Second time around with DS1 after a pretty limited Switch run at launch and what an absolute treat.

The loop of methodically exploring a new area the first time around to memorizing enemy placement and eventually unlocking a shortcut is never boring.

The different areas of the game are beautiful and full of little secrets along the way. I enjoyed seeing different characters out in the world and slowly learning more about the lore.

It is certainly a difficult game with a few bosses that spiked above the rest. However aside from a few frustrating moments, I loved the game from front to back.

Clocked in at 39 hours.

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

run up through anor londo is about as perfect as games get. the lordvessel arch is still a spottier affair for me but it didn't turn me off quite as much as i was fearing. i can see why the tomb of giants has its defenders even if i'm not a huge fan and the new londo ruins is kind of enjoyable. four kings aren't as annoying of a boss to solo as i remembered either. once i realized their attacks don't do much damage if you stick close to them i could literally just tank their hits and dps them one a time before the next one spawned in. i still like dukes archives; in particular i love the stretch after you wake up in the cell and make your way down the tower with the odd siren going off. even the invisible bridge is more forgiving and shorter than i remembered it being. lost izalith i still mostly don't care for, but i did manage to use the shortcut this playthrough.

i have mixed feelings about gwyn. i like the vibe the fight seems to be going for but it ultimately just feels like a grind to get parry consistency down, insofar as that isn't the case he's a pain in the ass in a manner no other boss in the game is, insofar as you've got it, he's uniquely trivialized. in my case given how much damage he did per swing i really didn't have much room for practice per attempt before i was toast, so i wound up trekking back to the boss arena far more times than i had to with any other boss (precisely as i remember my first time trying to beat him). can't help but think he could be balanced in a more compelling way. maybe next playthrough i'll use a faster weapon and try trading attacks in a more straightforward way, while building fire defense so the chipping isn't too costly. you have next to no room for estus chugging after dodging any of his attacks other than the grab which also amplifies the difficulty of a straight fight relative to other bosses.

went with a strength build using a fully upgraded large club + sorceries + pyromancies, so with all the souls i needed for all of that i elected to spend a lot less points on pumping my health and endurance bars than i normally would have, so i had overall more flexibility than any build i'd done previously but also less room for error. had a blast for the most part.

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.

Dark Souls 1 has certainly aged a lot since its release. Perhaps even a little poorly in some areas -even in its remastered form. The game is a bit clunky compared to the later successors that I've played. Combat is noticeably slow and controls generally feel heavy. If I had to describe how Dark Souls 1 feels to a friend, I'd probably call it somewhat janky.

Having just played through the entirety of Dark Souls III -a game I found to be remarkably fluid- it was a surprise to see that this was where one of my new favorite games came up from. The world was familiar, the style was similar, but the feel was very different for me.

I considered shelving the game but ultimately decided against it. I'd gotten filtered from this series once before, I wasn't getting filtered again!

Fast forward a week and here I am once again, another FromSoft souls completed, and very glad I stuck with it.

Dark Souls 1, much like any souls game, is something you need to give time. Underneath what initially seemed like threadbare clunk was the very same fulfilling and enjoyable experience that FromSoft souls can and often do achieve.

Incredibly well designed levels with their own vibes and themes that are almost all a joy to explore (we all know what's not included). Combat that while initially clunky and slow, is very fulfilling in its own right once you have gotten used to and mastered it.

Everything that you expect from a souls is here and it's all done very well.

I will say though that I found this game much easier than Dark Souls III -a game I already found pretty easy mind you. I think this is mostly due to the much simpler boss design, with most bosses in this game being big and slow with very telegraphed attacks. Any difficulty I had in Dark Souls Remastered mostly came down to troubles adjusting to the pace and feel of the game -all things that came easily enough with a bit of time.

If I had played this game before later FromSoft games, I would probably be completely enamored with it. Unfortunately I can't look at certain aspects of Dark Souls Remastered and not compare it to later FromSoft games that I feel have really perfected these other aspects of souls-like games.

While the atmosphere and world of Dark Souls Remastered easily stand up to the test of time, I find that the general feel of the game, the boss fights, and story: all fall slightly short. Given how old this game is though, its remarkable just how amazing it still is. Especially as it only ever falls short when comparing it to a masterpiece like Dark Souls III.

If you like souls-likes and you somehow haven't played Dark Souls 1, definitely give this a go. It can take some getting used to, but it's certainly worth it.

4/5

Finished this a bit ago and gave myself some time to marinate my thoughts on it

The first thing that comes to mind when I think of Dark Souls is that this game makes a very compelling world. Each area feels unique and very thoughtfully crafted. It reminds me of a castlevania game in how the areas link together and lead you to shortcuts you can take later on.

