Dark Souls 3 trailer reimagines the game as a schlocky 80s horror film

Dark Souls 3 1

[Update: Our review of Dark Souls 3 is up! Read it here.]

Dark Souls games are difficult, yes, but they're also amazing horror games, albeit with a dark fantasy veneer. The trailer above isn't necessarily in keeping with the 'spirit' of Dark Souls 3, but it's thoroughly enjoyable to imagine Miyazaki's world as a straight-to-video B-grade horror film. Oh, and there are some grief glimpses of gameplay footage in there too, buried in the VHS grain.

That's not where the weird Dark Souls trailer shenanigans end, either: Eli Roth, director of the Hostel films, has also contributed to the hype campaign. His trailer isn't in keeping with the spirit of the games at all to be honest, but it's worth a look if you want to see a cartoon warrior being force fed a cauldron of lava. Of course you do! It's embedded below.

Dark Souls 3 releases April 12. James is working on our review as I write, and he's already written up this collection of tips for the opening hours of the game.

Shaun Prescott
Australian Editor

Shaun Prescott is the Australian editor of PC Gamer. With over ten years experience covering the games industry, his work has appeared on GamesRadar+, TechRadar, The Guardian, PLAY Magazine, the Sydney Morning Herald, and more. Specific interests include indie games, obscure Metroidvanias, speedrunning, experimental games and FPSs. He thinks Lulu by Metallica and Lou Reed is an all-time classic that will receive its due critical reappraisal one day.

Latest in Dark Souls
Ten planks of wood from Dark Souls, responsible for my nightmares in Blighttown.
The co-creator of Dark Souls' most ambitious mod resurfaces to inform me that Blighttown, source of my nightmares, was cobbled together with '10 bits of wood'
dinossindgeil celebrates a hard-earned victory over seven consecutive souls games without a single hit, at level 1.
Streamer achieves git gud godhood by beating all mainline Souls games at level 1, back to back, without getting hit—then explodes into tears of relief
The creator of the Elden Ring Seamless co-op mod is now infusing unlimited multiplayer into Dark Souls 3
A warrior in Elden Ring: Nightreign readies an arm crossbow before entering into bloody combat.
It's not the Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice 2 I'd hoped for, but Elden Ring: Nightreign might just sate my insatiable hunger for FromSoftware to pick up the pace
A mounted warrior fleeing fire and rocks
FromSoftware's Hidetaka Miyazaki says the studio doesn't 'have any particular plans to develop Elden Ring 2', but that doesn't mean the 'Elden Ring IP' is over
Elden Ring
Elden Ring streamer completes a level 1 playthrough beating the game's 165 bosses—on NG+7, a difficulty she had to finish the game 7 times over just to reach
Latest in News
Junah beginning a battle in Metaphor: ReFantazio.
Today's RPG fans are 'very sensitive to feeling like they wasted time' when they die, says Metaphor: ReFantazio battle planner—but Atlus still made combat hard anyway
Image of Cersei Lanniser from Game of Thrones: Kingsroad Steam early access trailer
A new Game of Thrones RPG is coming to Steam today with a cast of 'familiar faces,' which is good because it's really the only way to tell it's a GoT game at all
The new Prime Asset featured in the upcoming update for the Outlast Trials.
The Outlast Trials puts its already paranoid players under surveillance for a time-limited story event
A Viera looking confused in Final Fantasy 14.
Old armor continues to fall victim to Final Fantasy 14's bizarre two-channel dye system, unless you're super into changing the colour of teeny-tiny eyelets: 'Why even bother at this point?'
Starfield: Shattered Space
By the time Bethesda was on Starfield, you'd 'basically get in trouble' for breaking schedule, says former dev: 'A lot of the great stuff within Skyrim came from having the freedom to do what you want'
Otter AI Meeting Agent
As if your work meetings weren't already fun enough, now Otter has a new all-hearing AI agent that remembers everything anyone has said and can join in the discussion