Introduction

First Things First

This is a blog that examines how gender is portrayed in the popular Action-RPG video game, Dark Souls 1.  We will look at how male and female non-player characters are presented differently in this game by examining how enemies, bosses, and merchants are presented as well as analyzing their role in the story.  This blog is being written from a Sociological point of view so we will be considering many of the implications of the characterizations in this game as well as consulting the various bits of lore found within this game.  We will also be briefly considering the Online Player Versus Player and Cooperative Play features in Dark Souls but will not be analyzing specific interactions between players due to the fact that there are very few ways to directly interact with other players in Dark Souls.

Note: This blog will only be using text and story found WITHIN the game, so any fan theories or characterizations are considered extraneous to this analysis.

Hopefully, this will not ruin the game for anyone who is familiar with Dark Souls, but some things might not look the same after we have analyzed it in terms of Gender.  We are starting with the first Dark Souls game since it was the most popular and if time permits, we will extend this analysis to Dark Souls 2.

What is Dark Souls?

Dark Souls is an action role-playing game set in an open world environment that allows the player a great amount of agency in playing the game.  The game was developed by FROM SOFTWARE, a video game studio in Japan, so much of the text used for this analysis is translated from Japanese.  The player of Dark Souls is presented with an introduction cinematic at the beginning of the game which depicts the historical background of the world the player explores and battles in during the game.  Many of the characters presented in this cinematic will appear later in the game in one form or another.  The player can then customize their own character to be of any appearance or gender, which even includes a slider for Masculine or Feminine features that is totally separate from the gender selection, making this character creation system quite friendly to the Transgender community.  The player is then thrust into the world of Lordran and the action of the game begins.  The main action of the game is primarily made up of exploration and melee combat with various types of enemies found throughout the world.  There is a lot of design focused on combat with parries, ripostes, and sneak attacks available with a large variety of weapons like swords, axes, and hammers.  The general setting of the game is a fantasy pseudo-European world called Lordran where humans have been inflicted with a curse that prevents them from staying dead.  This organically integrates the player character returning to life after dying, otherwise known as "respawning", into the game world and provides a story rational for the game mechanics.  Dark Souls is renowned for being a difficult video game and much of its gameplay reflects that impression, with death being so common, the subtitle for the PC version of the game is "Prepare to Die"

The analysis presented here is based off of the PC Prepare To Die Edition available on Steam but the game is also available on PlayStation 3 and XBox 360.  However, despite the multiple gaming platforms, much of the context, characterization, and depictions in Dark Souls are platform-neutral, meaning that they are the same across all platforms.

Why Do We Care About Gender In Dark Souls?

Representation of gender in digital video games is important because it can help explain some of the prevailing attitudes in gaming culture that surround the issue of gender.  Additionally, it can help provide context for the way that gender is represented in video game development studios, where female video game developers are very underrepresented in the industry.  By considering and studying the underlying gender dynamics at play in the world of Dark Souls, we can also understand the messages about gender that are being broadcast into our minds through this form of media.  By understanding these messages, we can also eventually change them to be more fair and equitable in terms of gender.

Who are You To Dare Analyze This Beloved Game?

I am just a fan of this game and I am also interested in the Sociological implications of media depictions of gender, especially women.  I both like and dislike Dark Souls for many, many, many reasons, but I will try to present a fair and balanced analysis of gender in Dark Souls.