10 years late, I have fallen in love with Dark Souls, and you can too

Dark Souls Remastered Source: Windows Central

Dark Souls is something of a controversial topic, owing to its perceived difficulty. With some detractors claiming it's hard for the sake of it, Dark Souls near takes on this mythical shroud that only the well-nigh elite, hardC0RE gamers can contend with its punishing gameplay. Ten years afterwards its initial launch, I am finding that isn't actually the case.

I am by no ways a hardc0RE elite gamer, at least not equally I approach xl. Back in the day I'd grind the hardest raid difficulty tiers in World of Warcraft and accomplish server-beginning boss kills, and even farther back, put literal thousands of hours into Unreal Tournament 99, with a near-sixth sense sensation of the respawn timer on the Shield Belt. Those days are pretty long gone, sadly. I have ear hair, y'know.

Yet nevertheless, as my ability to stick to a single game for any length of serious fourth dimension becomes macerated for whatever reason, I've been falling in dearest with Dark Souls, a game I'd always assumed would be as well difficult for me to mete out. If you're someone who, like me, always thought Dark Souls looked like a game you should enjoy, I'one thousand hither to tell you lot the game isn't as hard as you might think, and in fact, it's actually incredibly fair, throwing you tons of ways yous tin make things easier for yourself.

I wanted to write down some of my experiences with Nighttime Souls so far, in tribute to what I already feel like could end up being one of my picks for all-time Xbox games of all time.

Demystifying Night Souls

Dark Souls Remastered Source: Windows Central

When I started tweeting about Dark Souls recently, I realized that I wasn't alone in my assumptions about the game. Many of the replies in some of my prune threads run along the same thought patterns of, "I bet this game is too hard for me," or "I tried it, and establish it to exist also difficult," and and then on. It'south true, Dark Souls' introductory few hours are nearly sacrilegious in their design, aggressively shrugging off the hand-holding tutorial sequences that are popular in modernistic games.

Cheers to Monster Hunter, I'd unwittingly somewhat learned a bit more about how Nighttime Souls itself plays in the process.

Right from the off, even the virtually bones enemies can kill you in mere seconds, and the first boss is a gigantic beast wielding a massive club, that shreds the environment in massive arcs. It's all part of the prove, though. It calls dorsum to the manner games used to be, in the '90s, loathe to hold player's hands, just eager to support the observant and patient.

What fans often say is ultimately true; Dark Souls I would discover is an aggressively fair game. And it's perhaps only since becoming addicted to Monster Hunter World that some of Dark Souls' pattern philosophy really click for me. Until Monster Hunter, I'd go relatively complacent with modernistic gaming in general, which seems all too often reluctant to punish the actor too harshly. Monster Hunter as its name suggests is designed wholly around monster hunting. Since the game doesn't really revolve effectually a traditional level-based story structure, it hinges entirely on boss battles, essentially. Across 800 hours' worth of Monster Hunter World playtime, I ended up learning how to play a very unlike style of game than what I'd gotten used to from Western devs — with stamina meter management, dodging with invincibility animation frames (i-frames), and learning to time the speed of my attacks, weaving around monster attack signals.

I recall it'due south probably off-white to say that Monster Hunter World eases you into its gameplay style a niggling more gently than Nighttime Souls does. But, thanks to Monster Hunter, I'd unwittingly somewhat learned a bit more about how Dark Souls itself plays in the process.

Dark Souls Remastered Source: Windows Central

Night Souls' combat shares superficial similarities to Monster Hunter Earth, in that stamina management, is incredibly of import, alongside learning the animation speed of your specific weapons. Being acutely aware of how quickly an attack will state in relation to how quickly you'll be on the receiving terminate of an set on is a skill you larn to live with across both games, across multiple types of weapons.

Each game has a large array of weapons with very unique combos and attack patterns, and each game will punish players who don't take the fourth dimension to respect the relationship between an attack, stamina consumption, and defense. In some ways, I'd argue that Monster Hunter World is often fifty-fifty more punishing, due to the erratic and oft-random means monsters occasionally behave in the game. While I've not seen everything Dark Souls has to offer simply nevertheless, arriving at the metropolis of Anor Londo, I've found the boss battles to be incredibly fair to the player, with relatively predictable assail patterns, and large cues that telegraph incoming attacks.

Fifty-fifty across the blueprint of the game, which is impeccable, Dark Souls rewards explorers like no other game I've played.

Dark Souls wants you to win

Dark Souls Remastered Source: Windows Central

In many mod "open earth" games, developers retrieve that finding a text file or an audio log is a decent enough reward for exploration, but after playing Nighttime Souls, I'thou non certain that's going to satisfy me anymore.

You're a visitor of a strange and haunted state, and every corner holds either danger or riches in equal measure.