Having never played a souls game before the combat definitely took some getting used to with how weighty it feels. Every option you do is a full commitment and I think that leads to having to be more mindful of when you attack and how you position yourself than in a standard action game. Bosses are a test of being able to recognize animations and knowing which ones to punish. Other than reusing one a few times, they're varied challenges that really put what you know about the game to the test while you fight them.

As far as the characters and story go I appreciate the effort they went through to not tell you what's happening directly. Having you piece things together throughout the game is neat, but I really don't think that kind of storytelling is for me.

TLDR (8/10) Good Game ^_^

I thought I'd suck at this game but I really enjoyed it! It was challenging but not unfair, and I appreciate that it has a much slower pace than most action games because it felt like it really emphasised thinking carefully about your actions and anticipating the enemy than reflexes.

I've played a little bit of Elden Ring and Bloodbourne and I have to say that while they are fun, I'm a little disappointed at their faster pace. I appreciated that Dark Souls was a rare example of an action game where reflexes aren't everything.

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.

Beaten: Mar 09 2022
Time: 45 Hours
Platform: Switch

So beating Elden Ring a few days ago inspired be to give my Dark Souls playthrough a second chance. If you don’t know, I got about halfway through the game (up to Ornstein & Smough) before getting stuck and calling it quits. I was frustrated, particularly because I liked pretty much everything about the game except for some pretty steep difficulty spikes. Specifically, Sen’s Fortress’s snakes were much thicker than most of the enemies up til that point, and O&S just felt like an insurmountable brick wall in my way.

Anyways, upon picking back up, I decided to grind 15 levels out, which (along with my 65 hours in Elden Ring) gave me the edge I needed against O&S and finally let me see the second half of the game. This is where the game opens up, where you go back to some impassable doors and explore beyond them! The areas past these doors are wild and varied and a biiit annoying in places, but for the most part were just cool. They also all had interesting gimmicks, from Lost Izalith requiring you to walk across lava (cool) to New Londo Ruins being chock full of enemies you can’t hit without being cursed (less cool). Broadly though, I really liked the areas.

The bosses actually ended up being more my speed as well, with pretty much every boss post-O&S being a massive monster thing, which are the ones I gravitate towards. Big gross dudes in wild arenas with big slow attacks!! I think my fav of these was probably Sif (not sure if that’s a hot take). This all vs the first half of the game, which is semi-equally split between big dudes and nimble dudes in cramped spaces (uhhh not really my fav lmao). As a whole it just felt less frustrating, even with a few bosses giving me big issues.

I don’t know if I’ve got much real new insight here. I didn’t even switch weapons (Man-Serpent Gsword) when I got back in. I very much just came back in and finished up what I was doing. DS1 is much more unforgiving than Elden Ring, even though I think ER has more really tough bosses. There’s long stretches without bonfires, and you don’t get as many Estus flask upgrades. Are these flaws? Maybe, but I’d wager they’re also intentional as hell. Dark Souls was the hit that really got Player-Hostile design to seem like a valid idea in modern gamedev, and I respect it hugely for that, but at times it feels like it leans too hostile, too frustrating, and just a bit slapped together.



I love FromSoft’s whole weird programmery design practice + their incredibly lore-justified game systems, and it’s cool to go back and play the game that finally seemed to push them into the mainstream. I think I’ve said it before, but more games should have this level of jank, this mild lack of polish, because it really feels like the game was made by a group of people. People whose signatures are dotted all over the landscape, and whose voices get drowned out in the modern, massive, manpower behemoths that are the most popular games these days. Elden ring is a revelation for being a game that still manages to have a voice and feel like it was manually designed, but Dark Souls is practically a living legacy of design, with it’s designers souls trapped within. How fitting.

Ok, this one kinda surprised me. I went in already having complaints about the design of the Dark Souls series, but I came out with a genuinely enjoyable experience. With that said, some of my complaints were indeed validated and I even came up with others.

First of all, I am very glad that I played through this game alongside someone who knows it well, saved me a ton of time in some places and made sure I didn't miss out on anything I didn't want to. I can't really fault the cryptic nature of things though, since most of it is for optional content which is probably meant to be discovered little by little on subsequent playthroughs. In fact, this game's replayability is a very strong asset for it. Although not much changes in new game plus besides enemy strength, the world is reset and you can take NPC storylines in a different direction or explore areas you spent less time on before. I feel to some extent the souls games are built around this concept just because of how fun they are the second/third/etc time around.

After playing Dark Souls 1 for the first time in 2023, it shouldn't be surprising that most of my issues come from the fact that the game feels old. Controls are stiff, which I did get used to over time but even so there are some wonky limitations like only having 4 directions to move in target lock. The weapon upgrade system has some quirks (but is also very nice in some aspects), and there is a little too much running around for my taste. Especially in the early game, which I felt was very slow to pick up and I almost stopped playing several times.

