We’ve already seen how surprisingly adorable the grim world of Dark Souls can be when presented in Lego brick form, but if you’re looking for yet another way to introduce the game’s obtuse (and very violent) lore to younger viewers, YouTuber Verseris has just the thing.
As part of their new “Video Games Retold” series, Verseris retells the narratives behind beloved video games using animated kid-friendly storybook panels and narration provided by Christian H. Miles. For the series’ debut episode, the game that is given the storybook treatment is the original Dark Souls, and Verseris even weaves in original spoken dialogue from the game to help supplement the narration provided by Miles. The 10-minute video cover both the game’s opening recap, telling of how the Age of Fire came to be, as well as the player’s journey to ring the two Bells of Awakening and ultimately defeat Gwyn, Lord of Cinder.
The video does venture a bit into spoiler territory since it covers all of the major story beats that lead to the game’s ending (including the various boss enemies the player must defeat), so if you plan on showing it to someone who hasn’t played Dark Souls themselves, you might want to check first that they don’t mind having the full story revealed to them. However, if anything, seeing Dark Souls’ lore elements presented in such a unique fashion might just inspire viewers to play the game for themselves, though they might be in for a rude awakening if they expect the actual game to be as bright and cheery-looking as Verseris’s storybook video.
For those who have already played Dark Souls and/or are more interested in how its unique gameplay mechanics function, there’s another relatively new YouTube series that might be more their speed. The series, which comes courtesy of YouTuber Illusory Wall, explains in great detail some of Dark Souls’ more obscure mechanics such as Sin and the nature of covenants.