...about DARK SOULS 1.

[@himanshubhoria1832]

In my first playthrough, I saw the concept of "going hollow" and I think that is what kept me going. It was like the game was telling me that if you quit, which you should, you will go hollow, means your character goes insane. And so is the fate of all players who do not complete the game. I thought the concept was literally the game challenging you to endure the madness as your character endures going hollow.

[@Pihsrosnec]

same here, it took me a lot longer to pick up but I slowly started realising that "going hollow" wasn't some threat that I was magically immune to due to being the protagonist, I wasn't succumbing to it because I, the player, wasn't giving up.

[@UpliftThrone76]

This is what kept me going through when I got stuck on Thunder And Thighs in Anor Londo. Every attempt, every death, it drained a little bit more of my soul, but I wasn't going to hollow. I still had fight in me, I'm still able to keep going, I won't let it win. So I didn't let it win. Six hours through the night I rammed my head into the Ornstein and Smough boss fight, and I can't say I felt it click. It was a gradual process, but eventually, I just knew. I knew it all, it made sense, and it was after those 6 hours that I realized that Dark Souls is a series for me. I hadn't struggled before O&S, I was just lucky I guess, and I didn't struggle that much after it, because everything made sense. But that fight was my revelation. That's why, no matter how much jank comes from that fight (like Ornstein stabbing me *through* Smough), it will always be one of my favorite bosses ever, because it was the fight that taught me what Dark Souls as a series is about. Pushing to be better, to be stronger, faster, smarter, even when you want to give up.

[@eddieb1995]

Praise the sun! \[T]/ Don't you dare go hollow skeleton!

[@charlesbrioche6745]

It took me years to notice that, whenever the game reminds us to "not go hollow", I thought its just the characters saying dont die. Took me years to realise that undeads only go hollow when they lose their purpose. Why did we never actually go hollow? Because we still have one purpose: link the flame. We are undeads, and as long as we play the game, we still have a purpose to fulfil. Once we fulfil our purpose, we could either leave the game, with our character probably going hollow, or play new game plus, giving our character another purpose and not let them go hollow I wish there was a system where if we create a new character, we have a possibility of meeting our previous character as a hollow, either as just a random hollow or replacement of an already beaten boss just to punish you for leaving them behind

[@theapexsurvivor9538]

​@@charlesbrioche6745yeah, would be pretty cool if you got: Invaded by Dark Spirit [Insert Name] once or twice, maybe in areas with bosses we've reached but haven't beaten yet in that playthrough (you skipped Taurus demon and went through Valley of Drakes to reach Andre and Quelaag? Congrats, your next character gets pincered by the Black Knight and your old one). Could make for some fun role play, like maybe [Insert Name] is jealousy guarding *their* kills, or trying to stop you because it's too hard, or simply going mad and attacking everyone.

[@lukelogan8814]

As someone who has never played Dark Souls but does work in a virology lab, I'm pretty sure I have an idea of what an STD bomb is

[@Existential_Robot]

Interesting.

[@Carnationdoll]

But if you got infected via a bomb, wouldn't that make it an BTD?

[@kaltaron1284]

It's an abbreviation for standard. The other meaning doesn't make much sense because how would you transfer a STD via bomb. Strange thing is that this is the only place firebombs are called std bombs and they missed the dot.

[@OCEAN-fc9wl]

Heres your L for not playing a masterpiece like dark souls

[@An_Entire_Lime]

​​@@kaltaron1284 Everyone knows it's an abbreviation for standard, its just funny to imagine it being the other definition

[@TonberryEmpress]

This reminded me of one of my first experiences in dark souls, I just got to firelink shrine and was running up the steps to the sewer and got invaded, I didn't know what that meant at first but they dropped an armour set for me so I threw it on, it was the stone armour set and my character could barely move! They then killed me. Was really funny in hindsight but at the time it was super confusing

[@everythingsalright1121]

What a jerk :v

[@prakharaloksemwal1930]

That is evil 💀

[@lynnmorgan5897]

dood

[@knox0x1.]

It is wholesome actually. One of the best armors in the game for free).

[@greenkey3721]

​@@lynnmorgan5897AAqq111q

[@Nic9458]

The DLC wasn’t “found” by any players, fromsoft released a guide online both in Japanese and English when the dlc released detailing exactly how to access the dlc with pictures of the locations, crystal golems, and items needed. These guides can still be accessed on the way back machine as far as I’m aware

[@itstawmy2394]

if they're going to make a remastered version players shouldn't have to use the wayback machine to find this stuff they should rerelease it or put it in the game

[@Nic9458]

@@itstawmy2394 you don’t/didnt? By the time of the launch of DS remastered you could find guides on KZbin, meaning you didn’t need to use the way back machine because it was common knowledge by the time of release for the remaster

[@kacarek2402]

If I need to go onto KZbin to even attempt to start a DLC, it is a bad decision. @@Nic9458

[@agssilv5919]

​@@Nic9458 i somehow found it on accident around 2017 on my first time playing ds1 after playing ds3 and ds2 i didn't even know it was the dlc till i saw artorias and went wait i ninute its that guy

[@Nic9458]

@@agssilv5919 yeah it also isn’t terribly hard to find when playing through the game regularly

[@blitzie66]

notbing will ever match the feeling of realizing it is all connected when you unlock the elevator on the parish. that was a jaw dropping moment

[@amirahmedzyanov2216]

Hahaha, yep same here. Still remember this moment :D

[@samsoceans]

I still get goosebumps thinking about that moment.

[@LilHaseProductions]

The Wire: It's All Connected

[@polnyjj]

not only the parish but also firelink shrine to new londo after that to valley of drakes and upper blighttown and also darkroot basin. whole fxckin map is connected vertically and horizontally. slowly realising that fascinated me, i hadnt seen anything like that before.

[@polnyjj]

top of that you can see some areas from other areas, for example ash lake view from tomb of giants

[@jamesmcdonald1108]

I wish we got a more finished version of the second half with the remaster, Izalith is such a drag...

[@darkhobo]

Yeah its a perfect first half, then... Bleh

[@christianlangdon3766]

​@darkhobo ehh, perfect certainly better and more well thought out sure but perfect. The boss run back to Capra, the depths into blighttown is quite a nightmare if you didn't pull out or upgrade your stuff enough before hand. The elevator alone on blight town is just awful. That thing alone takes my life more than any boss. It's also pretty natural to go off on wonky directions in the first half, like darkroot basin and the demon ruins. Until you hit the golden wall. Like I agree overall that it's better but their is much more fluidity between the first and second half of the game than a lot of people talk about.

[@senenbye4611]

That would make it a remake. But the thing is, the remaster was not made by fromsoft. So the question is: can we really trust any other studio to make a second half for dark souls 1?

[@leithaziz2716]

The sad thing is that the more I replayed the game, the less I started to enjoy the game as a whole because I know the exact moment where I stop having fun. It's the moment I beat Ornstein and Smough. I end up finishing the game with negative last impressions. Dark Souls 3 on the other hand is ironically the opposite experience. The start tends to feel a bit boring for me, but by the 2nd half of the game it start firing on all cylinders. The journey from Irithyll all the way to the final boss is so fun (barring some small hickups like Irithyll Dungeon and Oceiros). It's interesting seeing both games' structure being polar opposites, and different people will prefer different "give or takes".

[@Bukwheat]

...on

[@Stranglethorn]

Back when I bought this during my teen, I baby raged for 3 days thinking you were supposed to kill the Stray Demon with the broken sword, I got so fed up that I was gonna return the game but then I was just running around the boss until I saw the red door you were supposed to go in and I was laughing at myself for being a doof

[@sweetmoonpigeon7469]

I think with that, one of the worst things the game did was double down on the "this is hard" marketing, because it gave a lot of new players the expectation of "this is how the game is supposed to be" instead of "this is a stupid way to solve this problem, I should try something else"

[@thomasjefferson2676]

I think that happened to all of us that didn’t look up guides or anything

[@abraxaseyes87]

Still think its way easier than Demons souls. I never used humanity or anything but the straight sword till 2nd play through.

[@FirstLast-yc9lq]

@@sweetmoonpigeon7469 Blame Bandai Namco for that. Miyazaki is always pretty up front with the type of challenge he wants to give players.

[@FirstLast-yc9lq]

@@abraxaseyes87 The bosses in Demon's Souls are jokes. But some of the levels are tougher especially if you don't understand world tendency.

[@DiegoM163]

Hearing "Sen's Fortress hidden bonfire" my ears perked up immediately, THANK YOU. But seriously, this video really resonated with me as I'm new to RPGs in general and I felt exactly how you described. I'm still learning basic mechanics and grinding through the game, yet I already love it.

[@Aggelos_T.]

Well, how was it?

[@sebastiangudino9377]

​@@Aggelos_T. Pretty fire probably, elden ring is a better experience for modern audiences probably, but dark souls 1 builds a very satisfying progression withiut having to hold your hand. Elden Ring on the other hand holds your hand a little bit more, but they completely let's you go right before magrit kinda like a test to see if you really are cut for what's about to come

[@ulch11]

My first experience with the game was going down the graveyard first from firelink. Got absolutley stomped over and over while thinking "wow, that game really is hard and unforgiving" Fun times

[@milktenders6219]

Everyone has that I think, and so many dropped the game because of it

[@henriklarssen1331]

I went down to New Londo and got killed by invincible Ghosts. Fun times indeed.

[@serPomiz]

same here. I absolutelly murdered pinwheel, laugh at how crappy it was in proportion to everything else in there, then find myself at the wall (not so) fun times indeed

[@Casketkrusher_]

New Londo was my first place I went to, yeah not a fun time but that's how you learn you realize there are more routes you can take.

[@ghoulbuster1]

It's hilarious everyone gets boned the first time playing DS1

[@moorebetter]

I could see how the crestfallen warrior telling you there's 2 bells could be confusing, but I always loved that from a lore stand point. The very first person you talk to tells you of an old adage of his family, but the very next person you talk to tells you that's a lie. The game is telling you up front that people and the stories they tell could be misleading, or just straight up lies. So when you finally meet kaath and he tells you that EVERYTHING was a lie, it just hits so much harder

[@kgniku503]

That's assuming you even meet Kaath at all - the two paths to meet him are both unintuitive: killing a friendly NPC or ignoring the apparent main quest NPC.

[@SlowPokey30K]

Kaath isn’t exactly trustworthy though, both serpents twist the truth to achieve their goal remember kaath convinced oolacile to upturn manis’s grave and look what happened to the humans there

[@thaddeusgenhelm8979]

I will say, I feel like the "There are actually two bells" thing would've been better saved for... Not the 2nd person you talk to? Give you some time to focus in on your goal, maybe even have a bit of confusion where a few side NPCs both give you instructions on how to get to the bell, only to have them give you, uh, *different* directions, only to have someone reveal there were 2 bells later. Give you some space to ruminate on the idea before overturning it.

