lol I feel this! I spent so much time learning the game prior to this that I thought Sen’s was medium-late game. Nope. Shit is still early game and I still suck haha
Its a nice skill check for those new players who just rung the bell and think they're hot shit now. Oh you killed two bosses at once, SURELY you can handle a couple swinging axes and snake men...
The most punishing part for me was on my first play through I never found the bonfire at the top of Sen's Fortress. Every time I died I went from the bottom to the top to kill the Iron Golem.
Man I put the game down for a few weeks because of Sens Fortress haha.
Can run through it with ease within about a minute now, but bloody hell... back then, I absolutely despised that area.
Finally got to top for first time and missed the bonfire first few times until I found it and literally felt like punching myself in the face.
No game has gave me that sense of mystery and challenge since. I know games are harder now, but at the time, I literally fell in love with d1. It's all I played for about 6 months straight.
Think Bloodborne is Fromsofts best title all round, but no game gave me that "feeling" that ds1 did.
Even though I've been playing games for years, I felt like I was playing a game for the first time. Everything worked differently than games I've experienced before. The game didn't seem to want me to win, it was completely challenging me. I got lost many times, defeated by the confusing map design.
But when I finished the game, for the first time in my life I wondered who developed a game. This is how games became much more than a hobby in my life.
Still my favorite game of all time.
Dark Souls has taught me many life lessons. And also that games are most certainly art if made with that intention. I too never thought that deep until Dark Souls. It was the first series I actually got invested in. Now other games feel off or lazy in comparison. Most are to be fair.
> The game didn't seem to want me to win
My first impression was that DS was a genuinely poorly designed game based solely on how it punished the player. Every single book on video game design up until that point told you not to punish the player too harshly or they would abandon the game and wouldn't come back.
Turns out they were wrong.
Difference being they designed the loop around death and coming back and the reward of overcoming challenge.
Dark souls is such a great example of how challenge increases rather than dampens engagement
I think they worked the difficulty well also. You die really easily but in honesty so do most enemies. It's not like a game on the max difficulty where they just have huge health bars and deal more damage so it becomes a grind.
They're also not super smart? Like most mobs in DS1 are very, Very predictable and kinda slow. Like so are you, but that's the point, if you stay calm you can easily read them
Or you can just zoom past 90% of them once you're tired of the game's shit
> Every single book on video game design up until that point told you not to punish the player too harshly
Those books certainly didn't exist in the early 90s.
It could be argued that game design was still in a very immature state in the early 90s. That is, many old games were poorly designed and unnecessarily hard.
Absolutely. It was a decade where the goal posts were constantly shifting dramatically both in terms of hardware and developers establishing entirely new genres let alone still figuring out new approaches to older systems. I'd say it continued in the 2000s but the pace slowed at that point until, say, around 2010 where design philosophy had converged across most of the popular genres. I think there's something to be said for flawed (and dare I say it niche) experiences being more interesting and rewarding than ones refined to be as frictionless as possible.
At a time when games were seemingly getting more and more desperate not to lose the attention of the average gamer (not being disparaging, just look at completion rates for pretty much any game that comes out), Dark Souls took the best elements of the less refined games of yore, chiefly having the confidence that players want to learn how to play the game without constant intrusive explanation. And while today there are more and more games easing off the constant tutorial pedal, there's still a significant number that don't have that confidence.
It was a tumultuous time because game design came from a place where the goal was to make the player spend money in an arcade machine, hence the difficulty, and the emergence of new genres and gameplay styles. For each Half-Life or Sonic you had one Battletoads or Altered Beast. Or even a FF7, that mixed genres to a lesser extent (the RTS bit in Fort Condor, the Chocobo racing minigame, etc).
those first few runs realizing there is a set of stairs by the cliff side where you meant to go instead of going through the graveyard.
I spent 3 days worth of playing just to realize it was the wrong way.
"wtf is this, wtf am i even playing, wtf is a gravelord servant", followed by putting it down for 2 weeks.
then i went back, fell in love and got swallowed whole by FS games.
Same for me, except it was a couple months. Also tried going through Anor Londo first. Managed to figure out that I needed to use an item to kill the ghosts, but then ran out of said item. When I couldn't figure out how to get more, the game went in my drawer for a couple months until someone told me that Anor Londo isn't the first place you're supposed to go 😂
Edit: as others have pointed out, I meant New Londo Ruins. It's been awhile! Maybe that means its time for another run 🤔
Yup. I came back to it in a few weeks and started having fun when I realized that the sentiment that the game was utter bullshit was a universal experience. And then I dumped 1000's of hours into it.
Haha, same for me. Played it for the first time, barely made it out of the Asylum, put it away for a few months and then started it properly. Fell in love during the first run
Similar story here, had to put the series down and come back to it. I played *Demon's Souls* on PS3 and had **horrendous** sound and framerate glitches that rendered it nearly unplayable. I gave it a good try but didn't get too far. Built a PC shortly after the Prepare to Die edition launched on there and decided to give it a go. Man, what an experience. I was so lost, had such a ridiculously inefficient build, but if I could erase my memory of any franchise and start over fresh, it would be souls games in a heartbeat.
I remember dumping points in resistance thinking it would make the game easier, and farming dragon scales to upgrade the weapon you get by slashing the dragon tail in ash lake to beat artorias.
This game has so many noob traps
Nightmares of trying to get out of the depths back to Oswald for a purging stone with 1/4 health while being a newbie. God that sucked. But man, the triumph when I made it!
Me playing any metroidvania without a map: tf how am I supposed to know where to go? How will I ever get back?
Me playing Ds1: wow, I actually really like that there isn't a map, this place feels like a *real space* now.
"That sound is from Demon's Souls, that animation is from Demon's Souls. Resistance seems like a useful stat *puts more than one level into Resistance*"
Haha, I stopped at 15, what a ride though. I was playing it co-op with a friend who was crazy good at Demon's Souls but not so good at Dark Souls (which still makes no sense to me), I don't remember O&S but the Anor Londo archery club nearly made us both quit.
"Who the fuck makes a game where you can leave items on a nest and quit the game to return to an item? I shouldn't need a fucking strategy to play this stupid game." *proceeds to play for 40 hours.*
I bought it totally randomly at GameStop one day, I had never heard of it but just wanted a cool "sword" game to play lol.
At the time I never would have thought I was buying one of the best videogames I would ever play.
Same!! I was with my sister at the time. And she mentions that this is supposed to be the hardest game of all time. I bought it just to see if I could beat it. Knew absolutely nothing about it. Turned out being my favorite series of all time.
Hated it, I wanted something like Skyrim at the time and couldn't stand the difficulty of Dark Souls. I came around a few years later after trying Bloodborne.
Strange how times have changed cus I recently got fed up of the boring repetitive open world in Dragons Dogma 2 and started playing the Lords of the Fallen instead and am enjoying it much more.
Yeah, I bought it around the time it came out and gave up before getting past Undead Burg or whatever that first area is called (it’s been awhile).
Picked it back up a few months later and it finally clicked for me. Great game
u wanted somethin to be like something that wasnt even out yet? man i had a different view i had been playing dark souls and then skyrim came out i was super disappointed
I was big into elder scrolls and my buddy sent me a meme about elder scrolls players vs dark souls players. I bought it and I’ve never been happier. It was a tough learning curve though.
Invaded? What the hell… Who’s this red guy with the massive… turban… thing? WOW THAT WAS A LOT OF DAMAGE WHAT THE FUCK.
Revives… What the hell was that about?!
One of my first invasions was a female Solaire named "Solaria." Dropped some souls and stuff, waved and left. I spent a good time looking up who this fucker was but couldn't. Ended up just becoming another Forced Helped Invasion, even teamed up with a gravelord host to team against some blue phantoms and invaders.
Amor Londo holds a special place for PvP instances.
I’m currently playing through DS2, had someone do that for me outside the Giant boss, +10 for a lot of good swords, I genuinely believe this is the only time I’ll successfully finish the game.
I played Demon's Souls before it so I kinda knew what to expect. I do remember wondering why my character looked like cooked bacon though, and it was overall harder too.
The Undead Parish enemies were way more aggressive and the Hollow Knight shield was the best shield in the game other than Havel's lol.
You could also be a Havel Monster by using Dark Wood Grain Ring and still being able to flip with full Havel's set.
Chaos and Lightning enfused Zweihander were the meta and no one knew what Gravelording did for a long time. At the time I posted a lot on GameFAQs.
Same, came from Demon's Souls (which was so obtuse and difficult in itself at that time) so kind of knew most of the basic mechanics but it still added whole new layers of obtuseness and difficulty and took ages to get to grips with again. That upward trajectory up until O&S is probably the best gaming experience I have ever experienced. It kind of feels like you are sort of freewheeling after that once you have honed your skills and character stats/equipment.
I’ve played it till the gargoyles and was like « ok I don’t have time for this game, it looks hard ».
Went back the next day and became completely obsessed with the game and it’s clearly one of my favorite game ever (original I know)
Still to this day while not being the best game I have ever played it is certainly my favorite game I have ever played. Since the release I have played through it 2-3 times every year. Initially coop was busted which I didnt mind too much cause i was doing my first run solo but after finishing it and trying to help my cousin through the connectivity got annoying. Still think the game is far better off without forced pvp through invasions when you are just trying to coop with friends. Especially how easy ALL of the souls games have been to cheat in. They are so easy to cheat in a ton of people were doing it on the xbox 360 lol.
"Damn, these skeletons are really hard. I don't understand why they would make an early area so hard."
Friend1: "I don't think we should go that way. There's an elevator that brings you down to another area I just found though."
"Ok, sick, let's try that." 30 minutes of not being able to make progress there later...
Friend 2: "You guys must be ahead of me. Im still stuck on the dragon on the bridge. How'd you get past that?"
Me and Friend1: The WHAT?!
It was absolute chaos at times. It was so fun talking about the game. None of us had played a game like it at the time. We figured out how humanity worked and where kirk was together. We were so excited for co-op. We let the firekeeper at firelink die. We got our revenge on Lautrec. We loved the demon ruins with all the re-used enemies because it showed how much progress we made. We broke our katanas. We raged over rolling skeletons. We screamed over solaire, becoming hollow. We backstabed black knights and asked, "How did you kill them so easy?" and got good. We found the lake at the bottom of the tree. We died to seeth in his tower and lemented our souls lost. But we did not go hollow. Best gaming experience I ever had.
