It’s commonly considered Hidetaka Miyazaki’s original creation that led to its popular Dark Souls offspring, but the genre, and the sun gesture with it, might not exist at all without Miyazaki’s rebellious spirit.
Early lightĭemon’s Souls was the foundation for the mechanics that we now think of as the souls-like genre-abstract multiplayer, maddeningly opaque lore, and soul-crushing difficulty. This cultural takeover, the permeation of celebration through a game that intentionally restricts communication, is all according to Miyazaki’s grand design-and it began long before the kindling of the first flame. Chances are you’ve seen it in an all-caps Reddit comment, scrolled past the ‘praising intensifies’ gif somewhere on Twitter or Facebook, or watched convention-goers praise the sun for photos like it was the new planking. You don’t need to have played Dark Souls to be familiar with praising the sun.
