practical office software. And for the first couple of years, that's exactly what they

did. However, by the early 1990s the focus of the company slowly shifted towards video

game development. In late December of 1994, the company released their first title known

as King's Field. It was released exclusively in Japan on the Playstation only 13 days after

the console itself had been released. Just like most titles developed by From Software

today, the gameplay of King's Field was extremely difficult and unforgiving. Due to how well

the game was received in Japan, the company released a sequel in 1995 to an international

audience. The game was yet again met with overall positive reviews. From Software would go on to build an

immense catalog with many different types of titles with varying success and with the release of

Armored Core in 1997, they delved into the massive-robots-smashing-other-massive-robots

genre that is oh so popular in Japan. Also known as mecha. It wasn't until 2009 that

From Software truly returned to their roots and released Demon's Souls. In many ways,

Demon's Souls is the spiritual successor to King's Field with the most obvious difference

being the new third-person perspective. Upon release, the game was well received by critics

and was praised for its tense and ruthless gameplay as well as the unique integration

of its online multiplayer mechanics. In 2011, the company released Dark Souls. Some believed

the game to be a direct sequel to Demon's Souls but as game director Hidetaka Miyazaki

later explained, this is not the case. Just like Demon's Souls is the spiritual successor

to King's Field, Dark Souls is the spiritual successor to Demon's Souls. Dark Souls was

a huge success and was again praised for its brutal difficulty. In 2014 it spawned a sequel

in the form of Dark Souls II and on the 12th of April, 2016, the world was introduced to Dark Souls III.

In the first Dark Souls most players will encounter a blacksmith known as Andre of Astora.

He is a fairly unremarkable and minor character and while he was absent from Dark Souls II

he does make a return in the third installment. But there is one thing that makes him quite unique.

He is one of the very few human characters in the entire franchise to actually move their mouth while they speak.

So first of all, what's with the phobia for animated lips?

Well, like most things in the Souls franchise, no one truly knows. Despite creative

fan theories like undead telepathy, the lack of operational face-cavities is most likely

a very deliberate decision made by From Software to save time and resources. Okay, but what

makes Andre so special then? Well, what we do know is that he initially served a far

more important role in the story of the first game. He was supposed to be a descendant of

Gwyn, possibly his son, whose task it was to protect a passage hidden behind the goddess

statue in Firelink Shrine. The cutscene for the statue being moved is still hidden within

the game files. But as development progressed he was eventually downgraded to a simple blacksmith.

The various blacksmith statues dispersed across the game world are actually the surviving

remnants of this alternate storyline. So it's possible that, much like the statues, Andre's

vocalized activity is merely a vestige of a tale that was never told.

In an interview with a Japanese gaming website, game director Hidetake Miyazaki explained

that their initial intention was to make a direct sequel to Demon's Souls simply called

Demon's Soul's II but that "various things" prevented that from happening. So they decided

to name the new game Dark Race. However, two days prior to the unveiling at the Tokyo Games Show in 2010,

they realized that the name could have certain racial connotations.

So the game was publicly revealed as Project Dark. The next idea was to name it Dark Lord

but trademarking proved to be an issue so they settled for Dark Ring instead. No trademarking issues,

no racial connotations, everything seemed to be in order. But then someone discovered that in the UK

dark ring is also slang for anus. So they eventually ended up naming the game Dark Souls.

In Dark Souls II there's a character known as Laddersmith Gilligan. As his name

would suggest, he is a character that specializes in building and selling ladders. Now he does

make a return in Dark Souls III but, this time around, he is a lot more dead.

And to truly solidify the connection, his body is also surrounded by a large amount of broken ladders.

The Giant Blacksmith from the first game also makes a return.

He can be found in the exact same location in Dark Souls III.

But just like Laddersmith, he is now long gone.

Rest in piece old friend. Rest in piece.

Soon after the release of Dark Souls III it was discovered that there's an unusual

amount of, what appears to be, completely finished and functional content

that is for whatever reason not available in the final game.

Entire armor sets with finalized menu icons, descriptions, stats, and everything

are completely unused. Some examples are the armor set worn by Yhorm the Giant,

the mask worn by the Fire Keeper, the armor set worn by the Man-Serpent Summoner,

a white dress worn by the Company Captain Yorshka, a plow used by the scarecrows in the first game

and a lot more. It's possible that these items where cut due to balancing issues or

perhaps they plan to activate them in an upcoming DLC.

Before the release of Dark Souls, From Software announced a "Shield Design Contest" which

allowed fans to submit their very own shield designs to be featured in the game. The company

received thousands of submission but only four were included in the final release.

The Effigy Shield, the Sanctus, the Bloodshield, and the Black Iron Greatshield.

