This is an absolutely genius track because by the time you fight him, the titular Gwyn, Lord of Cinder, previously the most powerful of the setting's gods, has been reduced to an empty husk. The only thing standing between you and your ultimate goal is a shadow of his former self, and the game makes sure that you don't finish off on a bombastic high note, but on a haunting reminder of how far the world of Dark Souls has fallen.
What really makes it work is also how epic all the other boss song have been so far, and the presentation, you walk through the burnt down kiln, fighting dark knights who are some of the most powerful ennemies in the game, you are face with this massive fog gate, you know this is the final standoff. All culminated to that. And then this somber music plays and you have just enough time to ask yourself what's going on before gwyn leaps at you with a sword slash and you must fight. The vibe isn't that of an epic clash between a god and a hero, it's that of two battered and tired fighters who both want this to end but must keep fighting regardless even if they don't even remember why anymore.
As you mentioned from you own casual perspective, this song is quite unique to the rest of the soundtrack. Its an intentional betrayal of expectations for the very final boss, fitting for the theme of the entire game. They tell us in the opening of the game we are in "The age of fire" and "Soon the fire the fire will fade, and only dark will remain." And yet, you don't fully realize how imminent that downfall is, until you reach the very end. Gwyn is just a cinder, in the truest sense of the word, barely maintaining the current state of the world despite being the one who ruled and empowered it this whole time. For your upcoming video, the best analogy I can give is this. This is a song about a fire that has gone out. Its the still warm, glowing, crackling embers left in the pile of grey ash in your fireplace. Its beautiful, tranquil, and calming, but fleeting. Soon it will go out, and there will be nothing left but silence. Hopefully that gives you a strong idea of what this song represents, and how haunting it is to face an inevitable end in a game that has you face challenges head on.
Hearing this track again after a while reminds me how much I love this game, this track is such a paradox in itself and it’s so genius, Gwyn is the final boss of the game and every piece of lore up until that point paints Gwyn in literal sunlight. Everything you learn and hear should scare the life out of you like he was THE guy, but when you fight him he’s no longer even a guy, just a husk. I never realized too how the track actually sounds like faded glory, the plings and plongs as we call them are just the last bits of sunlight in Gwyn, the last parts of him being slightly golden. The best way to summarize how brilliant this track paints Gwyn is that he is the only boss in the entire game you can parry… the final boss, the GUY can be parried its brilliant I love Dark Souls
Something really special about this song is that this was played on an extended scale piano from the company Bosendorfer. These pianos are extremely expensive but they are considered to be some of the best in the world. If you listen closely to some of the lower end, you'll hear the notes played in that extended area
One of the best descriptions I've heard of all the recent From Software games (quoting Noah Caldwell-Gervais) "You arrive... along the knife's edge of decay between stagnation and collapse". The worlds are barely hanging on, and you as the PC end up having to make the decision what path the world takes, often to maintain the status quo or take some bold new direction. While many fire themes can be bombastic (the other one I voted for certainly is), fire can also be introspective, like watching a hearth fire safe at home, or even sad, seeing the last embers flicker and burn out, perhaps while realizing what we've lost to the flames. No other song I've ever heard has captured that side of fire more than this.
Before you meet him, his name is Gwyn: LORD OF SUNLIGHT. The final curse of the first flame to those who plundered its warmth: cold, ashen, humility. The fate of those who coddle fire is to be reduced to cinders, mere kindling for the age of the dark.
This is the most iconic song in all of the Dark Souls trilogy. The game does have is massive choirs and epic battles, but this theme represents the tone of these games overall the best in my opinion. The world you enter is never in a *good* state, and the Dark Souls trilogy is a journey of watching that world die in spite of, and perhaps because of, the many attempts to perpetuate its "Age of Fire." By the end of the last game, the world is a literal sea of ash. All thats left is ash and the ruins of its once great civilizations poking through. Gwyn's fear of change brought the world to its knees and slowly, mercilessly, killed it. Most of your time with Dark Souls isn't fighting giant dragons or warlords, it's slowly finding your way through ruins, beating back the former inhabitants and creatures, and until Elden Ring there was almost never any background music. You explored this dying world without anything to hear but your own footsteps and the clashing of blades.
7:40 there is no overworld music in the Dark Souls trilogy outside of the home area, it's part of what makes home feel like home. Elden Ring has ambient music though.
if you want to play this on the piano, youll realize youre only hitting white notes in this piece, to symbolize the fire that consumed gwyn. For those not familiar with playing piano or music theory, most complex pieces use black notes and white notes, since most scales have at least one. its pretty surprising the sound that the composer managed to create
Plin plin plon (community meme for the theme). The somber song of a dying god barely clinging to reality as you come to snuff him out. You can either take his place keeping the fire of the old age lit or usher in a new age of dead gods and the rise of humanity. This song is very different and its clear you felt it. Now imagine it being the final boss theme. The moment you beat Gwyn the playthrough is over. It was a sobering experience and the song has stuck with me for over a decade.
Let me set the stage for you: from the very opening moments of Dark Souls, Gwyn is set up as this impressively mythic character. He was the king of the gods, who fought and won against the dragons that reigned before the discovery of the First Flame, and who ruled over the world throughout the Age of Fire... until the First Flame began to dim, and he sacrificed his life to link the fire, allowing it to continue for just a while longer. But throughout the game, you see all that Gwyn's efforts and sacrifice has wrought. You see his once great allies and servants corrupted by power they could not control, or did not wish to control. You see the ravenous bodies of Hollow humans, denied the peace of death by the dimming of the Fire and driven mad by the Darkness inside of them. And, eventually, you see Gwyn himself, his soul and flesh burned away by the First Flame, reduced to a tiny fragment of what he once was. That does not mean he is weak, however. Even at the endgame, after countless hours of fighting and upgrading and leveling, he is still capable of easily defeating an unprepared player. But as the song suggests, it is a tragic state of affairs, where Gwyn fights to hold on to the last burning embers of the Age of Fire, and it is up to you to put him out of his misery.
Omg.. I started watching you when I/you were on my FF14 music journey, and since then I've spent the last year going deep into elden ring/soulsbourne games and the music is spectacular. I recommend the Godskin Theme from elden ring, Ludwig, the accursed/holy blade from Bloodbourne, those are 2 of the absolute best video game music pieces ever. Stunningly well done. Super glad to see you reacting to Fromsoft music! Edit: just saw you had a video reacting to Ludwig from 2 years ago, about to watch it now!
