Side quests are terrible

[ʙᴇʏᴏɴᴅ1ᴍᴀɴ]

there is no way people could complete the side quests without wiki or youtube guides, how the hell should i know the next location of the NPC quest , it's just weird and meaningless it doesn't make any sense .
The basic premise of MOST quests in Dark Souls revolves around NPCs that simply shift positions. It's like a hide and go seek game with few, if any, hints , there is so many plots.
all japanese video games have weird nonsense story that even the story writer can't explain it like silent hill or death stranding , metal gear solid v .....

[Twisty]

I don't know, man.
I completed everything just by listening to NPC dialogue and reading. I'm not saying they aren't obscure, they are, but there is enough information to complete each side quest if you pay attention and explore.

[Alby]

Go play an Ubisoft game, friend. Those games practically play themselves for you

[Me? Mushanga]

I saw Sorceress Sellen at a cellar in Limgrave yesterday. I told her how cool it was to meet her in person, but I didn’t want to be a douche and bother her and ask her for spells or anything.
She said, “It's fine! I don't mind at all!”
I was taken aback, and all I could say was “Huh?” but she cut me off and laughed and pulled me in for a magic lesson. I walked away and continued with my journey, and I heard her laugh and wave at me as I walked off. When I came to kill some rats I saw her trying to walk out the doors with like fifteen Glintstone Shards in her hands without paying.
The soldier at the counter was very nice about it and professional, and was like “Ma'am, you need to pay for those first.” She turned around and said "I'm so sorry! I'm so scatterbrained, I didn't mean to!"
When he took one of the shards and started scanning it multiple times, she realized she had forgotten her runes. I offered to pay for the Glintstone Shards and she said "Wow, you're so sweet!" and gave me a kiss on the cheek. I will never wash my face again.

[Winblows]

just do what every other ER player does, keep saying the quests are perfect and every one else is stupid then proceed to open the wiki and watch guides on youtube. I wish I was making this up

[Mr. Nobody]

The entire concept of Souls games is to cater to the old school gamer who googles everything and looks up the wiki/guide for everything then goes into streams/forums and criticizes everyone who wants to be able to play the game without external guides for everything.

You have three choices.
1.Play the game blind and accept the fact that terrible game design means your likely going to miss half the content.
2. Just give up and google everything and then come onto these forums and ♥♥♥♥ on everybody and pretend you didn't look everything up yourself.
3. If you have no job and a lot of patience, just wander around aimlessly for 1000 hours until you randomly stumble across everything.

That's just how it works. It's the same issue with every Souls game it's just Elden Ring has a way bigger world so the issue is more apparent. Just remember when you get flooded with hate comments that 98% of them are Option 2 people who think reading a wiki for hours on end is a skill and 2% are Option 3 people who actually spent the ridiculous amount of time to figure stuff out themselves.

[Wushiba]

Originally posted by ɢᴇʀᴀɴɪᴜᴍ:

there is no way people could complete the side quests without wiki or youtube guides, how the hell should i know the next location of the NPC quest , it's just weird and meaningless it doesn't make any sense .
The basic premise of MOST quests in Dark Souls revolves around NPCs that simply shift positions. It's like a hide and go seek game with few, if any, hints , there is so many plots.
all japanese video games have weird nonsense story that even the story writer can't explain it like silent hill or death stranding , metal gear solid v .....

The point of the game isn't to complete everything. This isn't an Ubisoft checklist game. This isn't a test you have to score high points on. Just enjoy the journey and the experience.

[vamirez]

Yeah, whether you like it or not, you're not supposed to find everything in one playthrough. Even though the game is really long. However, this game is more lenient than prior titles as in you can complete many quests even very far into the game still.

As for using a wiki - your choice. Community interaction / looking up stuff on the web has always been a part of these games, too.

[Dr.Falcon]

The wiki actually devalued the environmental story-telling of Millicent's questline for me.
-
Note: This is for the Rotten Wing Sword Insignia, not ending her quest early at Dominula for the prosthesis.

- Overview -
Millicent is an NPC that really jumps around the map when looking at it from a guides perspective. Invading you in Caelid, in the Church of Rot, need to exhaust dialogue between Gowery and her until she moves to Altus. From the Erdtree grazing hill she moves to Dominula after being given her prosthetic from the Shaded Castle. She then moves to the grace past the bridge guarded by the Golem in the Mountaintops. Ultimately ending up in Ephael's first Site of Grace and needing to help defend her from her sisters in the pool of rot inhabited by an Ulcerated Tree Spirit. Looking at the checklist from that perspective shows it as just a line of loosely connected areas that you're just doing chores for.

