The Dark Souls Series evokes emotions in me only these games can

My history with the Souls series goes way back; to 2012. Maybe 2013, I can’t honestly remember. But it was when on the Xbox 360, games with gold were still fairly new. Where, if you had an Xbox live gold subscription you got free games every month. And one of them happened to be the first Dark Souls game. Interested by the screenshots and what I had meagerly heard online, I wanted to give it a try. So, I got the game and began playing it. And after about 2 and a half hours, I was kind of all set with it. I had chosen the Knight class not knowing about the weight system, so my experience with the game was me slow walking around the Undead Burg, and barely being able to roll out of enemy attacks. I did manage to kill Tarus Demon, but the real enemy that stopped me was the first Baldur Knight that is blocking the knight shield. Stupid enemy to stop playing to, I know. But I was kind of in the mindset of: “I don’t really know what I’m doing so I’ll put it down for now and come back another time”. I remember watching a playthrough and getting some more of the basics down, but I never went back. I guess COD and other games that were hot took my priority. So that was my very first Souls experience; anti-climactic at best. And then March of 2015 happened. And we all know what game released that year.

Bloodborne was the kick in the ass I needed to really start playing these games. No blocking, hyper-fast reaction-based dodges, an environment that rivals any games level of quality and detail, and a hauntingly beautiful score that lives rent-free in my head to this day. Bloodborne was my gateway into the series; I would take a guess and say this for a lot of other people as well. I had technically played another game before, but I don’t really count it. Once I beat Bloodborne, I immediately went back and blew through Dark Souls. And then proceeded to buy DS2 Scholar of the First sin, the summer after. And then 3 came out. And now we have Elden Ring; another masterpiece. All this history leading up to the question of why do I love these games. Well, to put it simply, these games evoke emotions in me no other game series has or might ever be able to.

The Souls games evoke emotions and feelings in me that other games just can’t do. Or, at the very least, only a select few games are able to do so. I’m going to get super geeky and nerdy about this; I hope there is someone else out there that feels the same way, or at the very least can relate or understand what I mean with maybe a different piece of media that they enjoy. So, bear with me. What I mean by this is, the music, the atmosphere, the characters, the senses that these games can envelope me in; they all make me feel as if my character is a true extension of myself. When I walk around the world of Elden Ring, and honestly all the souls’ games, even if the character doesn’t look like me, I project myself through the character to react as if I was there myself. This is especially true when NPCs are talking; they may say something that makes sense. Or, something ridiculous like they do sometimes. But that feeling of being there, talking to this person persists. But honestly, all the elements of these games give me these feelings. Especially the music.

Music in general is weird for me because I’m one of those people that when they find a song they like, they will do two things: first, I will play it on repeat until I hate it, or it doesn’t have the same initial impact it did when I first heard it. And two, will always associate the song with an image, or something that plays out in my mind. For example, the character creation music in Elden Ring (which might be the best out of all the games I’m just saying), has me just staring back at what I have created, knowing that they will be going through some shit. Some good, some bad, and a lot of dying. There’s a sense of dread, but at the same time a somber sense of hope. Things are going to play out; the wheel will turn, one way or another. I am about to embark on a journey, not knowing what’s ahead of me. But I look forward to it. I would imagine a lot of people when they make their first souls' character, they try to make themselves. Don’t worry, I do it to. It never looks like me, but it’s usually close enough. But when I play, and I talk to NPC’s and they give me a dialog choice, I always choose as if it was actually me talking to them, and how I would perceive their information and make decisions based on what they tell me and what they propose. That sense of role-playing is very indicative of how I think From Soft wants us to engage with the game, at least once. You don’t always have to play and behave like this, but I think it’s interesting to do it once and really put yourself in the shoes of your character. Hell, even if you just slaughter all the NPCs, you come across, you can still kind of get into that role and really make it feel like a true genocide. If that’s your stick, I won’t knock it. And on that point, does anyone else find it really hard to kill NPCs in these games? Or is that just a me thing? I always, always find it hard to kill someone unless they specifically ask for it. This may also be a first playthrough thing and you don’t know the consequences of your actions, but even after successive playthroughs, and you know what to expect, there is still a piece of me that is apprehensive to the notion of killing someone that isn’t immediately hostile towards me. Makes the knife twist so much more when you do. Especially, if they don’t drop anything like their gear when you do kill them. Makes the whole situation hurt so much more when it happens. That extra weight to your choices and the potential consequences that go along with choices like those, again, just add a layer that allows you to become more invested in what you’re doing.

These games are fucking special; they are hand crafted stories that YOU write as you go through them. It’s insane to me, how this level of care is put into each game. Sure, some are not as good as others, but even with DS2 being, by most people’s opinions, the weakest out of the Souls’ games, it’s still so good. The level of mystery and wonder that game as alongside all the others, I can’t help but get attached to the games and begin to almost RP it, even just a tiny bit.

I will never forget these experiences; they are embedded into my very being. From Software has gone above and beyond with these games. I will always be thankful they exist and my time with them. The only one I sadly have not played is Demon’s Souls. I don’t have a PS3 to play the original, and I don’t have a PS5 to play the remake. Maybe one day I’ll get my hands on one and experience the final game, where it all began. I already know I’ll enjoy it; I just need to see it with my own eyes in front of me on a screen. But to anyone who hasn’t played any of these games; Dark Souls 1,2 or 3, Bloodborne or Elden Ring; please do. They are magical experiences that will really open your eyes to how a development team tackles third person action games. I hope they make you feel something, just as much if not more than me. I’d love to hear anyone’s thoughts or own personal stories with these games, and if they evoke the same kind of responses that I get. I hope I’m not the only weirdo here in that regard. But if so, that’s fine with me.