Why We Love the Characters in Dark Souls

The Dark Souls series is well-known for its strenuous gameplay and incredibly hard to understand lore. There's also a special charm to the Dark Souls series that isn't acknowledged, but it's a very important part of what makes Dark Souls so unique and lovable. A big part of this is all the well designed characters, along with their writing respectably.

My personal favorite example of wondrous character writing in the Dark Souls mythos is Lucatiel of Mirrah. The player encountered Lucatiel in Dark Souls 2 and at first she hides her true identity. Later on she tells you that she traveled to the area to search for her brother, but came in contact with the same wasting condition that affects much of Drangleic, the setting of Dark Souls 2. After Lucatiel helps you on your journey, she eventually disappears, succumbing to the hollowing disease. At some point, you do encounter Lucatiel's brother, who fights you as he's not much more than a soulless adversary.

Lucatiel's story may not be the most expansive or complicated in the Dark Souls series, but it has just as much care put into it as any other story. This kind of care and attention to detail is exactly what makes the characters in Dark Souls feel so alive. Every person has a reason to be there. They each have their own lives, their own stories, et cetera.

I implore you that next time you think about a character in-depth, analyse their wants, their fears, the things that make them cry, and everything else. A character is more than just a sprite or a 3D model, they're a living, breathing personality, a culmination of everything that creates them. The characters within Dark Souls, Dark Souls 2, and Dark Souls 3 are exactly what we love because they feel like the real people we want. We love seeing Sieglinde's perseverance, Solaire's determination, and everything that makes these characters who they are.

Now if only we could clear up all the loose ends...

Comments

How the Borderlands Series Does Diversity Right

Borderlands (2009), Borderlands 2 (2012), and Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel (2014) are games known mainly for their combat and their humor, but there is a third aspect that goes unrecognized: its writing. There are two fantastic elements to the writing in the Borderlands series: the lore, and the characters. In this article we'll be talking about the latter: the characters and their diversity. The characters in Borderlands are some of the most diverse in modern gaming. From Sir (Alistair) Hammerlock, a disabled gay man who hates his older sister; Zer0, an assassin for hire whose true identity, species, even his name, is completely unknown; to Krieg, whose mental state is, well, unordinary. Hell, there's even an enemy class comprised entirely of "midgets." And yet, throughout the series, none of the gratuitous diversity feels out of place. In this day and age of shoehorning and pandering, how do they manage to do it right? First is the topic of visual storytelli...

How Splatoon's Dark Secrets Creates the Illusion of Lore [SPOILERS]

Splatoon. A game about squirt gun battles, right? Wrong. Or is it? Splatoon's sunken scrolls, the source of almost all of Splatoon's lore, is often passed up by the majority of the player base. These collectable scrolls document many things: the most notable of which is the possibility of Splatoon being set in a post-apocalyptic Earth. These scrolls make the writing really deep, right? That's how it works? Well, you're right. Or wrong. Or right? I'm confused. The truth is, really, is that these scrolls serve as nothing more than collectables, not writing. Instead, these collectables provide the illusion of a deep, immersive world. While the contents of the scrolls are dark, and even considered "deep," they are subjective. This fact means that the scrolls themselves only provide an idea of what Splatoon's lore might be. That isn't a bad thing, however. Splatoon's bright, bubbly, colorful aesthetic is the most iconic thi...

How Half-Life Creates a Hidden Multiverse [SPOILERS]

If you played Half-Life and Half-Life 2 without fully grasping the entire plot, I don't blame you. There's a lot to take in. Not the least of which is the massive multiverse in which the games take place. It's very easy to miss, but in fact both games' main antagonists come from elsewhere in this multiverse. In the first Half-Life, the main antagonist, the Nihilanth, is actually running from the main antagonist of Half-Life 2 during the events of the game. The Nihilanth is the last of its kind, hunted to extinction by the Combine, the antagonists of Half-Life 2. The Combine are essentially inter-dimensional conquerors whom enslave entire species and drain entire planets of their resources. Half-Life starts the series as a simple alien-themed FPS, but with the introduction of Half-Life 2 the series quickly evolves into a massive story about the inhabitants of Earth fighting back against inter-dimensional forces. The plot in these games are fairly subtle, probabl...

VG Write

Search This Blog