Dark Souls 1: A new players perspective (Part 3, The End)

3.10 Dukes Archives: 9 Deaths

The entrance to Dukes Archives is a bit of bs imo. I don't know if there's a trick to fighting these boars, but attacks never got blocked by any black or other knight armor in the game. I died to the piggies twice before figuring out the trick to slowly widdle them down. No big deal, but a waste of my time.

Dukes Archive looks incredible. It is one of my favorite areas based on visuals and it has fun aggressive enemies that managed to kill me once and always significantly tore into my estuts charges.

It was fun to make my way to a suspiciously early fog door. Being killed in a scripted way and then teleported to a different bonfire is unjustifiable.

I never cared too much about losing souls and I barely ever lost any anyway, so I didn't really mind the death (I'll be honest I kind of like it because it definitively proofs that not every death is your fault) but what happened to me here was that my weapon broke and I had no way to repair it.

But first things first, I made my way out of the cell, the alarm rang and I was braced to fight the two Snakeheads but they ran right past me.

There were also these thingies coming from below so I figured it was my queue to run aswell. However, the snakeheads simply blocked the ladder, pushed me off it and I died. That's a bit of extra bs on top of an already pretty bs situation if you ask me.

On my next attempt, the Cthulhu smurfs didn't come up the stairs anymore so I explored the lower parts. I died to the 3 snakeheads after ninja looting the chest near the alarm.

I realized this time around that I could run towards the ladder before the other snake idiots made it there and ran for my life. I didn't fight anything because my weapon was broken. I made it to a Bonfire somewhere low in the area and teleported out to repair my weapon. I thought I had made it past the BS, little did I know it had only just begone.

This area is horrible for melee builds. There are archers everywhere and you can't see them most of the time. I already eluded to this but I got one shot by archers hiding behind other enemies and shooting at my back while I slowly tried to make my way back up.

I died 5 more times before I had enough and did something that, yet again, breaks the game. I put on Havel's armor and the area became laughably easy. I had no idea just how much heavy armor could break the game. I easily, but slowly made my way through the area, turning staircase 20 times to kill the bloody floaty Hitler dudes with their newly learned teleport ability.

I reached the shortcut back to the bonfire that helped me teleport away, which was surprising and awesome and made my way towards Crystal Cave.

It's hard to rate this area, I think the forced death is so egregious that I will downgrade from 7/10 to 6/10.

3.11 Crystal Cave: 4 Deaths; 1 Boss Death

I wasn't sure if I should combine this with Dukes Archives or not, but decided to give it a separate paragraph, just to hate on it a little bit more. It's not a terrible area per se, it just feels like a glorified and very long boss run.

Before entering I had cleared the entire yard of Crystal dudes, so they didn't give me any trouble inside.

I made my way through quite quickly, but I do want to point out, that I felt more comfortable to step on the invisible paths than most of the paths I could see. One path almost made me slide off completely even.

I made my way down to the butterfly thingy and learned the lesson that I really should not have made my way down to the butterfly thingy. I don't know what a melee build is supposed to do exactly in that situation. I guess not make your way down to the Butterfly thingie. I was dead nonetheless.

My next death came quite swiftly as well when I tried to fight yellow crystal dude and learned that standing somewhere near his punch attack installs a jetpack on your back that actively looks for the nearest death drop.

I died one more time to that guy but he was kind enough to also fall off the pathway and didn't bother to respawn. I'll consider that a win, thank you very much.

My last death here was to the first crab I pulled. It's not a difficult enemy type, but you really don't want to fight 3 at once.

That's basically all there is to this area. It's really mostly walking and I am incredibly grateful, that I was lucky enough to beat Seathe on my second attempt because that would have been annoying as duck.

The Boss to me feels incredibly uninspired. Basically, stay close to him, punch him and run away when he does the closeby crystal thingies.

It took me a while to beat him, but he really wasn't all that difficult. I'm pretty sure I luckily dodged 2 or 3 attacks he has by randomly standing in the right spot but I only ever saw him swipe, conjure far crystals, conjure close crystals.

