Dark Souls: Why it's Different 

The biggest problem with Dark souls is that it raises your standards for other games which very few are able to live up to.

"Not hard, but hard to get into". That's the BEST phrase to describe this game.

When a dragon breathes fire on you.. Skyrim = *You are on fire* Dark Souls = *You Died*

My favorite part of Dark Souls is how you can see huge chunks of the world from far away. The first time I rang the bell on the top of the church, I saw Sen's fortress and couldn't wait to explore there! It looked so close, but it was so far away

This game killed me for weeks, i restarted my character atleast 10 times before i even got to undeadberg, simply because i was exploring the graveyard and catacombs like an idiot, getting slaughtered while wondering, what did i upgrade wrong? Eventually over these weeks, i eventually learned to correctly roll, dodge, parry a bit. Building myself my own tactics, no armour, and a zweihander, slowly i mastered the path to the taurus demon, i could get there without a single hit, after another week or so i managed to piece together a strategy for killing the demon, gold pine resin along with a plunge attack from the tower. THE SATISFACTION FROM KILLING THAT WAS UNBELIEVABLE, i genuinely haven't felt anything like it, that is, until the gargoyles.... Aaand Quelag, and Iron Golem, all the way to Gwyn, every boss gave me a rush, which considering i tend to be an emotionless and calm person playing games, was incredible, i was shitting myself through every boss. O and S were just traumatising

I love the feeling when you return to Firelink Shrine. I played this game really slowly. Starting a new area was a really big undertaking, and it was always loaded with so much anticipation and dread. I remember feeling so bogged down in Blighttown-- the frame rate, the narrow walk ways, the constant danger of succumbing to poison, the sheer gloominess of the environment-- that I thought I'd never get past it. But I finally did, and I finally made my way back to the surface, and seeing the familiar green bonfire area and hearing that music as I came back to Firelink just filled me with this really enormous sense of homecoming. In a game where every environment is so oppressive and hostile, I loved how Firelink had this real sense of security to it.

"Why the fuck am I on fire?" most accurate thing ever

One of my favorite gameplay-mechanics is how nearly every piece of weaponry or armor is a viable choice for your character. In most RPG's the gear provides a very linear experience, where the next item you aquire is objectively better than the last. But as your enemies become stronger as well, that experience doesn't really change that much. But in Dark Souls a strong armor makes you slower, and a big weapon drains your stamina. Some of the gear found early in the game, turns out to be exactly what you need nearing the end. It makes it so that choosing your gear comes down to your own preference, a very personal experience. I love it.

This game won't get old, because it is an art, just like other classic creations.

My first encounter with the Undead Dragon: "They really put in some effort into this carcass. Anyway, let's loot."

9:48 "I think this is a game that will come to define a generation" 6 years and a console generation later.. and it has defined and influenced an entire gaming decade.

I just gotta love the first achievement, awarded upon first death: *This is Dark Souls*

Dark Souls is a savior of the gaming industry.

The single most memorable experience I have from darksouls 1 was entering Gwyn's boss room. You are expecting this great fight with a god, an ultimate challenge which will leave you broken time after time, but eventually let you prevail and feel like you won everything. Instead you find a husk of a father and ruler, who was hellbent on protecting his children and subjects, once mighty enough to resist the inevitable, but now no longer. As you hear the music and learn to parry him, you start to see a man who lost everything, and is now powerless even against you, a mere pygmy. The sense of loss of something noble and great you get from that experience is one that is unrepeatable, as no game has ever managed to deliver that feeling again.

I'll never forget the utter confusion and rage that filled me when I was in that bridge area after the catacombs and a bridge I was crossing tilted to make me fall off of it. I'll also never forget the satisfaction I got from realizing it was that motherfucker Patches who pulled the lever. I'll ALSO never forget how satisfying it still is to senselessly slaughter Patches without him knowing its coming each play through in the Tomb of Giants or in that area I mentioned. "Haha you think you're sneaky, motherfucker?" *wambo combo with Magic Zweihander +10* "Curs-" "Sit the fuck down, Patches, you ain't shit"

When I first started dark souls, I quit because I stopped right at the beginning because my game glitched, (that door to the asylum demon next to the bonfire was locked and nothing worked) but then I pick up the game several months later because I heard of one character my friend wouldn't stop talking about... Knight Artorias The reason this character got me back into dark souls was because of how the design was for him. He embodies what a knight should be, selfless, courageous, honorable, and most of all, a protector. His visual and lore design is what brought me back into the game, I am now standing at the beam heading up to the massive building with the archers and painting guardians in Anor Londo. I have officially gotten past my 24 hour mark, (with the help of some friends, because we all help each other from time to time) and still, I can't stop playing. I am a very imaginative person, to me, everything can be something else. Seeing the black knights standing in these random places I think, "why are they there?" Or wondering how the Gaping Dragon could have gone to such lengths to feed. This game is something else. It is an experience that people should try, and those of the dark souls community know that. We all know that this game makes you feel, makes you feel alone when walking through a place like Darkroot, it makes your heart beat fast when you go to fight a boss, makes you feel angry when you die, over and over and over again. I hope this game never loses this feeling. Dark souls is what a game should strive to be, like he said. Be careful out there, we don't you to see you go hollow.

It's 2021 and i finally got to play Dark Souls. I can see how marvelous and timeless the game is. Truly a Masterpiece.

Most players just end thinking... "Why the fuck am I on fire?" Lol not at all wrong.

2015. 4 years since release. I'm still playing, I'll probably still be playing in 4 more years.

Wait, so in Miyazaki's imagination, every character in his fantasy stories also had a signature creepy laugh?

