Gameplay Journal Entry #1
Dark Souls III
The game that I have chosen to play for this journal entry is an action-adventure video game called Dark Souls III. It was produced by the infamous Japanese game devolper FromSoftware who brought us many great action-adventure games such as Armored Core, Dark Souls, Bloodborne, and Elden Ring. Interestingly this game was set in a fictional medieval fantasy setting with knights and wizards aesthetic. It is still in its essence a ‘Japanese’ game in terms of its culture, narrative, mechanics, and eastern philosophy but the style looks distinctly western which creates a very bizarre mismatch of themes. The story and interactions with the silent protagonist and other NPC’s are minimal and are often a few lines of somber and depressing dialog. At times I feel like these interactions are deliberately aimed at the player to depress and deflate the player’s self-worth and capabilities to navigate the game’s extremely difficult challenges. I believe this to be reflective of Japanese culture and the social norms of FromSoftware employees, which can at times be in opposition to traditional game design norms. Their style is a subversive, anti-social, cyborg, ‘I hope you die game design’, ‘no one is going to hold your hand and instead slap it’, ‘no one cares, deal with it’, from beginning to end. With that design philosophy in mind the creators used their hegemony to influence players to accept and embrace and adopt the Dark Souls III’s core game design concept, that they are going to either overcome the insanely difficult and downright sadistic gameplay or crumble to pieces and give up:
Those who have the power in our societies to produce and circulate their meanings and interpretations ultimately generate a set of “hegemonic truths” which [. . .] assume an authority over the ways in which we think and act; that is they invite us to take up “subject positions” from which meaning can be made and actions carried out’ (Storey 2000: xi) p. 64.
The combat in this game is all about scoring hits on enemies while using a roll or movement to avoid damage. It’s a very simple concept but at times difficult to master when fighting multiple enemies, or when there is an extreme disparity between the health and damage output of the player and his/her opponent. This is also in addition to the wide variety of move sets the enemies and bosses possess. On more than one occasion I’ve been killed outright by a single hit. Experience is lost upon death but can be retrieved if players manage to retrieve their souls where they last died. Lastly, human players can connect to your session and invade your game if you use an ember buff which gives you additional health. The end result of all of these mechanics is that the player ends up dying a lot. For me personally, it had the effect of destroying my ego and fear of failure, and just to enjoy the game for what it is, an insane challenge scorned by many and loved by few.
Game Play Video: