There is great appeal in the action-oriented, character-driven narrative of Dark Souls games, and, in turn, a more existential, massochistic need that is addressed. Otherwise what is the draw of slamming your head against a wall over and over? Why take arms and suffer to help a world that does not care? A world that has fully accepted its status quo? It is selfish to want to improve the world, but if you don't do it, who will? Playing Dark Souls is braving the harsh dissonance of reality.
In Demon's Souls, you've wandered into the wrong place and consigned yourself to a miserable fate. In Dark Souls 1, you've been locked away for years because of your cursed immortality. In Dark Souls 2, you've reached the end of a long, inevitable line and lost your self like wax to flame. In Bloodborne, you sought a cure for an affliction you cannot remember. Playing Dark Souls is accepting that the past is meaningless.
In your real life, you wake up, hoping to change the world or get through the day as unscathed as possible. At the end of the day, you have a brief respite to escape; to pretend that everything is not as bleak as it seems with a nice video game. Why do you choose a game that revels in its difficulty and its ability to kill you with ease? Because you know you're not worthy. You're an imposter. A simple achievement for participating feels empty. Like Camus and the Myth of Sisyphus, you're addicted to trying and failing over and over. Though one must imagine you're happy playing Dark Souls.
For each villain you kill in a Dark Souls game, there is another stronger. While they tower over you in their strength and influence (much like the powers-that-be of the modern world), your powers are limited. The gains you've made stealing life from your victims have diminishing returns, and eventually you're stuck with your choices of self-improvement. You may have neither the time nor money for a respec just as you're stuck in that job that's barely good enough in that career with limited growth. While Dark Souls is the realization of Nietzche's Will to Power - the only good in Dark Souls, after all, is what brings power - you live in a society of unattainable social mobility. At least in Dark Souls, you get infinite do-overs.
Your allies come and go from your world; the same way that you come and go from their worlds as boon or bane; blue, white, or red. You may have even become too powerful to deserve their assistance, or wasted all your IOUs and social capital (i.e. insight and humanity) the way that leech friend of yours always does. At some point, it'll just be you, Gamefaqs, and Let's Play videos to assist you. Equipment will help, but effectively is just fashion. Everyone who plays Dark Souls eventually dies alone.
When you've finished the main quest and saved the world, you've only just begun a new ng+. The only true win of Dark Souls is loss and storage on some dusty shelf. It nags at you. Why did you stop? Why could you do no more? There was no answer or closure. You were forced to move on like when grandma passed and your support network was already done with you. Playing Dark Souls is embracing the tragedy of life.
But life is good in between bonfires, so they must be lit. Playing Dark Souls is facing and accepting the harsh dissonance of reality.
