Dark Souls. Par-delà la mort.: Volume 2 : Bloodborne - Dark Souls III

Dark Souls. Par-delà la mort #2

by Damien Mecheri, Sylvain Romieu

Dans ce deuxième volume consacré aux jeux passionnants que sont les Souls, nous vous invitons à poursuivre l'exploration de leurs histoires cryptiques, à approfondir l'étude de leurs approches esthétiques et de leur philosophie ludique. Bloodborne et Dark Souls III sont à la fois différents et complémentaires. Ce qu'ils nous révèlent des créations de From Software, de la démarche de Miyazaki, mais aussi du marché du jeu vidéo et de la nature du médium se montre des plus enrichissant. Alors que nous pensions avoir fait le tour du sujet dans le premier volume, ces deux jeux supplémentaires ont ouvert de nouvelles pistes de réflexion. Les coulisses des développements, l'analyse des scénarios, les thématiques et les bandes-son de chaque jeu seront traitées dans cet ouvrage. Une dernière partie sera consacrée quant à elle au décryptage des deux titres, à la fois au regard de la série et sous l'angle de sujets transversaux n'ayant pas été abordés dans le premier volume, des influences esthétiques au marketing, en passant par des mises en perspective sur l'évolution des jeux.

Genres: Nonfiction, Games

400 pages, Paperback

Published December 2, 2021

Reviews

[Alexis Hall]

Source of book: KU
Relevant disclaimers: None
Please note: This review may not be reproduced or quoted, in whole or in part, without explicit consent from the author.

And remember: I am not here to judge your drag, I mean your book. Books are art and art is subjective. These are just my personal thoughts. They are not meant to be taken as broader commentary on the general quality of the work. Believe me, I have not enjoyed many an excellent book, and my individual lack of enjoyment has not made any of those books less excellent or (more relevantly) less successful.

Further disclaimer: Readers, please stop accusing me of trying to take down “my competition” because I wrote a review you didn’t like. This is complete nonsense. Firstly, writing isn’t a competitive sport. Secondly, I only publish reviews of books in the subgenre where I’m best known (queer romcom) if I have good things to say. And finally: taking time out of my life to read an entire book and then write a GR review about it would be a profoundly inefficient and ineffective way to damage the careers of other authors. If you can’t credit me with simply being a person who loves books and likes talking about them, at least credit me with enough common sense to be a better villain.

*******************************************

I read this for completeness and because it was on KU like the first book. Plus I will never not be obsessed with Soulsborne games.

It basically has the exact same strengths and weaknesses as its predecessor: which is to say, it was fine, readable, fine. But also contains a lot of very detailed and declarative lore-dives that—for me as a player of these games—I found actually kind detracted from what is compelling and fascinating about them? And having a bit list o’ themes that were hurtled through in the final chapter felt … unsophisticated? But, again, that’s just me. I’m interested in how themes function as inherent to narrative, design, and mechanics. I don’t think it’s particularly useful to isolate them as a checklist like you’re playing Look Over There.

The other thing I find vaguely unsatisfying about both these volumes—and this came up as regards to Gwyndolin in the first book—is that I feel they’re kind of resistant to or refusing to engage with particular perspectives as regards these games. And that’s not me saying that we need to view absolutely everything through a lens of social justice or whatever, but I think any act of critical analysis requires us to be at least *aware* of the multiplicities of interpretations that co-exist around any piece of art. Basically, at this point, it just kind of feels cowardly to me to be consistently ignoring or downplaying all the stuff about bodies and gender that’s just kind of endemic to the games, even if you don’t want to also read queerness into it. And to be fair, it doesn’t completely ignore that there’s an awful lot of pregnancy/bodily modification/body horror going on in Bloodborne: it just kind of acts like it’s no big thing, really?

I think it doesn’t help that there’s so much fascinating, deep-divey Soulscontent on YouTube. So the whole book, to some degree, felt on the edge of irrelevant.

[Justin · Rating 4 out of 5]

FromSoftware has produced some of my favorite games of all time, and I'm not sure you could find a more exhaustive and thorough exploration into the ins and outs of how two of them were made, than this book. Every element, from story, to art direction, to music is laid out in so much detail that it can almost be a bit much to take in, except in bite-sized chunks. Really, this volume goes into so much minutiae, that it can almost work against the flow at times. That's the only reason this isn't a five-star review, but I can't truly complain about having too much information on some of my most beloved games. As in the Souls games, the fault may have been mine, for diving a little too headfirst into things, and not adequately pacing myself.

With that said, if you have an interest in these games, and want to know virtually everything about them, you can't go wrong with either Dark Souls: Beyond the Grave volume.

[Jorge Rodighiero · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great lore bits (especially for bloodborne) and some glimpses of interesting topics that one can research further.

[hvsams · Rating 4 out of 5]

So, to the default two stars for any decent level of research (which this book has) here come three stars for mentioning Japanese aesthetics. Or maybe only two for just mentioning them, without elaborating on Japanese art and poetry too much, which I consider more relevant for understanding Japanese horror games than apparently the author does (and certainly more relevant than the wide public bothers to acknowledge — so many blogs and essays discerning Rule of Rose and no mentioning of the concept of yugen whatsoever? Talking about a Japanese game which makes art out of interwar British countryside and hides the basics of the story from the player, by the way).

