#trials&errors

[onefour26-blog]

Everything you touch surely dies

Let Her Go

[alexchristin]

Dark Souls 2

I don't even know where to begin commenting about Dark Souls 2. There are so many good things about it that it's so hard for me to materialize them into actual words because I was busy immersing myself so much into the game this whole time. But I guess the things that stand out the most to me was first the concept of ruthless difficulty that for sure will require you to die 3-4 times before you finally understand the patterns, in other words, Trials & Errors. Death in Dark Souls 2 is even more punishing than it was in Dark Souls, that's for sure. But if you compare the severity of the death punishment with the educational benefits derived from each one of them, then it's really not so bad at all. Each death in Dark Souls makes sense, you can't blame anything but yourself. And because of such nature, you're bound to learn more and much faster. And because you tried and died hard, that when you finally overcome the challenge, there will be a strong feeling of gratification. Unlike the designs in many other games where everything caters to your every single need like a paranoid and clingy boyfriend/girlfriend, Dark Souls 2 absolutely gives you zero fuck. The functionality, the visuals, the atmosphere, the enemies, etc. They all make sense in terms of what they are, and what kind of impact they should have on you. There is a feeling of coldness, loneliness, paranoia and fear throughout your entire journey in Drangleic. If you die, nobody will be there to help you (unless you put an effort into summoning help, but even then, 90% of the time you will be all by yourself). There is always the paranoia that behind that corner there might just lie something that would jump out and devour you the moment you stepped near. The enemies, of course, never give off the sense that they'll ever hesitate and spare your life. If you manage to kill them, then you earned it. If not, then too bad, sucks to be you. Personally I love this kind of concept. It's not even brutal. It feels brutal to you because you're so used to games holding your hands throughout the entire experience. Dark Souls is about teaching you the value of learning through your own mistakes, and the feeling of utmost satisfaction when you overcome challenges by the experience you gathered through pain and suffering. In Dark Souls, stats don't mean a whole lot. It's you. You are the sole determinant of success in this game. Please, by all means, play this game, even if you don't like the RPG genre, because I believe Dark Souls will teach you something very universally valuable.