Souls (series)

Not to be confused with Soul (series).
Souls

Logos for Demon's Souls and the first Dark Souls game, respectively
Genres Action role-playing
Developers FromSoftware
Publishers
Creators Hidetaka Miyazaki
Platforms PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360, Xbox One, Microsoft Windows
Platform of origin PlayStation 3
First release Demon's Souls
February 5, 2009
Latest release Dark Souls III
March 24, 2016

The Souls series[1] is a series of action role-playing video games created and developed by FromSoftware. The series began with the release of Demon's Souls for the PlayStation 3 in 2009. Demon's Souls was followed by Dark Souls in 2011, and its sequels, Dark Souls II and Dark Souls III, in 2014 and 2016 respectively.

The Souls games are played in a third-person perspective, and focus on weapon and magic-based combat with monsters, and exploration. Players battle bosses, interact with the strange non-playable characters, and journey through the medieval-like, interconnected environments in order to progress through the story. The series is particularly notable for its difficulty.[2][3][4]

Setting

The games take place within a medieval fantasy setting, where the player coexists with the likes of knights, dragons, and various monsters. The recurring theme of the games' settings is that of a once powerful and prosperous kingdom, which eventually fell into decadence and damnation after a series of unfortunate events. The players' goal varies between installments; the plot of Demon Souls follows an attempt to halt the spread of a demon-infested fog that would eventually shroud the world, while the plot of Dark Souls involved prolonging an age of prosperity and in the sequel finding a cure for the ailment known as "hollowing".

Gameplay

Dark Souls III gameplay and commentary

The protagonist of each Souls game can have a varying gender, appearance, name, and starting class.[5] Players can choose between classes, including knights, barbarians, thieves, and mages. Each class has its own profile that can be tailored by the player's experience and choices.[6] The player gains Souls from gameplay battles which act as both experience points to level up and as currency to buy certain items.[7] Souls gained are usually proportional to the difficulty of fighting certain enemies; the more difficult an enemy, the more Souls the player will gain.

One of the core mechanics of the series is that it uses death to teach players how to react in hostile environments, encouraging repetition, learning from past mistakes, and prior experience as a means of overcoming its difficulty. Upon death, players will lose all of their Souls and be teleported back to a checkpoint, known as Bonfire, where they last rested. Only one chance is given for the player to recover their lost Souls in the form of a bloodstain, which are placed at or around where they last died. If the player dies again before reaching their bloodstain, the Souls are permanently lost.

Online interaction in the Souls games is integrated into the single-player experience. Throughout levels, players can briefly see the actions of other players as ghosts in the same area that may show hidden passages or switches. When a player dies, a Bloodstain can be left in other players' game world that when activated can show a ghost playing out their final moments, indicating how that person died and potentially helping the player avoid the same fate in advance. Players can leave messages on the floor that can either help players warning of upcoming hazards, or harm players by leaving false hints.[8] Players can also engage in player versus player combat and cooperative gameplay using invasion or summoning mechanics.[9][10]

Games

Timeline of release years
2009Demon's Souls
2010
2011Dark Souls
2012
2013
2014Dark Souls II
2015
2016Dark Souls III

Demon's Souls

Main article: Demon's Souls

Released in 2009 for PlayStation 3, Demon's Souls is the first game in the Souls series.[11] The game has also been described as a spiritual successor to the King's Field series of games.[12][13] It takes place in the fictional kingdom of Boletaria, which is being ravaged by a cursed fog that brings forth demons who feast on the souls of mortals. Unlike its successors, Demon's Souls uses a central hub system known as the "Nexus" where players can level up, repair equipment, or buy certain items, before venturing into either one of the five connected worlds. The "World Tendency" feature is also exclusive to Demon's Souls, where the difficulty of exploring a world is dependent on how many bosses have been killed, and how the player dies. The gameplay involves a character-creation system and emphasizes gathering loot through combat with enemies in a non-linear series of varied locations. It has an online multiplayer system integrated into single-player, in which players can leave messages and warnings for other players' worlds, as well as joining other players to assist and/or kill them.[11]

