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Dark Souls (video game)

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Dark Souls
Cover art used in Western regions
Developer(s)FromSoftware
Publisher(s)Namco Bandai Games
Director(s)Hidetaka Miyazaki
Producer(s)Hidetaka Miyazaki
Daisuke Uchiyama
Kei Hirono
Programmer(s)Jun Ito
Artist(s)Makoto Sato
Composer(s)Motoi Sakuraba
SeriesSouls
Platform(s)PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Microsoft Windows
ReleasePlayStation 3, Xbox 360
  • JP: September 22, 2011[a]
  • NA: October 4, 2011
  • AU: October 6, 2011
  • EU: October 30, 2011
Microsoft Windows
  • AU: August 23, 2012
  • NA: August 24, 2012
  • EU: August 24, 2012
  • JP: October 25, 2012[1]
Genre(s)Action role-playing
Mode(s)Single-player, multiplayer

Dark Souls (ダークソウル, Dāku Sōru) is an action role-playing video game developed by FromSoftware and published by Namco Bandai Games for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and Microsoft Windows. A spiritual successor to FromSoftware's Demon's Souls and the second installment of the Souls series, Dark Souls began development under the working title of Project Dark.[2][3] The game was released in Japan on September 22, 2011, and in North America, Australia, and Europe the following month.[4] In August 2012, the "Prepare to Die" edition of Dark Souls was released for PC, featuring additional content previously unavailable to PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 users. On October 23, 2012, the additional content from the PC version was released as downloadable content for consoles under the title Artorias of the Abyss.[5] Dark Souls takes place in the fictional kingdom of Lordran. Players assume the role of a cursed undead character who begins a pilgrimage out of the Undead Asylum to discover the fate of the Undead.

Dark Souls received positive reviews upon its release, with critics praising its combat depth, marked but fair difficulty, and deeply rooted lore.[6] In April 2013, FromSoftware announced Dark Souls had sold 2.37 million copies.[7] The PC version was the second most played Games for Windows Live title in 2012 based on unique users.[8] The game spawned a sequel, Dark Souls II, which was released in March 2014.[9]

Gameplay

Dark Souls is a third-person action role-playing game. The core mechanic of the game is exploration. Players are encouraged by the game to proceed with caution, learn from past mistakes, or find alternate areas to explore. Dark Souls takes place in a large and continuous open world environment, connected through a central hub area (Firelink Shrine). Players are able to travel to and from areas and explore various paths, although certain prerequisites have to be met in order to unlock certain areas. Scattered throughout the game world are bosses and creatures of varying types that must be defeated. From almost all enemies killed, the player will receive a relative amount of "souls" which act as both currency and experience points. Some enemies also yield rare items.

Central to Dark Souls are Bonfires. Bonfires are scattered throughout the world and can be teleported to, and, when rested at, heal the player and save their progression upon death. While resting, players can level up and repair their equipment, among other things. However, resting also causes all of the previously defeated enemies of an area to come back to life and return to their original map placements, except for bosses and mini-bosses.

Another aspect of Dark Souls is the “humanity” system. There are two states of being in the game. While in “human” form, the character will appear human with healthy skin. Being human opens the online portion of the game, allowing allies to be summoned; and invading/being invaded by other players, as well as boosting certain resistances. However, when a human player becomes undead, they will enter “hollow” form with an undead appearance. The hollow form is a progressive condition; increasing hollow brings loss of sanity and health, although the details are unclear and definitely differ among story characters. To return to human status, a player must spend one humanity point at a Bonfire. In a prophetic twist, the Darksign, a mark of the undead, also recreates the player's body at a bonfire to re-enter the game after dying.

Humanity can be acquired in a large variety of ways, and if no humanity is available, players are still able to progress in hollow form. Death in either form results in the loss of all carried souls and humanity, but players revive as hollows at their most recent bonfire with one chance at returning to where they died to recover all lost souls and humanity. If the player dies before reaching their "bloodstain", the souls and humanity they previously accrued are permanently lost.

The player character battles Knight Artorias, one of the bosses added to the game through downloadable content.

Although being in human form is a prerequisite for much of the online play, there are still certain functions that occur no matter what state a player’s character is in, so long as the game is connected to the Internet. Players can view the deaths of other players in the area through bloodstains on the ground, which can reveal traps or hidden enemies. Players can also see the shades of other players who are in the same area and what they are doing.

