Approaching FromSoftware's Souls Games as Myth

Abstract

FromSoftware’s Souls series comprises five separate fictional worlds, and yet is considered a series with a ‘spiritual’ connection. Although the games share the same developer, special attention has been paid, both in popular discourse and in research, to the distinctive character of FromSoftware’s worldbuilding and storytelling. I argue that a mythological approach allows us to better outline, analyse and put into relation the elements of these games. Mythology is understood as a model for understanding the world, following the work of Frog (2021) and Roland Barthes ([1972] 2009). This builds on mytholudics (Ford 2022), which adapts this understanding for the study of games. Through this, I examine three aspects of a potential Souls mythology: desire and purpose, godhood and divinity, and fire and dark. Additionally, I consider how the Souls community negotiates the Souls gameworlds, relating it to the role of folkloric storytellers in communities.