With A Terrible Fate

Director’s Commentary: The Gwyn Moment

The following is an episode of With a Terrible Fate’s weekly podcast discussing video-game storytelling from all angles. Find all episodes here.


Join Aaron and Dan in a behind-the-scenes look at “The Gwyn Moment,” a reflection on how Dan’s experience with the first Dark Souls led him to think about video-game storytelling, Miyazaki, and his own life differently.

Topics include: why it can be hard to take good video-game recommendations from friends; how gamers get motivated to care about the lore of a world; using Gwyn as a cipher to understand Miyazaki’s other works; the community’s ever-fraught relationship with Dark Souls II; how memorable moments in games can radically change our views about the games—and ourselves.

Want to dig further into the storytelling of Elden Ring? Attend With a Terrible Fate’s PAX East 2022 panel on April 21st, in person or virtually! Find all the details you need to know here.

(Spoilers for the Dark Souls series, Bloodborne, Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, Demon’s Souls, Final Fantasy XIII-2, and BioShock.)