The Ambiguity of Dark Souls 2's Story and My Naive Understanding of It

Fought his way through the entire game while drunk, now baffled and confused.

I don't know about you, but I don't play Dark Souls 2 for the story. Same goes with the previous game. As you are aware of, the Souls games; namely Demon Souls, Dark Souls and Dark Souls 2; are some of the rarest games for having very vague plots. Nevertheless, this doesn't bother me at all because when it comes to these games, the story isn't my main concern, nor does it turn me off. Then again, that's my personal preference, and not everyone thinks like I do.

But I think pretty much everyone would agree with me that these games all revolve around the gameplay: the combat system, timing and precision, and such. These are the real joy of the Souls games. Personally, I think the story is just there to give you a sense of purpose. I mean, I won't like it either if the story was absent. Even the simplest of games has some sort of a small story to it, well, maybe except Pong and Tetris, but they're hardly an exception. I'll let you figure out the reason for that yourself.

When I sit and think about it though (partly a reference to the screenshot above), the minimalistic story of the Souls games is actually a great thing. It works well especially in Dark Souls. Now, I'm not sure about Demon Souls though because I never played it (I don't have any console) eventhough I would definitely love to, but the reason why the story ambiguity works in Dark Souls is because it is supported by the sense of dread that the game delivers. Nothing seems to be crystal clear. The thick and hazy atmosphere of the game only leaves more to your imagination and interpretation on what the game is all about, from the story perspective. But when it comes to Dark Souls 2, there are problems.

No Clear Goal or Sense of Purpose

Once upon a time in the land of Drangleic, there was a traveller who deeply questioned the purpose of his existence.

Over the years I've always try to avoid spoilers and I became pretty good at it. When I heard that Dark Souls 2 had a vague story, it gave me all the more reasons to keep my ears closed and away from anything related to the plot, fearing that any unwelcome story-related information might reveal huge spoilers that otherwise would be more fun to discover first-hand from playing the game itself. So, I started Dark Souls 2 in the dark, hoping to uncover the vagueness of the story myself. This partly a mistake, stick with me and you'll see why.

At the very beginning, every game will give you an impression on what it is all about in terms of narration. As for Dark Souls 2, the beginning was highly dramatic but extremely vague, leaving players very little clue on what the game is all about and what your ultimate goal is. The only piece of story that appeared clear to me was that you're an Undead. You're travelling in the realm of the undead, looking to free yourself from the curse and regain your humanity. This drives you to the land of Drangleic. In order to do regain your humanity, you'll have to collect souls, right? Hence, that's what I thought was the main point of the game: to collect a specific amount of souls to regain your humanity.

However, upon my arrival at Majula, I was told by the Emerald Herald that I needed to "visit the King", so I assumed that this was the only way for me to break the curse. I tried interacting with the hooded lady a few more times because she apparently knew the whole story, but in the end I exhausted her dialogue and very little of the things she said made any sense. But the Souls games like to let you figure things out yourself, so I thought, hey maybe I'm supposed to collect a specific amount of souls to present to the King so that I'd be worthy enough to visit him or something. Okay then, I'll do that. I'll kill a number of enemies (which surely will be a lot) and come back, and probably the Emerald will point me to wherever the King is.

Initially though, I thought that the King, whoever and wherever he was, was the key of breaking the curse. That he was my only hope. The first thing that came to my mind was the assumption that this king was struggling to restore something, or heading to some kind of an epic battle and needed my assistance and as a reward would free me from my curse. Not that I was sure this was the case, but it was the first thing that came to mind, so I might as well just mention it here. But basically, I thought I had to "visit the king", do something for him and get my reward. That was the main idea.

Please, enlighten me before I set you alight on fire.

Apparently, it wasn't so. After learning more information as I progressed through the story, I found out that I had to collect the Four Grand Souls. These are souls of the Four Old Ones, which upon hearing their names; I thought were ancient monsters who were enemies of the King. So, naturally my new conclusion was that I needed to slay these Old Ones and present their souls to the King in exchange for his help. I know how stupid and lost I seemed to be, but that really what my conclusion was. I knew that there would probably be more to it which I'd figure soon, nevertheless I was sure that I was close to getting the story right. But that was not the end of my confusion.

Later on, I became more and more lost by the vague messages the NPCs were trying to deliver. I began to reassess my understanding and things that used to make sense, now didn't make sense anymore. At this point, I really wished there was an action prompt to grab the Emerald by her shoulders and start shaking her and scream in her face to tell me what the fuck is really going on. Eventually, I came up with a whole new conclusion based on what I heard: my purpose was to slay the King. But then, this brings an entirely new set of questions. How does it possible that slaying the king break my curse? Why does it work this way? Was it the king who put the curse on me? If so, why did he do that and why did I deserve the curse? More importantly, how is this connected to the Old Ones?

The Old Ones

The Old Ones are... who are they anyway? As their title suggests, they must be ancient. Let's talk about them first but you won't be missing much if you skip this part and proceed to the next topic. So anyways, we know that the Old Ones are the bosses that we'll have to beat in order to obtain their Grand Souls, but in what way are they connected to the story? Will their souls grant me the power to beat the King? (Apparently this is the only thing that I got right). What distinguish them from the other bosses, some of which appear more intimidating and more Old One-ish?

