In the three-ish years between my friend from high school snapping my barely touched copy of Dark Souls III in half after I gave it to him and me giving Bloodborne a shot and falling head over heels for it, I had always been interested in at least giving the original Dark Souls a shot, and after beating Bloodborne twice and Elden Ring once, I decided that I was finally ready to give that game a go. After hearing people call the 2018 remaster a disappointment due to it not fixing any of the original game's issues, I decided that I might as well play the original version of the game anyway due to it being the cheaper option, and so I snagged a copy of the Prepare to Die version of the game alongside some other Xbox 360 titles and then spent just over a month playing through it. My roughly 25-30 hour playthrough of Dark Souls was one that was filled with a lot of anger, complaining, and me wishing outlandish things on Hidetaka Miyazaki, but it was also an immensely fun and rewarding experience, even if I wouldn't consider it to be perfect like so many others have.
Even when compared to the terrifying Gothic streets of Yharnam in Bloodborne or the vast and varied Lands Between of Elden Ring, there was something about playing Dark Souls that made its atmosphere feel so much more oppressive and bleak, and I feel like that can be at least partially linked back to the game's controls. In Dark Souls, you have to commit to absolutely every attack, dodge, and occasional jump that you make, as your Chosen Undead's limited range, delayed movements, and inability to adjust where their moves go in any way eventually makes fighting even one enemy require lots of attention and patience. The jump from the tough, but fair combat of Bloodborne and Elden Ring to the brutal and punishing combat of Dark Souls was an admittedly jarring one, but it greatly added to the satisfaction of actually overcoming whatever was in your way, as having the odds be stacked against your favor made finally getting to the next bonfire or beating that boss feel immensely euphoric after being beaten down so many times. The game's grim setting was a great backdrop for the unforgiving combat, as the artstyle's blend of grotesque dark fantasy and medieval romanticism made for levels that were both gorgeous to look at and suffocating in how constant the presence of death and ruin were. Usually, I really dislike having to backtrack in games, but my appreciation for the game's interconnectedness was at its highest whenever I had to trek through levels before I got the ability to warp to bonfires, as those trips made Dark Souls feel thick with existential dread, especially with the game's few friendly NPCs being hopelessly insane (except for Solaire of Astora, bless his heart). Despite how haunting and depressing this game can be, there were several moments in Dark Souls that were overwhelming in their beauty, with my first arrivals in both the Firelink Shrine and the fight against the Moonlight Butterfly genuinely making me tear up with how enchanting they were amidst Lordran's constant strife and decay.
What's frustrating about Dark Souls is that, despite how much this game manages to get right so effortlessly, it is also rife with bizarre and even outright bad design choices that made playing the game feel either annoying, dull, unfair, or some combination of the three, and these moments ended up holding the game back from being the flawless masterstroke that so many people have praised it as. For starters, both the combat and the general movement felt very janky to me, and a lot of my deaths just ended up coming from my character doing a move that was in the complete opposite direction of what I actually pressed on my controller or even just slipping off of the platform that I was on for no discernible reason. Aside from the Moonlight Butterfly, Ornstein and Smough, and Gwyn, I never really struggled with any of the game's bosses (Bed of Chaos somehow only took me three tries), but quite a few of the levels that led up to them were filled with cheap enemy placements and annoying gimmicks, with New Londo Ruins featuring ghosts being able to kill you through walls and the Duke's Archives being littered with Channeler snipers sticking out to me in particular. There were also entire levels that didn't feature a single bonfire in them, and while it did add to the tension of trying to avoid getting hit to either keep exploring or to find the next boss, they also meant that I had to run a marathon from a totally different area every single time I wanted to attempt the level again, and this got old almost immediately. Even with all of these flaws, though, Dark Souls was still a great game whose influence and painstaking craft can still be felt to this day, and since I've heard almost nothing but horror stories about Dark Souls II, I'll probably come back to it after playing through Dark Souls III first.
Even when compared to the terrifying Gothic streets of Yharnam in Bloodborne or the vast and varied Lands Between of Elden Ring, there was something about playing Dark Souls that made its atmosphere feel so much more oppressive and bleak, and I feel like that can be at least partially linked back to the game's controls. In Dark Souls, you have to commit to absolutely every attack, dodge, and occasional jump that you make, as your Chosen Undead's limited range, delayed movements, and inability to adjust where their moves go in any way eventually makes fighting even one enemy require lots of attention and patience. The jump from the tough, but fair combat of Bloodborne and Elden Ring to the brutal and punishing combat of Dark Souls was an admittedly jarring one, but it greatly added to the satisfaction of actually overcoming whatever was in your way, as having the odds be stacked against your favor made finally getting to the next bonfire or beating that boss feel immensely euphoric after being beaten down so many times. The game's grim setting was a great backdrop for the unforgiving combat, as the artstyle's blend of grotesque dark fantasy and medieval romanticism made for levels that were both gorgeous to look at and suffocating in how constant the presence of death and ruin were. Usually, I really dislike having to backtrack in games, but my appreciation for the game's interconnectedness was at its highest whenever I had to trek through levels before I got the ability to warp to bonfires, as those trips made Dark Souls feel thick with existential dread, especially with the game's few friendly NPCs being hopelessly insane (except for Solaire of Astora, bless his heart). Despite how haunting and depressing this game can be, there were several moments in Dark Souls that were overwhelming in their beauty, with my first arrivals in both the Firelink Shrine and the fight against the Moonlight Butterfly genuinely making me tear up with how enchanting they were amidst Lordran's constant strife and decay.
What's frustrating about Dark Souls is that, despite how much this game manages to get right so effortlessly, it is also rife with bizarre and even outright bad design choices that made playing the game feel either annoying, dull, unfair, or some combination of the three, and these moments ended up holding the game back from being the flawless masterstroke that so many people have praised it as. For starters, both the combat and the general movement felt very janky to me, and a lot of my deaths just ended up coming from my character doing a move that was in the complete opposite direction of what I actually pressed on my controller or even just slipping off of the platform that I was on for no discernible reason. Aside from the Moonlight Butterfly, Ornstein and Smough, and Gwyn, I never really struggled with any of the game's bosses (Bed of Chaos somehow only took me three tries), but quite a few of the levels that led up to them were filled with cheap enemy placements and annoying gimmicks, with New Londo Ruins featuring ghosts being able to kill you through walls and the Duke's Archives being littered with Channeler snipers sticking out to me in particular. There were also entire levels that didn't feature a single bonfire in them, and while it did add to the tension of trying to avoid getting hit to either keep exploring or to find the next boss, they also meant that I had to run a marathon from a totally different area every single time I wanted to attempt the level again, and this got old almost immediately. Even with all of these flaws, though, Dark Souls was still a great game whose influence and painstaking craft can still be felt to this day, and since I've heard almost nothing but horror stories about Dark Souls II, I'll probably come back to it after playing through Dark Souls III first.