Dark Souls Remastered 1.04
Bertha Simmons
Dark Souls[c] is a 2011 action role-playing game developed by FromSoftware and published by Namco Bandai Games. A spiritual successor to FromSoftware's Demon's Souls, the game is the first in the Dark Souls series. The game takes place in the kingdom of Lordran, where players assume the role of a cursed undead character who begins a pilgrimage to discover the fate of their kind. A port for Windows featuring additional content, known as the Prepare to Die Edition, was released in August 2012. It was also released for consoles under the subtitle Artorias of the Abyss in October 2012.
Dark Souls is a third-person action role-playing game. A core mechanic of the game is exploration. Players are encouraged to proceed with caution, learn from past mistakes, or find alternative areas to explore. Dark Souls takes place in a large and continuous, interconnected environment, connected through a central hub area. The player character can travel between areas and explore various paths at will, although prerequisites must be met to unlock certain areas.[1][2][3][4]
A central element to the gameplay of Dark Souls is the bonfire. Bonfires are scattered throughout the world and serve as checkpoints for each level. By resting at a bonfire, the player character is healed to full and regains all of the healing charges of their "Estus Flask." They can also level up and perform other functions, such as attuning magic and repairing and upgrading equipment. However, resting at a bonfire respawns all of the world's enemies, except for bosses, mini-bosses, and friendly non-playable characters.
Another aspect of Dark Souls is the "humanity" system. There are two forms the player character can be in during the game, human form or hollow form. Whenever the player character dies in human form, they are returned to hollow form and can only return to human by consuming the humanity item and issuing the command at the bonfire to restore humanity. While in human form, the player character may summon other players and non-player characters (NPCs) to assist them, but they may also be subjected to invasions by other players and NPCs who seek to kill the player to restore their humanity, harvest souls, or achieve some other goal. Humanity can be acquired in many ways, and if no humanity is available, players can still progress in hollow form. Death 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", their previously accrued souls and humanity are permanently lost. Carrying humanity grants bonuses and resistances, incentivizing players to hold onto their humanity.
Communication and interaction between players are deliberately restricted. Outside of some character gestures, the only communication players have with one another comes through orange soapstones, which allow players to write preset phrases that others can read in the same area. Also, players can enter cooperative or player versus player combat with each other.[5][6] Throughout the game, there are multiple NPCs that the player may encounter on their journey. These characters add to the plot of the game but are not essential. If the player chooses to engage with them, some of the characters can assist the player by being summoned for certain boss fights when the player character is in human form.
The multiplayer component for the PC version of Dark Souls was disabled in February 2022, in response to a security threat within the matchmaking system found that same month.[7] In October 2022, Namco Bandai confirmed that online multiplayer for the "Prepare to Die" version of the game had been permanently disabled due to aging hardware, but noted that they were working on restoring online multiplayer for the Remastered version.[8]
Dark Souls employs minimalist storytelling to convey its plot and lore. Historical events in the world and their significance are often implicit or left to player interpretation rather than fully shown or explained. Most of the story is given to the player through dialogue from non-player characters, flavor text from items, and world design.
The opening cutscene of Dark Souls establishes the premise of the game. After a primordial fire known as the First Flame brings a distinction between life and death into a previously unchanging world, four beings (known as Lords) find "Lord Souls" surrounding the flame and use their newfound power to overthrow the Everlasting Dragons that ruled this "Age of Ancients". Over time, the Flame begins to fade, and the god Gwyn, Lord of Sunlight eventually sacrifices himself to prolong the Age of Fire. The story of Dark Souls takes place towards the end of this prolonged Age of Fire. By this time, humanity has been afflicted with an undead curse related to a circular, flaming symbol on their bodies known as the Darksign. Those humans afflicted with the undead curse perpetually resurrect after death until they eventually lose their minds, a process referred to as "hollowing."
