Hmmm what’s this? Dark Souls. Well, I’ve
heard of it. They say it’s pretty hard, but at this point in time, the game’s difficulty
hasn’t been beaten like a dead horse by crappy, unoriginal game journalists and for
those reasons I’ll check it out. What the f*ck did I just play? That was pretty much my exact reaction upon
starting and completing Dark Souls for the first time. It was the most bizarre feeling
I had gotten after beating a video game. I felt accomplished yet empty at the same time.
I felt like I hadn’t even scratched the surface, like I just played through the whole
thing wearing a blindfold. I must’ve missed something! Something that explains what the
hell I was doing! I didn’t know it at the time, or at any
point during my first playthrough, but there was much more to Dark Souls than I could’ve
imagined… Something that has since become so muddled within Games Journalism. Almost
like an unintentional smear campaign that’s made people forget what truly mattered when
it came to Dark Souls and what gave it such a well-known reputation in the first place.
Being able to sum up a video game in the words “it’s popular cuz it’s hard lol,”
is a nice little gimmick if you want to market the game easily to a bunch of people, but
it doesn’t elaborate on much of anything. Dark Souls has been heralded as one of the
greatest games of all time; that is an exclusive club. It’s gotten countless awards, spawned
a whole franchise and style of games (sorry Demon Souls) and has captivated mainstream
and hardcore audiences alike. It’s done all these things for good reason, and while
a good challenge, a hard-to-master difficulty, and a cryptic, open-ended story all played
a big role in it’s success, it doesn’t truly explain why Dark Souls 1 is SO AWESOME! And that’s exactly what I’m here to do… There’s been an argument against video games
for many years, claiming they aren’t TRUE art. Now, if I were to choose one game that
I’d force those dickbags to sit down and play from start to finish in hopes of changing
their minds. My first choice is Dark Souls and (Bioshock 1.)
Because this is the type of experience that you could show an English teacher, or a poetry
class, and they’d be like “uhhh yeah can you make me 50 copies of this exact experience
but in novel form so we can go to extreme, lengthy discussions about the significance
of the pendant?” Seriously, that’s one of the game’s biggest
appeals. Just like poems and certain stories, the meaning you can find within is not always
in plain sight. Dark Souls is no different because you have to take a close look at it
to understand what the f*ck it’s trying to say, and what in god’s name is going
on. Without abstract thinking and interpretation, you won’t be able to get much from Dark
Souls’ story. From the moment you start in the Undead Asylum to the final showdown
with Literally Zues but cooler, the motivations and reasoning behind what you’re doing is
kept very vague. You’re dropped into this huge, forsaken world with no real direction
except to ring a bell. “There are actually two Bells of Awakening.”
Err… ring two bells, I guess. You might even breeze through the whole game
without taking a second to look around, talk to people, or read item descriptions. Anyways!
At surface value, one might look at Dark Souls and think, “ahh just another generic RPG
with dragons, knights, swords and magic. How many times have we seen that? I bet it was
made by British people too.” But then once you start getting into it it’s
like, “Wait a minute, why am I ringing two bells? Who the f*ck is this asshole? What
the sh*t?! Oh there’s Demons now? Man, what’s with the goddamn poisonI? What-what IS this
place? I was just in a swamp killing giant Mosquitoes, then I find this huge tree, and
now I’m on this enormous lake fighting a 7-headed dragon and F*CKING clams?! WHAT AM
I PLAYING RIGHT NOW? What the hell is that? Why’s that dragon look so weird? Why is
it breathing crystals n sh*t AAAAHHHHHH!!!” And it’s this idea of not knowing, these
questions in your mind that you don’t have answers for. This feeling of being out of
the loop on everything but the bare essentials that creates this undying, morbid, curiousity.
Sh*t’s pretty f*cked up in Lordran and YOU want to find out why!!
That’s one of Dark Souls’ greatest strengths is it is so atypical in it’s presentation.
Most mainstream games are pretty straightforward in this regard because they need to have stories
that babies can understand, which makes it all the more puzzling how Dark Souls is able
to appeal to such a wide audience. Because you can’t go through the game and
NOT be constantly asking questions. The plot is minimalistic, and it’s up to the player
to come to their own conclusions. You fill in the blanks, and there’s a f*ckton of
blanks to fill in. You see this, Sea of Thieves? That’s how you create your own fun!!! Now
there’s always the possibility that by making your story vague and confusing it ends up
making no sense and being vague and confusing, but then there’s the other side where you
have a confusing or unclear story, but the experience is so enchanting it makes you WANT
to know more. Would you like to know more?
