What I learned from playing Dark Souls
A challenging but eye-opening experience
For those of you who are wondering, what is Dark Souls? It’s a dark fantasy role-playing video game that is well renowned for its difficulty and deep role-playing mechanics. This game in particular has a steep learning curve, minimal handholding, difficult enemies, and epic bosses.
Origin story
Many years ago, I picked up the Xbox 360 version of the game when it was twenty dollars. For some reason, I had an itch to play the game, even though I’d never played it before. The game intrigued me, like no other game at the time. I thought to myself, ‘If there are players out there that can beat the game, why can’t I?’
Excited to play the game, I put the disc into my Xbox 360, giddy to start a new immersive adventure. After several hours, I quickly got frustrated from the constant deaths, the overwhelming UI, and the strange controls mapped on the controller. Sadly, I didn’t get that far in the game at all. I got stuck in the Undead Asylum riddled with undead corpses and got my ass kicked too many times. I ended up getting stuck at the infamous Capra Demon and his two mangy dogs.
Completely exasperated by the whole experience, I quit the game and placed it on the shelf where it gathered dust for a decade. My interest in the game was piqued again when I decided to purge my room of unnecessary things and donate them. I cleaned out the shelf of all the video games that I no longer played and felt that they could belong to someone who would treasure it.
Dark Souls, I decided to keep. It had been many years, and wanted to give the game a chance again. Why did I give the game a second chance you may wonder? I felt like I had made an impulsive judgment on the game without even finishing it. I’m glad that I did, because I learned a lot from playing it, that not many other games in the video game landscape offered. Here are the things I’ve learned.
Learning the controls
The controls for Dark Souls are atypical of any video game that I’ve played so far. The attack button was RB, to block was LB, and to heal or use items were mapped to the X button. Oh, and don’t forget the D-pad was used to toggle between items you wanted to use. When I played the game for the first time, I found it very bizarre; it was completely new to me.
At the time, I found the button mapping awkward and unintuitive. I would accidently press the X button thinking it was the attack button. Usually, for action RPGs, the attack button would be mapped to one of the face buttons (A, B, X, Y on the Xbox controller).
Honestly, it took me hours to fully get used to the controls while trekking through the Undead Asylum. Once I grasped the controls where it became second nature to me, it made the game a much smoother experience.
Learning by death
Yes, you’ve heard me right. Dying from time to time helped me understand what I was doing wrong. Encountered multiple enemies and immediately died? Died from a sweeping attack from a boss? Fell off from a tiny ledge by being attacked by a rat? I now have the knowledge moving forward of what to expect and what to avoid.
Understanding the stats
Shortly after starting the game, you can check out your character’s stats. The first time looking at it, it was overwhelming. I had a basic understanding of the usual stats in an RPG like strength, health, and magic, but the character sheet looked like it came straight out of chemistry class.
There were way more stats that were involved. Slashing and thrust resistance? Why are there left and right weapon damage? Why is stamina in the character stats? Why are there letters and stats on the equipped weapon? At this point, I knew I was playing something hardcore. This wasn’t a simple, lighthearted video game.
In order to understand what I was actually looking at, I had to check out a tutorial on YouTube that explained everything. Thankfully not every stat is important to keep track of, just the main attributes such as health, stamina, strength, and intelligence. I started with a cleric class and chose to lean into a strength build with a bit of healing on the side to get me by. Increasing those stats in particular helped me get through the game.
Upgrading your character and equipment
Upgrading equipment was essential to surviving ruthless enemies. You needed certain materials in order to upgrade your weapons, shields, and of course armor. You must be wondering, was it really important to upgrade your stuff? Absolutely!
When upgrading your weapons, the grade will increase. The higher the grade, the better the bonus stat to your equipment. During my playthrough, I put in more points in strength and dexterity. This allowed me to get higher bonuses for certain weapons such as maces, halberds, and lances. These aren’t the most powerful weapons you can get, but the attack patterns fit like a glove to me.
For armor, I would sort of upgrade, but not as much as my weapon and shield. I was all about getting the most damage out of my weapon and blocking blows when necessary.
Being ok with losing souls
I had to shift my mindset to being fine with losing souls if it happened. It’s crushing when you have thousands of souls and end up losing them to a mere skeleton or rats. If you respawn at the bonfire and die before getting to the spot where you died, you lose all of them. They’re gone forever.
The game gave the tough decision to rest at a bonfire where you can level up, or choose to journey further into the unknown. For me, if I had enough souls to level up at least once, I would take the chance to rest. I became more cautious of wandering too far into unknown territory from time to time. To be honest, I’ve had moments where I was too eager to trek on, and ended up losing thousands of souls.
Fighting enemies and learning attack patterns
The enemies in the game are brutal, and they are no joke either. The enemies aren’t going to wait their turn to hit you; no, they’ll attack you all at once to make sure you’re dead. In the Dark Souls universe, you attract enemies like hungry flies to honey.
During my playthrough, I’ve had the misfortune of running into an area and attracting all the enemies many times. I learned my lesson and realized that it was best to take down an enemy one at a time rather than being blasted by all fronts.
All enemies have their own attack patterns and it’s best to take the cautious approach when running into any enemy. Some enemies have simple two to three attacks that are easily foreseeable, making it easy to figure out when to attack, while some enemies have various attack patterns, making it more challenging to predict their next move.
Boss battles
The biggest highlights of playing Dark Souls are the bosses. Every boss battle is grand in scale, and also nerve-wracking to boot. Each boss has their own unique attack patterns making each battle all the more sweat-inducing. I’ve had my share of many deaths for each boss I encountered in each new area. For some, I’d say more than twenty deaths.
After many frustrating deaths leads to one successful victory that feels euphoric. A high that I don’t get from other games because this game is built to be challenging.
In conclusion, playing through the game opened my eyes to how unique and wonderful it was despite all the deaths and frustrating moments I’ve encountered. It’s strange, never have I felt a mixture of dread and bliss when playing any other game or series.
This game was the gateway to playing the rest of the series because I found it oddly enjoyable. I enjoy the challenge, the exploration, and the minimal hand-holding. I’ve grown to enjoy the challenge and exploration that not many games have nowadays.
I look forward to playing Elden Ring, once I finish Baldur’s Gate 3!