Jake

I’m old, I’m satisfied, and you were my purpose

You know, one thing that makes the Soulsborne games so great is the fact that your character is an absolute nobody. You are not supposed to be some godlike being with powers beyond measure or the one who is fated to do great things. Sure, Dark Souls 1 has the Chosen Undead, but it becomes revealed quickly that the Chosen One trope is a farce and so it gets completely subverted. In Dark Souls 2 you are simply the Bearer of the Curse, just one of many who suffer from the curse. In Dark Souls 3 you get told straight up that you were the last they could ask, because you are the loser of the losers. In Bloodborne we play as some unlucky random person who got wrapped up in Yharnam's affair. In Demon's Souls our Slayer straight up gets enslaved to the Nexus out of sheer desperation of the Monumental. And in Sekiro we play as a single Shinobi, who can't take on a whole army himself. So he makes defense to his greatest offense and uses stealth and dirty tricks. Which leaves the Tarnished, the one who is played the most straight. Elden Ring has this amazing opening movie and we get to see the six Tarnished who will probably be the main bosses of the game and... ...one another... Our player character. Here is the thing. It was never meant that our character should win. In fact, in Soulsborne all odds are AGAINST our character. It is the fact that DESPITE everything they win, that is the theme of these games. Our character has only one thing going for them... They can't die. And therefore, only giving up is when they lost. It's a theme of overcoming, a theme of persevering, a theme of fighting a battle that should be unwinable, but isn't. You just have to try it again and again. And that is what I love about these games.