It's no big secret that I'm a Dark Souls fan. I've played every game to
completion, more times than I can count. I've PVP'd, PVE'd, praised the sun,
slayed demons/nightmares, and again at soul level one. I've speedrun naked
and killed gods with a spiked bat. I am, in short, fairly knowledgeable
about the franchise.
But I was not prepared for this.
Gary Butterfield, along with his good friend Kole Ross, host several game-themed podcasts (perhaps most interesting to readers of this blog is Monster in my Podcast, in which they review each entry in the AD&D 2E Monstrous Manual one at a time to hilarious result). Bonfireside Chat, a review/talk show/analysis of every aspect of every Souls game, is what inspired this book. I'll let Gary explain the premise:
"Do you remember the Worlds of Power books? I do. Do you like Dark Souls? I professionally like Dark Souls! When these two interests collide, you get Souls of Darkness. Souls of Darkness is a parody of those Worlds of Power books but it's written as if Dark Souls was a NES game. Yes, I know it's confusing. Here are the important parts:
- What if Dark Souls was a NES game? How would that work? Whoa!
- What if a young girl got sucked into the game and got to experience a bunch of hilarious, exciting adventures in her favorite title?
- What if the book featured amazing art by Nick Daniels?
- What if the book (and associated Kickstarter side items) told a story open to interpretation, lampooning and emulating the way Dark Souls tells stories?
- What if it was packed with love for the Dark Souls community? Tons of easter eggs!..."
Undoubtably you get the picture. This is a fan dedication to the highest degree, a sort of published fanfiction by Souls fans, for Souls fans. But is it nothing more than fanfiction?
In short, yes. I'll admit I never read any of the Worlds of Power books. However, I did read a lot of video-game related trash as a child, and I can say with certainty that my choices were above and beyond anything I found here.
The story starts with young Maya Hunter, a precocious girl with a big love for the game Souls of Darkness for the Superstation console. She knows all the tricks, except one (if you're thinking it has something to do with a pendant, you are correct). As our story begins she is busy attempting beyond all reason to solve this puzzle that nobody else has been able to. After a strange internal monologue in which she laments the fact that she eats ribeye steak every night because her mother works at a charnal house (?), and that her long-lost father worked at a popcorn factory (??), she sets the game down to get something to eat. When she returns, it is to find that her baby sister has accidentally fallen through the TV into the game, and it's up to Maya to free her and save the world!
I won't go into much more detail about the story, because it's exactly as you'd imagine a Dark Souls self-insert fanfiction to read (note: I am not implying that Gary Butterfield imagines himself as a 10-year old girl). She becomes friends with Not-Solaire, a skeleton named Lounging Carl (???) and a floating femur that spouts bone facts (????). She heads to the forest and faces Giantdad while Not-Artorias vapes and spouts casual misogyny in her direction (?????). At the end, she saves her sister, returns to her world, and maintains contact with the game world by feeding junk and scraps of food to Not-Seathe the Scaleless. I'm out of question marks.
I can't criticize too harshly the writing in this book for being atrocious -- because I'm not entirely sure it's not intentional, for one -- but it's still a chore to read. The lack of page numbers, which would be an interesting but annoying choice in any other book, is mitigated by the fact that I read the entire thing in an hour while holding a casual conversation with my wife. No, the writing is not what gets me. What I don't understand are the references. As you can see, I'm about as big a fan of the series as there is. But even I was left scratching my head throughout this book, wondering what point they were trying to make or what joke I was missing. I have a great respect for Gary, and he's a tremendously funny man, which makes it all the more baffling that none of his wit and subtlety come through here.
It's a crying shame, because I believe a well-made Souls parody could be really good. The games, while breathtaking in their scope, make a lot of puzzling design choices that fans have come to lovingly hate. Where, in Souls of Darkness, was the Sen's Fortress statue warehouse? The amazing chest ahead? Where in the hell was dino-butt lava valley? Hell, when they summoned a phantom to assist with Not-Quelaag, I half expected them to come in naked with bright blue skin and start cartweeling around brandishing a katana. THAT'S the real Dark Souls Experience.
Ultimately, this book reads less like a tribute to Dark Souls and more like a collection of half-hearted GameFAQs forum posts. Perhaps that was its intent all along.
Buy a Souls of Darkness physical copy for $17 here and as an $8 pdf here.
