ALLRIGHT, Dark Souls has me hooked now.
I started playing it about a month ago, had a rough time at the start but I knew it was a hard game from the hype. Fought my way to the Taurus Demon, failed at him miserably for a long time but eventually got by him (barely). Then the rest of Undead Burg frustrated me with those caped knights who wield rapiers and shields, I just died relentlessly to them. So I played the game in spurts of a half hour here, an hour there, quitting after dying too much and just feeling stumped.
In the past week though something has happened. I dedicated last weekend to it, spending time trying things out, different armor, various weapons, practicing dodging, rolling, evasion and parrying. Suddenly the normal undead monsters are like soul fodder to me. I can even reliably beat two caped knights at once now, hell I took on three simultaneously the other night just for kicks. I beat the sorcerer up in the church, and then fought the Gargoyles on the church rooftop. After dying many times to them, I eventually figured out a strategy and took them down! That was a week ago...
So during the past week I've played the shit out of Dark Souls. I found the Blacksmith and learned how to upgrade weapons and armor. I've unlocked many shortcuts and bonfires. I've explored a lot of the Darkroot Garden, Darkroot Basin, and the Undead Depths. I've collected a bunch of new weapons and armors. I'm now Soul level 31. I've beaten several bosses, including Havel, a giant Hydra, the Butterfly, the Goat creature with Two Swords, and an armored Pig or something. It's like I've finally learned how to actually play the damn game, and now it's fun as all hell. I've died a metric crap ton of times too, but it no longer seems to bother me much. I embrace death as a lesson now.
I've also found many other routes to other areas, some of them seem hard at my current gear and level. The game is so open ended in it's world design, it really doesn't tell you what to do or where to go at any time, it just lets you wander about and try things out. I like that. There is a large boss with horns, a tail, and a huge staff under the blacksmith that I always just run around, I don't know if he can be killed or not but I don't seem able to dent him currently. I also found some huge white wolf wielding a sword in its mouth that utterly decimates me every time I try to kill him. I think for now I'll keep pushing down into the Depths after the dual welding Goat, it's an interesting area so far.
I think Dark Souls has taken my soul, I think I'm addicted to it. I can now see why this game is so popular.
