I think the first Dark Souls game quite literally saved me. Despite having tried my hand at it in the past, namely when the original iteration of it came out on consoles back in 2011, I’d never stuck around to see it through to the end, or even get past a few early bosses. However, in the middle of the summer of 2020, I needed anything to distract me from the trash fire that my life had become and booted up the remaster, which a friend had gifted me as a birthday present. It became my new hyperfixation and I mercilessly chipped away at it until I had finally toppled its greatest threats. It made me feel something at a time where I was beginning to feel nothing.
I’m no aficionado, but I’m certainly more well-versed in From Software’s legendary catalog than I was four years ago. And because of that, I can tell you without a doubt that the Dark Souls series is well worth picking up. Yes, these are tough and sometimes maddeningly archaic games, and sure, you might have a hard time following any semblance of a traditional narrative throughout them, but in return you get one of the most beautiful and haunting experiences the medium’s ever produced.
Beginning with Dark Souls Remastered, which is now available for $US20 on Steam, you can see how and where the storied series first kicked off. Famously, the original PC version of Dark Souls, annoyingly titled the “Prepare to Die Edition,” was really busted—it struggled to run on the platform at acceptable frame rates, and the devs later admitted it was a rush job to meet a growing market. The 2018 remaster of Dark Souls was an opportunity to not only release the game at a higher quality on new consoles, but to amend for the botched PC port—and it sure performed a whole hell of a lot better.
Now, you can properly drink in Lordran, one of my favorite settings in a video game ever. Everyone rightfully fawns over the first time the game transports you to Anor Londo, but I think every inch of that world is majestic and teeming with mysteries that have gone unexplained and will remain so forever. Everything from the Undead Burg through to the Kiln of the First Flame is so well considered in what it gives away and what it keeps close to its chest. And it all just so quietly gorgeous, too. Dark Souls rarely brings attention to itself—it’s never pomp-y, abrasive, or flashy—but it’s got some of the most expressive environments, often doing a whole lot with very little in places like the pitch black of the Tomb of the Giants, the sparse tree line and gloom of Darkroot Garden, and Ash Lake, the desolate beach at the end of the world. I love the feeling of Dark Souls world, like a fairytale gone wrong.
That feeling and texture extends to Dark Souls 2, of which there are actually two versions currently on sale. The first is the original Dark Souls 2, and if you played it back when it was released in 2014, then this is the version of that polarizing title that you remember and it’s on sale for $US20. However, it was remastered, and in some places even remixed, as Scholar of the First Sin a year later, and that is also $US20 on Steam. Though both are seen as the dark horses of the Souls games, time has been kind to the ambitious and daunting sequel, which shares a lot of DNA with the studio’s biggest title, Elden Ring. It is often a grueling game, having leaned harder into difficulty than the first title with mechanics like hollowing, which reduces the player’s maximum HP with every death. It is also one of the richest experiences in the series, positively swimming in unique and beautiful zones, as well as a bevy of challenging boss fights.
Dark Souls 3 was the last game before the series went on hiatus back in 2016. Initially believed to be the end of the series as a whole, Miyazaki has since walked that sentiment back, though it’s now been almost ten years since this final-ish installment. By 2016, Dark Souls had grown in acclaim so much that the previously niche franchise finally exploded into the mainstream with this trilogy capper, which depicted the prolonged apocalypse of its own world. At the time, it built off of the foundation provided by Bloodborne, making the game much quicker than any past Souls title, which likely helped its mainstream appeal. It’s a game filled with the learnings of a team who’d been working in that world for about a decade, and that shows in its ambition and tone.
Dark Souls 3 aims sky high with many of its boss encounters, which have gone on to become treasured bits of the series’ legacy, like the Nameless King, Dancer of the Boreal Valley, and Slave Knight Gael. It was also deeply nostalgic, featuring countless callbacks to the original title, as well as the return of some locales like Anor Londo. It is the only one of the trilogy I’ve yet to play, but having seen it played countless times over the years, I can safely say that it is a sweeping and effective conclusion to the trilogy, that provides an inkling of a possibility for a follow up down the line. The base version of Dark Souls 3 is going for $US30 on Steam while the deluxe edition, featuring the pieces of DLC that function as an epilogue, is available for $US42.
At the end of the day, Dark Souls is just one of those once-in-a-generation series that you just have to try. FromSoft has put out a number of other incredible games, some of which I think are even better than Souls, but none of it would’ve been possible without the impact of the original game and series that put the studio on the map and crystallized its ethos. Dark Souls is simply one of the most important games and series of our time, and if you love games, you probably owe it to yourself to check it out, especially while it’s so affordable.
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