Something i would like to note, fromsoft is a fairly old company, making games as far back as 1994. They have a ton of games, 68 in total. their first franchise was kingsfeild, a strange first person dingeon crawler, their second was armored core. Dark souls 1 wasnt even their first take on the "souls formula" , it was demon's souls which came out 3 years earlier. They even made a few monster hunter spin offs, beimg the japanese exclusive diary games
Likely mentioned already but I just really love this song theme, all the game you hear about gwyn the lord of the fire, a legend, a god, of his war against he dragons, of how he built anor londo, you enter the fight expecting to see a lord, but what you find is a husk, an empty shell of where once a lord stood, his title becomes a cruel and sad joke, he is a lord yes, but a lord of cinder, not of fire, but inspite that, gwyn is probably the most aggressive boss in the game, he barely lets you heal or defend yourself, despite what little remains he just doesn’t let you off easily, this song in the moment 4:11 feels to me like watching a flame, slowly fading away but still resisting to be snuffed, it’s sad but in a way beautiful, this song seems to have the objective to inspire you, be inspired by this man so adamant in letting the age of fire keep going despite the natural order of things being the fire fading away, that you yourself decide to give yourself as kindling so the fire may resist just a bit longer, probably among my favourite game osts of all time, it’s just amazing, loved the reaction, and can’t wait to hear soul of cinder in the future
In the beginning, there was nothing. The world was a vast, grey expanse where nothing changed, ruled over by everlasting dragons. But then, there was fire. The first flame. And with it came disparity. Life and death, heat and cold, light and dark. Within the first flame, the first lords found souls of great power. Gywn, first lord, king of the gods, discovered the greatest of these souls, and with its might overthrew the dragons and founded the age of fire. This is the most basic plot synopsis dark souls gives you right at the start of the game. The world prospered in the age of fire that Gwyn founded. He is built up as a truely mythical figure. But even the first flame one day fades, and with its fading, an age of dark encroaches. Fearing the Dark, Gywn travels to the first flame to offer his soul as kindling to the dying fire to extend his age. Throughout a playthrough, you see the consequences of this action. The cycle of the world has stagnated and is decaying. Kingdoms have fallen, cities crumble. Humanity is afflicted by the undead curse that makes them immortal, but will one day drive them mad and hollow. The pinnacle of this is Gwyn himself. When you reach him, you expect to fight a god of gods, a master of fire and lightning. What you find instead is a husk. A solitary man, clad in rotting robes. His face is dessicated, eyes long gone from hollow sockets. Alone, in a vast field of grey ash. The Gywn of legend is long gone, his soul and self consumed in the first flame. All that remains is mindless undead with a flaming sword. The tragedy of his choice to offer his soul as kindling is no clearer anywhere else. And then the piano kicks in. To really top it all off, he's one of the easiest bosses in the game. Its hardly even a boss fight. Its closer to a mercy killing
This song makes me wanna twirl around and elegantly stick my sword at Gwyn like a dance 😂threw me off so much Gwyn totally burst me into flames. Didnt get passed 10 seconds lol
This song definitely breaks conventions intentionally, as even from the start, there was a focus on "massive" songs that intimidate you with an onslaught of powerful instruments playing dissonant melodies. If you want to hear a more traditional Dark Souls boss theme that is related to this one, I recommend Soul of Cinder from Dark Souls 3.
It is actually not only a boss. Its the final boss. Youre not really there to fight him, youre there to put a hollow god out of his misery. When you get there without finding and/or understanding the lore, you probably feel like hes an evil guy and needs to be killed. When you do understand the lore, you just feel sad. Thats why this is the song of the final boss of Dark Souls 1.
When i was first getting into the lore of the Dark Souls games, someone described to me the Gwyn fight as kind of like “Putting an old dog down” and the music couldn’t possibly convey that any better. You are, after all, putting down the shell of a former Lord who has now retreated and failed his duties. Truly a tragic final boss.
I'm one of those people that don't like to comment, xD. I will say, this track is iconic for a reason. You summed it up pretty nicely, in regards to how it's a complete difference to what is expected. There's a few comments already that point this out, so I'll give my personal take on how it felt. Gwyn's theme was giving me chills when I first got to it. Made me relisten to it for years, because there's just something about that melody that sounds like a lullaby (if that makes sense?). It's not the raging of a mad king, like I thought it would be. It's just super somber, almost like it's exhausted. The piano going back and forth, creates that rhythm to it; a duality of sorts? On one hand, you've got the low notes that almost sound like a march, in that part where it's silent from the high notes. Like something's creeping to you? Like you know, this is it? Finality. Anyways, always love watching your vid's, Jesse! Can't wait to here you react to DS3 final boss theme, cause hooooo boy, those piano notes become iconic af.
And another interesting about this song is how its motiff appears in the theme for the final boss of Dark Souls 3. It's not there all the time, but it helps tying the narrative together in a wonderful way.
This song is melancholic because Gwyn, a mortal who essentially became a god, did everything he could to keep the world's fire from fading. Fire is a big theme in Dark Souls in general. The First Flame in Dark Souls is the 'light' that arose in a world that was grey and devoid of contrast. In the time the world was grey, immortal dragons with stone scales ruled it. When Gwyn and 3 others found the power of the First Flame, they waged war against the dragons. Fire gave rise to concepts such as light and life, but also dark and death. And so it was that the gods with the Lord Souls, a power taken from the Flame itself, brought death upon the dragons. Gwyn ruled, creating his own kingdom and giving rise to prosperity, but only for a time. He noticed over the course of his rule that the power of the First Flame was fading. In its stead something else grew in power, something dark. Other than the 4 Lord Souls the gods took for themselves, there was one other that a certain being hid and nurtured. That soul was the Dark Soul, which Gwyn noticed was in every member of the human race. It was the power of the Dark Soul that Gwyn feared, that if it became powerful enough it would cause the flame to fade completely. And so it was out of desperation that Gwyn offered his own soul as kindling, which he hoped would be strong enough to reignite the flame for another age. With that act, Gwyn became the first Lord of Cinder. The second Age of Fire came as he had hoped, but eventually passed just as any other. Once more the Flame lost its strength, which is when when Dark Souls begins. It's up to you, the player, to reignite hope by perpetuating the Age of Fire once more. Or maybe you'll deem it best for the Flame to fade, bringing about an Age of Dark, as all things are meant to end sooner or later. Thanks for reading that anyone who did. The lore in this game is awesome. There's things I left out on purpose just in case Jesse or anyone ever decides to play this game and find out for themselves. Also, the thumbnail of the video actually represents the player. It's the armor set for one of the many starting classes.
Your reaction to this makes me really wonder what you'd think about "Pinwheel"'s theme. THAT is an eerie one. Gwyn's I never took as eerie or unsettling, just very.. somber. You approach this boss who is a husk of his former self, and yes he can kill you very quickly if you're not ready for it, but it feels more like it's just setting the scene for the boss, rather than the fight itself. It is also the conclusion of the game, so as the finale it also paints an interesting picture compared to the rest of the game.
When I first got to Gwyn, it was after accomplishing so many feats, and the end of the stress just made me cry. It was about the struggle of a god just ready to end their eternal torture and pass on the torch, literally.
Midra Lord of Frenzied Flame is on par with Gwyn in terms of a boss theme alone that so clearly tells the story of the character. A must listen to track.
Mejority of the people who played the game and encountered this boss didn't expected the boss theme to be like this because it's not an conventional final boss music with grandiose triumphant victory theme , it's like a flickering candle light about to burn out and barely holding up, representing the state of the boss the boss who was once the mightiest being and the state of this world as a whole
If you're gonna keep it up with the Dark Souls music - and you should because these games have beautiful music - you should 100% put 'Soul of Cinder' on your list. It's the theme of the final boss of the whole series, and you can really feel how everything culminates in it. Lord of Cinder is practically required reading to listen to it. Great video!
It's so sad. The sound of a great warrior, bent, broken and hollow, who sacrificed everything to stave off the dark so civilization could endure just a little longer. Oblivion may be inevitable, but can it hurt to try?
I would love to see Sakuraba return for more Fromsoftware soundtracks. I know Elden Ring was something new, but they could have at least given him some guest tracks :(
There are a couple of similarly quiet pieces on this soundtrack but none of the boss fights sound like this. Music combines with visual, structural and mechanical elements of the game to create such a powerful tone. It's really good. I like it.
Bro Jesse lemme tell you this game changed me for the better. I dedicated my first tattoo to something from this game. This is a game that EVERY "gamer" needs to play. DO NOT LOOK UP ANY SPOILERS FOR THIS GAME GO IN BLIND
This song is the kind of thing that elevates an art piece from "great" to "masterpiece". Not only it's a genius song, but its placement denotes a very strong creative vision. Another creator might've asked for a song just like what your expectation was (thunderous, choir, etc) for a final boss, but not Miyazaki. And he also depicts Gwyn as this husk, this pitiful creature that can barely hurt you. That in a game known for its extremely punishing encounters. It's incredible.
Dark Souls 1 isn't that old. 2011 isnt that far ago. But I believe we can already call this game one of the all-time classics.
