I was hosting a party for all the video games I've played and this one came in with it's guitar, shouted around, and then vomited all over the living room floor right in front of Bugsnax and Viva Piñata.

I was no stranger to facing challenges in a video game, but for the longest time I just didn't get into this series for whatever reason and it started to feel like a weird skin tag that needed to finally be taken care of. So, I started with this one, and I'm glad that I did. Everything in this game felt like pure torture, from getting my ass split wide open from the same boss for hours to just simply walking from point A to point B.

Everything feels like it's in slow motion and it just grates me to my core. I could not stand having to get through a country of enemies between areas and I just do not care for your counter-opinion, xXPuzzYSlayurXx, there is nothing that will convince me otherwise. Some bosses are completely fine, others are just straight up ass? But most of them are a worthy challenge. I will say even despite feeling like my legs were being torn off slowly, it was quite the dopamine hit to finally defeat a boss on your own. You know, until you instantly lose your 40,000+ souls from a random skeleton immediately after.

I do think part of what turned me off from these games initially is that most of the plot and backstory is hidden in menus and item descriptions. It's quite literally just "Read the Wiki" the series. I am illiterate, please stop doing this.

I am not put off by this series after playing this game. It was not my favorite thing ever, but I do think just from my playstyle alone. I will probably enjoy the later entries more than this one. It's just fine for me, and I felt good beating it.

Dark Souls is my favourite game of all time. There is no other game (or other piece of art) I talk about as much and as profusely as Dark Souls. I've annoyed my friends with how good this game is for years. Despite that, I've kinda dreaded writing this review.

Is there another game in history as much talked and ruminated about in the modern era as Dark Souls? What can you even say about a game this massively influential and polarising? I feel like even that this very phrase itself has become cliché in the discourse surrounding it.

Instead of regurgitating that which more knowledgeable and eloquent critics than I have already talked about at length, I'll simply just talk about what I love (and don't love) about the game and I explain how learning to love it wasn't all that easy at first.

I love the world of Lordran. I love its intricacies, its characters, its lore and its structure.

The world of Lordran is beautiful and bleak. It is horrifying and reassuring. From the top of the highest mountain, where the very gods reside, to the fiery chasm of the underworld, all areas of this world are connected with each other, making the world seem almost like a colossal anthill. This gives Dark Souls its distinctive "3rd Person Metroidvania" feeling. And as per usual with that genre of games, this world is filled with secrets that only those with the keenest of eyes will spot.

Lordran is mired in histories long forgotten, lost to the inhabitants of today. In this land, humans are victims of a past they'll never fully understand, as as such, are doomed to repeat the same mistakes. Like a cancer, the Undead Curse seeps into the very being of unfortunate souls, each death stripping them from a bit of their humanity, hollowing them out from the inside until nothing but a witless husk remains. They are doomed to keep reviving at the various Bonfires speckled throughout the lands, which explains their function as checkpoints for the player character in a diegetic manner. This is only one of many examples of FromSoft constructing a deeply immersive and authentic experience through their skilful interweaving of world building and gameplay, not only in this game, but their entire Soulsborne catalogue.

Despite a world so gruel and punishing, so obscure and indifferent, the various NPCs you encounter are very much the opposite. Be they good or evil, charmers or intimidating, friend or foe alike; they are unabashedly human. They laugh, they cry, they want and they yearn. Some will attempt to kill you for your humanity, while others will assist you on your travels just out of the goodness of their heart.

I love the atmosphere, so thick that you could slice it with a knife.

The soft, cloudy lighting of Firelink Shrine, the piercing fiery reds of Izalith, the noxious green of Blighttown... the sheer grandeur of Anor Londo in the false evening sun, the reverential and deeply mystical Ash Lake, the sheer terror of the pitch black Tomb of the Giants... each part of Lordran has its own character.

I love how uncompromisingly melancholic and depressing this game is. Where other fantasy games will usually try and instil a sense of heroism in the player, Dark Souls consistently asks the player what it even is they're fighting for. Do they even know? Are they even the hero in this story?

Dark Souls masterfully subverts Campbell's archetype of the Hero's Journey in almost every aspect. You are NOT the chosen one. You are NOT someone special. There are many just like you, and they all failed. What makes you different?

I love the incredibly mystical and byzantine lore. This game's lore and world building are perhaps my favourite in all of fiction. Miyazaki and his team evidently drew from a lot of existing mythology and real life history, as well as many other inspirations, most notoriously among them, the late Kentaro Miura's Berserk. It is masterfully crafted, and the proof can be found in various forums, Reddit threads and YouTube videos, still speculating about the minutiae of the most obscure lore references almost a decade after the game first released.

I love the story of Gwyn, Izalith and Nito, of the Ancient Dragons and the Furtive Pygmy. I love the tale of Artorias and his tragic battle against the Abyss itself. I love the occult hushes and whispers spoken about the plots of Velka, the Goddess of Sin. None of these characters ever speak a word to the protagonist, and yet are more memorable to me than any character in any AAA game with 3 hours worth of dialogue.

I love the fittingly brutal and punishing gameplay. I love the slow and deliberate combat. Every decision is a micro puzzle, a question of "do you really want to do this?". Mistakes are brutally punished, but they make you learn. You get into the flow of the slow and steady dance of dodging enemy attacks and punishing them for not being able to kill you. When I first played these games, I had never felt anything nearly as exhilarating as killing a boss in them.

Apropos bosses; Dark Souls (as in DS1), may not have the best bosses in the Souls series but it sure as hell has some of the best and most memorable bosses in all of gaming regardless. Ornstein and Smough, Manus, Artorias, Kalameet, Quelaag, Gwyn, the Iron Golem, the Gaping Dragon.. those are just a few from the immensely creative and fantastically designed boss roster.

And that's kind of the whole beauty of it too; the combat system itself isn't anything amazing, it's very simple. It's the fantastic variety in enemy design and the absolutely incredible levels these encounters even take place in.

Dark Souls has some of the best levels in video game history.
From the impeccably designed pseudo-tutorial area the Undead Burg, to the murky Darkroot Garden, the delightfully devilish Sen's Fortress, the cold and scary but also beautiful Painted World of Ariamis, the awe inspiring Anor Londo, the terrifying gutters of Blighttown, etc. all of these levels feature fantastic and challenging encounters and are unbelievably well designed. As mentioned, the game lifts a lot of techniques from the Metroidvania genre, utilising one-way locked doors, elevators, kick-down ladders etc. to get you back to the checkpoint, and letting you skip huge sections of any map as a reward for making it this far and staying perceptive.

All of this is to say that I think that Dark Souls is an ALMOST perfect game. Why almost? Well, for the same reason that I ended up giving this game 4,5/5 instead of 5/5. The reason for that is Dark Souls notorious and often maligned second half.

While I personally always found the criticisms towards that second half to be quite overblown and disproportionate, I can't deny that it drags the whole game down a bit because of it.

I wouldn't go so far as to say that the entire second half of Dark Souls is outright bad, but the levels and bosses post-Anor Londo definitely drop in quality quite a bit in certain places.

It's not as bad in the Duke's Archives and in New Londo. The Duke's Archives are essentially an extension of the Anor Londo map, and as such is designed relatively similar in terms of progression and navigation. I would argue that the actual level design of the place is quite good even! It's the absolute load of very strong and annoying enemies that tend to frustrate a lot of people, myself included. The boss, Seath the Scaleless, is a huge letdown compared to how much he was hyped up in the lore, but somehow not even the worst offender in that regard. He just ends up being disappointingly easy.

New Londo is actually really cool and I never understood the unfortunate amount of hate it received. The (seemingly) invincible ghosts are pretty menacing and a rather frightening sight but can be dealt with quite easily if you know how. The level itself is intensely creepy and dark, and features a harrowing story of the city having been flooded with all the people still in it, by the healers who found themselves forced to do so to contain the terrible evil that had arisen within the depths of the town; the boss of this level, the Four Kings, corrupted by the Abyss. Easily my favourite fight out of the Lord Souls.

I can definitely understand the grievances with Dark Souls' second half a lot more with areas like the unfinished pits of the Demon Ruins and the city of Lost Izalith, the annoying and trollish Tomb of the Giants and the bullshit, broken level geometry of the Crystal Cave.

Tomb of the Giants is easily explained; the place is literally so dark you can't see shit. There are exactly 2 items that can help alleviate the darkness, and one of them is locked in another late game area. What makes this area unforgivable is that this is also the area with the most narrow walkways, the most confusing layout AND the enemies with the highest potential of knocking your ass right off the next cliff. You also can't really see them coming. Neat.

