find where you hid the sign and feel like having vengeance...
** There is also an item in the game specifically meant for this, the Red Sign Soapstone. It has infinite uses and its only purpose is to leave a sign on the ground others can touch if they wish to challenge you.
* TinTyrant: The Iron Golem pictured above. A relative of the [[DemonsSouls Tower Knight]], perhaps? Also, black knights and silver knights who appear as [[EliteMook Elite Mooks]] in various levels.
* TooAwesomeToUse: Rings of Sacrifice will save your souls and humanity if equipped at the time of death, but they break after use; a variant called the Rare Ring of Sacrifice also removes the curse ailment if you're cursed at the time of death. The Ring of Favor and Protection increases your health, stamina and carrying capacity, but there are only two (with one being [[GuideDangIt very well hidden]]) in each game run and it cannot be removed once equipped or it's lost.
** Crystal Weapons, they are exceptionally powerful and durable. However, you can't repair them once they are broken, so it's best to save them for backup.
** The Divine Blessing. A potion that fully restores your HP and cures all status effects (except for curse, unfortunately). It's also quite hard to get and only available in a very limited number per playthrough, so better don't "waste" it...
* TrailersAlwaysSpoil: The trailers have revealed a startling amount of bosses in them. Thankfully there are still many unseen bosses and only one end game boss is seen.
* TrialAndErrorGameplay: The whole game is basically learning how long you can go without dying to a hazardous area or a boss, and what mistakes to avoid whenever you do wind up as a smear on the wall.
* UnblockableAttack: Many bosses and even normal enemies possess powerful grapple attacks that ''have'' to be dodged.
* UnfortunateNames: If you experience Ceaseless Discharge for more than a twenty-four-hour period, consult your hollow physician.
* UnnecessaryCombatRoll: Of course.
* UrbanLegendOfZelda: Since the game's release there have been dozens of different rumors pertaining to the Furtive Pygmy and the true purpose of the Pendant.
** Another persistent rumor claimed that the player has the option to spare the Great Grey Wolf Sif and that you would get his sword as a reward for doing so. No proof or method has been found, but many still believe there is a way to accomplish this.
** It ''is'' possible to spare Sif, by using a certain glitch to transfer the Covenant of Artorias to a new character. You get nothing for it, of course.
* VaderBreath: The Titanite Demons (in spite of the fact that they don't have faces).
* VaginaDentata: [[http://i123.photobucket.com/albums/o312/oracrest/Dark%20Souls/05-noscale.jpg The Gaping Dragon]] is an entirely blatant example if there ever was one.
* VendorTrash: The equivalent of it, anyway. Some enemies and fallen bodies have static soul items for you to snag, which, when used, grant you some souls to spend.
** Once you get far enough into the game, you will unlock a way to dispose of all the trash-armor accumulating in your inventory. The souls you get are a pittance, but that's better than nothing.
* VideogameCaringPotential: You can, of course, help other players in their games by allowing your phantom to be summoned.
** You can ease the suffering of [[spoiler:the Daughter of Chaos]] by offering [[spoiler:her]] Humanity.
** You can avenge a Firekeeper who had been murdered, and [[spoiler:even restore her to life, provided you're willing to part with a Firekeeper Soul.]]
* VideogameCharacters:
** AirborneMook: The Mosquitoes in Blighttown, double as GoddamnBats.
** BlobMonster: [[http://i.imgur.com/g40rT.jpg The Slimes]] found in the Depths.
** BossInMookClothing: The Black Knights early on. Havel the Rock. The Titanite Demons, which the game seems to enjoy making you fight them in tight areas with little ability to maneuver.
** BorderPatrol: The Skeletons near Firelink Shrine when first encountered. They teach players pretty quickly that this is the wrongest path you could possibly take.
** ChestMonster: The mimics. Opening one accidentally will cause them to do a massive attack that will most likely kill the player, and teach them to never open a chest without attacking it first.
** {{Dracolich}}: The undead dragons and the bounding demons.
** DemBones: [[http://i123.photobucket.com/albums/o312/oracrest/Dark%20Souls/12-noscale.jpg The skeletons,]] giant skeletons and feral skeletons.
** EliteMook: Several, from the boulder throwing trolls to the Dark Knights.
** EverythingTryingToKillYou: Almost everything that isn't a fellow gamer in co-op mode will be trying to kill you (and succeeding a good deal of the time).
** FakeUltimateMook: Ceaseless Discharge can be seen as this. It is the largest boss in the game and very intimidating, but is one of the easier bosses in the game.
*** Capra Demon also qualifies, when you first fight one it is in a small area aided by two extremely fast enemies so beginners would naturally find this difficult. However, fighting them alone is much less hassle but it is rare to happen as once they become a regular enemy they are placed tightly together so you will usually attract two or three at the same time.
** TheGoomba: The Hollow Warriors seen in the first section of Undead Burg. Their move set is almost identical to that of the Dreglings in DemonsSouls, and are the easiest enemies in the game to fight. That said, the still pose a threat, especially in groups.
** InvincibleMinorMinion: The Skeletons in the catacombs. You can defeat them, but they'll quickly revive and reassemble themselves as long as the necromancer hiding himself nearby is alive. Or kill them with a Divine weapon.
** InvisibleMonsters: Two of the Forest Hunter [=NPCs=]. Semi-invisible at least.
** InvulnerableCivilians: Heavily averted, as all [=NPCs=] can be killed. Even worse, one accidental hit on one, be it a merchant, or a blacksmith, and that NPC is permanently hostile, and often leads to their death, which can be disasterous later on if you happen to kill a merchant. You can, however make all hostile, yet alive, [=NPCs=] non hostile by paying Oswald of Carim an obscene amount of souls. 500 souls times your Soul Level to be exact, resulting in (for example) people at level 50 needing to amass 25,000 souls just so the woman who sells moss doesn't try to kill you.
** KillerRabbit: The basilisks. Dear god the basilisks...
** MascotMook: The Black Knights.
** MetalSlime: The crystal lizards/geckos (making a return from DemonsSouls), which shine brightly but tend to turn invisible (and are thus un-attackable) when you run into them. Should you manage to catch one, you're likely to get some rare ores for weapon refinement.
** MonsterKnight: A few enemies qualify. The Capra Demons, the Balder Knights, and the Darkwraiths.
** NightOfTheLivingMooks: Many of the enemies encountered are undead of some sort; Zombies, skeletons, ghosts. Then again, almost everyone you meet is undead.
** PersonalSpaceInvader: Several enemies have devastating grab attacks.
** PinataEnemy: The Forest Hunters and the Darkmoon Soldiers. They are quick, cheap, sources for souls. The single respawning Titanite Demon is this as well for the Upgrade Stone it drops.
** RandomlyDrops: Many enemies drop rare unique weapons like the Titanite Demons and the Channelers. A few drop rare armor like the Mimics.
** RecurringTraveler: Solaire, Siegmeyer, and Sieglinde.
** ReptilesAreAbhorrent: The poison-spitting snake men guards in Sen's Fortress and the frog-like Basiliks in the Depths.
** RevivingEnemy: The skeletons in the Catacombs.
** RoamingEnemy: The various special NPC hollows, which appear under special circumstances, and are tragic to fight.
** RodentsOfUnusualSize: Giant evil rats!
** ShieldBearingMook: The Giants in Anor Londo. Completely invincible from the front. Other enemies have shields, but they aren't as difficult or invulnerable as these guys.
** SmashMook: The Infested Barbarians.
** TheUndead: Almost everyone you meet is undead, whether or not they look or act like it. This makes sense within the setting, as those who bear the Darksign stay warm and fleshy for a while before they turn into mindless ghouls.
** UndeadChild: The baby skeletons in the Tomb of the Giants.
** WhenTreesAttack: The Demonic Foliage that patrol Darkroot Garden.
* VideogameCrueltyPotential: It is perfectly possible to kill any and every NPC (including the blacksmiths) that you come across, should you feel inclined to do so.
* VideogameItemsAndInventory and WeaponTropes:
** AlwaysCheckBehindTheChair: Useful items are often hidden inside or behind containers, furniture, and other such objects.
*** As a prominent example, [[spoiler:you'll never find Ash Lake and the Path of the Dragon covenant unless you notice that a particular chest hidden by an illusion wall is actually in front of ''another'' illusion wall.]]
** AnAxeToGrind: There are numerous axes in the game, and a fully ascended elemental Greataxe is one of the, if not ''the'' most destructive weapon in the game. Gargoyles have axes for tails that can be cut off and used.
** AnnoyingArrows: Arrows aren't that big of deal in this game. Unless a Silver Knight is flinging them at you.
** ArmorPiercingAttack: Lightning weapons, as most armor and shields aren't particularly effective against it.
** ArrowsOnFire: Fire arrows, naturally.
** AutomaticCrossbows: [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LvuRq7HgEKY#t=6m27s Avelyn.]]
** BagOfHolding: Present in the form of the Bottomless Box, a sort of portable bank that can only be used at bonfires.
** {{BFS}}: [[http://image01.w.livedoor.jp/p/k/project_dark/550b23933d8fd651.jpg The Dragon Greatsword,]] apparently this game's version of the Dragon Bone Smasher. This weapon appears to have more in common with [[SoulCalibur Nightmare's Soul Edge]], however. Any weapon in the Ultra Great Sword counts as do many weapons as in the Great Sword category.
** BladeOnAStick: Some weapons class as this, such as the verying types of spears and halberds.
** BlowGun: The blowdart snipers in Blighttown.
** BreakableWeapons: All weapons (and armor) degrade slowly with use. Certain enemy abilities cause durability damage on your items, and some weapons allow you to use a powerful special attack at the cost of rapidly degrading the weapon's condition. Fortunately everything can be repaired relatively easily aside from the frail and unrepairable Crystal items.
** BrokenFaceplate: The Balder Set. Good armor but it is clear it has seen better days.
** CosmicKeystone: The Lordvessel.
** DayOldLegend: Natch.
** DropTheHammer: Many of the blunt weapons, the most ridiculous of these are Grant and Smough's Hammer.
** DualWielding: As in ''DemonsSouls'', you can equip an off-hand weapon, sacrificing your ability to parry for extra attacks.
** ExclusiveEnemyEquipment: Unique weapons tend to be rare drops off enemies or forged from special souls, while their armor is usually found hidden in a chest somewhere.
** ExperienceBooster: The Covetous Silver Serpent Ring and the Symbol of Avarice helm.
** FlamingSword: Quelaag's Fury Sword. Also wielded very effectively by [[spoiler:Gwyn, Lord of Cinder. You can also gain it if you keep his soul and use it in a Weapon Ascension, though the crafted version isn't on fire.]]
** HealingPotion: Your main method of recovering health is a substance known as Estus, which is stored in a jade flask that you can refill at bonfires. This completely replaces the healing items of ''DemonsSouls''.
** HelmetsAreHardlyHeroic: Generally Averted. While there are a few helmets that let you show off your face, most of them are pretty obscuring. There is no option to cosmetically hide the helmet either.
** HeroesPreferSwords: Swords are the most numerous weapons in the game. In addition, four of the ten classes start with swords as their weapons.
** HotChickWithASword: If you wish, you can turn your character into one of these. Also, Quelaag. Kind of...
** IaijutsuPractitioner: The Iaito's strong attack.
** InfinityMinusOneSword: All the DiscOneNuke equipment seem like InfinityPlusOneSword material, but the often limited upgrade options compared to the generic equipment make them qualify for this. Certain magic spells have a high number of uses, but actually end up using most of them during one casting.
** InterchangeableAntimatterKeys: Averted, all of the keys in the game are permanent.
** KatanasAreJustBetter: At least for Dexterity-focused characters, as their damage increases with higher Dex. They tend to be quick, too.
** LuckilyMyShieldWillProtectMe: No matter what class you're playing as, you ''need'' a shield. It is suicide to play without one, that's why even the "Deprived," who starts off naked, gets one.
** LostForever: The Darkwraith Covenant if you [[spoiler:bring the Lordvessel to Kingseeker Frampt rather than Darkstalker Kaathe in The Abyss.]]
*** Every Covenant save one can be lost forever if the player gets a bit bloodthirsty.
*** The Ring of Favour and Protection if you remove it.
*** Anything offered by [=NPC=]s will be lost forever if you kill them before getting it.
*** The "tail" weapons if you kill the enemies without cutting off the tails first.
** MasterSwordsman: Gwyn.
** OneHandedZweihander: You can use a variety of heavy weapons with only one hand if you have a high enough Strength stat. Amusingly, the inverse is also possible, allowing the player to use a six-inch dagger or small shield with both hands.
** PlotCoupon: The Twin Bells of Awakening. [[spoiler: The Lordvessel. The Lord Souls.]]
** PoisonedWeapon: Certain unique weapons can poison enemies, as can poison arrows and throwing knives. Blighttown has enemies using poisoned darts and poisoned ''giant wooden clubs!''
** PossessionImpliesMastery: [[AvertedTrope Nope.]] While you can use all weapons and armor you pick up, using them without the proper stats will make using the weapon less effective, leading to awkward attack animations and severely reduced damage. One-handed weapons even need to be used with both hands to wield even remotely effectively.
*** One place where this stumbles slightly is the use of the Painting Guardian Sword, which is explicitly stated to be a weapon and technique exclusive to that order.
** PowerFist: The Dragonbone Fist, crafted from a fist weapon and the Iron Golem's core, is ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin.
** RazorWind: The Drake Sword and the Dragon Greatsword. Both are unique from DemonsSouls Stormruler in that its special ability can be [[SoCoolItsAwesome used anywhere.]] That said, the special ability takes a huge chunk out of the sword's durability.
** ReducedManaCost: The Dusk Crown Ring, effectively, with it doubling the number of sorcery casts at the price of halving HP.
