Since 2011, no title in the Dark Souls series has lived up to the enrapturing world of the premiere installment, Dark Souls takes elements from Zelda, Metroid, and beyond to craft one of the quintessential fantasy games, the oppressive difficulty and sedated travel speed forces you to get comfortable with this universe, and the ludonarrative excellence displayed by Fromsoftware, borne of this title, is yet to be matched. I'd be remiss to consider this title flawless, it deeply fails and descends in scope and design near the final act, but even within the muck, there are still beautiful and haunting displays of writing and visual design, and even in the face of that, my heart still wants to give it a 5, but a 4.5 will do.

Obviously, everyone should play Dark Souls, even if just for a little while.

I had a great time with this game. The atmosphere created by the wondrous dream-like landscapes really took me aback. Especially towards the tail end at Kiln of the First Flame. I was seriously in awe of this area. The sand-like ashes and the charred structures combined with finding out that Gwyn has a flaming sword was a superb piece of environmental storytelling, and is the least of what this game has to offer in that department. Anor Londo was a big standout to me with its beautiful sunset and maze-like interiors. The Abyss was also a standout with the entrance and the boss fight. I truly feel if we are looking at this as a follow up to Demons Souls, then they knocked it out of the park with the world design. As with most souls games, the story is something you feel, and the details come in if you really want to look for it.

Some of my favorite bosses included Gwyn and Ornstein & Smough. Definitely some of the most challenging bosses but that's what made them all the more satisfying.

I wanted to play one Fromsoft game before I proclaim i'm a gamer and here we are. The vibe and the gameplay are unmatched here! I played Jedi Fallen Order before so unfortunately I knew the gameplay structure as those games are similar. But the gameplay is heighted by the Berserk style vibe that feels fascinating and dangerous.

The first half is awesome; the second half has a noticeable dip but it's not as awful as people make it out to be; DLC slaps too but how on earth are you expected to launch it?

Anyway, peak experience. left an emotional crater after I finished the game. I just wanted to be back in the universe which I haven felt since Wii Sports Resort.

BTW: I played a strength play through. Couldn't imagine playing its any other way. Also, I didn't do any online stuff considering I'm a loner.

really great game thats set back a bit by a few terrible bosses and different areas. certain stages in ds1 are solely difficult because they are annoying and incredibly tedious which just isnt fun. i also think how information is fed to the player is really hit or miss, as some super vital information on weapons, areas, or leveling systems (soft caps etc.) is practically inaccessible on a blind run. this game at it's best is too good to not praise though; the settings, the world, the (good) bosses, the combat, the music, the lore and the freedom to play how you want is genuinely incredible.

not done all the DLC but finished main story. can't wait to play ds2 (LOL)

9.5/10
Dark Souls 1 is easily a masterpiece, containing some of, if not the best level design I have ever experienced with beautiful visuals, story with beautiful lore, and of course really amazing combat even if its successors are much smoother than this game. With the near perfect DLC its hard to knock this game, even if its 2nd half starts to trip at points compared to the 1st half.

Story
Dark Souls story, specifically the lore surrounding it will always be one of the best stories to deep dive into, even if while experiencing it can be challenging to consume compared to other games. The basic story revolves you, the chosen undead, attempting to relink the fires by killing Gwyn, who currently sits at the throne himself. Beyond that basic premise, you mainly learn the story by environmental storytelling, character dialogue and of course with classic souls tradition, through item descriptions. Having to through the age of fire after the war against the dragons with the new "and now, pretty dead" lords, with the inevitable of the fires burning out, requiring you to relink the fire and delay the age of darkness. My ending was relinking the fire, but quite honestly I do prefer the "evil" ending of age of darkness where you do not relink the flame, as I feel like even if we have to enter the age of darkness, a new flame will always re-ignite. It is a beautiful story even if it isn't an obvious story compared to other game. This game's constant theme of futility, and the constant push to face the impossible to achieve your goal is an amazing theme. WIth the DLC they further expand the darkness humans have, and the consequences of being fully consumed by their darkest desires, and if our futility for power is a good or bad thing. I didn't even dive into the characters yet, who have their own really interesting lore and story by themselves. Overall I really love Dark Souls Lore, as DS3 and ER lore as well, they were all such a joy to experience, and even a better joy to deeper dive after finishing the game, with the only one (haven't played DS2 or bloodborne yet), that I didn't enjoy deep diving as much was sekiro. I still think I enjoyed DS3 and ER lore a bit more as they seemed much much more fleshed out and more enjoyable to deeper dive, as I felt like apart from the main story, deep diving some characters was cut much shorter than I thought they were, as they are much more ambiguous on who they are, so their story is pretty short for some of them compared to future entries where the most minor character has such insane lore that you have to step back a bit.

Character
Like other souls games, are some of the best characters in any game. For DS1, some of the characters that I personally loved were Artorias and his companion Sif, Gwyn's tragic tale, Logan (might be mage biased but loved his inevitable downfall of his chase of forbidden knowledge), Solaire (duh... although didn't kill the red eye chaos bug first NOOO), and classic patches of course. I haven't even gone through ALL the characters I loved but they were easily the best ones that stuck out to me, even with some others like the lore behind Seath, Gwynevere's false presense and such, I can go on and on. Your character is mainly a pretty vague "chosen undead", whose origins is pretty much up to whatever you want it to be as it doesn't matter, only you ended up in a cell. Fighting your way up from the title of some random undead to the one who relinks the flames is so damn satisfying, and stays a theme throughout the souls game. While like I said before some characters don't get as much fleshing out as I thought they would have compared to future titles, they were still the quality of souls lore that I crave for, and even while typing this review I am watching an hour long lore video on DS1.

