One of the more underappreciated aspects of Dark Souls and Dark Souls 3 are the non-player characters, or NPCs, that inhabit the world. Veterans who know the optimal path through the game and the exact location of every item can sometimes forget that for new players, seeing Solaire in Anor Londo or Siegmeyer in Lost Izalith are legitimately comforting moments, reminders that the world isn’t completely empty except for you and the monsters. The former’s trademark “Praise the Sun!” gesture has become the unofficial slogan of the series, and he is available to summon for two of the hardest difficulty spikes in the game (along with Gwyn, if you complete a pretty specific series of tasks in Lost Izalith), making him even more of a friend to the player. Dark Souls has many of these friendly NPCs scattered throughout the world, providing momentary respite from the oppressive atmosphere that the game has, especially in its first half. Solaire, Siegmeyer, Laurentius, Anastacia, even Logan and Griggs are kind faces in an unkind world. Laurentius, in particular, is my personal favorite in the game because of his farewell dialogue that seems to reflect the entire thesis of the game: “Don’t you dare go Hollow.” It’s entirely subjective to say that a game is trying to teach people about life through its mechanics, but I will say that there is a reason many credit the Souls games with helping them through difficult times in their lives. It’s a dark game, but one that has a heart of gold. Even the few distinctly antagonist characters, Lautrec and Petrus, have more of a motivation than to make the player’s life difficult. They feel like fully realized characters in a fully realized world, and that is part of the reason that so many were drawn into the world of Dark Souls in the first place.
Dark Souls 3 does a pretty good job of maintaining memorable characters, although there are fewer than in the first game. Siegward is one of the most likable NPCs in any video game, and is genuinely helpful in a way his Dark Souls counterpart wasn’t. His storyline with Yhorm is well done and emotional, and is the reason why – unpopular opinion alert – that the Giant is my favorite fight in the game. There are several boss fights that require learning specific dodge timings for a long fight, where one mistake can lead to your death. Those encounters are interesting, but can start to blend together when too many are crammed into one game. There is only one fight where you help a friendly knight fulfill a promise by putting an old friend to rest. It’s memorable in the way the Souls games are famous for. Likewise, Anri plays an important role in giving the player more motivation than “Well, I guess this guy needs to die because I need to collect four souls”. Her quiet desperation at losing Horace in the Catacombs is as heartbreaking as her resolve in the Aldritch fight is heartwarming. It gives you the feeling that you’re just a side character in someone else’s quest for revenge, an experience that very few other games can replicate. Alternatively, you can stab her in the face for the Lord of Hollows ending, but that’s probably a choice people only make once.
Other NPCs in Dark Souls 3 are well done, but not as memorable. Patches has an interesting progression in the Ringed City where he goes Hollow before regaining his purpose, which turns out to be somewhat honorable – he wants to punish the greedy. Again, this serves as a way to make lines of code seem like living characters. Giving people their own goals makes more real than having their only purpose in the world be to sell items to exactly one person who spoke to them enough times.
In my opinion, Dark Souls and Dark Souls 3 succeeds where Dark Souls 2 and Bloodborne are less successful: they make you care about NPCs by having them interact with the world beyond an original location and a central hub. Sure, the latter has the built in excuse of the hunt confining everyone to their homes, but that doesn’t change the fact that you interact with many people through their windows. My favorite character is the Odeon Chapel Dweller, someone who is physically unattractive, but truly wants to help as many people as possible. He even asks the character if they can be friends after the night is over, a request that is striking because its so out of place in a world as dark as Yharnam. Eileen, Andrew, and Iosefka are also dynamic with their own goals and motivations in the city. Dark Souls 2, on the other hand, seemed to take the same “quantity over quality” approach with the inhabitants of Drangleic as with the bosses and levels. Lucatiel and Bernard are interesting and appear in many locations, but the vast majority of characters in the game are found at a certain location, have their dialogue exhausted, and then relocate to a spot in Majula and never move again. Unlike the other games, the people in the hubworld don’t interact in any notable way beyond the blacksmith and his daughter noticing each other despite never talking. When characters don’t have any notable goals beyond being a vendor for the player, it doesn’t feel real. It feels like the developers needed a way to give the players upgrade materials and decided it would be too difficult if the merchants shifted locations like they did in Dark Souls.
Are NPCs the most important or alluring part of the Souls games? Of course not. But they are integral to creating a world that seems believable, a world where the player is not the center of the universe. What makes a game memorable entirely depends on the person who experiences it. But for me, the entrance of the Nameless King, while obviously meant to be awe-inspiring, will never come close to the quiet affection from hearing Siegward’s toast in the Distant Manor of Irithyll. The beauty of the Souls games is in Solaire resting beside you by a bonfire, not walking around a vast lava plain. It’s the small details that elevate an experience from an exciting, well-made RPG to a work of art.
The Sad Enthusiast 