It must be an unimaginably herculean effort to design a world so interconnected and with so many different areas seamlessly woven around the main hub, given that they pulled it off here and then said "let's never do this again". And don't give me that Majula thing cause listen, I like the place, but DS2 feels like it only included a central town out of obligation after the first game.
I'll always have a soft spot for DS1 because its systems all fall into place together so comfortably that a lot of the changes introduced with the later games almost feel excessive. Sure, it's been 11 years so now most of these boss and weapon movesets feel primitive and predictable, but this slow and deliberate clunkiness of everything somehow makes the game... tighter? There are very few extraneous mechanics or items so each swing, cast, block or dodge during combat feels purposeful, and every bit of the game during exploration is hand-crafted to amplify that sense of discovery. There are so many bosses with unique setups to their fights that even when you're getting your ass kicked, it's in a different way from the last time so all of them stay endlessly memorable; and honestly, you could say the same for most of the areas and the obstacles they put in front of you. The whole thing is brimming with personality and at times it makes you feel like a little kid on an adventure or playing around with medieval action figures, in the most sincere way possible.
I don't have much to add that you didn't already hear in every video essay under the sun. The later half is kind of ass, yes, if only by comparison to the first and it does unfortunately drag the game down quite a bit. The lore is good and all that, I particularly like what it does with the vagueness of religion and its different interpretations in-universe, but I never cared too much for this side of the Souls series as I do about the moment-to-moment experience of playing them and absorbing their atmosphere, and DS1 still kicks ass in that regard. Comfort food game.
I'll always have a soft spot for DS1 because its systems all fall into place together so comfortably that a lot of the changes introduced with the later games almost feel excessive. Sure, it's been 11 years so now most of these boss and weapon movesets feel primitive and predictable, but this slow and deliberate clunkiness of everything somehow makes the game... tighter? There are very few extraneous mechanics or items so each swing, cast, block or dodge during combat feels purposeful, and every bit of the game during exploration is hand-crafted to amplify that sense of discovery. There are so many bosses with unique setups to their fights that even when you're getting your ass kicked, it's in a different way from the last time so all of them stay endlessly memorable; and honestly, you could say the same for most of the areas and the obstacles they put in front of you. The whole thing is brimming with personality and at times it makes you feel like a little kid on an adventure or playing around with medieval action figures, in the most sincere way possible.
I don't have much to add that you didn't already hear in every video essay under the sun. The later half is kind of ass, yes, if only by comparison to the first and it does unfortunately drag the game down quite a bit. The lore is good and all that, I particularly like what it does with the vagueness of religion and its different interpretations in-universe, but I never cared too much for this side of the Souls series as I do about the moment-to-moment experience of playing them and absorbing their atmosphere, and DS1 still kicks ass in that regard. Comfort food game.