I went into this game expecting to hate it - since FF7 is one of my favorite games and all I want from a remake is just slightly improved models - but I was pleasantly surprised by how much I liked it! Once the combat system clicked, it was very satisfying to play and buildcraft, and I like a lot of the story changes and meta-commentary on trying to live up to player expectations and misconceptions.

However, the ending is so fucking stupid and bad, presumably because they didn't wanna just end with the highway fight like the original, that I finished with a sour taste in my mouth. Hoping the sequels don't continue down that path, because if so I will hate them.

Hard to describe.

At its most material, it's a form-shifting platformer where you can swap forms at any time, allowing you to chain form swaps to do funny movement combos. Some stuff is self-explanatory - Tine attract you to magnets, Car is low to the ground and fast, Bomp is a bouncy ball - and some stuff is so odd that its utility has to be experienced - Polyp allows you to phase through walls by altering your center of mass, Pray disappears blocks which slowly reappear. In addition, there's several common rules that lead to some clever puzzle solution, like geometry backfaces being immaterial but not their fronts. You'll have to return to some levels later when you have the right forms to attempt them.

Married to this is a surrealist psychedelic aesthetic that is definitely unplayable to anyone with photosensitive epilepsy and which is more than a little disorienting. As a friend described it, "game looks like my graphics card is dying."

And... it's also very emotionally affective. To reduce this game to its most mechanical elements is to do it a disservice, although not much of one since the platforming challenges are very clever. Lovely music and surprisingly smart pacing/writing that caught me off guard. Most games I play don't/can't surprise me either mechanically or emotionally, and this game has done both. Maybe I've just experienced so many games in my time playing that straightforward "dad loses daughter" stuff can't touch my heart where this can. I dunno.

Definitely a game for the discerning player who is looking for something very different from the pack. Hits the mark for me. Love it.

Platted on PS3 back in 2010.

While I like Dark Souls 1 more, this game has so many odd systems - World Tendency is truly wild - and the willingness to make every world's final boss a "puzzle boss" is bold. The world isn't very well-connected so it feels more like Mega Man as compared to Dark Souls' Metroid. And, of course, obtuse RPG mechanics including carry weights and absurd upgrade costs. I'm in love.

To get a plat I had to farm one specific enemy that only shows in one specific area at maximum black world tendency (requiring me to go offline and suicide like 50 times to tank my tendency) for hours. No wonder you never see people with maxed out Sharp modifiers lol. I love this shit.

Great game. Deranged.

Not my favorite souls game (that's definitely the first one) but takes the series in a direction I appreciate: into RPG systems hell!

The levels are dense with secrets - including multiple optional bosses - and there's even more covenants to join. More weapon and spell variety. Relentlessly comedic, constantly pranking the player with enemy placements. I like this - the original - version more than Scholar of the First Sin because the progression structure is more lenient and less linear. It is more "game-like" in interesting and textured ways. The dark horse of the series, but deserves a re-appraisal. The one thing I dislike? Too stingy with estus.

Oh and adaptability is a good stat.

The worst Dark Souls game, besides the meta-commentary on being asked to raise the dead over and over until they crumble to nothingness (do you get it?!).

The combat is annoying and unpredictable, enemies track way too aggressively, and the RPG trappings are less esoteric and therefore less interesting. By smoothing out so many of the rough edges in favor of "just make it harder", it smooths out all of what I love about Souls games. Plus using the "boss has two or more phases" with EVERY boss completely ruins the point of having surprise phases delineated by cutscenes.

I can understand why people think this is the best one, and why it's so popular, but I think it loses a little bit of that fire (heh) that made Dark Souls so special to me.

Starts so strong. Truly loved the first few areas, the multitude of approaches to take you to the capital, and the many secrets and nooks to explore.

But it's way, way too long. Everything after the capital could realistically be cut to no detriment. Wish I could go back to before 80 hours in and finding out there's a whole three extra-annoying areas left to go. That's why this is shelved instead of completed. I could play Dark Souls 1 or 2 all day, but this game simply saps all my willpower to play. World TOO open. Bring back the metroid map.