The Design of Dark Souls

Hey everyone, and welcome back to The Makings of a Nerd, that blog where I'm finally done going over every Magic color in excruciating detail! Today I want to talk a bit about a game that has become pretty popular over the past few years, even spawning several sequels since its release in 2011. That game is Dark Souls, and in my opinion, it's one of the best-designed games I've played.

Yeah, this is pretty much the tagline. It's accurate.

Now, if you've never played Dark Souls, let's just put it in the following manner - it is not a game for beginners. (On that note, if you ever want to laugh, take your friend who has never touched a video game before, and tell them that "Dark Souls is really easy, you'll get the hang of it in no time.") The game and its sequels are designed around the idea that only a truly difficult challenge will leave you feeling satisfied when you finally overcome that challenge. As such, Dark Souls is no stranger to strong monsters, nefarious NPCs, and convoluted traps that will quickly kill you over and over again until you finally master that section of the game. Even after having beaten the game, I can go back to one of the beginning areas, and if I'm not careful, I can die within seconds.

But at its core, even though Dark Souls is a difficult game, it is ultimately a fair game (usually), and this is a large part of why I say it is one of the best-designed games I've played.

As an aside, before I delve into the topic in more detail, I don't know if I'd say Dark Souls is one of my favorite games. It's not something I can play casually - if I'm playing, my heart and soul have to be in it or it will get incredibly frustrating, sometimes to the point of not being fun. But you don't have to like Beethoven's music to agree that he's one of history's great composers. Dark Souls is a fun game, and a well-designed game, but I've had more fun playing other games.

Anyway, let's dive right in!

The setting

The first thing that should jump out at you when you play Dark Souls is the atmosphere. The general premise of the game is that in this world, undead exist, and while they retain their humanity for a time, they slowly become "hollow" and are driven mad. You are an undead who is trying to avoid that fate. As such, you begin the game in an asylum for the undead, and the asylum is crisscrossed with dark corridors, flickering torches, and rotting undead who have long since become hollow. It's a tough thing to describe through text, but it feels like a long-neglected asylum, in which the normal people of the world throw their undead and try desperately to forget about their existence. Every location in the game world is simply atmospheric, and I think a big part in this is played by the lack of music. Music only plays in about two locations in the game (not counting boss fights - more on music later), and as such, the game can't rely on music to set the mood. Ambient sounds, monsters and NPCs, and the setting itself need to provide that atmosphere.

Each location has its own quirks, and its own enemies, that

really work to set it apart.

Plus, very little information is actually told to you, as the player. NPCs give limited background, and what little they do tell you is often flavored by their own goals and motivations. The first NPC you meet upon escaping the asylum, a crestfallen warrior, will gladly tell you about some of the initial locations in the world, but the information is limited and given to you with more than just a hint of pessimism, as if he knows you're just going to fail at whatever it is you intend to do. If you want to learn more about the background of the world, you need to work to piece together what little information you glean from NPC conversations and the information obtained from reading item descriptions, and even then, you're given little more than a piecemeal account of the lore of the world. It's something that was done very well, and I think it is a fabulous way to tell an intricate story without shoving hours of exposition down the player's throat.

My other favorite thing about the setting of Dark Souls is that in general, if you can see a place, you can go to it. For instance:

This screenshot is taken in an area called the Tomb of the Giants. Far below, we can see what looks like a lake of magma, as well as some ancient buildings. That area is the Demon Ruins, and it's another location within the game. Of course, to get there requires traveling through about six other named areas, and would probably take about 15 to 20 minutes of just running, but they are connected. Plus, except for specific locations (like the Undead Asylum and one or two others), there are no loading screens between areas - everything is actually interconnected in the exact way it looks to be interconnected. Which I think is just a really cool thing about the design of the world.

The gameplay

What sort of discussion of a video game could I have without talking about the gameplay itself? As I said earlier, while Dark Souls is difficult, it is also fair - the game simply doesn't coddle you. If you die, it's essentially your own fault. Either you mistimed a dodge, or you blocked an attack poorly, or you attacked when you should have defended. Very rarely is a death actual unavoidable bullshit - the closest the game comes to that is the Anor Londo archers, and anyone who has played the game knows what I'm talking about there.