It sort of made me think of the intro of "Breath of Fire" on Gameboy Advance. It's been so long since I've played both "Dark Souls" and "Breath of Fire" and while I never reached Gwyn in "Dark Souls", I still remember the intro of "Breath of Fire" quite clearly. Quite haunting OST for a fire boss.
This is the somber requiem of a once great lord desperately trying to keep the cinders of a dying age from burning out. It's definitely a theme of fire but not the roaring kind that ignites passion or burns down the world, but the fragile theme of warming embers before they burn out
This is actually a sad song when you have the context to go along with it. And the credit song that plays almost immediately after this boss fight makes you feel even more crestfallen. I highly recommend checking out Nameless Song.
The weight of this melody is heavily used throughout the entire series. And it's such an epic message. For all the power he had as the God of gods. He ended up just as empty and hollow as any mortal man. The curse of undeath and the abyss come from the dark soul of man being held back multiple cycles over, and thus, it grew so strong, it could even corrupt the fabric of reality and time.
Although I appreciate the music in the newer games my favorite ones come from the genesis of Fromsoft or perhaps shortly after that. I wasn't around for King's Field or Armored Core but I've grown to love their soundtracks. My favorite Fromsoft games are Demon's Souls and Dark Souls 1. To me, their atmosphere can't be beat and the series might've gone on for too long, which is also why I haven't played Elden Ring yet since it looks like "Dark Souls 4" to me with a new coat of paint even though it's an objectively good game. I've delayed finishing Dark Souls 1 for as long as I could (usually I dont finish games I love because I hate them being over) until one day I stepped into the Kiln of the First Flame accompanied only by the sounds of footsteps through ash and the occasional remaining Black Knight, the most loyal soldiers of Gwyn. Once I arrived at the steps to the fog gate I was thinking "this is it" and entered. The feeling I got from the piano playing while this pale husk of a god leapt towards me with his flaming sword was profound sadness. I knew that after this, the game that got me through difficult years of high school would be over, raising my anchor so to speak. As for the fight itself even though I didn't succeed on my first try it felt like a mercy killing, putting this old fool out of his existence of perpetual torment, clinging to the past. After I had defeated him I paused, eventually walking up to the First Flame and doing the same thing, reigniting it using my body as fuel, starting the cycle anew and basically becoming the new Lord of Sunlight/Cinder, though this time it wouldn't last as long. Credits rolled and I sat there crying until the screen said "Start new game".
I'm honestly surprised you hadn't heard this one yet. This is the song from the original Dark Souls. One of the best subversions for a final boss theme. It's quiet and melancholic instead of bombastic. This is the theme of a desperate, scared, man. A god who fought against the nature of the world and "lost". The crazy thing is that if you were paying attention to the story (which can be easy to miss large parts of) it seems obvious when you finally reach him. Gwyn was the bringer of flames and fire to the world who is now nothing but Cinders.
Not just a boss, the FINAL boss. Gwyn is the Zeus-like deity figure of Dark Souls. The battle itself is even more surprising than the music. It's so hauntingly... tragic. From Software is also King's Field, Armored Core and Tenchu.
This song is definitely meant to catch you off guard. The whole game of Dark Souls I leads you up to this moment. Gwyn, the Lord of Sunlight, is a legendary figure of Lordran. The king of kings, the god of gods, he is at the center of the very universe you live in. Countless tall tales are told about him and his progeny. But when you finally meet him, in a pile of ash, he is nothing but a shambling, burning corpse. A hollowed shell of his former self, kept animated by a curse of his own making, his godly brilliance is completely stripped away, and all that is left are cinders.
7:32 elden ring have and sekiro have ambient themes (which while not bad are not neccesarily the most memorable thing as far as i remember), however the dark souls series doesn't really have any ambient music except for a few specifics areas and the firelink shrine. dark souls is known for having an incredible atmosphere in terms of making the world feel desolate and empty, and the lack of ambient music definitely contributes to that. so most of the music that you will hear from the dark souls games (and bloodborne) would probably be boss music. and a lot of the boss songs that you hear in souls games are probably going to be very intense there are some other boss themes that are definetly more tragic and lack that intensity (abyss watchers, the second half of soul of cinder (surprised this song wasn't nominated for your VGM fire vibes ngl), and germahn (which you have heard before on this channel)), that you'll probably get to eventually. but yeah a lot of souls boss music, even if its tragic, is a bit more intense, which makes pieces like this hit harder.
Dark Souls as a series doesn't really have a single unifying "main theme", but THIS song for me, might as well be it. It perfectly captures the underlying melancholy of the entire saga, and it's so good.
I think two very special "fire" themes were missing from this selection. First of all, the "Inferno" theme from Heroes 3 by Paul Romero. Secondly, the "Fire" theme from Lords of Magic by Keith Zizza.
Fire representing life in Dark Souls. Final fight where the player decides whether to extinguish the fire and end the age of man or kindle the flame and prolong a dying world for just a little while longer. All through environmental storytelling and not a word spoken in the final fight.
What Jesse was expecting (maybe): Crom Cruach from Vindictus. What he got: the last dying embers of a once glorious age. Pretty bold play for the final boss~
dark souls 1 is interesting, because the music is alot more varied than just "epic orchestra" dont get me wrong the later souls have good music too, but ds1 has alot more unique tracks.
The infamous plin plin plon. Fun fact: Gwyn feared the darkness, so the song is played only on white keys (if I don't say it, a thousand others will). This is one of the most famous boss themes (and one of the most famous tracks in general) in Dark Souls (along with Ornstein & Smough) and in particular is the theme for the final boss of the first game. It's also one of the biggest tonal shifts in the entire series. The whole point of the Kiln of the First Flame (where the boss takes place) is that the entire game you've been warned about the almighty Allfather-type God: Gwyn, Lord of Sunlight, toppler of empires and killer of Gods. You're told the First Flame is fading, and it needs to be rekindled, but to rekindle it you need to collect the four powerful Lord Souls that Gwyn gave to his most trusted friends and companions, scattered throughout the decrepit ruins of his once mighty kingdom, to open the path to where the First Flame--and Gwyn--resides. The deeper you go into the game, the more you hear about how Gwyn feared the darkness, and so when the First Flame faded the first time, he descended into the Kiln with his most loyal Silver Knights to rekindle the flame. You enter the Kiln, see the spirits of the charred Silver Knights (who have been turned into the Black Knights in the explosion that followed the flame's kindling, losing their bodily forms and basically just turned into animated suits of armor kept alive by sheer force of will) wandering past a tunnel of light to cross into the afterlife, then enter the Kiln proper to see that it's just an ash-covered, half-melted wasteland. You descend to where the First Flame resides, and find that the once-powerful Gwyn, Lord of Sunlight, has been reduced to a pathetic, hollowed, husk of a man, the Lord of Cinder. So the entire boss fight is basically just a mercy kill for a pathetic, frightened, and huskified old man. And on your question about area themes, in the Dark Souls trilogy (and I think even in the other Soulsbourne games, with the exception of Sekiro and Elden Ring), there ARE no area themes. It's just ambient noise like birds cawing, the wind blowing, etc, and the sound of your armor clinking as you run. The exception are in the dedicated "safe zones", which are basically the games' hub worlds that connect all the separate levels: The Nexus for Demon's Souls/Remake, Firelink Shrine for Dark Souls 1, Majula for Dark Souls 2, and Firelink Shrine (again, but completely transformed and different) for Dark Souls 3. There's also a very solemn choir piece that plays in the tunnel of light to the Kiln of the First Flame (in Dark Souls 1), which is one of the most beautiful tracks in the game. I think TH-camrs have uploaded it on here called "The Faithful Black Knights"
The horror at what Gwyn had become The pity for how far he's fallen The dread of what you're about to become This piece told a whole story the moment you heard it
For me the final bosses from the 3 games soundtracks have unique meaning, all with the piano. Ds1: (Gwyn, Lord of Cinder) An enduring faith that everything will be okay in the end. Ds2: (Aldia, Scholar of the First Sin) That faith shattered with the realization it will never be. Ds3: (Soul of Cinder) They are going to give every last of their being to pull the world back from the brink. As for the context: The fight is pretty intense if you don't parry scum it (although kinda the devs fault they made it that easy to do it). But honestly I kinda like it narratively, because it shows how far Gwyn has fallen. An entity that would probably be totally immune to damage from the likes of us (or anything that wasn't another lord, or Velka, or probably Aldia and Vendrick... Or scariest of all... Shalquir...), to being less far less than our equal. To finish off, I love final bosses with Solemn fight themes. Larger than life heavy metal latin lyrics with god himself playing the cowbell with his erect penis is great and all, but solemn emotional finale just hit different.
