Dark Souls 1 but it's the DAY ONE Release Version

Dark Souls 1 may just be the most influential game of the 2010s. But what if I told you that even with a history of a rushed development, the game underwent several major changes after release to get it to the state it is in today. This video will look at many of these changes to see what Dark Souls 1 was like on release and un-patched
| Music used on order |
Character Creation - Dark Souls 1
Autumn Voyage - Runescape
Summers - Earthbound
Aquatic Ambience - Donkey Kong Country
Crazy Buggy - Dark Cloud 2
Faron Woods - The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
JAZZ - Mister Mosquito
Arcade Theme - The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth
The Water's Great - MOTHER 3
Nameless Song - Dark Souls 1
History of Dark Souls 1 Updates - darksouls.wikidot.com/game-pat...
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Reddit - / mr_metagross
#darksouls #challengerun

[@MrMetagross]

Hello everyone, I hoped you enjoyed the video. I didn't get to cover every single change but I think I hit the major bits. If you have any I didnt include, feel free to leave it here in the comments for others to see. See you next time!

[@darkwraithgaming4478]

as far as the black phantom npcs, it could be they tried to invade a grave keeper and failed or got the message. i believe grave keepers could affect base new game playthroughs on release and would, in certain areas, deff soft lock you out. lol

[@keres993]

I've been playing PTDE without dsfix D:

[@dranyth]

Man, I remembered it being kind of rough at launch, but I didn't remember getting almost nothing in the way of souls from bosses. One thing I did remember is that weapon scaling across the board was complete garbage at launch. I went and got the Drake Sword and used it for half the game because nothing else did any damage.

[@gtageek86]

Please torture yourself and get your hands on the original Ds2. Not the scholar of the first sin. But the ORIGINAL release.... Thanks :3

[@brianmead7556]

I know I’m a bit late to the party, but I’d like to add some thing about like dark souls got the reputation it did. Basically, it was the first properly hard main stream game in a number of years. There are some small niche titles but otherwise the only the last four games together before it were Demon Souls in 2006 and Gears of War in 2006. And yes, the first gears of war was significantly more difficult than they intended to the point where not only did the second game include a truly easy mode, but there was also a developer apology about it in an interview. Anyways, so it had been about 5 years since last properly difficult game had come out of the AAA industry. A lot of games of the seventh generation were very easy, or if they did have difficulty, it was in a fully optional hard mode. It was definitely the generation where making sure everyone could see the game through to the end became a priority, as keeping the player hooked for the online mood, and telling a compelling story, took over from the purely mechanical play engagement.

[@Greaseus]

Curse stacking AND no purging stone from the undead merchant is fucking crazy lmao

[@brianmead7556]

Because I didn’t have Xbox live for a number of years that was just reality for me for about my first six runs.

[@ludleththelost6824]

Can confirm this ended my first run.

[@Vitkiss]

Getting cursed twice, then making it back from the Depths (lit the bonfire there), and slowly grinding for a purging stone almost made quit the game and lose sanity. I persevered, beat the game, and consider this my greatest gaming achievement lol.

[@broek6075]

What about Oswald the absolutionist guy? You get after gargoyles

[@VoidSmoker97]

Legit on my first playthrough when I got cursed by a Basilisk in the Depths, I just straight up deleted my character and didn’t return to the game for a week

[@captainxiao2495]

Imagine: release build, first time player, master key starting gift, wandering around Firelink, opening doors, wandering into Blighttown, accidentally discovering the Great Hollow, getting max cursed. Now stuck between poison and gravity with a tiny amount of hp. That was my first dark souls experience.

[@orngcreator6115]

I’m so sorry you went through that.

[@colinmoriarty]

Imagine dark souls 2 being your first experience

[@captainxiao2495]

@@colinmoriarty i actually had a great time with DS2. first play through, i killed literally every enemy until they stopped respawning. SO many souls, SO many upgrade materials, EVERY rare drop, before fighting the area boss

[@Xeirseus]

@@captainxiao2495 how long was that playthrough lol

That was my first experience too, and I manage to kill the hydra while being cursed

[@Menry3427]

In all of my time gaming, reading patch notes, learning about old games, I have NEVER seen a patch note admit they were unsuccessful in fixing a bug. That is probably the most insane thing in this video.

[@specialnewb9821]

They tried so hard on resonances but they never worked right

[@obsidianreaper9507]

It’s why I love FromSoft, they actually admit when something can’t be fixed

[@cosmic3689]

It looks like the wikidot page covering the patch, so fromsoft probably didnt say that themselves.

[@meyes1098]

You should read star citizen patch notes: Ver.x.11 - Fixed bug X Ver.x.12 - Fixed bug Y Ver.x.13 - Fixed bug Z Ver.x.14 - Bugs X, Y and Z are back

[@Thisisaweirdthing2makeusdo]

My first experience with ds was when it was free on xbox live. The hype around it was so cool. “The hardest game ever” ❤

[@BalmungMP5]

I played day 1. A lot of these changes are like weird, forgotten memories. The biggest thing I will never forget are the excessive number of dragon butts.