With all that said, the game obviously has strong aspects. Many of the areas are fun to explore (mostly the later ones, I found) and the boss fights are great with a couple exceptions. The included expansion had some really great content and bosses as well. I won't belabor it's praises too much though since it's been done to death, I'll just say that I can understand where the love for the game/series comes from.

P.S. I hate everything about PvP

I think I still give the edge to Elden Ring (for various reasons, but admittedly it was my first FromSoft game) but even with Dark Souls being a far older and somewhat less refined game, it’s impressive how much of that core DNA was already present here.

It’s an astoundingly comprehensive work of art, so it’s no surprise that the intricate and purposeful design of Dark Souls has resonated with audiences for so long (not to mention that it has and will continue to influence countless games).

It’s a masterpiece. If only I had listened to everyone on Earth and played through it sooner.

I grew up playing Nintendo games and still play them. Suffice to say I did not think this type of game would appeal to me. How wrong I was! Dark Souls is exceptional in many ways, but I feel its appeal is widely misunderstood. The game is difficult, sure, but if a game's status is defined by its difficulty, then why are easier game franchises like Kirby still appreciated? No, Dark Souls is a masterpiece because of how unpredictable, yet focused its world is. New ideas and enemy encounters are introduced in every level. At times, they border on being frustrating. And yet, I couldn't stop playing.

The cherry on top of these expertly-designed challenges is the absolutely sublime level design. Levels provide shortcuts after overcoming a challenge that link back to your current bonfire (checkpoint). These shortcuts are smartly placed to give players a moment of respite after overcoming seemingly impossible odds.

This setup alone makes for a pretty good game, but there are even more things to marvel at in Dark Souls. For those who have yet to play it, I will not spoil these secrets. And if you need any advice going in, it would be to have two things: patience and humility. The former because the game is challenging and the latter because the game's challenges are fair, with very few exceptions. I once thought the game was unreasonable, but I persevered and was rewarded for it. If you stick with it, you will never forget your experience. There is a reason why so many games have tried imitating it with very little success.

how is it that i've valued games that reward knowledge and expertise more than reaction time and rout memorization but i never found love for this game until 2022? i have an odd history with this game where i played it on steam, then on PS3, and it was only until this playthrough that i really came into acknowledging how much of a fondness i have for this game's systems and setting.

there's an elegant simplicity that belies a great level of craftsmanship in the level design of this game. how many people on youtube have browbeaten you to death with this idea? with the idea that dark souls has a hidden mastery to its design? i won't belabor the point, but i want to go further than "there are shortcuts that exist in the game" and say that there's a truly striking amount of attention to detail. it was only until now that i realized how expansive the amount of weapons and armor in the game are. there are SO many throwaway pieces of armor with lore attached to them, SO many weapons that get outclassed extremely quickly with unique movesets. . . there's so much that goes on under the hood with this game that i feel like a buffoon for overlooking it earlier.

my biggest complaint with this game used to be "every area after the lordvessel SUCKS" but honestly. . . they don't. well lost izalith kind of does, but more in a squandered potential way than it being actively unfun to play (sans bed of chaos lol). but crystal cave? absolutely beautiful and i adore the ambient sound of snow falling on the invisible bridges and making a chime. plus, it's actually very easy to speed through considering the only mandatory invisible bridges are straight lines. if anything, i wish we had gotten a bit more of that area. and tomb of the giants is a really fascinating area in terms of exploration. i might be saying that purely because i actually had cast light this time, but regardless, i think the darkness added depth and memorability to the area. and new londo + new londo ruins are all fascinating places from a lore perspective and eye candy in the worst way for said lore. the game doesn't slow to a crawl after the lordvessel; if anything, it shifts to a higher gear.

the last thing i want to touch on is the tremendous amount of respect i hold towards this game for the amount of content it hides. imagine how many players have beaten the game and never found the great hollow, or discovered the dark wraith covenant, or even knew how to find gwyndolin. there's such a significant amount of content that players are extremely likely to miss that likely took several hundreds of hours to create. that's the kind of risk you rarely see in video games for multitudes of reasons, but it's something that i find adds to the mystique of dark souls. it's less pronounced now that it's been over a decade and the game has been thoroughly unraveled, but on release? this game was unlike anything else. you could reasonably go up to someone who played the game and go "hey did you know there's a covenant that turns you into a dragon?" and get looks like you were saying your dad works at nintendo and that crash bandicoot was gonna be in the next smash bros. game. there's something untouchably special about that to me. it's taken me a very long time to appreciate how secretive and enigmatic this game truly is; in many ways this is one of the last great puzzles of video gaming.

i really am loving this trend i've been going on of revisiting games that i played in the past and finding more things to like and love about them than i had initially found. it's nice to be able to revisit something like this, that i had my qualms with, and to be able to look past them and see a beautiful piece of art underneath.

