The ultimate masterpiece.

Ah, Dark Souls. What can I tell you about Dark Souls III? One could not tell the brilliance of Dark Souls without embracing it. I can tell you about the amazing world, the magnificent creatures and the incredible storytelling. Yet, if you truly want to experience the Dark Souls, you have to dive into it and embrace it as a part of your own. Through misery, seek happiness.

The amazing world, the magnificent creatures, the incredible storytelling, those are a part of the Dark Souls experience. However, they are not the most important factors. The most important element is the notion of living. We are living in a world full of technology, full of supplies, full of entertainment to the point of abundance. Yet, we couldn't help but feeling so useless, so helpless trying to stay alive sometimes. Fyodor Dostoevsky once said “The mystery of human existence lies not in just staying alive, but in finding something to live for.” Are you living your life, truly? We are nothing but a mere rock on the road, whatever happens to us, does not matter in the grand scheme of the universe. Then what are we living for?

Through the lens of Dark Souls, a world without hope, we can finally seek an answer to that question. You found yourself in a depressing world, filled with monsters made out of "hollow" people, those who lost the will to live. You are told to slay all the Lords of Cinders to become a great being to link the fire, in an attempt to better this world. But, when you look at this world, this depressing world, do you still want to link the fire, you question yourself. After you kill demons, lords, princes, gods, in the end, how does it feel like? After 15 seconds of feeling proud of your achievements, ultimately it does not matter. You trample on other beings to gain your power, to finally link the fire, yet this act is futile. Fire fades, darkness rises. You have been trying so hard to finally achieve a futile goal to save a worthless world. In the end, nothing even matters, even your existence.

I can relate a lot to Albert Camus's "The Myth of Sisyphus" after playing Dark Souls. Much like our existence in the real world, our existence in the Dark Souls world does not matter at all. It's a futile act, trying to roll a boulder up a hill, only for it to fall down and do the act entirely again. However, if you take on another perspective, maybe like Sisyphus learn to enjoy the mere act of rolling the stone, we could as well find meanings in this futile world. You can find people in the Dark Souls world so precious that you want to save them. You can find corners of beauty lurking in this worthlessly hopeless world. You can finally enjoy yourself, even if they are only small things. Just like in real life, Dark Souls is the path to find yourself and your position in the world. You will experience misery, suffering to the point of wanting to kill yourself. But, LIVE! "Live!" is the only thing Dark Souls taught me, yet this simple thing is the core essence of everything. To live is to not go hollow, to live is to find yourself in this world, to live is to finally find a purpose for yourself, not just staying alive.

Don't you dare go hollow.

Yuu Raskolnikov