The player character is a cursed undead, locked away in an undead asylum. After escaping the asylum, the player travels to Lordran, a land of the undead, to ring two "Bells of Awakening" in the hope of discovering their fate. The player travels through a variety of hostile environments, including some deep within the earth, to complete this quest. The bells awaken the primordial serpent Kingseeker Frampt, who tells the player it is their duty to replace Gwyn and further perpetuate the Age of Fire. To this end, Frampt instructs the player to ascend to Anor Londo, the home of the Gods, and acquire an artifact known as the Lordvessel. In Anor Londo, Gwyn's daughter Gwynevere gives the player the Lordvessel and urges them to succeed Lord Gwyn and fulfill the prophecy of the Chosen Undead. To accomplish this, the player must acquire fragments of the Lord Souls by defeating four powerful beings: the Witch of Izalith, Gravelord Nito, the Four Kings of New Londo, and the last dragon, Duke Seath the Scaleless. Optionally, the player may encounter Darkstalker Kaathe, who encourages the player not to link the fire, but to let it die out and usher in the Age of Dark instead. This second serpent claims that the Dark is the source of humanity, and suggests that the player may be the prophesied "Dark Lord" who will lead an age of humans. Once the player acquires the four Lord Soul fragments and offers them to the Lordvessel, they travel to the Kiln of the First Flame to battle Gwyn. After Gwyn has been defeated, the player has the choice of linking the flame to preserve the Age of Fire or letting it die out to instigate the Age of Dark.
In the Artorias of the Abyss expansion, the player is dragged into the past by Manus, Father of the Abyss, to the land of Oolacile. Oolacile has been corrupted by the Abyss after their experiments unearthed and angered the "primeval man" Manus. Artorias, one of Lord Gwyn's four knights, goes to defeat Manus and rescue the Princess Dusk. However, Artorias is defeated and corrupted by the Abyss, and the player must defeat him. The player then goes on to defeat Manus, although the victory is later attributed to Artorias.
Dark Souls was developed by FromSoftware, with series creator Hidetaka Miyazaki directing and producing. Dark Souls is a spiritual successor to FromSoftware's 2009 game Demon's Souls, published and owned by Sony Computer Entertainment.[9][10] Bandai Namco Entertainment was chosen to publish Dark Souls as they had the ability to release on more platforms.[11][12][13]
The design ordering process for Dark Souls can be divided into two main categories. The first involves providing the designers with simple keywords we brainstormed during the early stages of project development and allowing them to design freely. We take the images they produce and provide feedback, make adjustments as necessary, or incorporate their ideas into our plans. [...] The second process comes into play once we've settled on the basic details of the game world. At that point we are able to make more detailed design requests. These requests usually include information like how the design will be used, where in the game the design will be used, and the specific purpose of the design in terms of what it will represent in the game. [...] Either way, I am the one who hands out the orders and I work directly with each designer instead of having a middleman between us.[14]
Miyazaki stated that the game draws direct inspiration from earlier works of fantasy and dark fantasy, especially the manga series Berserk.[14][15] He has described the driving aesthetic principle of the game as being "a certain kind of refinement, elegance, and dignity".[14] He also described the themes which guided the design of the game in the following way: "I put three major guidelines in place: Gods and knights centered around Anor Londo, demonic chaos and flames centered around Lost Izalith, and the theme of death centered around Gravelord Nito. To these themes we added the special concept of ancient dragons that predate all life, and this formed the basis for Dark Souls".[14] Many of the game's locations were inspired by the real-world, such as the Chteau de Chambord in France and Milan Cathedral in Italy.[14][16]
The characters and world of Dark Souls contain many philosophical and folkloric parallels among Greek mythology,[17][18] Japanese mythology,[19] French existentialism,[20] and the work of proto-existentialist philosophers like Friedrich Nietzsche.[20] Dark Souls' description of natural cycles that the world experiences, and the designs of some individual characters, parallel Japanese and Greek myths.[17][19] The game's presentation of a universe defined by the inevitable burning out of a flame and the tragic stories of the individuals in that meaningless world, parallel ideas in schools of philosophy concerning existentialism, absurdity, meaninglessness, and the end of the universe.[20]
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