The Crystal Cave looks amazing but clearly hasn't been playtested very much, as numerous sections of the floor are simply broken and will lead to a lot of deaths where you were walking along a crystal beam and suddenly slip off the side without warning. And that's just the VISIBLE ones. There are also invisible walkways, which are just as broken. Also there isn't a single bonfire in the whole area.

Lost Izalith and the Demon Ruins aren't AS bad as the other two, and they even look pretty cool, but are clearly (and afaik even confirmed by the devs to be) unfinished. If the horde of copypasted early game bosses and lack of everything else wasn't indication enough, the fact that the second level consists to 90% of literally only running across a lava lake definitely should be. The sad thing is, this general area features the worst bosses in the whole game, with one of them - the Bed of Chaos - being widely considered to be one of the worst video game bosses of all time. Rightly so, I might add.

But as I mentioned, as a whole these flaws don't weigh heavily enough upon the game to say that the "entire second half is bad" or anything to that effect - especially since the Remastered version comes with the DLC pre-installed.

The DLC truly elevates the entire experience back to the realm of masterpiece.

It introduces 3 new levels and 4 new bosses, all of which range from ok at worst to amazing at its best! Moreover, it actually expands upon the story of Artorias the Abysswalker, of whom we've caught glimpses and whispers of other NPCs but have never seen in the main game, we just meet his wolf, Sif. We only know that he defeated the Darkwraiths of New Londo, and saved the ancient city of Oolacile from the Abyss.

The player is transported back in time after saving Princess Dusk from the inside of a golden golem and finding a mysterious pendant in the Duke's Archives. Upon arriving, and slaying the Sanctuary Guardian in our way, we meet up with a talking mushroom and gradually uncover that the tale of Artorias defeating the Abyss in Oolacile was nothing a fabrication.

Artorias, driven mad by grief and the powers of the Abyss, knows not friend from foe and will attack any living thing near him. After defeating him, in what is likely the best boss fight in this game, we begin to understand that WE are the ones to put an end to the Abyss. And such, we descend down the city of Oolacile, all the way down its pitch black dungeon to confront the host of the Abyss - Manus. He is easily the hardest boss in the entire game, and doubles as the true final fight.

That is, other than the secret boss of the DLC, Black Dragon Kalameet. Though appearing as literally undefeatable at first, with the help of an unlikely friend you manage to pin the beast to the ground and engage in a thrilling fight with him.

After finishing the DLC, there is only one more thing to do: To go toe to toe with the man who started this whole mess: Gwyn, the Lord of Sunlight - now the Lord of Cinder. The soundtrack is not bombastic, not loud and terrifying like the others in the game; it is sombre, calm and melancholic.

What is it you're really fighting for? Did you ever find an answer? Or will you end up like him; standing watch at the fire for millennia, until another one as strong as you arrives to link the flame in your stead?

...

I can't believe how close I once was to writing this game off as toxic bullshit. When I first played it in early 2019, I got stuck on Taurus Demon in the first level, and got so frustrated at the run back to it that I simply gave up. I told myself "this isn't fun" and dropped it for a good 6 months.

I still don't know what exactly compelled me to go back and give it a try. Maybe it was a random VaatiVidya lore video I got recommended that revived my interest. Maybe it was the many, many people praising it as one of the best ever that got me thinking I might have missed something. But something in this game called to me and drew me into its spell.

If you were like me, and you bounced off Dark Souls because you found it too frustrating, too demanding or too cryptic; I hope I could show you that most of us felt this way at first, and that it's likely part of the intended experience.

People don't grow without frustration, and people don't learn without making mistakes.

I hope that you can find it in yourself to give this game another chance; you deserve it.

-------------------------------------

Wow, so this ended up WAY longer than I anticipated. If you actually read this entire ass thing, thank you so much, I write this stuff because of people like you.

Totes feel seepy whenever I play this now, lol. Guess I'll come back...once more some day? I really liked what all I played of Dark Souls. I liked this game a lot more on the second playthrough, too! My first time around I rushed through on a strength-dex combo build that was awful to play as, but this time around I went full-dex and used my half-remembered first playthrough to inform my second playthrough. I loved a lot of it! Can't really follow the story again, as I suspected, but damn! What a lovely set of incredible aesthetics. I got up to the end of the DLC after constructing most of the final Boss Souls this time around, and it took nearly a hundred hours. Compare that to my 60 hour playthrough all the way through to the end of the game, and yeah, I think I really took my time and enjoyed it more this time. Dusk of Oolacile my beloved.

A definição perfeita para esse jogo é OBRA DE ARTE. Um puta jogo foda que com certeza não é para iniciantes mas ao mesmo é para alguém que quer começar nos jogos souls-like. Dark souls é um jogo que te dá muita liberdade e eu amo isso nos jogos, por essa liberdade também é muito fácil se perder e eu odeio estar perdido nos jogos, a maneira que é proposta para você saber por onde tem que ir é tu indo se fodendo por onde anda até descobrir se deu certo ou não, o jogo te dá sinais mas se tu não pegar esses sinais tu fica morrendo e perdido (o que aconteceu comigo).
O que me incomodou não foi muita coisa, os chefes do jogo não são tão difíceis o que quebrou um pouco a minha expectativa é que em alguns eu pensei que seria uma luta foda mas era só achar um lugar e dar um hit de dano e pronto matou, outra coisa que incomodou, era o caminho MUITO longe que você tinha que fazer para chegar nos chefes, eu preferiria que o chefe que eu iria enfrentar fosse um puta de um apelão que não tivesse um caminho tão longo e lotado de inimigo inútil no meio, onde era perto da bom fire mas compensava a dificuldade no inimigo mas mesmo com isso o jogo fica foda do mesmo jeito.
Quando eu descobri a história do jogo (eu pesquisei) ficou muito foda de se jogar, as batalhas com os chefes elas te dão muitos sentimentos onde alguns é uma trilha sonora foda e outros é uma musica melancólica que te faz ficar calmo. Então dark souls é um jogo bem marcante com diversas possibilidades de você fazer diversos outros caminhos, realmente é um jogo que merece a fama e os elogios que tem.

If you will allow me to count the Demon's Souls remake, I have finally beaten every post-Demon's Souls From Software "one of these"! (Demon's Souls, DS1, DS2, DS3, Bloodborne, Sekiro, Elden Ring, and I kinda count Armored Core VI because of its boss fights).

This is the fourth or fifth time I've attempted to beat this specific game. I don't know why this is the one I've struggled with most -- even more than DeS or the latter Dark Souls games. Heck, I beat Sekiro twice last year, which some would call the hardest "one of these" games.

Having beaten it now, I think the reasons I've had a harder time with DS1 are:
-Its trademark From obtuseness is arguably more obtuse here than DeS or any game that came after
-Getting where you need to go can take a long time since some bonfires are full 90 second sprints
-I often play heavier builds across the board, but even by that standard this just feels slower to me than the rest of them. Might be same thing as the second point.

These aren't strictly bad things -- I think a lot of the games I mentioned above are either a 7/10 or a 10/10 for you based on what you like about these games/want from them. For me, I've realized by this point that the faster, high-intensity From action game -- Bloodborne, Sekiro (my favorite), Elden Ring (I count it), and ACVI (my GOTY right now I believe) -- is what I click with most. That, plus it being a 10+ year old game that shows its age, meant that I had a good time and could appreciate it for what it was but it didn't click with me as much as it probably did for others.

Some of that is unmistakably my own fault. I didn't summon but this is the cheesiest Soulslike playthrough I've ever had. Glitched out two bosses, looked up strategies for half of the late game bosses, looked up upgrade material locations. I know it's not the purist way of doing things, but I had attempted this game too many times and just wanted to see it through. I'm married and almost 30, dammit! I have a lawn to mow. I can't do the 60 hour grindfest on every single one of these.

And to be clear, I had a fun time. It was nice having experience with Souls pattern bosses so fights like Ornstein and Smough weren't that tough for me. The world design is still awesome, sharpened to a fine point. Great visuals and sound (ran great on Steam Deck too!). Sick bosses. I've also played half of this game on three different occasions so the run only took me 18 hours.

After many years I gave this game another try. With the experience from the other from software games, I finally managed to beat the game. Got stuck at Ornstein and Smough last time and yet again I got stuck here again. This time I decided to use the game feature to summon another player, it as a 1 v 2 battle after all...
Overal a great experience and had a lot of fun exploring the area's and discovering which boss was awaiting my arrival.

My thoughts:
(+ = (mostly) positive; - = (mostly) negative)
+ Gameplay;
I went for a strength build and it worked out pretty good. Not all fights feel fair, but I guess that's part of the experience. Most bosses were a fun challenge and the regular enemies were spread out nicely.
Choosing your own path felt natural, which added to the experience of how you progress in the game.