[@freespeech3817]

The more reasons for any sane person to simply turn around and leave those foggy lands. Some random insane dudes were talking some gibberish about ringing some bells to make "something happen". No promise of it being worth anything while every step towards it is asking for death. The entire game is just one big nonsense with every road leading to eventual death without any glory or prize and lore itself not only was reused(and to this day every fromsoft game have the exact same lore with different names for things) but the lore simply suck mostly because of their "time is convulted" that further push the idea of "nothing gonna matter anyway" so why protagonist should even care about anything?

[@thaddeusgenhelm8979]

@@freespeech3817I will say, some of the nihilism around the lives of Dark Souls characters has always been a bit weird to me. Like, people are like "Well, what good is kindling the Age of Fire going to do if it's going to fade in decades/centuries/w/e anyway?" and it's like "I dunno, why do you eat breakfast in the morning if you're going to be hungry by dinner? Why do you live if you're going to be dead in 200 years anyway?" the idea that achievements have to be permanent to matter always seemed weird to me. And like, gotta say, if you think "All Fromsoft games have the same lore but with different names" I... Think you're just wrong? Like, sure, Dark Souls Trilogy, a lot of similar stuff in there. It's a trilogy focused on a particular theme/set of ideas, so the ideas tend to be, like, the same in them. Yes. But like, none of the non-Dark Souls Fromsoft games do that. Even Demon Souls isn't about some sort of cycle of life and death, it's about whether maintaining supernatural powers and abilities is worth the damage it's doing to the world. Do you keep the magic and strength you've accumulated, knowing the demons stay as well, or do you surrender it to banish them? I don't see how that is just "renamed Dark Souls lore" >_>

[@caravaneerkhed]

Capra demon didn’t teach me to use a shield, it taught me to use the environment to my advantage and also change my play style to adapt to changing situations. I actually ended up using a pole arm or spear to quickly dispatch the dogs, and the stairs to reposition go for a plunging attack and give yourself a breather

[@tattoo6862]

capra demon teached me about the marvellous world of coop :)

[@NeutralGloomBot]

How interesting. My first idea, and it worked, was to just run past everything immediately up the stairs, easily dispatch the dogs, and then solo the Capra Demon. That was one battle I just got right away. Never took me more than two tries to kill him.

[@caravaneerkhed]

@@NeutralGloomBot I think most people weren’t ready for the dogs to jump them. I remember my issue was the weapon I was using would often miss the dogs or smack against the walls, I can’t remember exactly but it was some kind of 2 handed sword, and the dogs would often block me from running so trying to run past them would get me killed. So I figured it’s a narrow corridor maybe a stabbing weapon would work and it did. Nowadays with more experience in the game I can just charge in and simply play with reaction alone, but back when I first played ds1 people just weren’t that used to those types of games and a lot of people struggled with these things.

[@abramho6307]

I didn’t even know the capra demon existed when I beat the game

[@homejonny9326]

capra demon teach me the power of stone armor poise, i cheesy it

[@philippqquutt4549]

i remember the feeling when i first got past the anor londor archers to the bonfire and seeing solaire sitting there...great memories!!

[@funnyleafguy]

Dark Souls inventory menu is truly the Dark Souls of UI design

[@nathanielthompson3339]

💀

[@spoopy-gho5t]

@@nathanielthompson3339 that doesn't mean anything.

[@aprinnyonbreak1290]

The fact that there's STILL not a favorite tag system that pulls items and equipment to the top of the menu is baffling, after a decade and some change of this. In order to achieve anything approaching UI clarity and usability, you have to deposit 97% of everything you find, which is stupid.

[@George_Rakkas]

Elden rings UI is also garbage

[@Spectre4077]

I'm glad to know that playing the game, quitting, and coming back 8 months later is a universal experience. I am also impressed that you got to the capra demon before throwing in the towel. I didn't make it past the asylum, but thats mostly because I never actually turned around and saw the hole in the wall to Oscar, as well as I Couldn't find the key to the other 2F door. The one you find much much /much/ later and figured my game was broken...

[@nathankurtz8045]

Italics are made by enclosing the word in _'s by the way.

[@susejtsirhc4202]

Had this exact experience with elden ring and X4 foundations. Something about these learning curve games must encourage a delayed second revisit.

[@synthraofficial5366]

I'm in the "quit but haven't gone back yet" stage. I wanted to beat it before Elden Ring came out but haven't gone back to it in about a year and a half. But something tells me I will soon. I have it on the Switch. Made it to the bottom of Blight Town and said "Nope I hate this. I'm out." But after platinuming Elden Ring I think I'll go back. I certainly have some reflexes to relearn.

[@jacobbarbulescu6654]

@@nathankurtz8045_' never knew that, thanks _'

[@sentientcardboarddumpster7900]

​@@synthraofficial5366my first was ds2, tried ds1 after that. Couldn't do it. Now I have it again, on my switch this time. I quit a bit further than last time. Now, I'm just completing DS3 (pc) for the first time (literally fighting Midir last night, still gotta beat him) and I'm debating going in for NG+ soon or to dive back into DS1 again. All I know is I'm gonna keep playing FS games until the ER expansion come out or BB gets ported to pc. I'm avoiding Sekiro until I make it through DS1 simply for the massive shift in combat approach.

[@metazare]

DS1 will always be my favorite of the three Dark Souls games. Compared to Demons Souls, where in all the levels are instanced behind loading screens, DS1 made the world feel alive with its minimal loading screens between areas giving it an almost open world adventure like quality.

[@LeDank]

Dark Souls 1 was the perfect size for me. Elden Ring is my second favorite from FromSoft because it’s so massive and takes so much more time. Not that that’s a bad thing for everyone.

[@bjensen60]

I once found a 3d map that someone had put together, where they had every contiguous level stitched together so you could see how the whole world fits together. It's really amazing, especially in the context of modern games that make no such effort in the slightest

[@____iconic_man]

16:08 Why isnt anyone talking about him murdering Solaire the Sunbro!!!!????

[@piyushhmusic]

This guy is the real dark soul right here

[@noswearingacc]

If only I could be so grossly incandescent

[@BaseCreation]

I feel all that confusion and difficulty with things but finally understanding and conquering it is what leads to people finding it emotionally satisfying and gratifying.

[@graxo3752]

I actually enjoy the process of learning how to do everything and what everything does. I always look up everything about a game before going into it. It makes Dark Souls enjoyable more than unenjoyable for me. Knowing I'm getting everything possible and finding all the secret bosses and areas.

[@sentientcardboarddumpster7900]

For me, it's the combat. I go in 99% of my runs as pure melee, like all strength. Landed on Dex for ER somehow. The mob encounters, and the bosses are why I really play. The combat loop just clicks in my brain even if I'm not an amazing player. The sense of accomplish winning these battles gives me, in unparalleled in my 35 years of life, gaming on an Atari as a kid and every subsequent console release after that. The dark souls series stands well above everything else I've ever played. I don't mind looking up guides but I do atleast try to go into areas blind at first

[@ThommyofThenn]

Correct. Once you realise that is part of the experience you come to love it and appreciate the enemy design more

[@cdogthehedgehog6923]

First time playing I made a trash character and couldn't finish the game with my skill level, equipment and level distribution. Second attempt, one of my friends in high-school basically carried me through the whole game through summons. Third time I beat it on my "own." (With solaire summons) One of my favorite gaming memories of all time.

[@yahia5476]

Doesn't have to be for basic things like learning how your stats works for god's sake, thankfully later souls games fixed this issue, kinda

[@austinallen5243]

I discovered Dark Souls 1 when it was free on game pass, and me and my brother decided to play it together. We made it too the Blacksmiths bonfire before the Bell Gargoyals where we got invaded by a played Who dropped us full stacks of Hero Souls. If I'm being honest, that boost is very possibly the only reason I stuck with the game, and have eagerly awaited every soulsborn games since then. Love the series

[@carminescurse]

You haven't found the duplication glitch? Go buy arrows.

[@soundaholixx]

the fabled generous smurf

[@Azazantei]

Oh man, you've been visited by the Legendary Soul-Giver, treasure it, those kinds of chances will not come twice. Well you can but you get my point.

[@austinallen5243]

@@carminescurse This was way back when I first started Dark Souls 1 before Dark Souls 2 was out. My point is that as a new player to the game, I'm not sure If I would have stuck to it without the early boost from an invader, but I'm glad it happened because I have been a huge fan of the series since then.

[@PvtSoab96]

@@austinallen5243 how did you discover it on gamepass but also played it before DS2 was out?

[@shortnotice6936]

I avoided this video for the longest time because it's not what I'm used to but now that I finally watched it I want more, I want so much more. This was amazing and you should continue... Please

[@cookieeaturface]

Still think DS1 has the best level/world design of any modern From game. So good at hiding the true scale of the game from you, making every shortcut and hidden area feel so revelatory and special. With the demand to make every game "bigger", not sure we'll ever get that again.

[@primm_slimm]

Yeah dark souls 1 modern

[@abbygrace3456]

give me a break

[@kristaskrastina2863]

The first half - yes, its design was very clever. After Anor Londo the quality kind of drops. Lost Izalith? Tomb Of The Giants? They are bad. The rest of late locations are kind of straight lines. Not bad but too simple to be praised.

[@qwopiretyu]

​@@kristaskrastina2863 "I didn't have time to finish this area so I just populated the enemy spawns with the rotting dragon lower half"

[@enzi_official]

There's Bloodborne. Soooo :) I think BB was more consistent in the level design and only had a few ports from the overall flow. (nightmares and DLC) Many areas in DS1 are really not that great and most can agree that it's after Anor Londo. Still, I can agree that DS1 has a spectacular scale and variety that is just hard to match because now we already expect it and really didn't when DS1 came out.

[@ManiakPL22]

I am 100% up for this mini-series/series where despite liking something, you still critice it's bad parts. there isn't that much of that content on YT and you know that when a good game fucks up something, it is really something to look out for and something the best of best still managed to somehow commit. Never stop evolving, your content is freaking amazing.

[@SolDizZo]

Seconded It's not about going against the grain-- it's about pursuing the truth. If all these other souls-likes emulate everything they can from souls games indiscriminately, they will likely come away with very little of what makes these games so great!