Dark Souls

Main article: Dark Souls

Dark Souls is the second game in the Souls series; it is considered a spiritual successor to Demon's Souls.[12] It was released in 2011 for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.[14] In 2012, Dark Souls: Prepare to Die Edition was released for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360, featuring the base game and the Artorias of the Abyss downloadable content.[15] The game takes place in the fictional kingdom of Lordran. Players assume the role of a cursed human character who has been chosen to discover the fate of the Undead. The plot of Dark Souls is primarily told through descriptions of in-game items and dialogue with non-playable characters (NPCs). Players must piece together clues in order to understand the story, rather than having it laid out for them by the game. Dark Souls garnered recognition due to its grueling difficulty and unforgiving challenge.[9]

Dark Souls II

Main article: Dark Souls II

Dark Souls II is the second Dark Souls game and the third installment in the Souls series. Unlike the previous two games, director Hidetaka Miyazaki did not reprise his role.[16] It was released in 2014 for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360.[17] In 2015, an updated version featuring The Lost Crowns downloadable content was released for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One, under the title Dark Souls II: Scholar of the First Sin[18] - with the latter two platforms receiving retail releases.[19] The game takes place in the fictional kingdom of Drangleic, where the player must find a cure for the undead curse.[10] Although set in the same universe as the previous game, there is no direct story connection to Dark Souls.[20]

Dark Souls III

Main article: Dark Souls III

Dark Souls III was officially announced at Electronic Entertainment Expo 2015, and was released in Japan on March 24, 2016,[21] and worldwide on April 12, 2016, for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One.[22] The gameplay is faster paced than previous Souls installments,[23] which was attributed in part to the gameplay of Bloodborne.[24]

Future

In an interview promoting Dark Souls III, Miyazaki was asked how he felt about the current amount of Souls games. He responded by saying, "I don't think it'd be the right choice to continue indefinitely creating Souls and Bloodborne games. I'm considering Dark Souls 3 to be the big closure on the series. That's not just limited to me, but From Software and myself together want to aggressively make new things in the future...I believe that From Software has to create new things. There will be new types of games coming from us, and Dark Souls 3 is an important marker in the evolution of From Software."[25]

In April 2016, it was reported that Miyazaki and FromSoftware had begun working on a new intellectual property (IP), and had no current plans to continue the Souls series with sequels or spin-offs.[26]

Related titles

The King's Field series debuted in the mid 1990s for the PlayStation with King's Field and its two sequels. After the original trilogy, a fourth game was released for the PlayStation 2, after which, the series had some spinoff titles. King's Field as a whole is considered a spiritual predecessor to the Souls series.[12][27]

Another FromSoftware game, Bloodborne, was released on the PlayStation 4 in March 2015, directed by Souls series creator Hidetaka Miyazaki. Although it is its own intellectual property and not an official Souls installment, it shares many of the same elements and concepts and thus, is often associated in discussion of the series.[28][29][30][31]

On February 28, 2016, Bandai Namco Entertainment partnered with American retailer GameStop to release Slashy Souls, a free-to-play mobile endless runner based on the series. The game is presented in a pixel art style, and shares the series' level of difficulty.[32] The game was met with highly negative critical reception, with reviewers such as Chris Carter of Destructoid and Jim Sterling both giving the game a 1/10.[33][34]

Other media

On January 19, 2016, Titan Comics announced that a comic book based on the series would be released later that year. The first issue debuted on April 6, 2016, to coincide with the international release of Dark Souls III on April 12.[35] Also in April 2016, a Kickstarter campaign for an officially licensed board game based on the series was announced, titled Dark Souls - The Board Game.[36] The campaign was funded within the first three minutes of its launch on April 19, 2016, and will be developed by Steamforged Games and release by April 2017.[37][38]

