Since Demon Soul’s release date back in 2009 I’ve avoided FromSoftware’s games.  Mostly due to a bias against Japanese games but also from what I had read online.  Don’t get me wrong, I don’t HATE Japanese games but rather I have a low tolerance to their storytelling and voice acting (which in the past has been pretty sketchy).  Don’t believe me or disagree?  I’ll post this animated GIF here from the “beloved” Metal Gear Solid series to remind you how goofy some Japanese games can be:

Now bizarre character story and storytelling with cringe-worthy voice acting is one thing but a game that punishes you is another.  Not all of us are college or younger kids who not only have lightning fast reflexes but endless hours of free time that they can dedicate to playing a game that punishes them for mistakes.  Probably the biggest barrier for me to wanting to even try FromSoftware’s games was the online notion that their games punish you when you make a mistake, possibly throwing away hours of game-play when you die, forcing you to retrace your steps.  I avoided even reading about their games when I first read that mistakes can be very costly.

Well, this winter, on a whim I noticed on Steam that Dark Souls : Prepare To Die Edition (aptly named I initially thought) was on sale for $5.  I was bored and figured that since I had upgraded my HTPC (another post on this topic on the way) I would ‘waste’ $5 to see how the game ran and see firsthand how bad the game really was.  After about 20 hours in I could see I was sorely mistaken and gladly happy to say that the crow I was eating was delicious and that I was now a fan of FromSoftware and their ‘Soulsborne’ game design.

The graphics and setting for Dark Souls was good, I mean, I did grow up reading the Hobbit and Lord of the Rings and played D&D as a kid so I like the medieval fantasy setting.  Dark Souls doesn’t deviate too much in this respect, yeah there are some odd monsters/creatures that don’t fit in the Tolkien-esq realm but I am okay with that.  Yeah, Dark Souls does have some odd storytelling, certainly the introduction movie will raise your eyebrows and leave you scratching your head saying “WTF?!?”.   But within the first few hours these issues that were my first notion that I wouldn’t like the game went away.  The game starts out with a sense of mystery, foreboding doom and horrors waiting for you around the next corner.  The game gives you a sense of fear and excitement about what is coming next, something I hadn’t experienced in a very long time in gaming.  After playing for a while and making to the first major area in the game the dreaded “punishing” gameplay mechanic began.  Not because the game was unfair but rather the game punishes you for rushing and not taking your time.  For myself the lions share of ‘punishment’ was seen when I died and had to retrieve my work, often I would try and rush back to where I left off, make another mistake and thus lose my progress.  It was my fault, I was impatient, didn’t think things through, or got pissed off and in the process made critical errors because I didn’t take my time or was playing too aggressively.

This is the crux of my post.  The adage for the Soulsborne games is “get gud”.  When I initially read about Dark Souls this “get gud” statement was used commonplace on the gaming forums for reply to posts about the game being too hard or punishing.  Get gud was one of the reasons why initially I ignored FromSoftware’s games, it felt like a scapegoat for the game being designed poorly or punishing for the sake of being a ‘hardcore’ game.  When you play Dark Souls however you realize that there is some merit in the moniker.  There are some sections in the Soulsborne games that are difficult, there is no question…but, when you take your time, learn the timing of the enemies, understand the strengths and weaknesses of your equipment and essentially ‘get good’ or skilled with what you are working with there is a colossal sense of achievement when you actually pass a particularly difficult section or finish off a boss that handed you your ass on more than one occasion.

I’d say that I’m at this point a huge FromSoftware fan.  I finished Dark Souls in around 80 hours.  I didn’t do all the DLC expansions, to be honest I only went through one of them.  I was happy with what I played of the game though and finishing the main game storyline prompted me to pick up Bloodborne on my PS4 when I noticed it went on sale.  Again, I was thrilled at the game, initially it started off difficult but with practice, time and patience I got better and due to the improve graphics was blown away at many of the locales in the game and enemies (boss and ‘generic’) within the game.  I haven’t clocked exactly how much time I spent in Bloodborne but I would be surprised if it was less than 50 hours.  Lastly I picked up Dark Souls 2 on PC a few months back before summer and just finished it (and 2 of the 3 DLC expansions).  Clocking in at over 60 hours it’s clear that there is a lot of game in all of the Soulsborne games.  I have not yet picked up Dark Souls 3 but it’s on my Steam wishlist and once I clean up my backlog a bit I expect to pick it up, hopefully during Christmas.

I am happy to be wrong about Dark Souls and FromSoftware’s other games.  I think anyone who hasn’t actually given them a chance is missing out.