I love the concept of trees being used as a symbol of the previous world/a forest of various distant worlds. That means cooperation is just visiting your friend's tree house.
I just thought about that and it makes even more sense... Trees can communicate with each other. Of course it's a silent conversation. But we too can have silent conversations with other people in other worlds... by writing down a message.
Demon Souls, Dark Souls 1 and Elden Ring have such an otherworldly art direction and atmosphere. No other game comes close to these 3 in terms of being the highest peak of cinema in gaming
I think that is because the effects. The original Ash Lake feels like a Dream, with the blurry effects the three has. Maybe the fact that you can see their Next counterparts on more or less good detail is what removes the illusion. Also that, except DS3, they feel more cut off than actually extending more and more into the sky. Elden Beast arena makes the trees semitransparent and removes the base, giving back that illusion effect by other methods.
Ash Lake reminds me of a dripstone cave. I was in a few. Not that otherworldly to me. Eldenbeasts Arena though defnitely gives off the biggest vibes towards other dimension for sure.
@@LawfulBased What dripstone caves have you been in that are a wide open space that goes on into the horizon uninterupted, has stone trees ascending out of a lake into clouds above you, and has huge mounds of ash that you walk on? Ash Lake feels otherworldly to me because its so unexplainable. You see it for the first time and you're just like: "...eh?" Its like a whole seperate layer of the world laying underneath the normal one with things that you just cant explain at first glance.
Don't know if it's real but i read the creator said there suppose to be bars on a bird cage, the Moon Presence reminding Gehrman he's stuck in the Hunter's Dream.
Bloodborne is like incepcion, they are like other hunters dreams or if you see on the bottom it is overlap the fishing hamlet, rom arena, and the hunters dream, look the ground and sky of these 3 and you see that they are connected by boats, trees or cathedrals
Dark Souls 1 to me makes it pretty clear the big trees/pillars represent the 'other' worlds. We descend the Great Hollow and when we exit the base, we're in this sort of world between worlds. Climb back up and we're back in Lordran. If we were allowed to ascend the other Archtrees, we'd probably wind up physically in another players' Lordran. Same with the Hunter's Dream.
Ive never seen anybody else talk about this in ER, maybe ive just missed it but the first thing i thought when i saw the Elden Beast arena was how perfect this fits into the whole lovecraftian horror/Outer Gods thing. Because you spent the entire game playing towards this giant tree that an entire country has formed its religion and pantheon around, its the cornerstone of your world and wars were fought over it and then you enter the arena and see that your Erdtree was just one of thousands the Greater Will had sent out into the cosmos, showing how insignificant the lands between truly is to an Outer God
I don't think The Great Will is an Outer God, more so, he appears to be above all and actually allow them to rule below him if worthy as we can perceive with Malenia being an empyrean despite being the avatar of the God Of Rot, an Outer God. But I do believe fromsoft were inspired by lovecraft, specially since Lovecraft also have two different types of gods, the Other Gods under Azathoth, being all the classic monstruosities everyone knows about, who are very in line with Elden Ring Outer Gods. And the Great Ones from the Dreamlands, who are more akin to humans and are not entirely evil and resemble Marika, Ranni, Miquella and Placidusax a lot more. The Greater Will and Flame of Frenzy are more primordial than that it seems, both were born with the whole creation itself as told by Hyetta, both coming from The One Great. I believe these two were actually inspired by Norse Mythos of creation and how the first life came from the heat of Muspel and the Ice of Nifel colliding on top of the great abyss ginnungagap and giving form to Ether which coalesced into Ymir, the first being. But the concept of Gods in Elden ring is still truly terrifying, specially when we remember that there are actual space monsters like Astels.
@@Sewersyrup Empyrean are chosen by the fingers, who have lost their connection to the Greater Will (aka Big Bill). as @coenenozzy said, I think it's rather safe now to assume Huge William could not car less about the Lands Between (which is itself all about the Greater Will)
I don’t think it’s that precisely mainly because if it was that then I’d imagine there being thousands and f them all the way in the horizon and so on, but I do agree on the concept that they do represent *something*
I personally subscribe to the theory that that area is a nexus point for all of us tarnished, and each of those is another player's erdtree in their lands between.
I've yet to hear a single good suggestion on what those are meant to represent to us, at all. They have a strong marine look to them, like the construction of a mollusk or annelid. The fact that finger sorcery makes bubbly sounds and it's used by "lampreys" further adds to at least a watery aesthetic, if not specifically marine. This is now the third time From does watery/marine-esque stuff in a DLC. DS3 and the soul dregs/beings of the stagnated deep, BB and the fishing hamlet, and now ER with Metyr's watery abode and the lampreys.
The original Ash Lake always gave me Nausicaa vibes (specifically the underground forest) and I'm sure that was the intention given that FromSoft derives a lot of imagery and inspiration from Ghibli films too.
Man, discovering Ash Lake for the first time was something. Otherwordly locale, esoteric music, archtrees, a random-ass hydra and to top it all off, a goddamn everlasting dragon. And also... Siegmeyer.
