I used to think that Dark Souls was a very serious game. A serious, serious game for serious, hardcore gamers. Grimdark, full of esoteric mysteries and depressing, philosophical themes. Tragedy in every sense. No hope for its characters. Any shred of light snuffed out by the encroaching shadow.
I have been delighted to learn in more recent years that this is actually wrong, and Dark Souls (and its sequels, both real and spiritual) are actually comedy games. Dark Souls is video-game Looney Tunes.
What the fuck is that?! A skeleton attached to a wheel of bones? A bonewheel? I guess?!
Yeah, that’s some of the funniest shit I’ve ever seen. It’s basically just this:
A lot of games try really hard to be funny via attempts at witty writing or quippy characters. Some succeed, some fail. But with Dark Souls (and Elden Ring , which I played a few years ago), FromSoftware proves it is is superb at something I imagine must be incredibly difficult to do in video games: physical comedy. You have to take into account player movement, enemy AI, objects getting caught on one another—the delicate dance required to make a physical gag happen in a game like this takes such an expert hand. And yet, FromSoftware manages to Wile E. Coyote the player into incredible slapstick moments over and over, through clever use of environmental hazards and very smart enemy placement within them.
Source link