++ Music;
It completely matches the vibe the game tries to convey. It's not music to listen casually to, but it adds to the whole experience while playing the game.

+- Graphics;
For a remaster it could have gotten a bit more polish. Overal the visuals are still nice and every area is unique in it's own way.

+ Story/Characters;
The worldbuilding is perfect. Every area is connected and close to eachother but yet it feels like they're all their own thing with own stories. I have to admit that I didn't follow the story, but the story was mostly told by it's visuals.

Recommend?
Yes, but maybe not as your first dark souls game. I'd recommend starting first with Dark souls 3 (or 2), because I feel like those are easier to pick up.

vtnc bandai, remaster lixo de um jogo incrivel

Inferno Plus resume bem tudo que me irrita nesse video aqui

4/10

"But then there was fire... and with fire came disparity. Heat and cold, life and death, and of course, light and dark."

A tempos tenho interesse em Dark Souls por suas características mais comentadas, seu visual, sua música, e claro, sua aclamada gameplay e "dificuldade", e após terminar o primeiro jogo e ter uma experiência tão única, quis me esforçar um pouco para escrever sobre ele e seus maiores destaques.

Dark Souls opta por uma narrativa fora da linearidade, apenas tendo a cutscene inicial, que conta do nascimento da era atual, e te jogando no mundo de Lordran. E apesar de não haver uma história contada de maneira direta, todas as características do jogo culminam para uma experiência narrativa, a sua aventura por aquele mundo sendo devastado, as pessoas que estão sobrevivendo àquele horror, a interação com NPCS, a descrição de itens conquistados, tudo resulta em algo contado, e que torna aquilo muito vivo. Quests que você faz que te levam a descobrir mais sobre tal personagem e sua história, que por consequência te mostram mais do mundo, e que caso feitas em momentos diferentes, ou situações diferentes, resultam em finais diferentes, todas tem muitas camadas e possibilidades, situações que você vê no começo, e ao passar por áreas e retornar depois, haverem diferenças. Gosto como vários personagens esboçam suas opiniões em relação a maldição, a chama e qual deve ser seu futuro, assim fazendo com que o jogador também chegue a sua conclusão sobre todos esses temas; temas esses que tem ideias bem criativas, eu gosto muito do significado metafórico do fogo e de sua criação, e detalhes pequenos, como por exemplo a recriação falha da chama ser a lava. Voltando a narrativa, o jogo é muito contrário de expositivo, ele não te fala, ele te mostra, de maneira indireta, minuciosamente, nos detalhes de cada expressão visual que ele possa te passar. E acho interessante que esse caminho de ambiguidade na narração vem da experiência do Miyazaki ao ler historias medievais quando criança, pois ele não sabia inglês, então entendia uma parte e imaginava e teorizava o resto, similar a experiência do jogador em Dark Souls.

E como toda essa narrativa é mais "mostrada" do que "contada", é muito importante que o jogo entregue o necessário visualmente, e obviamente, o jogo consegue com maestria. A estética "Dark Fantasy", que como o próprio Miyazaki já revelou, é muito inspirada de "Berserk" do Kentaro Miura, combina tão bem com a temática proposta, desse devastamento pelo iminente apagar da chama e nascimento da maldição; seu design misturando o tenebroso e o heroico, com castelos e magias. Os cenários são bem diversificados, lugares com diferentes cores e propostas ambientais, com características fortes predominantes, vivos e mortos, coloridos e monocromáticos, unicos em criação. E vale o destaque para quanto os cenários e monstros desse jogo conversam com a lore; o conceito dos opostos no Smough and Ornstein (além do detalhe interessantíssimo de haverem dois elevadores na area deles, um menor e um maior, para cada um); a situação do Gwyn após tudo que ele passou, exposto fortemente pelo visual da área, além do trabalho magnifico musical; ou até coisas mais minuciosas, como a ausência de uma estatua em Anor Londo; entre muitos outros que expressam diferentes sentimentos pelo design. E não digo unicamente em cenários, mas também dou destaque para os equipamentos, onde até foi criado o termo "fashionsouls", todos fortemente dentro dessa temática, dando ao jogador uma escolha legal para o visual. Acho que meu único problema para o visual geral é o quão feio o personagem undead é, que apesar de tematicamente ser incrível, não muda que visualmente o deixa feio pra caralho.

A montagem do mundo é magnifica, desde como liga o visual ao level design, afinal, é um grande desafio, como por exemplo Blighttown, é uma grande loucura de ideias, pontes de madeira se entortando a ponto em que se criem caminhos, as ideias são boas e ousadas, mas é ainda mais impressionante a execução ser excelente. É uma das maiores qualidades do jogo de como tudo se liga perfeitamente, é até questionado por alguns o porque desse jogo não ter mapa como metroidvanias ou outros jogos que exigem backtracking, e a razão é clara... é porque o jogo tem um mapa tão coeso e tão bem montado a ponto de que não é necessário um mapa, a identificação unicamente pelo seu caminho e atalhos já é perfeita, e atalhos esses que diga-se de passagem, são muito bem colocados, já que por muito tempo do jogo você não tem fast travel, é necessário andar quando necessário backtracking, e nessas ocasiões, a sensação de abrir um atalho que cruza perfeitamente toda a parte que você demorou horas para passar é surreal, o maior destaque disso é o elevador da igreja. Reforçando meu ponto sobre como o jogo te ensina de maneira orgânica, eu gosto de como ele te mostra coisas simples com o level design, por exemplo, o Taurus Demon que aparece em uma ponte, mas que quando você começa a seguir reto, percebe que tem arqueiros em uma torre atrás da porta que você veio, que servem para te fazer ir lá mata-los e perceber o quão útil aquela torre pode ser para a luta, sutilmente te ajudando, e há inúmeros outros casos com isso. Aproveitando no comentário sobre lugares, eu preciso comentar sobre meu lugar favorito do jogo, Anor Londo, que não só é o lugar mais bonito do jogo, como também é cercado por um conceito muito interessante em tudo que é grandioso a sua volta.

Como dito no caso do Taurus Demon, preciso dar um destaque para o quão a montagem "base" inteira desse jogo é inteligente, comentando de seus recursos e dando de exemplo o tutorial do jogo, o Undead Asylum. Primeiramente, mecanicamente, acho a existência do Estus algo tão simples e tão bem pensado, um recurso de cura que reseta a cada bonfire, o tradicional checkpoint, o jogo quer te fazer ser cauteloso e aprender com o mesmo, e o Estus está lá para uma quase "correção pelos seus erros", onde a jornada até a próxima bonfire se torna cautelosa para que aprenda os padrões, e caso cometa erros e queira voltar a bonfire, recai ao ônus da mesma, o respawn dos inimigos; é algo tão interessante, uma forma de evolução na própria gameplay, junto ao pensamento de como e quando usar e seguir caminhos, além de ser o maior exemplo de como esse jogo funciona, a existência desse item define a experiência de Dark Souls... e tudo isso introduzido no Asylum, que executa o tutorial de maneira orgânica, não por pausas com balões de fala sobre cada mecânica, mas te colocando o desafio e o objetivo de maneira coesas com o cenário... exemplificando, no Asylum há um corredor com um arqueiro no final, e um escudo parado em seu começo, esperando o raciocínio do jogador para passar tal desafio. O resto do Asylum segue a mesma margem, um inimigo com ataques lentos e simples para se aprender mecânicas de combate básicas, como parry e backstab; Uma pedra que cai ao subir uma escada, que mostram que se deve ficar atento ao cenário, não unicamente pelas pegadinhas do Miyazaki, mas pelas interações causadas por tais, como a parede se quebrar pela pedra; E o desafio básico, o boss da área, que além de ter um detalhe inteligente de cenário onde você pode avistar a sala que irá enfrentá-lo logo do começo, também te ensina o básico, roll para desviar, controle de stamina, ataque caindo, e outras mecânicas... É engraçado que você só repara que isso é um tutorial ao realmente terminar, o jogo apenas lhe apresentou as mecânicas, uma base conflitante, e lhe deixou a mercê para realizá-la. O próprio Miyazaki diz que quer que o jogador desbrave o jogo com sua criatividade, derrotando os inimigos e chefes da maneira que mais lhe for cabível, e incrível como o tutorial emana isso tão bem, um grande resumo de o que será sua experiência. O tanto que escrevi apenas sobre o tutorial e suas mecânicas básicas, imagina se eu escrevesse sobre cada área do jogo...

