The Darkest of Souls

There are so many people who sing the praises of the Souls franchise. Up until a few months ago I truly could not comprehend why. I picked up a copy of Demon's Souls a few years ago and never got into it. I tried so hard, but I felt like the game was actively trying to make me dislike it. Yes, it's super hard, but normally that kind of thing doesn't make me give up on a game completely. For some reason I felt directionless and devoid of all hope, which is why some people like these games in the first place. Hoping that I was just not in the right mindset I tried to get into Demon's Souls multiple times. Each time I'd beat a boss or two and then completely lose interest. This is the reason I was never interested in Dark Souls, until now, that is.

I've been hearing the praise of Dark Souls since it came out. I even started watching people play it somewhat frequently to try and see if I could glean some kind of enjoyment out of it. I didn't really end up enjoying it at all though and would often not pay very close attention. Something clicked in my brain a few months ago though that made me want to try it out. People always talk about it as if it's some kind of rite of passage, which in some sense it is. It's a truly difficult game, but if you're willing to put in the time and figure it out the game's not nearly as impenetrable as people make it out to be. In a way me trying out Dark Souls was like me trying out Monster Hunter. I just had to know why everyone thought it was so great. Turns out, I think Dark Souls is great too.

The silver knight looks so cool!

Yes, the game is difficult, but not impossible. I think that people make Dark Souls' difficulty out to be much more than it actually is. I see it as delayed gratification. In most modern games you're killing something every few seconds, and powering up as you go along. People like fast paced games that make you feel powerful. Dark Souls isn't fast paced and really makes you work in order to truly feel powerful. Sure, you can eventually get strong weapons and armor, but those won't necessarily make the game any easier. In order to truly get better you need to learn the ins and outs of the game's clunky systems. You need to approach every encounter with caution, because even basic enemies can strike you down at a moment's notice. Your character's movements are slow, deliberate, and filled with animation priority. You don't get thrown constant power-ups in order to keep the endorphin stream to your brain going. Souls, the games currency and experience, need to be earned through hard fought battles. 

Dark Souls makes you take time to think. It makes you value what you have earned. When you fall in battle you lose your souls. As long as you don't die again before returning to where you died, you can reclaim them. However, if you do die before reaching the blood stain your corpse left behind they're gone forever. The first time I lost a ton of souls I was devastated, but it taught me to be much more careful. It's cool, because you actually learn lessons in Dark Souls. You actually have to adapt in order to continue on. In some cases though you just have to persevere. 

The super heavy Havel armor helped me through to the end.

I try my hardest not to get angry with video games, but sometimes I just can't help it. Mid-way through the game Dark Souls decides to throw two bosses at you simultaneously. Those two bosses are Ornstein and Smough. During that fight I was literally screaming obscenities at my television. My rage was palpable. Ornstein kept flying across the room and impaling me with his spear, while big Smough and his fat self butt slammed me all day long. I fought those two for hours on end, until finally I had killed them both. The elation I felt when those two were beaten cannot even be described. I had a strategy that I knew would work, because I could get so close to winning every time. I kept running straight back into the battle until I won, which as I mentioned took hours. Dark Souls is a game of both learning and perseverance and that makes it unique.

In a lot of ways Dark Souls reminds me of Monster Hunter. They both seem impenetrable from the outside, they both have communities filled with elitist assholes, they both have clunky systems, and they're both inexplicably popular. Monster Hunter is more of a Japanese thing, while Dark Souls has a huge following both here in America and Japan. There are so many obscure things in Dark Souls, but passionate fans have figured all of them out. The wikis out there for the game are very in depth and you can learn anything you could possibly ever need to know about the game.

Just seeing these two fills me with rage,

I'm writing this the day before Dark Souls 2 comes out. I'm going to be picking it up at midnight and diving right in. What's scary is that there's hardly any information about the game on the internet right now. It's also a very exciting thing. Playing through Dark Souls I needed a lot of information in order to understand what was going on in the beginning. Without that I probably wouldn't have kept going, because some of the things the game does seem obtuse just for the sake of being obtuse. Kindling at bonfires for example made no sense to me and the broken English describing it didn't exactly help. Going into Dark Souls 2 I will be carrying my basic knowledge, but if I get stuck I'm not necessarily going to be able to find help. Going through the game at the same time as the rest of the community will be a completely different experience than I had with the original Dark Souls and I couldn't be more excited. 

I understand now why people like this series. It makes you work for everything. Hell, it doesn't even really tell a story unless you really go searching for it. You can go through the entire game and have barely any clue why anything is happening. That's quite a ridiculous notion, but somehow it works. For a lot of people exploring an open world and defeating enemies is enough, which just goes to show how well put together the game truly is. 

The DLC is pretty good too.

As a person who plays quite a few video games I'm proud that I was able to see Dark Souls through to completion. It's crazy to me how popular the franchise has become and I hope that it continues on, because there's really not a whole lot else like it out there.

     -Manny