Opinion - Sometimes Less is More - Storytelling in Dark Souls

A screenshot from DARK SOULS REMASTERED. Property of BANDAI NAMCO.

Introducion to Dark Souls

Dark Souls is a video game (and a series) developed by FromSoftware and published by Namco Bandai. This game, and the series as a whole, is famous for it's extreme gameplay difficulty, a dark and sombre world design and minimalist storytelling. The players are thrown in to an unwelcoming world filled with vicious enemies, brutal traps and epic boss battles.

Even though the majority of the game is single-player there is an element of multiplayer, where players from around the world can combat each other, help out someone being attacked and even work together to defeat bosses. The game features dozens of weapons and pieces of armor that players can use to defeat the games various enemies and bosses in a variety of play-styles.

The story of Dark Souls

The main story is pretty simple. You are thrown in to a dying world with the goal of first surviving and then fulfilling your destiny as the "chosen undead". You have quite a few options of where to go at the start. Most of these are instant death for new players. Once you get tired of dying on the others paths you finally head in the right direction. Enemies here are hard, but not impossible. Along the way you find these bonfires, which act as save points. Once you die, you are returned to the last bonfire you rested at. Every now and then you encounter boss fights. These bosses are tough and unrelenting, and most of them need to be defeated in order to progress further.

Screenshot of a bonfire from DARK SOULS REMASTERED. Property of BANDAI NAMCO.

There are very few cutscenes, some rambling and incoherent NPC dialogue, descriptions of the various items you collect and the world design itself. Even with this little material the Dark Souls fanbase has created more pages of lore discussion than for most other games out there. Since the game prides itself on not holding your hand gameplay-wise it is logical to assume the same applies to the story. Since almost nothing specifically tells the story, you can't really assume what doesn't tell the story either. Much like the gameplay focus on exploration of the large open environment, the story in it's unforced nature invites you to explore all possibilities.

An example of how Dark Souls tells it's story

To give you a better sense of how Dark Souls tells it's story I'm going to give you an example. To avoid spoiling too much I'll focus on a character that isn't too important to the main story. Havel the Rock is a character you encounter pretty early on in the game. He wields a set of heavy armor, a shield and an enormous dragon's tooth as a weapon. Just meeting him you learn little about him, besides getting beat to a pulp. You do get a ring for defeating him that allows you to carry heavier equipment. The ring alludes to Havel himself, wearing his enormous armor with ease.

A screenshot of Havel the Rock with his armor and the Dragon's Tooth weapon. Property of BANDAI NAMCO.

Later on in the game you come across a set of chests containing Havel's armor set and his weapon the Dragon's Tooth. The description of these items reveals a bit more about Havel as a character as does the location where you find these items (which I won't go in to now). In an another location you find a spell belonging to Havel. Once you combine the information found in the item descriptions for these, you learn more about him. His spell reveals that he hates magic (the spell itself repels magic) and also that his sworn enemy is a dragon. Havel also serves a master who fights against dragons. These bits of story make it obvious why he wields a massive dragon's tooth for a weapon.

Hopefully this example shows you some of how Dark Souls tells a story. Even this short example leaves some questions open, like why is Havel's armor in a different place than where you encounter him in the game. If you are interested in the grim world of Dark Souls, I can definitely recommend the game. The game is very hard though, so if you are not someone who plays a lot of games, it might be too much for you.

Conclusion

Hope you found this shallow dive in to the world of Dark Souls interesting. This is the first post like this on my blog so you can say I've diversified a little bit. I've also changed the title of the blog to "Tero's Report" and changed some of my post titles. These changes will hopefully serve to personalize the blog a bit more.

Thanks for reading!