Is Dark Souls' Leveling System Useless? 

Check out episode 1 here - ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-ER1whpdrsvM.html

I understand the point that dark souls is non linear, but the progression system says otherwise, if you kill dancer early game you've effectively turned 70% of the game into super easy mode by allowing an early game +5/+10 weapon, this requires one "git gud" since dancer can be very difficult early game but the point is that by following an unorthodox route through the game effectively breaks the intended progression path Which I actually really like, putting in the effort to kill late game bosses early ought to have proper rewards, and turning once difficult bosses into fodder is loads of fun

I think the levelling systems of the Dark Souls games are intrinsic to the overarching plot of that specific universe. Sekiro didn't need one because its' plot didn't call for it, but with both Bloodborne and Dark Souls your points actually have an impact in the world. Let's take Bloodborne first because it's easiest; as you level up in Bloodborne it's not just strength that you're attaining, it's knowledge too. Your level reflects your ability not only to handle the world's monsters, but to comprehend them too. A central plot point in the game comes about when the game gives you, out of nowhere, one additional point to one particular stat, and just like that the world tips on its' head, you can see things you never saw before, and you have no idea what they are or how they got there, but you DO know they're hostile. The monsters were always there, YOU just didn't have the psychological fortitude or the mental discipline to observe them directly. Now let's look at Dark Souls. Dark Souls 2 is an outlier plot-wise but DS 1 and 3 follow roughly the same plot; you're a worthless nobody dredged up from who-cares-where and it's your job to face impossible odds and, you're told, save the world. In that context souls and strength manifest not only as the ability to handle bigger, badder and tougher enemies, they manifest as confidence. All three games have a "crestfallen" figure in the central hub. All three games have an NPC who, despite the desolation and decay around them, seems to find it all a jolly good laugh! The levelling system represents not only the character's confidence but the player's confidence too. This is reflected not only in how much benefit some stats give, levelling one stat can give a bonus in entirely unrelated stats, but it also expresses the simple, everlasting truth of human limitation. Anyone with any experience with Souls games will tell you of the soft cap and the hard cap of most stats, after which point you CAN put levels in, sure...but there's no benefit for your character. This wasn't done in error, this was repeated across three games, it's a deliberate act to show that even though you might have accomplished enough to level those skills past that point, you're still human, and human limitations apply. The levelling system in Dark Souls particularly is an expression not of how strong your character is...well, it is, I suppose, but it's also an expression of what your character has accomplished. Slain this enemy, fought through that area, taken a shortcut meant for much higher levels...whatever. Not giving up is a main theme in Dark Souls. So of course confidence and the management of confidence plays a big role. You can be confident AND afraid. Caution and wariness are not the same as terror, after all. And, despite your analysis you don't speak of the role levels play in PVP. Not only is PVP locked to certain level brackets, but those levels are locked to certain areas. You can't invade in one area and find yourself "waking up" as an Invader in another. Even moving just from one bonfire to another within the same area can vary your ability to invade and be invaded. This is deliberate, you can't have people with endgame stats and endgame gear bullying newcomers...I mean that happens anyway, but at least now it's much much harder than it would otherwise be.

I actually really like the levelling system in the Soulsborne games, because it's relatively streamlined (if a bit willfully obtuse at times) compared to other RPGs. When I'm playing, I'll make adjustments to my build based on what I need. Taking too much damage? OK, I'll invest my stats into Vitality for the next couple of levels. Not hitting hard enough? Strength/Dex. Am I always getting dunked at the last second where a tiny bit more stamina would save me? Endurance. I find it almost therapeutic, even knowing that I'm only gaining a few points here and there. So it's still balancing out the need for the player (me) to actually learn and understand the mechanics, because I'll never be able to just stat myself immediately into an OP monster (yes, I am aware that you can do this too, don't @ me, it's not how I roleplay). I do think that Bloodborne streamlined it most effectively by massively reducing the weapons and class distinctions, but still keeping a huge amount of freedom of choice if you really wanted to go deep. Am interested to see what the Elden Ring setup is like, as it seems potentially like the most crazy expansive version of it yet, and I've just gotten used to the relative simplicity of Sekiro (almost beat Old Owl on my third try last night, will try again tonight).

The leveling system definitely is a built in easy mode, but enemies still obliterate you no matter what your level or stats are if you are bad mechanically.

I'll give you the only real argument against 'easy mode' in souls games. Should Shakespeare be rewritten in 'normal' language so the wonderful, epic stories can be understood by everyone? Should great classical compositions be rewritten into standard 4/4 timing, with fewer movements and mode changes and shortened to 3 minutes long so normal people can listen to them? Should any artistic endeavour be modified in any way to suit anyone at all? Or is the nature of artistic creation compromised by that type of modification? I don't believe any type of accessibility option that significantly changes the artistic work is acceptable in any way. The first part of this series outlined how important fear and tension are, once that is removed it's just a normal story. Unlike other games though the way the story is delivered is intrinsically tied to the mechanics of the game. You discover the story and if you remove the risk/reward of that you're again just left with a simple story, why not just have some celebrity narrate it on audible? Why modify the work? The joy of playing the game is in playing it, if you remove that then it's just moving pictures.

Mechanically, there are storytelling elements in souls games that only advance/activate upon death, so making a character invincible or immortal would, potentially, cut players off from chunks of the game.

big note about the levels btw: in bloodborne they increase visceral damage and in dark souls they increase defense all regardless of which stat you level up, although some increase it more than others. in ds3, a level 1 character while die far faster to beginning mobs than a level 90 who put literally all its levels in stamina. ..as long as they both have armor on. if they both have no armor on, the level will make(iirc) no difference, as the defense number the level will be modifying is the algorithmic defense applied when you put on ANY piece of equipment.(not the damage absorption, which is specific to the individual piece of equipment and affected exclusively by rings, status effects and certain abilities) so yeah, even if you don't know how to make a build, leveling up will always be more helpful than not leveling up.

I’ve always thought that the levelling system is mainly a difficulty modifier, and optional. But also, the weapon scaling imposes a sense of commitment. So you can’t really just switch from a dex character to a magic one late game (well you can undo your stats in DS3, but I chose to conveniently ignore that ;))

I agree with basic accessibility options, features to allow the less able to enjoy the game such as colourblind options or audio description should always be available assuming it's feasible. However, if you're going to tell me someone playing with cheats will experience the same level of elation when beating a hard boss or a comparable sense of relief seeing Firelink after Blighttown I'll have to respectfully disagree. These feelings aren't optional to the experience, these feelings created the shared sense of camaraderie Dark Souls is built on, these feelings are Dark Souls. Without them you are quite literally not playing the same game. If you remove the scares from Resident Evil or the comedy from Banjo & Kazooie would they be the same?

In my experience the best part about the leveling system and dropping your souls is that it rewards 'bad' players for overcoming their failures. if you progress trough an area and die you drop souls. if then you manage go get them back you have gained twice as much souls as a good player would (as a good player would push trough in one go or even skip entire zones). this then rewards that bad player with more gear/levels to give him a bit of an edge in the zone. This way the difficulty of the game automatically scales to your skill level. Zone easy? blast trough > less souls. Zone hard? die and die again > more souls.

The main thing to take away from this, I suppose, is that From soft have made these systems fun. And that’s all we need

I think if a player wants to Mod an accessibility mode into Dark Souls, they should have the freedom to do so. They own the game after all. However I also think Miyazaki shouldn't be forced to include an accessibility mode in the same way David Lynch shouldn't be forced to explain his movies. Artists should have the freedom to make challenging inaccessible art.

