A Look at the Dark Souls Trilogy

The Dark Souls games are well known for their difficulty, and until a few years ago, I had never played one. With the holiday season rolling around again, I find myself thinking back on the series and how much it surprised me. To talk about Dark Souls as a trilogy, I have to start where I did: Dark Souls III.

Dark Souls III

In 2022, a friend of mine was determined to convince me to buy a new game to play together. The one he settled on was Dark Souls III. I was firmly against it at first. I didn’t want to spend my time off playing something I assumed would be monotonous, frustrating, and stressful. I wanted to relax.

Eventually, I gave in and bought the game. I’m not the type to spend money on something and let it sit untouched, so my friend and I jumped in right away.

It took nearly two hours just to get into each other’s world so we could play together. I knew Dark Souls was supposed to be challenging, but I didn’t expect the menus to be part of that challenge. This was the first game I had ever played where simply joining a friend felt like a puzzle in itself. When everything finally clicked and we managed to connect, we set off, confused, underprepared, and unsure of what we were even working toward.

That’s when the game began to show me why people love it.

The world of Dark Souls III is bleak, but there’s a strange beauty in that bleakness. Every location feels long past its prime, decaying, abandoned, and hostile, even before accounting for the creatures that inhabit it. Experiencing that world alongside a friend made it feel less oppressive and more intriguing. It became the two of us against a broken world, pushing forward toward a goal we barely understood.

The environments are consistently striking, matched by excellent enemy and character design. The game’s visual identity reinforces its themes at every turn, making exploration feel meaningful even when it’s punishing.

Where Dark Souls III shines most for me is in its score and gameplay. The music knows exactly when to pull back and when to overwhelm you. Quiet exploration is often accompanied by minimal sound, making the transition into a boss encounter when the music swells into something dramatic and powerful, feel earned. Those moments elevate the tension and give the battles a sense of scale that sticks with you.

The combat itself is fluid and deliberate, with a difficulty that largely depends on how you choose to engage with it. If you want the game to be brutal, you can tackle it alone with minimal gear. If you want it to be more forgiving (and more fun in my opinion) you can play with a friend and get ready to roll a lot. Enemy and boss attacks are clearly telegraphed, encouraging you to learn patterns and improve over time. What initially feels overwhelming eventually becomes manageable, and finally, deeply satisfying. I even went on to get every achievement in the game, and unfortunately sorry ladies, I’m taken.

Dark Souls III was my entry point into the series, and it completely reshaped how I viewed these games. What I expected to be frustrating and monotonous turned out to be challenging, atmospheric, and surprisingly rewarding enough to convince me to play my next Dark Souls game.

Dark Souls

My experience with Dark Souls III set expectations that the original Dark Souls was quick to undo. I had grown comfortable with frequent bonfire checkpoints, fast travel between familiar areas, and an overpowered build that made me feel untouchable. Dark Souls takes those comforts away almost immediately.

My friend and I played through much of Dark Souls together as well, and this time we at least knew how to get into each other’s worlds without a two-hour struggle. We were ready, or so we thought. Dark Souls is slower and more punishing than the games that followed. Swing your sword too close to a wall and it will bounce off with a loud, unforgettable clang, leaving you open and feeling like a common fool. The game is more than happy to punish sloppy positioning, dropping you into narrow corridors filled with poison-biting rats and enemies that seem perfectly designed to instil a deep rage in you.

It wasn’t until I explored further that the design philosophy started to click. The lack of frequent bonfires isn’t an oversight from the developers. The world is intricately interconnected, constantly looping back on itself through shortcuts and hidden paths. There’s a genuinely satisfying moment that comes from being deep in a dungeon, riding an elevator, and realizing you’ve somehow returned to the main hub where your journey began. Visually, the environments are beautifully designed but utterly devoid of life. Like Dark Souls III, everything feels abandoned as if you arrived just after something important ended and all that remains is the mess. I won’t pretend to fully understand the story, because Dark Souls doesn’t make it easy. Its narrative is obscure by design, and understanding even the basics requires digging far beyond what the game directly tells you. I don’t want to read the item description of a burlap sack to get a big lore dump on the world.

The combat and soundtrack remain standout elements. The music elevates major encounters, and the deliberate, methodical combat rewards patience and learning. Boss fights are once again about observation and timing, and experiencing them alongside a friend makes the journey feel less isolating. Walking through a world that feels long past living is far more tolerable when you’re not doing it alone.

That said, I still prefer Dark Souls III by a considerable margin. I know that’s borderline heresy to some Dark Souls purists but wait until you hear what I have to say about Dark Souls II.

Dark Souls II

Dark Souls II is often considered the black sheep of the trilogy, but if that’s the case, then I’m a merchant who deals exclusively in black wool. This game rules. Sorry, I liked it a lot.

After finishing Dark Souls, I went into this entry with no expectations, fully prepared for it to be the weakest based on its reputation online. Instead, I was immediately surprised by how much better it controls and handles compared to the first game. The environments remain beautifully designed, the music is consistently strong, and the opening cinematic is chef’s kiss. Walking into Majula for the first time was a standout moment, it’s my favourite hub area in the entire series.

Since my first playthrough of the trilogy was heavily focused on co-op, Dark Souls II ended up being an excellent experience. The game gives players more ways to heal and stay alive, which makes it easier to remain in each other’s worlds for longer stretches of time. Yes, having to level a stat to improve your dodge is a questionable choice, but in practice it didn’t bother me nearly as much as people make it out to. I threw on a heavy set of armor, let enemies try to hurt me and all they hurt was my feelings. While I appreciated the interconnected world design of Dark Souls, the looser structure in the later entries never bothered me. I like fast travel, and I don’t think it’s a flaw. Dark Souls II also introduces Bonfire Ascetics, which allow you to reset areas and increase their difficulty, an excellent addition that gives players more control over how challenging the game becomes.

Overall, Dark Souls II was simply fun to play. Even if many of the bosses weren’t particularly challenging, the game’s systems, pacing, and co-op-friendly design made it the a very enjoyable entry in the trilogy for me, yes even more than Dark Souls. But the Shrine of Amana deserves to have firebombs dropped over it from orbit, that place sucks.

Conclusion

Each of these games stands on its own, and together they turned me into a fan of the franchise. The worlds are bleak and unforgiving, filled with madness and monsters, but playing through them with a friend transforms the experience. In a series defined by darkness, companionship becomes its own kind of light.