Milestones in video game history – The Souls series

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For over ten years, the Souls games have delighted all gamers who love particularly difficult battles and sophisticated level design. However, the beginning of the series was a very rocky one.

A single video game series has not only massively shaped a genre, but invented it in the first place. The Souls trilogy was the catalyst for countless Souls-like games. Developer From Software created a basis for a completely new genre with these titles. Yet Dark Souls 1 was not even the first Souls-Like game from the developers. Demon’s Souls got everything rolling back then.

It was just a failure

It all came from the mind of Hidetaka Miyazaki, who started his career at From Software in 2004 as a lowly coder. At that time, the developer was still working on the Armored Core video game series. At that time, From Software was already developing Demon’s Souls. However, it was already considered an absolute failure during development.

Miyazaki had not been involved with the game before and his interest in it was piqued when he heard the company was working on a fantasy action role-playing game. Although the game was considered a classic fail, the developer wanted to gain complete control of Demon’s Souls so Miyazaki could do whatever he wanted with the title. “The best thing is if my ideas fail, nobody cares – it’s already a failure,” as Hidetaka Miyazaki explained in a (interview with The Guardian).

Finally, Miyazaki took charge of Demon’s Souls and turned everything around. However, this didn’t really seem to have helped the game in the beginning. On 5 January 2009, the title was released in Japan. There, the game failed catastrophically at the Tokyo Game Show. Most players couldn’t even get past the character creation process.

But it’s slowly picking up speed

However, the gaming community noticed all the surprises and challenges that Demon’s Souls brings. The challenging battles that punish players severely if they die, the complex weapon system and a world design that differed from the norm at the time showed gamers that this was not a simple fantasy game. This opened the doors to the West.

Sony did not initially believe in the game’s success and left the marketing for the European market to Bandai Namco. The then president of Sony Interactive Entertainment Worldwide Studios, Shuhei Yoshida, explained in an interview with (Magazine Gameinformer) that they simply did not see the value of it at the time. This is how Hidetaka Miyazaki made a name for himself in the gaming world.

On 25 June 2010, Demon’s Souls was finally released in Europe. Compared to Japan, the title convinced on the western market right from the start. It won one award after the next and was awarded several times for the best game of the year and best RPG. Demon’s Souls paved the way for the success story of the Souls series and one year later Miyazaki’s next creation was released.

Successors, spin-offs and an entire genre emerge

In 2011, the spiritual successor Dark Souls was released for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. Just like Demon’s Souls, the game demands everything from gamers. The players loved Dark Souls so much that they even started a petition for a PC version. This eventually led to the Prepare to Die edition, with new areas and probably one of the hardest bosses in the entire Souls series: Manus, Father of the Abyss.

The DLCs still surpass the main game in difficulty, as Manus impressively proves.
The DLCs still surpass the main game in difficulty, as Manus impressively proves.

With Dark Souls 2, the only one of these games where Miyazaki was not involved as a producer, the genre designation Souls-Like was established with the release of the game. This includes all games that are similar to the Dark Souls series in terms of style and game mechanics. They are action-packed role-playing games with very complex combat systems, consisting of light and heavy blows, as well as dodging and parrying.

The special thing about Souls-Like games is the high level of difficulty, which makes many players despair. You have to think around corners and try again and again to get through the tough bosses. Trial and error is the motto of Souls-Like games. There are now many titles that are not made by From Software but still fall into the Souls-Like category. The best-known examples are probably Nioh, Returnal or Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order.

But From Software itself is also staying true to its Souls-likeness. Not only did the studio release Dark Souls 3 in 2016, the last part of the Souls series, but Miyazaki also penned other grandiose games. Both Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice and Bloodborne were a gigantic success. The Dark Souls series alone has sold almost 31 million copies so far. In 2020, the sales figures were still at 27 million units.

In addition to the spin-offs and successors, Demon’s Souls was also given a remake. The game was released on 12 November 2020 exclusively for the PlayStation 5 and is one of the most beautiful games there. The first Dark Souls part was also re-released as a remastered version. In both games, the graphics were heavily reworked and improved.

Everything has an end, but now comes Elden Ring!

Dark Souls 3 heralded the end of the Souls series. However, it ends the series in a worthy manner with hard-hitting boss fights against Midir, Nameless King or even Gael. By May 2020, the game had already sold around 10 million copies. Although the game series had a very bumpy start, the titles established themselves as classics in the gaming world, paving the way for a completely new genre.

The latest Souls-like game from creator Hidetaka Miyazaki, now hailed as a genius, is already in the starting blocks and every Souls fan is eagerly awaiting the 25th of February – the release of Elden Ring is just around the corner. While it doesn’t belong in the Souls series, it could be a worthy successor from the founders of Souls-Like. After all, Elden Ring could be even better, since it was penned by two greats – Game of Thrones author George R. R. Martin and Hidetaka Miyazaki.