Communication between players is deliberately limited. If the player is in "party chat" on the Xbox 360, the game will set itself to offline mode. On the other hand, private chat between two players at a time is allowed. Other than character gestures, the only other communication players have with one another comes by way of Orange Soapstones, which allow players to write limited messages that can be read by others in the same area, as well as several Archtree Carvings, introduced in the DLC, which say pre-recorded phrases that other players can hear during co-op and player vs. player interactions. Some areas of the game have been designated unofficial player vs. player hotspots by the community, and invaders in these areas often engage in duels.

Plot

Dark Souls has a minimalistic plot and it is mostly left up to the player to put the pieces of the story together. Historical events in this world and their significance are often implicit and left to player interpretation rather than fully shown or explained. Most of the story is given to the player through dialog from characters within the game, item descriptions, or through a number of the game's scarce cutscenes.

The opening cutscene begins in primeval times, where the world was unformed and the immortal Everlasting Dragons held sole dominion over all. The First Flame was ignited from an unknown source, which brought disparity in the form of light and dark. Within the flame, four beings discovered the Lord Souls and became godlike entities: Nito, the First of the Dead; the Witch of Izalith; Gwyn, the Lord of Sunlight; and the Furtive Pygmy.

Gwyn, Nito, the Witch of Izalith, and the dragon Seath the Scaleless defeated the race of dragons in a great war and began their Age of Fire. The first flame of the world cannot last forever, and is doomed to wither and die. Realizing this, the Witch of Izalith and her daughters unsuccessfully attempted to recreate it, which turned her into a monstrosity known as the Bed of Chaos and birthed creatures known as Demons. In a last-ditch effort to prevent it from going out forever, Gwyn ventured to the Kiln of the First Flame with half of his faithful knights and sacrificed himself to the fire, temporarily rekindling it.

The weakened flame causes bearers of the accursed Darksign, known as the Undead, to appear among humanity. Those branded with it can no longer die, but gradually go insane and enter a state known as hollowing. Since mindless hollows are threats to humans, Undead are corralled and locked away. The player-named protagonist, or the "Chosen Undead", starts the game locked in a cell in the Undead Asylum, but escapes with the help of a nameless knight from Astora.[b] The knight tells the player about a prophecy concerning a Chosen Undead who is destined to leave the Undead Asylum and ring the "Bell of Awakening" in Lordran, after which he dies due to injuries sustained from the demonic guard. The player escapes from the Asylum and ventures into Lordran, discovering there are actually two Bells of Awakening, and rings them both.

Once this happens, the primordial serpent, Kingseeker Frampt, wakes up in Firelink Shrine. Having awaited the true Chosen Undead's arrival for a millennium, he explains that they must gather the Lord Souls and succeed Lord Gwyn by defeating him and linking the fire, thereby undoing the curse of the Undead. To complete this arduous task, the player must travel through Sen's Fortress and retrieve the Lordvessel from the land of Anor Londo, former city of the gods. In Anor Londo, the player fights Dragonslayer Ornstein and Executioner Smough, defenders of the Lordvessel. After defeating the duo, the player meets an illusory Gwynevere, Princess of Sunlight and daughter of Gwyn, who gives the Lordvessel to the player. After placing it on the Firelink Altar, the player must obtain the powerful Lord Soul fragments to ignite the Lordvessel and unlock the door to the Kiln of the First Flame: one fragment from Seath the Scaleless, who became insane due to his experiments with humans and crystals; one fragment from the Four Kings of New Londo, who became corrupted by the Abyss; one whole soul from the Gravelord Nito, whose slumber the player disturbs; and one whole soul from the Bed of Chaos, formerly the Witch of Izalith.

If the player refrains from placing the Lordvessel on the altar, and defeats the Four Kings, they can instead meet Darkstalker Kaathe, a primordial serpent residing in the Abyss who opposes Frampt. Kaathe tells the player that the Furtive Pygmy, whose Lord Soul is known as the Dark Soul, dispersed some of his power in order to create the human race. Kaathe desires to "usher in the Age of Dark" by destroying Gwyn and extinguishing the fire forever, ending the reign of the gods and making the player the Dark Lord, and says that Frampt "lost his sense" when he allied with Gwyn.

Due to the illusory nature of Gwynevere and the darkening of Anor Londo upon discovery of the illusion, whether or not Frampt or Kaathe are telling the full truth is left unresolved.

