Are Souls Games the Contemporary Myths?

In the digital age, where some entertainment forms are trying to be increasingly immersive, Dom Ford’s analysis of FromSoftware’s “Souls” games in the article Approaching FromSoftware’s Souls Games as Myth posits an intriguing idea: video games as modern mythology. Like the oral epics of ages past or the creation myths passed down through centuries, video games are becoming cultural artifacts that define and reflect our collective fears, desires, and existential struggles. While many game scholars emphasize the importance of narrative analysis to understand their core better, Ford argues that contemporary Souls games can be analyzed as modern myths that carry many commonalities with ancient mythologies (34). His article aims to reveal the hidden workings of the Souls games through mytholudics, the analysis of games through and as mythology. He focuses on Demon’s Souls, Dark Souls, Bloodborne, Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, and Elden Ring, arguing that they share a common mythological core.

 

So, how does Ford argue that we can think of FromSoftware games that share a mythological core? The analysis treats gameworld elements — such as narratives, gameplay mechanics, motifs, and spatial configurations—as components of a symbolic system that models the words. He also applies mythological frameworks to identify different patterns in themes like divinity, fire, desire, and darkness across the Souls games. To explore the commonalities between the games and myths, he identifies three core features: “desire and purpose, gods and divinity, and fire and darkness” (57). These features are, in his theory drawn from Frog’s Mythic Discourse Analysis (2021) and Roland Barthes’ general theory about mythologies, important components of such myths and folklore. The first core feature explains that excessive desire drives the characters to madness and aberration, while a lack of purpose results in despair or ruin. The core of divinity in games is also tied to the former core because the Gods are also disposed to lunacy and destituteness. Gods in the games are also fallible, self-interested, and often antagonistic, with a notable skepticism towards divine authority.

 

In the last core feature, Ford talks about the juxtapositions and the dichotomies of “light and darkness, fire and shadow, sun and moon” (57) and argues that all these motifs are key to the games. Then, these dichotomies are also juxtaposed with the other core features of the games, like the gods and divinity. To explain this, Ford argues that although these symbolic opposites are present throughout the series, their moral connotations are ambiguous and subverted, like the Gods themselves. Even though there are counterpoising Gods in the games, the morality of both sides is often left cryptic (54). As an example, he analyzes how White Mask Varré is presented in Elden Ring. He emphasizes how Varré first trusts the guidance of grace, but then later in the game he develops a mistrust towards grace and urges the player to support the Lord of Blood (54). This example shows how the narrative in the game develops veiledly, and how the characters’ morality is prone to abrupt changes that leave their philosophies obscure. The enigmatic relationships between such dichotomies and God figures are left as small gems of story in the game, waiting to be discovered by the players. He also analyzes how the Souls’ games communities may be considered storytellers because “lore hunters” utilize narrative to explain the ideas of mythology, similar to storytellers in folklore (58). The fragmented and cryptic narratives of the games invite players to engage in “lore hunting” – a collaborative, participatory process akin to traditional folklore. Communities interpret, reconstruct, and debate the lore, creating a shared mythology that evolves over time.

 

Like every other research, Ford’s analysis of Souls games also does not come without limitations. In the last parts of the paper, he talks about how his Western point of view may indeed limit his perspective on Japanese games, however, he also says that mythical discourse can help to identify the differences between Japanophone and Anglophone approaches to the discussion (58). His acknowledgment of the research’s limitations highlights the importance of cultural context in analyzing artifacts like video games, especially when the developer, FromSoftware, is deeply rooted in Japanese traditions. Ford emphasizes that while his study focuses on English-language discourse, the methodology he employs could be extended to explore Japanophone perspectives, uncovering unique cultural interpretations and priorities (58).

 

Original research article: Approaching FromSoftware’s Souls Games as Myth by Dom Ford.

Link to the original article: https://todigra.org/index.php/todigra/article/view/2175

The featured image is taken from Elden Ring’s Steam page.

 

 

 

 

 

You might also like

---

More from Game Research Highlights

---