#also: don't forget horsefuck valley which is still a part of eleum loyce and is easily the worst part of any game in the entire series .

[monsata]

Granted i started with DS2, never played DS1 or Demon's, but Heide's Tower of Flame was the first time i actively set the controller down in a video game and just looked around and took in the entire aesthetic of an area. Really just drank it all in, and all the subtle environmental storytelling throughout.

It's one of the first times i looked at an area in a video game and didn't think "ok this is a clearly fictional place, actively created by a developer, and filled with enemies for me to defeat as i move through it" and instead started wondering, honestly and earnestly, what was this place? Not what it Is, but what it Was?

What was it for, who built it, what happened here? What horrible tragedy befell this place to leave it in the sorry state i currently see, where i could see the echoes of its former glory and beauty corroded by both violence and time? Who was Heide? And why are their knights these half-lurching pains in the ass?

And that was about when i got my face caved in by a 12 foot-tall douchebag holding a greatsword that's roughly the size and weight of a Honda Civic, because i didn't yet know that Slash weapons are bad against armored foes, BECAUSE THAT WAS NEVER SOMETHING I HAD HAD TO CONSIDER BEFORE.

Heide's Tower was truly an awakening for me, and it'll always be superior to "Fantasy Winnipeg".

DS2 Finals!! What's your favourite area?

Let's take a look at the finalists!

Heide's Tower of Flame:

VS

2. Frozen Eleum Loyce