Regardless of which serpent the player allies with, they must fight Gwyn inside the Kiln of the First Flame. Once Gwyn is defeated, the player may either sacrifice themselves to rekindle the flame, continuing the age of fire, or let the flame become extinguished. In the latter ending, multiple primordial serpents, including Frampt and Kaathe, are seen bowing before the protagonist in the new dark age, also known as the Age of Man.

Artorias of the Abyss

In the Artorias of the Abyss downloadable content, the plot is expanded. At some point, one of the primordial serpents, implied by the in-game lore to be Kaathe, convinced the inhabitants of a land called Oolacile to upturn the burial site of Manus, Father of the Abyss, implied to be the Furtive Pygmy. Upon his awakening, Manus started to expand the abyss, and the inhabitants of Oolacile were mutated by the abundant humanity he released. Artorias, one of Gwyn's knights, was sent to stop the spread of the Abyss, but failed, and became corrupted by the Dark, his last act being to protect his companion Sif, the Wolf. Meanwhile, Manus has captured Princess Dusk, and searches desperately for his long-lost pendant across space and time.

If they are able to find Manus' broken pendant, Manus grabs the Chosen Undead and pulls them into the past. There, the protagonist defeats the corrupted Artorias, destroys Manus, halts the spread of the abyss and saves Princess Dusk. The events become a legend, but the protagonist's exploits are falsely attributed to Knight Artorias.

Reception

Dark Souls received positive reviews from critics upon its release. Famitsu gave the game a positive review, scoring it 37 out of 40, based on four scores of 9, 9, 9, and 10. One of the reviewers for Dark Souls described it as "a very hardcore dark-fantasy [role-playing game]" that is "role-playing right down to the roots," and stated that the "massive field map and powerful enemies serve to rev up both your sense of adventure and your sense of dread." Another reviewer stated that "the sheer happiness you get after the trial-and-error pays off and you overcome the challenge is absolutely impossible to replicate."[15]

GameSpot scored Dark Souls a 9.5/10. Much praise was given to the online system, as well as the sense of jubilation felt when conquering boss fights after numerous failed attempts. They also suggested that casual gamers may struggle to progress, whereas role-playing game enthusiasts will thrive on the difficulty.

IGN gave Dark Souls a 9.0/10, praising the well-thought out level design, variety, strong emphasis on online features, excessively dark tone and atmosphere, and deep gameplay. They also noted that it is not a game that one can simply jump into and play for plain enjoyment. They went as far to say that it is not a game for the timid and that the game requires both skill and strategy almost all the time. While praising the extremely high difficulty, they stated that "there's a difference between punishing, and downright unfair."

Eurogamer gave Dark Souls 9/10, saying "If adventure is to surprise and mystify you and invite you to uncover the secrets of a forgotten world, then Dark Souls is a great adventure game. If entertainment is fun without failure and progress without pain, you'll have to find it somewhere else. But you'll be missing out on one of the best games of the year."[14]

Writing for Slate, Michael Thomsen asked if a 100-hour video game was ever worthwhile, stating:

There is real beauty in Dark Souls. It reveals that life is more suffering than pleasure, more failure than success, and that even the momentary relief of achievement is wiped away by new levels of difficulty. It is also a testament to our persistence in the face of that suffering, and it offers the comfort of a community of other players all stuck in the same hellish quagmire. Those are good qualities. That is art. And you can get all of that from the first five hours of Dark Souls. The remaining 90 or so offer nothing but an increasingly nonsensical variation on that experience.[32]

Jason Killingsworth wrote a response to Thomsen's review for Edge:

Thomsen mentions that we could use that 100 hours to train for a marathon. Dark Souls' vertigo-inducing breadth makes it the gaming equivalent of a marathon...Reading War And Peace? Dark Souls immerses us in war, and lots of it. But it also lets us taste the most incredible peace—sublime moments of quiet interspersed between the violence like rests in a musical score... Taking a roadtrip from New York to Los Angeles and back again? Dark Souls invites us on a journey that makes the sights of middle America pale in comparison... invites us to criss-cross a world. To adore games is to be an insatiable wanderer. When I finished my long trek through Dark Souls, do you know what I did? I clicked on the New Game+ option and began all over again. And I didn't look sheepishly at the clock on the wall to beg its permission.[33]

Edge later retroactively awarded the game 10 out of 10 in their October 2013 20th anniversary issue, stating that over time the breadth and quality of the game's design had overruled complaints about its difficulty.[13]