I don't think Dark Souls needs difficulty tweaks. Simply because you can make it as easy or hard as you want. Summon players, use magic, use better equipment, or simply increase your level.

You ask, "Do you love Dark Souls because of its percieved difficulty, or because of the world and stories you were given to explore?" My response to that would be it is because of both of those elements that I found Dark Souls engaging to play. The way you ask the question in your video you make it seem that it could only possibly be an either/or scenario, and I can attest to the fact that that simply is not the case. The game was intentionally designed to be difficult. The challenge of overcoming difficulty in a video game is meant to be fun in of itself. The constant decline in video games over the decades lead to a stagnation of challenge in gaming, and Dark Souls, to my knowledge, has broken that trend and helped guide games back to having real challenge. To be clear, I do not like the phrase "Get Gud." It is condescending in a response fore legitmate questioning of help playing video games. That being said I am not in favour of any easy mode being added to the Souls/Borne/Sekiro/Elden games at all. I assume that by doing that there would be a shift in the game design, where default game would be built around the easy mode, and other higher difficulty modes would be patchworked in, i.e. make the bosses do more damage, be faster etc. I believe adding an easy mode to these games would lead to game itself suffering during the design process.

Leveling allows better engagement with the risk of losing souls because weapon upgrades are limited and vendors sparse and not all their merchandise is equally important for everyone. Levels are sometime that all players benefit from, where if you are upgrading only one weapon and not using consumables, souls are not worth as much. Also it establishes a progression towards high requirement gear and spells that improves satisfaction of using them. Having to invest to use said gear is better than just using it outright. Even with re-spec-ing, you still need intense soul investment to mix different spell types and gear types. Also, your proposed accessibility changes would cut users from the actual accessibility option that is multiplayer and breaking the feeling of the game.

Gotta disagree with you on the difficulty, it adds a philosophical flavor to the game specifically about how repetition equals perfection

Many stat-based games (JRPGs) don't actually let you level your stats, they just go up when your character levels. Just allowing you to level your own stats could be considered an increase in the complexity/difficulty of the game in Japan.

Sekiro is basically what a Souls like without leveling looks like. I do think the game benefits from the leveling system. Builds are not just about weapons and armor. It's by investing in stats that can use them. You can take the same hammer and make it work in a squishy damage focused build, or rely on its base damage to make a tanky build. Both will play differently and have different sort of struggles which encourages replayability. It also helps narrow down choices which might otherwise be overwhelming XP system also serves as a difficulty lever as you say. You can make the game easier for yourself, but you can also make it harder if you want, which is cool

The leveling system has some functions that are closely tied to the game's mechanics and narrative. The most important ones being decision making and perseverance. Mechanically speaking, the game uses the leveling system to make you make planning and decisions about what your style of gameplay. This decision making is a defining of the genre, not because it gates you from content, but because of decision making. I don't like classical jrpg's leveling system because they lack this aspect of the *role play*. The first question you answer in a rpg session is "Who are you?". In dark souls, the leveling system is not only tied to the narrative aspect of fear, but to the answer of that question. The second aspect, and this is closely tied with the difficulty discussion, it's the perseverance theme of the game. This game is not only about fear and apathy, but how a cursed nobody can rise above others and persevere through the biggest challenges possible. To quote Hawkwood. "[...] We Unkindled are worthless. Can't even die right. Gives me conniptions. And they'd have us seek the Lords of Cinder, and return them to their moulding thrones. But we're talking true legends with the mettle to link the fire. We're not fit to lick their boots. [...]" The merit of the "git gud" phrase is not being "good". It's about the "getting". And to get where you want, the path is crowded with hardship, but you can get there with effort and perseverance. Some will painstakingly throw themselves into the fray to learn all the boss pattern and timings perfectly so to defeat it, like a ghost that refuses to let it go. Others will desperately accrue power reaping the sovereignless souls of countless enemies until exhaustion so to be strong enough to tackle the wall before them. And both ways are right. Both are, in a way, the "intended experience" of the game. Easy mode is not. In the soulsborne genre, easy mode is not accessibility, because it perverts too much of what the game is about and what it's to be *accessed* by the game experience. I'm kinda disabled myself, don't have the left thumb. What I consider accessibility settings are better control remappings, better camera control and adjustments, color modes and so on. One of the objectives of the game that is clear with the multiplayer options the game gives us is the community sense and how everyone is tied through the same kind of experience.

I have to admit, I didn't expect to be preached about "accessibility" options in these games. surely though, just as you admit that giving players the choice to level to make things easier by incentivizing fear makes for a better experience, giving players the choice to entirely bypass the difficulty without any fear or difficulty reaching their new status will change the experience for those who don't? it'll change the tone from "a nobody who struggles to find the way between safe areas" to "a god stronger than gwyn in his prime, lowering himself to hopefully have some fun." if the mechanics breed fear as an essential part of the game, adding the option to bypass the mechanics will surely only serve to lessen their impact. being tortured is not the same as self-flagellation.

I enjoyed the video, and since you asked for a discussion of leveling systems I figured I would leave my thoughts. Let's start with your general opposition to leveling systems. Though hard numerical gates are generally poor game design, leveling systems are not, on their own, hard gates. Instead they are soft gates creating (as you acknowledge) a difficulty slider between power farming "easy" runs and lv 1 "challenge" runs. Take Pokemon for example where the leveling system is not tied to the player profile so you can (and often do) access difficult content with weaker pokemon in your party, which in turn creates emergent difficulty and strategy (the most obvious example being switch-training). Additionally, this sort of soft gate is self correcting. If a player progresses slowly because they are being challenged by the game, they get more experience and thereby more ability to progress, if they progress quickly they have less experience and their progress is hindered. In this way experience systems normalize the pace of play. Leveling systems also are an effective reward system. Experience that accrues continuously is important for challenging sections because it gives meaning to individual fights. Even if you aren't progressing in the larger sense, you still feel progression both in the direct way (numbers go up) and in the indirect way (fights get easier). Third, leveling systems are a good way of gating content for teaching reasons. Often, complex and conditional effects are gated behind high levels which ensures that newer players don't run into them before they have a fundamental understanding of the game systems. Similarly, locking players into narrow builds gives newer players less to focus on as they unlock a wide variety of new options. At 5:45 you ask "why not just let the player experiment freely" and the answer is that for less invested players, options for experimentation are also barriers to entry. A leveling system lets an invested player who wants to get everything out of the game replay it with a new build while letting a less invested player ignore content that won't help them progress. This is perhaps best seen in World of Warcraft's gear system. Put in the simplest terms, each class has effectively a single armor type which they wear and armor of that type has stats which help their class. Though you can still get gear of other types (and there is randomization in some gear which leads to fiddly optimization which doesn't really help the game) you can usually ignore 75% of the gear you find, making the decision process much easier for less-invested players. With my defense of leveling systems out of the way, let's think about Dark Souls. First, for a game with a very high baseline difficulty, the "soft gating", "self-correcting pacing", and "marginal progress" effects of a leveling system are very important. Players who are not mechanically skilled will run into fewer reasons to give up (and therefore more opportunity to enjoy the game) with a leveling system. Conversely players looking for more challenge can both find it naturally and, particularly with the opt-in system that dark souls has, impose it. Could the same goals be achieved with a difficulty slider? Possibly, but I believe it would feel less rewarding (despite being mechanically similar) for players to either reduce the difficulty when the game got hard or just push a slider to max to make it harder for themselves. In fact, that may be the essence of a level system in a game like Dark Souls, allowing you to make the game easier without cheapening the experience because you feel like you spent effort to "earn" the reduced difficulty.

