How Dark Souls Perfected Difficulty in Video Games

OH AND BTW! This video doesn't include anything about Demon Souls, mostly because I still haven't been able to get a PS5 and I'm assuming I have to perform a dark ritual to even play one, so it didn't feel right talking about it. I'm sure the new Demon Souls fits my feelings towards the entire genre, but I figured I'd explain why I never mentioned it. MAN DO I WANNA PLAY DEMON SOULS THO :'(

“Dark Souls doesn’t have difficulty settings. It’s perpetually stuck on Fuck You.” I’ve never heard a better sentence to describe dark souls in its entirety.

“These games really make you feel like the loser” -IGN

"Great way of making it feel like you are the looser" Elden ring every 2nd npc: "unfortunately, u get no bitches"

3:02 “Without getting a hit” Immediately drinks estus

CircleToons animates. CircleToons fans: wait, that’s illegal

This is really the “Dark Souls” of animated video essays

it makes you feel like you're actually a human fighting these big and strong monsters

As a true souls vet currently getting kicked around, and bleeding everything in elden ring, I think you perfectly encapsulated the draw of the series. Thank you sir, and a hearty git gud to you all.

And somehow, farming a certain area you have completely mastered feels like the most peaceful and relaxing gaming experience imaginable. Almost like you're playing an instrument.

Skeletons in most games generic normal enemy Darksouls skeletons "SPIN THE WHEEL OF FORTUNE, YOU GOT DEATH!"

omg the experience I had with dark souls remastered today is incredible. I wanna try a fist weapon only run, so I went with it. I got invaded on the Hellkite bridge, and the invader just dropped me some humanities and left. When I entered the Depth, I got invaded again. This time the invader saw that I only had two caestus, he also took off the weapon and used caestus! and then we began a pure fist fight and it was awesome! When I got to the bonfire in the Depth, I summoned a sunbro, who immediately dropped me 5 goddess blessings, mask of the father, a +5 giant's gloves, and the soul of Gwen???! Also on the way back from killing the caster I fell into the basilisk pit (casul, I know), but somehow made it back and reunited with the sunbro, and killed kirk when he invaded. I'm still having a hard time believing all this happened just this morning. This game and its community is incredible.

Just got Dark Souls and am playing it for the first time. I'm loving every second of it. Every moment is hell on earth and it's amazing. I've watched people play it for years, never once attempting it myself, and it really is something you have to experience to understand. I understand the hype

"You want skyrims? i got twenty" you visually killed me.

Dark Souls hit him so hard he actually animated an entire 5 minute video

i originally avoided the souls games cause the difficulty of them felt really intimidating to me at the time. didn't want to throw money away on something where i can't get past the first boss. but when i tried bloodborne, i was hooked. beating that first boss even if it was just the cleric beast, just felt so good, i just felled a soulsborne boss. with each slain boss i got more confident not in the mindset of this is easy, but moreso, i CAN do this. beating the game i wanted to experience more of the games. demons souls, then dark souls 1. beating ornstein and smough, was such a rush, i wanted to keep going, i wanted to see the next boss, the next area. i would come close to breaking down wanting to raise the white flag, but that fire inside refused to go out, it was always, just one more try. each try i do better than the last, getting farther and farther till i finally punch through. areas that were kicking my butt at the start, become a lot easier after surviving the trial it puts you through. its always pushing you to be better, till you finally beat it and get to see the credits roll. in the end i always feel pumped up and ready for another souls game or a new game plus run after completing a souls game, really wanting to see just how far i can go. playing other games i just can't help but notice how the difficulty just feels wrong. either the health bars are just too ridiculously huge or they just have way too much defense and i am just basically tickling the boss with a feather duster no matter how strong my equipment is. i dunno going back to some other games its just more noticeable. its not that they aren't fun anymore, its just hard to ignore. i do agree though, you have to play these games to really understand its appeal and how it handles its difficulty.

I know im a bit late but the way you talked about difficulty and the feeling of accomplishment after defeating a boss reminded alot of how I felt playing Hollow Knight, so I'd definitely recommend that one

“You learned his attacks” shows pontiff Yes I did Too many times

At times like these, I remember that he can draw more than just marshmallow people and actually animate them

Very well done explanation of the Soul series, one of my favorite things is listening to a friend go through their first playthrough of any soulsborne game