My favourite game of all time. Give me more retextured enemies and rushed areas FromSoft, I live for it. It's interesting to see how despite FromSoftware becoming such a prestigious and respected developer, they've yet to recapture Dark Souls 1's magic, or at least in my opinion. I don't know if it's the satisfying level design or the amount of atmosphere oozing from this masterpiece but however much the gameplay improves in their next titles doesn't replace the feeling of exploring Lordran for the first time. I think this game's greatest strength is the use of scale- it's so compact when exploring that when it opens up to a massive area or a giant boss fight is presented, you really feel the weight of their presence as opposed to the tightly knit environments. I'd obviously recommend it but I'm aware not everyone is going to enjoy its seemingly unforgiving nature.

All the way back in 2013 I dropped this game after 20 hours playtime, around lvl 26. I remember getting irritated at constantly googling questions I had about the game every five minutes. I remember believing this to be a complete failure of a game. I remember feeling Demons Souls was 'better'. (quotation marks because that game was also quite obscure and required the help of google)

Since then I've platinum'ed games like Dark Souls 3 and Bloodborne, so it's safe to say I'm much more accustomed to this particular genre now, but still, I figure it's worth keeping my original memories of this game for this log entry. I really should try the remastered version some day.

played this to cure my mgs4 woes. to cleanse my mind. to calm myself and play a game that makes sense
so .. that was foolish
i dont know what this game did to my brain but when i tell you those sewer rats genuinely honestly almost brought me to tears and made me uninstall... but then look at me now, weeks later, all i can do is look back fondly on all the crazy shit this game threw at me and how proud i am for beating it. this game transcends.... game. it is an experience that will imprint on your mind, your very soul.. your dark soul.... sorry
my character was called neon lennedy. he dressed like a tree stump and hit his enemies with a giant fiery spider's leg. i love him. i hope hes doin ok.
it kinda falls off in the second half but at that point i was addicted. and im currently trying to play dark souls 2 so i cant complain. the most important thing about playing this game is that doing so made my friends smile :)

I know it is a flawed game so giving it a 5 could be called misleading. That being said no other piece of media has had such a profound effect on me. The world of Lordran is infinitely interesting with something around every corner. There is so much atmosphere and depth to this magical world. It is a quiet game that made the biggest noice. The difficulty and sense of adventure makes you so immersed in this game. All creatures look so unique and interesting. This game makes sure to test every single skill set of a player while also making sure to give the advantage to a prepared man. The combat is super weighty and makes this the fastest strategy game or the slowest action game. It is truly magnificent. Every part of this game is flawed in some way but ultimately redeemed by giving a very human and powerful experience.

Dark Souls is the game my mind goes to first when I think of level design perfected. Sure, it has a dip in the 2nd half in terms of level design and boss design but it only feels that way because of how perfect the first half is. The 2nd half is still incredible all things considered. The only real issues I have with this were some of the jank that just wasn't fun (most of the jank was great tho tbh) and Bed of Chaos. Genuinely one of the worst bosses FromSoft has made to this day. The lore is extremely detailed and rewards players for reading flavour text, talking to the same NPCs during different parts of the game and exploring every nook and cranny. The game offers many fun builds and is incredibly easy to pick up and play at random times. Trying a new, deliberately weak build or challenge run just because it's that fun.

The atmosphere of this game is so wholly unique that I can't help but play more and more. It envelopes you and immerses you like no other game. Despite how hopeless everything feels, it doesn't stop the game from having tons of personality. And it covers you in a warm, familiar blanket. Making it a nightmarish dream you never want to wake up from, even with all its cruelty.

8.5/10

Dark souls. A game with Full of soul but with a little bit of daring hollowness inside it

In my journey to play souls titles, I played dark souls 3 first but didn't finish, then played bloodborne, then demons souls and now this. Dark souls.

Just like demon's souls, I find this game still worth experiencing. It doesn't do everything great unfortunately but one thing it does great, it really does GREAT.

You see, souls titles in it's core is just a cliche fantasy game with lots of monsters to fight something like castlevania, but what makes it carry to next point, the castlevania symphony of the night if you will... The World that is.

