From the outside looking in, the FromSoftwares games - to me at least - haven't had the most positive image. I always viewed them as that game people played so they could brag about their MLG gamer™ skills, and that was that. That the games were simply hard for the sake of being hard, and there was nothing more to it. Just difficulty for the sake of difficulty.
I've never been so wrong. With the recent release of ER, and the overwhelming positivity surrounding it, I figured that I might as well check in on the series. My overall experience with the series is limited, I made it around 2/3 through Bloodborne, enjoying it, but finding myself with a headache with the 30 FPS, and had played a few hours through Dark Souls 1 on the 360 when it was free with an Xbox Gold Membership all those years ago, but otherwise, I've never completed a Souls-Like game.
My initial impressions were far more positive than I'd initially expected, the art style, despite being 11 years old now, has still aged amazingly. The opening dungeon of the Undead Asylum is dark and depressing, the later city of Anor Londo is magnificent, implying a once great kingdom now fallen to ashes. And that, I feel, is the beauty of Dark Souls. The environmental storytelling is at its best where you're in the breaks between encounters, and just imagining how this kingdom must've looked prior to it's downfall.
This is something that I absolutely love about Dark Souls, the narrative, even after my 40 hours of play to clear the game, I later discovered that there were several side quests that I just hadn't noticed because I hadn't engaged with the characters. While other Western games like the recent iterations of the Assassin's Creed games might force the side content in your face, as if to say "LOOK AT ALL THIS CONTENT WE HAVE," Dark Souls leaves it to you to discover, and I think that's beautiful.
But enough of my gushing about the narrative, the combat is what the games are known for, and I really didn't expect it to age nearly as well as it has. Fights can be slow and methodical, or fast and... methodical. Bosses require your utmost attention to put in the ground, and what surprised me most is how very rarely did the bosses feel cheap and unfair. I beat most of the optional bosses (barring the final boss in the DLC) along with the main ones, and could only count 2 or 3 times that I would actually go "this is unfair." The game provides you with an encounter, and trusts you to be intelligent enough to study the attack pattern, and rise above.
The music really transcends the game to another level, I feel. Many of the tracks are orchestral masterpieces, heightening these larger than life battles against gods and demons, and yet, there's ample tracks that also imply beauty and sadness, that track for the final boss is so bittersweet, one can't help but reflect after it's over.
Overall, this experience has left me re-examining how I view FromSoftwares ventures, and difficulty in general.
I've never been so wrong. With the recent release of ER, and the overwhelming positivity surrounding it, I figured that I might as well check in on the series. My overall experience with the series is limited, I made it around 2/3 through Bloodborne, enjoying it, but finding myself with a headache with the 30 FPS, and had played a few hours through Dark Souls 1 on the 360 when it was free with an Xbox Gold Membership all those years ago, but otherwise, I've never completed a Souls-Like game.
My initial impressions were far more positive than I'd initially expected, the art style, despite being 11 years old now, has still aged amazingly. The opening dungeon of the Undead Asylum is dark and depressing, the later city of Anor Londo is magnificent, implying a once great kingdom now fallen to ashes. And that, I feel, is the beauty of Dark Souls. The environmental storytelling is at its best where you're in the breaks between encounters, and just imagining how this kingdom must've looked prior to it's downfall.
This is something that I absolutely love about Dark Souls, the narrative, even after my 40 hours of play to clear the game, I later discovered that there were several side quests that I just hadn't noticed because I hadn't engaged with the characters. While other Western games like the recent iterations of the Assassin's Creed games might force the side content in your face, as if to say "LOOK AT ALL THIS CONTENT WE HAVE," Dark Souls leaves it to you to discover, and I think that's beautiful.
But enough of my gushing about the narrative, the combat is what the games are known for, and I really didn't expect it to age nearly as well as it has. Fights can be slow and methodical, or fast and... methodical. Bosses require your utmost attention to put in the ground, and what surprised me most is how very rarely did the bosses feel cheap and unfair. I beat most of the optional bosses (barring the final boss in the DLC) along with the main ones, and could only count 2 or 3 times that I would actually go "this is unfair." The game provides you with an encounter, and trusts you to be intelligent enough to study the attack pattern, and rise above.
The music really transcends the game to another level, I feel. Many of the tracks are orchestral masterpieces, heightening these larger than life battles against gods and demons, and yet, there's ample tracks that also imply beauty and sadness, that track for the final boss is so bittersweet, one can't help but reflect after it's over.
Overall, this experience has left me re-examining how I view FromSoftwares ventures, and difficulty in general.