[@Levian-Durai]

Man, the game was a nightmare on release. I first played the game during my Christmas break in college, I was at my parent's place with no internet, so I was stuck playing it without any updates. Everything was okay until the Depths and the curse status. Being offline meant I couldn't be summoned by people and kill bosses to get humanity, and almost nothing dropped humanity pre-patch. So I wasn't able to summon Solaire or any NPCs most of the time, and I was at like 1/4 health for ages. I had platinumed Demon's Souls before picking up Dark Souls, but that experience made me quit the game and I didn't pick it back up for like a year after that.

[@darkspawntales]

Let's all take a minute to remember the ninja flipping Havel monsters.

[@cuddlequeen3225]

Imma create one now.

[@HighDarkDragon]

''We all remeber the flipping Havel moms and dads (And we are damn glad they are gone).''

[@darkspawntales]

@@HighDarkDragon I remember using ninja solaire builds for pve. 😂 Sunbro that never skipped leg and arm day.

[@ff7omega]

Chaos hander giant dad PTSD intensifies

[@PrimevalDemon]

HavelMoms and Childs are eternal

[@rutherfordstyle]

I get it it floats down!

[@Mercah_koondial]

IT FLOATS DOWN!!!!! (The whole office loved that one)

[@darkodev6961]

Hahahah, I’m cracking up! IT FLOATS DOWN :)

[@robotplays4]

Ok but did it get the office cracking up

[@shiycopper]

Holy shit! This one had me laughing so hard! I told all my co-workers in the breakroom, and everyone loved it!

[@arturkey9084]

lenny benny 🥺

[@AbyssWalkerLW]

This really took me back. This was the Dark Souls I played. Because the Xbox I had was never connected to the internet, I could never update my game, leaving me stuck with all these unfortunate oversights. Actually seeing how bad it was with hindsight, makes me feel not nearly so bad for using the dragon head infinite souls glitch to power through it. Still, despite my struggles on this version of the game, it still very much holds a special place in my heart.

[@invictus2386]

A true souls borne🖤

[@tuttiman55]

I have a 360 with no internet connection to it, this is the only way I can play dark souls and it’s hell

[@littlepunch]

It was the same for me when I first really got into the dark souls games. I never did go to ash lake just because of how much of a nightmare it was to fight the basilisks or go through Blight Town in general.

[@TheOldWarden]

Yes! I remember using the dragon head infinite souls glitch from ashlake on my second playthrough lol!

[@Suzukixd89]

​@@tuttiman55, try to get yourself the Prepare to Die edition, that version is goat, is the one play in my PS3.

[@joshkatsikis9138]

damn.. I remember getting home from high school after soccer practice, walking upstairs and seeing my older brother playing this game. It had just come out and I never heard of it but there was something so immediately captivating about it, it looked so different from other games.

[@DragonTamer31K]

It felt like a fantasy movie from the 80's-90's. I remember seeing the ds2 dukes dear freja for the first time through a top 10 video and it was creepy asf

[@JD-zm5cu]

Similar story. I went to a friends house and our other friend had his 360 there playing dark souls in the darkroot basin. Went home bought and played it. About half way thru i realised this game was exactly like a game i played on ps3 a year or 2 prior... That game was demons souls and i never dis the math until wayyyy lat

[@LouSipher]

Same, a buddy of mine showed me like 5 minutes of gameplay where he went through the forest and got destroyed by some invader then he got wooped by Sif. Bought the game the next day.

[@Atine98]

omg i had the same experience of coming home from school and watching my brother play. i got stuck on asylum demon as an 11 year old, stuck on taurus when i was 12. and i remember the game gave me such a mysterious and fascinating vibe. all my old memories of it are so vauge and dreamlike, just like my memories of Zelda windwaker. i was so scared of the game when i eventually played all the way through.

[@King_Firebrand]

That curse stacking was ruthless. Since then, I always feared those damn basilisks.

[@King_Firebrand]

@Weyland Punani It really is. Even though they are rather harmless in DS2 and DS3, you still get this feeling of dread when you experienced the original basilisks.

[@Samura1313]

@@Weyland_Punani The curse can build-up almost instantly depending on what you are wearing, I think this might play a role too

[@mariuszpudzianowski8400]

When I discovered this I realised From is full of insane people, not people who like challenging games.

[@christopherregan1654]

Luckily they only show up in three areas of the entire game: The Depths, The Great Hollow, and Ash Lake. If you manage to grab the Cursebite Ring from New Londo Ruins, you'll be in a much better position, especially when you have to deal with Seath The Scaleless.

[@trustytrest]

@@mariuszpudzianowski8400 Miyazaki has said several times that he struggles to beat his own games.

[@botobop]

Little fun fact great magic shield was bugged and applied it’s effect to the character. You become immortal as long as it’s up.

[@cuddlequeen3225]

Nice.

[@aiodensghost8645]

Useful for OnS CHEESE (Ima enjoy wrecking them after they killed me 80+ times)

[@cuddlequeen3225]

@Aiodensghost to which cheese are you referring.

[@TroyVsTheWorld]

This was how I beat Four Kings!

[@user-eq4cq8ne9e]

​@@TroyVsTheWorld so you didn't actually beat it...got it

[@dilbyfgc2259]

As someone who played on release and was active on forums, I can confirm that curse was absolutely a crushing alignment to get early game. Nobody knew about the bird giving the stone, and it was often easier to remake a new character than try to make your way thru the ghosts on a quarter or less hp. At least at the time when we were much newer and lower level from low xp rates lol

[@rolandbegaye]

I remade twice man!!!

