#this is why 'Is Malenia balanced' type discussions are kind of funny to me

[death-rebirth-senshi]

The thing about the first dark souls is that I do like it but it is a very trololol game, much moreso than I think people give it credit for. Often moreso because of the environment than enemies or bosses directly. It elicits a very different sort of "HAHA FUCK YOU I WON" feeling after getting through something than any of the other souls games. Not necessarily for the better.

[nautilusopus]

actually no fuck it i'm putting BOTH sets of tags in this post

#I once scoffed at dark souls 1 being called the hardest but on reflection#well demon's souls is more obtuse about weapon upgrading but you probably need weapon upgrading a lot less#I mean Sen's fucking fortress. Capra Demon. Skeleton Wheels. The Silver Knight Archers.#a lot of dark souls 1 isn't that hard but when it is it's not exactly fair#this is why 'Is Malenia balanced' type discussions are kind of funny to me#Is that ball in Sen's fortress *always* being able to change directions balanced

#dark souls#the first game has the most annoying shit#like no hate i love it#but parts of it are less 'git gud' and more 'how much tedious bullshit are you willing to tolerate'#fast travel doesn't even unlock until like halfway through the game and i know that's to encourage exploring#but you're just gonna run past everything anyway#and also five minute boss lead-up runs#and if you're just running past everything all the time#either because there are only like 10 warpable fires in the game#and you don't even get to do that for ages#and because it takes so long to get to bosses#and because you have to backtrack constantly#so you can't make the areas too hard with enemy placement or nobody is gonna bother to even look at the world you made#it means you can't really afford to make the environments or enemy placement TOO clever and challenging#because nobody would fucking tolerate playing the game#so it has to default to obnoxious shit#haha get stunlocked by two dogs idiot :O) :O)#hope you don't toxic dart softlock!!!!

and i'm adding: sen's fortress i find reasonably tolerable because at the very least it was designed to be approached from one specific direction instead of backtracked through six times from four different directions on the way to two different bosses with a three minute run each. so on the one hand they have to design shit so you can run past it and ignore enemies completely and on the other uhhhh shit we still have to make it hard and so they'll just throw bullshit at you that exists for the sole purpose of killing you with no warning and no skill check unless you already know it's there

the biggest qol change they ever made in soulsborne is giving you fast travel right out the fucking gate, because then the areas can stay hard because of the enemy placement and clever trap/hazard setups. when you're in the area, you're there to be DOING that area and engaging with the shit in it and not to sprint past everything for the tenth time while dodging getting jumped by funny haha prank dog and Room That Kills You

The thing about the first dark souls is that I do like it but it is a very trololol game, much moreso than I think people give it credit for. Often moreso because of the environment than enemies or bosses directly. It elicits a very different sort of "HAHA FUCK YOU I WON" feeling after getting through something than any of the other souls games. Not necessarily for the better.