Podcastage brothers and sisters, its Pete here ready to talk at you about…DARK SOULS!!!
Way for me to be late to the party (it’s been out for like 4 years, already has a sequel, a spiritual successor, and a re-master of that sequel, give me a break) but seriously, if you’re on a budget and need something to crush your will to live, pick this up. I’ve been playing this on the weekends for the past 2 months, and wow, what a shitty/super way to spend my weekends. Since I’m not actually done with the game, just having sunk 25+ hours (SO MANY HOURS WITH SO LITTLE TO SHOW FOR IT, LIKE WHAT IF I HAD PRACTICED PIANO FOR 25+ HOURS???:( ) into this awful/great game, I’m just going to list some of my initial musings.
1. This game gets such a ridiculous rap about being a meat grinder that will make you question humanity, but seriously, this isn’t too hard (it kinda is a meat grinder). Now there are some points where you’ll actually question what is good and right, your will to live, and feel like you’re taking part in some weird/awful Sisyphean task, but damn it, when it comes together it feels good. A great way to describe it is like this: Have you ever tried to learn something? (probably not if you’re on this site) It starts out hard, you reach obstacles that look impossible and you get frustrated. Eventually something clicks and what once felt hard, finally gets easy and you’re on to your way. I feel bad that a video game taught me this.
2. It takes way too long for this game to be fun. I was slamming my head on my desk and cursing the old Gods and the new ones too for the first 10 hours. Now after that first 10 hours (which is a lot of time, I understand) it all started to click, I unturned my back to the Gods I had initially forsaken and I’ve been having a great time.
3. Misery loves company. Oh does it ever. I’ve never played a game where the meta-game involves going out of your way to interact with real people in real life (Bandrew would have a panic attack if he had to play this). It’s really sad that it’s such a novel idea, but the shared challenge is what makes this game really great. Sharing your stories, little tips, and overall complaints to the greater Dark Souls community is cathartic and stupendous. There is nothing funnier than being online chatting to a gaming friend, and start spamming the keyboard in primal fury/joy. Here are some choice cuts from my recent games:
“Convo 1:
Pete: FUCK
Convo 2:
Pete: GOD DAMN IT (name redacted) FUCK EVERYTHING
Convo 3:
Pete: IM FUCKING OVER EVERYTHING AND I HATE THIS GAME
Convo 4:
Pete: I AM THE GOD OF DARK SOULS AND EVERYTHING. FUCK YOU SPIDER QUEEN THING!!!”
All in all Dark Souls is tight! I’ll be filling you all in on my awful awful journey in the near future in a 400 part series called Dark Souls and You: Pete sucks at this game and he feels weird. Sound the horn down below with your Souls experience, talk to you all soon!
-Pete