Counterpoint: The environment being intimidating and scary to the player is a central part of the intended experience, and removing the danger/risk through an easy mode fails to truly deliver the game to players. It's like if an artist were asked to created a color-adjusted version of their art to make it accessible to those who are colorblind. It could be done, but doing so would fall short of truly delivering the same media.

man I love tiny JM8

Accessibility does not equal difficulty. Its peoples ability to access it there are people who have beaten all the souls games on pc with no arms using there feat. But they couldn't play bloodborne. It wasn't the difficulty holding them back it was the lack of controller options and configurations. Devs should instead of implimenting difficulty options add colour blind modes scalable UI. Modes that give enemies clear and defined coloured outlines etc. Difficulty options are for people who don't wanna put the time in

I know you probably won't do this, but I'd love to hear your thoughts on the online co-op and pvp aspects of the souls games. I know many people brush both off as broken and unbalanced, and to be fair, both often are, but it can also be a very unique experience to share these games with other players

Having platinumed Bloodborne, DSR, and DS2; I feel that the struggle is intrinsic to the experience. The suffering is what I look back to most fondly. A person that played the same game without that element would essentially be on a sightseeing tour. I tried Celeste when it came to PsNow and went in raw at first. When I inevitably hit my first big wall I was at a crossroads; suffer on and eventually smash through that wall with my skull, or simply flip a switch to make it softer (or take it away completely). The fact that Trophies were still unlockable with assist mode was what turned me. Once you use it the first time the whole run is tainted. All the frustration and suffering is meaningless if it can so easily be waved away. The message/philosophy of climbing that mountain was lost on me, I couldn't engage with it meaningfully like I did with the Souls Games. Prompt-Swap in DSR & the Cum Chalice in BB have done something similar. Before their discovery; any player who wanted to modulate their experience of difficulty would have had to grind to make an overpowered character. In doing so one still has to engage with the game, and the grind itself becomes one of the steps up the mountain. Now new players can easily create OP characters very early, but I imagine will be left feeling hollow and unaccomplished (like I felt completing Celeste). The only big soul exploit in DS2 is farming the Giant Lord, which is at the end of the game so it doesn't suffer from that issue. The Level system is a good way to modulate difficulty because it doesn't undermine the message/intended experience. Skilled players can do SL1/BL4 runs, but newbs can still make it through their own way. NPC summons and Co-op play the same role. In life people can overcome obstacles through talent alone, practice and discipline, trying a different approach, or with the help of others; but there's no magical button to completely nullify all your struggles. Why should we have it in games?

The leveling system is "useless" because of the SCALING system. That's why you see that low level runs tend to look for upgrade materials first and improving the most optimal weapon for that build. That being said, I really enjoy your videos and love how much fun you have doing them. It shoes when you insert yourself into the areas lol. Keep up the good work!

I have a friend who essentially did the grind and consequently found normal enemies easy, but was fine for bosses. This was interesting to watch. And yes - more please!

I think I've got a few bones to pick with this video. Here are a couple of things to think about: - Enemies in the areas (High Wall of Lothric, Undead Settlement) where you specify the amount of titanate can drop titanate. And even if enemies didn't drop titanate, I could upgrade 10 different weapons with +1s, so it's not like there's a magical damage or DPS value you need to be at for this plan to work. Further still, more skill = more damage as Dark Souls combat is primarily skill based. - You don't like leveling systems because they often have arbitrary progression blocks requiring you to be a certain level, but Dark Souls doesn't do this (except PVP). In addition, upgrading your weapon(s) (aka, leveling your weapons) IS gated based on the rarity of titanate, but this system is something you're praising. In other words, you cannot upgrade weapons to +4 until you start finding large titanite shards (in Dark Souls 3) which is at some specific part of the game, and the same with titanite chunks when going to +7. This is an arbitrary block you are against (in leveling), except, it's not arbitrary. It's so you can't become too powerful too fast. - Why should the player gate the player from all weapons/spells/etc via stats? If you could access everything from the start, builds would not vary. (When everybody's super, no one is!) What you are not able to do/wield is as important as what you are able to do/wield. Stat allocation is what governs this. Now, to break down leveling down a bit further, why do we level in Dark Souls? Simply put, we love to see our numbers go up as enemies numbers go up. But the reality is, you could remove player calling and adjust enemy scaling to the player, but the lizard part of your brain doesn't like that because we like seeing numbers go up. The real magic in leveling isn't the leveling function itself, it's the decisions you can make with what's earned from leveling. So, in Souls, it's stat points, which dictate what you can use or use more effectively. In other words, builds. - Git gud, as asinine as it is, is not "completely countered" by this leveling system nor are you able to "bypass and brute force" your way through the game (I mean, you can do this to limited capacity in Dark Souls 3, but only under very specific circumstances and is not an artifact of over-leveling). Tell me a specific part in the game (preferably Dark Souls 3 as this is what I'm most familiar with) where skill is now roughly 10% of the fight and stats are like 90%, or something like that from over-leveling. I want you to use specific enemies, areas, bosses, weapons, etc. Is there an area or boss that comes to mind? The reason this never happens is because the gains from stats are very small and the souls rewards are tuned to keep you roughly the appropriate level outside of massive grinding. This doesn't mean stats don't help. If you gain 20 additional levels, where it would have taken you 50 hits, it now may take you 45 hits to kill a certain boss. Easier, but hardly a replacement for skill. - There is no grand system in Dark Souls that governs difficulty. Simply put, there is a slow incline of difficulty and rewards as you progress through the game. In a game like Path of Exile, the difference between a level 1 and level 80 character is massive compared to a Dark Souls level 1 and level 70/80/120/whatever character simply because the stat increases per level are much smaller. Also, there many stacking multipliers in PoE to where you deal hundreds of thousands of DPS or millions of DPS, where as in Dark Souls (3) you start out with roughly 50-75 DPS and end up with roughly 500-750 DPS.

I guess my question for you would be, why do you consider upgrading gear core and leveling not core? You find items to give you souls by exploring the same way you find gear and upgrade items, and you can also get gear and upgrade items for killing enemies the same way you get souls, so why couldn't leveling be the intended gatekeeping mechanic instead of gear? What if upgrading is the adjustable difficulty? Does that make upgrading 'useless'? Personally, I consider leveling core because it enables choice in how your character develops via scaling, which isn't something you touched on and could be compared to upgrading in a mechanical sense. Without leveling, there would be 'optimal' builds where you just take the best thing you have access to because you don't have to specialize. To me, that specialization is what gives the game replay value; I would never make a new character to play the game again if I was just going to use the exact same gear at the same points to beat the same bosses with the same amount of power, which is what the game would be if upgrade items from exploring was meant to benchmark progression.

