The Most Cryptic Moment in Every Souls Game

even though it wasn't in your criteria, i think obtaining the pickaxe in ds2 is the most convoluted thing in any soulsborne game. you gotta lure a pig thru a whole level dropping down and stuff, and killing stuff along the way, keeping the pig alive, until you get into a big room with some mushrooms on the ground and the pig digs it up where the shrooms are.

I just happened to have my torch out when i came to the windmill. I didnt even know what it did till i forgot to do it once.

In bloodborne I pulled the lever in the nightmare place (I forgot the name) just by exploring and wondering off the main path, then I googled what I just did and then I realized like “OOOOOOH THAT was the saramambiche that was making me insane like an r/batmanarkham user!!”

Pretty sure the manual for Demon's Souls on PS3 explained World Tendency a bit more. I definitely know it said dying in body form makes the game harder.

The ds3 show your humanity puzzle is also pretty much impossible if you havent played ds1, for me ds3 was my first game of the series and even after looking up what to do I didnt know what that thing had to do with humanity

The Great hollow entrance was really obvious to me. Why would they make you go on this big journey just to put no story in it? It was obvious there was a fake wall and that just triggered the reaction for the second fake wall.

The Crestfallen Warrior gives you a hint for the undead asylum and Domhnall of Zena gives you a hint for Ash Lake.

DS1 both of those i accidentally discovered.
DS2 also accidental, cause my game was so dark, i was running around with the torch out all the time. Also, yes, those statues. I thought "oh, its wave based?" Then killed an enemy near a statue and went "oh!"
DS3 I dont remember how i figured this out.
Sekiro only thing i missed my first playthrough was Eavesdropping Emma and The Sculptor.
Oh, and Elden Ring on my first playthrough I stumbled along into Fia, Ranni, Gold Mask, and Zoraya's quests.

I think the most cryptic thing for me on Dark Souls 2 is trying to complete horse fuck valley. Finding the location isn't easy, then travelling through it in a blizzard unable to see, while having giant bicorns slam my body into the ice to respawn at the start. What was the reward? Finding the first winter DLC boss but doubled. Yay....

Now in "talk to ranni doll 3 times"'s defense, aren't we all taught to keep talking to people until they do the souls laugh/giggle?

For the Great Hollow entrance, I did see someone discover the second wall simply because they were checking if the box was a mimic by attacking it and the weapon was big enough to clip the wall behind.

Sekiros dragon homecoming ending is super convoluted

I've done all Souls games.
I hate pretty much every single one of the Elden Ring quests, such design doesn't work in an open-world, you end up losing literal hours doing nothing but aimlessly searching, backtracking through areas you've already explored, it's horrible and brings 0 fun on the table. Specially when the answer to the quest is "please notice the new option in the menu at this specific bonfire and even tho it does absolutly nothing, do it 3 times", that is just ridiculously stupid and not in a good funny way.

Finding birds nest in ds1

The Great Hollow is behind a fake wall, behind another fake wall in the middle of an optional zone that's a poison swamp.

There's also the invisible hollows scattered throughout Dark Souls 2 that drop stones to give the crow's nest. I never knew those were a thing until I started watching Be And like 2 years ago

Got to give partial credit to the Covenant of Artorius. I did Sif about 3 real life months before I reached New Londo and completely forgot the ring existed, and without reading the description you'd not know it had anything to do with the abyss.

the bird thing in ds1 isn't all that hidden. the guy in chainmail in firelink shrine literally tells you that he saw someone curled as a ball carried away by the bird. this creates an objective in your mind to get to the bird nest making you search deliberately for a way to get there.

DS3's True Darklord ending is easily the most convoluted shit ever. I had 9 tabs open and an excel spreadsheet.

It's not even the fact you have to do like 5 different NPC quests, it's also the fact you have to everything in a very specific order.
A single boss fight too early, crossed a bridge before you had to, talked to the wrong npc at the wrong time once. Over, the entire quest line.

The Dark Wedding and True Dark Ending are honestly the peak of the franchise so all that bullshit becomes worth it

I actually burnt the windmill on my first blind playthrough of DS2. Not because of a message, not because I looked it up, nope. I just got stupidly luck cause an enemy had chased me to that ledge while I had my torch out. I saw the prompt for like 1 second before dying.

Dark souls 1, getting the red eye orb from Kaath was not going to happen without a little guidance.

I actually managed to find the Great Hollow my first time playing DS1, it was too strange to have just those things there and nothing else.
I forgot about it the next times tho

Surprisingly, I just accidentally did all of Fia’s questline with no help, it just all kind of fell into place. Ranni’s not so much.

I found the Great Hollow first time through, by attacking the chest in case of a mimic. The hit extended enough to hit the wall, which I assume is how From expected most people to find this area. Obviously it didn't work out that way.

The Great Hollow wasn't so hard to find, even without hints.

