So all a new player has to do is happen to not go back and talk to the guy who told you to go get the lordvessel?
On my first playthrough I did exactly that. Not talk to him. I mean talk to him once (and that's not even mandatory at least afaik) and that was it. Because I had all sorts of stuff in my mind. That's the beauty of having no stupid quest log and also no "active quest".
After this big event that he's been guiding you to for a quarter or more of the game?
He didn't guide me. I went to Sen's Fortress, because the gates opened. I saw that. I remembered where it was. I didn't need help for that. And I then continued down that path. Got to the "amazing chest".
10% maybe? I mean on their first playthrough. I'm guessing players were much more likely to find it on their second playthrough while fucking around.
So? Even if that is the case and I doubt that. Where is the problem?
There is so much stuff in Dark Souls, noone will figure out everything on the first playthrough. And that's a good thing. Even in hand-holding games like Fallout 3+NV, noone will be able to do that.
Think about that - someone plays through it 3 times and THEN figured out that there was another character, which changed a huge part of the game, that the player missed the 2 times before that. I would call that awesome. Dark Souls is not meant to be only played once. Let's assume a player really does this. But then the player plays through Dark Souls again. Sooner or later he will skip Frampt and instead directly beat
. That's quite plausible, because that boss fight is mandatory. Voila - mind blown.
"I wouldn't trust him with that thing you're carrying." Or something. It would be vague but at least it would be something.
I personally didn't trust him at all. I figured that he was way too nice for the game. A character helping the player without the player having helped him at all? Must be a trap of some sort. I doubt that I was the only one thinking that. That's also why I didn't went back.
But Kaathe is truly important to the game. Not only does he lead a covenant, but he basically tells you the real plot of the game. He shouldn't be something only 10% (yes I'm pulling that stat out of my ass) of new players are able to find.
There are also other covenants that you can easily block yourself out of. So?
Maybe 1% of the players heard the dialogue of
w/o using youtube. Even including youtube, there can't be many players that did. And knowing this makes it even more special. The item required is only available via Snuggly or as starting gift. So you are either lucky or figured out that you could go back to
that also includes a
, which quite a few surely missed and then dropped a random item to get the required one.
I mean think about that - some players may have
50 times and then manage to hear the hidden dialogue. That's what makes Dark Souls so special. All those hidden things that are not obvious to get.