Accessing the DLC - does anybody understand it? (spoilers within!)

Hi guys, so after 108 hours of play, I'm about to access the DLC content.

Now, 'some' of Dark Souls, I can vaguely understand, but not so much the steps that unlock the DLC.

So, kill the Hydra, and the golems, fine, go to the end of the lake.  Nothing there. Quit and reload. Immediately kill the golden golem that spawns right next to me.  Your woman appears, has a quick chat and vanishes.  No clues given (as far as I heard) about the next step.  I really didn't want to have to access the wiki to find out what I needed to do next but I had to otherwise I'd never have worked it out for myself.

So question is, does any of it (from having to quit and reload), to travelling back to Duke's to slay the fella that I've already done countless times before ; only this time he drops an item I need... I dunno, it just feels like bad/zero design rather than anything logical.

Or am I missing something with the gameflow here?  Maybe this is what From are talking about when they talk of making Dark Souls 2 more accessible... helping the player understand what they're supposed to do is pretty important.

Well, as far as I understand it, the flow of time in Lordran is very warped and distorted (this is what makes co-op play possible and also what allows Dusk to appear in your world even though she is from the past).

The crystal golems are a result of Seath's experiments to try and create dragon scales to make himself immortal- in the process he created loads of crystals and crystalline abominations such as the crystal hollows, the Piasca (squid things) and of course the golems. Since the Hydra is clearly related to dragons (it drops a dragon scale), it could be that Seath was poking around in the darkroot basin looking for more test subjects or attempting to find a way to destroy the Hydra (perhaps he sent his golems there to wipe out any possible resistance) and he came across Dusk who had warped through time into Lordran. He may have imprisoned her inside the golden golem in order to later subject her to his research, only for the player to rescue her before this can happen.

If you don't already know the characters and backstory in the DLC then I won't spoil it for you by saying anything here, have fun playing through and maybe you can return after you've completed it if you want to ask further questions!

Thanks for trying to make some sense of it.  The part I don't really get now after your explanation is the having to quit/reload between hydra and golden golem, and then the broken pendant suddenly found upon the golem in the archives... and then coming back to the basin area... argg my head hurts with it all.

Thanks also for no spoilers for the DLC - I haven't read up on it at all, just know there's an arena somewhere and later tonight hope to begin the journey

mikeiothegreat wrote:Thanks for trying to make some sense of it.  The part I don't really get now after your explanation is the having to quit/reload between hydra and golden golem, and then the broken pendant suddenly found upon the golem in the archives... and then coming back to the basin area... argg my head hurts with it all.

Thanks also for no spoilers for the DLC - I haven't read up on it at all, just know there's an arena somewhere and later tonight hope to begin the journey

 R u saying the DLC integration is poor?  It kinda is, cause it's location and how to access it is sooo obscure.