I'm wrapping up my live playthrough of ER and I might fight the final boss of the DLC for the first time this Friday! Don't miss it: ua-cam.com/video/4ksadJshG94/v-deo.html
The lore of Marika is that she was once a part of a tribe of Numen from another world that travelled to this world. The Hornsent of had disposed her people since they didn't have horns as a sign of 'Divinity' in their culture so her people was captured and tortured. She alone was the survivor and she had encountered the Two Fingers and thus began her rise to Godhood. She was made an Empyreon and over time she created the Golden Order and planted the Erdtree seed. She eventually gave birth to many Demigods and her son Messmer. She feared Messmer because he had the Abyssal sepant inside him while also loving him more than any other of her children, so she tricked him to being sealed away in the Realm of Shadow. During the Giant War, she received the curse of the Fell God after she killed the Fell God, this caused her hair to begin to turn red. Its unknown when she made Radagon but the curse of the Fell God was transfered to Radagon so she can maintain her pure image of a God of the Golden Order with her gold hair. Over many years she began to have doubts of the Greater Will and so begins her secret plan. Radagon her other half was loyal, but even more so to the Golden Order. Eventually as Marika shattered the Elden Ring, Radagon rebelled against her intentions and he tried repairing the Elden Ring, but Marika was the winner. The Elden Ring was shattered and Marika was imprisoned in the Erdtree while her plan for the Tarnished to become Elden Lord will one day come to pass. Radagon placed his seal or Order on the Erdtree, this is why you can't enter the Ertree until after you burned it using the Giant Flame. The 2nd phase is of the Elden Beast, which you can also hear this 2nd phase music in Marika's own Shaman Village ost. The Shaman Village ost only plays when you go to Marika's hidden village in the DLC. This is also referencing Marika encountering the Two Fingers at that time. The Elden Beast is the Elden Ring vessel, but Metyr the Mother of All Fingers is the real villain as she had been faking and pretending to be the Greater Will this whole time, but Metyr lore is too long for this comment. I hope this kinda helps you in knowing the lore. Know the lore, hear the music, fight the boss, Enjoy it all.
Plink plonk with the harp is marika's theme It's at the start of the main theme, it's the music that plays at her home the shaman village, and it's at the start of elden beast's theme as heard here Plin plin plon with a piano is gwyn's theme Thematically gwyn and marika are similar as they are a god of a stagnant world, a husk of their former self Gwyn being hollow and marika seemingly fractured Gwyn wanting to keep the age of fire going by linking the first flame is similar to marika removing the rune of death from the elden ring to keep her eternal age
And they are also similar in other ways. Both are responsible for the so called "first sin". In both cases we don't know exactly what they did, but both actions lead them to reach their status of king of the gods. Both did cast their first son aside. Marika did banish Mesmer into the land of shadows because he was cursed as the vessel fo the abyssel snake that could destroy her reign. And Gwyn did banish the nameless king because he rebelled against him in order to give the dragons a place in the world again. And it is possible that both try to trick the protagonist to achieve their wanted ending. Gwyn presents everything as if linking the flame was the right choice and Marika is trying to lead you straight up to go for the age of stars ending.
The first phase represents Radagon AND the golden ORDER, a strong but repetitive pattern (especially in the percussion), The Elden Ring main theme without the plin plon, only the hammer sounds. For the second phase we have the story of marika: -it starts with the shaman village theme (marika's home). "Only the kindness of *gold* WITHOUT order" (the description of the incantation found in middle of the village) -then we hear a high pitch plin plon, which I see as the golden threads that marika uses in the dlc trailer to call for the greater will. -followed by Marika's "voice" straight up calling in a lamenting way. -then the choir appears along with the a full view of the elden beast (in the boss cinematic). -and the percussion starts with the same monotonous pattern as it did for radagon: the ORDER part of the theme. -then after all the build up, intead of a full explosion we just hear Marika's voice again, she's still the lamenting, she ended up trapped in the false hope of godhood. Finally, in the story, the shattering happens, and the game starts. This is why we hear just a glimpse of the plin plon right at the begining of the Elden Ring's main theme, literally and musically everything started with Marika. And the last theme tells us what happened.
Yes, Marika is thematically very similar to Gwyn. She started the era of the Erdtree, similar to how Gwyn started the age of fire, and both are seen as fading and needing change, and the different endings are different ways in which you can bring the world into a new age
The final boss song is very fitting in my opinion. Radagon is simple: he follows the Greater Will and Elden Beast comands - hence the music being repetitive, simple, predictable. He's also into the physical side of things, being known as a great fighter, thus the song has strong percussion. He wants the Elden Ring to be repaired and the cycle continued. Marika, on the other hand, is a sad story alltogether, like her song. It probably all started from a gentle place. She's a shaman, her village slaughtered and turned into jars, now she's taken revenge and hidden an entire population for them to be forgotten and die out. She is the face of the Greater Will, the rulling God of these lands, having underwent a ritual in order to ascend to godhood. She used to believe into the Elden Beast and into an eternal reign, but she doesn't seem to agree with it anymore as she calls back the Tarnished to do something and break the cycle at some point (as tarnished are known to not follow anyone particularly from a religious perspective), shattering the ring, trying to essentially kill herself. She appears gentle to the Erdtree people and frightening to all others, so you hear her tenderness and tragedy as you're fighting the Elden Beast, telling you to defeat the Beast and her. In her quest to rule these lands, she hides and abandons some of her children that are not suitable as rulers. Marika is actually not exactly acting as a God from our Western culture, she's actually more similar to asian God concepts, where each God is imprefect and have ther own agenda (though she's depicted as a Western culture god having churches and all that). That being said, i don't think she's that similar to Gwyn. She represents duality, being mysterious in her motives, while Gwyn's motives are quite clear. It probably all started from a gentle thought to remove death alltogether, so everyone can live forever. But it ended up dystopian, shunning those who opposed her or harmed her people.
I could be wrong, but from my understanding the Elden Ring is a relic that dictates the laws of the world (think laws of physics like gravity) after she established her rule she tried to guarantee she would never lose it by removing the rune of death from the Elden ring so that her rule would be eternal but that lead to many other problems akin to stagnation
The problems didn't necesssarily come from the removal of the rune of death itself. The current state of the world did actually occur by the design of Marika. She intentionally shattered the elden ring after the night of the black knives in an attempt to free herself from the domination of the Greater Will. She may have been the monarch of the land, but she was still bound by the will of the Greater WIll and could not defeat the ELden Beast herself. SHe wanted us to become powerful enough to slay a god to defeat her half as Radagon and then defeat the Elden Beast which is an extension of the Greater WIll itself. You could free her and reforge the elden ring to rule as her consort with her no longer being bound by the Greater WIll.