** ReforgedBlade: The True Greatsword of Astorias, forged from a broken sword!
** RollingAttack: Wearing pieces of the Thorn armor set will allow you to damage any enemies you touch while rolling.
** RoyalRapier: Richard's Rapier, the rapier of a prince of a distant nation.
** ScaryImpracticalArmor: A variety of armor is like this, Ornstein's and Smough's armor sets immediately come to mind.
** ShockAndAwe: There are a variety of enemies that use lightning as an ability such as the Titanite Demons and Dragon Slayer Ornstein. The player can forge lightning weapons which have additional lightning damage and are some of the best weapons in the game and can also obtain miracles that lets him throw lightning bolts Zeus style.
** ShockwaveStomp: The two-handed power attack of the Dragon King Greataxe is slow but damages all enemies around you with a shockwave at the cost of weapon durability.
** SinisterScimitar: Many of the curved swords and greatswords.
** SliceAndDiceSwordsmanship: Mostly averted. The majority of thrusting weapons can only thrust, and most slashing weapons only slash. There are a few oddities like the estoc, a long, unsharpened sword meant for thrusting, having a slash attack.
** SpecialAttack: There are a large variety of weapons with unique special attacks. These can range from devastating uppercuts with powerful [[{{Knockback}} knockbacks]], the Drake Sword and Dragon Great Sword's RazorWind attacks, special grabs in which you steal another's humanity and many others.
** SpinAttack: The heavy attack of certain weapons. The Belfry Gargoyles in Anor Londo also have an aerial one.
** StabTheSky: The Stone Greatsword's special attack does this before casting a spell that slows enemy movement speed.
** StanceSystem: Your attacks depend on whether you choose to wield your weapon with one or two hands.
** StarterEquipment: Each of the game's ten classes has its own set, some of which include unique items that can't be acquired in any other way.
** SwordBeam: The Moonlight Greatsword has this as its special attack, making it even more reminiscent to the Moonlight Sword seen in previous From Software games.
** SwordLines: Great Grey Wolf Sif when wielding the massive Greatsword of Astorias.
** TwentyFourHourArmor: Of course.
** WhipItGood: Two different whips are available weapons.
** WithThisHerring: You find a proper weapon and shield within the tutorial dungeon but just starting out, you have nothing more than the broken hilt-shard to wield against zombies. Justified since you are in a dungeon.
*** The Deprived's "proper weapon and shield" are a wooden club and plank. He/she also doesn't start with any armor.
* VideogameSettings:
** AbsurdlySpaciousSewer: The Depths look a lot like this, though some parts of them also resemble catacombs.
** TheAlcatraz: The Undead Aslyum, where civilization locks up people cursed with the Darksign, mostly out of fear.
** BeautifulVoid: Lordran, excluding all of the unpleasant monsters and zombies.
** BigFancyCastle: Anor Londo is an entire city built like this.
** BlackoutBasement: The Tomb of the Giants is pitch-black. And filled with some of the toughest monsters in the game, [[NintendoHard of course.]]
** BleakLevel: [[spoiler:Kiln of the First Flame.]]
** BrightCastle: Anor Londo is an absolutely stunning castle city, with beautiful gothic architecture.
** CapitalCity: Anor Londo.
** CobwebJungle: Quelaag's Domain. The entire area is almost entirely covered with cobwebs and filled with giant spider eggs.
** CreepyCathedral: The Undead Parish.
** DarkFantasy: Like DemonsSouls, the game itself fall into this genre of fantasy.
** DownTheDrain: The Depths are your classic sewer maze, complete with giant rats.
** DownInTheDumps: Blighttown.
** DungeonTown: Most of the game. The Undead Burg, Undead Parish, and The Depths are all part of one large city. Several other areas are cities as well like New Londo and Anor Londo.
*** Lordran is in fact an entire dungeon ''country'', as it's completely surrounded by a huge castle wall (visible from the Firelink Shrine).
** EvilTowerOfOminousness: Sen's Fortress. The area is also incredibly malicious, filled with countless [[BoobyTrap Booby Traps]]
** HailfirePeaks: The Ash Lake is a mix of PalmtreePanic and LostWoods. The Painted World of Ariamas is a mix of SlippySlideyIceWorld and BigFancyCastle. New Londo Ruins is a mix of BigFancyCastle and BigBoosHaunt.
** HauntedCastle: New Londo Ruins.
** HubLevel: Firelink Shrine is basically the center of the game world, houses most of the trainers should you find them and has quick access to many areas of the game once you unlock the shortcuts.
** LethalLavaLand: The Demon Ruins and the first half of Lost Izalith.
** TheLibraryOfBabel: The Duke's Archives. Naturally Big Hat Logan loves hanging out here and reading the unbelievably vast collection of tomes.
** TheLostWoods: Darkroot Garden and Darkroot Basin.
** TheVeryDefinitelyFinalDungeon: [[spoiler: Kiln of the First Flame]]
** NoobCave: Undead Burg.
** OneTimeDungeon: Completely averted. All areas of the game can be revisited.
** PeninsulaOfPowerLeveling: The area next to the hidden bonfire in Darkroot Garden. Two Darkmoon soldiers in [[spoiler:Dark Anor Londo are also a good grinding spot.]]
** SecretLevel: Several.
** SlippySlideyIceWorld: The Painted World of Ariamis and the Crystal Caves.
** ShiftingSandLand: While the heat has mostly died out, the [[spoiler:Kiln of the First Flame]] is a desert made of ash and cinder.
** SwampsAreEvil: The swamp section of Blighttown, an obvious callback to DemonsSouls Valley of Defilement.
** UndergroundLevel: The Catacombs and the Tomb of the Giants.
** WorldTree: The Great Hollow. The level is just one long decent down the inside of an enormous tree. The Ash Lake shows that there are hundreds of these under the world.
* VillainTeamUp: Ornstein and Smough certainly aren't big fans of each other, but they're more than happy to work together to kick your ass.
* VoidBetweenTheWorlds: The Abyss.
* WarpWhistle: Obtaining the Lordvessel allows players to warp between the major bonfires.
* WasOnceAMan: Quite a few enemies. Hollows, The Pisaca in the Duke's Archives, Quelaag and her sister, Ceaselessness Discharge is likely to have been one.
* WeaksauceWeakness: You can kill the Hellkyte Dragon that guards the bridge in Undead Burg by climbing a nearby tower and shooting its wings with arrows. Or rather, one arrow. The only difficulty in regards to that is the Black Knight that lies in wait on top of the tower.
** Ceaseless Discharge in the Demon Ruins can be killed very easily [[spoiler:by running back to the fog gate and waiting for the boss to throw its hand down and whacking it a few time. In truth, the boss began to fall into a bottomless pit and threw its hand down to catch itself.]]
** [[spoiler:Gywn, Lord of Cinder and FinalBoss is cripplingly weak to parrying. He can be done in by 3 ripostes if you are build right.]]
* WhatCouldHaveBeen: Data mining the game files reveals some dummied-out character lines and "quests" from earlier builds, possibly including the original concept of what the Pendant was to be used for.
* WhatTheHellHero: [[spoiler:When you attack Priscilla the half-dragon, [[RunningGag she calls you out on such offensive dickery.]]]] This is also something of the standard response to you attacking non-offensive [=NPCs=].
--> ''Why?''
** [[spoiler:Particularly offensive in Priscilla's case, as she's completely non-aggressive unless attacked, even gives you directions to leave the area, and is in an area that's separate from the 'real' world to boot. You have to go out of your way to even meet her, let alone attack her, which makes the whole thing feel extra dickish. Naturally, FROM Software made sure there's an achievement/trophy for killing her, just so people will feel EXTRA bad about slaughtering her just for a miserable platinum/max achievement score.]]
** After dealing enough damage to [[spoiler:Sif, he'll start to limp, attack slower, and even stumble. Go ahead, try not to feel terrible about that.]]
** Eingyi will call you a monster and attack you if [[spoiler:you kill Quelaag's sister.]]
* WhiteHairedPrettyGirl: [[spoiler:Priscilla the half-dragon and Quelaag's sister.]]
* WhoWantsToLiveForever: The premise is that your hero can never die, no matter what, he'll just keep coming back. [[NintendoHard The player feels his pain.]]
* TheWildHunt: The Forest Hunter covenant. A group of bandits lead by the [[StockShoutOut Cheshire Cat]], they indirectly guard Sir Artorias' grave with the rest of the forest. Joining up with them allows you to invade other players' worlds and loot their corpse.
* WitchHunt: The Undead in the Undead Asylum were victims of this, rounded up and imprisoned to await the end of the world. An item description also mentions a band of clerics who hunt Undead.
* WizardingSchool: The Dragon College of Vinheim. According to lore, the higher ups in the college effectively run the nation/[[CityStateEra city state]], whatever it is.
* YeOldeButcheredeEnglishe: Several characters speak like this, although it's more jarring when it comes from the mouth of the Giant Blacksmith (arguably intentional), as he combines it with {{Hulkspeak}}.
* YetAnotherStupidDeath: Letting your guard down or trying to rush forward because you're facing enemies you've easily beaten before is generally a terrible idea and ''will'' end up with you feeling like an idiot for dying to simple zombies or skeletons you could've easily beaten with some patience.
* YouFool: Alvina calls you this if you kill her.
* YouGottaHaveBlueHair: Like DemonsSouls, giving your character a custom hair colour is possible. Three of the preset hair colours are even Dark Blue (which seems to be common in Carim), Dark Purple (which is noted to be a colour of a near extinct race) and Silver.
* YourMoneyIsNoGoodHere: Out there, somewhere, people use copper, silver, and gold coins, and you may find a few in this game, but its description points out that in Lordron, souls are the only thing people value and coins are relatively worthless. Knight King Rendal of Balder and Allfather Lloyd of Thorolund are on the silver and gold coins respectively, indicating that those two nations probably still use them.
* YourSoulIsMine: Done by you. The game is a bit vague on what souls actually are though.
* ZombieApocalypse: Pretty much. Many nations including Lordran were absolutely devastated by the Darksign's appearance.
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[[caption-width-right:350: [[TagLine Prepare to Die.]]]]
->''"I remember the first time I died. Facing down my foe was to be expected. Even inevitable. Resurrected, my soul awoke and my battles were fought harder. Death became my friend. I remember the first time I died. But dying gets easier; it's how you die that leaves your mark. Prepare to die..." ''
-> ''[[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bciLdZnU1Ag Dark Souls Hardcore Trailer]]''
Dark Souls is the SpiritualSuccessor to ''[[DemonsSouls Demon's Souls]]''. The game is developed by FROMSoftware and is published by Namco-Bandai.
In ages long past, the world was unformed and colorless, and ruled by powerful stone dragons. Then came the fire that birthed life, and gave the world disparity: heat and cold, life and death, and light and dark. From the dark came the four lords; Nito, the First of the Dead, the Witch of Izalith and her daughters of chaos, Gwyn, the Lord of Sunlight, and his faithful knights, and the easily forgotten Furtive Pygmy. They challenged and brought an end to the dragons, and ushered in a golden age called the Age of Fire. But now the flames are fading. The world suffers through endless nights, and mysterious brands called the Dark Sign are cursing humans. These brands turn the victim into an immortal undead, but dooms them to eventual madness as they lose their humanity. The undead are captured and locked away in an asylum in the north to await the eventual end of the world.
Players take the role of one of these undead as they break out of the Undead Asylum, and begin a quest to ring the twin Bells of Awakening, which are prophesized to reveal the fate and purpose of the undead.
DarkSouls is very similar to its predecessor, DemonsSouls, both mechanically and thematically. However, there are some significant changes that drastically change the pace and rhythm of the game. Gone is the hub world and level select, instead replaced with a huge nonlinear world, with branching paths and hidden passages. There are also factions to join. Players can enter covenants with each of the four lords mentioned above, as well as several other factions. These factions have an extremely varied amount of benefits, and can affect the story, what bosses you fight, and how you interact with other players online.
It is also hard. [[NintendoHard Oh so very]] and [[MemeticMutation infamously]] hard. DarkSouls is quite possibly the most difficult and absolutely unforgiving game to ever come out in 2011. As the TagLine says, PrepareToDie. '''''A lot.'''''
DarkSouls was released on September 22, 2011 to rave reviews and high sales in Japan, significantly higher than its predecessor DemonsSouls. It was then released in North America and Europe on the 4th and 7th of October 2011 respectively for the PS3 and [[XBoxThreeSixty Xbox360]].
----
!!The game provides examples of:
* AbsurdlyHighLevelCap: It is extremely difficult to get to max level through normal play, and unnecessary as well. To put things in perspective, your starting level is between 1 and 6 depending on your chosen class, you gain a level each time you increase a stat by one point, and if you grind every stat to 99, your max level will be between 709 and 713. It's perfectly possible to finish the game without even reaching 100.
* AffablyEvil: [[spoiler:Patches.]]
* TheAgeless: The Everlasting Dragons. The Gods. Undead who have a steady supply of humanity.
* AlwaysChaoticEvil: Demons, naturally.
* AlwaysNight: [[spoiler:The fate of Anor Londo should the player attack Gwynevere. Oddly enough, it actually becomes relatively ''safer'' after doing this.]]
* AncientConspiracy: The game's plot has you walking into one.
* AndIMustScream: The eventual and inevitable fate of all those cursed with the Darksign and [[spoiler:whoever links the Fire.]]
* AnimalMotifs: The Four Knights of Gwyn each had their own unique animal motif.
** Abysswalker Astorias is associated with Wolves, with his Wolf Ring and Great Grey Wolf Sif guarding his grave.
** Dragon Slayer Ornstein is associated with Lions, with his Leo Ring and Lion shaped armor.
** Hawkeye Ghough is associated with Hawks, with his Hawk Ring, title, and affinity for sniping and marksmanship.
** Lord's Blade Ciaran is associated with Hornets, with his(her) Hornet Ring and deadly affinity for with the dagger.
* AnimatedArmor: The deadly Black Knights. [[spoiler:Their bodies were burned to ash when Gwyn tried to link the fire.]] Possibly the Iron Golem as well.
