As reported by Malay Mail, Malaysian-born British actor Pik-Sen Lim died on Monday, June 9 at the age of 80. Lim had an extensive career in British theater, film, and television. PC Gamer readers will recognize her as the narrator of Dark Souls and Dark Souls 3’s opening cutscenes.
Though her performances in FromSoft’s action-RPGs clock in at just seven minutes total across both games, Lim’s haunted delivery lent a sense of gravitas and mystery to the recounting of Dark Souls’ fictional history.
Dark Souls III – Opening Cinematic Trailer | PS4, XB1, PC – YouTube
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She adeptly set the stage of both games’ cryptic mythologies, establishing the existential stakes of the story before we wake up in the ignominious muck of Dark Souls’ early levels. Lim also delivered a vexing brain tickler of a line that haunts Dark Souls lore aficionados to this day: “And the Furtive Pygmy, so easily forgotten.”
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Lim was born in the Malaysian state of Penang in 1944 while it was still under Imperial Japanese occupation during World War 2. As relayed by Lim to The Straits Times in 1978, she moved to the United Kingdom in 1961 to pursue a career in acting against the wishes of her family.
Lim would go on to appear in dozens of UK TV shows, including Dr. Who, as well as many stage productions. Her most recent TV credits were last year’s The Nevers and Vampire Academy in 2023.
“A joyous person, full of love and laughter and mischief, she was so much fun to be around and her gift for comedy was such that you always felt safe in front of an audience with her, that absolutely unique voice and vivacious energy carrying us all with her,” wrote fellow actor Daniel York Loh on Facebook. “I was even lucky enough to direct her a couple of times in play readings and there were whole levels of her talent that I just kept discovering.
“She was so affectionate, so witty, so brilliantly scabrous and absolutely honest about the rubbish this industry deals actors of our heritage—unlike a fair few others who actually try and cape it.”