“What is happiness? The feeling that power increases - that resistance is being overcome” - Friedrich Nietzsche

I love the deep tragic stories that fill most of the characters. It makes the world feel that much more real, rather than just being filled with "Happily ever afters"

"I think this is a game that will come to define a generation." I'm so proud of this community

I know this video is old, but the Dark Souls 3 hype train is in full locomotion right now so screw it, I'll comment anyway. I don't really expect anyone to read this much text anyway. Personally, It really disappoints me that so many people think Dark Souls' defining feature is its difficulty. Like yeah, sure, it's not an easy game but you're missing its point by a mile if that's the only thing you can say about it. To describe the difficulty more accurately I think I'd simply say that the game doesn't treat you like an idiot. For one thing, I'm not really a fan of the idea that 'difficulty' in games is something that can be increased and decreased with a linear slider in the options menu. Sure, the health points and damage ratings of enemies can be beefed up, but it says a lot about a developer when they they opt to do something like that rather than take the time to design the level in such a way that the difficulty comes from the skill (or lack thereof) of the player. Case in point: the area around the first bonfire in the Undead Burg. The hollows here are easy to kill. They attack slowly and telegraph like hell (except for that god-awful jumping attack). Hell, you can one shot them with anything other than a completely un-upgraded weapon. However, many players will die a few times here due to sheer impatience or lack of ability to observe their environment. First off, they'll probably just run out of the bonfire room, forgetting that their rest respawned all the enemies, and get shot by the crossbow guy or jump-attacked by the broken sword guy. Or both. Then, frustrated from that, they'll meander across the bridge to come across a room with three hollows, only to strafe backwards and get pelted by firebombs. The thing I love about this area is that there is no way to die that isn't because of your own negligence (unless you get a glitch or get invaded or something). You can buy a bow from the Undead Merchant to make things easier. You can farm the lower guys to level up once or twice. You can explore to get a crossbow and throwing knives; but even then, all those things are unnecessary to conquer the area. It ALL comes down to your own skill. Dark Souls knows you're capable of incredible feats. It knows you're an intelligent being. And it knows you have the capacity to form a story out of the bits and pieces it gives you, which brings me to my next point. To me, the true value of Dark Souls, beyond the level design, on top of the respect it has for you, the player, is the stories it tells. And not just the overarching narrative of linking the fire. Dark Souls tells stories with its environment. Every time I pick up a Soul of a Lost Undead I sit there and look at its corpse for a second. Here this person lies, alone and rotting. No gravestone. No ceremony. No weeping relatives. No dignified burial. Who could this person have been? Maybe he was a humble farmer, forced out of his homeland when he became undead. Abandoned by his family and comrades, lonely and afraid. Having few other options, he traveled to Lordran with little more than the clothes on his back. Unarmed and without any companions, he was easily slaughtered by hollows or some other denizen. Being an undead, he awoke at a bonfire, utterly lost and cursing his fate. He dies again, and again, and again, until despair finally takes him. Finally free of his sanity, he wanders off to be cut down one more time. This time however, he does not return to a bonfire. Mortally wounded and empty inside, he drags himself to some secluded corner, where he sits up against a wall and dies, for the final time. A white flame appears above his lifeless corpse, and some time later, you come by, collect his soul, and continue on your journey. I always make up similar stories with every item I pick up. Especially the soul items. I imagine the Proud Knight, who in his vanity challenged a dragon, which easily struck him down. I imagine the Nameless Soldier, who marched to his doom like thousands of others before him. I imagine the Brave Warrior, who stood up to the darkness and never broke face, even as it closed in around him. And I imagine the Great hero, revered by many, who made it to the land of the Gods, only to find it abandoned, and lost all hope. Even a good portion of the NPC's stories are told through the environmental clues. Tarkus defeated the Iron Golem, broke into the chapel in Anor Londo, and fell to his death off the rafters. Beatrice challenged the Four Kings, but was defeated and crawled off to the lonely cliffs of the Valley of Drakes to die. Leeroy conquered the Tomb of the Giants, but was killed by Nito, and was tossed to a corner in the Lord's cave. Vince and Nico were vain and stupid, and hollowed when fooled by Patches. Lautrec managed to beat Ornstein and Smough, but was injured too gravely, and died just before making it to Gwynevere's chamber. The list goes on and on. And yeah, I understand that these are mostly speculation, but I think that's exactly what Dark Souls intends to make you do. It's not expecting you to make the entire story yourself, but it gives you enough clues to make an educated guess. The best story, however, (in my opinion) is that of the Chosen Undead. Not the player character though. That's up for you and your role-playing to decide. What I mean by the Chosen Undead is the one who never gives up, and that it could be anyone. It COULD have been Tarkus. It COULD have been Solaire. It could have been any undead in the whole wide world. And the best part about that story is that it means it could be you. You have the potential to overcome the most powerful beings in the world. Just like Vaati was describing in the video, the only way you lose is by giving up, which would mean you're not the chosen undead. So personally, I think that the word "chosen" in Chosen Undead doesn't refer to any prophecy. It doesn't refer to Frampt or Oscar, or even anyone in game. It refers to you. You chose this undead character. You chose to play Dark Souls. Now you can struggle and be victorious, or you can give up, and be just another soul that someone else picks up along the way.

I think the best thing about Dark Souls is someone had the balls to make it.

I always appreciated the idea that the "chosen undead" is a titled earned, not given. That the undead who have to struggle for that title are all the players in the community. That for the people who give up on the game, they are not the chosen undead. It is only the ones who can persevere through the struggle who will earn such a feat. And what amazes me the most is how even the NPCs are like the player. They had to struggle through the world, and not all of them could make it. Most broke down, went hallow. Some started backstabbing their friends. Some just kept going, but would just never get anywhere. Game play is one thing, but it is the world and the life that it breathes that really shines.

My favorite feature of Dark Souls is the knockback and hitbox detail. When I first got grabbed by Gwyn, I didn't just get launched into a stalagmite, I bounced off of it and landed face-down at his feet. The sanctuary guardian didn't just knock me back, it forced me off my feet. The game didn't just kill me, it threw me around like a ragdoll. Everything has a physical presence, and I love it for that.

hollow=ragequit

This channel is a museum - and you are a fine curator.

