i bought this game on 360 in 2011 as a buy two get one free with batman arkham city and something else i forget and played until i got killed by the bridge wyvern. then i bought it on pc at launch and maybe played up to firelink. then i bought it on ps4 and got about halfway through undead burg. then after hearing all the elden ring hype, i figured i should try it again rather than take the plunge on a new game. so i played until bell gargoyles and decided it wasn't for me. it wasn't a matter of difficulty, i just felt like... i wasn't really getting anything out of learning boss patterns to attempt them over and over. it wasn't fulfilling for me and i really wished i had spent the time another way
but! part of me woke up the next day wanting to try again. and for about a week, i played hours every day until it was all done. it had finally clicked, and i really, really enjoyed it
the previous times i played it, i was constantly worried about finding the way the game wanted me to play. that if a game was so unforgiving, surely there must just be a "right" way to approach things so you run into fewer problems. but... i think the appeal of the game is how much that wasn't the case at all! i was able to just find what worked for me and run with it, and... it was pretty smooth sailing all the way through. i never really felt like i had to change course to play the game the way it wanted me to
i begrudged people for a long, long time over comparisons between this series and castlevania, figuring people just saw vaguely gothic themes and deliberate combat and drew a surface-level comparison. but i found that the gameplay loop really scratches the same itch as the iga directed titles. exploring to find checkpoints, lots of cool and unique loot, memorable bosses, discovering connections in the world, a mix of horror and whimsy, discovering secrets on your own as well as hearing about the ones that i would never have found. it's... really all there, and in great form
i held something of a grudge against this game and series for a long time, feeling like it was something of a traitor to the mid-budget japanese game pedigree that it came from, and that i loved so dearly. but in the end... it's actually exactly what i like about those games. it's unabashedly weird and deep and full of ideas and passion. and knowing that something like this ended up reaching the success it did gives me much more hope than the larger scale dialogue of "dark souls made it okay for games to be difficult". so....... i'm sorry dark souls!!!! i was wrong all along!!!!! thank you for being such a cool and interesting game!!!!!
but! part of me woke up the next day wanting to try again. and for about a week, i played hours every day until it was all done. it had finally clicked, and i really, really enjoyed it
the previous times i played it, i was constantly worried about finding the way the game wanted me to play. that if a game was so unforgiving, surely there must just be a "right" way to approach things so you run into fewer problems. but... i think the appeal of the game is how much that wasn't the case at all! i was able to just find what worked for me and run with it, and... it was pretty smooth sailing all the way through. i never really felt like i had to change course to play the game the way it wanted me to
i begrudged people for a long, long time over comparisons between this series and castlevania, figuring people just saw vaguely gothic themes and deliberate combat and drew a surface-level comparison. but i found that the gameplay loop really scratches the same itch as the iga directed titles. exploring to find checkpoints, lots of cool and unique loot, memorable bosses, discovering connections in the world, a mix of horror and whimsy, discovering secrets on your own as well as hearing about the ones that i would never have found. it's... really all there, and in great form
i held something of a grudge against this game and series for a long time, feeling like it was something of a traitor to the mid-budget japanese game pedigree that it came from, and that i loved so dearly. but in the end... it's actually exactly what i like about those games. it's unabashedly weird and deep and full of ideas and passion. and knowing that something like this ended up reaching the success it did gives me much more hope than the larger scale dialogue of "dark souls made it okay for games to be difficult". so....... i'm sorry dark souls!!!! i was wrong all along!!!!! thank you for being such a cool and interesting game!!!!!