Dark fantasy! For when regular fantasy ain’t spooky enough. What’s the point of a world of elves and dwarves if there is no stench of death hanging in the air? No drama? Moral peril? Horror? If you’re looking for seriously creepy fantasy thrills, these games are the best.
Dark Souls (all of them)
Dark Souls wasn’t a game. It was a revolution. The horror hack and slash with its merciless combat and mysterious world created an entirely new genre of game: the Souls-like. It’s the highest compliment you can give an artwork, when describe other things by it! Kafkaesque! Orwellian! Etc! The series was inspired by the greatest work of dark fantasy of all time, the late, great magaka Kento Muiora’s magnum opus Berserk. Do you want to swing oversized swords at the undead hordes? Dark Souls and its sequels are a must.
The Witcher (all of them)
Before becoming a Netflix series with Henry Cavill, The Witcher was a game franchise! And before that, it was a dark fantasy book series! It just never stopped evolving, like a Pokemon! Set in a high fantasy world, you play as Geralt of Rivia, the titular witcher. What’s a witcher? A monster slayer extraordinaire. They’re basically spooky Dunedain rangers from Lord of the Rings, long lived and lethal. Geralt travels the land slaying vampires, demons, tree spirits, ghosts, basically everything with and without a pulse! He doesn’t discriminate! Neither should you!
The Elder Scrolls (all of them)
While Skyrim is arguably the most famous installment of The Elder Scrolls series, I would be remiss if I didn’t include titles like Morrowind and Oblivion on this list. The Elder Scrolls series is a hardcore RPG a la Fallout (it’s made by the same company, after all) replete with a robust character creation system and branches of branches of upgradable skill trees that make for an entire skill forest! Not to mention the cornucopia of weapons, armors, and spells that are obtainable by those with the fortitude to do so. But the best part of these games? The quests! And by that I mean the side quests. Become a vampire! Or a werewolf! Join a guild of shadowy assassins! So many dark fantasy fates await thee!
The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask
Majora’s Mask is the darkest Legend of Zelda game ever made. Tears of the Kingdom or Twilight Princess don’t even come close. It’s so damn creepy, macabre, and hallucinatory, that there is a theory that Link is dead the entire time that you’re playing through it, and that the game’s events are either a sort of dark afterlife or his dying brain’s final attempts at coherent thought before winking out for good. You spend the game chasing after a forest spirit possessed by a mask that contains an evil spirit. The mask (spoiler: Majora’s) has cast a curse on the moon, and will cause it to plummet upon the planet in three days. That means you only have three in-game days to stop it. Good luck! Clock’s ticking.
Devil May Cry (the whole series)
Dark fantasy worlds combine with over the top anime action to bring you the Devil May Cry series. The majority of the games put you in the shoes of Dante, a pizza eating, wise cracking, sword swinging, pistol shooting lovechild between an angel and a demon. The forces of Hell are terrorizing the world, and he’ll be damned if he isn’t gonna try to make a living off it. Proud proprietor of Devil May Cry, his own personal demon-hunting business, he’ll use intricate button-mashing combo attacks to kill all demons on sight. Fast paced combat. Big boss battles. A heavy metal score. Oh yeah, this is dark fantasy at its best.
The Darksiders series
The Darksiders series is biblical in scope. Literally. The first game hands you the reins of one of the most feared figures in Christendom, he who rides the fiery red horse: War. One of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, War sets out to immanentize the eschaton by slaying the forces of Hell during Armageddon. Using God of War style hack and slash combat, War cuts a burning swath through the demon throngs in order to serve his masters in Heaven. But War soon finds out that Heaven has a plan for him too, and he isn’t gonna like it. As for the other games, the other three Horsemen make their terrifying appearance.
Hollow Knight
Don’t let its cartoony, 2D looks fool you, Hollow Knight is every bit as dark as any other title on this list. The game follows the Hollow Knight, a little skeletal bug dude who has to side scroll his way through an insectoid kingdom in order to eliminate a malevolent rot growing therein. Inspired by Dark Souls before it, Hollow Knight‘s combat is fast, brutal, and unforgiving. Like in Dark Souls, you will get killed. A lot. And then you will have to go back and find your remains in order to recollect all the power you lost. It’s a punishing game. But this is dark fantasy, punishment is why you’re here.
The Diablo series
While Diablo 3 and 4 are the most high profile games of the series, the Diablo franchise has been chugging along on the dark fantasy train before half of these games even left the station. Diablo is a top down dungeon crawler, which allows you to choose between different character classes in order to fight your way through the forces of Hell and stop the titular Diablo (i.e. the devil) from wreaking all sorts of Satanic havoc across the Earth. The action is set against the backdrop of Armageddon, with the angels of Heaven battling the forces of the Inferno. They need backup, and only you can turn the blood-dimmed tide of war.
The Drakengard series
Drakengard is a beautiful mess. Made by the creator of the sci-fi/fantasy epic Nier saga, Drakengard takes place in a dark fantasy world replete with dragons and the evil magical girls who ride them. The crown jewel in the series is Drakengard 3, a game where a group of magical dragon-riding sisters called Intoners battle for the fate of the world. The game’s antihero, and Intoner named Zero, is attempting to kill her sisters in order to end the cycle of violence and suffering that their existence causes in the world. The end justifies the means, right? Right? Even if she has to slaughter thousands in order to do it? It’s all for a good cause!
The Bayonetta series
Bayonetta. She’s a queen. An icon. She puts the slay in angel slayer. The high heeled sexy librarian office siren protagonist of the Bayonetta series is a witch in battle against the angelic forces of Paradise. Wait, but I thought that angels were the good guys? Not in this reality. Heaven wants power and control over the world, and will stop at nothing to do attain it. They seek to eliminate the forces of darkness from reality, Bayonetta and her fellow members of the order of Umbra Witches being a part of that darkness. Bayonetta ain’t the type to go down without swinging. Or shooting guns with her feet. Or turning her hair into demons. This dark fantasy epic must be seen to be believed.
Published: Aug 9, 2024 04:13 pm