* AnyoneCanDie: Just about any NPC could die, either at one another's hands or due to you killing them. This even applies to some merchants/trainers, so watch out! Most named merchants wander off and become hollow after purchasing everything they have
* ArmorIsUseless: Averted; unlike in DemonsSouls, heavy armor now has the advantage of Poise, meaning your actions (including healing) aren't as easily interrupted by damage.
* ArtificialStupidity: This shows up from time to time, especially in areas with precarious footing like Blighttown. You'll be travelling along when you'll randomly gain souls from some enemy that accidentally fell off a ledge to it's death.
* AtopAMountainOfCorpses: Seath the Scaleless on a pile of dead dragons in the prologue.
** Nito ''is'' a living mountain of corpses.
* AttackOfThe50FootWhatever: An absurd amount of 50 foot creatures want you dead. These include: wolves, dragons, piles of corpses, gargoyles, giant armored boars, and BUTTERFLIES!
* AwesomeButImpractical: The Stone armor set can be gained relatively early and provides excellent defense, but its sheer weight makes it very difficult to travel around in. [[spoiler: Also Gwyn's sword can be this, considering it's only available in NG+ yet has relatively bad stats]]
* AxCrazy: Undead that have Hollowed. Lautrec. The Darkwraiths.
* BackFromTheDead: Those afflicted with the Darksign, repeatedly.
* {{Badass}}: Both the main character ''and'' the player by the end of the game.
* BadassBoast: Several [=NPC=]s have some type of BadassBoast should the player make them hostile.
* BadassLongcoat: The Wanderer's Coat and the Black Cleric Robe.
* BadassNormal: Solaire of Astora. All of his items drops point out that none of his abilities came from magical equipment, but from pure training.
* BaldOfEvil: [[spoiler:Patches is as bald and cowardly as ever.]]
* BeautyToBeast: Quelaag and her sister, sometimes called Quelaan.
* BecauseYouWereNiceToMe: Lady of the Darkling is fervently loyal to Gwyndolin because he accepted her as a follower despite her hideous appearance, providing her purpose in life. Eingyi is similarly devoted to Quelaag's sister because she sucked the deadly Blightpuss from his body, saving his life but becoming deathly sick in the process. Also, it's possible for Maiden Rhea to become friendly towards the player should the player [[spoiler:save her from the Tomb of the Giants after her escorts all either hollowed or abandoned her.]]
* BeefGate: Several areas that are accessible early in the game such as New Londo Ruins, Tomb of the Giants and Demon Ruins are populated by powerful enemies or guarded by a tough boss, [[DiscOneNuke but a skilled low-level player can reap substantial rewards]] should they overcome the challenge.
* BeneathTheEarth: A large part of the game is spent underground exploring in some way or another. Whether it is exploring the ruins of New Londo and Lost Izalith, the horrors of the Tomb of the Giants, discovering the Great Hollow and the Ash Lake.
* BigBadassWolf: [[http://i123.photobucket.com/albums/o312/oracrest/Dark%20Souls/14-noscale.jpg Great Grey Wolf Sif somehow manages to be]] just as intimidating as the more gruesome monsters. He can even ''[[CutlassBetweenTheTeeth wield swords!]]''
* BittersweetEnding: The [[spoiler:''To Link the Fire'']] ending. Sure, you've [[spoiler:pushed back the darkness, but the protagonist's ultimate reward for everything is to burn in the kiln until the cycle eventually repeats itself.]]
** [[spoiler:It is however not clear whether this ending can really be considered the "good ending." There are several hints that this outcome is one big XanatosGambit orchestrated by Gwyndolin and maybe Gwyn and Frampt, serving to retain their power by artificially prolonging the Age of Fire, but not helping humanity in general. It's the option that transitions more smoothly into the NewGamePlus (and NG++ and beyond), however...]]
** [[spoiler:The Dark Lord ending isn't completely positive despite how awesome the whole concept is. Most of the important characters (both divine and human) sacrificed a great deal to drive back the darkness and keep it at bay. It comes back if the player chooses to become the Dark Lord and the game doesn't offer any hint that ''humans'' will get used to it, though Undead certainly can.]]
* BlackKnight: A few of these are scattered throughout the game, even in the early areas. These guys are ''tough,'' often very swift and strong; they don't respawn, so the game basically uses them as minibosses. They're usually off the main path, so encountering them is optional, but there's a chance of them dropping something powerful and awesome if you do manage to destroy them.
** A summonable phantom Black Iron Tarkus and a black phantom Kirk of Thorns also count. Tarkus is so powerful that he can practically solo the boss you can summon him against, while Kirk is the only black phantom who attacks you more than once in the game. As far as mooks go, the Darkwraith Knights in New Londo Ruins are a MagicKnight version of this.
** Interestingly enough, Solaire of Astora could also count. He isn't gruff, dishonorable. In fact, he is one of the most friendly characters in the game. That said, his real identity and nature are some of the most hotly debated topics in the fandom.
* BladderOfSteel: There is no pausing, so you'll need to park your character in a (relatively) safe location if you want to take a break without quitting entirely.
** Not to mention that your world can be invaded by other players so long as you have online connectivity, so leaving your character idle means risking being invaded while you're not there to defend yourself. The only in-game situation where you're 100% safe is when resting at a bonfire.
* BlatantLies: Sure, [[spoiler:Patches]], you just get these ''urges'' to [[spoiler:kick people down to pits and loot their bodies afterwards]], [[SarcasmMode it's not your fault.]]
* BlindIdiotTranslation: The game suffers from numerous translation and grammatical errors, mostly in the item descriptions. There are two worst offenders: the Tiny Being's Ring and the Pendant. Both are initial gifts you can choose. In the gift menu, the Ring claims to regenerate health (a massive boon to any character) when in reality it simply increases your character's maximum Hit Points by a small amount. The Pendant has the right description in the gift menu, but someone copied the Sunlight Medal description to the Pendant, leading both items to share the description of the Sunlight Medal.
** It was published by Namco-Bandai, meaning they handled the English text translation. It doesn't help that they are known to out-source for independent translators from time to time either.
*** The notes for the 1.04/1.05 patch state that there was translation fixes for the English subtitles. All it fixed was the Engrish text that shows up when you light a bonfire, defeat a boss, become human, touch your blood-smear, et cetera.
*** And, ironically enough, the 1.04/1.05 brought with it ''more'' translation errors, though thankfully minor ones. Some of the loading screen's descriptions have become mixed up e.g. the "Homeward" miracle displays the description of the "force" miracle.
* BlownAcrossTheRoom: Certain enemy attacks and several special attacks of various weapons, most notably the Dark Knight weapons.
* BodyHorror: [[http://darksoulswiki.wikispaces.com/file/view/Pods.jpg/206775172/Pods.jpg The Egg-Burdened.]] The Darksign itself could count as an example. Also Chaos Witch Quelaag and her sister.
* BoobyTrap: Sometimes, there are big nasty boulders thrown down staircases, or pressure plates that trigger arrow storms.
** Somewhat played with, as a savvy player can trick their enemies into a booby trap.
** Sen's Fortress is like a convention center for these. Every hall has either giant swinging axes, arrow slits linked to pressure plates, or giant boulders snaking throughout maze-like corridors. There is even an elevator shaft with spikes at the top should you neglect to get off at your stop.
* BoringButPractical: The combination of a spear and a shield is neither the fanciest or the most destructive of styles, but the long reach and the ability to block even when attacking is about as safe as you can get in this game.
* BossBattle: DarkSouls is host to a variety of bosses just itching to stick their foot up your ass.
** FlunkyBoss: The Capra Demon and his two dogs. Also, Nito, First of the Dead.
** DegradedBoss: The Taurus Demon, the Capra Demon, the Bell Gargoyles, Pinwheel and the Moonlight Butterfly can all be encountered as normal enemies later in the game.
** DualBoss: Belfry gargoyles. Smough and Ornstein. The latter duo also manage to be ThatOneBoss in the game designed to kill you [[spoiler:because they are also SequentialBoss]].
** DuelBoss: [[spoiler:Gwyn, Lord of Cinder. Although you can summon Solaire of Astora to fight Gwyn alongside you if you meet him throughout the game and prevent him from going insane in his search of his "own sun" by killing the Chaos Bugs outside of Lost Izalith.]]
** GetBackHereBoss: Gwyndolin.
** HopelessBossFight: The first battle against Seath the Scaleless.
** MiniBoss: Plenty show up as unique, nonrespawning enemies at various points in the game.
** MirrorBoss: While not true bosses, the Black Phantom minibosses basically operate like preset, AI controlled Player Characters.
** BossInMookClothing: Black Knights when you first encounter them. Inverted with the Taurus Demon and Gargoyle Demon later in the game.
** PuzzleBoss: [[spoiler:Bed of Chaos.]]
** RecurringBoss: [[spoiler:The Asylum Demon.]]
*** The Black Phantom Kirk of Thorns will show up to harass you if you're human three times in the game.
** SkippableBoss: Eight of the twenty-two bosses are completely optional. With SequenceBreaking that number goes up even higher.
** TeleportSpam: Gwyndolin and Pinwheel.
** WakeUpCallBoss: The Capra Demon.
** WolfPackBoss: The Four Kings
* BottomlessPits: All over the place, and one of the most common reasons of death in the game.
* BreakableWeapons: All equipment is subject to wear and tear, though it's easy enough to repair everything. Crystal equipment is especially bad since it can't be repaired and has very low durability in the first place. The only exception is the Dragon Tooth, a legendary hammer that used to be the tooth of one of the everlasting dragons. A few enemies use attacks with the nasty side effect of breaking your equipment.
* BreathWeapon: Several enemies, such as the Gargoyles and Seath the Scaleless. And if you join the Path of the Dragon, you can have one too.
* BritishAccents: The English voiceovers of the game has a variety of them.
* CallBack: The game may have a different continuity from ''DemonsSouls'', but it is littered with call backs to both ''DemonsSouls'' and the KingsField series.
** The "Armored Zombie" enemies's move set is almost identical to the dredgelings from ''DemonsSouls''
** The Black Knights are basically the red and blue eyed knights from ''DemonsSouls'', [[BeyondTheImpossible except nastier.]]
** The Sword of Moonlight, a regular InfinityPlusOneSword from KingsField and a veteran from DemonsSouls returns here.
** The Asylum Demon is basically Vanguard from DemonsSouls.
** You encounter a huge red dragon guarding a bridge with a tendency for roasting everything on it if you dare to cross, just like in DemonsSouls.
** The Belfry Gargoyles are very similar to the Maneaters even down to the DuelBoss aspect and the arena surrounded by [[BottomlessPit Bottomless Pits]].
** Blight Town is basically the Valley of Defilement. Right down to the blood spitting mosquitoes.
** The viscous and fast moving dogs return from DemonsSouls as well.
** The Skeletons basically have the same move set as the skeletons from ''DemonsSouls''
** The snake men look very similar to the snake men in King's Field 4.
** The Batwing Demons are a call back to the Gargoyles from the Tower of Latria, right down to them capturing you and carrying you through the air to a new location.
** The Phalanx are a call back to the Hoplites that fought with Phalanx from DemonsSouls.
** The yellow robes worn by Xanthous King Jeremiah, especially the headdress/crown, is one to the yellow robes of the Old Monk and the Monk's Head Collar from ''DemonsSouls''. The descriptions of the robes also claim he was a "legendary exile", just as the Monk had been.
* CameBackStrong: Those branded with the Darksign spontaneously return to life, effectively making them immortal. However, they grow closer and closer to becoming a mindless zombie called a Hollow every time. The protagonist uses a magical essence often called "humanity" to reverse this process, making it more of a case of being ''CursedWithAwesome''...
* CameBackWrong: ...though it is still only delaying the inevitable.
** [[spoiler:Of course, there's a ''reason'' it seems to take you so long to simply become a mindless hollow, and Kaathe clues you in to it later in the game.]]
* CameraLockOn: Returns from ''DemonsSouls'', finicky as ever, though the recent patch has helped somewhat.
* CanonWelding: The scaleless dragon Seath makes an appearance, who was also one of two major deities in the ''[[KingsField King's Field]]'' series. [[spoiler:Patches from ''DemonsSouls'']] also puts in an appearance.
* CardboardPrison: Northern Asylum lets inmates keep their starting gear...for some reason. Though you do begin the game with just your clothing, the gift you picked, and a broken sword.
** [[FridgeBrilliance Makes sense if you think about it.]] The undead are more than likely just transported and thrown in as-is, their possessions just left alone. Once there, they either rot in their cells or fight off both each other or the Hollowed until they become Hollowed themselves. It explains the armed enemies found within the Asylum.
*** And the Asylum Demons certainly don't make it easy to get out. Even after getting better equipment than a broken sword they are a tough fight[[hottip:*:Successfully using the ledge just above it for a DynamicEntry makes it a bit easier]], and you even find one knight who apparently got trashed by the boss on the way.
* CatsAreMean: The Great Felines.
* ChainmailBikini: Like DemonsSouls, this is mostly averted, as all of the armor is now unisex. You're only going to see boob-curves if your character is wearing something flexible and form-fitting like leather armor (even then, it's still sensible).
** The major exception to this is the "Hollow Warrior" armor set, which really doesn't cover that much at all. The pants/shoe component is just one shoe (and no pants!) and the chest armor covers just the shoulders and upper chest. It doesn't look that skimpy on a zombie, but on a healthy human female it's ''hilarious''. Granted, it's [[VendorTrash supposed to look like crap]].
* CharacterCustomization: You're given a choice of ten classes, eight "gifts" that can be added to your starting equipment, and have access to a powerful appearance editor with more options than you can shake a stick at (even though you're hollow most of the time, and even then, you're probably wearing a face obscuring headpiece)
* CherryTapping: It is possible, although tedious, to defeat the tutorial area's Asylum Demon using only the sword hilt or your bare hands instead of running away as intended, though one can speed up the process by choosing the Black Firebomb as an initial gift. [[spoiler:The game even rewards you with a weapon should you manage.]]