I actually think she did it to break the law of the Golden Order and weaken it so that her plan can be carried by the Tarnished. I think it was all staged by her one way or another. She plotted it from the very beginnning.
With the Coded sword, Cipher Pata, and the way the whetstone blades have similar runes engraved on them and how they alter the natures of weapons, I see Runes as essentially raw data, and the Great Runes that make up the Elden Ring as the literal Code for the world, and by removing the 'code' for death, that brought about instability. Take it further with the Mending Runes, you're repairing the Elden Ring by installing new Code. Converting Runes to strength can also be seen as upgrading your own code.
"how did this guy know ?" My brother in Christ, when you are trying to unveil the lore of FromSoftware games you need to look absolutly everywhere with the greatest attention, there's stuff we understood about the lore only after checking in the game's code the code-name for certain enemies and structures.
The connection to the sound in the first phase that supposedly represents the elden ring shatterting by Marika is definitely valid to me, it sounds very similar to when Miquella shatters his great rune, part of the elden ring, in the DLC
I usually don't like this type of reaction but I just love the way you explain everything, you seem like such a nice guy, I can't explain why but your videos feels like asmr, it's just very relaxing to watch :)
The Final Battle is my favourite Fromsoft composed song. The first half is this incredibly aggressive rendition of the Elden Ring theme that feels very ‘final-battle,’ but that second portion….. man, that’s some of the greatest Videogame music I’ve heard. And yes, the plink plon (with the harp) - especially after the Shadow of the Erdtree expansion - is essentially revealed to us as being Queen Marika’s signature sound cue
Last week I went to an Elden Ring concert and got to hear the soundtrack performed by a live orchestra. It really makes you appreciate these genius composers even more.
Woo! I can finally suggest different tracks at last! Lol. Radagon's half really sounds like a celebration of their work, but it's still so complex for a surprisingly simple piece. You've finally done it. You've made it to the end of the game. Now you get to fight Radagon of the Golden Order. The King Consort. I actually never noticed the sound of the Elden Ring shattering in the apex/climax of the piece before it goes into the lower notes with Radagon trying to fix it. Honestly those low notes before the music loops sounds both frantic and like you're really being hunted by a god, or well the consort of the land's god. Elden Beast's half is really so different. It's so quiet for the most part. So lonely. It sounds like a dirge, I think? I don't actually know if dirges and lamentations are interchangeable, but it really does sound like a funeral for the Beast. As for the question of Marika being thematically similar to Gwyn, I suppose you could say that. I haven't seen how far you've got in your DLC run, but there's an area that will add some context to Marika's story, and since I don't know where you're at, I won't spoil it just in case!
The fact that the second phase has such a still harmony makes a lot of sense since this part of the song basically tells a quarell (you can here to solo vocal and the choir "debating") of Marika and the Greater Will (or the Two Fingers), which most probably happens on a divine plane, on cosmic level, where time is just as grand as space. It is about beings so ancient that for them, a hundred years is a blink of the eye.
In addition to the reasons people have given (both rulers/main “god” of their age), Marika and Gwyn both share that they are introduced as benevolent characters but are much more sinister and complex the closer you look Gwyn tricked humanity into being servile to his own kind and worshiping the fire, because he knew that humans would eventually be more powerful than him as the fire waned Marika seems to have planned for the Shattering War to take place, predicting that her children would fight one another for years and years and even also predicting that the war would stagnate and the Tarnished would then return. Unlike Gwyn, it’s less certain why she does this, though. And I think one of the biggest things they share is that throughout the game they are talked about as if they’re this grand infallible being, but when you finally meet them, they’re like pretty much already dead, and it seems as though they died afraid. Definitely why there’s so much tragedy in both songs
If there's one thing you can say about this pair of songs it's that they are layered, like damn I've never truly contemplated the amazing story telling that this theme does. Radagon's theme is one we've seen from day one, forming the basis of the main theme (and also interestingly Messmer's theme but it's a lot more subtle there), the epic larger than life tone that started off our adventure to become elden lord manifests at this final clash. I love how this works in both contexts of knowing his relationship with Marika: if you didn't find the twist, you're fighting the final member of the golden order completely unaccounted for, Marika's last champion and consort who you've heard so much about; but if you did find the twist it dawns on you that you're not just fighting a champion but a god, the god of the golden order whose influence is prevalent all through out the game. It also never occurred to me that the woman singing as the shatter sound effect goes is Marika, which adds yet another element, beneath the monolith that is the Golden Order she's screams as she shatters the artifact that acted as the foundation for this entire game, it makes it feel like a war cry to you to defeat her other half and put an end to the current system. Which leads to phase two, what a theme man. First off this helps explain something I've kind of been confused of the mechanics of which is why the Elden Beast was chilling in Radagon , yes I know they are also the Elden Ring but why wait until he dies, then in it hit me: it's basically a failsafe for the current order, Radagon was the last line of defence before it decided to get its hands dirty and Marika wants us to kill it. This theme feels like release and contemplation as Marika looks back upon simpler times and hopes you take the final steps to put her out of her mystery. The plin-plon harp, a simple motif previously a part of large horns and strings is now given the space to act on it's own, this small component was always Marika as a person, a humble shaman from a village long forgotten who longed for a world without death as her people were taken from her and now it serves as the basis for her death, a final farewell as she leaves the future in the hands of one who is worthy enough to take it.
Surprised don't remember that the first phase is just a remix of Elden Ring's main theme You kept calling the other version with the Dark Souls reference a "trailer" theme but it plays in game on the title screen and opens with that little darks souls reference.
I would say Marika is similar to Gwyn in the sense that she started the age of the Golden Order, but she ended up being the complete opposite of him. Gwyn tried to hold on to the crumbling Age of Fire until he became a Hollow, using himself as fuel to power the entire world; but Marika deliberately refused to be a "host" of the Elden Ring (or someone might say the Greater Will), so she shattered the Elden Ring.
I remember your reaction to Messmer's theme and how it sounded familiar. For me Messmer's theme is super related to this, lke a direct connection to Radagon. LOVE your videos!
she was chosen by Elden Beast to be god but she want to break free from it, we are fighting the Elden beast for her sake or other purpose depend on which ending you want
The plim plom is kind of Marika's theme, in the menu theme you can hear it right before Radagon's theme takes over. And it also plays in Shaman Village.
