3 Environmental Storytelling Techniques from Dark Souls

These are three specific examples of environmental storytelling from the first Dark Souls game that I think are highly applicable across multiple genres. Note that the primary purpose of this video is not to go in-depth on Dark Souls lore, but for anyone to understand the "mini-story" and think about how to apply it to 1) an analysis of other games or 2) designing your own games.

Also I really tried to get pretty, free-cam footage, but it kept getting corrupted. Apologies if some screen grabs are low quality, I was looking for images that illustrated the point rather than the visual flair. Really need to work on my "visual flair"....

I've decided to alternate between doing creative/design focused videos and technical videos each month, I post my monthly plan on my Patreon, Twitter, and Facebook so you know the upcoming topics. So there will be coding videos in July, and (likely) another "creative" video (writing/design/animation) in August.

The brief clip of Firelink Shrine bonfire going out is from "Ray Dhimitri"'s channel.

I've also been posting a bit more on my second channel, so feel free to subscribe there.

[jairoacosta]

thanks for the video. according to DS3, the "snake people" where humans that tried (or are trying) to become dragons through Seath's research and/or experiments. they are half snakes since it's believed the snakes are a form of an incomplete or imperfect dragon.

[CFilmer]

Environmental storytelling is possible in films and tv series as well.
In videogames it's just more noticeable in games because you can look at the envirements in your own pace.

[VotesNoToPVP]

The serpent men are in Sen's Fortress to capture victims and bring them so Seath for experimentation. The Cage Key is the source for this. This is why we find Logan alive in a cage and not killed by the serpent men. The cage containing a soul of a hero was a victim who was forgotten. The Titanite demons are born after the death of the blacksmith deity who MAY be a giant. After all, the blacksmith of the gods was the giant blacksmith. They are not linked to Izilith directly, although that is the home of the only respawning one. Also worth mentioning that the Titanite Slab is an heirloom of the nameless blacksmith deity and has a TLDR of the story of the game which includes the passing of the fire and rise of man so he must not have passed terribly long ago, especially since his monsters are in a building only a few centuries old. (The old trial for entering Anor Londo being in Oolacile before its fall 300 years before the player character arrived. Sources: Purple Cowards Crystal and Miyazaki Interview)

[THExRISER]

8:35 Finally someone said it, enemy placement is the most underrated form of story telling in games, the Crystal Golems in Darkroot Basin, the Basilisks in the Depths, the Crystal clams in Ash Lake the Channelers spread out across the game world, and of course, the Knights Of Berenike peppered from Undead parish all the way to Anor Londo.

There is so much you can say simply by placing enemies outside of their native areas.

[paokalexthes]

Any kind of Dark Souls analysis is more than welcome in my book, I would love to see more case studies on them.

[Alberto-vxev]

You've put more thought into these three circumstances of story-telling than most people will in their entire playthroughs. This video was in my recommendations so I literally know nothing about this channel or if you're involved in the Souls community at all, but any video that can open up people to at least give these genius games a shot without the typical, unbecoming attitude of "this game is unfairly difficult just for the sake of being difficult" or "this game has 0 story" gets a thumps up from me

[dificulttocure]

Dark Souls is the game with the best enviromental and non linear narrative I ever seen. The whole game is telling you its story all around every corner. That's why I hate it when people say the game has no story, the story is there and its amazing, you just have to look for it.

[cyco]

I love how much attention to detail From puts in their games, even the smallest of things is a well thought element that adds depht to the world building. This and the voids that should be filled by the players's own speculation, some people may go ahead and call them plot holes, but Miyazaki himself said these are intentional and I praise him for doing so, I've heard somewhere videogames ruin player's imaginations but these actually stimulate people to add their own unique toughts to the process and also brings them togheter to discuss and listen. This is one of the reasons the Dark Souls series are such masterpieces.

[PersonaRandomNumbers]

An example of a game that I just finished playing through -- Hyper Light Drifter uses various parts of the environment to convey that the world is in tatters: giant titans lay dead around the world, corpses are strewn across the ground or frozen in crystal, and almost everything has been taken over by ruthless leaders and their followers. Previous advancements can be seen through complex structures and strange technology throughout the game, which contrasts against the barely above subsistence lifestyle shown in the central town.

[GrandeMOficial]

Great video! DS is my favorite franchise.

[Galahaddruid]

Last month we gone over this topic on my GD course, but only after watching your video the concept became clear. Thank you very much miss.

[Mewseeker]

I have an example from the game Creepy Castle.
The 3rd scenario is called Depth in which the protagonist fall into the depths of earth and must explore lot of terrain to get out.
To do so, one must find various stones that act as keys to open the way.
After Depth is cleared, you may play Free Depth which is Depth but with the option of playing as one of the character you unlocked.
... except for some reason in there, Lock show up next to the first stone key item to descobe it.
Lock is a character that show up through the first scenario (Creepy Castle) to explain the role of the various key items you find.
He also somehow show up in the 4th scenario (Due Exaltation) to comment on a keycard,
the whole thing being noteworthy as the event take place on a faraway planet.
Yet, he doesn't show up in Depth but does so in Free Depth.
Something is up with both versions of Depth and some of the differences between those two are quite interesting.

[hazzmando]

Cool thing too; the King who wanted to get to Anor Londo, Knight Kind Rendal of Berenike - the guy who brought his knights to Sen's Fortress, who are now hollowed and are near the top - Rendal is in Anor Londo if you break the illusion and make it dark. he's in the main entryway with another guy in Berenike armour.

[FormedBox]

Another huge aspect of environmental storytelling in dark souls is the use of, or lack thereof of music in the game. Music only plays in:

Firelink shrine

Daughters of Chaos bonfire

Ash lake

And the kiln of the first flame

All of which hold significant lore and experiential value

[nelso]

I always noticed this in Dark Souls but never really thought about it until now. It's definitely one of the reasons why I love the DS narrative so much! I've found that survival games do this really well, The Forest, for example. Really cool video!

[quazillionaire]

If you haven't played ABZU, I highly recommend it for this reason exactly. There is very little explicit storyline, but if you look around the environment tells the story. It's gorgeous.

[CraftBasti]

This is awesome, this channel is awesone, you are awesome!

[asherblair]

i always liked kotor and kotor 2 (knights of the old republic). you would find items here and there that you would need to complete certain objectives. it's not that these items were really used to tell a story, (their budget was not that big) but the way they are used and in some cases carried around for forever! and used at a later time. in the case of kotor 2 you start to collect parts of a droid up till about half way through the game. by the time you finally find them all (if you've played the first game ) you realize that they are for an old droid called hk 47. i won't say everthing but nice to see my old psychotic freind again. seriously the guy was a hilarious nutcase.

[dannytbm]

I just started Dark Souls 2, and I know this video was about design, but wow. I'm going to read some Dark Souls 1 lore and make sure I keep my eye's peeled for story telling elements like these! Thanks for your videos!

[DarkKingHades]

The description for Demon Titanite explains that after the "nameless blacksmith deity passed" some of the titanite slabs came alive and grew into titanite demons. So yeah... they are just a sign of the times, another sign of how far the world has fallen since the first Age of Fire.