[@dilbyfgc2259]

@@rolandbegaye I know I did at least once lol.

[@LettersFromDeadRappers]

Came here to see curse stacking. Wasn’t disappointed. On my first playthrough I got triple stacked and I wasn’t able to save at firelink. So I was essentially trapped in the depths until I beat gaping dragon while taking no damage on the way or in the fight. I did not have sunbro. What a time to be alive

[@Cubsbane]

Wow, that aggro range. This was truly the Dark Souls 2 of Dark Souls 1.

[@theobserver8429]

i like that cause i lure enemies a lot

[@ThommyofThenn]

Very well said. I feel like i more fully understand this comment after having beaten DS2 (SotFS) once on ps4 and then vanilla on ps3

[@Zorro7269]

@@ThommyofThenn You played DS2 twice? I was barely able to beat the game (DLC included) once because of how genuinely pissed off I got in multiple areas.

[@ThommyofThenn]

@@Zorro7269 its a long game fr

[@BigHailFan]

@zorro bruh

[@darklingscribe]

It could be that the rumors that DS1 had black phantoms that constantly stalked players who were playing the game before official release might be because there was some server side gravelord covenant testing that was going on before the official release date. This is almost impossible to verify because of the online aspect, but it’s the only thing I can think of that could explain extra non-player-character red phantoms.

[@iBloodxHunter]

It did, if you cheated and got the game early the devs didn't ban you, they made OP phantoms hound you. That's some style right there.

[@amadhollow635]

They were massively scaled, like facing an ng+7 enemy in ng, or if an invader them having effectively maxed stats. It’s a simple fix

[@divine_naught]

Is there video of this?

[@trustytrest]

@@iBloodxHunter Fake but okay buddy

[@BrainBurnStudios]

​@@amadhollow635there's literally no evidence of this

[@DynoSkrimisher]

4:51 I love the idea of a Hollow shutting the door and leaving you stuck in with seven different enemies. It proves that despite being mindless, they still have some semblence of strategy.

[@darkmatter69420]

It's just like gostoc in stormveil. If you don't kill him before going behind the castle. He's the one who laughs and shuts you in a room with the banished knight. I never knew it was him and assumed it was the knight. Until I learned that the door doesn't shut until gostoc is gone. It's pretty funny how more NPC's than patches can screw you over, too.

[@damario4684]

I dont think that going hollow equates to being mindless, and this is clear to the fact that most enemies and bosses while being hollow themselves, can still fight and act in accordance to some degree. We can see enemies like the silver knights still being able to shoot you precisely, holding their bowmanship despite being hollow themselves, or the nameless king putting his drake to rest as if he still has that bit of sense left in him to realize that his drake has served its purpose.

[@Gunholy1]

I remember being mad when it happened to me the first time lol

[@jurivjerdha2467]

@@damario4684gael starts fighting like a actual knight the second he goes hollow

[@jacobhuppertz5625]

The hollows closing doors to this day is my most and least favorite mechanic. It traumatized me as a kid but now days Id love to see enemies use that complex AI to hinder the player besides attacking

[@albino5995]

‘You defeated’ was the best victory text ever 💪

[@Vealtaz2001]

Prey Slaughtered/Nightmare Slain would like a word with you.

[@MMM_Clips]

@@Vealtaz2001 no

[@shaggyrogers9028]

​@@Vealtaz2001no

[@ZevenGDM]

​@@Vealtaz2001no

[@freelancepear87kakkoka11]

pure soul

[@cEighteen]

Here's something important you missed. Important boss drops, such as the ONLY Titanite Slab in the game, or the Leo Ring, only had a chance of dropping, they weren't guaranteed.

[@XLcurley]

wtfffff

[@brotbrotsen1100]

It's not the only one, you get one from siegmeyers quest and they are farmable from darkwraiths

[@cEighteen]

@@brotbrotsen1100 I can't remember if darkwraiths dropped them in 1.0, but I remember siegmeyer's quest having no titanite slab reword in the base game

[@brotbrotsen1100]

@@cEighteen Oh it's that true? I thought that was base game stuff. Well the Wiki doesn't have further information about version differences about darkwraith drops, guess some dedicated poor soul needs to do a few new Londo runs.

[@jsullivan2112]

@@brotbrotsen1100 The drop rate was next to impossible. You could grind for hours and maybe get one. Maybe.

[@Reoooooooooooooooooooooo]

4:45 A remnant of that: If you skip Burg completely, go to Taurus through Londo->Valley->Havel and then approach the room through the shortcut from Lower Burg, the door spawns open and you still get the closing animation

[@mickeyb-n5748]

You were correct with the arrow colors in sens fortress. That color type is usually used in base models that don't have a texture so they testers know to fix it or add one. Looks like those were small enough that they got missed before the first update.