* TheChessmaster: Gwyndolin. [[spoiler:Completely outdone by the Pygmy, however, who set this entire chain of events into motion ''ages'' ago.]]
* ChromeChampion: The efftct of the Iron Flesh pyromancy.
* ChronicBackstabbingDisorder: [[spoiler:Patches' betrayal spree continues from [[DemonsSouls the previous game.]]]] Some dialogue implies that Shiva of the East was also [[WhatCouldHaveBeen originally to have this trait]] (and cut content confirms it), [[AbortedArc but it never goes anywhere]].
* ColorCodedForYourConvenience: Instead of just having Black and Blue Phantoms, the color will change depending on which covenant you are in during Online Play.
* CompanionCube: The Male Undead Merchant has a wooden basket named Yulia, which he constantly pets and talks to.
* CompetitiveBalance: Each character class is given the chance to thrive in the world of DarkSouls.[[hottip: *: This is just in the beginning; during the game you can build your character to whatever playstyle you like best.]]
** GlassCannon: The Bandit, The Hunter
** FragileSpeedster: The Thief, The Wanderer
** MagicKnight: The Pyromancer, The Cleric
** JackOfAllStats: The Deprived
** MightyGlacier: The Warrior
** SquishyWizard: The Sorcerer
** StoneWall: The Knight
* TheComputerIsACheatingBastard: If your attacks hit a wall, they'll bounce right off. If your enemies' attacks hit a wall...they'll clip right through.
* ConvectionSchmonvection: You won't get burned even when standing next to a glowing lava river... unless you try to jump over it [[SchmuckBait because there's a shiny piece of loot on the other side.]]
* CounterAttack: Parrying returns from DemonsSouls, but has been made a bit easier to execute. Certain enemies can also do this to ''you'' if you're not careful.
** A well-timed normal hit after blocking an enemy attack may also cause additional damage.
* CrapSackWorld: The world of Dark Souls is a pretty bleak place to live. For starters, the First Flame is on the cusp of dying. When this happens all fire will die and there is absolutely no telling what will happen to the world other than the gods losing their power and possibly going hollow. In addition to that, a curse called the Dark Sign has absolutely ravaged the humans of the world. This curse makes its victim undead, allowing them to return to life after death. However, as they die they lose some of their humanity, eventually becoming [[AxCrazy mindless, violent hollows.]] Many nations have [[ZombieApocalypse collapsed]] because of this curse, including Lordran, the setting of the game. Undead that still have their senses are [[FantasticRacism brutally mistreated]], hunted and sacrificed to maintain the First Flame. Most of the [[TheGodsMustBeLazy gods are MIA]], although it doesn’t seem like [[JerkassGods they would]] or could do anything even if they weren’t. It really seems as though the world is on the brink of ending. And that is just the start of it. This doesn’t cover the vast amount of [[OurMonstersAreDifferent deadly]] [[CompleteMonster monsters]], [[OurDemonsAreDifferent demons]], [[CruelAndUnusualDeath terrible ways to die]], [[BodyHorror the]] [[AndIMustScream torturous]] [[FateWorseThanDeath fates]] of [[TearJerker many]] characters, and [[AncientConspiracy the multi-millennia long conspiracy]] and battle to control the fate of the world.
* CriticalEncumbranceFailure: Averted. There is no weight limit on your inventory like in DemonsSouls, and the weight of your equipment allows for several degrees to mobility that fall between the extremes of "like a ninja" and "like a limply thrown brick."
* CruelAndUnusualDeath: Oh, yes. Most enemies have special attacks that will end your life in the most brutal of ways.
* CursedWithAwesome: Bearing the Darksign means your character ''is incapable of staying dead'', through there are drawbacks. See CameBackStrong and CameBackWrong above for details.
** The actual "Cursed" status effect is pretty horrible (halving hp every time you die while cursed), but cursed beings and weapons are the only things that can hurt the otherwise invincible ghosts in the New Londo Ruins. There is no downside at all to using Transient Curses (which inflict a temporary and totally harmless curse on you) or "Cursed" weapons.
* CuteMonsterGirl: Quelaag and her sister, leaning very heavily towards the "monster" side of things. Priscilla counts as well.
* CuteWitch: Witch Beatrice has an outfit that makes her ''exactly'' this; it even shows off a bit of female curves when most armors in the game don't. [[spoiler:This makes [[PlayerPunch discovering her fate]] all the more painful.]]
* DeadpanSnarker: The Crestfallen Warrior.
* DeathIsASlapOnTheWrist: Completely averted. You lose all your souls and humanity, and if you die while trying to get back to it you lose all the souls from your first death. As well as this when you die you go back to the last bonfire you rested at, all enemies respawn and you revert back to hollow form if you died as a human which may result in the need to waste more humanity.
* DeadToBeginWith: The player character starts off as an undead.
* DecoyLeader: [[spoiler:Gwynevere]]
* DefectorFromDecadence: [[spoiler:One of Gwyn's greatest knights, Sir Artorias, abandoned the gods and formed a covenant with Kaathe and the Darkwraiths.]]
* {{Determinator}}: The undead hero, and by extension the player controlling him or her.
* DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu: By the end of the game [[spoiler: you've killed almost every established {{Badass}} in the universe, including a couple who are pretty much gods.]]
* DieChairDie: Occasionally, the player may come across some breakable items that are just in the way. It's a lot easier to just smash the things to bits than go around them.
* DifficultButAwesome: Par for the course being a FROM Software creation.
---> ''[[http://ps3.ign.com/articles/119/1196184p1.html Truth is, Dark Souls isn't fun 95% of the time.]] It's the other 5% that you play for. Things are so incredibly difficult that even the tiniest victories bring you close to tears of joy and relief.''
* DifficultySpike: Aside from the danger of getting cursed in the Depths, Blighttown is noticeably more dangerous than the areas before it.
* DiminishingReturnsForBalance: The higher the attribute, the less you benefit from increasing it further. Going above 40 or so in a single attribute is generally a waste unless you have a specific plan in mind.
* DirtyCoward: [[spoiler:"Trusty" Patches, of course.]]
* DiscOneNuke: There are several powerful weapons available early on in the game if you know the special conditions required for obtaining them, the Drake Sword is arguably the most famous because of its [[RazorWind special power,]] Though the special power depletes the weapon's durability at a colossal rate, and the weapon loses effectiveness compared to weapons with stat scaling as the game progresses.
** If a player starts with the Master Key and spends their souls to level up appropriately they can start Undead Burg with the Astora's Straight Sword, a weapon that does about 180 damage when using it at the lowest level possible (compared to the 80ish damage from the usual starting weapons) and the Dragon Crest Shield, which is really good against fire damage. That is, if they don't mind doing a suicide run to steal treasure from an [[{{Dracolich}} undead dragon]] that can [[OneHitKill one shot]] them. This is probably the better alternative to the Drake Sword because the damage from Astora's Straight Sword scales with your stats, and you're prepared to go into the Catacombs if need be.
* DoorToBefore: Quite a lot of them; even the initial area, the Undead Burg, is surprisingly intricate.
* DoppelgangerAttack: Pinwheel.
* DoNotDropYourWeapon: Get gnawed on by the Gaping Dragon? Get your throat slit by an undead thief? Get stomped on by a giant? You aren't dropping your sword and shield.
* DownerEnding: ''Both'' of the endings can be considered this, since [[spoiler:if you choose to link the fire, you're falling for Frampt and Gywn's XanatosGambit and you're only going to delay the inevitable while Gwyndolin gets to rule Lordran however he sees fit. If you choose to start the Age of Dark, humanity as a whole is most likely ''screwed''. So really, it's just a matter of choosing whether to let the remaining humans live in slavery to the gods or leave them hanging in the dark.]]
* DroppedABridgetOnHim: [[spoiler:Gwyndolin is a man who was raised as woman because his powers are related to the moon instead of the sun.]]
* DuelingGames: Despite being a month apart, ''Dark Souls'' has a rival in ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim]]'', with both being the top [=RPGs=] coming out in 2011's fourth quarter. Fans of both series groaned at news outlets trying to play up this conflict in spite of the games' numerous differences.
* TheDungAges: Again, the setting is very similar to DemonsSouls. TheDungAges aspect is most evident in the Sewer and Swamp level.
* DungeonBypass: There are a variety of ways to skip massive amounts of the game through the Master key gift and sequence breaking.
* DysfunctionJunction: The cast by and large is more messed up than they appear, even if they are nice people overall.
* EarnYourHappyEnding: Like its predecessor, Dark Souls is going to make you work your ass off to make it to the end. One of the game trailers puts it best.
-->''PREPARE TO DIE. FIGHT. STRUGGLE. ENDURE. SUFFER. LIVE''
** Although what the players count as "happy" is up to debate, since both of the games endings have a nice helping of FridgeHorror to go with their silver linings. That being said, slogging through the storyline is needed to unlock the various NewGamePlus levels which are a whole new level of fun- as with ''DemonsSouls'', the main story effectively just backstory.
* EasyExp: The Dragonhead Stone glitch. Using the fire breath technique, turning around and quickly using a consumable allows you to infinitely use the consumable, even after you've exhausted your supply of it. This includes items that grant souls. This was fixed in patch 1.04.
* TheEeyore: The Crestfallen Warrior is about as cheery as his counterpart in the previous game, even sharing the same joyless laugh. Eventually, he shakes off his melancholy after seeing what you've been able to accomplish, takes up his sword again, [[spoiler:and promptly Hollows on the outskirts of New Londo.]] The Crestfallen Merchant is no cheerier.
* EldritchAbomination: Several stand between you and the Bells of Awakening.
* EmoteAnimation: Aside from writing messages on the ground, the small list of gestures such as waving or bowing is by design the only way players can directly communicate with each other in-game.
* EncounterBait: There is a thrown item that lures certain types of enemies wherever it lands. Very useful around environmental hazards like ledges and open flames!
* EndlessCorridor: [[spoiler: Gwyndolin]] fights you in one.
* EnergyEconomy: This is pretty much how souls work. You can use them up (energy) or sell them to other people, who also probably use them as energy for themselves.
* EscapeRope: The Homeward miracle and the [[StealthPun Homeward Bone]] items allow you to instantly warp to the last bonfire rested with all your belongings intact.
* EverythingFades: Averted, areas stay littered with broken bits of scenery and enemies' ragdoll corpses. Only bosses and elites disintegrate.
* EverythingsBetterWithPrincesses: Princess Gwynevere and Dusk of Oolacile.
* EverythingsCoolerWithLava: The Demon Ruins and Lost Izalith. Chaos pyromancies leave lava on the ground.
* EvilEye: The Red Eye Orb allows players to invade and kill others, while the Eyes of Death let players curse others' worlds and generate stronger versions of typical enemies. The Ring of the Evil Eye is also said to contain a demon of the name. It lets you heal by killing people.
* EvilOnlyHasToWinOnce: Actually, it's much more morally ambiguous, but [[spoiler:even if you link the Fire, Kaathe only needs to wait for it to wither away again in order to usher in the Age of Dark.]]
* EvilSorcerer: Seath the Scaleless is a dragon credited with inventing sorcery. He's an insane wreck in the present after vainly trying to solve the mystery of the scales of immortality that every dragon ''but'' him possessed.
* ExclusiveEnemyEquipment: Numerous weapons and some pieces of armor can only be found as [[RandomlyDrops random drops]] from the enemies that use them.
* ExperiencePoints: You acquire souls by killing enemies or consuming certain items, which can either be spent to level up or used as currency.
* FactionCalculus: There are about nine covenants the player can swear themselves to the game. [[http://darksoulswiki.wikispaces.com/Covenants Here's a list.]]
* FallenHero: [[spoiler:The renowned knight, Sir Artorias, formed a covenant with the creatures of the abyss.]]
* FanDisservice: Try stripping off your clothes/armour whilst Hollow. Go on. I won't judge you.
* {{Fanservice}}: Try stripping off your clothes/armour while not in Hollow form. Or wearing Hollow armour.
** Quelaag provides both {{Fanservice}} ''and'' FanDisservice, considering she's half-naked human woman, half-hideous giant spider.
* FantasticRacism: Although it isn't emphasised much in-game, in the backstory there is such a fear and hatred of Undead that they are hunted down and imprisoned. In some cases, this is presumably to stop them from harming people should they turn Hollow - however, Petrus (when initially spoken to) doesn't seem too keen on the player for being Undead and requests that the player keep their distance, and some of the game's cut content outright states that the Way of White admonishes the Undead.
* FatAndSkinny: Smough and Ornstein.
* FatBastard: Smough doesn't show much respect for his fallen comrade should you choose to defeat Ornstein first. Course, he wasn't that much better in the past (see ImAHumanitarian below). Even Frampt knows that Smough is a bastard, going so far as to offer ''one soul'' if you try to feed him Smough's Soul.
* FateWorseThanDeath: Getting hit with a "curse" attack by a basilisk or other petrifying enemy. It turns your body to stone, killing you instantly, and where-ever you revive, you're stuck at half health until you get cured. Also, becoming hollow and [[spoiler:linking the fire.]]
* FieldOfBlades: The gravesite of Knight Artorias is a large, grassy field, the center of which is marked by his [[{{BFS}} greatsword]] and a large number of gravestones and regular-sized swords sticking up from the ground. It's not explained who else is buried there, though it is probably the resting places of the Forest Hunter covenant members whose spirits guard the site.
** The Gravelord Sword Dance and Gravelord Greatsword Dance miracles obtained from Gravelord Nito should you join the Gravelord Servant covenant can count as a combination of this and StormOfBlades.
* FilkSong: By ''TheEscapist'''s Gavin Dunne, [[http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/miracle-of-sound/5396-You-Died-Dark-Souls "You Died"]].
