Meticulously crafted by From Software, the Dark Souls games are infamous for their frustrating difficulty. But the real masterpiece of the Dark Souls franchise is its environmental storytelling, which forces the player to explore and deduce the narrative for themselves. Every way they turn, players are faced with bewildering dialogue, obscure item descriptions, and mystifyingly grotesque enemies. Discuss how the sense of mystery and confusion is integral to the Dark Souls series and how its unconventional narrative structure offers a distinct experience and has contributed to its cult status.
Analyze the game of Dark Souls and discuss how the difficulty of the game can teach to us failure is something to be embraced. How we can learn from past failures and improve.
In addition discuss how failure can come easily despite being successful (or highly leveled) in the game, and reflect upon this metaphorically in life.
Not simply the failure in terms of game play, but also the failure in grasping any formation of plot: specifically the first time around. Looking at our first play-through versus our next; it's safe to say that the failure was the intention of the writers and developers . – CoryMacRae9 years ago
In the intro level of Dark Souls, the game makes you fail to progress. – TGoutos9 years ago
Think also of the deaths that come at the hands of other players invading your world. I am one of those who enjoys that side of the game most, relishing in the stress I put on other players as I assault them while they try to complete a level, and the intriguing feeling of success that comes from bringing about another player's failure.
– jeffevancook9 years ago
I'm not so sure that the Dark Souls series presents failure as something to be embraced. Specifically because I do not think that there is such a thing as "failure" in the Souls universe. A notable feature of the Souls games is that there is nothing like a "Mission/Quest/etc. Failed" message anywhere in the game. To my mind the message "You died" is very deliberate in its ambiguity as related to a success/failure. Within the mythos of the Souls universe, the death of any one player cannot be immediately characterized as a failure, but seems rather more fittingly described as yet another incremental step towards the completion of the cycle. Indeed, even in the extreme case where the character is confronted with an "insurmountable" obstacle in the form of an overpowering enemy, say, it is not immediately clear that s/he has failed. For in such a case, s/he will succumb to the accursed dark sign, which will in turn transform him/her into an enemy and a potential source of power for the next Undead. This is, of course, premised on taking the perspective of the character controlled by the player, and no so much the player him or herself. – HeavyMentalGamer9 years ago
Dark souls is definitely a game about learning through one's mistakes. I'd love to see this article get done, it's along the lines of something I myself have been thinking of writing about Dark Souls. – MrMuffin8 years ago
A look into the culture that has sprung up around the "Souls" titles created by From Software. Undoubtedly, one of the biggest franchises to come out of the 7th generation, the Souls series has captured the attention of gamers worldwide. Praised for its daunting difficulty, incredible atmosphere, and attention to detail, the Souls games have cemented themselves as one of the premier "cult" titles of the past generation.
Explore character, story gameplay, narrative etc
I've always wanted to know more about the lore surrounding Dark Souls. IT's all there if you look into the subtext, but I suppose I'm just too lazy to actively seek it out. I would love to read something like this, and maybe see some relation from the lore and how it effects the plot. – leydifwee9 years ago
Great topic! One thing I noticed though was the difference between your title and your actual topic. You describe how you'd like to explore the characters and narrative of the Dark Souls games but didn't make a mention of the fanbase and those people and the culture surrounding these games like you mention at the top of the topic. I think I'd rather be reading an article giving possible explanations as to why Dark Souls has become so popular and such a well-renown game franchise. Why are people so attracted to it? What makes the game so interesting to gamers? What was From Software aiming for and does the community think they achieved it? Most importantly, who is a part of the community and why are these games so defining for this generation of games? I think that this kind of approach is what you intended but didn't word 100% correctly to the thoughts in your head. However, with what you've written here it sounds more like a walkthrough or lore explanation than anything else. – TheLegendofPie9 years ago
I wrote an article that was an exploration of the lore hunting that souls fans do by going through a lore hunt of the Old Dragonslayer from Dark Souls 2, unfortunately due to my poor rating on my ratio for the website it was taken away from the pending section of the website. Im working to fix my ratio so that more poeple can read my article cuz the few comments I got about it before it was taken away were pretty positive. – Cojo9 years ago
