JoshBrannon

E tu, Illustrator?

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If you had asked me just a year and a half ago the question "can there be a perfect game without a real sense of any story or emphasis on your individual character?" I would have responded with something along the lines of "Why are you asking me such a ridiculous question? Of course not!" Oh how naïve I was back then! I have since had the pleasure of playing a game that totally changed my perspective on how a game can be fun and earned my respect and my pick as my favorite game ever. Dark Souls takes place in a time of knights, magicians, and really friggen hard boss fights.
      It all begins with an epic movie clip that, save for roughly 2 sentences of narration, explains nothing having to do with your character and absolutely nothing about the main chunk of the story besides what the bosses do in their spare time, like killing huge dragons made of stone scales. The first time I watched and listened I thought that this was the most visually stunning and, at the same time, utterly useless information that I have ever received, but then I watched it again. What I perceived on my second time through was more than just fancy visuals and a pleasant voice narrating, the story was unfolding before my very eyes in an indirect way (so indirect that I dare call it an anti-story), but I was either too awestruck by the visuals or too stupid to piece it together the first time. "Welcome to Dark Souls!" is the thought that now conjures in my head when I think of that moment.

If you are looking to break the mold of the same old generic game that spoon-feeds you the story as if you were a two year old being read a picture book then Dark Souls is the game for you! It's like having one of the old I Spy books set in front of you and being told "now figure out what happened", oh but then the person handing you the book also stabs you and you die. That happens A LOT in this game (the dying part, not the other part). Dying, in fact, is another important aspect of the anti-story. If you can make it a little bit of the way past the first real boss and not get killed by a giant fiery death dragon while innocently crossing a bridge … congratulations! Because you would have just made it further than me before I sold the game. After I sold it something was wrong; who was that first boss, why was there a giant dragon trolling that bridge, and why did I only get 25 dollars for it (it had just came out last week)? I couldn't leave these mysteries unsolved! I had to know, Dark Souls had me under it's spell.

I bought the game a second time, that's something that I can say for only 3 games I've ever owned. I played the game for the story after I got all the achievements out of it, that's an honor reserved for only 2 games in my life. The anti-story was just so compelling you had to play it at least 10 times over to understand it all. So I waited for the weekend, donned my detective hat, and went to town on this mysterious game that had been tempting my curious side. I have never for a moment regretted my decision to purchase this game again. I can only validate saying that it has a "bad" story because if most people were to play it they would say that it has no plot and no cohesive story. I would have totally agreed with them after my first playthrough too, and then after the second the beginnings of your higher cognition kick start, you begin to listen more carefully to what little the ten total NPCs have to say and piece it together with something you read in the description of that weapon that looks like a tree trunk or was it that one helmet that looks like a boars head?

As you delve deeper into everything the game has to offer your quest for knowledge overtakes you and before you know it you have a level 300 character and have spent well over 200 hours within the world, but you wouldn't trade it for anything. Like reading a book you can't put down you just power through all of the content and feel satisfied until you read that description of that knight guy that hasn't been referenced in anything else and then on goes the detective hat and gone are countless more hours. Now I sit and patiently wait for Dark Souls 2.

obsession the reiteration of a singular idea for the sole purpose of contentment of the mind. thinking about the light, the light of the world, the light that puts your mind at ease, the light, the light that breathes life into the hollow emptiness of one's soul, the light that shows you what you want to see how you want to see it, the light that brightens the void of a thousand nights, the light that we walk toward, the light that marks the end of the journey.