* FlavorText: Most weapons, keys, and other equipment have a lot of flavor text on them. Unique souls from bosses will often explain parts of the backstory you wouldn't understand otherwise. Hell, the only way to even attempt to piece the backstory together is to try and gather every piece of equipment, find a safe spot to park it, and start writing.
* FishingForMooks: At times an essential tactic.
* ForestRanger: The Forest Hunters, particularly Pharis.
* ForMassiveDamage: Parrying and backstabs return from DemonsSouls.
* GangUpOnTheHuman: The Hollows somehow know not to attack each other, just ''you'' and any other Undead that still has his or her mind. (They sense the humanity?)
* GentleGiant: The giant blacksmith of Anor Londo is better at smithing than talking, but he's happy about the company and perhaps the nicest NPC in the game.
* TheGhost: [[spoiler:The Furtive Pygmy and Gwyn's Four Great Knights, excluding Ornstein.]]
* GirlishPigtails: One of the female hairstyles. Apparently a female designer insisted that they be included.
* GlasgowGrin[=/=]CheshireCatGrin: Alvina and the other Great Felines.
* GodEmperor: Gwyn, Lord of Sunlight.
* GodivaHair: Chaos Witch Quelaag, and her sister, the Daughter of Chaos. ([[BarbieDollAnatomy Not that they have any nipples to cover up...]])
* GodzillaThreshold: The Darkwraiths were considered to be such an enormous threat to Gwyn that [[spoiler:in order to keep them from spreading out of New Londo, he had a flood unleashed upon the entire city, killing everyone in it, and sealing them away.]]
* {{Golem}}: The Iron Golem, animated by the bone of an everlasting dragon.
* GradualRegeneration: While a health regeneration ring is no longer available, one can still accomplish temporary regeneration through a Miracle.
** Leeroy's Shield has this power.
* GraveClouds: Pretty much the entire world is like this.
* [[spoiler: GreyAndGreyMorality: While it may seem that the sides are cut-and-dry, discovering Kaathe shows that Gwyn is not quite as pure as he seems and that Frampt hasn't exactly been truthful with the player - although, [[LeaveNoSurvivors considering]] the [[VampiricDraining perks]] [[YouHaveFailedMe of his]] Covenant and the fact that Lordran was once a much better place to live than it [[CrapSackWorld is now]], it is unlikely that Kaathe is really as unfairly prosecuted as he claims. The true 'moral' decision seems to be between embracing or fighting the darkness rather than behaving a certain way.]]
* GrievousHarmWithABody: The inhabitants of Blightown aren't choosy with their weapons; some of them will happily smack you with a decaying corpse.
* GrimReaper: Nito is effectively this. If you use the Gold-Hemmed Black Set and/or the Dark set and a scythe, you can rock the reaper look.
* GuideDangIt: While the Covenant system is less vague than the Tendency system of DemonsSouls, the game leaves a great deal unexplained. Not all covenants give any immediately obvious benefits, some of them are very well hidden and [[LostForever one can even be permanently missed,]] requiring you to defeat a semi-hidden boss before a certain plot point which locks you out of it until [[NewGamePlus New Game+.]]
* HalfHumanHybrids: [[spoiler:Priscilla the half-dragon.]]
** [[spoiler:The Chaos Witch Quelaag and her sister the Daughter of Chaos are both half-hideous-lava-spider, half-gorgeous-naked-women. Not that they were born that way.]]
** The Player can become a half-dragon hybrid should they rank up the Path of the Dragon covenant.
* HammerSpace: Any weapons you equip or switch to appear out of thin air, no matter how massive they are.
* HandWave: The game explains the ability to assist other players clear areas and bosses you've already beaten in your own game as time distortion and leaves it at that.
* HealingCheckpoint: The bonfires.
* HealthDamageAsymmetry: Averted, most normal enemies go down in just a few hits, but so does the player.
* HeroOfAnotherStory: Most of the [=NPC=]s are this to a degree, though Solaire and Siegmeyer are the most notable. They're largely going on their own personal adventures in Lordran at the same time as the PlayerCharacter, who bumps into them from time to time.
* HighlyVisibleNinja: Averted with Shiva's bodyguard who is semi-invisible at least. Played straight with the painting guards.
* HintSystem: The Orange Guidance Soapstone allows you to leave messages for other players. Averted in that players can leave purposefully misleading or outright false messages, like writing "Jump down here!" in front of a ''BottomlessPit''.
** Keys, once you find them, often have a description that gives you a hint on where they are meant to be used and what may lie beyond. One for the Undead Burg, for example, warns you of the dogs of the Capra Demon.
* HitAndRunTactics: Essential for most powerful enemies and bosses.
* HitboxDissonance: Thoroughly abused in Anor Londo where most players that remember enemy placement behind walls use long weapons to damage them from behind walls. Naturally, [[OhCrap the enemy can do the same]]. Also the case with Havel The Rock if you try to kill him from behind the Darkroot Basin door. Beware one-hit kills.
* HopeSpot: The "Bartholomew" trailer has one close to the end. During the final part of the song snippet used in the trailer, the [[PrepareToDie tagline]] pops up word by word. It then shows the PC getting roasted by a dragon while five other words quickly flash on the screen. ''Fight. Struggle. Endure. Suffer. '''''LIVE.'''''''
* HotSkittyOnWailordAction: [[spoiler:The only possible reason as to why Crossbreed Priscilla[[hottip: *: half-dragon, half-giant/human/god/whatever]] could possibly exist.]]
* {{Hulkspeak}}: The giant blacksmith in Anor Londo isn't very good at talking, but he does appear to be at least somewhat intelligent.
* HyperspaceArsenal: There's no limit on how much junk you carry around other than your patience for scrolling through long menus of worthless Hollow armor. (Your weight limit is for the stuff equipped on your body). If that gets tedious but you don't want to throw anything away permanently, you can also get a "bottomless box" to throw stuff into.
* IAmWho: Massive spoilers. [[spoiler:There are two possible interpretations. In the course of the game, ringing the Twin Bells of Awakening will make Kingseeker Frampt appear, telling the player that he is looking for the successor of Gwyn, who would only appear if both bells have been rung. However, if you pledge allegiance to the Darkwraith Covenant, the Primordial Serpent Kaathe reveals that your ancestor was in fact the Furtive Pygmy and that you are the rightful successor to the Pygmy. The former is a lie. Gwyndolin is continuing his father's wishes to prevent the rise of the Dark Lord, but wants to use the Chosen Undead to replace Gwyn and rekindle the First Flame so he can rule the Third Age of Fire how he wants to. The latter is the truth, as one of Pygmy's descendants is foretold to become the Dark Lord and start the Age of Dark.]]
* IDontLikeTheSoundOfThatPlace: Undead Burg, Blighttown, Demon Ruins, Lost Izalith, The Abyss, Tomb of Giants, etc...
** Basically, almost all of Lordran.
* ImAHumanitarian: Executioner Smough used the ground bones of his victims as spice for his food, appalling the Four Knights (including his buddy Ornstein). The Butcher enemies are also mentioned in flavour text to be cannibals.
* ImDyingPleaseTakeMyMacGuffin: Oscar, Knight of Astora, who gives you the estus flask, the key to refight the Asylum Demon and his quest to ring the Bell of Awakening, though he was unaware there are two.
* ImprobableWeaponUser: Havel the Rock wields a huge ''tooth'' taken from one of the ancient dragons.
* IndyEscape: The giant cannonballs in Sen's Fortress.
* InsurmountableWaistHighFence: You can't climb ''anything''. This is part of what makes the city so maze-like.
* IronicNickname: [[spoiler:"Trusty" Patches]]
* ItemCrafting: Weapons and armor can be created and upgraded with the right materials and some help from a blacksmith NPC or a toolkit usable at bonfires.
* {{Jerkass}}: Lautrec, [[spoiler:Patches]], and while it isn't immediately evident, [[spoiler:Petrus]].
** This is pretty much the entire point of the Darkwraith, Gravelord Servant, and Forest Hunter covenants, which are all about killing players.
* JerkassGods
* JumpingOffTheSlipperySlope: [[spoiler:Petrus. If you don't buy all of Rhea's miracles after rescuing her from the Tomb of the Giants, then Petrus will assassinate her.]]
* KillItWithFire: What pyromancy is all about.
* TheLavaCavesOfNewYork: The Demon Ruins and Lost Izalith. They aren't ''that'' deep underground.
* LaserGuidedKarma: The Darkmoon Covenant is all about this, You may kill a person or two that you find expendable, abandon a covenant to join a better one, invade and kill another player for humanity or [[spoiler: Kill Gwynevere]] and think nothing of it after that. However, The Darkmoons are here to remind you that no bad deed goes unpunished. At anypoint as Human if you've sinned you are branded for a Darkmoon invasion by another player, and unlike a regular invasion, It will continue to happen even after you've killed the area boss. However it's avoidable if you absolve yourself by talking to Oswald at the top of the Undead Church and paying an amount of souls depending on your soul level and the amount of sins you committed before getting absolved. Unless of course you [[spoiler: Kill Gwynevere.]] [[MoralEventHorizon Then you are permanently branded as a sinner until New Game+]].
* LeapOfFaith: Some hidden pieces of loot require this to reach them. One can buy items (Prism Stones) specifically meant to check how far down the bottom of a pit is.
** This is also how your character escapes from The Painted World of Ariamis.
** You enter the Abyss via one of these as well. Unless you don't have the Covenant of Artorias ring equipped, in which case you enter your death.
* LifeDrain: The unique curved sword Server restores a small amount of your health with every hit. As does the Ring Of The Evil Eye with every kill. Inverted with the Chaos Blade that does damage to you for every successful strike.
* LockedDoor: Lots and lots of them. Many give way to convenient shortcuts as the player progresses.
* LuckBasedMission: If you don't kill Ceaseless Discharge the cheap way it can become this; sometimes it spams relatively easily avoidable attacks with massive openings to do damage, and other times it uses extremely dangerous screen-nuking attacks with a short recovery over and over (although turning yourself into a tank can get around this).
** Likewise for the Hellkite Dragon. If you choose to fight it directly in battle and not shooting it with a bow, your victory depends almost entirely on the how much the dragon wants to nuke the bridge with fire and in many cases cause instant death.
* MagicAndPowers
** BlackMagic: Sorcery spells
** PlayingWithFire: Pyromancy spells
** WhiteMagic: Miracle spells
** MagicWand: All three types of spells require the appropriate catalyst/talisman to cast.
** RitualMagic: In the sense that it's "Magic anyone can use", Pyromancy's effectiveness is unaffected by Intelligence or Faith scores. In the setting, most pyromancers come from a place called "the great Swamp" and it's seen as "uncivilized" magic.
** VancianMagic: All your spells have a set number of uses before you need to recharge them at a bonfire, replacing the mana bar from DemonsSouls.
* MagicKnight: Due to the classes being nothing more than starting status, hybrid builds are quite common. Some weapon upgrade paths even allow you to base weapon damage off intelligence or faith instead of strength and dexterity.
* MagikarpPower: If you fully upgrade a useless hilt of a broken sword, it can be combined with a certain boss' soul to create a unique weapon.
** In a subversion, you can upgrade any regular sword with that boss' soul and get a statistically worse version of the sword, but many players opt to do so because the degraded version of the sword has lower stat requirements and is one of the few weapons that will hit a ghost without you first being cursed.
** Several weapons have relatively low base damage but gain signficant bonuses from player stats making them more useful at higher levels.
* MedievalEuropeanFantasy: Returns from DemonsSouls.
* MegaNeko- Alvina and the Great Felines.
* MeaningfulName: Firelink Shrine.
* MemeticOutfit: The [[http://www.imgbase.info/images/safe-wallpapers/video_games/dark_souls/19912_dark_souls.jpg Elite Knight Set]]. It was featured heavily in advertisements, trailers, and official art for the game. In FanWorks it's effectively the official character design for the protagonist, perhaps because of the TheEveryman look to the armor.
* {{Metroidvania}}: While not a true example, the game's world structure is very similar to 3D {{Metroidvania}} titles like the original [[LegacyOfKain Soul Reaver.]] The game is a huge nonlinear map packed with also sorts of hidden areas and branching paths, and it is completely seamless and devoid of load screens (excluding death). As stated, it is not a true example because of the lack of permanent upgrades that open up new areas, instead replaced with finding keys to unlock new areas.
* MixAndMatchCritters: A variety of enemies are like this, most notably the Great Felines (they look like an unholy combination of a cat, a bear, and an alligator).
* MoreTeethThanTheOsmondFamily: '''[[http://i123.photobucket.com/albums/o312/oracrest/Dark%20Souls/05-noscale.jpg Jesus.]]''' To make it worse? '''It's a fucking dragon and the gaping maw is it's fucking ribcage!'''
* MultipleEndings
** [[spoiler:ShootTheShaggyDog: The ''Link The Fire'' ending, wherein the player is [[SenselessSacrifice sacrificed to the fire]] after the culmination of his trials until the whole damn thing eventually comes full circle again. Although this ending is like the good ending in ''DemonsSouls'', in which it gives an excuse for the constant NewGamePlus cycle.]]
** [[spoiler:StartOfDarkness: Literally and figuratively. The ''Dark Lord'' ending, wherein the player can decide not to light the final bonfire, engulfing the world in darkness once again. Although there is some debate over if this ending is truly evil.]]
* MultiPlatform: Published on both PS3 and Xbox 360 by Namco-Bandai in North America and Europe. (Self-published in Japan for PS3 only.)
* MythologyGag: Trailers show [[DemonsSouls a person in fluted armor facing evils from the depths of God knows where]].
** ''"[[DemonsSouls I died]] [[NintendoHard 3 times]] [[http://twitter.com/Filthierich/statuses/59005228665675776 just TRYING to post this ...]]"''