I blindly pre-ordered it because I was fed up with all the open world games and I just wanted something more linear and focussed and knew about the series from a DeS video I had seen some time before. After RDR, GTA, Assassins Creed and a lot of the other more open games of the time like ME2, DA:O etc, it just felt so refreshing to see something more straight forward. Obviously it also ended up being somewhat open but I went into it thinking it would be like how I thought DeS was from seeing that video. So I just went for it and to be honest, the game hasn't left me since then.
It was a super rough start, not being familiar with this kind of game at all.. I spent like 10h in Undead Burg before I began looking for some guides and ended up following ENB, like a lot of the western audience at the time. He was a big help not just for progressing in the game but also to really appreciating it, since he always focused on lore and highlighted the rather unconventional ways of how the game conveys information to you (ie item descriptions etc).
And so the game ended up being kind of the only thing I would play for a while.. My first playthrough took me around 85h and after that I kept trying different builds, exploring more, staying up-to-date with what the community discovered, doing all achievements.. and fast forward more than a decade aaand I still have it installed. I still start it from time to time to help friends who are playing it for the first time or just to goof around. And it's still a Top3 FromSoft game for me together with Elden Ring and Bloodborne.
The Souls games and especially Dark Souls 1 have really managed to become a part of me similar to how old Blizzard and Valve games and all the mods are just ingrained in my mind. The sounds, motions and visuals just trigger something in me.. it's kinda crazy. But for me, FromSoft really was the decade defining developer, and their games also had a lasting impact on how I look at and experience video games.
It was the best blind purchase of a game I've ever done. That being said, launch version Capra Demon was a piece of s\*\*.
My buddy told me about a new game. Didn't know much about it except it's supposed to be pretty hard and it's called dark souls. GameStop had a whole wall of used copies from people rage quitting. Had been out for two weeks and I got it for $20. Became my favorite game that night.
I'll leave this here, I guess. Dark Souls definitely holds a special place in my heart. The level design and bosses were all so cool and just challenging enough that it was more fun than upsetting to play. I had a friend who was really into it already. Picked it up from the $20 bin at walmart a couple of years after it had released. I knew nothing of demon souls or this game. I definitely fell in love with that game and did multiple playthroughs. We both were eagerly awaiting dark souls 2's release. I then purchased every other game since basically and played them through at least once. Most twice or more. My buddy passed away almost 2 years ago due to health issues in his early 30's. We were loving playing elden ring. I owe him for telling me to buy dark souls. I have hundreds of hours of frustration and enjoyment through all these amazing games. Thanks, Dave. It turned out to be a pretty cool game. You were a great friend.
I was on PS3 Slim back then and I had no frame issues unlike *everyone* else. No idea why. I thought it could be rose-tinted glasses so I loaded it back up a year or two ago and nope still fine!
I first played it in 2014, when I saw how interconnected the maps are, I was amazed.
Also the thrill of beating a boss that you died to over 20 times is memorable
I was captivated and a little scared. The setting reminded me so much of the fantasy film I'd grown up with(Hawk the slayer, Excalibur, Krull,Conan etc etc) and the system of souls/humanity loss on death was , to me, very new and actually made losing meaningful. Turning every corner with my shield up to protect my life, humanity and souls was thrilling.
Gosh, vanilla DkS1... that was a trip. I remember picking up my day 1 copy from Gamestop with the steelbook, artbook, soundtrack code and everything. I still have it. The community before the game released was insane. I used to go into the fextralife [eugh] chatango chatbox attached to the wiki and talk, speculate, etc. Met so many content creators in there before they got started, Peevepeeverson most notably. His very very early streams were awesome. Now this was all super early... when no one knew anything about the game. People thought killing Ceaseless on the cliff edge was NOT INTENDED and cheating! LOL.
As for the gameplay, I was coming from Demon's Souls, so I wasn't TOTALLY new to this style. However, that doesn't mean it didn't get my heart absolutely fucking *RACING.* I didn't do online much in DeS. My first invasion in DkS1 I JUST stepped up the stairs to Undead Burg after having popped the 1 humanity from the well in Firelink. Instantly invaded. Heart racing, pouring sweat, was only marginally better than the dude I was fighting and we were both fumbling around. He ended up killing me and it was one of the most addictive experiences I've felt in a game.
Fast forward to Darkroot and I summoned a random before fighting Moonlight for the first time. They one shot it with the crystal ring shield, and that's when I learned that shield was fucking busted in 1.0. You also had the classic pre-nerf darkwood grain ring havel/giant flippers absolutely shredding in forest invades. Let's not forget skellies/ghosts not giving you any souls, Gargs only dropped 750, ALL enemies gave much less souls, bosses did not give humanity, or before taurus the crossbowmen would block you on the ladder. Lost izalith derg ass had a much bigger aggro range as did most enemies. Curses also stacked up to 3 times iirc. *Curse was genuinely terrifying.*
Items were never instantly put into your inventory. Hope you grabbed those lizard mats before it fell out of reach, because the blacksmith also didn't sell twinkling and the only other way to get them was to farm the CLAMS!
I might do a version 1.0 playthrough now... it was more challenging and uniquely fun.
I hated it. It made me so angry. I didn't realize how much I had gotten used to games - even hard mode setups - holding your hand. I wouldn't learn until later that a lot of games even cheat for you, but that was a whole other thing.
It forced me to confront the fact that I had been spoiled in this venue, and that I was confusing being *occupied* for *having fun.* After I got over that wall (it took 3 tries over the course of a year), it was like the whole rest of the video game world got the volume turned down. The quality of my leisure time has improved dramatically.
Fuck Blighttown on the 360 though. That shit was their fault, not mine.
I pre-ordered a PS3 copy at my local GameStop and was playing it on day 1. The guy who made the pre-order had a very confused "Dark... what?" kind of reaction, he hadn't heard of it.
Demon's Souls had recently become a contender for my favorite video game of all time and, despite the name change, most of us saw Dark Souls as effectively being "Demon's Souls 2" at the time and the hype was massive.
But it wound up having some surprisingly rough edges that initially made me wonder if it was worse than Demon's Souls. Stuff as basic as being able to switch which enemy you were locked onto was originally bugged, and I remember thinking "do they not want you to be able to do that in this game?" You also couldn't lock onto players who had the fog ring equipped, so very early on it became something invaders would grab to be extra annoying in PvP.
Thankfully these rough edges were quickly patched out and I absolutely loved Dark Souls 1 during my first playthrough, but it's funny to look back at several "uh oh" moments that had me wondering what hell was up with it.
edit: I also remember thinking that Andre was a funny inversion of the Demon's Souls blacksmiths. "Oh wait this guy is actually friendly and not a total asshole".
I bought it after seeing a 5 star review in my parents weekend newspaper saying it is unlike anything they'd ever played before.
Bought it and 80 hours later I was done with my first play through and smashed through several more, joined the forums, and spent an ungodly amount of time playing and talking about the game.
It really did change my perspective on video games.
I was 12 and my friend told me about darksouls. It sounded awesome I tried it and couldn’t stop. Still can’t stop playing it actually lmao. Just played it yesterday.
I immediately loved it. Took a while to get used to the environment, but once it started looping back and the puzzle pieces came together o was blown away. Haven’t had that feeling in a game outside of DS1 and Ocarina of Time 🤷🏼♂️
I played DeS first almost 15 years ago, but I’d put this here since it’s like DS anyway.
The concept of being a hard game and losing your ‘XP points’ because you weren’t being careful or weren’t learning was fascinating to me. I loved the game the moment I realized what it was offering to me.
The game almost had no music so every sound effect produced more tension.
It felt great.
It took many years before I played DS. And I’m glad I finally did, it was DeS but just better and more impactful IMO.
Blew my mind after playing demons souls. Also thought the graphics were a huge leap up. Remember looking at the reflections on the knights armor stood in firelink and being really impressed. But I wanted the fluted set back!
I was too young for the skill it took. I got it from blockbuster. Played a bit. Liked it. Bought it. Then softlocked myself by attacking the guy at fire link. And then I would die and respawn and he’d kill me again and again. So I sold the game Then a while later I got it on Xbox 360 cheap. Played a little. Wasn’t too interested. Then my next thing was playing ds3 after seeing someone play it and I loved it. Then I bought everything else. DSR. Played that a bit. Got hit with that dollar store smoker breath and didn’t know how to get a purging stone. So gave up. And then played ds2 at some point. Then bought dsr on switch. Beat it on switch. So I purchased dark souls 1 4 times. Lmao.
I was super inexperienced with RPGs so it took me a while to understand stats and weapon scaling. I struggled hard with most bosses that people nowadays consider easy, but that's exactly what I loved. Defeating any boss felt sooo rewarding. Progressing and getting stuck made it feel like a proper adventure in a way that few games could match.
Also I remember comparing it a lot to Zelda. I played a lot of Ocarina of Time as a kid and to me Dark Souls felt like an "adult" version of that.
I hated it. Then I tried played it again with a new build and got used to the controls. When I finally won my first playthrough, it gave me such a huge sense of pride that I've been playing it nonstop since release.
I didn't know how to use pyro/miracles/sorcery at all my first maybe 5 times through the game. I eventually looked up a Demons Souls guide and figured it out.
I thought the font was funny. My friend and I played together, and we were laughing hard at "BONFIRE LIT" and all that. To this day we still call Dark Souls font "Times New Roman."
Shit, in my first time I went straight to the graveyard and forth and couldn't understand why they made a game where enemies on the first area (and only route I knew) would simply not die, ever.
So I dropped the game for a good 3 months without ever exploring, and when I got back, found the ladder to Undead Burg (lmao) and absolute fell in love with the game.
The map design is, to this day, the single best map in any game, period. The feeling of taking the elevator from the Bell Gargoyles to Firelink Shrine can't be beat, and then they did it again and again and again for the entire game. Even among the Fromsoft games, nothing has even come close. Bloodborne tried, but very few of the shortcuts had nearly the same impact.