The best part about ash lake was that, when you first entered the area, the music would only play if you looked up, then if you looked down the music stops playing. I think that only happens the first time you get there in a playthrough, and it IMO makes the experience so much better!
I still vibe with my own personal theory that each tree in “ash lake” isn’t another player’s world, but another game’s world entirely. That all games are connected in some way, in the intertwining roots, all sapping energy from the same primordial soup. The skull in ash lake resembles nothing we’ve seen so far, I can only assuming it crawled down into the roots from a yet made game, dying after escaping whatever wretched reality dealt it a fatal blow
Demon Souls, Dark Souls 1 and Elden Ring have such an otherworldly art direction and atmosphere. No other game comes close to these 3 in terms of being the highest peak of cinema in gaming
Forgive me, I love ER and it's incredibly beautiful in terms of art style, but it doesn't even come 10th of the way to the atmosphere of DS1, Bloodborne or DeS. It doesn't feel "alive" and doesn't have the level of tension that will have you fighting for your life and losing your mind like your main character at certain points. In this regard, even some older games do much better than newer ones.
@@LuM4rexI don’t know what atmosphere has to do with fighting for your life and losing your mind but you can certainly achieve that feeling in Elden Ring. While it doesn’t have the same vibe as DS1, DeS, or even BB, it comes up with its own atmosphere that is completely unique to the other games. DeS and DS1 are the best games for a dark fairytale kind of vibe, whereas Elden Ring feels like something truly broken.
@@BlacklistedSoupIt is unique to other games in the series definitely not unique in the genre. But i wouldnt out it up there with dark souls 1 simply because you just teleport to the area. A lot less wonder that way vs finding it yourself as part of the actual world in ds1.
@@DirtyStinky what are you talking about. You find most areas by physically going to them. There are a few times you teleport to an area but that also happens in DS1 with the painted world, Oolacile, and so on.
@@BlacklistedSoup We arent talking about the painted world or oolacile . You have to teleport to those areas in world lore. Oolacile is literally time traveling, the painted world is inside a painting how else would you expect that to work. Elden ring teleports you to the final boss area it does not occupy actually real world space in the game vs ds1 where you make your way down and find the area yourself gives it that wonder in the atmosphere as its so unexpected. When you teleport you lose that wonder because it doesn’t have to make sense in terms of the physical world.
If you take the Ashen Mist Heart to Freja's arena, you can enter the memory of the dead dragon that's hanging there, taking you to the Dragon Memories, basically Ash Lake but all the Archtrees are damaged and destroyed
i actually never made the connection with smouldering lake to ash lake, it just never clicked for me because in ds1 the lowest point is ash lake but in ds3 there are ruins of a demon city underneath. Its literally lost izalith colliding with the catacombs/tomb of the giants, as all lands eventually converge onto eachother like tectonic plates moving over one another but in this case its thousands of times faster.
@@MDKGunner To be fair, is what Gwyn did in the Souls games really worse than what Marika did in Elden Ring? At least humanity had the luxury of losing their minds to the hollowing curse in Dark Souls... they don't even get that in Elden Ring. Just people slowly aging to the point of looking like zombies, and yet they're still fully aware of it all...
@@the_furry_inside_your_walls639 I admit i don't know much about what Marika did aside from break the "Elden Ring" which caused her children to start warring with each other if there's more info in the DLC then i'm not aware of it as it's not required to play The Convergence mod
@@the_furry_inside_your_walls639 Well, at least in elden ring you can actually fix the damage Marika caused to the lands between by the end of it. Even in ds3 there wasn't really anything you can do to unfuck Gwyn's colossal fuckup, the big final solution in the ringed city is to just make a painted world and go live in that. Not tryna defend Marika, she's almost as bad as Gwyn in my mind, just saying.
@@MDKGunner After seeing what the Abyss contains, I don't blame Gwyn for wanting to avoid that fate either. It was a lose lose situation but at least with the age of dark will bring about another age of fire in the future.
If you wanna get real technical, the satellite pillars at the final boss arenas of Ayre and ALLMIND's fights in Armored Core 6 could also be a reference to this concept. Big reach, I know, but still something interesting to talk about.
When I submitted an ocean filled with vertical lines to my teacher for a project on fear, he didn't get it. When I later saw it watching a let's play of Dark Souls, and then again in blood born, I wondered if it was a more global fear than I had initially thought.
You should include Institute City from armored core. The vascular plant is held up by giant pillars as well. Even though it’s not trees, I think it still represents the imagery of pillars holding up the world
Hunter's Dream is still probably the most ambiguous amd mysterious area of them all. The wooden pillars rising out of sea of fog, placed on a small island of existence with a familiar building, crafted from thought....its just so damn unnerving. As my first souls game i literally spent like 20-30 minutes taking in the view and just pondering where the hell i was.
I know they're supposed to be withered and burned and small in ds3 but I really wish they had done a ds2 and let us witness one more memory of the trees. Show us Gwyn or Velka or just someone nameless, maybe another dragon or a pygmy, hell just anything, and let us glimpse the past one more time with that beautiful dream quality.