** [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eqaysjKcw-g This]] trailer, announcing the game's October release date is quite interesting. While most game trailers show the player doing cool, impossible things and kicking ass, this one shows no less than [[NintendoHard 7 on screen player deaths.]]
** The end of the E3 demo has the player fight one lone gargoyle as a boss fight. In the middle of the fight, [[ThisIsGonnaSuck it then promptly summons another of it's brethren to join the fray.]]
** The first boss you battle [[SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute looks like Vanguard.]]
** [[spoiler:Patches, of all people, makes a reappearance, [[SchmuckBait doing what he does best.]]]]
** [[spoiler:[[KingsField Seath]] makes an appearance.]]
* NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast: Great Grey Wolf Sif, Gravelord Nito, Dragon Slayer Ornstein, and Executioner Smough.
* NewGamePlus: Dark Souls is designed for these; the developers have implemented secrets that they don't expect players to find until their second or third time playing through the game!
* NintendoHard: Did we mention that it's hard? It's harder than ''DemonsSouls''! (But also more fair to the player.)
* NoFairCheating: In order to dissuade players from breaking the street sell date and playing the game early, Black Phantoms with [[OhCrap levels maxed in every stat]] have been released into the game and will kill premature buyers on sight.
** In Demon's Souls you could quit right before you died (By turning off the console) and you could reload the game without punishment, In Dark Souls, From Software made the game instantly autosave when you died.
** Many of the DiscOneNuke weapons, such as the Drake Sword, do not scale in effectiveness with your stats as they grow (or they scale rather poorly in comparison to other weapons you have). This means that they're strong when you first get them, but won't last you the entire game. You're going to have to work for those other cool weapons the ''hard'' way.
* NonMaliciousMonster: Priscilla. [[spoiler:Being forced to kill her (well, assuming you've already invaded her optional world and hit her for no reason) is quite a PlayerPunch.]]
* NoticeThis: Fallen bodies (either of your enemies, or other unfortunates who have passed on) with items to loot have a huge glowing soul-like aura above them. Treasure chests, by comparison, are practically camouflaged.
* NotSoDifferent: The Crestfallen Merchant believes the player and himself to be the same as the vile denizens of Sen's Fortress.
* OminousFog: As in ''DemonsSouls'', it serves as a gateway into boss battles and new areas.
* OneStatToRuleThemAll: Endurance is arguably the most useful attribute since it both increases Stamina which is useful regardless of playstyle and allows you to carry heavier armor and weapons by increasing your maximum equipment carry weight.
* OurDemonsAreDifferent: They're powerful, monstrous, AlwaysChaoticEvil creatures born from the Bed of Chaos, [[spoiler: The Witch of Izalith's failed attempt at recreating the First Flame.]]
* OurDragonsAreDifferent: Western-style dragons, but with stone scales instead of reptilian hide and two pairs of wings instead of the one. Then there's Seath, Wyverns, the Hellkite Dragon, the Gaping Dragon, et cetera.
* OurZombiesAreDifferent: The Undead are unmistakeably zombie-like, but are so unusual that they fall solidly under Type O.
* PhysicalGod: Gwyn, Nito, the Witch of Izalith mentioned in the intro. Those who ascended into Lordship at the behest of Gwyn. The other gods mentioned in lore. Possibly the Pygmy.
* PlayerVersusPlayer: There are a variety of ways to go toe to toe with other players, whether invading and killing them to steal their humanity, or hunting down aggressive players in the name of justice. It doesn't help that the [=PvP=] is relatively unbalanced and griefers have found equipment/spell glitches with which to use to annoy other online players. The 1.04 patch fixed/nerfed a majority of this, but ended up breaking the matchmaking and miracle resonance.
* PointOfNoReturn: Completely and awesomely averted. All areas of the game can be revisited as many times as the player desires.
* PowerCrystal: The Primordial Crystal grants Seath the Scaleless true immortality, and the most powerful sorceries are crystalline.
* PoweredByAForsakenChild: The Purging Stones which remove curses. With a bit of deduction you can figure out the terrible process in which they are made. [[hottip:*: see the [[http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Fridge/DarkSouls Fridge]] page for details.]] The process behind creating the "bite" rings is also similarly terrible.
* PrepareToDie: Not only is the whole game based on the premise of dying repeatedly, this very trope is also used as a tagline for the game. Hell, even the [[http://preparetodie.com official site]] has its URL named accordingly!
** The tagline for the official strategy guide is, of course, "Prepare To Die ''Less.''"
* PressurePlate: Show up as a way to activate elevators, and to trigger deadly booby traps that will kill you.
* ProperlyParanoid: Players will want to attack every chest they see...[[ChestMonster with good reason.]]
* PurelyAestheticGender: Unlike DemonsSouls, in which about half of the gear was either male or female only, all armor can be worn by either gender, making gender purely aesthetic.
* RagdollPhysics: Fully in effect and as wonky as ever; even large stone giants turn completely weightless after they die, sending them sliding around from the smallest touch. You'll also every so often see enemy corpses getting stuck on your character and wobbling around for a while as you move before falling off.
* RageQuit: Not a game for anyone with a short temper!
* RainbowPimpGear: The game attempts to avoid this by providing most armours as a full-set, but the upgradable armour and greater variety of choices (compared to Demon's Souls), combined with the equipment weight limit that tempts players to avoid wearing too much heavy armour at once means it can be quite easy to end up looking like this.
* RavensAndCrows: You are initially brought from the Undead Asylum to greater Lordran by a gigantic crow.
* RedShirt: [[spoiler:Vince and Nico of Thorolund.]]
* ReligionOfEvil: The Gravelord Servants. While the actual lore behind the Darkwraith Covenant presents their goals as ambiguous, the Gravelord Servants revolve around sending monsters to attack random people. Though to be fair, they are serving what amounts to ''Death'' in Lordran.
* ReptilesAreAbhorrent: The Man-Serpents who patrol Sen's Fortress and who act as prison guards in the Duke's Archives. Then there's Gwyndolin, who has a writhing mass of snakes in place of legs.
* ResetButton: Visiting a bonfire (or dying and returning to one) heals you to full and fills up your Estus Flask, but also makes all the enemies (except bosses, minibosses and a few assorted EliteMooks) reappear.
* ResourcesManagementGameplay: You're going to have a very tough time in Dark Souls if you don't learn to how ration your spells and healing items between bonfires.
** Also, spamming attacks in this game is ill-advised as each attack/roll you make will deplete your stamina meter. Failing to take this into account will make things difficult for the player.
* RespawningEnemies: The immediate area is repopulated with baddies whenever you use a bonfire.
* RespawnPoint: The bonfires serve as these in addition to granting you healing items and also allowing you to level up and use storage.
* ResurrectiveImmortality: Undead, at least until they hollow.
* SacrificialLamb: Oscar of Astora, the friendly NPC who rescues you from your cell and provides you with the Estus Flask.
** You can also [[VideoGameCrueltyPotential kill him]], though this could be seen as a MercyKill--he outright tells you he will go hollow once he dies, [[spoiler:and indeed will attack you if you return to the Undead Asylum later]].
* SacrificialLion: A good number of friendly, likable [=NPC=]s will suffer tragic deaths, usually by going Hollow, depending on the circumstance.
* SavePoint: Averted, as Dark Souls auto-saves very frequently. The campfire serves more as a checkpoint; when you die you respawn there. [[PrepareToDie And you will die.]] [[ThisIsGonnaSuck Often.]]
* SceneryGorn: Blighttown is a decrepit pit of decay and death; the upper part of it is a shantytown mostly made of poles and lashings, like a crazed treehouse project. The lower area is a nasty, poisonous swamp-cesspit in the bowels of the city. If you take the time to look around, though, you can even see the city high above the chasm you're in.
** Don't forget New Londo Ruins [[spoiler:after you've drained it]], wet and slick everywhere with mountains of bodies just lying there.
* SceneryPorn: Like DemonsSouls, the game features [[http://i.imgur.com/7js3Q.png beautifully]] [[http://i.imgur.com/ZiafA.png rendered]] dark fantasy areas with atmosphere to die for. [[NintendoHard Which is cool, because you'll be doing a lot of that]].
** There are many locations in the game that simply look gorgeous, such as the city of Anor Londo bathing in the evening sun or the massive underground Ash Lake, stretching as far as the eye can see.
** The best part? Most of what you see ''isn't for show.'' Upon entering the Undead Burg, you may not realize that, yes, you can climb up that tower and make it to the top of that huge arching bridge and the ruins it connects to on either side. You can even see the arching bridge as far down as the Valley of Drakes, and conversely, you can see the bridge in the Valley of Drakes from the Darkroot Basin.
* SchmuckBait: The Great Hollow is home to ''many'' Crystal Lizards. However, they have the tendency to run off the designated platforms they spawn in and die by themselves. Knowing they are the Crystal Lizards with good loot inside them, players are usually tempted to jump down to grab the loot. Unfortunately, this is The Great Hollow, where any false step means death.
** However it is also double-edged effect if you don't kill them before they kill themselves as the game has a set limit for how many times they will respawn if they kill themselves, if they pass that limit they will never spawn in that area again until the next playthrough, so make sure you can use a spell or have a ranged weapon.
* SealedEvilInACan: The Darkwraiths sealed within [[spoiler:the flooded areas of the New Londo Ruins and the Four Kings sealed within the Abyss.]]
* SecretPolice: The Blade of the Darkmoon covenant.
* SelfImposedChallenge: Because some people don't think the game is hard enough. Aside from the standard ones listed on the page, Whip only runs (which the game admits flat out on the weapons description is a JokeWeapon almost useless against anything with armor) are common.
** The [[http://darksoulswiki.wikispaces.com/message/view/home/47027544?o=20#47050088 "Guts Run"]]
* SequelDifficultySpike: The areas in ''DarkSouls'' are even more hazardous than in its [[DemonsSouls predecessor]], mostly due to the large amount of [[BottomlessPit bottomless pits]] and the fact that normal enemies have gotten even more dangerous. On the other hand, area bosses are generally more manageable, [[ThatOneBoss with some exceptions]].
* SequenceBreaking: Possible through a variety of ways, such as the bug that allows players to fall from any height and live.
* SetAMookToKillAMook: The most efficient way to defeat the [[spoiler:Bounding Demons]] in Lost Izalith.
* ShapeShifterShowdown: In player vs. player battles, you can use the "Chameleon" spell to disguise yourself as random clutter objects like jars and chests, but you also have to worry about your opponents using the same ability to sneak up on you.
* ShesAManInJapan: Lord Blade Ciarin is female in the Japanese version.
* ShiningCity: Anor Londo was once this. Now it is the lost city.
* ShoutOut: The plot setup is that a mysterious brand curses the protagonist making him fight demons and other monsters. [[{{Berserk}} Where have I heard that one before...]]
** The Darkwraith Covenant's icon looks like a Behelit.
** A cursed warrior who can never die? [[PlanescapeTorment Perhaps..?]]
** There's an armor set out there which can make you look like [[ForgottenRealms Elminster.]]
** One of the scripted black phantom invaders you'll encounter in the game is called [[WorldOfWarcraft Paladin]] [[LeeroyJenkins Leeroy.]]
** One of the recurring [=NPCs=] that can be summoned is named [[VisualNovel/UminekoNoNakuKoroNi Witch Beatrice.]]
** The onion-shaped armor from Catarina can be seen as one to the Onion Knight class from ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyIII'', although this one may be a bit of a stretch.
** The Silver Knights in Anor Londo use their bows to fire javelins, reminiscent of the swords fired by [[FateStayNight Archer]].
** Oswald may be a reference to the corrupt Pardoner from ''Literature/TheCanterburyTales'', who, like Oswald, pardons people of their sins for a high price.
** Rickert of Vinheim is an obvious reference to ''{{Berserk}}'', as is his profession as a blacksmith.
** The [[StockShoutOut Cheshire]] [[Literature/AliceInWonderland Cat]] seems quite comfy around some rowdy hunters, no?
** [[{{Bishounen}} A small, frail leader]] like Gwyndolin hiding behind [[spoiler:an illusion of the giantess Princess Gwynevere?]] [[TheWizardOfOz Where have I heard that one before...?]]
** Upon dying, a person is at risk of completely losing their humanity and turning into a horrific creature called a [[{{Bleach}} Hollow]].
** After escaping the Undead Asylum, a [[GiantFlyer large]] [[RavensAndCrows Raven]] [[StealthPun takes you under its wing to the]] [[VideoGame/ArmoredCore Raven's Nest.]]
* SiblingYinYang: [[spoiler:Queen of Sunlight Gwynevere and the Darkmoon God Gwyndolin.]]
* SinisterMinister: Oswald of Carim qualifies, in spite of being more morally ambiguous than anything else, although he does have an ominous air about him. Then there's [[spoiler:Petrus]], who turns out to be a murderous liar.
* SinisterScythe: There are two scythes available as weapons, as is a Reaper armor set if you dig that sort of thing. Crossbreed Priscilla uses one as her weapon [[spoiler:and her soul can be used to make a third one.]]
* SleepyHead: Kingseeker Frampt occasionally lapses into a very deep sleep, which can be a bit irritating if you want to feed him items. Give him a good smack [[LostForever (but only one!)]] and he'll wake up.
** Then there's Siegmeyer, who is often found asleep, sometimes standing up, and, on one occasion, ''while standing in the middle of a poison swamp''.
* SpikesOfDoom: One of the more sadistic traps in Sen's Fortress involves an elevator that you ride up. If you stay on it too long, it continues going up right into a spiked ceiling. If you look closely, the elevator is caked with blood.
* SpikesOfVillainy: Knight Kirk, a notorious Darkwraith who can invade and attack you up to three times, wears the Armor of Thorns, which is appropriately covered in spikes. It has the effect of damaging whatever enemies the wearer rolls into.
* SpiritualSuccessor: Done by the original developers of ''Demon's Souls'', similar setting, even a very similar title. The game likely would be ''Demon's Souls 2'' if Sony didn't own the IP.
