majority of the elements in the first dark souls game aged quite badly to me.

as someone who played elden ring first, each time the fog doors appear get me hyped up only for it to be a segue to the next long journey instead of a boss on the other side (most of the time). i'm so glad fromsoft made elden ring's sites of grace and sekiro's sculpture idols situated near the boss arena instead of the opposite in dark souls' bonfires being 100000 kilometers 10000 light years away from the next excruciatingly agonizing dogwater boss (ahem bed of chaos with the fucking floor opening and that dogshit thing pushing me around every square inch of the room). not to mention the countless hours wasted on pure walking through very very long, far, and distant routes and getting ambushed left and right instead of having to fast travel.

obviously, to me, elden ring and sekiro absolutely CLEAR dark souls 1 because their physics feel less janky to me, the graphics are more modern, they're more unique and enjoyable in their own way, and i just genuinely felt that they were more enjoyable and fun to play. however, even though my experience of playing through my first dark souls game is infuriating and exhilarating (but mostly infuriating), dark souls serves as a significant turning point in the gaming industry and i can respect it for what it did at the time and what it helped inspire and create for the culture of gaming. even in the present day, despite dark souls' many shortcomings, and despite everything i've said in my review so far (more like me rambling than an actual review), dark souls has cool character and boss designs, intriguing lore, varying combat, and various other moments throughout the game that make it an experience worth playing through before you die.