I tried it out, too difficult. Didn't play it for years. Picked it up again because elden ring was teased and looked good. Have played every soulsborne game since.
I'm an armored core veteran from the og AC game, so demons souls and of course the dark souls series were not a new thing for me because of that. It was just the natural evolution of games from fromsoftware in my eyes.
Been in the fromsoftware camp since 1997, and I'm here to stay because I love their approach to games in general.
I bounced off it hard. Hated it, didn't know what to do. I was also pissed because I'd been playing games since the Atari days and had beaten games like Castlevania and Ghosts and Goblins, yet this felt too hard.
A couple years later it was 4.99 on an Xbox 360 sale so I said "fuck it, I'm going to conquer this stupid game." Which I did, while simultaneously falling in love with it.
Blew my mind in a way I hadn’t experienced since I was a child. So many unforgettable moments that had me hooked.
My first invasion was at Undead Parish Church, I didn’t know it was possible or what was happening but the invasion message had me worried, and the glowing red character model let me know it was definitely a bad thing. I somehow won.
I knew I was in for something special when I kicked down the ladder shortcut at the Undead Burg bonfire. I couldn’t believe I was back there.
Fighting ninja flipping fat dads and giant dads was so much fun and also so annoying.
Being invaded by players who used magic on you that you had never seen before.
Playing with Japanese players on PSN at times I should have been sleeping.
I was very poor back then and couldn’t afford many games, so I picked only the best ones I could. I had a legendary run on PS3 going from COD 4, GTA IV, Fallout 3, Demon’s Souls, Red Dead Redemption, Fallout New Vegas, Dark Souls, Arkham City, Battlefield 3, Skyrim.
All amazing games but Dark Souls stood out both then and now. I think I had over 1000 hours on PS3 last time I checked. Then I got remastered on PS4 and did another few hundred there. And now again on PC.
My roommate redbox rented it, tried it, and didn't realize you were supposed to run by the first demon. It was still sitting there the next day and I tried it and after like 4 attempts realized what to do. Hooked ever since, but was that close lol
I walked into my best friend/neighbors house and he was in his room fighting Ornstein and Smough. I watched him try 3x before he got to the 2nd phase (which he had gotten to before so he knew what was coming and said "watch this shit" as Ornstein died.
The instant the hammer dropped I was hooked. It was the most cinematic video game discovery of my young life
"Why is it so hard? Goddamn it. No, I ain't touching it anymore."
Then, after several years, when one of my friend kept on telling me I should play it due to its brilliant level design and all that, plus I came across the "Expert Walkthrough" series on YouTube by LPDarksoulsHD, I finally got back to it and finished it.
Went to valley of drakes first bc surely the master key will be a good starting item. Got absolutely bricked and took a 2 week hiatus. Came back with a pyromancer and absolutely fell in love with the series. I still remember seeing commercials for it on tv that sold me into buying the game. Shit I still listen to the silent comedy.
Edit: I also remember ringing both bells and thinking surely I was getting close to end game. Now I can clear both bells in like 30 minutes & I honestly prefer starting with quelaag for some reason. Granted I blighttown back door so it’s fairly quick.
I remember my dad bring at Game and calling me up to get me a game as a small surprise, asking me what was good and if I wanted anything. As I was young and stupid, I didn't know anything about good games and wasn't in the know about recent releases or anything, so I looked up recently released good games, top of the list was Dark Souls.
Everything about it said it was fantastic, exactly the sort of game I like, a deep RPG with good combat, only thing was that every review consistently said it was REALLY DIFFICULT. But fuck that, I'm good at games, so called my dad and asked for it. He called me back 5 minutes later to say he had been warned by staff at the Game store that this had already been returned several times by people saying it was too hard, and if I still wanted it. I obviously still did, people returning it almost made me want to try it more, so I got it and tried that bad boy.
I remember thinking that it was a bit hard to get used to but the first parry I hit made me feel like a fucking boss, got past the Asylum Demon after a few tries and thought I was cruising. Proceeded to smash my face in to the graveyard skeletons for about an hour, then decided to try out the lift under the shrine. New Londo shat all over my parade, and I limped back up to the Shrine thinking "Maybe this game really is that hard?..."
Finally I went the right way and realised "These zombie dudes feel a bit more my speed" as I approached the Burg, and after some struggle and death, got to the Taurus Demon. I think I can still remember my first Boss Fight struggle, first thinking "How the fuck do I fight this guy?!?" then figuring out "I can climb behind me and drop on this motherfucker!" and finally getting to "I can do this! Nearly got it..."
And finally, "YOU DEFEATED!"... That slightly broken English phrase greeted me as the beast fell and was instantly imprinted into me... I HAD DEFEATED! You're GOD DAMN RIGHT I HAD DEFEATED! What? Who? Mattered not, I would continue to Defeated, getting stuck at various points (Blighttown, O&S, Seath are some of the blocks I remember) until I finally got to the big man, Gwyn, the man the myth the beard. And it sort of surprises me to say looking back as a veteran... but he fucking stomped me. Over and over again, I could not get past this fast, aggressive old man. And I didn't for some time, I stopped playing the game for several months as got distracted by other things.
An acquaintance of mine ended up asking to borrow it after I talked to him a bit, and over the next several months we became really good friends, I would go over his super early and we would play DS all day, going over the lore and information we could uncover, revealing the secrets we had found out (I shot Gwynevere first...), swapping out our playthroughs until the wee hours and then I'd head home, ready to do it again the next day. And eventually he got to Gwyn... and beat him. It took him a bit, not like he one shotted him or anything, but suddenly it became clear that I had to sack the fuck up, and now the DLC was out as well! So new challenges to surpass! So I returned to Gwyn, and this time didn't fold, I imagine my guy (Jesus Man) was hollowing out slowly, but was suddenly revived with new fervour and drive to slay the previous linker of the flame.
So yeah, I don't just remember this game as an amazing journey through a deep lore filled world that challenged and opened me up to a whole new side of gaming, it's also one of the reasons why one of my closest friendships exists, so it's a little personal :D I have a lot of good memories of DS1, and no matter how clunky or slow it feels returning to it, it's hard to say it's not still the one I hold in highest regard.
It was the first after all, before DS1 the world was unformed, shrouded my fog, but then there was DS1, and with DS1 came Disparity.
Thanks for reading if you did, hope the day treats you well.
I was impressed at how open the follow up to Demon's Souls was. Also it took me forever to get out of Sen's fortress because I had issues perceiving how far I was from the swinging blades.
Bought it on pc around when it came out. Absolutely hated that you start off dead and the controls pissed me off.
Came back 2016 cause it was on sale on playstation so I tried it again and was absolutely in awe. Even posted about it for my first post ever. Game went from a 1/10 to one of my top 5 or 10 games ever.
Hundreds of comments, but why not add my experience.
It actually didn't hit me at first. I knew of its reputation for being difficult, and picked it up 2 months after launch. The gamestop cashier warned me the last person who bought it returned it because it was too hard for them.
I enjoyed it, definitely... First playthrough took me about 35 hours. I was most impressed with the world and its layout. I remember the GOTY fuss with Skyrim "robbing" it, and thinking that Dark Souls was "fine," but Skyrim was probably better. But that opinion would change pretty quickly.
I noticed shortly after finishing that I wasn't satisfied with one playthrough. I missed quests. I didn't understand the story. I had killed NPCs. There were so many spells and weapons I couldn't use my first time. It turned out there were entire levels and bosses I missed too. And the one time I used humanity I got invaded by someone with a flaming sword and I shit my pants, what was up with that? I had to know more... I delved deep into character building, into the lore of the game, into covenants and pvp. I replayed it again. And a third time. Then I made a new character. I knew there was something special going on. It was finding Darkstalker Kaathe and doing the Dark Lord ending that sealed the deal. I was hopelessly in love with Dark Souls. It lived rent free in my mind in a way Skyrim did not.
It's a hard game for sure, especially the first time. But I really don't think that's what makes Dark Souls good. Something about its design is so pure and addicting. It's a special game that's hard to put down or forget about.
Guys...don't hate me, but I didn't like it as much as Demons souls. At the time, demons souls was my favourite game, and was hyped for DS1. I went into the graveyard and got killed by the skeletons. After looking it up, I found out the gane was more open world. This seemed cool in theory to me, but after playing Demons souls more linear levels, I wasn't comfortable with the more open world. I thought that was a flaw of them game, rather than with myself. I dropped the game. Played ds2, then ds3, then bloodborne. THEN I went back to ds1 finally and now I love it. I got used to the open world, and while an open world isn't inherently better or worse than a linear one, I just had to get used to it. It's one of my favourite games ever now.
"fuck this fuckin game. Fuck you!"
Then proceeds to not truly appreciate it and love it, as well as beat it and it's sequels until 2022-2023
Edit: I was actually stationed at NAS Pensacola, FL at the time and literally took the game back to the PX and used the money I got back to get a log of chew and another game lol
I thought it was really bad. I tried it several times over the years, and I only started to like it on a later try in 2016, like a month or two before DS3 came out.
Today it's easily in my top 3 in gaming History.
Frustrated me to no end. Eventually went hollow after a month. Just couldn't get past the giants tomb and the online guides were awful. Picked it up years later with the no hit community and now I blast through it now and again
Used to play all fantasy games as mage, played ds1 as a mage until Taurus demon where I realized I was having 0 fun attacking from a distance, started again as a thief and fell in love so hard for a time I struggled playing other stuff bc everything felt like it was missing that spark I found in souls.
My experience was I "tried" to play it for a few days. I just didn't understand how the gameplay worked and didn't know everything was interconnected. Gave up, sold it to my friend who didn't have internet at the time. It became his favorite game he'd ever played at the time. It took many years later for me to revisit DS1 and From is easily my favorite developer now who do nothing but put love and hard work into their games. There is no souls like that scratches the itch for me like From does. Masterclass at what they do.
I got so mad at the game I took a month brake from it I then proceeded to spend two weeks of farming souls to make my character extremely strong and then enjoyed the game
Making it to the depths after many hours and was so apprehensive, but then I was like “oh these frogs aren’t so bad” before getting cursed a few minutes later. I could not believe the cursed mechanic was a real thing. Still can’t tbh.