Many games from Ps1 even to Ps3 had this numbing void, because of a really abstract and primordial 3d. Spyro Eternal night has some gothic lonely aspect too, Rayman 2 and 3, Majora’s mask of course…
It's been repeated a bunch, but with the exception of the Elden Beast arena, nothing comes close to that original Ash Lake feel. It's not just pillars, it's TREES, roots growing far, far away from you. You are in the guts of the world, the forbidden lands, the place where time and tithe do not touch. This is a place beyond Gods and Men, where even Gwyn cannot reach. This is a holy, sacred place-- the closest you can get to the truth of the world.
There is just something mysterious and cool about tones of long-ass pillars that are stretched out far into the horizon. And it seems Miyazaki likes it too. Since they are in every single Soulsborne game by Fromsoft.
Dark Souls 1 is special game for me, world design, cluncy and very heavy movement, unmatched vibe great story and ost (and Primordial Serpents). One of the best games ever 🙌
i think what makes ash lake feel more ethereal than the others is that the fog makes the trees look like they go on forever while you can see the end point of the other pillars ds2 top, ds3 ceiling, bb top, er fades ie cut off point
There's something about these areas that makes you want to literally travel into the game world, explore the theoretical limits of whatever is implied with your own eyes. Even though it is just a game and can never truly be realized, just implied through the visuals, that sense of depth is so tangible it feels like you could reach it through the screen.
Nothing will ever beat the awe, mystery, and vibe or the original ash lake Compared to the others, ash lake give me the cosmic fear and supernatural dread that I think was the intent of the ash lake concept
Best area in any game ever. The lore, the scenery, the fact that it's hidden so well that a normal player would never find it, all add an air of mystery that makes it so fun to explore that when you find the homages in the other games you're immediately hit with the same feeling. I fucking love ash lake
My theory is that all Souls games share the same universe/multiverse, these trees being one of the clearest reasons, alongside Patches and the Moonlight greatswords
Visiting Ash Lake for the first time filled me with awe at something so mysterious and grandiose. It evokes the feeling of ancient, untouched nature. Seeing the Elden Beast zone made me gasp with realization that those are all Erdtrees, like this place is a nexus between different worlds the Greater Will had taken residence in.
This goes back to my soul dregs are water theory. Ash lake is composed of soul dregs from the war with the dragons. In DS2 an entire ocean has appeared from the ages of war and relighting the bonfire over and over. Eventually when all those souls have dried up and the first flame has almost dwindled after all the lightings you end up with the desert in the end of the ringed city dlc.
DS1 ash lake is such a beautiful area but I am forever traumatized by trying to do sl28 hydra with a zweihander, and having the most horrible runbacks to the trees because of the mushrooms.
The most mysterious to me is the area underneath the Nexus in Demon's Souls. Other games are so rich with lore but DeS always felt unexplored. Every archstone led to a different land that you could see in the background but knew nothing about. I'm glad they brought the idea back in the form of Ash Lake though
The hunters dream pillars always weirded me out but if we take each game’s use of them by comparison it seems in Bloodborne’s case we’re at the top of the pillars or near the top and I think it’s meant to signify how close we are to the old one’s that act as eldritch gods. It’d be interesting if somehow all the souls borne games are some what linked, like you’d have to travel a great distance but imagine in dark souls case you go so far that the trees change into erdtree trunks and for Elden Ring the outer gods also include bloodborne’s old ones that are at the top of the trees. Someone also pointed out that one tree in ash lake is broken and the theory is that it led to demons souls but they broke their connection
Es mi zona favorita de cualquier souls y la entrada a la misma es de mis momentos favoritos de los videojuegos. Cuando bajaba por el gran hueco pensaba encontrar alguna zona pantanosa o boscosa y termine totalmente sorprendido y maravallido por el ash lake, se sentia como si hubiera llegado a un lugar donde no se supone que debería estar, parecia casi un sueño.
I'd argue Metyr's arena is an iteration on this concept as well. Instead of trees, you get tubes that appear similar to those of various kinds of sea worms. They're an inversion of the idea, as above so below. Instead of trees reaching up into the heavens, they are stone constructs reaching down into the deep.
The original Ash Lake feels like an homage or at least paying some sort of respect to Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind's Toxic Jungle with sight of the massive trees growing up into an impassable fog.
Remember that the Erdtree turned out of the concept of Yggdrasil - ash tree from Norse mythology, which was connecting the worlds. And so I like to think, that we have in all these games the great concept of level design connecting other games. You know, like in DS1 where we have all map connected itself, we have connected whole GAMES. So, in future, what I'm dreaming about, we would transfer to this different worlds, at least to small remastered level (the best reason for remastering games?), but this concept will be alive
It would have also been great to have a shot of the Dragon's Aerie from above at an angle so you can see the scope of the pillars much as was demonstrated with DS1.
You could also argue the Deeproot Depths are also a version of this in reverse, with large creeping roots descending from above to either bury themselves in the earth as great trees or to spiral off into deeper darkness afar.
