10 Video Games With Unimaginably Complicated Lore
7. Dark Souls
The Dark Souls games present an interconnected tapestry of kingdoms rising and falling in the same locations, forever cursed by mankind's selfishness to suffer with undeath. This cycle, matching the gameplay that sees players falling and rising again having lost so much more of their experiences, is at the centre of Dark Souls and is handled more elegantly than any other video game series has managed.
Every item in the game has flavour text that ties into the story of what happened in the past of this world. Enemy types have different attacks and movements that, combined with this flavour text, shed a little more light on the events that caused the land to fall to darkness. Slight damage to rooms, often simply background detailing in many games, can give away little secrets. Even the final words of characters can reveal the motivations behind their plans, had you let them live.
One example of this is in Dark Souls 3 where killing Yuria in Firelink Shrine leads to her saying "Kaathe, I have failed thee." This reveals that her plan to usher in a new Darkness was inspired by primordial serpent Kaathe from the original game.