Dark Souls is a dark fantasy action game series made by FromSoftware and released by Bandai Namco Entertainment. The series was created by Hidetaka Miyazaki and first came out in 2011 with Dark Souls. Two more games followed: Dark Souls II in 2014 and Dark Souls III in 2016. The games are widely praised, especially for their challenging gameplay. The first Dark Souls is often called one of the best games ever made. By 2025, the series had sold more than 39 million copies worldwide. Other games by FromSoftware, such as Demon's Souls, Bloodborne, Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, and Elden Ring, share similar ideas and helped create a new type of game called the Soulslike subgenre.
Setting
The games are set in the lands of Lordran, Drangleic, and Lothric. In these places, the player's character battles knights, dragons, phantoms, demons, and other strange or magical creatures. Gaining, losing, and getting back souls are important parts of the story and how the game is played in Dark Souls. The games share the same setting and a main story that repeats, focusing on fire. They also have similar themes and features, such as fighting phantoms and demons. At the end of each game, players can choose to restart the "first flame" or let it go out, making a decision that other players have made before.
Gameplay
The Dark Souls games are played from a side view, not inside the character's head. Players explore connected areas while fighting enemies using weapons and magic. To move forward in the story, players must defeat bosses. They can also talk to non-playable characters. Each game allows players to create a character with different traits, such as gender, looks, name, and starting class. Players can choose from classes like knights, barbarians, thieves, and mages. Each class starts with specific tools and abilities that players can improve as they play. Players earn souls by defeating enemies. Souls act as both experience points to grow stronger and as money to buy items. The number of souls earned depends on how hard the enemy is; harder enemies give more souls.
A key part of the game is how it handles progress, death, and improvement. Bonfires are checkpoints that restore health and other resources when used. However, using a bonfire also makes enemies and obstacles reappear, making it harder to return to the same spot later. If a player loses all their health and dies, they lose their souls and are sent back to the last bonfire they used. If they can return to where they died without dying again, they can recover their lost souls. If they die again before reaching that spot, the souls are gone forever. Using a bonfire manually after death has the same effect as dying, except players lose currency at the place of death, which can be collected without penalty. This system encourages players to learn from mistakes, as no progress is lost if they can return to the spot where they died. As players repeat steps after dying, they defeat more enemies, earning more souls and growing stronger.
Online features in Dark Souls are part of the single-player experience. Players can see other players as ghosts in the same area, which may reveal hidden paths or switches. When a player dies, a bloodstain appears in other players' worlds. Activating the bloodstain shows a ghost of the player's final moments, helping others avoid the same danger. Players can leave messages on the ground to give tips or warnings. Multiplayer can include fighting other players or working together using invasion or summoning features. Players can also join covenants, which act as groups that help players explore more multiplayer options.
Games
Dark Souls is the first game in the series. It is inspired by Demon's Souls, a game released in 2009. FromSoftware wanted to create a sequel to Demon's Souls, but Sony owned the rights to the game, which prevented them from making it available on other platforms. Dark Souls was released in 2011 for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. In 2012, a version called Dark Souls: Prepare to Die Edition was released for Windows, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360. This version included the base game and extra content called Artorias of the Abyss. The game is set in a fictional kingdom called Lordran. Players control a cursed human character who escapes from a place called the Northern Undead Asylum and tries to learn about the fate of other undead humans. The story is told through details in the environment, item descriptions, and conversations with non-playable characters (NPCs). Players must find clues to understand the story, rather than watching traditional cutscenes. Dark Souls and its predecessor, Demon's Souls, are known for being very challenging. A version with improved graphics and gameplay, called Dark Souls: Remastered, was released in May 2018.
Dark Souls II was first announced in late 2012 during the Spike Video Game Awards. This is the only game in the series where the director, Hidetaka Miyazaki, did not return, though he still helped oversee the project. The game was released in 2014 for Windows, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360. In 2015, an updated version called Dark Souls II: Scholar of the First Sin was released for Windows, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One. This version included extra content called The Lost Crowns. The game takes place in a kingdom called Drangleic, where players must find a cure for an undead curse. While it shares the same universe as Dark Souls, it does not directly connect to its story.
