The Best Resource for All Things DARK SOULS Myth — Abyssal Archive

Notoriously, I've always disliked the way that FromSoftware has handled the storytelling elements in DARK SOULS. While I'm already a big hater of note-based storytelling, the entire narrative and lore hidden behind this franchise is done not only through items (forcing you to go through a "Gotta catch 'em all" phase before promptly getting lost because WHICH ITEM DO I READ FIRST?!), but it is also filled with riddles, poetic writing, archaic English that would make Shakespeare pick up a dictionary...

Oh, and mistranslations.

That's right; when learning about all things DARK SOULS lore, one of the things that you'll quickly learn is that translation can be a bit... finicky. It's no secret that every form of media in its original language is far more accurate than its translated counterpart — we needn't look further than the recent scandal surrounding Discotek Media and Lovely Complex. To truly learn the intention of the writer is an impossibility, even more so when the original writer and director is none other than Hidetaka Miyazaki, as though he's shared a lot of views about his original intent for the DARK SOULS lore, it's never been explicitly implied in an official FromSoftware or Bandai Namco release.

Yet, the lore is there for many to yearn to explore and love, and I was one of the suckers who thought she could learn all there was to... and promptly gave up after learning just the sheer volume of lore and text that requires more than just basic understanding. Historically, DARK SOULS has been as soulslike in its narrative as its storytelling, and it gated many (from those unwilling to go through the work to learn about it to those unable to due to the sheer amount of content present) from being able to fully grasp and understand the world they fight so hard to protect. As a person who always loved storytelling, narrative, and yearned for a real reason to fight for something, DARK SOULS was previously a title that was an impossibility for me to understand.

Thankfully, after being reached out to and offered the opportunity to read through Abyssal Archive, it may just become more of a possibility. This book is by no means a newcomer to the world. Released originally in 2023 with a 30-day pre-order window, this book by Lokey gives you not just a bit of an insight into what the world of DARK SOULS looks like but also essentially turns you into an expert in pretty much every topic you might want to cover.

First, let's talk a bit about the physical version (and the reason I was offered a copy to begin with) — the newly released Abyssal Archive Luxury Softcore versions are retailing for about £25 right now, and not only is it the most comprehensive look at the lore you could possibly find, but it's pretty enough that it'll make you want to start a book collection just so you can have it on display. Both the Abyssal Archive and the You Died companion book are everything you could possibly want to understand the DARK SOULS world, from both its physical and mythological viewpoints. And, it's a great way to understand everything there is to know about the lore without delving into a dictionary that predates the Jurassic era.

In this article, though, I want to talk a bit more about the Abyssal Archives as a person who's enjoyed an obscene amount of DARK SOULS III (with over 200 hours and still failing to get every achievement). I'll admit that when I was offered the book, I misunderstood "Are you interested in DARK SOULS" to mean the entire franchise, not just the original game. Yet still, once I was hands-on with the experience, I decided I'd give it my best to understand what I was reading, even if I played only a small portion of the original title.

As I've alluded to already, Abyssal Archive is a buffet of knowledge that only focuses on the original title — DARK SOULS. This essentially works like a mythology book as legendary as the information it is trying to bring to lore newcomers. The reason I praise Lokey's viewpoints of this so much is because of his determination to the lore overall, which translates well into this 37-chapter book.

The book explores DARK SOULS as if it were a real story, mimicking the mythologies of the past, such as ancient Greece and Scandinavian folklore. What's great about this recollection of events and this overview is that a lot of it is gathered not solely from the written scripts of the game but made by deductions of spells, geological locations, and more. Instead of taking everything that's written as factual, the numerous theories and teachings throughout the book are instead attained from looking into more than just what is being said through text and focusing on FromSoftware's impeccable world storytelling, too. Of course, to keep it so intricate and methodical, Abyssal Archive ignores the existence of the titles that followed the original, instead trying to dissect the entire story of DARK SOULS, but it does not fail to mention when there are consistencies and confirmations in future entries (which helped to drive further the point that many of these are beyond just theories of the narrative).

Lokey uses the original Japanese language to understand everything there is to know about DARK SOULS, and this gives a unique perspective that would otherwise be impossible to attain unless you're willing to scour the internet for the sheer amount of information you could find in this book. With 37 whole chapters dedicated to individual parts, the book itself follows what is almost a story, interlinking everything you learned prior, giving you a better understanding of the implications of all that you've learned up to that point. It follows the story of Hidetaka Miyazaki's lore by giving you a viewpoint of even the metaphysical aspects of the DARK SOULS world, from the implications of the existence of fire and the creations of the universe.

I'm not going to say this book is a must-purchase for everyone — the uninterested will find it like a lengthy textbook akin to reading a history lesson or trying to understand magic as a science. What makes this book so unique and a must-have for lore fans is the same thing that gates it for those who might not be so interested: it takes itself seriously, which is both its greatest strength and flaw simultaneously. This oxymoronic state means that if you're interested in DARK SOULS lore, I couldn't recommend Abyssal Archive more — it's comprehensive and takes itself seriously, communicating the mistranslated bits of information that have been lost in translation and making it attainable to the reader. Yet, these same complexities might not be all the rage for those who want to kill monsters — ultimately, it's not targeted for that audience.

Abyssal Archive is a mythology book that teaches you everything you could possibly need to know about the DARK SOULS lore and serves as the perfect additive to any lore aficionado and enthusiast of the world. I couldn't sing praises enough about how seriously the whole text takes the narrative elements, analysing it through three pillars: philological (exploring the written text of all of the game and its language use), archaeological, and even psychological. This is a book that transcends videogames into an art form and shows the intricacies that went into the development of such a fully-fledged story; if you're the type of person who loves videogames becoming more than just an interactive form of media, Abyssal Archive is simply a must-have to get a peek into the complexities of this legendary tale.