"This isn't Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII."
Yeah, it aint. And here's a spoiler: Next week won't be either. And that's for 3 reasons: because LR:FFXII has gone all weird, because I'm currently playing Dark Souls 3 and will be for some time and I replayed Dark Souls mere hours before 3 unlocked on steam. And to elaborate on that first reason: I've managed to be so good at videogames that I've finished all the main quests in little more than 5 in-game days of the 13 it allocates, leaving me with nothing to do but power through as many side quests as possible before the end of time. And frankly, I'm more enticed by the concept of being brutally mutilated countless times by the beautiful mistress that is Dark Souls.
Many still hold Dark Souls as the pinnacle of the series, even against the original Demon's Souls, and the recent Bloodborne. It was my entry point into the series, and unlike many before me who have taken many repeated tries to get into the game, it clicked with me immediately. The combat just made sense on a fundamental level, and the game's own lack of direct communication worked exactly the way it planned, it got me talking to people who'd played it, and had me carefully observing every situation to see what was certainly waiting for me.
And that hasn't changed. It's been long enough that I can't just play the game on instincts, having forgotten the odd enemy location and boss attack, and I once again was plodding around corners wary of every shadow. Or at least I would if I wasn't one of those weird people who play with rules o make things harder for themselves. I'd chosen to go left-handed, weapon on the left and shield on the right, which due to how left and right work in Dark Souls, meant I blocked with my weapon, and couldn't with my shield. Frankly, it's pretty tame as far as themed runs go, especially considering that last time I played through the game I beat it with only a broken sword as my weapon. But I do these sorts of playthroughs because they make the game new again. They recontextualise the knowledge you already have, and make you think about what is probably the most important aspect of Dark Souls, the weapons, in ways you never would have considered.
Take, for example, the Shield Run. My personal favourite, and first of these I ever did. I've done this playthrough on every game in the series, Demon's Souls, Dark Souls, Dark Souls 2, even Bloodborne had a shield in it and god damn did I make a build around it. I mean, it wasn't exactly the hardest of all the runs in the series, since I actually had a weapon, but fuck it, it counted. Rules are always simple, unless it's Bloodborne. Only weapons you can use are shields. What I love about the series is that all your weapons and armour are full of elements you wouldn't really think about, like how much damage your shield does when you hit stuff with it. I've named all my shield wielding characters as Captains of their respective worlds. Captain Boletaria, Captain Lordran, Captain Drangleic, Captain Yharnum, heroes of their age, all of them.
It's this attention to detail that makes the series so great to me. It's an aspect so often underappreciated that it's likely responsible for the franchise's reputation for difficulty. There's always a way to make things easier for yourself in Dark Souls, be it knowing a specific trick to dealing with an enemy, like a place you can lure them safely for a 1 on 1 fight, or a specific item or weapon that works wonders against them. Thing is, when people express their difficulties to other people, of course people respond by telling them to "Git Gud", or words to that effect. Which completely misses the point of the series' design. If someone is struggling, you help. You give advice, encourage them to go for summons, only when they've expended all available resources and obfuscated the difficulty as much as possible, only then do you get to tell them to get good. Because frankly, if you can't beat the Belfry Gargoyles with 2 summons, a +10 weapon, 4 pieces of high-physical defence armour and a good 100% physical damage block shield, you need to re-evaluate your strategy.
Visually, the art design has held up phenomenally. While the same can't be said for the tech, even with my best efforts it feels held back by it's engine, you'll likely never notice it's age unless you go looking for it. The environments are legendarily well crafted both visually and geographically. You'll loop back on locations you'd nearly forgotten about, see places you've been to and will go to from miles away and fall down holes only to find yourself with new places to explore. Only Bloodborne has really matched this game when it comes to such design, as Dark Souls 2 and Demon's Souls were more linear. It's a joy to explore from start to finish.
NPC interactions are a sticking point for many, including fans of the series, due to how unknowable they are. There's no real way for you to possibly predict how NPC's will respond to events, and what you can do to save them, if it's even possible at all. While it makes sense that many players will be put off by this, I see it as yet another part of the series' genius in how you need to fundamentally rethink how you approach NPCs. That is to say, you can't treat them how they're often treated by even the game's own Wiki, as Questlines. Miyazaki once explained that a key part of the series design was based around his experience with western fantasy novels. He could read English, but not perfectly, and so as he read these novels he'd miss key information. So "his version" of Lord of the Rings ended up in some ways different to how someone fluent in the language would.
You can see that experience clearly in the series' trademark way of presenting lore, the small snippets of information that give you enough to get a basic grasp of what happened to the world, of the characters and their roles, but missing the details in a way that makes the tales you're reading about feel like legends. But the influence goes beyond that I feel, in the NPC interactions. You won't finish Dark Souls with everyone alive, because you'll be in the wrong place at the wrong time, or you'll answer a question wrong, or you'll directly fail to save their life. They have their full "Questlines", but you aren't really supposed to finish them all like quests on a quest list. Especially since even the best of endings to these often reinforce the fear of inevitable demise that permeates the game's narrative. Solaire may find his sun and go mad, or never find his sun and live with regret and sadness. Seigmeyer might not die in his suicide attack but he'll go hollow out of lack of self-respect. And so on. The NPCs are there to reinforce the atmosphere of futility, and to create a unique experience for you by using you a as tool for cutting out content, as bad as that sounds. Plus the internet will let you get all the best stuff out of the NPCs on a second playthrough with a flowchart that looks like it's for a visual novel dating sim.
So yeah, Dark Souls is still good. Next week I'll tell you about how spectacular Dark Souls 3 is.
