Dark Souls 3 will supposedly be the last of the cycle of flame and dark, but that doesn’t mean from Software should shelve the soul found inside.
“Souls-like” is a term that From Software’s line of action RPGs kindled as the kind of subgenre other games and series would kill to have. Thus many a title have attempted to emulate the Souls style in different settings with additions and subtractions to see what sticks. As good as some of these games are, including the recent Salt and Sanctuary, there’s nothing more pure than the undiluted agony of a From Software certified Souls game.
After the “final” Dark Souls, the company may be looking for new lenses to bend the formula through ala Bloodborne’s Lovecraftian take. Here are five places that would be awesome, weird, and maybe even logical for the formula to go next.
Greek/Roman Gods
This first one should make God of War look like an 80’s commercial for toothpaste. Roman and Greek gods were notoriously vengeful beings, taking human form to curse entire armies and countries to death and famine. Of course, their power was also unmatched; the few Titans and demi-gods that challenged the likes of Zeus or Jupiter were struck into torturous cells far beyond what a human mind could ever conjure on the levels of pain and despair.
Imagine a From Software angle on that kind of torture. Picture freeing Titans from Tartarus to have them fight massive, powerful gods across continents instead of in enclosed arenas. The imagination of the Dark Souls formula could breed eldritch monstrosities out of concepts like Typhoeus, Medusa, Hades, and even Atlas, creating incredibly memorable boss fights in a traditionally realistic setting.
Toys
Instead of aiming to make the world outside seem ever darker, why not put the Dark Souls formula against a setting of playful childhood whimsy? Drop players in as a toy of their choice, replacing classes with the kinds of playthings (stuffed animals, army men, toy cars etc.) and make a house the entire world for your character to conquer.
Make weapons and armor modular out of the various plastics and stuffing you take from fallen enemies while defeating the other “lords” of the toy chest. This could foster the same kind of wonder as Chibi Robo as a smaller being experiencing life way differently inside of a normal world. That’s the new kind of angle that the series could really use to its refreshing advantage.
Alice in Wonderland
Fables and The Wolf Among Us showed that fairy tales can be rediscovered, but From Software can turn those books of sunshine into horrifying sanity surveys, especially in the topsy world of Wonderland. This transition almost seems too easy on paper with the imaginative core already well in place inside the stories of Lewis Carroll, leaving Miyazaki and his team only having to execute.
This could be one of the greatest opportunities for From Software to open up their book of level design tricks and traps to warp the player’s mind. Your “Fire Keeper” could even be an old Alice, revealed to only be one in a line of girls that are trapped in this realm and called Alice until she’s driven insane. The Red Queen, Jabberwocky, Bandersnatch, and even the Mad Hatter could all be incredible boss fights to behold where as your move set can be widened to accommodate the whacky physics of Wonderland. There’s already a little bit of Dark Souls potential sewn into Carroll’s work, making these two a pretty decent pair.
Bloodborne 2
While this possibility seems to make the most sense, it may also be the one that has the least new ground to tread. Another night, another hunt; new weapons, bosses, and areas would probably follow in the traditional Dark Souls way. The one idea that does seem really intriguing resolves around the most powerful of Lovecraft-created creatures, the Outer Gods – whose sizes alone can bring about both incurable insanity and awesome gameplay implications.
Take Azathoth, the leader of the Outer Gods (Great Ones) – a writhing, nearly formless array of tentacles, vegetation, eyeballs, and darkness that spans galaxies and survives outside of our space and time. Now imagine your hunter entering a fog gate and being transported to the endless planes of this creature’s hide, outside of time and space itself, for a boss fight. That would reach a scale that no Souls game has ever seemed to come close to, and could start a line of thinking worthy of a sequel to last year’s gem.
Japanese Mythology
For years, Assassin’s Creed fans have clamored for the series to touch on the home of assassinations, but Dark Souls could just beat them to the punch. Like Greek and Roman gods, there’s a whole hierarchy of servants, pious humans, and a large shelf of deities to choose from, but the difference from this Japanese well could be the art style. The traditional drawings of Japanese mythology are almost cel-shaded and feel incredibly distinct when compared to other art styles, a different take on dark art that could give the Dark Souls visuals a flavor that pop off the screen.
You’d also retain that possibility of grandiose boss battles the way of massive, worming dragons that roam the skies or the gods themselves. Amaterasu (remember Okami?) could have your Samurai taking on the sun itself, or Izanami – goddess of life and death – could fill her boss arena with any enemy you’ve felled in your path to do her bidding. It’d be a whole new style on top of a formula that loads of people love, and there’d be very few people complaining about that.
But there you go: five possibilities for further Dark Souls-style adventures. Take a look here if you want to be reminded of the series’ lore before the third title drops in America. Do you have any ideas of your own for From Software’s next step?
