‘Dark Souls 3’ morse code run prompts accessibility discussion

Streamer Dylan ‘Rudeism’ Beck (who you can find on both Twitch and YouTube) shared a video and message to their Twitter account showing them beating the Soul of Cinder in the FromSoftware game using just one red button mapped to morse code inputs for different moves.

That’s 19 bosses and 258,250 button presses by Beck’s count, with the game’s downloadable content also to be beaten as their next target. You can check out the video below.

Dark Souls 3 has been beaten with Morse code! ????

19 bosses, 258,250 button presses. (DLC to come)

And just because it can be beaten with one button doesn’t mean games like Dark Souls shouldn’t have accessibility & difficulty options! ???????? pic.twitter.com/DporRqC15E

— Rudeism (@rudeism) October 24, 2021

Beck also shared a message concerning the ongoing issue of video game accessibility with the clip, saying “just because it can be beaten with one button doesn’t mean games like Dark Souls shouldn’t have accessibility & difficulty options!”

Kotaku then sat down for an interview with Beck, which turned into more in-depth discussion about his achievement and game accessibility in general. Beck told the publication about how games only including one difficulty option create obstacles that are unnecessarily unfair. “Those obstacles, unmoving in their height, can become harder—or even impossible—to clear,” they said.

A point Beck makes in the interview about their run of Dark Souls 3 is that they limited the game on purpose, but that many players with accessibility options don’t have the same freedom. “If you can’t react fast enough due to a physical limitation, you’re essentially locked out of progressing. My limitation was by choice, but there are millions of disabled gamers who don’t have that luxury.”

Beck added that games like Celeste and Hades balance accessibility well while keeping true to the game’s core design, and that they hope the recently delayed Elden Ring will do more for accessibility.

If you want to learn more about accessibility in video games or donate to the right places you should check out charities like AbleGamers and SpecialEffect.

In other news, Apple Music is finally available on PS5.