Graphic Novel Review: Dark Souls Vol.1 by George Mann

Synopsis:

Join Fira – a battle-hardened warrior – as she embarks upon a perilous quest to save her ailing kingdom, fighting countless hoards of demonic foes along the way! From writer George Mann, artist Alan Quah and Bandai Namco Entertainment comes this epic new tale from the perilous world of Dark Souls! Collects Dark Souls #1-4.

Review:

Now I’m a big fan of Dark Souls, I love the games, but this just was not as good. This has been on my to be read for a while so I’m quite disappointed it didn’t live up to my expectations.

Personally, I don’t think it held the essence of Dark Souls and the story was difficult to follow at times. This could be my own fault as I find ‘old timey’ language quite difficult to comprehend and pair that with action-packed pages and I’m completely confused.

I did quite like the art style. Although it’s not my favourite it was pretty good. I’ve never seen a graphic novel with so much detail on every page. It’s actually quite impressive, but I found the intense detail distracting at times and I kept getting lost on where I was on the page. Again this is my fault as I’m easily distracted.

I loved the subtle nods to previous Dark Souls characters, but it would have been cool to actually see some of them in this.

Sadly this was not what I expected it to be and whilst the story was engaging with plenty of action and lore, it just was not for me. Which really is a shame as I love Dark Souls a lot. I may potentially check out the second volume, but I don’t want to be disappointed again.