[@FlameHidden]

IIRC, the Iron Skin pyromancy was also insanely busted. You'd get some 90ish% absorption to most damage sources and just facetank bosses easily

[@genericgorilla]

Yeah magic ring shield and iron skin straight up broke all bosses

[@AngelosRitter]

@@genericgorilla back in the 1.0 ver you also could buff all weapons, including your magic staff with crystal magic buff which would overbust your magic catalyst in the right hand. combined with the Crystal shield on the left hand you would easily do 5k magic damage which WAS unblockable. idk if its fixed, the unblockable i mean

[@Neonmirrorblack]

Yep. I beat O&S in only three attempts using that. Funny thing is though, people were whining about that fight before Iron Skin got nerfed.

[@38Jim]

This is coincidentally the way I first experienced ds1 on the 360. Had no idea how bad I had it.

[@alexlara8927]

Same, and I didnt figure out why was It diferent until now, It makes sense now. Also, I remember kicks not working right and endless discharge (the suicidal Boss) didnt jump to his death and you actually had to fight him. Was It the same for you? Because he didnt mention It on the video and now I don't know if I am going crazy or what

[@cuddlequeen3225]

Same

[@Fullmetalnyuu1]

Me too, I didn't have internet when I played it and had no idea about these things being changed.

[@junkolover9518]

@@alexlara8927 perhaps you just didn't activate his second phase. He won't jump unless his chest arm is out, and it's out only in the second phase and after standing before his sister, EACH time, if you didn't succeed after the first try while he's sleeping you must run to his sister again, and only then to the fog wall. Many people assume he should just jump, but no, without his hand he'll just use fire wave over and over.

[@anabol_bob]

​@@alexlara8927 also in the newest version he doesn't jump if you aggro him without taking the set. He is a tough guy especially in my 1st playtrough

[@thatitalianlameguy2235]

From soft is a flawless dev that definitely doesn't need 5 months of post launch patches to make their games actually fair and good

[@Lemontarts01]

.... My brother the havel monsters existed for 1+ years. Not 5 months😂😂

[@user-yi5mt2df5q]

I remember getting it for Christmas in 2011. What a good time it was! It did kick my ass, since I was only 8 then, but I was incredibly immersed by the atmosphere. It's so nostalgic for me and has probably had a substantial impact on my life. I've beaten it around 9 times since then. I remember I used a combination of the uchi + zweihander for my first build.

[@callumfisher8101]

I could not imagine how badly I would have fared playing the game at the age of eight!

[@deadbody6112]

You’re a fucking savage lmao

[@user-yi5mt2df5q]

@@callumfisher8101 I had a brother who was much older than I, so I was introduced to many different genres at a young age. I played many games which were very violent... I played Dead Space, Prototype, the God of War trilogy, Fallout, Predator Hunting Grounds and etc. And when I say played, I mean I didn't just play it once - usually to completion. I had tried Demon's before and couldn't get so far, however that haunting title theme is etched deep into my memory. Dark Souls has that really calm main menu theme, which suits the sombre tone of the game extremely well.

[@gudegudemeh5195]

Damn at eight I had to let my dad take over twilight princess because it was too hard for me meanwhile you were beating dark souls lmao

[@ostail]

The Japanese unpatched version has other differences like slightly different enemy placement in the bridge with the dragon

[@Zaezar]

It's been ages since I've played DS1. Most are hazy memories of my exact experience. But when you started talking about the enemies aggro from farther, and even closing the door in that one room? That took me back instantly. Was that something they stopped doing??? Watching this video has taught me that I only played the original patch. That explains so much.

[@leithaziz2716]

Yeah, enemies will only chase you for a certain distance before walking back to their original spot. It's a bit immersion-breaking, but it's probably for the best if you want to avoid scenarios that were shown here like with Lost Izalith. Running past enemies to get back to the boss is a common strategy in all of these games.

[@Zaezar]

@@leithaziz2716 I've done so in the later titles! It just never occurred to me just how far they chased me back in DS1! Hard agree that it's immersion breaking. But definitely a good change just to prevent unnecessary frustration. Kinda wish they had some little animation where they shrug or wave their hand like you aren't worth the chase anymore.

[@iBloodxHunter]

​@@Zaezar The animation would be nice but most enemies are hollows so that wouldn't make sense either.

[@CRojas]

I was there day 1. I remember they only showed the name of the area once, the first time you visit the space. This and all the other things you mentioned made the game more mysterious and difficult.

[@filippopaolillo2006]

Also, in the original version, some enemies had more HP than they have in the final version, such as Hollows, Hollow Warriors, Balder Knights, Giant Skeletons and Stone Knights.

[@feircy]

Lightning zweihander was absolutely busted. Highest AR in the game even with the split damage and no scaling req so all those points dumped into vitality and endurance. OP

[@rhysofsneezingdragon1758]

And then chaos zwei took up it's torch

[@leithaziz2716]

@@rhysofsneezingdragon1758 Can you elaborate on what makes Chaos infused weapons good in these games?

[@rhysofsneezingdragon1758]

@@leithaziz2716 chaos doesn't scale off of stats, but how much humanity you've popped, to a maximum of 10. Since you can acquire very high damage with a chaos weapon with no stat investment, you can just level vitality and endurance.

