Direct, 'This Is From On-High' story explanations, or speculative storyline material from us, almost none. Actually we went out of our way to avoid spoiling story type material in both the walkthrough and the npc chapter.

In-game lore content, as much as we could cram in, we put in descriptions for everything in the game, so if you want some chill reading material to ruminate on all the connections between different items and places and people, it's all there.

Obviously, you're going to spoil yourself if you look at a full list of areas/enemies/npcs etc, that's unavoidable, but we didn't spell out full npc quest dialogues or try to hammer home major story developments in the walkthrough.

This was a conscious decision, and one I know I personally went back and forth on a lot. For me, Souls games have always been a very personal (dare I say intimate?) experience, where that first playthrough is really something special. I go in unspoiled, I miss things, I don't see the whole picture. And I'm ok with that, in fact, I like that a whole lot. How many games out there can you play and come away with a very different experience and impression than one of your friends who played through the same game at the same time? They're not common, so I prize that experience in the Souls series.

I know with a certainty there are people who want everything spelled out, and want to see all the pieces laid out on the board to make as clear a picture as possible, and I totally get that - the fact that you can come at this game from either angle and still get a great experience out of it is a strength of the game and the series.

But yeah, speculative lore storytelling or outright spoilers, as few as possible. In-game lore material, as much as we could fit.