Actually founs the great hollow by myself, im always smacking ever slighly suspicious wall in these games.

wait untill bro finds out about zombies ee in cod

I know you didn't include quests, but I think you should have just so you could have something different to talk about for Demon's Souls. Freeing Yuria is pretty damn cryptic and I never would have done it without help. I also think the upgrade system is VERY cryptic in both Demon's Souls and Dark Souls 1 despite how critically important they are.

"Windmill is made of metal"
No, the turning mechanism is made of metal, fan is made of wood, oil that makes mechanism turn is flammable! But I agree it was weird addition, probably they just though people would have a ton of messages over there anyways (they did).

In DS2 definitely the windmill, and maybe the Dark Lurker.
In Bloodbourne yep the Rune from the brain. And maybe how to reached Yharnam the Queen (without a guide and have to use and search in every chalice).
And in elden ring for me Nepheli's quest. Or how to access one of the rise tower (the one when you have to use a gesture and a specific hat).

For me in Dark souls 1 was the nest I accessed that area and Ariamis until ng+ when I searched What I miss.
The hidden wall in the tree was easy to find since I always hit treasures chests in games in a way of caution. In many Rpgs are mimics.

I have played all darks souls and elden ring, and the only things have done and you’ve mentioned, is rani questline and fia questline (without any help, just a lof of exploration and listening to what they say). I had also found the great hollow on my second game, once again without help. But it was my third from soft game, so i knew how it work.

I fought the poisin lady in ds2 without clearing the poison in the arena, i stocked bunch of life gems to outheal the poison, imgine my shock a week later when i discovered you could clear the poison

My most cryptic moment in a souls game is from demon souls.come on

The biggest problem with DS3's show your humanity quest is, unless you have played DS1 you wouldn't know that was a humanity phantom.

So even if you use the white branch and become the Phantom you wouldn't nessicailry connect the thing you have transformed into to the puzzle.

The only indication is that it is a unique form.

The quests in ER were no brainers for where to go, but Lusats grave took me from day 2 of launch to day 4. I finally connected the dots because there was an enemy associated with the academy infront of the illusory wall

I actually found the great hollow walls by accident as I was like “no there’s gotta be more” and then was like “wouldn’t it be funny if there was another one” to say I was surprised was an understatement. Mind you I was so lost at that point as I thought blight town was where I was supposed to go after reaching firelink I found a lot of other things extremely cryptic

Vulcano manor, I spent hours looking for it cuz I could see it on the map but never knew how to enter the dungeon . When I saw in a guide that there is a freaking illusion wall in an area where you can’t attack I lost it…

The White Branch puzzle is… very obtusely hinted at. The ringed city is connected to oolacile, known for its illusory magic and the White Branches.

Talking about normal play-through that every one will experience so they can relate. 300k views.

Thank god to the player message who told me to try torch on the windmill

I agree about Elden Rings size making it's quests even more obtuse.

I missed Ranni the first time she appears and beat Godrick before my brother asked me if I had the summoning Bell lol

The only hand holding in Elden Ring is with Melina and Ranni.

I have to disagree with returning to the Asylum being hard to find, Cryptic yes, but there are enough environmental items to lure you there. I even found it myself on my first playthrough without any guidance.
The key on the church roof is visible when exploring the area so an adventurous person, once unlocking the elevators would attempt to use it to get there,
Thereafter you are guided up by stairs to the nest, which if you stand in it gives you a prompt to curl up.
After bumming around the area for a while I decided to curl up and see if anything happens if I wait as it was the only thing left to do.

I'll give you returning to the Asylum. But for the Great Hollow, I personally assumed there was more to it than the one item up the tree, and when I found the chest I was paranoid enough about mimics that I immediately swung at it, which unveiled the second illusory wall

The tower in Elden Ring that requires a specific head item and to use a specific gesture to enter. Wouldn't have figured it out if not for a message.

I don't think that Ranni's questline is too cryptic.
Until you give her Fingerslayer Blade, you are being told exactly what to do:
Go find Blaidd and talk with him, talk with Seluvis, talk with Sellen, beat Radahn, find Fingerslayer Blade and bring it to Ranni.
Then 3rd tower unlocks in her area. You teleport and find miniature Ranni.
And you have new option on grace. Everyone would use it few times to see if it does something.
And then you're being told what to do again until you get the key. You can make easy connection between Ranni and Rennala, so you should know where to use that key.
And then all you have to do is to explore more the lake of rot and you find Astel. After that, you're done.

And with Fia, well, this one was a bit cryptic for me. As you need to hug her more than once to get secret dialog option, and why would I do that if all I get is item that gives me a debuff?
And you need item from Ranni's questline to be able to finish Fia's quest.

So, with Elden Ring a lot of the quests are not hard to figure out.
But some are still not too easy

I’ve played through Dark Souls 2 at least twice and never knew about setting the windmill on fire