Neat video again! wrt. the titanite, I feel the damage output is more regulated by the 'type' of titanite that increases in value as you continue. Often there is enough lower-quality titanite around to allow for weapon experimentation, but even if you improve multiple weapons you will be limited by the highest 'quality' of titanite around. In more grind-based games you can often exchange lower quality materials, i.e. 3 large shards makes a titanite chunk, making it possible to 'farm' lower level areas to relief risk/difficulty. Not possible in DS ofcourse, but the way it is implemented here does allow you to get a newly found weapon up to level in order for it to surpass the old one. If that was not the case you'd end up down the sunk-cost fallicy rabbit hole every time.

what this video taught me, the leveling system is not useless and its absolutely an important aspect of the game

I find it ironic that the only meaningful levelling stat in the whole series is also one of the most hated changes (agility)

While I think you answered the question in your video, I say that the leveling system is a core part of the game design in that it helps change the scale of difficulty. As someone that got way too powerful in DS2 by abusing the extinction system early in the game, leveling up makes the games much easier. I played DS3 in two separate new games because my first play through was with someone giving me 99 Souls of a Great Hero (or the equivalent, I played DS1 most recently and that's what my brain is pulling up) and I leveled up to 150+ in an instant (after he killed me because he was an invader). On my other new game, I ran without that and the game was noticeably more painful. Like you said, it presents an internal difficulty system that, like JRPG's, can be ground to make the gameplay easier to handle. I would also agree that leveling in Dark Souls games is fairly useless in some cases. When it comes to damaging enemies with spells/miracles/hexes, leveling up makes things important, but characters that rely on weapon damage don't need strength or dexterity as much as they need upgraded equipment. Not only is upgrading equipment cheaper, but it also gives you a much higher damage/defense/poise bonus when you level it up making stats like Strength and Dexterity nearly useless beyond letting you use weapons. I feel like From Software should balance that system out better so it feels like it matters that I take Strength/Dexterity instead of increasing one of my bars, adding a new spell to my list, or making elemental variants of my weapons.

I love the leveling system. It gives you a sense of accomplishment getting stronger. That’s why I would always rather start a new game than go to new game +

Leveling is also really important for the glowy-sparkly-yay-stronger progression feeling. Sure you can say that its just a treadmill and you're not wrong, but saying that someone is having "fake fun" is a basically flawed way of thinking about fun. What you're talking about here is inevitability in design. You'll beat everything eventually even if you suck, but you can beat it quicker if you're good.

Definetly would love to see more Dark souls content. Great vid as always!

Highly disagree on the “brute force” point, you’ll still get clapped by most things if you don’t play intelligently even at high levels.

There are some fundamental accessibility features that should be in every game. Color blind mode, subtitles, etc. The issue is that the world of Dark Souls can't really be experienced without the threat of Dark Souls. As you've stated in the previous video, Dark Souls at it's core is a horror game. Without the fear that this game creates, it's impossible to truly appreciate it. Leveling is a way to mitigate the challenge, but it still leaves the threat and fear of dying there. If anything, an accessibility option where you get enough souls to level up to an endgame level is the best idea for a game like this. It makes it easier for players who need that brute forcing, but it doesn't completely destroy the challenge of the game.

Leveling being an accessibility feature is a topic I'm glad you covered. I was getting ready to write a whole novel on the subject, so now I can let my hands rest. ... Well, on second thought... I think co-op is a great accessibility feature, but it has a bunch of issues that I wish From would improve upon. It's really frustrating that co-op simply can't be a persistent, multi-boss experience in all their games, and there are many bossless areas where you'd just left to fend for yourself (Tutorial areas like the Undead Asylum in the first game and Cemetary of Ash in the third, Valley of Drakes, Road of Sacrifices, Shaded Woods), and if you kill a boss early, you're left on your own when exploring back through places and can't experience it with friends because multiplayer is now locked out of that region of the world forever. The first Dark Souls in particular is really bad about this as you're then left to run to the next bonfire with that hoard of souls you just collected, but if you're not the type to be able to play action games effectively on your own, you're likely to just lose all of that with nobody to help you reobtain it. I'm the type of player to enjoy the challenge as-intended on my own, but my friends are not the type of people who can handle persistent failures without dropping a game. Iudex Gundyr in III being required to be fought without any allies is a really big issue as he is a highly aggressive opponent with large sweeping attacks that even gave veteran Souls players trouble on their first encounters, essentially playing like a late-game boss from a previous entry in the franchise. Using Steam's global achievements for reference, 11% of players who played the game far enough to light the first bonfire never defeated Gundyr, which is a real shame as those who really wanted to get into the world FromSoftware has created but couldn't climb the wall that is the cliff-shaped difficulty curve the game throws at you after encountering just basic hollows beforehand. I feel it kind'a goes against the stated design philosophy where the Souls games feel like they have a big community to share experiences with. And then there's the issue where everyone has to be in the same area to actually summon each other, instead of allowing a host to summon friends directly at a bonfire, which means everyone has to be able to reach an area first, so everyone has to fight the same bosses repeatedly if they're trying to co-op through the game together. There's just a lot of weird design decisions like this in regards to the multiplayer. Co-op is the best way to have an easy mode while maintaining the general experience that FromSoftware wants for the games, but the convoluted limitations to actually get into co-op is really frustrating to deal with.

The leveling system is the accessibility feature On my first playthrough of ds1 i grinded souls till i could tank ornstein through a 4 hit kill combo Its all there if youre willing to work for it

Dont know if i agree that the levels in Darksouls make the game easy mode if you just grind, they set the stats up to have diminishing returns , after you hit about 20 -25 your numbers kinda stop going up, and since some items require stats that high anyway, it felt like it was expected for you to level your core stats over 20, so there is basically a soft cap on your level at which point grinding does nothing. not to mention the cost per level gos up as well, so your speeding even more time for each lesser stat buff. So no over leveling is not really a thing imo.

I beat 2 of these games at sl1 and the levelling system is far more impactful than you'd ever expect, you can barely even take a hit or equip most weapons without specific rings/buffs if your levels are too low. it limits your equipment choices and options for engagement dramatically in a way that forces you into a fast paced dodge heavy playstyle requiring near perfect execution. It also renders souls practically useless once you buy the equipment and consumables you need. I'd very much recommend it if you think you'd enjoy it because it can be extremely enjoyable if you've memorised the maps, enemy attacks, and item locations enough and you're good at dodging, it gets easier than you'd expect past the early game humps, YMFAH has some decent guides if you need advice too. tl;dr you'll really appreciate how important the levelling is when it's taken away from you

6:44 I'm gonna answer that question with story POV. Gaining souls or leveling up is NOT a requirement to beat the game. It just made it easier, and I bet nobody beat the game with no leveling up at their first playthrough. I think it's more tend to story rather than game progression. "Souls is the source of all life, and whether Undead, or even hollow, one continues to seek them." - soul of a great hero. You gaining souls (life) from other being and becoming more powerful. The fire linking ending meant you to sacrifice yourself to the first flame, consuming all of your power of life, which is your souls, in order to rekindle the first flame. The more powerful you are, which is indicated by the amount of soul you've been consuming, the longer you burn, and the longer you burned, the longer the age of fire to continue.

Didnt realise there was actually a sect of the fanbase that didnt like the levelling system

Is some ways, your level speaks to your character's quality of kindling for the flame. From a diagetic perspective, some of the unkindled might have failed to link the flame because they didn't have enough levels or souls in the form of lord souls.