One of the most iconic moments in recent gaming memory. There is nothing more epic than the main theme kicking in as the protagonist and the big bad stare each other down for a final clash.
Hello #davivasc I’m a new subscriber thanks to your brother Dan. I’ve listened to his entire channel 3 times over waiting for new music to drop. So I decided to take up his suggestion to check out your channel. I’m glad I did! You’re a master! Now a have a new rabbit hole to go down. ❤️😀
Though seeming different, it still keeps the cycles in the first half, the same cycles and repetition from dark souls still exists in this universe as well. I love that little detail.
The song playing while fighting Radagon feels to me like it's more about Radagon's memory of struggling with Marika about the fate of the Elding Ring and all that it has wrought upon the Lands Between, good and bad, rather than the song for the Tarnished fighting the Leal Hound of the Golden Order, Radagon. The second part feels more like Marika alone remembering her own past, from the rise to become a god of the Greater Will, all the way to deciding to shatter the Elden Ring. Marika is a god in service of the Greater Will, and a god is also different and "lower" than an Outer God.
My friends tell me the 2nd half of the theme reminds them of Phase 2 of the Soul of Cinder theme. IMO it also reminds me of the traditional Souls end credits theme, like Return to Slumber, Nameless Song, Longing, & Epilogue.
OH DRAKAS OH PORTES OH DEAS MASCULUS ! DRAKRAAAA This first "Boom" after the transition for the second phase is the sound of the shattering. The second phase is marika theme, the first is Radagon
i haven’t even started the video but i’m excited to watch it fr! this is also my way of asking PLEASE DO DARKEATER MIDIR I AM IN MY HANDS AND KNEES BEGGING YOU😭 but can’t wait to watch this banger of a video 🙏
Love all the content. Never would have pieced together some of the points you're making. I am shocked though to see you've never examined the music for Journey! Though I think instead of a video, you should play the game. It's only am hour and a half and meant to be experienced firsthand.
the buildup to the climax halfway in the song reminds me of the battle radagon has with marika within themselves. sometime before the shattering radagon tries to fix the world using marikas influence after her tyrannical reign. and after the shattering sound effect in the song the same buildup plays again. showing how radagon yet again tried to repair it
Well, I missed the reupload. Either way, I remember this theme and both phases, they sound very special during the fights, especially the second phase.It's cool to know why the song sounds more familiar; indeed, pretty different. The second phase is pretty cool (it sounds great to me for a movie during a tragic or sad scene, but yeah, it's so cool, it's like floating). Cool. That's it. ¡Adiós !
I think it's appropriate that Radagon's theme is simple. He is the leal hound of the Golden Order, his entire existence refined into a singular purpose. He literally becomes a tool for the Elden Beast.
I've put this Lil piece of writing on another video of this theme, I'll do it again: "Things were gentler once. Kinder, once. Gold was once a beautiful thing, to gift it's light of healing unto all those who desired it, borne from a queen of meager origin who sought powers beyond her ken. She betrayed all, destroyed all, her opressed people, and her opressors both fell into nothingness, leaving the queen alone. Knew this she did not, for at the height of her power she returned home, to find it simply empty. In the fields she sat, pondering, with her power, she blessed the village. Bathing it in the gentle soothing rays of light, and sowed a small sprout there, to evermore bleed it's blessings. Knowing full well, there were none left to be healed. Things were gentler once."
I picked up on this the last time I played demon souls. The Rhythm or tempo of the percussions (whatever the correct word is) in the elden ring main theme are actually the same as demon souls main theme. Fromsoftware really went full circle with elden ring
I have always thought of the plin plons as tears expressed through music. Gwyn crying over his fear of the fire fading, and the betrayal of his Son. Marika crying over the loss of her Children, and the genocide of her people.
In your recent playthrough episode you mentioned not really being familiar with marika. There's a lot of speculation as to who & what exactly she is, but she ascends to godhood and hosts the elden ring itself. Radagon is a 2nd personality that lives within her that represents order and the golden order and its ideals. Marika for many theorized reasons shattered the elden ring and was imprisoned inside the erdtree, which is why she is considered missing. Upon reaching inside the erdtree radagon takes over and attacks and after beating him and the elden beast that serve the greater will (golden order god) marika is left broken, ready to serve as wife to an elden lord again or have a mending rune inserted to repair the elden ring and change the natural order of the lands between. You could say she's thematically related to Gwynn in the sense that she represents the change of an era and the future of of the land she rules over.
Actually that is exactly what you seen in the first trailer they ever released, no one really knew what it was at the time. But in reality you can see both of them hammering at the rune. Btw it is very similar to the Main theme and that one starts with plin plon.
The only thing, very thing, I can think of as a connection between Gwyn and Marika is that they both did something that changed their world forever and they (in case of Marika it's more complex than just simply she wants to cling on the Golden Order, while Gwyn is simply doing what he thinks is right. He doesn't want humanity to return to its beastly, "unhuman" nature. How ironic huh?) both want to keep the order. While this isn't even true on some levels since Marika guides you and she leaves the choice in your hands. So basically I tried very hard and this very thin piece of info is I could think of. But ER and DS overlapping definitely came back to the table with Nightreign. Even tho it's not directed by Miyazaki, he was at the beginning only - just with ACVI which that turned out to be just as amazing as any of his other titles - I think there could be some new stuff. Even tho it's not directly connected they said. But they also didn't deny that it's canon...
Hey Davi I know I'm not a Patreon member or anything but can you please dissect "Mother 3 - love theme" and maybe "Mother 3 - sunflowers and illusions" too since both tracks are short and go together? I believe it would make a banger video, the love theme ends in a very unique and unexpected way, I can't really explain the emotional ride it goes through in 15-20 seconds. I haven't even played Mother 3 and these two tracks make me cry. The only videogame tracks that have made me cry was from the outer wilds soundtrack and I already have a year or more on the game. Thank you
I know it was commented before but the harp you feel missing is on the menu version of the theme (which is slightly different from the battle theme), the motif is similar to the main theme of Demon's Souls.
Gwyn and Marika had similar origins and were the founders of their new order after overthrowing the previous rulers, but went on separate paths. Gwyn sacrificed himself to maintain his dying age while Marika shattered the Elden Ring which ended her order and would allow a new order to take over.
