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Dark Souls — news, coverage & facts — IJR

Development

Dark Souls was developed by FromSoftware and directed by Hidetaka Miyazaki, who also served as one of its producers. The game followed FromSoftware's 2009 action role-playing game Demon's Souls. Before release, Miyazaki said that Dark Souls was not a sequel to Demon's Souls, but a new game with similar concepts made by the same director and producers. Namco Bandai producers Daisuke Uchiyama and Kei Hirono similarly described it as a spiritual successor rather than a direct sequel, while noting that it shared much of the same development team and gameplay concept. Namco Bandai Games handled international publishing, while FromSoftware published the game in Japan.

Miyazaki said that the team intended to retain and increase the challenge associated with Demon's Souls, but not simply by making the game harder. Instead, the goal was to give players freedom to experiment with strategies and feel rewarded for overcoming obstacles. He described bonfires, referred to before release as "Beacon Fires", as recovery and respawn points that also served as rare places of warmth in the game's dark fantasy world.

The game's art direction was developed through a mixture of broad prompts and direct oversight. Miyazaki said that, during the early concept stage, he gave artists simple "image words" and allowed them to produce designs freely, after which he selected, revised, or incorporated their ideas. When designs had a more specific gameplay or worldbuilding function, he gave more detailed instructions about their use and placement. Miyazaki said he worked directly with each designer rather than assigning a single intermediary to manage the visual direction.

Miyazaki described the game's visual design as organised around several broad themes: gods and knights centred on Anor Londo, chaos and demons centred on Lost Izalith, death and decay centred on Gravelord Nito, and the ancient dragons. He also said he sought "refinement and elegance" in the game's designs, even in grotesque or decayed areas. Some locations drew on real-world architecture; a designer cited Milan Cathedral as a reference for Anor Londo's buttresses, while Miyazaki said that New Londo Ruins was based partly on Mont-Saint-Michel in Normandy, France.

Miyazaki later said that the manga series Berserk had influenced Dark Souls, although he said gameplay remained his first priority during the design process.

Marketing and release

Dark Souls was first released for PlayStation 3 in Japan in September 2011, followed by releases for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in Western regions the following month.

After the console release, fans campaigned for a Windows version. In April 2012, Namco Bandai Games confirmed Dark Souls: Prepare to Die Edition for Windows; Game Informer reported that an online petition with almost 100,000 signatures had played a major role in the decision to port the game. Producer Daisuke Uchiyama said that FromSoftware had not originally planned a Windows version and had limited experience porting games to PC, resulting in a version that was closer to a console port than a PC-specific conversion.

In August 2012, the Windows version was released and included new areas, bosses, enemies, non-player characters, equipment, and an online player-versus-player matchmaking system. The additional content was later released for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions as the downloadable content pack Artorias of the Abyss. The announcement that the Windows version would use Games for Windows – Live for online play and digital rights management prompted criticism from some players, including a petition asking Namco Bandai to use Steamworks instead.

After the Windows release, a user-created mod named DSFix was released to address the port's fixed internal rendering resolution. In December 2014, an update allowed players to migrate the Steam version from Games for Windows – Live to Steamworks while retaining save data and achievements; Steamworks became the default version in February 2015. In April 2016, Dark Souls became available on Xbox One through backward compatibility.

A remastered version, titled Dark Souls: Remastered, was released for PlayStation 4, Windows, and Xbox One on May 25, 2018, and for Nintendo Switch on October 19, 2018. It includes the base game and Artorias of the Abyss. The remaster added technical and multiplayer changes, including higher resolution options, a 60 frames-per-second target on PlayStation 4, Windows, and Xbox One, dedicated servers, and support for up to six online players; the Switch version runs at 30 frames per second.

Original release

Dark Souls received positive reviews from critics upon its release. One of the reviewers for Dark Souls described it as "a very hardcore dark-fantasy [role-playing game]" that is "role-playing right down to the roots", and stated that the "massive field map and powerful enemies serve to rev up both your sense of adventure and your sense of dread." Another reviewer said that "the sheer happiness you get after the trial-and-error pays off and you overcome the challenge is absolutely impossible to replicate."

GameSpot praised the online system and the sense of jubilation when conquering boss fights after numerous failed attempts. They also suggested that casual gamers may struggle to progress, whereas role-playing game enthusiasts will thrive on the difficulty. IGN complimented the level design, variety, strong emphasis on online features, excessively dark tone and atmosphere, and deep gameplay. While praising the extreme difficulty, they stated that "there's a difference between punishing, and downright unfair." Eurogamer also applauded the level design and atmosphere while noting that the game's difficulty might not appeal to casual gamers.

Edge retroactively awarded the game 10 out of 10 in their October 2013 20th anniversary issue, stating that the breadth and quality of the game's design had overruled complaints about its difficulty.

