You know that feeling when you think you've been part of something great? Something that people will look back on and reminisce about? That's basically how the Souls games have been to me. I've finally finished all of them now - from Demon's Souls DS1 to DS2 to Bloodborne to Dark Souls 3. After completing Dark Souls 3, this weird sense of melancholic appreciation of something marvelous and artistic went through me: It was the end of a masterfully crafted series. This made me look back on the games and how they position themselves in the rest of games culture, where I realized that there simply is nothing like them at all. The feelings of dread, of audiovisual artistry, of stress and catharsis, of hidden game complexity, etc. are practically non-existent in any other games. And it's not just about copying the combat mechanics of the Souls games and put them into another game world, but about how cohesive and carefully crafted that the games have been in their worldbuilding, their gameplay scenarios, their lore, and so on.
Simply said, I don't think I've ever had the privilege to play something so dreadful and so sinister and so punishing, dripping with dark fantasy atmosphere, where all the aspects of the game - from level design to monster design to architecture to music to loneliness to perfected combat encounters to storytelling to atmosphere - come together to form an almost perfect cohesive whole that is pretty much unmatched in all of video games history. That is not to say that all of the Souls games are "the best game ever", but that they are simply peerless in what they set out to do. And in an age of aiming for as many sales as possible by appealing to the same genre conventions over and over again, it is refreshing and inspiring to witness something so fundamentally unique and uncompromising.
So, in a way, I feel incredibly fortunate to have been able to experience these games and the aesthetic experiences they bring. There is simply nothing like them at all and I would say absolutely nothing compares to them. I'm not sure that even From will ever be able to replicate the magic that all the 5 games provided in their own respective ways (I can't even believe they managed to sustain the quality throughout 5 major games!). All the incredible hard labor that has gone into it from all the hundreds of people involved in the production of this game is highly, highly appreciated. Anyway, just wanted to share the appreciation of something this meaningful, popular, and historically unique.
Simply said, I don't think I've ever had the privilege to play something so dreadful and so sinister and so punishing, dripping with dark fantasy atmosphere, where all the aspects of the game - from level design to monster design to architecture to music to loneliness to perfected combat encounters to storytelling to atmosphere - come together to form an almost perfect cohesive whole that is pretty much unmatched in all of video games history. That is not to say that all of the Souls games are "the best game ever", but that they are simply peerless in what they set out to do. And in an age of aiming for as many sales as possible by appealing to the same genre conventions over and over again, it is refreshing and inspiring to witness something so fundamentally unique and uncompromising.
So, in a way, I feel incredibly fortunate to have been able to experience these games and the aesthetic experiences they bring. There is simply nothing like them at all and I would say absolutely nothing compares to them. I'm not sure that even From will ever be able to replicate the magic that all the 5 games provided in their own respective ways (I can't even believe they managed to sustain the quality throughout 5 major games!). All the incredible hard labor that has gone into it from all the hundreds of people involved in the production of this game is highly, highly appreciated. Anyway, just wanted to share the appreciation of something this meaningful, popular, and historically unique.