15:40 False hope sounds very correct about the story as I recognize it. I'm not much of an expert at all on the lore, but I believe the story involves some aspect of the Greater Will getting Marika to betray... something and take the Elden Ring to grant her godhood, which didn't really pan out in the end. It's the Greater Will you're fighting when it takes the form of the Elden Beast for this section of the song, and knowing that, I think the choir is representing it after the female vocals was representing Marika. Edit: I wrote that and unpaused it. I feel like Marika and the Greater Will are arguing now. Maybe it's just me....
Pleaaaaase analyze Kingdom Hearts music!! I would love to see you look into Destati (and it's many iterations and incorporation into other music), The Other Promise (Drammatica album), Vector to the Heavens, Dearly Beloved, Darkness of the Unknown, Hollow Bastion, and many many more.
Uh, well all of the Fromsoft games are in the same universe, at least in a loose sense (in the same way that the painted world of Ariamis is in the same universe as Dark Souls). The final boss is a direct reference to the final bosses of the Kingsfield games which is always a dragon with one eye who takes an amorphous form. Even further the 'Plin Plin Plon' at the beginning of the main theme is a reference to the age of fire being over (dark souls) which we see during the story was the previous age. The most likely canonical ending of Elden Ring is Ranni's ending which plunges the world into the Age of Twilight which is Bloodborne's age. Where you fight Rennala (Ranni's estranged mother) is the same place you fight Rom the Vacuous. Rom is in a featureless moonlight world summoning clone babies, just like Rennala. The Fromsoft universe is a cyclical one. That's kind of the entire point. Also, you can hear a bit of Gerhman's theme in the Elden Beast theme (Phase 2) at 11:55 to 12:10. It is that same note progression but a bit more optimistic instead of lamentful. This led me to believe that Gerhman and the Tarnished are the same person.
Marika brought light to the Lands Between through the Erdtree, a light that was meant to be everlasting. The Golden Order was another of her creations through Radagon. But her work wasn't perfect and the Erdtree wasn't everlasting. The Golden Order wasn't perfect, and the changes that were made to the Elden Ring had dire consequences. I feel like the Elden Beast's music is almost like her lament over her choices and the results of those choices, and the fight with the Elden Beast is a fight with her godliness itself, to prove that your will matches her own. After all, the Elden Beast lifts Radagon's body into a sword and wields it against you. That's more or less what Marika did through the Golden Order. Gwyn was in a similar situation. The world was grey and stifled with neutrality before he, the Witch of Iszalith, and Nito found the first flame. When Gwyn founded the age of fire, it was meant to last forever, but couldn't. Fires burn out. And rather than let it burn out, he used himself as kindling to keep it going. But he couldn't keep burning forever, so the Chosen Undead had to keep it going by sacrificing themselves to it next. When Marika realized the Golden Order wasn't working, she shattered the Elden Ring herself. And the part of herself that still believed in it, Radagon, was desperate to fix it. Gwyn and Marika are both in positions of self-sacrifice, leaving behind the worlds they've built (in different ways) because at the end of the day, they want to preserve them. Gwyn does this because it's the only way to keep it going. Marika does this because surely _someone_ will be powerful, clever, and wise enough to be able to pick up where she left off and fix this mess.
can you react to the song "Demon's Souls" from Demon's Souls (Remake)? I actually love that song. I know it's pretty short, but I'd love to see what you say about it, lol
It might seem daunting but I promise you that your musical understanding of every Elden Ring song and all it's micro decisions will be much more clear and exciting if you choose to educate yourself on the lore. Just watch Vaati's stuff
I remember that once every Dark Souls music sounded unique and deeply meaningful... Now Yua Kitamura makes a few good tracks and all the others are nothing special and they sound all the same... DS3 is the worst in that sense, and most of the tracks sound like the same.
Miyazaki will do everything to not give us actual storytelling through cutscenes, dialogues and etc. Damned cookbooks, item descriptions and now music references to highlight some lore details and requiring you to explore all those copypasted dungeons for a little piece of new info is the way I guess. The music in ER is great but I still have no idea how we degraded from Sekiro to this in all other aspects of the game lol. It's obvious by just looking at how game begins, showing you low effort 2D slideshow in ER, while there's actual intro cinematic in Sekiro... Music carried 90% of ER for me during first 8 playthroughs (NG+7 incoming damage is the only way to make it any hard btw, basic NG is very easy)
I'm wrapping up my live playthrough of ER and I might fight the final boss of the DLC for the first time this Friday! Don't miss it: ua-cam.com/video/4ksadJshG94/v-deo.html
The lore of Marika is that she was once a part of a tribe of Numen from another world that travelled to this world. The Hornsent of had disposed her people since they didn't have horns as a sign of 'Divinity' in their culture so her people was captured and tortured. She alone was the survivor and she had encountered the Two Fingers and thus began her rise to Godhood. She was made an Empyreon and over time she created the Golden Order and planted the Erdtree seed. She eventually gave birth to many Demigods and her son Messmer. She feared Messmer because he had the Abyssal sepant inside him while also loving him more than any other of her children, so she tricked him to being sealed away in the Realm of Shadow. During the Giant War, she received the curse of the Fell God after she killed the Fell God, this caused her hair to begin to turn red. Its unknown when she made Radagon but the curse of the Fell God was transfered to Radagon so she can maintain her pure image of a God of the Golden Order with her gold hair. Over many years she began to have doubts of the Greater Will and so begins her secret plan. Radagon her other half was loyal, but even more so to the Golden Order. Eventually as Marika shattered the Elden Ring, Radagon rebelled against her intentions and he tried repairing the Elden Ring, but Marika was the winner. The Elden Ring was shattered and Marika was imprisoned in the Erdtree while her plan for the Tarnished to become Elden Lord will one day come to pass. Radagon placed his seal or Order on the Erdtree, this is why you can't enter the Ertree until after you burned it using the Giant Flame. The 2nd phase is of the Elden Beast, which you can also hear this 2nd phase music in Marika's own Shaman Village ost. The Shaman Village ost only plays when you go to Marika's hidden village in the DLC. This is also referencing Marika encountering the Two Fingers at that time. The Elden Beast is the Elden Ring vessel, but Metyr the Mother of All Fingers is the real villain as she had been faking and pretending to be the Greater Will this whole time, but Metyr lore is too long for this comment. I hope this kinda helps you in knowing the lore.
Know the lore, hear the music, fight the boss, Enjoy it all.
You are not ready.
You aren't beating it anytime soon don't worry.
