FromSoft released Demon’s Souls in 2009. This was before I was into video games and I wouldn’t have been able to play it, anyway, because I don’t have a PS3. Now it’s because I don’t have a PS5, but we’ll get to that later.
Dark Souls was released in 2011. That’s over ten years ago. I had started to play video games by then, but nothing hard. I heard about the game from Ian because his brother mentioned it to him. For years, I joked that I owed Ian’s brother a kick in the shins (or a punch) for mentioning the game to Ian.
I started playing it a year or so later (probably longer than that because I got the Prepare to Try edition, which was released in late 2012), and I was immediately lost. Not physically, but mentally. Up until that point, I had played games like Borderlands and the sequel, Torchlight, and Diablo III. Trying Dark Souls with only those games under my belt was an exercise in frustration.
I started as the Pyromancer because I love fire, which is unwittingly the most newbie-friendly class. I did everything wrong in that first playthrough because I wanted it to be pure. I didn’t want to look anything up, which was to my detriment.
Side Note: Many people say you should go in raw to a FromSoft game. No videos, no trailers, no articles, no nothing. That’s the way to get a true experience, they insist. If you can’t tell by how I’ve worded that, I don’t agree. When you land at Firelink Shrine, there are three ways you can go. The graveyard, down to New Londo Ruins, and to the Undead Burg.
The right way to go is the Undead Burg, but it’s the most hidden of the paths. The staircase down to New Londo Ruins is right by the bonfire. The path to the graveyard is fairly open and straightforward, but you do have to go through an empty room. The path to Undead Burg is a bit more bendy, but you’ll get there eventually.
When I first played, I went to the graveyard and got ganked immediately. Many fans say, “You’re supposed to see how hard it is and go another way.” It’s fucking Dark Souls! Their tagline is ‘Prepare to Die’! Their whole thing is being hard. For someone who has never played the game before, what is the meaning of ‘too hard’? So, no. I don’t think that’s a brilliant move of Miyazaki’s (and don’t get me wrong. He’s definitely brilliant). What is ‘too hard’? If you’ve never played a From game before, you have no barometer. Yes, OK, the Northern Undead Asylum is the tutorial and not as difficult as either the graveyard or New Londo, but there’s nothing to indicate that the jump up is unreasonable.
Many people quit at this point. Some people looked up what they were supposed to do. I’m fairly sure I was one of them, and isn’t that the better answer? In the first case, you have people who quit the game and never look back. In the second group, you have people who actually play and finish the game.
I look shit up all the time now. I try to be as pure as possible, but I’m not above looking up tips on beating a boss I’ve been fighting for hours, for example. Or how to make sure I don’t fuck up an NPC questline. In addition, the community coming together to find secrets in the games has become an integral part of the experience itself. There’s something thrilling with dishing about the current From game with hundreds if not thousands of other people who are just as enraptured by the game.
While playing Elden Ring for the first time, it was great to belong to the RKG group on Facebook where we would jabber about the game on the daily. No spoilers in the massive main threads about the game, but just gushing about our different experiences. I shared pictures and enjoyed looking at other people’s pictures as well.
It’s funny. Looking at the games in retrospect have rearranged my feeling s on the games. Well, some of the games. I can’ be arsed to play Sekiro any longer. It’s always been my least-favorite of the games, but there was a part of me that always thought I’d go back to it. I did try it recently and tried to do Father (Owl) for hours on NG+. Only got him into the second phase twice, I think. And then I just lost all interest. I cannot be fucked to do it. And there is no summoning in Sekiro. If they added that, then I might go back. Otherwise, it’s going to be just a nice memory never to be played again.
Dark Souls III is still as comforting as it’s ever been. I love this game with all my heart. I don’t know if it’s my favorite or my second-favorite or if it’s tied with Elden Ring for the top spot, but it’s definitely in the top two. I was talking with Ian about how I really appreciate the tight, self-contained level experience of the Dark Souls games as compared to Elden Ring’s open world.
Before Elden Ring came out, I was worried about the open world aspect. I don’t like open world games because they are overwhelming. There are too many choices and too many things to do. And in the case of many Ubisoft ones, they are formulaic and filled with tedious side tasks. I played Assassin’s Creed Syndicate because it was free on Game Pass. I adored Evie, but I fucking hated Jacob. I played him as little as possible, only doing so when I was forced to for story reasons.
I went through the game methodically, clearing out each area and completing it 100%. I didn’t want to 100% it, but I felt compelled to. That’s my OCD traits–I have to do everything that I’m able to do. I was flagging ,but I continued on. I made it to about 75% of the game finished when a new area opened up. It was the granddaughter of Jacob and WW I (I think?). I looked at the map of the new area and felt instantly deflated. There was the same bullshit as there was in every other section of the map (the helixes, the pamphlets, etc.). I did a bit of the section before realizing that I was just done. With a capital D. I stopped playing and never went back to it.
I never really enjoyed the game. It was fine, but I was playing it more because it was just something to do, honestly. There was no there, there, really. You just go to each area, mindlessly clear it out, find all the collectibles, and then go to the next area. Rinse, lather, repeat.
Elden Ring was a breath of fresh air in the open world aspect. There were no collectibles or useless bullshit stuffed in every corner. There were not endless radio towers to liberate or different sections of the map that looked exactly alike. Hell, the map in and of itself was a beautiful thing that isn’t seen in other games (except, apparently, Breath of the Wild from what I’ve heard).
You have the map, but it’s empty when you first start the game. You have to find the map fragments around the world to fill in that part of the map. Before that moment, there is a fog of war until you go into that area, and then you can see faint outlines of certain markers on the map. When you get the map fragment, that part of the map is made solid, as it were. But you still have to find the different individual sites like the caves and catacombs before they appear on the map.
Elden Ring has some really great legacy dungeons as well. But. And this is no shade on it–the overall legacy dungeons, as they were, in the other games are on the whole better. That’s one reason I like Dark Souls III better than Elden Ring on every other day–the tightly-controlled experience in each area.
What is my ranking of my favorite FromSoft Games? Right now, it’s this:
6. Sekiro
5. Bloodborne
4. Dark Souls II
3. Dark Souls
2./1. Elden Ring/Dark Souls III