Game Informer Phil Kollar opined that "the frustration in Dark Souls arises from how [late '00s and early 2010s] games have conditioned us. Gamers are used to handholding tutorials that walk you through every aspect of a game’s mechanics." While complimenting the game's notoriously steep difficulty curve, Kollar was less favourable toward its "overall lack of direction".

In a review of Dark Souls in Black Gate, Connor Gormley said "I can't help but smile at all the things I've done in this game, from the serious and atmospheric, to the actually kind of stupid, like losing a fist fight with a giant mushroom man who I like to imagine has a thick cockney accent. I've given very few examples of the game's lore by design, because half of the fun is finding that out for yourself, at least if you're in it for the fantasy. It's an experience, one fueled by creativity and ingenuity, and it's one that I urge you to go out and at least try, regular gamer or not."

Namco Bandai's yearly financial report stated that the game sold 1.19 million units in the United States and Europe by March 2012. FromSoftware announced in April 2013 that the game had sold 2.37 million units worldwide.

Game writer Erik Wolpaw, an early proponent of the Souls series going back to 2009's Demon's Souls, said the game was his favourite of 2011.

Later releases

In GameSpy's review, the original Windows port was referred to as "shabby", citing the game's limit of 30 frames per second, poor mouse and keyboard controls, and nonadjustable resolution. However, the expanded content was praised, giving the game an overall favourable review.

Eurogamer commented on the quality of the port, stating: "Dark Souls: Prepare to Die Edition does not come with the technical options you would expect from a well-engineered PC game, because it's a port of a console game, and that's all FromSoftware ever promised to deliver. Anyone who passes up Dark Souls for this reason is cutting off their nose to spite their neckbeard of a face." One of the producers of Dark Souls II, Takeshi Miyazoe, responded to the criticism of the PC version by saying:

This is going to sound bad but our main priority was to get the game onto the PC as fast as possible, because people wanted it on the PC. The PC market in Japan is so minimal that originally there were no plans to make it on the PC, but with the strong petition from the North American and European fans, even with the lack of experience of working on a PC platform we still did our best to try to get it out as fast as possible. [The problems] were expected to a certain extent.

We did know there were PC-specific features like key-mapping and use of the mouse and keyboard, high resolution and higher frame rate, stuff like that, but... It's not that we ignored it, but it would have taken too much time for us to implement it, test it and get it up to the level people expected. It was more of a publisher (Namco Bandai) decision to say, "Guys, don't worry about this – let's just get it out and see how this works on PC."

Dark Souls: Remastered received "generally favorable" reviews from critics, according to review aggregator Metacritic. Critics praised the improved visuals and performance, while criticism was directed towards the lack of an effective anti-cheat system and the PC version's price despite few significant changes. It sold 71,739 copies in Japan during the week of its release, making it the best-selling game in the country at the time.

Awards

Game Revolution gave Dark Souls the Community Choice Game of the Year award. IncGamers also gave it the "Game of the Year" award. Q-Games' Dylan Cuthbert and Double Fine Productions' Brad Muir chose Dark Souls as Game of the Year. Electronic Gaming Monthly's Eric L. Patterson chose it as Game of the Year. GameTrailers gave it the "Best Role-Playing Game" award while also nominating it for the "Best Multiplayer Game", "Best Trailer", and "Game of the Year" awards. GameZone gave the game the "Best Action/Adventure" award and chose it as the runner-up for the "Best RPG" award. At the 15th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards (now known as the D.I.C.E. Awards), the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences nominated Dark Souls for "Role-Playing/Massively Multiplayer Game of the Year".

The Daily Telegraph gave the game the "Best Integration of Online Features" award and nominated it for the awards of "Best Director" (Hidetaka Miyazaki), "Best Level Design", "Best Sound Design", "Best Original Score" (Motoi Sakuraba), "Best Developer" (FromSoftware), and "Game of the Year". TeamXbox gave it an honourable mention as the runner-up for the "Best RPG" award. 1UP.com gave it the "Most Rewarding Game" award. Game Informer gave it the award for "Best Boss Fight" (Sif). It also received the "Best Boss Fights" awards from GameSpot, including the Editors' Choice and Readers' Choice awards. Famitsu gave it an Award of Excellence in its 2012 awards ceremony.

In 2013, Digital Spy named Dark Souls the best game of the seventh console generation. In 2014, Edge magazine named Dark Souls the best game of the seventh generation of game consoles, noting that while some may initially tire of it, "We've yet to meet a single player for whom persistence has not been enough to transform apathy into all-consuming love." In September 2015, Dark Souls topped the Edge's special issue The 100 Greatest Videogames.

In 2015, the game placed first on GamesRadar+'s "The 100 best games ever" list. The game was also put first on USgamer's The 15 Best Games Since 2000 list. The game was titled the "Best RPG on PC" by Rock, Paper, Shotgun. In 2016, Dark Souls placed fifth on PC Gamer's "Best RPGs of all time" list. In 2021, the game was voted the Ultimate Game of All Time at the Golden Joystick Awards.