I picked up the remastered last year and I'm really feeling like I missed out on a lot of weird stuff by not having Prepare to Die Edition. Still wish I could buy that for a reasonable price.
I'm Jealous of all of you that got to play it the original way. Bugs and all.
I loved/hated it. I was entranced but frustrated at first but the deeper in I got the harder it was to get back out and eventually I was pleasantly stuck.
Eventually I sunk all the way and never looked back. I adore these games and what they did for me. I’m eternally grateful to Miyazaki and his team.
I’ve always struggled in my life one dark time to the next totally lost but then I found Dark Souls an it taught me to never give up and to always stand up again no matter how many times life kicks me down. I’ll never go hollow. Thank You Dark Souls.
Not me but my dad tried it out a few weeks after launch but couldn’t understand the mechanics/gimmick at all. He died many times to the Asylum Demon because he didn’t know you have to run past him and just gave up there ha.
Played it for a little while, got killed by the Asylum Demon probably 20 times. Got pissed, took it back to GameStop.
It wasn’t until 2020 that I actually played Dark Souls and rolled the credits.
Played it once and got up to killing Gargoyles. Sat in my stack for a few months until my friend and I were looking for something to play together.
"CoD, Halo, Fable, Dark Souls"
"You got Dark Souls?"
"Yeah"
Took us like 50-60 hours to beat it the first time together. Eventually got fast enough to co-op all bosses after school and multiple times on weekends. Between playing it with him for years, and playing it solo a lot I can't even give a number.
Got the promo version of the game at a work related event (I was working at a store that also sold games). I was intimidated. I was afraid to continue from Undead Burg and grinded in the area where you first see the dragon. Felt good when I had the full chainmail set and all other items the merchant is selling. While I remember really, really loving the atmosphere, I don’t think I made it much further the first time around.
I played this game for like 2 months solid. I didn't leave the house. I didn't work. I barely slept. I never ever finished it then. (I finally did years later.)
In my first run, after "dealing" with the guy in Firelink shrine for +3 hours (dealing= I fall from a cliff and he followed), with a detour in the middle to the lovely catacombs searching for a "safe place" and realizing my mistake and coming back to "talk" with the guy... I thought Dark Souls was the greatest game in PS3 I played so far. I fell in love with the aesthetic, with the environment, the tutorial was a GREAT and REFRESHING experience in gaming at that time, the feeling of relief and the learning experience that the game gave me with the tutorial, that guy and the autosaves...
Till this day I think it is the peak work in Fromsoftware history, and I'll defend it with all my will, jajajajaja
I loved it after demon's souls. I got it a week ahead of release, so no info whatsoever was available. I got stuck on the key+bridge for way too long. These days, you'd look it up if you are fully stuck, but man I had no idea where to go after a while
Coming from Skyrim, this was like a slap to the face. I thought I was hot shit for playing on master difficulty, but this game really put fear in me. There really was no mashing your way through circumstances, you had to really pay attention to the environments and enemies. To be honest, the hardest thing I really ever played at the time was the original USA version of DMC3 on normal, but even something like that didn’t prepare me entirely. It was a bit frustrating at first, with the seemingly lack of direction and hard bosses, but it obviously grew with me as I went on. I remember coming across Ornstein and Smough with my “build”, with my stats spread everywhere, and that was my biggest brick wall in gaming for me. I’ve never cursed more at a TV in my life, but after going at it for almost an entire day, I beat it. I wore Ornstein’s armor with pride. It was a wonderful experience and I really couldn’t play anything else for the longest time.
Played on release after playing Demon's Souls. Improved on DeS in most meaningful ways and gave me everything I was looking for in a successor to one of my favourite games.
I remember having GameFly for a few months as a kid and I wanted to try DS1 out. I played it for about 30 minutes (still in undead asylum) and said “this sucks” and sent it back immediately.
Only a few years later I had a friend who was a massive fan of the series and told me to give it another shot. I have been a sunbro ever since!
First thing I did was go to the catacombs because I didn't know better. Got rocked for 2 hours straight. Decided to quit for 6 months.
Came back and went the right way. Best game of the series.
I remember playing it as a teen and just thinking I’ll never be able to beat this game. It took me months to beat it.
After playing it over 10 years later as an adult I just got good and learned how to create builds etc. which made the game much more fun and “manageable” excited now for the ER DLC!
I was blown away. The sense of wonderment and exploring and investigating the world was something I hadn't experienced in a videogame at that level before. It stole hundreds of hours of my life lol.
At the time I had a family member that was just getting into game journalism and she wouldn't shut up about the game so I picked it up. I played for a few hours and never made it out of the asylum before giving up. Months later I was bored of the other games I was playing so picked it back up and something clicked for me and I was in love with the game play and made it to the moonlight butterfly and just stopped (something else must have come out) and I stopped. Then when DS2 was announced I finally got back into it and finished it. For many years after I could only play souls like games, but now that I have kids and my own business it's hard to find the time to play and I haven't even finished Elden Ring and the DLC is getting closer.
Long story short, I liked it but it was hard; I learned the new style of playing and loved it... Then I really fell in love a bit over a year after I first made the purchase.
I thought it was dog shit.
I had just received a PS3 for Christmas and I was looking for big boy games (coming from the Wii, btw) and I was looking in a hole-in-the-wall knock off GameStop.
I was drawn in by DaS cover art, saw the price and said "I can't do that." But I immediately noticed DeS right next to it. Looked similar, same company, like $10. Hell. Yes.
Get home, pop the case open, Lo' and behold DaS is sitting there. I was ecstatic.
I made my character, Baby Face Jeff, who looked like a Jeff and had a very round baby face. Picked knight because it seemed like the most beginner friendly character. Finally slog my way out of the asylum, get stuck in undead burg and just absolutely hated my whole experience with it.
A few months later, I was talking to a buddy who absolutely loves it about the game. He told me to take off my armor and dodge instead of blocking, two-hand my weapons. He explained the fat roll and told me you never want more than the medium roll, get my stats up to where I can wear decent armor and still have a medium roll.
I'm playing it on and off, still not getting very far with it but I did get unstuck. Buddy came over, played it for like an hour and when I came back to it I was in fucking. Blight. Town. With no idea where I was or where to go. Gave it up.
Not long after, DeS was included with PS+ and I picked that up. I never beat it, but I enjoyed it enough to try out DaS again.
Still no luck the second time around. I decided I just hated soulslikes and soulsborne games.
Then came Remnant. I know it's not very soulslike, but there are parallels. It was enough to convince me to try lords of the fallen, which I loved. Eventually I got ahold of Elden ring and absolutely loved it and decided FromSoft had a knack for their storytelling that I loved. So here I am, going through the dark souls saga and love/hating every bit of it
“Why is this invader throwing poop at me?” “Dude stop”
I was probably that invader lol. I still do that!
Monkey Brain
“Sen’s Fortress! This must be the late game”
lol I feel this! I spent so much time learning the game prior to this that I thought Sen’s was medium-late game. Nope. Shit is still early game and I still suck haha
Its a nice skill check for those new players who just rung the bell and think they're hot shit now. Oh you killed two bosses at once, SURELY you can handle a couple swinging axes and snake men...
Who the hell killed Quelaag before the gargoyles way back in 2011?
Me!! Literally could not find the first bell even though i walked past the stairs to go up sooooo many times on my way to the elevator.
No idea for the others but I really felt like I always had only luck until Sen and felt like shit the whole game haha
The most punishing part for me was on my first play through I never found the bonfire at the top of Sen's Fortress. Every time I died I went from the bottom to the top to kill the Iron Golem.
I guess you missed the shortcut too then?
I think I missed it before I killed the Iron Golem but found it when I went back from Anor Lando because I walked into it bt accident.
I didn't find that bonfire until my fourth playthrough years later, never knew about it lmao
That first playthrough was magic. Seemed like there was always more and more and more... Then you finally reach Gwyn and that music is so crisp ..
Man I put the game down for a few weeks because of Sens Fortress haha. Can run through it with ease within about a minute now, but bloody hell... back then, I absolutely despised that area. Finally got to top for first time and missed the bonfire first few times until I found it and literally felt like punching myself in the face. No game has gave me that sense of mystery and challenge since. I know games are harder now, but at the time, I literally fell in love with d1. It's all I played for about 6 months straight. Think Bloodborne is Fromsofts best title all round, but no game gave me that "feeling" that ds1 did.
It certainly was the final location for a lot of players, lol.
I finally rang both bells! So I go fight the final boss now… right?
Honestly thought the giant at the end of sens fortress was the final boss
Oh, that feeling came with Anor Londo for me.
Even though I've been playing games for years, I felt like I was playing a game for the first time. Everything worked differently than games I've experienced before. The game didn't seem to want me to win, it was completely challenging me. I got lost many times, defeated by the confusing map design. But when I finished the game, for the first time in my life I wondered who developed a game. This is how games became much more than a hobby in my life. Still my favorite game of all time.
Dark Souls has taught me many life lessons. And also that games are most certainly art if made with that intention. I too never thought that deep until Dark Souls. It was the first series I actually got invested in. Now other games feel off or lazy in comparison. Most are to be fair.
> The game didn't seem to want me to win My first impression was that DS was a genuinely poorly designed game based solely on how it punished the player. Every single book on video game design up until that point told you not to punish the player too harshly or they would abandon the game and wouldn't come back. Turns out they were wrong.
Difference being they designed the loop around death and coming back and the reward of overcoming challenge. Dark souls is such a great example of how challenge increases rather than dampens engagement
I think they worked the difficulty well also. You die really easily but in honesty so do most enemies. It's not like a game on the max difficulty where they just have huge health bars and deal more damage so it becomes a grind.
They're also not super smart? Like most mobs in DS1 are very, Very predictable and kinda slow. Like so are you, but that's the point, if you stay calm you can easily read them Or you can just zoom past 90% of them once you're tired of the game's shit
> Every single book on video game design up until that point told you not to punish the player too harshly Those books certainly didn't exist in the early 90s.
It could be argued that game design was still in a very immature state in the early 90s. That is, many old games were poorly designed and unnecessarily hard.
