ETAO Podcast, Episode 26.
Following on our bummer of a conversation about the most joyful show on television, this week we have an exuberant and hopeful conversation about a series of games focused on violence, failure, and ends of days. Go figure.
Yes, it’s time to discuss Dark Souls, and the fandoms attendant thereto.
This week’s episode unfortunately comes with a TRIGGER WARNING for sexual assault, since we follow up on the whole Devin Feraci situation, and more broadly, on the complications that arise when an episode sits in cold storage for a few weeks, the world ticking on without our acknowledgement. If you want to skip past that and get right to the Souls talk, then you can jump to 00:03:43.
I’ll also mention that SPOILERS ABOUND ONCE AGAIN, in case you care about that kind of thing. (If you find yourself caring more about spoiler warnings than about trigger warnings, do consider taking a quick look in the mirror, though).
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• Oh, the maps from the first Zelda.
• Ocarina of Time did come out in 1998.
• There are definitely some games embracing the low-plygon, low-res texture style, but I’ve still encountered far fewer of those than games based built around pixels and voxels. If you feel that I’m missing out on some exemplary and/or beautiful example(s), then by all means, let me know!
• I said that Rab Florence made the Fail Forward series, which is not true at all. Rab Florence made Memory System Aging.
• It is in fact Marsh Davies who has blessed us with Fail Forward, including the entirely excellent episode on Dark Souls and Dark Souls 2.
• And here’s Super Bunnyhop on what the first Dark Souls has to say about mortality.
• VaatiVidya’s work is singularly detailed and fascinating, especially the “lore” and Prepare to Cry stuff.
• Here’s what the hell it means to say that “Dark Souls creates its own precursors.”
• And here’s “The Journey To Kill Everyone In Dark Souls. Yes, Everyone.”
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“All The People Say (Season 2)” by Carpe Demon.
“Wealth Won’t Save Your Soul” by Hank Williams, performed by Milton Estes.
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