[@Luis-rp2lm]

There is nothing wrong with dark souls though

[@Unknown-kf3ef]

@@Luis-rp2lm nothing is perfect

[@atalayaltay7835]

Because of butthurts like u everyone hates souls players​@@Luis-rp2lm

[@kingdunlap741]

learn how to spell critique before thinking this loser has good critique of a game. L

[@kye4230]

the way this map connects to itself is honestly insane, when i first played and defeated capri demon and unlocked that gate which lead right back to the shrine i was like huh i felt like id been pushing through the map for ages just to open one door and be back at the start, unlocking the lift was something else entirely lol the map design is just perfect

[@droh6260]

Game worth buying? I've completed/loved DS3/Elden and partially through DS2

[@Angkarpadevat]

​@@droh6260yes it's the best in the series

[@giorgiocotogno3903]

Never played a resident evil?

[@brendangibson8200]

​@@giorgiocotogno3903RE is one of my favorite series, and I've never had a door loop around that blew my mind like in DS1

[@Freelancer837]

Fuck, the map design sucks so much it's funny

[@AniGaAG]

There is one crucial aspect that From fans don't seem to realize about why people bounce off these games or "don't get it". Namely... this immense sense of satisfaction or achievement after struggling through a really rough video game challenge - the average person _doesn't get_ it to that vast extent _from a video game._ It's a specific niche appeal, it always was. They don't enjoy the extent of the struggle because they don't feel rewarded to that extent - and therefore, quit.

[@aekaralagonisi]

And? Some dude might look at a Van Gogh masterpiece and find it pointless and dull. Art doesn’t have to be accepted by literally everyone to have value.

[@Bombom1300]

@@aekaralagonisi Right, exactly! AniGaAG isn't saying this as a diss to Dark Souls. The point is that it's ok for folks to not get Van Gogh or Dark Souls. I believe they're referring to the fact that there's folks in the community who try to push the game on everyone (because if I like it, then everyone else will surely like it too once they just get gud enough to get it) and that's just as obnoxious as somebody shoving Van Gogh's art in your face and demanding you enjoy it. It's ok to not accept it. That doesn't devalue the art and it doesn't devalue the person who doesn't like it.

[@flutebasket4294]

I've liked (loved) all the games.... _except this one._ You point is moot.

[@Bombom1300]

@@flutebasket4294 Buddy, this is an unrelated point. AniGaG is pointing out a general common reason folks bounce off the series as a whole. They're not saying it's the *only* reason folks bounce off this game. It sounds like you generally do enjoy the vibe, but just dislike this one. Which is 100% fair but doesn't moot much of anything.

[@flutebasket4294]

@@Bombom1300 Who's they? You're talking about one person. And don't call me "buddy"

[@SwedetasticGames]

The convoluted inventory layout and stat explanations is the biggest point you made imho. Regarding the DLC, to me stuff like that is insanely cool. The first time I stumbled upon Ash Lake, blind, I was speechless. Same thing with the Painted World. Nothing except my very first Elden Ring playthrough has ever given me anything CLOSE to that experience since. It was magical.

[@w.dgaster2532]

He didn't even mention that there are no keyboard prompts, they are all play station. They took until sekiro to get that. I had to figure it out by button spamming. Took me forever to kick, and I couldn't even do the equivalent in DS2 because of poor optimization for Kb/M

[@BigFry9591]

The stats and the inventory aren't even that bad. I'd say that Capra Demon is his biggest point, and even then, not for his reasoning.

[@a10goesbrrt28]

​@@BigFry9591bro is blinded by nostalgia

[@ChromePyramid]

I still remember the reason I got into DS1 was because one of my friends who played it on a micro CRT TV got killed by the undead dragon in the valley of drakes while picking up the items likely because of the screen quality/size he mistakenly believed a whole ass mountain had crushed him. Another friend of mine who also played the game was confused and started to half question the legitimacy and half sit and listen to it like some urban legend. Needless to say I quickly got the game and we all continued to rag on that friend about the whole thing for many years.

[@IrvineTheHunter]

@@a10goesbrrt28 Bro I only started playing DS recently, it's fine, I started with DS 3's "improved" tile based inventory, having full info on block is nice + you can arrange all your "hot" items in a row at the top, by backup items like Chloranthy ring sat on the bottom so they were one press away. It has it straight up has it's merits. I also don't agree with Capra just because you can poise or tank his blows too, sticking to the main path is also kind of "counter" to DeS, DS, DS2, Elden Ring, Sekiro, KF, etc. design, going off and exploring alternate branches to collect stronger loot to get through the game is core FS design. It's an optional area because you can get to Blight Town vs. Old Anorlondo, and the whole area is punishing if you stick to a rigid set of kit, something true for many bosses, I.E. try turtling vs. Gwindalin it's not going to end well. [I never struggled to bad against Capra because I explored and got the Stone Set [or nowadays the wolf ring or and Baulder Shield]] but by and large boss design means certain playstyles will be favored by certain bosses.

[@nervantes]

This video was genuinely beautiful and heart warming. This is the best video for emphasizing with players who started with Dark Souls as the first Fromsoft game. You captured so many feelings and experiences most of us went through and it reminds me how connected and loving this community can be. Thank you

[@TomBombadil676]

What?

[@jovi_monet]

i believe they meant empathizing

[@OSWEDOW]

remember that you are all special and great love your self❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤ nothaters

[@proyectoanimus5220]

Remember, humanity, souls duping with arrows is like heroin, even if you leave it its like a demon lurking in the dark, searching to escape and ruin ur game

[@oscara5041]

Uuuuuuugggggghhhhhhhhhhhh

[@jaysmall5586]

I like the DLC Unlock sequence in this game. When I got to the archives, got the broken pendant, read the description, and saw it said Oolacile, I was immediately like "Hey, Dusk is from Oolacile, cause she constantly mentions it. I wonder what she has to say about this." So I immediately left, went to the lake, couldn't find her summon sign, went down the path where you first find her, and the first thing I noticed was her armor set on a corpse. So I was all "Oh no, she's dead." Only after that I noticed the spooky portal, and after being dragged into the DLC I concluded I needed to beat it to change the past and save Dusk. And I also assumed that I couldn't leave until I won, so I went through a bunch of it before I realized warping at the bonfires would bring me to the regular game.

[@Neuronalon]

Sounds great. In my first Playthrough, i never found the pendant without google, cause the crystal golel drops the pendant only after you spoke to dusk. I found dusk way later. Grand Archives was my first explored area after Anor Londo, so i never found it.

[@christianstachl]

@@Neuronalon Is the DLC then locked for this playthrough if you kill the golem before talking to Dusk? oO This would be really bad...

[@Neuronalon]

@@christianstachl Golem respawns after a rest at bonfire, so the problem is solved with another visit in the archives.

[@christianstachl]

@@Neuronalon That's good, would have been horrible otherwise 😅

[@linkin7357]

So you kill the hydra then go behind the waterfall, reload the game and meet dusk? Yeah right...

[@CsubAzUrmedve]

Let me tell you a story about how I fell in love with the game. It's a long one, but I hope it resonates with someone who has had a similar experience. I had an Xbox 360 with Gold subscription, and you could get Dark Souls for free for a month. I installed it, but I heard that it was quite hard, and it scared me. So for a while, it was just it. Installed on my console, collecting dust, so to speak. Couple of weeks later I was bored in the middle of the night, so I decided to give it a try. In every game with a class system, I choose Warrior or something close to that, because most of the time it's the most basic class ever. No tricks, no fluff, nothing. Just slash and bonk. I instantly saw the lit up door next to the Asylum Demon, so to me it was intuitive to just run the hell away. The torch was there for a reason, because a lot of games to the exact same thing when it wants your attention. The demon killed me once or twice, it even jumped up, because the plunging attack is something I totally forgot. After I beat it, it felt like I could take on everything. I talked to the Crestfallen Warrior and immediately got intimidated because there was no direction. Where should I go? I did the only "logical" thing: straight to the graveyard. I never bothered to look anywhere else; I thought it's the only way forward. The damn skeletons killed me. I tried to run past them, even collecting a couple of things and "some kind of weapon" that I couldn't read because there were skeletons everywhere. The skeletons sliced me up so much that I dropped the game entirely for a while. Months later I gave it another chance and found New Londo Ruins. It didn't go well, but I also found Undead Burg. I chose the Master Key, because I thought it's for doors and chests you could not open at all otherwise. So Havel kicked my ass, but instead of running away, I cheesed him with Soul Arrows and Firebombs when I noticed he de-aggros near the door you open with the key. The Hydra and the Crystal Golems made me run back inside though. It suddenly clicked: if it's too hard, go somewhere else. Why I never thought of that at the graveyard is beyond me. Killing the Taurus Demon was a grueling task and I was so damn mad when that stupid drake got me on the bridge. I felt weak. Everything was so much stronger, more agile than me. Then I looked at my collected stuff. Maybe there is something wrong with my weapon? And I saw... the *Zweihander* in my inventory. I saw the stats, I was underleveled, so I did the only logical thing: I found a safe method to farm with the drake and the hollows on the bridge, and I did just that for at least an hour to have the Strength and Endurance. I finally had the stats to wield the weapon. I started with the heavy attack. The crossbow Hollow near the Burg Bonfire was *ABSOLUTELY* crushed under it's power. It was a dopamine bomb. The rest of the Burg followed. So guess what I did with this newfound power... Yes. I went back to the Firelink Shrine graveyard. The place that made me quit the game. The skeletons had no chance. Even the big, scary ones were destroyed. Became one with the floor with a single heavy attack. Over and over again. It was pure catharsis. This was the reason Zweihander became my all time favourite weapon in the series, before I even knew GiantDad. The game became from something near impossible, to challenging fun. Killed the Gargoyles with Solaire. Everything was fun. Then I got Cursed. It wasn't fun. The game said something about New Londo Ruins. So I explored New Londo Ruins. Realized that I can harm the ghosts now. It was a long journey but I broke the Curse. Blighttown took days to complete. Then Ornstein & Smough made me quit the game again for a couple of months and after that break I killed them first try with Solaire. Bless that magnificent bastard! The fight gave me migraine. I was shaking. It was at that point I realized that I like the game. I even loved it for some reason. Not for the lore. I couldn't give a crap about it. I didn't know what is happening. Just kill more bosses. I still can't explain why I like it so much, because I agree with most of the points in this video. This game is absolutely not player-friendly. If it wasn't for that Gold subscription + midnight boredom combo, I probably would have skipped the whole series.

[@Amaryryry]

TerraMantis and DaveControl are the forgotten OGs. They definitely were my fave lore youtubers and I miss them. 😢

[@Gensolink]

Davecontrol and his video games analysis were so much fun man

[@michaelbarker6732]

Does anybody remember Epicnamebro? Before him no one really talked about the lore.