When he started talking about the undead dragon and the sorrow it conveys I started to remember the undead dragon in the painted world which literally rips it's body in half to destroy you and to be honest I feel like it didn't do that out of anger but more out of pride as in,"this is my final moment and I shall do it fighting" and after killing it I felt very sad yet honored to kill it also Sif was probably the saddest fight to me because all he was doing was protecting his one true friend's grave from intruders

I got Dark Souls about two weeks ago and can honestly say I've never been so indulged in a game before, and the lore behind it is fantastic. I ended up getting lost in the Tomb of Giants severely under leveled after killing pinwheel on my first play through for around 3 hours and when I found my way out I felt so good, it was a very shitty time but I loved every moment. Seriously a 10/10 game.

Coming back to this video 7 years later brings a smile to my face when we look what happened. How well has this aged? Like a fine italian wine long forgotten under the finest restaurant and only recently rediscovered. 7 years later and Dark Souls became more than a 1 hit wonder. Sure the Sequel Dark Souls 2 is a touchy subject nowadays where some hate it and some love it. But even then the devotion for Ds2 with all its flaws , wonders and special moments has shown that people love unique ideas. A Sequel would arrive with Dark Souls 3 about 2 years later which would hit the mainstream like a truck and by now pretty much everyone has heard of Dark Souls. It became an iconic experience that has shaped the industry in the same vein how Battle Royale games have done or how other Titans in gaming changed in the past. World of Warcraft, Halo, Final Fantasy. Its up there! Dark Souls is synonymous with a gameplay experience and a narrative storytelling that inspired many games. Hard but fair. Hollow Knight comes to mind, Hyper Light Drifter as well Darkest Dungeon, Blasphemous and Salt and Sancturary as several other indie games have taken either strong inspirations from the Souls series or took advantage of the general newfound appreciation for difficult games. Bigger studios didn't shy away either to take some inspiration as well. While games like Lords of the Fallen didn't quiet get what was up with the souls games, they've made an attempt. The Surge 1+2 both came out with general positive receptions that showed a sci fi setting can work. Games of a whole other genre took some inspiration as well. Destiny has used a similar storytelling approach as the Souls Series did. While not quiet as well executed and more reliant on text over the " show, don't tell" that Dark Souls does, its a beautiful and deep universe nonetheless. How well did FromSoft do though since Souls? Well...since this comment they've released 2 more AAA games. Bloodborne heavily inspired by Lovecraftian stories and Sekiro with a mainly japanese culture inspired story basically sold like sliced bread. Sony released a Remake of Demon Souls as a system seller after seeing not only the success of the souls series but also the success of Bloodborn. That game was basically a PS4 seller. From is at the moment working on a little game called Elden Ring, co-written by none other that the George R.R Martin. Yes that Game of Thrones guy. His Dark Fantasy tales matches the depth and emotional connections people will find in FromSofts works though ofcourse still being different. His works did for TV as Dark Souls did for Video Games. FromSoft and their works are constant reference points in countless dicussions about difficulty in games and easy modes. It suffice to say FromSoft did succeed by simply being different and doing their thing. It shows that it can pay off following a vision.

Gather round the bonfire everybody let's tell stories on how you've nearly gone hollow.

It's strange. When I first started playing this game, I felt that the game was unfair and found myself cursing at it. I said to myself that I would "never play this bullshit again." But as I grew bored of my other games that lacked challenge, I found myself drawn to this game. Eventually I found a way through each obstacle and realized that I was much more satisfied with overcoming a challenge in Dark Souls than I was with every other game. In other games, they pretty much just give you the reward. In Dark Souls, you have to earn it.

My first time getting to know Dark Souls,was a few years ago,when i randomly bought it in a game store.The game just got released. I was verry young at the time, and enjoyed games about fighting with knigts,and open worlds. The front image of the game looked verry good,also the backside screenshots looked good(thats how i judged games,when i was young) But after playing it, i found it so ridiculously hard, i didnt even know how to lock-on. I couldnt progress,i was stuck in the castle with the prison.,and eventually gave up. It was so hard for me,that i didn't enjoy it at all. But after a year, i saw some cool dark souls videos on youtube (randomly), and kept reading stuff about it. Also saw some youtube videos that teach you how to play Dark Souls if you are a newbie. After really getting to know the game, i decided to play it again. And it is now,one of my most favorite games of all time ! Really amazing experience, i can't believe it took me so long to get into it , this video really reminded me,of how i got to know Dark Souls, by pure struggle.

Dark Souls has ruined other games for me. Almost every other game now looks silly and moronically easy, like I can play it with one arm and just smash the attack button to win. I actually did that in another game and it worked. Edit: my favorite mechanic is the game not telling you where to go next, nor pin-pointing 500 different objectives on your map.

Vaati is such a wordsmith. He has an uncanny ability to think he's right, just by the power of his voice. He is more than right. Dark Souls is such a beautiful game. Thank you for being, in my opinion, Dark Soul's speaker to humanity.

I just hope Dark Souls doesn't become casual, I want the Soul Series to continue with its unique way because that's why this game is so special and that's why we all love it.

this made so sad because it made me realise I'll never experience Dark Souls how I did it for the first time again... Yes, Dark Souls 3 is totally fucking amazing but.. it still doesn't feel like the first time again it's sad. first playthrough of Dark Souls was one of the most significant gaming experiences in my life.

One of the greatest experiences I had with Dark Souls - and especially in Demon's Souls - was walking around in the corridor of a recently felled boss as if I were on my own personal, historic battlefield. Actually walking around in the Abyss is a surreal experience after countless failed attempts against the Kings, the sense that 'this is a safe zone now, there are no enemies here, you succeeded.' I have yet to find any experience in any other game as euphoric as seeing a bonfire upon which to rest where a once powerful and menacing foe used to rule. Such was the case where I looked out upon the Boletarian Palace after defeating the False King Allant. I didn't need an NPC to congratulate me or hand me a trophy. That I survived it, conquered it, rid it of many monsters, and moved on quietly with the memory of it all was enough.