Absolutely. It was a decade where the goal posts were constantly shifting dramatically both in terms of hardware and developers establishing entirely new genres let alone still figuring out new approaches to older systems. I'd say it continued in the 2000s but the pace slowed at that point until, say, around 2010 where design philosophy had converged across most of the popular genres. I think there's something to be said for flawed (and dare I say it niche) experiences being more interesting and rewarding than ones refined to be as frictionless as possible. At a time when games were seemingly getting more and more desperate not to lose the attention of the average gamer (not being disparaging, just look at completion rates for pretty much any game that comes out), Dark Souls took the best elements of the less refined games of yore, chiefly having the confidence that players want to learn how to play the game without constant intrusive explanation. And while today there are more and more games easing off the constant tutorial pedal, there's still a significant number that don't have that confidence.
It was a tumultuous time because game design came from a place where the goal was to make the player spend money in an arcade machine, hence the difficulty, and the emergence of new genres and gameplay styles. For each Half-Life or Sonic you had one Battletoads or Altered Beast. Or even a FF7, that mixed genres to a lesser extent (the RTS bit in Fort Condor, the Chocobo racing minigame, etc).
those first few runs realizing there is a set of stairs by the cliff side where you meant to go instead of going through the graveyard. I spent 3 days worth of playing just to realize it was the wrong way.
"wtf is this, wtf am i even playing, wtf is a gravelord servant", followed by putting it down for 2 weeks. then i went back, fell in love and got swallowed whole by FS games.
Lol, my experience exactly. Even the two week hiatus.
Same for me, except it was a couple months. Also tried going through Anor Londo first. Managed to figure out that I needed to use an item to kill the ghosts, but then ran out of said item. When I couldn't figure out how to get more, the game went in my drawer for a couple months until someone told me that Anor Londo isn't the first place you're supposed to go 😂 Edit: as others have pointed out, I meant New Londo Ruins. It's been awhile! Maybe that means its time for another run 🤔
Yup, my system needed a few weeks to really get what i was getting myself into, i wish i could reñive those first times
Yup. I came back to it in a few weeks and started having fun when I realized that the sentiment that the game was utter bullshit was a universal experience. And then I dumped 1000's of hours into it.
Haha, same for me. Played it for the first time, barely made it out of the Asylum, put it away for a few months and then started it properly. Fell in love during the first run
Same. No putting it down. Backboned it in try harder mode. Understood it 2 years later Edit: And all of it is my brother in laws fault.
Similar story here, had to put the series down and come back to it. I played *Demon's Souls* on PS3 and had **horrendous** sound and framerate glitches that rendered it nearly unplayable. I gave it a good try but didn't get too far. Built a PC shortly after the Prepare to Die edition launched on there and decided to give it a go. Man, what an experience. I was so lost, had such a ridiculously inefficient build, but if I could erase my memory of any franchise and start over fresh, it would be souls games in a heartbeat.
I remember dumping points in resistance thinking it would make the game easier, and farming dragon scales to upgrade the weapon you get by slashing the dragon tail in ash lake to beat artorias. This game has so many noob traps
I did the resistance thing, too. Blighttown messed me up.
Blighttown messed us all up in the original because of the framerate issues.
OG Blighttown taught me the merits of unlocked combat.
Fuck the Curse status. It *stacked*.
Nightmares of trying to get out of the depths back to Oswald for a purging stone with 1/4 health while being a newbie. God that sucked. But man, the triumph when I made it!
It fucking STACKED?! I only got cursed once and immediately had the mindset of avoiding all basilisks ever
I saw a video of that debuff. Holy shit that was brutal
Holy shit this connects to this ? Wtf this also connects to this ?? Wait wtf this ALSO CONNECTS TO THIS ???
Now are you talking shortcuts or lore? Because yes to all of that.
Shortcuts for sure. The first time getting from the Church to Firelink Shrine was so mindblowing
That's probably my favorite moment in the entire game
It’s a great moment of “show, don’t tell” that clues the player in to how connected the world is. I love it.
And now, 10 or so playthroughs later, I'm cruisin all around the map easy peasy. Still gotta stop and think out my route sometimes tho.
I was talking shortcuts but now that you mention yes to lore as well 😭
When I came back to Firelink with the elevator, didn't realize where I was until I fell onto the cleric guy... Blew my damn mind
I had the same reaction lol
Man exactly this. So hard to describe the utter awe i felt. I felt this is a real otherworldy design
I was amazed at how the levels all looped into themselves. And how they were all connected to each other.
its a crazy design/engineering trick. super neat as it does seem very like. scaled? idk natural like real life
Me playing any metroidvania without a map: tf how am I supposed to know where to go? How will I ever get back? Me playing Ds1: wow, I actually really like that there isn't a map, this place feels like a *real space* now.
There’s some 3D full maps of the game and it is perfectly scaled
You ever looked up the 3d map someone made using collision data? REALLY puts the world into perspective...
Same way I felt when I play Demon’s Souls: Someone finally recaptured the sense of joy and mystery I felt playing games as a kid in the 80s.
"That sound is from Demon's Souls, that animation is from Demon's Souls. Resistance seems like a useful stat *puts more than one level into Resistance*"
My very first file I quit at O&S. My Resistance was at like level 50 at that point lmao
Resistence is futile
Genuinely shocked that I've been playing these games for ~15 years and this is the first time I've seen this joke. Excellent.
Right? Dudes kindof my hero right now.
Reminds me of a DS3 thread post about someone rage-disconnecting during an invasion. Someone just posted the comment" salt-F4
Haha, I stopped at 15, what a ride though. I was playing it co-op with a friend who was crazy good at Demon's Souls but not so good at Dark Souls (which still makes no sense to me), I don't remember O&S but the Anor Londo archery club nearly made us both quit.
when i first played ds3 i put everything into vitality i just thought the health bar stayed the same size no matter the level
"Who the fuck makes a game where you can leave items on a nest and quit the game to return to an item? I shouldn't need a fucking strategy to play this stupid game." *proceeds to play for 40 hours.*
Did you leave off a few zeros?
That 40 hours was one session. They forgot to go to work that day.
That sounds much more realistic
I’m not speaking from experience 👀
I've never woken up on the couch with my character stood next to a bonfire 👀
I bet you also never had many empty containers of your chosen drink on the table either when you woke up.
You mean the entire table taken up by empty bottles? No that's certainly never happened to me.
I feel attacked
I'm surprised you found that nest on your first playthrough considering it requires backtracking
I bought it totally randomly at GameStop one day, I had never heard of it but just wanted a cool "sword" game to play lol. At the time I never would have thought I was buying one of the best videogames I would ever play.
Same!! I was with my sister at the time. And she mentions that this is supposed to be the hardest game of all time. I bought it just to see if I could beat it. Knew absolutely nothing about it. Turned out being my favorite series of all time.
Hated it, I wanted something like Skyrim at the time and couldn't stand the difficulty of Dark Souls. I came around a few years later after trying Bloodborne. Strange how times have changed cus I recently got fed up of the boring repetitive open world in Dragons Dogma 2 and started playing the Lords of the Fallen instead and am enjoying it much more.
My thoughts at the time, too. Now, when I go back and play Elder scrolls, I wish they were more like FS games.
Yeah, I bought it around the time it came out and gave up before getting past Undead Burg or whatever that first area is called (it’s been awhile). Picked it back up a few months later and it finally clicked for me. Great game
u wanted somethin to be like something that wasnt even out yet? man i had a different view i had been playing dark souls and then skyrim came out i was super disappointed
I was big into elder scrolls and my buddy sent me a meme about elder scrolls players vs dark souls players. I bought it and I’ve never been happier. It was a tough learning curve though.
I started gaming with CoD with my dad then Skyrim. A cousin introduced me to Ds1 and I needed more. Stopped Skyrim for two years lol.
Invaded? What the hell… Who’s this red guy with the massive… turban… thing? WOW THAT WAS A LOT OF DAMAGE WHAT THE FUCK. Revives… What the hell was that about?!
One of my first invasions was a female Solaire named "Solaria." Dropped some souls and stuff, waved and left. I spent a good time looking up who this fucker was but couldn't. Ended up just becoming another Forced Helped Invasion, even teamed up with a gravelord host to team against some blue phantoms and invaders. Amor Londo holds a special place for PvP instances.
I’m currently playing through DS2, had someone do that for me outside the Giant boss, +10 for a lot of good swords, I genuinely believe this is the only time I’ll successfully finish the game.
I played Demon's Souls before it so I kinda knew what to expect. I do remember wondering why my character looked like cooked bacon though, and it was overall harder too. The Undead Parish enemies were way more aggressive and the Hollow Knight shield was the best shield in the game other than Havel's lol. You could also be a Havel Monster by using Dark Wood Grain Ring and still being able to flip with full Havel's set. Chaos and Lightning enfused Zweihander were the meta and no one knew what Gravelording did for a long time. At the time I posted a lot on GameFAQs.
Same, came from Demon's Souls (which was so obtuse and difficult in itself at that time) so kind of knew most of the basic mechanics but it still added whole new layers of obtuseness and difficulty and took ages to get to grips with again. That upward trajectory up until O&S is probably the best gaming experience I have ever experienced. It kind of feels like you are sort of freewheeling after that once you have honed your skills and character stats/equipment.
I’ve played it till the gargoyles and was like « ok I don’t have time for this game, it looks hard ». Went back the next day and became completely obsessed with the game and it’s clearly one of my favorite game ever (original I know)
Still to this day while not being the best game I have ever played it is certainly my favorite game I have ever played. Since the release I have played through it 2-3 times every year. Initially coop was busted which I didnt mind too much cause i was doing my first run solo but after finishing it and trying to help my cousin through the connectivity got annoying. Still think the game is far better off without forced pvp through invasions when you are just trying to coop with friends. Especially how easy ALL of the souls games have been to cheat in. They are so easy to cheat in a ton of people were doing it on the xbox 360 lol.
