I agree with you here. This is why I couldn't really get into this game. It's a beautiful concept, and I'd be the first in line to buy this novel or graphic novel. But without enough story, enough music, or enough explanation.
I would have liked it better when I was younger, but now not anymore.
It is what it is.
^Gosh, I hate that you can't edit comments. I meant to additionally say that without those aforementioned three aspects, I simply could not enjoy the game.
It is what it is.
Try Betrayer. It just came out recently and has some Dark Souls-like elements (i.e. going back to your corpse to recover currency), but is easier and more story-driven. The actual gameplay is weaker, however.
^I'll have to see. Easier isn't really what I'm going for. I just want something clearer and story oriented, and with music of some kind. Ha ha! :)
Is Dark Souls and Demon's Souls the same series, btw?
It is what it is.
Demon's souls and dark souls are not /legally/ the same series(different intellectual properties), but the creators of the game tried to make them spiritually connected and possibly in the same universe. From a fan perspective, I generally say yes, but that's just me.
illegitematus non carborundum est
I would say that Dark Souls does really have a quite deep and interesting story, it's just that it.... isn't easily accessible and forces you to dig around to find it. Its a different storytelling technique, and it requires the player to put pieces together from many disparate sources, and oftentimes there are contradictory elements or you have to fill in gaps with your own speculation. Its not very intuitive, honestly, but quite engaging once you start on the puzzle pieces.
It actually becomes quite exciting to find a new piece of gear or item, simply because the item description contains hints of the lore which can help clarify the plot or background, or add a small clue to help put facts together.
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Not my Thing
I wanted to like this game. And for the first few hours, I did. The challenges were legitimate (mostly), the maps nicely designed, and the enemies varied. But after a while, the lack of explanation on multiple levels made me start asking, "So what?"
In the tutorial, for example, I'm told I can use weapons two-handed. So what? Does that increase my attack power? My attack speed? I couldn't see much of a difference. I need it to use bows, though, but bows were never covered there, so it was only through trial, error, death, and wasted arrows that I figured that out. I notice I can unlock an attunement slot if I raise this stat. So what? What does attunement do? The help feature mentions miracles. Is that magic? How do I get them? I don't want to put that much effort into finding out if it turns out to be less than useful.
Or the story: Dark is coming back and I need to ring two bells. So what? Is Dark bad? According to the opening cutscene, we came from Dark. (Possibly. I'm assuming we're who They were.) How will the bells help? Well, I'm told that "something will happen". Probably. I'm not against piecing a story together bit by bit, but I'd like to start on something a little more substantial.
This ties into my main problem with the game: as I played it, my reward for completing the challenges was just more challenges. New enemies, occasionally some new gear, whatever. But nothing outside of that. No story, nothing really personal behind all the struggle. Just variations on fighting. Every time I risk death by stepping forward, I'm left asking, "Why am I doing this?" Sure, there was that opening history, but for all I experienced it in the game, I could've played Mad Libs with it and it would've made little difference. Challenge for challenge's sake like this isn't my thing, especially with such large gaps between bonfires.
I could've kept going. While hard, it wasn't that hard. I could've learned the enemy patterns and weaknesses. But I don't like having to fight for twenty minutes, only to be faced with a choice: keep going and likely die, thanks to my low health and zero estus, thereby losing all my souls, or spend a minute traipsing back to the bonfire to raise my skills a little, thereby bringing all the enemies back. I can understand the appeal, but for me, it was just lather, rinse, repeat.