I'm gonna admit that I gave up with the original Dark Souls right after getting to the first area after Firelink Shrine. I hated how difficult it was and hated how it wasn't holding my hand to tell me where to go. But then a few weeks ago, Dark Souls II came out, and I bought the first one with it. I got the guide for the second game (had it for the first but sold it), but didn't use it all that much apart from finding items. In my own pace, I learnt the areas myself, defeated the bosses without knowing what they looked like, what their moves were, died, tried again and felt that amazing sense of accomplishment when you finally get there. It was with Dark Souls II, when those credits rolled, that I understood what an amazing game it was. Skyrim was always my favourite game of all time but seriously, I'm on my third playthrough of Dark Souls II now and I've started the original, and I think DaS2 beats Skyrim in all sorts of ways. I find it has more depth and more to offer, and definitely a lot more replayability. And you sir, if I saw this video those years ago when I gave up with Dark Souls, I would've carried on with it and realised the amazing creation FromSoftware has created here.

As a PC gamer who pre-ordered a very expensive edition of Dark Souls 2, I am not looking forward to the coming 1.5 month of you and all my other favourite youtubers posting tons of dark souls 2 videos while I can just wait >.

This is actually a highly emotional video for me. I feel like I've arrived, yet also arrived too late, to something very beautiful. A very Dark Souls feeling, as it turns out... I started with a simple comment, but can't express how you've made me feel without an essay of sorts. Not sure if anyone will read this, but I just wanted to register my gratitude... I've played RPGs since Baldur's Gate came out. That innocent sense of discovery, duality, morality, greatness, change, and grandeur has been with me since I was ten years old. Yet something was always missing from Western-made titles: the silence of the lonely hero undertaking a duty in a dying world. So much fantasy media is saturated in music, noise, colour, and busyness. Even my favourite, Diablo II, lacked something in this regard - close as it comes to what Dark Souls eventually delivered. In this life, we are often saturated with moments of futility, because of disparity we encounter: between friends, family, lovers, colleagues, peers, co-workers, cities, nations, peoples... and almost no media addresses this without falling into either nihilism or triumphalism. The darkness of humanity is either dismissed in atheistic cynicism, or manipulated in religious fervour. In other words, there is great disparity in our attempt to understand our own disparity. I have struggled heavily with this almost all my adult life. I didn't know anything about Dark Souls until a few months ago, when I saw 8-bit Music Theory's channel analysis of Gwyn's Theme. I hadn't the first clue about about plin plin plon or git gud or the First Flame or the Abyss. All I knew, as a musician and a fairly sensitive soul, was that this choice for the final theme of a game was very bold. Almost too bold. Too real. Too human. I had to learn more. A friend told me about the basic lore of Dark Souls in September. I was saddened by its apparent sadness and futility, yet the ideas he was excitedly throwing out at me seemed irresistible. Death. Life. Meaning. People. Ambiguity. Unsureness. The hollowing. The linking. The duty. Black and White, Grey and Dark, Moon and Sun... it overawed me. I had to try it. First Dark Souls Remastered. That character creation theme! I was so struck by it that I didn't even start making my character for five minutes. I just sat and listened. I felt nearly in tears because someone finally took me back to the age of innocence and wonder, somehow, with a few basic chords. It was my old childhood, alive again. But deeper. More mature. The Undead Burg, The Duke's Archives, the empty halls of Anor Londo... they brought me again and again to places of agitated peacefulness, barren beauty, and bleak grandeur which I hadn't experienced in a video game for many years, yet elevated my memories and nostalgia into something that the grown person that I am now can appreciate. My first Dark Souls video was ThePruld's "When you go dark souls with your best mates". I was confused. Now, after countless hours playing all 3 games in the last 4 months, I finished the first game, linked the first flame, and came back to the same ThePruld's video. For some reason, I started to weep. As memey and comic as the video is ... I saw the streaming sunlight, and thought, "this is what happens when the Flame is linked and the world renews -- the sun dawns for the first time in centuries, and all we can do is dance and sing". Imagine having a quasi-religious experience of deep existential hope from playing a goddamn game and watching a meme about it? Yes. I was recommended your videos, Vaati, and I can say I've never been more grateful to a RU-vidr for teasing out and focusing on the human relationships, the tragedies and victories, of a story. You have exposed the hidden corners of these cryptic worlds, and shown how much they express the soul of humanity, both in-game and in real life. This game, and your channel, come from a place of real sympathy and understanding of our condition as humans. It's ambiguous, hard, and often we do just want to hollow out. Yet here we are, faced with either a brilliant flame of joyful glory, or a sweetly rotting bed to lie upon... how can we say no?

Dark souls, the best game ever created... Let's see if dark souls 3 is up to par

I love that the dark soul is humanity. This game's implied name could be: Humanity.

What kinda sucks for me is i JUST got into this game, i was a bit put off by people calling death and occasional murder simulator, when i met a friend in tech school who said i had to play it, issue is im saving every cent for something important so he let me borrow his, and i IMMEDIATELY got hooked, i love this game to death, there were frustrating moments like the capra demon, the anor londo archers and now Orenstien and smough, but as a while, i LOVE this game, the lore with it, the art, all of it, and the worst part is my girlfriend thinks its dumb, my brother cares about nothing but minecraft minigames and POTC, most of everyone i know dont like it or havent played it, but i have three friends who go to tech school with me thank god who love the shit out of it at well (a-also for anyone who wants to, some tips for soloing Orenstien and smough please? Im out of humanity and dont wanna farm yet,, XD SL 50, using Qaalogs Furysword and baldur shield, hard leather armor except for the thief hood, i have Havel's ring and the Cloranthy ring if that helps too)

I've been playing games since I was 10 I'm 22 now and the Souls series, Demon, Dark 1 & 2 and Bloodbourne are hands down the best games I've ever played. Epic Masterpiece

*finishes video* "Wow this video was incredibly inspiring! Makes me wanna play some more Dark Souls!" *Boots up DS2* *Gets invaded by hex using havel* *Gets killed* *Gets called scrub for using warped sword by hex using havel* "Annnnddd that's enough for tonight*

I loved so much the ending quote, it's amazing to understand the reason behind a design.