There are tons of 2d metroidvania's in the gaming, but 3d ones are hecking rare. But this game, with it's connected world, actually managed to give me that feeling again. The cohesive world that expands and connects with every step of the way. Especially it's first half with you somehow be able to go wherever you want from the world and not just that come back to it again and again and again... It's so good that in fact that, it's gets twice more disappointing the moment it stops doing that.

Yeah I am talking about the last 1/3 of the game unfortunately.

Before the whole franchise became just a boss tier list titles, it cared about it's world before the most and this game is the result of that idea. But like I said there are soooo many shortcomings as well.

First 1/3 of the game is about ringing the bells but it's so open that you can go wherever you wanted and it's the best part of it and I can easily give 5/5 for it. For example myself went to new londo ruins first, get f####, return to hub, find the right way, ring the first bell, don't know where to go next, go down and find out catacombs, go there and arrive tomb of the giants, realize there is no shortcuts back to hub, get stuck, get f####, get raped, finally manage to return back to hub with barely be able to breath, look up a guide, learn the right way, go to more boring version of swamp, ring the second bell

Second 1/3 is about getting the lord vessel and there are small bumps that takes it down to 4/5 but still enjoyable, go to the boring ass forest, barely stay alive from the boss and get the ring, go to awesome fortress and get killed to traps bazillion amounts of times, finally go to anor londo, then hidden painting and then back to anor londo and... Other than the excellent boss fights, enemy reusage starts to show itself, anyway game is still great and we get the lord vessel.

Then last 1/3 happens and game becomes a mess. You need to get to 4 zones with gimmicks, be it lava, curse, darkness etc. While this in itself not a bad thing, where it gets ridiculous is there is almost no shortcut or almost no connectedness between them. Game gets linear as it gets and boss runs gets longer as it gets, also enemy variety gets lower as it gets.


I am gonna be honest even tho late bosses are mostly easy, variety and boss runs to them really soured me from the experience and resulted me almost leaving the game. I mean I finished it but for what cost?

You see, I always find souls titles endgame areas to be quite lacking and dark souls is no exception. But unfortunately dark souls is much much worse for it. Because it breaks it's consistency of level design. And the world feels more the worse because of it

At least dlc is cool tho?... I finished the dlc as well(but I find out I miss kalameet dragon boss... Dang it) and it was cool.

Unfortunately it reuses the bland forest area in the first zone, but the moment you finish that rest is great. It's especially good when it comes to level design with you somehow find yourself at the bonfire every single time with shortcuts just like in the main game. But one thing almost ruined everything for me and that is, it's last boss Manus.

You see, I made a full on light equipped fast rolling stamina heavy character, say glass cannon dps if you will. But Manus is like a dark souls 3 boss(also it's the first one that with the trend that unending combos). He is fast, super aggressive and just Does. Not. Stop.

It's the first time in the entire game I felt hopeless. I managed to beat him after god know how many tries but felt nothing but fatigue(also my new job internship stress adds to it tenfold). Unfortunately because of it I am mixed when it comes to the dlc but at least it's still worth it just for the high quality areas you traverse

So yeah this was dark souls. Quite the polarizing game for me with every step gets best to worse. It's a game where I can't find it's awesome connected world anywhere else, but never had that much frustrating moments in any game. So because of that I give to base game 3 stars, but with the dlc it goes up to 4 for me

So what can I say... one can only wish a better second half when it comes to consistency because even it's older cousin demon's souls shows it's value more and more to me.

if i had to pick what my favorite game of all time was, this is probably it. it was my first souls game as a kid, and nowadays i can hop on and beat it in a single sitting.

it has a masterpiece of an ost, an amazing and interconnected level design and challenging but memorable enemies/bosses. overall i think this is just the perfect evolution from demon souls.

favorite bosses: (in order)
manus, father of the abyss
knight artorias
ornstein & smough
black dragon kalameet
gwyn, lord of cinder
gaping dragon

it took me 2 years to actually finish it. the game is obviously mechanically pretty amazing and impactful for its generation, you gotta give its flowers. but as a game it's very unforgiving and those kinds of games don't motivate me to play them at all. i just finished it because i felt like i had to. did i not enjoy it? well, yeah. once you beat the bosses you were getting fucked by, it feels satisfactory. that's usually about it though, apart from the big world-building and gameplay greatness. absence of story makes me not want to continue the game too.