Since its initial release in 2011, the videogame Dark Souls has since spawned two sequels, a number of copycat games (three of which are even by the same developer, FromSoftware), and even its own genre, which fans have dubbed “Souls-like.” The game's combination of unique storytelling and brutal difficulty made it stand out amongst its contemporaries as a truly unique experience, one that made players feel proud of themselves for seeing through to the end as it was a challenge.
With the recent rise of adaptations of videogames such as Netflix's 2019 adaptation of The Witcher and their own 2017 animated adaptation of Castlevania, one can be forgiven for believing that adaptations of dark and brutal fantasy settings are on the rise right now. Because the world of Dark Souls fits into that niche category perfectly (almost too perfectly), one can also be forgiven for thinking that its time will eventually come to be adapted. However, unlike its contemporaries, Dark Souls may not necessarily have enough substance to be adapted into another and likely shouldn't be adapted.
This is to say nothing of the quality of Dark Souls, as it is absolutely fantastic. Still, for something to be adapted from a videogame, an interactive medium, into something like a movie or a series, both of which are non-interactive mediums, there will be more than a few things lost in translation. Movies and television/streaming series need to be able to engage their audience on a moment-to-moment basis and keep their attention until the end. That is not something that can necessarily be done easily with Dark Souls. Its unique method of storytelling, incredible length, and lack of any real cutscenes or dialogue between characters means the series lacks any necessary components to engage its audience. This does not mean that the story of Dark Souls is lacking in any way, as it has always been intriguing and has spawned many, many YouTube channels dedicated to discussing it. It simply means that some stories need to stay within their own medium of origin, as it is only within that medium that their story can be properly conveyed.
The Best Way to Tell a Story Is by Not Telling It
As was stated, the Dark Souls series has a very unique method of storytelling that would not lend itself well to any adaptations. The easiest way to explain it is that the game tells you its story by not telling it. The way this game is set up, the player character is more or less a nobody in a dark, grim fantasy world reaching the end of its lifespan. All attempts to save it have utterly failed, and those who have tried to have either exiled themselves or have gone completely mad. As a result, the world has more or less already ended, with the player and the other characters they meet being participants in this last-ditch attempt to save the world where all other attempts have failed. As for how this happened and what events led the player and all of these other characters to where they are now, all of that information is in the game, but it is never explicitly told to the player. They need to find it for themselves.
This means that the world of Dark Souls has a story, but that the only way any player will ever find it is by looking for it themselves and piecing together the little context clues they are given on their own. Nothing is ever given or explained to the player in any way, as the story itself is like a puzzle, and the player needs to pick up the pieces over the course of the game and solve it themselves in order to understand it. The best example of this lies in the weapons and gear of the game's many bosses. Ornstein the Dragonslayer, for instance, when he is first encountered, is simply a knight in very intimidating armor with a lightning-powered spear. Nothing more than that is ever shown or explained about him even after he is defeated. If, however, the player finds the time and resources to craft Ornstein's weapon and armor after defeating him, the in-game descriptions of those items actually do contain information about what happened to Ornstein and how he eventually became what he is. When one considers that every character and major in-game event's story is told like this, that presents a problem for non-interactive mediums like movies or television/streaming series.
Why the Length of the Game Matters
Partially due to its unique method of storytelling as well as how the game world works, each of the three Dark Souls games have incredible lengths, with many, many, many possible hours of gameplay. It would be impossible to tell a complete Dark Souls story in a single movie or season of a television/streaming series. The promise of multiple movies or seasons might be enough to keep fans interested, but again, with the game's unique storytelling method, they would need to keep the fans' attention in each moment for it to work.
With that amount of necessary time and that little story to tell within that time, any adaptation of Dark Souls outside of its medium of origin, videogames, would never be as good as the game itself because the game's story can really only be told as a videogame. That is part of what makes Dark Souls so well-loved, but in this sense, its greatest blessing is also its greatest curse.