Plink plonk with the harp is marika's theme
It's at the start of the main theme, it's the music that plays at her home the shaman village, and it's at the start of elden beast's theme as heard here
Plin plin plon with a piano is gwyn's theme
Thematically gwyn and marika are similar as they are a god of a stagnant world, a husk of their former self
Gwyn being hollow and marika seemingly fractured
Gwyn wanting to keep the age of fire going by linking the first flame is similar to marika removing the rune of death from the elden ring to keep her eternal age
And they are also similar in other ways.
Both are responsible for the so called "first sin". In both cases we don't know exactly what they did, but both actions lead them to reach their status of king of the gods.
Both did cast their first son aside. Marika did banish Mesmer into the land of shadows because he was cursed as the vessel fo the abyssel snake that could destroy her reign. And Gwyn did banish the nameless king because he rebelled against him in order to give the dragons a place in the world again.
And it is possible that both try to trick the protagonist to achieve their wanted ending. Gwyn presents everything as if linking the flame was the right choice and Marika is trying to lead you straight up to go for the age of stars ending.
The first phase represents Radagon AND the golden ORDER, a strong but repetitive pattern (especially in the percussion), The Elden Ring main theme without the plin plon, only the hammer sounds.
For the second phase we have the story of marika:
-it starts with the shaman village theme (marika's home). "Only the kindness of *gold* WITHOUT order" (the description of the incantation found in middle of the village)
-then we hear a high pitch plin plon, which I see as the golden threads that marika uses in the dlc trailer to call for the greater will.
-followed by Marika's "voice" straight up calling in a lamenting way.
-then the choir appears along with the a full view of the elden beast (in the boss cinematic).
-and the percussion starts with the same monotonous pattern as it did for radagon: the ORDER part of the theme.
-then after all the build up, intead of a full explosion we just hear Marika's voice again, she's still the lamenting, she ended up trapped in the false hope of godhood.
Finally, in the story, the shattering happens, and the game starts. This is why we hear just a glimpse of the plin plon right at the begining of the Elden Ring's main theme, literally and musically everything started with Marika. And the last theme tells us what happened.
Perfectly described
this should be pinned. I also love how Messmer's theme is kinda related to the Radagon part of this one.
9:38 An ultimate question we have to ask ourselves in our lives : "Why the plin plon?"
Let's ask ourselves "why not plin plon"?
Plin plon is the song of our lives. Everybody is plin ploning until they stop
Just like Hollow Knight! I love it when composers integrate the lore so well into games' music.
HK is pretty much a 2d souls game after all😂
Yes, Marika is thematically very similar to Gwyn. She started the era of the Erdtree, similar to how Gwyn started the age of fire, and both are seen as fading and needing change, and the different endings are different ways in which you can bring the world into a new age
Except Marika was the leading force behind ending her own era, as opposed to Gwyn who sacrificed his very being to keep it intact.
@@shinyhydreigon7257I think you can hear that in the difference in their plink plonks too
tsukasa saitoh is a genius
The final boss song is very fitting in my opinion.
Radagon is simple: he follows the Greater Will and Elden Beast comands - hence the music being repetitive, simple, predictable. He's also into the physical side of things, being known as a great fighter, thus the song has strong percussion. He wants the Elden Ring to be repaired and the cycle continued.
Marika, on the other hand, is a sad story alltogether, like her song. It probably all started from a gentle place. She's a shaman, her village slaughtered and turned into jars, now she's taken revenge and hidden an entire population for them to be forgotten and die out. She is the face of the Greater Will, the rulling God of these lands, having underwent a ritual in order to ascend to godhood. She used to believe into the Elden Beast and into an eternal reign, but she doesn't seem to agree with it anymore as she calls back the Tarnished to do something and break the cycle at some point (as tarnished are known to not follow anyone particularly from a religious perspective), shattering the ring, trying to essentially kill herself. She appears gentle to the Erdtree people and frightening to all others, so you hear her tenderness and tragedy as you're fighting the Elden Beast, telling you to defeat the Beast and her. In her quest to rule these lands, she hides and abandons some of her children that are not suitable as rulers. Marika is actually not exactly acting as a God from our Western culture, she's actually more similar to asian God concepts, where each God is imprefect and have ther own agenda (though she's depicted as a Western culture god having churches and all that).
That being said, i don't think she's that similar to Gwyn. She represents duality, being mysterious in her motives, while Gwyn's motives are quite clear. It probably all started from a gentle thought to remove death alltogether, so everyone can live forever. But it ended up dystopian, shunning those who opposed her or harmed her people.
I could be wrong, but from my understanding the Elden Ring is a relic that dictates the laws of the world (think laws of physics like gravity) after she established her rule she tried to guarantee she would never lose it by removing the rune of death from the Elden ring so that her rule would be eternal but that lead to many other problems akin to stagnation
The problems didn't necesssarily come from the removal of the rune of death itself. The current state of the world did actually occur by the design of Marika. She intentionally shattered the elden ring after the night of the black knives in an attempt to free herself from the domination of the Greater Will. She may have been the monarch of the land, but she was still bound by the will of the Greater WIll and could not defeat the ELden Beast herself. SHe wanted us to become powerful enough to slay a god to defeat her half as Radagon and then defeat the Elden Beast which is an extension of the Greater WIll itself. You could free her and reforge the elden ring to rule as her consort with her no longer being bound by the Greater WIll.
I actually think she did it to break the law of the Golden Order and weaken it so that her plan can be carried by the Tarnished. I think it was all staged by her one way or another. She plotted it from the very beginnning.
With the Coded sword, Cipher Pata, and the way the whetstone blades have similar runes engraved on them and how they alter the natures of weapons, I see Runes as essentially raw data, and the Great Runes that make up the Elden Ring as the literal Code for the world, and by removing the 'code' for death, that brought about instability. Take it further with the Mending Runes, you're repairing the Elden Ring by installing new Code. Converting Runes to strength can also be seen as upgrading your own code.
16:48 "Ohh, This is the end! The song is dead, there's no hope!" 😂😂😂😂
It never fails to impress me how much you can hear the story in the music.
"how did this guy know ?"
My brother in Christ, when you are trying to unveil the lore of FromSoftware games you need to look absolutly everywhere with the greatest attention, there's stuff we understood about the lore only after checking in the game's code the code-name for certain enemies and structures.
