Patches

About

Patches is a notorious recurring character in FromSoftware video games who grew infamous for several scenes in which he punished the player for seeking treasure in the Dark Souls series. As one of the only living recurring characters in FromSoft games, Patches has become a standout in the games' fandom, inspiring fan art and memes throughout the 2010s and 2020s.

History

Patches first appeared in 2008's Armored Core: For Answer, a mech combat game and one of the first games Dark Souls director Hidetaka Miyazaki worked on at FromSoftware before beginning work on the Souls series.^[1] In the game, he is a sniper who employs cowardly tactics to battle the player before surrendering.

Patches then appeared in 2009's Demon's Souls, where he developed into the more well-known iteration of the character. In Demon's Souls, Dark Souls I and III, Bloodborne and Elden Ring, Patches appears as a conniving character who sets up traps for the player in the hopes he can loot your corpse for treasure. These often involve attempts to tell the player that if they follow a certain path they can be rewarded with great treasure, only the paths he tells players to follow lead to dangerous areas (video of Patches in Dark Souls III shown below, uploaded by His and Hers Gaming). If the player elects not to kill Patches for his treachery, he will usually show up later in the games as a merchant.

Online Presence

Patches' well-defined and comedic character makes him an anomaly in FromSoftware games, leading him to become one of the best-known NPCs in the series online. Parodies and memes about Patches have been a regular part of the Souls fandom since the release of Demon's Souls. Some early examples of Patches memes include a video posted on June 11th, 2014, by InfernoPlus in which he cosplayed as the character in Dark Souls II, gaining over 95,000 views in eight years (shown below, left). On May 19th, 2016, DeviantArt user emlan posted a comic^[2] parodying Patches Dark Souls III appearance (shown below, right).

Patches has also been the subject of extensive lore coverage from Dark Souls lore YouTubers. For example, YouTuber VaatiVidya posted a video on Patches in Dark Souls III on August 24th, 2017, gaining over 4 million views in nearly five years (shown below, left). On May 31st, 2015, Fungo posted a lore video explaining the history of Patches, gaining over 1.1 million views in seven years (shown below, right).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References