What’s Interesting About Dark Souls?

The Souls series is a strange series of games. It’s strange from the way it comes to the game world.

How was Dark Souls born?

Ten years ago, a strange game appeared in Japan. It’s a bit of a JRPG, it’s a bit of a third-person action game, it’s a bit of a hack and slash game. But it is something very different, unlike any other game that has appeared. Not many people believe it will succeed, perhaps not even From Software, the studio that created it, and Sony, the godfather of the game. Those who have faith in this game, it seems, only the creative director of the project – a not-so-famous game maker – Hidetaka Miyazaki and his team only. It was also difficult for From Software as well as Sony when the demo of the game shown at E3 2008 was a disaster: almost no one completed the demo, some people even gave up at the character creation screen, Only a few made it to the end of the demo, but all made the same statement: it was a strange and different game.

In January 2009, the game was released in the Japanese market, and the real nightmare came: the game only sold about 40,000 copies – too low compared to Sony’s expectations. It seemed that the game would be a bomb and gradually sink into oblivion. Sony is also not very interested in promoting the game to make a breakthrough, perhaps they have given up hope.

But then, in the most difficult moment, the factor that saved this game’s life, was the quality. Quality, nothing else. Those who bought and played this game, after initial difficulties, realized that behind the strangeness on the outside, there is a super action RPG inside. They started recommending it to other players, one by one, for a game that was challenging, but also amazing. And so, until the end of 2009, the number of copies of the game sold was 150,000 copies, not too high compared to a PS3 exclusive game, but enough to not make Sony feel bad. But above all, it has established a strong foothold for its quality, and thus opened its way to the European and North American markets.

The pioneer of the Souls series – Demon’s Souls, was born like that.

Just a year after Demon’s Souls debuted, Hidetaka Miyazaki and his team announced a new project, a successor to Demon’s Souls. And contrary to his unlucky elder, this time, the new game is expected more than anything, for those who have fallen in love with Demon’s Souls’ Northern Kingdom Boletaria. But the new project won’t be a sequel to Demon’s Souls, it will be a new game, the only thing it has in common with Demon’s Souls, that’s the core of the game – what makes Demon’s so successful. Souls.

Tokyo Game Show 2010, From Software announced a new project, without an official name, but just a codename: PROJECT DARK.

Since its release, the game has created a “small” craze in the community of gamers who have been adventuring in Demon’s Souls day by day. Other communities look on and also wonder: “What’s so special about this game?”. That’s right, what’s so special about it that makes so many people look forward to it? The answer came in November 2011, when Project Dark – now officially known as Dark Souls – launched simultaneously in the markets for PS3 and Xbox 360. Those gamers are lucky to experience Dark Souls when it was also a demo at E3 2011 and when the game was released, everyone commented: “Dark Souls is better than Demon’s Souls”. It only took a few months for Dark Souls to sell 1.2 million copies of the game, a number that doesn’t seem very impressive at first glance, but for a game made not for everyone, it’s a huge hit. impressive numbers, especially compared to Demon’s Souls. And of course, revenue isn’t Dark Souls’ only metric. Quality is what people care most about. Hidetaka Miyazaki once surprised everyone with Demon’s Souls, when such a strange game is so good, now he continues to surprise everyone with Dark Souls, once again. The average score of Dark Souls is 9/10 with tons of compliments. Can you believe it? In 2019, it still needs to be considered carefully, but in 2011, nine parts are believable. But don’t worry, because the gamer community itself has confirmed the quality of the game. PS3 and Xbox 360 gamers are always praising Dark Souls, they are immersed in the enchanting kingdom of Lordran, and PC gamers look at it with envy. Then, an unprecedented event happened.

93,000 gamers simultaneously signed a petition sent to From Software, asking for a port for their PC. This was not part of From Software’s plan at all because Dark Souls was originally planned to be released exclusively for consoles. However, the attraction from Dark Souls to PC gamers has made From Software rethink. A team was quickly formed to bring Dark Souls to PC, they worked hard for 8 months to create a port for PC called Dark Souls: Prepare to Die edition. But unfortunately, nothing is perfect, a masterpiece like Dark Souls, suffers from the worst PC port in history and only when modders come in, PC gamers can can be called stable playing Dark Souls.

But anyway, Dark Souls is still one of the best Action RPG games of the past decade, and it is still considered “the most perfect Souls game”

Why is Dark Souls so good?