Full Review + Trophy Review and Tips Below

I am continuing my path through the Souls series and I decided I would finally take the dive into Dark Souls. I can easily see why this game is so special to the community. Demon's Souls may have launched the series however it is Dark Souls that popularized it. The open labyrinth like world that is full of secrets and lore with enemies hiding in every nook and cranny is just a masterpiece of game design.

Dark Souls definitely shows its age as Bloodborne, Dark Souls III and even Sekiro have continued to perfect on the formula that have made FromSoftware famous. Even with that said, it still blows many modern games out of the water with its scale and gameplay.

What I love about Dark Souls is the variety in the locations you will traverse. Literally you can walk in any direction and immediately be in a vastly different area with its own enemies. The bosses in the game are so much fun and cleverly designed. If I had any one gripe it would be that most of the bosses just require you to find the best way to dodge and slice or use magic to defeat and rarely do you have to truly "figure out" the way to beat the boss. It is mostly trial and error, unlike Demon Souls where each boss felt like a puzzle that needed to be solved. Chaos bed would be the one exception to this.

My Final note is that I found this to be the easiest of the souls games I have played. The animations from the enemies are much slower and less varied and the game is very forgiving with your dodge. Combined with magic that can take out most enemies in 1-2 hits and bosses in 4-5 hits, you should not have much of a hard time completing the campaign.

Trophies
Difficulty: 7/10
Time: 50 Hours
Trophy Guide: Recommended
Trophy List Score: 6/10

So you can expect 2 and a half playthroughs for the platinum trophy. This is something I particularly find frustrating with the trophy lists from FromSoftware but the game is so good, it ALMOST justifies it. My first run through the game took me about 35 hours and item grinding and a second playthrough took me about 5 hours. The third playthrough I only needed to get to the blacksmith in Anor Londo which didn't take me more than 2 hours. My Platinum run was about 42-44 hours total.

Unlike future installments, there are very few trophies tied to beating bosses. Although you do get some trophies for beating the "main bosses" the majority of the trophies come from joining covenants, of which there are many. Now you don't need to join them fully, just get offered to join and you can then decline and still get the trophy.

There are a few covenants that are important to join and they will require certain items to be given that you will need to grind for to get rewards. The rewards you are looking for are specifically magic spells and miracles that are required for their respective trophies.

The last bunch of trophies is all about earning certain weapons such as a chaos weapon or fire weapon and also for max leveling a weapon. Your best course of action is to follow a guide for these and to not accidentally use the resources that you will need. You will also need to farm for a lot of resources and beat certain bosses in the game up to 3 times. As always, I highly recommend "Square One Games" on YouTube, where he has a great Road To Completion guide on the fastest route to a platinum. From Boss strategies to farming locations, this is the guide to follow if you chose to:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gAFiABf6UJo&list=PLFkshhwuRImJael5MRHkVAODb6nfVkQ-3

Happy Trophy Hunting!

One of my favorites of all time but it doesn't quite hold a candle to later Fromsoft titles for it's slower and (in my opinion) kind of sluggish pace
Exploring Lordran feels great, there's so many layers to peel away at as you descend further
The combat is very slow paced but it's a good baseline for what was to come later out of Fromsoft (which I know is discrediting Demon's Souls but I haven't played that game)
There's a lot of hiding behind a shield, which isn't very exciting, but it feels more strategic than most temporary action RPGs

I am a big fan of this series. There is nothing in gaming that can quite capture what you feel when playing this trilogy, and this is a very special thing.
Dark Souls Remastered is the new and improved port for the first game of this amazing trilogy. It spawned everything (including an own genre). It has a vast, cruel, weird and interconnected world that feels real and well executed. With that said... I think like some aspects of it aged not that well. Playing Dark Souls 2 and 3 makes this entry feel way more clunky. The warp system can be flawed some times. Some enemies and mechanics are too punishing (curse, for an example). The level progression is a little too slow (i feel like enemies and bosses drop less souls).
However, I still think this is a must buy for anyone, even those who never played these games. It can be challenging but rewarding, and it is arguably one of the most important games of the 2010s.


Kill the gods
Banish light
Become the Dark Lord
A lie will remain a lie

One of the best games I've ever played. The first time you're lost in the ass-end of an area and take some random stairs back up to Firelink Shrine is an indescribable feeling. Mind-blowing mapping and I don't even mind that the second half of the game is less intricately designed bc that's what the Lordvessel is for!

I love the story of this game, I love the bosses, I love the levels and the DLC contains two top 10 boss fights of all time for me (Artorias & Manus). I'm a big fan of exploring different builds but for people that just like finding a big sword and whacking people with it this is the game for you. Playing Demon's Souls has made me appreciate the upgrade system in following games SO much. I know there were still some kinks with working out the infusions for weapons here but still: awesome game. Will never forget my first play-through and excited to revisit it some years down the line.