The same type of contest was announced before the release of Dark Souls II with the six winning designs

being the Phoenix Parma, the Sunlight Parma, the Watchdragon Parma, the Wicked Eye Greatshield,

the Rebel's Greatshield, and the Blossom Kite Shield.

The Dark Souls franchise is set in a sort of midevial fantasy universe so you would

never expect to see any modern items in these games. However soon after the release of Dark Souls II

observant players discovered a quite severe anachronism. In the Grave of Saints

you can find this puddle of what is supposed to look like toxic waste. But if we zoom in,

it's actually just a texture of a pile of recycled cans with one particular Heineken

beer can clearly visible. Good luck fitting that into the lore. It's obviously a mistake

though and it was later corrected in the updated version known as Dark Souls II: Scholar of the First Sin.

There's another texture applied to the pillars in The Gutter which seems to

contain a modern day rubber tire. However, upon closer inspection of the texture itself,

it appears to be part of some sort of larger metal structure hidden underneath the surrounding

rubble so it's likely nothing strange at all. Nevertheless, this texture was later corrected as well.

In the DLC Crown of the Old Iron King for Dark Souls II it's possible to encounter a

boss known as Sir Alonne. His appearance takes inspiration from the traditional armor worn

by Japanese samurai and he's wielding an excessively large katana. What's interesting about this

is that if you manage to defeat him without taking any damage a unique death animation

will be initiated which is very much in line with his samurai inspired appearance.

By driving his sword into his abdomen he committed a ritual form of suicide known as seppuku.

It was originally used by samurai to avoid being captured by enemies, as punishment for

committing a serious offense, or because they had brought shame upon themselves. In other

words, after being defeated so effortlessly, Sir Alonne must have felt so ashamed that

to restore his honor he had to commit suicide.

In all the Dark Souls games there's a stat known as Poise. The stat determines the character's

ability to withstand enemy attacks without staggering. Being staggered in this case means

that you're momentarily defenseless after taking a hit. In the first game it was very simple.

The higher the Poise the less you would stagger. In the second game the function

of Poise was slightly altered. It functions normally while performing an action

like dodging or attacking. But if you take a hit while standing still or moving around you

would get sort of semi-staggered in that your movement speed would be reduced while still

being able to perform any usual action. There are so many other related aspects like

Hyper Armor Frames, Poise Damage, Regeneration, Breakpoints, etc. but in the interest of time

this is the essential difference. There's been an ongoing debate over which system is

better and what system should be used in the third installment. So now that Dark Souls III

has been released, how does the Poise system work? Well, it is certainty not

the same system used in the first game but as many players have reported, it's almost

as if the Poise stat has no effect at all. Some are even claiming that they have found

a specific value in the game files that seem to suggest that the Poise system is indeed

deactivated. When this value is toggled from 0 to 1 a Poise system, similar to that of

the first game, is supposedly reactivated. But as the specific files and values has yet

to be revealed, and thus nothing can be confirmed, these claims should at least be taken with

grain of salt. Nevertheless, Poise has definitely been toned down as evident by just playing

the game for yourself. I mean, in previous games, one of the major benefits of heavy armor sets

was the increase in Poise. But in the latest game you seem to get staggered regardless.

Who knows maybe Poise is the new pendant?

We can only hope that From Software themselves comes out with an official explanation.

Dark Souls is mostly known for it's brutal and unforgiving gameplay. It's also known

for its hopelessly vague and cryptic lore. There's no real narrative but instead everything is

ambiguously revealed through cinematic cutscenes, in-game messages, and character dialog.

These tidbits of information are then puzzled together by loyal fans to create the most comprehensive

interpretations possible. But even so, there's so much we do not and can not know.

Miyazaki had this to say in an interview: "There are a huge number of things that while present

in the game, we make no attempt to explain to the player, and many more that they simply

have no way of finding out." But I guess that's part of Dark Souls charm. Much like real world

historians can never truly know what happened in the distant past, players can never truly

know the complete story of the Dark Souls universe. As everything is passed down through

legends and tales, it only makes sense for the mythology to be this fragmented. In preparation

for the release of Dark Souls III, publisher Bandai Namco announced a contest in which

you had to make a video explaining the story of the first two games. The contest was aimed

at players who had no prior experience with the Souls franchise and the winner received $10,000.

You know a story is hard to follow when people are awarded money just to explain it.

If you do want to gain a better understanding of the lore I highly recommend that you check

out a channel called VaaiVidya. He is somewhat of an expert on the Souls franchise and has

an extensive catalog of videos uncovering the many mysteries and secrets of the Dark Souls universe.

Did you also know that Firelink Shrine was initially going to be a water temple and that

the iconic "Praise the Sun" gesture almost didn't make it into the game? For even more

facts about Dark Souls you should head over to DidYouKnowGaming by clicking the annotation

on the screen right now or the link in the description.