And that’s what Dark Souls accomplishes so it doesn’t fall into the “plain old,
just bad storytelling” category. But let’s pull back this layer of Dragon Scales and
actually look at what Dark Souls offers within it’s narrative. Let’s take a look at the
depth within the Onion. I think anytime there’s a series of books,
movies, tv shows or video games, and there’s enough interest in the lore and background
of that series to fuel 1.2 MILLION Subscribers into a YouTube channel?! Yeah uh, I think
it’s safe to say people are interested. The amount of fan theories and lore explanation
videos on this series should tell you all you need to know about how involved gamers
are with the story. An interesting tidbit I read was the idea that the item descriptions
in-game are actually the player characters thoughts. Probably not true, but some items
become much more interesting when you look at things that way. And that’s the great
thing about interpretive stories, the way you look at it.
Dark Souls is f*cking deep, you don’t need me to tell you that. And there are plenty
of reasons why, so many that I don’t have time to explain them all. For one, ambient
music is basically nonexistent. There’s a total of 4 areas in the entire game excluding
boss battles, where music plays. Firelink Shrine, Daughters of Chaos Bonfire, Gwynevere’s
hot and steamy bedroom, and Ash Lake. If you’ve played through Dark Souls, then you know each
one of these areas are vitally important, and the music creates a unique tone and feeling
for each one. Sadness and sorrow. Hope and faith. Magnificence and awe. Warm and welcoming.
This lack of music creates a feeling of isolation for the majority of the experience and this
means there is nothing to distract you from the world you’re in. The only things that
follow you through Lordran are the sound of your footsteps and clanking armor and it makes
those moments when you hear music much more powerful as a result.
The combat is deep too, and we’ll talk about that a bit later, but what I find to be the
single greatest thing about Dark Souls is how everything is connected. Not just in map
layout, but in items, bosses, enemies, NPC’s, they all connect together to form a greater
whole Take the classic gameplay element of dying
and respawning. In pretty much every other video game except Bioshock (once again) the
concept of respawning has little to no explanation at all. Cuz it’s just – just a video game.
But in Dark Souls, death and respawns aren’t just gameplay mechanics, they’re a part
of the story. You are an undead, branded with the darksign
which means you cannot truly die. How do you kill, that which has no life?
But each death brings you closer to hollowing – a concept we’ll explore later on. So
you are linked to the fire, you are linked to the flame and as long as there are bonfires
you will keep coming back. It’s not often you see a game that has justification
for it’s gameplay mechanics written into it’s lore. Lemme ask you, have you ever
thought about what Estus actually is and why it heals you? Most people probably saw it
as any other item that restores health, cuz it’s just – just a video game. Hearts,
potions, medkits, food, magical green herbs that definitely isn’t weed, a harmonious
melody, games never explain why you get healed from this sh*t because it really doesn’t
matter. But in Dark Souls does. Estus is bottled FIRE,
people! That’s why it refills AT the bonfire. You capture the flame in your flask. Dark
Souls is about disparity between life and death, fire and darkness and the Bonfires
are beacons of life. Miracles come from Gwyn and his faithful knights. Pyromancy comes
from the Witch of Izalith and her Daughters of Chaos. And Sorcery comes from Seath the
Dankless. These gameplay tools have reason to be in the game beyond their immediate use.
You could run through the list of items, mechanics, tools, and weapons and connect each one of
them as these pieces to form the greater whole of Dark Soul’s universe, story and lore.
And that’s the beauty of this game that’s where the depth comes from. Now the story, meaning, and purpose behind
Dark Souls is riddled with obscurity and has plenty of room for different interpretations.
And while, I could turn this video into something that discusses nothing but the lore for 40minutes,
I’m more or less going to highlight what I think are the most important themes or messages
that Dark Souls tries to hammer home; the things I learned. I encourage you to share
your own thoughts as well. So we have the basic premise of the player
being an undead in an asylum, where they are all corralled to await the end of the world.
“This is your fate.” Well that’s a pretty shitty fate right there,
but home boy Oscar breaks you out because there’s a prophecy.
The Chosen Undead who’s supposed to travel to Lordran, and ring the bells of awakening,
and when you do that… “The fate of the undead thou shalt know.”
So right off the bat we wanna know what’s gonna happen to the Undead, what’s gonna
happen to us, all these NPC’s, all these roaming hollows. That question is put into
your mind from the very beginning. Cutscenes are rare, and none are more jam-packed
with important information than the opening. What this scene showcases is how man came
to be – how they became GODS. How they took the world by storm and destroyed the previous
regime to create their own. When fire was created, we learned of our existence, we strove
to discover, explore, and build. And we found soul within the flame, metaphorically and
physically. Incidentally, you could look at the real world discovery of fire by primitive
man as arguably the most revolutionary thing to happen in the history of human beings.
Once we found fire, the world was forever changed around us.