Two points to make, bare with me. 1) What you felt is exactly what majority of us felt. After how ominous and oppressive many of the boss themes are prior to this one, you'd expect an epic chorus for Gwyn himself...but that isn't what we get. A piano. Just a piano. This isn't a fight with monstrosities, this isn't a duel with a knight, this is a mercy for a once powerful being that has been reduced to the point this is little more than putting down a rabid beast. Few words sum it up better than sad...well that and plin plin plon. 2) That being said, one of my all time favorite reactions in gaming ever is when Dark Souls fans fight Soul of Cinder. If you know, you know. 😉
gwyn was many things. a god. a warrior. a lord. an imperialist. powerful, capable of wielding the power of lightning. after all, he is one of the original four who found immense power within the newly lit flame (the dark souls quivalent of the big bang). gwyn was many things. ruler of all, manipulator of the other gods, lord of sunlight and his own age of fire. but that was long, long ago. in the current world of dark souls, the once massive flame which once created life and disparity is nothing more than a burning cinder. alongside the ashes and barely kindled embers, gwyn remains to guard the flame. to guard his age of light. however, he has already used himself as fuel to reignite the flame and is little more than a husk when you meet him. his body is charred and frail, his face emaciated. his mind has completely gone hollow as well.
To quote a comment from one of the original uploads of this track on youtube, this isn't the theme for a boss fight. It's the theme for a mercy killing. Even the fight itself isn't dramatic--the common approach to beating it is to simply parry his attacks, and then stab him while he's down. There's nothing he can do, there's nothing he has left. And so fades the age of fire.
When you think of the name "lord of cinder" and what the word cinder means, it kind of makes sense the kind of tone this song is going for. A lord desperately clinging on to the last bit of flame and doing anything in his power to keep it from going out completely. It almost makes you want to pity him in a way but not in a mocking way like you genuinely feel like there is no other choice.
Since everyone is already telling you WHO Gwyn is, I’ll skip that and tell you about the games themselves, specifically MUSIC’s place in them. In MOST of FromSoft’s work, there is NO MUSIC for anything except exceptionally important locations, bosses, or the ending tracks. When you explore, MOST of the time, you’ll hear nothing except you, the environment if applicable, and the enemies. This is intentional.
Usually, souls music has choirs and just pure epic music that tells the story of the boss on its own. Gwyn is different from all bosses since he was the god of sunlight but has turned into something as weak as a simple hollow all to keep the darkness away from the flame hence why the track is only played with white notes that sound sad
Gywn theme represents both characters in the fight: the player through the plin plin plon melody, that melody goes up, goes down, it moves because the player is "alive", he didn't go hollow and still has a story to tell. And Gwyn, represented through the obsessive loop in the back, someone who himself obsessed with the idea of keeping the flame alive, he is not a grandiose king/god anymore, just a husk of his former self, as almost everything you find in that game. It's just tragic.
@@raynegro666 using DS3 is not a good argument, that game wasn't planned yet, so the composition of this theme wasn't made with DS3 in mind. Also, ofc they were gonna use Gwyn's theme when you fight Gwyn again, it's a callback to the fight and everything it represents to the comunity and that melody, one that the fans cherish the most, HAS to be part of it, it's fanservice done right.
Plin plin plon I miss having melodies with more presence in these games. That's probably why some of the themes in DS1 and Demon's Souls have that much staying power, it's the melodies. But then the company got caught in the whole BIG EPIC ORCHESTRA SOUND and a lot of the themes kinda just blend together in an overwhelming wall of sound with a very few key exceptions. It's a shame. Like missing the forest for the trees.
Dark Souls1 is immortal masterpiece. Just go playthrough it. It's definitely worth it. My 2 favorite games of the last 20 years are : DARK SOULS 1 & Nier:Automata (You've already completed it) There's a fair difficulty, and that's not the point at all, DARK SOULS is Lord of the Rings/Berserk + Silent Hill. This is a non-trivial philosophical fantasy with a gay design invented as if from scratch, unlike any game BEFORE Dark Souls. Everything matters there. The design of everything in this game is subordinated to the idea around which it was created, all elements synergize. Game full of secrets and mysteries, vague sensations, mysticism and an epic spiritual adventure. With its own philosophical cosmogony. It's hard to explain, usually it's just called the "DARK SOULS Experience" or "The Magic of FromSoftware". Plus it's just a great game! Game design is excellent! Мay seem complicated and incomprehensible only at first, because you have never seen anything like it before and are simply not familiar with it. I would love to see the recordings of your playthrough, and I could give some hints about the game without spoilers )
The Qwyn fight and music always make me feel a bit sad i mean the fight you are putting down the husk of a great king that did every thing he could to save his kingdom
its absolutely does in the context of Dark Souls. Dark Souls the fire represents life, final boss fight where after defeating Gwynn the player decides whether the extinguish the fire and end the Age of Man or rekindle the first flame and prolong a dying world.
This is an absolutely genius track because by the time you fight him, the titular Gwyn, Lord of Cinder, previously the most powerful of the setting's gods, has been reduced to an empty husk. The only thing standing between you and your ultimate goal is a shadow of his former self, and the game makes sure that you don't finish off on a bombastic high note, but on a haunting reminder of how far the world of Dark Souls has fallen.
100%
What really makes it work is also how epic all the other boss song have been so far, and the presentation, you walk through the burnt down kiln, fighting dark knights who are some of the most powerful ennemies in the game, you are face with this massive fog gate, you know this is the final standoff. All culminated to that.
And then this somber music plays and you have just enough time to ask yourself what's going on before gwyn leaps at you with a sword slash and you must fight. The vibe isn't that of an epic clash between a god and a hero, it's that of two battered and tired fighters who both want this to end but must keep fighting regardless even if they don't even remember why anymore.
And only uses the white piano keys which is all for lord of cinder which "brings light"
This entire piece was played using white notes only, because old man Gwyn is very afraid of the dark. It's quite sad in numerous ways.
Gwyn is the welsh word for White
@@manbearpigsereal oh wow I didn't knew that. genius Miyazaki strikes again
@ShinNessTen Rightfully so. His kind can't survive in the Dark... shame he screwed it for everyone else though.
@@manbearpigsereal isnt it for "light"
@@Moody.Smiruai Siwmae! Welsh person here, it can be used for white or light :)
good ol' PLING PLING PLONG
F*CK Blight town.
As you mentioned from you own casual perspective, this song is quite unique to the rest of the soundtrack. Its an intentional betrayal of expectations for the very final boss, fitting for the theme of the entire game. They tell us in the opening of the game we are in "The age of fire" and "Soon the fire the fire will fade, and only dark will remain." And yet, you don't fully realize how imminent that downfall is, until you reach the very end. Gwyn is just a cinder, in the truest sense of the word, barely maintaining the current state of the world despite being the one who ruled and empowered it this whole time.
For your upcoming video, the best analogy I can give is this. This is a song about a fire that has gone out. Its the still warm, glowing, crackling embers left in the pile of grey ash in your fireplace. Its beautiful, tranquil, and calming, but fleeting. Soon it will go out, and there will be nothing left but silence.
