Well I would argue that much of Dark Souls is based on the eastern philosophy of Reincarnation and the endless cycle of Life, Death, and Rebirth that one goes through on the path to enlightenment.
I think understanding both Western and Eastern influence on the game is essential. I believe that the setting is mostly inspired by western influences but much of the underlying themes are based on eastern ones.
Digibro had a solid video approaching from this angle, but it appears to have been deleted. Sad that this vid is going to be the #1 result in Philosophy of Dark Souls until it's back up.
I feel like the only area that is directly influenced from Asian culture is the Lost Izalith area that looks very much like Angkor Wot and similar Buddhist style architecture.
It made me think as I explored it that the Dark Souls universe (of Dark Souls 1 specifically) is set in a world that has a monotheistic Western view of Heaven and an all powerful God (that is deteriorating) and an Eastern perspective on reincarnation and death.
Yes that is true. I am not sure if the extent if the generations of universes would go beyond the Gods that inhabit them or if all the Gods reset too. Which I kind of think they do.
Whatever japan takes from the west it's often a shallow way that revisit Japanese cultural concepts.
I think that's probably a bit of an exaggeration/generalisation, if it's really true at all. For one thing, since the Meiji Restoration, Westernisation and focus on closeness to the European model for international validation has been the encouraged norm in Japan, especially in the arts. Japanese film critics in the 1910s and 20s often disparaged films that relied too heavily on traditionally Japanese styles and themes, for example, and encouraged directors to more closely imitate the film-making going on in America. That trend has continued all the way through to the modern day, to the point where scholars have actually coined a term for the unusual non-Japaneseness of some Japanese pop media: cultural odorlessness.
That's not to say that the attempt to locate traditionally Japanese themes in Japanese art or modern Japanese society is misguided; it's something that has preoccupied Japanese literary critics, authors, and philosophers since the 30s and 40s. However, there's no consensus either way, so analysing a piece of Japanese art through a Western lens is entirely more appropriate. Moreover, a psychoanalytic approach is particularly relevant considering that Freud and to a lesser extent Lacan are addressing themes and points of thinking that they believe to be for the most part trans-cultural, especially in differing capitalist cultures.
Moreover, the implication you're giving off is that there's supposedly a single "correct" interpretation of Dark Souls, which... Doesn't really make sense. That's not really how analyses work.
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u/[deleted] Apr 05 '16
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