Uma das grandes discussões dos jogos da FromSoftware é a dificuldade, com seu pico no lançamento desse primeiro Dark Souls, comparações na internet e exageros a quanto sua gameplay, além de criar uma imagem muito desvinculada de o que realmente é a franquia. Os maiores motivos sendo, primeiro, a Bandai, que influenciou tal ideia em muitos quesitos de marketing, como uma capa diferente da proposta pela From (sendo a original japonesa uma que passa melhor sua identidade), achievements como "isso é Dark Souls" ao morrer pela primeira vez, uma versão chamada "Prepare to Die", entre outros motivos comentados pela internet, e segundo, é claro, a própria popularização do povo após tal ideia presente. Claro, os jogos tem um certo nível de dificuldade, o qual eu optaria até de chamar de "punitivo", por achar que define melhor, mas no geral, Dark souls é uma experiencia justa, geralmente complicada por psicológico, resultando em afobamento, ele é um jogo a ser jogado com paciência, é desafiador, mas também muito recompensador, ao se dominar suas mecânicas e se aprender os padrões, se torna simples, onde na minha gameplay, na maioria das vezes em que morri, eu unicamente pensava "caralho, eu sou imbecil", sabendo do meu erro. Claramente há exceções, o maior destaque sendo problemas de colisão em certos hits.
Aproveitando tal discussão, é um bom momento para comentar um dos maiores destaques da saga Souls, as boss battles. Após ter destrinchado tanto as qualidades desse jogo, não consigo apenas não concluir como sendo uma execução ótima de todas as características citadas, em combate, a necessidade da paciência para atacar a aprender os padrões, a lore em volta de cada um, a ost magnifica que os cerca, e o sentimento de realização ao completá-la. Como meu objetivo é comentar sem spoilers, irei me abster de comentar de lore e apenas falar sobre minha experiência em si, o boss que mais tive dificuldade foi sem duvidas Ornstein and Smough, e o que considero a melhor batalha do jogo é obviamente, a do Artorias. Sif, Manus, Kalameet, Four Kings, Priscilla e outros são bem marcantes para mim também. E preciso comentar da pior luta do jogo, a do Seath, que apesar de ser um personagem interessante em todos os outros quesitos técnicos, a sua luta é horrível, desbalanceada no tempo de curse e na impossibilidade de esquivar de certas skills que cercam tanta área em um lugar que, apesar de grande, se torna apertado ao lado de uma figura tão enorme, além do caminho da bonfire até a bossfight ser enorme. Assim como citada, a música desse jogo é excelente, complementa a temática, com essa vibe de canto gregoriano épico, funciona muito bem para todas as situações aplicadas, desde euforias em boss fights até a momentos calmos, como Firelink Shrine.
Como o jogo é classificado como um JRPG, assim como tal ele tem sistema de level, grinding, builds e liberdades na gameplay que possibilitam um imenso número de variedades, tornando o replay value altíssimo. É simplesmente mágico comentar sobre cada experiência com amigos, como cada um jogou de forma única, ver pessoas fazendo builds diferentes, desafios, o qual tudo era um objetivo do Miyazaki, você sofrer em uma bossfight, mas outra pessoa passar com facilidade pois joga de maneira diferente, explorar a criatividade e a liberdade da gameplay para tornar uma experiência diversificada para cada um.
Dark Souls não é sobre dificuldade, mas sim como usar o desafio como uma forma de entregar emoções especificas e fortes ao jogador. A dor não define a experiência, e sim o aprendizado e a realização ao passar por tal desafio.

Uma experiência única em todos os quesitos técnicos, o jogo que apesar de uma gameplay "simples", tem uma execução tão minuciosamente bem feita que se torna um dos melhores jogos que já joguei... Obrigado, Dark Souls.

DARK SACK BONUM PULLUM HAS INVADED

i have never played a soulsborne before, and i was very scared to start one. these games have a reputation for evil, man, and if i'm telling the truth, i get very angry when video games beat me up consistently. when i was a kid i used to scream and break stuff because i got so mad. i well and truly had milk all over my lips. so, to deal with dark souls, i streamed the entire playthrough to my friends through a discord server, some of which are veterans of this and other soulsbornes. it helped a lot. it did a lot for me that i wasnt going through it alone, but rather, much like Death Stranding, i realised that Dark Souls is a social strand game. i didnt play online or use summons, so Bonum Pullum's journey as the chosen undead was kind of a lonely one... but also one in which he did share that adventure with others. it helped me having people there to guide me, support me, hype me up, console man, and even ridicule me. losing 40000 souls bc i fell off a cliff or died in a stupid way helped me see the humour in dark souls. it was very rarely a frustrating experience, even during things like bed of chaos and kalameet, because it always just ended up being funny. and dark souls IS funny. its fucking weird! to get back to undead asylum you have to do bizarre stuff and then "curl up like a ball" in a bird’s nest with absolutely no explanation for why. you just sort of do it. it owns! the mere fact that Frampt exists is great, and everything about catarina is delightful too. i laughed so much during dark souls and that really helped me get into the groove of things. it’s just funny to swing your sword and slightly slip off an edge. it's funny to get to blighttown and get toxicated instantly. it’s funny when manus of the abyss wombo-combos you. it’s funny! those silver archers in anor londo? they are hilarious! what more can you want? once i realised this game was a big joke i was super into it. the obscure nature of its writing and storytelling do make it a bit harder for me to access, and i dont think I’d have picked up on much at all if it wasnt for my buddies answering my questions as i went. i still didnt really understand or pick up on a lot of it, but that doesnt mean i dont think it’s cool. for me, this might be a game's story thats more fun to read about on the wiki or watch a summary of on YouTube... like hollow knight.

all of that aside Dark Souls is a game that is known first and foremost for its gameplay. i dont play action games really, FF16 being my first one only a few months ago, so i was going in as a big baby. i know i wanted to be big and strong. i sort of regret starting as a knight bc it meant i had this great armour to begin with, although i was fat rolling up until bell gargoyles. i think if i had started as wretch i could’ve more organically built up my character and there would’ve been something in the player expression of that, bc my character didnt feel like mine until i got to the depths, and i put on the sack. but that, then, was when it all started coming together. i dont remember why i put the sack on as my headgear, but i found it very charming. and aside from a brief stint of using the helm of the wise to fight the gaping dragon, i wore the sack for the rest of the game. upgraded it to +10 quality where it was only MARGINALLY worse than random headgear found elsewhere. suddenly play expression meant that DARK SACK BONUM PULLUM was a real character and i became invested. that, and finding the two weapons I’d play the whole game with, made me realise i was in my playthrough. i used the halberd and zweihander for the whole thing, finding their different styles useful in different contexts. for sif, i used the halberd, but for Nito, i used the zweihander. that and the 3d metroidvania thing the game has going on was super cool. every time i unlocked a shortcut that took me from one place to another i did the biggest sexiest moan that i could. there is something so unbelievably satisfying about linking up all these areas. it helps you feel like you've conquered them in a very real way. and that in of itself helps you tackle the game in kind of whatever order you want! it felt good knowing that i did sif earlier than all of my friends because once i found him i decided to stick with him! the only boss i ran from to come back to was the stray demon in the undead asylum, and thats bc he sucks! BUT enough nattering... the gameplay of dark Souls is more than exploring or player expression. its combat baby! fighting in this game feels so good. it's so simple on one hand, light attack and heavy attack, but there's so much variety. every weapon has flavour and personality, looking cool and distinct and also feeling powerful and weighty. finding the right weapon for you feels incredible. landing heavy hits with the zweihander is genuinely addictive. flattening these fools, even big fuckers like silver knights, or staggering Artorias, is so rewarding. the way you commit to a heavy attack at the cost of precious stamina instead of rolling is a tiny calculation of risk, reward, and probability you are running in your head every few seconds in those hard as nails boss fights. and bosses are hard, they're relentless and feel unfair and like there's no way you can learn them... and yet you do! kalameet was probably the hardest boss in the game for me. he took me just under an hour to beat but at the start i seriously felt there was no way i was ever going to beat him. and yet the way you learn to read him, learn which way to dodge, when to sprint instead, where your punish windows are. beating these games rewards you with a feeling of satisfaction so pure that the in-game reward for it can be totally lacking (and often sometimes is) and its FINE because the reward you wanted was knowing that you won. very few other games can give you that feeling. Ornstein and smough gave me that the most. i got them on my third try, but genuinely don't feel like I’ve ever been that engaged with a boss fight other than extreme trials in FF14. genuinely bonkers how wired in you feel when you're going toe-to-toe with a tough motherfucker. can't recommend that shit enough.