Dark Souls III was released in 2016 for Windows, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One. The game moves faster than previous Souls games, partly because it was influenced by another game called Bloodborne. The story takes place in a kingdom called Lothric, where players must end a cycle called "linking the Flame." In 2017, a complete version of the game was released, including the base game and two expansions called Ashes of Ariandel and The Ringed City. This version was titled Dark Souls III: The Fire Fades Edition. Dark Souls III was both praised by critics and successful in sales. It sold over 10 million copies by 2020, making it the fastest-selling game in Bandai Namco's history at the time (until Elden Ring surpassed this record). In 2015, Miyazaki said Dark Souls III would likely be the last game in the series, as FromSoftware planned to focus on new projects unrelated to the Souls series.
Other media
A comic book by Titan Comics, based on the series, was released at the same time as the video game Dark Souls III in 2016. Around the same time, a Kickstarter campaign for a licensed board game called Dark Souls: The Board Game, created by Steamforged Games, was announced. The campaign raised money quickly, within the first three minutes of its launch, and the game was released in April 2017.
In February 2017, music from the series, composed by Motoi Sakuraba, was played by a live orchestra at the Salle Pleyel concert hall in Paris. In September of that year, a special vinyl box set containing the soundtracks from all three games was released in Europe. In Japan, a box set with improved versions of all three games for the PlayStation 4, their soundtracks, bookends, artwork prints, and books that explain every item in the games was released on May 24, 2018. Experts have discussed the romantic themes in the setting of Dark Souls III, focusing on its impressive and awe-inspiring elements.
Related games
Released in 2009 for the PlayStation 3, Demon's Souls is considered the inspiration for the Dark Souls series. It is also linked to the King's Field series of games, though it has its own unique design ideas. The game was influenced by other video games like Ico, The Legend of Zelda, and Otogi: Myth of Demons, as well as manga such as Berserk, Saint Seiya, and JoJo's Bizarre Adventure.
Unlike later games in the series, Demon's Souls uses a central area called the "Nexus" where players can improve their character, fix their gear, or buy items before exploring one of five connected worlds. A feature called "World Tendency" is only in Demon's Souls. This system changes how hard a world is to explore based on how many bosses players have defeated and how they die. The game includes a character-creation system and focuses on collecting items by fighting enemies in different, non-linear locations. It had an online multiplayer system that let players leave messages for others, help them, or challenge them. The multiplayer feature was removed in early 2018 after the game's servers were closed.
The King's Field series, also made by FromSoftware, is seen as the inspiration for later games in the Dark Souls series. It first came out in 1994 for the PlayStation and had three follow-up games.
In February 2016, Bandai Namco Entertainment worked with GameStop to release Slashy Souls, a free-to-play mobile game that resembles an endless runner. The game was designed to promote Dark Souls III and used pixel art, similar to the Dark Souls series. It was very poorly received by critics, with some reviewers giving it a score of 1 out of 10.
Reception
The Dark Souls series has received high praise from critics, with the first game often considered one of the greatest video games ever made.
The "bloodstain" gameplay mechanic has been widely recognized for its importance in the series. David Craddock of Shacknews described it as a central feature of the games. He noted that the most severe penalty in a Souls game is "not dying once, but twice." GamesRadar+ praised bloodstains, along with Demon Souls's message system, as a "graceful, elegant way" for players to guide each other without using words. They also stated that "rarely has the price of failure been balanced on such a precarious knife edge" as retrieving a bloodstain after death.
The bonfire concept was also highly praised. Matthew Elliott of GamesRadar+ called bonfires a powerful symbol of relief and described them as "a mix of progress, exhaustion, and joy." He noted that while other games use save points to evoke emotions, no other game does so as effectively. Vice described the bonfire as "a mark of genius" that "reinvented the save point" and allowed players to reflect on their progress.
As of 2024, the Dark Souls series had sold 37.33 million copies outside of Japan. Dark Souls III set sales records upon release, selling over three million copies worldwide by May 2016. It was Bandai Namco's fastest-selling game until Elden Ring surpassed it in 2022.
The Soulslike genre was inspired by features common to the Dark Souls series, leading to many games adopting similar mechanics. Other FromSoftware games directed by Miyazaki, such as Demon's Souls, Bloodborne, Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, and Elden Ring, share many of the same ideas found in the Souls series and are often grouped under the "Soulsborne" label.
The series has also influenced several PlayStation Network features, including asynchronous messaging, social networking, and video sharing. It has also been cited as an inspiration for the television show Stranger Things.