[@voxstelarum]

​@@leithaziz2716 chaos infusions don't scale with your stats, however their base damage is very good and you will get bonus damage from your humanity counter (it caps at 10 humanity), so basically you can have enough stats to just wield the weapon and dump the rest into endurance and vitality, which will make you a poise monster (search for giantdad build in DS1 and you will see what I'm talking about)

[@dranyth]

In the initial release, all weapon stat scaling was terrible, so it doesn't surprise me that people went for lightning and chaos.

[@drewdickens5774]

I just wanna see all them summon signs lighting up the ground. Games that bring us all together makes me tear up

[@CoreyisBarackObama]

I love your videos! The narration style -- it's awkward; yet charming and full of character.

[@hummuslord6521]

My first playthrough of DS1 was on v1.0 - all the way thru. I remember getting omega cursed in the depths and not knowing how to get cured, the dragon head glitch, the ninja flip ring, ahhh, good times. I remember discovering that the zweihander could stagger the gargoyles and going nuts haha. Great video!

[@imofftomars9344]

It's so odd that most of this stuff I remember so clearly; I was on the battlefield fighting those fliping havels in Darkroot, I remember being chased to the ends of Lordran by a group of hollows, and I remember the pain of the dragon butts. I never got cursed more than once though, my brothers taught me to use the master key and skip the depths. When I made the switch from my old PS3 game to my PC PTDE game, I remember feeling a little confused, as if stuff was kinda different, but I couldn't place my finger on it. Thank you for pointing out all this stuff, I thought I knew more about my favorite game.

[@TheMaddWatcher]

I just replayed the vanilla dark souls 1 on a ps3 about a year or so ago, and yeah, it is definitely a wild experience.

[@cuddlequeen3225]

Any particular reason?

[@kaiserdetectivegolden2735]

@@cuddlequeen3225 there isn't his fanboysm is the only explanation available

[@Voingous]

@@kaiserdetectivegolden2735 That's a weirdly hostile interpretation of someone saying "yeah, I played it too."

[@kaiserdetectivegolden2735]

@@Voingous it must be because it needs to be when encountering a dangerous creature like Fromshit fan especially

[@Voingous]

@@kaiserdetectivegolden2735 As Elden Ring's number 1 hater, even I can tell you're trying a little too hard.

[@CidGuerreiro1234]

Amazing video. I'd say it absolutely does explain the reputation the game has, especially compared to other games from its time.

[@Daigou7]

Man, you deserve the like by the gameplay, but also by the music's used in background, so great music's

[@majikthise110]

One of the main differences I remember is the Giant in Sens that would throw bombs, would actually throw them ahead of where you were running, so if you just went in a straight line It would nail you every time.

[@AngelosRitter]

it had a real aimbot and wallhack, knowing exactly when you are about to reach that one stupid corner and BOOM! he got us

[@dominik230996]

picked this game up when i was 15 and i never regretted it had around 2000 hrs on my xbox 360 i wish i could go back. im 26 now and getting back all those memories makes me nostalgic

[@ISHESUAPLEYADES]

Domi!

[@charlesanthony4267]

I legit was playing OSRS, was wondering where the music was coming from. Man of culture. Loved the video!

[@goobawhoba]

Great video man, seriously well done, also your voice is very relaxing and easy to digest.

[@jakesteel4916]

My first playthrough was on an unpatched disk, you hit on pretty much everything I remember from that playthrough. The congaline of Capra Demons as you approach Demon Ruins I'll never forget. Some other fun stuff was the permanent gravelord infection in the painted world, which was extra fun since outside of the dupe glitch it was the best place to farm souls. You touched on lightning being stronger but I just want to reiterate how absolutely bonkers the infusion was. A lightning Zweihander had like 750 AR which meant for minimum stat investment you could outdamage full strength and dex builds. Fog ring prevented you from locking on to the person at all which was insane. And Gold-Hemmed Set had better defenses than every medium set of armor in the game, even stuff like the Elite Knight Set.

[@purplekush8553]

Yeeah the Gold-Hemmed set was busted!

[@Slvrwlf]

AND Gold-Hemmed could be *upgraded* which made it even more busted

[@fabioresende3442]

I downloaded it on my ps3 as soon as it was available, as I loved Demon's Souls. Played with my brother, who was visiting me, and a good friend for hours. They were so amazed with the design, combat and bosses.

[@DaveDamnit]

Thanks for the effort! I enjoyed this a lot!

[@pwnage765]

Great vid dude, absolutely lost it when the butterfly floated down.

[@TheForeignGamer]

The use of Autumn Voyage from OSRS at the beginning and Faron Woods from Twilight Princess was such a nice touch.

[@MonochromaticSakjo]

I think the reason the Flip Ring originally used to work with a limit on 50% equip load - as well as the amount of souls dropped - is because originally in Ps3 Demon's Souls you only had light/fat weight divided by the 50% cap, maybe they implemented those values to the ring, unaware of the implications of combining it with a ring that increases the maximum equip limit until they patched it down to a 25% cap. And about those soul drops: yeah, that was pretty much the same souls you'd get from enemies in Demon's Souls if you were in neutral to white world tendency. Other thing, now unrelated to DeS, you could mentioned, is that when you were streaming, for some reason the Soul Dupe glitch that replaced the Dragon Breath one used to have a more strict timing to pull it off, and that somehow got more frames to work with nowadays. It's kind of curious how the original version used to be so similar to his prototype predecessor in many aspects (even the dragon breath glitch has a Spell equivalent there) and through patches by possibly player feedback ended up evolving time to time into it's current state and managed to become itself the "daddy" of the franchise and fed fromsoft for over a decade now. I actually want to see if I can get my hands in a copy of the original game to test it out and see what else has changed since then. Also funny [ 𝐘𝐎𝐔 𝐃𝐄𝐅𝐄𝐀𝐓𝐄𝐃 ] message. Is just playing the 1.00 version of the game enough to warrant a "#challengerun"? I want to jump into that wagon.