Reception

Aggregate review scores
Game Metacritic
Demon's Souls (PS3) 89/100[39][±]
Dark Souls (PC) 85/100[40]
(PS3) 89/100[41]
(X360) 89/100[42][±]
Dark Souls II (PC) 91/100[43]
(PS3) 91/100[44]
(X360) 91/100[45][±]
Dark Souls III (PC) 90/100[46]
(PS4) 89/100[47]
(XONE) 86/100[48][±]

The Souls series has been met with widespread critical acclaim. Demon's Souls won several awards, including "Best New IP" from GameTrailers,[49] and overall Game of the Year from GameSpot.[50]

Dark Souls originally did not have a port for Microsoft Windows, but upon seeing the fans' demand for it, Bandai Namco community manager Tony Shoupinou lauded their support,[51] and a Windows port was released in 2012.[52] Dark Souls is also considered by some critics to be one of the greatest games of all time,[53][54] and has influenced the development of other games, including Destiny,[55] Alienation,[56] Lords of the Fallen,[57] Salt and Sanctuary,[58] Shovel Knight,[54][59] Titan Souls,[54][60] and Enter the Gungeon.[61] The series inspired a social media app for iOS and Android called Soapstone, which uses a similar online messaging system used in the series adapted for the real world, using GPS to determine a user's location and bringing up a list of cryptic messages posted by other users in the area.[62]

Dark Souls II also received critical acclaim, and is the highest rated game in the series on Metacritic.[43] Before release, Dark Souls III was one of the most anticipated games of 2016,[63][64][65] and also received critical acclaim upon release.[66][67]

