Good Game, Bad Game: What’s the Difference?
Part 1 — Storytelling in Dark Souls
What makes a videogame good? A question that has existed since the beginning of time……
Or, y’know, since the 80’s, when videogames became properly commercialised.
I dunno.
Stop nitpicking.
Moving on quickly, this is an important question. With modern gaming being the billion dollar industry that it is, the answer to it is also very highly coveted.
The problem lies in that there’s no set answer to it. Not really.
I know wat you’re thinking. Allow me to explain.
Everyone looks to games for different things: Escapism, hanging out, challenges. The definition of “good” for each of these is also relative to each person.
In this vein, it’s kinda hard to compare something like Mario with, say, Call of Duty. Both successful franchises but with wildly different styles.
So, how do we go about figuring out what is good and what isn’t?
Well, we break it down. We pick a genre, we choose a couple of similar titles, and we compare them.
Simple, right?
My thoughts exactly.
To illustrate this, let’s take some examples: Dark Souls and Lords of the Fallen.
Dark Souls, the famously hard RPG by FromSoftware, is a highly praised masterpiece which has gone on to spawn a series of successful sequels.
In fact, it is has been so popular as to create an entire new sub genre of RPG — the “souls-like”.
Lords of the Fallen, on the other hand, has not shared quite the same success.
Initially surrounded with a lot of hype, everything pointed towards it being a worthy competitor to the Dark Souls series.
Upon release, that hype appeared woefully unfounded. Now, the game is mostly forgotten, left to the annals of history as just one more mediocre title.
But why?
Side by side, the games share a lot of common features:
- Both are set in open worlds.
- Both use skill based combat systems involving a variety of weapon and magic types.
- Both heavily incorporate grim-dark environments and story elements.
So, what makes one better than the other?
In this series, that is the question I hope to address.
Without any further ado, let’s start with everyone’s favourite masochism simulator: Dark Souls.
Dark Souls, Darker Story
As we all know, Dark Souls is famous for two things: punishing difficulty and cryptic story telling.
For now, let’s discuss the latter.
It’s probably a safe bet to say a lot of Dark Souls players merely “play” the game. They collect weapons, improve their character, explore around the place and murder things.
Oh, and die.
A lot.
However for those prepared to dig a little deeper, a wealth of information awaits. The majority of the series story must be pieced together from fragments and tidbits found throughout the game.
This can literally be anything from item descriptions, passing character remarks and even to boss and environment designs.
It’s only by combining the information gathered from all of these — plus some creative licence — that a sort of coherent image can be created.
Now, you might be thinking: What’s the reason for this utterly bizarre setup?
The answer: Series creator Hidetaka Miyazaki’s childhood.
Growing up, Miyazaki used to read adventure novels in English. Thing is, his English wasn’t very good at the time. To make up for this, Miyazaki would fill in the gaps with his imagination and creativity.
This experience is heavily reflected in his work. As an example, let’s look at one of Dark Souls’ best (and saddest) stories………
The Tale of Siegmeyer the Onion Knight
You first meet Siegmeyer outside the locked gates of Sen’s Fortress. He greets you in a jovial manner, a brightness in his voice despite the tone of the world around him.
You find out he’s been sitting there for quite some time, ruminating on how best to get in. Unfortunately, he’s a little stumped.
Not to worry, as you eventually find a way to open that gate, solving the problem for the both of you. Once informed of this wonderful news, he thanks you heartily, and proceeds on his merry way inside.
However, upon entering the fortress, you find him once again. This time, he is befuddled by another obstacle: a deadly rolling ball puzzle.
Siegmeyer considers how best to approach this fiendish trap. His options include:
- Out running the balls
- Out rolling the balls
- Mmmmmmmming
A champion of rumination in his homeland, Seigmeyer falls on his greatest skill while he regroups. Meanwhile, you make your way through the fortress and remove the obstacle from your paths. Once again, he thanks you, and then continues on his journey.
But this isn’t the last time you help him out. Every where you meet Siegmeyer, he’s stuck with no recourse. And it’s always you who gets him out of it.
Despite being thankful for your help, it must be kept in mind that Siegmeyer is a very prideful man. A man of action. For such a person to be repeatedly saved by another takes a heavy toll on the ego.
Eventually, in a last-ditch effort to make an impact, Siegmeyer will attempt to sacrifice himself for you. This can go one of three ways:
1. You kill the enemies he would fight off before he even gets there
2. You kill the enemies with him and he almost dies during it
3. You kill the enemies with him and he barely takes a scratch
If you choose option 1, his quest ends there, and you are again commended for your prowess. If option 2 occurs, Siegmeyer will lay down to rest and die feeling like he made a difference.
If option 3 occurs? Well…..
Farewell, Dear Friend
With nothing to protect and his self-confidence shattered, Siegmeyer gives up.
If you’ve been keeping up with his daughter Sieglinde’s story, she will tell you that her father has went on one last adventure to Ash Lake.
Go there, and you’ll see Sieglinde, sobbing over the corpse of her father. Having turned Hollow (what happens to a soul in-game when they lose themselves), she struck him down to finally end his misery.
Thus ends the sad, sad tale of Siegmeyer of Catarina.
And it was all your fault.
The Devils in the Detail
Rough thinking about that, ain’t it?
This is really the key as to why the Souls story works so well.
The game purposefully includes you as the active component in its story telling. You shape what happens. A tale in which you can add something of yourself becomes far more meaningful.
Once you’ve recovered emotionally, you can see that this is a truly excellent of example of Dark Soul’s “show, don’t tell” style.
Siegmeyer never says he resents you, never asks you to stop doing what you’re doing. His misery is self-contained, hidden behind that jovial exterior we had come to love throughout the game.
It’s the subtle things you need to notice to piece it together. Slight changes in his dialogue, the increasing recklessness of his actions — these all pointed to his deteriorating mental state as his desperation for validation grew.
Remember kids, it’s the little things that matter.
Seigmeyer’s story is merely one of several character arcs developed in a similar manner in Dark Souls. Not all are so heart-breaking (check Solaire’s story out if you haven’t cried enough), but each requires a similar method in order to fully grasp what’s going on.
In the next instalment, we’re going to analyse the gameplay mechanics of Dark Souls, and how it teaches you to play the game in an intuitive way.
I hope to show that, although famed for its “unfair” difficulty, it’s actually one of the best at showing you how to learn, not just giving you the answers.
(None of this “press Y to breathe” nonsense — looking at you, Ubisoft).
Until next time!
Note: For those interested in learning more about the lore of the games, Youtuber VaatiVidya has an excellent series dedicated to just that.
Click here for part 2!
