Dark Souls Archives - Unwinnable

A screenshot from King's Field shows two frog-like adventurers exploring a dark tunnel, swords aloft.

A Return to From

By Rob Rich • July 16th, 2025

Like many folks, Rob loves him some FromSoft (Dark Souls, Elden Ring, etc). But he still misses the company’s much older approaches to the Action RPG genre.

Interlinked

The Brutal Legend game box art reworked as a vinyl record sleeve rests on a wooden counter. Two hands point at a sticker on its face which reads "PRESS START."

Nostalgia²

By Phoenix Simms • April 11th, 2025

There’s a curious folding of time and space, or at least our personal perception of time and space when it comes to ludic memory.

Feature Excerpt

Art from Dark Souls shows a dark knight standing with weapon drawn, the tatters of his cape blowing in the wind.

Let People Be Bad at Games

By Rob Rich • August 22nd, 2024

Rob is sick and tired of “skill” being used as a metric for whether or not people are qualified to critique, or even enjoy, videogames.

A screenshot from Rain World, featuring a white slugcat in between two enormous black rabbits with tendril horns, all caught in a noisy junk-filled world

Making Peace in the Toothy Maw of Rain World

By Hayes Geldmacher • July 2nd, 2024

After experiencing Rain World’s unforgiving cycle of death and punishment, it is not only understandable but anticipated that players would get fed up with the abuse and walk away to games that welcome their time and attention with any amount of appreciation. Why, then, do some players stay?

Forms in Light

A prime example of Capriccio, the painting depicts an idyllic countryside with several structures displaying different architectural styles.

Fantastic Follies

By Justin Reeve • June 14th, 2023

These wildly impractical structures were made for purely aesthetic purposes, perfectly complementing their pastoral surroundings.

Dimensions

A nighttime skyline shot from Paradise Killer, featuring the brutalist concrete apartment buildings, palm trees, and long cylindrical tower of Island Sequence 24

Paradise Killer’s Biggest Secrets are Straight Up

By Caroline Delbert • September 8th, 2022

Oli Clarke Smith says Paradise Killer’s stacked world was inspired by Dark Souls and Metal Gear. And to solve its mysteries, you’ll have to get vertical.

Another Look

Performing Interactivity

By Yussef Cole • June 11th, 2021

The hyper specificity and performativity of play.

Feature Excerpt

An armor clad figure draws their sword to do battle with a dragon.

Hidetaka Miyazaki’s Middle Earth

By Jamie Redgate • April 29th, 2021

How does one go about making a modern fantasy touchstone?

Letters from the Editors

Unwinnable Monthly, April 2021

By David Shimomura and Stu Horvath • April 15th, 2021

Big doings on the party boat this month! Oh, and all the normal magazine stuff too!

Feature Excerpt

Death is Not the End

By Nicholas Straub • October 20th, 2020

The inhabitants of the Dark Souls universe seek a hero to rekindle the first flame, for without it, they believe, all life will cease. But they are wrong.