The Dukes Archives - What were the developers smoking?

What were the develpoers smoking when they created the Dukes Archives? It Seems really off to me compared to the rest of the world. A lot of "Game Rules" seem to be broken there

1) When Seath kills you the first time you get ported to prison. I like the idea of "breaking out of prison", but when you play the game for the first time it really comes surprising when you face an undefeatable boss and somehow come back to life somewhere completly else.

2) When that bizarre alarm is raised the serpent guards seem to run away from those tentacle monsters. this adds a bit atmosphere, but at any other other time all sorts of enemies team up to kill you. also the snakes come back pretty fast and try to kill you. it seems that the developers maybe meant to build in "factions" (like rats also fighting hollows) but scrapped it on the way.

3) The crystal stuff. Crystal weapons just seem to me like something made to trick players. It is pretty realistic that when you don't read stuff up on the wiki, youtry out a seemingly cool upgrade and then just destory your weapon. I find that strange in game that is otherwise fair and follows the rule "the rules are laid out fore you, you just have to overcome the obstacles".

Do any of you guys agree on me with this?

I'd need to think about this one a little bit first to see if I agree with you or not.

Because the Archives never stood out to me as a particularly out-of-place area, mostly because it is largely an extension of Anor Londo, and the fact that Seath does have minions, the Channeler's armor description provides evidence of that, explains why the Serpents would be his prison guards.

And as for Crystal weapons, well, they're not necessarily useless, they are powerful but also brittle; much like Seath's immortality gives him unlimited power but is quite brittle in that it is only maintained by the Primordial Crystal which is laughably fragile.

crystal ember is actually good for extemely powerful replacable items, like crystal demon machete, crystal demon great axe, etc. It gives huge AR at the price of breaking fast, so if you stock up on them you get high AR but have to be careful with how u use them

And it's pretty useful if your buff run out for example.

Whatever they were smoking I bet crystals were involved
Its a bit of an odd place but considering what Seath does it makes perfect sense.

All the Channelers get together on weekends and smoke crystal meth with Seath...

burgi3001 wrote:
I find that strange in game that is otherwise fair and follows the rule "the rules are laid out fore you, you just have to overcome the obstacles".

Do any of you guys agree on me with this?

This game is not fair and does not follow its own rules, not even closely. This game is full of false "difficulty" and litte tricks designed purely to screw you over and go ZOMG MOST L33T H4RDC0R3 GAEM EVAAAAAR....if you are a numpty and don't see through it.

For instance, Your weapons bounce of every piece of scenery they possibly can, whereas enemies swing straight through pillars and walls no fuss, hell enemies can even poke you through a wall from a completely different room.

Seriously actually pay attention to a titanite Demon next time you fight one, they just do not give a damn about walls or other solid structures.

No wonder Chanellers are such a joyful bunch.... *buju buju buju*

Duke's Archive is definitely strange.

If you'll notice though, the bonfire in the prison cannot be warped to or from. So now Seath has a body to dispose of, he knows you're going to come back to life, so he just sticks you in prison waiting for you to go hollow. Obviously, this is for gameplay, so that you have to fight your way out instead of just teleport, but there could be some sort of lore explanation as well.

Maybe Duke's Archive is somehow cut off from the fire. There's a dead fire keeper in the tower, so maybe Seath somehow managed to isolate himself.

I tend to agree that it seems a little out of place but so do a few other areas. I think the disjointed feel actually makes it more cohesive somehow. Anyway, I always kinda thought of it this way: There's no other area in the game in which the resident is not only still kicking around, but is still there pretty much the way it has been for a long time. Example, New Londo's kings are still around but buried under a flooded city and consumed by the Abyss. Anor Londo still has a god and at least two demigods but not in their original roles or locations within the city and evidence suggests a remodel. The Duke's Archives seems to be functioning similarly to what lore suggests was the Status Quo for Seath. Of all the locations, this one seems like it has the most civilization left in it.

Honorable mention for "out of place" is Darkroot. I've stated before that this is the only location where there is true life going on in any quantity. Sure there's some grass and bugs in other places but Darkroot has trees, and flowers, and wildlife.