I would say it's time to finally write something to praise this game, despite how hard it is to nail down why I love it. I should note, I am playing on Dark Souls: Remastered, I simply catalog my playthroughs on this game due to it looking better and this site's poor cataloging abilities (at the time of writing, that is). This is also written in the context of a first-time player, meaning no +5 Ascended Pyromancy Flames or low-level Wrath of the Gods or any kind of play like that.
Dark Souls is one of the few games that I believe everyone should play at least once in their lifetime. Maybe not all the way through, maybe not even halfway through, but it should be something you invest at least ~3-4 hours into. If it grips you within that time, however, it will be an experience you will not be able to put down until completion, and one that will live with you for the rest of your life.
The constant uphill battle of the game might be a turnoff to some players, since there never is a point where you're really "OP", unless you spent hours farming souls and materials. The enemies, be it gargantuan dragon bosses or the Souls-equivalent to zombies, know how to fight, and they want to fight you. They'll heal, dodge, parry, backstab, perform all the types of mechanics you have at your disposal against you, as you would them. As such, it creates an environment where you never feel like a truly overpowered god amongst men that can destroy things in one hit, rather a battle-hardened soldier whose every victory (or failure) adds more experience to their name.
That's another thing, death as a lesson rather than a punishment. In most other games, regardless of genre, dying is often as simple as "you lost all your health, now retry." Very little is learned, as you'll just continue and be more alert to heal when you need to. In Dark Souls, however, that's not the case. Every death, for the vast majority of the time, is a fault of the player, not the game. Every death tells you "you failed that encounter, but you have more experience now, so try again." There's no limit to the amount of times you can die, there's no punishment for dying (outside of having to respawn), and there's absolutely no rush lore-wise to defeat your enemies. You may die again, and again, and again, until you fully understand the fight at hand, and defeat it with the skill of a master. Be it something simple, like learning a new boss move and how to dodge it, or something a bit more complex, like planning out how to take on a particularly populated area of enemies, death will always teach rather than frustrate and irritate.
On the topic of frustration, difficulty. While Dark Souls has a reputation for being crushingly difficult, I would feel like leaving it off on just that is somewhat unfair. Is the game hard? Absolutely, no matter the player at the wheel. Certain bosses (such as a certain gold-plated duo) will always be a bump in the road of even the most skilled and elite players. However, the game is always fair in its difficulty. Any game can raise the health and damage values of enemies and say it's hard. Dark Souls doesn't do that. It always keeps things at a leveled playing field so that your enemies are always slightly higher than you, but not ludicrously. This doesn't mean every area of the game auto-balances to your level, but if you've been leveling up as the game intended, then you'll never find yourself being completely crushed by enemies, rather constantly tasked against formidable, but achievable combatants. This one fact of keeping your enemies always higher than you is what makes the gameplay perfect to me. Every fight you have feels like a well-earned victory, major or minor. A "David and Goliath" situation is made out of even the most basic of enemies at times, and each win feels like a result of your acquired skill rather than just luck or repetition. While I don't feel like it deserves its own section, I would be ashamed if I didn't at least mention the bosses. Yes, they absolutely live up to the mountains of notoriety and iconicism that they've garnered throughout the years. In my attempts to keep this review spoiler-free, I don't want to name any particular ones, but every boss feels like a different challenge than the last, with the one exception of 3 bosses being near identical to each other (if you know, you know). From golden-armored warriors to giant, teeth-infested dragons to an abomination of dark magic, every boss provides an unforgettable experience, both in terms of design and fighting.
I'd like to take a moment and talk about how absolutely mind-blowing the design of Lordran is. Now, I won't be talking about the lore, that comes later; the physical layout is the best in gaming, point blank, period. With a few reasonable exceptions later in the game, the entire world of Lordran feels like an actual place that's always updating in your mind the more you travel it. You can round a corner, find a ladder to kick, climb down, and holy moly you're back in an area you were in hours ago! The game doesn't give you fast travel at the start like some other open world games do, it has you unlock shortcuts and learn different paths to take to get from one place to the next. Some may dislike that fact, as it leads to a lot of "pointless walking around", but I feel like that couldn't be farther from the truth. It creates a feeling of reality to everywhere you go, like you truly are an adventurer in a world that lets you step foot in wherever you go and (mostly) return the way you came; one of my favorite things to do when I play is pick 2 random locations and try to find the quickest path between them, just to test out my own knowledge and to experience that feeling of walking through a land that really feels like it exists, despite the high fantasy setting of the world. This might be the hardest point for me to actually talk about, but trust me, it's absolutely amazing to feel when you play the game.
