Damien Mecheri

Sylvain Romieu

If the Dark Souls series managed to seduce players and journalists, it was mainly by word of mouth. It was such a great success that Dark Souls 2 was named "Game of the Year" 2014 by the vast majority of gaming magazines and websites. To date, this saga is one of the most important in the gaming industry. The odd thing is that these games are well known for their difficulty and their cryptic universe. This publication narrates the epic success story, but also describes its gameplay mechanics and its specific lore across more than 300 pages. Characters, plots and the scenario of the three Souls (Demon's Souls, Dark Souls and Dark Souls II) are deciphered by Damien Mecheri and Sylvain Romieu, who spent a long year studying these dense and enigmatic games down to the smallest detail.

Dark Souls: Beyond The Grave

In this second volume devoted to the exciting games Souls and Bloodborne, we invite you to continue exploring their cryptic stories, to deepen the study of their aesthetic approaches and their playful philosophy. Bloodborne and Dark Souls III are both different and complementary. What they reveal to us from From Software's creations, from Miyazaki's approach, but also from the video game market and the nature of the medium is proving to be most rewarding.

Beyond the Grave: Bloodborne Dark Souls III

Dark Souls

The result of a joint work between the creators of Dark Souls and the mind of George R.R. Martin (Game of Thrones), combined with an impressive seven years of development, Elden Ring is an extraordinary adventure. It's a monument whose gameplay and thematic depth are revealed over hundreds of hours of play and beyond fiction; Elden Ring is the source of long and fascinating discussions. After co-writing the best-selling Dark Souls: Beyond the Grave, Sylvain Romieu continues his investigation into the intricacies of FromSoftware's creations. He uncovers the behind-the-scenes development of Elden Ring and the evolution of its game design, before turning his attention to the most important part: the meticulous deciphering of the lore and its thematic interweavings that make it the new benchmark for dark fantasy

FromSoftware's Magnum Opus

The Monumental Elden Ring

Story of a saga video games... If the Dark Souls series managed to seduce players and journalists, it was mainly by word of mouth. It was such a great success that Dark Souls 2 was named “Game of the Year” 2014 by the vast majority of gaming magazines and websites. To date, this saga is one of the most important in the gaming industry. The odd thing is that these games are well known for their difficulty and their cryptic universe. This publication narrates the epic success story, but also describes its gameplay mechanics and its specific lore across more than 300 pages. Characters, plots and the scenario of the three Souls (Demon's Souls, Dark Souls and Dark Souls II) are deciphered by Damien Mecheri and Sylvain Romieu, who spent a long year studying these dense and enigmatic games down to the smallest detail. The serie Dark Souls and her spiritual father Demon's Souls will not have secrets for you anymore! EXTRACT In May 2014, Hidetaka Miyazaki succeeded Naotoshi Zin as president of FromSoftware, after the studio was purchased by Kadokawa Shoten. This was a highly significant promotion for the person who had led the company’s most successful project, Dark Souls. And yet, he did not lose from view what had attracted him to the field: an insatiable creative drive. In spite of his new status within the studio, one of the conditions he requested and was granted was to remain creative director of his new project: Bloodborne. This allowed him to successfully design this spiritual successor to the first Souls game, while also assuming his new responsibilities. Given his drive to work and create, it is not surprising how quickly Miyazaki moved up through the ranks. ABOUT THE AUTHORS Passionate about films and video games, Damien Mecheri joined the writers team of Gameplay RPG in 2004, writing several articles for the second special edition on the Final Fantasy saga. He continued his work with the team in another publication called Background, before continuing the online adventure in 2008 with the site Gameweb.fr. Since 2011, he has come aboard Third Éditions with Mehdi El Kanafi and Nicolas Courcier, the publisher’s two founders. Damien is also the author of the book Video Game Music: a History of Gaming Music. For Third Éditions, he is actively working on the “Level Up” and “Année jeu vidéo” collections. He has also written or co-written several works from the same publisher: The Legend of Final Fantasy X, Welcome to Silent Hill: a journey into Hell, The Works of Fumito Ueda: a Different Perspective on Video Games and, of course, the first volume of Dark Souls: Beyond the Grave. Curious by nature, a dreamer against the grain and a chronic ranter, Sylvain Romieu is also a passionate traveler of the real and the unreal, the world and the virtual universes, always in search of enriching discoveries and varied cultures. A developer by trade, he took up his modest pen several years ago to study the characteristics and richness of the marvelously creative world of video games. He writes for a French video game site called Chroniques-Ludiques, particularly on the topic of RPGs, his preferred genre.