Also, why does he curse you? The crabs drop anti curse items if I remember correctly so it's not even a big deal. Just a little extra annoyance for the road? I was level 56.

I don't have much to say about this, there's nothing there, really. 6/10, didn't make me want to murder a puppy.

3.12 Gardens (are they called Gardens? I'll call them gardens) : 5 Deaths; 2 Boss Deaths

Off I went to murder a puppy. So yeah, I made it past basement stone buddy below the blacksmith.

I figured his twin in Anor Londo was supposed to teach you that now is the time to go there, but no.

The area behind him proves that the game isn't fun unless it's hard. I walked through it easily and felt very happy to have a swing at my old butterfly friend.

I also don't know what in the world a melee build is supposed to do here most of the time so I went for a nice 1-minute stroll around some magic projectiles and when he came down for pets I figured I'd go for some tough love and one cycled him. Fun times.

I found the crest somewhere in that area I think? I don't actually remember where you get it. Behind the Dragons somewhere I think? This area confused me and it was before I wasted half of my lifetime on Giants Tomb, so it's quite blurry.

Nonetheless, I made my way to the other gardens and had to fight the weird knights. I got killed there once by the Cleric who made it his life mission to run through the entire forest, pulling everyone he could find.

I then made my way to the creepy cat and joined the Covenant. Yay, no more getting murdered.

So I made my way through the mushroom forest and across a bridge and got murdered by two catwolf thingies. Now one catwolf thingy I could deal with. Two cat wolf thingies, I don't know how.

Learning from my mistake I entered the Catwolf area again and got murdered again. Unlike the good old black knight times, the game had wasted enough of my time for me to actually learn my lesson and try just one more time... no, After my third attempt I learned that I really don't know how you're supposed to beat them.

I died another time to the Hydra which I had already seen in the area I can't remember for the life of me in that other place where I think the seal was. You probably know what I'm talking about if you can still be bothered to read this.

That one was fun. So I tested if I could swim. Turns out I can walk on water. So I walked towards the Hydra until juuuust about the point where the game decided I wasn't allowed to walk on water anymore and dropped me through the floor to my death. The game is always fair. The Hydra gets to live.

No harm done, it's a good thing I didn't figure out there was a hidden bonfire until after I had beaten Sif otherwise I might have actually enjoyed this place.

Sif was interesting in how difficult it was to dodge his attacks. It took me an attempt to learn how to beat him (let him come to me) and one more to actually kill him.

It also took me 3 minutes of kiting him around and trying to find an alternative to killing him after he went into his "second phase". I couldn't figure anything out so, sorry pup, you've been a good boy, but this knight wants some loot. I was level 59.

I feel generous for giving this area a decent rating because of just how boring it was and how confused the layout was, but such a good boye 7/10.

3.13 Painted World: 2 Deaths

At this point I was stumbling around anywhere. I had already visited the Catacombs and apparently missed the giant gaping hole in the wall somehow so I thought it was a dead end and I hadn't figured out how to beat the ghosts yet. Therefore randomly running through areas began and I found the painted world.

The entrance into this was odd but amazing. The level design reminded me a lot of Undead Burg and also somewhat resembles New Londo. This just in, castle resembles other castles.

It was a pretty great area with fun new enemy types. I was clearly over-leveled for this area yet somehow still managed to get killed by the dragon I already knew not to try and fight as a melee build.

I also managed to show off my Assassins Creed moves, which work considerably worse when landing on cold hard stone, concluding in my second death.

I also enjoyed the preview of an enemy I would come to despise more than anything down in the well. The good old, Cirque du Soleil skeleton. I'm not one to question the physics of these wannabe tires, but can somebody explain to me whose idea these guys were at least?

I will call out the fight against the 300 sundried Spartans as pretty fun. Probably one of the better uses of a non-boss fog wall in the game.

