I've been playing Dark Souls Remastered the last few days, and I think I finally get it.
Some background: I have played some Dark Souls before. I own the Xbox 360 Limited Edition, which I pre-ordered back in 2011, because I remembered reading all the excited import impressions for Demon's Souls a couple of years prior. I guess that chatter didn't excite me enough to try out Demon's when it eventually made its way west, but I decided the spiritual successor sounded right up my alley: I like RPGs, I like dark fantasy, what could go wrong?
So I played it. I found it frustrating and opaque. I had no idea what any of the enigmatically-described items did, and I hated inching forward for hours at a time, only to get flattened by some new enemy. In around ten hours, I made it as far as the Undead Parish Church, and got flattened again by a huge knight, and that was it. I quit.
But the game kept kind of gnawing away at me for years. I watched it become a huge phenomenon and felt like I'd missed out. I didn't get it then, but maybe I would if I gave it another go? In the run up to the release of Dark Souls 2, I bought the Prepare to Die edition on Steam, and tried again. I didn't even get as far as that church this time, and quit again after only a couple of hours. I decided I'd given it my best shot, and that was it. It obviously just wasn't for me, and I wouldn't try again.
So why have I been utterly absorbed by it these last few days, sticking about three hours a day, every day, into the game since Christmas Eve? Well, I recently replayed Jedi: Fallen Order; I loved that game back at release last year, adored it all over again this time out, and it put me in mind to try some other games that required a bit of thought and patience. I have a friend who is a huge fan of the Souls games, so I asked him what a decent starting point might be for someone who is basically a newcomer to the genre, and he suggested Code Vein, as it was about to enter Game Pass. I had been playing that for a couple of weeks, until the last few days, and quite enjoying it (I think I might be about halfway?), but it really, really made me want to go back to Dark Souls with fresh eyes. So I mentioned it to that same friend, and I guess he must have been like, "yes, got 'em!" because he then sent me a Steam code for Dark Souls Remastered as a Christmas gift. I started it immediately.
And now? I am hooked. I'm a tad under twelve hours in at this point, and I'm not finding it anywhere near as opaque as I had originally, let's be honest, imagined it to be. It does help that my friend has explained a couple of concepts that I found utterly inscrutable last time out, such as humanity, but I've generally been finding that if I just engage with the systems that are there, I can pretty much figure things out for myself, and it's all a lot more straightforward than I had thought. My friend has also been giving me the odd general hint here and then, such as when I couldn't find the door to the Depths. He told me "instead of going left to Gollum, go right" (I had previously said "I think I just met Gollum" when I found the moss vendor), and then told me, as I was about to venture down, "ember near the butcher." He's being deliberately vague so as not to spoil anything for me, and he won't volunteer any (vague!) information unless I ask, which I appreciate, given how much of the game's allure comes from pushing forward and exploring the unknown.
As for where I am in the game, I've just beaten the Gaping Dragon and opened the door to Blighttown, and am sitting at just under 12 hours. As I mentioned above, I hadn't even made it to the Bell Gargoyles in ten hours the first time out, so I feel like I'm going at a pretty good pace. Also as mentioned, I've been doing around three hours a day since Christmas Eve, and have found myself getting into a rhythm of beating a boss a day: Taurus Demon fell on Christmas Eve, the Bell Gargoyles on Christmas Day, The Capra Demon on Boxing Day, and now the Gaping Dragon today.
I'm also not really finding it frustrating at all this time. Imagine my surprise to find that Dark Souls isn't actually a hard, frustrating game, but just one that requires patience and observation. And, yes, a certain degree of perseverance, but it's certainly not a 'bash your head against the wall until something works' kind of thing. I guess I just wasn't in a patient frame of mind and willing to pay attention and learn when I had made my earlier attempts. This time out, I'm enjoying holding back, trying to work out a boss's attack patterns, and learning where I can get a few slashes in. The Gaping Dragon flattened me easily on my first two attempts, and then I beat him - with no more Estus left, mind - on my third attempt. I basically learned that fight in the second half of that third attempt - I'd whittled him down to half and used all my Estus, and then I took down the last half of his bar without getting hit. It was an amazing feeling when those famous words, "VICTORY ACHIEVED" appeared on my screen, and I felt like I could let out a breath I must've been holding for ten minutes straight.
I am still kind of feeling my way through things; I wasn't really sure how far to push upgrading my gear, as often in the early game of an RPG there's little reason to do so and risk wasting materials when you'll probably find a better weapon five minutes later. But here, I'm still using the longsword I picked up in the first hour of my game. My friend was slightly alarmed that I went down to fight the Gaping Dragon with just a +3 longsword (it did take a while to whittle him down, to be fair!), but I've since gone back to the blacksmith and pushed it up to +6 using that ember I found along the way, and I think I might farm some souls to upgrade my armour too, before I dive into Blighttown properly.
I was also kind of flailing around a bit with my stats for a few levels, including putting some into INT thinking it'd improve my fireball (I'm playing Pyromancer), or sticking some into RES thinking it'd give me better survivability, but which I now gather is basically a pointless stat. But for the last ten or so levels I've been mainly dumping them into VIT, DEX and END. I like being quite fast and mobile, so I guess it's DEX weapons for me. My friend told me I could get a good one by murdering a vendor, but I've decided not to, at least for now...
So yeah, I guess tl;dr I now get Dark Souls and think it's amazing, and I didn't need to "git gud" - I just needed to get patient and get observant. Also, I should probably take this opportunity to apologise to the rest of mod staff because I've been playing so much Dark Souls and not helping out modding as much as I should these last few days. Sorry, it's got it's claws into me!
