So I Just Finished Dark Souls For The First Time…

With regards to my comments on O&S, I’m not married to the take, it was just my thoughts after my initial play through. Obviously people have some strong thoughts against what I said and that’s fair, I appreciate the input! I don’t even think it’s a bad fight, I had fun. I just felt that sometimes the fight was a little bullshit, with how Ornstein would dash to you, sometimes glitching out on the pillars, it didn’t feel entirely perfectly designed as a lot of the singular bosses had prior to that point. But I still found it fun, and it’s still leagues above other game’s boss design, I more so meant in contrast to earlier fights in DS it felt a little less refined.

I think you really missed out on the story in my opinion. The story of Dark Souls is one of perseverance. We are undead, and have to make the pilgrimage to defeat Gwen. We are not the first, and will not be the last. Ever item you pick up comes from a corpse. The corpse of an undead who made it further than you, or the items are from defeated enemies. The enemies are NPCs who went hollow. Soilders, thieves, clerics, they all have a story, a life. The story is incredibly meta because every player to ever pick up the game leaves an impact. If they stopped playing after 30 minutes, you can interpret that as them “going hollow” and turning into an enemy in the game. This also happens with NPCs. There are also NPCs who want you to win and encourage you, the same way players leaving helpful messages, join during bosses, and making real world guides. We are all undead, with a grand quest. Not every player made it to the end, so what pushed you to finish? For me it was bring an end to the misery of that world, and seeing if I could truly make it to the end. It was hard, but in a way it mirrors real life. How people in the real world lose their sanity and end up on the streets. Its up to me to hold it together and make it. Besides that great video chief

Dont know man, Ornstein and Smough is a great bossfight, the light and fast attacks of Ornstein complement Smoughs heavy attacks perfectly.

I'm glad you finally got around to play through it! It's my favorite dark souls game. It's always a joy to see people struggle through this game for the first time.

Annnndddd we love those massive f*cking videos. We will wait. Take your time. I think we can all agree the more time you take on things the better the product.

Oooh excited to watch this one!

I just watched Jacks gameplay so thank you for so perfect timing 😊

Great video btw, never played Dark souls 1 but this has made me really want to!

You have three more worlds to immerse yourself in with Sekiro, Dark Souls 3 & Lies of P. I’m very interested what you’ll think of Sekiro given what you said about Bloodborne 💪🏻

Beating your first boss is that satisfying factor for me that got me into the souls game. Up till now I'm still a fan

Great video as always James! One recommendation I have if you're planning to experience the fromsoft series is basically to treat every game at it's own merits. Even better if you get into the rabbit hole of learning the lore and the story (along with hidden stuff) then I think you're really gonna love your time man. Especially in the case of elden ring and bloodborne, the character arcs and their backgrounds are fascinating.

I love the confidence of the Souls games, the fact that you have to engage and play on their level is something that's hard to pull off in a satisfying way. The slow trudge towards mastery, towards becoming your own boss, is a large part of what took me a while to click with, especially after playing a lot of games where success is just handed to you. Dark Souls 3 was the first souls game I played all the way through, just before Elden Ring came out, and that's where the formula clikced for me which allowed me to totally fall in love with Elden Ring making it one of four games I've spent 100+ hours on. Now that your opinion has changed on them it'll be interesting to see what you think of the other games.

I think your experience with bloodborne is really common. I feel like Bloodborne is the best game to start with as it is the easiest one to get it to click, that's how it was for me as well. I spent a long time genuinely disliking the souls games and after bloodborne i finally understood it, and it deeply enhanced my enjoyment of the rest of the soulsborne games

Awesome to see how much it clicked with you. I 100% agree that the world design is one of the best parts of the game (and for me personally, it's still FromSoftware's best game in that regard). The other part of the game that you didn't really touch on but that made a huge impact with me when I first played it, is the music. The score/soundtrack is absolutely incredible across the entire game, and it really helps to elevate both the subtle atmosphere and the more epic moments. The menu theme, Firelink Shrine theme, and Gwyn's theme are my personal favourites. I can't imagine Gwyn's fight without that theme, it's just perfect.

Great vid! Have yet to play any souls or souls like games other than fallen order and dabbling in dark souls 3 and bloodborne and they were already on my incredibly lengthy games i want to get to but this video reaffirmed their being there. Looking forward to that black flag vid and whatever else you cool up this year, sure they'll all be bangers

Bloodborne is where it clicked for me as well.....and since then I've finished all FromSoft has to offer

A great journey ahead of you. Walk softly and carry a big sword.

I have followed you for so long that your videos remind me of my childhood!

Dark Souls1 did the most to transport my mind, my soul into the world of the game. I just remember the sheer panic I had when I realized I could no longer homeward bone back to my previous bonfire and would need climb back out of blight town, after I rested at a bonfire there.

Take my sub gamer, excited to see your thoughts on DS2.