[@panahvaqif767]

@@michaelbarker6732 Epicnamebro and Quelaag were og's

[@Amaryryry]

@@michaelbarker6732 Oh, for sure. He's still around nowadays, just more in the background, I think. Dave and TerraMantis tho kind of poofed lol.

[@NimbusTM]

Those two along with Silvermont were fantastic.

[@C3H6N6O6.]

When I first played this game I ended up fighting skeletons for two hours before I found out where I was supposed to go, but fighting skeletons at level one taught me how to get the parry timing down, how to roll better to avoid their attacks and how to bait enemies

[@benjammin5252]

Yeah, I chose the catacombs first.

[@christofferhenriksen7631]

same, except I didnt relzie I wasnt suposed to be there until I was already in the cave of giants, lvl 60 with the gravelord sword... And that's exactly what made the game so amazing to me.

[@JakeABee]

Finally someone who brought both ends of the spectrum together and showing what the game really feels like!

[@lukemarks3281]

"finally"

[@topcover7390]

Bloodborne was my first Souls experience, and it did what you mentioned, occupied my mind during a very hard time in my life and got me through it. Have been in love with these games since, they are truly all masterpieces.

[@delaris931]

Honestly the best thing for a new dark souls player, are challange runs like yours as they gradualy explain new things and shows you playstyles you can try, it certainley helped me

[@velvetdraws3452]

same, i saw firebombs and they only did around 30 dmg to the first npc i used it on, saw the firebomb run and thought "oh damn" and now all of a sudden the undead settlements on fire, the thralls are on fire, everythings on fire

[@7Seven-Four4]

Worth noting that a lot of problems in this video used to be solved through a medium known as "the instruction manual", an item that had evaporated around the time Dark Souls released. If Dark Souls had released in the 90's or early 00's, it would have come with a thick manual explaining every facet of the game's ui and terminology, descriptions of weapons, enemies, and allies, plus additional story details, lots of illustrative screenshots and concept art littering the pages, and might even be printed in full color.

[@dontmisunderstand6041]

All of that information is present in the game's own in-game menus though.

[@DemonLordRaiden]

@@dontmisunderstand6041 It's literally not, but go off. Where does Dark Souls 1 explain poise mechanically? How about soft caps? Movesets?

[@spookzer16]

​@@DemonLordRaidenTbf soft caps and movesets are pretty self explanatory. Also there's a button that explains stats. I don't know how well it explains poise since I haven't looked at it, but that button does exist.

[@leithaziz2716]

@@spookzer16 I actually don't see how soft caps are self-explanatory. A normal player won't know that there's a point where it's not worth increasing the level of a certain stat. Poise is mentioned as its own stat, but how it works is very confusing, even to veterans.

[@khankhomrad8855]

And here we are in 2023 and Elden Ring's solution is to throw three dozen tutorial screens that manage to throw a lot of information at your way without explaining much. Ten years later and From still hasnt figured out how to explain its own game to a new audience without either hiding a lot of important information of drowning the player with too much information while still leaving out a ton of inportant stuff.

[@HimePenguin]

Then there is me. Almost everything that was brought up as an issue in this video is exactly what drew me into Dark Souls. The unforgiving combat. The obtuse mechanics and systens. The barely existing tutorial for it all. ALL of which immersed me like nothing before. I had found Dark Souls at the perfect time. As someone who had played a lot of AAA action games at the time, I had become completely disillusioned by videogames. I felt they just became more hand-holdy and mind-numbing one after the other. The dumbing down of mechanics and difficulty in the gaming landscape had really made me sick of most games that came out. I knew exactly what to expect from them before they even came out. Having just come off whatever the latest Assassin's Creed game was at the time, I was looking for something different. Way different. And that's when I heard of Dark Souls. It was explained as this brutally difficult, completely unforgiving game. No handholding. No safety rails. It was you vs the game. This 'Dark Souls' would dare you to figure it out yourself and then kick you down for trying. And oh boy. I. Was. SOLD! When I first picked up the game I got my world absolutely rocked. I sucked so bad and even died several times to the tutorial boss, Asylum Demon. Not to speak of the countless times I had to try to beat the Taurus Demon. But despite constant setbacks, I had never been more immersed by a game. It felt like every time I had finally learned to tackle one thing the game had thrown at me, it threw another two. I had to give the game my full attention to progress. Closely go through everything to understand the systems. It was overwhelming, to say the least. But in a good way. It was more than I could have ever hoped for! "The game hates me. And I LOVE it for it" - something I said back then when friends asked me to explain it. I still remember laughing at the time I had just come away from defeating hordes of undead, demons and two fire breathing gargoyles - only to get one shot by a walking mushroom of all things. I LOVED it. I am that one guy who's almost disappointed the games became more streamlined and straight-forward. Because all of the obtuseness was a big part of what made me fall in love with Dark Souls in the first place.

[@Zackapo]

This is exactly what the game was going for, I can't take this video seriously because of it. Games at the time were filled with tutorials and handholding, it was such a breath of fresh air.

[@velvetbutterfly]

I wonder how you would have felt if you had got Demon's Souls when it was new

[@codydarlington1277]

you might be a masochist

[@davisbreci5332]

Dude I'm playing New Game + right now and went to the great hollow for the first time and got my shit ROCKED by one punch from the mushroom parent and I just died laughing. Like Smough can butt slam me and I'll live if I'm near full health, but the MUSHROOM man absolutely bodies me

[@dopaminecloud]

@@codydarlington1277 Masochism is deeply entrenched into the very notion of achievement, which is to take pleasure in overcoming trial. Trial is suffering/pain. Without pain, no pleasure. Thus, to enjoy the delight of achievement, the game must be hard. Or any fun you get out of it will merely be novelty or otherwise purely aesthetic.

[@NerdOracle]

Thinking back to my first ever attempt to play DS1, an attempt that broke me and made me drop it, until friends compelled me to get into DS3 many years later, I still say I think I like how it's designed. It makes no effort to hide the dark fantasy aesthetics. No matter who or what we pick, information is clearly, and in my opinion intentionally, ambiguous. We begin our journey a literal prisoner, a walking pile of beef jerky, and we see we have no obligation to defeat the other entities around us. the distant booming caused by the demon nearby adds to the crushing atmosphere. Before long we have our expectations shattered by the seemingly impossible boss fight right at the start, with no relevant narratives associated with it, and no revelations upon being defeated by it. As a fresh player, I found the control scheme unintuitive, and in retrospect I feel this is natural. I remember getting exhausted with the developer tutorial messages, and refusing to continue reading them all until I had further explored my surroundings, adapted to those controls myself, and gauged the game in front of me for what it was. But I wasn't frustrated by my first loss against the demon. it also felt natural, and it wasn't hard to observe my surroundings and carry on. I can attest to the confusion I first felt in trying to navigate menus after acquiring my starting gear, and this was where I decided I'd continue reading the messages. It wasn't easy, by any means, but I had the time and the means to figure it out, and when I had my things equipped I was content. progressing further, and eager to explore every nook and cranny, I found myself punked by the boulder at the stairs. All of this is what I consider to be a tone setter. They primed my expectations of what this game was meant to convey. Always confusing, always unintuitive, always seemingly insurmountable, always keeping me on my toes, but inevitably able to be overcome. Which I dig. I couldn't figure out parrying, obviously. I didn't pay nearly enough attention to my friend that gave me his estus, and his dying words, not to mention released us from our imprisonment. But with everything sorted, I found the demon fight to be surprisingly doable after coming back around. And I believe I recall wasting time on the balcony, to the point it denied my free attack by flying up to hit me instead. Yet I did not falter. Similarly, I also got bullied by the skeletons in the graveyard near firelink, which was stressful and eventually turned me away. Learning all of the new features, or trying, to learn them was exhausting, so I made note of what they said but thought little of anything beyond levels. And then I found the elevator down. This was what sealed my fate as a first timer, because I was overwhelmed by ghosts I could not fight, lost what little I'd accumulated, went to retrieve it, and subsequently fell down the elevator shaft to my next death. suffice to say I needed a break after all of that, and it was a very long time before I returned, to the point that my next play was on a different platform entirely. But those failings stuck with me, and better prepared me to try again, and even after all the ways the game did me dirty when I was at my most vulnerable, I still came back for more.

[@michaelcarroll5801]

Good take. The thing is Dark Souls 1 never apologises or compromises on anything. That makes the game one of a kind and a true work of art. All of its successors, while perhaps technically superior and more successful, aren't DS1. And unfortunately there will never be a game as mysterious, complex and compelling as the original DS as FromSoft continues to move in the direction of streamlining and making their games accessible to a general audience. And God Dammit I still can't tell if its nostalgia or not. DS1 has the best vibes to me idk.

[@adamjohnson2914]

With all its flaws, playing Dark souls for the first time as a 14 year old back in 2012 was the single most cathartic experience I ever had with a game. As a 25 year old now, I am still chasing that high, and coming to grips with the fact that those core memories will be only that, memories. Dark souls is not just a game.

[@yeahyeahwowman8099]

Just a game, it basically took preexisting ideas and put them in a blender. In that sense plenty of games back in the day didn't hold you're hand. Hold down on a stamina bar, there were games that had that. That special feeling is only because people haven't seen it in awhile, that's it.

[@jankaigailus6702]

​@@yeahyeahwowman8099what it IS and how ist feels are two different Things. If Mixed right Things become more than Just the sum of their Ingrediences

[@Macabremedia935]

I first played dark souls when I was 6, back in 2012 and it was the first video game I had ever played. I have probably over 1000 hours in the game and I have played it continually over the last 10 years. I finally beat it only recently. Best game of all time imo

[@yeahyeahwowman8099]

@@jankaigailus6702 of course when people keep acting like they have never seen these overused ingredients before is what I have a problem with. A fine crafted stew, its been done before, before that, before that.

[@jankaigailus6702]

@@yeahyeahwowman8099 "its good food but i ate something similar before therefore its Bad food"

[@wasthistaken2970]

Less than a thousand hours in the game yet has dozens of challenge videos that most would never try. You are a legend sir 😮

[@KQFFE]

There's more than one version of this game and I'm guessing he has more hours in the newer Dark Souls Remastered.

[@RidenX]

@@KQFFEidk man Lemon said “my most played game” when he showed the prepare to die edition, with that we can extrapolate that Lemon has less than a total of 2k hours between both versions of DS1 on steam

[@KQFFE]

@@RidenX My bad, had to rewatch and research (he has 133 hrs in DSR for those interested). Quote: "I love Dark Souls 1. Hell, I love the PREPARE TO DIE edition. You know, the ugly, slightly more clunky one? It's my most played game on steam by a long shot". Figured you can easily get 2000 hours out of a game like this when doing challenge runs. Guess he needs to do more of those😏

[@MASTER_ORB]

when your hours hit 999 it wraps back around to 0 and starts again: source, i have an ungodly amount of hours in dark souls 2

[@vergilthealphaandomega8189]

@@MASTER_ORB interesting, in some games ive seen it go well above 1k hours on steam.