I made my way across the bridge to the Boss. I was quite confused to see her talk to me instead of murdering me. I returned the favor by testing if I could actually attack her and lo and behold I just entered a boss fight.

The fight went through my estus charges fairly quickly but once I had figured out how to dodge the damage, there really wasn't anything there. A somewhat disappointing end to a great level.

I'll go for a 10/10 here, but I might overrate it just because it's so much better than everything I played recently. I also really wanted to explore past the dragon, but, you know, stuff happened.

I also forgot writing down my levels from here on. I never farmed levels again after Anor Londo and I only really farmed 2 levels there and used my stored souls for the rest. So maybe you, dear reader who is still reading this, can extrapolate my rough level from that data. I was level 74 when I beat Gwynn.

3.14 Undead Asylum 2: 5 Boss deaths

So I figured that one out. It was really quite fun to get back to the asylum.

My torched friends were so happy to see me they also threw a surprise party that instantly killed me. I'm sure I should have remembered that there was another Demon there from way at the start of the game and that the floor would break away because it was shown to be so fragile before when a 10-ton demon divebombed it from a 30-meter drop. After all, the game is always fair.

Nonetheless I really enjoyed the fight against the Stray Demon. It took me a while to learn the read of the red explosion, Mostly because it one shot me quite easily, but after a while, I really learned to appreciate how well designed the boss is.

Easy once you figure it out, but punishing and with a lot of potential for extra damage if you play well. It was a smart move to reuse such an early Boss to truly help the player appreciate its design. A one of a kind rerun. Because using a boss more than twice would really be lazy and boring now, wouldn't it? Wouldn't it?

There wasn't much there so I'll just rate the Boss an 8/10.

3.15 Catacombs: 7 Deaths

I'll make this fairly short.

The area itself is pretty well designed with ways to jump down and create shortcuts etc. It's the mechanic around it that I hate.

Not being able to kill enemies breaks so much of how I played the game. Slow, methodical, just avoid all the bs that happens when you fight against groups of enemies.

I died here twice to random enemies before failing to find the summoner who's responsible for all the tire skeletons. So basically I dropped down to defeat a black knight and two immortal skeletons just to take part in a crash derby where I'm the only one without a car. I died twice before making it to the "Boss", killed that "Boss" on my first try, went to the very well lit tomb of giants and dropped down to get a hidden item, lost my way, died and had to go back through all of the Catacombs.

I did by accident reverse find my way to the summoner at some point. I am again very good at seeing gaping holes in walls it seems.

I still hate this mechanic, but I will take the blame for all my deaths here. I also learned to drop down to that area while exploring the Giants Tomb before my first bonfire.

Overall I think this would have been a lot of fun for me without the Summoner mechanic 7/10 (I know about divine weapons by now btw, I don't know what they are, but I sure would have liked one)

3.16 Giants Tomb: (stopped counting after) 5 Deaths; 5 Boss Deaths

So, the Giants Tomb, the wonderful area that made me want to quit the game about 5 times. I'd like to point out that I don't really rage quit games a lot. I only did it once in Anor Londo after the Archer Knight BS. Yet I quit the game 5 times in this area, never because of rage but because I was so annoyed by this place that I would have rather spend my time reading Harry Potter fanfiction or walking barefoot across legos than going through it again.

The two offenses here are that it's filled with enemies that waste your time so much that I stopped fighting them and that the darkness mechanic, while fine in itself, makes it so there's nothing interesting to make me want to explore there.

Let's start step by step. It starts okay enough with some kind shiny guidance and a Lantern you're supposed to equip instead of your shield.

The first big boy skeletons aren't much trouble and easy to kill and generally, the way to the first bonfire is fine, not great, but fine.

I got kicked down the pit before finding the first bonfire and managed to fight my way out of it again. I didn't mind it, but I imagine death, as a result, would have been incredibly frustrating.

I'm not a vengeful person so I decided to forgive the kind man who pushed me off the ledge. I killed him first, of course, but I forgave him.

