I never really got into the "Souls" games, which is weird because I'm a sucker for challenging RPGs. The game felt purposefully gimped in an effort to equate difficulty to enjoyment and I struggled to force myself to like it. In retrospect, it's sad to have to force yourself to like any game, but I figured that the problem lies with my expectations as the games are incredibly popular among those who committed their time to them.
Heck, I don't even know what the fuck Dark Souls is about and I've played it for a solid 9 hours as it is. I think part of the allure to these games is that they're not so much about a progressive story, but instead try to focus more on intricate gameplay to capture the player. The only thing I can recall about Dark Soul's story is something about "Praise the Sun", and I only know this because of the abundance of messages that other players have left saying so.
That said, I did give the games a fair chance and they didn't gel well with me. God forbid you tell this to other Souls fans, because implying that you don't enjoy the game is like outright insulting them.
Don't get me wrong, I have an immense amount of respect and appreciation of the games (Genre? Are they their own genre?), but in the end I feel like I have to submit to the good ol' "It's not you; it's me." breakup argument to distance myself. It is me, and perhaps I'm just too casual for the games. Maybe I need to start somewhere easier and work my way up, so I can truly appreciate the Souls games.
Enter Lords of the Fallen.
Word on the street is that Lords of the Fallen is like Dark Souls Lite, so it seemed perfect as an introductory course into this genre. Figured I'd knock this sucker out in a weekend and have the opportunity to dig into Dark Souls before Bloodborne released, but the word on the street was wrong and I underestimated the extent of my ability to suck at these games.
After a very aesthetically pleasing cinematic, the game thrusts you into this dark, merciless world. A short tutorial fight gets you to grips with the controls and fight mechanics, and that's it. You're on your own now, son! Time to go exploring this...what are we in, a church? Let us go explore this church and kill some...things!
So, off we go, into corridors and passageways filled all manner of dangerous beasties and monsters that wish to dine on my bones. Dimly lit settings and ambient sounds straight out of the Grapefruit Lady video sets the stage for my first foray into this unforgiving environment.
And it wasn't so bad...at first. The first few mobs, while packing a vicious punch, seemed to go down pretty easily. Block here, swing my sword on the parry, it all seemed to be going surprisingly well and confidence in my abilities grew exponentially by the sword-stroke. I still felt rather weak, but I figured that once the stats started rolling in, I would mature into a formidable demon-slaying force.
The first boss fight (Fittingly named The First Warden) was a walk in the park. Well, not really a walk in the park since I died three times to him, but once I learned his mechanics the fight became rather trivial. The First Warden was a knight, twice the size of me, wielding a massive, flaming sword and shield, as well as being covered head-to-toe in armor. I originally just Leroy Jenkin'd my way into the fight and attempted to defeat him in an old fashion bout of fisticuffs, but soon learned that this tactic was futile. The trick was to just...roll. Just fucking roll out of range of his attacks and then counter with light attacks. At 50% HP he does a spinning attack, which does a ton of damage if you get caught in it, so the trick here is...roll. Just roll the fuck away and hit him when he stops. After figuring this out, I rolled my way to victory and came out on top with a shiny new sword for additional monster-slaying potency.
It's after the first boss when things started to get...errr...rough. I was introduced to a new type of mob, which was basically a smaller version of the last boss. These guys hit hard and blocked harder than a nun chaperoning a high school dance. My new sword had seemingly no effect on their attacks and I had to change my playstyle to accommodate this new adversary. I learned that the best tactic for these guys was to block and parry their attacks. This method of blocking and soaking up some damage seemed to become the most recurring tactic in the game, but it's not universal.
About three hours in and I've died more times than I'd like to admit at this point. I just felt so...weak. I mean, with all this experience I'm getting, I should be scaling equally with the mobs, but instead I feel like skinny kid trying to beat up the rugby jocks. Checking my character development screen, I see that I have 8000 experience points on me...but have not gained a single stat. I should have leveled up by now, why haven't I gotten any points yet?
Turns out that I need to "Bank" my experience points at checkpoint altars and that is how you level up your character. I've been running around this game for hours as a level 1 character, trying to beat shit on the next level. My Mrs. is laying on the couch next to me. I put the controller down and say "You know what, babe? I'm a fucking dumbass." She replies "I know baby." without knowing the context. My stupidity felt validated at this moment.
With this new knowledge acquired, this horrendous world was at my fingertips. I sank my attributes into Strength, Vitality and Endurance and head off into the cold night. The once unsurpassable mobs became mere experience pinatas at the hand of my sword and shield. This shit was getting easier by the level.
Or so I thought, because the next boss would rapidly bring this euphoric slaughter-fest to a halt.
Commander. Not "The Commander", but just "Commander" was the second boss I encountered, and it made me wish I had invested just a tad bit more attribute points into Vitality. Commander, like, The First Warden is a behemoth knight, wielding the standard-issue knight set of gigantic fucking sword and shield. He's got a wide array of abilities, such as shooting a shield-blast and stomping the ground, rendering you stunned for a short duration. However, the most challenging aspect of this boss for me was the adds. At quarterly health intervals, Commander would just hermit up in his shield and gain an invulnerability buff while simultaneously calling adds. I really struggled with the adds, but through trial and error, eventually beat Commander and his minions. Rolling helps in this fight, as with most other fights.
It was after beating Commander that I learned the appeal of these type of games. Being a recovering World of Warcraft player that was actively involved in competitive raiding, I got the same gratifying feeling in downing a troublesome boss that I did when I was raiding in WoW. It's the sense of achievement earned through perseverance and frustration. I even started approaching boss encounters like WoW, where if you started off on the wrong foot, it's better to wipe and try the fight again.
With this new mentality, the game's dynamics changed for me. It became all about the end-game and all these corridors and passageways filled with monsters just became a means to gain experience which I would use to maximize my stats for the next boss fight. I had entered the WoW meta-game and from here, it's a slippery slope between casually playing this game and it becoming a full blown obsession.
I started dying purposefully during fights just so I could run the area again for experience. Once I figured out the mechanics to each different mob type, it was just a matter of speed-running the area so I can bank all that XP. It's like Groundhog Day, but for mobs and experience.
All that said, this newly-developed, repetitive mindset didn't dull the game's enjoyment in the least. Boss fights are still challenging and there's a certain magic in figuring out the mechanics of a fight in increments, until you're confident to the point where you tell yourself "I got this fucker next fight".
I'm now 7 bosses in or so and I can't wait to see what the next fight will be. I've accepted that these type of games take out the "Role Playing" out of RPG, because it's not so much a test of your character's abilities in these fights, but more a test on your abilities as a player to endure through them.
I can get used to this. I should play Dark Souls again.
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