Yes the plink plonk is in the main menu theme at the very beginning, and then it kicks off with something similar
The connection to the sound in the first phase that supposedly represents the elden ring shatterting by Marika is definitely valid to me, it sounds very similar to when Miquella shatters his great rune, part of the elden ring, in the DLC
I usually don't like this type of reaction but I just love the way you explain everything, you seem like such a nice guy, I can't explain why but your videos feels like asmr, it's just very relaxing to watch :)
The Final Battle is my favourite Fromsoft composed song. The first half is this incredibly aggressive rendition of the Elden Ring theme that feels very ‘final-battle,’ but that second portion….. man, that’s some of the greatest Videogame music I’ve heard.
And yes, the plink plon (with the harp) - especially after the Shadow of the Erdtree expansion - is essentially revealed to us as being Queen Marika’s signature sound cue
Cant wait to hear plin plon on elden ring 3 the elden Fades final boss
Yeah that portion of the song where its the Elden Beast's boss music is so damn good man. Some of the best music ever composed.
Last week I went to an Elden Ring concert and got to hear the soundtrack performed by a live orchestra. It really makes you appreciate these genius composers even more.
Woo! I can finally suggest different tracks at last! Lol.
Radagon's half really sounds like a celebration of their work, but it's still so complex for a surprisingly simple piece. You've finally done it. You've made it to the end of the game. Now you get to fight Radagon of the Golden Order. The King Consort.
I actually never noticed the sound of the Elden Ring shattering in the apex/climax of the piece before it goes into the lower notes with Radagon trying to fix it. Honestly those low notes before the music loops sounds both frantic and like you're really being hunted by a god, or well the consort of the land's god.
Elden Beast's half is really so different. It's so quiet for the most part. So lonely. It sounds like a dirge, I think? I don't actually know if dirges and lamentations are interchangeable, but it really does sound like a funeral for the Beast.
As for the question of Marika being thematically similar to Gwyn, I suppose you could say that. I haven't seen how far you've got in your DLC run, but there's an area that will add some context to Marika's story, and since I don't know where you're at, I won't spoil it just in case!
He’s reached that area recently
The fact that the second phase has such a still harmony makes a lot of sense since this part of the song basically tells a quarell (you can here to solo vocal and the choir "debating") of Marika and the Greater Will (or the Two Fingers), which most probably happens on a divine plane, on cosmic level, where time is just as grand as space. It is about beings so ancient that for them, a hundred years is a blink of the eye.
Poetry.
In addition to the reasons people have given (both rulers/main “god” of their age), Marika and Gwyn both share that they are introduced as benevolent characters but are much more sinister and complex the closer you look
Gwyn tricked humanity into being servile to his own kind and worshiping the fire, because he knew that humans would eventually be more powerful than him as the fire waned
Marika seems to have planned for the Shattering War to take place, predicting that her children would fight one another for years and years and even also predicting that the war would stagnate and the Tarnished would then return. Unlike Gwyn, it’s less certain why she does this, though.
And I think one of the biggest things they share is that throughout the game they are talked about as if they’re this grand infallible being, but when you finally meet them, they’re like pretty much already dead, and it seems as though they died afraid. Definitely why there’s so much tragedy in both songs
If there's one thing you can say about this pair of songs it's that they are layered, like damn I've never truly contemplated the amazing story telling that this theme does.
Radagon's theme is one we've seen from day one, forming the basis of the main theme (and also interestingly Messmer's theme but it's a lot more subtle there), the epic larger than life tone that started off our adventure to become elden lord manifests at this final clash. I love how this works in both contexts of knowing his relationship with Marika: if you didn't find the twist, you're fighting the final member of the golden order completely unaccounted for, Marika's last champion and consort who you've heard so much about; but if you did find the twist it dawns on you that you're not just fighting a champion but a god, the god of the golden order whose influence is prevalent all through out the game. It also never occurred to me that the woman singing as the shatter sound effect goes is Marika, which adds yet another element, beneath the monolith that is the Golden Order she's screams as she shatters the artifact that acted as the foundation for this entire game, it makes it feel like a war cry to you to defeat her other half and put an end to the current system.
Which leads to phase two, what a theme man. First off this helps explain something I've kind of been confused of the mechanics of which is why the Elden Beast was chilling in Radagon , yes I know they are also the Elden Ring but why wait until he dies, then in it hit me: it's basically a failsafe for the current order, Radagon was the last line of defence before it decided to get its hands dirty and Marika wants us to kill it. This theme feels like release and contemplation as Marika looks back upon simpler times and hopes you take the final steps to put her out of her mystery. The plin-plon harp, a simple motif previously a part of large horns and strings is now given the space to act on it's own, this small component was always Marika as a person, a humble shaman from a village long forgotten who longed for a world without death as her people were taken from her and now it serves as the basis for her death, a final farewell as she leaves the future in the hands of one who is worthy enough to take it.
Great classical music is being written for games. Imagine that!
So much stuff to unpack in just one track!
Great video as always!
These videos are always so interesting, thank you for making them!
They allow us to appreciate the game(s) even more, in a different way.
Surprised don't remember that the first phase is just a remix of Elden Ring's main theme
You kept calling the other version with the Dark Souls reference a "trailer" theme but it plays in game on the title screen and opens with that little darks souls reference.
I would say Marika is similar to Gwyn in the sense that she started the age of the Golden Order, but she ended up being the complete opposite of him. Gwyn tried to hold on to the crumbling Age of Fire until he became a Hollow, using himself as fuel to power the entire world; but Marika deliberately refused to be a "host" of the Elden Ring (or someone might say the Greater Will), so she shattered the Elden Ring.
why the plin plon, i ask myself that every day
What have you done, Miyazaki...
False hope, heartbreak, pretense, belief in different outcomes... You really put words on what this second phase song makes me feel
I remember your reaction to Messmer's theme and how it sounded familiar. For me Messmer's theme is super related to this, lke a direct connection to Radagon. LOVE your videos!
she was chosen by Elden Beast to be god but she want to break free from it, we are fighting the Elden beast for her sake or other purpose depend on which ending you want
The plim plom is kind of Marika's theme, in the menu theme you can hear it right before Radagon's theme takes over.
And it also plays in Shaman Village.
In shaman village It only sounds the chords not the piano
@@HS09884 Yeah you are right, I think I mixed the 3 songs that have the Marika motif in my head lol
One of the most iconic moments in recent gaming memory. There is nothing more epic than the main theme kicking in as the protagonist and the big bad stare each other down for a final clash.
