Preface I do not hide my personal antipathy for Dark Souls II, but that can be faulted primarily on the gameplay side of things. Unfortunately, that doesn’t mean that the story side of things are much better. Unlike the original Dark Souls, (DS1) “dense” doesn’t describe its sequel, with FromSoftware‘s smattering of ideas building an […]
Preface Without a doubt, the Profaned Capital is the most context-dependent area in Dark Souls III. (DS3) With few relevant item descriptions compared to other areas and even a smaller relative map size, first impressions render it the most dubious portion of the game, with the most mysterious Lord. However, dig a little deeper, and […]
Preface I was immediately intrigued by the Shrine of Storms based on aesthetics alone. Once I scratched the surface of this haunting aesthetic, I found the substance to the mystery wanting. But delving even more thoroughly into these layers left me intrigued once again. The story to this area may not be as complicated as […]
Preface When I first started working on this topic, I didn’t expect it to be as enamored with the subject as I ended up being. Alken and Venn are two kingdoms that have a very simple dynamic fleshed out to an absurd degree, comparable to probably only to Drangleic itself. While their duality mostly plays […]
Preface As the first castle map to lie at the core of a Souls setting, Boletaria could have easily been made just a generic medieval European-style kingdom. Instead, it became a deconstruction of that romantic image, setting the brutal tone for game Director Hidetaka Miyazaki’s first fantasy title. In fact, in terms of pure attention […]
Preface At its core, Demon’s Souls is the story of a hero setting out to defeat the demon king, an all too common premise in modern Japanese fantasy. But it is easy for this thought to never cross the mind, in large part thanks to the underlying conflict between the Old One and the Monumental […]
Preface Rosaria being such a mysterious figure for most is perhaps for the best. The topic is, admittedly, difficult to stomach, even if it isn’t the first time that Dark Souls broached such subject matter. But get past a queasy gut and you are offered one of the series’ most provocative characters. Silent, repulsive, yet […]
Preface Despite my public criticism of Dark Souls II in total, I can still recognize that Aldia is one of the best characters introduced into the franchise as a whole. He may not have as creative an appearance or backstory as Seath in the original Dark Souls, (DS1) but he nonetheless stands out among the […]
Preface What makes us human? What makes us not? Even though the world of Demon’s Souls is far less fantastical than the setting of its spiritual successor Dark Souls, it is no less fascinating due to how it revolves around such simple yet fundamental questions. Better still, the world is constructed so that we must […]
Preface Aldrich, and the Deep in general, is an aspect of Dark Souls that I can’t help but be morbidly fascinated with. From a thematic standpoint, they provide a perfect response to questions posed in its predecessors. From a story standpoint, they add another major faction foreshadowing the underlying problems that we will be expected […]
Lokey Lore 