FromSoftware created some of the most successful titles to come out of the 2010s, both commercially and critically, with the loose collection of games known as "Soulsborne" games (consisting of Demon's Souls, Dark Souls, Dark Souls 2, Dark Souls 3, and Bloodborne). The games that make up the "Soulsborne" series are stuffed to the gills with references to other works, whether they be manga series, novels, famous real-life landmarks, or other video games.
Series creator Hidetaka Miyazaki has pointed out some of these references, while others have been spotted or pieced together by the sizable online Soulsborne community. While some of these shoutouts are easily recognizable, a few of them are much harder to spot if you don't know where to look.
8 Lovecraft
The latter half of Bloodborne turns the game from a Victorian-era werewolf horror story into an eldritch nightmare, with giant squid-faced monstrosities hanging from buildings, strange lights in the sky, and ancient aliens to which humanity is little more than insects (and 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:the bosses all become ♛far more disturbing). All these themes come from the work of ea👍rly 20th-century writer H.P. Lovecraft, with Miyazaki confirming that his "Cthulhu Mythos&q💯uot; was an inspiration for the game in a .
But it is more than just themes that have been taken from Lovecraft's work; the Fishing Hamlet area from the Old Hunters DLC is similar to the titular fictional fishing hamlet featured in the short story "The Shadow Over Innsmouth". The story and the Bloodborne area both feature humans worshipping and mating with ancient fishlike aliens that have come from the sea. On top of this, several of the ancient aliens that are present in Bloodborne's background lore are referred to as "The Great Ones", which is taken from "The Great Old Ones", similar beings that appear in Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos.
7 🍃 Lord Of♎ The Rings
As the grandfather of modern fantasy, it was inevitable that a few Lord of the Rings references would find their way into Dark Souls. The first one postulated by many fans is in the name of the major Dark Souls locale Anor Londo, city of the gods, and home of the sun god Gwyn. Part of the city's, "anor" could be taken from the fictional elven language that J.R.R. Tolkien created for his books, which means "sun", with "Anor Londo" roughly translating into "city of the sun".
Another reference is present in Dark Souls III, this time to the movies. According to , the moveset of the short bow, which allows players to fire while moving and rolling, was directly inspired by Legolas's combat style as seen in Peter Jackson's trilogy of films.
6 The Moonlight Greatsword ꦯ
While technically not a reference, a recurring element in the Soulsborne games is the presence of the Moonlight Greatsword, a large, two-handed sword that scales with intelligence (or arcane in the case of Bloodborne). The sword first appeared in King's Field, a series of RPGs originally created by Dark Souls and Bloodborne developer From Software in the 90s.
The Moonlight Greatsword can be found in Dark Souls (where it can be dropped by Seath the Scaleless if his tail is severed), Dark Souls III (it can be crafted from the Soul of Consumed Oceiros), and Bloodborne's DLC The Old Hunters, where it is used by Ludwig The Accursed during the second half of his boss fight (and can be seen strapped t🐭o his back during the first h♉alf of the encounter). After defeating Ludwig, the sword can either be acquired by speaking with his severed he🐓ad, killing it, or gifted later by Simon if you manage to miss it.
5 ൩ 𓂃 Nintendo Games
It is fair to say that Nintendo has developed some of the most iconic video games franchises in the world, from Mario to the Legend of Zelda. Because of this, references to their games have appeared in many varied locations, such as TV shows and other video games (for example, Assassin's Creed II which introduces a central character with a Mario reference). Dark Souls is no exception and has several references to these famous games.
One of the most famous references appears in The Artorias💦 of The Abyss DLC for the first Dark Souls game, which features a character called Elizabeth, who asks you to rescue a princess from a mighty monster, a reference to the Mario series. But the reference goes deeper than that, as Elizabeth is a talking mushroom, similar to the mushroom-like Toad characters that appear in multiple Mario games.
4 Berserk
Some of the more well-known references in the Soulsborne games are shout-outs to the manga series Berserk, written by Kentaro Miura (with Miyazaki ). Several re🤪ferences are present throughout the series, some of which are easy to spot while others are a bit more💃 subtle.
For example, the onion-shaped armor worn by the multiple knights of Cater♋ina that appear throughout the Dark Souls games is visually similar to the armor worn by Berserk villain Bazuso. Meanwhile, the Hunters Mark from Bloodborne is visually similar to the Brand of Sacrifice that is worn by Berserk protagonist Guts. The references also extend to the box art for the Prepare to Die edition of Dark Souls 1, which features the character Artorias in a pose that is reminiscent of one that Guts was drawn in on the cover of volume 28 of the manga, as well as having a similar visual design to Gut's berserker armor.
3 Angel's Egg
In the Dark Souls 3 DLC, The Ringed City, several eagle-eyed fans saw what they believed to be a reference to the 1985 anime film Angel's Egg. In the DLC, players will eventually come across the sleeping form of Princess Filianore, who is clutching what appears to be a half-shattered egg. Should the player approachꦐ the princess and touch the egg, it will disintegrate, ﷽waking the princess and destroying the titular city.
Angel's Egg features a similar premise. It stars a young girl in a deserted city who carries an egg everywhere she goes, which she believes to contain an angel. She meets a soldier, who smashes the egg to reveal that there is nothing inside, which starts a chain reaction of events that results in the girl's death. The parallels between the two stories are stark, and it is easy to see why many believe that there are connections between the two works.
2 ♔ Other Literature References ♋
Aside from the references to Lovecraft or Tolkien, there are several other literary shout-outs present in the Soulsborne series. In an interview written for the Dark Souls 1 design works book, Miyazaki stated that the rotating staircases present in the Duke's Archive in Dark Souls 1 are a reference to the moving staircases in Harry Potter, while also mentioning that he asked for Sieglinde to be modeled after the character Hermionie Granger under her helmet.
Meanwhile, Alvina of the Darkroot Wood is physically reminiscent of the Chesire Cat from Lewis Carrol's Alice In Wonderland books. In Dark Souls 2, the Lost Sinner (who is rumored to be somehow related to th⛄e Witch of Izalith), a prisoner who is forced to wear rags and an iron mask to hide their identity, is similar to the famous Man in The Iron 🔯Mask, a similarly unident🧔ified prisoner who was imprisoned in the 17th century and appeared as a character in a book written by Alexandre Dumas, the creator of the Three Muskateers.
1 Armoured Core 🦋
Before FromSoftware became known as the acclaimed developers of Dark Souls and the creators of the Soulsborne genre of games, they developed a multitude of other games, in💛cluding Armored Core, a series of third-person mech combat games. A few references to the series appear throughout the Soulsborne games. The recurring character Patches first appeared in the Armored Core games and the names of Straid (from Dark Souls II) and Old King Doran (Demon's Souls) are both references to characters in the series.
Meanwhile, the opening area of Dark Souls 1 sees the player character get carried by a raven from the Undead Asylum to Lordran. The raven can then be seen throughout the game in its nest. In Armored Core, pilots of the titular mechs are called Ravens, while their base is called "The Raven's Nest".