** NonLinearSequel: ''Dark Souls'' can be considered this in addition to being a SpiritualSuccessor. The presence of Seath might mean that ''Dark Souls'' is somehow connected to the ''[[KingsField King's Field]]'' series.
* StealthPun: Catarina's distinctive armor would make its wearer a [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyIII Onion Knight]].
* StatusBuff: Nearly every single ring provides you with a bonus, from the obvious (increasing elemental resistance), to the awesome (changes rolling to cartwheels), to the tricky (deals extra damage with a pierce weapon when the enemy is in mid-attack animation/stagger from attacking your shield). Other status buffs include attack power increase granted by the Dragon Torso Stone's ability to roar and the Channeler's Trident dance.
* SummonMagic: A recent patch gave the pyromancer the ability to summon a gravelord into a random player's realm. The gravelord will chase them down relentlessly and attack them without asking questions until it is destroyed by the invaded player. This gives no benefit at all to the summoner other than [[ForTheEvulz the satisfaction of giving another player a hard time just because]]. You hear it right, guys, Dark Souls has a freaking '''griefing mechanic'''!
* SuperDrowningSkills: Sufficiently deep water is instant death. Yeah you can [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hk-wilWUSQM cartwheel]] on [[EverythingsCoolerWithLava lava]], but deep enough water is instant death.
* TakenForGranite: In the sewers and during both encounters with [[spoiler:Seath]], you're likely to find a bunch of statues that used to be people, courtesy of the nearby frog-like basilisks breathing gray gas. Given the fact that the number of statues changes frequently, it is highly likely that these statues are actually ''other players'' who got cursed.
* TheManBehindTheMan: [[spoiler:Gwyndolin.]]
* ThematicThemeTune: ''Bartholomew'' and ''All Saints' Day'' by The Silent Comedy in various trailers. In the latter, the only sung lyrics increase in desperation as the trailer goes on.
---> ''"One day, will this be over?"''
* ThemeNaming: Gwyn, Gwynevere, Gwyndolin; the Daughters of Chaos whose names are known start with "Quel".
* TheTheocracy: The nation of Thorolund.
* TheVoiceless: Anastacia of Astora, the Fire Keeper of Firelink Shrine cannot speak because she had her tongue voluntarily removed. [[spoiler:she gets better if revived after Lautrec kills her, though she considers her restored ability to speak sinful.]]
* TheWorldIsJustAwesome: Despite being a CrapsackWorld, this pops up from time to time. Standing atop the Undead Parish, having just rung the first Bell of Awakening provides players with an absolutely breath taking view of the world around them, where they can see all of where they've traveled, and some of what is to come. The cut scene that plays when players first arrive at Anor Londo also counts.
* ThingsManWasNotMeantToKnow: If you free Big Hat Logan he gets access to [[LibraryOfBabel The Duke's Archives]], the library of the MadScientist and grandfather of sorcery dragon Seath the Scaleless. Logan will develop and sell powerful crystal versions of sorceries, and after the player has bought them all and killed Seath the Scaleless [[spoiler: he gets completely lost in the knowledge and doesn't even recognize the player. After this, he'll disappear from his usual spot and show up nearly naked and completely insane in the room Seath is first fought in. Upon killing him, it's revealed he went so far as to try (and partially failed, [[GameBreaker thankfully]]) to replicate Seath's curse-inducing crystal breath.]]
* ThisIsGonnaSuck: When [[spoiler:Ornstein or Smough absorb the other's soul (and powers) after they are slain by you.]]
** In the fight against Gwyn you learn pretty fast that he's not going to give you time to heal.
* ThrowingDownTheGauntlet: A spell called "Grave Lord" lets you challenge a random player to a battle by leaving a symbol in their world that spawns powerful, rampaging enemies. If they find it, they can invade your world and return the favor.
** To be more specific, when using the Grave Lord's spell you place a marker that show up in three random people's worlds. While the sign persists phantoms much stronger than normal spawn and you steal half of the victim player's soul amount when they die. But if ANY or maybe even ALL of them find where you hid the sign and feel like having vengeance...
** There is also an item in the game specifically meant for this, the Red Sign Soapstone. It has infinite uses and its only purpose is to leave a sign on the ground others can touch if they wish to challenge you.
* TinTyrant: The Iron Golem pictured above. A relative of the [[DemonsSouls Tower Knight]], perhaps? Also, black knights and silver knights who appear as [[EliteMook Elite Mooks]] in various levels.
* TooAwesomeToUse: Rings of Sacrifice will save your souls and humanity if equipped at the time of death, but they break after use; a variant called the Rare Ring of Sacrifice also removes the curse ailment if you're cursed at the time of death. The Ring of Favor and Protection increases your health, stamina and carrying capacity, but there are only two (with one being [[GuideDangIt very well hidden]]) in each game run and it cannot be removed once equipped or it's lost.
** Crystal Weapons, they are exceptionally powerful and durable. However, you can't repair them once they are broken, so it's best to save them for backup.
** The Divine Blessing. A potion that fully restores your HP and cures all status effects (except for curse, unfortunately). It's also quite hard to get and only available in a very limited number per playthrough, so better don't "waste" it...
* TrailersAlwaysSpoil: The trailers have revealed a startling amount of bosses in them. Thankfully there are still many unseen bosses and only one end game boss is seen.
* TrialAndErrorGameplay: The whole game is basically learning how long you can go without dying to a hazardous area or a boss, and what mistakes to avoid whenever you do wind up as a smear on the wall.
* UnblockableAttack: Many bosses and even normal enemies possess powerful grapple attacks that ''have'' to be dodged.
* UnfortunateNames: If you experience Ceaseless Discharge for more than a twenty-four-hour period, consult your hollow physician.
* UnnecessaryCombatRoll: Of course.
* UrbanLegendOfZelda: Since the game's release there have been dozens of different rumors pertaining to the Furtive Pygmy and the true purpose of the Pendant.
** Another persistent rumor claimed that the player has the option to spare the Great Grey Wolf Sif and that you would get his sword as a reward for doing so. No proof or method has been found, but many still believe there is a way to accomplish this.
** It ''is'' possible to spare Sif, by using a certain glitch to transfer the Covenant of Artorias to a new character. You get nothing for it, of course.
* VaderBreath: The Titanite Demons (in spite of the fact that they don't have faces).
* VaginaDentata: [[http://i123.photobucket.com/albums/o312/oracrest/Dark%20Souls/05-noscale.jpg The Gaping Dragon]] is an entirely blatant example if there ever was one.
* VendorTrash: The equivalent of it, anyway. Some enemies and fallen bodies have static soul items for you to snag, which, when used, grant you some souls to spend.
** Once you get far enough into the game, you will unlock a way to dispose of all the trash-armor accumulating in your inventory. The souls you get are a pittance, but that's better than nothing.
* VideogameCaringPotential: You can, of course, help other players in their games by allowing your phantom to be summoned.
** You can ease the suffering of [[spoiler:the Daughter of Chaos]] by offering [[spoiler:her]] Humanity.
** You can avenge a Firekeeper who had been murdered, and [[spoiler:even restore her to life, provided you're willing to part with a Firekeeper Soul.]]
* VideogameCharacters:
** AirborneMook: The Mosquitoes in Blighttown, double as GoddamnBats.
** BlobMonster: [[http://i.imgur.com/g40rT.jpg The Slimes]] found in the Depths.
** BossInMookClothing: The Black Knights early on. Havel the Rock. The Titanite Demons, which the game seems to enjoy making you fight them in tight areas with little ability to maneuver.
** BorderPatrol: The Skeletons near Firelink Shrine when first encountered. They teach players pretty quickly that this is the wrongest path you could possibly take.
** ChestMonster: The mimics. Opening one accidentally will cause them to do a massive attack that will most likely kill the player, and teach them to never open a chest without attacking it first.
** {{Dracolich}}: The undead dragons and the bounding demons.
** DemBones: [[http://i123.photobucket.com/albums/o312/oracrest/Dark%20Souls/12-noscale.jpg The skeletons,]] giant skeletons and feral skeletons.
** EliteMook: Several, from the boulder throwing trolls to the Dark Knights.
** EverythingTryingToKillYou: Almost everything that isn't a fellow gamer in co-op mode will be trying to kill you (and succeeding a good deal of the time).
** FakeUltimateMook: Ceaseless Discharge can be seen as this. It is the largest boss in the game and very intimidating, but is one of the easier bosses in the game.
*** Capra Demon also qualifies, when you first fight one it is in a small area aided by two extremely fast enemies so beginners would naturally find this difficult. However, fighting them alone is much less hassle but it is rare to happen as once they become a regular enemy they are placed tightly together so you will usually attract two or three at the same time.
** TheGoomba: The Hollow Warriors seen in the first section of Undead Burg. Their move set is almost identical to that of the Dreglings in DemonsSouls, and are the easiest enemies in the game to fight. That said, the still pose a threat, especially in groups.
** InvincibleMinorMinion: The Skeletons in the catacombs. You can defeat them, but they'll quickly revive and reassemble themselves as long as the necromancer hiding himself nearby is alive. Or kill them with a Divine weapon.
** InvisibleMonsters: Two of the Forest Hunter [=NPCs=]. Semi-invisible at least.
** InvulnerableCivilians: Heavily averted, as all [=NPCs=] can be killed. Even worse, one accidental hit on one, be it a merchant, or a blacksmith, and that NPC is permanently hostile, and often leads to their death, which can be disasterous later on if you happen to kill a merchant. You can, however make all hostile, yet alive, [=NPCs=] non hostile by paying Oswald of Carim an obscene amount of souls. 500 souls times your Soul Level to be exact, resulting in (for example) people at level 50 needing to amass 25,000 souls just so the woman who sells moss doesn't try to kill you.
** KillerRabbit: The basilisks. Dear god the basilisks...
** MascotMook: The Black Knights.
** MetalSlime: The crystal lizards/geckos (making a return from DemonsSouls), which shine brightly but tend to turn invisible (and are thus un-attackable) when you run into them. Should you manage to catch one, you're likely to get some rare ores for weapon refinement.
** MonsterKnight: A few enemies qualify. The Capra Demons, the Balder Knights, and the Darkwraiths.
** NightOfTheLivingMooks: Many of the enemies encountered are undead of some sort; Zombies, skeletons, ghosts. Then again, almost everyone you meet is undead.
** PersonalSpaceInvader: Several enemies have devastating grab attacks.
** PinataEnemy: The Forest Hunters and the Darkmoon Soldiers. They are quick, cheap, sources for souls. The single respawning Titanite Demon is this as well for the Upgrade Stone it drops.
** RandomlyDrops: Many enemies drop rare unique weapons like the Titanite Demons and the Channelers. A few drop rare armor like the Mimics.
** RecurringTraveler: Solaire, Siegmeyer, and Sieglinde.
** ReptilesAreAbhorrent: The poison-spitting snake men guards in Sen's Fortress and the frog-like Basiliks in the Depths.
** RevivingEnemy: The skeletons in the Catacombs.
** RoamingEnemy: The various special NPC hollows, which appear under special circumstances, and are tragic to fight.
** RodentsOfUnusualSize: Giant evil rats!
** ShieldBearingMook: The Giants in Anor Londo. Completely invincible from the front. Other enemies have shields, but they aren't as difficult or invulnerable as these guys.
** SmashMook: The Infested Barbarians.
** TheUndead: Almost everyone you meet is undead, whether or not they look or act like it. This makes sense within the setting, as those who bear the Darksign stay warm and fleshy for a while before they turn into mindless ghouls.
** UndeadChild: The baby skeletons in the Tomb of the Giants.
** WhenTreesAttack: The Demonic Foliage that patrol Darkroot Garden.
* VideogameCrueltyPotential: It is perfectly possible to kill any and every NPC (including the blacksmiths) that you come across, should you feel inclined to do so.
* VideogameItemsAndInventory and WeaponTropes:
** AlwaysCheckBehindTheChair: Useful items are often hidden inside or behind containers, furniture, and other such objects.
*** As a prominent example, [[spoiler:you'll never find Ash Lake and the Path of the Dragon covenant unless you notice that a particular chest hidden by an illusion wall is actually in front of ''another'' illusion wall.]]
** AnAxeToGrind: There are numerous axes in the game, and a fully ascended elemental Greataxe is one of the, if not ''the'' most destructive weapon in the game. Gargoyles have axes for tails that can be cut off and used.
** AnnoyingArrows: Arrows aren't that big of deal in this game. Unless a Silver Knight is flinging them at you.
** ArmorPiercingAttack: Lightning weapons, as most armor and shields aren't particularly effective against it.
** ArrowsOnFire: Fire arrows, naturally.
** AutomaticCrossbows: [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LvuRq7HgEKY#t=6m27s Avelyn.]]
** BagOfHolding: Present in the form of the Bottomless Box, a sort of portable bank that can only be used at bonfires.
** {{BFS}}: [[http://image01.w.livedoor.jp/p/k/project_dark/550b23933d8fd651.jpg The Dragon Greatsword,]] apparently this game's version of the Dragon Bone Smasher. This weapon appears to have more in common with [[SoulCalibur Nightmare's Soul Edge]], however. Any weapon in the Ultra Great Sword counts as do many weapons as in the Great Sword category.
** BladeOnAStick: Some weapons class as this, such as the verying types of spears and halberds.
** BlowGun: The blowdart snipers in Blighttown.
** BreakableWeapons: All weapons (and armor) degrade slowly with use. Certain enemy abilities cause durability damage on your items, and some weapons allow you to use a powerful special attack at the cost of rapidly degrading the weapon's condition. Fortunately everything can be repaired relatively easily aside from the frail and unrepairable Crystal items.
