December 19, 2011

I May Be Hollowed, But At Least God Loves Me Enough To Heal Me.

Demons’ Souls didn’t do a lot for me, but fuck, I am really kind of getting into Dark Souls.

I really don’t know why, either. I mean, I think, for one, I picked a starting class that makes more sense to me than what I did in Demons’ Souls. I started as a Cleric, so I started with the Heal Miracle, and that really helped me out early game. I also feel like I have seen several people play through the first few hours of Dark Souls at this point, which made me very prepared to get past the early roadblocks and really get into how the game feels when you aren’t dying every five seconds. (Spoilers: It feels pretty awesome when things actually start to click.) Finally, I think it’s just that this game is much more streamlined and refined in very subtle ways. It’s more approachable. It’s ever so slightly more obvious what you should be doing. That’s very nice.

In any case, I’ve had some adventures! I ran around a lot uselessly because I didn’t realize there were shortcuts, which is always awesome! I died a lot, but I didn’t get angry about it, really, because I’ve just sort of accepted the idea that I am going to lose a bunch of souls every so often! (Though it does suck when you lose a humanity you randomly gained for some reason. Why do you randomly gain humanity, anyway? (One trip to a wiki later, it seems like you sometimes gain humanity for having your messages upvoted, so maybe that’s how I was getting them.)) I summoned some phantoms, who proceeded to utterly slaughter the Belltower Gargoyles while I watched in horror having no idea what to do. I bought a lot of equipment for my bonfire! I got hugged to death by a tree! I upgraded a shield! I shot a million arrows into a dragon tail! I used an exclamation point!

But really, when I went back and killed some of the big knights that I was running away from early in the game, overcoming them after a try or two now that I had leveled up and got new equipment, it felt good. Really good. That’s the kind of satisfaction this game can offer, I suppose.

Anyway, I find myself still wanting to play it, so, like a fool, I kept it from Gamefly. I guess I am playing a very Miracle-based character at this point, so I’m thinking I will join the Co-op Covenant thing so I can get Lightning Spear, the Miracle attack spell. That’s my next goal, anyway. We’ll see what happens with that, and if it can keep making me want to play it like I feel right now. We’ll see!

[…] Dark Souls I thought that, much like Demons’ Souls, I would play this as just a curiosity and send it back to Gamefly, but this much-improved spiritual sequel really got it’s hooks into me. It’s probably still a bit more obtuse than it really needs to be. But there’s just something to the very skill-based combat and the way the world feels like a cohesive place you’re stumbling through that keeps me wanting to go back again and again, even as I die over and over and probably build my character wrong. […]

Pingback by The Blogtastic Blogfest That Is Getmeoutofthis.net! » Blog Archive » I Will Mention Them Honorably. — December 31, 2011 @ 12:26 am

Leave a comment