I always looked into those trees as other souls universes being observed as trees. Like while I’m looking to them as player in ds. Other player would be looking to the same tree I’m in from Elden ring or blood borne or other ds world. It may sounds crazy. But since all these worlds share some similarities i kind find this a good way to materialize a single universe
I feel like I'm repeating myself, but those trees with the multiple tuberous shapes could be also inspired by Berserk, specifically the ones in volumes 16 or 17. And the big pillars could be inspired by a Beksinski painting. It even has the ochre tint in the painting.
Wait so maybe the other trees you see in the Elden beat fight represent other worlds that the greater will has control over? Obviously when we defeat the Elden beast, we aren’t beating the greater will, just getting rid of its control over our world?
that unexplained bite-sized elden ring arena in the eternal city has always interested me. Is on the shores of a giant lake, looks like a representation of the final arena, with these fossilized trees sustaining a fake sky. And nearby in a sinking temple we find the skull of a juvenile ancestral beast. And even more interesting, if Alligned with the shadow lands map, that area would be next and within the Abyss, so these trees used to be part of a gaint forest once. And yhe abyss has the same ost of the elden beast. what is their connection to the elden beast? Is that its landing crater?
Reminds me of the alex grey artwork (10,000 days album cover) or the ending of outer wilds, that endless fractal of pillars that represent the infinite possibility of the universe
The Elden Beast arena being dozens of Erdtrees, perfectly upright, likely hints at the Greater Will : how many other worlds are there ? How many Beasts were sent to this earth as stars, to impart their knowledge upon humans and become Elden Rings ?
I love the concept of trees being used as a symbol of the previous world/a forest of various distant worlds. That means cooperation is just visiting your friend's tree house.
what a nice way of looking at it. :)
In Phantasy Life, the universe is a tree, in a pot, in the garden of a dude named Todd Divinus
I just thought about that and it makes even more sense...
Trees can communicate with each other. Of course it's a silent conversation.
But we too can have silent conversations with other people in other worlds... by writing down a message.
I’ll have whatever he’s smoking lol
@@hitbox_91 Like carving a message on the bark of a tree?
Turns out a whole lot of big pillars look neat.
Still remember when I discovered the area behind Aldia's keep and went up where the Dragons reside in DS2.
Best blue covenant of all soulsgames.
Anything big and a lot of it in one place is always cool.
[Moria liked that]
that's what she said
Id say the view from Tomb of the Giants looks neatus
The original Ash Lake seems far more mysterious and otherworldly than any of the other, with the exception of Elden Beast's arena.
Demon Souls, Dark Souls 1 and Elden Ring have such an otherworldly art direction and atmosphere. No other game comes close to these 3 in terms of being the highest peak of cinema in gaming
I think that is because the effects. The original Ash Lake feels like a Dream, with the blurry effects the three has.
Maybe the fact that you can see their Next counterparts on more or less good detail is what removes the illusion. Also that, except DS3, they feel more cut off than actually extending more and more into the sky.
Elden Beast arena makes the trees semitransparent and removes the base, giving back that illusion effect by other methods.
Ash Lake reminds me of a dripstone cave. I was in a few. Not that otherworldly to me.
Eldenbeasts Arena though defnitely gives off the biggest vibes towards other dimension for sure.
@@LawfulBased
What dripstone caves have you been in that are a wide open space that goes on into the horizon uninterupted, has stone trees ascending out of a lake into clouds above you, and has huge mounds of ash that you walk on?
Ash Lake feels otherworldly to me because its so unexplainable. You see it for the first time and you're just like: "...eh?" Its like a whole seperate layer of the world laying underneath the normal one with things that you just cant explain at first glance.
It being hidden adds to it. It's like seeing something you're never supposed to see
The Hunter's Dream always made me wonder what the pillars significance was.
Don't know if it's real but i read the creator said there suppose to be bars on a bird cage, the Moon Presence reminding Gehrman he's stuck in the Hunter's Dream.
Bloodborne is like incepcion, they are like other hunters dreams or if you see on the bottom it is overlap the fishing hamlet, rom arena, and the hunters dream, look the ground and sky of these 3 and you see that they are connected by boats, trees or cathedrals
Someone said they represent gravesites of previous hunters Gehrman slain to release them from the dream.
for me it's just the other players' Hunter's Dream
Dark Souls 1 to me makes it pretty clear the big trees/pillars represent the 'other' worlds. We descend the Great Hollow and when we exit the base, we're in this sort of world between worlds. Climb back up and we're back in Lordran. If we were allowed to ascend the other Archtrees, we'd probably wind up physically in another players' Lordran. Same with the Hunter's Dream.
Ive never seen anybody else talk about this in ER, maybe ive just missed it but the first thing i thought when i saw the Elden Beast arena was how perfect this fits into the whole lovecraftian horror/Outer Gods thing. Because you spent the entire game playing towards this giant tree that an entire country has formed its religion and pantheon around, its the cornerstone of your world and wars were fought over it and then you enter the arena and see that your Erdtree was just one of thousands the Greater Will had sent out into the cosmos, showing how insignificant the lands between truly is to an Outer God
I don't think The Great Will is an Outer God, more so, he appears to be above all and actually allow them to rule below him if worthy as we can perceive with Malenia being an empyrean despite being the avatar of the God Of Rot, an Outer God.
