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.
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.