Souls Video Game Series

The series' formula was further developed with Dark Souls, released in 2011 Dark Soulswhich premiered on PS3 and, with a delay of a few days, also on Xbox 60, and almost a year later on PC (as a Prepare to Die Edition). The production was a great success and brought the series closer to players who had no previous contact with the Sony platform-exclusive precursor. A DLC add-on was also released for the game, titled Artorias of the Abyss, introducing a new land and enemies.

Dark Souls II from 2014 is the only part in the creation of which Hidetaka Miyazaki did not play a central role. Despite this, the title was very well received by reviewers and the community. It was emphasized that it managed to maintain a high level of difficulty while making the gameplay more accessible to newcomers. A year after the game's release, a version of Scholar of the First Sin, which included all DLC add-ons and basic content slightly modified from the original.

Two years later, the market saw the release of Dark Souls III (in the version for PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One). The production continued the main ideas of its predecessors, but the combat became faster and more dynamic, reminiscent of another FromSoftware title - released in the meantime exclusively on PlayStation 4 Bloodborne. Two DLC add-ons were released for the game, Ashes of Ariandel and The Ringed City, constituting a kind of epilogue for the storyline of the entire series.

The third installment closed a certain period in the history of the Japanese company. The developers decided that releasing subsequent parts without significant innovations and major changes in gameplay assumptions would be detrimental to the series. For this reason, the owners of the rights to the brand focused on releasing re-releases of previous installments. In 2018, they released Dark Souls: Remastered, offering improved visuals and a couple of additional features absent from the original. Also in 2018, an omnibus edition was released on consoles (and a year later on PC) Dark Souls Trilogy, containing all parts and DLC add-ons. In 2020, in turn, as one of the PlayStation 5 launch titles, a remake of Demon's Souls, as opposed to Dark Souls: Remastered created entirely from scratch on a new engine.

In each part of the series, the player creates his avatar with his own hands, determining his gender, appearance, name and profession - there is a range of classes to choose from, ranging from warriors to mages and thieves. For defeating opponents, we receive souls, serving both as experience points and as currency for which we buy items and upgrades.

Multiplayer gameplay has been resolved in an interesting way - it is closely integrated with the single-player campaign. During the gameplay we can create our own and read messages left by other players - this helps to locate traps, hidden passages or develop an effective strategy to defeat the boss. On the other hand, the game allows us to "invade" the world of another player and play a PvP battle with him.

Series Dark Souls is famous for its high level of difficulty. This is due to both the challenging clashes with opponents and the original system of punishment for losing. At the moment of death, the character loses all collected souls and is returned to the last bonfire at which he rested (these serve as a kind of save points). At the place of the character's death, a trace remains, the finding of which restores the lost resources. However, if we die again before reaching it, the trace is removed (and with it all the souls gained). In addition, every time we use the bonfire, all monsters except bosses are resurrected. As a result, the game requires learning from mistakes, and death becomes one of the mechanisms for informing how to deal with new challenges.

A characteristic feature of the FromSoftware series is also the unusual presentation of the storyline. In each installment, we will not experience extended cinematic interludes (with the exception of the intro). Instead, we get to know the history of the world and its most important characters by independently combining scraps of information taken from short dialogues, descriptions of objects or location designs. The matter is also complicated by the fact that certain elements of the story are ambiguous and even the developers do not have a detailed vision of the universe's past.

The series is set in a medieval stylized dark fantasy world. In addition to classic fantasy elements, such as magic and supernatural characters, there are also horror elements. Dark Souls over the years has developed its own distinctive visual style, which is dominated by the grotesque - especially disturbing are the designs of enemies. The climate is also worth noting: unlike most RPGs set in fantasy worlds, we are dealing here with the theme of an already started and unstoppable apocalypse. The world is heading to its end, and the player can at best delay its arrival or at least find his place in it before everything is engulfed in darkness. This gives the gameplay a unique, melancholy mood, often emphasized by an uplifting but sad soundtrack.

All installments of the series have sold a total of about 30 million copies. Thanks to the publishing house Titan Comics, several comic books set in the universe have also been published on the market, but the storyline in them was conducted in a clearer way than in the games.