i'm feeling extremely high on Dark Souls having just finished it but it would be remiss of me not to mention that it does have a lot of stinker stuff in it too. the latter half of the game isn’t bad but does pale in comparison to the first. basically, once you've finished anor londo the game is just slightly not as good and its noticeable. the areas are slightly less interesting, some enemy placements are silly (looking at you, zombie dragons in lost izalith), and the bosses are just not as fun either. there are some real bad fucking moments though. tomb of the giants is absolute hot shit. such a cool idea for an area, an ancient crypt filled with skeletons of long dead giants... and yet it ends up being impossibly dark with annoying enemies and jank platforming. just not fun. crystal cave isn’t as bad but is definitely not good. invisible paths are just like, gimmicky. they're not interesting or innovative ways to keep environment design fresh. they're just lame. as for bosses, seathe the scaleless and moonlight butterfly are not good... but man, nothing is as bad as bed of chaos. its nuts just how bad that thing is. it's not even a puzzle boss; it has two huge glowing weak spots that need to be destroyed. the problem is not working out how to destroy them, but rather that he fucking kills you instantly 1000 times in a row and there was never anything you could do about it at any point. it doesnt engage you with the way you've played the game at all. your build or stats or understanding of combat or movement dont come into that fight. so why is it in an action game? delete bad of chaos. I’d rather fight kalameet again honestly.

things i wanna gush about before i go: Ornstein and smough, wow, genuinely so cool. doing Mario 64 in the painted world was awesome and one optional boss was genuinely super cool. the DLC bosses were all engaging and fun in their own way. Lautrec’s side quest is really great (although the idea that freeing him is a choice is kind of dumb. if your choices are "engage with a mechanic or dont" then the most interesting one is always the former). i love that he kills the firekeeper, despite the fact he can help you beforehand as a summon! then you have a fun boss fight with him if you want to get vengeance and bring firelink shrine back to life! thats genuinely so cool. I’d also never heard Gwyn’s music before, so even though he was pretty easy, especially after coming off the DLC bosses, he felt like a fun and fitting final boss. good stuff. in short, i liked dark souls a freaking lot!

DARK SACK BONUM PULLUM WAS VANQUISHED

i shoulda never smoked that shit, now i'm in anor londo

for a game that's centered around suffering, despair, and defeat, it sure as hell makes you feel that. this game is just sisyphus pushing the boulder up the hill, only to fall all the way back down once you reach the top.

the entire game is a gauntlet. i hope ornstein and smough get strapped to a missile that's aimed directly for sen's fortress. i hope the four kings get four bullets put in each of their heads. i did not ask for a side of fucking tinnitus with my video game so tell me why the fuck kalameet is screaming in my headphones. blighttown can just fuck off. why the fuck do i need 4000 souls to buy an item to attack some ghosts please fucking explain fromsoft. CAN SOMEBODY TURN THE LIGHTS ON IN THE TOMB OF THE GIANTS I CANNOT SEE A FUCKING THING.

the absolute torture of having to backtrack your steps across multiple parts of the map for the first ~50% of the game is already enough to make you want to give up, but ironically this is actually the better half of the game. this isn't even accounting for the tediousness of running for minutes back to a boss encounter after you inevitably fail time after time. i shit you not i could probably run from the 2nd anor londo bonfire to the ornstein/smough fight with my eyes closed due to pure muscle memory.

this game is so unforgiving in so many different ways. if you get hit and knocked down, just take your hands off the controller/keyboard because you are fucked buddy. trying to find an opening in the chaos of some of these boss fights just to get a single heal off feels like just as much of an insurmountable task as the boss itself. i could take a shit and even wipe before i am finally able to move again after using an estus flask in this game.

some boss fights you could do on your first try, but others are genuinely some of the most unfair experiences i've encountered in any video game in my entire life. this is where you say "git gud" and i tell you to go fuck yourself. some of these fights are artificially difficult through either being programmed like shit (you know exactly what i'm talking about) or having attacks that have probably 5 frames between when it starts and when it hits you for 70% of your hp.

the second half of the game kind of just felt like it was scraps they tossed in. they must have made lost izalith barred off xanax 48 hours before the production date or something cause that area was so pointless and the boss was the dumbest gimmick fight i’ve ever fucking seen.

i'm too stubborn to give up, but that doesn't mean i didn't want to at multiple points throughout my playthrough. the game makes me hate myself even more, but despite the absolute fucking anguish that is experiencing this game, i hate that i still appreciate it; i appreciate it's existence for the sole reason that it led to some of my favorite games, even if this isn't one of them.

O último jogo da série que faltava para mim completar. Minha expectativa era de algo inferior a DS3, mas superior DS2, e o jogo foi exatamente isso.
Como o ultimo da série que eu decidi jogar, acabou sendo também o mais fácil pra mim. Os bosses especialmente, alguns como O&S e Four Kings que são famosos pela dificuldade elevada, eu acabei matando de primeira, foi uma surpresa pra mim. Chegou em um ponto do jogo em que eu comecei a usar equipamentos mais fracos de propósito. Os que me deram um pouco de trabalho foram o Artorias e a Bed of Chaos. Eu diria que a maior dificuldade desse jogo seria nas áreas em si e menos nos bosses, exatamente o oposto de DS3.
A qualidade dos bosses em si no geral foi abaixo do que eu esperava(não a ponto de decepcionar), mas possuí sim alguns realmente marcantes como Artorias, Gwyn, Manus, Sif e O&S.
O ponto mais forte desse jogo sem dúvidas é o level design, o mundo vasto e tudo se interligando é genialmente bem planejado.
O jogo parece ter mais coisa a oferecer, vou começar o new game+ agora e ver o quanto minha visão sobre o jogo ira se alterar. No mais, o jogo é incrivel simplesmente. Sem muito mais o que comentar.

Started with Elden Ring, going back and playing through all the Souls games minus Demon's Souls/Bloodborne because I don't have a Playstation, surely it'll come to PC soon right? My only frame of reference so far for Soulslikes is Elden Ring so if you don't like me comparing the two then stop reading.

I find it rather interesting that a lot of the DNA in Elden Ring can be found here in the original (sans Demon's Souls) in that there are a lot of diverging paths and exploration is on some level free-form. I was expecting a mostly linear experience but found it was actually pretty open-ended which was really neat, and stumbling randomly across new areas when I was just expecting a dead-end with some item was fantastic. The whole "if you're stuck somewhere go some place else" idea is present here as well, although the lack of fast travel until O&S ended up being really annoying for backtracking.

I was expecting to be more annoyed by the massive walks of shame but I got pretty used to them quickly. There are some that are more egregious than others, but the game teaches you to be patient and slow when exploring, so taking time to go back to the boss room wasn't as frustrating (unless I had to go through annoying enemies to get there.) The walks in this game make the run back to Placidusax look like child's play, since while it's pretty long with that fight, you can at least run past a lot of the enemies whereas in this game you often are pretty much forced to fight them unless you want to get stabbed in the back.

PvP is just as bad as Elden Ring, tried it out for a bit, and got teleport backstabbed by a gravekeeper UGS that one-shot me three times in a row before I gave up on trying to guess where he was on his screen due to latency. Speaking of, it's really neat and interesting to me that there are so many different PvP factions that often have unique mechanics. Makes me wonder what it was like in the hayday at peak activity. Kinda rare to get invaded in my playthroughs.

Damage scaling was a nice surprise but it took me one bricked build to realize that vigor is a stat you basically don't have to invest in for half the game. I got stuck on Moonlight on my first playthrough because my ZDPS dex build was failing to 6-round him and it was getting annoying. Read a thread that said you should be 3-rounding him and that re-speccing isn't in the game and got the hint. On my second I basically didn't even level Vigor at all for like half the game.

This game does Dual Bosses right which is a shame since Elden Ring seems to have deeply forgotten this methodology of design. O&S might be one of my favorite bosses now and it's comical to compare it to the foreskin duo in ER. That being said, while boss design in some respects is better, some are just kind of... bad? Capra Demon stands out to me since he's really aggressive and in a tiny room with two dogs that also rush you down, so there's basically nowhere to run and heal. Sure, you can just adapt by playing aggressive and using shield instead of trying to heal off all damage, but I can't help but feel like this fight would be more fun if you had A LITTLE more space between the enemies before they were on you and the arena were maybe... twice as large. with another arena that size placed horizontally? I don't know.

idk how to finish this off, I'll just say Claymore is my baby (love the rolling two-handed R1) and it's insane how they only have one ring slot in the game since one of them is permanently taken up by Ring of Favor and Protection. Moving on to Dark Souls 2 next, surely it can't be that bad right?

