The more I think about it, the more impressive the enemy variety in Dark Souls 1 truly is. The main enemy type of basically every area has some kind of new and interesting property to keep the combat mechanically fresh, itās a big part of how the game manages to remain mechanically interesting even though it has an extremely basic combat engine compared to later entries. Iām going to list off how every mandatory area in the game, in sequence, introduces Fresh Combat Ideas:
After the Burg, which introduces you to combat basics with small encounters of exclusively humanoid mobs, Parish introduces different levels of combat complexity by increasing the variety of humanoid enemies that can be encountered at the same time.
Lower Burg introduces the gameās first truly fast enemies; backing off is less essential than killing them quickly before they can chase and overwhelm you. In fact, undead thieves actively punishĀ you for running away by backstabbing you
Basilisks in the Depths donāt deal direct damage but require you to watch your positioning constantly
Blighttown revisits humanoid mobs again but increases their aggression and puts you on exponentially more dangerous level geometry
Senās Fortress increases the scale and toughness of standard enemies by a huge step. Snakemen have low health but heaps of Poise and huge resistances, encouraging use of hard hitting single attacks like backstabs or heavy R2s. R1 spamming becomes the least efficient way of dealing with them
Anor Londoās Giants are probably amongst the most interesting enemies in the series due to how their shields work. Instead of raising their shields like Black Knights (encouraging more passive play as you wait for them to lower their guard) Giant shields negate all damage to their left side, which is also the side that most weapons swing from. As a result, players must actively relearn their positioning and use different attacks to damage them
Catacombs introduces respawning mobs, creating combat encounters where instead of picking off enemies one by one itās most efficient to dash through, snipe the necromancers and then clear the room. This ends up creating more frantic combat scenarios. Bonewheel Skeletons are also phenomenal for just how weird they are
Tomb of the Giants uses darkness as the main mechanic, itās not that great and like many of the late game areas falls short but itās something
Dukeās Archives remixes standard hollow mobs by giving them infinite Poise and massive resistances. My first few runs through Dukes I got wrecked because I kept trying to fight them like regular mobs, relying on stunlocking
New Londo has ghosts that pass through walls. Not the most mechanically interesting gimmick but good for a laff
Demon Ruins and Lost Izalith are widely acknowledged as the black marks of DS1, thereās no need to harp on them any more than already has been. They just suck
All in all despite the gameās late game shortcomings itās absolutely staggering how much combat depth they manage to squeeze out of whatās essentially a two-button system with maybe another 2 useful contextual attacks just with enemy variety alone.
titsay
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