Bonfire Lit (Dark Souls 15)

It has been completed.  After a few hours, Gwyn has been defeated, and the fire is lit.  I've taken a few weeks months to write this so I could think about the game a bit more.  OK... that's only partially true, procrastination is a hell of a drug, and I think I like Dark Souls.  I'll firm that up later, probably.

Dark Souls is a game that I had reservations to start with.  It's firmly entrenched in a culture that turned "Git Gud" from a meme into a mantra, and where the difficulty is a driving factor.  The attitude I've seen around the internet since the game's launch had put me off the game, and difficulty isn't my strong suit.  There was also this weird trend of people putting this game on some weird "real gamer" pantheon, which is another thing I balk at.

I put these aside though and tried to give the game a change.  This game is relevant to the gaming landscape and I couldn't remain ignorant of it forever.  I needed to experience it for myself.  I had to put aside my preconceptions, shut out the noise and give it a shot.

While the difficulty is a main draw to the game, it's not what I'm going to take away from it.  I really enjoy it's level design and it reminds me not quite of Super Metroid or Casltevania:  Symphony of the Night, but of the original Resident Evil.  All four games have clever use of space, and have you traversing familiar sections to get to new areas.  Dark Souls and Resident Evil accomplish this through acquiring keys and secret passageways, while Metroid and Symphony of the Night use new abilities and powers as the keys to unlock new areas.  It's one thing, though, to do this sort of design in a limited space, like a Mansion or Castle, it's another to weave these areas together across a large area like Dark Souls does.  I talked about this a bit more waaaay back in Dark Souls Post 4 (side note, holy hell that was a longer, rambling post with about three different themes), and it holds through to the end.

Based on what I've seen, I feel like going with a Sorceress was a good call for me.  While I had some key strategies that worked well, there were plenty of areas where I had to completely change my tactic in order to advance.  Based on pure conjecture, I don't know if I would have had to adapt as much had I played a heavy knight type character.  Sure, fighting some enemies would have been harder, but the strategy seems like it would be similar to what you wold have been doing.  For example, there were a few of the big demons that drop the Titanite shards, like the one in the water pit in Sens, and the one by the Blacksmith neer Darkroot, that I was able to ace using Magic, since I had positioning and range on my side.  Those were easy for me due to my choice.  Some sections with normal enemies, like the snakes at the front of Sen's, and the 4 Kings boss, gave me a ton of trouble due to playing a mage though, so I had to drastically alter some strategies.

Dark Souls isn't a perfect game.  The combat is kinda fiddly at times, and the difficulty can be a bit much for my normal tastes, but it has a certain charm about it.  It's the same dark sorcery that Benedict Cumberbatch has cast on society.  Dark Souls has top tier map design, and it is at its best when it keeps you on your back foot.  Having to find these optimal routes that worked for me, and having the freedom to change the strategies I was employing on the fly made for a much more rewarding experience.  I know I can confidently suggest dark souls to it, and point out some things glowingly about it. 

Before I go, I want to shout out one more guy.  He helped and encouraged me through the back half of the game when I started to get frustrated.  Take a bow, Aural Decoy.