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Original scientific paper

https://doi.org/10.15291/sic/1.16.lc.4

“Why not help one another on this lonely journey?”: Undead, Ruins, Medievalism, and Depression in the Dark Souls Trilogy

Marilyn Mannino ; University of Exeter, UK


Full text: english pdf 200 Kb

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Abstract

Hidetaka Miyazaki’s Dark Souls trilogy are video games famed for their difficulty and the dark, medievalist esthetic of the world. These stories take place in ruined worlds, and the characters who inhabit them are also ruins in their undead states. These ruined states function as metaphors for depression within these games, which is a theme felt by many of the players who have anecdotal stories of how these games provided comfort, not in spite of their dark and ruined landscapes – but because of them.

Keywords

Dark Souls, Dark Souls II, Dark Souls III, depression, medievalism, ruins, undead, allegory, video games

Hrčak ID:

343837

URI

https://hrcak.srce.hr/343837

Publication date:

21.12.2025.

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