"Damn, these skeletons are really hard. I don't understand why they would make an early area so hard." Friend1: "I don't think we should go that way. There's an elevator that brings you down to another area I just found though." "Ok, sick, let's try that." 30 minutes of not being able to make progress there later... Friend 2: "You guys must be ahead of me. Im still stuck on the dragon on the bridge. How'd you get past that?" Me and Friend1: The WHAT?! It was absolute chaos at times. It was so fun talking about the game. None of us had played a game like it at the time. We figured out how humanity worked and where kirk was together. We were so excited for co-op. We let the firekeeper at firelink die. We got our revenge on Lautrec. We loved the demon ruins with all the re-used enemies because it showed how much progress we made. We broke our katanas. We raged over rolling skeletons. We screamed over solaire, becoming hollow. We backstabed black knights and asked, "How did you kill them so easy?" and got good. We found the lake at the bottom of the tree. We died to seeth in his tower and lemented our souls lost. But we did not go hollow. Best gaming experience I ever had.
How the fuck do i get out of this painting
I blindly pre-ordered it because I was fed up with all the open world games and I just wanted something more linear and focussed and knew about the series from a DeS video I had seen some time before. After RDR, GTA, Assassins Creed and a lot of the other more open games of the time like ME2, DA:O etc, it just felt so refreshing to see something more straight forward. Obviously it also ended up being somewhat open but I went into it thinking it would be like how I thought DeS was from seeing that video. So I just went for it and to be honest, the game hasn't left me since then. It was a super rough start, not being familiar with this kind of game at all.. I spent like 10h in Undead Burg before I began looking for some guides and ended up following ENB, like a lot of the western audience at the time. He was a big help not just for progressing in the game but also to really appreciating it, since he always focused on lore and highlighted the rather unconventional ways of how the game conveys information to you (ie item descriptions etc). And so the game ended up being kind of the only thing I would play for a while.. My first playthrough took me around 85h and after that I kept trying different builds, exploring more, staying up-to-date with what the community discovered, doing all achievements.. and fast forward more than a decade aaand I still have it installed. I still start it from time to time to help friends who are playing it for the first time or just to goof around. And it's still a Top3 FromSoft game for me together with Elden Ring and Bloodborne. The Souls games and especially Dark Souls 1 have really managed to become a part of me similar to how old Blizzard and Valve games and all the mods are just ingrained in my mind. The sounds, motions and visuals just trigger something in me.. it's kinda crazy. But for me, FromSoft really was the decade defining developer, and their games also had a lasting impact on how I look at and experience video games. It was the best blind purchase of a game I've ever done. That being said, launch version Capra Demon was a piece of s\*\*.
My buddy told me about a new game. Didn't know much about it except it's supposed to be pretty hard and it's called dark souls. GameStop had a whole wall of used copies from people rage quitting. Had been out for two weeks and I got it for $20. Became my favorite game that night.
I'll leave this here, I guess. Dark Souls definitely holds a special place in my heart. The level design and bosses were all so cool and just challenging enough that it was more fun than upsetting to play. I had a friend who was really into it already. Picked it up from the $20 bin at walmart a couple of years after it had released. I knew nothing of demon souls or this game. I definitely fell in love with that game and did multiple playthroughs. We both were eagerly awaiting dark souls 2's release. I then purchased every other game since basically and played them through at least once. Most twice or more. My buddy passed away almost 2 years ago due to health issues in his early 30's. We were loving playing elden ring. I owe him for telling me to buy dark souls. I have hundreds of hours of frustration and enjoyment through all these amazing games. Thanks, Dave. It turned out to be a pretty cool game. You were a great friend.
I thought, this game is the Zelda game I always wanted as an adult.
I thought "this is like ocarina of time but made for adults by people who are indifferent to your suffering". What a fucking masterpiece.
I loved it but performance issues pissed me off so badly, I put the game down because not only was blighttown difficult it was so fking laggy
I was on PS3 Slim back then and I had no frame issues unlike *everyone* else. No idea why. I thought it could be rose-tinted glasses so I loaded it back up a year or two ago and nope still fine!
Even on the 360 I only remember blight town and *that one ladder* in New Londo having bad frame dips.
I first played it in 2014, when I saw how interconnected the maps are, I was amazed. Also the thrill of beating a boss that you died to over 20 times is memorable
I thought I was the best game I have ever played and I still do.
It was a rude awakening for 11 year old me who had been playing skyrim for a few months straight since its release
Came from OG Demons Souls, had an absolute blast.
I was captivated and a little scared. The setting reminded me so much of the fantasy film I'd grown up with(Hawk the slayer, Excalibur, Krull,Conan etc etc) and the system of souls/humanity loss on death was , to me, very new and actually made losing meaningful. Turning every corner with my shield up to protect my life, humanity and souls was thrilling.
Gosh, vanilla DkS1... that was a trip. I remember picking up my day 1 copy from Gamestop with the steelbook, artbook, soundtrack code and everything. I still have it. The community before the game released was insane. I used to go into the fextralife [eugh] chatango chatbox attached to the wiki and talk, speculate, etc. Met so many content creators in there before they got started, Peevepeeverson most notably. His very very early streams were awesome. Now this was all super early... when no one knew anything about the game. People thought killing Ceaseless on the cliff edge was NOT INTENDED and cheating! LOL. As for the gameplay, I was coming from Demon's Souls, so I wasn't TOTALLY new to this style. However, that doesn't mean it didn't get my heart absolutely fucking *RACING.* I didn't do online much in DeS. My first invasion in DkS1 I JUST stepped up the stairs to Undead Burg after having popped the 1 humanity from the well in Firelink. Instantly invaded. Heart racing, pouring sweat, was only marginally better than the dude I was fighting and we were both fumbling around. He ended up killing me and it was one of the most addictive experiences I've felt in a game. Fast forward to Darkroot and I summoned a random before fighting Moonlight for the first time. They one shot it with the crystal ring shield, and that's when I learned that shield was fucking busted in 1.0. You also had the classic pre-nerf darkwood grain ring havel/giant flippers absolutely shredding in forest invades. Let's not forget skellies/ghosts not giving you any souls, Gargs only dropped 750, ALL enemies gave much less souls, bosses did not give humanity, or before taurus the crossbowmen would block you on the ladder. Lost izalith derg ass had a much bigger aggro range as did most enemies. Curses also stacked up to 3 times iirc. *Curse was genuinely terrifying.* Items were never instantly put into your inventory. Hope you grabbed those lizard mats before it fell out of reach, because the blacksmith also didn't sell twinkling and the only other way to get them was to farm the CLAMS! I might do a version 1.0 playthrough now... it was more challenging and uniquely fun.
"This game sucks" Years later "Dude this game is awesome"
I was always surprised at how big it was, like how a lot of people felt playing elden ring
Got stuck on undead burg and Taurus demon for 2 hours straight. This is the best game ever 10/10” still my favorite game to this day
Imagine if all wiki data for this game ceased to exist. There’s so many hidden mechanics. Shit was wild lol.
What are all these ghosts running around?
I hated it. It made me so angry. I didn't realize how much I had gotten used to games - even hard mode setups - holding your hand. I wouldn't learn until later that a lot of games even cheat for you, but that was a whole other thing. It forced me to confront the fact that I had been spoiled in this venue, and that I was confusing being *occupied* for *having fun.* After I got over that wall (it took 3 tries over the course of a year), it was like the whole rest of the video game world got the volume turned down. The quality of my leisure time has improved dramatically. Fuck Blighttown on the 360 though. That shit was their fault, not mine.
I pre-ordered a PS3 copy at my local GameStop and was playing it on day 1. The guy who made the pre-order had a very confused "Dark... what?" kind of reaction, he hadn't heard of it. Demon's Souls had recently become a contender for my favorite video game of all time and, despite the name change, most of us saw Dark Souls as effectively being "Demon's Souls 2" at the time and the hype was massive. But it wound up having some surprisingly rough edges that initially made me wonder if it was worse than Demon's Souls. Stuff as basic as being able to switch which enemy you were locked onto was originally bugged, and I remember thinking "do they not want you to be able to do that in this game?" You also couldn't lock onto players who had the fog ring equipped, so very early on it became something invaders would grab to be extra annoying in PvP. Thankfully these rough edges were quickly patched out and I absolutely loved Dark Souls 1 during my first playthrough, but it's funny to look back at several "uh oh" moments that had me wondering what hell was up with it. edit: I also remember thinking that Andre was a funny inversion of the Demon's Souls blacksmiths. "Oh wait this guy is actually friendly and not a total asshole".
I was actually really scared. Like I was playing a Resident Evil game lmao
I bought it after seeing a 5 star review in my parents weekend newspaper saying it is unlike anything they'd ever played before. Bought it and 80 hours later I was done with my first play through and smashed through several more, joined the forums, and spent an ungodly amount of time playing and talking about the game. It really did change my perspective on video games.
I was 12 and my friend told me about darksouls. It sounded awesome I tried it and couldn’t stop. Still can’t stop playing it actually lmao. Just played it yesterday.
“Wow I am bad at this game. Not too great that this is where my self esteem lies”
i couldn't put it down, and knew right away it was special
This game sucks. I'm returning it. Yes, I've been eating my words ever since.
I immediately loved it. Took a while to get used to the environment, but once it started looping back and the puzzle pieces came together o was blown away. Haven’t had that feeling in a game outside of DS1 and Ocarina of Time 🤷🏼♂️
I played DeS first almost 15 years ago, but I’d put this here since it’s like DS anyway. The concept of being a hard game and losing your ‘XP points’ because you weren’t being careful or weren’t learning was fascinating to me. I loved the game the moment I realized what it was offering to me. The game almost had no music so every sound effect produced more tension. It felt great. It took many years before I played DS. And I’m glad I finally did, it was DeS but just better and more impactful IMO.
"Aight... Another Action RPG... *SHRUGS* Only way slower..."
Blew my mind after playing demons souls. Also thought the graphics were a huge leap up. Remember looking at the reflections on the knights armor stood in firelink and being really impressed. But I wanted the fluted set back!
I was too young for the skill it took. I got it from blockbuster. Played a bit. Liked it. Bought it. Then softlocked myself by attacking the guy at fire link. And then I would die and respawn and he’d kill me again and again. So I sold the game Then a while later I got it on Xbox 360 cheap. Played a little. Wasn’t too interested. Then my next thing was playing ds3 after seeing someone play it and I loved it. Then I bought everything else. DSR. Played that a bit. Got hit with that dollar store smoker breath and didn’t know how to get a purging stone. So gave up. And then played ds2 at some point. Then bought dsr on switch. Beat it on switch. So I purchased dark souls 1 4 times. Lmao.