There's a lot to be said for the gameplay of Dark Souls, but I really just enjoy the checks and balances that are present throughout. Heavier armor slows down your movements and dodgerolls, but you won't get staggered as easily. Lighter armor allows for quicker movements, but you can't take a hit. A scimitar combos attacks really well but doesn't stagger opponents easily; a dagger is excellent for backstabbing but has terrible reach and deals little damage otherwise; a halberd has great reach but leaves you exposed after some attacks; a zweihander hits like a truck but takes an hour to swing. Nearly every decision in the game has an upside and has a downside, and despite the dozens upon dozens of potential weapons and armors in the game, very few of them can be said to be strictly better than any others.

Besides, you can wield silly weapons like this.

This is one of the smaller ones.

And of course, the last thing to mention is that Dark Souls really takes that "harder challenge leads to greater satisfaction" idea and runs with it. The bosses in particular can be insanely difficult, and can even feel like a game of "find the exploit," but once you do manage to beat them, there's little else like it. If you can get past the feeling of dying 17 times in a row to Ornstein and Smough, first.

Thunder and Thighs.

Snorlax and Pikachu.

Biggie Smalls.

Fatboy and Slim.

You get the idea.

The music

The last thing to mention about the design of Dark Souls is, of course, the music. Dark Souls has an epic, orchestral soundtrack... that really only plays during boss fights. And it makes the fights feel appropriately large-scale and, well, epic. Especially since you're typically fighting against giant animal-demons, grotesque dragon monsters, and ancient war heroes gone mad. Most fights have their own themes, and each one feels appropriate and on-point.

The rest of the time, the game is silent. There are only two locations in the game, and one is essentially a secret area. The other, Firelink Shrine, has one of my favorite music tracks in any video game soundtrack. Firelink Shrine is the first location you see after leaving the Undead Asylum, and you (as well as most NPCs) often return to it as a sort of base of operations. And the area is filled with somber, almost sad music. It's hard to describe in words, but in my opinion, it really embodies the sort of despair and melancholy but also the hope that pervades the game, not only in your own character but in the NPCs as well. There's not much more to say - have a listen!

So there you have it! There's a lot to say on the subject, of course, but for the sake of my poor typing fingers, I'll leave it there. Overall, a brilliantly well-designed game, for quite a few reasons!

...In my opinion, at least!

The Magic Color Series - Green Thumb

And now, ladies and gentlemen... the moment you've all been waiting for... the post where I finally stop talking about Magic: The Gathering colors every other week!

Probably. 

Three weeks ago, I wrote the second-to-last post in this series on the color red, which is a very simple color, all about passion and emotion and fire and dealing as much damage as physically possible in the shortest amount of time! This week, we'll be talking about green, which is another fairly simple color. Also, my favorite. But more on that later!

And we finally come full circle, to the top left!!

I won't bother with another description of the color pie and what it means - let's just hop right into it!

What does green represent?

In case you couldn't tell by now, the picture on a color's mana symbol often coincides with what the color represents. Red had a fireball, and was focused on fire and passion and emotion. Black had a skull, and was focused on death, especially as a tool to further one's own goals. So, let's take a moment and look above. 

Any ideas?

How about now?

If you guessed "nature," "trees," "plants," "growth," or anything like that, you'd be pretty spot-on. The biggest thing that green represents is growth, whether in a literal sense or in a more metaphorical, personal sense. That being said, green typically approaches growth through the lens of nature (although this isn't always true, especially when combined with one or more other colors). Green represents life - which overlaps slightly with white - as well as instinct. It's a pretty simple color, in all honesty - it's similar to red in that regard. You can sum up green, mostly, by saying that it represents life, nature, instinct, and growth. It does get slightly more interesting when we get to the gameplay, though.

What does this mean for gameplay?

I'm glad you asked! So when you think of nature, what's the first thing you think of? Is it bountiful land, full of trees and plants and whatnot? Well, seeing as green uses forests as its mana source, you wouldn't be too far off on that one. And with that, green is the color that's most focused on ramping up its mana base, whether through getting as many lands onto the field as possible or through the use of creatures that help produce mana.

Like this guy. Or the weird plant-person thing in the last picture.