I believe the leveling system is a way for the devs to justify making enemies stronger as the game progresses. Imagine if there was no leveling system, and the players health bar never increased. How surreal would it be to watch as Darkeater Midir did comparable damage to the hollows in Cemetery of Ash. The leveling system allows From to create higher difficulty challenges, while giving players a way to rise to the occasion however they see fit. Do they grind for levels, or upgrade that one shield that will help them? Or do they religiously study the enemy's attacks and animations, or even just go somewhere else to come back later? The leveling system also encourages replayability with different classes and the online component by limiting your options. If you want to play a dex character, you can do that, but don't expect to wield strength weapons. It even makes a max level character interesting, since now you CAN wield everything, and you get to feel the freedom. The online component is aided with level ranges, and the leveling system encourages you to master whatever weapon you can use. Invasions are the reason I have nearly 300 hours on ONE file in Ds3, and I have had to get very creative with my tactics to defeat players that I know are better than me ( and no, I'm not talking about glitches). On the topic of accessibility, I feel as though there is a way to accomplish it without ruining the game, since God mode and infinite stamina seem a bit too much for me at least. My idea comes from DS2, and the Covenant of Champions, a covenant that makes the game harder by increasing enemy stats and restricting summons. A simple twist, and now we have a covenant that lowers enemy stats, and provides at least one NPC ally for each area. And yes, this does lessen the mechanical fear, but it also ties into another one of Miyazakis designs, that being anonymous companionship which the entire summoning system is based around. (Also, just thinking as I read this back, this is basically the NPC summoning in Elden Ring, which is also something that encourages leveling so you can support your Bois with healing miracles and stuff). Tldr; I want people to play Dark Souls, but that's exactly the problem. I want them to play Dark Souls, not just another game that just so happens to be called Dark Souls.

Awesome Jm8 awesome good to see mini Jm8 back

1. Dark Souls should not have an Easy Mode. As it's said on the video there's a multitude of ways to adapt the difficulty. If people are just too lazy to try them it's their loss. 2. Yes. It should have accessibility options, like the slowdown of time in Forza 5 and whatever else From Software can come up with. I hope they surprise us with it on Elden Ring but if not they should begin working on them for their next title. 3. People that don't have accessibility issues and are just lazy and don't want to bother learning the games and understanding this particular pieces of Art and how the challenge and difficulty are an intrinsical part of them should go play something else and stop pulling the accessibility card to try very badly to disguise their real reasons while at the same time virtue signalling.

I agree with the idea of Fromsoft using levelling to add weight to the value of souls, and also how it makes the game's difficulty adaptive so players can brute force certain situations. It makes sense on a couple of levels personally. First, it costs time to grind up the souls, saving up over and over against enemies a person knows they are able to beat. You are exchanging skill with time, and swapping the risk-reward of venturing ahead, relying on skill and ability with the risk-reward of having saved up a ton of souls, only to have the stress of permanently losing them if you make two mistakes in a row. Which becomes its own kind of fear. Ever had to run a gauntlet through the ringed city giant spiral pathway full or great hollow guardians and ringed knights with over a million souls on the line? Believe me, it is a twenty-minute butt clench all its own. (even moreso if you get invaded, or try the even greater risk of running through and trying to survive the conga-line of death) As a sneaky bonus, the people who spend the time grinding get practice. lots of practice. one area at a time they develop those skills they were lacking, get familiar with their build, learn its weaknesses and efficiencies, and inadvertantly get that elusive gud. flipping a switch to make a game easy has far less value than working your way towards an easy state of play as well. it maintains investment because the victories and progress you gain are still *earned*. it isn't devalued success. Moving forward retains its meaning as a reflection of effort and investment. On a slightly side-note, I think one of my fondest takes on the Darksouls 'GIT GUD' statement and why it is so much more than a troll but an actual honest-to-goodness lesson in how to play the game came from 'viva la dirt league' who nailed the head of the situation. ( ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-blSXTZ3Nihs.html ) Some people might frown for pseudo-shilling a completely different channel and video, but I think it actually might be good fuel for discussion and maybe even another 'anatomy' topic. How did Darksouls not only create, but define and foster an odd breed of philosophy within gaming. It is one of the very few games I have ever encountered that genuinely gives real, applicable lessons one could easily carry into real life.

I enjoying being able to survive more than 2 hits from a boss and not need 400 hits to kill it so..... that's useful. :)

Great part 2 J! Looking forward to any future souls vids and of course mega hyped for the Halo vid!! 😆

I found leveling really helps me get through the game. If I'm at a hard boss I can't beat I'll grind a bit. Or if there's a section that I always die at when trying to kill all the enemies, I'll just run through and grind a bit later to make up for the lost souls. If I can't be bothered really exploring a section thoroughly, or if I'm playing stuff "out of order" leveling or grinding is a crutch to help me get through.

I made peace with the fact a long time ago that I was never going to finish this game but I absolutely love it and by love it I mean everything

I have thought a bit about what an accesbility or easy mode could be for dark souls and those games. Why not put up servers people can opt in too that makes the game a tiny bit easier that maybe makes the enemies hurt you less and prohibits invasions while still let you enjoy some jolly cooperation, a "noob-mode" or "story-mode" if you will. Most players will probably keep the standard settings, but for those who want to try the game/-es it could be a way in.

I think the reason why Dark Souls levelling up works is due to the fact that each level only grants you one singular point to add to one singular stat, rather than do what most RPGs, and especially JRPGs, do, where you level up and all or almost all your stats increase. It forces you to be selective about where you invest your points at all time, as they're only ever getting more expensive, and that in turn also affects builds you can use. I'd actually say that Bloodborne's levelling up can be quite easily eschewed if one takes the time to dive into the Chalice Dungeons, as progressing on those allows you to obtain very powerful Blood Gems, which in turn allow you to bypass the low soft cap that Strength and Skill have, and significantly increase your damage output. I started going into the Dungeons just before I killed Rom (had finished every extra area before though), and just after killing Lady Maria on the DLC area (leaving only Orphan as the last Boss there), and by the time I got back into the main game (once I'd finished the Depth 4 dungeons) I was just breezing through the bosses, easily destroying Rom, The One Reborn and every other Main Game Boss. Orphan was more challenging, but both Ludwig and Laurence were much more difficult in comparison.

Theres already the best possible accessibility option: co op. It's there if you want the easy mode and you can ignore it if you want the real experience.

Really liked how you tackled the accessibility part of the video, i’m sure there’ll be disagreements but i’m sure you’re open for discussion in the discord (wink wink join the discord ;)

The leveling equates increased player choice and longevity (build potential) that is a net positive. Being able to use all forms of equipment and magic would negate those moments when your build has a distinct edge or drawback against a certain boss. Similarly, it would reduce the variety of PvP and co-op.

I wouldnt mind an accessibility mode in Dark Souls...that said, no one plays these games for the stories. They play them for the struggle and high that comes after womping on Bosses like a badass.

That's why I love cheats and mods. They allow me to add my own accessibility helpers to games that don't have them.

In regards to the levelling system I think you are probably correct. It does first of all make the player themselves limit the options they have in weapons/magic in a certain playthrough, which is probably good given how much there is to choose from. More importantly the fear of loosing souls is key to the formula. I think the best proof of this is Hollow Knight, which of course replicates the loss of currency upon death , but with no levelling. This completely collapses the mechanic as more often then not I just felt annoyed by the loss of currency, but I could rarely be bothered to go retrieve them, I never felt fear of dying for the sake of loosing my currency. Had there not been levelling in Dark Souls, I likely would've felt the same there.

Here,s my idea for a easy mode just have a as a starting gift ring that keeps everything dead if you killed them and don't reset the health of the bosses But also have the option to start with the Calamity ring for the ones that want more of a challange

I think Remnant: From the Ashes shows that you don't really need a levelling system. The game does have one, but the upgrades it enables aren't very powerful. Most of your stats are tied to your gear as opposed to your character, which allows you to experiment with different builds and try different strategies based on your situation.