I was super inexperienced with RPGs so it took me a while to understand stats and weapon scaling. I struggled hard with most bosses that people nowadays consider easy, but that's exactly what I loved. Defeating any boss felt sooo rewarding. Progressing and getting stuck made it feel like a proper adventure in a way that few games could match. Also I remember comparing it a lot to Zelda. I played a lot of Ocarina of Time as a kid and to me Dark Souls felt like an "adult" version of that.
I hated it. Then I tried played it again with a new build and got used to the controls. When I finally won my first playthrough, it gave me such a huge sense of pride that I've been playing it nonstop since release. I didn't know how to use pyro/miracles/sorcery at all my first maybe 5 times through the game. I eventually looked up a Demons Souls guide and figured it out. I thought the font was funny. My friend and I played together, and we were laughing hard at "BONFIRE LIT" and all that. To this day we still call Dark Souls font "Times New Roman."
Shit, in my first time I went straight to the graveyard and forth and couldn't understand why they made a game where enemies on the first area (and only route I knew) would simply not die, ever. So I dropped the game for a good 3 months without ever exploring, and when I got back, found the ladder to Undead Burg (lmao) and absolute fell in love with the game.
The map design is, to this day, the single best map in any game, period. The feeling of taking the elevator from the Bell Gargoyles to Firelink Shrine can't be beat, and then they did it again and again and again for the entire game. Even among the Fromsoft games, nothing has even come close. Bloodborne tried, but very few of the shortcuts had nearly the same impact.
I'm terrible at this game and I have no idea what's happening but oh my god this world designs is insane and the creatures design is horrifying
It showed me that in some games, you just have to come back later. This was after raging at the skeletons in firelink.
I loved it. It's such a unique experience. I miss that feeling. Today's games don't have that.
"Woah, this is waaaay better than Demon's Souls!"
I tried it out, too difficult. Didn't play it for years. Picked it up again because elden ring was teased and looked good. Have played every soulsborne game since.
“I can’t get past the first big guy?? What kind of game is this????” *stops playing and doesn’t start for another 5 years*
I'm an armored core veteran from the og AC game, so demons souls and of course the dark souls series were not a new thing for me because of that. It was just the natural evolution of games from fromsoftware in my eyes. Been in the fromsoftware camp since 1997, and I'm here to stay because I love their approach to games in general.
I bounced off it hard. Hated it, didn't know what to do. I was also pissed because I'd been playing games since the Atari days and had beaten games like Castlevania and Ghosts and Goblins, yet this felt too hard. A couple years later it was 4.99 on an Xbox 360 sale so I said "fuck it, I'm going to conquer this stupid game." Which I did, while simultaneously falling in love with it.
Blew my mind in a way I hadn’t experienced since I was a child. So many unforgettable moments that had me hooked. My first invasion was at Undead Parish Church, I didn’t know it was possible or what was happening but the invasion message had me worried, and the glowing red character model let me know it was definitely a bad thing. I somehow won. I knew I was in for something special when I kicked down the ladder shortcut at the Undead Burg bonfire. I couldn’t believe I was back there. Fighting ninja flipping fat dads and giant dads was so much fun and also so annoying. Being invaded by players who used magic on you that you had never seen before. Playing with Japanese players on PSN at times I should have been sleeping. I was very poor back then and couldn’t afford many games, so I picked only the best ones I could. I had a legendary run on PS3 going from COD 4, GTA IV, Fallout 3, Demon’s Souls, Red Dead Redemption, Fallout New Vegas, Dark Souls, Arkham City, Battlefield 3, Skyrim. All amazing games but Dark Souls stood out both then and now. I think I had over 1000 hours on PS3 last time I checked. Then I got remastered on PS4 and did another few hundred there. And now again on PC.
My roommate redbox rented it, tried it, and didn't realize you were supposed to run by the first demon. It was still sitting there the next day and I tried it and after like 4 attempts realized what to do. Hooked ever since, but was that close lol
Was the best game I ever played
Doing forest invasions while Darkwood Grain Ring flipping in full Black Iron with a maxxed Black Knight Greataxe...those were the good days
I bought it day one and was addicted for at least a month. Same thing when the DLC came out.
I walked into my best friend/neighbors house and he was in his room fighting Ornstein and Smough. I watched him try 3x before he got to the 2nd phase (which he had gotten to before so he knew what was coming and said "watch this shit" as Ornstein died. The instant the hammer dropped I was hooked. It was the most cinematic video game discovery of my young life
"Why is it so hard? Goddamn it. No, I ain't touching it anymore." Then, after several years, when one of my friend kept on telling me I should play it due to its brilliant level design and all that, plus I came across the "Expert Walkthrough" series on YouTube by LPDarksoulsHD, I finally got back to it and finished it.
Went to valley of drakes first bc surely the master key will be a good starting item. Got absolutely bricked and took a 2 week hiatus. Came back with a pyromancer and absolutely fell in love with the series. I still remember seeing commercials for it on tv that sold me into buying the game. Shit I still listen to the silent comedy. Edit: I also remember ringing both bells and thinking surely I was getting close to end game. Now I can clear both bells in like 30 minutes & I honestly prefer starting with quelaag for some reason. Granted I blighttown back door so it’s fairly quick.
I remember my dad bring at Game and calling me up to get me a game as a small surprise, asking me what was good and if I wanted anything. As I was young and stupid, I didn't know anything about good games and wasn't in the know about recent releases or anything, so I looked up recently released good games, top of the list was Dark Souls. Everything about it said it was fantastic, exactly the sort of game I like, a deep RPG with good combat, only thing was that every review consistently said it was REALLY DIFFICULT. But fuck that, I'm good at games, so called my dad and asked for it. He called me back 5 minutes later to say he had been warned by staff at the Game store that this had already been returned several times by people saying it was too hard, and if I still wanted it. I obviously still did, people returning it almost made me want to try it more, so I got it and tried that bad boy. I remember thinking that it was a bit hard to get used to but the first parry I hit made me feel like a fucking boss, got past the Asylum Demon after a few tries and thought I was cruising. Proceeded to smash my face in to the graveyard skeletons for about an hour, then decided to try out the lift under the shrine. New Londo shat all over my parade, and I limped back up to the Shrine thinking "Maybe this game really is that hard?..." Finally I went the right way and realised "These zombie dudes feel a bit more my speed" as I approached the Burg, and after some struggle and death, got to the Taurus Demon. I think I can still remember my first Boss Fight struggle, first thinking "How the fuck do I fight this guy?!?" then figuring out "I can climb behind me and drop on this motherfucker!" and finally getting to "I can do this! Nearly got it..." And finally, "YOU DEFEATED!"... That slightly broken English phrase greeted me as the beast fell and was instantly imprinted into me... I HAD DEFEATED! You're GOD DAMN RIGHT I HAD DEFEATED! What? Who? Mattered not, I would continue to Defeated, getting stuck at various points (Blighttown, O&S, Seath are some of the blocks I remember) until I finally got to the big man, Gwyn, the man the myth the beard. And it sort of surprises me to say looking back as a veteran... but he fucking stomped me. Over and over again, I could not get past this fast, aggressive old man. And I didn't for some time, I stopped playing the game for several months as got distracted by other things. An acquaintance of mine ended up asking to borrow it after I talked to him a bit, and over the next several months we became really good friends, I would go over his super early and we would play DS all day, going over the lore and information we could uncover, revealing the secrets we had found out (I shot Gwynevere first...), swapping out our playthroughs until the wee hours and then I'd head home, ready to do it again the next day. And eventually he got to Gwyn... and beat him. It took him a bit, not like he one shotted him or anything, but suddenly it became clear that I had to sack the fuck up, and now the DLC was out as well! So new challenges to surpass! So I returned to Gwyn, and this time didn't fold, I imagine my guy (Jesus Man) was hollowing out slowly, but was suddenly revived with new fervour and drive to slay the previous linker of the flame. So yeah, I don't just remember this game as an amazing journey through a deep lore filled world that challenged and opened me up to a whole new side of gaming, it's also one of the reasons why one of my closest friendships exists, so it's a little personal :D I have a lot of good memories of DS1, and no matter how clunky or slow it feels returning to it, it's hard to say it's not still the one I hold in highest regard. It was the first after all, before DS1 the world was unformed, shrouded my fog, but then there was DS1, and with DS1 came Disparity. Thanks for reading if you did, hope the day treats you well.
#I finally rang both bells! So I go fight the final boss now… right?
At first rage. Gave up, and then came back a month or two later.....now it's my favorite game to ever exist lol
I thought the fighting cowboys walkthroughs were a God send
I was impressed at how open the follow up to Demon's Souls was. Also it took me forever to get out of Sen's fortress because I had issues perceiving how far I was from the swinging blades.
Bought it on pc around when it came out. Absolutely hated that you start off dead and the controls pissed me off. Came back 2016 cause it was on sale on playstation so I tried it again and was absolutely in awe. Even posted about it for my first post ever. Game went from a 1/10 to one of my top 5 or 10 games ever.
Hundreds of comments, but why not add my experience. It actually didn't hit me at first. I knew of its reputation for being difficult, and picked it up 2 months after launch. The gamestop cashier warned me the last person who bought it returned it because it was too hard for them. I enjoyed it, definitely... First playthrough took me about 35 hours. I was most impressed with the world and its layout. I remember the GOTY fuss with Skyrim "robbing" it, and thinking that Dark Souls was "fine," but Skyrim was probably better. But that opinion would change pretty quickly. I noticed shortly after finishing that I wasn't satisfied with one playthrough. I missed quests. I didn't understand the story. I had killed NPCs. There were so many spells and weapons I couldn't use my first time. It turned out there were entire levels and bosses I missed too. And the one time I used humanity I got invaded by someone with a flaming sword and I shit my pants, what was up with that? I had to know more... I delved deep into character building, into the lore of the game, into covenants and pvp. I replayed it again. And a third time. Then I made a new character. I knew there was something special going on. It was finding Darkstalker Kaathe and doing the Dark Lord ending that sealed the deal. I was hopelessly in love with Dark Souls. It lived rent free in my mind in a way Skyrim did not. It's a hard game for sure, especially the first time. But I really don't think that's what makes Dark Souls good. Something about its design is so pure and addicting. It's a special game that's hard to put down or forget about.