Best ost in souls games with soul of cinder imo
I would kill to see a lore acurrated battle between the protagonist of Dark Souls 3 and the Soul of Cinder with that OST fucking experience
Hello #davivasc I’m a new subscriber thanks to your brother Dan. I’ve listened to his entire channel 3 times over waiting for new music to drop. So I decided to take up his suggestion to check out your channel. I’m glad I did! You’re a master! Now a have a new rabbit hole to go down. ❤️😀
Though seeming different, it still keeps the cycles in the first half, the same cycles and repetition from dark souls still exists in this universe as well. I love that little detail.
The song playing while fighting Radagon feels to me like it's more about Radagon's memory of struggling with Marika about the fate of the Elding Ring and all that it has wrought upon the Lands Between, good and bad, rather than the song for the Tarnished fighting the Leal Hound of the Golden Order, Radagon.
The second part feels more like Marika alone remembering her own past, from the rise to become a god of the Greater Will, all the way to deciding to shatter the Elden Ring.
Marika is a god in service of the Greater Will, and a god is also different and "lower" than an Outer God.
My friends tell me the 2nd half of the theme reminds them of Phase 2 of the Soul of Cinder theme. IMO it also reminds me of the traditional Souls end credits theme, like Return to Slumber, Nameless Song, Longing, & Epilogue.
OH DRAKAS OH PORTES OH DEAS MASCULUS ! DRAKRAAAA
This first "Boom" after the transition for the second phase is the sound of the shattering.
The second phase is marika theme, the first is Radagon
Someone else has probably said this but part of the Elden Ring theme directly references King Alant's theme from Demon's Souls.
i haven’t even started the video but i’m excited to watch it fr! this is also my way of asking PLEASE DO DARKEATER MIDIR I AM IN MY HANDS AND KNEES BEGGING YOU😭 but can’t wait to watch this banger of a video 🙏
Love all the content. Never would have pieced together some of the points you're making.
I am shocked though to see you've never examined the music for Journey! Though I think instead of a video, you should play the game. It's only am hour and a half and meant to be experienced firsthand.
the buildup to the climax halfway in the song reminds me of the battle radagon has with marika within themselves. sometime before the shattering radagon tries to fix the world using marikas influence after her tyrannical reign. and after the shattering sound effect in the song the same buildup plays again. showing how radagon yet again tried to repair it
1:46 sounds like a bad hit on the anvil and then shattering.
Well, I missed the reupload. Either way, I remember this theme and both phases, they sound very special during the fights, especially the second phase.It's cool to know why the song sounds more familiar; indeed, pretty different. The second phase is pretty cool (it sounds great to me for a movie during a tragic or sad scene, but yeah, it's so cool, it's like floating). Cool. That's it. ¡Adiós !
I think it's appropriate that Radagon's theme is simple. He is the leal hound of the Golden Order, his entire existence refined into a singular purpose. He literally becomes a tool for the Elden Beast.
I've put this Lil piece of writing on another video of this theme, I'll do it again:
"Things were gentler once. Kinder, once. Gold was once a beautiful thing, to gift it's light of healing unto all those who desired it, borne from a queen of meager origin who sought powers beyond her ken. She betrayed all, destroyed all, her opressed people, and her opressors both fell into nothingness, leaving the queen alone.
Knew this she did not, for at the height of her power she returned home, to find it simply empty. In the fields she sat, pondering, with her power, she blessed the village. Bathing it in the gentle soothing rays of light, and sowed a small sprout there, to evermore bleed it's blessings. Knowing full well, there were none left to be healed.
Things were gentler once."
The last stand for the Golden Order.
I picked up on this the last time I played demon souls. The Rhythm or tempo of the percussions (whatever the correct word is) in the elden ring main theme are actually the same as demon souls main theme. Fromsoftware really went full circle with elden ring
I have always thought of the plin plons as tears expressed through music. Gwyn crying over his fear of the fire fading, and the betrayal of his Son. Marika crying over the loss of her Children, and the genocide of her people.
I think Marika's song is about both her losses and her regrets.
In your recent playthrough episode you mentioned not really being familiar with marika. There's a lot of speculation as to who & what exactly she is, but she ascends to godhood and hosts the elden ring itself. Radagon is a 2nd personality that lives within her that represents order and the golden order and its ideals. Marika for many theorized reasons shattered the elden ring and was imprisoned inside the erdtree, which is why she is considered missing. Upon reaching inside the erdtree radagon takes over and attacks and after beating him and the elden beast that serve the greater will (golden order god) marika is left broken, ready to serve as wife to an elden lord again or have a mending rune inserted to repair the elden ring and change the natural order of the lands between. You could say she's thematically related to Gwynn in the sense that she represents the change of an era and the future of of the land she rules over.
"The song is dead. There's no hope." Well said, Davi.
Search for Shaman village theme, you will understand a lot of things
The Final battle ost's base melody is based on Demon's Souls main theme, which is an underrated older brother to Darksouls
Actually that is exactly what you seen in the first trailer they ever released, no one really knew what it was at the time. But in reality you can see both of them hammering at the rune.
Btw it is very similar to the Main theme and that one starts with plin plon.
It's funny because this is basically the same song as the soul of cinder
The only thing, very thing, I can think of as a connection between Gwyn and Marika is that they both did something that changed their world forever and they (in case of Marika it's more complex than just simply she wants to cling on the Golden Order, while Gwyn is simply doing what he thinks is right. He doesn't want humanity to return to its beastly, "unhuman" nature. How ironic huh?) both want to keep the order. While this isn't even true on some levels since Marika guides you and she leaves the choice in your hands. So basically I tried very hard and this very thin piece of info is I could think of. But ER and DS overlapping definitely came back to the table with Nightreign. Even tho it's not directed by Miyazaki, he was at the beginning only - just with ACVI which that turned out to be just as amazing as any of his other titles - I think there could be some new stuff. Even tho it's not directly connected they said. But they also didn't deny that it's canon...
Hey Davi I know I'm not a Patreon member or anything but can you please dissect "Mother 3 - love theme" and maybe "Mother 3 - sunflowers and illusions" too since both tracks are short and go together?
I believe it would make a banger video, the love theme ends in a very unique and unexpected way, I can't really explain the emotional ride it goes through in 15-20 seconds.
I haven't even played Mother 3 and these two tracks make me cry. The only videogame tracks that have made me cry was from the outer wilds soundtrack and I already have a year or more on the game.
Thank you
Those two chords it keeps returning to - try listening to the Shaman Village from the DLC soundtrack
I know it was commented before but the harp you feel missing is on the menu version of the theme (which is slightly different from the battle theme), the motif is similar to the main theme of Demon's Souls.