In a post-release review of the game, Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw praised Dark Souls in his Zero Punctuation video for its deep gameplay and immersive atmosphere, expressing that there should be a "rule that [the developers] can only put stuff in [their] skybox if the player gets to visit it at some point", but was "disappointed" with the late-game bosses and criticized the difficulty of getting into the game, stating that: "while it's fine that [Dark Souls] seeks to court the hardcore audience, a gentler barrier-to-entry might have turned less new players off".[34]

Post-release, the game's director, Hidetaka Miyazaki, contemplated adding an easier difficulty level, saying: "Dark Souls is rather difficult and a number of people may hesitate to play. This fact is really sad to me and I am thinking about whether I should prepare another difficulty that everyone can complete or carefully send all gamers the messages behind our difficult games."[35] Namco Bandai claimed Miyazaki's statement was mistranslated, and should have read "This fact is really sad to me and I am thinking about how to make everyone complete the game while maintaining the current difficulty and carefully send all gamers the messages behind it."[36]

Namco Bandai's yearly financial report stated that the game sold 1.19 million units in the United States and Europe by March 2012.[37] FromSoftware announced in April 2013 that the game had sold 2.37 million units worldwide.[7][38]

Awards

Game Revolution gave Dark Souls the Community Choice Game of the Year award.[19] IncGamers also gave it the "Game of the Year" award.[20] Q-Games' Dylan Cuthbert and Double Fine Productions' Brad Muir chose Dark Souls as Game of the Year.[21] Electronic Gaming Monthly's Eric L. Patterson chose it as Game of the Year.[18] GameTrailers gave it the "Best Role-Playing Game" award,[22] while also nominating it for the "Best Multiplayer Game", "Best Trailer" and "Game of the Year" awards.[39] GameZone gave the game the "Best Action/Adventure" award and chose it as the runner-up for the "Best RPG" award.[24]

The Daily Telegraph gave the game the "Best Integration of Online Features" award, and nominated it for the awards of "Best Director" (Hidetaka Miyazaki), "Best Level Design", "Best Sound Design", "Best Original Score" (Motoi Sakuraba), "Best Developer" (FromSoftware), and "Game of the Year".[40] TeamXbox gave it an honorable mention as the runner-up for the "Best RPG" award.[25] 1UP.com gave it the "Most Rewarding Game" award.[41] Game Informer gave it the award for "Best Boss Fight" (Sif).[27] It also received the "Best Boss Fights" awards from GameSpot, including both the Editors' Choice and Readers' Choice awards.[28] Famitsu gave it an Award of Excellence in its 2012 awards ceremony.[26]

In 2013, Digital Spy named Dark Souls the best game of its console generation.[42]

In 2014, Edge magazine named Dark Souls the best game of the seventh generation of games consoles, noting that while some may initially tire of it, "We've yet to meet a single player for whom persistence has not been enough to transform apathy into all-consuming love." [29] In September 2015, Edge magazine voted Dark Souls the greatest game ever made.[30]

In 2015, the game placed first on GamesRadar's "The 100 best games ever" list.[43] The game also placed first on USgamer's The 15 Best Games Since 2000 list.[31] The game was titled the "Best RPG on PC" by Rock, Paper, Shotgun.[44]

In 2016, Dark Souls placed fifth on PC Gamer's "Best RPGs of all time" list.[45]

PC version

Following the game's release, many gamers expressed their hope for a PC version. Namco Bandai administrator, Tony Shoupinou responded on their page that a PC version was possible, saying:[46]

There is always possibilities to have games adapted on PC and the good news is that Dark Souls is not a 100% typical Console game so the adaptation is possible. Now to make things happen, let's say the demand has to be properly done. Someone to make a successful petition?

On January 6, 2012, fans started a petition to bring Dark Souls to PC, with over 93,000 people signing it.[47] On January 13, Tony Shoupinou replied by saying:[48]

Damn you are amazing! I honestly wasn’t expecting such a massive support. My boss(es) even came to talk to me about this, after it exploded all around the world. If you wanted to have the attention of Namco Bandai Games, now you have it. The future is in your hands, and I hope you will keep supporting this. I make a personal objective to make sure every relevant person at Namco Bandai Games is in touch with this formidable effort.

