Dark Souls‘ story is impermeable to most people. It’s hard to make out exactly what’s going on in either of the first two games, and the third game doesn’t look to be any different in that respect.
To that end, Namco Bandai put up a challenge to win $10,000 in cash, provided you can successfully explain Dark Souls 3‘s story to anyone who hasn’t played the first two games. Even players who finished both games find their confusing narrative hard to keep up with, much of which is purposely vague.
To enter the contest, participants had to show off their style and understanding of the Dark Souls universe and prove that they could tell a masterful story… by telling the story. The videos had to run five minutes or less.
Here’s how they were judged:
All eligible submissions will be evaluated by a qualified panel of Judges chosen by the Bandai Namco. The judges will use the following judging criteria to select one (1) Grand Prize Winner, one (1) Runner-up and three (3) Third Place Winners: Overall production quality (35%), Originality, embodiment of Dark Souls related themes 35%, and encapsulation of the Dark Souls story (30%). The Submission with the highest score will be determined to be the Grand Prize Winner, the second highest score will be determined to be the Runner-up and the Submissions with the next three highest scores will be determined to be the Third Place Winners.
The contest concluded last night. Here are some of the entries.
The winners will be announced soon.