The ultimate book on the origins of the Souls saga.

How did Demon’s Souls andDark Souls – games known for their punishing difficulty and cryptic lore – become global phenomena?

Dark Souls: Beyond the Grave – Volume 1 explores the first three masterpieces of FromSoftware: Demon’s Souls, Dark Souls, and Dark Souls II. Across 300 pages, Damien Mecheri and Sylvain Romieu dive deep into the saga’s unique gameplay mechanics, dark mythology, unforgettable characters, and the creative vision of Hidetaka Miyazaki.

Detailed analysis of plots, themes, and hidden meanings
Exclusive insight into the creative process at FromSoftware
A must-read for fans of Bloodborne, Elden Ring, and Japanese RPGs

The definitive companion to discover (or rediscover) the rise of one of the most influential sagas in video game history.

EXTRACT

"In May 2014, Hidetaka Miyazaki succeeded Naotoshi Zin as president of FromSoftware, after the studio was purchased by Kadokawa Shoten. This was a highly significant promotion for the person who had led the company’s most successful project, Dark Souls. And yet, he did not lose from view what had attracted him to the field: an insatiable creative drive. In spite of his new status within the studio, one of the conditions he requested and was granted was to remain creative director of his new project: Bloodborne. This allowed him to successfully design this spiritual successor to the first Souls game, while also assuming his new responsibilities. Given his drive to work and create, it is not surprising how quickly Miyazaki moved up through the ranks."

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Passionate about films and video games, Damien Mecheri joined the writers team of Gameplay RPG in 2004, writing several articles for the second special edition on the Final Fantasy saga. He continued his work with the team in another publication called Background, before continuing the online adventure in 2008 with the site Gameweb.fr. Since 2011, he has come aboard Third Éditions with Mehdi El Kanafi and Nicolas Courcier, the publisher’s two founders. Damien is also the author of the book Video Game Music: a History of Gaming Music. For Third Éditions, he is actively working on the “Level Up” and “Année jeu vidéo” collections. He has also written or co-written several works from the same publisher: The Legend of Final Fantasy X, Welcome to Silent Hill: a journey into Hell, The Works of Fumito Ueda: a Different Perspective on Video Games and, of course, the first volume of Dark Souls: Beyond the Grave.

Curious by nature, a dreamer against the grain and a chronic ranter, Sylvain Romieu is also a passionate traveler of the real and the unreal, the world and the virtual universes, always in search of enriching discoveries and varied cultures. A developer by trade, he took up his modest pen several years ago to study the characteristics and richness of the marvelously creative world of video games. He writes for a French video game site called Chroniques-Ludiques, particularly on the topic of RPGs, his preferred genre.