Critical Play: Worldbuilding

I chose to play the game Dark Souls III, an open-world RPG published in 2016 by Bandai Namco Entertainment. It is available on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Steam. The game revolves around a dark, somewhat mysterious, and religious theme of a broken, dying world stuck in an endless cycle of fire and darkness. The main character must go through challenges and choose whether to continue a dying system, create their own system, or let it end. This choice creates a conflict between the player and the world around them. As a result, this game is made for people who enjoy challenging action RPGs with dark fantasy atmospheres, deep environmental storytelling, and difficult combat. This is a classic type of Soulsborne game.

In general, Soulsborne games contain both cultural and societal traits in their characters, surroundings, and society. World-building in Dark Souls is crucial and meaningful, as it uses environments, architecture, dialogues between characters, and pieces of stories to slowly reveal a rigid social hierarchy and cultural system that has been seen to bring people pain and suffering for centuries. The game uses a mechanic of hiding all the clues and stories in the details, whether it is an object the protagonist (we as players) collects on our way, dialogue with different supporting characters, or different areas on the map.

The clear social class and hierarchy of the game is also revealed gradually through the clues in the game. For example, the gods and royalty are at the highest rank and live in closed, high castles. Below are the knights and clerics. The lowest level is the Hollows, which have already lost their conscious minds and are treated poorly in this society. They are often locked up and beaten up badly.

The Gods 

The Hollow Slave

The story takes place in the kingdom of Lothric and the surrounding lands during the final days of the Age of Fire. Everything feels like it’s in the middle of collapsing. The overall atmosphere of the game is dark, sorrowful, and melancholic. As a result, the environment is a strong stereotypical representation of a dying world. It is often gray or filled with ash. Buildings are crumbling, statues are broken, and many places feel abandoned or cursed. At the same time, there’s an atypical and beautiful aesthetic; for example, Irithyll of the Boreal Valley (portrayed below).

Irithyll of the Boreal Valley

 

An ashy and gray world

The character in the beginning has certain traits. For example, when you begin Dark Souls III, you need to choose a class (for example, you can choose warrior, thief, mercenary, or just barely deprived), which comes with different armor and equipment that immediately suggests a certain identity that represents your social status. And this is also a cultural trait, as the clothing and designs are pretty medieval European styles. If you choose to start as a warrior, you will begin with strong armor and a solid melee weapon. This makes the game feel more forgiving and encourages a straightforward, defensive, close-range fighting style. However, if you choose the deprived mode, it is the most difficult version of the game because you start with almost nothing, having weak stats and no equipment. This forces you to play very carefully and adapt quickly. However, all of these characters, if played correctly and appropriately, can arrive at the same destination at the end. So this brings up a question that allows players to think about: How can I find a place to fit into the system then overpower it? This can be seen as an interesting contrast when the deprived use tricks and clever methods to kill the gods and take their places and change the rules of the game.

As the game goes on, the character gains societal traits through the world around them. For example, at the end of the game, the player has three main options, and each one gives the Ashen One a different kind of identity: 

1. Link the Fire: You sacrifice yourself to keep the First Flame burning. In this path, the Ashen One takes on the role of a loyal servant to the old system. Culturally, this is what the world expects of you. Almost every major character in the game, including the Fire Keeper and the Way of White, pushes you toward this choice. 
2. The End of Fire: You refuse to link the flame, and the flame dies out. The player’s choice creates a “conflict” in the traditional norm that the fire must be kept alive at all costs. By walking away from the cycle, the Ashen One steps outside the social role that was assigned to them. This ending deviates from the usual fantasy stereotype. 
3. Usurpation of Fire: To achieve this ending, the players have to follow certain paths in the game. In the end, the player takes First Flame and becomes the Lord of Hollows. This choice allows the players to create their new social orders.

By asking players to make different choices, the game is actually asking them: What kind of person do you want to become in a broken system you’re born into? That feels very different from games that just hand you fixed racial traits at the start.

In the end, Dark Souls III shows that world-building is most powerful when it makes players question the systems inside the game instead of just accepting them. As the Fire Keeper says, “The fire fades… and the lords go without thrones.” How we, as potential lords, make decisions will impact the world that we are in.