I think that the leveling system is done really well because most games just put an a wall and make you get a key to to remove it and call it a day but fir dark souls the only kinds of those walls is that of anor Lonndo and the final boss of ds1. Its ironic how you showed the dancer while talking about the bosses keep the player on the right path because truth is you can beat her all the way at the start of the game with the exception being that its ridiculously difficult at the begginging and you're meant to come back later when, you guessed it, have a higher level/better stats And the "git gud" saying i think, still holds true because no matter how much health, stamina or what weapon you have you still need the players input to beat the game and after all, it's possible to beat the game with the most overpowered gear and stats BUT ALSO with just your fists at level 1. And this is even more true for the multilayer where you are matched in a certain level group depending on your own level so skill matters even more than gear and stats. Either you or me really misunderstood what accessibility features are because to me, accessibility features have to do with the physical limitations for the players body so for example colour blindness features for colourblind people or major visual indications for deaf people etc.. For as far as I know making you have infinite hp and or stamina just turns it into an unnecessary easy mode even though you can make the game easier by choosing an easier build like a sorcerer build because that is pretty much the game on easy mode. I think that removing these sorts of things can also make for q direct experience like how you can play Minecraft on survival or creative mode but doing this sort of thing to dark souls i think would not be worth it and the act man did a while video about this and difficulty sliders in dark souls and in it he said "The harsher the desert, the more satisfying the oasis" Apologies if this sounded like I hate this video or anything like that, I actually like it along with the rest "anatomy of ____" videos I'm just saying what I think

I see the leveling as a fail-safe: some players will rush to try new weapons and new gear in an area in hopes that they can find a better way to kill a boss, others are all-in on their builds or what they've spent on upgrading weapons/armor. Leveling allows players in both aspects, as a way to push stats into what they need to try their new weapons or bolster what they already like in their build. I would personally like it if, like in Skyrim, Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia, and Timespinner, is the more you use a weapon/class to kill enemies, the more efficient your character would use those weapons, but that could water down PvP and build diversity.

I always find the discussion of dark souls difficultly interesting. Some people will refuse to use in-game mechanics (magic) because they feel like it cheeses the game. At the same time, people who make glass cannon builds then complain the game is too easy when the literal purpose of their build is to min-max damage. People choose their own difficulty in playing these games, and I feel like the popular consensus that fromsoft games should be "hard" makes people handicap themselves and miss out on just enjoying the game. That being said, I also think irl player "level-ups" are not discussed enough. I've seen streamers beat a boss and say "wow I'm glad I put those 2 levels in strength it made all the difference" when it really was them just them mastering attack patterns and perfecting their fighting strategy. Great content! I like how you approach this topic. I see the leveling system as a way to reach requirements to use specific spells/weapons.

Yes leveling is the accessibility feature. And just like throwing yourself against a boss or situation eventually nets you the skills to beat it, leveling is another thing you can throw yourself at to "earn" being able to brute force through it.

I think in Dark Souls(3 at least, haven't tried DS1 SL1) leveling in my opinion does make a lot of difference. The difficulty change between normal Pontiff and SL1 Pontiff(or Dancer) is huge. The ability to have enough health to take a hit without dying changes the difficulty a lot. Weapon upgrades make the damage output not a huge issue, but the health and stamina management on SL1 is way harder. I think a compromise with difficulty options could be like... a "Lore Mode" option. Where you are a lot tankier, enemies die a bit easier, and the relevant lore is presented to you somehow. I feel like, again to go back to Pontiff, if you take the difficulty out of the fight via some variant of easy mode then you have to replace that experience with something else. Walking in there and steamrolling Pontiff makes you miss how big of a deal he is to the story, how evil he really is, and the power that he holds. You would have to supplement the easier fight by contextualizing his place in the world with something else. The world building and story of the dark souls world is incredible, and ends up being missed by a huge amount of players anyway(as evidenced by the popularity of all of the lore channels on RU-vid). This could give players a chance to focus on the beautiful story side of things, rather than just the difficulty.

Dark Souls II is the perfect example of how the leveling system works in favor of mechanical fear, and also how eventually it becomes useless since you will eventually reach it's peak. You start the game with a class and it's stats locking you into a play style, eventually developing your own and in the end you will either play that style you liked a lot and forget the other stats that don't work for it, or just max everything for the sake of spending souls. Usually as a community we agree on a level cap where everyone can reach their build's prime and stick to it for PvP and Co-Op, but in DS2's case you got soul memory which throws this out the window, eventually breaking and pairing anyone with everyone. Once you reach a certain threshold you are paired with everyone on that soul memory level and beyond, which means a level 120 can end up with a 320; this in practice sounds broken, but even someone with 99 on everything can be beaten (even by NPCs) because while stats scale your damage quite well, defense and HP don't get such a large boost, and with diminishing returns it essentially means you can beat someone with 99 vit and heavy armor with only 40 str and an A or S scale weapon, the only difference from 40 to 99 str is a hit or two for said target. About accessibility, I think it's something hard to do for dark souls since actively removing challenges hampers the experience of a game that's all about the journey and it's struggle; if anything, invaders work in favor of this because it's something akin to real life struggles where people will not always be there to help you, some will go against you for the most ridiculous reasons.

i wanted to just watch this but you made me backtraxk to part 1!

Just wondering, what uni do you teach at? you mentioned you were a lecturer

I wonder if the levelling is to enforce the class system. It becomes semi prohibitively expensive to have a single charecter on a standard run be good at everything. Encouraging investment in strength/dex/quality etc etc whereas if all weapons and armour were available to everyone you could get havel monsters and giant dads with the highest level spells too, essentially breaking the game. It also serves the PvP matchmaking, in theory keeping you within a set level range of others to fight on equal footing, although there are those who will exploit this

I basically agree. Leveling is important, but if you can't get the hang of the mechanics of a particular fight then it doesn't much help even if you're allegedly overleveled for it. At the same time, there are benefits for being overleveled for a particular area/boss if it's giving you trouble. I'm pulling from Bloodborne here simply because I have the most experience in that game compared to how far I am in the Souls games. When I got to the halfway point of the Forbidden Woods after the elevator shortcut I went and tackled Cainhurst because I the Woods is a maze and I also found it unsettling. When I went back to finish up the Woods and do the Shadow of Yharnam fight, I know I was technically at a higher level than most players are when they tackle that area of the game. I bulldozed my way through the area and while most stuff didn't kill me, I did still die to the massive balls of snakes and I ended up fighting them only when I had to. I beat the Shadow of Yharnam on my first attempt, but I got lucky with my quicksteps and healing just in time. It was still a tough fight against the three of them. For me, I view leveling as giving me more health and stamina to better withstand an area even if I'm rusty on the mechanics. It lets me get the hang of the place without dying so frequently, and I can get in more hits thanks to having more stamina. I'm not deleting what I've typed above, but I did type that before you brought up players grinding for levels to make the game easier. I only do that when I hit a wall to the point that I can't be bothered to keep bashing my head against it a la Yhatzee. I'm having a horrible time against the Bloody Crow of Cainhurst, so I'm tackling the Nightmare Frontier to 1) avoid that fight for a while and 2) to level up more to make that fight a bit easier on me. I do try to avoid doing that in general though; the same as trying to not cheese enemies unless I'm having a really rough time of it. I agree about accessibility options for the games to allow people a chance to play them when they wouldn't otherwise be able. I don't think there should be a god mode that wouldn't allow deaths since deaths are sort of part of the game, but allowing players to select for infinite stamina or something wouldn't be a bad thing at all. I like that Sekiro doesn't mess with stamina, and I also like that stamina will be a concern in Elden Ring only during fights. Stamina won't be a concern when a player is running around the world not encountering enemies. As an aside, the estus flask system is annoying to me. I'm getting the hang of it, but I've gotten so used to the rally in Bloodborne and using blood vials, that I still forget to back off and heal in Dark Souls 3 sometimes. I'll keep hitting an enemy when I need to back off and heal, because I'll have forgotten that attacking them isn't giving me any of my health back.