Gameplay
Souls gameplay as usual, which is the same loop that I loved even with Elden Ring. Of course being the 2nd one in the series behind demon souls, the gameplay isn't as smooth as future titles, but it still holds a special place in my heart, as the one thing that it is STILL unmatched in is with the level design oh my GOD is it good. Firelink Shrine and how it connects to so many areas in the game was so beautiful to experience. Even apart from that aspect, many areas in this game were such a joy to go through and was easily the best out of any of the souls games I have ever played so far. Now of course the infamous 2nd half does falter a bit in this department, which is a bit of a theme with this game quite honestly. Going back to the souls gameplay, the basics of dodge attack is still here, and while my main build was INT magic focused, I still liked to stick close as range was not the greatest with not only the pitiful range, but also lock in range being pretty short. Magic in this game is pretty good, and while variety in animation is pretty bland as you are just sticking your magic stick in the air, there was still plenty of variety with spells, and it was rare for me to stick to casting just 1 spell, as with the pretty bleh lock-on magic tracking, certain spells worked better in other scenarios. For melee combat it is much slower compared to DS3 and ER, and lack the fleshed out art or additional abilities of other titles, or power stance and such. Even with that it is still immensely satisfying to be rewarded for successful dodges and exploring to find new gear and spells that make your life in the age of fire easier. For boss design, DS1 has a ton of amazing bosses that still stand out in the series. While peak wise future titles achieve much better boss designs, DS1 still has really damn good with Gwyn, Artorias, Manus, and the rare feat of a really good duo boss of Ornstein and Smough. While I love DS1 bosses, there are still some issues I have, primarily with how easy a ton of the bosses felt like. The 2 main reasons are the pretty small health pool that get shredded by how strong you can get in the game. Not only that, bosses almost never have a delayed attack, so reaction is much easier to handle which is a good thing, as less memorization, but with the smaller health pool means bosses end faster than I would had hoped. Lastly I don't think any of the bosses have phase 2, which makes their already short fights REALLY short. Apart from that, these bosses still trump 95% of other boss fights in any other game I have played action wise, and their design alongside lore were such a treat to experience, even if I felt like shit for killing Sif.

Music
Bangers after Bangers oh my GOD. Gwyn's theme, Firelink Shrine theme, Seathe's theme, the Ornstein and Smough theme, so many songs in this game were just amazing especially with Gwyn's plin plin plon. Souls has always had really strong songs, and DS1 does not disappoint or hold back at all. While some areas were pretty quiet to soak in the environment, some areas could had used some songs to enhance the environment I felt, even if they did I would had probably complained either way.

Last positives/Nitpicks
- Gwyn's low health bar (common theme) made me feel a bit bad so used mainly sword as a mage even if it meant dying over and over, as I really loved his boss fight, not only mechanic wise but design, lore and music wise.
- Magic's lock on was trash in this game, it seems to aim for the enemies head instead of body, so it was very easy for the spells to miss early on.
- Entrance to DLC felt a bit too ambiguous, and if I didn't have a guide I would have 0 clue how I would figure out to go to a cave, leave the game, come back to kill a golem that contains a women who tells me to find a magical being, KILL some ranodm golem to get the key, go back to finally enter the dlc like huh?
- Plin Plin Plon

Conclusion
Dark Souls 1 is easily a masterpiece, and even if it stumbles a bit 2nd half, is still peak gaming in my eyes. The Souls series is seriously unbelievably good and its crazy to see that the first dark souls game still holds up unbelievably well, with unmatched level design especially with the interconnected firelink shrine areas.
9.5/10

Really good overall. Lore, boss fights, level design, mood, it's all pretty great. But lets be honest... Dark Souls is also extremely flawed.

Most of DS1 is a repetitive walking simulator, because unlike Bloodborne (the best game ever made), there is a two minute distance between the bonfire and the places you have to go, which means that you will spend a good amount of time walking the same path. Over. And over. And over. And over again. Gwyn's fight, one of the most poetic moments in gaming history could be very fun to play, but it became a boring cicle of torture because every time you die you have to sprint for minutes and worse, get through five pretty tough knights that can kill you in two hits. The backtracking is frustrating for absolutely no reason.

Also, lets be honest, some of these level designs and boss designs are very poorly conceived, almost as if they ran out of time and money towards the end of the game and had to rush the development. Not gonna get into it because you know exactly which areas and bosses i'm talking about lmao (IZALITH KILL YOURSELF!!!)

So, while the frustration and toughnness of Bloodborne hyped me up and made me even more excited to play, with Dark Souls, i almost never felt like the challenge was justifiable. Like, some of these areas are hard simply because of bad level design choices, and nothing else.

So... yeah. 50% of this game is annoying, while the other 50% is a masterpiece.

Que jogo incrível, amei a lore e a atmosfera principalmente, tem lugares que são indescritíveis (Ash Lake, por exemplo) mas, ao mesmo tempo que gostei muito, há muitos erros que são muito chatos, ninguém merece ter que passar pela décima vez pelo mesmo lugar pra chegar no boss ou os controles horríveis (só quem teve que morrer mais de 15 vezes pra passar dos arqueiros de Anor Londo entende o quão ruim são os controles). As vezes, usei guias pra certas partes muito chatas e/ou repetitivas e acho que isso não afetou muito minha experiência. O jogo também é desnecessariamente vago pra quem é iniciante nos jogos da From Software, sei que a proposta é deixar o jogador livre pra descobrir como funcionam as mecânicas mas, também tem partes que exageram como, por exemplo, o sistema de peso ou de atributos que, mesmo com uma explicação ainda continuam muito confusos. Apesar dos erros Dark Souls continua se mantendo como um clássico e é um jogo indispensável pra todos que querem conhecer o porquê de soulslike serem tão amados.