Dark Souls II Bosses Spoiled by ESRB

[StewShearerOld]

Dark Souls II Bosses Spoiled by ESRB

The ESRB's content description for Dark Souls include details about the game's bosses.

Potential spoilers ahead!

One of the best parts of Dark Souls is that terrible moment when you get your first look at a boss. You'll turn a corner or enter a new area and suddenly find yourself face-to-face with some unthinkable creature that you can just tell outclasses you in every way possible. More often than not, this moment will only last a few seconds (long enough to die), but it's a wonderful sort of dread that other games frequently struggle with.

That in mind, the ESRB recently released some <a href=http://www.esrb.org/ratings/synopsis.jsp?Certificate=33288&Title=Dark%20Souls%20II&searchkeyword=dark%20souls%20ii>content descriptors that could potentially spoil that feeling for Dark Souls II. In addition to describing the game's "dungeon-like setting" and "fantastical enemies," the group's descriptors also includes some specific details about the game's bosses. Among the spoilers is "a giant snake boss holding its severed head," a "boss creature composed of hundreds of corpses" and a "partially topless" boss character with "hair barely covering [her] breasts."

Now, to be fair, these aren't the worst spoilers we've ever seen, even from the ESRB itself. Likewise, chances are there aren't going to be too many Dark Souls fans flocking to the group's website to check and make sure the game is age appropriate. That said, you really do have to wonder if there could perhaps be ways for the ESRB to be a tad more discerning in what it reveals about the games it rates. Granted, we could also just not report about it, but clearly that's not going to happen.

Source: <a href=http://www.esrb.org/ratings/synopsis.jsp?Certificate=33288&Title=Dark%20Souls%20II&searchkeyword=dark%20souls%20ii>ESRB


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[TiberiusEsuriens]

Companies have been getting rather specific with ratings lately. ESRB ratings used to simply be "Graphic Violence/ Nudity". Now they're a plot synopsis of the entire game, to make sure your child won't be traumatized.

My favorite ratings, however, come from Netflix. They show the standard "G/PG" style ratings, but they also have their own. My favorite is "Content not appropriate for the age group most likely to want to watch it." I would think games could really use this, but then we'd have to just put it on everything!

 

[Ace O'Hagen]

why can't the ESRB just come out and say "Don't buy this game for your fucking pre-teen kid, goddamnit!!"

Seems like it would save everyone a lot of hassle with getting worked up over violent games and having to defend stupid arguments.

 

[hazydawn]

"partially topless" boss character with "hair barely covering [her] breasts."

Oh, anyone else looking forward to some rule 34?

 

[Erttheking]

"partially topless" boss character with "hair barely covering [her] breasts."

Oh, anyone else looking forward to some rule 34?

We've kind of already been there before. Quelaag is pretty much that, half spider monster, half pretty woman with her hair barely covering her breasts.

 

[Sniper Team 4]

"partially topless" boss character with "hair barely covering [her] breasts."

Oh, anyone else looking forward to some rule 34?

We've kind of already been there before. Quelaag is pretty much that, half spider monster, half pretty woman with her hair barely covering her breasts.

I was going to say the same thing. She was one of the few bosses I was able to beat before giving up on the game. In fact, she was the last boss I was able to beat, now that I think about it...loved the messages people left right before her though. "Beware gorgeous view."

 

[Erttheking]

"partially topless" boss character with "hair barely covering [her] breasts."

Oh, anyone else looking forward to some rule 34?

We've kind of already been there before. Quelaag is pretty much that, half spider monster, half pretty woman with her hair barely covering her breasts.

I was going to say the same thing. She was one of the few bosses I was able to beat before giving up on the game. In fact, she was the last boss I was able to beat, now that I think about it...loved the messages people left right before her though. "Beware gorgeous view."

You should've seen the ones that were right before Gwynevere. "Amazing Chest ahead" and "Immanent holding with both hands"

 

[Qvar]

Dark Souls players have a delightful mind for making up sexual references with such limited possibilities.

Also you forgot the "Need head".

 

[loa]

So Nito and Quelaag are back?

 

[Denamic]

So Nito and Quelaag are back?

A corpse refers to a dead body. A skeleton is just a part of a body. It's not Nito.

 

[EiMitch]

The ESRB could point out what is offensive about a title and still be vague enough to minimize spoilers. Its so easy. Observe:

a giant snake boss holding its severed head

Replace with "a decapitated non-human character."

"partially topless" boss character with "hair barely covering [her] breasts."

Replace with "female character with minimally covered breasts."

These more generic descriptions apply to so many other games, its eerie. Spoilers averted, and with plenty of warning to parents about whats not family-friendly within a given title's content.

It doesn't take a genius to figure this out. So what kind of people are working for the ESRB?