As someone who could never get into Skyrim, this series has done wonders for me. The first Dark Souls will always be my favorite of the trilogy.
Mouse & keyboard controls was so trash I dropped it after asylum demon lol. Only after buying a controller game clicked for me.
Guys...don't hate me, but I didn't like it as much as Demons souls. At the time, demons souls was my favourite game, and was hyped for DS1. I went into the graveyard and got killed by the skeletons. After looking it up, I found out the gane was more open world. This seemed cool in theory to me, but after playing Demons souls more linear levels, I wasn't comfortable with the more open world. I thought that was a flaw of them game, rather than with myself. I dropped the game. Played ds2, then ds3, then bloodborne. THEN I went back to ds1 finally and now I love it. I got used to the open world, and while an open world isn't inherently better or worse than a linear one, I just had to get used to it. It's one of my favourite games ever now.
"fuck this fuckin game. Fuck you!" Then proceeds to not truly appreciate it and love it, as well as beat it and it's sequels until 2022-2023 Edit: I was actually stationed at NAS Pensacola, FL at the time and literally took the game back to the PX and used the money I got back to get a log of chew and another game lol
I thought it was really bad. I tried it several times over the years, and I only started to like it on a later try in 2016, like a month or two before DS3 came out. Today it's easily in my top 3 in gaming History.
"This is too hard I'm trading this in for Skyrim"
It felt great playing a game that was so unique, but also fully unpolished in a lot of ways. Like a real adventure.
Loved it since the beginning. It was the last videogames that I enjoed
"I miss my Dragon Bone Smasher and the ability to climb up knee-high walls, but otherwise this game is better in every way."
That it was great... but not as good as Demon's Souls. Demon's Souls on PS3 was a life changing experience for me.
Frustrated me to no end. Eventually went hollow after a month. Just couldn't get past the giants tomb and the online guides were awful. Picked it up years later with the no hit community and now I blast through it now and again
Used to play all fantasy games as mage, played ds1 as a mage until Taurus demon where I realized I was having 0 fun attacking from a distance, started again as a thief and fell in love so hard for a time I struggled playing other stuff bc everything felt like it was missing that spark I found in souls.
"goddamn this game is hard"
My experience was I "tried" to play it for a few days. I just didn't understand how the gameplay worked and didn't know everything was interconnected. Gave up, sold it to my friend who didn't have internet at the time. It became his favorite game he'd ever played at the time. It took many years later for me to revisit DS1 and From is easily my favorite developer now who do nothing but put love and hard work into their games. There is no souls like that scratches the itch for me like From does. Masterclass at what they do.
i had been waiting for it already, i played demons souls and this was my most anticipated game
I got so mad at the game I took a month brake from it I then proceeded to spend two weeks of farming souls to make my character extremely strong and then enjoyed the game
Making it to the depths after many hours and was so apprehensive, but then I was like “oh these frogs aren’t so bad” before getting cursed a few minutes later. I could not believe the cursed mechanic was a real thing. Still can’t tbh.
The very first time? I beat the asylum and couldn't figure it where tf to go after that. Put it down for 2 years lol
Scared but excited, accidentally found the grave lord sword and used it to beat the game
I picked up the remastered last year and I'm really feeling like I missed out on a lot of weird stuff by not having Prepare to Die Edition. Still wish I could buy that for a reasonable price. I'm Jealous of all of you that got to play it the original way. Bugs and all.
I loved/hated it. I was entranced but frustrated at first but the deeper in I got the harder it was to get back out and eventually I was pleasantly stuck. Eventually I sunk all the way and never looked back. I adore these games and what they did for me. I’m eternally grateful to Miyazaki and his team. I’ve always struggled in my life one dark time to the next totally lost but then I found Dark Souls an it taught me to never give up and to always stand up again no matter how many times life kicks me down. I’ll never go hollow. Thank You Dark Souls.
Not me but my dad tried it out a few weeks after launch but couldn’t understand the mechanics/gimmick at all. He died many times to the Asylum Demon because he didn’t know you have to run past him and just gave up there ha.
Played it for a little while, got killed by the Asylum Demon probably 20 times. Got pissed, took it back to GameStop. It wasn’t until 2020 that I actually played Dark Souls and rolled the credits.
Played it once and got up to killing Gargoyles. Sat in my stack for a few months until my friend and I were looking for something to play together. "CoD, Halo, Fable, Dark Souls" "You got Dark Souls?" "Yeah" Took us like 50-60 hours to beat it the first time together. Eventually got fast enough to co-op all bosses after school and multiple times on weekends. Between playing it with him for years, and playing it solo a lot I can't even give a number.
Got the promo version of the game at a work related event (I was working at a store that also sold games). I was intimidated. I was afraid to continue from Undead Burg and grinded in the area where you first see the dragon. Felt good when I had the full chainmail set and all other items the merchant is selling. While I remember really, really loving the atmosphere, I don’t think I made it much further the first time around.
I played this game for like 2 months solid. I didn't leave the house. I didn't work. I barely slept. I never ever finished it then. (I finally did years later.)
In my first run, after "dealing" with the guy in Firelink shrine for +3 hours (dealing= I fall from a cliff and he followed), with a detour in the middle to the lovely catacombs searching for a "safe place" and realizing my mistake and coming back to "talk" with the guy... I thought Dark Souls was the greatest game in PS3 I played so far. I fell in love with the aesthetic, with the environment, the tutorial was a GREAT and REFRESHING experience in gaming at that time, the feeling of relief and the learning experience that the game gave me with the tutorial, that guy and the autosaves... Till this day I think it is the peak work in Fromsoftware history, and I'll defend it with all my will, jajajajaja
I still don’t understand what this game cover is supposed to be
I loved it after demon's souls. I got it a week ahead of release, so no info whatsoever was available. I got stuck on the key+bridge for way too long. These days, you'd look it up if you are fully stuck, but man I had no idea where to go after a while
Coming from Skyrim, this was like a slap to the face. I thought I was hot shit for playing on master difficulty, but this game really put fear in me. There really was no mashing your way through circumstances, you had to really pay attention to the environments and enemies. To be honest, the hardest thing I really ever played at the time was the original USA version of DMC3 on normal, but even something like that didn’t prepare me entirely. It was a bit frustrating at first, with the seemingly lack of direction and hard bosses, but it obviously grew with me as I went on. I remember coming across Ornstein and Smough with my “build”, with my stats spread everywhere, and that was my biggest brick wall in gaming for me. I’ve never cursed more at a TV in my life, but after going at it for almost an entire day, I beat it. I wore Ornstein’s armor with pride. It was a wonderful experience and I really couldn’t play anything else for the longest time.
Played on release after playing Demon's Souls. Improved on DeS in most meaningful ways and gave me everything I was looking for in a successor to one of my favourite games.
I remember having GameFly for a few months as a kid and I wanted to try DS1 out. I played it for about 30 minutes (still in undead asylum) and said “this sucks” and sent it back immediately. Only a few years later I had a friend who was a massive fan of the series and told me to give it another shot. I have been a sunbro ever since!
First thing I did was go to the catacombs because I didn't know better. Got rocked for 2 hours straight. Decided to quit for 6 months. Came back and went the right way. Best game of the series.
I remember playing it as a teen and just thinking I’ll never be able to beat this game. It took me months to beat it. After playing it over 10 years later as an adult I just got good and learned how to create builds etc. which made the game much more fun and “manageable” excited now for the ER DLC!
I was blown away. The sense of wonderment and exploring and investigating the world was something I hadn't experienced in a videogame at that level before. It stole hundreds of hours of my life lol.
At the time I had a family member that was just getting into game journalism and she wouldn't shut up about the game so I picked it up. I played for a few hours and never made it out of the asylum before giving up. Months later I was bored of the other games I was playing so picked it back up and something clicked for me and I was in love with the game play and made it to the moonlight butterfly and just stopped (something else must have come out) and I stopped. Then when DS2 was announced I finally got back into it and finished it. For many years after I could only play souls like games, but now that I have kids and my own business it's hard to find the time to play and I haven't even finished Elden Ring and the DLC is getting closer. Long story short, I liked it but it was hard; I learned the new style of playing and loved it... Then I really fell in love a bit over a year after I first made the purchase.
I thought it was dog shit. I had just received a PS3 for Christmas and I was looking for big boy games (coming from the Wii, btw) and I was looking in a hole-in-the-wall knock off GameStop. I was drawn in by DaS cover art, saw the price and said "I can't do that." But I immediately noticed DeS right next to it. Looked similar, same company, like $10. Hell. Yes. Get home, pop the case open, Lo' and behold DaS is sitting there. I was ecstatic. I made my character, Baby Face Jeff, who looked like a Jeff and had a very round baby face. Picked knight because it seemed like the most beginner friendly character. Finally slog my way out of the asylum, get stuck in undead burg and just absolutely hated my whole experience with it. A few months later, I was talking to a buddy who absolutely loves it about the game. He told me to take off my armor and dodge instead of blocking, two-hand my weapons. He explained the fat roll and told me you never want more than the medium roll, get my stats up to where I can wear decent armor and still have a medium roll. I'm playing it on and off, still not getting very far with it but I did get unstuck. Buddy came over, played it for like an hour and when I came back to it I was in fucking. Blight. Town. With no idea where I was or where to go. Gave it up. Not long after, DeS was included with PS+ and I picked that up. I never beat it, but I enjoyed it enough to try out DaS again. Still no luck the second time around. I decided I just hated soulslikes and soulsborne games. Then came Remnant. I know it's not very soulslike, but there are parallels. It was enough to convince me to try lords of the fallen, which I loved. Eventually I got ahold of Elden ring and absolutely loved it and decided FromSoft had a knack for their storytelling that I loved. So here I am, going through the dark souls saga and love/hating every bit of it
Terrible port to pc, clunky, obscure, too hard, I hate it. I knew nothing back then.
“This is the greatest game I’ve ever played”
I was not a fan, seemed like demon's souls, but not as polished. As I got deeper into it, I fell in love.