Dark Souls one is a game with some of the best ecology pattern piece of work I've ever seen. A massive, sprawling labyrinth of intersecting, intertwining fortresses and structures, filled to the brim with uniquely horrific monsters and damned souls. It's almost Metroidvania-similar in its construction, rewarding players with shortcuts to previous areas to make the journey easier, layering on satisfaction in a way loot alone simply doesn't do. Even the loot in Dark Souls feels meticulously placed, designed to shape your playthrough and guide your character builds without explicitly telling you what to do. And a lot of those character builds volition come around as a direct event of exploration.

Dark Souls is also a game that, for the well-nigh part, doesn't gate the role player. Yous tin practically go anywhere, right from the beginning, but the game does give you a sense of direction as long every bit yous're paying attention. There's no map, and no quest markers, though, essentially leaving y'all to your own devices over how you want to tackle the way forward.

At the beginning, y'all're told to ring ii bells, one at the top of a church, and one down below hush-hush. There are NPCs scattered throughout, driven mad apparently by the earth's purgatorial land, who can provide additional context and worldly lore. The sense of vulnerability that comes through the game's high-stakes combat permeates into the story and exploration also; yous're a visitor of a strange and haunted land, and every corner holds either danger or riches in equal measure. It'south those riches that volition bulldoze you forward, likewise.

Upgrading your character in Nighttime Souls is a gradual process, incrementally raising stats here and in that location, calculation +1 to your items when the materials present themselves. But every now and and so, you'll happen upon an item that volition completely change your outlook and prosperity. After defeating a very angry knight in a tower basement, I received a ring that massively improved how equipment impacted my character'south mobility, assuasive me to use heavier armor and weapons.

Therein lies the excitement that Night Souls' globe brings: take a chance and reward, in equal measure out.

I ventured well off the beaten path into a forest, and constitute a shield that was more twice as strong as the one I was carrying. In a graveyard, I discovered a powerful two-handed sword guarded by a militia of re-animated skeletons. More to the indicate, none of these items was gated either, you can potentially take hold of these correct as soon every bit you leave the initial tutorial area, equally long as you're willing to face the higher-level enemies guarding them.

By daring to explore, I establish that I was occasionally discovering Night Souls' gentler side. These items make the game far more attainable to play, particularly for newcomers. They reward those who were daring enough to become and hunt them downwards, or indeed, expect up a guide on how to become them early. However, exploration tin can as well bring plenty of risk. At ane signal, I leapt into a mysterious hole in the basis, only to be dumped into a cage with a behemothic and very hungry rat monster. Therein lies the excitement that Dark Souls' world brings: risk and advantage, in equal mensurate.

Dark Souls has been out for ten years at this indicate, and there's a huge wealth of content online that tin can aid you ease into the universe and get to grips with the gameplay. If, like me, you made assumptions virtually how the game worked based on the first few hours of play, at that place are tons of tricks interwoven into the game's fabric to brand it less punishing on yourself. The game'southward arsenal of magical items are designed directly to help you win, but instead of simply handing you the win, it wants to advantage you for discovering the method yourself.

Dark Souls is a revelation

Dark Souls Remastered Source: Windows Fundamental

In an era of boxing passes, free to play, pay to win, microtransactions, and "games every bit a service," I found that the thing I'chiliad loving the most well-nigh Night Souls is the fact it's only a video game. Information technology's not a service, information technology doesn't desire me to "appoint" forever, and it isn't using artificial psychological trickery to soak up my "engagement" — the game's art, the monster designs, the music, its deceptive facade of minimalism hiding what seems to be limitless depth do that by itself, and information technology's piece of cake to see now why the game is held in such loftier regard.

If you've ever looked at these games and idea, "I wish I could enjoy these," I implore you lot to give it some other go.

Night Souls has been a magical experience thus far, literally, and to anyone who, similar me, looked at the games and felt like they seemed absurd but might be a fleck out of telescopic, I'd urge you to look again. Try to utilize a beginner's build guide on YouTube — merely I'd also contend not to look too deeply for a total-blown guide, because the sense of discovery is half of the fun. Cull a weapon style and really acquire how information technology works between the different weapon swings, blocking, riposte attacks, meridian attacks, and back attacks. Learn what the stats practice (INT doesn't increase pyromancy damage, equally I constitute out the hard style), and if y'all get stuck, y'all tin can always grind some souls to raise your level and equipment stats a bit.

I'm merely happy to have found a game to really deeply fall in love with again. Sometimes I wonder if I'g getting jaded, and that video games aren't as fun for me as they used to exist. Dark Souls reminded me that I'm not getting jaded, it'southward just that modern AAA games are all likewise often simply, well, bland. I feel similar through Monster Hunter and at present Dark Souls, a whole new world of games and other "Soulslikes" merely opened upwards to me to explore — ahead of Elden Ring itself. And if you lot've ever looked at these games and idea, "I wish I could relish these," I implore you to give information technology some other go. You may find they're a lot fairer than you lot might call back.