[@stenly97]

Absolutely loved the video! Don't get me wrong, I like all the challange runs as well, but getting a teardown of the game that started it all for me was something special. I'd really like to see other videos of this kind on the channel, alongside with the interesting ways you find to go through games

[@lemoneczech2246]

That ending speech was absolutly amazing. The subtle DS 1 music in the background and long pauses between some words. Good job man. You've really upped your word game. Hands down

[@leephillips3819]

Just wanted to say I found you about 2-3 weeks ago and you've been my favorite channel ever since. I don't even play a lot of the games you do but still enjoy every one I've seen so far. You've filled the Mitten Squad sized hole that was left in my heart.

[@thomasquwack9503]

:( hope Paul’s doing okay

[@BloodZangetsu]

Whose paul

[@leephillips3819]

@@BloodZangetsu What lemon is for the backlogs is what paul was for mitten squad.

[@leephillips3819]

@@thomasquwack9503 me too man

[@kilikx1x]

I have a friend who recently went through Dark Souls 1-3 and at first he hated it and was having a horrible time, but similar to what you described he forced himself to push through, even restarted when he realized he had failed a questline, and ended up legitimately enjoying the series (though he still has reservations about the "infinite stamina" mobs in Ds3).

[@VashimuXIV]

The Dark Souls effect is one of the best things I’ve ever experienced in a game. In suffering do we find the strength to endure and find victory.

[@kevinlopezobrien5366]

Or as a certain Githzerai would say, "Endure. In enduring, grow strong."

[@lexiconprime7211]

Huh. I never felt that way at all. The more I suffer in a game the less I want to play. I never felt accomplished for beating something in a difficult game. I'm always just relieved that the pain is over.

[@VashimuXIV]

@@lexiconprime7211 Its okay if it didn’t resonate with you in the same way. I suppose I should’ve worded that as persisting even in seemingly insurmountable odds it’s incredibly satisfying. But that’s not everyone’s view on the philosophy. Besides it gets a ton easier after your first playthrough.

[@decorumlopez9147]

endure persist overcome.

[@valentinvas6454]

Yeah, it completely transformed how I look at many other games and even at life. I replayed many games on hard and it was such a different experience most of the time. Also Doom Eternal on nightmare was an absolute blast.

[@danielvictor3262]

I feel like Dark Souls owe so much of its renown through the internet like it's one of those games that won't survive in the mainstream without an online walkthrough and it relies so much on it. Games, especially old ones, that "hardcore gamers" praise for not "holding the hand" of players only worked because it had guidebooks that came with the physical regular retail copy. Dark Souls has nothing.

[@boredomkiller99]

Yeah dark souls is carried by the community which was probably by design as without a whole bunch of people pooling together their collective knowledge the game would be pain

[@dretadel]

12:52 Pretty sure the 4-directional roling when locked on is because when you're not locked on, your character is always rolling forward, using the same animation in a different direction. Because lock-on keeps your character always facing the same direction, it has to add left, right, and backwards animations. More directions would mean more work on animations, so it was probably not being able or not wanting to add them.

[@booboo4963]

Wrong. They added more directions in later fromsoft games.

[@Adept_Austin]

​@@booboo4963they changed their mind??? Did you know who From Software was before dark souls? Most people didn't, and they needed to pick their battles as all developers do. Besides, I feel the omnidirectional rolling while locked on takes away from the tactical decision making of the combat in the later games.

[@booboo4963]

@@Adept_Austin Agreed. It’s a great feature that was added later. It should have been added earlier but oh well. As you said, developers have to make choices. Because video games are a capitalist enterprise, developers respond to cost, revenue, and time pressures. Every added feature could drive extra revenue or it could also drive greater cost leading to a lower profit margin. It’s really that simple. They either left it out on purpose to save time and money or they just flat out didn’t think of it. I don’t think it was some intentional exclusion due to game design. It was a money decision. Also, 8-way dodging is just so much better. It creates a more fluid and diverse back and forth w enemies. Saying otherwise is just excusing FS for their previous bad decision.

[@StAlfonzo87]

@@booboo4963 I think they also added it to the DS1 remaster.

[@booboo4963]

@@StAlfonzo87 I thought that as well but I did some research and I think they didn’t end up adding it to DS1 Remastered. I could be wrong though. Correct me if I’m wrong. It’s a shame really. After playing Elden Ring, DS3, etc, it’s hard to go back to only a 4-way roll. I’ll probably boot up DS1 remastered to confirm if 8 way is in there or not.

[@B2411s]

Lemon's voice is so relaxing and his way of explaining things is so clean, I wouldn't mind more videos like this one, in fact, I would love it

[@BlueBubso]

I think that the explanation for the new user experience is that this game was kind of like an arg when it came out, the stories of all the forum posts for the pendant and the painted world. I think that the internet was becoming very widely available and some bosses and most gameplay stuff is meant to be fought through as a community.

[@ladyarwyn4290]

❤oh. Amd I got to say, the way you have spoken the feel of DS was what helped me realize why I hadn't quit the madness. Even why I have come to love it. Thanks.

[@EmperorSeth]

I totally feel that second playthrough experience. I can't tell you how great I felt when I beat O&S on my first try that time around. One-shotting Manus actually felt a bit embarrassing, to be honest. I can even tell you the exact moment on that second playthrough when everything "clicked." It was against the Bell Gargoyles, and suddenly I could just "see" their attacks in my head and just understood how to dodge everything. I can't say I never died after that, but it was such a different experience.

[@dopaminecloud]

Where this series as a whole gets especially sexy is the layers to this "it clicked" experience. Every new game is very clearly aware of its predecessor, they don't retread too much. Each builds on the fundamentals of what you learned before. Each game has it's own new "it clicked" moment to unlock. That's why it's honestly tragic to start with the latest entry and go backwards as you force most layers of the clicking into a single title. The ultimate joy is taking that staircase, from the slow wit-based clunk of demon souls to the more player friendly but cryptic dark souls with a harsher environment to the more unforgiving heal timings and patience inherent to ds2 combat especially with the late game to the intimidating reflexive madness of the aggression focused bloodborne combat and so on and so forth. The fundamentals are all the same basic survival sense: keep a cool head, react smart.

[@WaywardPython]

On my latest playthrough I took down the Capra Demon second try (should have been the first, but I got unlucky with the RNG in the first few seconds). Once you’ve fought a bunch of them in the Demon Ruins they don’t seem so scary any more.

[@Solid_Six]

I remember in my first playthrough I wore nothing but heavy armor and did the two weapon slots and a shield thing. It wasn't until well after Ornstein and Smough that I went back to Havel, kicked his ass, got his ring, and... found out there were other types of rolls. Literally played through the first half of the game fat rolling because I thought that's just how it was.

[@Tsu995]

That's similar to how my first playthrough in Dark Souls 3 went like. I finished main part of the game fat-rolling, then months later i started Ashes of Ariandel DLC and got hardstuck on Elfriede, real bad. After countless amount of time and deaths ( mostly on her 3rd phase) my dumbass finally found out the answer to all my struggles up until now. So i changed some of my items to lower equipment load, and voila; kicked her ass. I felt so stupid for playing like that the whole time, but that was a very memorable lesson.

[@alexs5639]

There is no “game over” in Dark Souls, only the “you died” banner. The game daring you to quit, is part of the lore. All of the NPCs who go hollow have lost purpose and direction and given up. Rage quitting is part of the game and the lore. Quitting and deleting your character is how you go hollow and achieve a game over…

[@VirusakeFatVersion]

This! 👏

[@obadiah_vandal]

This is the truth.

[@Maximus20778]

Go away

[@piyushhmusic]

​@@Maximus20778Being scared of a KZbin comment is crazy

[@Maximus20778]

@@piyushhmusic who are you

[@SirSicCrusader]

The thing about trying all the items, even back fires.. just ask my first playthrough and using a fire keeper soul... my mate laughed in my face when I told him I used it from my inventory.

[@Henry-tb5im]

omg thats so true i literary did that

[@angelaguilar4523]

I've loved it since the moment i started playing The exact amount of difficulty I wanted and the worldbuilding is amazing

[@asdfghjkllkjhgfdsa8725]

Me to

[@velvetbutterfly]

I wonder if you played it day1, mid-life, or remaster era. Because all 3 are very different ideas of difficulties

[@saltyshishio]

Thank you for being informative while also explaining how hard the player experience can be based on what class they pick and what they know about the game. I often find in some Dark Souls discussions that some people say "This part was easy to understand" while getting caught that the game doesn't explain that to them, while simultaneously admitting they had to look that fact up. Some players are just toxic to the community honestly. And I also quit during Capra demon. Ridiculous boss fight.

[@Rouu_Garou]

Ughhh that boss room is ridiculously small, and the dogs?! Nope. Atleast in my first playthorugh I had no idea about Capra and didn't even go that way. Prob beat the game a lot faster because of that

[@dontmisunderstand6041]

The first time I looked anything up about Dark Souls, it was after I'd bought the remaster. That was 3 years *after* it had solidified itself as my favorite game of all time, due in large part to how intuitive effectively every aspect of the game is. The game tells you far more than you actually need to know, and is one of the most forgiving games ever made when it comes to mistakes. The only way to lose progress is a power outage. External factors outside of the game's control. The only punishment for mistakes is that you continue playing. To be honest, all I hear when people say Dark Souls is a game you have to look things up for is that you're the type who plays any game that isn't a shooter with a walkthrough on-hand. Yeah, Capra Demon is a mean fight. Sad part is, changing the fight at all basically invalidates it as a boss fight entirely. The only reason it's a threat in the first place is the fact that there are 2 dogs with the capra demon placed in exactly the correct spots to chain stagger you into a slam. If there was only one dog, it's the easiest boss fight in the game, a nothingburger with no point even existing. If the dogs were placed slightly farther back to give you more time to react, they no longer require the player to actually do anything to avoid the primary threat they pose. And then, the capra demon itself is just a non-threat on its own. One of the most easily handled enemies in the game, with slow, heavily telegraphed attacks that don't do much damage. To be frank, I think the best way to fix it would have been to just remove it entirely. Remove that room, keep the door to the depths unlocked.

