For starters both Dark Cloud games were in the 80's. Legend of Dragoon got a 74 meta as well. :)

Metacritic is only indicative of the aggregate of review scores not the games actual quality, which is subjective to each player. If the game is targetting a small market, then it stands to reason that 1) It will have fewer reviews relative to more well known games and 2) That their is less of a chance of said reviewers beings fans of the series, even if a reviewer is trying to be objective, which they can't fully be, if they aren't a fan its unlikely they would understand the incatracies of the series and rated it low to average.

Thus the phrase "Niche games generally have low metacritics" does not mean "Niche games are generally of low quality", it means their is less of a chance that it will have many reviews and more importantly, that its reviewers will be part of that Niche and enjoy the series.

If series A only appeals to 15-20 year olds in Japan and it gets reviewed by a 24 year old in America, then obviously at best he will rate it average and say "Some people like it". Lets say for sake of example he gives it a 50, 75+ or higher being reserved for games he actually somewhat enjoys.

Then let say a Japanese 28 year old who grew up with the series gives it an 85-90, cause the series was better to him as a child but still has some quality.

That game only has 2 reviews, an 87 and a 50, thats a metacritic of 68.5 rounded up to a 69. Sure since its has so few reviewers it could dramatically change for the postive or negative, but one of the reasons its has so few reviewers is BECAUSE its Niche. Not to mention its more likely that new reviewers would have negative opinions about it because they don't understand the series.

Meh this thread was dead when it started, From always had a strong series of games. No way, Metacritic scores were low for a well done, but extremely niche, series? Get out of town! DeS spoilers:

1) When you fight Allant he tells you that the Old one will eventually take all the souls humanity possesses to grant them an end to life. The demons came from the old one and live by consuming human souls. The origin of demons in DeS runs parallel to the origins of demons in DaS. Just substitute the old one in place of the bed of chaos.

2) Dragons would have been around the whole time. The in DeS demons don't fight them, demons were used to wipe out humanity, and they seem to have free reign now that there's no army to stop them. If all humans are wiped out and turned soul starved, it only makes since that Dragons would eventually rule the world as they did in DaS. Since we're going by human history, not dragon, the origins of dragons or the prior existence would go beyond recorded history. The origin of Lordsouls also goes beyond recorded history.

3) Time being convoluted and the theme of death and rebirth, as illustrated by the endless cycle, could mean Patches is part of that same cycle, forever trapped, being killed and reborn. When "time is convoluted" is a major theme of your game, anachromisms are expected. We team up with characters dead for so long their names are the things of legend, or are so old they're long forgotten.

4) The cities would have fallen into disrepair after humanity, and presumably the demons that fed on them, were gone. From DaS1-2 we see cities destroyed and in disreapair. We also see in DaS that there were remnants or death, in the form of skulls when the dragons were around. The dragons were immortal, so what left the skulls?

Souls games have a history of using positioning to tell a story. Look at where things take place. The Old One is a mass of twisted sticks and wood when we meet him. After he dies from starvation, he's just a pile of sticks hidden under ground. In DaS, there was a giant raging fire under ground, and out of it came enough souls for all of humanity. What was burning and why did souls come out of the fire? Well if demons, all coming from the old one, took all human souls in the world and returned to the old one, he would be a highly flammable vessel that contained all the souls for humanity. Also, the beings that find the souls were among the souless humanoids we saw in the opening that very much resemble DeS's soul starved. It really fits in as Boletaria being just one more spin of the wheel really.

I didn't even know who they were until I read this thread so...yeah. I guess that's a no?

so what you are basically saying is that demons did exist before in DaS (in DeS thanks to the old one) but they reappeared after a while thanks to the bed of chaos, who could be the remains of the old one... intereting interesting

good reply i must agree that makes a lot sense, (i enjoy reading peoples interpretation of the lore).

but even after all of that i still belive they are separeted games and im gonna quote something i said before to explain why:

"and you may find a way to give logic to all of this but then again the very base of this whole argument is again just speculation, so in the end just like you said we will never know"

"and since the bases of the reasons that explains that they are sequels are actually speculation then its more reasonable to belive they are not related."

all im saying is yes what you said makes sense at least at some degree it does, the patches thing is a little to much, BUT it makes SENSE for the theme of the game... BUT im someone who likes to belive mainly in what is a fact, and what is confirmed and undeniable, so i dont really like to belive in what is actually speculation (regardless of how much sense it may have) until its confirmed.

now i know that if from software one day tells us that both games are related then i will know how they are related, but until then for me they are separeted.

I know this may look like i made you write all of that for nothing but in reality (regardless if i accept them or not) i do ENJOY reading those interpretations, (because i find the lore really INTERESTING) and that was a good read so THANKS.

No. FromSoftware made FromSoftware a well respected studio.

Relying on past RPGs is precisely what dumbed down Enchanted Arms score.

I do apologize. Yes the ps3 was getting a steady stream of games but I just don't remember a large number of big exclusives coming out at the time, of which demons souls was meant to be one.

Didn't hurt Lost Odyssey though. Problem is that Sakaguchi is better at it than them as well.

So, you agree that Enchanted Arms was bound to be 64 in meta either way?