Dark Souls - Part 3

Writing this on my iPad, so excuse any AutoCorrect-induced grammar

I got something I hadn't got in a while playing Dark Souls...an achievement (two achievements, to be honest). I'm not usually someone who cares about my GamerScore on Xbox Live, but it caused the biggest grin to appear on my face, simply because it reassured me that I was making significant progress. Something I hadn't done in a long time, due to constantly restarting the game.

An aspect I love about Dark Souls is the non-linear nature of the game. Past a certain point, you have a multitude of places you can travel to in the world and stand a chance of not getting destroyed by an enemy in two hits. So I did exactly that! Really, once you complete the first task you are given in the world, you would travel to the next objective through an area called The Depths (charming, I know). However, being the rogue-ish type I am, I took a shortcut. Granted this shortcut was littered with poisonous bastards, but it cut about three hours out of my journey.

Of course I taunted when I beat her

Quelaag was a bit of a pain in the ass to beat. She wasn't overly difficult in any sense, she just had a lot of health that took a while to whittle down. And I think it was smart design: the Taurus Demon and Capra Demon were both fairly quick fights, with both bosses having little health. Quelaag represents a change in pace for the game, with bosses suddenly require just as much patience as they require understanding.

Despite me taking a shortcut, I did decide to travel through the Depths and clear the boss there, just for the experience and Souls (currency in the game), and boy...it was disgusting. Giant rats, ooze monsters and a dragon that can only be described to people who have seen the movie 'Teeth'. It was horrifying!

I get creeped out by this picture

But again, the Gaping Dragon was similar to Quelaag, requiring patience and knowing when it was safe to attack, rather than the reckless abandon of early boss fights. It was a welcome change of pace, but I'm looking forward to seeing them vary it up, with more human-sized boss fights, rather than the monsters I am currently facing.

Overall, I'm so much more stoked about Dark Souls than I've ever been watching YouTube videos of these bosses being beaten. I'm not doing with the amount of skill some of them are doing it with, and there may be a lot of trial and error involved, but Dark Souls rewards you for wanting to get better, and it feels so good when you do.

Dark Souls - Part 2

Vereor Nox

I haven't made substantial progress since the last update, but I have killed the Capra Demon (fuck that guy!) and I remembered to take screenshots of some places by backtracking, so let's get to it!

Dark Souls is an oddly pretty game

So, I've finally killed the boss that has always had problems with, and now I feel so happy with myself, I'm tempted to just stop here! But I can't Lordran needs my help, because I'm apparently the only one who gives a shit about being Undead in this world, and wants to solve that problem, but I guess that's why the first NPC you meet is titled as "Crestfallen Soldier".

Although they are probably never going to be at the forefront of any conversation about Dark Souls, I absolutely love the narrative and characters in this game. The story is by no means deep, and the characters are fairly archetypical, they all fit together in this bleak and desolate world really well. And call me crazy, but I love narratives where the player can get as much information as they want, depending on how deep they delve into the fiction. 

Who the fuck is "Sir Onion"?

If the player wants, they can simply progress through the story, ring the two bells and continue doing what they are told, and see the story out. However, as YouTubers like EpicNameBro do, they can do the research into the items, their description, gathering lore information from the smallest details, like where a character is in the world. And I think that's insanely interesting, and it's always a nice touch there those whose make an effort get rewarded for their digging.

Yup, name makes perfect sense

So, now that I'm going into uncharted territory with Dark Souls, I'm super excited again! This should be fun, I'm pretty sure I'm going to a lava-based area now, so that'll be a pain in the ass, no doubt. But I'm pumped, and I'm going to fucking finish Dark Souls this time!

PS. Ok, so this may be considered cheating by some, but Dark Souls is a draining game, like...really draining. And updates may be slow when I become stuck in an area and can't make any forward progress, so in the coming days, I may be starting updates for another game , just so I can keep writing, and know I can take a break from Dark Souls as needed, so look forward to that!

Dark Souls - Part 1

I'm Simply...Crestfallen

Well, I knew this would happen eventually when I started this challenge, but I may have completely forgotten to actually take screeenshots for the blog...my bad! I play Dark Souls with the controller (because I'm not a maniac) and sit on my sofa, which means the 'Print Screen' button is forgotten about, so I'll skip having photos in this entry.

My history with Dark Souls is...troubled. I adore the game, I would probably say it's one of the best games of this generation. However, I've never played past one of the first bosses because he kept kicking my ass. Instead, I got my kicks by watching playthroughs, listening to discussions, and losing my shit over people speedrunning the game in less than an hour.

This time feels different though. For once, I feel like I could walk into the boss that keeps killing me and murder his demon ass fairly easily. And it's made me sit down and wonder why I feel differently this time and I could only give one answer: I'm not relying on skill anymore.

As I mentioned before, people make Dark Souls artificially hard for themselves by trying to dodge every attack and make it through on the bare minimum, stats and equipment-wise. I was the same, but some simple research made me realise that there is little advantage to doing that. So I tried this new tactic and found myself breezing through the game as far, even killing a boss I had never encountered before by taking a route I stumbled upon to find it. Enemies that were one-shoting me in previous playthroughs weren't even breaking my guard on this new, tank-focused, character. 

I'll go into detail about why I feel Dark Souls is one of the best games of the generation in a future update, but for now, I'm ready to fight this bloody goat demon and finally kill the bastard!

Dark Souls - Introduction

Foreword,

Well, it's been a while. University has put the challenge as it once was on hold, but now that I've got no idea what to play after finishing games like Arkham Origins, Gone Home, Stanley Parable and Gunpoint, so I will go down from A-Z, playing the games I want to play, not all the games. Too much uni work has made it impossible for me to sit down and play and a terrible game and have fun laughing at how bad it is, so instead I'll play all the good games I own!

Also, I did finish The Bureau, but it was too long ago to remember how I felt about it apart from the ending was a clusterfuck and made little sense. So onwards!

I've spent a lot of time in Dark Souls...like, way too much. I began on the 360, before transitioning to the PC when it was cheaper to get the full game with DLC on Steam, than just the DLC on 360. However, making progress is hard in Dark Souls...

And to be honest, I've never felt like Dark Souls is artificially hard, like the hard mode in most games. A vast majority of player deaths are down to the player's fault, the game is never cheating the player. Each problem can be approached in a methodical way and can be solved without too much difficulty. People who say Dark Souls is a 'high skill' game are playing it wrong. You don't need to have split-second reaction times, they are choosing to make it that difficult by wanting to play an evasion character.

I tried that, and it's always failed. Now it's time for a different approach...I'm gonna tank every single hit that a motherfucker throws at me!

I've learnt a lot about Dark Souls by watching an awesome YouTuber called EpicNameBro, who I would recommend anyone interested in the game check out.