“But remember one thing. Always fear the flame, lest you be devoured by it, and lose
yourself. I would hate to see that happen again…”
So much of what Dark Souls presents is relatable to the real world. You could interpret the
idea of prolonging the Age of Fire, or ushering in the Age of Dark as a message on the rise
and fall of civilizations. For example, the Roman Empire thrived for centuries but eventually
it’s flames faded, and despite their best efforts to keep the Age of Romans alive, nothing
could stop the coming dark. How long will our Age last? The old Roman deities were cast
aside, replaced with a new god, and his son… Just as you can become the Harbinger of a
new age in Dark Souls, the age of Dark. The typical “Lord of Darkness” Trope in fantasy
stories works better in the world of Dark Souls than most other stories.
I really enjoy the ambiguity of the endings because its great for speculation, and what
I saw in these endings is that they are rooted in polar opposite ideas, that of self-sacrifice
and self preservation. Martyrdom or apathy. But as well all know… “APATHY IS DEATH!”
Maybe Dark Souls is meant to portray the calamity and hopelessness of knowing the empire – the
civilization you serve, the place you call home is coming to an end. How do you deal
with the coming dread? In this sense the Undead and the Dark could be seen as the always present
threat, a tide of people who are bound to one day replace your way of life with their
own. “O Heretic, swathed in Dark… an eternal
curse upon thee.” This theme of different Ages collapsing and
rising is present in both sequels, which means it’s definitely something the designers
wanted to think about. One theme that sticks out very well in the
Dark Souls experience is perseverance. Individually, the undead or humans are weak, fragile creatures.
The enemies that don’t outmatch you in size, will simply outnumber you.
Throughout the game you encounter several bodies, with helpful items, and while most
of them could be looked at simply as items left by the developers for the player. I see
a deeper meaning, because why is it, that most every item you find is tied to a corpse?
Isn’t that strange? It’s because every one of those things was left behind by the
person who died there. Individually you suck, but as more and more undead travel to fulfill
the prophecy, as Undead are caught in the crossfire of all these colliding forces, at
some point or another they finally succumb. So as you journey through Lordran, you encounter
greater souls, better items, stronger weapons, all from others who made it farther than the
last. Even in death the undead that came before you are helping you by leaving something useful
behind. You essentially get the accrued knowledge, weapons, spells, equipment and items of every
single traveler or unfortunate soul in Lordran. Because you are destined to succeed where
others have failed, you’re the main character after all!
“As I explained earlier, I’m the main character!”
The Chosen Undead. But this also ties in with the game’s difficulty. As an Undead, finding
purpose and striving towards a goal is what keeps you from hollowing, a slow process where
a person looses their mind and sanity. Every gamer’s goal when playing Dark Souls is
to beat it. But what of those who never did? What of those who ran up against a wall they
couldn’t climb? A tower they couldn’t scale? They became the hollows of Lordran.
You see, you only become hollow when you quit. So by persevering through failure, you, the
Chosen Undead will feel great satisfaction when you overcome those challenges that gave
you so much trouble. You WILL run up against an enemy that seems unbeatable. You will die,
you will fail, but it doesn’t matter how many times you are slain, how massive and
impossible the road ahead might seem because so long as you push against the inevitable,
you will survive in Lordran and you will survive the real world.
“YES! YES!” And you’ll come out stronger than before,
ready to take on the next challenge. “Aw fuck.”
Hollowing in the Dark Souls universe is one of the coolest concepts I’ve ever seen a
game present. It’s a microcosm of losing your purpose in the real world. It could also
be seen as a metaphor for depression, those that go hollow, submit to their darkest feelings,
their sadness, dread; they give up and lose themselves. Life is about overcoming challenges,
solving problems, and carving some meaning out of your existence. What value does a person’s
life have if they don’t strive to accomplish something? What satisfaction do you get from
life when there are no problems to solve? Just as characters go hollow in Dark Souls,
you too would go hollow in the real world if you did nothing with your life.
There’s far more to this game than meets the eye, and it’s because of it’s open-ended
method of storytelling, your interpretations might be different. They might be completely
different. But no matter who you are or what you think, stay safe and don’t you dare
go hollow. Now when it comes to gameplay, the combat
in Dark Souls has a lot of depth too. There’s so many cool weapons and badass
armor in this game. You can look like an Onion for Christ’s sake. That’s the armor Shrek
would wear. Certain styles of weapons have different movesets, and everything has it’s
advantages, disadvantages, and requirements except the Ring of Favor & Protection that’s
the best thing in the world. And you’ll need to be smart about what you
invest in. PRO TIP: Resistance is the best stat to level, I max it first. This is where
the currency, SOULS (what else did you think it would be?) comes into effect. Souls are
the lifeblood of your journey. If you die two times in a row without returning to the
spot you first perished, you’ll lose all the souls you had, you want to avoid this
at all costs. But you also need to carry enough souls to be able to actually buy things, and
I love this risk/reward playstyle that Dark Souls offers, because the two death system
means that you didn’t learn from your first mistake and you made it again, if you can’t
get back to the spot you first died. There’s plenty of builds to experiment with
and that’s where the fun begins. Because you can’t realistically cover everything
in one playthrough. You have to make decisions about what playstyle
you like best so you can optimize in it or try to find a general balance in between.
