Book Review: Dark Souls III: Design Works

Dark Souls is the only video game series in my opinion that produces the most soulful art. The whole mood, vibe and atmosphere of the environment is one of dread and gloom. The whole Dark Souls world is so haunting. Is there any other game that gets your heart thumbing in dread as heavily as Dark Souls?

The companion art book for Dark Souls III, once again, features an incredible collection of art. The designs for the characters look fantastic. My favourites are still the designs for the enemies, creatures, monsters, the living and the dead. They are some of the scariest things I've ever seen. The designs just look plain scary, and they don't resort to using gore or blood. These creatures or beings are exactly the type of things that come out of nightmares, but for the price of a video game or this book, you can now see them. Some of the character or creature designs are just outlandish, in a good way of course.

The environment art is also fantastic. The bleak landscape is seriously out of this world. It's chilling and depressing, again, in a good way. When I look at the intricate architecture of the castles and cathedrals, sometimes I wonder who built them. None of the living inhabitants would be able to live long enough in such a frightening and deadly place to build them. Where do they come from? Who inhabited those places? And that's the other allure of Dark Souls, the mystery behind all that cannot be explained.

Right at the back of the book are designs for the weapons, and icons for the rings, key items, sorceries and in-game items.

At 336 pages, this is also the thickest artbook so far for Dark Souls. It's a great book. The only thing that could have made this book even better is if there were text talking about the designs, stages and the game. I would love to read what the game designers were thinking when they were creating the world.

Highly recommended.

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