I then made my way to the most genius bonfire location I have ever experienced. I walked off the cliff next to the bonfire 3 times I think. If you've quit the game because of all the fun you were having and get back into it it's quite easy to remember a death drop like this. (It's also why I stopped counting deaths after a while, I was just completely apathetic at this point.)

My main problem with these weird crawling skeletons here is that they require an enormous amount of space to fight safely and there are also archers, who knows where, that you have to dodge while fighting the flail monsters.

I died twice, once by getting hit by an arrow and subsequently murdered by the crawling flail monster and once to pulling too many of said flail monster (two to be exact, two is one too many).

So I just ran past them, jumped down drops without knowing if it would kill me or not, sometimes it would, sometimes I would be cornered and murdered by my flail friends, sometimes I'd find the way forward.

I'd find items etc. and was very happy when I found some bloody light at some point.

This lead to a narrow path before the boss which took forever to fight through, I think I also died here once.

I'd later just run through this entire area, which is fun I guess. The great fun of avoiding to play the game you are playing.

The repeat of the Catacombs Boss reinforces my belief that it wasn't a real Boss, but maybe I just misjudged the intended level for the Catacombs.

At some point I made it to the Boss.

Let's start by pointing out the mildly questionable nature of dropping you in a room, dealing significant fall damage. Let's continue by talking about the fact that while I healed away the damage with an estus flask I heard a distant scream and was immediately stabbed by a Scythe coming from the ground. Let's also ignore that this fight comes with invincible adds. (yes I know divine weapon, how was I supposed to know about that?) Let's just talk about the fight removed from all that.

It's a big pile of bones that you punch a bunch. There's nothing there, once I figured I'd just play the DPS race I beat him in my first attempt, just punch him, he doesn't do anything clever at all. It's just resigning yourself to never being able to deal with the adds and he'll do it for you. I don't understand what the idea here is.

So I don't actually have as much to say about this area as I thought. Probably because of the fun mechanic of not being able to see anything. I'll just complain about the Blender of 4 giant skeletons that guard 2 items and give this area a 3/10.

3.17 New Londo: 3 Deaths; 7 Boss Deaths + 2 extra Boss Deaths later

New Londo needs a Bonfire. That's the one key thing about it. It has a Chimney, but no bonfire. There's one in firelink and then there's the one behind the dragons that I decided wasn't worth it. Because. Dragons.

I checked this after the fact. I spent so much time here searching for the bonfire and I was certain I must have missed one behind some invisible wall somewhere. I spent so much time Don Quijoteing my way around every suspicious piece of brick here that it left a bad taste in my mouth that the area itself doesn't deserve.

I managed to figure out you need to be cursed to beat the ghost at some point and was able to enter New Londo for real.

The first area is fine. The ghosts were really easy to beat but sometimes annoying when they'd attack you from places you weren't able to see. They barely deal any damage though, so I can't be bothered to complain about it. I mean, I just did, but who's paying attention anyway.

It's a pretty fun area and quite intriguing in its small initial scope. There's a dude on the roof for whatever reason and you find the access point to the flood gates. This was the last time the game amazed me. I

remembered seeing that door, but I never really thought about it. Seeing it open and the water drain genuinely restored some spark in me that I had forgotten about. This game can be good. What is that all about? It was a spark that didn't last too long, unfortunately.

The drained part of New Londo was fun enough to explore, but only having one type of enemy got boring quickly. (plus whatever that other thing that doesn't respawn was)

I died here once because I pulled two of these guys at once and managed to mess up a bit too hard. I also died once to a surprise ghost, who apparently made his way down to say hi.

My last death here was fall damage. Do you know how you can just jump into the Abyss from the top of the stairs? You can also hit a small piece of pebble sticking out from the stairs that barely hits a part of your foot and kills you.

Four Kings is a Boss Fight I can't talk about much. I didn't really beat it. I couldn't figure out how to reliably dodge their attacks and resorted to armor cheesing the fight. I got close to beating them once but decided I didn't skill into Stamina enough to really fight them.