Hopefully that gives you a strong idea of what this song represents, and how haunting it is to face an inevitable end in a game that has you face challenges head on.
Damn you put it so much better than I could, mad props for the incredible summary.
Very eloquently put.
"Tis dark for now, and not a soul stirs. But remember, fires are known to fade in quiet"
"Three words. Say them and I'm yours forever"
"PLING PLING PLONG"
Plin plin plon
The secret third plin.
Plin plin plin, plin plon
The best track to react to after listening to "Gwyn Lord of Cinder" in undoubtedly "Soul Of Cinder" from Dark Souls 3.
Hearing this track again after a while reminds me how much I love this game, this track is such a paradox in itself and it’s so genius, Gwyn is the final boss of the game and every piece of lore up until that point paints Gwyn in literal sunlight. Everything you learn and hear should scare the life out of you like he was THE guy, but when you fight him he’s no longer even a guy, just a husk.
I never realized too how the track actually sounds like faded glory, the plings and plongs as we call them are just the last bits of sunlight in Gwyn, the last parts of him being slightly golden. The best way to summarize how brilliant this track paints Gwyn is that he is the only boss in the entire game you can parry… the final boss, the GUY can be parried its brilliant I love Dark Souls
Something really special about this song is that this was played on an extended scale piano from the company Bosendorfer. These pianos are extremely expensive but they are considered to be some of the best in the world. If you listen closely to some of the lower end, you'll hear the notes played in that extended area
One of the best descriptions I've heard of all the recent From Software games (quoting Noah Caldwell-Gervais) "You arrive... along the knife's edge of decay between stagnation and collapse". The worlds are barely hanging on, and you as the PC end up having to make the decision what path the world takes, often to maintain the status quo or take some bold new direction. While many fire themes can be bombastic (the other one I voted for certainly is), fire can also be introspective, like watching a hearth fire safe at home, or even sad, seeing the last embers flicker and burn out, perhaps while realizing what we've lost to the flames. No other song I've ever heard has captured that side of fire more than this.
Before you meet him, his name is Gwyn: LORD OF SUNLIGHT.
The final curse of the first flame to those who plundered its warmth: cold, ashen, humility.
The fate of those who coddle fire is to be reduced to cinders, mere kindling for the age of the dark.
This is the most iconic song in all of the Dark Souls trilogy. The game does have is massive choirs and epic battles, but this theme represents the tone of these games overall the best in my opinion. The world you enter is never in a *good* state, and the Dark Souls trilogy is a journey of watching that world die in spite of, and perhaps because of, the many attempts to perpetuate its "Age of Fire." By the end of the last game, the world is a literal sea of ash. All thats left is ash and the ruins of its once great civilizations poking through. Gwyn's fear of change brought the world to its knees and slowly, mercilessly, killed it.
Most of your time with Dark Souls isn't fighting giant dragons or warlords, it's slowly finding your way through ruins, beating back the former inhabitants and creatures, and until Elden Ring there was almost never any background music. You explored this dying world without anything to hear but your own footsteps and the clashing of blades.
7:40 there is no overworld music in the Dark Souls trilogy outside of the home area, it's part of what makes home feel like home. Elden Ring has ambient music though.
if you want to play this on the piano, youll realize youre only hitting white notes in this piece, to symbolize the fire that consumed gwyn. For those not familiar with playing piano or music theory, most complex pieces use black notes and white notes, since most scales have at least one. its pretty surprising the sound that the composer managed to create
You'll also realize most pianos don't have enough keys
I love the fact that this final boss has a melancholic theme
Plin plin plon (community meme for the theme). The somber song of a dying god barely clinging to reality as you come to snuff him out. You can either take his place keeping the fire of the old age lit or usher in a new age of dead gods and the rise of humanity. This song is very different and its clear you felt it. Now imagine it being the final boss theme. The moment you beat Gwyn the playthrough is over. It was a sobering experience and the song has stuck with me for over a decade.
Let me set the stage for you: from the very opening moments of Dark Souls, Gwyn is set up as this impressively mythic character. He was the king of the gods, who fought and won against the dragons that reigned before the discovery of the First Flame, and who ruled over the world throughout the Age of Fire... until the First Flame began to dim, and he sacrificed his life to link the fire, allowing it to continue for just a while longer.
But throughout the game, you see all that Gwyn's efforts and sacrifice has wrought. You see his once great allies and servants corrupted by power they could not control, or did not wish to control. You see the ravenous bodies of Hollow humans, denied the peace of death by the dimming of the Fire and driven mad by the Darkness inside of them. And, eventually, you see Gwyn himself, his soul and flesh burned away by the First Flame, reduced to a tiny fragment of what he once was.
That does not mean he is weak, however. Even at the endgame, after countless hours of fighting and upgrading and leveling, he is still capable of easily defeating an unprepared player. But as the song suggests, it is a tragic state of affairs, where Gwyn fights to hold on to the last burning embers of the Age of Fire, and it is up to you to put him out of his misery.
Omg.. I started watching you when I/you were on my FF14 music journey, and since then I've spent the last year going deep into elden ring/soulsbourne games and the music is spectacular. I recommend the Godskin Theme from elden ring, Ludwig, the accursed/holy blade from Bloodbourne, those are 2 of the absolute best video game music pieces ever. Stunningly well done. Super glad to see you reacting to Fromsoft music! Edit: just saw you had a video reacting to Ludwig from 2 years ago, about to watch it now!
Something i would like to note, fromsoft is a fairly old company, making games as far back as 1994. They have a ton of games, 68 in total. their first franchise was kingsfeild, a strange first person dingeon crawler, their second was armored core. Dark souls 1 wasnt even their first take on the "souls formula" , it was demon's souls which came out 3 years earlier. They even made a few monster hunter spin offs, beimg the japanese exclusive diary games
Likely mentioned already but I just really love this song theme, all the game you hear about gwyn the lord of the fire, a legend, a god, of his war against he dragons, of how he built anor londo, you enter the fight expecting to see a lord, but what you find is a husk, an empty shell of where once a lord stood, his title becomes a cruel and sad joke, he is a lord yes, but a lord of cinder, not of fire, but inspite that, gwyn is probably the most aggressive boss in the game, he barely lets you heal or defend yourself, despite what little remains he just doesn’t let you off easily, this song in the moment 4:11 feels to me like watching a flame, slowly fading away but still resisting to be snuffed, it’s sad but in a way beautiful, this song seems to have the objective to inspire you, be inspired by this man so adamant in letting the age of fire keep going despite the natural order of things being the fire fading away, that you yourself decide to give yourself as kindling so the fire may resist just a bit longer, probably among my favourite game osts of all time, it’s just amazing, loved the reaction, and can’t wait to hear soul of cinder in the future
In the beginning, there was nothing. The world was a vast, grey expanse where nothing changed, ruled over by everlasting dragons. But then, there was fire. The first flame. And with it came disparity. Life and death, heat and cold, light and dark. Within the first flame, the first lords found souls of great power. Gywn, first lord, king of the gods, discovered the greatest of these souls, and with its might overthrew the dragons and founded the age of fire.
This is the most basic plot synopsis dark souls gives you right at the start of the game. The world prospered in the age of fire that Gwyn founded. He is built up as a truely mythical figure. But even the first flame one day fades, and with its fading, an age of dark encroaches. Fearing the Dark, Gywn travels to the first flame to offer his soul as kindling to the dying fire to extend his age. Throughout a playthrough, you see the consequences of this action. The cycle of the world has stagnated and is decaying. Kingdoms have fallen, cities crumble. Humanity is afflicted by the undead curse that makes them immortal, but will one day drive them mad and hollow. The pinnacle of this is Gwyn himself.