Some weapons hit hard, but they weigh you down and are easy to dodge. Others can inflict
status effects, and all the sets of armor offer different levels of protection.
Dark Souls has an amazing and rewarding progression system and on the opposite side, it can be
brutally punishing too. Losing your souls and humanity too many times can set you back
and in my case, I felt I had to restart the game. But the knowledge I got from that initial
playthrough stick with me. It feels great to finally be able to use that sorcery spell
you’ve had forever. Or that giant greataxe that looks badass! Or to be able to not fat
roll while wearing full Havel’s. These accomplishments give power, satisfaction, and pride to the
player because they happen both in the long-term and the short-term. Because if you’re like
me, then you are building and improving your build throughout the entire game!
Best part of it is, damn near everything is viable in PvE. ESPECIALLY DEXTERITY, AMIRITE
SUN BROS?! But the mechanics, the flow of combat is where
the game truly shines. Because it doesn’t matter how upgraded your equipment is, how
good your weapons are, if you can’t manage this little green bar right here. If you can’t
dodge, duck, dip, dive and dodge and block, you aint gonna get through sh*t. This green
bar right here? This is your stamina, your soul, your life. Every action you take besides
walking requires stamina and it’s the game’s way of limiting what you’re capable of.
The entire game must be played around it. Unless you play a cheesey, glass cannon sorcery
build like a queerbo. Keeping with the tradition of ambiguity, the
only means of directly communicating with other players is emotes. THAT AREN’T SOLD
IN LOOT BOXES FOR ONCE, HOLY SH*T! It adds a bit of comedy to the game, and it’s the
limitations of how you communicate that makes it so fun.
Against the AI, you have to anticipate the movements of your enemy. Charging in recklessly
without a plan is bound to get you killed. Yeah you might be able to set that first-person
shooter to easy and take out everything without sweating but Dark Souls doesn’t have a difficulty
setting okay, bitch! You gotta be a man! Or a woman!
Every enemy is different, and most likely, you’re going to die to each of them at least
once. However, this is where Dark Souls offers a level of mastery for the player to achieve.
By learning the patterns and moves of your foes so well, you can fight them without even
taking a hit. With enough time, practice and patience, you can essentially trivialize the
game across multiple playthroughs. Sometimes I get cocky because I’ve beaten all the
Souls games multiple times and when I start to play carelessly is when I get reminded
that I can’t f*ck around, because I’ll get punished.
But whether you’ve got a bow, magic, miracles or a crapton of upgraded armor pieces, you
use the tools you have to your advantage. And don’t be afraid to use them! Dark Souls
is difficult, you’ve heard that a million times but why the challenge is so renown is
because it’s not BULLSH*T difficulty… For the most part. Yes there is trial and
error, but again, that connects with the themes. You learn through failure, in fact that’s
like the only way to learn. “Pain is an excellent teacher.”
If I had to highlight some negative aspects of the game, Capra Demon fight is just so
f*cking stupid. There’s no way going through that door for the first time, that you’re
gonna come out on top. It’s just not gonna happen. You have almost no time to take in
your surroundings before you get assblasted. Ceaseless Discharge has some pretty questionable
hitboxes, and the Bed of Chaos is… well…. The Bed of Chaos.
But aside from some of that cheap bullsh*t, there’s a saying my martial arts master
told me, “Luck Favors the prepared man.” So if you hear about this place that’s called
Blighttown, you might consider finding or buying gear and items that can counteract
that some of the sh*t you’d expect to see in a place called “Blighttown”. Course
there ain’t no gear that can counteract that FRAMERATE.
By preparing yourself with upgraded weapons, leveling up, and a utility bag full of tricks
is how you can conquer the game. And that’s something I really love – the preparation
you make BEFORE the next challenge, before the next excursion.
Combat is fluid, and heavily favors 1 on 1 encounters. It’s slow and methodical. Attacks
have long wind up times but to counteract this, they have brutally punishing damage.
A lot of games might have the illusion of multiple enemies attacking you, but often
times they only attack one at a time, and act like mindless goons in the background.
This is not the case with Dark Souls. Getting surrounded is a surefire way of getting your
ass handed to you and sent back to the Bonfire. So playing smart, observing your surroundings,
and trying to go for 1 on 1 fights is essential to success.
