The audiobook version of Abyssal Archive, read by VaatiVidya and featuring nearly 20 hours of Dark Souls insight and lore analysis, is now available. Like the video games, DARK SOULS™: The Roleplaying Game is designed to be a punishing but rewarding experience that will delight hardcore fans and roleplayers alike. Few obstacles are easily overcome. Every enemy is a challenge . Progress is hard-won. You’ll die many times over. You’ll also rise again with DARK SOULS™: The Roleplaying Game ’s death and rebirth mechanics, based on the video games’ unique system that rewards willpower and perseverance. You’re not alone. As well as fellow roleplayers, a host of familiar faces stand ready to assist you. Engage in jolly cooperation to vanquish your foes!

I was a fan of Titan's Bloodborne comics, so when I saw they were collecting all of their Dark Souls stuff in one place I snapped it right up. We open with The Breath Of Andolus, from George Mann, which follows a heroine searching for three objects to summon a dragon and relink the flame. Sounds familiar, right? To say it's derivative would be being kind, it's literally the plot of any Souls game reskinned with a different character. It's not bad, but it's hardly revolutionary - even the 'twist' at the end is signposted right from the off. Alan Quah's artwork really sells it though, it's gorgeous, and well suited to fantasy settings. Here’s the pitch from the publishers Tune & Fairweather for the books, whose collection is called the Abyssal Archive: Housed in deluxe slipcase with die-cut viewing portal revealing a circular glimpse of the cover illustration. A true collectible. Digital PDF edition available here.

Success!

Tune & Fairweather, publisher of acclaimed Dark Souls book You Died, is proud to partner with VaatiVidya to bring to life his vision of a deluxe, large-format art book collecting the most remarkable entries from all five of the art competitions he ran on his YouTube channel. Includes a fold-out companion map of Lordran by artist Judson Cowan. Bound individually and housed alongside the books, this map rounds out the set, making Abyssal Archive the definitive reference for fans of Miyazaki's gothic masterpiece. Abyssal Archive features the most comprehensive fan analysis of Dark Souls' mythos ever undertaken. Presented in the most lavish collector's edition we have assembled to date. We set out to pay tribute to Miyazaki's legendary game by crafting something that embodies the same care and attention to detail that makes Dark Souls itself such a peerless work of art. Incredible fan artwork inspired by Demon's Souls, Dark Souls, Bloodborne, Sekiro and Elden Ring. Alongside each entry, Vaati provides commentary drawing you deeper inside the world created by the artists featured. Abyssal Archive is the culmination of years of determined research and writing by veteran Souls scholar Lokey, who combined his understanding of Japanese and deep familiarity with Miyazaki’s oeuvre to mine unique insights from Dark Souls’ source material. All of that learning has been distilled in these two hardcover volumes for fans interested in deepening their understanding of Lordran’s tumultuous history as well as its characters’ exploits and tangled relationships.

Then there's Age Of Fire, from Ryan O'Sullivan, which is easily the best. It's a deep dive look into the politics at the end of the fall of Lordran, and follows a minor character as he crosses paths with a series of other, bigger characters, shaping his own fall from grace after a trip to Izalith and a descent into the shadows. The art here is sometimes a little too dark to discern what's going on, and there are a few dodgy faces, but overall Anton Kokarev does a very good job capturing the decline of the world. Winter's Spite, also by Mann, is a step up. It's only tangentially Dark Souls related, but the set-up and ending give definite Dark Souls vibes. It doesn't seem like the first two issues are related to the overall story until the last issue which puts everything into perspective, which is pretty neat, and there's a twist that should I have seen coming but didn't, so that was unexpected. Again Alan Quah's on art, so it all looks great - the sweeping snowy vistas are especially good.