Most modern games would have some sort of guard rail or invisible barrier to stop such a stupid death. There I was, circling one of the first enemies carefully, waiting for my moment to attack, when a dodging roll to the side flung me off the stone ascenders and into the void below. My first death in Dark Souls 2 came when I rolled off a staircase. But part of me kind of wants to dive back in and see if I can push on juuuuust a little further. Part of me is happy that I have met my target and that I never have to play this incredibly frustrating game again. Roughly eight hours of game time and 65 deaths later, I have accomplished that modest goal. I wasn't quite willing to commit the likely 80+ hours it would take to finish the game sight unseen, but I was determined to not give up until I had beaten at least one of the game's huge, imposing bosses. I went in to Dark Souls 2 determined to stick it out, at least for a little longer than with the previous games. Maybe I was missing out on something by giving up on previous Souls games so easily (and it's hard to deny the beauty of the game's graphics and environmental design). The subtext-sometimes explicit, sometimes just implied-is that players who can't tough out the Souls games' punishing nature are just low-brow philistines who prefer disposable entertainments with paltry rewards to works that offer transcendence at the end of a challenging road. Talking to one of the extremely devoted fans of the series is like talking to someone who can't shut up about how they just noticed a new wrinkle when reading Infinite Jest for the third time. Still, it's hard not to feel like I'm missing out on some hidden brilliance here. I've given each previous game an hour or two of my time, which is just long enough for me to get extremely frustrated with the unforgiving checkpoint placement and design that seems to demand mistake-free execution of extremely simple battle plans. I have so far avoided being cursed by the misery of the Demon's Souls/Dark Souls series. Later, the woman presciently predicts that "you'll lose your souls, over and over and over again" and urges you to "seek misery, for misery will lead to stronger, bolder souls." It seems like an extremely self-aware admission from a franchise that openly revels in being maddeningly difficult, killing its players hundreds if not thousands of times in a single playthrough. The fate of the cursed."Īn appropriately creepy old woman speaks this line in the introduction to Dark Souls II.
Links: Official website | Amazon"Your skin will burn in anguish time after time. Platform: Xbox 360 (played), PS3, PC (coming April 25)
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