It would be impossible to talk about Dark Souls' gameplay and not bring up the 2 most important features, in my opinions: the iconic Bonfires, and anxiety-inducing Bloodstains. The Bonfires are safe havens in the often intimidating world of Lordran. No matter where you are, a Bonfire signals peace and quiet for at least a small time. Enemies can't spawn around them, nor can they aggro from where they are, so you will always be safe sitting at a Bonfire. Outside of a few occasions, the placement of these checkpoints are, in my opinion, perfect. The way it forces you to learn the area around you and how to fine-tune your run through it adds onto that learning experience I talked about before, and because of how far between they are, each one genuinely feels like a beacon of hope in your journey. However, there's also a fair bit of tension created in how far away they can be. You've just fought through an area you've never been before, are knocking on death's door, and are out of Estus. Do you continue forward in hopes of a bonfire around the corner, or do you go back and walk the path again with more knowledge? Sometimes the first option will be the best, as you might be seconds away from finding one, and sometimes the second option will be the best, as being able to repeat the section with your added experience of going through it results in less Estus being used. In a world of difficult fights and dreadful happenings, these mysterious ongoing fires never fail to relax even the most on-edge players.
Conversely, the reason why so many players are on-edge, the Bloodstains. As you probably know, when you die in Dark Souls, all of your Souls (which are used to level you up as well as buy items) and "liquid" Humanity is lost for a period of time, and can only be retrieved by returning to where you died and touching your Bloodstain. Without this, Dark Souls is infinitely less fair. If they weren't there, then death would become a punishment, the game telling you "you failed, so all of your currency is gone." However, the Bloodstains allow you to test your since-earned grasp on an area and regain that which you lost on death, and the terms are very simple: You succeed, touch your Bloodstain, and get back your lost Souls and Humanity, or you fail, and your Bloodstain is lost forever. When you've died with hundreds of thousands of Souls to your name, the game suddenly becomes the longest tightrope walk ever. You'll play more careful than you ever have before, become more acutely aware of all of your surroundings, just for a chance at getting back what you lost. If you kept your Souls each death, then death would feel similar to other games mentioned before, a simple "don't get hit as much" reminder for the next time, but since you don't, your death can truly feel like being forced to test your own will, since no one wants to lose their hard-earned Souls, but it can happen so easily at just the wrong button press or the slightest misstep. But, in the end, if you lose them all, that just gives you more reason to start again.
Accepting loss is the first step of moving on in your journey, both inside Dark Souls and outside gaming altogether. We fear losing our rightfully earned valuables and cling to them dearly when the chance of losing them is at stake. However, in order to live a life of peace and forward motion, one must disconnect with the fear of loss and accept anything that happens to both ourselves and our belongings. While a common Buddhist teaching may seem out of place in a gaming review, Dark Souls is heavily based around these teachings. Being willing to let go, start again, and learn from your mistakes are fundamentals to how the game functions. These philosophies tie-in perfectly to the mysterious, somber, and tragic tones of the game's world and story.
Just mentioning the words "Dark Souls' story" is a can of worms so large you could rile up the entire fanbase by opening it. I'm not here to say what is and is not true, but it would be unfair to the game's writing and world-building to not mention how the game tells its story in a deliberately minimal and thought-provoking way. Outside of the opening cutscene, there really isn't much exposition outright told to you in the game. You'll meet a few certain high-ranking characters who give larger chunks of information to you, but for the most part, all knowledge of the story is told through chatting with different NPCs and hearing their explanation of certain things, reading item descriptions, and sometimes even the weapons used by someone can tell a part of their story. An example I always love to use is a Red Phantom you encounter later in the game named King Jeremiah. While he's very infamous in the community for his "crown", one of the pyromancy spells he uses is Great Chaos Fireball. One can only get this spell by being a member of the Chaos Servant covenant, and so, through one attack alone, one can infer that Jeremiah is a Chaos Servant in his world. Small details like that make up a huge, rich, elaborate story that is very often up to character interpretation. One of the most hotly talked about story beats is a character mentioning time being "convoluted" in Lordran, and whether that means everything is happening at once, there's a multiverse of things that can cross over, or if time is just a point in space that doesn't move is completely up to how the player wants to interpret it, and craft their own explanation of the world around them.