Let’s talk about PvP. In the early days, it took players a while to find out what weapons
and builds were most effective against other players. It sucks to say, but there are a
lot of mechanics that can be abused in Dark Souls PvP. I’ve run up against so many cheesy
one-shot, glass cannon sorcery builds in this game. That’s no fun. That’s no fun going
up against that every single invasion. And for one, if you stock up on humanity,
you can exploit that to pretty much heal indefinitely. There’s a lot of cheese tactics, and I’ve
been the victim of some VERY questionable backstabs and hitboxes. Like how the f*ck
did this arrow hit me? Are you serious?! This was mostly forgivable in the original
Dark Souls, but in the remastered version, so many of these exploits weren’t fixed!
See this video by Inferno Plus for a full breakdown on these bugs because it highlights
the problems with the PvP perfectly. But those moments when you get into a long-winded battle
and both decide to drain your estus and duel to the death, those are magical moments. One
of the greatest things about this system are the benevolent invaders. People who invade
you, with the apparent intention to kill you and pilfer your humanity, but turn out to
give you nice items and black crystal out. I once had a guy invade me in Blighttown while
I was dying by those toxic bastards, I had barely enough HP to survive it with no estus
left. When the invader approached me I showed him I was out of estus and while I was going
through the menus to drop a humanity for him so he wouldn’t have to kill me, he dropped
a twin humanity for ME and then black crystaled out. That type of kindness in such a cruel,
harsh world, can really bring warmth to your heart and pick you up when you’re down.
There’s a lot of nuances to the PvP system, too many to go into. But being able to help
or hinder the progress of others is an awesome idea! Just as your Estus Flask has a lore-related
reason for being in the game, so too does the Multiplayer.
“We are amidst strange beings in a strange land. The flow of time itself is convoluted;
with heroes centuries old phasing in and out. The very fabric wavers, and relations shift
and obscure. There’s no telling how much longer your world and mine will remain in
contact.” This statement by Solaire is a perfectly vague
explanation. Do the summon signs and invasions send you back or forward in time? Do they
send you to an identical world with a different chosen Undead? There’s no concrete reason
behind it, but it’s safe to say without the multiplayer component and this description
from Solaire, Dark Souls would lose a lot of it’s magic.
This is a journey where you don’t have to go alone. You can share it with others, both
good and evil. Other players can leave their summon signs, or messages and depending on
the player, they may be trying to help, hinder your progress, or send you off a cliff.
The gameplay overall is fantastic and unique, offering limitless possibilities for experimentation
and builds, and the PvP is there to not only enhance the experience but to build up the
world of Lordran and offer great gameplay opportunities if you ever get bored of fighting
the AI. But what’s the first thing that comes to mind when you think of Dark Souls?
That’s right! It’s the mothaf*cking bosses! “Come on slam and welcome to the slam! Come
on and slam if you want to jam!” A classic staple of video games and the big
highlights of Dark Souls. I’d go so far as to say that Dark Souls revolutionized difficulty
in the mainstream’s view, because MOST of the bosses are so perfectly designed. They’re
all huge and epic, they intimidate and make us feel tiny. And even ones like Pinwheel
that are SUPER easy or the Bed of Chaos that are cheap as hell, all these bosses offer
value in either gameplay, challenge, lore, atmosphere or all of the above. The first
time going up against each one of these bad boys, I can safely say I died against all
but Gwyndolin, Pinwheel, and the Demon Firesage. The bosses evolve as you progress and this
is demonstrated in 3 fights in particular. Stage 1 is the Asylum Demon, your introduction
to bosses. This fatty is here to teach you the mechanics of these fights, and use your
surroundings to your advantage. Stage 2 Bell Gargoyles show the player that not every fight
will be straightforward, and it gives you a taste of a boss with more than one enemy.
Finally the famous Ornstein & Smough battle is Stage 3 these guy’s attacks compliment
each other perfectly and they attack in unison. They are what separates the wheat from the
chaff. This is the point that you get the Lordvessel in the story to discover your destiny,
and if you can beat these two bad boys you have what it takes to beat the game.
Everything you experience through these 3 key bosses, are the lessons you need to know
to complete Dark Souls. Probably my favorite boss fight in the entire
souls series is the 4 Kings. Because as far as I can remember it’s the only arena that
can kill you instantly and it is scary as f*ck. This is the most stressful fight in
the game because the Kings are not only challenging, have high HP, deadly ranged and close up attacks,
but there’s more than one of them! Their swords are so big they swing around behind
them! I mean, the pressure to take out one king before the next one shows up as fast
as possible is unlike any other pressure or stress I’ve felt in a video game. The utter
blackness makes it hard to gauge how far away the Kings are. You have absolutely no cover
to hide behind and those homing bullets track you for like 15 seconds! It’s so exhilarating!