Dark Souls is Dark Souls, and Dark Souls is the hardest and bestest game ever made.

Well, so I hear. You see, the thing about DS1 is it is far messier and more purely enjoyable than the online circlejerk may lead you to assume. It’s by no means easy, but I think the original Dark Souls is a fun and fair challenge that still feels legitimately revolutionary when placed in the context of its initial 2011 release, and not some bone-destroying grindfest where you’ll need every ounce of your being to succeed. It’s also not a perfect object. I’ll spend plenty of time on why its so great, but cracks begin to show all over the game, especially in its back leg. Ultimately, it’s the best kind of flawed game, one that pushes the boundaries of its style and budget to such extremes that the stretch marks are still visible in the final product.

Let’s start with the difficulty. Difficulty is such a, well, difficult thing to manage as a game designer, and to the credit of Miyazaki and his team, they do manage to strike a strong balance. Most of DS1’s bosses pose a decent challenge that’ll force a handful of attempts, but every attempt feels like an active learning experience towards your victory. Exploration is never free and maintains this incredible sense of tension in which every fight against even the most lowly of foes could lead to your end. I think this gives the ‘runbacks’ (as the kids call the between boss attempt traversals from a bonfire to a fog-gate) this excellent sense of mastery, as you gain total dominion over the environment to the point that you’ve turned it into a kind of obstacle course. Speaking of the environments, especially in the front half of the game, they are just a joy to traverse. Even (especially) Blightown. Trust me we’ll get to it.

But at the end of the day, despite the reputation, it's never unnecessarily tough. Even the most infamous of fights (especially the two separate times you fight a 2v1) aren't realistically going to take more than a half hour of your life. My theory on where this gets its ‘prepare to die’ name, is in its first few hours. Most people hit a hard brick wall early on (from my preliminary research this is most often Bell Gargoyles, though for me it was actually the Taurus Demon, rat bastard), where the skill floor of the game rapidly rises, and your ability is simply forced to match it. Of course, this is just a matter of this series’ trial-by-fire approach to preparing its players for later challenges, but I truly stand by the idea that DS1 spikes too high and too fast. Far too many players who absolutely would not find this game to be unmanageable will get turned off by the early difficulty spike and may never return. I’m only so sure of this because it happened to me multiple times! I’m stubborn and I wanted to like it, so I came back, but achievement data shows many do not. This is a damn shame only because once this thing properly gets into its extended second act, it sings.

One part of this is the much-praised interconnectivity. I’m well aware of how much I’m preaching to the choir when I say it but how can I brush past the fact that every moment the game loops back on itself both surprised and amazed me? Every conspicuous elevator ride into Firelink Shrine music beginning into “holy shit I’m back here again how the fuck” is one of the best moments you’ll ever get in a game. The level design is some of the best ever in immersing the player into a fantasy world because it allows it to feel so lived in.

You know what, I’ll even extend that to two of the most maligned sections of this game. Blightown and Sen’s Fortress are delightfully evil masterclasses of traversal, in which my favourite dickhead in the entire world Hidetaka Miyazaki forces the player to 3D platform in tight obstacle-heavy and projectile-ridden areas, with a character that can only jump insofar as they can perform a jump roll while sprinting. These sections are a total blast and have some expertly placed bonfires (though Sen’s is slightly hidden) to make the experience far more doable than it may immediately appear. I will concede that these sections were very close to too much (e.g. if the Poison Dart guys did notable knockback and/or respawned we might be having some issues [though the most twisted part of me kind of wished they did respawn]), but the needle is just barely thread. Allow yourself a little bit of patience, don’t get hit by the slowly moving and easily dodgeable axes more than a few times and you’ll find these sections far more fun than many do. To be honest, the only actively weak sections are all post-lordvessel, but we’ll get to that.

Even at its weakest, this game looks stunning. I played the remaster and while I did notice the overbearing bloom that many have discussed, I thoroughly enjoyed the almost smudgy look of the whole thing. The environments are gorgeous (especially the forests MY GOD) and you find yourself sinking even deeper into this world with how of a piece the art direction and enemy design is. I adore that you can essentially always travel to a place if you can see it. It never quite sunk into me before, but this is a seriously amazing aesthetic achievement.

And the bosses! Perhaps the most famous element of this series. Unsurprisingly, the first leg of bossfights is really fun. Once you get past your first proper roadblock, you’ll find yourself cutting these guys like butter. Surprisingly enough, the bosses in DS1 are rarely intensely tough but are always welcome challenges that fit to theme and cap off their areas superbly. There's also this incredible sensation that the game is stacking the deck in your favour with the boss arenas. So much of the geometry is useful! You can position them above you to sneak a heal or position them around a pillar to avoid attacks or plunge that fucking Capra demon to hell off a staircase or watch that dickhead Taurus Demon jump off the ledge like the idiot he is and so much more. It's incredible how effectively the game maintains the illusion of 'unfairness' despite this, and I love how you end up with these light-bulb moments where (e.g.) the O&S fight suddenly feels like a 2v7 when you notice how powerful your pillar friends are. It's a real magic trick. But when I said always welcome, I meant mostly, and even then I only meant the first half. There are some serious issues to put a pin in for later regarding some of these guys, and DS1 does have a surprising amount of actively weak fights, but on the whole it’s certainly a positive. How could I possibly pretend to dislike the boss fights in a game where you get to fight Ornstein and Smough? Come on.

Before I get to my quibbles, I’d like to quibble instead about Gamers. That’s right, you guys. Ornstein and Smough is an awesome fight, no doubt about it, and certainly one of the more challenging in the game, but by no means the backbreaking time waster I thought it would be based on the decade-plus of YouTube comments I’d seen. It was not the first boss I felt this way about. Same with the Bell Gargoyles, and same again with the Capra Demon (though I must clarify I'm not insinuating this fight isn't complete dogshit), and then I started to spot a pattern. Do other people stay locked on all the time? This is something that’s haunted me throughout my entire playthrough, and a legitimate issue with the way this game teaches its players. That’s right, this was a quibble the whole time, I got you! The lock-on feature is useful, undoubtedly. I found the most mileage out of it against airborne enemies (the bug thingies in Blightown, The Bell Gargoyles’ first phase) just because I couldn’t quite spin the camera around fast enough to keep up, but that was it for me. My problem with lock-on is that it massively disincentivises players from learning proper camera management and how to aim their swings consistently IF (and only if) you get into the habit of always using it. This is no big deal until you get to these bossfights with multiple targets that you simply have to deal with (unlike say Nito, whose skeletons will just get epically owned by him) but when you do, you will be at a massive disadvantage. Not because you can’t simply press the button to stop locking on, but because when you do, you’ll be ill-equipped to utilise the radically changed abilities of your character. For me, locking on basically never happens, and I much prefer to contort my right hand to be able to always move the camera and sprint in all directions. I found myself much more mobile (and my view of enemies much more dynamic) than I think many players do. So that’s my one piece of advice for you, lock-on sure, but do so sparingly, or you’ll set yourself up for failure with the multi-character bosses. To attempt to wrangle this rant into a point, I don’t think the game tries at all to teach players early on not to lock on all the time, and it allows the players to fall into bad habits with it too easily.

While I’m complaining, we simply must address the elephant in the code. Post O&S, this game properly nosedives, not to say it becomes unfun to play, or that it’s lazy or anything like that, but the bossfights become noticeably weaker, asset reuse becomes palpable and that delectable interconnectivity vanishes completely. Also, you have to play through Tomb of The Giants now. Not cool guys.

I think these problems are best demonstrated by the best of the Lord Soul fights, the Four Kings. These fellas reside in an area known simply as ‘The Abyss.’ Getting there requires exploration through a very cool and distinct area. The runback is an obstacle course in the truest sense, and the titular Abyss is seriously intelligent design. Its void leaves you entirely without depth perception, meaning you can’t ever quite nail down how large or far away the boss is until you're suddenly getting skewered by it. Very cool stuff. Additionally, this boss encourages a rush-down heavy playstyle that is very distinct from most of the duck-and-weave gameplay that I was used to (shields are for cowards after all, two-hand all day, dodge under everything etc.), and I enjoyed a challenge that forced me to push up against the generally slow pace of gameplay. What you may not notice, amidst so much awesome stuff, is that this boss is the same asset copy-pasted a bunch of times in a featureless void. It’s an incredibly creative example of it, but it’s still blatant scrambling from a development team fresh out of time and money. That’s not so bad, but when you get to the Crystal Caves or especially Lost Izalith, you noticeably feel the game suffer a little. These sections are pretty pathetic, feeling underrealized while containing a boss that just doesn’t stack up to the rest of the game. Seath is such a pushover it’s not even funny, and the Bed of Chaos is less a boss fight and more a low-tier Mario Maker troll level. It’ll kill you once or twice, but it certainly is not earned.