While Dark Souls' lore, amongst all of the games, is highly talked about and debated, certain things are most clear. The Age of Fire is ending, and once it ends, the Age of Man begins. Once the Age of Man ends, the Age of Fire begins again, and the cycle will repeat itself for eternity. Despite this cycle being known to certain characters, the main quest revolves around linking the Fire and continuing the Age of Fire. However, this brings the question, what's the point in continuing the Age of Fire if it's going to end anyways? And when that question blooms, one begins to wonder about the purpose of all life in the world of Lordran. No matter what happens, the Fires will fade, and the Dark will usher in, and after that, the Fire will rekindle, so on and so forth. Time, as everyone knows it, will end and begin perpetually, so making the most out of what time you have seems... pointless. If your efforts will be wasted in the end, why fight at all? Keeping the Fire alive is merely a temporary extension, and ushering in the Dark is still only temporary. Life as we know it is completely pointless in Lordran. And yet, the characters around you still partake in their own journeys, as do you. The constant reminder of your efforts being worthless is both disheartening, yet cathartic since, at the end of the day (and time itself), you had an experience that made your own life worth living, even if what you did will be forgotten to the steady cycle of Fire and Dark.
The lessons that Dark Souls teach us are both confined to the game itself (professionals will know to kill the dogs first), and a reflection on humanity as a whole. In the grand, huge scheme of our universe, what we do is inherently meaningless, much like the people of Lordran. We can either cry out about the injustice of our own existences and give up (or "go Hollow", as characters would say) or we can continue on our own paths, find joy, love, knowledge, and peace in the time that we have to do so, and continue to fight every day for a life worth living.
Dark Souls is one of the few games that I believe everyone should play at least once in their lifetime. Maybe not all the way through, maybe not even halfway through, but it should be something you invest at least ~3-4 hours into. If it grips you within that time, however, it will be an experience you will not be able to put down until completion, and one that will live with you for the rest of your life.
The constant uphill battle of the game might be a turnoff to some players, since there never is a point where you're really "OP", unless you spent hours farming souls and materials. The enemies, be it gargantuan dragon bosses or the Souls-equivalent to zombies, know how to fight, and they want to fight you. They'll heal, dodge, parry, backstab, perform all the types of mechanics you have at your disposal against you, as you would them. As such, it creates an environment where you never feel like a truly overpowered god amongst men that can destroy things in one hit, rather a battle-hardened soldier whose every victory (or failure) adds more experience to their name.
That's another thing, death as a lesson rather than a punishment. In most other games, regardless of genre, dying is often as simple as "you lost all your health, now retry." Very little is learned, as you'll just continue and be more alert to heal when you need to. In Dark Souls, however, that's not the case. Every death, for the vast majority of the time, is a fault of the player, not the game. Every death tells you "you failed that encounter, but you have more experience now, so try again." There's no limit to the amount of times you can die, there's no punishment for dying (outside of having to respawn), and there's absolutely no rush lore-wise to defeat your enemies. You may die again, and again, and again, until you fully understand the fight at hand, and defeat it with the skill of a master. Be it something simple, like learning a new boss move and how to dodge it, or something a bit more complex, like planning out how to take on a particularly populated area of enemies, death will always teach rather than frustrate and irritate.
