The “Souls” series started with a game called “Demon Souls”. Known for its punishing difficulty, cryptic lore, and minimal handholding, it challenged players in ways that few other games dared to and subsequently built up a cult following. It wasn’t until its spiritual sequel “Dark Souls” was released that this format truly became a gaming phenomenon. In this post, we’ll explore how Dark Souls and the rest of the Souls games helped reshape modern gaming culture with new (and arguably old) ways to experience difficulty, storytelling, and community in the gaming world.
A New Era of Difficulty: Embracing Challenge Over Convenience
One of the first things most players encounter when they step into a Souls game is its unforgiving difficulty. Death is frequent and often feels like an inevitability, especially for newcomers. There is no save function, with the games instead opting for an older system of fixed “checkpoints” to save your progress, a system that had at the time Demon Souls came out mostly fallen out of fashion. This means that if you die you will have to return to that same checkpoint every time and replay the same area which fosters an attitude of perseverance, patience, and understanding of its mechanics (and incidentally is also why a lot of people bounce off this genre).
This design philosophy represented a stark contrast to the trend of making games more accessible. Before the Souls games, many games aimed to cater to a broader audience by lowering the stakes and making it easier for players to progress without much friction. Demon Souls and subsequently Dark souls turned that model on its head, encouraging players to learn and adapt through failure. For many, this was a refreshing change from the increasingly sanitized and formulaic experiences offered by other titles. The success of Dark Souls proved that there was a significant demand for challenging, high-stakes gameplay, and it opened the door for future games to explore difficulty in new, creative ways.
Storytelling Through Environment: The Power of Minimalism
Another defining characteristic of the genre is its approach to storytelling. Unlike many modern games that rely heavily on cutscenes and dialogue to push the narrative forward, these games favor a more indirect form of storytelling. Its lore is scattered throughout the world in item descriptions, NPC interactions, and environmental details. This method requires players to piece together the story themselves, making it a more immersive and personal experience. This minimalist storytelling can be challenging, as players must actively seek out information to engage with the game world on a deeper level.
This approach has had a profound impact on how narratives are presented in modern games. The success of Dark Souls’ indirect storytelling has influenced games like Hollow Knight which is often considered a “souls-like metroidvania” because of the inspiration it took from those genres.
The Community: A Shared Journey of Discovery
One of the most unique aspects of Dark Souls is its community. The game’s design encourages players to share their experiences with others. While Souls games don’t offer traditional multiplayer in the way most games do, they feature a variety of online elements that help create a shared experience for players.
One of the most iconic features is the ability to leave messages for other players in the game world. These messages can warn others of dangers ahead, offer cryptic hints, or even mislead players for the sake of humor. The amount of times I’ve personally fallen for “helpful” messages next to a cliff telling me to “Try jumping” is too many to count. There is a sense of community that emerges from these small interactions that makes you feel less alone in what is often a bleak and lonely setting.
This sense of community is further amplified by the games’ lore, which invites players to discuss and speculate about the world and its story. Pretty much every Souls game quickly became a topic of discussion on forums and social media after their respective releases, with players dissecting the game’s cryptic storylines and uncovering hidden details.
https://www.youtube.com/@ZullietheWitch
This link is to the channel of youtuber Zullie the Witch who makes videos discussing lore theories as well as other trivia about Souls games
Legacy: Beyond the Games themselves
The design philosophy behind the Souls games has inspired countless indie developers to explore more complex, non-linear game structures, and the “Souls-like” genre has become a subgenre all its own, influencing everything from action RPGs to roguelikes. Countless developers have done their best to capitalize on the success of games like Dark Souls and the steam store is now full of games that take heavy inspiration from it. These range from shameless rip-offs to interesting and novel spins on the genre.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5a_Qy8i9rlk&list=PLuY9odN8x9pvIoTDtNOZxzo5m6EsBspAi
The above link is to a series made by youtuber Iron Pineapple which is all about showcasing the absurd amount of Souls-Like games that have been made
Conclusion
The souls games are more than just a series of challenging action RPGs, they constitute a cultural phenomenon that has reshaped the way we think about video games. Through its emphasis on difficulty, indirect storytelling, community engagement and difficult bosses, Dark Souls has in some ways set the bar for what modern gaming can achieve. It has proven that modern games can be successful and feel new while still taking advantage of gaming conventions from previous eras of gaming, such as checkpoint based saving or boss battles. The impact that the Souls series has had on gaming is undeniable and will be felt years to come.
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