Sales

As of March 2015, Demon's Souls had sold over 1.7 million copies, while as of July 2015, the Dark Souls games had sold over 8.5 million copies.[68][69] Dark Souls III broke sales records upon release, with the title having the most successful launch day in Bandai Namco's history, having strong first week sales.[70]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Souls series (ソウルシリーズ Sōru shirīzu)
  2. ↑ Houghton, David. (March 5, 2014). "Why Dark Souls is the friendliest, most benevolent game of its generation". GamesRadar. Retrieved July 19, 2015.
  3. ↑ Harrison, William. (October 10, 2011). "Dark Souls isn’t hard, gamers are just stupid and impatient". Venture Beat. Retrieved July 19, 2015.
  4. ↑ North, Dale. "Non-review: Why I couldn't finish Demon's Souls". Destructoid. Destructoid. Retrieved October 31, 2015.
  5. ↑ Atlus, ed. (2009). Demon's Souls game manual (North American). Atlus. p. 5.
  6. ↑ Atlus, ed. (2009). Demon's Souls game manual (North American). Atlus. pp. 22–23.
  7. ↑ Atlus, ed. (2009). Demon's Souls game manual (North American). Atlus. pp. 16–17.
  8. ↑ Atlus, ed. (2009). Demon's Souls game manual (North American). Atlus. p. 19.
  9. 1 2 VanOrd, Kevin (October 3, 2011). "Dark Souls Review". GameSpot. CBS Interactive. Retrieved July 6, 2015.
  10. 1 2 Kollar, Philip (March 11, 2014). "Dark Souls 2 Review: not the end". Polygon. Vox Media. Retrieved July 6, 2015.
  11. 1 2 "Atlus Officially Announces Demon's Souls for North America". IGN. Ziff Davis. July 6, 2009. Retrieved July 6, 2015.
  12. 1 2 3 Teti, John (November 13, 2011). "Retrospective: King's Field". Eurogamer. Gamer Network. Retrieved July 6, 2015.
  13. ↑ Kollar, Phil. "Demon’s Souls Director Discusses Difficulty, Sequels, And More". Gameinformer. Retrieved 30 April 2016.
  14. ↑ Moriarty, Colin (May 11, 2011). "Dark Souls Release Date Revealed". IGN. Ziff Davis. Retrieved July 6, 2015.
  15. ↑ Onyett, Charles (May 31, 2012). "New Dark Souls Content Coming to Consoles". IGN. Ziff Davis. Retrieved July 6, 2015.
  16. ↑ Matulef, Jeffrey. "Miyazaki won't be directly involved in Dark Souls 2, doesn't want too many sequels". EuroGamer. Retrieved July 27, 2015.
  17. ↑ Yin-Poole, Wesley (March 6, 2014). "Dark Souls 2 PC release date confirmed". Eurogamer. Gamer Network. Retrieved July 6, 2015.
  18. ↑ Pitcher, Jenna (December 29, 2014). "Dark Souls 2: Scholar of the First Sin Director Reveals New Details". IGN. Ziff Davis. Retrieved July 6, 2015.
  19. ↑ mikemcwhertor. "Dark Souls 2 coming to PlayStation 4 and Xbox One in 2015". Polygon.
  20. ↑ Gifford, Kevin (December 19, 2012). "Dark Souls 2 developer: If Dark Souls was set in the North Pole, this one would be in the South Pole". Polygon. Vox Media. Retrieved July 6, 2015.
  21. ↑ Aetas Inc. "「DARK SOULS III」PS4/Xbox One版の発売日が2016年3月24日に決定。PS4版ネットワークテスターの募集も開始". 4Gamer.net.
  22. ↑ McWhertor, Michael (June 15, 2015). "Dark Souls 3 confirmed, coming early 2016". Polygon. Vox Media. Retrieved July 6, 2015.
  23. ↑ Mahardy, Mike. "Dark Souls III is Faster, Smoother, and More Fluid Than its Predecessors". Gamespot. Retrieved September 21, 2015.
  24. ↑ "Dark Souls 3's combat is faster in a post-Bloodborne world". Polygon.
  25. ↑ Hussain, Tamoor. "Dark Souls 3 Interview: "It Wouldn’t Be Right to Continue Creating Souls"". GameSpot. Retrieved March 26, 2016.
  26. ↑ Matulef, Jeffrey (April 27, 2016). "Dark Souls dev begins work on new IP - report". Retrieved April 27, 2016.
  27. ↑ Kollar, Phil. "Demon’s Souls Director Discusses Difficulty, Sequels, And More". Gameinformer. Retrieved 30 April 2016.
  28. ↑ Hillier, Brenna. (June 13, 2014). "Bloodborne is not a successor to Demon’s Souls, Yoshida insists". VG247. Retrieved July 7, 2015.
  29. ↑ Yamagiwa, Masaaki (June 10, 2014). "Bloodborne Coming Exclusively to PS4 in 2015, New Details". PlayStation Blog. Sony Computer Entertainment. Retrieved July 6, 2015.
  30. ↑ Kollar, Philip. "Bloodborne is not Dark Souls; here's how it should set itself apart". Polygon. Vox Media. Retrieved 30 April 2016.
  31. ↑ "E3 2014: The Similarities and Differences Between Bloodborne and Dark Souls". GameSpot.
  32. ↑ Kollar, Philip (February 27, 2016). "Slashy Souls: a first look at Namco's new Dark Souls-inspired mobile game". Polygon. Retrieved February 28, 2016.