The 4 Kings perfectly illustrate a well-designed fight in every way. Now, because players will play through using
different builds, the difficulty of the bosses can vary. For instance, in my first playthrough
I beat O & S on my 2nd try, no lie. You know how I’m not lying? Because I died to both
of these Hydras at least 15 times. I just could not get the fight down for the life
of me, I’d either get shot by those spitballs or fall to my death. Going through it now,
they’re a piece of cake but my 1st time? Good lord…
Every single boss in the game brings something new and different to the table. Yeah there’s
a couple stinkers like the Demon Firesage, but overall they bring a whole new level of
terror and fear to an already hostile world. In my opinion, there are some games that SHOULD
be played a certain way to get the most out of them. To tie into my earlier point about
how Dark Souls makes you curious. The best playthrough, is your first one, because you
have no idea what’s around the corner – what to expect. This is why I think watching guides
or gameplay before you play the game yourself, is a cardinal sin. You shouldn’t do that
because half the fun is discovering things on your own and getting your ass whooped.
Not many games give players such an extraordinary urge to explore and make it so dangerous at
the same time. It’s not even just the enemies you have to look out for. Gravity has killed
me more times than any single boss. And if you head into the wrong direction early in
the game, you’ll likely get butt f*cked by skeletons or ghosts. But if you knew where
to go beforehand because you looked it up, you’re forfeiting part of the experience
for convenience. And here’s another thing, finding which areas f*ck you up and which
ones don’t makes you want to get stronger so you can go back to those areas. The temptation
of new weapons, souls, plunder and pillage is much too hard for adventurous gamers like
us to refuse. That’s the enticing part of Dark Souls,
combined with the healing system, there’s a risk/reward scenario. I mean, perhaps you’re
down to 2 chugs of that sweet sunny d, but you feel close to a bonfire or special treasure.
Do you risk death, your souls, and humanity to press on? Or do you turn back, play it
safe and try again? These decisions you make throughout the game are CRUCIAL! Which bonfires
you kindle, if you’ve got humanity to spare, you’ve gotta scrounge and collect everything
you possibly can to be prepared. Thank god there’s no limitations on your inventory.
Every choice made by the player can have it’s rewards and consequences. What separates Dark
Souls from many other games is nobody is essential; the game doesn’t have any arbitrary barriers
on who you can and can’t kill. Some NPC’s will encourage you to help them, while others
will try to send you on the path of bloodshed. “Most fools have more humanity than they
know what to do with. Now, who do you imagine will make the best use of it, hmm?”
You could say there’s even a morality system built into the game, but it’s not measured
with some arbitrary number, it’s your own moral compass.
When it comes to level design, art style and feeling of the different areas, Dark Souls
is perfection, if not the closest thing to it. Firelink Shrine is a great hub area that
leads to the following locations: Undead Parish, Undead Burg, Catacombs, New Londo Ruins, Valley
of the Drakes, Blighttown and the Undead Asylum. That’s 7 freaking locations accessible after
the tutorial, (if you picked the master key). Remember how I talked about connection? The
same thing applies here. That’s freedom, that’s choice, and yeah many of those areas
are tough early on, but there’s nothing stopping you from going there anyways! One
fan favorite technique is to go through the Catacombs and kill Pinwheel early on so you
can get the Right of Kindling. Having a series of complicated paths, shortcuts,
secret areas, and hidden bonfires like this can make it difficult to remember where you
are and where you need to go, but it’s like knowing the area around your house, and once
you know, you never forget. You realize this type of connected level design is very beneficial
to the game’s experience. The designers want you to understand which
paths lead where, and memorizing them will make your life easier. I want to emphasize
that Dark Souls, in every aspect of it’s design, rewards the intelligent player. The
attentive player. And because the world of Dark Souls can immerse so well with it’s
scenery, the gameplay can immerse you on the same level.
This might be somewhat controversial but having the ability to warp between bonfires was something
I thought you had to earn. Giving that tool to the player right after the first boss might
be convenient but doing that risks losing one of the greatest parts of this game: a
connected world that feels real. Each area offers new different obstacles for
the player to overcome, but every one of them shares a similarity. Gravity is a f*cking
bitch. Crystal Caves forces you to be attentive or guess what happens? Luckily, and you’ll
find this good game design in every corner of Dark Souls, the player can grab these Prism
Stones on the way and use them to get through. Tomb of The Giants puts you in utter darkness
forcing you to sacrifice your shield for a light source or your helmet. Lost Izalith
and Demon Ruins have large patches of lava. New Londo Ruins throws a bunch of ghosts at
you that appear from above, below, and can move through walls. The enemies you face aren’t
the only things hostile to player, the environment is too. Good ol’ Sen’s Fortress and of
course the Abyss. From Software got very creative with all the
different ways they could kill you in this game and that’s something I appreciate. And as I keep reiterating, Dark Souls is very
unorthodox in almost every way. And with the use of mods and thanks to Shesez (sorry if
I said your name wrong) we can actually see how detailed the world is beyond the normal
boundaries. “Out of all the episodes that I’ve done
of boundary break I’ve never seen so much detail to a set of buildings that were off
in the distance.” Most games will have very low quality rendering
on the stuff that’s in the background, places you can’t even access. That’s to save
on memory, but Miyazaki doesn’t give a F*CK! He wants immersion, DAMNIT! And he got it.
