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Dark Souls

Well, as always, I got around to the game everyone else already played ten thousand years later.. 👴
I might have forgotten some things, since I had to take a two-year break, but I think I remembered most of it. Before starting, I spent a long time thinking about which class to begin with, although it's not that important. In the end, I decided I can play as a knight in the next part, and for now I'll pick the pyromancer. I'll say right away that I played the old original, like a cool old-school pioneer at 30fps, not like some sissy installing a patch for smoother gameplay or zoomers+ playing the remaster (besides, back in the day I paid five rubles for the game and needed to get my money's worth).

There's not much to say about the prologue, except that of course I couldn't properly kill the boss on the first try.
🔥 Then, near the Firelink Shrine, like many others, I tried looting the cemetery, getting my ass kicked by skeletons. After that I went to the town and wrecked the hollows there. I probably spent the most time in these starting and favorite locations, grinding and looting in the Undead Burg. In the end, I considered the chainmail set and a two-handed greataxe (or axe?) to be the most suitable gear for me at that point. Because of the low fps, I didn't use parrying at all, so I just rolled and tanked. The next vivid memory is tied to the first Black Knight. No idea how many attempts it took to kill him, but quite a few. And yeah, since the version is old and online features have been dead for ages, I also looked up the dragon tactic outside the game, and I'm not even ashamed. First, of course, I shot off the tail and got the sword (the Drake Sword drops from it, or whatever it's called?), which I ran around with for quite a long time. And with the bull boss, I didn't make the same mistake as in the prologue. The Gargoyles, though, gave me more trouble, and on the roof I made my biggest fail — I attacked Oswald, mistaking him for a training dummy and attacking him for some reason. In the end, I had to kill him. Why do they even add NPCs to places where there weren't any? What if it's an enemy that appeared or some crap I missed? Anyway, that was the idea. Good thing he's not a particularly important character. After that, I went down to kill various bandits and get acquainted with other locations of the game..

🐀 The Depths also seemed like a cool place, it was scary going lower and lower, and when I fell into the sewers and saw those big-eyed freaks.. well, that's probably a classic, like the first slime. I spent about half an hour to an hour killing the local drake, I don't remember exactly. 

🕷😷 Blighttown was worse, but not some utterly terrible place, although the poison at that point in the game is certainly not pleasant and really gets on your nerves. And slow walking isn't fun either if you don't have the ring. And maybe killing the spider lady took the most time, I sat there for at least an hour, although the fight itself didn't seem hard.

🐉 I don't remember the Valley of Drakes at all, but I tried to kill the big dragon several times. Maybe I went there too early, I don't even remember why or from where.

🦎 I remember Sen's Fortress poorly, although the location seems cool and teeth-grinding (for some reason I wanted to use exactly that word), considering the narrow paths, traps, and 30fps. But I think I didn't spend long there, it went by quickly. And I think it was only in this place that I learned you need to use humanity and summon phantoms for boss fights (although maybe I knew in the swamp, but forgot). Too bad the phantom didn't help me at all in this case and was sent flying by the golem five seconds after the fight started lol)

🐺🌲The garden and the lake are basically fine locations, though not particularly interesting. As for the latter, I can highlight the tower where Olam Havell sits lol) I called him that the whole game. I think I even descended to him from above, but chickened out of fighting and only decided later. His story is pretty cool in my opinion. My attitude toward the garden is similar, there are only spirits for farming and the wolf. The latter also has a good story, but a sad one. I even watched the alternative cutscene before the fight with him.. And yeah, about the garden, it's worth noting that at first I only reached the door, and cleared the second part after Anor Londo and the rest. I can't remember exactly why, but in fact it was even a plus, because by that point I had Havel's armor. The thing is, Sif turned out to be not a very convenient opponent for me and my 30fps, so I just decided to tank, putting on the strongest armor, and beat him. But before that moment, I ran around in various pieces of light armor almost the whole game, except in Anor Londo I found the Silver Knight armor and added the chest piece to my mishmash. Essentially, I ran through almost the entire game in different gear, sometimes changing things up, and on bosses I sometimes took Havel's set if problems arose.