If, instead of lands, you think of creatures when you think of nature, then you just hit green's favorite card type in the game. Green doesn't really care so much about spell-slinging with instants and sorceries - it's perfectly content just slapping some creatures onto the field and letting them have the run of the place. Green doesn't care for blue's machinations, or black's underhandedness. That's not green's style. If green is going to kill you, you'll see it coming from a mile away, but you just won't be able to do anything about it. It's like the inevitability that nature will reclaim all things, if you like analogies.

So, there are two general categories to how green plays with creatures. Option 1 is big armies of small creatures. Perhaps "armies" isn't quite the right word for it - green isn't as organized as, say, white is. But don't fret, green can easily have dozens of creatures on the field, all helping each other grow in strength (see what I did there?) and overwhelm the enemy. The most obvious creature type for this option is elves, of which green has a metric ton. Option 2, on the flip side, is small groups of big, stompy creatures. This is where you find your elephants, your hydras, and all other assorted beasts. Green is all about instinct and growth, like I said, so it plays very intuitively - build up your mana base early, maybe throw out a few weaker creatures to fend off an attack, and then end with some big monstrosities that'll show your opponent the brute force of nature.

Pictured left: Elves.

Pictured right: Beasts.

You get the idea.

However, like I said earlier, green doesn't play a manipulative game. Green doesn't use underhanded tactics to win. Its simplicity and its reliance on instinct can often be its downfall. It is very good at removing enchantments and artifacts (which can be seen as nature reclaiming what rightfully belongs to it), but it is comparatively terrible at removing creatures from the board. When it comes to creatures, green will always attempt to simply have the biggest ones around, and hopefully that will be enough. When it does come to targeted removal of opponents' creatures, this is where the "fight" mechanic comes in, of which green is the most prolific user. When you cast a spell that causes one creature to "fight" another, they essentially just damage each other as if one had just blocked the other in combat. It's a much more limited form of creature removal than, say, black's tendency to just murder things, but it suits green just fine.

Finally, to go right along with green's focus on growth, green is where you'll find the most cards that simply make your creatures bigger than they already are. This can take the form of temporary, "until end of turn" effects like the one seen on Giant Growth, or it can be a more permanent effect, such as a +1/+1 counter. Green likes both of these methods, and uses them both extensively. As long as its creatures are getting bigger, it doesn't much care how it happens.

I won't lie. I just love the picture from this card.

My opinions on the color:

As I mentioned in the red post, my preference is to play a creature-heavy game, and if that's the goal, there's no better color than green for the task. It sure as hell has the creatures to smack your opponents around, and it also has the mana manipulation (via land retrieval and creatures that produce extra mana) to get those big creatures on the field. And the other reason green is my favorite color in Magic is because of its directness. There is little more satisfying than watching a blue player attempt to control a green deck, only to have his attempts foiled by an ever-expanding barrage of giant beasts.

Also, hydras are probably my second-favorite creature type in the game (behind krakens, which are frankly the most green-like blue creatures around). 

I mean, look at that thing. How could you not just want, like, 

twelve of them?

But, as with many colors, green can be a bit boring on its own. In fact, I'd argue that green is one of the weaker colors on its own, too. White and black can absolutely hold their own in a mono-colored deck, while mono-red just kills you before you have a chance to play. Mono-blue can be tough. But while mono-green has the potential to be very strong (generally speaking, most green cards work at least somewhat well together), it does have some serious drawbacks in that it has little in the ways of control - especially for creatures. Plus, it is heavily reliant on mana, so if you target a green player's mana producers or simply destroy his lands (something that we in the MTG community generally refer to as "a dick move"), you can slow or halt a green deck's momentum. The other problem is that green has the fewest flying creatures in the game, so it can become quickly overwhelmed by a flyer-heavy deck if it doesn't have a creature with reach.

Overall? I'm a huge fan of green. To me, the only reason I don't like red is because when it comes to creatures, green does the same thing, just better. Personally, my favorite color combination is green/blue - use the blue to keep the opponent under control, until your big stompy green creatures can sweep in for the kill. Plus, it lets me use krakens and hydras in the same deck. Which is always awesome.

That's all for the Magic Color Series! To read more about green's place in the color pie, a series of articles was written by Mark Rosewater, Magic's current head designer, on the subject of the color pie. Which is really where I got a lot of my information about the colors anyway. You can find his article about green by clicking here.