When you reach him, you expect to fight a god of gods, a master of fire and lightning. What you find instead is a husk. A solitary man, clad in rotting robes. His face is dessicated, eyes long gone from hollow sockets. Alone, in a vast field of grey ash. The Gywn of legend is long gone, his soul and self consumed in the first flame. All that remains is mindless undead with a flaming sword. The tragedy of his choice to offer his soul as kindling is no clearer anywhere else. And then the piano kicks in. To really top it all off, he's one of the easiest bosses in the game. Its hardly even a boss fight. Its closer to a mercy killing
Imagine if he does Soul of Cinder after this, he'd be speechless
This song makes me wanna twirl around and elegantly stick my sword at Gwyn like a dance 😂threw me off so much Gwyn totally burst me into flames. Didnt get passed 10 seconds lol
This song definitely breaks conventions intentionally, as even from the start, there was a focus on "massive" songs that intimidate you with an onslaught of powerful instruments playing dissonant melodies. If you want to hear a more traditional Dark Souls boss theme that is related to this one, I recommend Soul of Cinder from Dark Souls 3.
It is actually not only a boss. Its the final boss. Youre not really there to fight him, youre there to put a hollow god out of his misery. When you get there without finding and/or understanding the lore, you probably feel like hes an evil guy and needs to be killed. When you do understand the lore, you just feel sad. Thats why this is the song of the final boss of Dark Souls 1.
When i was first getting into the lore of the Dark Souls games, someone described to me the Gwyn fight as kind of like “Putting an old dog down” and the music couldn’t possibly convey that any better. You are, after all, putting down the shell of a former Lord who has now retreated and failed his duties. Truly a tragic final boss.
I'm one of those people that don't like to comment, xD.
I will say, this track is iconic for a reason. You summed it up pretty nicely, in regards to how it's a complete difference to what is expected. There's a few comments already that point this out, so I'll give my personal take on how it felt.
Gwyn's theme was giving me chills when I first got to it. Made me relisten to it for years, because there's just something about that melody that sounds like a lullaby (if that makes sense?). It's not the raging of a mad king, like I thought it would be. It's just super somber, almost like it's exhausted. The piano going back and forth, creates that rhythm to it; a duality of sorts? On one hand, you've got the low notes that almost sound like a march, in that part where it's silent from the high notes.
Like something's creeping to you? Like you know, this is it? Finality.
Anyways, always love watching your vid's, Jesse! Can't wait to here you react to DS3 final boss theme, cause hooooo boy, those piano notes become iconic af.
A flickering candle at the end of a long, dark hallway is the mental image this piece evokes when I separate it from the context.
And another interesting about this song is how its motiff appears in the theme for the final boss of Dark Souls 3. It's not there all the time, but it helps tying the narrative together in a wonderful way.
This song is melancholic because Gwyn, a mortal who essentially became a god, did everything he could to keep the world's fire from fading. Fire is a big theme in Dark Souls in general.
The First Flame in Dark Souls is the 'light' that arose in a world that was grey and devoid of contrast. In the time the world was grey, immortal dragons with stone scales ruled it. When Gwyn and 3 others found the power of the First Flame, they waged war against the dragons. Fire gave rise to concepts such as light and life, but also dark and death. And so it was that the gods with the Lord Souls, a power taken from the Flame itself, brought death upon the dragons.
Gwyn ruled, creating his own kingdom and giving rise to prosperity, but only for a time. He noticed over the course of his rule that the power of the First Flame was fading. In its stead something else grew in power, something dark.
Other than the 4 Lord Souls the gods took for themselves, there was one other that a certain being hid and nurtured. That soul was the Dark Soul, which Gwyn noticed was in every member of the human race. It was the power of the Dark Soul that Gwyn feared, that if it became powerful enough it would cause the flame to fade completely.
And so it was out of desperation that Gwyn offered his own soul as kindling, which he hoped would be strong enough to reignite the flame for another age. With that act, Gwyn became the first Lord of Cinder. The second Age of Fire came as he had hoped, but eventually passed just as any other. Once more the Flame lost its strength, which is when when Dark Souls begins. It's up to you, the player, to reignite hope by perpetuating the Age of Fire once more. Or maybe you'll deem it best for the Flame to fade, bringing about an Age of Dark, as all things are meant to end sooner or later.
Thanks for reading that anyone who did. The lore in this game is awesome. There's things I left out on purpose just in case Jesse or anyone ever decides to play this game and find out for themselves.
Also, the thumbnail of the video actually represents the player. It's the armor set for one of the many starting classes.
Your reaction to this makes me really wonder what you'd think about "Pinwheel"'s theme. THAT is an eerie one. Gwyn's I never took as eerie or unsettling, just very.. somber. You approach this boss who is a husk of his former self, and yes he can kill you very quickly if you're not ready for it, but it feels more like it's just setting the scene for the boss, rather than the fight itself. It is also the conclusion of the game, so as the finale it also paints an interesting picture compared to the rest of the game.
After hearing this piece, it's worth giving Nameless King another listen...
When I first got to Gwyn, it was after accomplishing so many feats, and the end of the stress just made me cry. It was about the struggle of a god just ready to end their eternal torture and pass on the torch, literally.
Midra Lord of Frenzied Flame is on par with Gwyn in terms of a boss theme alone that so clearly tells the story of the character. A must listen to track.
I second that
Mejority of the people who played the game and encountered this boss didn't expected the boss theme to be like this because it's not an conventional final boss music with grandiose triumphant victory theme , it's like a flickering candle light about to burn out and barely holding up, representing the state of the boss the boss who was once the mightiest being and the state of this world as a whole
If you're gonna keep it up with the Dark Souls music - and you should because these games have beautiful music - you should 100% put 'Soul of Cinder' on your list. It's the theme of the final boss of the whole series, and you can really feel how everything culminates in it. Lord of Cinder is practically required reading to listen to it. Great video!
It's so sad. The sound of a great warrior, bent, broken and hollow, who sacrificed everything to stave off the dark so civilization could endure just a little longer. Oblivion may be inevitable, but can it hurt to try?
And the answer is yes, it can.
I would love to see Sakuraba return for more Fromsoftware soundtracks. I know Elden Ring was something new, but they could have at least given him some guest tracks :(
don't think it's a spoiler to say that's not him in the thumbnail, that's a generic player character
@@bug-deal ur calling Oscar a generic player character!?
@@dazeeri7489 my mistake: it's a big time chump 😈
In the cut content he would've made it all the way to the Kiln
best song of the 1st dark souls
I kinda aggree, though Firelink Shrine, Gwyndolin and O&S have banger themes as well
How about the Nameless Song?
@@edeonsaint9938 tbh I forgot about it since it plays during the credits, not in the game proper, but good point
Best song in the entire trilogy
Bro how did I miss this oh my god
plin plin plon
There are a couple of similarly quiet pieces on this soundtrack but none of the boss fights sound like this. Music combines with visual, structural and mechanical elements of the game to create such a powerful tone. It's really good. I like it.
You need to listen to Soul Of Cinder from DS3 after this, it's a direct follow up, hope someone has requested it
Bro Jesse lemme tell you this game changed me for the better. I dedicated my first tattoo to something from this game. This is a game that EVERY "gamer" needs to play.
DO NOT LOOK UP ANY SPOILERS FOR THIS GAME GO IN BLIND
One day I'll hop into a FS game.. one day.
This song is the kind of thing that elevates an art piece from "great" to "masterpiece". Not only it's a genius song, but its placement denotes a very strong creative vision. Another creator might've asked for a song just like what your expectation was (thunderous, choir, etc) for a final boss, but not Miyazaki. And he also depicts Gwyn as this husk, this pitiful creature that can barely hurt you. That in a game known for its extremely punishing encounters. It's incredible.
Dark Souls 1 isn't that old. 2011 isnt that far ago. But I believe we can already call this game one of the all-time classics.
It sort of made me think of the intro of "Breath of Fire" on Gameboy Advance. It's been so long since I've played both "Dark Souls" and "Breath of Fire" and while I never reached Gwyn in "Dark Souls", I still remember the intro of "Breath of Fire" quite clearly. Quite haunting OST for a fire boss.
good ol plin plin plon to warm my heart
This is the somber requiem of a once great lord desperately trying to keep the cinders of a dying age from burning out.
It's definitely a theme of fire but not the roaring kind that ignites passion or burns down the world, but the fragile theme of warming embers before they burn out
This is actually a sad song when you have the context to go along with it. And the credit song that plays almost immediately after this boss fight makes you feel even more crestfallen. I highly recommend checking out Nameless Song.
The weight of this melody is heavily used throughout the entire series. And it's such an epic message. For all the power he had as the God of gods. He ended up just as empty and hollow as any mortal man. The curse of undeath and the abyss come from the dark soul of man being held back multiple cycles over, and thus, it grew so strong, it could even corrupt the fabric of reality and time.
Although I appreciate the music in the newer games my favorite ones come from the genesis of Fromsoft or perhaps shortly after that. I wasn't around for King's Field or Armored Core but I've grown to love their soundtracks. My favorite Fromsoft games are Demon's Souls and Dark Souls 1. To me, their atmosphere can't be beat and the series might've gone on for too long, which is also why I haven't played Elden Ring yet since it looks like "Dark Souls 4" to me with a new coat of paint even though it's an objectively good game.
I've delayed finishing Dark Souls 1 for as long as I could (usually I dont finish games I love because I hate them being over) until one day I stepped into the Kiln of the First Flame accompanied only by the sounds of footsteps through ash and the occasional remaining Black Knight, the most loyal soldiers of Gwyn. Once I arrived at the steps to the fog gate I was thinking "this is it" and entered. The feeling I got from the piano playing while this pale husk of a god leapt towards me with his flaming sword was profound sadness. I knew that after this, the game that got me through difficult years of high school would be over, raising my anchor so to speak. As for the fight itself even though I didn't succeed on my first try it felt like a mercy killing, putting this old fool out of his existence of perpetual torment, clinging to the past. After I had defeated him I paused, eventually walking up to the First Flame and doing the same thing, reigniting it using my body as fuel, starting the cycle anew and basically becoming the new Lord of Sunlight/Cinder, though this time it wouldn't last as long. Credits rolled and I sat there crying until the screen said "Start new game".
I recommend reacting to Dark Souls 3 - Soul of Cinder next! The reason as to why is in the song itself.
Fromsoft also does Armored Core btw 👍
I always keep forgetting this, for some reason I always think AC is Namco and have no idea why.
I'm honestly surprised you hadn't heard this one yet. This is the song from the original Dark Souls.
One of the best subversions for a final boss theme. It's quiet and melancholic instead of bombastic. This is the theme of a desperate, scared, man. A god who fought against the nature of the world and "lost".
The crazy thing is that if you were paying attention to the story (which can be easy to miss large parts of) it seems obvious when you finally reach him.
Gwyn was the bringer of flames and fire to the world who is now nothing but Cinders.
This the most famous ost in souls games btw , it had more than video +10M but the publisher removed them all before 1 year , damn him
oh boy, was wondering when we'd see more dark souls
Not just a boss, the FINAL boss. Gwyn is the Zeus-like deity figure of Dark Souls. The battle itself is even more surprising than the music. It's so hauntingly... tragic.
From Software is also King's Field, Armored Core and Tenchu.
This song is definitely meant to catch you off guard. The whole game of Dark Souls I leads you up to this moment. Gwyn, the Lord of Sunlight, is a legendary figure of Lordran. The king of kings, the god of gods, he is at the center of the very universe you live in. Countless tall tales are told about him and his progeny. But when you finally meet him, in a pile of ash, he is nothing but a shambling, burning corpse. A hollowed shell of his former self, kept animated by a curse of his own making, his godly brilliance is completely stripped away, and all that is left are cinders.
The piece of the game where you realize there is something you are being told about.
Just need to figure it out...
7:32
elden ring have and sekiro have ambient themes (which while not bad are not neccesarily the most memorable thing as far as i remember), however the dark souls series doesn't really have any ambient music except for a few specifics areas and the firelink shrine. dark souls is known for having an incredible atmosphere in terms of making the world feel desolate and empty, and the lack of ambient music definitely contributes to that. so most of the music that you will hear from the dark souls games (and bloodborne) would probably be boss music. and a lot of the boss songs that you hear in souls games are probably going to be very intense
there are some other boss themes that are definetly more tragic and lack that intensity (abyss watchers, the second half of soul of cinder (surprised this song wasn't nominated for your VGM fire vibes ngl), and germahn (which you have heard before on this channel)), that you'll probably get to eventually. but yeah a lot of souls boss music, even if its tragic, is a bit more intense, which makes pieces like this hit harder.
Dark Souls as a series doesn't really have a single unifying "main theme", but THIS song for me, might as well be it. It perfectly captures the underlying melancholy of the entire saga, and it's so good.
I think two very special "fire" themes were missing from this selection.
First of all, the "Inferno" theme from Heroes 3 by Paul Romero.
Secondly, the "Fire" theme from Lords of Magic by Keith Zizza.
Fire representing life in Dark Souls. Final fight where the player decides whether to extinguish the fire and end the age of man or kindle the flame and prolong a dying world for just a little while longer. All through environmental storytelling and not a word spoken in the final fight.
Aldia Scholar of the First Sin is a great ost to listen to as well.
When the plin-plin plons, amirite?
What Jesse was expecting (maybe): Crom Cruach from Vindictus.
What he got: the last dying embers of a once glorious age.
Pretty bold play for the final boss~
dark souls 1 is interesting, because the music is alot more varied than just "epic orchestra" dont get me wrong the later souls have good music too, but ds1 has alot more unique tracks.
The infamous plin plin plon. Fun fact: Gwyn feared the darkness, so the song is played only on white keys (if I don't say it, a thousand others will).
This is one of the most famous boss themes (and one of the most famous tracks in general) in Dark Souls (along with Ornstein & Smough) and in particular is the theme for the final boss of the first game. It's also one of the biggest tonal shifts in the entire series.
The whole point of the Kiln of the First Flame (where the boss takes place) is that the entire game you've been warned about the almighty Allfather-type God: Gwyn, Lord of Sunlight, toppler of empires and killer of Gods. You're told the First Flame is fading, and it needs to be rekindled, but to rekindle it you need to collect the four powerful Lord Souls that Gwyn gave to his most trusted friends and companions, scattered throughout the decrepit ruins of his once mighty kingdom, to open the path to where the First Flame--and Gwyn--resides.
The deeper you go into the game, the more you hear about how Gwyn feared the darkness, and so when the First Flame faded the first time, he descended into the Kiln with his most loyal Silver Knights to rekindle the flame. You enter the Kiln, see the spirits of the charred Silver Knights (who have been turned into the Black Knights in the explosion that followed the flame's kindling, losing their bodily forms and basically just turned into animated suits of armor kept alive by sheer force of will) wandering past a tunnel of light to cross into the afterlife, then enter the Kiln proper to see that it's just an ash-covered, half-melted wasteland. You descend to where the First Flame resides, and find that the once-powerful Gwyn, Lord of Sunlight, has been reduced to a pathetic, hollowed, husk of a man, the Lord of Cinder. So the entire boss fight is basically just a mercy kill for a pathetic, frightened, and huskified old man.
And on your question about area themes, in the Dark Souls trilogy (and I think even in the other Soulsbourne games, with the exception of Sekiro and Elden Ring), there ARE no area themes. It's just ambient noise like birds cawing, the wind blowing, etc, and the sound of your armor clinking as you run. The exception are in the dedicated "safe zones", which are basically the games' hub worlds that connect all the separate levels: The Nexus for Demon's Souls/Remake, Firelink Shrine for Dark Souls 1, Majula for Dark Souls 2, and Firelink Shrine (again, but completely transformed and different) for Dark Souls 3.