Then there’s Gwyn. A mad king in a desolate dying world. It seems only spiritually right that his fight would be both one of the harder ones and just that little bit too easy. Any sense of an epic conclusion is long gone by the time you enter the gate. Then the music starts. That melancholic piano is still ringing in your ears when the final cutscene plays, and it leaves the game on such a wonderfully bitter note that it reverberates back through the final few hours. It’s yet another artistic justification for lacking resources, but they pull it off in spades. I said it before, but even when stretched too thin, this game achieves so so much.

Dark Souls remains as weird, inconsistent and idiosyncratic as the day it was released, and I sincerely hope that people aren’t dismissing it out of hand for later projects. This is an excellent starting point for getting into the FromSoft canon, and my only real problem with it is that it tries quite hard to disguise that fact. Play it, love it, hate it, complain that it isn’t as fast-paced as Elden Ring, do whatever you like, but recognise that it has earned its place among the universally recognised best of the medium. Right behind Angry Birds Epic.

A progressão é simplesmente magnífica e recompensadora.

O Level Design te deixa embasbacado, e te faz parar pra pensar por minutos em como os diferentes cenários se conectam entre si.

A sua evolução ao decorrer do jogo é notória e muito prazerosa. Sério, tomar um pau dum boss por tanto tempo te faz ter algo pessoal contra ele. Por isso, quando tu volta mais tarde fortão e upado, é infinitamente mais gostoso solar aquele desgraçado.

Infelizmente, não pude completar essa obra de arte por falta de tempo. Mas um dia, eu voltarei e jogarei esse jogo do jeito que ele merece ser jogado.

its almost comforting that every thought I had about this game has been spoken into a blue yeti microphone and rendered in adobe premiere.

in summer 2014 i was at the school weight room, trying my best. I must have been 8th grade? there were some outgoing seniors sitting together on a bench, doing their workout. they were talking about dark souls, the different ways you could face the headwinds. talking about niche game ive only heard of from my brother, right here in my bumfuck town. this is insanely fucking silly. but if I could go back in time for one indulgence, I would go here. I would talk about dark souls with them. I would lift weights with them.

One of the most overrated game I've played.
It was "ok" for me. The gameplay straight up sucks, and feels bad. It mostly relies on easy parries and backstabs.
The exploration and level design is fun though (besides the swamp, man, this + the sh#t gameplay? Nah).
I also enjoyed the boss fights and their soundtrack, so I was expecting too much for the final boss that was complete garbage. All of that "excused" with lore to explain why the final bossfight is garbage and FromSo devotees telling you how much a masterpiece and genius ending that is, while it's just bullsh#t

I've always felt rather intimidated by Dark Souls. I was nervous about my abilities as an unfamiliar player due to the game's difficulty reputation. My time playing, however, turned out to be an engrossing adventure that disproved my assumptions.

The extensive mythology concealed within Dark Souls' expansive realm is one of games most interesting features. I discovered tidbits of an engrossing story as I immersed myself further into the game, navigating its complex locations, and conversing with enigmatic NPCs. Throughout the globe, the game deftly scatters tidbits of mythology, luring players to piece everything together to understand the world's origins and past. The already intense gameplay experience is enhanced by this subtle storytelling technique by adding a new level of curiosity.

In terms of gaming locales, Anor Londo is a genuine gem. An unparalleled immersive experience is produced by its breathtaking architecture and ethereal atmosphere. The city's plethora of (mostly) 1v1 battling possibilities with adversaries intensifies the sense of challenge and fulfillment. This area is a true test of skills learned throughout the first half of the game, and it forced me to ensure I knew how to parry and dodge like an expert. Anor Londo's precisely planned layout encourages exploration and provides stunning panoramas that make an impact.

Among the countless intense battles, the one that stood out the most (obviously) was Gwyn, the final boss. The boss theme that accompanied it turned out to be a stunning orchestral composition that both brought the fight's intensity to a new level and gave me a sense of serenity after my adventure with moving piano notes. I was astounded by the game's attention to detail and the positive effects it had on my experience as the evocative composition complemented the pivotal fight flawlessly.

Without a doubt, Dark Souls cements its place as one of the most important turning points in gaming history. It raises the bar for immersive gaming experiences with its significant influence on worldbuilding and environmental narrative. Additionally, the game is raised to the status of a real masterpiece by the mesmerizing musical soundtrack, which was painstakingly created with amazing attention to detail. This score deepens the emotional impact and ambiance of each scene. I'm glad I finally put aside my fears and gave this game a fair shot, as should any gamer. Don't let this one scare you away!

Very very good. For lack of a better word, this game has a lot more soul in it than I expected. When I first attempted to play this game on my Xbox, I was immediately turned off by the high difficulty and sprawling Firelink hub. I ignored the fact that the enemies I fought in the prologue were leading me to the place I needed to go, and the ones I chose to face near the Catacombs kept respawning and dropping very few souls. Looking back on it, I can now recognize this as one of the many examples of Dark Soul's subtly powerful game design. Enemy placement, difficulty, and even some of the platforming sections undoubtedly exist to challenge, but they are not in the game for the sake of difficulty and beating the player down. This is further strengthened through the clever linearity of the many zones and their shortcuts, as well as intertwining with the game's core mechanics of trial and error as well as perseverance.

Giving humanity a desirable and useful physical form is goofy, but works incredibly well within the context of the world and gameplay. This allows for many comments on humanity and the human condition throughout this game, whether it be from slaying insane versions of characters once thought of to be great or saving several imperfect but well-meaning and determined characters such as Siegmeyer and Solaire. Even the less optimistic characters such as Patches and the Crestfallen Warrior have their own unique views on how to live life, often as a ways of dissuading defeat and nihilism. Some of these guys' questlines are shrouded in a mystery that I'm not sure I would've been able to crack on my own, but even still I enjoyed interacting with them any chance I got and didn't mind relying on help to assist them.

These two aspects, the clever game design and thematic exploration, turns this into one of the most uplifting games I've ever played. Of course the atmosphere is grim and the bosses are either tragic or grotesque, but the game doesn't feel the need to stomp these aspects into dust. A focus on exploration, personal betterment, and perseverance in the face of great difficulty is much more prevalent and refined than any of the negative aspects of this game. My favorite parts of this game have to be the online interactions between other players though. Seeing other people's phantoms running around and completing the same trials as you, leaving messages, and even showing you what NOT to do in the form of deaths feels comforting and uplifting in a world full of oppression. Backtracking through multiple areas in order to grind for some souls and advance the game and being serenaded with the victory bells of other players is not short of incredibly inspiring (and dare I say... strandlike?). A game truly full of despair and contempt for it's players would definitely not allow for so much heart and souls to be gained from this aspect if it did not wish to. I'm really glad the reputation this game has garnered in its 10 years of internet cult fame is more a surface level interpretation of difficulty more than anything else. Of course the game is difficult. You know this, I know this, the game knows this. But how difficulty is explored and treated as a surmountable achievement through the eyes of NPCs, bosses, and other players, this game is elevated to a status of true meaningful interaction with little filler and many aspects to admire and truly take a look at from another angle.

Besides a few uninspiring bosses, platforming sections, and a few glitches and moments of "...yeah OK game" this definitely stands among the finest video games ever made. I had an absolute blast playing this with two of my friends, and I look forward to eventually getting the platinum trophy in my subsequent NG+ runs.

I think it's also worth nothing that I accidentally closed this review without it saving multiple times, forcing me to restart, and the thing that killed me the most in the game was the wooden Blighttown elevator. Take this review with a grain of salt. Welcome to Dark Souls.

So yeah, here it is, Dark Souls. The game that, alongside its predecessor, pretty much revolutionised game design right? Gotta be one of the most important games of this century. In a climate packed with games so fixated on simply handing an experience to the player and presenting something that, while often still worthwhile, lacks a certain level of immersion and personal experience because of how linear and undemanding they are, Dark Souls says 'fuck that' and then proceeds to beat the players' ass to a pulp and laugh at them.