 

[hazydawn]

We've kind of already been there before. Quelaag is pretty much that, half spider monster, half pretty woman with her hair barely covering her breasts.

Yeah but it's new material.
Though I am kinda disappointed with how little actually was done with them all... they all have so much potential.

 

[Aiddon_v1legacy]

? How in the hell did this game get a T Rating? The last one got an M. My only guess is that the violence against humans has been toned down

 

[scw55]

What if it's talking about the same boss?

A boss composed of corpses, who takes the form of a hairy female torso, who used to have a snaky head, but is now carrying it.

Sorry for spoiling that boss guys.

 

[Odin Von]

The ESRB didn't "spoil" anything. Every other news and media site (The Escapist included) that posted "ESRB Spoils Dark Souls 2 Bosses" are spoiling it. I am a long time fan of From Software. They've created two of my favorite games of all times on any platform. Demons Souls and Dark Souls are in my opinion offer the most challenging and fulfilling gameplay that I've ever encountered.
It does disturb me though that it's getting soooo much coverage. I mean a buzz is great for the developers but every single detail revealed is being posted all over the place. Every website is just reposting the same info over and over again often quoting the same original article from IGN and trying to pass it off as original. I fear this series is headed mainstream!

 

[Something Amyss]

Companies have been getting rather specific with ratings lately. ESRB ratings used to simply be "Graphic Violence/ Nudity". Now they're a plot synopsis of the entire game, to make sure your child won't be traumatized.

Rating Summary:

This is a first-person shooter in which players assume the role of a space marine who battles his way through Hell to save the Earth. Players use their fists, shotguns, machine guns, and chainsaws to kill an assortment of humans and monsters. Enemies explode into bloody chunks of flesh when killed. Enemy corpses remain on the ground, sometimes appearing as bloody piles of bones, blood, and viscera. Though the graphics are somewhat minimal (mid-90s renderings), several game levels depict pools of blood, mutilated bodies hanging from ceilings, with creatures' guts spilling out.

That's the Doom 2 summary. It's not so much new as it is news sites are trying to get all the details and are fishing around the ESRB in the same way they fish around the Trademark/Patent office. Granted, this isn't the original descriptor, but I ppulled it out several years ago when a similar story "broke" and it's not significantly different now.

The only thing somewhat different is the specific mention of boss critters. And even then, that's probably not new either.

 

[Therumancer]

Companies have been getting rather specific with ratings lately. ESRB ratings used to simply be "Graphic Violence/ Nudity". Now they're a plot synopsis of the entire game, to make sure your child won't be traumatized.

My favorite ratings, however, come from Netflix. They show the standard "G/PG" style ratings, but they also have their own. My favorite is "Content not appropriate for the age group most likely to want to watch it." I would think games could really use this, but then we'd have to just put it on everything!

I have mixed opinions on things like this. Truthfully I think that it's a step in the right direction though since I think half the problem with the general ratings is that they were too vague, and the nature of the system lead to them being improperly applied. As often with things being rated too high, as not high enough, leading to a degree of shock when someone runs into an "R" rated movie or "M" rated game worthy of the rating as opposed to a PG-13/T rated product that the developer slapped a high rating on to ease it through the review process and get it out there quicker. What's more those do the ratings have never actually told someone to lower a rating to knowledge.

I'll also say that I have increasingly less respect for spoilers and those who get upset about them. While I understand the appeal of there being a "surprise" the bottom line information is a lot more important, and anyone who absolutely must be surprised should instead be made to take responsibility for isolating themselves. I say this largely because of the way so many bad things flourish due to a lack of specific information. I personally blame "spoiler protection" for how a lot of gaming companies get away with releasing utter crap and still selling tons of copies of it, with the same thing happening with movies and other products. In general simply saying "it's shit" doesn't mean much unless you explain specifically why something is shit which requires spoilers. Likewise as this points out, "graphic violence" could be anything from someone getting a tooth knocked out in a boxing match (perhaps with a slow mo scene of the flying truth as the guy's head snaps to the side with a fist hitting it and a meat-like impact sound playing over it) and someone being sodomized with power tools. With something like "Dark Souls" I see the reasons in particular because the way the game is promoted it actually seems pretty tame, I mean you have a guy running around with melee weapons for most of it beating up skeletons, zombies, etc... and it's a bit violent with some blood and some nice impact sounds and stuff but nothing spectacular... but when it comes to specific bosses and set pieces it goes into full blown nightmare fuel territory. There is absolutely no way you can explain that to a perspective buyer without some degree of spoiler, and really some parent buying the game for her kid isn't likely to be freaking out over the bludgeoning of skeletons, as that won't be the part keeping their kid up at night.