Dark Souls done: time for round two!

I finished Dark Souls last Sunday, after 73hours of awesome gameplay. When those credits rolled it was the most accomplishment I've ever felt at the end of a videogame. So many times early into the game there were moments that felt so damn 'hard' that I could not imagine getting past them, so sitting there watching the end credits I couldn't help but reflect back to these moments with a smile. That one boss that wouldn't give in, that one place that was a nightmare to cross... that one trash mob that jumped out of no where to kill me as I rushed to pick up my 50 thousand souls lying in a pool of my blood.

When was the last time a game did that for you? Not just make you go 'whoa that was a great ending' before you exited and went about doing whatever else, but to actually sit there and think "shit man... you're awesome, you're so damn awesome.... I... I love you"

When I fall in love with something, I have a tendency to go 'over kill' and blurt about it every chance I get. You get to part take in my obsessions through this blog, my friends get to hear it first hand, and my girl friend has to put up with it all the time.

Over the last few posts you might be able to guess that Dark Souls has got me by the throat. I am absolutely nuts about this game. I see it as a testament to everything that I love in my games. The hardcore play mechanics, the horror elements, the exploration and the constant need to get better at what you do.


Everything in Dark Souls seemed so well calculated, so carefully crafted that it truly felt like a work of art. At the end of it though you begin to realize that Dark Souls doesn't try to be extremely hard at all... instead to me I felt it tries to teach you how to adapt and play accordingly to meet the challenges it has for you. If you pay attention to it, and learn about it... you can take on anything in it.

I started my new game+ soon after I finished and that's been pretty sweet so far. Now that I've sort of settled into my gear and equipment I kinda regret a few of the leveling stat choices I made here and there, and because of the lack of re-specing in the game I've decided to roll a 2nd character.

I've read online how people who PVP in Dark Souls often create characters to suit a particular weapon, or pvp purpose. My guy so far is killing it with his Black Knight Great Axe, which is this massive axe that hits like a farkin truck, but swings like a katana blade. (fast...very fast)


Shit thing is that the axe is a strength based weapon, which means that the 34 Dexterity I'm mucking around with means nothing to it. This normally wouldn't be an issue, if it wasn't for the way PVP works in Dark Souls. When you invade a game or get invaded, there is a 10% margin for the character levels you can invade. Which means that If I'm level 105, I'll only be invading other players that are within the same level range. And the Dark Souls online community is so damn hardcore with the custom pvp players, that you can't afford to have 20 points spent in a stat you don't use, when that could have been used to boost your damage output or your Hit Points/ Endurance. Because there are other lvl 105 players out there who have their points for that level specifically placed to kill you.

I didn't regret spending my DEX points too much during the game because it allowed me to use all the cool weapons I found, but I really want my guy to be the best farkin axe wielding tank I can make him. So I started a new toon last night, a bandit... because the class had high numbers in all the stats I wanted to develop. I kinda wanted a knight because I wanted a noble character that I was gonna name Issac, but that's cool... now I have Issac the bandit.


Classes don't really mean much in Dark Souls anyway, soon you'll be specing them according to how you want to play.

Next week I'm planning on ordering Demon Souls, which is sort of like the spiritual prequel to Dark Souls. It's set in the same world, with the same gameplay but has nothing to do (story wise) with Dark Souls. A lot of people online say it was a better game compared to Dark Souls and had more of a coherent story... But I just want it cause I want to explore more of something similar.

So far Dark Souls has set the bar pretty high for my next game. It's totally killed most of shit I have left to play. My friends passed on Saints Row the 3rd and Assassins Creed: Revelations, but I'm just don't want to play them. Not because they're not good games, but because I'm just not in the mood for it.

As of last night I've clocked 86hours on Dark Souls.