I didn't go into Dark Souls blind at all and didn't struggle through the game nearly as much as most, I definitely didn't get the 'true' dark souls experience as a result but hey, for one, that was never going to happen anyway because I knew so much about it from the entire discourse surrounding it. I can also get a 'truer' experience with another souls game, but I had to start here. I'd tried my hand at souls games in the past, albeit very briefly. I said in my Hollow Knight review about how my perspective and what I get out of games as a medium has been shifted, and I think I have that game to thank. But ultimately it also comes largely down to a personal development and increased maturity. Dark Souls is the big boy game for big boys, you're not a real gamer until you've played dark souls mate. But I just couldn't get on with it! Dying over and over again, getting lost, getting frustrated and feeling confused or bewildered by what's presented to you was not appealing at all. First time I tried Dark Souls I didn't have any knowledge about what I was getting myself into, and I definitely dove headfirst into something shockingly brutal. Over time and as i've come to develop and change as a person, dealing with personal trauma, poor mental health and low self esteem, I decided it was time to give this one proper go. While it wasn't totally blind, there was still so so much about this game that I didn't know a thing about.

It's easy to see why lots of people find Dark Souls strangely cathartic. What I actually rather quickly came to understand is that failure is not something to be feared or frustrated by, but something to learn from and overcome. THAT is the Dark Souls experience, people have horror stories, they focus on the pain it put them through, but its not just the pain that defines the experience, its the learning process, the feeling of jubilation and pure triumph when you overcome the many, many barriers placed infront of you. That's what Dark Souls is all about. Never before have I experienced something so hands off, I mean I knew Dark Souls was very minimalist with what it hands the player, but I was shocked at how little I had to work with. At undead asylum you're given your basic controls, as a first time player, character creation is daunting and confusing because what are these stats and items supposed to mean? There's a whole lot of trial and error past the scarce info Dark Souls gives you - it will tell you how to attack and roll, what it won't tell you is how to utilise the i frames on your roll, how to lure out enemies one at a time, how to exploit the environment to your advantage, those are all things you just have to get a feel for. Without doing these things, you're going to have a very, very hard time.

Once I did get a feel for these things, once I did find a build that really worked for me and once I did start conquering what I never could before, something clicked. That 'moment' that people talk about, that sudden feeling of wow, I get this now, is something that only these games can give to that extent. Everyone who has a story to tell with Dark Souls can recount themselves getting addicted to it I feel, because the core gameplay loop of defeating enemies, levelling up and proceeding through areas to fight bosses is so gratifying because you EARN it all. Dark Souls has such intelligent progression, it doesn't matter if you're just walking about aimlessly killing enemies trying to figure out where to go next, because you're basically always collecting souls, learning something, finding items and secrets, finding shortcuts or discovering in-world npcs and other small details that further establish the world. It's a fascinating loop of thrill, mystery, intrigue and a strong desire to progress, well, usually followed up by pain and loss - which in this case, for me, only fuelled that desire further.

It's been said a thousand times but Dark Souls' world is astonishing. It takes inspiration from metroidvania games with its interconnected environments joined together by shortcuts - in the first half of the game especially, finding a shortcut for the first time and seeing how the world connects together is so impressive. To think this came out in 2011 and is so intelligent with its world building, i'm taken aback. I'd heard people talk about how great it is but nothing compares to finding a link back to an old area for yourself, it's a mixed feeling of discovery and fulfilment, but also one of relief and comfort - finally, I don't have to go through those same enemies for the 8th time! Something about that just totally appeals to my monkey brain, i'm doing it mum! I'm making progress in that game everyone says is really hard!

So, I got pretty damn addicted. No longer did I feel scared of death, because death, even though sometimes quite frustrating and can come with significant losses, is never so punishing that you feel far away from recovery. Recovery is always in sight, enemies basically always feel conquerable one way or another and I never felt too far away to go and try to recollect my lost souls. So you can see how everything works in unison in dark souls to craft something so personal, so immersive and so damn addicting. I continued to think on this game in the evenings after finishing a play session, just thinking about a small area I didn't explore or where a key I found might lead or whether I should go back to an area.

Now, I would not say that Dark Souls is without flaw. Being a game from 2011 and one that feels very much like the start of something more, its filled with stuff that feels a lot like experimentation. Its a game filled with intrigue and creativity, but not always in its favour (The Bed of Chaos). Some areas are so tedious to get through and simply aren't difficult in a way that feels earnest or fun or interesting - some, like Blighttown, Tomb of the Giants & Crystal Cave are just downright annoying. Constant death pits, pitch black darkness, invisible floors, enemies that stunlock you to hell and massive run ups to bosses from bonfires that don't add anything to the game. Not to mention bonfires that are sometimes diabolically hidden and of course, massive swathes of content that would be borderline impossible to find for oneself without a guide. Now I do kind of admire that last one, with the devs clearly putting what I can only assume is hundreds, thousands of hours of work into secret content that, by the vast majority of players, will simply never be seen. That's commitment to player immersion and discovery - however, I do also think its silly and a bit pointless to do it via things like illusory walls and other cryptic means. Most people aren't going to find this stuff by experimentation or even by mistake, they're going to find it by either looking it up or getting a hand from notes left by players online. It's admirable, but it also makes me laugh. Why do they hide the dlc behind the most extraordinarily complicated and cryptic means? Dlc that is, for all intents and purposes, a pretty big expansion on the game with some of the coolest areas and bosses that it has to offer. Its quite ludicrous, only dark souls would do that man, only dark souls.

I also think many of the game's bosses are unfair and broken in a way that isn't fun. I had the bosses in dark souls hyped to me endlessly - oh it's some of the best boss fights in gaming, get ready for these! But honestly? The boss fights might even be the worst part of dark souls. That doesn't means they're 'bad', the vast majority of them are just gimmicky and not very fun, plus having to run back to them each time you die for a solid 2-3 minutes gets so tiring.
I say this as someone who beat every boss in the game, I beat the bell gargoyles second try, artorias second try, manus first try and gwyn first try. I am amazed that I accomplished that when I started out as such a fucking dark souls baby. But yeah I beat the ass of all of Dark Souls' bosses (except OnS, who did the same to me mostly), and I can safely say, many of them are quite lame and often not hard in a way that is fun. Homing attacks that are borderline impossible to avoid? Not fun. Getting swept off the edge and having to play total wipeout just to try and get to where you're going? Not fun. Getting combo'd with absolutely nothing you can do about it? Not fun. The best fights in dark souls are the ones where it is a fairer fight and you can react appropriately. When I played Hollow Knight and i'd die, it would always feel like I could take a lesson from it and learn something - oh I could have dodged that attack if I did this, I was too early/late with my jump, that sound/animation means they're going to do this attack, I got too greedy with my own attacks, that is a clear opening for me to attack etc. Always always always I have something new to consider. In Dark Souls? Nah mate, run to this boss for 5 minutes and then get one shot or hit by some bullshit and die - then run to it for 5 minutes again. Again, I beat all of the bosses in this game, most with ease. This isn't a complaint because I couldn't beat them, it's a complaint because I think the vast majority of dark souls' bosses are quite stupid, but fuck bed of chaos and kalameet in particular.

Finally, the game is also quite buggy at times and things like collision detection can feel quite off. The game is purposefully unfair to the player and sometimes I really like that about it, its not afraid to keep the player on its toes by hiding enemies around corners or otherwise tricking them into a false sense of security. But it's not always earned. Sometimes (crystal cave) it's just kind of lame and stupid. Crystal cave has you slip and sliding to your death constantly. Also, I can't even begin to imagine people figuring out those invisible floors for themselves back in 2011 with no online resource to help out and no online functionality. Players that played dark souls offline and totally blind in 2011 are superhuman, they should replace our world leaders or something because just one of those players has more balls than all of them combined. But yeah suffice it to say, tomb of the giants' pitch black darkness, the disorienting lack of any kind of depth perception in the four kings fight, the janky ass collision detection and invisible floors of crystal cave and some of the god awful platforming and wading through the poisonous water of blighttown are all lame af. I also got stuck in walls on a couple of occasions and couldn't do anything about it but reset, at one point halfway through killing seath, I was quite spooked. But when dark souls' areas and exploration are good, they're actually more than just good, they're fucking incredible.

So yeah, I managed to finally conquer this game and the fact I beat some of its hardest bosses with no trouble felt amazing. I went into this really wanting to prove to myself that I could beat dark souls, but I ended up taking something much more from it, because the progress and triumph was earned and for me, I reflected on how i've changed not just as a 'gamer' but as a person. I want to thank Hollow Knight for helping to allow that to happen too. Playing this with online functionality was also really charming. There's something really special about sharing in these experiences with mysterious strangers online. Seeing the helpful and sometimes very amusing remarks they've left behind, getting invaded and winning, it all just hits. Dark Souls is for sure a lonely game, but one in which you feel like you're very much not the first and definitely not the last to take it on. I'm now going to play more of these soulsborne games for a more earnest, 'blind' experience I think - because that will truly test me, and honestly? I welcome it. I really do.