Dark Souls puts so much effort into the backgrounds, just to make you feel immersed. And another
thing that kind of blows my mind is Dark Souls doesn’t stop the gameplay to load in a new
area, it does it seamlessly, for the most part. That’s an extremely underrated achievement
because the necessity for a video game to load something, doesn’t disrupt the experience
like you would expect it to. What Dark Souls also offers is a sense of
scale, subtle grandiosity (that’s a great word to know!) For example, when you arrive
at Firelink Shrine, you can see 3 more areas that are inaccessible, so add that to the
other 7 areas I mentioned. You can see Anor Londo way the f*ck up there, and what I think
is the Grand Archives, and you can also see The Great Hollow. Being able to look at something
way the f*ck off in the distance, get there and look back at where you were, is absolutely
amazing. This is what makes Dark Souls feel EPIC! It feels like a real world! That you
don’t have to watch a movie or a tv show or read a book to experience it, you get to
run around on your own; you have control. Getting an idea of how large these vast kingdoms
are, and how small of a speck the Chosen Undead is in all of it.
Even when you’re down in 15fps-town, these huge arches exist! You can see the swampy
ground below you! If you think about it, Blighttown is just a massive f*cking sewer! And can we
just take a moment to appreciate the coolest area in all of video games? Ash Lake. The
first time I discovered this area, after braving the curses in the Great Hollow, I was blown
away. Staring at the endless sea, the massive trees around you, and thinking… maybe each
one of those trees connects to a world just as massive as Lordran….
You might also think there’s a lot of unnecessary climbing and running in Dark Souls, but no…
you’re wrong. Taking that long ass stroll to the last surviving ancient dragon is just
epic. When you run down that path you’ve got 2 whole minutes to think about what lies
beyond. The interconnectivity of all the levels of
Dark Souls is something From Software has tried to replicate for years. The first time
going through Lordran, one of the most beautiful things about it was imagining what this place
was like in it’s prime, before it was devastated. But now every Souls game after that has done
the same thing, thrust the player into a land that’s gone to sh*t. And it’s just not
as fascinating the 4th time around. I think Dark Souls 1 really was lightning
caught in a bottle, the atmosphere, look and feel of these places is iconic, beautiful,
serene, and will be remembered above the rest when all else as turned to dark. So let’s switch gears here. The Characters
in Dark Souls are very important because they’re the main road through which the game delivers
it’s narrative. Primarily with NPC dialogue, which is optional, item descriptions, which
are also optional, and the environments which are optional to pay attention to. The best
choice that Dark Souls gives the player is whether or not you give a sh*t. Most games
will force cutscenes upon you and that’s all well and good but sometimes you just don’t
wanna be forced to give a sh*t. There’s no dialogue heavy scenes and most of the characters
you hear about throughout the game don’t even speak to you.
“Be gone with you. You’ll spoil my focus.” Artorias and Sif are the two prime examples
of how powerful the storytelling is. I’ve hardly ever seen such an emotional connection
between fans and characters who never actually say a word for themselves. It goes to show
that sometimes the best stories are told with fewer words.
The world of Lordran carries a very dreary, depressing atmosphere most of the time, part
of that is the feeling of hopelessness just from the insurmountable challenge you’re
posed with. And the other part is how Every NPC represents something about this universe;
a land far off, an infested town below, a jolly realm of knights. All of them have survived
this long in a world plunged into chaos, and they’ve all been negatively affected by
it. Each one of them tries to carve out meaning, life and sanity for themselves and you witness
that. Just like the story, many of the characters
and their questlines are far out of sight from the normal player. The world lives on
around Firelink Shrine as you progress through the game. Characters move to and fro, some
never return, others can be found amidst a grim fate. But they all have their own agendas,
some try to gather souls through selling merchandise, others are content to wait it out.
Characters have relationships with the other inhabitants of Lordran, they might hate, love,
or serve one another. “Have you heard of – THE HIGH ELVES?”
“-Trusty Patches? If ever a man has rubbed me up the wrong way, ugh!”
“Here, have you met that backwoods Shiva? Believe me on this one, my love… The man
is trouble. I can see it in his eyes. I just can. Hmph, no doubt about it. Watch him.”