Darksouls has become my favorite game of all time. I didn't expect it when I picked up a $14 game on a steam sale... I had even picked up the console version on release and sold it soon after due to the difficulty. I never saw it coming.

Playing Fallout 4 atm... yet im forcing myself not to go back to a dark souls game to try a new build, or mess about in pvp, or try a new weapon combo.

4:00 Make that ten years after. I'm just finishing my first playthrough of DS1, and it's been such an experience, that I can frankly say it's the best game I've ever played.

I think my favorite thing about Dark Souls is each character you talk to has their own personality, unlike most RPG type games that make nearly every character this bland info or item spewing robot, each character you meet has their own way of showing who they are. Solaire is just a guy wanting his own sun and enjoys jolly cooperation. Each merchant has their own creepy laugh and way of talking to you in coaxing you to buy something from them. The guy you save in the bell tower has such a betrayal type of attitude...if that makes any sense. Hell I knew that guy in the crypt area with all the skeletons was going to betray me just by how he talked.

I think that the best moment for me in Dark Souls was either when i saw Ceaseless Discharge standing over the body on the pedestal, which was sort of my "Undead Dragon" moment that Vaati described, or when I heard Gwyn's boss music and fully realized that there is no turning back, this is the end of my journey.

Unfortunately I don't really have anybody to talk to about Dark Souls because all my friends are too close minded to even try the game.

Hearing about miyazaki's experience with Western fantasy as a child makes me (even more) extremely hyped about Elden Ring. It's kinda like he's coming full circle with his games.

I think what I loved most about Dark Souls was that there was never really a clearly defined, white knight, "good" option whenever you had to make a choice. You could help Siegmeyer and take away his reason to carry on, or you could let him die, ending his life valiantly. You could kill the illusion of Gwynevere, taking the light from Anor Londo, but in the process, revealing Gwyndolin's deception. You could link the fire and perpetuate an unsustainable age or you could begin a new age of unknown danger. It's this choice and the fact that whatever you did, there was always an undercurrent of bad about it, and it was up to you to decide which outcome was better in your mind. Few games give you that degree of choice and require that much self belief.

Single best moment: I was stuck on Ornstein and Smough. Big Surprise. Everybody knows they are one of, if not the, hardest boss in the game. I had tried so many times. I got to a point where I was very confidant, and thought I could finally do it. So, if became human, and managed to summon Solaire and another player to help me fight. I was so pumped. And then I died within 30 seconds. So, I just kept working at it. I sought help online, refused to use Estus to make my dodging better, and finally, after about 2-3 days of trying, I beat them single handed using only 2 Estus Flasks.

What I love about dark souls is that you can get anyone's armour and that leads me to believe that any character in DS can as well. This leaves you with the question of identity, like, is Solaire the same person every time, is there another chosen undead who replaces you every so often and looted your corpse for the stuff it had. This is something no other work of art has ever achieved before in such capacity.

exploring dark souls' world and finding a shortcut is one of my favorite experiences ive ever had in playing a game. what a game.

Am I the only one who thinks Dark Souls 1 was better in some ways?

I love the random online aspects of this game. Being able to hear someone ring a bell, the ghosts of other players, the messages, bloodstains, etc.

i love the vagueness of the storyline. it gives you hints of the true beauty of the game, but forces you to discover it on your own

I just killed the Asylum Demon!

**LONG POST** Vaati, that art direction bit you quoted from Miyazaki just RESONATED with me when I read it, too. The pointlessly disgusting does nothing for me either. When you're confronted with the grotesque here, it's done with the intent to convey atmosphere, to viscerally fascinate rather than repulse, and of course, to tell a story... ...like the surreal horror of Blighttown where it shows that there's even nuance to going hollow -- there's a line that even the catatonic zombies and seething fallen warriors you've already faced will not cross, a squalid madness that lies both literally and figuratively on the boundary of a fallen kingdom and the hellish underworld simmering beneath. ...like the fate of New Londo, when the water is drained and the truth is revealed in all its sickening tragedy. The still forms of undead who seemingly defeated their curse by forming a thriving community, piled around the gates, desperate to escape slaughter when higher powers that cared nothing of their culture detected that just a few among them had been touched by the Dark. ...like the doom of Oolacile, a descent into ruin you witness only after vanquishing the champion of the Lords who tried and utterly failed to stop it. Here it is shown that Humanity is not just something the player doesn't quite understand, but the world itself does not either, and just like Fire, when the hubristic attempt to grasp more of this power than they are capable, destruction ensues. And on that note a much more specific favorite story moment of mine: Artorias, Sif, and the Chosen Undead. When you meet Artorias, your character sees not a champion but a berserk madman who's seemingly embraced the evil he so thoroughly failed to stop. And Artorias, he sees not a brave hero but a stray undead whose power -- and Humanity! -- emanates unchecked, far beyond any undead he's encountered before. Both of you know with dire certainty that the other must be put down before any further destruction is wrought ( and I'm aware, of course, that he had cut dialogue that lent a different angle to the story behind the encounter, but the exclusion of the dialogue was a calculated choice, I believe, to make different interpretations possible -- interpretations such as this one). If you saved your fight with Sif until afterwards, it's a melancholy inversion of the duel with Artorias, with both combatants painfully aware that the other is righteous, yet both have oaths and causes they must uphold. And note this: *you cannot be a Darkwraith and have Sif recognize you* -- there's no traversing the Abyss to meet Kaathe unless you've killed Sif already, and you cannot go to Oolacile and save Sif in the past prior to placing the Lordvessel! You've either done it for Frampt, or on your own. Sif does not fight you to slay a servant of the Dark, but to uphold an oath, even though you once may have been comrades-in-arms in the fight against Manus...and perhaps even to save you from a fate far worse than death, for if you seek the Covenant of Artorias, where but the Abyss must you intend to go? That, there, is a beautiful example of the emergent storytelling of Dark Souls that you describe in this video. I dearly hope that Dark Souls 2 brings moments such as those as well.