I went over to do the lava place and when I came back I had enjoyed my time there so much that I resorted to tanking the Bosses again. It worked. 10 estus charges are too much. It breaks the game. I regret cheesing this fight as it might have been fun after figuring it out, but like I said, I felt completely apathetic at this point. I only beat the game because I didn't want to not quit, not because I felt like it was a worthwhile time investment.

I'll give this area an 8/10. It's hard to judge it. Enemy variety was low, I can't judge the boss, I wasn't enjoying the game anymore and yet, looking back at it, I don't have a lot of complaints and can appreciate a lot of the design.

3.18 Ceaseless Discharge: x Deaths

So this thing deserves its own Paragraph. What an incredible pile of bs. The only redeeming fact about this thing is that it is so horribly bugged that MAYBE the design itself was just bad and not atrocious. I had tried to beat this boss before and was utterly convinced that it wasn't supposed to be possible.

Before beating this Boss I kindled the bonfire nearby. I had god knows how much humanity in my inventory anyway, so what's the point. I also read up on it. It's a puzzle boss. Lure it near the entrance and it will fall off. It didn't work. I have no idea what trigger I missed, but it didn't work. At this point, I at least knew I HAD to beat this Boss, so I continued trying.

First things first I wanted to get to the big platform after I found it was impossible to dodge any of his attacks on the small pathway. I got hit once on the way, survived and made my way behind the giant piece of mountain in the middle of the boss area.

Ceaseless discharge didn't care and sent a stream of fire right through the solid piece of roughly 20 meters thick rock. I died. Fun times.

I made my way directly to the large platform this time around and tried to just fight the boss normally. Let's start by pointing out that the hitbox of his arm is more than 5 times the size of his arm. (that is one actual arm, and 2 extra invisible arms on either side) However, it was possible to dodge this. He also had a flail attack that is basically impossible to dodge. I knew about invincibility frames at this point, it didn't matter.

I also once died while the Boss was just standing in front of me, watching me drink an estus flask. There was no animation, no nothing, I was just dead.

I basically ran my head against the wall, hoping he'd use the one attack I could dodge and tried to bait it. The flail was an instant kill every time however so no luck with that.

At some point, I went back to the place where I stole the armor to look for clues. There were no clues there, but apparently it triggered something in the code that fixed the hitboxes. The boss was trivial to kill after that.

I think I died here 15-20 times in total. The bonfire was close and I tried beating him at multiple different stages of the game, so it didn't actually take that long. The Boss is just a complete testament to how incredibly unfinished the REMASTERED version of this game is. 0/10

3.19 Lava Place 1: 12 Death; 1 Boss Death

So Ceaseless Discharge is dead and the lava is removed. What opens up is an incredible ode to creativity. Spam old Bosses to make the game fun they said. I was bored out of my mind at this point.

I died to the Capra Demon twice because I forgot how to fight it and couldn't be bothered to approach it properly. I also died to the Taurus Demons a bunch, because I couldn't be bothered to try and separate them. I didn't remember how to fight just one of them but two at the same time was somewhat harder than it should be for whatever it was that was hidden behind them.

I also died once in an attempt to fight the Capra Demon spam before I gave in and simply jumped down to the bonfire.

I made quick work of the Worm and rested at the bonfire. I quit the game for three days and wasn't sure I was ever going to pick it up again.

I did end up going back, of course.

I was first greeted by the most worthless enemy in the game, fire puking do-nothing fat gargoyles without wings. Hit them twice, they die, next. The contrast between these and the literal boss fights they were surrounded with was laughable.

I also died one more time to the second worm, who decided I was quite delicious and killed me in one attack. I didn't try and fight him again.

There was also that weird ambush of worms behind one of the Taurus Demons that I just casually walked past, grabbed my item and went back. What exatly was that about?

Anyway, I went through the Fog door and was greeted by another rematch against the Asylum Demon. I'm not even going to complain about the second rehash, at least it's a good, fun boss, so I didn't mind. I died to him once because I forgot about the range of his explody attack.