But I do believe fromsoft were inspired by lovecraft, specially since Lovecraft also have two different types of gods, the Other Gods under Azathoth, being all the classic monstruosities everyone knows about, who are very in line with Elden Ring Outer Gods.
And the Great Ones from the Dreamlands, who are more akin to humans and are not entirely evil and resemble Marika, Ranni, Miquella and Placidusax a lot more.
The Greater Will and Flame of Frenzy are more primordial than that it seems, both were born with the whole creation itself as told by Hyetta, both coming from The One Great.
I believe these two were actually inspired by Norse Mythos of creation and how the first life came from the heat of Muspel and the Ice of Nifel colliding on top of the great abyss ginnungagap and giving form to Ether which coalesced into Ymir, the first being.
But the concept of Gods in Elden ring is still truly terrifying, specially when we remember that there are actual space monsters like Astels.
@@Sewersyrup Empyrean are chosen by the fingers, who have lost their connection to the Greater Will (aka Big Bill). as @coenenozzy said, I think it's rather safe now to assume Huge William could not car less about the Lands Between (which is itself all about the Greater Will)
why assume that every tree in arena is erdtree? Game has multiple smaller erdtrees so there is nothing shocking in multiple erdtrees living at once.
I like to think every tree in the Elden Beast arena represents a world claimed by the Great Will. And each of those planets has their own Erdtree
I don’t think it’s that precisely mainly because if it was that then I’d imagine there being thousands and f them all the way in the horizon and so on, but I do agree on the concept that they do represent *something*
I personally subscribe to the theory that that area is a nexus point for all of us tarnished, and each of those is another player's erdtree in their lands between.
I believe all those trees are Starbucks and thats why Ranni defied the Greater Will and wants usher in the age of Moonlight.
I agree, especially as all these Erdtrees are straight. Marika's Erdtree is slightly crooked to the side, betraying imperfections of her Order.
The background landscape outside Aldia's Keep is beautiful. DS2 really had some underrated and truly breathtaking scenery.
And a lot of it's imagery made into Dark souls 2-2 I mean Elden Ring.
both are truly outstandingly gorgeous.
Yes, also when you take the elevator up into Dragon's Aerie
Also there is the Dragon Memory in Dark Souls 2.
and Things Betwixt
Metyr's arena felt like a twist on ash lake to me. Gotta finger those tubes.
I've yet to hear a single good suggestion on what those are meant to represent to us, at all. They have a strong marine look to them, like the construction of a mollusk or annelid. The fact that finger sorcery makes bubbly sounds and it's used by "lampreys" further adds to at least a watery aesthetic, if not specifically marine.
This is now the third time From does watery/marine-esque stuff in a DLC. DS3 and the soul dregs/beings of the stagnated deep, BB and the fishing hamlet, and now ER with Metyr's watery abode and the lampreys.
@@kimlee6643 I think they're finger-like birthing tubes
You use the tip of a finger to call for her, and the open ends of fingers come to her lair.
@@kimlee6643also Godwyn and his fish theme
@@kimlee6643finger mushrooms
The original Ash Lake always gave me Nausicaa vibes (specifically the underground forest) and I'm sure that was the intention given that FromSoft derives a lot of imagery and inspiration from Ghibli films too.
oohh, nice catch!
Decay and rot up top, tranquility and purity down under
very fitting with Blightttown of all places being right above Ash Lake
@@umukzusgelos4834This and Ariandel too. Gael is similar to Yupa in many ways.
Me too Honestly
So either I dreamt it or I indeed saw a documentary about Miyazaki once where he stated that Nausicaa was his favourite Ghibli movies...
Man, discovering Ash Lake for the first time was something. Otherwordly locale, esoteric music, archtrees, a random-ass hydra and to top it all off, a goddamn everlasting dragon.
And also... Siegmeyer.
The best part about ash lake was that, when you first entered the area, the music would only play if you looked up, then if you looked down the music stops playing.
I think that only happens the first time you get there in a playthrough, and it IMO makes the experience so much better!
siegmeyer got lost in the sauce so sieglinde had to put him down rip 😢
For anyone wondering the song is "nameless song" from Dark Souls 1
so whats the name of it
@@BradKarmouridk its nameless
Being there to witness the spiritual succession of previous games/concept is just so surreal.
I still vibe with my own personal theory that each tree in “ash lake” isn’t another player’s world, but another game’s world entirely. That all games are connected in some way, in the intertwining roots, all sapping energy from the same primordial soup.
The skull in ash lake resembles nothing we’ve seen so far, I can only assuming it crawled down into the roots from a yet made game, dying after escaping whatever wretched reality dealt it a fatal blow
Yo! That's the corpse of the centipede demon at 1:13!
Demon Souls, Dark Souls 1 and Elden Ring have such an otherworldly art direction and atmosphere. No other game comes close to these 3 in terms of being the highest peak of cinema in gaming
Forgive me, I love ER and it's incredibly beautiful in terms of art style, but it doesn't even come 10th of the way to the atmosphere of DS1, Bloodborne or DeS. It doesn't feel "alive" and doesn't have the level of tension that will have you fighting for your life and losing your mind like your main character at certain points. In this regard, even some older games do much better than newer ones.