What I like most is looking at the very beginning of the game, and how well it all builds to the end of the game. As you start out, you're at your absolute weakest. You know little of the game mechanics, you're poorly equipped, you know nothing of what's ahead and how to deal with it. You meet up with your basic axe wielding hollow warriors, who rush you and swing at you like madmen. You don't know yet how to parry their attacks, how to backstab, shield stability... Getting ganged up on by these early challenges is fierce. The bridge with the firebomb throwers that leads to facing 3 melee guys in a cramped room is a huge challenge early on. Then you find your first Black Knight. This huge dude towering above you is just waiting down there, not running to attack you until you come up to him and let him know you want some. He takes little damage from your attacks. He hits hard, he knocks you around like you're nothing. He doesn't grunt or moan like the hollows, he's quietly swinging his graceful combos at you like he's some fierce demon. This dude feels like some embodiment of evil straight from the pits of hell that you are in no position to mess with. Fast forward to the end of the game. Sans the one in Tomb of Giants, the Black Knights had become largely absent from the game after you passed the newbie areas like Darkroot Garden and Burg and Catacombs. Now you run into bunch of them at the Kiln. You're now better equipped, you can damage these guys and probably down them in three hits if not one backstab. You've learned how to efficiently deal with these guys back in Anor Londo when you faced the Silver Knights, you can parry them now or just chain backstab them or maybe stagger them with some heavy weapon. And at this point you ought to pick up their armor and weapons and thus learn much of the lore behind these guys, what they really are. They don't come off as pure evil towering demon knights clad in black, but moreso another aspect of the tragedies that went down in the past of Lordran. You became so much stronger, and they became so much weaker all the while. And then there's the final boss! No cutscene when you enter the battle. No dialogue. Gwyn simply spots you, charges you, and madly starts throwing attacks at you. Unlike most everything else you've faced up to this point, the huge towering behemoths that you had to roll away from when they swung at you, who felt like you were chipping at a wall trying to hurt them, this guy is nothing like them. You can stagger him. You can parry him. You can block almost all his attacks. As you played the game, the NPCs and the lore built this guy up as such a big deal, and in the end, Gwyn feels no different from the hollow warriors in the beginning of the game. Both him and the Black Knights start out as something almighty and distant, and now that you reach them they're reduced into something that the Chosen Undead can only look down on. The game basically goes full circle, and I loves it!

I loved the feeling i got when i won my first invasion. Just knowing that i was better then another player made me so f'ing happy

To be honest, I'm kind of glad Dark Souls has its reputation for difficulty, otherwise I wouldn't have ever found out about it. I remember when I first found out about it, I was looking through lists of hardest games, and I saw Dark Souls on nearly every one, and I thought it looked interesting, and also, I wanted a challenge. This was sometime around early 2015, so I bought Demon's Souls, Dark Souls, and Dark Souls 2 (didn't have a PS4 yet so couldn't get Bloodborne), and initially, I hated it. I had no idea what I was doing, I died constantly, and I had no clue what was going on. But I soldiered through until I really began to love it and see things like: "Oh, there's blood on this elevator" or: " Oh, there's an enemy hiding behind this door", little details like that that made me realise what a well designed game this is, and really, it was all thanks to the wonderful people on RU-vid making videos that show these things, so thank you. Thank you, Vaati, for giving me the drive to finish the game, and thanks to everyone in the community that made me look past the supposed difficulty and see this game for what it truly is.

i would have never found out about this game if it wasnt for a kid on my bus reading the guide there were no seats so i sat with him and asked him what it was about and now a year and a half later hes my best friend and i have over 30 days into the 3 games combined praise the sun everybody

my favorite thing about dark souls is in it's weapons. There is only one Claymore, there is only one Estoc, there is only one Greataxe. There's no bronze, steel, great demon metal of awesomeness tier weapons that make you drop your old one like a piece if trash in place of another one with damage bonuses, speed, or any other meaningless number. Nor is there any classifiable "best weapon" The weapon you start with will carry you wherever you go. By the end of the game you will know every nick and inch of your sword, you will know the speed, damage, and overall effectiveness of your blade. your weapon will have been your only ally in countless fights and you will care for it immensely. When you find the weapon that's perfect for your play style you will never leave it and it will never let you down, and that's how true weapon design is done.

I think the defining moment in my first playthrough of Dark Souls would be the concluding moments of Sif's fight. After about five deaths and exhausting roughly the same number of controllers, I finally managed to start beating him with a combination of sword and bow. I was going to make it! I could feel it coming; that same feeling of anticipation and tension I felt when I first defeated the Taurus Demon. Every hit I made inched me closer to victory! But when Sif began limping, swinging his sword ineffectually and barely holding himself up, everything I thought I knew about the game changed. I hesitated for several minutes, before consigning myself to the fact that I had no choice, and fired the last arrow. When I walked out of that stone gate, I didn't feel that same euphoria I had experienced when defeating previous bosses. Instead, I felt sad and even rather lonely, like I had just killed one of the few honourable beings left in this decaying world. I can't think of any game that has given me such an intoxicating mix of emotions in such a short time with little more than a few modified walking animations. I'm an aspiring game designer, but I hadn't played Dark Souls until about a month ago. I can say with exaggeration that this game has showed me exactly what this medium is capable of. I used to say to people that games are a growing medium that can potentially be something greater than any book or film. Now, I can just point to Dark Souls and say "pretty much that".

Honestly, no other game out there has a multiplayer system this in depth. I love how all the covenants have stories to them and allow for different interactions with other players. And the invasions keep me on my toes, especially areas that have automatic covenant invasions.