There's also a very solemn choir piece that plays in the tunnel of light to the Kiln of the First Flame (in Dark Souls 1), which is one of the most beautiful tracks in the game. I think TH-camrs have uploaded it on here called "The Faithful Black Knights"
The horror at what Gwyn had become
The pity for how far he's fallen
The dread of what you're about to become
This piece told a whole story the moment you heard it
For me the final bosses from the 3 games soundtracks have unique meaning, all with the piano.
Ds1: (Gwyn, Lord of Cinder) An enduring faith that everything will be okay in the end.
Ds2: (Aldia, Scholar of the First Sin) That faith shattered with the realization it will never be.
Ds3: (Soul of Cinder) They are going to give every last of their being to pull the world back from the brink.
As for the context: The fight is pretty intense if you don't parry scum it (although kinda the devs fault they made it that easy to do it). But honestly I kinda like it narratively, because it shows how far Gwyn has fallen. An entity that would probably be totally immune to damage from the likes of us (or anything that wasn't another lord, or Velka, or probably Aldia and Vendrick... Or scariest of all... Shalquir...), to being less far less than our equal.
To finish off, I love final bosses with Solemn fight themes. Larger than life heavy metal latin lyrics with god himself playing the cowbell with his erect penis is great and all, but solemn emotional finale just hit different.
Two points to make, bare with me.
1) What you felt is exactly what majority of us felt. After how ominous and oppressive many of the boss themes are prior to this one, you'd expect an epic chorus for Gwyn himself...but that isn't what we get. A piano. Just a piano. This isn't a fight with monstrosities, this isn't a duel with a knight, this is a mercy for a once powerful being that has been reduced to the point this is little more than putting down a rabid beast. Few words sum it up better than sad...well that and plin plin plon.
2) That being said, one of my all time favorite reactions in gaming ever is when Dark Souls fans fight Soul of Cinder. If you know, you know. 😉
PRAISE THE SUN
gwyn was many things. a god. a warrior. a lord. an imperialist. powerful, capable of wielding the power of lightning. after all, he is one of the original four who found immense power within the newly lit flame (the dark souls quivalent of the big bang). gwyn was many things. ruler of all, manipulator of the other gods, lord of sunlight and his own age of fire. but that was long, long ago. in the current world of dark souls, the once massive flame which once created life and disparity is nothing more than a burning cinder. alongside the ashes and barely kindled embers, gwyn remains to guard the flame. to guard his age of light. however, he has already used himself as fuel to reignite the flame and is little more than a husk when you meet him. his body is charred and frail, his face emaciated. his mind has completely gone hollow as well.
Lots of Xenoblade and now Dark Souls? Two of my three favorite RPG series checked off. Couldn't be happier!
To quote a comment from one of the original uploads of this track on youtube, this isn't the theme for a boss fight. It's the theme for a mercy killing. Even the fight itself isn't dramatic--the common approach to beating it is to simply parry his attacks, and then stab him while he's down. There's nothing he can do, there's nothing he has left. And so fades the age of fire.
I hope someone will request Dark Reality from King's Field 4, that's another FromSoft trip.
I'm surprised this creeped you out.
The fight conveys an incredible sense of sadness and you feel like you're doing a mercy killing...
It shouldn't be a surprise. The song is melancholic, and he has no context
When you think of the name "lord of cinder" and what the word cinder means, it kind of makes sense the kind of tone this song is going for. A lord desperately clinging on to the last bit of flame and doing anything in his power to keep it from going out completely. It almost makes you want to pity him in a way but not in a mocking way like you genuinely feel like there is no other choice.
Light/Burning/Sorrow
Since everyone is already telling you WHO Gwyn is, I’ll skip that and tell you about the games themselves, specifically MUSIC’s place in them. In MOST of FromSoft’s work, there is NO MUSIC for anything except exceptionally important locations, bosses, or the ending tracks. When you explore, MOST of the time, you’ll hear nothing except you, the environment if applicable, and the enemies. This is intentional.
Usually, souls music has choirs and just pure epic music that tells the story of the boss on its own. Gwyn is different from all bosses since he was the god of sunlight but has turned into something as weak as a simple hollow all to keep the darkness away from the flame hence why the track is only played with white notes that sound sad
Gywn theme represents both characters in the fight: the player through the plin plin plon melody, that melody goes up, goes down, it moves because the player is "alive", he didn't go hollow and still has a story to tell.
And Gwyn, represented through the obsessive loop in the back, someone who himself obsessed with the idea of keeping the flame alive, he is not a grandiose king/god anymore, just a husk of his former self, as almost everything you find in that game. It's just tragic.
I disagree, this song is only about Gwyn, the title and it's appearance in DS3 make that very clear
@@raynegro666 using DS3 is not a good argument, that game wasn't planned yet, so the composition of this theme wasn't made with DS3 in mind.
Also, ofc they were gonna use Gwyn's theme when you fight Gwyn again, it's a callback to the fight and everything it represents to the comunity and that melody, one that the fans cherish the most, HAS to be part of it, it's fanservice done right.
Plin plin plon
I miss having melodies with more presence in these games. That's probably why some of the themes in DS1 and Demon's Souls have that much staying power, it's the melodies. But then the company got caught in the whole BIG EPIC ORCHESTRA SOUND and a lot of the themes kinda just blend together in an overwhelming wall of sound with a very few key exceptions. It's a shame. Like missing the forest for the trees.
PLIN PLIN PLON !!!
FULL FULL LEAD
where do we go to submit a request?
Note : the composer used only white keys bc gwyn is known as “ gwyn the white “ and he hates dark souls and fear them
Wow
Pling Pling Plong
Plin Plin Plon
Ooh man July 2024 and you not listened scape from the city and city scape from Sonic adventure 2😢
Dark Souls1 is immortal masterpiece.
Just go playthrough it. It's definitely worth it.
My 2 favorite games of the last 20 years are : DARK SOULS 1 & Nier:Automata (You've already completed it)
There's a fair difficulty, and that's not the point at all, DARK SOULS is Lord of the Rings/Berserk + Silent Hill.
This is a non-trivial philosophical fantasy with a gay design invented as if from scratch, unlike any game BEFORE Dark Souls. Everything matters there. The design of everything in this game is subordinated to the idea around which it was created,
all elements synergize.
Game full of secrets and mysteries, vague sensations, mysticism and an epic spiritual adventure. With its own philosophical cosmogony.
It's hard to explain, usually it's just called the "DARK SOULS Experience" or "The Magic of FromSoftware".
Plus it's just a great game! Game design is excellent!
Мay seem complicated and incomprehensible only at first, because you have never seen anything like it before and are simply not familiar with it.
I would love to see the recordings of your playthrough, and I could give some hints about the game without spoilers )
Whats the music playing in the background
Bloody Roar 2 - Beach
The Qwyn fight and music always make me feel a bit sad i mean the fight you are putting down the husk of a great king that did every thing he could to save his kingdom
PLIN PLIN PLON
Such a cool song, but the only problem is that it only plays for 30 seconds in-game because you can beat him that quickly
There needs to be more from soft on the channel ngl
I hare the copy rights , this ost had 30 M vies in a video and now it is gone ???
This is a very beautiful and iconic piece, but to be honest this does not really evoke the "fire" theme you were looking for.
its absolutely does in the context of Dark Souls. Dark Souls the fire represents life, final boss fight where after defeating Gwynn the player decides whether the extinguish the fire and end the Age of Man or rekindle the first flame and prolong a dying world.
Also known among the souls community as “Pilm Pilm Plom”
PLIN PLIN PLON