I did overall enjoy that rematch though. It really did have some impact on me to see how much I improved in the game. And by that I mean, how good I was at remembering patterns.

It lead me to an elevator back up to Queelag's Domain. Usually, I would praise that, but the game had already thrown roughly 50 bonfires at me below, so I really didn't see the point in this elevator.

I went on to fight the Centipede Demon. It really wasn't much of a Boss and more of a fancy chest that gives you the anti lava ring. It was still a good enjoyable fight. I genuinely had hope for this area at this point and it might be a better area than I give it credit for had I explored a bit more, but it wasn't to be.

I'll give this part a 7/10. The enemy spamming was just lazy game design that made me certain the game ended up being rushed, a repeat boss confirms that idea. Maybe he was just there because the Centipede Demon was too easy to fight, I don't know, I liked both bosses so I won't give this place a dumpster rating.

3.20 Lava Place 2: 1 Death; 7 Boss Deaths

I didn't really explore this area thoroughly. It reminded me a lot of lower Blighttown and had I been in a better mood I would have probably tried to explore more of the lava area.

Instead, I quite linearly followed the tree branches towards the hidden bonfire and up into the ruins. I completely ignored the giant Dino skeletons. I also didn't fight stone dude from the blacksmith's basement again.

I figured I'd just return to this area after beating the game. Because, you know, why wouldn't you be able to do that? The game wouldn't possibly overwrite your save with something you don't want now, would it?

I explored enough to find the weird swamp plant demon thingy area. I explored a bit but, after getting instantly killed by one in the slow poison mud after I was certain I had dodged in time, I just went for the fog door and got to experience what I heard described as an "event boss". I'd like to refer to it as a pile of garbage.

The first time I died to bed of chaos was an attempt to damage its hand. I dealt no damage but had expertly navigated to a place where I couldn't escape its attacks anymore and died. Thus began the era of boss runs. This time I came prepared with a podcast.

My next attempt I learned what you were supposed to do, but died while stabbing at the red glowing light that I was too scared to walk into.

Next go: kill left side, die to floor breakage.

It was fun to find out how aware the devs were of how poorly this boss is designed when I returned and saw phase 1 was already completed.

I ran towards the right side of the tree and got pushed off into a hole. Another death. It took me a few more tries to get to the right side after learning how to block the attacks and then I died once again trying for the middle.

When I finally killed the thing I believe that what I killed was one of those 3 bugs that tried to get through a locked door in Lava Place 1. It might have been a nice touch. I decided to return there later and see if the door had maybe opened. You get the gist by now. I didn't make it back there.

I don't know if the Devs were forcing variety or what in the world happened with this boss, but I don't see the point. The entire area is an unfinished, boring mess. 5/10

3.21 Gwynn, Lord of Cinder: Deaths 2; 9 Boss Deaths

Before going to the last area in the game I had to beat the four kings, which went down fairly quickly and as mentioned, in a regretful fashion.

Filling the Lord Vessel and entering the final area felt amazing. The enemies there were simple versions of previous enemies that seemed designed to help you farm upgrades should you have to. It was a fantastic victory walk. The scenery was amazing and everything seemed to be perfect.

This is where my expectations failed me to an unbelievable amount. For some reason, I thought the final Boss would be an endurance test near a bonfire that tests several different playstyles.

What I got was a frantic, short Boss fight with an incredibly long walk back to it.

My first attempt at Gwynn went down pretty fast. He charged at me, caught me off guard with a late dodge. I got hit once, got up from my dodge, got hit again.

This is the first of many times I had to go through the 1:30 min walk back to the Fog gate. I also managed to slip off the bridge twice at the thin part that apparently has some kobolds hidden below it that pull you in there while blocking past the knight.

I think Gwynn is a great boss. He's also a real disappointment as an end boss. The fight I beat him in lasted 1:17 min. That's less time than the walk there.