  33. ↑ Carter, Chris. "Review: Slashy Souls". Destructoid. Retrieved March 10, 2016.
  34. ↑ Sterling, Jim. "Slashy Souls Review – Dark Holes". thejimquisition.com. Retrieved March 16, 2016.
  35. ↑ Schedeen, Jesse. "DARK SOULS COMIC BOOK COMING IN APRIL 2016". IGN. Ziff Davis. Retrieved January 21, 2016.
  36. ↑ Prescott, Shaun. "The Dark Souls series is getting a board game". PC Gamer. Retrieved April 8, 2016.
  37. ↑ Klepek, Patrick. "Crowdfunded Dark Souls Board Game Raises $200,000 In Less Than Two Hours". Kotaku. Retrieved April 19, 2016.
  38. ↑ Makuch, Eddie. "Dark Souls Board Game Funded in 3 Minutes". GameSpot. Retrieved 20 April 2016.
  39. ↑ "Demon's Souls for PlayStation 3 Reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved January 28, 2010.
  40. ↑ "Dark Souls: Prepare to Die Edition for PC Reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved December 23, 2013.
  41. ↑ "Dark Souls for PlayStation 3 Reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved December 19, 2011.
  42. ↑ "Dark Souls for Xbox 360 Reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved December 19, 2011.
  43. 1 2 "Dark Souls II for PC Reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved April 25, 2014.
  44. ↑ "Dark Souls II for PlayStation 3 Reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved March 11, 2014.
  45. ↑ "Dark Souls II for Xbox 360 Reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved March 11, 2014.
  46. ↑ "Dark Souls III for PC Reviews". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Retrieved April 18, 2016.
  47. ↑ "Dark Souls III for PlayStation 4 Reviews". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Retrieved April 18, 2016.
  48. ↑ "Dark Souls III for Xbox One Reviews". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Retrieved April 18, 2016.
  49. ↑ "Best New IP". GameTrailers. December 21, 2009. Retrieved July 2, 2015.
  50. ↑ "Gamespot's Best and Worst of 2009 – Game of the Year 2009". GameSpot. Archived from the original on June 15, 2009. Retrieved March 7, 2010.
  51. ↑ Grayson, Nathan (January 13, 2012). "Dark Souls PC petition at nearly 70,000 signatures, Namco listening". PC Gamer. Retrieved July 1, 2015.
  52. ↑ Dutton, Fred (November 4, 2012). "Dark Souls PC release date announced, Games For Windows Live support confirmed". Eurogamer. Gamer Network. Retrieved July 1, 2015.
  53. ↑ "The 100 best games ever". GamesRadar. February 25, 2015. Retrieved July 1, 2015.
  54. 1 2 3 Breault, Chris (February 24, 2014). "How Do You Make An RPG After Dark Souls?". Kill Screen.
  55. ↑ Slabaugh, Brett (December 18, 2013). "Destiny Inspired by Dark Souls, Monster Hunter, Bungie Says". The Escapist.
  56. ↑ Tach, Dave (August 22, 2014). "How Dark Souls influenced Alienation, the next game from Resogun's developer". Polygon.com.
  57. ↑ Makuch, Eddie (January 5, 2015). "Lords of the Fallen Dev Talks Dark Souls Comparisons". GameSpot.
  58. ↑ McElroy, Griffin (August 28, 2013). "How Salt and Sanctuary reimagines Dark Souls as a 2D action-platformer". Poylgon.
  59. ↑ Williams, Mike (May 24, 2014), Game Dev Recipes: Shovel Knight, USgamer, retrieved May 26, 2014
  60. ↑ Hamilton, Andi (April 13, 2015). "Titan Souls". PCGamer.
  61. ↑ Crooks, Dave. "How to Get Started in Enter the Gungeon on PS4". PlayStation.Blog. Retrieved April 18, 2016.
  62. ↑ Klepek, Patrick (April 16, 2015). "App Lets You Leave Cryptic Bloodborne Messages In Real Life". Kotaku.
  63. ↑ "The most anticipated games of 2016". GamesRadar. Futurepic. Retrieved January 10, 2016.
  64. ↑ "Kotaku UK's Most Anticipated Games of 2016". Kotaku. Retrieved January 10, 2016.
  65. ↑ Guerrero, Agustin. "Screen Rant’s 30 Most Anticipated Video Games of 2016". Screen Rant. Retrieved January 10, 2016.
  66. ↑ Rad, Chloi (April 4, 2016). "Dark Souls 3 Review". IGN. Retrieved April 4, 2016.
  67. ↑ Davenport, James (April 4, 2016). "Dark Souls III Review". PC Gamer. Retrieved April 4, 2016.
  68. ↑ Tassi, Paul (March 16, 2015). "'Bloodborne' May Be The PS4's Salvation In 2015". Forbes. Retrieved July 1, 2015.
  69. ↑ Purchese, Robert (July 1, 2015). "Dark Souls series sales surpass 8.5 million". Eurogamer. Gamer Network. Retrieved July 1, 2015.
  70. ↑ Makuch, Eddie. "Dark Souls 3 Breaks Sales Records". GameSpot. Retrieved 21 April 2016.
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