Some background: I have played some Dark Souls before. I own the Xbox 360 Limited Edition, which I pre-ordered back in 2011, because I remembered reading all the excited import impressions for Demon's Souls a couple of years prior. I guess that chatter didn't excite me enough to try out Demon's when it eventually made its way west, but I decided the spiritual successor sounded right up my alley: I like RPGs, I like dark fantasy, what could go wrong?
So I played it. I found it frustrating and opaque. I had no idea what any of the enigmatically-described items did, and I hated inching forward for hours at a time, only to get flattened by some new enemy. In around ten hours, I made it as far as the Undead Parish Church, and got flattened again by a huge knight, and that was it. I quit.
But the game kept kind of gnawing away at me for years. I watched it become a huge phenomenon and felt like I'd missed out. I didn't get it then, but maybe I would if I gave it another go? In the run up to the release of Dark Souls 2, I bought the Prepare to Die edition on Steam, and tried again. I didn't even get as far as that church this time, and quit again after only a couple of hours. I decided I'd given it my best shot, and that was it. It obviously just wasn't for me, and I wouldn't try again.
So why have I been utterly absorbed by it these last few days, sticking about three hours a day, every day, into the game since Christmas Eve? Well, I recently replayed Jedi: Fallen Order; I loved that game back at release last year, adored it all over again this time out, and it put me in mind to try some other games that required a bit of thought and patience. I have a friend who is a huge fan of the Souls games, so I asked him what a decent starting point might be for someone who is basically a newcomer to the genre, and he suggested Code Vein, as it was about to enter Game Pass. I had been playing that for a couple of weeks, until the last few days, and quite enjoying it (I think I might be about halfway?), but it really, really made me want to go back to Dark Souls with fresh eyes. So I mentioned it to that same friend, and I guess he must have been like, "yes, got 'em!" because he then sent me a Steam code for Dark Souls Remastered as a Christmas gift. I started it immediately.
And now? I am hooked. I'm a tad under twelve hours in at this point, and I'm not finding it anywhere near as opaque as I had originally, let's be honest, imagined it to be. It does help that my friend has explained a couple of concepts that I found utterly inscrutable last time out, such as humanity, but I've generally been finding that if I just engage with the systems that are there, I can pretty much figure things out for myself, and it's all a lot more straightforward than I had thought. My friend has also been giving me the odd general hint here and then, such as when I couldn't find the door to the Depths. He told me "instead of going left to Gollum, go right" (I had previously said "I think I just met Gollum" when I found the moss vendor), and then told me, as I was about to venture down, "ember near the butcher." He's being deliberately vague so as not to spoil anything for me, and he won't volunteer any (vague!) information unless I ask, which I appreciate, given how much of the game's allure comes from pushing forward and exploring the unknown.
As for where I am in the game, I've just beaten the Gaping Dragon and opened the door to Blighttown, and am sitting at just under 12 hours. As I mentioned above, I hadn't even made it to the Bell Gargoyles in ten hours the first time out, so I feel like I'm going at a pretty good pace. Also as mentioned, I've been doing around three hours a day since Christmas Eve, and have found myself getting into a rhythm of beating a boss a day: Taurus Demon fell on Christmas Eve, the Bell Gargoyles on Christmas Day, The Capra Demon on Boxing Day, and now the Gaping Dragon today.
I'm also not really finding it frustrating at all this time. Imagine my surprise to find that Dark Souls isn't actually a hard, frustrating game, but just one that requires patience and observation. And, yes, a certain degree of perseverance, but it's certainly not a 'bash your head against the wall until something works' kind of thing. I guess I just wasn't in a patient frame of mind and willing to pay attention and learn when I had made my earlier attempts. This time out, I'm enjoying holding back, trying to work out a boss's attack patterns, and learning where I can get a few slashes in. The Gaping Dragon flattened me easily on my first two attempts, and then I beat him - with no more Estus left, mind - on my third attempt. I basically learned that fight in the second half of that third attempt - I'd whittled him down to half and used all my Estus, and then I took down the last half of his bar without getting hit. It was an amazing feeling when those famous words, "VICTORY ACHIEVED" appeared on my screen, and I felt like I could let out a breath I must've been holding for ten minutes straight.
I am still kind of feeling my way through things; I wasn't really sure how far to push upgrading my gear, as often in the early game of an RPG there's little reason to do so and risk wasting materials when you'll probably find a better weapon five minutes later. But here, I'm still using the longsword I picked up in the first hour of my game. My friend was slightly alarmed that I went down to fight the Gaping Dragon with just a +3 longsword (it did take a while to whittle him down, to be fair!), but I've since gone back to the blacksmith and pushed it up to +6 using that ember I found along the way, and I think I might farm some souls to upgrade my armour too, before I dive into Blighttown properly.
I was also kind of flailing around a bit with my stats for a few levels, including putting some into INT thinking it'd improve my fireball (I'm playing Pyromancer), or sticking some into RES thinking it'd give me better survivability, but which I now gather is basically a pointless stat. But for the last ten or so levels I've been mainly dumping them into VIT, DEX and END. I like being quite fast and mobile, so I guess it's DEX weapons for me. My friend told me I could get a good one by murdering a vendor, but I've decided not to, at least for now...
So yeah, I guess tl;dr I now get Dark Souls and think it's amazing, and I didn't need to "git gud" - I just needed to get patient and get observant. Also, I should probably take this opportunity to apologise to the rest of mod staff because I've been playing so much Dark Souls and not helping out modding as much as I should these last few days. Sorry, it's got it's claws into me!