@@LuM4rexI don’t know what atmosphere has to do with fighting for your life and losing your mind but you can certainly achieve that feeling in Elden Ring. While it doesn’t have the same vibe as DS1, DeS, or even BB, it comes up with its own atmosphere that is completely unique to the other games. DeS and DS1 are the best games for a dark fairytale kind of vibe, whereas Elden Ring feels like something truly broken.
@@BlacklistedSoupIt is unique to other games in the series definitely not unique in the genre. But i wouldnt out it up there with dark souls 1 simply because you just teleport to the area. A lot less wonder that way vs finding it yourself as part of the actual world in ds1.
@@DirtyStinky what are you talking about. You find most areas by physically going to them. There are a few times you teleport to an area but that also happens in DS1 with the painted world, Oolacile, and so on.
@@BlacklistedSoup We arent talking about the painted world or oolacile . You have to teleport to those areas in world lore. Oolacile is literally time traveling, the painted world is inside a painting how else would you expect that to work. Elden ring teleports you to the final boss area it does not occupy actually real world space in the game vs ds1 where you make your way down and find the area yourself gives it that wonder in the atmosphere as its so unexpected. When you teleport you lose that wonder because it doesn’t have to make sense in terms of the physical world.
If you take the Ashen Mist Heart to Freja's arena, you can enter the memory of the dead dragon that's hanging there, taking you to the Dragon Memories, basically Ash Lake but all the Archtrees are damaged and destroyed
i actually never made the connection with smouldering lake to ash lake, it just never clicked for me because in ds1 the lowest point is ash lake but in ds3 there are ruins of a demon city underneath. Its literally lost izalith colliding with the catacombs/tomb of the giants, as all lands eventually converge onto eachother like tectonic plates moving over one another but in this case its thousands of times faster.
Thanks to Gwyn ruining the world with his curse and extending his PRECIOUSSSSSS age of fire
@@MDKGunner To be fair, is what Gwyn did in the Souls games really worse than what Marika did in Elden Ring? At least humanity had the luxury of losing their minds to the hollowing curse in Dark Souls... they don't even get that in Elden Ring. Just people slowly aging to the point of looking like zombies, and yet they're still fully aware of it all...
@@the_furry_inside_your_walls639 I admit i don't know much about what Marika did aside from break the "Elden Ring" which caused her children to start warring with each other if there's more info in the DLC then i'm not aware of it as it's not required to play The Convergence mod
@@the_furry_inside_your_walls639 Well, at least in elden ring you can actually fix the damage Marika caused to the lands between by the end of it. Even in ds3 there wasn't really anything you can do to unfuck Gwyn's colossal fuckup, the big final solution in the ringed city is to just make a painted world and go live in that. Not tryna defend Marika, she's almost as bad as Gwyn in my mind, just saying.
@@MDKGunner After seeing what the Abyss contains, I don't blame Gwyn for wanting to avoid that fate either. It was a lose lose situation but at least with the age of dark will bring about another age of fire in the future.
Land Full Of Big Pillars Really Goes Hard
Original ash lake is the best one. The buildup, aesthetic and reveal is so powerful
If you wanna get real technical, the satellite pillars at the final boss arenas of Ayre and ALLMIND's fights in Armored Core 6 could also be a reference to this concept. Big reach, I know, but still something interesting to talk about.
ARMORED CORE CHAD THANKS FOR SHOW UP! BIG W!
I noticed those as well. Might just be a nice visual treat for those familiar with the other FROM titles. I certainly liked it, anyways.
"Yo boss, what's always with the tree pillars?"
Miazaki: "I just think they're neat."
I have never seen that concept art of Elden Arena
It look so beautiful omgggg TT
Ash lake is still to this day my favorite location in all souls games. I was so blown away when I first discovered it
When I submitted an ocean filled with vertical lines to my teacher for a project on fear, he didn't get it. When I later saw it watching a let's play of Dark Souls, and then again in blood born, I wondered if it was a more global fear than I had initially thought.
You should include Institute City from armored core. The vascular plant is held up by giant pillars as well. Even though it’s not trees, I think it still represents the imagery of pillars holding up the world
guys will see unexplained giant trees towering over the clouds and think "hell yeah"
Hunter's Dream is still probably the most ambiguous amd mysterious area of them all. The wooden pillars rising out of sea of fog, placed on a small island of existence with a familiar building, crafted from thought....its just so damn unnerving. As my first souls game i literally spent like 20-30 minutes taking in the view and just pondering where the hell i was.
I know they're supposed to be withered and burned and small in ds3 but I really wish they had done a ds2 and let us witness one more memory of the trees. Show us Gwyn or Velka or just someone nameless, maybe another dragon or a pygmy, hell just anything, and let us glimpse the past one more time with that beautiful dream quality.
Tree Tops in Spyro 1 : hold my beer
Best level in that game
Many games from Ps1 even to Ps3 had this numbing void, because of a really abstract and primordial 3d. Spyro Eternal night has some gothic lonely aspect too, Rayman 2 and 3, Majora’s mask of course…
The towers in ACV and the grids in VI also evoke a similar appearance
It's been repeated a bunch, but with the exception of the Elden Beast arena, nothing comes close to that original Ash Lake feel.