Those accessibility god modes would have to lock you in offline mode for that character forever once you made the choice, though. Even then it'd be iffy during launch hype when everyone is evenly discovering and exploring together and contributing info after seizing it from the same world as everyone else

Toggles or settings that instantly buff the player would break the multiplayer experience. Maybe Sekiro should’ve tried it. Levelling up is a genius way to make an easy mode. Past enemies that were once dangerous now seem like trivial bugs. That can be disappointing, but it can also be satisfying to feel drunk on such great power, especially because you were so terrified of those same enemies before. Overall these games work best when you’re terrified, and that’s something they need to keep in mind for accessibility: how more players can enjoy the game, while still FEELING terrified.

I find it interesting that so many people hear "there should be accessibility options so that people who normally couldn't access this game could play it" but somehow walk away thinking "so you're saying we should allow people who could've accessed this game normally the ability to skip key aspects of the game feel?" The leveling system can be used as a pseudo accessibility option, but it's really not a true accessibility option. If someone has nerve damage that prevents them from pressing a button quickly enough, no amount of grinding to level up will grant them the ability to actually experience the game in any form because they literally will never be able to press that button quickly enough. I've seen other people mention color blind changes and audio captions, but what about people who have forms of epilepsy that is triggered by bright flashing lights? It there was an accessibility option to dull or remove bright quick flashing lights the game would be open to them. That's a true accessibility option. It's not an easy mode, it's an accommodation to allow someone to have the experience that others are lucky to have without issue. Just like giving students more time to complete an exam, or having an interpreter for someone while they're at work because otherwise they can't give a presentation to a group of non-sign language users. Games have many ways and options to create accessibility options that vary from easy to implement to complex, but the more options available the more people can play the game. I'm always 100% for having accessibility options built into the game. It's unfair to expect people who have disabilities to just learn how to mod it into a game, a lot of us are already literally paying out the ass to experience life that's closer to what many people think of as base line normal, why the hell should we have to learn a whole new skill set just to play this one game (or series)? We don't expect casual gamers to learn how to mod games and we shouldn't expect it of a marginalized group either. Accessibility options aren't about making a game easier but literally about allowing access to them. We don't necessarily need a god mode no death set up to play, but having an option to increase the time enemies take to attack or increasing a parry window could make the difference for someone being able to still play a challenging but now accessible game. That all said, I also think there should always be a "Story Mode" in games. Some people really want to experience the story and explore an interesting world, but genuinely don't care for the difficulty. Some people are too exhausted after work to dedicate the hours of genuine practice soulsborne games require. Some people just don't care to learn how to perfectly execute something, they liked the look of the game and just want to kick back and enjoy it without a struggle. So what? Will they have the exact same experience as someone playing the regular difficulty level? No. That's the point. A story mode takes nothing away from players who can and want to experience the game as it was intended, but once again opens a game up to more players who otherwise wouldn't have purchased or played it. Some of them may even replay the game on the regular difficulty afterwards to try it out, and some might replay it because it hits the right spot to be a relaxing or rewarding experience from the first moment they pick up the controller. I think many gamers get a little too invested in the idea that "Hard Mode is the best mode because it means I achieved something", and forget that other gamers and players might just want to have a fun time and don't find the reward of learning to play a hard game to be worth it. I understand being worried that some people would "chicken out" and ditch the game as intended for an easier version that wouldn't hold the same tension...but that's also the point. Broaden the audience, let more people experience something wonderful, and care a little less about if other people are playing a game "the right way". TL;DR Yes, have accessibility modes for people who's disabilities would bar them from the experience. Yes, have accessibility modes for people who are struggling but want to keep some of the difficulty aspects without a full out easy mode. Yes, have an easy/story mode for people who want to soak in the characters, story, and ambiance. You don't have to use them if you don't want to, but it helps more people become fans of a game they normally would be barred from ever getting to experience it at all. It's okay if someone who can't play a game the same way you can gets to try and enjoy that game in another manner.

Ah, the good old, the difficulty system is already there. Like picking Bulbasaur in R/B makes the first few three gyms easy, while Charmander has problems against the first two.

0:49 what is the name of this theme?

I play Dark Souls and Fromsoftgames in general for the, worlddesign and gameplay and dfficulty. There are already options to make game less diffucult: Summons, calling friends to join you in your quest and metaknowledge. If god mode is implemented in this game, it will ruin the game entirely. Like Hidetake Miyazaki said, you want to have that the players have the same experience, the same baseline discussion surrounding its difficulty, like bossfights. If your adjustments are implemented, this conversation, this same experience will be ruined and this game will become just like any other mainstream game.

I think if they want to preserve the game feel of dark souls with an easy mode they can do it in a few ways. Instead of a god mode or infinite stamina like you suggested, I think these ways might be better. They can all be used, or pick and choose. They are: all bonfires are kindled from the start to 10 flasks. Increased souls gain from enemies (for easier leveling, but they still have to grind for it if they're struggling) and perhaps lose half souls on death. I think everyone who's played the game would agree this makes it easier, but it still preserves the aspects of the gameplay which make it dark souls, ie still being able to die and receive consequences for it. There's just reduced consequences and more resources for the easy mode player to thrive.

In some ways I think it should have some accessibility options, but if a player can beat the game with a guitar hero guitar I don't think it needs an easy mode

I would love to see more videos like this!

Hey Nick and J i want to see more. Just wanted to let you know as per your video. Great work yall!

Each Dark Souls has an easy mode. 1: lightning before the massive nerf, but also the Master Key let’s you skip a huge chunk of the game, specifically all of Blighttown. 2: the broken healing system and despawning enemies. 3: well this one is a lot more polished so I don’t feel there’s a truly easiest way to get through it, but magic is my go to. Long range, regenerating mana later on, diverse offensive spells. Or you can just summon 3 people who minmax and have them stomp the game for you. Since you can respec your character you can make specific builds mid game just for certain bosses. Midir is very weak to the magic spell that creates that weird cloud. It does damage based on total health, so Midir suffers greatly from it.

'Making it more accessible will allow for more people to fall in love with this world'. I doubt that actually. People would play it and never feel the intended atmosphere of dread and depression that Dark Souls it's bleak world and harsh punishment for failure try to establish. Instead they play it like any other game spamming the r1 button to easy victory not understanding what the fuzz is all about. I only ever see this argument in gaming though. Why is it I never see the reading audience ask a writer to use childlike vocabulary and hammer home every point so no one misses out of the subtext of the stories and themes? Turn your three hour film into a hour long one for the impatient? I am divided on the subject of accessibility. On one hand I want everyone to have a crack at the wonderful medium of gaming. On the other I would argue making games for the widest possible audience makes for some dull soulless experiences. It's what Ubisoft largely have been doing the past decade. And if people really want to play games but they have a deformed hand that won't allow them to play fast paced action games. Then play any of the games that don't require dextrous hands or sharp reflexes. Some of my favourite games can be played it just a single finger on one hand like Frostpunk, This War of Mine, World of Goo or Darkest Dungeon.

I think the leveling system serves 2 narrative purposes, independent of its gameplay effects. In the narrative, we play as an undead, who are stronger, faster, and more durable than mere mortals, because they use the power of souls. At the start the player character is at base level, their stats reflect the stats they had when they were human. As they level up they go deeper into the world, fighting ever greater, and usually grander foes. This creates a story of a weak and powerless undead rising to the level of gods. If the player character was as strong at the start as they were ever going to be, only progressing though weapon upgrades and estus, that aspect of the story wouldn't exist. In fact, in the context of the world of dark souls, it would seem more like the legendary heroes and gods could all be taken down by a random dude with a nice sword and a canteen.