[@Sykroid]

I'm glad you made the same observation that I did lol. Dark Souls was really the Demon's Souls "spiritual successor" that FROM made, because Sony handled DeS (a ps3 exclusive) poorly. The development for the 6th archstone DLC was cancelled mid-way by Sony because of bad sales, which tbh is understandable. The game was too hard for casuals, and you needed a wiki to understand any of it, and most people in 2009 weren't gonna hop on their ps3 browser or PC to look up a guide. So most people dropped the game early on. FROM wanted to make another Souls game, and switched publishers as well. I think ATLUS actually published Demon's Souls, and Namco did Dark Souls. Although you probably already know all of this lol. Anyway, if you look at Dark Souls as a sequel to Demon's Souls, then a lot of things make more sense. It almost seems like a high-fantasy version of DeS at times. Weapons and enemies do seem like remixed or updated versions of their older counterparts, rather than unoriginal copies. Like the Drake sword is similar to the storm ruler, but it feels like an easter egg if anything. My long-winded point is that it's completely understandable why FROM wouldn't change a lot of key things like that. And also yeah, it's shocking that Dark Souls became the popular one lol.

[@CinderMedia]

Great video! Pretty crazy how different the game used to be.

[@matthewcaldwell6247]

My brain zeroed in on the Donkey Kong Country music. You combined 2 of my all time favorite games. Top man.

[@DocDoesGamingYT]

No wonder I remember this game being way harder, used to play it on my PS3 but couldn't update since we had no wifi at the dorms hahaha

[@cauliflowerconnoisseur2710]

Aah man, the memories. 2011 was wild for games. was waiting for Skyrim and decided to give this a go. Remember the game running at -1000FPS in Blighttown and getting stuck in the catacombs for 9 hours cause i went there before getting the Lordvessel. Wouldn't trade those memories for anything, though.

[@vjcoupe]

Lovely to watch this video remembering the difficulties from back them. Curse was indeed the Dark Souls of status alterations, what a nightmare. However, it also comes back with the nostalgia of booting it up during release week, and seeing Facebook cluttered with doubts, questions and more doubts. If I remember correctly, we didn't have guides per say, but only KZbin no-commentary walkthroughs of people trying and erroring like yourself.

[@lairdfoster]

Extremely cool video, Dark Souls 1 honestly has the most interesting patches of any game I’ve seen

[@TheBacklogs]

...well, now I feel foolish.

[@arjostarudo9406]

foolishness my sire, foolishness. A true servant of fire and an Almighty lord such as yourself wouldn't need to use such cheap tricks even as a Last resort to achieve his goals of greatness and unremarkable feats, for you virtue of the patience and sheer willpower to overcome any and all hardships that most of mere mortals would even afraid to gaze at, let alone try and succeded. Don't feel foolish, for you didn't choose to Complete your tasks like any other mortal would wish power of their Gods and be blessed by it to achieve to their goals, for any mortal, even the ones who wouldn't prove to worth to wield such power, could have done anything with no effort. Be proud, for you choosed to overcome them with your wits, might, skills and with your will alone and be able to show your Resolve no matter what happens, that is the True power.

[@darkodev6961]

Holy crap this is a funny video! I showed all my coworkers in the office the part where the moonlight butterfly floats down and everyone was laughing

[@cuddlequeen3225]

OMG. IT FLOATS DOWN. I CANT. TOO FUNNY

[@Theshawnusgames]

I made a 3 hour long video of the Moonlight butterfly only floating down over and over. My coworker had a stroke because it was so hilarious.

[@cuddlequeen3225]

@@Theshawnusgames link?

[@Theshawnusgames]

@@cuddlequeen3225 I don't want you to die from lol'ing too hard. Sorry.

[@cuddlequeen3225]

@ShawnusGames D-: Thanks for your concern I guess.

[@BIueUnknown]

I played this game on release, and man I loved how difficult it was because it was different than other games at the time

[@MrNuts70]

It makes perfect sense that a game that spawned souls-like genre would be so much harder on day one of its existence compared to later versions.

