in my last post, I started a list of grievances against Dark Souls games to countermand all the ‘Dark Souls is perfect’ nonsense that gets tossed around. In this post, I’d like to start with the difficulty of the games. The first game is noted for its difficulty and it is hard. Fuck the people saying it’s not. I had to stop watching the Oxtra playthough because Ellen was like, “It’s not difficult; it’s methodical.” While hefting a zweihander before going to Blighttown and ten levels or so more than you’d normally be at this point. With someone giving her tips before each area and boss. Rory from RKG said the same thing playing Dark Souls with Krupa guiding him every step of the way. Cut to the third game and Rory complaining that the third game is much harder than the first game. Yes, because Krupa wasn’t guiding him every step of the way.
People in the Oxtra chat saying it’s gatekeeping to say the games are difficult. It’s not. They are hard! I agree that anyone can beat them–if I did, so can anyone else–but I also don’t blame anyone for quitting. The qualifiers that Krupa put on anyone beating the game were something like grinding, careful dedication, and reading the wikis (community). Rory did joke that having a Daniel really helped. Well, yes. But the people in the chat saying it’s not that hard…first time I played the original game, it took me nearly 150 hours to beat, including DLC. Now, I can do it in 30 or so hours and that’s because I like to grind a lot and fuck around. So, yeah, the games aren’t hard for me now, but the first time? I found the first game nearly impossible.
My point is that for most people going into the games, they don’t have any of the knowledge we have now. Or rather, back when the game first came out. Even trying it out now, though, probably most people aren’t Googling it before going it or watching tons of Let’s Play. It’s fucking hard if you try to go it alone as I did. If I knew anyone trying to play the game, I’d give them as many tips as they wanted to keep them moving along.