[@ethannorman7537]

First play through, Taurus demon made me stop playing. I later picked the game back up and started my second playthrough, still struggled so much with it

[@Quandry1]

@@dontmisunderstand6041 it's not even close to the most forgiving game ever played. I can point you to many an older title that does the same thing in some respect and often in a more forgiving and better way. For example the keeping your stuff on death mechanic. I can point you to several of the staple functions of many Zelda games. Which let you keep your item progress, your exploration progress, your left over item amounts. the only thing they are missing is the experience and that's because Zelda doesn't have a quantified mechanical number called Experience. it's clear your more evaluating everything through your current stance and your preference for the game and not being truely objective about things. And this is part of the endless problem with Dark Souls and the way it's treated. it was a problem with Elden Ring on release even though now people are more willing to mention the cracks. And this mentality doesn't just come with Dark Souls, or even Fromsoft titles because I already see this happening with Baldur's Gate III as well. I already see cracks in that game that will be criticized more in the coming years but right now, telling just about anybody about the flaws gets these kind of snap responses and justifications for why it's good with a tone of "there should be no discussion" about it to them like yours has here. The truth is Very little is intuitive about Dark Souls, and while you might have gone through and swung a sword your discounting your own starting experiences that are clearly more than a decade old and covered in all of the replaying of the game you've done and grown knowledge after the fact and not just your first experience. You've colored your first experiences with the gained expertise gained later on. I can just point at the way you talk about the Capra Demon. That fight could have been redesigned in several ways. It could have indeed had a larger arena, or different placements for the enemies and still been good, and effective, without being overwhelming but you've chosen to discount all of those for the hit and feeling your skill level through how you do the fight now that you've forgotten and discount all of the hardships of it with the way you describe and defend it. The Reality of the fight is that the dogs are not the primary threat. They are jsut the major annoyance of the fight. They can die incidentally as you are dealing with the Capra demon if you really want to. The only purpose they serve is to throw a person off and make them panic and they still manage to do that to some extent even to experienced players, to the point that experienced players often insist on prioritizing everything else and then discounting the Capra Demon once he's alone and they can focus on him as a much easier target with the distractions gone. But you phrase things like the dogs are the actual boss of the fight and they aren't. They are annoying and really kind of suck on a game design level in several ways but they are all over and you even face packs of them, sometimes in tight areas before you even get to that arena.

[@MothFable]

Pro tip: kite shield and winged spear. Easy cheese for the dogs.

[@Rasmussen.andrew363]

I adored this video, I cannot agree more with the mindset of “Nothing is beyond critique. Because good art, literature, or games will always have things that can be improved and communicating that is paramount.”

[@BigFry9591]

You need good critique though. And I don't think most of this was. Most of the arguments were around accessibility, and giving information. Most of the information being given to you already, even he said that. But he wants every little bit of info handed to you on a silver platter. Just look at his scimitar example.

[@leovang3425]

​​@@BigFry9591 The information is given, but it's hard to access if you're new. You left out context. He understands the game shouldn't hand hold but it drops off new players in the middle of no where with a map written in another language.

[@BigFry9591]

@@leovang3425 It's not hard though. Maybe if you're new to videogames. But if that were the case then Dark Souls isn't a very good game to start your gaming with. The scimitar example he mentions in the video is that the scimitar has a move that replaces your kick with a backflip. He mentions that the game should tell you this before you use it. His first arguments are similar to this. Much like his example of players not being able to push a button to view what certain stats do. These are things that the player can easily figure out. For instance, with any weapon, you can just use it, and you'll learn the moves of it instantly. You don't need anything telling you what the moveset is. You're "dropped in the middle of nowhere", yes. But you're pointed in the right direction, and it's your job to "make it home safe". The tools are given to you, and all you need is basic understanding to figure it out. I mean, just basic exploration can help you navigate places much easier. In the video, it sounds like he's saying that players can't read a menu, can't push buttons, can't look around, and pretty much overall can't do anything without the game explicitly telling you what something is or where to go. I also believe though that not everybody can play every game, and it shouldn't be that way. Not every game appeals to everyone. And not everyone can play Dark Souls. And that's completely fine and fair. But games shouldn't be dumbed down to compensate.

[@leovang3425]

@@BigFry9591 I'll just say I'm all for exlporation and hard games but Dark Souls is a different level of hard if you want to play without external help. I can pick up most games without a tutorial, Dark Souls is an exception.

[@BigFry9591]

@@leovang3425 I can't really agree, since the games are pretty linear, in that no matter which direction you go, you're making progress. And if one path is too hard, then there are others. Others that you'd know are there if you used your eyes and/or explored. And the controls for the Souls series have always been more of a simple hack and slash type, with a bit of nuance sprinkled in. It really shouldn't be that difficult to understand, and it isn't. The game is pretty simple when you boil it down, and it can be beaten by simply looking at it that way, and having basic videogame understanding. Though, I know that everyone is different, like I said before. Some games are easier for some, and harder for others. But, a guide is absolutely not necessary to finish these games.

[@dsartin3594]

Your closing remarks exactly described my initial dark souls experience. I bought it on release and quit as soon as I reached firelink and got caught up by the Skelton graveyard. Three years later I found the disk in a dresser and tried again, and just kept pushing. Failure after failure leading to success after success. Since then I’ve now platinum trophy’s every FromSoft game. I wouldn’t trade that experience for anything. The feeling of accomplishment after my first time beating a boss that killed me fifty times before is priceless and I’m so grateful these many years later for the opportunity to be a part of such a magical thing.❤❤❤❤

[@widgetfilms]

I have to admit, having my older brother sit with me during my first playthrough helped a LOT with understanding dark souls gameplay.

[@Malenia]

Making a video like this for Demon's Souls would be amazing.

[@Garl_Vinland]

He never played it 💀 Ironically would of helped him with Dark Souls

[@Florin_Neagu]

Except for the lore thing, you can say exactly the same thing about DeS. in fact, DeS's jank is much worse than DS's jank.

[@leithaziz2716]

You can make a whole essay about World Tendency's poor explanation and how that affects a casual player who just wants to understand why he's getting punished for dying.

[@rdesignartes2520]

@@leithaziz2716 being punished for dying in a souls like is always a stupid mechanic imo, given that dying until you learn is the core mechanic of the game for a new player, like even dark souls 1 has this flaw, we are already used to it because we played the hell out of ds1 and we know how to skip the entire level, but a new player who is playing the game blind and without any help who dies to the Taurus Demon, for example, has to run a marathon killing tons of enemies that are positioned SPECIFICALLY to annoy you when you don't know much about the game just yet. I could make an entire list with how many times this entire franchise has been guilty of that. That's why i loved when i tried my first boss in elden ring, there is a lost grace (the game equivalent for a bonfire) right before the boss arena, and that's perfect, the boss will kill you enough as it is until you figure out how to deal with him in your own way, there is no need to put painfully long walks with a shit ton of enemies between you and the boss.

[@TheBacklogs]

Not only have I 100% the game, but I made a firebomb only video with it lol

[@noraairobas7804]

That ending had me choking up this game will always be my favorite

[@guthax30]

You accurately recreated my first reaction to everything in the game. This is amazing.

[@Tomoka51]

Rarely do I see someone able to put to words a feeling I had that felt so intrinsic that no words I could bring would express them properly, yet here you are, describing *exactly* why Dark Souls is so special to me in a mere 22 minutes. Thank you Lemon, from the bottom of my heart.

[@MJ-gw2zu]

The Canon dark ending was insane. I didn't know it existed for years because I never looked it up. Lots of hidden stuff that was a straight up headache but it made this game a gem

[@BeepersMister]

Such a cool thing to have in a game. It doesn’t make a big difference in ANY way, but gives you just that extra bit of immersion- you can choose between an era of fire or becoming the Dark Lord

[@nosdregamon]

I found it by accident. I wanted to see what André or the Giant Smith could forge me out of Gwyn's Soul - without starting NG+ again. Walking back from the Kiln.... well, let's just say, that was quite the WTF moment.

[@piotr78]

​@@BeepersMisterthat's a pretty damn big difference to me!

[@WaywardPython]

@@nosdregamonI also found it by accident because I had no idea there was a bonfire in the room, so I missed it. I walk out and suddenly there are all these snakes around me, and I realise I’m a baddie.

[@jonathonphillips4056]

I started this amazing series back in 2009, a friend told me to free up my schedule and go buy a game called Demon's Souls. All he said was "I won't tell you anything more than the title. If you hate it I will pay you back for the full price." The overwhelming confusion and rage I had surging through me for the first few hours was taunting, but then I beat my first boss. And more was open to me and I kept pushing forward. The one thing every souldborne fan will agree on, "I wish I could experience this fresh one more time..." It may not be for everyone but did you like that vegetable when you were a kid? Maybe try it again, could turn out to be your new favorite thing.

[@lilericinnacut]

All the cons go away if you simply want to learn about the game and are curious. That’s what made me fall in love with it every curiosity and test gave returns that made it worth it. Like just swinging to see if a wall was fake and it disappears for the first time I’m the type of person to check every turn and corner just to see where it leads because I hate missing things

[@YoJaad]

I’m honestly so relieved to hear you talk about it like this, you were the one that inspired me to play the entire souls series. Before you I had played blood borne(my favorite), elden ring, sekiro, and a little of ds3. So I wasn’t new to the challenge, but something about ds1 and demon souls always rubbed me the wrong way. I thought I was just not accustomed to a harder experience at first ,but by playing more I could definitely tell that wasn’t the case.

[@HOBGHOUL]

I really believe that despite all of the confusion on a first playthrough, it’s a large part in what makes the experience so special. It gives you an incredible sense of progression near the end when you’ve got it all figured out. As you stated near the beginning, things just begin to click into place. No other game has ever taught me how to play like a fromsoft game, it’s an irreplaceable experience you will find nowhere else. Handholding is so prevalent in modern games that fromsoft titles become a breath of fresh air in contrast. The game treats you like an adult with the capacity to understand and learn through trial and error. I appreciate the game so much more for this. I don’t have nostalgia for this game either, I’m not blinded by rose tinted glasses. I played this game but a few years ago and it still withstands the test of time in my eyes.

[@Naldito15]

True, this game made me take a break from it a few times. Took me like a year to beat it. I didn't want to use a step by step guide. The best feeling is when u master an area find out where all the enemies are located, get all the drops then fight the boss at the end of the area , get rekt , then learn his attack patterns then beat the boss. Open up a new area and have to learn it all over again First playthrough took me close to 100 hours. Now I can beat the game in two hours if I wanted to

[@gekohno]

I know its ds3 but same thing. My first playthrough took ages and died permanently on pontiff. My second guide I watched a tutorial and got to dragonslayer armour. My third and current playthrough wa sno guides, no research (except for stat and levelling values) and I’m on ng+ at nameless king. After 2 months of avoiding the game, I hot back in and I’m having the time of my life. Switching to a strength-based havel type build from my dex twinsword dragonform one was a hugely good choice.

