Instead of claiming that the game was just too hard, though, players had the opportunity to understand how they could adapt to a new way of understanding difficulty and then enjoy one of the freshest experiences in gaming ever. So, it makes sense that many people (myself included) were unsettled by Dark Soul’s introduction. Player’s were not used to solving problems with AAA games in 2011, with button-mashing being sometimes the only strategy used to beat any and every challenge. For example, instead of killing a boss with a broken sword, you might want to wait for better gear and maybe even find an advantage point to plunge attack. In the tutorial area, it teaches the player that not every challenge can be beaten by brute force, and sometimes you've just got to be clever. On the other hand, Dark Souls is all about problem-solving. While adjustable difficulty is always a welcome addition to increase a game’s accessibility, especially for people with disabilities, many AAA titles have a straightforward approach that makes them dull, even at harder difficulty levels. Dark Souls only became so divisive because the AAA industry, at the time, followed a completely different path regarding difficulty, by adding long tutorials and holding the player’s hand during the entire adventure in hopes that an easier experience could reach more people. However, in general, the game is not that difficult. Let’s get something clear: Dark Souls does have its unfair moments. On the other side of the discussion, people were happy to find a AAA game challenging and blamed the lack of skills of other players for their own failures. That’s because many players hated Dark Souls with all their, well, souls, claiming that the game was unfair.
DARK SOULS MEME PC
Also, as PC gamers are pretty vocal about their gaming experiences, Dark Souls would soon get a lot of free publicity when it came to the PC in 2012. However, contrary to Demon’s Souls, Dark Souls was not exclusive, which means many more potential players had access to it from the start. In that sense, Souls bosses are inspired by The Legend of Zelda, another franchise with memorable boss battles that mix timing with problem-solving.ĭemon’s Souls, however, was confined to the PlayStation 3 when it was first released in 2009, and the franchise didn’t make as big of a splash as Dark Souls would between 20. That’s why a lot of the boss battles in the Souls franchise feel like puzzles sometimes, as there are often gimmicks that’ll give you the edge against some of the game’s most powerful creatures.
The solution can be as simple as waiting for the right time to hit a boss, but it can also involve objects scattered about in the scenario, such as ballistae.
Demon’s Souls never demands perfection from its players, only careful observation so that a solution can be found for each combat sequence. The same two elements are the pillars of every other game FromSoftware developed since then.
While Demon’s Souls is indeed challenging, its difficulty comes from pattern memorization and trained reflexes. And that’s why so many games, such as Lords of the Fallen, fail to copy the Dark Souls formula: Too much focus is put on the challenge and not enough on the design of the story.īut how does Dark Souls build its difficulty? And how is the related primary goal of worldbuilding executed? Get your sword and shield we are going on an adventure through the design and history of the franchise.įromSoftware was not just trying to make a hard game when they built Demon’s Souls. However, the difficulty in Dark Souls is not there for the sake of difficulty only, but it’s actually a narrative tool that helps to tell some of the most ambitious stories ever told in games. Sure, Dark Souls and all its sibling games will forever be remembered for the epic boss battles and the brutal paths to get to said bosses, always filled with enemies and traps that hold nothing back in their attempts to kill you. And I hate to break it to you, but Dark Souls’ most significant legacy is not the difficulty but its unique worldbuilding. While the difficulty is undoubtedly part of the appeal of the Souls franchise, it’s unfair to reduce FromSoftware games to this element, especially since Dark Souls revolutionized the AAA industry in a lot of different ways. When anyone talks about Dark Souls or any other recent FromSoftware title, the first thing mentioned is how difficult the games are.
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