Why is Dark Souls so good? What has attracted millions of gamers to spend hours toiling as they swing their swords through the castles, ruins and forests of the once mighty kingdom of Lordran?

Gameplay

The most exciting gameplay in Demon’s Souls is back in Dark Souls. Moving, fighting, dodging, parry-counter, everything depends on stamina. Stamina is still, you still have a chance to survive, stamina is exhausted, you go back to the bonfire to warm the fire. In general, the basic gameplay mechanics are not too different from Demon’s Souls. There are still only so many moves, and it all depends on stamina. The weight of the equipment is also an issue – carrying more than 25% of the maximum weight, the character starts to move, slow down the action, so when you are at a low level you have two options. Choose: wear full armor for sturdiness instead of speed, or wear light, insecure but flexible clothing. Your choice, the consequences, you experience for yourself.

Dark Souls is a game with RPG elements, for sure, so it is indispensable for things that are too familiar to long-time gamers: customizing starting characters, choosing classes, and leveling up. If in other RPG games, we kill enemies to get XP, then level up, add stats, then in Dark Souls, things are different: besides certain items, kill the monster is to get the Soul – the most versatile valuable unit in the game. Soul is the currency used to buy items, upgrade weapons, equipment, Soul also acts as a fee to level up, instead of using XP like normal RPG games. It is also because of the essence of the Soul, that the game creates another deadly mechanism: the death penalty of Dark Souls. Just like regular games, when dying on the road, the game automatically brings the character to the nearest check point – in Dark Souls, it is a fixed bonfire – Bonfire – scattered throughout the game. At that time, besides the entire area will be reset, the monsters are revived, the game also makes us pay the price by losing all the Souls we have earned, although it is not necessarily lost if you get there. Where the character died just now, the lost Soul will be recovered. If you continue to fail in the middle of the road, goodbye Soul. It is because of this harshness that Dark Souls emphasizes caution when adventuring in the dangerous world of Dark Souls.

Game’s world design

Besides gameplay, another factor that makes Dark Souls more attractive than Demon’s Souls, is the game’s world design. It is not without reason that the world design of Dark Souls is considered perfect and the best in the series. Instead of continuing to use the design of each closed area with a central area as a transit point like Demon’s Souls, Dark Souls has reached out to the open world. Although not the kind of vast open world like Skyrim or Grand Theft Auto. Dark Souls has a world with interconnected areas in the form of a rather complex maze, the shortcuts are hidden quite well and can only be discovered if you are willing to explore. Firelink Shrine – serves as the hub of the main areas like The Nexus in Demon’s Souls. And since it’s a bit of an open world, there’s a lot you can choose to do or not do – optional bosses, super super hidden areas. The more you go, the more you will know about the world of Dark Souls. It is the removal of the ability to fast travel for most of the game that makes Dark Souls’ ingenuity in world design stand out. Players, after each time they discover a shortcut leading to an old area, will say “oh” and realize the close connection between the areas of Dark Souls.

But enough talking about gameplay and world design, because the most attractive thing about Dark Souls is something not everyone can recognize for the first time, but after a lot of time immersed in the game, we just barely noticed. That’s the weirdness of Dark Souls’ story telling style – yes, it’s very odd, but it’s that oddity that makes an irresistible attraction to dedicated gamers.

We all agree on one thing: now making a game is indispensable for a plot, even if it is sketchy, the plot must have it, because otherwise, no connection would be created between the two. player against the in-game world. So the plot must have, but now, how to convey it to the players? The most common way is through CGI cutscenes and dialogue between characters, many games include a dialogue option to make players more attached to the virtual characters in the game. It’s rare for a game to choose a story telling style that’s strange and different from the rest.

Story telling

And Dark Souls, also has a weird story telling style like that. The game has very few CGI cutscenes, a limited number of NPCs, the main character doesn’t even open his mouth to say a word. On the surface, Dark Souls has a relatively simple story: saving the dying world, but until we carefully read each item’s description, piecing together the confusing dialogues of the NPCs , trying to decipher the iconic images in the game, we get discrete pieces of a giant picture. And Miyazaki wants every person who plays his game, to piece together a story of their own.

That’s Dark Souls’ storytelling style. A seemingly simple story when playing the role of the person chosen to save the world, but in fact it is a story about the tragic fate of those who are stricken with the curse of the fire.

And once we dig deeper, we begin to see the philosophy of Dark Souls.