The monkey plants a tree, promising to share the bounty when fruit eventually grows. I’m reminded of the first Japanese folktale that came up when I googled “crab japanese folktale.” In The Crab and the Monkey, a monkey makes a trade with the crab for a persimmon seed. What I’m saying is that some angry old gods gave birth to crabs and they’re pissed off. IAmKickSix’s theory draws a connection between where the player runs into crabs with where they meet the powerful characters who found the Souls of Lords within the first flame before the original Dark Souls, which led to the creation of man.
#Dark soul 3 lore series
Who better to ask than VaatiVidya, arguably one of the best Dark Souls YouTubers whose Prepare to Cry series delves into individual character stories with scholarly precision and pseudo-ASMR voicework. Without much recourse or energy to puzzle out the crab infestation myself, I turned to the Dark Souls lore experts, who all have better things to do. Miyazaki must have a Crab Origins notebook somewhere.
#Dark soul 3 lore software
Dark Souls 3 is that friend, but crabs.Ī more likely answer is that From Software is stretched too thin on their near yearly Souls schedule and couldn’t afford the time to create more enemies or invest millions in crab lore development. We all had that friend that quoted Austin Powers just a few too many times a day. But the ice crab appearance in Ashes of Ariandel is so blindingly hamfisted that it irreversibly inflates the joke from elbow jab to kick in the pants status. Using the crab cliche as a playful jab in the ribs of fascinated lore hunters as a gesture that means 'not everything needs explanation, nerds' would be endearing, especially three games in.
Check out this dumb videogame enemy in Dark Souls, a series people swear isn’t dumb.
Their inclusion in the game feels like an in-joke. Do we need to see the mouth video again? I’ll do it.īut Dark Souls 3’s crabs don’t evolve the archetype or comment on it in a significant way. Eight legs, eyeballs on stalks, grimy algae coated shells-nature did the concept art for us. Great for boss stages.Ĭrabs are also quick, capable of moving in erratic and unfamiliar patterns, which bolsters the potential for a surprising move set. Their two huge claws are intimidating-no one wants to be pinched-easy to track, and can be destroyed independently without killing the crab outright. Their thick carapace functions as a shield without the need for silly magic logic, and it implies you’ll need to take them down through pure attrition or by finding a chink in their armor. Crabs and weak points go well together.Īs ridiculous as it sounds on a stage in front of a live audience, crabs really do make great videogame enemies. The archetype was cemented during Sony’s 2006 E3 press conference when a presenter showing off Genji 2 pointed out that the key to defeating a giant crab enemy was to “attack its weak point for massive damage” with overbearing press conference sincerity. In Metal Slug 3 we mowed down hundreds of huge crustaceans, and in Everquest 2 a supersized crab pinched players to death regularly. In Skyrim, Mudcrabs pose a decent threat early on, territorial and coordinated as they are. We’ve been cracking crabs open in games for decades now. His eyes widen, ‘This time, make them cold.’ Crabs in other games Imagine Miyazaki, fingers steepled and head bowed in deep thought: “Make the crabs, and make them large again, yes, but this time,’ he pauses, looking up.