I like his aggression. You have 20 estus charges at this point for reasons I don't understand since you don't have time to use a single one during the boss fight. (unless you parry and break the game completely)

He doesn't have all that many attacks so it's not too hard to learn but positively difficult to actually execute. I died twice to his grab. I don't understand why it doesn't just kill you outright. He combos you to death after you're hit by it anyway.

I also never learned to dodge his initial strike, which didn't kill me but I also didn't understand how it hit me. My invincibility frames seemed to work, but then I'd get hit after the fact. I wish I had tried more. I resorted to attempting a parry on it and it worked. Out of reflex, I attacked him after. I dealt about 1/5th of his health in damage. I continued the fight and beat him. It felt somewhat cheap, but not unearned so I took it.

I lit the Bonfire and the game had one last duck to send me on my way with. I was back in the Asylum. My keys were gone. I looked it up on the internet and realized I was in a new game+ that had overwritten my savefile. The only way I can explain this is for Lore reasons. I don't really understand why, but I don't see another explanation to stab the player in the back for beating the game. This isn't No Mans Sky. I was told this game was supposed to be great.

7/10, a fitting final rating.

4. The lore

You thought I was done, didn't you? I genuinely don't think anybody is reading this anymore. I'm going mad while talking to myself. Speaking of going mad:

The Lore in this game is probably interesting. I enjoyed its vagueness because it allowed me to move on quickly without being given any context to the world I'm in. It's a good fit for the game and I can understand why people enjoy diving deep into it.

I really don't care much for it and even after researching it a bit it really seems to be some grey "up for interpretation" stuff that a lot of people have a lot of fun with. I don't care as long as it doesn't affect gameplay by, say, deleting my save file and making me play through this game again to play the DLC and explore the world some more. Thank you. Fantastic Choice.

5. The community

If anybody actually bothered to read this far into it and doesn't yet hate me for all the shade I threw towards your community. First of all: Thank you.

I hope it was worth the read, even if you skimmed through it. I understand. I didn't try to make this Shakespeare, I only proofread once and I'm german, so maybe I struggled with the language a bit here and there.

I want to say that my preconceptions of this community were mostly wrong. There is a very vocal bunch of "git good" guys, but overall you seem to have built a very supportive community. I could find a lot of balanced opinions, especially when researching Ornstein and Smough. You guys seem to get a bit defensive when somebody calls the game out for being garbage but I read very few bad spirited opinions.

I also want to commend you for the support and the amount of relaxed, non-elitist guides you put out there. I read through a few and realized that I myself was too quick to judge the difficulty of many bosses.

The gear you're in, the level you're at, the weapon you use can all change the difficulty of bosses so much that it's hard to judge. I've read people struggle with Iron Golem for instance and I struggled to understand why. I'm sure most people beat Ornstein and Smough in about half the time I did. That's how it is.

The only criticism I still stand by is that the game isn't always fair and I enjoyed the game a lot more after accepting that. I think if you pushed on this a little less the game might be more enjoyable for newcomers.

I also think there's games that are a lot fairer than Dark souls so the point about it being a standout quality doesn't really hold true imo. And by fairer I mostly mean that they have fewer bugs.

6. Final thoughts

I have 37 hours on my game file. I think I thought about 10 of those were fantastic, another 20 were fine to good and about 7 were a complete waste of time.

I still don't understand why this game is hyped as much as it is, but I will say that reflecting back on the game makes it seem much better than it was when I actually experienced it.

I think it's also one of those games that you can't ever experience for the first time again, you won't see flaws in pattern recognition, because you've already learned the pattern. You won't struggle to find a defense against some attacks because you already know about invincibility frames. You already know how you want to challenge yourself and which rules you want to handicap yourself with so you don't have to constantly second guess the game's intention.

I think I did pretty average in my playthrough. I overperformed on some bosses, out scaled others and probably sucked a little more than normal against Gaping Dragon, Ornstein and Smough and the Four Kings. I don't bother even considering Ceaseless Discharge for this.