But the whole premise of Dark Souls has to do with a cyclical world, rebirth and so forth. It's more like a "dark" version of Buddhism than anything remotely connected to medieval Christianity.
There is no greater goal or escape from the cycle or role of self in it. It's more like Hinduism than Buddhism in that regard. What I meant by western spiritual influence was Humanism in particular, which is very present in Berserk and thus the parts of Dark souls that is influenced by it. There is of course certain convergence to it because of Humanist thought influencing a Westernized state like Japan before any of the modern media. Existence of Eastern spiritual framework is of course normal, much like how Western orientalist literature projected Christian framework to Orient, such as giving Muhammad a role like that of Christ and presenting him as a counter-part of Christ in Christian trinity.
Cycles were common in all types of religion and mythology, including Europe and Middle-east before Abrahamic religions (and Zoroastrianism). It's not particularly meaningful when you are doing fantasy absent of Absolute God. Indeed fantasy with an Absolute God is rarer than any fantasy with cyclical worlds or polytheistic religions, Tolkien notwithstanding who had very Catholic philosophy.
Point being, it is just alike all other Japanese fantasy that takes place in Western settings, it is "occidentalist" and thus derivative and reductive. Moreover it is derivative of a middle source, Berserk, which does this setting and spiritual concept much better with much more appropriate and coherent setting. Particularly the common mistake of doing Medieval European fantasy that has nothing to do with Medieval Europe and everything to do with Rennaisaince Europe, from arms and armor to thought process and philosophy, even architecture sometimes.
Sekiro ends up better as a setting because it is just doing something more authentic and coherent with the general ideas. It's also a more fun game because it's not built around invincibility frame rolling through slow swings of gigantic weapons, avoiding damage by going towards attacks. Which insults all sensibilities.