On the topic of frustration, difficulty. While Dark Souls has a reputation for being crushingly difficult, I would feel like leaving it off on just that is somewhat unfair. Is the game hard? Absolutely, no matter the player at the wheel. Certain bosses (such as a certain gold-plated duo) will always be a bump in the road of even the most skilled and elite players. However, the game is always fair in its difficulty. Any game can raise the health and damage values of enemies and say it's hard. Dark Souls doesn't do that. It always keeps things at a leveled playing field so that your enemies are always slightly higher than you, but not ludicrously. This doesn't mean every area of the game auto-balances to your level, but if you've been leveling up as the game intended, then you'll never find yourself being completely crushed by enemies, rather constantly tasked against formidable, but achievable combatants. This one fact of keeping your enemies always higher than you is what makes the gameplay perfect to me. Every fight you have feels like a well-earned victory, major or minor. A "David and Goliath" situation is made out of even the most basic of enemies at times, and each win feels like a result of your acquired skill rather than just luck or repetition. While I don't feel like it deserves its own section, I would be ashamed if I didn't at least mention the bosses. Yes, they absolutely live up to the mountains of notoriety and iconicism that they've garnered throughout the years. In my attempts to keep this review spoiler-free, I don't want to name any particular ones, but every boss feels like a different challenge than the last, with the one exception of 3 bosses being near identical to each other (if you know, you know). From golden-armored warriors to giant, teeth-infested dragons to an abomination of dark magic, every boss provides an unforgettable experience, both in terms of design and fighting.
I'd like to take a moment and talk about how absolutely mind-blowing the design of Lordran is. Now, I won't be talking about the lore, that comes later; the physical layout is the best in gaming, point blank, period. With a few reasonable exceptions later in the game, the entire world of Lordran feels like an actual place that's always updating in your mind the more you travel it. You can round a corner, find a ladder to kick, climb down, and holy moly you're back in an area you were in hours ago! The game doesn't give you fast travel at the start like some other open world games do, it has you unlock shortcuts and learn different paths to take to get from one place to the next. Some may dislike that fact, as it leads to a lot of "pointless walking around", but I feel like that couldn't be farther from the truth. It creates a feeling of reality to everywhere you go, like you truly are an adventurer in a world that lets you step foot in wherever you go and (mostly) return the way you came; one of my favorite things to do when I play is pick 2 random locations and try to find the quickest path between them, just to test out my own knowledge and to experience that feeling of walking through a land that really feels like it exists, despite the high fantasy setting of the world. This might be the hardest point for me to actually talk about, but trust me, it's absolutely amazing to feel when you play the game.
It would be impossible to talk about Dark Souls' gameplay and not bring up the 2 most important features, in my opinions: the iconic Bonfires, and anxiety-inducing Bloodstains. The Bonfires are safe havens in the often intimidating world of Lordran. No matter where you are, a Bonfire signals peace and quiet for at least a small time. Enemies can't spawn around them, nor can they aggro from where they are, so you will always be safe sitting at a Bonfire. Outside of a few occasions, the placement of these checkpoints are, in my opinion, perfect. The way it forces you to learn the area around you and how to fine-tune your run through it adds onto that learning experience I talked about before, and because of how far between they are, each one genuinely feels like a beacon of hope in your journey. However, there's also a fair bit of tension created in how far away they can be. You've just fought through an area you've never been before, are knocking on death's door, and are out of Estus. Do you continue forward in hopes of a bonfire around the corner, or do you go back and walk the path again with more knowledge? Sometimes the first option will be the best, as you might be seconds away from finding one, and sometimes the second option will be the best, as being able to repeat the section with your added experience of going through it results in less Estus being used. In a world of difficult fights and dreadful happenings, these mysterious ongoing fires never fail to relax even the most on-edge players.
