Absolutely Anyone Can Beat Dark Souls
This post has been a long time coming and today i just decided to bang it out really fast.
The Dark Souls or general “Souls” games have developed a little bit of an intimidating reputation over the years but I have always maintained that absolutely anyone can beat Dark Souls if they’re willing to have the skill to and if they’re brave enough.
A major misconception about the Souls games is that they’re “masochistic” and you just die every five seconds until you eventually get lucky and get through. Some hard games are like this, the bad ones, but Dark Souls is not.
The most common phrase used by dark souls fans to describe its gameplay is “hard but fair”, and it’s an accurate descriptor. Every attack made by an enemy in these games can be seen coming through telegraphs or recognizable patterns in their behavior. If you get hit, it’s usually your own fault, not the game just pulling a cheap trick to kill you one more time for its “hard game” reputation. You have probably also heard of people doing challenges like “beating Dark Souls at level 1 with only a Guitar Hero controller” or other things like that. That takes incredible skill, but it says just as much about the games as it does about the skill of the challenge players. A game that was not “hard but fair” would not lend itself to challenges like that. It would be impossible without just the right stats, and there would be only one way to beat the game.
To make it in a Souls game, it helps to have fast reflexes and the ability to understand RPG stats, but what you really need is patience and the ability to think strategically several moves ahead, like in chess, but in real time. Do not panic, though, these are skills you will start to very quickly develop once you start playing. Playing hard games makes you better at playing hard games. Even if you’re like “oh I suck at video games”, which like half of you reading this say about yourselves, you’re better than you think you are. The only reason anyone is bad at anything is because they haven’t got enough experience. Since I told you you need to be thinking strategically, though, you’ll develop that skill faster because you know you’re supposed to be doing it. You’ll start thinking about how many swings you can get in before the enemy swings again, thinking about how close you need to be standing to close the distance when the enemy is vulnerable but not too close so you don’t get hit, paying attention to how much stamina your actions cost, finding pauses where you can safely heal, etc. Spamming buttons typically won’t work and will get you killed.
Some cowards may be wondering why they would want to go through the trouble of all that when they could instead just play some other game on Easy, and the answer is confidence and satisfaction. It’s the same reason a meal you cooked completely yourself tastes better than a bigmac. And, you’ll enjoy the cooking process as well.
These games are also more forgiving than you think. Dying does not reset your progress, it just makes you lose your money, but you can get your money back if you manage to make it back to the same spot you died at without dying again. The money is only lost if you die twice in a row without claiming it. You can also often just run past hard enemies if they’re too much for you, just watch out because some will follow you. Also, most Souls games have a mechanic where you literally can’t die in one hit under normal circumstances. For instance, if you have 500 HP at full health, and get hit by an attack that does 600 damage, the game will stop you from dying at 1 HP.
I introduced my fiancée to the Souls games, and she was very intimidated by their reputation and steep difficulty, because before that, the hardest action game she had played was Kingdom Hearts on the easiest difficulty. She died almost ten times in the tutorial area(this is not normal in any of the Souls games), but she stuck with it. It wasn’t long before she got it, and started to really have fun with the game. She went on to beat every Souls game she could get her hands on, solo, frequently killing bosses on her first try and discovering secrets with no outside help. You can also see from her artwork at @chaospyromancy that they have clearly left a lasting impression on her and have enriched her life. They will enrich your life too.
The Souls games also each have unique and interesting stories to tell, which, like the victories in battle, are not just handed to you, but instead require you to think, be observant, and do some detective work, piecing together scraps of information to understand the whole picture. This parallels the combat gameplay, making you feel smart and accomplished for being able to do it yourself instead of just being told directly.
Each game also has many, many secrets and hidden areas that you can miss completely. My recommendation is not to compulsively Google everything, but instead only start looking things up the second time you play the game, or right before the final boss. It’ll make your second time playing more interesting because you’ll be discovering lots of new things.
Unless I’m forgetting one, there are six Souls games from From Software, each with unique mechanics and stories to tell. They are all good, and all have my recommendation. I’m going to recommend a variety of different playing orders for different reasons. Also, Elden Ring is coming out soon.
Dark Souls 2: Scholar of the First Sin
This is the order that most people who are long time fans have played the game. There’s nothing wrong with it.