Never thought about that with the Undead Dragon.

I borrowed Dark Souls 1 from my friend and I immediately bought both 1 and 2 after playing through Dark souls 1 I don't think I can go back to other rpgs at this point

Why the fuck am i on fire?

God job mate! This is fantastic! I think this is one of your best videos. My favorite design aspect in dark souls is the level architecture and how areas are connected between each other.

And now I feel sorry for that damned dragon!

Favorite moment: Sif. Even without having done the DLC beforehand, that limp will haunt me forever. First boss fight I actually had to force myself to win.

I don't play dark souls but I watch a lot of Dark souls content on youtube because of the lore and characters and history are so interesting

Late to the whole Dark Souls party. Been looking around at a lot of videos but decided to subscribe to yours in particular. Really great stuff! Thanks for making them.

My favourite part of Dark Souls has to be Izalith and how you uncover its story and that of its denizens... You invade Queelag's nest because you must ring Blighttown's bell. You're attacked on sight by this spider-lady-demon-sorceress who uses pyromancy and spews lava from her demonic half...Not much comes of it. But then you start delving deeper in this and the sheer tragedy of the story and how YOU make it even more tragic is just sublimely presented. You discover Eingy, one of the most powerful pyromancers of all time, reduced to a crawling egg-bearer, mustering all of his strength to protect Queelag's sister, who lays dying a slow and miserable death hidden away in that little chamber. You learn that Queelag was likely camping the bell farming humanity from trespassers to help her sisters, who just happens to be possibly the most genuinely good and kind person in the game(as you find out IF you have the ring), now helpless because of your interference. Quelana tells you bits and pieces about the fall of Izalith, you find Ceaseless Discharge mourning the corpse of one of their sisters. As you progress further into Izalith and you defeat the Demon Centipede, you understand that Ceaseless was their brother. Into Izalith, now ruins full of lava and demons, you witness what must've been a grand civilization... exploring Izalith in its prime would probably be grand and beautiful, much like walking through sunny Anor Londo. You find one last witch, protecting the Bed of Chaos, probably the only living human still in Izalith ever since the sisters left. That is, apart from Kirk, who makes his final attempt at stealing your humanity. Later, you will find out that he too pledged his efforts to the Fair Lady, cheating Kaathe and stealing humanity to help her. This will be his last invasion, the end of a legend, in a way, as he was "the infamous Kirk". His corpse will crawl back to the fair lady and die helpless. Finally you defeat the Bed of Chaos, the witch of Izalith,mother of the fire sorcery, and as you uncover the story you learn of how her own demise was a desperate attempt at, you know, saving the world... When you piece these last pieces together you can sit back, and appreciate the true extent of the ruin of Izalith, of the sorrow and sadness of its demise and that of its denizens, either killed or mutated into demons whom... you don't even know if have a mind or not. This, to me, is an experience of sadness, masterfully crafted and administered... little by little you uncover it and the more you do, the sadder you get

My favorite aspect is the way the gameplay compels me to think of my character not as a chosen one, but as a simple nobody. A normal person in over their head, because I believe that's the truth of the Dark Souls world, even the gods, such as they are, are just beings who were once mundane and mortal, but found power and learned to wield it. For all the smoke they blow up your ass about prophecies and being the Chosen Undead, I think the truth is they're just desperately trying to inspire one of these poor lost souls to do what they once did, become something greater. And of course they all do this just so that you can be a tool for preserving their empire, for better or worse. The gameplay reflects this, you start off frail, weak, easily killed by the simplest of enemies. But as time goes on you acquire artifacts, powers from primeval ages, and hone your skills and weapons with magical artisans until they become the stuff of legends. By the end of the game are you really any different from Gwyn? You're both immortal, you're both possessing of mighty weapons and armor, you can both cast spells that can slay mighty demons and abominations at will. The only difference now is he's lost his mind and gone hollow, while you've managed to maintain the will to make it this far. And whether you take his place to burn or become the lord of a new age, you'll be following in his footsteps one way or the other.

I love the explanation of Miyazaki not being able to read some of the English so he made up parts of the story himself and thats why the games dont tell you everything.

I went through four characters before Dark Souls finally clicked for me. For the longest while I didn't seem to really be going anywhere and had no idea what I was doing with the game, so I kind of left it by the wayside. After looking up your videos and reading the lore I decided to go back in, and now I'm at Gwyn on my first complete NG run, and I just feel better for having come this far. Yes it's hard, yes you'll get really mad at it sometimes, but it's that feeling of elation when you kill a boss, find a new area or short cut, or even just get back to a bonfire after going through hell and high water and barely scraping through that makes it all worthwhile.

it would be difficult to capture the true essence and meaning behind dark souls without making a 24 hour video, but you summed it up pretty amazingly! i will love this game and hopefully still go back to play it 50 years from now, just for old time's sakes. i hope to see some of you there! but in the meantime, see you all in dark souls 2, and PRAISE THE SUN!!!!

Why do I think this game is different? Because the storytelling was subtle, and that's rare in the games. The games usually push the story in your face, like: "LOOK, THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS NOW! ABSORB IT!". You will have to notice the storyline, but it won't make you look in any deeper. It was pleasant, mystical and subtle at the same time. Music from Enya or Enigma (look up the bands if you don't know them) come to mind. Very theatrical, yet understated and fleeting.

That last bit about the dragon was so powerful i loved it keep up the amazing work on your videos aswell!~

I've been watching your channel as I've been playing Dark Souls. It's really enriched my experience, I think. You've pointed out a lot of details I would have otherwise missed.

Only Dark Souls can let me fight a demon by wielding a dagger in two hands. Not a dagger in each hands, but going full Zweihander with a damn bodkin.