Doesn’t this all make for a much more interesting world than a stagnant hub area disconnected
from the rest of the game, where people show up, rarely leave and nothing really changes?
Yeah I thought so. The beauty of Dark Souls is everybody in this
world is at risk of going hollow, everyone knows about this and it is something to be
feared. When talking to most NPC’s they’ll encourage you to press on, and to avoid becoming
a hollow. “Don’t get yourself killed. Neither of
us want to see you go Hollow.” “it’s safe here. I can’t bear the thought
of going Hollow out there.” “Goodbye then. Be safe, friend. Don’t
you dare go Hollow.” “Oh hello. Terrific to see us both in one
piece. And pray that you never go Hollow!” Voice acting in this game is phenomenal, I
think we all remember the gung-ho voice of Siegmayer of Catarina, or the luminous and
friendly words of Solaire. “You really are fond of chatting with me,
aren’t you? If I didn’t know better, I’d think you had feelings for me! Oh, no, dear
me. Pretend you didn’t hear that!” Or the deep, imposing yet compassionate conversations
we had with Gouph. “Good, good. What is bravery, without a
dash of recklessness! I’ve taken a liking to thee.”
But To go back to the hopeless and depressing tone of Dark Souls, what’s brilliant about
the game is how The Chosen Undead could easily be interpreted as the villain in all of this.
You kill Qualaag in order to get to the second bell, not knowing her motivations to get enough
humanity to heal her dying sister. You only realize this after the fact. You help Siegmayer
at every turn, robbing him of the adventure he so desperately craves, making him feel
worthless and he hollows on a last adventure. By learning all the spells from Logan and
Griggs, they have nothing more to teach and in a desperate search for my knowledge they
lose their sanity in the Duke’s Archives. If you show a chaos pyromancy to Laurentius,
he’s so enthralled by it’s power he goes to blighttown to seek it out, but he can’t
see Quelana and his mad search for powerful pyromancy ends up making him go hollow. You’re
forced to fight Sif, who’s motivations, just like Qualaag, are not understood. Sif
wants to protect you from the abyss, and you killed him for it.
The Primordial Serpents, Kaathe and Frampt are such bizarre creatures. They’re like
these cartoony, mystical serpents that appear to be manipulating the events of the game.
You can’t kill them, it’s like they feel all-powerful in a world that’s losing it’s
power, which makes them all the more cool. One of my favorite characters is the Crestfallen
Warrior. When you first arrive at Firelink, he taunts you, tells you the prophecy is hopeless
– you’re doomed to die. The Crestfallen Warrior’s only goal was to sit at the shrine
and berate all the undead who show up. Heroes come and go at Firelink, but he remains. He
does give you helpful information and tips, no doubt things he’s picked up from other
travelers or in his own journey, and that brings him satisfaction. He keeps you up to
date on whats happening at the shrine. And when you ring the 2nd bell to reveal you are
the chosen undead, Frampt appears who guides you from there. The Crestfallen warrior becomes
obsolete. There aren’t any noobies for him to give tips to. His purpose is lost and he
becomes hollow. This melancholy tone is exemplified perfectly
in Solaire, a fan favorite character for good reason. He’s the most optimistic person
in Lordran, and by helping him find his sun, he loses his sanity and you’re forced to
kill him. Happy endings are rare in Dark Souls, and that’s what makes it so special. So what do you find at the end of your journey?
After escaping the Asylum, fighting through the Undead Burg, locating the bell in the
Undead Parish, braving the depths, trudging through poison infested Blighttown, traversing
the treacherous Great Hollow Tree, discovering the forbidden Ash Lake, scaling the deadly
Sens Fortress, after basking in the light of Anor Londo, warping to the Painted World
of Ariamis, getting lost in the Darkroot Garden, witnessing the dark descend upon Oolacile,
sneaking through the New Londo Ruins, passing the tainted knowledge of the Duke’s Archives,
trekking through the lava-stricken Demon Ruins, marching into Lost Izalith, after advancing
beyond the catacombs, staving off the dark in the Tomb of the Giants, and arriving at
the Kiln of the First Flame. After defeating the mightiest creatures in
Lordran what do you find beyond the door you worked so hard to get to? Ash… and a fading
flame. You enter the Kiln and find not a man, nor
a god, but a hollow. A once mighty Lord who’s time has finally run out. A Lord with nothing
left but to defend the flame he cherishes so much.
So it’s come to this? A duel for the ages. I wouldn’t have it any other way.
And after delivering the final blow, do you save Lordran? Do you deliver it to the dark?
Do you find any answers? Probably not. But you feel something. The
words you’d use to define what just experienced in the world of Dark Souls, are on the tip
of your tongue. You can’t say it, but I think I know: a masterpiece.