It's not just pillars, it's TREES, roots growing far, far away from you. You are in the guts of the world, the forbidden lands, the place where time and tithe do not touch. This is a place beyond Gods and Men, where even Gwyn cannot reach. This is a holy, sacred place-- the closest you can get to the truth of the world.
There is just something mysterious and cool about tones of long-ass pillars that are stretched out far into the horizon. And it seems Miyazaki likes it too. Since they are in every single Soulsborne game by Fromsoft.
Dark Souls 1 has a magic to it that the others haven't been able to replicate
Elden Ring came the closest
Dark Souls 1 is special game for me, world design, cluncy and very heavy movement, unmatched vibe great story and ost (and Primordial Serpents). One of the best games ever 🙌
I'm juat gonna pop my head in to remind everyone to rewatch Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind
I wish I could just go to sleep one night, then wake up in Ash Lake and remain there forever
Simething about DS1 Ashlake just scares me. It gives me uncanny vibes in a horrific way.
i think what makes ash lake feel more ethereal than the others is that the fog makes the trees look like they go on forever while you can see the end point of the other pillars ds2 top, ds3 ceiling, bb top, er fades ie cut off point
There's something about these areas that makes you want to literally travel into the game world, explore the theoretical limits of whatever is implied with your own eyes. Even though it is just a game and can never truly be realized, just implied through the visuals, that sense of depth is so tangible it feels like you could reach it through the screen.
Nothing will ever beat the awe, mystery, and vibe or the original ash lake
Compared to the others, ash lake give me the cosmic fear and supernatural dread that I think was the intent of the ash lake concept
Ahh, the Ash Lake... one of the few Lakes that is not an ankle-deep puddle of bogwater
that and the Unnamed Lake in Darkroot Basin
Best area in any game ever. The lore, the scenery, the fact that it's hidden so well that a normal player would never find it, all add an air of mystery that makes it so fun to explore that when you find the homages in the other games you're immediately hit with the same feeling. I fucking love ash lake
The Sticks That Pierce The Skies.
Shinjis, get in the ash lake clones.
Gives a whole new meaning to the concept of "The Dark Forest."
My theory is that all Souls games share the same universe/multiverse, these trees being one of the clearest reasons, alongside Patches and the Moonlight greatswords
Visiting Ash Lake for the first time filled me with awe at something so mysterious and grandiose. It evokes the feeling of ancient, untouched nature. Seeing the Elden Beast zone made me gasp with realization that those are all Erdtrees, like this place is a nexus between different worlds the Greater Will had taken residence in.
This goes back to my soul dregs are water theory. Ash lake is composed of soul dregs from the war with the dragons. In DS2 an entire ocean has appeared from the ages of war and relighting the bonfire over and over. Eventually when all those souls have dried up and the first flame has almost dwindled after all the lightings you end up with the desert in the end of the ringed city dlc.
Old One from Demon's Souls is a single large Tree-thing
when you think about it, the vascular plant in AC6 is just a really big arch tree
Great choice of music as always. There's always something so ethereal and dreamlike about these locations.
DS1 ash lake is such a beautiful area but I am forever traumatized by trying to do sl28 hydra with a zweihander, and having the most horrible runbacks to the trees because of the mushrooms.
with shadow of the erdtree, metyr's arena also has this vibe!
The most mysterious to me is the area underneath the Nexus in Demon's Souls. Other games are so rich with lore but DeS always felt unexplored. Every archstone led to a different land that you could see in the background but knew nothing about. I'm glad they brought the idea back in the form of Ash Lake though
The hunters dream pillars always weirded me out but if we take each game’s use of them by comparison it seems in Bloodborne’s case we’re at the top of the pillars or near the top and I think it’s meant to signify how close we are to the old one’s that act as eldritch gods. It’d be interesting if somehow all the souls borne games are some what linked, like you’d have to travel a great distance but imagine in dark souls case you go so far that the trees change into erdtree trunks and for Elden Ring the outer gods also include bloodborne’s old ones that are at the top of the trees.
Someone also pointed out that one tree in ash lake is broken and the theory is that it led to demons souls but they broke their connection
I can't help but think the worlds are linked somehow.
Things Betwixt in Dark Souls 2 lets us actually walk into those trees for the tutorial
This was like watching the best Fromsoft edit
Es mi zona favorita de cualquier souls y la entrada a la misma es de mis momentos favoritos de los videojuegos. Cuando bajaba por el gran hueco pensaba encontrar alguna zona pantanosa o boscosa y termine totalmente sorprendido y maravallido por el ash lake, se sentia como si hubiera llegado a un lugar donde no se supone que debería estar, parecia casi un sueño.
I would argue Belarut/Enir-Ilim counts since the hornsent have a whole belief system around spiral pillars reaching the heavens.
I'd argue Metyr's arena is an iteration on this concept as well.
Instead of trees, you get tubes that appear similar to those of various kinds of sea worms.
They're an inversion of the idea, as above so below. Instead of trees reaching up into the heavens, they are stone constructs reaching down into the deep.