But as the book shows, at least someone still knows the mysterious wabi-sabi and yugen and makes an effort of mentioning them — a pity this topic hasn't been elaborated on too much, as well as the Berserk-inspired background of the games. The book does seem a bit too West-oriented, in that it's much more detailed in retelling the Romantic and Gothic cultural periods. Not that I complain — not every player is obliged to know, say, Caspar David Friedrich or The Castle of Otranto, and it all indeed remains important for understanding Fromsoftware's historical sensibility— but I'd also welcome a bit broader outlook into the cultural background From games take inspirations from (wink), including not just an insight into the Japanese culture but also a bit more about the strong feminist subtext and even a queer reading of the game (it makes sense if you saw the abundance of queer fan content creators in the Soulsborne community — I swear, only Harry Potter from its glorious past could hope to outnumber them... err, us. Not that I claim the authors have deliberately placed these subtexts, but the players often find them and that's something worth exploring, especially if the book is supposed to also be about the public acceptance of the games. Also, it's official -- "a hunter" is a gender, and not just a trade). Granted, the book does touch the heavily outlined subject of motherhood and (forced) pregnancy, if without addressing it too much.

And that mutlitude of readings could easily be there at the expense of some lore recap this book is abundant with to the point of wild guessing. I appreciate the endeavour to summarize what one usually has to gather from hours of Youtube essays (indeed, the lore community of Dark Souls is the Dark Souls of lore communities) and the analysis of the topics each enitity is supposed to represent on the meta-level is outstanding, but to, say, casually mention that Lady Maria commited suicide traumatized by having a stillborn child from the Moon Presence without inserting a simple "allegedly" in advance is a bit... bold (also, does the author know that in Japanese version the monster is just, like, a "moon spirit" or a "moon demon"? The game is weird enough even without making players guess why they have to fight "a personification of the moon being present" and not "a moon spirit". I'm not against poetic or cryptic language in Lovecraftian fantasy, I just don't see the original title as being so convoluted in the ways one can interpret it).

These nitpicks don't allow me to assign that one final star to the book, but seriously, you can see for yourself how really subjective and nerdy they are. Otherwise the book is a great guide to both of these games, which leads us through not just the inspirations or the lore (if a bit theorized, but aren't all of Soulsborne's interpreters predestined to this fate) but also the story of the development itself and the public acceptation, so it's positively a must-read for those hunting for any new readings of the From's stories and glances behind the scenes.

[Rebeca F. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really fascinating book about Dark Soul III and Bloodborne, which happen to be my favorite games by Fromsoft. It describes both titles and their DLCs in quite detail and talks about how they were born, the production, how they were received, the marketing approach, musical overview, impact and such. It's quite extensive and in depth, but I feel it's more of a descriptive book instead of a reflective one, which is what I was expecting. Probably because of that, the part I enjoyed more were the chapters in which it talked about the romantic and gothic influence in the games and their unique storytelling.
It was still a very nice read, and it's always a pleasure to go back to these stories, their lore and awesome characters and world. A must for any Fromsoft/Miyazaki fan.

[Tyler · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is nice one to have for the collection, but it's not just a book that you sit down and casually read cover-to-cover.

I really enjoyed the Bloodborne portion, and actually found it fairly easy to read and follow along with.

I enjoyed aspects of the DS3 portion, and it certainly seems well-documented, but wow was there ever a ton of info to dissect. I've played DS3 dozens of times and the sheer quantity of lore dumped here was astonishing to me. At first it was interesting and parts of it seemed familiar, but I got a bit burnt out mid-way through and ended up just skimming the remainder.

[Martin Cordova · Rating 4 out of 5]

The dark souls 3 lore chapter feels a little heavy and its one third on the entire book but i prefer that over a rushed and superficial view on the game, considering the dificulty for putting the pieces together of a complex and disperse history like the souls series has, its more of a good thing the dept provided by the book on the lore side.
The making of, themes and music chapters were my favorite, this is perfect if you are into videogame making or just a fan of the souls series

[Kristy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow. If you love dark souls and everything around it this is a great good for more information on the creation and generally more information about the worlds.

[Borbíró Andris · Rating 4 out of 5]

The most of what's contained by the book can be found online, but it's well-organised, and the decryption chapter is interesting and goes deeper.

[Nick · Rating 5 out of 5]

Even better than the first book, perfectly covers Bloodborne and DS3.

[Miguel Bautista · Rating 3 out of 5]

good book

[Emma Matelas · Rating 4 out of 5]

vraiment pas mal pour en savoir plus sur la création de bloodborn et DS3 et sur les jeux en eux même

[Z · Rating 3 out of 5]

Slightly better than Volume 1, but still kind of mediocre.

[Darren · Rating 2 out of 5]

A Mixed bag

Overall I found this book to be somewhat long winded and in parts a laborious at time. The lore section in particular seems to read at a glacial pace. Maybe rather than being read like a novel it’d work better as a reference book.
My favourite parts are when the book covers the making of the games, the history and it’s impacts on gaming, in other words when the book covers the games in the real world.
It’s a shame that I didn’t like this book as I’m a big fan of the games and was really looking forward to reading this.

[Gary · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fairly in depth look into Bloodborne and Dark souls 3 that feels a bit dated compared to lore video's found on other platforms such as you tube.

There is no doubt, that a lot of research and exploration of other articles and references has been undertaken in order to produce such rich content, some of which was rather interesting points of view on themes and such, however some lore bits here are presented a little with too much certainty that does not align with the whole open interpretation approach that the lore of these games presents. Also there are many ideas and lore's that this book does not even approach or cover that can be found in many lore videos throughout the internet. To be fair the authors do a great job of showing how certain conclusions are formulated however it still reads a little factual and dry for me.

The layout of the book is clear and distinct with some interesting little character art pieces on some of the chapter heads. A far cry from the art presented in the first volume.

Overall a great book of factual lore, exploration of themes and explanation of ideas and makings of that most fans of bloodborne and dark souls 3 will enjoy.

[Jack Pilkington · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found the Bloodborne sections particularly interesting but found that the Dark Souls III sections dragged on a bit (though this might be due to my personal bias of perfering Bloodborne as a game) either way it's a great read if your into this series and I'll be looking forward to the Sekiro book