Yeah, it aint. And here's a spoiler: Next week won't be either. And that's for 3 reasons: because LR:FFXII has gone all weird, because I'm currently playing Dark Souls 3 and will be for some time and I replayed Dark Souls mere hours before 3 unlocked on steam. And to elaborate on that first reason: I've managed to be so good at videogames that I've finished all the main quests in little more than 5 in-game days of the 13 it allocates, leaving me with nothing to do but power through as many side quests as possible before the end of time. And frankly, I'm more enticed by the concept of being brutally mutilated countless times by the beautiful mistress that is Dark Souls.
Many still hold Dark Souls as the pinnacle of the series, even against the original Demon's Souls, and the recent Bloodborne. It was my entry point into the series, and unlike many before me who have taken many repeated tries to get into the game, it clicked with me immediately. The combat just made sense on a fundamental level, and the game's own lack of direct communication worked exactly the way it planned, it got me talking to people who'd played it, and had me carefully observing every situation to see what was certainly waiting for me.
And that hasn't changed. It's been long enough that I can't just play the game on instincts, having forgotten the odd enemy location and boss attack, and I once again was plodding around corners wary of every shadow. Or at least I would if I wasn't one of those weird people who play with rules o make things harder for themselves. I'd chosen to go left-handed, weapon on the left and shield on the right, which due to how left and right work in Dark Souls, meant I blocked with my weapon, and couldn't with my shield. Frankly, it's pretty tame as far as themed runs go, especially considering that last time I played through the game I beat it with only a broken sword as my weapon. But I do these sorts of playthroughs because they make the game new again. They recontextualise the knowledge you already have, and make you think about what is probably the most important aspect of Dark Souls, the weapons, in ways you never would have considered.
Take, for example, the Shield Run. My personal favourite, and first of these I ever did. I've done this playthrough on every game in the series, Demon's Souls, Dark Souls, Dark Souls 2, even Bloodborne had a shield in it and god damn did I make a build around it. I mean, it wasn't exactly the hardest of all the runs in the series, since I actually had a weapon, but fuck it, it counted. Rules are always simple, unless it's Bloodborne. Only weapons you can use are shields. What I love about the series is that all your weapons and armour are full of elements you wouldn't really think about, like how much damage your shield does when you hit stuff with it. I've named all my shield wielding characters as Captains of their respective worlds. Captain Boletaria, Captain Lordran, Captain Drangleic, Captain Yharnum, heroes of their age, all of them.
It's this attention to detail that makes the series so great to me. It's an aspect so often underappreciated that it's likely responsible for the franchise's reputation for difficulty. There's always a way to make things easier for yourself in Dark Souls, be it knowing a specific trick to dealing with an enemy, like a place you can lure them safely for a 1 on 1 fight, or a specific item or weapon that works wonders against them. Thing is, when people express their difficulties to other people, of course people respond by telling them to "Git Gud", or words to that effect. Which completely misses the point of the series' design. If someone is struggling, you help. You give advice, encourage them to go for summons, only when they've expended all available resources and obfuscated the difficulty as much as possible, only then do you get to tell them to get good. Because frankly, if you can't beat the Belfry Gargoyles with 2 summons, a +10 weapon, 4 pieces of high-physical defence armour and a good 100% physical damage block shield, you need to re-evaluate your strategy.
Visually, the art design has held up phenomenally. While the same can't be said for the tech, even with my best efforts it feels held back by it's engine, you'll likely never notice it's age unless you go looking for it. The environments are legendarily well crafted both visually and geographically. You'll loop back on locations you'd nearly forgotten about, see places you've been to and will go to from miles away and fall down holes only to find yourself with new places to explore. Only Bloodborne has really matched this game when it comes to such design, as Dark Souls 2 and Demon's Souls were more linear. It's a joy to explore from start to finish.
NPC interactions are a sticking point for many, including fans of the series, due to how unknowable they are. There's no real way for you to possibly predict how NPC's will respond to events, and what you can do to save them, if it's even possible at all. While it makes sense that many players will be put off by this, I see it as yet another part of the series' genius in how you need to fundamentally rethink how you approach NPCs. That is to say, you can't treat them how they're often treated by even the game's own Wiki, as Questlines. Miyazaki once explained that a key part of the series design was based around his experience with western fantasy novels. He could read English, but not perfectly, and so as he read these novels he'd miss key information. So "his version" of Lord of the Rings ended up in some ways different to how someone fluent in the language would.
You can see that experience clearly in the series' trademark way of presenting lore, the small snippets of information that give you enough to get a basic grasp of what happened to the world, of the characters and their roles, but missing the details in a way that makes the tales you're reading about feel like legends. But the influence goes beyond that I feel, in the NPC interactions. You won't finish Dark Souls with everyone alive, because you'll be in the wrong place at the wrong time, or you'll answer a question wrong, or you'll directly fail to save their life. They have their full "Questlines", but you aren't really supposed to finish them all like quests on a quest list. Especially since even the best of endings to these often reinforce the fear of inevitable demise that permeates the game's narrative. Solaire may find his sun and go mad, or never find his sun and live with regret and sadness. Seigmeyer might not die in his suicide attack but he'll go hollow out of lack of self-respect. And so on. The NPCs are there to reinforce the atmosphere of futility, and to create a unique experience for you by using you a as tool for cutting out content, as bad as that sounds. Plus the internet will let you get all the best stuff out of the NPCs on a second playthrough with a flowchart that looks like it's for a visual novel dating sim.
So yeah, Dark Souls is still good. Next week I'll tell you about how spectacular Dark Souls 3 is.
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