I do have to say the art is very nice, and definitely nails the "child transported to a magical-yet-friendly land" feel that I remember fondly from my childhood reading CS Lewis and Lewis Carroll.
But I was not prepared for this.
Gary Butterfield, along with his good friend Kole Ross, host several game-themed podcasts (perhaps most interesting to readers of this blog is Monster in my Podcast, in which they review each entry in the AD&D 2E Monstrous Manual one at a time to hilarious result). Bonfireside Chat, a review/talk show/analysis of every aspect of every Souls game, is what inspired this book. I'll let Gary explain the premise:
"Do you remember the Worlds of Power books? I do. Do you like Dark Souls? I professionally like Dark Souls! When these two interests collide, you get Souls of Darkness. Souls of Darkness is a parody of those Worlds of Power books but it's written as if Dark Souls was a NES game. Yes, I know it's confusing. Here are the important parts:
- What if Dark Souls was a NES game? How would that work? Whoa!
- What if a young girl got sucked into the game and got to experience a bunch of hilarious, exciting adventures in her favorite title?
- What if the book featured amazing art by Nick Daniels?
- What if the book (and associated Kickstarter side items) told a story open to interpretation, lampooning and emulating the way Dark Souls tells stories?
- What if it was packed with love for the Dark Souls community? Tons of easter eggs!..."
Undoubtably you get the picture. This is a fan dedication to the highest degree, a sort of published fanfiction by Souls fans, for Souls fans. But is it nothing more than fanfiction?
In short, yes. I'll admit I never read any of the Worlds of Power books. However, I did read a lot of video-game related trash as a child, and I can say with certainty that my choices were above and beyond anything I found here.
The story starts with young Maya Hunter, a precocious girl with a big love for the game Souls of Darkness for the Superstation console. She knows all the tricks, except one (if you're thinking it has something to do with a pendant, you are correct). As our story begins she is busy attempting beyond all reason to solve this puzzle that nobody else has been able to. After a strange internal monologue in which she laments the fact that she eats ribeye steak every night because her mother works at a charnal house (?), and that her long-lost father worked at a popcorn factory (??), she sets the game down to get something to eat. When she returns, it is to find that her baby sister has accidentally fallen through the TV into the game, and it's up to Maya to free her and save the world!
I won't go into much more detail about the story, because it's exactly as you'd imagine a Dark Souls self-insert fanfiction to read (note: I am not implying that Gary Butterfield imagines himself as a 10-year old girl). She becomes friends with Not-Solaire, a skeleton named Lounging Carl (???) and a floating femur that spouts bone facts (????). She heads to the forest and faces Giantdad while Not-Artorias vapes and spouts casual misogyny in her direction (?????). At the end, she saves her sister, returns to her world, and maintains contact with the game world by feeding junk and scraps of food to Not-Seathe the Scaleless. I'm out of question marks.
I can't criticize too harshly the writing in this book for being atrocious -- because I'm not entirely sure it's not intentional, for one -- but it's still a chore to read. The lack of page numbers, which would be an interesting but annoying choice in any other book, is mitigated by the fact that I read the entire thing in an hour while holding a casual conversation with my wife. No, the writing is not what gets me. What I don't understand are the references. As you can see, I'm about as big a fan of the series as there is. But even I was left scratching my head throughout this book, wondering what point they were trying to make or what joke I was missing. I have a great respect for Gary, and he's a tremendously funny man, which makes it all the more baffling that none of his wit and subtlety come through here.
It's a crying shame, because I believe a well-made Souls parody could be really good. The games, while breathtaking in their scope, make a lot of puzzling design choices that fans have come to lovingly hate. Where, in Souls of Darkness, was the Sen's Fortress statue warehouse? The amazing chest ahead? Where in the hell was dino-butt lava valley? Hell, when they summoned a phantom to assist with Not-Quelaag, I half expected them to come in naked with bright blue skin and start cartweeling around brandishing a katana. THAT'S the real Dark Souls Experience.
Ultimately, this book reads less like a tribute to Dark Souls and more like a collection of half-hearted GameFAQs forum posts. Perhaps that was its intent all along.
Buy a Souls of Darkness physical copy for $17 here and as an $8 pdf here.
I do have to say the art is very nice, and definitely nails the "child transported to a magical-yet-friendly land" feel that I remember fondly from my childhood reading CS Lewis and Lewis Carroll.
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