Summary
- Dark fantasy games offer immersive atmospheres with moments of reprieve, balancing darkness with charm and interaction.
- SKALD: Against The Black Priory provides an old-school RPG experience in a grim-dark setting inspired by Lovecraftian horror.
- Dark Souls remains an iconic dark fantasy game with intricate world design and vague lore, drawing players into its mysterious environment.
Fantasy is an incredibly popular theme in video games, providing players with a brilliant sense of escapism and interesting worlds to explore. Dark fantasy takes these fantasy worlds and distorts them with horror themes, often providing players with a gloomy atmosphere and gothic visuals.
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The "gothic genre" has been around for quite some time, producing some of the most intense and grittiest games to ever hit the market.
The darker tone of these games can often result in dreary, drab experiences, but the best dark fantasy games balance their darkness with immersive atmospheres and moments of reprieve. The iconic Dark Souls franchise, for example, breaks up its long stretches of gloom with charming NPCs for the player to interact with.
1 SKALD: Against The Black Priory
An Old-School RPG In A Grim-Dark Setting
- Platform(s): PC
- Released: 2024
- Developer(s): High North Studios AS
- Genre: RPG
This incredibly old-school RPG features a retro, pixel art style and party-based gameplay that will likely appeal to many fans of older RPGs. SKALD: The Black Priory takes place in a grim-dark fantasy setting that's full of violence and inspired by Lovecraftian horror. Its unsettling characters and mysterious world offer a consistently dark tone throughout, allowing players to immerse themselves despite its low-res aesthetic.
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SKALD: Against The Black Priory features a solid turn-based combat system, but its greatest strength is its dense world and rich dialogue. As a result of its story-first approach, however, players who dislike reading might struggle to enjoy it.
2 Overlord 2
A Tongue-In-Cheek Adventure With A Dark Fantasy Tone
- Platform(s): PC, PlayStation, Xbox
- Released: 2009
- Developer(s): Triumph Studios
- Genre: Action
Overlord 2 is a sequel to the cult hit of the same name and, as with the original game, puts players in the shoes of the towering, titular Overlord. As the Overlord, players are given command of a variety of unique Gremlin-esque minions, each with their own abilities.
Overlord 2 is a tongue-in-cheek experience that maintains a consistent sense of humor despite its dark fantasy tone. The gameplay mostly consists of third-person action, light unit management, and a variety of puzzles. All in all, Overlord 2 offers an action-adventure experience with a few distinctive twists.
3 Grim Dawn
An Old-School ARPG In The Midst Of An Apocalypse
Grim Dawn
This action RPG features gameplay in the vein of old-school Diablo and a grim-dark fantasy world. Grim Dawn takes place amid an apocalypse, and its world is full of grit, as well as an abundance of nasty creatures to battle.
The game features a dual-class system and an abundance of skills that reward experimentation and encourage repeated play, giving players access to a wide variety of builds. For fans of older Diablo games and similar action RPGs, Grim Dawn is a dark fantasy game worth checking out.
4 Cataclismo
A Post-Apocalyptic Base Defense Game
Cataclismo
- Released
- July 22, 2024
- Developer(s)
- Digital Sun
- Platform(s)
- PC
- Genre(s)
- Strategy, Simulation, City Builder
At the time of writing, Cataclismo has only just been released into Steam's Early Access, but it's already a promising dark fantasy title. Cataclismo is a base defense game, tasking players with building a base out of modular blocks and defending it against waves of unrelenting horrors.
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Cataclismo features a dark, gloomy art style with a painterly look, set in a world ruined by a cataclysm and overrun by horrific monsters. Despite its dark fantasy setting, Cataclismo has a sense of hope to it, which prevents the experience from becoming overly morose.
5 Against The Storm
A Roguelite City-Builder In A World Ravaged By Storms
Against the Storm
- Released
- December 8, 2023
- Developer(s)
- Eremite Games
- Platform(s)
- Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series S, Xbox Series X
- Genre(s)
- Strategy, City Builder, Simulation
Featuring a dark fantasy theme and an aesthetic that borrows from Warcraft 3, Against The Storm is a heavily stylized combination of the roguelite and city-builder genres. In the game, players build a series of small settlements throughout several runs, gaining permanent upgrades along the way.
This results in a city-building experience that's small in scale but manages to capture the satisfying feeling of getting a settlement up and running. Because of this, Against The Storm isn't bogged down by the large-scale mess that can make other city-builders tedious. Against The Storm takes place in a dark fantasy setting that's been ravaged by horrific storms, and features a variety of fantasy races attempting to make their way in its hostile world.
6 Darkest Dungeon
A Lovecraft-Inspired Dungeon Crawler With A Gothic Art Style
Darkest Dungeon
Darkest Dungeon is a tough-as-nails roguelike RPG, and its dark fantasy setting mirrors its harsh and unforgiving gameplay. It's not uncommon for players to lose heroes as they battle through the game's titular dungeons, becoming overwhelmed with mechanical stress along the way. Though there are lights at the ends of some tunnels, they are few and far between.
This results in a rich, dark tone that can be overwhelming at times, but makes even the smallest of victories all the sweeter. Darkest Dungeon's creatures and overall tone take clear inspiration from the works of H.P. Lovecraft, with a gothic hand-drawn art style that takes full advantage of the dark setting.
7 Dark Souls
A Dark Fantasy Icon
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FromSoftware's Dark Souls is perhaps one of the most iconic dark fantasy games on the market, along with its sequels. FromSoftware's latest endeavor, Elden Ring, was a massive hit and took place in an equally dark and mysterious world. However, it could be argued that the original Dark Souls features the best world design, thanks to its intricately designed map and charismatic NPCs.
The world of Dark Souls is incredibly vague, with very little lore being given to the player up-front. However, even players who charge through the game without seeking out its secrets will likely find themselves immersed in its strange environment.
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