The Souls series was FromSoftware’s biggest commercial successes dating back to the release of Demon Souls in early 2009, upon its release it was a massive success prompting the release of another three titles under a similar name, on of the being Dark Souls(FromSoftware, 2011). Whilst Demon Souls was a success Dark Souls is what really brought the series into the limelight and cemented it as one of the cult classic difficult games. However to the average player the Dark Souls , aside from its great difficulty, would most likely come across as a pretty run of the mill fantasy game. It doesn’t initially stray from the usual fantasy hack and slash game setup of kill bosses, get items and level up. What sets the Souls franchise apart from the many other of its competitors isn’t its infamous difficulty but its deep and rich lore and storytelling almost none of which is ever explicitly told to the player from the other in game characters.
Dark Souls whilst classed as fantasy falls more under the sub category of dark fantasy. This genre of fantasy deal much more with the idea of a world in a horrific time or place and has a constant feeling of dismay throughout. Even throughout the darkness and dreadfulness that exist in the world there is always something to draw the consumer in as the overpowering evil is battled by the smallest light shining in throughout the darkness. The thrill of dark fantasy is similar to the thrill of betting, the lower your chances of success the better the reward is if you actually win. (TV Tropes
As a fantasy game it does have many of the common tropes seen in other games of this genre. The story takes place as the time of the gods, known as the Age of Fire in game, is coming to an end and the burning flame that fuelled there power, as fire does to all, has nearly completely destroyed all that they are and the kingdoms they have ruled over. The use of fire and its iconography is present throughout the game and its effects are not hidden by any means. The use of fire in game brings with it great power, wealth and light but also, no matter how hard to try and stop it , if the fire is left to burn for too long the power it gives will always corrupt the user and destroy everything they hold dear. Darkness in game however is different and whilst it would seem to be the polar opposite of the fire or light its similar but different. It consumes and corrupts those who would seek to claim its power and spreads through he world like an ever-growing disease that is widely feared but a key part of the game is humanity which is a physical thing that can be found or robbed from other living creatures and is nothing more than a manifestation of darkness within every living thing the game portrays darkness as a necessity for humans to live and to hold onto the precious humanity in a time of wart and corruption and not fall to the light an lose themselves and join the ranks of the ever-growing humanity less monsters that plague this land. The player must keep their humanity or risk losing themselves to the curse they and all humans share
The story follows the player character who is known in game as the chosen undead, a chosen character is almost a staple in fantasy as the chosen hero that must embark on a quest to, in most cases, save the world. Whilst Dark Souls does have a chosen one they are not the chosen one in a typical way. They are just next in a long line of undead chosen to relight the age of fire and keep it burning for another short while. They can also choose to end the cycle and to return the world to darkness and restart the age of man, an age without the gods or kingdoms. A key theme in the game is the theme of choice and how those choices can impact the world and those around them and the ending is no different. The ending is made in a way to not make it explicit which ending is the “good” ending and leaves it up to the player to make a choice that they see as the correct choice to make unlike in many other fantasy media where the good ending is clear and obvious which again sets this game apart from many other and contributes to its success and love from fans.
To play the game through without delving into the story does the game a massive disservice as the story is mostly told through the description of items and the iconography of the locations that the player must go through. A story is told through the collections the player creates through there adventure and elaborates on the story of each individual area of the game, from the drowned kings who wen mad with power or the great scale less dragon that betrayed his kind in exchange for power and immortality. The other half of the story telling is done through the symbols and locations in game and the best example of this would be the lost city of Izalith. Merely from walking through the zone you can instantly identify a story from this place. From the massive hole in the ceiling above the city and the destroyed remains of the once vast city of stone that is now infested with demons you can tell the place grew to big for its greed and like the similar fantasy fable of Atlantis grew to much out of greed and lust for power that it ended up swallow by the land it stop atop. This visual story telling present throughout the game allows you to become immersed in this amazing fantasy world and solidifies it as a stable member of the fantasy genre.
Overall Dark Souls whilst not the most common example of fantasy it is a fantastic example of the genre and even more so of the dark fantasy subgenre. It does follow many of the common tropes of the genre but for almost every single one it presents a new angle to it and give the consumer a brand new experience compared to the fantasy genre they are used to.