[@thechugg4372]

oh but there are so many games that do this progression wether it's extremely complex games that require you to git gud or games about gaining more knowledge like roguelikes, it's not really irreplaceable tbh

[@themightycrixus1131]

That is what made it exciting for me. I played back in 2012 though.

[@russelllloyd3855]

Strongly agreed. I didn't know dark souls was supposed to be hard. I bought it having never heard of it before, and the entire experience took me back to a time when gaming was frustrating but never annoying. Remember dragon warrior on NES? What about Sonic the hedgehog? These games would frustrate you by killing you and punishing you for messing up, sure, but they never annoyed you with handholding and this baby bullshit that 99 percent of games do today. If you hate an unkillable npc ally, that ally shouldn't exist.. I'm looking at you Hugin from Valheim!!

[@marcosdheleno]

9:20 the worst part is, if you use all the items, it means you will end up using a firekeeper soul as well,

[@kevinlopezobrien5366]

Firekeeper souls are really up front both in item description and in the warning before using it that you REALLY might want to reconsider the act of consuming it. So that is really hard to accidentally do unless you basically never pay attention to what you are doing.

[@chrispysaid]

@@kevinlopezobrien5366 Right but you're talking about a game that literally lies to you. How are you gonna know if it's a lie unless you try it?

[@chrisg3678]

@@chrispysaidwait when does it lie to you?

[@allstarwoo4]

@@chrispysaid the game rarely lies if ever lies to you. I wouldn't use patches as an example considering he's meant to and does betray you 2 times at least.

[@ErisEntropy]

@@chrispysaid I can't think of a time that the game lies to the detriment of your gameplay. Characters lie, but even Patches' helps you out.

[@casiotuf4092]

7:55 I was incredibly overwhelmed. Was entirely clueless. Got stuck trying to go thru the catacombs for like 13 hours before putting the game down for 3 months😂 had to watch a guide to notice the entrance to undead burg

[@Taru1blm]

I went to the catacombs first as well, thinking that was the starting area. I thought, holy hell this is a huge leap in difficulty from demon’s souls. I did end up beating the boss at some point before realizing the town was just a few yards away from the starting area….

[@JChappii]

Genuinely love this content. The video made me laugh so much as my experience playing the game for the first time was exactly this and watching my friends play more recently it is just comical how accurate your description of things is. I also love that you explain how the flaws and the struggle of the game lead you toward your love of it. I had the exact same experience and now the Souls series is one of my favorite. Even if it is one of the only series that makes me want to throw my computer out a window at times.

[@PixelProfligate]

It's real nice to hear someone who adores this game as much as you actually explain and justify why people like myself simply can't get into it. Every time I've gone back to try and "get" DS1 I just never can. Maybe it's the clunky controls, maybe it's how player unfriendly it tends to be, maybe it's because I don't want to have to look things up to just be able to experience it, maybe it's a mix of all of the little problems. But I just never have fun with it. So, for whatever it's worth, thanks for this. It's kinda cathartic to have someone in the community try and keep views on one of their favorite games realistic instead of putting it up on a pedestal.

[@Thetruepianoman]

I love the game and agree completely. This is a game that gets infinitely more rewarding the more you play it, which is not a good model for anything when the entry level is guff

[@naemissa7849]

on the other hand, I'm not sure that that's a flaw with the game. some games will never click with all people and that's ok. some games will be player unfriendly and while that's generally a bad thing, once in a blue moon we get a truly unique game that manages to make it work somehow. no piece of art is going to be enjoyed by everyone. at that point it stops being art and it becomes just another consumable piece of entertainment. I'm glad Dark Souls sticks to its guns and chooses to deploy its artistic vision, even if by doing so it's going to alienate some people. there's nothing wrong with not being able to get into Dark Souls, because it wasn't a product designed to be enjoyed by everyone.

[@leithaziz2716]

@@naemissa7849 No game is for everyone, but it's important to recognise things that are bad game design. Fromsoft fans tend to have a problem seperating between the good and bad design, and I think that's worrying for a large community. I'm not saying you're wrong for enjoying something that someone else might not, but when something frustrates you, it isn't always secretly a metaphor for a larger message or anything deep. Sometimes it's just a section that didn't go through much QA or was rushed.

[@PixelProfligate]

@@naemissa7849 Oh I fully agree, art should be designed the way the artists want and not to innately appease people. I would still say things about it are flaws, like the weird control things or aspects of the game just never being explained, but all art is flawed to some degree. Those flaws add character to the art and show the innate humanity of the artists themselves, even if they are flaws. And I can appreciate what it does without enjoying the experience itself. None of this is to say I've never been able to get into a Souls game tho, DS3 is one of my favorite games, despite the flaws it has.

[@An_Entire_Lime]

Sometimes a game just isn't for you, and thats ok, it's not your fault, it's (usually) not the game's fault, it just happens sometimes because different people are different and like different things in a game. But unfortunately the internet just generally doesn't seem to be able to grasp that

[@triplegod4910]

I remember when i first started dark souls i would sit down and just explore everywhere. This game made me want to explore everywhere in games i felt rewarded to find things when i explored its what started my love for exploring in games.and even when i faced a boss and lost over and over and thought it was unfair thats what i loved so much the challenge that felt almost unfair and then you win. And it felt amazing it makes you want more. Always more

[@KalebBurns-m5h]

I know I’m late to the party, but only just came up in my feed. I love the breakdowns. Most other breakdowns that other creators do turn into a bit of a rant on only good or only bad, so this is great

[@Guanjyn]

I remember restarting the game a bunch of times with different characters because I sucked and tried to make the game easier for myself but after awhile of doing that I realised I’d accidentally practiced enough to the point where I was decent and more confident to get through it. I played Demons Souls before but all I did was soul arrow and cheese bosses. Dark Souls was the first time I got gud.

[@frogginGunt]

It's amazing, just like the undead to Lordran, I find myself being called to the challenge and have recently got back into and decided to finish it finally. It was so satisfying, having mastered the parry to crush Gwyn and lighting my final bonfire, watching the credits in a game never felt so rewarding

[@Light_gremory85]

It’s ok lemon. We’re here.

[@scoutiechan]

you didnt even watch it

[@LeviAva]

You haven’t even watched it, bruh

[@Lord_Valkyrie]

Always x

[@SuperTigter]

@@scoutiechan It's useless anyway, the guy plays 900+ hours then call the game "hot garbage" it's just not convincing. You can tell he is one of those people who try to be "impartial" but fail miserably because his actions speak louder than his words.

[@Sonicstillpoint83]

The ironic thing is that more people would probably probably get deeper into the game and quit if everything was explained as it should be. Because I’ve seen this video, I now know how to change the screen view and to equip the shield so I’m technically making progress.

[@abdoaboueid8151]

I LOVE these kinds of videos. The stories you weave are already fantastic, so to hear you critique and objectively discuss the merits and flaws of games is an amazing watch, hoping and excited for more!

[@EndermTheSwordsman]

For the ending section of the video, in reference to asking for help, I shall quote Aviator's Song "Bonfire", a song paying respect to the genre that Demon Souls guided into the forefront of gaming history: "We've all got our battles, but no one's alone" And to that I say: Call up your brothers and sisters, fathers and mothers, friends and strangers. Strike into the unknown of a cruel world that dares you to resist and persist. Strike down beings that have laid waste to armies with your growing knowledge, stubborness, and sheer force of will. After all, while we may tell each other to 'Git Gud', we also will headbutt that wall with you until it breaks down. So what do you say everyone? Are you ready to get up from this bonfire, and find the next one with us?

[@DrewPDrawerz]

I would argue that what made Dark Souls fun to me would be learning the depth and nuance of the game's design for the first time. It was such a unique and almost alienated experience from every game I've played before it. Getting through the Undead Parish and cutting off the Gargoyle tail is when the game really clicked. The feeling of confusion juxtaposed with the sense of accomplishment is unrivaled from any other game. And there was just so many secrets and cryptic things. So much to explore.

[@marmite6621]

So I just experienced the game blind for the first time and this is an interesting perspective. My experience was very different. It took me a long time to figure out there was a door past the asylum demon, but I kept trying because I knew that while this game was considered hard, it's doable. The game UI is confusing, but I never felt like I needed to understand everything. I noticed the weight system by putting heavy armour on and suddenly my character was slow. I saw a message at Firelink after landing to attack the man there, so I did, assuming there was loot and he preceded to kill me over and over again. I was annoyed at the time but I started a new game and got back to where I was previously just find, it instead taught me to consider my actions. I didn't know about upgrades, but when I discovered Andre, I felt the excitement of feeling powerful. The fact such impactful things had the chance of being found around any corner made me want to explore every area of the game. Dark souls took me a long time to finish (110 hours), partly due to exploring everything, partly due to being fully blind and partly to simply just get good. But I am so thankful to have gotten to experience this and truthfully if a lot of the things mentioned were changed, it would have reduced the depth of the game and made it less fun. I never felt the game was overly punishing, infact it always felt very fair, mistakes are my own and every challenge felt like it can be overcome. The game willed me to go on and to keep going. The UI is bad though I agree, I don't know why icons with no text are used so much throughout the game because it makes it truly incomprehensible. I figured that stuff out but yeah it's confusing.

[@Ha-xo6fk]

Darksouls, the only therapy that actively makes you rage

[@chrissbasement169]

There are games that make you rage and you hate it And there are games that make you rage and you wouldn't have it any other way

[@Cheesedrinker_]

You are correct

[@legitplayin6977]

I’m still amazed how people can consider this therapy but oh well, different strokes for different blokes

[@kkkk2916]

@@legitplayin6977bc it’s not for u

[@deifiedtitan]

@@legitplayin6977It lets people hyperfocus on a challenge that they can safely overcome while their mind processes some other emotion. It is not a replacement for therapy, it’s just effective cope for people that need some time. I’ve been there before myself.