Conversely, the reason why so many players are on-edge, the Bloodstains. As you probably know, when you die in Dark Souls, all of your Souls (which are used to level you up as well as buy items) and "liquid" Humanity is lost for a period of time, and can only be retrieved by returning to where you died and touching your Bloodstain. Without this, Dark Souls is infinitely less fair. If they weren't there, then death would become a punishment, the game telling you "you failed, so all of your currency is gone." However, the Bloodstains allow you to test your since-earned grasp on an area and regain that which you lost on death, and the terms are very simple: You succeed, touch your Bloodstain, and get back your lost Souls and Humanity, or you fail, and your Bloodstain is lost forever. When you've died with hundreds of thousands of Souls to your name, the game suddenly becomes the longest tightrope walk ever. You'll play more careful than you ever have before, become more acutely aware of all of your surroundings, just for a chance at getting back what you lost. If you kept your Souls each death, then death would feel similar to other games mentioned before, a simple "don't get hit as much" reminder for the next time, but since you don't, your death can truly feel like being forced to test your own will, since no one wants to lose their hard-earned Souls, but it can happen so easily at just the wrong button press or the slightest misstep. But, in the end, if you lose them all, that just gives you more reason to start again.
Accepting loss is the first step of moving on in your journey, both inside Dark Souls and outside gaming altogether. We fear losing our rightfully earned valuables and cling to them dearly when the chance of losing them is at stake. However, in order to live a life of peace and forward motion, one must disconnect with the fear of loss and accept anything that happens to both ourselves and our belongings. While a common Buddhist teaching may seem out of place in a gaming review, Dark Souls is heavily based around these teachings. Being willing to let go, start again, and learn from your mistakes are fundamentals to how the game functions. These philosophies tie-in perfectly to the mysterious, somber, and tragic tones of the game's world and story.
Just mentioning the words "Dark Souls' story" is a can of worms so large you could rile up the entire fanbase by opening it. I'm not here to say what is and is not true, but it would be unfair to the game's writing and world-building to not mention how the game tells its story in a deliberately minimal and thought-provoking way. Outside of the opening cutscene, there really isn't much exposition outright told to you in the game. You'll meet a few certain high-ranking characters who give larger chunks of information to you, but for the most part, all knowledge of the story is told through chatting with different NPCs and hearing their explanation of certain things, reading item descriptions, and sometimes even the weapons used by someone can tell a part of their story. An example I always love to use is a Red Phantom you encounter later in the game named King Jeremiah. While he's very infamous in the community for his "crown", one of the pyromancy spells he uses is Great Chaos Fireball. One can only get this spell by being a member of the Chaos Servant covenant, and so, through one attack alone, one can infer that Jeremiah is a Chaos Servant in his world. Small details like that make up a huge, rich, elaborate story that is very often up to character interpretation. One of the most hotly talked about story beats is a character mentioning time being "convoluted" in Lordran, and whether that means everything is happening at once, there's a multiverse of things that can cross over, or if time is just a point in space that doesn't move is completely up to how the player wants to interpret it, and craft their own explanation of the world around them.
While Dark Souls' lore, amongst all of the games, is highly talked about and debated, certain things are most clear. The Age of Fire is ending, and once it ends, the Age of Man begins. Once the Age of Man ends, the Age of Fire begins again, and the cycle will repeat itself for eternity. Despite this cycle being known to certain characters, the main quest revolves around linking the Fire and continuing the Age of Fire. However, this brings the question, what's the point in continuing the Age of Fire if it's going to end anyways? And when that question blooms, one begins to wonder about the purpose of all life in the world of Lordran. No matter what happens, the Fires will fade, and the Dark will usher in, and after that, the Fire will rekindle, so on and so forth. Time, as everyone knows it, will end and begin perpetually, so making the most out of what time you have seems... pointless. If your efforts will be wasted in the end, why fight at all? Keeping the Fire alive is merely a temporary extension, and ushering in the Dark is still only temporary. Life as we know it is completely pointless in Lordran. And yet, the characters around you still partake in their own journeys, as do you. The constant reminder of your efforts being worthless is both disheartening, yet cathartic since, at the end of the day (and time itself), you had an experience that made your own life worth living, even if what you did will be forgotten to the steady cycle of Fire and Dark.
The lessons that Dark Souls teach us are both confined to the game itself (professionals will know to kill the dogs first), and a reflection on humanity as a whole. In the grand, huge scheme of our universe, what we do is inherently meaningless, much like the people of Lordran. We can either cry out about the injustice of our own existences and give up (or "go Hollow", as characters would say) or we can continue on our own paths, find joy, love, knowledge, and peace in the time that we have to do so, and continue to fight every day for a life worth living.