revolution666's review
adventurous
dark
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
bryanborgman's review
3.0
I like short stories and I like that these were tied together with bumper pages however some were more coherent than others. I'm not familiar with the source material so that was probably a detriment to my better understanding some of the shorts.
loop's review
4.0
This volume was a significant improvement on the previous two volumes published by Titan. The first two were full stories spanning a handful of issues, and I personally felt that the format wasn't quite effective for telling a Dark Souls story. I had many more issues with those, but you can check my reviews if you're curious. This volume, however, is a compilation of short stories a handful of pages each, all by different writers and artists. I am usually not a fan of stories so short, but I actually think that this is the best format to tell a sequential story in the Dark Souls universe. Very evocative pieces that illustrate various elements of the games, such as specific themes, tone, mechanics, aesthetic, and the unspoken rules of those worlds. Each story clung to one specific point they wanted to get across and focused on delivering it. In that I feel like this was a success. It's always a mixed bag with anthalogy style books like this, but this was pretty consistent and good. The art ranged from great to incredible. Overall very pleased, especially considering I was left disappointed by the previous volumes. If you never played Dark Souls, I don't think there's much enjoyment to be found here other than the art, as most of the premises it explores and references may go over your head. But if you're a fan of the games, definitely read this, even if you didn't like the other entries.
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