For example, the Guardian Dragon. I really thought that this red fiery dragon was one of the Old Ones but much to my disappointment, he isn't (it didn't say "Great Souls Embraced” after I beat him). But I prefer the Guardian Dragon as an Old One over, say, the Lost Sinner because he (the dragon) actually guards a path. This symbolic duty gives him some kind of significance as an ancient thou-shall-not-pass guardian of sort. The colossal and much more intimidating Ancient Dragon is another creature that I think would make a great Old One but unfortunately he is not hostile unless provoked. Sinh the Slumbering Dragon is also a great boss, but he's from the Lost Crowns DLC.

The Ancient Dragon is speaking telepathically. In order to interact, please hover your arrow over to the screenshot.

The Lost Sinner, on the other hand, was probably some evil witch who was captured, cursed and imprisoned by the King for some kind of a crime or whatever, and then turned into an abomination that she now is. I don't know, she's a sinner after all but she was most probably no more than that. As far as I'm concerned, there were sure a lot of witches in Drangleic and she was just one of them. It was a land full of sorceresses and evil beings after all. And now it's inhabited by undead hostiles. The only way for you to stand out is by being some kind of an ancient colossal creature guarding something sacred such as a key or a path.

The game also doesn't tell you which bosses are the Old Ones and which are just regular bosses. You will only find out whether they were the Old Ones or not once you've beaten them. Another unanswered question is that are the Old Ones related to each other? Do each of them know that other Old Ones exist and that they are known as the Old Ones? Wait a minute, if they are ancient, doesn't that mean the King is ancient too? As soon as this question popped out, it became clear to me that my earlier conclusion -- that I needed to assist the King for his favour -- was completely wrong. Oh well, I had a new conclusion by that time anyway, but still it sucked knowing how wrong I was.

The Lack of Direction

Heading to destination unknown via a ship.

Dark Souls 2 is set in a non-linear fashion. It's not entirely open-world like Skyrim (there doesn't seem to be any game that will first come to mind when giving this kind of examples other than Skyrim, *sigh). There are 4 major areas available for you to travel to from the start: the Forest of Fallen Giants, Heide's Tower of Flame, the Shaded Woods and the Grave of Saints; all of which can be accessed directly from Majula. The latter two, although open at the very beginning, are going to need a tough character to enter, so they are clearly out of the picture for fresh low-level characters.

This non-linear style gives the player more freedom, which is great obviously, but without any clear goal, the player won't know what to do and where must they head to. In other word, directionless. While the how's don't really matter because you'll be spending the entire game fighting and doing something, the what's, where's and why's do matter because they should give you a sense of purpose so that you know that you're actually fighting for something and going somewhere to get something, not just blatantly slashing your way through from point A to B.

As he lies on the sand, the undead wonders if it was worth it.

But surprise-surprise: there I was, fighting monsters in desolated but hauntingly beautiful locales without any real clue on what's the point behind everything other than to move forward to face some boss that I also had no idea what its connection to the story was. Although you'll have so much fun with the combat as I did, deep inside it really takes away the enjoyment when you really have no idea what you're trying to achieve. As human beings, we've always need the sense of purpose. It is a strong feeling and it's always been there in our DNA, that's why people capitalize on that with --for instance-- patriotism and religion.

In Dark Souls, the purpose was clear. As told by Oscar, you were to ring the Bells of Awakening in Lordran, travel to the Kilhn of the First Flame and restore the flame its glory. There was actually more to the story and you were left to figure them out yourself, but at least the main purpose was crystal clear from the very beginning. In Dark Souls 2, that was not the case. I know the developers intentionally made the story vague, but damnit at least tell us the goal from the get-go so we'd know we won't be fighting in the dark. Or at least put an action prompt to slap the damn Emerald Herald to her senses because it's not funny anymore.

Conclusion

I am a very forgiving gamer, but I'm not biased either. If there's something I do not like about my favorite games, I will happily talk about it. Most of my all-time favorite titles have their own flaws, with the exception of Serious Sam the Second Encounter (no matter how hard I tried, I can't seem to find anything relevant to complain about). But it's just that the enjoyment that I get from those games overweigh their flaws, hence making those flaws forgivable. However, that does not mean they are ignorable (is that even a word?). No matter how much you enjoy the game, the flaws are still there. You can forgive them but you can't completely pretend that they're not there.

As for Dark Souls 2, the vagueness and ambiguity of its story; which is partly a flaw; is not that obvious. Who the heck over thinks about the story anyway when they're busy in the heat of battle 95% of the time, but you get my point. Eventhough the story doesn't seem to matter all the time, it will catch up to you. You'll eventually reach a certain point where you'll have to think about the relevance of the story and how it is connected to your experience. Because you don't understand what is going on most of the time, often times when you reach a crucial part of the story, it feels very abrupt and out-of-nowhere.

You'll need the King's Ring to open this door. You're welcome.

Sometimes I wonder, were the developers actually expecting us to sit down, read every item information, put out some papers and a pen and jot down everything in-depth? Not everyone can do that, and those who do will just probably just blatantly call those who don't as "stupid" or "ignorant". I'm not going to tell you how Dark Souls 2 ended in case you haven't played it yet, but it gave me some heavy and unpleasant revelations. What have I gained? How will this end? So, is this what I intended to achieve? This is what I've been struggling for for the last 75 hours? What is this anyway? What does it mean and symbolize? Am I victorious? In what way? How will this ending have an impact on the realm? How can I justify my actions and choices based on this ending?

Let's just say that reading through a wikipedia article for the story was just not the kind of closure I was looking for.

For my Dark Souls 2 review, read here.