What made Dark Souls successful?

>>383726609
Focus on gameplay rather than an "experience".

Underserved market.

Muh hardcore meme made people buy it so they could brag about playing it.

artistic design
relatively difficult gameplay
hidden story

European actors

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3E8q7ErXI_k

"Goodbye...a..and stay safe!"

>>383726795
That's not entirely true. Dark Souls' presentation is excellent. The gameplay is at its best when the harshness compliments the atmosphere, as was originally intended with Demon's and Dark Souls. Dark Souls 2, 3 and Bloodborne stumble on occasion when they try to be hard video games rather than harsh worlds. People who claim to not care about the story/lore might not notice how important the world building is to their experience, but their brains do.

>>383727292
Another great point. The voice acting in Souls is the best in the entire industry.

Being a really good game.
From a marketing standpoint, it was advertised as a hardcore-"r u up for the challenge? I bet ur not, pussy"-game released when most mainstream games started becoming noticeably easier and more casual

>>383727292
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4arN2uxYwY

But in the end..you lack the stomach