The original Ash Lake feels like an homage or at least paying some sort of respect to Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind's Toxic Jungle with sight of the massive trees growing up into an impassable fog.
I do wonder if the entirely of souls game (bloodborne , Elden ring , dark souls ) take place in the same world but at different points in time .
Remember that the Erdtree turned out of the concept of Yggdrasil - ash tree from Norse mythology, which was connecting the worlds. And so I like to think, that we have in all these games the great concept of level design connecting other games. You know, like in DS1 where we have all map connected itself, we have connected whole GAMES. So, in future, what I'm dreaming about, we would transfer to this different worlds, at least to small remastered level (the best reason for remastering games?), but this concept will be alive
I think Metyr's arena should've been an honorable mention here
There was one example of this missed here I'd argue. That is the Dragon's memory location from DS2.
It would have also been great to have a shot of the Dragon's Aerie from above at an angle so you can see the scope of the pillars much as was demonstrated with DS1.
You could also argue the Deeproot Depths are also a version of this in reverse, with large creeping roots descending from above to either bury themselves in the earth as great trees or to spiral off into deeper darkness afar.
Don't forget "Jungle" from Monkey Ball 1
In Profaned Capital, the statues are all elders hoisting pillars. Maybe the mad nobles know what it means.
I just love Darksouls' music. what a grand choice for this video's background music.
You could argue that Rykards arena counts, since it’s so similar to Smouldering Lake
can miyazaki beat the fromsoft don't put a huge fog obscured infinite plane dotted with titanic treelike columns in your game challenge
maybe next time?
I always like thinking that the walls of the elden beast Arena are the walls of the pillar we're inside, even if it's just to keep the fight contained
This is such a beautiful concept
I always looked into those trees as other souls universes being observed as trees. Like while I’m looking to them as player in ds. Other player would be looking to the same tree I’m in from Elden ring or blood borne or other ds world. It may sounds crazy. But since all these worlds share some similarities i kind find this a good way to materialize a single universe
In ds2 A more accurate place you could’ve gone is the age of ancients by going into the dragons memory
I'M NOT THE ONLY ONE WHO NOTICED THE TREEEEES ITS ALL CONNECTED
It’s also used in AC6 for the hidden city of Rubicon
Elden Rings DLC also references ash lake with the mother of fingers boss arena.
Oh I did not even realise they had these in more games
I feel like I'm repeating myself, but those trees with the multiple tuberous shapes could be also inspired by Berserk, specifically the ones in volumes 16 or 17. And the big pillars could be inspired by a Beksinski painting. It even has the ochre tint in the painting.
Wait so maybe the other trees you see in the Elden beat fight represent other worlds that the greater will has control over? Obviously when we defeat the Elden beast, we aren’t beating the greater will, just getting rid of its control over our world?
Honestly the one ds1 is still my favourite, it just felt so surreal and cool
these are all so beautiful. nameless song moves me every time i hear it. i love it so much. ❤️
every time i get to the dragon's aerie i can hear our boy going "praise the sun!"
Nameless song is so beautiful
So common I HAVE to believe it’s somewhere in Berserk
No, this time it isn't
@@Donja-mz6hpi hope we get a dark souls reference in berserk one day
@@ED11169 _!?_
it's an idea taken from Nausicaa of the valley of the wind, another of Miyazaki's main inspirations.
My favourite is DS2. I always stop and look at the scenery for a while.
There’s nothing like stumbling on ash lake for the first time
that unexplained bite-sized elden ring arena in the eternal city has always interested me. Is on the shores of a giant lake, looks like a representation of the final arena, with these fossilized trees sustaining a fake sky. And nearby in a sinking temple we find the skull of a juvenile ancestral beast. And even more interesting, if Alligned with the shadow lands map, that area would be next and within the Abyss, so these trees used to be part of a gaint forest once. And yhe abyss has the same ost of the elden beast. what is their connection to the elden beast? Is that its landing crater?
Tired: Miyazaki loves poison swamps
Wired: Miyazaki loves seas of trees
Ash lake always makes me so uncomfortable for some reason. It feels as if im not supposed to be there.
The consecrated snowfield has them too!
Worlds Trees
The worlds of Miyazaki are beyond wonder.
These have been in every game.... WHAT DO THEY MEAN!?!?! WHEN WE GONNA GET THE TRUE ELDEN SOULS GAME TO EXPLAIN THIS CONNECTION!?!?!
Reminds me of the alex grey artwork (10,000 days album cover) or the ending of outer wilds, that endless fractal of pillars that represent the infinite possibility of the universe
There's always a lighthouse.
There are more in Elden Ring I think, Rykard's boss arena looks like the Smouldering Lake and also the DLC Boss Metyr Arena
there is also one more in the dlc area of eldenring (mother of fingers)
The fact you can't explore Elden Beast's arena after beating the Boss is diabolical 😭
The Elden Beast arena being dozens of Erdtrees, perfectly upright, likely hints at the Greater Will : how many other worlds are there ? How many Beasts were sent to this earth as stars, to impart their knowledge upon humans and become Elden Rings ?