[@gabrielwears1778]

Yo you totally had my whole office dying when you said that bit about the butterfly floating down

[@alternamasaki429]

And it floats down xD I always get the kick out of this

[@DuwMinh]

i remember all of this q_q remembering all that so much that when friends joined in during the first PC release on GFWL i was already laughing at them for having it easy, lol the curse stacking was extra fun for the Seath bossfight. Really showed you why SO MANY cristallized people were in that room :D

[@M.E.FProd.]

good video! glad this was in my recommended

[@Chocomunchie]

I'm one of the very few who played this game before any patches (heck, I remember being excited for this game when it was only known as Project Dark, since I was a huge fan of Demon's Souls at the time), and I remember being so confused that they took so long to nerf the Dark Wood Grain Ring. _Flipping Havels, flipping Havels everywhere,_ in PvP, sometimes using unpatched TWoP (dark times...). I made good use of the ring in the meantime though. :^) As for the stackable curse effect, I actually had no idea. I never got cursed much before they patched that, I guess. That's pretty hilarious. Also, I sadly never got to try the dragon headstone souls-duping glitch, as I simply didn't know about it at the time before it got patched out, but, the remaster has a soul-duping glitch that's even easier these days, and it still works to this day. And yeah, I remember how limited the warp points were back then, but, I didn't mind it, since I loved how interconnected the level design was. It was forgivable back then, but, we're definitely spoiled by the modern FromSoftware games these days. This video brings back a lot of memories, so kudos. What a fun idea for a video. My theory on why it was so unbalanced back then was that FromSoftware were still getting their bearings, and were a very niche studio back then. It wasn't until they were noticed through word of mouth and Dark Souls' growing popularity that they felt they had to put more effort into quality assurance. lol

[@jsullivan2112]

Very few people? Dude LOTS of people played this before any patches, like, the entire Demon's Souls community that was waiting for it.

[@Casketkrusher_]

4 years ago I played the trilogy for the first time, my brother played it years before me and I always watched him play but eventually decided to venture myself into these games, as he said, the first time is going to be your best experience, and indeed it was. Played them countless times after that but it can't give me the feeling like when I played them the first time, only a handful of games gave me the same experience, its rare. Especially Dark Souls 2, I know its like the black sheep in the community but for me its absolutely mindblowing and my favorite from the franchise.

[@psterud]

Yeah, the first time was of course the best, something I dearly wish I could do again. Fortunately with Dark Souls there was the multiplayer stuff that took the game to a whole other level. Being a Darkwraith for the first time was big fun, finding your perfect build, scaring the bejeezus out of the noobs, but also helping them with good items, and so on. And the same for Gravelord Servant. I finally stopped after about 3k hours when the player base had really died down. Such a fun experience.

[@Ragitsu]

Have you ever read "The Art of Dark Souls II"?

[@widdlebuck3925]

Your voice matches the music so nicely. Not sure why but it’s a very comfy vibe. Keep up the good work!

[@MrMetagross]

Im happy to hear it!

[@CatManDoom84]

Came here from Manley Reviews showing a clip of this vid. Awesome vid (yours)!

[@MrMetagross]

Thanks!

[@RevoltingSnakeman99]

Awesome idea, dude. I enjoyed that immensely 👌

[@islandofmelanat]

I'm surprised you didn't mention that you can't lock on to the ghostly forest NPCs in the release version. I honestly think it was a pretty cool design choice and I was sad when it was changed. Although magic and bow users probably rejoiced, lol

[@lauramarx8098]

also true of anyone wearing the ring of fog, it made you untargetable by other players

[@LOLquendoTV]

huh, I guess they carried over that idea into the ghost npcs in DS2 in the area before Najka

[@samfivedot]

Also, the knight at entrance to the forest used to drop like 3500 souls. So a really good way to grind was to kill the Gaping Dragon, spend the 20k on the Crest of Artorias, and then go to the forest and just keep killing that knight and running back to the bonfire near the door. You could get enough souls to upgrade a Pyromancy Flame to +10 within 30 minutes, with enough left over to buy all of Laurentius' spells and the Dragoncrest Ring from Griggs. Completely breaks the game. Later on they significantly reduced the amount of souls that the knight drops. You can still do it, but it takes way more time

[@HerrFinsternis]

I don't recall most of this, having played the game so often, but do remember the horror of being double tapped by the curse frogs and finding my way through new londo. I often wondered whether the undead lady and Oswald selling a purging stone was a later addition or something I overlooked, thx for clearing that up.

[@wizardlizard3641]

Demon's Souls was my first souls game, so I was very excited when I got Dark Souls on my PS3. I always wondered why the people I watch on KZbin these days seem to have a much easier time with certain things than I remember. I even booted it up to do another playthrough about a year or so ago, and was really confused why some things seemed so much harder/longer than I expected (my PS3 was not connected to the internet), but now I know why. Cool video :)

[@somerandomperson9670]

Day one release version of games is always the scariest, I know from playing the launch version of dl2 for two months straight

[@equious8413]

I know this from the quality of basically any game released in the last 10 years. Lol

[@funkymachine]

5:26 my neurons activated but you were 1 step ahead. its like when a character says one piece in a movie and you lose the ability to take it seriously for 12 minutes

[@VoidSmoker97]

This video gave me nostalgia for that one summer break I spent playing through Dark Souls for the first time back in 2013 and since I didn’t have wifi where I lived we just had an Ethernet cable that was always plugged into the PC so I played Dark Souls unpatched until I decided to plug the cable to my PS3 so I was surprised to see there was a patch which made the game feel noticeably different to me but I couldn’t exactly tell why beyond the bosses dropping humanity and homeward bones, good times

[@ZackeroniAndCheese]

Excellent video with cool info. Game sounds much harder back then

[@Terron29]

Interesting video. I fell in love with souls with demons souls back on ps3 as I stumbled upon it about 6 months before dark souls released. Ended up loving it so bought every other souls game day one. Amazing games. I DO remember being warned about the curse though!! I was always SUPER ALERT when I would see those weird smoke frog things. I played these games blind so that tip from I believe IGN review? (could be another website review) was indeed helpful.

