So this is more a discussion about general themes in games rather than gameplay or specific plot details. I always found theme more interesting than story. Having replayed Dark Souls 3 for the millionth time I was still mesmerized how this game has the best post-apocalyptic world ever made. It doesn’t try to pretend some real life scenario gone wrong with relatable characters and story but rather tries to emulate what the end of the world would be like with an artistic approximation instead. Lothric, the first area in particular sets the tone. Seeing the sun set on all that former grandeur as the architecture crumbles to dust in the wind under that warm glow. It helps you’re literally of that same ash that has been resurrected from the grave, a grave you can even visit!
It doesn’t stop here as the decay betrays not just the end of the world but also the erasure of the past through accumulation of death that can no longer be disposed of and the loss of knowledge. The past is quite literally cannibalized and replaced by the antithesis of life that broke the chain of human succession and drowned it in a lake of black tar. The theme of the series has always been Fire, the comforting warmth that sustained humanity. It could be metaphoric for life, the limited energy that is eventually spent then life ends and the dead flesh is ultimately reduced to bone and then to dust. But what can still be resurrected if the entirety of life have ground itself to dust and civilization has fallen into ruin under the setting sun?
It’s a theme that really resonated with me because it’s realized with such artistic splendor and creative genius. The way the world twists and turns as it becomes one and the same. It’s a funeral dirge for the entire human spirit from inception to end. But it doesn’t realize it with apocalyptic end of the world scenarios but rather as the intimate experience of an individual burial. The entirety of civilization on the graveyard gave the game a feel like you were reading it it’s last rites with the futile ceremony you were embarked upon. Whatever theme the first game had has now been made redundant.
What I love so much about the game is that it basically envisions the world as one giant Capuchin Crypt. It’s in the Santa Maria church in Rome I visited a few years ago that houses the skeletal remains of somewhat 3700 dead Friars. It’s not meant to be macabre entertainment, and it’s not set up to be, but a solemn reminder of our own mortality and the swift passage of life. A placard in the crypt declares: ‘’What you are now we used to be; what we are now you will be..’’ Now ofcourse DkS3 is intended for entertainment and the game is exceptional in that regard(atleast in my opinion) but the fact it harbors such introspective reflections on death and loss with such meditative artistic inspirations make it go above and beyond what is normally expected.
And that is just the first area! The game has equally interesting things to say about revisionist history exhumed from collective memory for nefarious intentions. In the Irythyll chapter the past is literally fed to the monstrous hunger of an insatiable devourer. Beauty, stature, elegance, pride, authority, culture; spoiled by darkness and vermin that epitomizes it’s demise. It will not be war or disease or human folly that will be triumphant at life’s end. Those still continue life’s legacy. It will be vermin and desecration of life’s legacy that concludes the futility of existence. The stellar artistic vision again sets the tone with Irythyll in this wintery, fairytale picture book with the bright moon and dark night. The comfort is superficial which makes the theme that much more poignant.
But anyways this game is a product of exceptional creativity and vision. The artwork looks like something you could find in a museum. It’s something that never stops intriguing me. Feel free to post about themes in games you found really interesting.
It doesn’t stop here as the decay betrays not just the end of the world but also the erasure of the past through accumulation of death that can no longer be disposed of and the loss of knowledge. The past is quite literally cannibalized and replaced by the antithesis of life that broke the chain of human succession and drowned it in a lake of black tar. The theme of the series has always been Fire, the comforting warmth that sustained humanity. It could be metaphoric for life, the limited energy that is eventually spent then life ends and the dead flesh is ultimately reduced to bone and then to dust. But what can still be resurrected if the entirety of life have ground itself to dust and civilization has fallen into ruin under the setting sun?
It’s a theme that really resonated with me because it’s realized with such artistic splendor and creative genius. The way the world twists and turns as it becomes one and the same. It’s a funeral dirge for the entire human spirit from inception to end. But it doesn’t realize it with apocalyptic end of the world scenarios but rather as the intimate experience of an individual burial. The entirety of civilization on the graveyard gave the game a feel like you were reading it it’s last rites with the futile ceremony you were embarked upon. Whatever theme the first game had has now been made redundant.
What I love so much about the game is that it basically envisions the world as one giant Capuchin Crypt. It’s in the Santa Maria church in Rome I visited a few years ago that houses the skeletal remains of somewhat 3700 dead Friars. It’s not meant to be macabre entertainment, and it’s not set up to be, but a solemn reminder of our own mortality and the swift passage of life. A placard in the crypt declares: ‘’What you are now we used to be; what we are now you will be..’’ Now ofcourse DkS3 is intended for entertainment and the game is exceptional in that regard(atleast in my opinion) but the fact it harbors such introspective reflections on death and loss with such meditative artistic inspirations make it go above and beyond what is normally expected.
And that is just the first area! The game has equally interesting things to say about revisionist history exhumed from collective memory for nefarious intentions. In the Irythyll chapter the past is literally fed to the monstrous hunger of an insatiable devourer. Beauty, stature, elegance, pride, authority, culture; spoiled by darkness and vermin that epitomizes it’s demise. It will not be war or disease or human folly that will be triumphant at life’s end. Those still continue life’s legacy. It will be vermin and desecration of life’s legacy that concludes the futility of existence. The stellar artistic vision again sets the tone with Irythyll in this wintery, fairytale picture book with the bright moon and dark night. The comfort is superficial which makes the theme that much more poignant.
But anyways this game is a product of exceptional creativity and vision. The artwork looks like something you could find in a museum. It’s something that never stops intriguing me. Feel free to post about themes in games you found really interesting.