Saying that DS is tuned on only weapon upgrades and healing improvement is kind of a false flag. The souls game are not meant to be played at SL1/BL4.. They can be (as a testament of the freedom they gave), but as you can see in Sekiro (which has kind of no leveling system) you have to tune every mechanic on that if you want to make it "the way of playing". The leveling system is another way to give freedom to the players to chose their gamestyle, build and character archetype while (trying) to make every build valid and every character viable, more than ti "simply" give a better accessibility to the game

Dark Souls has an easy mode; It's called Sorcery. (And NPC Summons)

Grinding takes a long time in souls. It's a reward for patients. It doesn't make the game that much easier like in a final fantasy. It just gives a slight edge and allows for variance in playthroughs. Without it, every playthrough would be the same difficulty which would suck

Leveling is important to Dark Souls because it makes players have to make choices about their character. Builds wouldn't matter if there was no leveling.

I have an argument against leveling up to brute force through the game. Dark Souls 3 was my first Souls experience, unlike what is the intentional way to go. I remember literally crying in Undead Settlement because I couldn't go past that Outrider Knight in the tower, used a Cheat engine script to bump up my stats to 90 for everything, but I was still stuck, because I still sucked at the game and wasn't fully familiar with the mechanics - weapon scaling, where to find upgrade materials, style of combat (dodge, block, parry timings, enemy attack patterns, etc), how exploration works, etc. I needed to "git gud", as pretentious as that sounds. Dark Souls is one of those series that heavily relies on "game knowledge" without being a roguelike, and you'll get significantly better by gaining that over any other means.

In terms of story telling, leveling/collecting souls is the path by which the flame is rekindled and the cycle of the age of fire continues (which has burned everything to ash by ds3).

I think the leveling system is there for a couple of core reasons. But the main one can be summed as this, it is the foundation from which all of the other systems build engagement. It is a system intrinsic to the management of stats and for allowing the player to create goals. I do think that you are right, that you could remove leveling and nothing would be mechanically lost, but the things you would lose in terms of decision space are big. First off yes, I do think that the main reason its there is too give souls value, but I think there are more, equally important reasons. One of the cores to designing enagaging games, is decisions space. Making meaningful decisions is a core part of what makes a game engaging to players. And without the leveling system, Dark Souls would lose almost all of its meaningful decisions. Let me explain, Meaningful decisions are exactly as its name entails, it is a decision that the player makes that has meaning or importance. However, a core part of something being a meaningful decision is what you are losing by picking it. Its not just that you picked strength for more damage, its that you picked strength and that means you can't use other weapons. If you could just use any weapon as soon as you picked it up, well then, there are no meaningful decisions. There still are in your choice of which weapon to upgrade, but now you are railroading and removing decision space. You see this in Remnant From the Ashes. In that game, there are only weapon and armor upgrades. And I, like many players, upgraded my starter weapon and never switched, why? Because of the core difference between upgrading a weapon and upgrading a stat. A weapon dictates that you use that weapon, a stat dictates what type of weapons you can use. And this is important, because it avoids railroading you into one weapon but allows you to still find new weapons that you can use. Because if exploring just nets you junk weapons you have to upgrade a billion times to catch up to your current weapons, then that makes weapons not a reward. The second important point, is player goals. Players want to achieve things, accomplishment is a huge part of player engagement. And the leveling system does create this, by blocking players from using certain weapons due to stat requirements. This creates a goal for the player "Get enough souls to upgrade my stat so I can use this weapon." I am sure everyone has experienced this in a souls game. And this creates two important points, it creates a feeling of accomplishment and excitement when a player can finally use that weapon. And secondly, it creates a palpable tension where the player does not want to lose souls. Because now the player has a goal, and any loss in souls represents a loss in progress to that goal. So to summarize, no the system is not useless, I actually think it brings a lot of good things to the game, some that I didn't even talk about. However, could it be replaced with a different system and achieve the same or maybe even better results, maybe. But then it probably wouldn't be Dark Souls.

You're missing a part of the leveling system that does give it meaning. Looking at the system at face value it is exactly what you said, but when you scratch the surface just a little bit its intricacies start to show. First, they tie matchmaking into your level for multi-player. Who you match with for cooperation or PVP is dependent on what your level is. The second thing the leveling system does is that unlock more powerful weapons. Different weapons in the game require different minimum stats in order to use. What is more disease weapons have scaling with those stats. This makes your very stats part of your weapon progression, one of the primary things that weapons upgrades unlock is improved scaling with your stats. The leveling system limits you as well, very intentionally. You have the illusion of being able to max out every stat but each time you level up stat it becomes more expensive to level the next one. This makes it almost impossible especially in your first playthrough effectively good at everything and that forces you to specialize. Looping back to the multiplayer if you have too high a level you are not going to match with anybody, further limiting you. This provides two different avenue to the player. The First Avenue is still very restricted but you can increase your flare level further and try for new things with your primary character on the New Game Plus versions of the game. The Second Avenue is a replayability where you start over from scratch but take your character along a completely different path as to what weapons choices and styles they are going to use. That is actually one of the Geniuses of leveling system is that it enforces replayability.

I would never want to remove the main difficulty of the game and i have enjoyed all the dark souls games to a point. However, I get bored because the game is quite frankly to hard for me and i do not want to spend the hundred plus hours to get good at the games so I normally stop after a few bosses because i just get stuck and bored. I would have loved a way to reduce the damage or reduced the cost of death on me because it would have allowed me to quite frankly try less hard but still enjoy the world and the combat because they are fun but i don't have the patience to look up builds or restart after putting a bunch of time into the games and wasting my souls in the wrong things and then being stuck.

Interesting take on the acessibility issue

I think the video did a great job of laying out what effects the leveling system has, I don't agree with their conclusions though. Yes, leveling is a way to make the game more accessible to struggling players, but much more subtly than an explicit Easy mode. If you select easy mode you acknowledge you're a worse player than others but you won't even know if it took you 15 more level-ups to defeat the final boss than the average player. And who knows, maybe you're a better player than you thought and it only takes you 8 more levels than the average? A lot of games have some form of "substitute time investment for skill" mechanic and that's good because it scales much better to individual players than an outright easy mode. Leveling forces you to specialize. You can experiment early on but then you have to decide which playstyle to build towards. This is not equivalent to different equipment load-outs because you can change those on a whim. Having to pick which attributes to increase adds meaningful decisions that affect your entire play-through going forward, adding a small strategy element on top of the action gameplay. It also adds a lot of replayability. True, one could shift the use of souls entirely towards weapon upgrades, but would that be a fundamental difference? You would be leveling your weapons and you'd still have to choose which weapon to spend your souls on, what, effectively, would be the difference to leveling your character, except preventing experimentation even more because how do you compare the new halbert against your crescent long sword+22? Finally, one thing this video didn't go into: Leveling is also a reward mechanic, it's motivation to continue playing. Even if you spend an entire playsession not unlocking a new shortcut or bonfire, having increased a level or two you don't feel like you wasted your time. And it's intrinsic motivation to continue playing: "If I can kill 3 more of these guys, I have enough souls to increase one level".

I'm not disabled, but I'd use an infinite stamina option because stamina systems are just pure annoyance and nothing more than artificial limitation. Sekiro proved that.