[@ulyssesflag3062]

On this version you can use the strong magic sheild spell from the duke's archives and be invincible for 15 seconds (yes I timed it) and reach past ng+7 without problems and yes the spell can stack.

[@loganwheeler1734]

Super interesting vid. I didn't know almost any of these issues at launch. Honestly, I'd be shocked if this game became popular at all without fixing all the issues.

[@thragara5100]

Great video! Today I finally after all these years I got past sens fortress !

[@Shemegory]

Shame there was no mention of the hollow soldier's shield being insanely good, 60 stability at +0, 78 when maxed. Only 6 less than Havel's

[@reperfan4]

Also Dusk's skirt being INSANELY overtuned defensively. It still didn't give poise, but it's raw defenses were equivalent to like the Stone set

[@daringspino3446]

so you are telling me a lowly shield is tougher than a fully upgraded silver knight shield? aight. :)

[@AngelosRitter]

@@daringspino3446 ohh absolutely! it was great!

[@fiaschampion3379]

I love this game so much, I don't think that any game since has managed to make its way into my list of all time best games.

[@psterud]

Same. I've had to warn several people over the years that DS1 may ruin them for other games.

[@0average_enjoyer044]

great music choices!

[@TK_GX]

very interesting video youtube randomly recommended me. i didn't know 1.0 launch version of dark souls 1 was so different

[@ramflugalstein2463]

My friends would always tell me I was crazy for saying that on original release there were fewer warp locations and at some point they added more. I’m glad you show us definitive proof.

[@OmneAurumNon]

Oh my god it floats down! That one gets all the people in the office laughing. In summary, I loled pretty hard

[@quantum_tk]

Really creative video idea! Had no idea how much this game changed in it's lifespan. Btw, were the two songs that played in tandem during the lost izalith section a conscious choice? It was a little distracting. Otherwise, amazing video, man!

[@aPlayerHandle]

You need speech classes dawg, but otherwise awesome video. Also, the osrs music in the background fits so well.

[@sansplayer6254]

I have always played the original version because i played a... "Special" version of the game because, where i live, it was the only way to get the game

[@Akita23]

I am morbidly intrigued and curious

[@ZepherENocora]

​@@Akita23 they mean they downloaded it and either emulated it or used a hacked ps3/360

[@SlimeTheif]

The whole office really loved that one

[@jorgeruizmartinez9855]

Very interesting this kind of videos

[@ThisUploaded]

The RuneScape music in the background is a nice touch.

[@0ramyth0]

Everything about Pinwheel suggests you should fight him before Anor Londo but the path too him is too hard to get through at low level

[@Notmyname1593]

After ringing the bells you should be strong enough.

[@hansyolo8277]

Great video, I really liked the part where it floats down

[@chuck_duck]

I think summons doing less damage is because boss health buffs from summons were severely reduced post-launch. If I remember correctly, for 2-player the boss health used to be nearly 2.5x, where it sits at closer to 1.5x now. So in a way, summons were always meant to be as powerful as they are in 1.0, but Fromsoft wanted a better multiplayer experience, causing summons to be given an inadvertent buff.

[@jacopobosio7495]

Hello, I have played this game since the 1st release and I think I know about those "invincible" invaders, I have personally experience that in undead burg in 2011, they were just other players that used the bottomless box glitch allowding they're fresh new character to use all the items and equip store in the bottomless box even from the other character files, also no weapon level matchmaking like in the remastered means that you could get invaded by overleveled players with max level weapon and armor, other than that some weapons and stet up were stronger in 1st release like hollow soldier's shield, black knight greataxe and as you mention it the dark wood grain ring, I hope I was helpful and sorry for my broken english i'm Italian😅.

[@mluso1234]

I seem to remember in the original version being able to 1-hit kill the dragon on the bridge with an arrow from the black knight tower nearby.

[@paranoid_manatee]

Very cool and enjoyable video!!

[@jgil3435]

Thank you for taking on this burden. Great vid

[@pjemrey6676]

I remember the disk version on 360 had really bad humanity drop rates. Especially on the rat farming. I remember spending hours to get enough humanity to retry O&S

[@leithaziz2716]

That reminds that originally you could only use/give one item at a time instead of stacking several in one go. So for Covenants like Chaos Servant or Darkwraith, you had to give 1 humanity at a time and repeat that animation 30 times to get the rewards.

[@Chocomunchie]

@@leithaziz2716 Yeah, it's still like that on the PS3/360 versions. I think it's also still like that on Prepare to Die edition on PC. Those were dark times... lol

[@cuddlequeen3225]

Disc*

[@giovanniganss8284]

I played day 1 and I am honestly kinda shocked at how much changed I didn't notice lol. But the slow leveling I definitely remember and was the main reason it took nearly a month of constant play to beat haha.

[@h_m_johnsen]

An incredible record of gaming history. Thank you for this

[@wankjohnson-we8jc]

Ty for the RuneScape music original dark souls nostalgia blast