☀️ Anor Londo. A dreary place where it's boring to run around, especially on such a scale. It was right before the double boss that I took a break, so after resuming the game I had to go through a serious trial. First, I ran to them hollow, memorizing their moveset and training, and then I summoned a phantom to help me and tried to kill them. In the end, it took about 4-5 attempts, and that's considering I killed the fat one first, since in that case the loot drops from the second one and it's supposedly better. Yeah, I looked that up too) And in general, I googled what humanity is for, because I guess I forgot about it quickly at first, and after two years even more so. By the way, by that point I already had the Black Knight Sword, which I ran with for the whole game. In my opinion, it's the best weapon, and it's not entirely clear why you'd need anything else.. Although here I also found a halberd and realized it helps a lot against certain enemies and is very good as a secondary weapon. 

👻 New Londo Ruins is also a decent location, I remember meeting ghosts for the first time and running away lol) In general, only they can cause problems, given their ability to fly through walls. Otherwise, it's basically fine, a gloomy place, to be honest. Maybe HeroesWorld in the DS world would look exactly like this.. 

🧙‍♂️ I didn't really like the Archives, although at first they seemed fine. Maybe it's because going deeper into them is easier than coming back and getting arrows in the ass from all sides. And you can barely reach the chest on the bookshelf. It's funny that I died several times to the crystal lizards, of which there are only a couple. There's not much to say about the grotto, just golems. And yeah, I also slipped off those bridges a few times, but I did reach the blue titanite on the invisible path on the first try. 😎

💀 The Catacombs are a fine location, although it can look scary in places. But once you learn it, it's easy to run through. The best place for leaps of faith and hidden secrets. The Tomb is basically the same, but even scarier, and it stays that way lol)

👿 The Demon Ruins and Izalith seem kind of small, like the grotto and maybe a couple of the last locations. +there's no real zest to them. The places with bright lava are ugly, the rest seems fine. 

🍄 The Hollow is a funny thing, like a location from a platformer. I died several times while chasing the lizards. The Ash Lake seems like a completely pointless place, although the scenery there is pretty. 

🎨 The Painted World is a good location, almost like the starting ones, but in snow. Too bad there aren't many like it. And I think a mob got bugged somewhere there, because I heard sounds through the wall but couldn't find it.

⚔🥨 The DLC about Artorias. I wonder what IQ you need to get into it? I don't rule out that by reading the description you could figure it out, but before that you have to go across the lake past the hydra and find the lady. And what if you never found or saw her? A tough question, but it would have taken a lot of time. Overall, it's not bad, although in reality they mixed the forest and the catacombs. I killed the knight relatively quickly, but I spent more time on the final boss. Thank goodness for the phantom and Havel's armor. I know there's a trick to kill him with a bow, but in the old version you can't aim downward lol) 

I killed the game's final boss on the first try. Well, actually, I almost killed him, but I remembered I hadn't summoned the phantom as I wanted, so I died on purpose to summon him and win together. But it's pretty strange that such an easy enemy is at the end of the game.. or maybe I just became too cool? 🤔

As for the game, I liked it. Even back when it came out, I was drawn to the atmosphere, the design, all those cool knights, the gloominess, and so on. Too bad I partially missed the lore, putting off reading item descriptions for later. I'll watch a video on the topic sometime. I was pleased by the presence of characters with their own stories and quests; it brightened up the journey through the game world. And most importantly, I'd like to highlight the level design and how the locations are connected, especially the central ones. It's really cool when you go to one place, clear a location, and then return to the start, but from the other side, and you're like "Wow, so that's where this door/passage led!" In regular metroidvanias, it's not as cool, given the limitations of 2D and the fact that it's just a shortcut. Here, such things are perceived not just as a way to cut the path, but as something more and more interesting. By the way, by the end of the game I was level 100, maybe a bit higher. I ran the whole game with a two-handed weapon, only occasionally using a shield. I used different armor, and from magic only healing and teleport came in handy, although I also burned slimes with fire in the sewers. I upgraded all types of weapons. Too bad the next parts are considered worse, but I hope the combat there is at least a bit better 🙃
PS I added a bit to the zelda post..