tell me if you've heard this one before: "the first half of dark souls is incredible, but the second half sucks!" well I'm here to tell you that that is wrong. VERY wrong. it actually only sucks for about 20% of it!
Frankly, I came out of this second playthrough more frustrated than anything. This game is so so so good in so many ways. of course there's the legendary run of undead burg all the way to anor londo, which is rightfully regarded as some of the best level design in the series, the bosses are generally a step up from demon's souls, with only a couple exceptions, the optional areas/bosses (painted world, ash lake, gwyndolin) are really fun, the soundtrack is iconic, and the atmosphere is insane. but, and you know where i'm going with this, there is a clear drop off in quality at a certain point in the story. I already had my issues with this part of the game on my first playthrough, but I figured that, like what had happened in my demon's souls replay not too long ago, I would be so familiar with the game, that I'd be able to breeze through these low points pretty smoothly. But no, that'd would've been too easy. This being my second time through these bad areas genuinely made things even more frustrating than they had already been my first go around. dying to those stupid skeleton dog things in the tomb of the giants, dying over and over to bed of chaos, the genuine worst boss in the soulsborne franchise (original opinion i know), staring out over the demon ruins and lost izalith and just seeing random enemies littered all over the place like I was looking at a student project in a beginner game design class, and having to run all the way through the kiln of the first flame just about a billion times because, of course, the final boss would be the perfect time to add a mechanic where every time you try to heal, he has a specific move he uses to make sure you just take all that damage back, alongside his one move that comes out legitimately faster than a human can process it. It all just made me feel horrible, like somehow I was worse at the game now than I was then despite all the soulsborne experience i've gotten under my belt since. I understand that the dev team was plagued with some nasty deadlines and a near empty budget by the end of development, but I don't think that should mean I should just ignore all of this stuff.
to be honest, I was prepared to lower my score of this game to a 7/10, but unlike my first playthough where i skipped over the dlc so i could have the game done by the time elden ring came out, I actually did the Artorias of the Abyss dlc this time around. and fortunately, aside from my intense hatred for sanctuary guardian, this dlc rocked, so my score will remain 8/10. crazy how fromsoft make a basically perfect dragon fight with kalameet just to turn around and make midir, which is probably right behind bed of chaos in my least favorite bosses in the franchise list, but whatever. It really sucks that, unless this game by some miracle gets a remake, I likely won't return to it for a while, but that's just how it is, I guess.
ANYWAYS DEMON'S SOULS CLEARS LMAOOOOOOOOOO DARK SOULS COULD NEVER GET BLUEPOINT TO MAKE A REMAKE OF IT HAHAHAHAHAHAHA (please bluepoint please remake this game and make the late game not dogshit thank you)
Frankly, I came out of this second playthrough more frustrated than anything. This game is so so so good in so many ways. of course there's the legendary run of undead burg all the way to anor londo, which is rightfully regarded as some of the best level design in the series, the bosses are generally a step up from demon's souls, with only a couple exceptions, the optional areas/bosses (painted world, ash lake, gwyndolin) are really fun, the soundtrack is iconic, and the atmosphere is insane. but, and you know where i'm going with this, there is a clear drop off in quality at a certain point in the story. I already had my issues with this part of the game on my first playthrough, but I figured that, like what had happened in my demon's souls replay not too long ago, I would be so familiar with the game, that I'd be able to breeze through these low points pretty smoothly. But no, that'd would've been too easy. This being my second time through these bad areas genuinely made things even more frustrating than they had already been my first go around. dying to those stupid skeleton dog things in the tomb of the giants, dying over and over to bed of chaos, the genuine worst boss in the soulsborne franchise (original opinion i know), staring out over the demon ruins and lost izalith and just seeing random enemies littered all over the place like I was looking at a student project in a beginner game design class, and having to run all the way through the kiln of the first flame just about a billion times because, of course, the final boss would be the perfect time to add a mechanic where every time you try to heal, he has a specific move he uses to make sure you just take all that damage back, alongside his one move that comes out legitimately faster than a human can process it. It all just made me feel horrible, like somehow I was worse at the game now than I was then despite all the soulsborne experience i've gotten under my belt since. I understand that the dev team was plagued with some nasty deadlines and a near empty budget by the end of development, but I don't think that should mean I should just ignore all of this stuff.
to be honest, I was prepared to lower my score of this game to a 7/10, but unlike my first playthough where i skipped over the dlc so i could have the game done by the time elden ring came out, I actually did the Artorias of the Abyss dlc this time around. and fortunately, aside from my intense hatred for sanctuary guardian, this dlc rocked, so my score will remain 8/10. crazy how fromsoft make a basically perfect dragon fight with kalameet just to turn around and make midir, which is probably right behind bed of chaos in my least favorite bosses in the franchise list, but whatever. It really sucks that, unless this game by some miracle gets a remake, I likely won't return to it for a while, but that's just how it is, I guess.
ANYWAYS DEMON'S SOULS CLEARS LMAOOOOOOOOOO DARK SOULS COULD NEVER GET BLUEPOINT TO MAKE A REMAKE OF IT HAHAHAHAHAHAHA (please bluepoint please remake this game and make the late game not dogshit thank you)