I'm trying to better understand the subject and part of me is unclear on if any depiction of another culture "counts", even if it's a fictionalized depiction / amalgamation of those cultures.
Also, if you could count stuff like those as examples, I'm unclear on if cultural appropriation is always bad, or more dependent on how respectful / high quality the appropriation is.
Cultural Appropriation is the commodification and marketization of cultural traits for trendy consumption by hegemonic elites in core countries
It is not synonymous with cultural exchange or cultural acculturation because that involves sustained contact between at least two people of different cultures, which doesn't happen with individualist consumer based appropriation
Dark Souls, while a commodity isn't defined by any appropriationsist narratives, it doesn't say "THIS IS WHAT EUROPE IS" instead it takes artistic inspiration to tell a self-contained story, it's an artistic product that stands on its own