My favorite piece of Dark Souls was the world. Same thing with Demons' Souls. The areas were built spectacularly, utilizing winding roads, and locked doors to make you travel for hours only to discover that you've only just now managed to get past that locked door. In hours, you moved ten feet, and you felt amazing for it. Besides that, I love the feeling of going into this world, halberd in hand, and asking myself "How the abyss am I supposed to get past this?" The answer never came simply, but those who came before me guided my way by lighting the torches so that I could see their ladders. Breaking a window so I could climb into a building. Staining the wall and floor with their blood so that I may know that something sinister is about to come. Through the combined efforts of the damned, a goal was achieved whether it be lulling The Old One back into slumber, or linking the fire to give the gods more time to find a solution to the curse plaguing the world. Going through the world gathering fragments, and what little information you could so that you could figure out what happened, why it happened, and how you can progress. I love the Souls series for so many reasons, I cannot choose just one. =)

So this is just my speculation but with the whole "progress, fail, try again, proceed" process what if when you finally give up and say screw it after you cant beat a certain boss. What if thats when you go hollow. You gave up, you feel that sudden moment of i cant do it anymore theres no way to continue going forward... then that means your character and by extension you go hollow and lose your mind

After all this time I still love to come back to your videos just to listen to the well structured reasoning and the lore itself, it reminds me why I loved DS in the first place. Kudos!

Probably my favorite thing about Dark Souls is that it is, in the truest sense of the word. A ROLE playing game. It's a game where you make a character, and you play that character. Not someone elses character, but yours. You make your own motivation for why your character is going through this terrible journey and you feel when they fail and when they succeed you attach yourself to this character because your the only one who knows why they are doing this. Maybe I'm the only person who does this but to me that feeling of making a character and using the experiences in the game to tell a story is priceless, and it also makes for some fun builds :P. For example I made a bandit who was only going through the game to get loot, so I got all the items i could and he wore a mismatched set of showy yet awesome looking armor because he (and I) thought it looked badass, was it the most optimized gear set, nope. but i liked it, and I made it so it made sense with that character and I have yet to play a game where I've done that before and I don't know if another series will ever do that again.

"Why the fuck am i on fire?" AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Is it just me or is the music for gwyn in the final battle very emotional and deep...?

I love the passion in his voice. You can hear it crack as he talks, as if he is getting choked up, maybe tearing up a little from the pure love he has for this series. No one does it better. Thanks, Vaati. Looking forward to the remastered Prepare to Cry series.

If I had to pick out one notable design choice, it'd be my first encounter with the capra demon. Most of the bosses I'd see it, and immediately run away until I could catch a glimpse of each of its moves (quelaag). I think that's a natural response: see a scary thing, run away and try to understand it. --With the capra demon, you're put within 5 feet of it from the get-go. I died maybe 20 times before I felt I had a grasp of its moveset. Even after that, I hadn't really explored its 'arena', and didn't know how to approach it. After I managed to kill it by complete luck, I realized that was the entire point. The capra demon fight went against everything I thought I should do in a boss encounter: Tiny space, no time to react. The fact that the capra demon usually killed me in 1-3 hits was icing on top. --That fight tested me more than any other fight. Smaug and Ornstein was really hard, but I understood everything they did. The fight's pace was slow, and I had a lot of room to maneuver...I was just never skilled enough to react to all of it, and fight them solo.

Hey Vaati, what do you think of the Dark souls speed running community? It kinda feels like the opposite approach of the game, but its kinda fun to watch a game so hard be broken so easily.

I started Dark Souls by playing DS3 on my brother's pc, which was good enough to run it at the time (while mine wasn't). I got very deeply into it, since I was a Vindictus player (free to play MMO with similarities in gameplay in ways). After legitimately reaching SL250-ich while playing offline only, alone, I was much addicted to it. Eventually his PC fked up and couldnt run it anymore due to lack of performance. So I just quit to DS2, wondering how previous gen was. And turns out it felt very different, easier, but probably due to experiencing the gameplay for so long before starting DS2. I was overleveled and pretty OP for the run. Until I reached Ellum Loyce or whatever it's called. I died there, many times. I even ended up quitting, leaving this part of the whole series the only part I didnt complete. Then I played the DS Remastered. It felt amazing. Offline still, because of frame rate, as I always used pretty bad gaming set up. Second playthrough, I killed Ornstein and Smough being naked. Third and last playthrough, I tried to complete all steam achievements, and eventually, I tried out modding for fun. I have the weird experience of running the whole trilogy backwards. And discovering them one at a time, with little information as to what was going at the time. Then I found out about lore-telling youtubers, and exhausted the pool of videos. All that aside, I would say that my favorite gameplay experience... Was hearing about Otzdarva's Dark Souls II all bosses no hit run. I heard about it from a french video that told the story in depht, whether it's how he did it, how many times he was this close from giving up, or what day (no spoiler) he finally "got the run". I think it's the most heartshaking gaming experience I can relate to. And this is what only FromSoftware has the potential of achieving, I would say. Souls games are not "just a game", it's a work of art. And just like one can feel shaken by reading such poem or such book, or relating to such character in such movie, or cry when Mufasa is pushed down the cliff in The Lion King, Souls really pushes you until you overcome, or end up giving up after one too many failures. But not just for the sake of being hard, but for the sake of being Dark Souls. Souls game define what I call "a good game" since I have played them. And the community around it is something very different from anything I've known (except you, the annoying "git gud" kid in the back of the class.)

Dark Souls: The story of how a guy made a difficult game, then he realized no one knew his game, and made a harder one that everyone raved over. ...Then he handed the game over to another director who made a weird disconnection with the fans because he designed the game differently, and thus, less difficult. Then, one day, Sony was like, "YO MAKE DKS3 EXCLUSIVE FOR US!!1!" Miyazaki was like, "No, but you can have THIS" And thus, Bloodborne was... well... Born of the blood of Miyazaki's legacy. Over the course of these games, me, and many alike, die. Many times over. Praise the Sun, and by the Old Blood, let's hope that DKS3 kills us many more times. Umbasa.