Rising Difficulty: Gameplay
Dark Souls 2: Scholar of the First Sin
This is for people who are still intimidated by the challenge of the games, and starts with the easiest and ends with the hardest(though this is subjective). Sekiro is really difficult to place on this list because it has some of the easiest levels by far, but also some of the hardest bosses. So I guess you could put it anywhere on this list.
Rising Difficulty: Detective Work
Dark Souls 2: Scholar of the First Sin
This is the list for people more into the story. It kind of has a rising difficulty with Sekiro having by far the simplest story but it also groups the Dark Souls games close together so you can play them back-to-back.
Dark Souls 2: Scholar of the First Sin
This is my personal recommended play order because it starts with the easiest and increases in difficulty as well as increasing smoothness of mechanics. It’s hard to go from a newer, smoother game to an older more clunky one. And also I argue that Dark Souls 2 is almost completely divorced from Dark Souls 1 and Dark Souls 3, making it a spin-off rather than a sequel that does not necessarily need to be played right after Dark Souls 1. In fact, you might even be more confused by Dark Souls 2 if you play Dark Souls 1 first. Even though it’s still like a 7/10, Dark Souls 2 is also widely considered the worst Souls game, so i think it’s more enjoyable to play it first and then play a better game after it, rather than playing a better game before it and being disappointed by the downgrade. This is also why Dark Souls 3 is right before Bloodborne. Dark Souls 3 and Bloodborne are very similar in a lot of ways except Bloodborne is better. Mechanically, it feels like a sequel to Dark Souls 3, even though Dark Souls 3 came after.
Murder Death Kill Bite Violence Maiming
Dark Souls 2: Scholar of the First Sin
This is my beautiful fiancée @chaospyromancy’s recommended order because it encourages more aggression when playing the whole series. Bloodborne teaches you to be really aggressive, and she argues(with a good point) that you will enjoy all the games more if you play them more aggressively rather than hiding behind a shield. Demon’s Souls and Sekiro are also only placed at the end there because she hasn’t played them yet.
About Scholar of the First Sin, and the remasters of Dark Souls 1 and Demon’s Souls.
Scholar of the First Sin is a redone version of Dark Souls 2 that changes almost everything about the game and is widely considered to be the far superior version of the game. Play this version definitely.
Dark Souls: Remastered is more easily available on PC and works better on PC. It also has better working multiplayer. However, in some cases the graphics actually look a little worse than the original. Either version is fine, since I actually strongly recommend the Souls games as solo experiences for a first playthrough, but if you want to play the original version on the PC you will need fan-made patches to make it work properly.
I have not played the remaster of Demon’s Souls so I can’t really give an opinion.
If you are grabbed by an enemy, in most Souls games, quickly spamming the attack and block buttons during the grapple will reduce the damage you take.
In Dark Souls 1, Resistance is not as useful a stat as it might sound. Some players will tell you to never level it up, but it isn’t that bad, just not very good either.
In Dark Souls 2, you will need to make sure you level up your Adaptability stat quickly in order to play the game normally. Get it to about 18-20 at least. In most Souls games, the effectiveness of your dodges are tied to your armor’s weight, but in all versions of Dark Souls 2, your dodges are tied to your Adaptability stat. You will need to level it up in order to dodge properly, and you will need to dodge properly.
The Souls games save automatically and frequently. You cannot just quicksave and punch a guy in the face to see what happens. You have to live with the consequences of your actions.
That being said, if you piss off an NPC, there will usually be a way to get them to forgive you. This usually involves talking to another NPC who is a priest and will absolve you of your sins.
There will be no arrows pointing you where to go, but don’t be discouraged if you feel lost and confused. A big part of these games is the element of exploration. If you get lost enough you will eventually wind up where you need to be.
Most Souls games have no pause feature, and this is something you have to get used to. If you really need to pause, instead just save and quit your game on the spot. You will pick up exactly where you left your character standing, unless you are fighting a boss, in which case it will eject you to the entrance of the arena.
Warning: Several of the Souls games automatically reset you to the beginning of the game after the end credits happen, particularly off the top of my head Dark Souls 1 and Bloodborne. Get everything done you want to get done before facing the final boss. It will be obvious when you are at the final boss.
Most importantly, do not give up! This is actually a core theme of most of the stories, which is why the high difficulty of the combat is so important. If you can’t get past something, change your strategy, level up a few more times, or try exploring a different area first. You can die an unlimited number of times and still beat the game. The only real way to fail is to give up completely.
I hope I didn’t leave anything out.
You all have no excuse now.
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