By Cooper Marshall
Dying again and again is a staple of the Dark Souls games. And now of the wider Souls-like genre (which now just means hard I think).
But I believe the Soulsborne games are the cream of the crop when it comes to hard difficulty. Getting your head around what Dark Souls demands of you is very hard. Dying a lot doesn’t feel great at first. It took me three Soulsborne games before I really got into the series.
But dying is not the end. It is an essential part of these games. According to Dark Souls director Hidetaka Miyazaki, the difficulty is not about being hard just for the sake of being hard.
“I feel like our approach to these games is to design them to encourage the player to overcome adversity. We don’t try to force difficulty or make things hard for the sake of it. We want players to use their cunning, study the game, memorize what’s happening, and learn from their mistakes.”
Each death is a chance to learn. You memorize more of the boss attacks, remember where traps are, and build up your skills in combat and environmental perception.
Plus, you as the player get to customize how you want to approach combat. Elden Ring probably does the best job of letting you customize, but the original Dark Souls has such a deep level of customization as well.
I personally always like dexterity builds. Using the scythe and fire magic was my main mode of combat in Dark Souls.
But the bosses are really where it is at. They are the main checks for players. What makes Soulsborne bosses so good is they teach the player to pay attention. Just rolling won’t cut it, you need to pay attention to the boss’s movements, the environment.
The very first boss, the Asylum Demon, is the best example. When you first run into the demon, you have no weapon. While you may try to fight it at first, after dying to it, players are forced to think in another way: run away.
Which is a totally viable and oftentimes the optimal choice in Dark Souls. After running away from the demon, you get a weapon and also can attack the demon from a balcony. If you do, you stab the demon in the head, dealing a stupid amount of damage!
‘Wow, the environment is important!’ is probably what you will learn. And every boss fight in the game is like this. You must pay attention to not only the massive monster, but your arena as well.
Dark Souls taught me that failure is never the end. It is a new beginning and a chance to learn and overcome adversity.
