I have been a FromSoft fan for over a decade. I hated the first Dark Souls game when I finished it (Prepare to Try Edition, which included the DLC, and I vowed never to have anything to do with it again. Even playing it was fraught as I almost-quit several time and rage-quit once. I didn’t play it for a year, and then went back to it when I decided I wanted to try to play the sequel.
I know I could have played the sequel without playing the first game, but that’s not my style. I would have felt weird the entire time, so I went back to start the first game over and trudged my way through. I managed to do it plus the DLC in 150 hours. Yes, it took me that long because I am that shit at the games.
But I fucking did it. And I vowed never to play the game again.
That’s a joke as I’ve played the first game at least a dozen times. I’ve started it more than that, but I usually quit halfway through. I have the plat, and when the remaster came out, I sailed through it. I went from struggling with every area and every boss to one-or-two-shotting all the bosses. I played most of the game offline because on launch day, there was a PC hacker who invaded people’s worlds and killed Andre, the first and very important blacksmith. He (and let’s face it. It was overwhelmingly likely the hacker was a he) had done it to several people, and when I found that out, I immediately quit out of that game and started a new one.
Why? Because Andre is very important, and, yes, there is a way to bring him back, but it was laborious and would take some time.I decided it would be easier to start another game and race my way to where I was, playing off line so I could not be invaded.
That’s when it struck me that I was actually decent at the games because that was my conclusion rather than raging about it. I was irked, yes, and thinking nasty thoughts about the hacker, but I knew I could get back there quickly. I felt bad for anyone he did it to who was playing the game for the first time, but I knew that it would not be an issue for me. And it wasn’t. I got back there in about an hour. The first time, it probably took me ten hours to get there.
I’m bringing this up for two reasons. One, to establish how shit I was at the games and still am, actually. At least on a first playthrough. I take at least twice as long as other people to play a new From game, and not just because I’m very thorough in my exploration–which I am, by the way. In the main game, I finished my first playthrough in 225+ hours. I didn’t miss any caves or catacombs (without looking shit up), and I’ve only seen a few minor new things watching RKG play the game.