Hello Davi still in love with your reviews. What do you think about balatro's trance-like music, are you gonna do a video on it?
Gwyn and Marika had similar origins and were the founders of their new order after overthrowing the previous rulers, but went on separate paths. Gwyn sacrificed himself to maintain his dying age while Marika shattered the Elden Ring which ended her order and would allow a new order to take over.
I don't care what anyone say about this fight.
Elden Beast is Peak cinematic fight.
Don't think I didn't notice the resolution in sync with your thumbs up. It was quite satisfying 😌
Perhaps a Con Lentitude Poderosa listen?
15:40 False hope sounds very correct about the story as I recognize it. I'm not much of an expert at all on the lore, but I believe the story involves some aspect of the Greater Will getting Marika to betray... something and take the Elden Ring to grant her godhood, which didn't really pan out in the end. It's the Greater Will you're fighting when it takes the form of the Elden Beast for this section of the song, and knowing that, I think the choir is representing it after the female vocals was representing Marika.
Edit: I wrote that and unpaused it. I feel like Marika and the Greater Will are arguing now. Maybe it's just me....
Dark Souls is connected to Elden Ring universe, this year they releasing Elden Ring Nightreign where you can fight DS3 bosses.
FINALLY
2:43 literally Demons Souls reference
Pleaaaaase analyze Kingdom Hearts music!! I would love to see you look into Destati (and it's many iterations and incorporation into other music), The Other Promise (Drammatica album), Vector to the Heavens, Dearly Beloved, Darkness of the Unknown, Hollow Bastion, and many many more.
16:48 I burst out laughing man lmao
Uh, well all of the Fromsoft games are in the same universe, at least in a loose sense (in the same way that the painted world of Ariamis is in the same universe as Dark Souls). The final boss is a direct reference to the final bosses of the Kingsfield games which is always a dragon with one eye who takes an amorphous form.
Even further the 'Plin Plin Plon' at the beginning of the main theme is a reference to the age of fire being over (dark souls) which we see during the story was the previous age. The most likely canonical ending of Elden Ring is Ranni's ending which plunges the world into the Age of Twilight which is Bloodborne's age. Where you fight Rennala (Ranni's estranged mother) is the same place you fight Rom the Vacuous. Rom is in a featureless moonlight world summoning clone babies, just like Rennala. The Fromsoft universe is a cyclical one. That's kind of the entire point.
Also, you can hear a bit of Gerhman's theme in the Elden Beast theme (Phase 2) at 11:55 to 12:10. It is that same note progression but a bit more optimistic instead of lamentful. This led me to believe that Gerhman and the Tarnished are the same person.
Elden Beast is about Marika letting go of her dreams.
Marika brought light to the Lands Between through the Erdtree, a light that was meant to be everlasting. The Golden Order was another of her creations through Radagon. But her work wasn't perfect and the Erdtree wasn't everlasting. The Golden Order wasn't perfect, and the changes that were made to the Elden Ring had dire consequences. I feel like the Elden Beast's music is almost like her lament over her choices and the results of those choices, and the fight with the Elden Beast is a fight with her godliness itself, to prove that your will matches her own. After all, the Elden Beast lifts Radagon's body into a sword and wields it against you. That's more or less what Marika did through the Golden Order.
Gwyn was in a similar situation. The world was grey and stifled with neutrality before he, the Witch of Iszalith, and Nito found the first flame. When Gwyn founded the age of fire, it was meant to last forever, but couldn't. Fires burn out. And rather than let it burn out, he used himself as kindling to keep it going. But he couldn't keep burning forever, so the Chosen Undead had to keep it going by sacrificing themselves to it next.
When Marika realized the Golden Order wasn't working, she shattered the Elden Ring herself. And the part of herself that still believed in it, Radagon, was desperate to fix it. Gwyn and Marika are both in positions of self-sacrifice, leaving behind the worlds they've built (in different ways) because at the end of the day, they want to preserve them. Gwyn does this because it's the only way to keep it going. Marika does this because surely _someone_ will be powerful, clever, and wise enough to be able to pick up where she left off and fix this mess.
Played through the whole thing and I still don't know who/what Radagon is exactly. He's the most mysterious character in the story for me.
Have you heard the main theme of Helldivers 2?
Look up "A Cup of Liber-Tea."
New video! 🍽️✨✨✨✨✨
The excited "there's no hope!" at the end was kinda funny.
Marika is tired...she want to be put to rest...to end it all....
Re upload?
yES. tHERE WAS A MISTAKE THE FIRST TIME
Didn't mean to yell at you
@@DaviVasc lol
do Godfrey next please
Wait 5 views and 8 likes?!?!
you should react to either Still Alive or Want You Gone from Portal!
Could you listen to the putrescent knight theme from the dlc?
Won’t be surprised if the guy in the comments is just another account of SmoughTown
now you realy need check lore videos from vaati
Yeah she is "related" to Gwyn both was a disgrace
What are the lyrics of the theme?
can you react to the song "Demon's Souls" from Demon's Souls (Remake)? I actually love that song. I know it's pretty short, but I'd love to see what you say about it, lol
It might seem daunting but I promise you that your musical understanding of every Elden Ring song and all it's micro decisions will be much more clear and exciting if you choose to educate yourself on the lore.
Just watch Vaati's stuff
Elden ring!!!!!!!!
Elden Ring nerd here. The answer to your question is yes. But also no
Elden Ring lore is easier with respect to other Souls. You should know that Marika and Radagon are the two sides of the same coin...
I remember that once every Dark Souls music sounded unique and deeply meaningful... Now Yua Kitamura makes a few good tracks and all the others are nothing special and they sound all the same... DS3 is the worst in that sense, and most of the tracks sound like the same.
Who tf is this??
Miyazaki will do everything to not give us actual storytelling through cutscenes, dialogues and etc. Damned cookbooks, item descriptions and now music references to highlight some lore details and requiring you to explore all those copypasted dungeons for a little piece of new info is the way I guess. The music in ER is great but I still have no idea how we degraded from Sekiro to this in all other aspects of the game lol. It's obvious by just looking at how game begins, showing you low effort 2D slideshow in ER, while there's actual intro cinematic in Sekiro...
Music carried 90% of ER for me during first 8 playthroughs (NG+7 incoming damage is the only way to make it any hard btw, basic NG is very easy)
My initial reaction to this track was 'Yeeesssss! A Souls-like final boss with hype music.'
And then phase 2. angy