Dark Souls is brutal. I don’t think anyone can disagree, even if they naturally meshed with it. With 3 mainline games and several others in the same style, it’s a fairly well-known experience. On top of this, it is wildly beloved by its players; The deep lore can draw in those dedicated enough to learn it, and the unforgiving yet fair gameplay provides massive catharsis when you tackle the challenges set for you. Yet, a theme is arising among Souls vets, and almost all of them have experienced it to some degree. Dark Souls, and the Soulsborne series as a whole, seem to help people get out of depression. That sounds like a big claim, and it is. Depression is a serious mental illness, and it can take years to fully recover from depending on the cause. So why does a game seem to help people through it to a reasonably consistent degree? There can be a lot of theories on this, but I have my own theory that I believe makes these games such effective depression killers.
Dark souls is primarily a game about development. You go into a new area, die a ton, get better, and then clear it, repeating the growth process until you beat the game. Leveling helps keep the challenge consistently hard rather than constantly getting harder, rather than making the game easier like with most other games. This means you still are the one developing and getting better, not your character. The development process, in a video game or not, is no easy task. It requires you to throw yourself at a wall over and over and over again until it breaks or you do. This is the challenge the Soulsborne games present: Will you break, or will they? In psychology, the quantifiable aspect of this process is called grit. Grit is your resilience to keep going despite failure and tedium (A wonderful ted talk by Angela Lee Duckworth was done on the topic). The higher grit, the more you can trudge on; the less grit, the more easily you give up. It’s not quite the same as stubbornness, but is related to it.
Titanite demons were a special challenge posed by Dark Souls. Harder enemies, but extra rewards for killing them
Let’s talk about grit for a second, as this is an important part of my theory. There are studies concerning grit in relation to depression and anxiety, and the conclusion has found an inverse correlation between grit and depression levels. This means that as grit increases, depression decreases, and vice versa. This leads to the hypothesis that training grit can help decrease depression. This is also the theory (outside of endorphins) as to why going to the gym helps ease depression. Doing hard things and succeeding leads to a better mental state.
When someone is in therapy for overwhelming depression, a common assignment is to clean their room. The theory behind this is that if you are overwhelmed, taking control of a piece can help you take control of the whole. The assignment doesn’t have a due date or any stipulations like “clean it in under an hour”. Most therapists will add that you can do it in tiny pieces if necessary, just to get it done how you can. This sounds similar to the Dark Souls gameplay loop does it not? This is a big part of why I think Miyazaki’s (the creator of the Dark Souls series) games can do this. His team balances the games so they feel fair almost all of the time (they are not always successful, see the Lesser Red Wolf of Radagon from Elden Ring), and that allows people to think about how they can be better, and how they can take control. This is also why I think other developers can’t quite achieve the same result. Most games end up feeling unfair, or just being a foray into escapism. Dark Souls is a dive into battle, and victory is guaranteed if you play long enough.
The aforementioned Lesser Red Wolf of Radagon
Grit is not exclusive to where you developed it. It is something that becomes a part of your character. This means that developing it in a video game can help you use it in a job hunt, or cooking, or cleaning your room. You may not realize you can do it at first, but it will happen eventually, which will lead to an upward spiral of personal betterment.
Dark Souls was not designed as a therapeutic tool, and I don’t believe it should be treated as one. I don’t know if everyone would benefit from it the way I and others have, and I think that’s ok. It displays the principle and works for some, and as long as we can figure out how to apply the principle and develop it elsewhere, then we have succeeded. However, I hold that for many players, Dark Souls and the games that followed will always be appreciated for what they created in us.