[@mc_cheshire]

The first time I played Dark Souls, (in a circumstance when I had absolutely no internet access), I beat the Asylum Demon with my broken sword hilt after hours of trying, made it to Undead Parish, leveled all of my stats EQUALLY, fatrolled my way to the Capra Demon, found myself incapable of surviving the encounter no matter how much I tried, with similar results with the Gargoyles. I ended up quitting and playing another game for the rest of my time cut off from the web. I wouldn't have given it another try if I hadn't started talking about it with a new acquaintance by pure coincidence; we ended up playing the entire trilogy together, and we're incredibly close now, but I think you have a point. Dark Souls, without outside information, is deeply inaccessible; trial and error works for combat, but not for stats, equipment, etc. Same goes for... most mechanics not explained in the entry hallway to the asylum. An incredible game, once you know just enough; when blind... it's nearly impossible to comprehend. It's a shame such a masterpiece either requires use of a wiki or a babysitter to experience in full... both of which weaken your experience. Use the Wiki? You know too much to be surprised anymore, you lose the impressionability of going in blind. Playing with a friend is fun, but the atmosphere Souls creates is weakened with company, the desolate quiet, the eeriness it's not the same when you and your buddy are goofing off together, and the co-op experience creates a feeling more like your first replay than your first actual playthrough. For all the essays talking about 'my first time playing Dark Souls', praising it as an incredible experience... I'd argue that for as good as that experience COULD be, the likelihood of the game being spoiled for first timers, either by cluelessness or excessive research, is much higher. Which is truly a tragedy. I love Dark Souls; I wish it's hypothetical perfect experience was possible for everyone.

[@SweetxSourChicken]

If you really like story analysis and opinions I'd really recommend Gingy, his way of explaining things is so captivating to me and I love to listen to him even in the background when doing work or something.

[@YureiOni]

I’ve played Elden Ring, Sekiro and DS3 and I’m currently on my first play through of DS1 and it is by far the hardest souls game for me. I’m really really struggling where the other FromSoft games I played I straight breezed through. Even Sekiro’s combat was easier. The catacombs is an absolute nightmare in DS1. The skeletons are ruthless.

[@dominiktoerschen4995]

Played the game for the first time this year and you perfectly summarize the experience of a beginner! And I‘m so happy that I didn‘t quit and feel the same way as you said in the end.

[@yeetdude6857]

There were a lot of things you talked about that I actually really liked about ds1. This is my opinion on the matter; I loved being dropped into my first playthrough and being able to do whatever I want with my gameplay, and not having to worry too much about optimisation. I did feel overwhelmed and confused by the menus at first, but I pretty much said "eh, I'll figure it out." all in all, the biggest problem I have is traveling. It feels slow, especially when you're going through an area you already know. Again, this is purely my opinion

[@christianstachl]

On the other hand it felt so great to get the lord vessel and finally be able to teleport. I don't really mind that you can do it in part 2 and 3 right from the beginning, but in DS1 it was a big reward, especially after one of the toughest bosses.

[@red_dll]

This is such an accurate representation of a new player's first experience! Very well done! One small correction though: The character description for the thief in the character creation actually says "Has master key". So the game basically tells you the thief already has the key. Will a new player recognize and understand this right away? Maybe.. or probably not. Still, the game tells you at least.

[@Rando4447]

Played this game religiously since I was 12. This shit is gas and I wouldn’t change a single one of these “flaws”

[@ArmedFrog]

During a time when games were becoming more and more "hand holdy" and telling the player where to go exactly with map markers and compass indicators, I remember Dark Souls being a breath of fresh air. Of course don't get me wrong, I too had a similar first time playthrough.

[@CheeseOfMasters]

I couldn't not feel endeared after seeing it's blunt approach. Sorry but that alone makes it perfect in my eyes, every further bit of explanation would have spoiled the experience so much like they do in the newer games.

[@GooseGumlizzard]

Demon's Souls came out 2 years earlier

[@nickoliekeyov746]

@GooseGumlizzard The criminally under appreciated, oft forgotten progenitor. Much like Wolfenstein 3D is to Doom

[@MNAHN-T.GOF-NN]

@@GooseGumlizzard That's what being console exclusive gets you: most people don't notice it.

[@drvofoka7033]

@@CheeseOfMasters Lmao get over yourself, explaining basic game mechanics is necessary.

[@guga5708156]

I feel ds1 is an exploration and discovery experience. It had more of a niche target and no handholding. Some things are basically unfair if you dont know before, but with proper knowledge, the game becomes a case walk, and you dont feel bad for getting new information online.

[@wunnup3229]

This video soothes my soul. My first experience was very similar to what you describe. Edit because I felt like ranting about my first playthrough ever: My roommate let me play his PS3 copy of the PtDE, and I was struggling with pretty much every problem Lemon pointed out here. None of my deaths really felt like my fault because of it, and I didn't much like having to go through all the mobs and traps all over again every single death just to take another crack at the problem that killed me. I was struggling with trying to navigate Blighttown, and he asked if I didn't mind him taking the controller to sort of "fast forward" me to the place I died so I could curb my frustration. I was sleepy and told him I needed to go to bed though. He said he could do some level-grinding for me so I'm stronger when I return to load my file. I agreed, and when I came back the next day, my character was suddenly in a location I'd never seen before. Of course, today I know it was the bonfire at the bottom in the swamp just outside Quelaag's domain. But I didn't know that at the time. I had absolutely no context for where my character was or what items I suddenly had in my inventory. I thought he was just gonna run around killing things to level me up a bit, I didn't know he was going to literally progress my fricking save file. So I gave up and put the game down. Didn't touch it again for a full year.

[@psychicbeagle5106]

A good Souls experience is a very personal thing. Sure, helping a new player is nice, but that? That's more like those level skipping "helpers" Nintendo plopped into its Wii platformers. I wouldn't blame you for being disheartened at basically getting treated like a child.

[@rero951]

in my first dark soul play-through, I thought I had to kill the stray demon with the broken straight sword and the "get away" message was just some kind of narrative or expression and because people keep saying dark souls is extremely hard and all, I honestly thought I was playing as intended(glad I found the door eventually)

[@christianthompson7915]

Have fun! It’s such a good game

[@Green3Eagle]

Same here; It took me a long time to notice that open door over there. You know, the one lit by torches.

[@lMarcusl]

I didn't have that exact experience but DS's reputation for being difficult made me go down to the Catacombs right after the Gargoyles (forgot about the locked door leading to Lower Undead Burg and didn't know where to go). The issues I had with the skeletons right in the graveyard should have tipped me off to the fact this is not the way to go. But since the game was supposed to be hard, I pushed on anyway. Eventually got used to the skeletons a bit, even though my damage was way too low to be there. And so on I pushed. And on. Until I dropped down to the blacksmith, used the bonfire there and bam! Now I was locked in at the bottom of the Catacombs, with low damage, bonewheels everywhere, with no direct way back the way I came. Many, many torturous days of dying to bonewheels over and over, I made it to Pinwheel and got blasted to pieces a few times. Eventually killed him...and realised I need a light to go any further into the Tomb of the Giants. So I had to go through the entire catacombs anyway with nothing to show for it. It took days upon days of attempts before I got back out. In hindsight, that might have been one of the best experiences I've ever had in gaming. Getting stuck in a place where everything wants your heart on a platter, with the only way out being skill and persistence. I definitely didn't feel like I was having a great time in the moment though.

[@deifiedtitan]

@@Green3EagleMost people don’t look around too hard when there is a giant demon trying to push their shit in. “Just be observant” is post-hoc rationale, it’s not how the majority of people operate when presented with threat. It’s like, anti-design.

[@AabluedragonAH]

Same here orz

[@DoomGamer3000]

This is exactly why Dark Souls is one of, if not my top, favorite games. Add on top of it the analogy for depression, and it gives me comfort through my struggles and the strength to keep moving. Be safe, friend. Don't you dare go hollow.

[@Josukegaming]

This is a perfect essay on why it's so wonderful. I think that it's much better for a game to not be for everyone, but complete its purpose perfectly. That's why Dark Souls is as perfect of a series as it is. No compromises in artistic and mechanical goals.

[@python1972]

The game is designed to not be for everyone because of the gameplay. But actively pushing away even genuine fans by being too vague is just bad design. As an avid rog player stepping into Dark Souls felt like wading through a swamp and it punishes you for doing everything the game wants you to do.

[@aswallace88]

The best advice I got in relation to DS1 was that it’s a game of lessons. Every area teaches you a piece of the mechanics and lore that help you later on in other areas too. For example, jump stabbing the asylum demon teaches you that jump stabs can be stupid effective on big enemies that you can drop on. Fast forward to the Taurus demon, and guess what? You can climb the tower you come out of and JUMP STAB HIM TO GREAT EFFECT.

[@Adept_Austin]

Same thing for the Capra Demon, you just have to get rid of those dogs.

[@lurkio804]

And then the gamr pretty much never gives you a chance to do it again.

[@TomBombadil676]

​@@lurkio804only on every demon in izalith...

[@NeutralGloomBot]

The other lesson is that if you stand there looking down too long before jump stabbing, they will jump up to you and mess you up pretty quickly. lol

[@YASxYT]

Dark Souls is a game I hated the first time I tried it. I got stuck at Taurus Demon and didn't play for a year lmao. Eventually I just pushed through it and beat it, and now I can't stop playing it and it's for sure one of my favorite games of all time. The game has a big learning curve for sure, and a lot of annoying elements. But as you get better and learn more about the game, you eventually you can easily get through it or just learn how to abuse the game to skip it lol.

[@henrynewton8267]

I think a lot of the problems you described are the reason it created such an amazing community. I remember when I got to a or Londo and was completely lost. My brother in law told me about the way upto the broken window and we also had different stories with kaarth and frampt. Another mate taught me about the great hollo. I found out how to get back to the asylum by myself. Those are the things that made the games great for me.

[@johnname7163]

Finally someone that understands my pain. I've tried to get many of my friends into the Dark Souls series but the UI and gameplay elements are so poorly designed/explained that it's almost impossible for new players to get into the game.

[@Rouu_Garou]

I agree... without my cousin watching over guiding me on what tf to do, I would have quit 😂 I love DS1 now tho. It deserves a proper remake

[@everettrust3957]

Always good to see you post

[@randomguy3849]

Unironically, this was my exact same experience with Dark Souls II, since that was my first DS game. I absolutely love it and still go back to play it every now and then, but dear god was it hard to understand ADP and the initial Shrine of Amana

[@jofraniac]

Even when I was a newcomer to the series, I never felt the need to quit and stop playing it. On the contrary, the difficulties only made me more curious and motivated to try it again and again until I succeeded. This is the magic of Dark Souls franchise and I wouldn't change it even one bit.

[@Battery_Low9965]

A lot of what was described here is an ongoing thing in FromSoft games. My first was ER. And that game whooped my a** for months. But I kept playing, and after I beat it, I was able to start new characters and learn the lore, and it became one of my favorite games. Not to mention, ER gave me the motivation to give DS a legitimate chance, and even though they're a little different, I wasn't struggling nearly as bad as the first time I picked it up years before ER.