- What the Environment and Item Desc. tell You -
However, there's actual storytelling going on here. Obviously her location in Caelid makes sense, she is a Valkyrie and descended from Malenia. It requires giving her an artifact once forged by Miquella to subdue the rot enough to let her fulfill her purpose. The Shaded Castle is significant as the royalty there had ties to Malenia. You find Miranda blooms, the Antspur Rapier, Cleanrot Knights, and other surrogates of the rot occupying the castle. The room where you fight Elemir has a painting of Malenia. Dominula, where you fight the Godskin Apostle, overlooks the Haligtree. She tells you in the mountaintops of Castle Sol, she's getting closer. If you care for summoning, she can be summoned for many of these fights with plot significance. I think the only thing that is not signaled at all in the quest is needing to kill the Ulcerated Treespirit in Ephael to be summoned by her, since you cannot go back to the main path once dropping down to the arena.
-
Looking at the wiki first made the quest daunting and I avoided doing it due to how out of the way it is. However, the dialogue stated, locations and where she is found, the quest items, and the rewards all tie into creating a quests storyline beyond the standard "checklist". It isn't that hard of a quest and Millicent, among other quest NPC's, are found near Sites of Grace. It requires a player to just explore and have some spacial awareness. Also, pretty sure the newly updated map just tells you where NPC's have moved to if they're by a Grace sooo, not that hard to understand.

[mayhem523]

Your first sentence and last paragraph are a little contradictory.

"I used a wiki... it's not that hard to understand"

If it's not that hard to understand then why'd you use a wiki? Sounds like a textbook case of player type 2 as described above.

[DragonSoundxSG]

100% agree. I just completed the Frenzy Flame...incredible level design (if you like mazes) but my God was Hyetta's quest so random and dumb. Like how tf was I suppose to know where she was going...even in a general proximity? I gave you eyeballs , come on now!

Also: SHE SOMEHOW GETS DOWN TO THE PROSCRIPTION?! that part had me dead

[gungadin22000]

Originally posted by Twistybanana:

I don't know, man.
I completed everything just by listening to NPC dialogue and reading. I'm not saying they aren't obscure, they are, but there is enough information to complete each side quest if you pay attention and explore.

No you didn't.

[opus132]

Quests in Souls games always felt more like "secrets" to me, things that would require several playthroughs to discover. After all, in most cases the rewards aren't really necessary to finish the game, i don't think they are intended to be things you HAVE to complete.

I agree that some of them defy all logic though. Also think Elden RIng made things worst with this open world stuff that just doesn't mesh all that well with the classic Souls style of doing things.

[Dr.Falcon]

Originally posted by mayhem523:

Your first sentence and last paragraph are a little contradictory.

"I used a wiki... it's not that hard to understand"

If it's not that hard to understand then why'd you use a wiki? Sounds like a textbook case of player type 2 as described above.

The point I was trying to make was there are details in the game that lead you to each area, using Millicent's quest as an example that does allude to a lot of where she could be if given the chance. The map now tells you where NPC's are now, so I was saying knowing the locations of NPC's are not as hard as they were before. I was commenting on the storyline of the quest and how the wiki made it seem like A). Just a checklist and B). Made it daunting to even attempt. Many people just view the questline as a checklist and don't actually pay attention to dialogue. After doing the quest and hearing everything and putting pieces together I had a better appreciation for it beyond just "give X character Y item then go to the next area and do Z". I've done many of the quests without a guide and some with one...such as Sellen's. But quests like Fia's or Ranni's I just stumbled upon, explored, and did them.

[Chaosium]

What? You couldn't figure out by yourself that you need to talk to Billy Bob 3 times then meet him 80 km away from his first location after looting the Sacred Rock of Sum Ting Wong and resting twice in a row at the site of grace at night time?

What are you, a casual?

[Aertes]

Sorry to say yes, its possible, I proudly have completed most of them without looking for quides or anything. I admit some of them I had to look through, but they were for details I could have found myself with a bit more patience, like where to end Sellen's