Dark Souls

Dark Souls (ダークソウル Dāku Sōru) is an action role-playing video game developed by FromSoftware and published by Namco Bandai Games for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and Microsoft Windows. A remastered version was released on May 24, 2018 for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One and the following day on PC, while a Nintendo Switch version was released on October 19, 2018.

Why It Rocks

 * 1) Addicting combat.
 * 2) Detailed and realistic graphics and effects.
 * 3) Many challenging and exciting boss battles, especially Ornstein and Smough.
 * 4) Explore a vast open world freely.
 * 5) Bonfires act as unique checkpoints for each level. When rested at, the player is fully healed and their healing items are restored, but all of the enemies respawn.
 * 6) Souls, the game's currency which must be obtained to upgrade weapons and armor, works in a unique system in which the player loses them upon dying, but get one chance to retrieve them.
 * 7) Tons of different armor pieces and weapons.
 * 8) Unique system where if the character dies, they will enter hollow form and must restore to their former human self by obtaining special items.
 * 9) In human form, the player will be constantly stalked by other players and NPCs who will seek to kill him to restore their "humanity". This adds an element of unpredictability to the game, as they can attack at any moment.
 * 10) Extremely challenging difficulty which will put you on your wits.
 * 11) The DLC offers lots of quests, equipment, bosses, etc.
 * 12) Clever environmental storytelling.
 * 13) New Game Plus increases difficulty and lets players keep their gear, adding lots of replay value.
 * 14) The game was so good, it has since started an entire sub-genre of RPG referred to as "Souls-Like".

Bad Qualities

 * 1) Some bosses are basically recycled from Demon's Souls, the game's predecessor. One boss, the Asylum Demon, is not only a reskin of a Demon's Souls boss, but it is then reskinned and fought again later in the game as the Stray Demon, now with an AOE thrown in after some attacks. Then, a slightly different reskin of THAT boss is then fought YET AGAIN.
 * 2) The final boss can be easily exploited through the game's parry mechanic, making him somewhat disappointing. It should be noted that without the use of this exploit, he is a sufficiently awesome final boss.
 * 3) The Bed of Chaos boss fight is infamously unfun, out of place, and frustrating. The studio even apologized for including the boss.
 * 4) The DLC cannot be accessed until the start of the third act of the game. Furthermore, it can only be accessed through a complicated process that the player pretty much has to look up or stumble upon by accident.
 * 5) The game immediately throws the player into New Game Plus, meaning they cannot tie up any loose ends they may have left. Additionally, many players wait until the end of the game to play the DLC, as it is often considered to be the hardest part of the game. Anyone who misses the DLC before the end of the game will a) have to play through more than half of this game, this time with everything being even tougher, and b) play the DLC, already the hardest part of the game, with the difficulty increased.
 * 6) Some areas in the original versions (PS3, X360, and PC) of the game such as Blighttown cause the framerate to drop which can be annoying. This was fixed in the remastered version.
 * 7) Some players were let down by the last half of the game, most notably Lost Izalith, one of the last areas in the game. Even though it is visually impressive, it was unfinished during development and got rushed due to the release deadline.
 * 8) The PC version is a disastrous port, suffering from Games for Windows - Live DRM, being locked at 30 FPS, and having a maximum resolution of 720p. Fortunately, mods can fix it.
 * 9) The remastered version, while great, was criticized for basically being the same as the PC version but with mods added, and to make things worse, the Switch version lacks cloud saving for some reason.

Trivia

 * Spawned various memes.

Reception
Dark Souls received positive reviews upon its release, and is considered by some to be one of the best video games ever made, with critics praising its combat depth, marked but fair difficulty, and deeply rooted lore. In April 2013, FromSoftware announced Dark Souls had sold 2.37 million copies.

Videos
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