** BrokenFaceplate: The Balder Set. Good armor but it is clear it has seen better days.
** CosmicKeystone: The Lordvessel.
** DayOldLegend: Natch.
** DropTheHammer: Many of the blunt weapons, the most ridiculous of these are Grant and Smough's Hammer.
** DualWielding: As in ''DemonsSouls'', you can equip an off-hand weapon, sacrificing your ability to parry for extra attacks.
** ExclusiveEnemyEquipment: Unique weapons tend to be rare drops off enemies or forged from special souls, while their armor is usually found hidden in a chest somewhere.
** ExperienceBooster: The Covetous Silver Serpent Ring and the Symbol of Avarice helm.
** FlamingSword: Quelaag's Fury Sword. Also wielded very effectively by [[spoiler:Gwyn, Lord of Cinder. You can also gain it if you keep his soul and use it in a Weapon Ascension, though the crafted version isn't on fire.]]
** HealingPotion: Your main method of recovering health is a substance known as Estus, which is stored in a jade flask that you can refill at bonfires. This completely replaces the healing items of ''DemonsSouls''.
** HelmetsAreHardlyHeroic: Generally Averted. While there are a few helmets that let you show off your face, most of them are pretty obscuring. There is no option to cosmetically hide the helmet either.
** HeroesPreferSwords: Swords are the most numerous weapons in the game. In addition, four of the ten classes start with swords as their weapons.
** HotChickWithASword: If you wish, you can turn your character into one of these. Also, Quelaag. Kind of...
** IaijutsuPractitioner: The Iaito's strong attack.
** InfinityMinusOneSword: All the DiscOneNuke equipment seem like InfinityPlusOneSword material, but the often limited upgrade options compared to the generic equipment make them qualify for this. Certain magic spells have a high number of uses, but actually end up using most of them during one casting.
** InterchangeableAntimatterKeys: Averted, all of the keys in the game are permanent.
** KatanasAreJustBetter: At least for Dexterity-focused characters, as their damage increases with higher Dex. They tend to be quick, too.
** LuckilyMyShieldWillProtectMe: No matter what class you're playing as, you ''need'' a shield. It is suicide to play without one, that's why even the "Deprived," who starts off naked, gets one.
** LostForever: The Darkwraith Covenant if you [[spoiler:bring the Lordvessel to Kingseeker Frampt rather than Darkstalker Kaathe in The Abyss.]]
*** Every Covenant save one can be lost forever if the player gets a bit bloodthirsty.
*** The Ring of Favour and Protection if you remove it.
*** Anything offered by [=NPC=]s will be lost forever if you kill them before getting it.
*** The "tail" weapons if you kill the enemies without cutting off the tails first.
** MasterSwordsman: Gwyn.
** OneHandedZweihander: You can use a variety of heavy weapons with only one hand if you have a high enough Strength stat. Amusingly, the inverse is also possible, allowing the player to use a six-inch dagger or small shield with both hands.
** PlotCoupon: The Twin Bells of Awakening. [[spoiler: The Lordvessel. The Lord Souls.]]
** PoisonedWeapon: Certain unique weapons can poison enemies, as can poison arrows and throwing knives. Blighttown has enemies using poisoned darts and poisoned ''giant wooden clubs!''
** PossessionImpliesMastery: [[AvertedTrope Nope.]] While you can use all weapons and armor you pick up, using them without the proper stats will make using the weapon less effective, leading to awkward attack animations and severely reduced damage. One-handed weapons even need to be used with both hands to wield even remotely effectively.
*** One place where this stumbles slightly is the use of the Painting Guardian Sword, which is explicitly stated to be a weapon and technique exclusive to that order.
** PowerFist: The Dragonbone Fist, crafted from a fist weapon and the Iron Golem's core, is ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin.
** RazorWind: The Drake Sword and the Dragon Greatsword. Both are unique from DemonsSouls Stormruler in that its special ability can be [[SoCoolItsAwesome used anywhere.]] That said, the special ability takes a huge chunk out of the sword's durability.
** ReducedManaCost: The Dusk Crown Ring, effectively, with it doubling the number of sorcery casts at the price of halving HP.
** ReforgedBlade: The True Greatsword of Astorias, forged from a broken sword!
** RollingAttack: Wearing pieces of the Thorn armor set will allow you to damage any enemies you touch while rolling.
** RoyalRapier: Richard's Rapier, the rapier of a prince of a distant nation.
** ScaryImpracticalArmor: A variety of armor is like this, Ornstein's and Smough's armor sets immediately come to mind.
** ShockAndAwe: There are a variety of enemies that use lightning as an ability such as the Titanite Demons and Dragon Slayer Ornstein. The player can forge lightning weapons which have additional lightning damage and are some of the best weapons in the game and can also obtain miracles that lets him throw lightning bolts Zeus style.
** ShockwaveStomp: The two-handed power attack of the Dragon King Greataxe is slow but damages all enemies around you with a shockwave at the cost of weapon durability.
** SinisterScimitar: Many of the curved swords and greatswords.
** SliceAndDiceSwordsmanship: Mostly averted. The majority of thrusting weapons can only thrust, and most slashing weapons only slash. There are a few oddities like the estoc, a long, unsharpened sword meant for thrusting, having a slash attack.
** SpecialAttack: There are a large variety of weapons with unique special attacks. These can range from devastating uppercuts with powerful [[{{Knockback}} knockbacks]], the Drake Sword and Dragon Great Sword's RazorWind attacks, special grabs in which you steal another's humanity and many others.
** SpinAttack: The heavy attack of certain weapons. The Belfry Gargoyles in Anor Londo also have an aerial one.
** StabTheSky: The Stone Greatsword's special attack does this before casting a spell that slows enemy movement speed.
** StanceSystem: Your attacks depend on whether you choose to wield your weapon with one or two hands.
** StarterEquipment: Each of the game's ten classes has its own set, some of which include unique items that can't be acquired in any other way.
** SwordBeam: The Moonlight Greatsword has this as its special attack, making it even more reminiscent to the Moonlight Sword seen in previous From Software games.
** SwordLines: Great Grey Wolf Sif when wielding the massive Greatsword of Astorias.
** TwentyFourHourArmor: Of course.
** WhipItGood: Two different whips are available weapons.
** WithThisHerring: You find a proper weapon and shield within the tutorial dungeon but just starting out, you have nothing more than the broken hilt-shard to wield against zombies. Justified since you are in a dungeon.
*** The Deprived's "proper weapon and shield" are a wooden club and plank. He/she also doesn't start with any armor.
* VideogameSettings:
** AbsurdlySpaciousSewer: The Depths look a lot like this, though some parts of them also resemble catacombs.
** TheAlcatraz: The Undead Aslyum, where civilization locks up people cursed with the Darksign, mostly out of fear.
** BeautifulVoid: Lordran, excluding all of the unpleasant monsters and zombies.
** BigFancyCastle: Anor Londo is an entire city built like this.
** BlackoutBasement: The Tomb of the Giants is pitch-black. And filled with some of the toughest monsters in the game, [[NintendoHard of course.]]
** BleakLevel: [[spoiler:Kiln of the First Flame.]]
** BrightCastle: Anor Londo is an absolutely stunning castle city, with beautiful gothic architecture.
** CapitalCity: Anor Londo.
** CobwebJungle: Quelaag's Domain. The entire area is almost entirely covered with cobwebs and filled with giant spider eggs.
** CreepyCathedral: The Undead Parish.
** DarkFantasy: Like DemonsSouls, the game itself fall into this genre of fantasy.
** DownTheDrain: The Depths are your classic sewer maze, complete with giant rats.
** DownInTheDumps: Blighttown.
** DungeonTown: Most of the game. The Undead Burg, Undead Parish, and The Depths are all part of one large city. Several other areas are cities as well like New Londo and Anor Londo.
*** Lordran is in fact an entire dungeon ''country'', as it's completely surrounded by a huge castle wall (visible from the Firelink Shrine).
** EvilTowerOfOminousness: Sen's Fortress. The area is also incredibly malicious, filled with countless [[BoobyTrap Booby Traps]]
** HailfirePeaks: The Ash Lake is a mix of PalmtreePanic and LostWoods. The Painted World of Ariamas is a mix of SlippySlideyIceWorld and BigFancyCastle. New Londo Ruins is a mix of BigFancyCastle and BigBoosHaunt.
** HauntedCastle: New Londo Ruins.
** HubLevel: Firelink Shrine is basically the center of the game world, houses most of the trainers should you find them and has quick access to many areas of the game once you unlock the shortcuts.
** LethalLavaLand: The Demon Ruins and the first half of Lost Izalith.
** TheLibraryOfBabel: The Duke's Archives. Naturally Big Hat Logan loves hanging out here and reading the unbelievably vast collection of tomes.
** TheLostWoods: Darkroot Garden and Darkroot Basin.
** TheVeryDefinitelyFinalDungeon: [[spoiler: Kiln of the First Flame]]
** NoobCave: Undead Burg.
** OneTimeDungeon: Completely averted. All areas of the game can be revisited.
** PeninsulaOfPowerLeveling: The area next to the hidden bonfire in Darkroot Garden. Two Darkmoon soldiers in [[spoiler:Dark Anor Londo are also a good grinding spot.]]
** SecretLevel: Several.
** SlippySlideyIceWorld: The Painted World of Ariamis and the Crystal Caves.
** ShiftingSandLand: While the heat has mostly died out, the [[spoiler:Kiln of the First Flame]] is a desert made of ash and cinder.
** SwampsAreEvil: The swamp section of Blighttown, an obvious callback to DemonsSouls Valley of Defilement.
** UndergroundLevel: The Catacombs and the Tomb of the Giants.
** WorldTree: The Great Hollow. The level is just one long decent down the inside of an enormous tree. The Ash Lake shows that there are hundreds of these under the world.
* VillainTeamUp: Ornstein and Smough certainly aren't big fans of each other, but they're more than happy to work together to kick your ass.
* VoidBetweenTheWorlds: The Abyss.
* WarpWhistle: Obtaining the Lordvessel allows players to warp between the major bonfires.
* WasOnceAMan: Quite a few enemies. Hollows, The Pisaca in the Duke's Archives, Quelaag and her sister, Ceaselessness Discharge is likely to have been one.
* WeaksauceWeakness: You can kill the Hellkyte Dragon that guards the bridge in Undead Burg by climbing a nearby tower and shooting its wings with arrows. Or rather, one arrow. The only difficulty in regards to that is the Black Knight that lies in wait on top of the tower.
** Ceaseless Discharge in the Demon Ruins can be killed very easily [[spoiler:by running back to the fog gate and waiting for the boss to throw its hand down and whacking it a few time. In truth, the boss began to fall into a bottomless pit and threw its hand down to catch itself.]]
** [[spoiler:Gywn, Lord of Cinder and FinalBoss is cripplingly weak to parrying. He can be done in by 3 ripostes if you are build right.]]
* WhatCouldHaveBeen: Data mining the game files reveals some dummied-out character lines and "quests" from earlier builds, possibly including the original concept of what the Pendant was to be used for.
* WhatTheHellHero: [[spoiler:When you attack Priscilla the half-dragon, [[RunningGag she calls you out on such offensive dickery.]]]] This is also something of the standard response to you attacking non-offensive [=NPCs=].
--> ''Why?''
** [[spoiler:Particularly offensive in Priscilla's case, as she's completely non-aggressive unless attacked, even gives you directions to leave the area, and is in an area that's separate from the 'real' world to boot. You have to go out of your way to even meet her, let alone attack her, which makes the whole thing feel extra dickish. Naturally, FROM Software made sure there's an achievement/trophy for killing her, just so people will feel EXTRA bad about slaughtering her just for a miserable platinum/max achievement score.]]
** After dealing enough damage to [[spoiler:Sif, he'll start to limp, attack slower, and even stumble. Go ahead, try not to feel terrible about that.]]
** Eingyi will call you a monster and attack you if [[spoiler:you kill Quelaag's sister.]]
* WhiteHairedPrettyGirl: [[spoiler:Priscilla the half-dragon and Quelaag's sister.]]
* WhoWantsToLiveForever: The premise is that your hero can never die, no matter what, he'll just keep coming back. [[NintendoHard The player feels his pain.]]
* TheWildHunt: The Forest Hunter covenant. A group of bandits lead by the [[StockShoutOut Cheshire Cat]], they indirectly guard Sir Artorias' grave with the rest of the forest. Joining up with them allows you to invade other players' worlds and loot their corpse.
* WitchHunt: The Undead in the Undead Asylum were victims of this, rounded up and imprisoned to await the end of the world. An item description also mentions a band of clerics who hunt Undead.
* WizardingSchool: The Dragon College of Vinheim. According to lore, the higher ups in the college effectively run the nation/[[CityStateEra city state]], whatever it is.
* YeOldeButcheredeEnglishe: Several characters speak like this, although it's more jarring when it comes from the mouth of the Giant Blacksmith (arguably intentional), as he combines it with {{Hulkspeak}}.
* YetAnotherStupidDeath: Letting your guard down or trying to rush forward because you're facing enemies you've easily beaten before is generally a terrible idea and ''will'' end up with you feeling like an idiot for dying to simple zombies or skeletons you could've easily beaten with some patience.
* YouFool: Alvina calls you this if you kill her.
* YouGottaHaveBlueHair: Like DemonsSouls, giving your character a custom hair colour is possible. Three of the preset hair colours are even Dark Blue (which seems to be common in Carim), Dark Purple (which is noted to be a colour of a near extinct race) and Silver.
* YourMoneyIsNoGoodHere: Out there, somewhere, people use copper, silver, and gold coins, and you may find a few in this game, but its description points out that in Lordron, souls are the only thing people value and coins are relatively worthless. Knight King Rendal of Balder and Allfather Lloyd of Thorolund are on the silver and gold coins respectively, indicating that those two nations probably still use them.
* YourSoulIsMine: Done by you. The game is a bit vague on what souls actually are though.
* ZombieApocalypse: Pretty much. Many nations including Lordran were absolutely devastated by the Darksign's appearance.
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