Dark Souls Research Paper

858 Words2 Pages

Dark Souls is like owning a cat. Everyone loves cats, and you especially love yours. He is intelligent, fun, and endearing. You could never ask for a better cat. You love that little guy, and he loves you. Your cat only has one flaw. Every 4 minutes he claws you in the face. No reason, he just does. Every 5 minutes. Even at night. You recover, get 3 minutes of sleep, and then he scratches you again. And you love him. Dark Souls design choices are unique in that they allow the player to learn through playing the game. The gameplay teaches the player how to play. It utilizes death as a tutorial. This type of design choice is something VaataVidya calls implicit game design. It [implicit game design] is when a game doesn’t tell …show more content…

The player finds no up-front tutorials, no hard-to-miss explanations, no guides on the stat system, but is simply shoved out into the world and given boundless agency to explore. I believe Dark Souls is a success because it doesn’t help the player, and instead lets the player teach himself through observations about the world. I love that. I love when a game doesn’t hold my hand. There is always enough information at the player’s fingertips to solve any problem the game has to offer. Dark Souls doesn’t give direction, but any of the innumerable directions you move in hold unique, compelling …show more content…

Hovering above the corpse is a single, glowing orb. In the background, you hear a dull “thud…thud…thud” echoing through the cellars. As you activate the orb, a key enters your inventory as the pulsating ball simultaneously fades into the void. The key unlocks the door, and you are on your way. Looking right, you glimpse a grotesque demon creature tromping through a mammoth-sized underground cell, like the one you’ve just exited only far larger. The first time I discovered this, my inner monologue went something like, “Wait, what’s that? There is something glowing in there! Oh…oh no, that is an item. That means I’ll be fighting this monstrosity.” The first few moments of Dark Souls are absolutely crucial. They show that hovering orbs contain desirable commodities, they establish the ability to interact with items and doors in the game, and they teach you how to read the stunningly good level design via well-placed

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