Darkness of souls, light of bonfires. The hidden, therapeutic quality of Dark Souls
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In some ways, the realities of Dark Souls overlap with Beck's depression triad. Just as the patient thinks negatively about themselves, their current experiences, and their own future, the protagonist finds himself in a deplorable world from the get-go, facing challenges seemingly beyond their strength, and with poor prospects for further progress. Not surprisingly, people struggling with the dark side of their own psyche feel understood in this game.
It's not even just about boss fights. The exploration of the darkest parts of Lordran itself is ultimately laced with positive emotions in the first Dark Souls. Traversing the hated Blighttown to the poisonous swamps stretching in front of the headquarters of the Witch of Chaos Quelaag opens us a shortcut to the Firelink Chapel, a place of safety and harmony. After defeating countless serpents and the deadly traps of Fortress Sen, we find ourselves in the beautiful Anor Londo, bathed in the glow of the setting sun. And when, after countless attempts, we finally kill Ornstein and Smough, we are granted an audience with Princess Gwynevere, accompanied by angelic choirs.
These are, of course, isolated, short fragments in an adventure lasting several dozen hours, but this adds so much significance to them. For the most part, Dark Souls is an utterly bleak game. But it's also what attracts people going through a tough time or even suffering from depression – similarly, we tend to listen to sad music when we're down. The Lordran fading before our eyes resonates better with the emotions of suffering, allowing us to feel an authentic connection to the virtual world. Communing with it becomes a personal experience, much more profound than trying to console yourself with cheerful, colorful Ratchet and Clank-style games. Again, the aforementioned moments of triumph and joy take on greater significance because of this.
Hamish Black, author of the Writing on Games channel, states in his video regarding the series that it has helped him battle long-term depression. However, he criticizes the emphasis on death conveyed in reviews and advertisements of games in the series. As someone who has survived 2 suicide attempts, he even considers Dark Souls "the most uncompromising celebration of life the medium of games has produced up until now."
Whilst I'm still in the early stages of getting where I want to be, breaking it all down and focusing on one element at a time allows me to progress in my life, no matter how glacial that progress may seem. Dark Souls taught me that it was ok for that progress to be slow – working to achieve that progress is enough to keep going with it. What initially seemed like an utter brick wall of difficulty, I was able to chip away at gradually, until I became actually pretty good at it! [...] Taking this approach and applying it to my life allowed me to realize that even if I didn't have a concrete goal in my life, as long as I was working to make sure that I could see the joy of life, then that was good enough. And there is joy in life – both in Dark Souls and, subsequently I discovered, in the real world.
While the text uses only a quote from Hamish Black from Writing on Games, it is also based on material from NakeyJakey, The Game Overanalyser, Indie Bytes, ItsPara, and others – not to mention my own experience.