Demons Souls - Dark Souls - Dark Souls II

Dark Souls. Beyond the Grave - Volume 1

We thought we had gone through the topic in the first volume, those two games opened new pists of reflexions. The in-depth analysis of Hidetaka Miyazaki's Dark Souls saga continues with this volume 2, decoding the Bloodborne and Dark Souls III episodes. An indinspensale ebook for all the fans of the game Dark Souls ! EXTRACT The project, christened Project Beast, began soon after the Astorias of the Abyss DLC was released in August 2012. At the time, FromSoftware was also beginning to build Dark Souls II, its cash cow. Miyazaki kept his distance from this sequel, which was handed off to Tomohiro Shibuya and Yui Tanimura, with support from the FromSoftware president and creator of King’s Field, Naotoshi Zin, who supervised the game system. On his end, Hidetaka Miyazaki formed a trusted team of regular collaborators, such as lead programmer Jun Itô (who had already filled this role for Demon’s Souls and Dark Souls), composer and lead sound designer Tsukasa Saitô (Armored Core games), and most of his regular artists: Daisuke Satake, Masanori Waragai and Hiroshi Nakamura. The success of Demon’s Souls, and the even greater success of Dark Souls, allowed FromSoftware to grow its ranks significantly. In total, no fewer than fifty programmers participated in the project, along with around twenty game system designers and fifty people working on visual creation (animation, scenery, characters, etc.). Thanks to financial support from Sony, many Japanese, Chinese and Taiwanese studios were sub-contracted during the production to help with graphics and visuals. ABOUT THE AUTHORS Passionate about films and video games, Damien Mecheri joined the writers team of Gameplay RPG in 2004, writing several articles for the second special edition on the Final Fantasy saga. He continued his work with the team in another publication called Background, before continuing the online adventure in 2008 with the site Gameweb.fr. Since 2011, he has come aboard Third Éditions with Mehdi El Kanafi and Nicolas Courcier, the publisher’s two founders. Damien is also the author of the book Video Game Music: a History of Gaming Music. For Third Éditions, he is actively working on the “Level Up” and “Année jeu vidéo” collections. He has also written or co-written several works from the same publisher: The Legend of Final Fantasy X, Welcome to Silent Hill: a journey into Hell, The Works of Fumito Ueda: a Different Perspective on Video Games and, of course, the first volume of Dark Souls: Beyond the Grave. Curious by nature, a dreamer against the grain and a chronic ranter, Sylvain Romieu is also a passionate traveler of the real and the unreal, the world and the virtual universes, always in search of enriching discoveries and varied cultures. A developer by trade, he took up his modest pen several years ago to study the characteristics and richness of the marvelously creative world of video games. He writes for a French video game site called Chroniques-Ludiques, particularly on the topic of RPGs, his preferred genre.

Bloodborne & Dark Souls III

Dark Souls. Beyond the Grave - Volume 2

Histoire d'une saga de jeux vidéo à succès... Cet ouvrage raconte cette fabuleuse success-story, mais s’attache aussi à décrypter sur plus de 300 pages son gameplay et surtout son univers si particulier. Les personnages, les intrigues et le scénario des trois Souls seront décryptés par Damien Mecheri et Sylvain Romieu, qui pendant de longs mois ont étudié dans les moindres détails chaque recoin de ces titres si énigmatiques. Avec cette analyse, la série Dark Souls et leur père spirituel, Demon's Souls, n'auront plus de secret pour vous ! EXTRAIT En mai 2014, Hidetaka Miyazaki est devenu le président de From Software à la place de Naotoshi Zin, à la suite du rachat du studio de développement par Kadowaka Games. Un statut de la plus haute importance pour celui qui a dirigé le projet le plus fructueux de la boîte, Dark Souls. Pour autant, il n’a pas perdu de vue ce qui l’a amené à travailler dans ce domaine : une soif créative insatiable. Malgré sa nouvelle situation au sein du studio, l’une des conditions qu’il réclama et obtint lors de cette promotion fut de rester directeur créatif sur sa nouvelle œuvre : Bloodborne. Il put ainsi mener à bien la conception de ce successeur spirituel des Souls, tout en assumant ses nouvelles fonctions. Face à une telle envie de travailler, de créer, il est aisé de comprendre comment Miyazaki a pu grimper aussi rapidement les échelons. À PROPOS DES AUTEURS Passionné de cinéma et de jeu vidéo, Damien Mecheri intègre en 2004 la rédaction du magazine Gameplay RPG en signant plusieurs articles du hors-série n° 2 consacré à la saga Final Fantasy. Damien poursuit son travail avec cette même équipe dans une autre publication intitulée Background, avant de continuer l’aventure sur Internet en 2008 avec le site Gameweb.fr. Depuis 2011, il participe aux aventures de Mehdi El Kanafi et Nicolas Courcier, les deux fondateurs de Third Éditions. Curieux de nature, rêveur contre nature, râleur chronique, mais également voyageur de passion, du réel à l’irréel, Sylvain Romieu explore aussi bien le monde que les univers virtuels, toujours à la recherche de découvertes enrichissantes ou de cultures hétéroclites. Développeur de métier, il a cependant attrapé sa modeste plume voilà quelques années afin de décortiquer au mieux les atouts et la richesse du monde merveilleusement créatif du jeu vidéo. Il écrit sur le site Chroniques ludiques, notamment sur le sujet des RPG, son genre de prédilection.

Sylvain Romieu

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