The PC version of the game was confirmed on April 7, 2012 via the PC Action magazine.[49] It had been reported during the development process that FromSoftware had been having difficulty with the port due to inexperience with PC as a platform, and were focusing on adding content rather than optimization.[50] Re-branded as Prepare to Die Edition, it came out in August 2012 and featured new content, including bosses, enemies, equipment, and NPCs.[51] The new content, titled Artorias of the Abyss, was released for consoles in October 2012 in the form of DLC.[52] Soon after, it was announced that Dark Souls for PC would use Games for Windows – Live for online play and DRM, spurring fan backlash.[53]

The PC version of the game was released on August 23, 2012. A fan-made mod to 'fix' the resolution cap was made shortly after release.[54] Later this fix was extended to an unofficial fan-made patch which additionally fixed a non-configurable frame rate limiter.[55]

In GameSpy's review, the port was referred to as "shabby", citing the game's limit of 30 frames per second, poor mouse and keyboard controls, and nonadjustable resolution, but the expanded content was praised, giving the game an overall favorable review.[56] Eurogamer also commented on the quality of the port, stating: "Dark Souls: Prepare to Die Edition does not come with the technical options you would expect from a well-engineered PC game, because it's a port of a console game, and that's all FromSoftware ever promised to deliver. Anyone who passes up Dark Souls for this reason is cutting off their nose to spite their neckbeard of a face."[57]

Producer of Dark Souls II, Takeshi Miyazoe, responded to the criticism of the PC version by saying:[58]

This is going to sound bad but our main priority was to get the game onto the PC as fast as possible, because people wanted it on the PC. The PC market in Japan is so minimal that originally there were no plans to make it on the PC, but with the strong petition from the North American and European fans, even with the lack of experience of working on a PC platform we still did our best to try to get it out as fast as possible. [The problems] were expected to a certain extent.

We did know there were PC-specific features like key-mapping and use of the mouse and keyboard, high resolution and higher frame rate, stuff like that, but... It's not that we ignored it, but it would have taken too much time for us to implement it, test it and get it up to the level people expected. It was more of a publisher (Namco Bandai) decision to say, ‘Guys, don’t worry about this – let’s just get it out and see how this works on PC.'

On December 15, 2014, Games for Windows Live was removed from the Steam version and replaced by Steamworks. The ability to transfer both achievements and save data was provided.[59]

Legacy

Dark Souls is considered to be among the most important titles released during the seventh generation of consoles.[60] Games said to have been influenced by Dark Souls include Destiny,[61] Alienation,[62] Lords of the Fallen,[63] Salt and Sanctuary,[64] Shovel Knight[60][65] Titan Souls,[60][66] and Enter the Gungeon.[67]

Sequels

A sequel, Dark Souls II, was announced at the Spike Video Game Awards on December 7, 2012 for release on Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.[68] Amid rumors of a possible decrease in the difficulty of the series due to comments made by the new director to Edge, Brian Hong of Bandai Namco assured fans during the Electronic Entertainment Expo that Dark Souls II would be "viciously hard."[69] Dark Souls II was released on March 11, 2014 for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, and for the PC on April 25, 2014.[70] An updated version of the sequel, subtitled "Scholar of the First Sin" released the next year for the same platforms as well as the Xbox One and PlayStation 4.[71] The third title of the series, Dark Souls III, was announced on the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) 2015 and was released in early 2016.[72]

Notes

  1. ^ For PlayStation 3 only
  2. ^ He is referred to as "Oscar, Knight of Astora" in a text dump extracted from unused game files

References

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  37. ^ PS3 (2012-05-08). "Namco Bandai Touts Dark Souls Sales, Over 1.19 Million in US and Europe". Playstationlifestyle.net. Retrieved 2012-12-08.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
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  43. ^ Houghton, David (March 6, 2015). "Top 100: Why Dark Souls is simply the greatest game of all time". GamesRadar. Future US, Inc. Archived from the original on November 3, 2015. Retrieved February 20, 2016. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  44. ^ "The 50 Best RPG On PC". Rock, Paper, Shotgun. July 10, 2015. Retrieved February 29, 2016. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  45. ^ "The best RPGs of all time". PC Gamer. Retrieved 2016-02-19.
  46. ^ Conditt, Jessica (2012-01-08). "Dark Souls admin suggests PC could happen with a petition". Joystiq. Retrieved 2012-12-08.
  47. ^ "Petition: Dark Souls for PC". 6 January 2012.
  48. ^ Grayson, Nathan (January 13, 2012). "Dark Souls PC petition at nearly 70,000 signatures, Namco listening". PC Gamer. Retrieved 15 January 2012.
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  52. ^ Cullen, Johnny (May 31, 2012). "Dark Souls PC coming to Steam, consoles to get PC content". VG247. Retrieved 31 May 2012.
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