I can’t believe how wrong I was about From Software games. Streaming Dark Souls with friends on a Discord call is the closest experience I’ve had to playing games like Zelda back in the 90s, navigating this huge dreamlike world

There is some Kaizo bullshit in Dark Souls and some bits where the design feels unfair but I can’t stop thinking about it and I’m having to keep myself from playing it offstream haha

I completely bounced off Dark Souls 3 and Bloodborne when I tried them a few years ago but I think Monster Hunter gave me a good handle on the long animations and “clunky” feel of DS such that I haven’t had too difficult a time getting through the classical hard spots

Based on my limited knowledge I thought of these games as absorbing in a bad way — demanding fealty to statistics, obscure lore, etc. People would always say “it teaches you!” And I’d be like yeah it teaches you to get better at the game, so what

But Dark Souls so far feels creatively generative and actually more generous with its world than many nominally more “welcoming” games do

I’ll probably move on to DS2-3 after I finish DS. The gothic horror of Bloodborne doesn’t appeal to me as much as the decrepit dead fantasy world of DS but I’m willing to give it another shot eventually

Anyway this is all to say that I was wrong and I’m glad for everyone who helped me realize that haha