Dark Souls

Dark Souls is a very peculiar video game. It is a sword and shield, knights in armor type of game. It is a very vague, extremely difficult, and most of all, strange game. There is an extremely vague back-story for what has happened up to the point of your players time. When you begin your quest, you start in somewhat of a tutorial island. There are messages on the ground that tell you the controls and where to go, but still nothing of your reason for being there. You gather your equipment (Sword and shield) kill enemies and hopefully get to the tutorial boss. Before that, you find your way to a sword in the ground with fire around it. This is the bonfire in which you restore your health. The catch, and the reason that makes this game so difficult, is that whenever you rest at the bonfire, the enemies that you just killed come back to life. Also, with most games, there is something that you collect as you roam Lordran, where the game takes place; the souls of the undead that you slay. They are collected and used by the player as currency, points to level up, and even a way to teleport to a bonfire.

Unlike most games that have an unreal damage infliction to person ratio. Dark souls has a very realistic damage to person ratio. Let’s take the game Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim for example. It is a sword and shield, knights in armor game like Dark Souls. In Skyrim, you can be attacked by a bear, a dude with a sword, a dragon, and maybe a rat, and your health will decrease at a very slow rate and it looks as if your character just shrugs it off like a fly landing on him. However, in Dark Souls, if a zombie is running at you with a sword in hand and your health level isn’t up to scruff, and he stabs you. It’s back to the bonfire with you. That’s why shields and armor are so important. Most shields can block 100% of all physical damage to the player. The only stat that is damaged is Endurance or Stamina.

The story-line of this game is very vague, but as you play it and get through all of the challenges you begin to actually see the story unfold. From what I have learned from my 166 hours of total gameplay, is that your character is the “Chosen undead” who has been selected and given the “Dark sign” as a symbol for being the selected undead. It is your destiny to kill Gwyn, the lord of Cinder and claim his soul. Before you reach Gwyn, you must do a lot of things. The first is to defeat the Bell Tower Gargoyles, one of the more trivial Boss fights. When you have defeated them you will ring the first bell of awakening. There are two in total that need to be rung. The second is deep down into the belly of Lordran in an awful, dark, dank place known as Blighttown. There you must defeat the Witch Quelaag. Who just so happens to be, part human, part giant lava breathing fire spider. She also has a large fiery sword. These boss battles go from easy to very difficult. The only thing that you have to protect yourself is a shield and hopefully some good armor.

After the Gargoyles and Quelaag have been defeated and the bells of awakening have been rung, there is a cutscene which shows a large giant opening up the gates to what looks like an enormous castle. This area is called, Sen’s Fortress. You must traverse all of the booby-traps, large snake monsters and boulders to reach the top to fight the Iron Golem that guards the Kingdom of Anor Londo. Anor Londo is the location of two of the most difficult bosses in the entire game, Dragon Slayer Ornstein, and Executioner Smough. Most call them the dynamic duo. I call them a pain in the ass. This is because, you do not fight them separately. You fight them in a two versus one battle of unspeakable proportions. Ornstein is a dragon slayer, equipped with a long spear that inflicts lightning damage, and golden armor that resembles the body of a lion. Smough also has golden armor but he more resembles a Sumo-Wrestler, and his weapon of choice is a hammer. Not just a tiny hammer for nails, but a hammer that is twice the size of his body. It is enormous, and when it hits you, you definitely know it. Now, when you defeat one of them, a cutscene appears and it shows the one you killed, fall. The other goes to their aid, but it’s no good, they absorb the power from their fallen brother, regain all of their health and grow twice their size.

If you actually manage to defeat them in battle, you gain entrance to the room they guard, which is the room of Gwynevere, the first daughter of Gwyn. She gives you an item that allows you to progress further into the game to defeat Gwyn. That item is the Lordvessel. This item allows you to teleport to any bonfire that you have ever visited. There is one more thing it can do. The bells of awakening aren’t called that just for show, once both have been rung, you awaken a large serpent creature named Frampt, who lives in a deep dark hole, which just so happens to be the area in which Gwyne resides. He lowers you into the hole, and you place the Lordvessel onto the altar that stands before you, and a cutscene will start. It shows very large sunlight gates being opened to what seem to be important areas, which you later come to find out are the areas of the keepers of the three lord souls. One belongs to Seath the Scaleless, a dragon who has no scales. He resides in an area in Anor Londo called the Dukes Archives, Seath lives in the Crystal cave behind the Archives. He also has the ability to curse you. Cursing instantly kills you and you return to the bonfire with half health. Curses can be lifted with purging stones. The second belongs to Gravelord Nito, the first of the undead. He is a large mass of bound together skeletons and is equipped with a large scythe and has many skeleton minions who are very annoying to defeat. The final soul was split in two and shared by the four kings and the bed of Chaos. The four kings reside in an area underneath the starting area called, New Londo Ruins. Their area is beneath that called the Abyss. You must find the Ring of Abyss-Walking to traverse this area, otherwise, you will die. The Bed of Chaos is in an area known as Lost Izalith. The bed consists of three parts in which you may attack it. The left side, the right side and then finally down the middle, you must avoid the branches it swings at you, the fire it shoots at you, and the floor caving in. Once that has been done, you are ready to bring the lord souls back to Frampt.

Once the lord souls have been successfully brought back to Frampt, he will lead you down the hole to the altar where the lordvessel lays, you must put the lord souls into the flame and open the doors to the final area, the Kiln of the First Flame. In this area you will meet your destiny and destroy Gwyne, hopefully, and collect his soul. Once completed, the game is finished and you start the game over with all of your equipment, and experience. This is called New Game Plus. In NG+ your enemies are twice as hard and will give substantially more souls per kill.