Dark Souls/ Souls Games General

It kind of baffled me when the Souls franchise really took off. All that I knew about the game was that it had a rabid fanbase of people who would insult players for asking for help, and that it was a really difficult game. There was also a small debate over whether the difficulty was intentional, since other games that they made were difficult because of their controls and assorted nit picks instead of an intentional challenge constructed by the developer.

Time has passed and I still think the fanbase is a bit toxic, but the fanbase seems to have become more welcoming to new players. The difficulty was likely unintentional at first, and I imagine once the developers found the difficulty to be a good thing, they designed the rest of the game with the difficulty in mind.

The lore is also pretty cool, but it kind of suffers from the patchwork narrative thing and the post-modern storytelling that a lot of video games are using, which I'm not sure is the best direction to take. To me, it is the equivalent of every film trying to imitate the narrative style Pulp Fiction had after seeing its success because it seems easier to accomplish than it actually is.

I know this is ranty at this point, but here's something that me and my friend agreed on when constructing any type of story.

Coherency and intended impact on the audience should come first, with complexity and style being dealt with secondly. Once the story is coherent, and you're certain the audience will react in the intended way, then you can focus on complexity and style. There are so many mediums that get this backwards, especially during the cartoon renaissance thing, where complexity and style were the first priority, with impact and coherency being prioritized second. Which is why we have so many characters in Adventure Time and MLP, as well as why Steven Universe fluctuates in tone. As well as why all the shows placed so much emphasis on their visuals. Also, why Dark Souls has so much lore to discover, and why sandbox games are having main storylines get shorter as more side-story quests are added.

Apologies to all who read this whole thing. It got really ranty at the end. I do like Dark Souls, btw.